The Express.
London, England, 1853-03-22 00:00:00

THE LAW OF DIVORCE.

The first report of the Commissioners appointed to
inquire into the Law of Divorce was yc•terday issued.
The Commissioners having consideret the law of divorce
in its different bearings, thus sum up briefly the alterations
and improvements which they think may be made in it
with prudence and safety. The suggestions are—
That the distinction between divorce a mend et thorn
and divorce a vinculo matrimonil shall still be maintained.
That the grounds for a divorce 1 men's et thorn shall be
conjugal infidelity and grim cruelty.
That wilful desertion ,hall either be also a ground for
divorce i manse et thorn, or else shall entitle the aban-
doned wife to obtain from hkr husband • proper mainte-
nance by way of alimony.
That divorc s a inensa et th era may be obtained by the
wife fee the above•meutioned causes as well as by the
husband.

That divonws a vincula shall be allowed fur adultery,
and for adultery only.
That divorces a tinculo shall only he granted on the
suit of the husband, and not (as a geueral rule) on the suit
of the wife. _

That the wife. however, may also apply for divorce a
vineulo in cases of aggravated enormity, such as incest or
bigarry.
That recrimination, connivance, and condonation shall,
proved, be deemed and treated as bars to the suit.
The recrimination ,ball include any of the grounds for
which divorces may be obtained a mene& et thoro.
That the existing mode of obtaining a divorce I vineolo
shall no longer be continued.
That a verdict at law, and an ecclesiastical sentence, shall
not be considered as preliminary conditions wbich must be
complied with before it can be obtained.
That a new tribunal shall be constituted to try all ques-
tions of divorce.

Th it all matrimonial frivolous also which are now deter-
mined in the Ecciesi..stical Cuurts shill be transferred to the
same tribunal.

That thw tribunal shall consist of a Vice-Chancellor, a
common law Judge, and a Judge of the Ecclesiastics!
Courts.

That the party who seeks a divorce, whether it be a
divorce a %masa et thorn or a divorce a, vincula niutritnonii.
I shall pledge his belief to the truth of the ease, and that
there is no collusion between himself and his wife.
That the evidence shall be oral, and taken dowel in the
11 presence of the parties.
I That in general the process, practice, and ; leading shall
confirm to the process, practice, and pleading of the Court
of Chancery, as recently improved; with such additions at
may be beneficially derived from the ecclesiastical sputa.
lhat the rules id evidence shall be the same as those
which prevail in the temporal courts of the kingdom.
That the judges shall have the power of easmining the
parties, and also of ordering any witnesses to be produced,
who in their odinion may throw light on the question.
That the court shall be intrusted with a large discretion
in prescribing whether any and what provision shall be
made to the wife, in adjusting the rights which she and her
husband may respectively have in each other's property,
and in providing fur the guardianship and msieteriance of
the children.
That there shall be only one appeal from the decree of
the court, and that the appeal shall be carried to the
House of Lords.

INQUEST ON EDWIN BATES, COMMITTED

FOR, THREA TENING PRINCE ALBERT.

