The Sun.
London, England, 1858-11-27 00:00:00

had you ever any criminal connexion with her ?
Never.

Mr. Bovill—Did you ever take any liberties
with her person P—l never did.
Mr. Bovill—Did you ever coniuct yourself
towards her in any indelicate or improper manner?
—Never, in the smallest degree.
Mr. Bovill— Did you ever address to her any
conversation or observation of an amorous descrip:

tion P—l never did. In October, 1855, she arrived
with one of her servants, and she was received in
the hall by my mother-in-law and myself, in the
presence of a number of other persons. The hall is
also a billiard-room. On that occasion I gave her a
kiss. I will tell you why. In the September pre-
vious my wife and I were anxious that our children
should go to the seaside for change of air, but we
were too busy- to absent ourselves. and Mrs. Ro-
binson kindly volunteered to accompany them:
She did so, and on her return to Moor-park I
saluted her as I have stated. Except on that occa-
sion I have never kissed her. I never put my arm
round her waist, or embraced her, or tempted or
caressed her. I never did anything 1,0 excite her
passions in any way. I never had any conversa-
tion with her about obviating consequences. There
was no understanding between us to her using ini-
tials. I have seen the statements in the diaries.
They are utterly and absolutely false—a tissue of
romance from beginning to cnd, as far as they
implicate me in anything improper. She never
cut a lock of my hair off. I may have walked
with her on a summer's evening, but in the month
of October I never walked with her after tea-time,
seven o'clock. The dinner hour was half-past one.
Walking in the park at all hours was part of the
general system of treating the patients. I never,
except on the occasion I have mentioned, offered to
kiss her. The scene in the fly, described in the
journal, is utterly false. Of all the walks, about the
establishment the bower walk is the most open.
The bower itself is commanded by two public
roads and two lodges. There are three doors to my
study. One is from the public dining-room, and
another is opposite the pantry door. The servants
occasionally • use it as a passage room, but they
would not come through if they knew I was sitting
there.

Cross-examined by Mr. Karslake, in the absence
of Mr. Chambers—The servants would generally
knock before entering. There is a summer house
on what is called the island, but it is really a shiule-
bery or wilderness. Persons sitting in it are not
visible at some distance from it. • The bower walk
is on the island. There is ' a bower on the island

proper, but it is in ruins and has never been used.
I have very likely beenin the summer house on the
so-called island with Mrs. Robinson. I have been
there with nearly every one in the house. The
bower walk is also on the so-called island. There
are extensive moorlands of fern and heath at some
distance from ,the house. The grounds and shrub-
beriesbeyond it extend for a couple of miles. The
intimacy between my family and the Robinsons
sprang up rapidly. We saw them nearly daily. We
could hardly be more intimate as friends. Mrs.
Robinson and I frequently talked together on scien-
tific subjects, on books, on phrenology, and other
topics. I wrote her letters when she was absent from
Edinburgh ; sometimes long letters. I very often
communicated to her matters of interest in my
family. In 1853, on returning from the continent,
my wife, and Lady Drysdale and I stayed a day and
a mght at Reading with them. I wrote to Mrs.
Robinson when I was abroad. It was in June, 1855,
I had the conversation with her about her being
unwell. Some of her children were with her. I only
had one strictly profes3ional conversation with her.
She was never under treatment in my establish-
ment. She was there about a fortnight, and that
was the longest visit she ever paid. Her husband
had previously requested me to, speak to her about
her liealtb. The fee which he sent me was 10
guineas. It was partly for my advice and partly
as remuneration for the visit. I once presented Mrs.
Robinson with a locket, as a gift from my wife,
containing the children's hair. She and my wife
had .exchanged lockets. That was at Edinburgh.
My wife made her presents of that sort on one or
two occasions. Mrs. Robinson did not generally
occupy the same room. I never remember having
been in her room in a morning. I have been in her
room. in. an evening. It was early one evening in
1855. I might have dropped into her room in the
evening. on more than one occasion, but I can't re-
collect having dole so. On that Occasion I met
Mr. Thoth there. It was her sitting-room, not her
bedroom. I was never in her bedroom at any time
in the evening. I don't remember ever having been
in her bedroom in a morning. I only visited pa-
tients in their-bedrooms when they were too un-
well to come down to breakfast. The date of Mrs.
Robinson's visit in 1856 was August or September.
I may have corresponded with her after that visit.
I last saw her in Dec., 1856. I take in the news-

