a selection. Perhaps, however, the following presents as striking an illustration as any, of the very peculiar jurisdiction of these courts.

“ This was an action, in the nature of trover, for a kiss. The defendant pleaded that he had long loved the said plaintiff, whereof she had notice; but that not regarding him, she had wholly neglected and refused to entertain his said suit. And he farther said, that he had at length so much prevailed upon her the said plaintiff, that she undertook and faithfully promised the said defendant to give him the said kiss; yet that, not regarding her said promise and undertaking, she the said plaintiff had always, up to the time of the said supposed grievance, excused herself from so doing, sometimes alleging to the said defendant that she had been prevented therefrom, and at other times asserting that it was not a proper opportunity in that behalf.— And the said defendant affirmed that he had been for the space of three months in pursuit of the said kiss, which was a great pity. And he further said, that on a certain day, when Danger was absent, he prayed the said plaintiff to perform and fulfil her said promise and undertaking; but perceiving that the said plaintiff was not willing so to do, he then and there took the said kiss, as it was lawful for him so to do. -And he prayed his costs.

“And the said plaintiff for replication said, that she did not undertake or promise in manner and form as the said defendant had above alleged, for that the said promise was a conditional promise only, to wit, at the will and pleasure of the said plaintiff, when and where it should please her the said plaintiff to fulfil the same.

“ And the said defendant for rejoinder said, that the said plaintiff did undertake and promise, in manner and form aforesaid, without this, that the said promise was conditional. And he further said, that though there had been neither gift nor promise, that he reasonably deserved to have for his care, diligence, and attendance given and bestowed by him the said defendant in the service of the said plaintiff, at least the reward of the said kiss, and that it was therefore lawful for him the said defendant to take out execution for the same, and to possess himself thereof as of his own proper goods and chattels, which had come to his possession by finding. And he concluded as before.

“ And now the parties having been heard, and mature deliberation being thereupon had, the Court gave judgment for the defendant, and decreed the plaintiff to pay costs.

And the Court further directed the said plaintiff specifically to perform her said promise, at the instance and request of the said defendant, no account being taken of the said former salute.”

The great utility of these institutions is very conspicuous in the following case. From that it appears, that the jurisdiction of the Courts of Love extended even to the regulating the minutest points of decorum in the intercourse of polished society. The grievance complained of in the case we are about to cite, is one of considerable magnitude (we speak from experience) even at the present day. Nor is there, as we apprehend, any mode of redress upon such occasions. To expostulate with the lady is impossible. The only method of relief now acknowledged, (and a most pregnant proof it is of the barbarity and degeneracy of the age,) is to call out the brother of the offending lady. But how much more preferable is a civil proceeding before such a tribunal as the Court of Love.

“ This was an action brought by the plaintiff, a lover, against the defendant, to whom he was attached, for refusing to dance with him. The declaration stated, that on, &c. at, &c. the plaintiff had requested the said defendant to dance, which she, without any reasonable cause in that behalf, refused to do, alleging a certain frivolous excuse. That afterwards the said plaintiff did again, with great earnestness, humbly request the said defendant to dance a few steps with him, to save him, the said plaintiff, from being laughed at, by certain persons then and there present, which she also refused to do. And he averred that he had on divers occasions moved to the said defendant, and taken off his hat whenever he, the said plaintiff, met her. Yet, although the said defendant well knew that he was stricken with, and loved her, she nevertheless wholly disdained and refused to speak to him the said plaintiff'; or if at any time the said defendant said • How d’ye doʻ to the said plaintiff, it was with a toss of the head of her the said defendant. The declaration concluded in the usual manner."

“ The defendant suffered judgment to go by default, and now on this day the Court pronounced sentence.

“ The Court decrees the defendant to dance with the plaintiff, whether she wishes it or not; or, at all events, to dance a few steps with him. The Court permits the plaintiff, when the defendant and another are seeking for a third to form a pas de trois, to step in, without asking permission, and to form the third; and the Court being informed that the defendant has spoken contemptuous words of its process, and said that the plaintiff would lose his labour in suing her, permits the plaintiff to pass her without moving to her, or saying

how d'ye do, and declares him exempt from courtesying to her during the dance, as others are used to do. And the plaintiff is to have his costs.”

We have given the preceding cases at length, in order to afford some idea of the proceedings in these courts; we shall now abridge a few of the most curious reports.

