1126 
tu.le and when her husband arrives has her house full of 
company, ftnd a couple of admirers to boot-as she has in 
oixier to enjoy freedom and independence. j.^sed for a 
widow. She introduces hi... to her guests as her 
and the situation naturally gives nae to a variety of xmstakes 
aud cross purposes. Tl.e lady s awams, each of them an 
oddity in his way, endeavour to get the brother to favour 
their addresses. 1 ILs jealousy is excited, and lie retaliates by 
flirting with a young lady of the pai-ty. To try his wife he 
Dre tends to have got wounded in a quarrel with one of the 
gentlemen ; his danger revives all her old tenderness, and 
ahe p;is*ionately declares that she is his wife, to the astonish- 
ment of the company and the discomfiture of the inamoratos. 
The conclusion is, that the pair resolve to begin a new and 
better course of life, and by mutual concession to find the 
balance of comfort.. The effect of the piece was considerably 
enhanced by the spirited acting of Miss Reynolds and Mr. 
Howe, who were ably assisted by Miss Chaplin and Messrs. 
Ro"er's aud Clarke in the less important characters. 
ADELPHI. 
On Monday evening another new farce, the “Railway Belle' 
by Mr. Mark Lemon, was presented at this theatre. The 
heroine is one of the pretty damsels who preside over the 
refreshment-room of a railway station. Her attractions 
have not only smitten the heart of the gruff widower, her 
master, aud driven a despairing waiter nearly out. of hu 
senses, but have also seduced from his affianced bride the 
errant attachment of one Samuel Greenhorns, whose rnune 
is the best description of his character. The affections of the 
young lady incline to John Quich, but interest induces her 
to listen to the proposals of the station-master. Hence she 
is cruelly obdurate to the distresses of the frantic waiter, 
whose absurd extravagances betray his secret and procure 
his discharge. His place is supplied by Mr. (irecnhorr , 
whoso custom it is to hang about the refreshment- room for 
hours at a time, gazing at tho bewitching Julio, and consum- 
ing an unlimited number of plates of soup, which, however, 
he deposit* not in his stomach, hut in his travelling-bag. 
Having vainly attempted to screw up his courage to a docla- 
tion of love, ho eagerly accepts the vacant waiter's place, in 
order that ho may be constantly ne'r the object of his 
idolatry. Quid returns ns a customer, niruses him r elf by 
embarrassing the new waiter with contradictory orders, and 
makes love to the Hebe behind the counter, in spite of all 
his efforts to the contrary. But Mr. Greenhorns' s great trial 
consists in the arrival of his father-in-law and bride that is 
to lie. Terrified out of his wits lest he should be discovered 
in so equivocal a position, he makes the most awkward at- 
tempts to wait upon them without showing his face ; his 
clumsy mid-adroitness being amusingly contrasted with the 
practised address of John Quid, who has joined the party, 
but who continually forgets that he is a “ gentleman,” and 
impulsively breaks out into little bits of waiting. Having 
sufficiently terrified his rival by arousing the suspicions of 
Mr. and Mm Fallows, the clever ex-waiter as successfully 
allays them -for a consideration ; and the only difficulty 
being thus removed, he is rewarded with Miss Spruce, and 
Mr. Greenhorn e returns to his legitimate flame, Miss Fallows. 
Miss Wyndham was a captivating Miss Spmce, the railway 
belle, and sustained the farce throughout with admirable spirit 
and vivacity. Selby and Rogers were equally humorous in 
the characters of Greenhorns and Quick, their different styles 
of acting contrasting strongly, aud ensuring the success of 
the farce. 
LAW INTELLIGENCE. 
COURT OP CHANCERY.— Nov. 20. 
TnonNuiLi, v. Thornhill. — Danger of Courting a 
Ward in Chancery. — In this case the Lord Chancellor 
said — The .question come3 before me on motion and a peti- 
tion. The motion is that C.eorge Augustus Hamilton 
Chichester and Augusta Arabella Countess of Ferrers do 
stand committed to the Queen's Prison for contempt of the 
High Court of Chancery, in endeavouring to induce the 
plaintiff to contract a marriage with Mr. Chichester without 
the sanction of the court, and as far as relates to Mr. 
