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    878 ^HH XjEAIXDIB. [No. 39Q a ^gq >EMS!E...

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    MISGOVERNMENT AND NO-GOVERNMENT. We are ...

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    Wives-In-Law. It Is Amusing To Read The ...

    , mm oT the TBgirrre -wno rms pttrcJhased the ¦ privilege of speaking with IDivlae authority . * Fhis is , of -course , nobodyV faiilt ; ' laymen say 1 ibey-cannot reBpect the Church , and the parstms complain lihat their flock will not near "them . TEn lieu of the old law of Q-od , we liave now * a law " made up bit by bit by a set of Parliamentary gentlemen wlio do not lead the lives of saints . But in the intervals of

    the law making , we had declamation religious and moral enough to prove the House a conclave of anchorites . We itbought . of Cha-RUes , IjAmb , who after listening to similar praises of purity and morality from a circle of literary men after dinner , shocked the company by stuttering out , " It is all ver-y well ; but there ia not one -man here who will not flirt with the first pretty gtrl he meets going home . " In default , . however , of an authoritative Church , we must take our laws from the new temple of the law- —where we find publicans and sinners abrogating old and adding newcommandments . The great change in the law is that it enaables a wLfie to obtain divorce for c adultery of the husband , ' coupled with cruelty or * desertion for two years . ' If the law be acted on , some present separations will be made legal , and in some unhappy households separation may be added to adultery to facilitate divorce . We cannot believe , however , that there will be any divorces of couples aaow living in liariaoiiy . Laws are not as powerful as lawyers and legislators fondly dream . More influential than any laws are the habits of the English people . It would be curious to note how little either permissive or preventive Jaws h & Me affected our manners * aad

    customs . The husbands aright in old times to beat ibis wife with a stick no bigger than his thumb was a © : more generally acted upon than the privilege of beating wives now , when six months' vimprisonment with hard labour is awarded to deter the offenders . The ecclesiastical courts up to the last session had a right to impose on a anan or woman , who by their ^ nduet or conversation gave parish scandal , the penance of public confession in church dad in a white sheet , yet the legal right has fallen into desuetude beyond the memory of ffche present generation . . English wives will not . rush for relief to the new

    law more than they , now resort to the practical divorce of -quitting their homes . The common talk of society indicates > the virtual law — " " Wliy does « ae « ot leave him ? " is the invariable query m the middle 'classes when the story of an outraged wife is told . Many who Bay this would be surprised to hear that by ism « , fhusbaaad oan force back his wife to his bed * ttd board i 4 > ut even when aware of this

    iaw ev ^ ery woman you speak tto will maintain that any outraged wife ' can' leave her husibarad . In \ fche < ease « where wires , outraged ibeynMttil tpafcienee , do leave their homes , how i & eluorn do we hear of 'husbands exercising * heir legal right of recovery P The ' world ' s tbeadkmgh , ' - * he . » o © rn ^ of » Bociel ) y , is mightier -than Parliament-made law , because the "world and society , in "their collective capacity , instinctively ( acknowledge the higher Haw , - " that mnrrdaere is a 'bond of -love .

    In . tlneir amendments on the bill the Lords struck out , : as a gwwind for divorce obtained ¦ by blie wife , * the adultery of the husband in the conjugal ( residence . ' The Iiords were righ-t . " We must 'guard against the possibility of husbands or wives unmatched in temperaments agreeing to commit sin that they may be enabled -to separate . In very few cases would a woman oonsent to a witnessed sin

    even to dbtain divoroo from a detested husband : tho worst wives may have modesty . But with a man it is different . Men , unhappily , are not very ashamed of infidelity ; and if they could , ¦ w ihhitlie consent of a wife

    anxious to separate , obtain divorce by committing that sin in their own house , that condition would not deter them . By extend ing in this or in any other way the grounds of adultery * to the sins of the husband , you open a door to divorce really desired for mere incompatibility of temper . If it seem good to ^ our law-makers % o v & ak ® that a cause of divorce , let it be done but let not an unhu'ppy unmatched couple be compelled into sin to . give them a cause of action j let

    the poor people came into court with a dean consciertoe , and let them keep the whiteness of their tsouIs although they cannot keep their tempers . But , ia our opinion , ' adultery by the husband' is an improper phrase , and not founded in truth . The ' adultery' denounced : froin Sinai was merely infidelity on the part of iihe wife , for -the Jews then and afterwards were allowed . concubines . TCh . e meaning of the word should have guarded us against afctoibutrng the offence to i ? he husband . An unfaithful wife * adulterates " * the

    family , introduces spurious children into the home . An unfaithful husband simply keeps a concubine , and is guilty -of fornication—an offence against Ms wife , against society , againat morality , against religion , but etill not adultery . The man who commits , adultery is the man who , married or not , destroys the chastity of another man ' s wife : lie is the adulterer against whom , the wholesome terrors of any new law should have been directed . On this point we regret that adultery was not made a misdemeanour . The House

    seemed to shrink from punishing too hardly the silken sinners who , without violence , commit the worst offence against honour and against society that , next to murder , can be committed . Yet , at the present day , a married man , who , by a second marriage , ' seduces' a woman , is liable to transportation for bigamy because he has profaned the ceremony of marriage ; but let him profane marriage itself —let him steal away a wife from her husband —wronging a woman and a man in character and in feeling , and the law simply makes him liable for the costs of the divorce . We

    have no fear that under a law malting adultery a misdemeanour , either the adulberer or the sinful wife would be too hastily punished . Juries of men would be merciful enough to fellow-sinners ; but the stigma of the law would ; be on the offence , and collusion to camaait the punishable sin would be put out of ike question .

