Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 April 1875 — Breach of Promise. [ARTICLE]

Breach of Promise.

The injured young Englishman, Mr. Townsend, who for some time past has been working in a London court to compel the mother of tfaC young lady who jilted him to make good his damaged affections in the sum of $15,000, has at last had his case decided and been awarded The Judge’s charge was the probable cause of these insignificant damages. In his summing up he took a very gallant view of the case, and one which gave the jilted swain very little encouragement to prosecute breach of promise suits in England. Men, said his Honor, are not injured by a refusal on the part of their sweethearts to keep a promise of marriage, while by the reverse working of the rule women suffer. The latter, who look upon marriage and support by men as their ultimate fortune, arc injured in their life prospects by a breach of promise. A man is not thus injured. He can get a living just as well as before, and has suffered nothing that money cannot repair. Moreover, a man is none the worse for being kissed for a series of years, as happened in this case, while a woman, after being a l.ong time a subject of osculatory exercises, is not activelyfin demand by other men afterward. It may be a question whether this was good law, but it was good common sense. A breach of promise, by whomsoever brought, must leave affecti<sn out of the question. It is a confession that tlie plaintiff had other ends in view than those of love. The basis is purely a commercial one, and, when a man desuch littlenessr he does not deserve even a guinea, unless it is shot at him, and Mr. Townsend’s ’fate should serve as a warning to. other mercenary swains.— Boston Past.