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Jv&xSL2 > 18^0 '/ TM^B I/EAIBE. B61
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PARLIAMENTARY MAGIC. On a former occasio...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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A Taiie Of Forced Mab»Iaj&E. Thbre Is No...
husband can be induced to be an adulterer and stop away from Ms wife long enough , if he can be provoked to use violence , or if he be-fool enough to subject . himself to the penal law as » bigamist ,- then the compact can be dissolved . It is already the law that divorce can be obtained for those who can afford it , if the wife commit the offence ; but it does not seem to have occurred to those who have the handling of this subject as a matter of legislation ,, that the crime would , in many
oases , not be committed if the occasion of it were taken away . . While the bill is passing through Parliament , there : comes before the House of Lords the petition of Madgewick Spiobb JDavidbon , praying that the marriage with Cathe-BrNE 'Aitnir , his wifej be dissolved , on the ground of adultery . The bill has passed the House ofwliords ; the Low ) Chakcbiioe has delivered , judgment ,,. giving credence to
the story told in court "; and we may thereforei although we have still some reserve of doubt , assuine for the purposes of argument that the tale was rightly told . But it is one which far less establishes the ground of divorce , than it shows that the husband and wife ' ought to have been released from an untoward bond before the offence was committed ;_ ¦ and that in fact they ought never to have been brought together .
Catherine Anne "Wood is the daughter of a gentleman in "Wiltshire , a widower with four children . Madgewick Davidbon is a solicitor . At the time of the marriage , in February , 1855 , he was thirty-nine years of age , and the young lady was then under twentyone . She had no fortune , but Mr . Davidson had , bee . n . happy in his business , and , he was enabled -to settle upon her : 60001 . One , of the objects of the bill was to set aside this settlement , on the ground that it had been
obtained by the means of a pretended attachment oJvthe part o £ the lady . There was no evidence- that effectually established that pretence , Mrs . Davidson was chargeable with extreme folly ; she was extravagant in her dress ; she appears to have exacted from her husband a lavish , expenditure , and to have been capricious in her wishes ; but there was no evidence to prove that either before marriage , or after , she had shown that kind of attachment ; which woman- displays ¦ forr man when they should be married . On the
contrary , before her marriage she wrote to a mitaic-seller in Eathbone-place with whom she had been a customer , invoking his aid . She told him that she was a , victim to injustice and tyranny ^ she said that all her letters were read ,. begging him not to mention having received this one , and she asked- him to forward rany letters' he ( might receive for her . She . did receive ' letters . One was on the
22 nd of November , 1 S 54 , three months before her marriage ; she again received letters through the same medium after her marriage ; It is quite clear that ¦¦ they came from . BmujB * Xjai > oujette . This was a young man whom she had met at a school in France , a'few years before her marriage , < when , she was . seventeen or eighteen . It appears that she . then formed an attachment tor him so
strong-that it made her marry with reluctance , and After 1 her marriage , made her resolve to break short the union with her husband . Mr . Davidson took her to Paris ; and it is shown that she prepared for a long , if not for a permanent , absence , ' although the excursion , was dnlytq be . short . Jn Paris she found meatia of metoting •< with Lalouettjc ; their love for each other vra » iuncpncoaled , although the lady give it a professedly spiritual turn ; aiid they ; remained * together ' under circumstancea ( which gaVe nb doubt « a to the indulgence of their passion . Romeo " ¦ and Juliet could not have heeaoi more undisguised ^ before t \ xo JV ^ urse
than the young couple before Mast Asm Denman , the lady ' s maid . . r ^ , All this story is very plain ; it is only wonderful that any gentleman should have desired to retain for his wife a woman whose affections he had not previously ascertained , without the slightest doubt , to be his own and his own exclusively . It was said in evidence that he was " only too indulgent ;" and his " kindness '' aggravated the charge against the wife ; Very shortly after his marriage , she withdrew from him as much as it waa possible ; avoided being a wife to
him ; was cold and indifferent ; and ail this notwithstanding that he had settled 8000 / . upon her , that he gave her money'for her most extravagant wishes , kept three saddlehorses exclusively for her use , and relinquished 2301 . a year out of his income in order that he might return home at an earlier hour . It is a fact however ,- — althoug h , they tell it in ¦ roraBQce & y- ^—although we find it in Romeo and Juliet , and although Tt >^> oDae 8 out sometimes in cases of this kirid , ~ r ^ t ibat , even 8000 Z . a year , a full purse , and three saddlehorses will not always render the lover blessed . In this case the suitor had dreadful
leeway to make up , inasmuch as he was about twice his wife ' s age . If we judge by , experience , no man shall safely presume that , after he has obtained possession of a woman , he shall win her heart by an exhibition of cash and saddle-horses . Some women may be so -won , but they are seldom worth the winning . Tet the reliance placed upon these aids in the evidence would imply that the
suitor relied upon them in fact . Perhaps he believed that it \»? as the ¦ duty < o . f . ; the , wife to be won ; that it was no longer his . place , to be a suitor aftephe : was married . It isiofiten a ruinous case when the husband falls back upon his " rights . " It . violates the philosophy of that astute gentleman who said that if a man did not want $ iis-wife , to- be seduced from him * , he ,, should keep ¦ on ,, seducing her himself , But it is not to be donevwith 80 Q ( M . and three saddle-horses . It is to be done
without these auxiliaries ; for there is no statement that EatitE IiAtoirBTrrB was able to command the assistance -of ; 8000 / . and three saddlerhorses . ; . . . , ¦ > Some persons had the power to dispose of Qatbjbrine Anns W < o 6 » ,: and tb ;© y-. so < far defied experience , past and present , as to venture upon the hazardous experiment of rendering her one with Map <* e wick Spiceb Davidson . The experiment proved a failure . It was absolutely necessary for both their Bakes that they should be divided .. It will be happy if their « tory , which , is laid before
the whole world in the columns of the jRtnes , should teach other men and women , where there is no love on both aides , not to venture upon the experiment . It should teach others , who can . dispoBe of young women before they have * attained their majority , not thus to usurp the power of Providence . But the case may also teach our legislators how absurd it ia to be making special acts of Parliament every time these matrimonial disasters occur , instead of revising , once for all , the law of matrimony and its relations , with a proper jurisdiction to settle inevitable- disputes on the grounds of justice and humanity .