An action was brought by the heirs of a lover to compel a lady to show them the same politeness which their ancestor had always experienced from her. They alleged that they had discovered, amongst the papers of the defunct, an agreement, by which the defendant had bound herself to wish the deceased good-day whenever she met him, and to make him a courtesy, and they said that, as heirs at law, they were entitled to the benefit of this agreement.

The defendant insisted that the contract was merely personal, and that it could not descend to the representatives of her lover, after his death.

The plaintiffs contended that if any thing had been due from their ancestor to the defendant, they would have been answerable to her.

To this the defendant replied, that there was a great distinction between debts or goods and chattels, and the personal property of Love; and she insisted that if judgment were given for the plaintiffs, she should be burdened with making two courtesies instead of one.

Judgment was given for the defendant.

An action was brought by a young married lady against her husband, for not allowing her to wear a gown and a bonnet made in the newest fashion. The pleadings ran to a considerable length, and the Court declared that the matter should be referred to two milliners, who should report thereon, and if any thing objectionable were found in the fashion of the gown and bonnet, the Court directed that the referees should call in the assistance of two ladies, on the part of the plaintiff, and two on the part of the defendant, to assist them in their judgment.

An action was brought by the plaintiff against the defendant, for having pricked him with a pin whilst she was giving him a kiss. The defendant denied ever having given the plaintiff a kiss, but, on the contrary, said that the plaintiff had taken it; and she said that the wound, if any, had happened only by mischance and accident.

Certificates from several surgeons were produced of the nature and extent of the wound, and the Court sentenced the defendant to kiss the wound at all reasonable times, until it was healed, and to find linen for plaisters.

We shall conclude our extracts with two cases; the one, from André the Chaplain, the other from a Tenson, or poetical report given by Mr. Raynouard.

A lady imposed on her lover an express condition never to praise her in public. The knight in a large company heard some observations made in disparagement of his lady. Unable to contain himself, he repelled the accusations, and launched forth in her praise. The lady contended that he had broken the condition, and therefore forfeited all claims to her favour. The Countess of Champagne, however, before whom the cause was tried, decreed that the condition was illegal, and that the knight was justified in defending the character of his lady.

We have already said that it is probable the Courts of Love had their origin in the Tensons, or poetical disputes of rival Troubadours. These were frequently referred to the judgment of some of their most celebrated companions, or of some neighbouring beauty, to whose decision the candidates for fame were gallantly willing to submit. In process of time, these references became more frequent, till they were at length matured into that perfect system of Erotic jurisprudence which is so well calculated to attract the admiration and respect of all who value the grace and polish of highly cultivated society. Of these Tensons, we have several specimens remaining, in the works of those Troubadours who have survived to the present day. Amongst these compositions there is, perhaps, no one which excels in lively beauty the 'Tenson of Savari de Mauleon. We do not, however, in this place, quote the composition for its poetical excellences, but merely as a sort of judicial document, illustrating the subject of which we are treating

Savari de Mauleon and two other lords were attached to a lady who was called Guillemette de Baraques. During an interview when all the three were present, each received a mark of her regard; on one she bestowed a kind glance, she pressed the hand of another, and touched the foot of the third, at the same time looking benignantly on him.

To settle the precedency of these favours, Savari requested his friends Gaucelin de Faidit and Huges de Bacalaria to pronounce their judgment upon the question, and at the same time he delivered his own opinion. From the report in Raynouard it seems, however, that the ultimate decision was referred to the Lady Guillemette herself.

Martial de Paris is not the only author who has availed himself of these ancient and interesting institutions, to afford at once amusement and instruction to his readers. Many years before his work was written, Chaucer bad composed his Court of Love, which is an imitation of The Romaunt of the Rose, and is merely an allegorical poem, displaying the empire of love, the machinery of which the poet has borrowed from the real Courts of Love. Mars and Venus are the presiding deities. The Statutes of Love contained in this poem are simply imaginary, and scarcely bear the slightest resemblance to the genuine ordinances as given by André the Chaplain. Fontaine also has, in more than one of his poems, taken his idea from the proceedings of these tribunals. Such is his Different de Beaux Yeur et de Belle Bouche, who argue their respective pretensions with great ingenuity and cleverness. Amongst our own authors, the Court of Judicature in which the famous Isaac Bickerstaff presided, evidently owes its ori. gin to the Cours d' Amour, of which the resemblance we have noticed above seems a pretty strong proof.

FROM THE NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE

BRIDAL CUSTOMS OF THE IRISH.