papers at my establishment. I did not know for
certain until July, 1857, that a suit was going on
in the Ecclesiastical Court against Mrs. Robinson.
I heard of it from my gardener. I saw a report of
some proceedings in the November of that year. It
was about two lines, I believe, in the Times, stating
that a divorce had been obtained. I had no com
munication with Mrs. Robinson or with anybody
about her in 1857. My gardener,' John Birming-
ham, told me his sister had been up as a witness.
My attention has been called to the diary since the
commencement of these proceedings.
Re-examined—The report I saw was in the Times
of 4th Dec., 1857. It merely stated that the suit
was promoted by Mr. Robin son 'against Mrs. Robin
son by reason; of adultery ; that Dr. Addams was
about to open the case for the husband, when the
Admiralty advocate, for the. wife, said he would
effer no opposition, and that the ourt pronounced
• sentence of divorce.
To the Chief Justice—l VMS not communicated
with on behalf of Mrs. Robinson when that suit
was commenced. When the suit was instituted in
this court I was not sought in any way by her.
Mr. Bovill said Dr. Lane could not have been
examined in the suit in the Ecclesiastical Court.
The Chief Justice—He could have been examined
ex proprio motu, but if the wife had chosen to re-
sist the suit she might have made him a witness.
Dr. Lane then withdrew, and

Mr. Bevil' addressed the Court on behalf of. Mrs.
Robinson. Dr. Lane had now been acquitted of
the charge of adultery, and, notwithstanding that
acquittal, it must be contended on the other side
that Mr. Robinson was entitled to a divorce on the

ground of his wife's adultery was Dr. Lane. The
Court might not think that an impossibility, but it
would certainly be an extraordinary result.
Sir C. Cresswell—That is merely a technical
matter.
The Chief Justice—The wife might not resist the
decree. It might then be pronounced, although the
anomaly you point out would still exist.
Mr. flovillsaid he thought the case for the peti-
tioner might now be taken to stand entirely upon
the entries in the diary. The attempt to adduce
evidence independent of those entries had entirely
failed. One witness alone (Warren) had given evi-
dence. in support of them, but his testimony had
been entirely discredited. With regard to the
diary, he would first observe that it contained no
explicit statement of Mrs. Robinson's. guilt. Some
of the most eminent men in the.kingdom had proved
that the disease under which she was labouring was
likely to excite her imagination; and -cause her to
imagine what had never taken place.• The fact
that she had suffered under that di.§caw for .several
years was also proved, and the means taken by her
and her husband to effect a certain • purpose tended
to aggravate that disease. It 'was manifest, from
page to page of the diary, that She Was-Under the
influence of painful feelings *ith regard to her
husband. As early as March 14, 1852, she wrote :

" Sat down to muse. It was a gray. gloomy evening ; the
city, dimly visible, lay below us---spires, monuments, streets,
the port of Leith, the Frith, and in the front ground small,
unventilated dwellings, and h-onses of ten stories-high. 'Oh,'
thought I, ' each of these roofs conceals human life with all

its mysterious joys and sorrows. Doubtless many a so-
journer in these dwellings has a private history, thrilling,
exciting, strange. If I knew them some of them might
make me feel less sad, less lonely. There. may be hearts as
much discontented with their lots as mine: few, I think,
more weary of life.' Then I reflected on my future, what I
should do to live with my uncongenial partner—an unedu-
cated, narrow-minded, harsh-tempered, selfish, proud
mortal. No answer came to .my speculations. I walked
home with my boys. At heart I love and vahie them, and
were it not that my darling Otway would be taken from me
I would leave my husband .for ever. Home at half-past five ;
played psalms, wrote. Journal, read,. smoked cigar; boys
with me till near nine.. Felt rather less sad."

