The Sun.
London, England, 1853-04-26 00:00:00

CUTBILL'S DIVORCE'.

HOUSE OF LORDS.—APRIL 25.
Their lordship's sat this afternoon at two o'clock, to
hear evidence in support of this bill. The peers present
were the Lord Chancellor, the Earl of Devon, Lord
Waldegrave, and Lord Strangford.
Mr. Ed. James appeared for the petitioner in support
of the bill ; Mr. Kerr appeared for the youngest child
of Mrs. Cutbill, born since her separation from her hus-
band.

Mr. JAMES briefly stated the case. He said the
petitioner, Mr. Cutbill, was the manager of the
Commercial Bank, 3, Moorgate-street, and was mar-
ried to his wife an 1835. They lived happily
together until the year 1843, when the alleged adul-
tery took place. It appeared that, in the early part
of that year, a Mr. Higley, formerly of Demerara, and
now of Constantinople, was paying his addresses to Mr.
Cutbill's sister, and took advantage of the introduction
which this circumstance gave him to the family, to carry
on a course of conduct with Mrs. Cutbill, which ulti-
mately ended in the commission of acts of criminality,
on which the present bill was founded. It could be
pro -.-ed that, in the months of February and
March of. that year, on several occasions, when
Mr. Cahill was absent from home, Mr. Higley
bad visited the house, and had remained alone with
Mrs. Cutbill until past eleven o'clock ; and on another
occasion, in consequence of suspicions which had been
aroused, Miss Cutbill, to whom Higley was then paying
his addresses, and another lady, having placed them-
selves opposite to the Bank, had watched Mrs. Cutbill
come out of the house, and being immediately joined by
Mr. Higley, who was waiting for her in the stieet, both
walked off in the direction of Moorfields. They were
followed and accosted, when Mrs. Cutbill appeared in a
great state of agitation, and endeavoured to make it
appear that it was an accidental meeting. This led to
an explanation, and subsequently Mrs. Cutbill admitted
to Mr. Imrie, the godfather to one of her children, that
on two occasions criminal intercourse had taken place
between herself and Higley. Proceedings were imme-
diately taken in Doctors Commons, and a decree pro-
nounced in the August of the same year ; but Mr. Cut-
bill's means at that time being limited, he had been
obliged to postpone the proceedings for a divorce a
vin.culo viatrimonii until the present time.
Mr. Wm. John Hellier proved the serving of the
usual notices and papers on Mrs. Cutbill, and also pro-
duced the, register of marriage.
Mary Ann Carr said that in February, and March,
and April, 1843, she was living in the service of Mr.
Cutbill, who at that time occupied the upper part of the
Commercial Bank, Moorgate-street. She remembered
that one evening in the latter part of February of that
year her mistress, Mrs. Cutbill, came home with Mr.
Higley. Her mistress sent her out to the butcher's. She
was out half-an-hour, and on her returning Mrs. Cut-
bill sent her to bed. Mr. Higley was there with her
mistress in the drawing-room, and had not gone
away when witness went to bed. There
was a sofa iu the drawing-room. Mr. Higley
came again on the following Monday,: while Mr.
Cutbill was out, and remained- till after witness had
gone to bed, which was about 11 o'clock. Mrs. Cutbill
and Higley were together in the drawing-room alone on
that occasion also. About a fortnight after, Mr. Cut-
bill being out of town on business, Mrs. Cutbill went out
in the evening, and Mr. Higley brought her home and
remained with her in the drawing-room about three-
quarters of an hour.
Cross-eXamined by Mr. Kerr—Mrs. Cutbill remained
at Mr. Cutbill's until the month of May.
_ _

Mrs. Bell, formerly Miss Cutbill, sister of the peti-
tioner, said that in the spring of 1843 Mr. Edward Hig-
ley was paying his addresses to her. It was against her
brother's. consent, and he would not consent to receive
Mr. Higley on terms of friendship at his home. Mr.
Higley met Mrs. Cutbill at the house of witness's
mother. On one occasion, being together at the
Bank, witness, turning sharp round, saw Mr.
Higley put his hand on Mrs. Cutbill's bosom. She
remonstrated both with Mrs. Cutbill and Mr. Higley.
On the evening of the 25th of March, 1843, in conse-
quence of suspicions which had been excited. witness
and another lady went to Moorgate-street, and placed
themselves opposite to the bank. After waiting a short
time, they saw Mrs. Cutbill come out and walk up the
street, until met by Mr. Higley, who drew her arm into
his, and then they walked together towards Moorfields.
Witness followed and accosted them, when Mrs. Cutbill
seemed very agitated, and tried to exculpate herself by
saying that it was a casual meeting. • .
Examined by Lord Chancellor—Witness did not tell
her brother'of what had taken place, because grs. Cut-
bill begged her not to do so.
Martha Ann Cutbill, sister of the last witness, said,
that on the 25th of March, 1847, she remembered Mrs.
Cutbill coming to her house late in the evening ' • she
seemed very agitated, and said she had just met Mrs.
Bell, the last witness, who had behaved very strangely
to her. Shortly afterwards Mrs. Bell came home, and
then it all came out about Mrs. Bell meeting Mr.
Higley and Mrs. Cutbill together. Mrs. Cutbill begged
witness and her sister not to tell Mr. Cutbill, and they
promised not to do so. They told Mr. Imrie, who was
godfather to one of Mr. Cutbill's children, of what had
occurred.