Chichester, in his having clandestinely attempted to remove 
her from the custody of her guardian. Then there iff a 
petition from Mr. Chichester iu the nature of a cross appli- 
cation, in which he prays that the injunction may be dis- 
solved, and a reference to inquire whether any proposed 
murriage between tho petitioner and the plaintiff is a proper 
roamoge, and that he may be at liberty to moke proposals 
for a settlement on tlmt marriage. The result which I have 
arrived at is, that beyond all possible doubt the charge on 
which the motion was made to commit Mr. Chichester is 
established — that he did endeavour, in the first instance, to 
persuade the young lady to form an attachment for him ; 
aud secondly, that he did endeavour, in a most unjustifiable 
manner, to induce her to elope with him, in order to avoid 
the objections which he was well aware must be raised to 
snob a connection, both on the part of the guardians and on 
the part of the court. I do not think I am called upon to 
make any order to commit Lady Ferrers. Thecircumstances, 
as far as Lady Ferrers is concerned, are these — Mr. and Mrs. 
Hungeifford (Mrs. Hungerford being the guardian of a 
ward of the court, a young lady of eighteen years of age, 
with a very large fortune) paid a visit to Lord and Lady 
Ferrers in the last week of May last year, and Mr. Chi- 
chester was on a visit there at that time. Mrs. Hungerford 
positively declares that Bhe saw nothing whatever to lead her 
to suppose that any sort of intercourse whatever had passed 
between Mr. Chichester and the young lady, more than the 
exchange of common civilities. Mr. Chichester aud Lady 
Ferrers, on the contrary, say that which either expresses or 
implies that there were marked attentions on the part of 
Mr. Chichester towards the young lady. The guardian, Mrs. 
Hungerford, says that just iu the evening before their depar- 
ture (they staid there a week or eight days!, Mr. Chichester, 
in a joking manner, alluding to lusown great pecuniary embar- 
rassments, and the difficulty he might have in obtaining 
the sanction of the court, said to her that lie thought he 
should be a suitor for the young lady's hand, and that she 
turned it off, supposing it to be a mere joke. Ho. on the 
contrary, says that he understood from what passed, that lie 
would have the deliberate sanction of Mrs. Huugerford, or 
that there would be no opposition on then' part. They quitted 
the next morning, and Mrs. Hungerford says not only was 
there no marked attention on the part of Mr. Chichester, 
but that lie studiously abstained from handing the lady to 
her carriage, and they went away. Shortly after they got home 
the young lady desired to make a little present of a purse to 
Lady Ferrers. That was very natural ; aud letters passed. 
Tlioo- letters were seen by the guardian ; there was nothing 
whatever improper in them, nothing that a married lady, a 
T H E F 1 E L D . 
peeress, in the high rank of Lady Ferrers, might not write to 
a young lady who was the ward of a neighbour in the 
country. About, a fortnight afterwards, Mr. aud Mrs. 