Jv&Xsl2 > 18^0 '/ Tm^B I/Eaibe. B61
Jv & xSL 2 > 18 ^ 0 ' / TM ^ B I / EAIBE . B 61
Parliamentary Magic. On A Former Occasio...
PARLIAMENTARY MAGIC . On a former occasion wo deemed it our duty to support the claims of Mbkb Jaffikb Ali against the East India Company . Since then we havo seen no reason to change our opinion as to the abstract justice of his caac . But the manner in which' that CnBO has been brought before the public suggests sbmo 'serious questions . / The legislature has wisely provided stringent enactments againat bribery and corruption during the election of the re *
presentatives of the people . It has not yet , however , taken into consideration the peculiarities of Khuiput . ' It is not many years , scarcely many months , since this word of ill omen first startled the press , the publie , and the Parliament . The phrase had been just imported from . India by the" overland route . It was in everybody ' s mouth , but ; within the comprehension of- very few . < lJltimatel | r it was explainedthat at ; the , Court of his Highness the Guicowar certain practices had
prevailed indicative of a veFjr low estimation oi honour and public morality . KAiHfaings ^ wcoje venal , though not ostensibly offeredibrsaleris marketable commodities . The British Besident at Baroda at that time was . a highminded , hondurable gentleman , but not remarkable for acuteness , and by no means a match for Oriental intrigue and deception . Had he been at all aware ; of what was . going on , there is no doubt he would have reported
the circumstance to his superiors . But while he dozed on in blissful ignorance , the most frightful corruption . was spreading , around , him . Handsome shawls , richly caparisoned steeds * costly jewels , and other valuable " considerations , " were secretly presented to the wives , daughters , and near relatives of persons in power . That female gratitude and female influence should fail to make a suitable return for such acceptable compliments , coujd hardly be expected from human nature . This form of bribery was known as Khutpwt . : •/> .
" When the existence of this monstrous evil gradually came to the knowledge of the Indian Government , great and just . was the indignation it excited ; and all ; good , men must remember gratefully the vigorous measures adopted by General Oxjtbaii £ to expos © and put down a state of- things ; sp disgraceful and pernicious . At home the * e was a general outcry against the corrupt condition of society in India , and honourable members of the House of Commons loudly
inveighed against the Government under which , such ; flagrant enprmities were possible .. With a slight change of names , the same charges , may now be brought against these grave moralizers themselves . The faults , they found so grie vous in their neighbours lose their deformity on nearer an 4 personal acquaintance . Khutput has raised its hydija head , unrebuked , in the very lobby of the faithful Corampnja . Many a fair dame , may nqw exhibit a real Indian cashmere , wlajo has hitherto been doomed to the Jess
fashionable productions of the . French or English loom . Many a rosy-fingered damsel displays on her well-rounded arms " barbaric pearls and gold , the wealth of Ormuz or of Ind . " Ita bonuni puhlicwnii utinpleriaque negotiis solet , privatd grtatid devictuiAL Unhappily this is not the only bad feature in the case . The claims of Meer Jaf » sj » ji Al . i were enforced by means of a private bill . There is precedent , indeed , for such a course , and one eminently calculated to encourage the abettors and advocates of the Anieer .
It is known to the student of Indian history as the Nozid case , bub for the sake of ; mere English readers , it may be worth while to recapitulate its most salient points . ; In the year 1775 , ftt a time when the civil Government of Madras was notoriously corrupt , Mr . James Hodges , Member of the Council of Masulipatnm , advanced m sum / of Ai Zemindar 6 f
money to Nabbinc * » pabao , > Noaid , and also took upon himself the payment of his debts to the other members of the Council . He thus became ;< the ' Zemindar ' s creditor to the amount of © 7 , 801 Madras pagodas ; though he was » w *** ° that such conduct was in direct oonvttovontion to the . wishes * of the Court : This irregular transaction was studiously kept frbin the knowledge of Government until 1779 ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 12, 1856, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_12071856/page/13/
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