Mr. Imrie stated that, in consequence of a communi-
cation which was made to him by the last witness, the
sister, he had a conversation with Mrs. Cutbill, who, to
his great surprise, confessed that, on two occasions,
criminal intercourse had taken place between herself and
Mr. Higley, in her own drawing-room, once when her
husband was out of town, and on another occasion when
she came home with Higley in a cab. Witness was quite
unprepared for any such statements ; he had no idea that
matters had gone so far.
Mrs. Cutbill, mother of the petitioner, deposed to
having heard Mrs. Cutbill and her son's wife express
great contrition after her separation from her husband.
The following letter from Mrs. Cutbill to her husband,
written shortly after their separation, was then put
in :

" I most positively declare I have never sent any letter
to Providence row, or any others than I have acknowledged.
I cannot sufficiently express my thanks for your kindness
in sending the dressing-case. I do not de serve the extreme
kindness I have received from one I have so much injured,
but may God look down upon a penitent sinner,l and
grant me forgiveness for my dreadful sin in injuring you
so much. I have read with great pain the letter seat by
your mother this morning. I know the burning of your
brain, and the grief at 'your heart, aril the grief which a
wretched-hearted womam who you have treated with every
kindness, has caused you; one who has lost all, even her
own esteem. That you are suffering dreadfully I know.
Oh, how sincerely I repent, you cannot imagine. May
God bless you and my children—they are not conscious
what a disgraced being they have to call mother. I repeat
in this letter I have nothing more to confess. Good-bye,
and God bless you, and grant forgiveness to one who
trembles to sign herself,

" Your wife,
" E LIZ ABETH."

Mr. Cutbill was then called, and stated that the rea-
son why these proceedings were not taken before the
present time was that he was not then in a position to
afford the cost of them, and he was consequently obliged
to limit the proceedings to move in the Ecclesiastical
Courts.
On the motion of the Lord Chancellor, the bill was
read a second time, and the evidenc3 was ordered to be
printed.

AUSTRALIAN EJIIGRATION.— The fine ship Moultan,
611 tons, Captain W. Chivers, sailed on Saturday for
Geelong, Victoria, having embarked from the Govern-
ment depot here 266 souls, equal to 237 statute adults.
The majority of these were single women of a
most respectable class, and 26 of the number were
domestic servants from the Home in Hatton-
garden, the nominees of Mr. Sidney Herbert. Mr.
George Drysdale, of this port, was the agent of the
Moultan. Captain Lean, RN., and his assistants
from London, no longer dispatch the emigrant-ships
from Southampton, as the station has now a resident
Government emigration officer of its own in the person
of Mr. E. A. Smith, RN., formerly an assistant to
Captain Lean, in London, and lately holding the ap-
pointment of emigrant officer at Londonderry. The fol-
lowing vessels are now expected round from London in
the course of the present and ensuing months to embark
emigrants from the depot :—The Calabar, 754 tons, for
Adelaide ; the Lady Kennaway, 583 tons, for Mel-
bourne ; the Talavera, 916 tons, for Sydney ; the Mag-
dalena, 879 tons, for Adelaide ; and the Clara, 709 tons,
for Swan River.

RAG-FAIR, WHITECHAPEL.—It seems difficult to dis-
cover the climax of London poverty and destitution.
In every depth there is a deeper still. The prices of
various kinds of provisions in these neighbourhoods
give a forcible notion of the condition of their swarming
population. In most of these neighbourhoods you can
purchase a halfpenny worth of fish or a halfpenny worth
of soup, and other matters in proportion. The luxuries
are singular in their price and character • a farthing's
worth of damaged oranges, for example, being hawked
about the streets and sold in the shops. " Rag-fair,"
that well-known mart for every description of second.
hand clothing, will supply good habits at any price. If
some of our readers wish to judge for themselves,
Cutler-street, a turning in Hounsditch; will lead them
to the district. It is a' curious scene • hundreds 'of
people are assembled in the streets, which' are so thickly
covered with merchandise that it is difficult to step along
without treading on heaps of gowns, shawls, bonnets,
shoes, and articles of men's attire. "Here Greek meets
Greek," and not without "the tug of war." No person
can form an idea of this anomalous multitude but by a
visit : all poor and squalid ; the children pinched and
bleached, not " brought up," but, as Lamb says,
"'dragged up." Here may be seen in one of the mar-
kets, formed by some of the pillars and covering of the
• Hyde-park Exhibition, the great dealer, standing in.his
well-known place, and purchasing perhaps many cart-
loads of clothing for exportation to the colonies, Ireland,
and elsewhere ; and other dealers of various grades,
until we reach the merchant whose capital is less than
a shilling, and who daily gets a living by the purchase
of shoes, hats, and other matters, the uses of which,
looking at their condition, it would be difficult to guess.
—Tie Builder. .
ANECDOTE OF Mr. JusricE TALFOURD.—The won-
derful memory of Mr. Justice Talfourd was exemplified
in a remarkable manner at the Gloucester Assizes last
week. He had to try a prisOner for breaking into a
house at Bristol. The police had previously uses the
utmost means to ascertain his former course of life in
vain ; nothing whatever could be found out about him.
At the trial, Judge Talfourd was observed closely to
scrutinise the prisoner's face, and after he was found
guilty, he said, " Did not I try you two years ago at
York, for murder ?" The prisoner persisted in the
strongest manner that the judge was mistaken, but Mr.
Justice Talfourd had sufficient confidence in his recol-
lection of the prisoner's face to convince him he was the
same man. He was sentenced for the burglary to ten
years' transportation, and coaling down to Bristol in the
train, he admitted that the judge was perfectly correct.
Timm