Huugerford, with the young lady, were going on a visit to 
somewhere near Ascot, for they were going to be at 
the Ascot or some other races; and on the moioiug 
after their arrival there, Mrs. Hungerford discovered 
what astonished her — some fragments of a letter, which 
turned out, <>r which was suspected at that time, I believe, 
to be from Lady Ferrers, that had cross-bars iu a different 
ink, of a different writing, and being a different matter that 
was written. It turned out to be written with lemon juice, 
which, it seems, when held to the fire, comes out in the form 
of a pale red writing ; and Mrs. Huugerford discovered what 
led her to believe that, whoever was writing these letters, 
was writing an apparently open correspondence in black ink, 
and a concealed correspondence in this different iiik, or 
lemon juice. Not to hold out any longer the mystery, it 
turned out afterwards that there was a letter from Lady 
Ferrers, which in the black iuk writing had been shown, but 
which contained the clandestine writing in the lemon juice, 
the clandestine writing being more or less an encoumgeme it 
on the part of Lady Ferrers to the young lady to give 
countenance to the suit of Mr. Chichester, Lady Ferrers 
brother. Exactly what it was wo do not know, but that 
that was the substance of it is manifest. Lady Ferrers had 
desired that she might be at liberty to send to the young 
lady a little basket iu return for the purse. 1 hat was very 
natural, and Mrs. Huugerford did not object to that ; but 
she said it would be better it should come through her, and 
that she would present it in Lady Ferrers' name. She did 
so, and that seemed all right ; but, to the disgrace of Lady 
Ferrers — aud I canuot attempt to qualify the expression, 
for it was most disgraceful, and it must for ever lower her iu 
the society of her equals — iu that basket was concealed in 
the lining, a letter, written not on paper, which would have 
made a crackling noise, and have excited attention, but 
written on linen, a secret encouragement to the ward, 
against the consent, or without the consent of her guardian, 
to give countenance to the suit of her brother, whom she 
admits aud whom all admit to be a man iu deep embarrass- 
ment. Having said this much, it may be asked, am I not 
flinching iu the discharge of my duty if I abstain from com- 
mitting LndyFerrera? Well, I think I am not, aud for this 
reason. The contempt of court, on which 1 am to act, is r i 
attemptto inducetlieyounglady to elope with Mr. Caicl ester 
without the consent of the guardians or of this court. Now, al- 
though Lr dy Ferrers, in this clandestine and discreditable man- 
ner encou raged the intercourse between the young lady and her 
embarrassed brother. I cannot see any thing that leads me 
necessarily to the conclusion that she meant that this should 
he done without first endeavouring, at all events, to obtain 
the sanction of the court ; very soon afterwords Mrs. Hunger- 
ford, having discovered what she thought xv.s tho whole, but 
which turned out not to be the whole, of these letters, imme- 
diately wrote to Lady Fei.e.s and to Mr. Chichester, aud 
immediately forbade all intercourse, aud said the thing was 
impossible. Lady Ferrers on that made a promise that she 
would not write any more. Mr. Chichester being thus re- 
jected was forbidden to visit her at all ; but the course 
he took was this : — Mr. and Mrs. Huugerford and the 
young lady lived at Dingley-park, in Northamptonshire, 
which I collect is only a mile or two from the town of 
Market Harborough. It seems that some time in August 
Mr. Chichester, with another gentlemen who passed by the 
name of George Ramsden, with a third (who probably was 
a younger brother of Mr. Chichester), aud a fourth person, 
who was, I suppose, a servant, went and took up their 
quarters at this inn at Market Harborough, aud Mr. Chiches- 
ter thought it consistent with his duty towards this court 
and his obligations as a gentleman, to go iu the middle of 
the night, from time to time, attended sometimes by two, 
sometimes by three of these persons, in order to hold in the 
middle of the night a clandestine communication orally, aud 
by letter, with this ward of the court, with whom he had 
been forbidden to have any intercourse. He goes night 
after night, attended by two or three persons, nnd has these 
communications with the young lady, either at the window 
of her bed-room, or some other window, where by arrange- 
ment they were to meet. To suppose that one can have any 
doubt about what liis object was is absurd. His motive could 
be no other than to induce her to elope. Still it was put 
forward so strongly here by his counsel (of. course by his 
instructions) that he liad no other object than to have inter- 
course with her, which was forbidden by the guardians. 
Among the letters which the young lady gave up from Mr. 
Chichester, are two from Lady Ferrers to him (Mr. Chi- 
chester), and one in which there is this expression : — “ I 
only wish she was my little sister (speaking of the word of 
the court) ; and no matter how you marry her so long as 
it is properly performed. I will only be too glad to receive 
her with my open arms, as I feel I could love her so much." 
******“ If dear Clara would leave them, and 
go with you to be married, I need not repeat that she will 
always find me ready to receive her.” One cannot, after all 
that has passed, but have a strong suspicion that Lady 
Ferrers wrote it in order that it might be shown to the 
young lady, and that she might thus bo assured that she 
would be well received by the relations of her suitor. 
