The Sun.
London, England, 1860-04-23 00:00:00

THE DIVORCE C'OURT.

The Lord Chancellor has succeeded in getting his
Bill for improving the Divorce Court through the
House of Lords without incurring the ordeal of a
select committee. A bill in the hands of a hostile
committee is often severely mutilated, and even
when small damage is likely to be done the inevi-
table delay is to be avoided ; but in the present case
it would have been intolerable. The state of things
in Sir Cresswell Cresswell's court is such that it

amounts to a positive denial of justice. The Divorce
Court has now been established two years, and
during that time 539 cases of divorce have been
entered ; of these only 177 have been disposed of,
so that 362 still remain for consideration. Without
dwelling on the eer',-ain prospect that many new
cases must be entered, it will take not less than four
years and a half to clear off the present arrears,
supposing the Court to proceed with the same
activity as hitherto. As the venerable Lord Lynd-
hurst reminded his brother peers, it is a principle
of the British constitution that justice shall neither
be delayed nor refused ; and, considering the amount
of arrears, there was truth in the 'ternark that to

delay any longer a remedy would practically amount
to a refusal of justice. Indeed, to this appeal scarcely
any resistance was made. Lord St. Leonards cer-
tainly moved that the bill should be referred to a
select committee, and gave a feeble support to his
proposition. Even Lord Redesdale, who made
himself conspicuous at the time when the new sys-
tem was established by his opposition, contented
himself by furbishing up some of his old weapons.
Like a most zealous prophet he sees the fulfilment
of all his predictions. His lordship calls to mind
how he foresaw that the number of divorce cases

would enormously increase, and he points to the list
of cases still undisposed of to prove the accuracy of
his anticipations. Instead, however, of seeing in
this fact a proof that the old system—which re-
quired the possession of some £2,000 to purchase
justice—was a practical denial of justice, he loudly
deplores this increase of applications for divorce as a
proof that "the sanctity of the marriage tie" is much
impaired throughout the country. Lord Redesdale
indeed never proposed to refuse the rich the power
of getting rid of their wives on the plea of assisting
the morality of the working classes, though he
seems to think that by extending the practical right
of divorce by cheapening the tribunal, the morality
of the lower classes has suffered irreparable injury.
The enormous expense of carrying a bill through
Parliament for a divorce stopped men from assert-
ing their rights, but most assuredly it neither
checked immorality nor promoted conjugal felicity.
One curious result has certainly followed. Some
few years ago it was commonly supposed that
domestic scandal was much more common in the
higher ranks than in other classes. But experience
has shown the fallacy of this idea. The discovery
is no subject of congratulation ; but if the right to
get rid of an unfaithful partner is a right not less
sacred than that of recovering an estate, it is surely
satisfactory to find that this right is no longer a
monopoly of the wealthy.
The chief difficulty for the Chancellor has been
how to provide the means of clearing off the arrears.
At first it was enacted that no divorce a vinculo
should be granted without the presence of three
judges—two of whom might be selected from the
three chiefs of the Common Law Courts and the
senior puisnes. This arrangement proving ineffec-
tual, any of the Common Law Judges were allowed
to form part of the Divorce Court. Even this,
however, has proved insufficient. During the first
year no sitting of the Divorce Court took place,
and since its institution it has only sat sixty-five
days. The cause of the arrears is at once apparent :
it is the want of judicial power. And the bill which
has just been read a second time is for the purpose
of remedying this defect. Our plan, no doubt,
would be to appoint a new judge ; but against this
proposal opinions seem to be xnanimous. The only
other mode is to increase the power of the Judge
Ordinary, to enable him to decide by himself cases
which at present he is not permitted to decide with-
out assistance. It certainly is remarkable that
among the various objections made to the bill, not
one was founded upon the incompetency of the
Judge Ordinary to exercise alone the duties which
are now exercised by him in conjuuction with
others. But assuming a judge to be reasonably com-
petent, it is difficult to understand why he should
not decide questions. A single Judge in Equity
decides questions involving millions of money, and
at Common Law a single Judge presides at trials
involving not only such issues, but even those of
life and death. In such cases it is the general
opinion that, the responsibility being undivided,
the danger of miscarriage is considerably dimi-
nished. And there seems no good reason why the
same principle should not hold good in divorce.
Accordingly, the bill provides that the Judge Ordi-
nary may exercise all the powers of the full court.
But whilst it clothes the Judge Ordinary with
new powers, neither does it deprive him of calling
in assistance, nor does it deprive the suitor of ob-
taining the opinion of three minds instead of one.
The Judge Ordinary is authorised to sit with one
other Judge, or, if he think the matter extremely
difficult, he may refer the case to the full Court.
The resu'.t of this arrangement of course will be
that the Judge Ordinary will dispose of all ordi-
nary cases, but the extraordinary cases he will
refer to the Court. On the other hand, the suitor
will be entitled to appeal to the full Court in case
he is dissatisfied with the decision of the Judge
Ordinary ; and besides this, the suitor has his
right of appeal to the House of Lords secured.
With such extended powers there seems little
doubt that the Judge Ordinary will be able within
a very short time to put an end to the accumulated
arrears; and this will be effected without depriv-
ing the suitor of any of the securities which he now
possesses that justice will be fairly exercised.
The only point which remains to be noticed is
that .which concerns the Queen's Proctor. In
many suits for divorce ' only one of the parties
appears, and grave suspicions of collusion arise.
Men and women who have solemnly agreed
to live together during life must not be
allowed from mere caprice to quit each other, and
to obtain the sanction of a tribunal for the dissolu-
tion of the bond of union. If any suspicion of this
sort arises, and in other cases also, the bill
authorises the Court to call upon the Queen's Proc-
tor to instruct counsel to argue any matter of diffi-
culty. No doubt cases will arise in which collusion
will be successfully practised, but it would be diffi-
cult to suggest any better means of detecting it
than the present bill provides.—Daily News.

