APPENDIX TO CHRONICLE. 



259 



chargeable with any remissness in 

 claiming his right, but that he had 

 attempted to anticipate the means 

 of obtaining it ; this, however, not 

 being proved, he was entitled to 

 his divorce. 



Sir John Nicholl recapitulated 

 the evidence upon the principal 

 facts, and observed, that as the 

 adultery charged was fully proved 

 on the one side, and not denied on 

 the other, the case turned entirely 

 apon the question, whether the 

 sort of defence, set up by the wife, 

 was borne out in proof, for if it 

 was, it would certainly go far to 

 defeat the husband's claim to a 

 divorce; but it must be clearly 

 proved as against him, or it would 

 go for nothing. A variety of cir- 

 cumstances in the ante-nuptial 

 history of the parties appeared de- 

 tailed in the course of the evidence, 

 but any acts of criminality to be 

 collected from them, could not be 

 made use of in support of the case ; 

 they, however, militated against 

 that part of the defence which 

 sought to establish the wife's inno- 

 cence up to the time of her hus- 

 band's desertion. He then entered 

 into an examination of the prin- 

 cipal points of that defence, as it 

 had been stated in argument, and 

 was of opinion, that its founda- 

 tion as averred in the plea, was not 

 sustained by the proof. The con- 

 cection into which the young man 

 had precipitated himself, appeared 

 to be of a most unfortunate nature ; 

 and he thought the general bad 

 character of the wife, and strong 

 presumption of her guilt, justified 

 the conduct that had been adopted 

 in removing her from him. The 

 father might, perhaps, have acted 

 more properly in allowing some 

 trifling maintenance ; but not being 



bound by law to do so, he had a 



right to exercise a discretfonin that 

 respect ; and it was a sufficient 

 reason for the son's not doing it, 

 though compellable by law, that as 

 a minor and an apprentice, his 

 means were inadequate to the 

 burthen, a circumstance the wife 

 was well aware of, and ought, 

 therefore, to have been prepared 

 for, as she might have resorted to 

 the exercise of that industry, which 

 at a previous period had been her 

 only means of support. The only 

 question, therefore, was, whether 

 when the husband abandons his 

 wife, upon a reasonable supposition 

 of her guilt, he is thereby barred 

 from claiming the remedy of a 

 legal separation on account of adul- 

 tery, which that temporary absence 

 may give her the opportunity of 

 committing ? The Court has cer- 

 tainly a duty to perform in guard- 

 ing the morals of married life ; but 

 it cannot make laws for that pur- 

 pose; it can only enforce those 

 already in existence : and it would 

 greatly depart from those laws, by 

 holding the doctrine, that so slight 

 a deviation from the marital duty as 

 this, could, in all cases, give such 

 a general license for prostitution ; 

 but where the husband shows him- 

 self so grossly inattentive to his 

 own honour, and insensible to the 

 injuries he receives, as in the case 

 cited, his right to claim a remedy 

 for them stands on a very differ- 

 ent basis. The present case, how- 

 ever, was certainly not one of that 

 nature, or one in which the Court 

 would feel disposed to strain the 

 rigid rule of law, were it even 

 more so. Upon the general com- 

 plexion of the case, then, it ap- 

 peared that there was nothing in 

 the husband's conduct to deprive 

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