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New Zealand Mail, Issue 558, 14 October 1882, Page 18

The result of the breach of promise case, Swiney v. Lbybourne, will, no doubt, act as a warning to those gay Lotharios who, merely for their own amusement, and without any serious intention in the direction of matrimony, waste the valuable time of young ladies who, having been in the market for a few years, are naturally anxious to ' ' go off." Mr Leybournbj the defendant in the action which has just terminated so disastrously for him, appears to have tampered with the young affections of the fair plaintiff in a manner characterised by cool deliberation, and a determination not to be " taken in" in the great lottery of life. Having been a member of the Civil Service for some few years, he found 'himself in the possession of the princely income of £165 a year, and lord of. a bachelor establishment in Nairn-street, for which he paid the modest rental of half a crown per week. Man was not made to live alone, and Mr Leyboitrne began to look round, for a partner. Having, in his own imagination at least, blighted the happiness of scores of young ladies in this city, his fickle fancy appears to have rested on the plaintiff, whom he met one day at Island Bay indulging in an innocent pastime, known to the initiated as " Jolly Miller." Miss Swiney appears to have Buccumbed at once to his elegant person and the fascinating eloquence of his honeyed words, for, in a very short time afterwards, we find the pair strolling "round the rocks" in. true lover-like fashion. But Mr Leybourne did not seem in a hurry to name the day, and put her "on probation" for tw» periods of three months each, promising, if she conducted herself in a manner pleasing to him, and rendered herself worthy of his love, to " say something further." During the last of these two periods of probation, however, the fair one betrayed the fact that she was possessed of a temper, and actually declined to clean Mr Leybourne's boots in the event of his honoring her with his hand and heart. Her conduct in this respect is the more open to censure when it is remembered that Mr Leybourne pointed out to her that it was utterly beneath the dignity of a gentleman holding his position in the Civil Service to clean his own boots ! Another unfortunate breach was created by the accidental spilling of some hop beer which Miss Swiney wiped up with Mr Leybourne's tea towel. He naturally felt that a woman who could desecrate his tea towel by wiping the floor with it must be lamentably ignorant of domestic duties, and when Miss Swiney, also made nasty sneering remarks about his two and sixpenny tenement, he felt it his duty to speak strongly to her. This he did, and after a series of tiffs "all was over." The jury, however, found that Miss Swiney had not consented to the breaking off of the connection, and what with damages and costs the defendant will have to pay a tolerably large sum. As he •tood in Court o* Tuesday, gloomily sniffing at a bunch of wall-flowers, he was scarcely regarded as an object of sympathy, and few persons after reading the evidence will be found to pity him in his present position.