ROBBERY OF A CASH-BOX AND
YEARLY TWO HUNDRED SOVEREIGNS.

A very adroit and extensive robbery was com-
mitted last Friday evening at the well-known
horse repository, in Barbican, known as "Dixon's
Repository," but which has for several years
belonged to Mr. Gower. It appears that
Friday is the sale day, and upwards of one hun-
dred horses were put up for auction, the clerk re-
ceiving the deposits as the several lots were knocked
down. The sale was brought to a close shortly
after four o'clock. Mr. Gower, the proprietor, left
shortly afterwards, and the clerk, who had been
attending to the sale, took the cash-box, which
contained £lBO in gold, and some cheques and me-
moranda, to the up-stairs office, where he locked it
up in a desk to which there was a Bramah lock.
He then, it appears, went to get his dinner, leaving
the office in charge of another clerk, who would in
ordinary course have remained until his fellow-clerk
returned. It appears that there were some horses
to be sent to Ireland by the railway, by a particu-
lar train, and that the clothing which had been or-
dered for them had not arrived, and the clerk who
had been left in the office ran down stairs to make
some inquiries upon the subject.. He was only
gone a very short time, and upon his return he
found that the desk had been forced open, and the
cash-box and its contents abstracted. There is no
doubt that the robbery had been " put up," as it is
termed, for a considerable time, and there is every
reason to believe that it was committed by some
of the horse chaunting fraternity who infest places
of this description, in spite of the efforts made by
the proprietors to keep them away, and that being
aware of the usual course of the business, they had
been on the watch for a great many sale days for
the opportunity of committing a robbery, which
was at length afforded them by the almost momen-
tary absence of the clerk, under the circumstances
above stated. Information of the robbery was
speedily given to the police, but as yet no clue
has been obtained likely to lead to the appre-
hension of the offenders, although a very strong
suspicion attaches to certain parties. On the same
evening the robbery was committed, a small parcel
was picked up on the area of the Spital-square
police-station, which upon being opened was found
to contain the memoranda that had been in the
stolen cash-box, and a piece of paper, on which was
written in pencil the following :—"
Give these to
your betters, Mr. Gower, and thank them for me."
In addition to the gold, the cash-box contained an
Irish Bank bill at ten days' sight for £l2O, but as
this was not endorsed, the thieves are not likely to
make it available, but the fact may as well be
stated, in order that the public and bankers may be
on their guard in case such an instrument should be
presented or offered for discount.

The late report of the French Minister of Justice
shows an extraordinary increase to have taken place of late
years in judicial separation of married couples, While in
1841 and for a few years later the returns exhibited a little
more than 1,000 annual cases,. there werein 1858 no less
than 1,977. In the great majority of instances the com-
plaining party was the wife. The male applicants for se-
paration were only a couple of hundred,