    878 ^Hh Xjeaixdib. [No. 39q A ^Gq >Ems!E...

    878 ^ HH XjEAIXDIB . [ No . 39 Q ^ gq > EMS ! EB 1 ^ 1 ^ 57 ,

    Misgovernment And No-Government. We Are ...

    MISGOVERNMENT AND NO-GOVERNMENT . We are now , as usual , engaged in extricating our'governing clasBesout of a difficulty . They have led us into jan abyss , and we have to raise ourselves and them , out of it . That is tho English principle . Our administrators are perpetually blundering into calamity , iaind we , good , easy people , are as continually -fighting and paying to relieve them of the conseiquetttces . Premiers , Secretaries of State , and

    members of Parliament , ; iur > ong us , are only nominally responsible A . short retirement irotn . public lite is the worst that ever happens to an individual of that order . If he breaks down we : advdso him to lay ¦ up awhile while we put one < of his friends in the place , takiug all the burden upon our awn shoulders . It is true tha & similar practice , if applied to ordinary

    affairs , would speedily reduce us to a community of bankrupts and cripples . But we do not find that reckless engiue-drivera , -chemists' assistants convicted of Belling poison without precaution , negligent night-watchmen , or inebriated sea captains , are precisely the people who enjoy tho permanent confidence of the public . With ( statesmen , hewever , all certificates are lor life , while , in moat

    cases , certificates are jndt required at all TJndoubteoly , particular individuals disappear from particular departments ; but watah Jhe game for a few moments , and they will again become visible in the corners . It is found impossible to force Sir Dhabi ^ s "Wood a second time into the Beard of Control ; he is deputed to the Admiralty -where his energies are displayed in fitting out royal yachts ., or laying up line-oS ibattle ships . Having drawn the revenues

    of the Post Office , and performed ( by deputy ) its mild duties , Lord 'Cannijto is presented with India , which ifc ig thought may be a convenience to him for a few years , and lie , or some one whosB responsibility is centred in him , sets fire to it . Twenty millions sterling , and , perhaps , thousands of lives , will be sacrificed to quencli the conflagration ; but we pay 4 ind bleed without stint , and nothing is said that might pain the courtly protectors of the noble lord . So , lately , . a feeble tjovernment was dragged into '

    a Russian war which might have been prevented ; < xur blood flowed , our treasures were ¦ strained through theExchequersieves ; we were not weary of well-doing , and never inquired whether it would be possible to spare ourselves ithese unprolific labours . No doubt a cry was raised , aiad a few shafts struck the aristocracy ; but it is well known that what we say in the hour of danger we do not repeat in . the hour of security . Xike parents paying the ' debts of spendthrift children , we -vow to be severe : we declare it is for the last

    time , ; but when , by our own exertions , and not Jby those of- our governors , the crisis as past , we embrace the hoary prodigals , and they start off once more with -a swing to run full tilt into an Afghan massacre , a Crimean . famine , or a Bengal mutiny . " We have very little doubt that , setting aside the interest of the national debt , a third of the public income is -wasted in redeemin g inexcusable errors of

    administration . Can any one say that the East India Company , Liord Cannin g , Mr . Veenon Smith , and * Lord Pajomejistoit , are not guilty of having neglected the most solemn warnings from India ? Can it be said that if they had acted with common intelligence oipon those warnings , many of the recent disasters would not probably Lave been averted ? If not , why exhaust all our indignation against the rebels , whose plots were whispered to the G-ovfirnmeBLt at home , but whose

    proceedings were uninterrupted- ? Not a step was taken . The alarm was actually suppressed . Our high officials live upon confidence , and it was the false confidence inspired by their fraudulent -attitude that lulled hundreds of women to remain in the upper country with their " children , to be . massacred . We arc not declaiming . Declamation on such a subject would be levity . The facts , the dates , tho writings are before us . Then , is public apathyleading to public calamity , a venial

    , offence ? According to the national custom , it is . We , give Mr . Yebwon Smith tho option of resigning or holding his place . We are about to employ eighty thousand warn troops in reoonquering Xliudostan for J * - * ' Mangles and Co . We recognize no suck principle as responsibility . < Thore wej three stages in the history of every national breaKdown . First , the period of omens ; you

    point out < the danger , and for your paiiw you nro called an alarmist . Then comes tw > crnali , and the struggle to extricate ourselves . While that ia going on you must be silcui and strengthen the hands of the executive-Lastly , after fifty thousand men arc 111 t » e » graves , and fifty millions lost to tho ^ puO ^ treasury , bygones are bygones , and agitate cuds in a bonttro . That is to say , ; vo pftj hnU-a-crown for a shilling ' s worth ot . BtronD

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 12, 1857, page 14, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_12091857/page/14/