[FROM THE "COLONIAL GAZETTE."]

New Zealand Gazette and Wellington Spectator, Issue 36, 19 December 1840, Page 3

[FROM THE "COLONIAL GAZETTE."]

The case of criminal conversation, which has excited more than the usual degree of interest, of Heaviside versus Lardner, came before Mr. Baron Gurney and a Special Jury, at Lewes Assizes, on Friday. According to the statement of counsel for the plantift*, Captain Heaviside is the son of a gentleman of considerable property, in Peterborough : he met with Miss Mary Spicer, his cousin, at her father's residence in Outreau, near Boulogne ; and an attachment being formed between the two, they were married in 1824. Captain Heaviside made a settlement of £20,000 upon his wife ; and she • was entitled to the reversion of £13,000 upon the death of her father. The couple had three children, and lived together with happiness till the recent catastrophe; until when, Mrs. Heaviside never betrayed the slightest levity of conduct. In December last, Dr. Dionysms Lardner became acquainted with them at Brighton; neither " his conduct, his age, nor his appearance," inducing the suspicion that he was a dangerous visitor. During the occasional absences of Captain Heaviside on his business as a Magistrate and a Railway Director, opportunity was afforded for the illicit intimacy ; but no undue familiarity was observed by others. On the 11th of March last, Captiin Heaviside went from Brighton to London. On the I3th, Mrs. Heaviside left her home; and when Capt. Heaviside returned on the same day, a note was brought to him, which had been found in his wife's room, telling him that she had gone, and promising a further explanation shortly. At the first receipt of the painful news, Captain Heaviside was stricken senseless. The pursuit to Paris, and the caning inflicted on the Doctor, are alreatly known. Among the papers seized in Mrs. Heaviside's desk at Paris, were drafts of two letters to her father and her husband, " which actually bore several corrections in the defendant's own handwriting." Counsel for the prosecution contended that these letters were " not the outpourings of a person with a troubled mind, but evidently the calm, deliberate, and calculating reasonings of a mechanical philosopher." The following extracts from the letter to Captain Heaviside, dated March 15th, and written in performance of the promise conveyed in the note already mentioned, may serve as specimens of the style — " Among the persons introduced to our acquaintance within the last few months, was one, who, unfortunately: for me, produced such an impression upon my heart, as I felt could never be effaced. In the first period of our acquaintance, I flattered myself that the sentiments he inspired were those of friendship merely ; and I indulged in his society with unguarded, and as the eventproved, most imprudent freedom. As this, however, was no more than was done bj r other ladies, by whom his acquaintance and conversation were eagerly sougnt, and as I never before had, reason to distrust myself, I proceeded unapprehensive of consequences." The writer goes on to describe her struggles with the new passion : separation and absence were tried; she struggled "to assume an apparent cheerfulness duping the brief and distant intervals " which Captain Heaviside passed with her; but without avail. No alternative seemed left but selfdestruction, or withdrawal from her horne — "Neither he nor myself desire to offer any extenuation, much less defence, of our conduct. We feel it, however, to be only, justice to ourselves to say, that we are prepared to suffer all the evils attendant upon a total change in pecuniary circumstances as the inevitable consequence of the step we have taken. I have come to him destitute of any means of support, and bringing nothing "with me but the few articles of dress I liad upon my person. He has surrendered a large income which he has for many years enjoyed, arising from his professional labour : banished, as he must be, to a foreign country, damaged in character by the very measure which gives me to him, removed from all those connexions on which the profitable occupation of his time has hitherto depended, he is at this moment uncertain where or how he may obtain even that very small income which will suffice to supply our most moderate wants and wishes. Not foreseeing an exigency like the present, lie has not realized any considerable amount of property — nothing, iri-fact, which can materially aid us in our present position." The Jury returned a verdiat for* the plaint}.?, with £8,000 damages.