Passages of this description occurred throughout
the journal. As early as November, 1850, she
wrote :

"Sat on beach and meditated on my past life,—my
errors of, youth, my picitioeifions to my brothers and, my
sisters, of,
headstrong conduct to my governess, my dis-
obedience and want of duty to my patents, my want of
steady principle in life, the mode of my marriage and inY
conduct during that marriage, my partial and often violent
conduct to my children, my giddy behaviour as a widow,
my second marriage and all that had followed it ; impatience
under trials, wanderine, affections, want of self-denial and
resolute persistence in well-doing ; as a parent, as a
daughter, as a sister, as a wife, as a pupil, as a friend, as a
mistress. There was no point to which I could turn for
consolation. 1 could only wish and strive to amend and
repeat Burn's words,—
" Thou know'st that thou has made me
" With passions wild and strong;
" And listening to their witching voice
" Has often Ted me wrong."
Their Lordships would remark, that she frequently
appeared to be struck with neliey's writings, and it
was natural to infer that she had alse been struck
with events in Shelley's life, and with the fact that
he had imagined things which never existed. They
would also observe that she sometimes addressed
herself to a reader, as if her confessions, like those
of Rousseau, were intended for the perusal of some
one after her death. She wrote on one occasion :
ff Reader, you see my lamest soul, You must not de-

spise and hate me. Do you also pause to pity? No; for
when you read these pages all will be over with one who was
tooilexible for virtue—too virtuous to make a proud, suc-
eesWul villain. Good night. May you be mere happy !"
In February, 1852, she wrote:—
"All makes me feel how short my time is here, and com-
bines to make me irresolute and miserable ; self-reproach
comes in, and yet I know not how I can make myself any-
wise different. My heart clings to those that cannot help
me, and rejects those whom I ought to love. God help me!
How useless and hapless is my life ; how much am I dis-
contented with myself, and yet I persist in evil. Youth is
well nigh gone ; I shudder at old age, which I must face 1"
And again :
"It is, however, doubtless an effort to emancipate our-
selves from the self-love, which not only reigns dominant
in youth, but is also encouraged by the adulation and the
efforts of those about us, and to become the reasonable,
moderate, self-possessed beings that we ought to be. To
me, with ardent feelings, with love of approbation beyond
-the common, with an ill-balanced mind, and the early mis-
fortune of a bad education, this is unusually difficult. God
and my fellow-men judge me mercifully! Rested after
writing in journal till dusk."
The learned counsel also read some of the passaged
relating to Mr. Thom, and contended that they con-
tained almost as strong proof of criminality as
those relating to Dr. Lane.
The Chief Justice observed that it was hardly
fair to Mr. Thom to say that he was referred to in
the same terms as Dr. Lane.

Mr. BovILL submitted that the accounts of the
interviews with Mr. Thom were so much exag-
gerated that they might be regarded as purely
imaginative. The entries with regard to Dr. Lane
and Mr. Thom were of the same dscription—they
were not records of fact, but expressions of feeling.
On the 30th of May, 1852, there was this entry:—