There is another letter much to the same effect, dated 
later iu September ; I cannot, therefore, but think that Lady 
Ferrers must have been cognisant of what was going on, aud 
that she meant to encourage it. Now, with regard 
to Mr. Chichester. At the same time that he put these let- 
ters into the young lady's hand, he wrote or sent her other 
letters, and in those letters I find these passages — (one is a 
whole letter, the other two are fragments of letters) : — 
“Clara, is it just towards me this treatment? Am I to go 
about, afraid of seeing any one here, skulking about? 
There is a great deal of difference between" — I will not 
mention the name ; he mentions a gentlemen who was well 
known in society to have eloped two years ago with a lady 
of rank — “ There is a great difference between” that gen- 
tleman “aud G. A. H. C.” — that is, George Agustus Hamilton 
Chichester. “ He married my cousin, and we were all very 
much annoyed.” What do I infer from that? Why, that, 
he had proposed to the young lady to run away from the 
house of her guardian, but that she had remonstrated, and 
had pointed out how ill that lady stood in society, and that 
he endeavours to get over scruples by pointing out — there 
is a great difference between that person, who was not quite 
an equal in rank, aud by G. A. H. G., that is to Hay, the ills 
tlmt have attended that lady in her after life, from having 
run away, will not attend you, because I am of high nnd 
noble family, and he was not. That is the inference which 
I cannot but deduce from it. Then there is another fragment 
f a letter in which this occurs, “ To-morrow night what you 
oughtto do, dearest Clara, is to say orwritewhen youare ready 
— that will be now or to-morrow night, whichever you like-1 
so, dearest Clara, be mine." Who cau doubt, when he was coming 
in the middle ofthe nightwith two or three men attending him, 
that the object was to run off with the young lady. Then 
there is a letter in which this passage occurs : — “ Do you think, 
Clara, that I for one moment would wish you to leave you^ 
guardians if I was not certain, if I had not had the first 
legal opinions on the matter, that everything could be done 
legally and for ever binding ? Do you suppose my family 
would" — then there is something torn. “ The law is, that if 
a ward in court marries against tho Chancello-’s consent 
and that she is over eighteen years of age, her husband can 
be imprisoned till she comes of age, for contempt of court 
provided they catch him within the jurisdiction of the court, 
which extends to Great Britain." Now, this gentleman's 
property, or his connections, at least, are in Ireland. Whether 
lie thought he should escape by going to Ireland I do not 
know, but one cannot fail seeing that he meant to say the 
jurisdiction of the court only extended to Great Britaiu, if 
it catch the person. “Now (he continues) this is the law; 
and never mind what others have told you to frighten you— 
this is the law. Besides there are plenty of instances ; and 
they have never imprisoned tho husband beyond six or seven 
months, and that only iu the case of an improper marriage, 
such as a ward running away with a tutor or servant &c., 
fee. In our case it would be quite different ; in fact, the world 
and the Lord Chancellor would wonder what we ran away 
for. I am me.ely telling you now what two of the 
first chancery men have told me ; they laughed at me and 
said — ‘ Why, a man in your position, if you did do such a 
thing — I should do it,' " then it is torn. Now, I have adverted 
to that in order to show the object Mr. Chichester had in view. 
