The Sun.
London, England, 1870-02-10 00:00:00

THE KELLY CASE

The full Court of Divorce sat on Wednesday to hear the
appeal, " Kelly v. Kelly." Lord Penzance and Mr. Berea
Channel' took their seats. Mr. Baron Channell said he had
been charged by his learned brethren to deliver their
joint opinion on the case. He proceeded briefly to
state its leading features. Mr. and Mrs. Kelly were
married in Ireland in the year 1841, and had
issue a child deceased and a son now living, who
was born in 1845. They lived under the same roof
till January, 1809, since which time they had ceased to
cohabit. Mrs. Kelly left her husband's roof, and com-
menced proceedings in this court, which resulted in a
decree of judicial separation, from which the respondent
had appealed. The main question was whether, though
there was not actual physical violence used by the hus-
band towards the wife, there had not been shown to be
such an amount of cruelty exercised in another fashion as
would justify the sentence of judicial separation pronounced
by the Judge Ordinary. The appellant grounded his appeal
first upon the Judge Ordinary having erred in point of
law, and secondly upon the insufficiency of the evidence
to bear out a charge of cruelty, The Judge Ordinary, in
giving his judgment, said that the peculiar distinguishing
fact of the case was the harshness and cruelty towards his
wife, such as had crushed her spirits and
broken her health, it being clearly shewn that
the troubles of the wife were not owing to her own
misconduct. The Judges of Appeal were of opinion
that this passage contained a correct, and so far as
was necessary for the understanding of the case, a com-
plete statement of the law on the subject. Modes of
cruelty were various, and as often as perverse ingenuity
invented a new mode, the law was bound t) afford pro-
tection against it. The law regulating this subject and
defining the conditions of cruelty was laid clown by Lord
Stowell, and other judges since his time, in the well-known
cases of Evans v. Evans, Harris v. Harris, and Holden v.
Holden. They were of opinion that the judgment now
appealed against was in conformity with the law as pre-
viously laid down. They were satisfied likewise that the
acts imputed to Mr. Kelly as stated in the judgment of
the Judge Ordinary, were established by the evidence
adduced and now before the court. He told his wife that
no modest woman would behave as she did or would
associate with her; he refused to sit at table with
her, and desired her not to attend to the ad-
ministration of the Sacrament, besides a great variety
of other acts of petty and galling tyranny. What ho
did was not in the fair exercise of marital authority, but
for the gratification of unfounded passion and malig-
nity. After her return from her absence from home in
October, 1868, the same course of unfeeling harshness and
bad conduct was pursued. She was debarred the use of
money, her steps were watched, she had doors shut against
her, and so on. The conseque!:ce was to break down
her health, and bring on paralysis of the nerves. The re-
spondent's charges against Mrs, Kelly were of abetting her
son to leave his father's house without his permission, for
the purpose of obtaining a situation, of promoting disagree-
ment between the father and the son, and making excuses
for her son's misconduct. The court could not enter on
an inquiry whether Mrs. Kelly was justified in taking her
son's part on - the first occasion, but there was no satis-
factory proof given as to any of them. On the whole case
the judges were of opinion that there was no ground for
refusing to carry out the decrees of the court. They had
no doubt whatever as to the fact of persistent cruely
on the appellant's part being fully established by the
evidence, and they therefore held that the appeal must be
dismissed. The judgment occupied nearly an hour in
delivery, entering minutely into the particulars of the
various facts which formed the matter of the appellant's
'Charges against his wife, and the hearing upon them
of the evidence adduced at the trial. The Judge-
Ordinary said the appellant had complained that the alle-
gations of the numerous charges brought by him against
his wife had not found a place in the judgment now
appealed against. This was not needful, because the
particulars stated wore, in his opinion, either justifiable,
or, at least, such as should have been readily pardonable,
and wholly insufficient to justify the treatment of
which the petitioner complained. After the full review
of the circumstances in the judgment just delivered,
he felt it only necessary to advert to the charges of
the appellant against his wife for the purpose of
shewing that they were either unfounded in fact or frivo-
lous in their own character. Having examined the 18th
and 20th charges, his lordship proceeded to say that it was
certain Mrs. Kelly had nothing to expect from her hus-
band's leniency, as ho had declared his conviction that he
was acting in the discharge of a religious duty. How many
months of the same discipline might be necessary to fulfil
the expectations of the medical attendants as to Mrs. Kelly it
was impossible to say, but the ()Curt was bound to inter-
fere for the protection of a woman who would otherwise
be left penniless or dependent on the bounty of her friends
Nothing had struck him more throughout this case than
the complacent manner in which the appellant had from
the beginning left out of view the inevitable result of the
course he was pursuing. In his view the case embraced
every principle on which the court had ever decreed judi-
cial separation.—The appellant inquired if there was any
further appeal.—The Judge-Ordinary informed him there
was not.

THE LIVERPOOL GRAND NATIONAL STI-.7:XLE-
CllASE.—People seem at a loss what to think about Grand
National prospects, and betting on that exciting contest
gives as yet but little satisfactory clue to the finding of
the winner. At present the business done about
last year's victor seems to be quite genuine,
and the horse won so easily in 1869 that it is not
easy to pitch upon anything likely to lower his colours
in 1370. It is not at all unlikely that Lincolnshire may
send him an unexpectedly dangerous opponent, and he,
or whatever else wins the Liverpool Steeplechase, imy
have to put the best leg forward to beat Gardener, whs.
strikes us as being an outsider whose merits are oven
looked by the many. The Metropolitan, according tc
custom, has not yet been touched upon ; but it is evi•
dent that a great deal of business will be done on the
City and Suburban before long. Those horses most fancied
by the critics when the weights appeared have all found
their way into the market, and Walter, as was generally
anticipated, has been made the favourite. The stable in
which he is trained is, however, so rich in favourably
weighted representatives that it would be dangerous as
yet to take it for granted that the son of Thormanby and
Lava will really carry the Fyfield money. Astolfo wean
all the appearance of being a remarkably strong favourite
for the Guineas, and mayhap for the Derby also, and judg-
ing from what has reached us, it is quite on the cards that
Orlando's career as a sire may end as gloriously as it be..
gan.—Bell's Life.

The very extensive Distillery now being erected
at Belfast, with all recent improvements for the manufacture of
Irish whisky, by Messis. DUNVILLE & Co., who have gained
a world-wide celebrity for their fine old Irish whisky, is to be
called The Royal Irish Distillery."