"Fine, cool, shadowy weather. Mrs. L. came to me
about eleven ; she would not go to church ; Mr. L. was
writing. She was very kind, and as the little group (joined
by her pet spaniel) visited my bed, I felt how charming was
their happy, affectionate spirit, and longed to love and enjoy
life as they did. Rose twelve, joined them in garden, and
answered their humorous condolences on my not being well;
chatted on selfishness, indulgences, and habits. Went to
flowery mound, which they admired. Boys played ; we
sat and talked of great characters, Mr. Combe, Coleridge,
pliancy of character, decided opinions, legal caution, mental
reservation, and both sides of any question. Mr. L. was
not in the buoyant spirits of the day before, but he was very
gentle and charming. We went round by road after a little
scramble, and round into steep meadow above house. Here
we paused to admire the lovely view. I went in with Mr.
L., and he read me a;passage from Shelley'a Letters?'
where a passage had struck me to the effect, 'that spirit
cannot create, it can only conceive ; imagination can
only create.' All these speculations are ingenious, but
to me, as a phrenologist, there are clearer and more
satisfactory ways of explaining all these things. Did not
say so, and we separated to dress. Mrs. L. came in later
with boys. Dinner good, beef, pigeon-pie, vegetables,
dumpling, coffee, eau-de-vie. The only drawback was Atty's
bad conduct, and he annoyed us all day. At last we all
went out. Then through grounds to swing, where we stayed
a good while. I had a long turn, and Mr. L. sent me very
high ; Mrs. L. looking on. Then the nurses came in sight,
and B. joined us ; his papa• took him up a long while, and
at length he went away. We then strolled through the
meadow, and to West Woods. It was very lovely, We
seated ourselves in the shelter of a high bank, and watched
the scene in silence ; F., the spaniel, was on my lap, and
Mr. L. next me. It was the very scene I had often longed
for and pictured to myself, but now it was realised ; were
there not drawback ? A group of bare-legged children
played near us ; several persons passed; we sat there an
hour, and at length, passing through the woods, turned
into the south plantation. I walked on with Mr. L., but
without his arm, and a slight bitterness seemed to come
over his spirit. I sat to rest in our own meadow, and he
leaned against the rails opposite me. Mrs. L. came up with
children, and we all soon went in. I made tea and enjoyed
it. Mr. L. sat by rae at tea and we talked for an hour on
politics, hereditary descent, funds, paupers, emigration, &c.
Afterwards, at nine o'clock, dismissing all boys to bed, as it
was Sunday, we sat out in garden. Mrs. L. had cold, and
went in at ten. We talked of Lord Byron, of riding, of
courage, of balloons, and of coolness. He smoked and
chatted, and I laughed much. Mrs. L. was low. We then
remained out more than an hour alone, talking of man's
spirit, his life, the grave, immortality, God, the universe,
man's reason, and his short fleeting nature. I expressed my
gradually acquired calmness of mind, though I differed from
all my friends, and had lost the hope of all illusions of the
Christian's creed, and I said that the grandeur of truth
made up to me for relinquished hopes. I expressed my love
of reflection and deep Study of these things, though I knew
exactly where men must stop. He spoke sadly, said he
longed to pray, longed to believe ; doubted much if there
were a future for man and alluded with deep feeling to the
death of his poor Greek friend and fellow-student, who
had spoken with.hope and intelligence a few days before
his death, and was now gone for ever. He seemed en-
tranced by the beauty of the scene. The moon rose above
every cloud, and silver stars came out one by one in the blue
of heaven. Silence, unbroken except by the landrail, pre-
vailed round us ; darkness, or rather dusk, came on beauti-
fully. He wished to be out all night. In the calm and
magical moonlight ;' but soon after eleven I felt that Mrs.
L. would think us unkind to leave her, and we went to the
fire. She was still low, and I tried to cheer her."

