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Leader (1850-1860), 23rd May 1857, Edition 1 of 2, Page 493, Untitled Article

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      Untitled Article

      ; are to go before a jury ; the Judge Orary is on all occasions to be attested by of the chiefs from the Westminster rts , and in suits for full divorce by all 3 e chiefs ; and in the full court barristers solicitors may practise . The divorce a > sa et thoro is made more distinct : it will ^ ran ted for cruelty or desertion ; the wife * be protected under clear decrees ; the rt will be able to grant her a separate ome , and she will enjoy full power over her i property and earnings . Divorce can only its adulter

      granted for present reasons— y the wife , and adultery of very aggravated is in the husband ; the action of criminal versation is retained , but is forbidden il after the dissolution of marriage . The ; s will be regulated by the judges . The rovements here are , that the whole profor divorce is brought into one , instead three , as at present ; the proceedings will rivd voce ; the law is rendered more cer-;; the expense is reduced to that of the irt of Queen ' s Bench or Common Pleas . the cost will still exclude all but the die class , and even all but the richer porof that class ; ' criminal conversation '

      still be a subject of suit for money ; an ? siastical judge , ecclesiastical lawyers , opolise the greater part of the business ; ssiastical principles govern the whole , at as an improvement on the present the bill goes to establish a law of which false principles , false methods , inequality injustice , are glaring . ut may it be carried ! For it would be a id improvement . Had it been law forty s back , we should have been spared many ful and odious cases . " Whatever may be merits of a matrimonial dispute—often , ure—the truth can be best ascertained e the recollections of witnesses are fresh :

      at all events , the worst scandals are ed by closing the case . The Marchioness P'estmeath . has been publishing a ' Narre' of her case—a hideous tale of seven 3 ' matrimonial conflict , with suits in ly all the courts , and complaints of slty the most unmanly—of hard words hard blows . The Marquis affirms that case is one of conspiracy and perjury nst hjmself , in which the lady that does the honour to bear his name has not left in peace for thirty-eight years . For all time have the recriminations of the

      land and wife been unsettled . The case * frs . Norton is well known ; that of y Lttton is less clear , but not less notos . The Talbot case was dealt with in most unsatisfactory way ; the jury grantthe requisite ' damages' on proof of a t' which remains extremely doubtful , if incredible , but being influenced probably ho notoriety of evidence which was unble , though it looked ugly . An excellent > w of this case has just been published , l volume of letters reprinted from the aervative Standard * The simple

      regulation is an exposure of the atrocious ling of the present system , from which 1 Cran worth ' s bill would releaso us . ut some Peers object . Virtuous Lord jMISSBURy fears that it would extend the yilego' of the aristocracy to the ' lower ' ses of society , and hence ho foresees a extension of vice . Wo have already how visionary is this apprehension : the scarcely concerns the lower clasaes — cannot indulge in tho luxury of law even iTesfcnunater prices . But , it seems , there x unknown , unavowod Society for tho iression of Vice sitting in tho House of

      Lords , and keeping up the price of divorce , solely that its temptations may not fall within the reach of the lower orders . For several Peers spoke with Lord Malbiesbitby , and dreaded the effect of allowing divorce , except at a price that excludes the ' lower orders , ' if not the middle class . Let Lord Malmesbtjby look at home , into the house which he adorns , and ask if it possesses such a monopoly of forethought and good feeling as his argument presumes .

      In what class of society have arisen the cases which we have named ? Among peers , honourables , and landed gentry . Look at the peerage , passim . We despise the man that can set class against class ; but the peers challenge the odious comparison . Hitherto the well-born and wealthy have had a monopoly of Societies for the Suppression of Vice : if they talk so much about different orders of society , they may force us to ask by what right they affect to stand forward and teach their fellow-creatures of the ' lower orders ?'

      Is their own condition immaculate and happy ? Evidently there is a ' mission ' vacant—a mission for the suppression of vice among the upper classes . The clergy ought to have undertaken it , but it is only in despotic France we have bold outspeaking in the pulpit . No , there will be no society for the suppression of vice in the West-end until it is undertaken by some philanthropic wo-x * k ing men . Perhaps they might have the courage and the disinterestedness necessary for the Augean labour of purifying the Peerage .

      Untitled Article

      Oivorco in 1857 : tho Talbot Cnuo . Lotters by , containing full particulars of this eolcbrated ; o cnao . Published by Ward and Locko , and sold jhtcQnponco or two ahillingn .

