End of the Yelverton case
--
Verdict in Favor of the Lady.--The remarkable trial of the Yelverton marriage suit has terminated in
Dublin, before the Court of Common Pleas. --It is a cause brought to establish the validity of a secret marriage, celebrated by a Catholic priest in
Ireland between
the Hon. Major William Charles Yelverton, of the
British Army, heir to the Avonmore peerage, and
Miss Teresa Longworth, who was one of the
French Sisters of Charity in the Crimea.
In consequence of a disgraceful law, making it a penal offence in
Ireland for a Catholic priest to perform a marriage ceremony between a Catholic and Protestant, unless first celebrated by a Protestant minister, the husband, whose family are Protestant, and whose own religious convictions sit loose upon him, treated the marriage as a sham, deserted his wife, and contracted another marriage with a wealthy widow.
The trial now had has resulted in a verdict that his first marriage was valid.
Miss Longworth is, therefore,
the Hon. Mrs. Yelverton, and her husband stands in the power of the criminal law as a bigamist.
When
Mrs. Yelverton's counsel,
Mr. Whiteside, entered the room where she was waiting, his countenance and significant gestures, as well as the cheers which rang through the
Court, told her that the verdict was in her favor.
She sprang forward without saying a word, clasped him in her arms, pressed him convulsively to her breast, and, seizing his two hands, kissed them.
Overcome by the violence of her emotions, after such a long and terrible tension of the nervous system, she sank down exhausted and found relief in a flood of tears.
The excitement in the
Court, when the verdict was announced, was quite unprecedented.
The whole audience rose and cheered tumultuously, the ladies waving their handkerchiefs, the gentlemen their hats, and the barristers their wigs.
It was a delirium of joy. The contagion spread through the multitude outside, and the shouts of triumph passed along the whole line to the
Gresham Hotel, in Sackville street. The crowd insisted on taking the horses from
Mrs. Yelverton's carriage and drawing it to the hotel, where she was obliged to appear on the balcony to gratify her admirers.
She said: "My noble-hearted friends, you have, by your verdict this day, made me an Irishwoman.
You will forever live in my heart, as I do in yours this day." Her being an English woman had no effect in dampening the ardor of the most bigoted Silesian or Ultramontanist; her having been a Sister of Charity and a convert to the Church of Rome did not check the sympathy of the most intolerant Orangemen.--The speech of
Mr. Sergeant Armstrong, who, in his zeal for his client, did all he could to make her seem vile in the eyes of her own sex, did not diminish the interest in her of the ladies of
Dublin, whose carriages were drawn up along the quay in a long line.
