I've been using agreat little script called bkp-evolution to save copies of my mailings from time to time.
This time i've managed to restore an ancient copy of evolution, and at the same time mislayed my current (and of coarse highly important) evolution.

gconftool-2 --shutdown
evolution --force-shutdown
tar jxvf bkp-evolution-2006-12-26.tar.bz2
gconftool-2 --unload evolution_setting.xml
gconftool-2 --load evolution_setting.xml
rm -f evolution_setting.xml

I suspect that the final line above may well have trashed all my current emails.
Any assistance to restore these would earn my eternal gratitude!