Yesterday an inquest was held by Mr. T. Wakley,
at the House of Detention, Cliakenwell, en the body of
Edwin Hates, who died in that prison, to which he had
been sent under a remand from Bow-street Pulite-office,
fur having sent threatening letters to Prince Albert.
Hugh bi• Carroll, a sub-warder, said the deceased was
admitted into the infirmary on Thursday last. Dr. Smiles
and Dr. Wakefield had administered aperient medicines to
him from the redoes Tuesday. Oa the Thursday he still
complained of pains in his stomach, and died at &beat a
quarter to eleven that eight.
Lieut. W. F. Hill. governor of the prison, said he saw
the derard soon after be was received on Friday the 11th
instant. He was discharged from this prison shortly before
the openiag of the Orest Exhibition in 1811, having then
suffered 12 months' imprisonment on a precisely similar
charge. On his arrival witnessed expreised his sorrow at
seeing
ry. him beak again, when he said it was nth, r extra-
Mr.orda Heart' Wakefield, surgeon to the House of Dotte-
d's, said the deceased was seat to the prison on the Ilth
of Match, "hilt witness received a letter from the cow
adding magistrate, requesting him to examine the state of
his mind, as he was then in a very excited condition. He
saw his daily, and am Turd ay wrote a amide its that he
was insane. Subsequently he had ordered him opening modi-
due for &stoppage in the bowels. Oa Thursday afteraoes
he walked up to the infirmary, where he was atteaded, but
he diedshorly before 11 o'clock that night. Oat Saturday
last b made a pod work,* examination of the body. The
liver was eaterively diseased and could be easily broke..
In the cavity of the abdomen was shout one gallon of a
dark fluid. At the sad of the porticoes= was a whir-
foss opening, through which the contents of the sto-
mach had flowed into the cavity of the abdomen. Hs bad
told 111111611111 that the only relief he could obtain was by
taking large quantitier of carbonate of sods. He should
judge from the appearanee of the stomach that disease
had existed for a considerable time. The intestines
were healthy, but with the opening he had referred to no
medical skill could have saved him. The immediate sour
of his death was ulceration of the stomach, and with the
opening in the peritoneum be bad no doubt that death was
t.O result of natural clauses.
The jury then retuned a reedit& of "Natural death
Ifrom diseamint the stomach."

COMMISSION OF LUNACY ON A COMM:MAN.—Yes-
terday, Mr. Commissioner Winslow held • a court at the
Bridge Hasse Hotel, London-bridge, to inquire into the
state of mind of Benjamin Crowther, formerly a comel an,
engaged at Miley's, and moth recently of the Surrey
Theatre. It resulted from the evidence of several of the
witnesses that Mr. Crowther wee married to Miss Vincent,
lessee of the Victoria Theatre, on the 14th February, 1852,
when he wee in full health. After the ceremony he pro-
ceeded to Brighton with Mrs. Crowther, and was attacked
with fever, followed by what now appears to be a settled
meatal derangement. He was at first sent to a Bloods
asylum at Camberwell, and subsequently to another, at
Bethuatgreen ; but at the time of this inquiry, which was
instituted by his brother, he was residing with his father,
as before his marriage. Bofors his removal to an asylum his
behaviour had been marked by great excitement, alternat-
ing with depression, fear beige the predominant emotion.
In the course of the inquiry the alleged lunatic was Intro-
daced. Having rushed about the room, flourishing his
arms, and threatening to write challenge, and to shoot several
people, ninth at the same time very blasphemous and foul
language, be was with some difficulty lei out of the room.
The jury returned a verdict, "That Benjamin Crowther is
now of unsound mind, incapable of manseing himself and
his affairs. and has been so since tile 18th Feh , 1852."
METROPOLITAN COMIIIeBION oe Stwetti.—A spe-
cial court of sewers way held yesterday, at the court-house
in Greek-street. Mr. Jebb in the chair. 'the other coeval..
sioncrs present were Mr. G. Baker, Major O. S.
Smith, Sir C. Fellowes, Mr. Ilawkelneep 4nd Hr. Thom"
F. Gibson. Thy :wort will Sunuslonea for 11 o'clock, but it
was 10 Ini".iiies to 12 before the court Was opened ; some
thirty persons who attended on business bci-g kept waiting
in, the meantime, to their great dissatisfaction. The Di's:,
nese transacted was altogether of a formal character, such
a' ordering payment., receiving reports no the state of the
vtleetions, and hearing summonses for not executing
works The recommt nditions of the general committee for
executing works to the amount of 13,1901. were sanctioned,
with the ezesption of ene in Hornsey. roar'. amounting to
3,262 f., which was postponed fur cumiders:iun to the next
meeting.
TILE COPYHOLD Acrs.—Yeeterdey, a bill in the
Ilouss of Commune, was printed, to amend the Copyhold
Arta. This bill will facilitate the enfrauchisemeut of land
kelosding to scciesiasticsl corporations.

THE . EXPRESS, TUESDAY EVENING MARCH . 22,, 1853

IRELAND.