The entry of October 7, 1654, one of those upon
which the petitioner relied, was written not on the
day when the facts were supposedto have occurred,
but on the following day, after a night of sleepless-
ness and dreaming. The entry itself, too, referred
to dreams more than once. "He exclaimed, If
you say that again I'll kiss you.' You may be-
lieve I made no opposition, for had I not dreamed
of him and of this full many a time before ?" Even
setting aside Dr. Lane's contradiction, the journal
itself was not evidence upon which the Court could
' dissolve a marriage. All these supposed crimina-
lities were said to have occurred in places open to
the public, where no sane person would have
thought of committing them; that alone was a pre-
sumption against their truth. In cases of this kind
the burden of proof was upon the husband; and,
as there was no evidence but the diary, which was
contradicted by Dr. Lane upon his oath, that proof
had failed. Several months' notice had been given
of the examination of Dr. Lane, yet not a single
question could be asked him by Mr. Karslake tend-
ing to impeach his credit. The explanation of the
journal was that Mrs. Robinson's mind was quite
unable to distinguish between the real and the
unreal. If what she described had occurred, was
it credible that she should day by day have written
with her own hand a record of her infamy ?
The Chief Justice remarked that the intimacies
with Dr. Lane were not described as of frequent
occurrence. The journal pointed to a constant
desire on her part rarely gratified, by him.
Mr. Bovill said, if there had been any sort of
improper familiarity some witness might have been
called to prove it ; but there was not a syllable of
evidence to that effect. There were entries from
which it appeared that she was contemplating a
novel, and " I often," she said, " have the plot and
groundwork in my mind during sleep, with names,
scenes, and all perfect."
The Chief Justice—l hope that "contemplating
a novel" is no sign of a diseased mind. (Laughter.)
Mr. Bovill—By no means, but the novel she

contemplated was connected with events in which
- - - - - -

she imagined she had taken part. Never before
had it been sought to have a lady found guilty of
adultery upon such evidence as this. Not only had
it been shown by the medical testimony that her
state of mind was such that no reliance could be
placed on her statements ; but, even taking those
statements to be true, they did not amount to an
admission of guilt. , It was almost incredible that
any, woman should deliberately write a memorial
of her own infamy. On these grounds he sub-
mitted that the case had failed against,Mrs. Robin-
son as well as against Dr. Lane.
Mr. Montßgu Chambers, in reply, submitted that
Mrs. Robinson having substantially admitted her-
self to be guilty of adultery, the. Court could not,
in accordance with any known principle of law,
refuse the relief for which Mr. Robinson prayed.
He denied that in the Ecclesiastical Courts it was
held that adultery could not be proved without
some corroborative evidence. There was, however,
a canon which prevented the Court from acting on
an uncorroborated confession., whatever might be
its own moral conviction. The case he had now
made out was a case of confession, supported not
only by probabilities, but by certainties. The very
journal showed that Mrs. Robinson was a sane
woman, capable of discussing even the most abstruse
and difficult questions. It was the journal of a
very romantic, but nevertheless, of a clever woman.
The foundation of the defence was that Mrs.
Robinson was labouring under an uterine disease,
but that foundation was one of sand. No evi-
dence was given as to her present state of health
or as to the time when her disease was supposed
to have terminated. They did not even know pre-
cisely what was the disease with which she was
afflicted. Dr. Kidd's evidence on that point by no
means went to .the extent that Mrs. Robinson at
the time when he was in attendance upon her was 'P
suffering under the malady which was said by him
and the other medical witnesses to give rise to
sexual hallucinations. He only drew the inference
that she had been suffering under that malady after
reading the passages in the journal. But at the
time when Dr. Kidd was attending her there were
no entries in the journals which could be called hal-
lucinations. The journal itself from first to last
contained no indications whatever of delusion.
Conversations and other ordinary events were nar-
rated in a detailed and truthful manner. In no
point had his learned' friends been able to contra-
dict that journal, except by the evidence of Dr.
Lane with regard to the material passages. Dr.
Lane himself impliedly confirmed its accuracy in
all but those points. Mrs. Robinson was in the
position of a longing woman who had fallen in
love with a handsome man, and who induced him,
in a hapless moment, to yield to her solicitations.
Not an error had been pointed out in the diary as
to any matter of fact, although there were innume-
rable matters mentioned which might have been
proved to be false. Exaggerated and highly-
coloured as the language was, it was, nevertheless,
perfectly true. How was it that Dr. Lane was the
only person with whom she accused herself of
minal intercouse? If this was all delusion Dr. Lane
was not the only man who would have been accused.
Dr. Lane, as her journal stated, was for a long time,
to his honour be it said, cold and reserved, and re- .
jected her advances; .but his demeanour in public
was no contradiction of the charge of adultery.
Unless Dr. -Line was a perfect Joseph he must