      Untitled Article

      MR . DISRAELI'S REFORM BILL . Mb . Disraeli has been studying the subject of Reform : " We should be the greatest idiots in the world if we did not , " he says . He has been getting at the figures , and his deduction is , that the counties have too little representation , and the towns too much . We are gratified to find that the colleague of Caledon dtj Pre has been spending his leisure so seriously ; but it may be doubted whether , after all , he is likely to be a useful Reformer . First , he hates Reform ; that he admits . Secondly , he admires prescription . That is a sentiment , however , not an opinion , and cannot be made the basis of a policy , or even a manoeuvre . Thirdly , he complains of the measure of 1832 , but does not know how to rectify its partiality , except by numbering the agricultural labourers—giving them more representation , but not giving them votes . A hundred and forty-four county members represent ( or do not represent ) eight million

      seven hundred thousand people . Three hundred and nineteen borough members represent ( or do not represent ) eight million one hundred and forty-four thousand peoplebeing one member to every sixty thousand persons in tho case of tho counties , and one to every twenty-live thousand in tho case ot tho boroughs . Hero is an anomaly ! But how doos Mr . Disraeli propose to remedy it ? Not bv extending tho franchise , but by

      taking from tho boroughs to give to the counties . Decrease the borough constituencies , multiply tho county constituencies , and you have Mr . Dishaeli ' s Reform Bill . Thus , Cheshire will bo avonged upon Chester , North Durham upon Gatcshead and Sunderland , tho West Riding upon its nine groat towns . This is tho Newport Pngnell specific for putting us all under tho operation of the CirANBOs clause . Mr . Disraeli counts tho

      cottagers , and demands—say , for every forty thousand—a Member of Parliament elected for them , not by them . Ho would retain tho qualification nt tho fifty pounds and forty shillings standard . Wo are to reform next year , and all in behalf of tho landed interest .

      There is an opinion , not at Newport Pagnell , that the landed interest is too powerfully represented already , so that when Lord John Russell is made a political grandfather , we scarcely expect that the new bantling will be surnamed Disraeli . " It is an ancient weakness ; " but , happily , it is the weakness of a diminishing minority . Once he was careful to describe himself as a Conservative ; now , the ancient weakness returning , he exults , " These are Tory principles . " Mr . Disraeli has the landed interest in charge , but the Liberal party is responsible for the future history of England .

      Untitled Article

      THE PRINCESS ROYAL . We have at all times expressed an opinion favourable to the Prussian marriage of the Princess Royal . Granted that our princesses must contract alliances with the bloodroyal of Europe , the young lady could scarcely , in a public sense , have formed a wiser engagement . The Prince or Prussia , standing one step from the loftiest Protestant throne in Continental Europe , is in all respects a fitter husband for the eldest dausrhter of our

      Queen than any of the Serene Highnesses belonging to that brood of petty States enumerated by the Treaty of Vienna . 9 ? he outcry against Germanism we must leave to other journalists , with other sympathies than ours . It is better to be possible Queen of Prussia than Grand Duchess of Hechingbn . The Princess Rotal , therefore , has had her hand confided to almost the only Prince in Europe who may be expected to place upon her head a conspicuous crown . Tet , we must say , the advantages of the

      contract are upon his side . To marry the eldest daughter of the Queen of Britain is an honour which any potentate of Europe might envy . Yet , with the English Princess it is proposed to give away a dowry of forty thousand pounds sterling , and a pension of eight thousand a year . We suppose that the dowry was not to be avoided , but the proposal of a pension is altogether obnoxious to the sense of the English people . We have five Royal Princesses already ; are we to provide for all upon that gigantic scale ? It

      is to no purpose that soothing assurances arc put forward with reference to the Duchie 3 of Cornwall and Laucastei * , the sources whence the Prince of Wales—in other times a bottomless pit of expenditure—is expected to derivo his entire income . The House of Commons must sift that question , and we shall know , when Mr . Coningham introduces tho motion of which he has given notice , whether the Government has anything to

      conceal . In the meantime , wo must ti'eat the affair ns it comes before us . Is it consistent with modern ideas of economy or moderation to charter the young bride of the Prussian Prince with an annual income , largo in amount , derived from the British Exchequer ? There is a strong appeal to the loyalty of tho House of Commons ; the House of Commons assents to the dowry ; but Sir Cornewall Lewis takes credit to tho

      Government for moderation on the ground that it simply asks for the Princess Royal ft dowry of ^ 0 , 0001 ., and a pension of 8000 Z . a year . Anticipating his proposals , however , Mr . Rokuuck expressed the real feeling of the Liberal party . He was very anxious , ho said , to provide amply for the Princess Royal , but what is asked for her may bo naked for her sisters ; and why should not Parliamont redeem its responsibility bv a single vote , discharge its obligations , and relievo tho country , for tho future , from the tribute of loyalty , payable to Confcmonf . nl Courts ? Wo any nothing of tho 40 , 000 / . It is a comparatively moderate , sum . But there is no force whatever in tho nrguraenr

      Untitled Article

      IVIat 23 , 1857 . ] THE LEADER . 493

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), May 23, 1857, page 493, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2194/page/13/