DUBLIN, MAME 21.
The report of the President of the Queen's Col-
lege Galway, for the past academic year, has been
published. It states that "a considerable increase
in the number of students has taken place within
the year," and that the reports of the professors ex-
hibit favourably the amount of their application and
improvement. After alluding to the poverty of the
province in which the college is situated, and to
other difficulties which it has had to encounter, the
report thus refers to the relation in which the insti-
tution has stood to the Raman catholica and their
clergy
To another subject I refer with pain, but it is use which
it is impossible to ignore in treating of those circum-
stances that ham retarded the sincere of the institution.
I mean the opposition, or, at least, the want of co.opera-
tion en the part of the priesthood of that persuasion which
forms the large majority of the population. When we
refer to the struggles made by this body in past times, to
rescue the people committed to their care from the igno-
rance to winch they hail been doomed by law; when we
remember the support with which, more recently, they u;--
held and still uphold the national schools—the prototype
of the Queen's Colleges—against a storm of unrelenting
hostility; when we know that tome colleges were founded
mainly fur the elevation of the catholic people, by states-
men who, but yesterday, rendered the must signal ser-
vices to the catholic cause, the mind looks in vain for any
clue to the opposition they have encountered on the part of
the catholic pr:esthood. Some proceedings connected with
the Galway College, which have taken place in the lust two
years, are of too important a nature to be overlooked, how-
ever much they may perplex and grieve the Minds of en-
-I,ghtenment and progress. On the first opening of the col-
lege, your Majesty, ever anxious for the welfare of your
people, appointed a catholic dean of residence, whose du-
ties were solely confined to superintending the spiritual in.
terests of the catholic students, and @Herding them reli-
gious instruction. The la-gest opportunities were given by
the college authorities for the discharge of duties which
were performed by the estimable gentleman who filled
the office with the most exemplary seal. Surely—even
if the other numerous securities with which the faith and
morals of the students are fenced round could b., for-
gotten—this was, in itself, a measure calculated to in-
spire confidence and allay suspicion; and, surely, the
course that the most watchful solicitude for the stu-
dents' welfare seemed to point mat, would have been
to assist in Kirin efficiency to au office established fur
such purposes. So far from this being the cast, I lament
to ray, that the sacred duties of the office have been inter•
rupted, and the catholic students attending your Majesty's
college, have been deprived of that spiritual control and in-
struction so amply provided for them by your Majesty.
Among the offices which exist in the colege, that of vice•
president is, perhaps, the one that invests its holder with
the largest share in the management of the institution. Hi.
care extend/ over every department; the lecture-rooms are
ever open to his inspection and superintendence ; and the
very nature of his office compels hint to have a perfect and
cunstant insight into the working of the entire establish-
meat. If any danger could, by possibility, accrue to the
religious or moral principles of any class of the students, it'
must be with his entire cognisance. This important
'ace was, on the death of the late respected presi-
dent, conferred upon a catholic clergyman, whose cha-
racter and attainments insured the vigilant and faith-
ful discharge of its duties. Here, again, another proof was
afforded of tha determination of government to give to
11 the catholies an additional assurance of the most perfectI safety to their peculiar tenets. This gentleman, too, has
retired from a post which his v,rtues would have adorned.
file science of history, occupied with matters which occa-
sionally intertwine themselves with religious considerations,
was consigned to the same reverend gentleman who filled
the office of vice-president, without, I am glad to say, eli-
citing a murmur of disapprobation or suspicion from the
students of the established and presbyeerisn churches.
From the teaching of history by a ea holic clergyman, little
danger could, one might presume, be anticipated to cathclic
students. Nevertheless, with the office of vice-president.
the raveund gtnuemen who held it has also been com-
pelled to resign the chair of history. Such, then, being
some of the obstacles which we have had to encounter—the

small support that the neighbourhood of the college
can affird ; the disproportion of the expenses of the
college to the ercumstaLces of the province—the little
effort hitherto made to awaken a seal for education, and I
the opposition of men whose station must always command
weight and influence, it iv with feelings of suti.faetion I row
refer to the numbers that have joined the college in the
short period that has elapsed since its opening, es a proof
that nothing is wanted but • firm and generous support
front the government and legislature, together with the
cordial co-operation of the friends of united education, to
maks that beneficent principle triumphant in this, as in
every other part of the country. During the three sessiona
that have elapsed since the opening of the college 130—of
which 67 were Roman catholic, 41protestants, 15 presby-
terians—studt nts have joined it. When it is remembered
that the period has been one of great depreeion, and that
the Queen's Colleges of Cork and Belfast were opened
simultaneously with thnt of Galway, the progress of the
institution must be cqnsidered satisfactory ; the more so, as
it will be seen from the tattle that the students represent, in
fair proportions, the different religious persuasions, and
that united eduction has, so far, been really carried out.

