The Express.
London, England, 1862-04-25 00:00:00

, t ventured
article r
of

some mob& ago, I _ to express a confident
opinion that the r of the French code which
iniakes a mistake . the identity of a person a
ground of nullity of marriage, could not possibly
be applicable to the cane of a want of knowledge
sf the antecedents and qualities of a person. That
a women who meant to marry Peter and has been
entrapped into marrying Paul should be relieved
from the contract is obvious justice ; but if a
'woman is to be heard to say that she would not
have married Peter had she known that he had
been a bankrupt, or a spendthrift, or a gambler, or
a duellist, or a nod, or a drunkard, or a convict,
there is an end of all certainty in the marriage con-
tract. Henry VIII. got a special act of parliament
to ensure himself against being deceived a second
time as to the antecedents of a wife on the particular
point in which he fancied he had been taken in by
Ann of Cleves, but such nice and dangerous in-
' quiry was never sanctioned by general jurispru-
dence either in England or France. The case now
awaiting the final decision of the Court of Cas-
eation is no doubt one of great hardship, and one
calculated to enlist every sympathy on the side of the
lady. Hadlle. Zod Harbin, a young girl of spot-
less character, belonging to a good family of the
middle class, married in 1857, with the full consent
of her relations, the defendant Berthon, who, at
the age of 17, had been sentenced to 15 years in
the galleys as an accomplice in a murder. Like
Victor Hugo's hero in the " Idiserables," Berthon
had acquired a respectable position in a village
where nobody suspected that he had worn the con-
vict's chains. It does not appear that the spouses
lived otherwise than happily together during the
three or four years that elapsed before the dreadful
disclosure was mule to the wife. She then at once
left her husband, and instituted the present suit.
These details, however, which I allude to merely
to show the circumstances under which the question
now, for the first time, arises, and because expe-
rience shows that judges, being men, , will
often lose their heads in presence of those
"hard cases," which notoriously make "bad
law," have clearly nothing to do with the
short point in dispute, which is simply whether a
marriage is void because one of the parties wee
ignorant that the other had been a convict. That
is not a question of sentiment but of dry law.
The Tribunal of First Instance and the Imperial
Court of Paris pronounced in favour of the mar-
riage. But the civil chamber of the Court of
Cessation being of a different ,opinion quashed
their judgment, and sent the cause to be tried
de teas before the Imperial Court of Orleans.
That court also affirmed the marriage, and now
the entire Court of Cessation, in solemn conven-
tion, with K Troplong presiding, is to say, once
for all, what the law is. hi Dupin, Procureur-
General, is strongly in favour of the validity of
the marriage, and ridiculed the idea of the plain-
tirs counsel that there could be any question
about the identity of the individual John Thomas
on the ground that his civil person was mutilated
by his condemnation, and that the law knew
of any such thing as a " Civil Abelard."
The weight of K Dupin's authority is, however,
shaken pro Unto, by the fact that the judgment
of the civil chamber, now under revision, was pro-
atounced after a speech from him on the former
ecamion. The strongest argument in favour of
thepiaintiff is that the code holds a condemnation
Ice felony during marriage to be a cause of divorce
I vincula. But the answer is that in that case the
wife is deprived of• her husband's society and sup-
port ; and, at all events, the legislature has not
thought fit to make a previous conviction a cause
of nullity of marriage. The court is in deliberation
to-day, and up to this hour has not pronounced

judgment.
Renter's telegram (published in the Daily News
and other London journals) stated erroneously that
Count Simeon's appeal to the court of Douai was
"rejected." It was sought to render him civilly
responsible for the consequences of the misde-
meanour imputed to Minh. But by the acquittal
of the latter the accessory charge against Count
Simeon necessarily fell to the ground, and his ap-
peal was, therefore, not rejected, but allowed.

DEATH or s DATIGHTZE or M. KOMMTII. —A
letter from Turin of the Shad rya :—" Kossuth has jest
lost his second daughter, Ouglielrina, eighteen years old.
lie took her to Neroi, sear Genoa, on the borders of the
Mediterranean, hoping that the mildness of the climate
would arrest the progress of the chest malady to which she
has succumbed. The genial climate and the tender care of
which she was the object could only delay her death by a
few months."

-----
It is announced that on the Ist of May, with the
opening of the London Exhibition, the South Bittern
Railway Company will accelerate their service between
Paris and London tsd Boulogne and Folkestone, to nine and
a half hours, and vice versa. The through journey is to be
accomplished by special tidal trains, in oast's:ion with two
of the fastest steamers in the Channel, the Victoria and
Eugenie, making the purge between Boulogne and Folke-
stone in 95 minutes. Moreover, a cheap third-etaas ticket,
for 2bfr., available by the night train only, will probably be
an additional inducement to travellers of sleadwr BMW
who may wish to avoid the long sea passage • and return
tickets will be issued for one mouth, at reduced fares.

The French government is seriously txxxspind
with a 'shame for replanting the mountains In Pram" the
diminution of timber trees creating considerable alarm. The

Commissioners of Woods and Forest. have announced to the
commercial authorities that they will supply all persons
with seeds sad plants who will undsrtake to replant the
mountain sides.

A letter from Cherbourg says that the Minister
of Marine has resolved to submit the iroo-cased frigates
lately launched to a decisive trial to test their eeawertki.
ness. The Columns, which has arrived from Lorient at
Cherbourg, is selected for the experiment. She is tote sent
acmes the Atlentio. A question which has gins rise to •
serious controversy among seamen as to the possibility of
a completely iron-card venal accomplishing the voyage will
thus be solved.
A letter from Glogau, in Prussia, states that, in
orsamenee el an inquiry instituted on the occesion of the
escape of Ligniololli Solar and Pataki, the commander of
the hearer, Yajerdlenerel Hinchfeld, has been placed on
the retired list.
" It will be remarked," ear the independence
Beige, refrains to the verdict of acquittal on N. Aerie,
" that the judgment orders that all the documents seized
shall be returned without expense. The chest which
contains them is of colossal size, and weighs more
thea 600110. What is also colossal in the affair is
the expenses of the trial ; the verification aloes has
con 22,000 fr., and the mere copying of the doctorate,
which Mile required for his defence, 7,000 fr. Although
the jodlehd express are borne by the state, the trial has
cost the accused more than 200,000 fr. And yet the coned•
anion mays that justice is gratuitous. What would it be
if it was not?"

The Federal government have created two new
military departments from the territory now covered by the
department of the Potomac, via., the deptrianeat d the
Shenandoah and the Reppahanack. The first emboss all
that put of Viegiain coat of the his. ridge, and the
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