It is extremely painful to drag the name of a ward of the 
court before the public ; but it is a happiness for me to be 
able to say to-day that, having had several private inter- 
views with her, quite away from her guardians, I am quite 
convinced that when Mr. Chichester says she consented to 
his application for leave to make proposals, he says that 
which nothing which she ever said warranted. She did not 
consent, aud I believe she never had tho least wish to con- 
sent. She has sworn contrary to what Mr. Chichester states, 
and, from my conversation with her, I implicitly believe 
what she says. She has now put every scrap of paper into 
the hands of her guardian. That she acted imprudently no 
one can deny ; but she was led on to it by others that ought 
to have known better. I allude particularly to Lady Fer- 
rers and Mr. Chichester. I feel it to be my duty, in pursuance 
of the notice of motion, now to make an order (prefacing 
that order with referring to the affidavits, and a statement 
that I am satisfied on those affidavits that Mr. Chichester 
did endeavour to induce the plaiutiff, Clara Thornhill, to 
contract a marriage with him, without the sanction of the 
court, aud that he did endeavour clandestinely to remove 
her from the custody of her guardian) that for that contempt of 
the court he be committed to the Queen's Prison. The 
tipstaff will now immediately take Mr. Chichester into cus- 
tody. I shall also make an order that he pay the costs of 
this motion, and that his o\\ a petition, that he be allowed to 
make proposals, be dismissed with costs. The tipstaff will 
now take him into custody, and the order will be drawn up 
in the course of the morning. Mr. Baily — This is a motion 
against Lady Ferrers and Mr. Chichester. The Lord Chan- 
cellor — I make no order with respect to Lady Ferrers, 
except that I give her no costs. Mr. Baily — But then there 
will be no division of costs. Mr. Chichester will pay the 
costs of the guai’dians. The Lord Chancellor — Mr. Chiches- 
ter will pay the costs of the motion, and his own petition is 
dismissed with costs, and he is committed to the Queen’s 
Prison. Mr. Chichester (who was present in court) was 
then taken into custody by the tipstaff of the court, aud 
shortly afterwards conveyed to the Queen's Prison. 
POLICE INTELLIGENCE. 
BOW-STREET. 
The “Matrimonial Alliance" Dodge. — A few days 
since, Mr. Edwards, landlord of a private hotel iu Norfolk- 
street, Strand, obtained a warrant against Laurence 
Cuthbcrt, the secretary of a “Matrimonial Alliauce Asso- 
ciation," purporting to carry on its business in Johu-street, 
Adelphi, charging him with a violent assault, under the 
following circumstances : — A young gentleman was tempted 
to call at the offices of the association, where he was Shown 
into a well-furnished apartment, aud was informed that the 
sum of £10 must be paid down, as a guarantee of good 
faith, before an interview with any of the young ladies on 
the books of the establishment — embracing beauties of all 
ages, and heiresses of every degree of fortune — could he 
granted. The money was at once advanced, and the 
unsuspecting youth awaited with some anxiety the first 
introduction. He was at length directed to take up a posi- 
tion near the Duke of York's monument, St. James's Park, 
on a given morning, at twelve o’clock, where a lady would 
meet him, and wave a white handkerchief as a “ signal of 
recognition.” The morning was extremely favourable for 
such an interview, and the appointment was faithfully kept 
by a nicely-dressed and tolerably good-looking lady, with 
whom he was soon on terms of affectionate regard. Having 
exhausted the usual common-place phrases of endearment, 
and satisfied themselves that their union would be mutually «. 
agreeable, the young man began to descent upon the illibe- 
rality of the association in demanding so large a fee as £10, 
upon which the lady complained still more bitterly of her 
having to pay a much larger sum — no less than £25 — anil 
assured him that he hail been let off very lightly. As the 
afternoon advanced they agreed to part, the lady consenting 
to another interview, to be arranged — as usual —through 
the secretary. When the young gentleman called again at 
the office a further sum was demanded, beforo a second 
interview could be arranged; and then, suspecting that he 
had been imposed upon, he resolved to confess everything 
to Mr. Edwards, who at once determined to inquire into the 
matter, and see liis young guest righted. Tho result of his 
calling on this mission was a violeut personal attack upon 
him by one of the “ officials but, on a warrant being granted, 
the matter was arranged by the repayment of the £10. 
ACCIDENTS AND OFFENCES. 
Bradley. — A n accident with a steam-thrashing machine 
occurred last week at Bradley, Yorkshire. The boiler ex- 
ploded, and a piece of the iron struck the fireman, George 
Wooler, on the arm, nearly severing it, and theu lodged in 
his side, from the effects of which he died iu an hour and 
a-half. One of tho labourers was forced to a considerable 
distance, severely scalded and otherwise injured, but w 