“ Make banket, and good cheer, And everilk man put on his nuptial gown."

Quod R. M. of Ledington K'nycht. Within the recollection of the oldest inhabitants of a small town in Tipperary, a woman of prepossessing deportment, with a beautiful infant at her bosom, was discovered on a cold autumnal morning crouching in the belfry of the deserted and ruinous parish-church. She was pale, silent, and totally abstracted from every earthly object but the sleeping little beauty in her arms. The hospitable inhabitants of the town brought her food and raiment, and warmly tendered her a shelter from the rude inclemency of the time beneath their homely roofs. She preferred, however, abiding in the solitude of the old belfry, and her woes were forever buried in her own heart. At midnight she was often heard singing some strange melody in a low plaintive tone, as she walked with hurried steps across the mouldering parapet of the little tower.

The child grew up and prospered, and at the age of sixteen was said to be a wonder of beauty by those who had accidentally seen her when gazing on the passengers, who daily forded the river that laved one side of the grey and dilapidated church. Her rigid,' but loving mother, never suffered her to descend the winding steps which led to the grass-covered chancel. She deemed her too fair to be exposed to the rude gaze of the daring young men who dwelt in the environs, and the maid passed her childhood and youth without once straying from the brink of the old belfry. Young Mary's beauty was her bane. She bemoaned her fate, and earnestly implored her careful mother to bless her with a single hour's liberty, to wander among the fair fields and green woods that smiled around her desolate habitation. But the solitary woman was inexorable. She wept while she denied the prayers of her child, and spoke of the world's crimes, from which she said they were happily set apart, until her heart overflowed with the remem

brance of her past griefs, and Mary forgot her own desires in assuaging the mental anguish of her beloved mother.

At length a young man, who was the pride of the flourishing family of the Strahans, saw young Mary at the little casement of the belfry, and was so charmed with the beauty of her countenance, that in the warmth of his heart he vowed to win her love, and woo her from her dismal abode, in spite of every impediment. By dint of continual and most acute watching he at length attracted her wandering gaze, and the interest he seemed to feel for the innocent and kind-hearted maiden produced a strange but delightful sensation in her heart. They soon understood the full extent of each other's hopes and fears, and mutually endeavoured to invent some plan whereby they might obtain a parley. The wary inother observed an alteration in young Mary's manner, and watched her more narrowly, and confined her more closely, if it were possible, than before. But the most simple woman in love is an overmatch for the wisest and most crafty of parents. Mary contrived to elude the suspicious eye of her mother, and by the aid of a stout rope which she fixed to the stone bars of the casement, Strahan ascended nightly to its verge. Their young hearts were soon linked to each other by the strongest ties of pure, unjaded, youthful love. The maid thought of nothing but Strahan during the day, and he lingered about the weeds and brambles that waved over the tombs of the old aisles, happy to be near his love, and listening in anxious expectation for the usual melodious signal which summoued him to the base of the tower.

The affair could not long remain in this state. One night the mother detected Strahan in the act of ascending to the belfry by his usual contrivance, and to his infinite alarm thrust out a rusty sword-blade above his head when he was within a few yards of the window, and at an immense distance from, the ground. She interrogated him as to his motives and desires, and insisted, as he valued his life, on a full and unequivocal reply. The young man honestly confessed his name and intentions, and moreover avowed that he had communed with the maiden at the casement for many preceding nights. The mother's blood flowed rapidly to her heart as he spoke. She feared the worst, and fiercely brandishing the sword-blade above the youth's grasp, threatened in a tone of stern resolution to cut the cord asunder unless he solemnly swore by the most holy vow, and upon the cross in his bosom, to marry her child at daybreak. The youth joyfully assented; and at his pressing request, the weeping and terrified Mary approached the caseinent, and there contracted herself to him by the most sacred ceremony of breaking bread and parting silver together.

The next day a priest pronounced the nuptial benediction upon them, and the old woman soon after died in the belfry, without imparting a single particular of her history even to her child. Various were the surmises in which the curious neighbours indulged; but whatever they thought of the mother, Mary was idolized by all. She was waning in years, and the parent of seven beautiful girls when I first beheld her. She then resembled a noble ruin ; beauty still lingered about some parts of her fine form in spite of the finger of time, her heart was joyous and blithe as ever, and none of the young maidens around her entered into the festal customs of Ireland with more zeal and delight, than the fine spirited dame who had lingered out her childhood in the mouldering turret of St. James's church. She was an object of curiosity and