AN IRISH BREACH OF PROMISE CASE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9130, 11 August 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

AN IRISH BREACH OF PROMISE CASE.

A breach of promise trial at the Newry Quarter Sessions shows that Irish humour has survived boycotting, plan of campaign, and all that sort of thing. The plaintiff, described as a prepossessing young woman, was courted for nine years by a farmer fifty-five years old. She said that nightly for nine years he had kissed her more than once, and that she had received eight offers of marriage in his love letters. So far his conduct was loverlike ; but in other respects it was provoking, He took her into one shop to buy a wedding ring, but only purchased a watch-key , and into another shop to buy her a shawl, but the price did not suit him. She went to church to be married, and waited in vain for three hours for her lover. She complained to him that his doubtful courtship kept her from all dances, wakes, and sports. How cruel that the young lady should be kept from wakes by the peculiar conduct of her lover. The answer of the defendant was not chivalric. He slated that the girl persecuted him, kissed him, and would jump on his knee ; that she courted him; that one night, at eleven, she waited for him in a dark lane, and caught hold of him by the tails of his coat until lie nearly fainted. What a romantic scene. Bridget pulling at his coat tails, which was made of too tough material to be pulled oil, until Patrick nearly fainted. However, the persecution did not kill him, for in February last he married another woman. The verdict of the jury is as perplexing as the evidence is humorous. They found for the plaintiff, with damages fortyfive pounds. If they believed the defendant that he did not court the plaintiff, but was cruelly persecuted by her courting him, they v ouli.l, we might suppose, have found for him, or only given nominal damages. If they believed the plaintiff that she Mas courted for nine years and then jilted, it is presumable that they would have awarded her substantial damages. Perhaps they thought that, anyhow, she was entitled to compensation for being kept from wakes for nine years, and gave her forty-five pounds—that is at the rate of five pounds a year for the deprivation.