Litchfield Enquirer

LOVE AND MARRIAGE.

A case has recently been tried in Rutland, Vt. in which a Miss Munson recovered $1425 of Mr. Hastings for a breach of a marriage contract. The curiosity of the thing is that the Vermont Judge charged the Jury "that no explicit promise was necessary to bind the parties to a marriage contract, but that long continued attentions or intimacy with a female was as good evidence of intended matrimony as a special contract." The principle of the case undoubtedly is, that if Hastings did not promise he ought to have done it! And so the law holds him responsible for the non-performance of his duty. A most excellent decision: a most righteous judge: compared with whom Daniel would appear but a common squire. We have no idea of a young fellow dangling about a woman for a year or two without being able to screw his courage to the sticking point, and then going off leaving his sweetheart half courted; we hate this everlasting nibble, and never a bite: this beating the bush and never starting the game: this standing to the rack without touching the corn: it is the crying sin of the age. There is not one girl in twenty can tell whether she is courted or not. No wonder that when Betty Simper's cousin asked her if Billy Doubtful was courting her, answered: "I don't know 'xackly; he's sorter courtin' and sorter not courtin'." We have no doubt but that this Hastings is one of these "sorter not" fellows, and most heartily do we rejoice, that the judge has bro't him up standing with a $1425 verdict. The judge says, "that long continued attentions," or "intimacy," is just as good as a regular promise. Now we do not know what would pass for "intimacy," according to the laws of Vermont; but supposing "attentions" to consist in visiting a girl twice a week; and estimate the time wasted by Miss Munson at each visit to be worth a dollar, which is dog cheap, Mr. Hastings has been making a fool of himself fourteen years and some odd weeks. This decision makes a new era in the law of love, and we doubt not will tend to the promotion of matrimony and sound morality.—Utica Dem.