"Whiteley v. Cleveland" is a case which should be a
warning to fathers. Mr. Cleveland is a clergyman near Barnard Castle, Durham, with a living worth £700 a year, and with ten children, who had allowed his daughter, Miss Whiteley, £40 a year for dress. In addition she had at the age of 21 a legacy of £170, which he sup- posed she would save for her marriage trousseau. Instead, on her engagement to be married to an artillery officer, she ordered goods partly in the neighbourhood and partly in London to the amount of £450, and left her father to pay for them. The jury found that Mr. Cleveland had " constructively " authorized his daughter to buy the goods, and made him pay the London tradesman who brought the action. Really the wrongs women commit must be severely restrained, if their rights, as the Recorder (Mr. Russell Gurney), who tried the action, contends, are to be conceded.
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