Dr. Graves, the eminent physician, who stood de-
servedly so high among the very brightest orna-
ments of his profession, not only in Ireland, but in
Europe, and who was no less remarkable for his po-
pularity with all parties of his countrymen, died yes.
terday, at his residence in Merrion-square, on his
stith birthday. His illness was a tedious one, and
commenced with a liver complaint. Dr. Graves was
the founder of the clinical system of instruction
which has been so successful in the Dublin School of
Medicine.

The tido of emigration, which did not cease to
flow during the entire winter, now rushes from the
Irish shores with a still broader wave at the return
of spring; while, coupled with the stereotyped head-
ing of " The Exodus," we begin to find that of
" Scarcity of Labour" in almost every number of all
the Irish provincial papers.

ARTIETEe BENEVOLENT BUNP.—The annual gene-
ral meeting of the subscribers to this charity took place
yesterday at the Freemason's Travers, when the report of
the committee for the year was read and confirmed. The
only information contained is the document was, that dur-
ing the year the sum of 7231. 16s. had been distributed
amongst 49,widows, and 1471. 10s. amongst 31 orphans of
artiste—that the ordinary income had been 9611. 16e. 11d.,
and including a balance from last year, and an extritordi-
nary reteip; of 2501.6 x. 64.1. The total income for the year
had been 1,4381. 17s. 3d., and the ordinary expenditure
1,0861 7s. Id.
A BRIDAL FRARAB.—A man named Tripier was
placed at the bar of the Tribunal of Correctional Police, to
answer the charge of haring beaten his wife on the wed-
ding day. "At first all went off well on the wedding
day," said the complainant, a pretty young woman, " the
at the marie and the church, the dinner and the
mar
were charming. At night everybody went away ;
but I had scarcely entered the nuptial chamber when the
defendant arrived like a madmen, and thrashed and kicked
me as if I had been made of plaster. You can readily
suppose, Monsieur le President, that L did not know what
to think of it. ' What have I done to you,' I cried, 'to
cause you to beat mil so ?' • Ah!' he said, • a marriage
portion of only five hundred francs! as it a man would be
bored with a woman for five hundred francs Oh, if I
only had your old wretch of a mother here, wouldn't
I pay her out! But, u I can't get at her, I will
pay you off instead and he beat me again as violently as
before. At length I broke from him, and rushed, half-
dressed, from the room." " What have you got to say ?"
asked the President of the seemed. " That I thrashed my
wife on the wedding night is trite, but I was drunk."
" Are you not schemed of havi•i,.l3taten a young woman ?"

0 You-may easily understand Bat I seta Inaba wait
about the op, whether she was II yam et ma or Be asp.
tars not, I suld have used my flats /reef as vigorously l'
—" You beat her, she my., because low parents did net
give her money enough ?" In the Best place, she has no
parents—she has only an old wretch of a mother. In the
woad Mare, I made such a foolish marriage, that even now,
when I think of it, it causes my hair to stand on end
like the quills of the porcupine! For eight months,
Monsieur le President, that old woman intsigued to cause
me to marry her daughter ! The fact is, she is very ambiti-
ous, sir, although • simple ooncierfe."—Ambitious ! and
pray what are you?"—" An artist hair dresser !" exclaimed
the man, with dignity.—" And you really think the
mother was ambitions in seeking such • man as you for the
husband of her daughter ?"—" Why, good gracious, sir, do
you think I am not worth more in the matrimonial market
than 400 f.? Can I establish myself with fOOt. ?"—" But
you should not render the young woman responsible for
your disappointment."—" Oh, you understand, sir, that if
I could catch the old mother-in-law she wou'd feel the
weight of my list, hut she takes good cars to keep out of
way ' -The tribunal condemned the - Monsieur