The Sun.
London, England, 1857-08-26 00:00:00

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PAPER

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by leading the Critnean army to idireet't/ift.-Yyet
Prince of Wales. The -conduct of ttte:: uri;fi
war fits him to•conduCt-a
is the whole East in some way or ofiaorinAtnig.,l44o/4,1
u3—China resisting, India inutinYt-oi,77get,ifirttfic.,/-3
dying every post—Anson by one, Bahian* nd•-a "
Lawrence by another—important commands are
empty and want tilling, and the Commander of the
Crimean army is " going to IConigsw.ntc,r to bo
in attendance on the Prince of Wales." Has Gen.
Codrington, having gained European, no ambifon
for Indian, honours e Or is he such a courtier the

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the successful direction of the Prince of Wales's
Rhine tour has a greater attraction in his eyes than
the suppression of an enormous Indian mutiny ?

THE DIVORCE BILT, AND THE AMEND-
MEIVTS PROPOSED TN THE LORDS.

Most of our readers will have been grievously
iwcait referent©
i separate
cllis e
perplexed by the reports of the discussions in both
it,) us
,s eosr t o
f Psaprel
ai akmteenc th,
the
de
t
s
of the Divorce Bill in committee of the whole house,'
and on the last stage of the Bill in the House of
Lords, on the question of agree'ng to
.the amend-
ments of the Commons. With the view of throw-
ing some light on the matter, and dealing away
the uncertainty which must have clouded the minds
of persons unaccustomed to the very peculiar forms
of Parliamentary procedure, we gave on Saturday
a copious abstract of the Divorce Bill, in its last
amended form. It is probable, however, that the -
report of the debate on Monday night in the Homo
of Lords will again have mystified the subject, and
we therefore proceed very succinctly to explain, on
the authority of the official "minutes" of the
House of Peers, what was actually done by the'r
Lordships on Monday evening. First of al, Lord
Redesdale made an attempt to shelve the Bill by
moving to take the amendments of the Cominons
into consideration six months hence ; but his mo-
tion to that effect was negatived by a majority of
46 to 44 votes, proxies not being called for.
On referring to the clauses of the Bill, Lord
Granville gave up the jurisdic' ion in cases of divorce
conferred by the buss of Commons on courts of
quarter sessions, and in this case, of course, no di-
vision occurred. On clause 25 Lord St. Leonard's
moved to disagree with the amendment of the Com-
mom
.assigning as one reason for divorce "adul-
t -ry committed" (by the husband) " in the conjugal
residence ;" and on the question " whether to
agree" (i.e. to the amendments of the Commons),
the " Contents" were 27, and the " Non-Contents"
44. So that the words above quoted were ex-
punged fi om the clause. The word " rape," how-
ever, as another ground for divorce from tlie hus-
band, was retained in the clause by a majority of
45 to 29. And then, on clause 28, which Provides
for the dismissal of a petit on for the dissolution of
a marriage if the court shall find that the petitioner
has during the marriage been accessory to or con-
niving at the adulte.y of the other party, &c., the
Bishop of Oxford moved to reinstate the words
(struck out in the Commons) "guilty of adultery,"
thus making the commission of a lultery at any time
during the marriage a cause for the dismissal of the
petition, or, in other words, the refusal of the relief
of divorce. Their Lordships having divide don the
question " whether to agree to the Commons'
amendment," the " Contents" were 39, and the
" Non-Contents" 35, so that the words were not
restored as ertoneously stated in our impression of
yesterday ; but, on the contrary, the Commons'
amendment, which expunged the words in question,
affirmed. Was not this clear frem the text of the
" Minutes," the fact that the Bishop of Oxford, who
was the author of the motion f,r reinsttaving the
above words, voted with the " Non-Contents," or
minority of 35 (togeth-r with his episcopal brethren
of Chichester, Lincoln, Rochester, and S slisbury),
wou'd dispel all doubt on the subject. The Bishop
of London voted with Ministers in the majority
o

in this occasion. The next division was on Olausit
F (added by the Commons), allowing husbands to
claim damages from the adulterous seducers of
their late wives, and this claim was ordered to be
retained by 77 to 67 votes (proxies were here called
for). The Bishops of London, Chichester, and
Rochester voted in the majority, and the Bishops
of Oxford, Salisbury, and Lincoln with the minority,
or "Non-Contents." On clause 53, containing
the famous proviso about the refusal of the clergy
to remarry divorced adulterers and adulteresses,
the Bishoplof Oxford moved to omit the words " on
the ground of his or her adultery," the effect of
which omission would have been tantamount to
exempting the clergy from the duty of solemnising
the marriage of any person whose former marriage
might have been dissolved for any can e whatever,
and thus affirming the privilege of scrupulous cler-
gymen to refuse to remarry in any case. The
word, however, were ordered to stand put of
the clause (i.e., were retained) by 37 to 32 votes,
the Bishop of London voting in the majority, and
the Bishops of Oxford, Lincoln, Chichester, and
Rochester with the " Non-Contents." The Bishop
' of Oxford next moved to disagree to the proviso
added to clause 53, and to the clause G, the one
relating to the privilege conferred on the clergy t 3
refuse to remarry parties divorced f ,r adultery, and
the latter to the saving clause enacted that if the
minister of any church or chapel refuse to perform
that service, another clergyman may. Their
Ler:ships, however, affirmed the proviso and
saving clause of the Commons by 37 to 27
votes. On this occasion the Bishop of Lon-
' don again voted with Ministers in the majority'
and the Bishop of Winchester added his name
to the list of the "Non-Contents," or mino-
rity, in conjunction with his brethren of Chiches-
ter, Oxford, Rochester, and Salisbury. It follows
from this explanation that in only two cases were
the amendments of the Commons disagreed to—
first, as regards the jurisdiction of the courts of
quarter sessions ; and, secondly, as regards the
" adultery committed in the conjugal residence" as
a ground of divorce for the husband. The rest of
the bill remains intact and inviolate as it went up
from the House of Commons, and by the time these
lines meet the eye of the public the bill will doubt-
less be ready to receive the Royal assent.

CA_NTERBII RY HALL, Westminster-road.—
OPEN EVERY EVENING.—The follow-
-3 company of Vocalists are engaged for the performance of
Selacti.,ns from all the popular Operas, Madrigals, Choruses,
(Rees, Duets. (Ste., viz.: Miss E. Pearce, Mrs. Palmyre, Miss
E. Scott, Miss Brunel], Mrs. Le Jenne, Miss Leslie, and
Madame Marietta; Herr F. Jonghmans, R. Grover, T. Far-
rant, S J. Barker, W. Melling, P. Corti, Senor An.
tonio, E. L. Dime, and fir. St. Albyn ; Master Corri; Messrs.
Sam. Collins, and E. Mackney. Pianoforte, Mr Cecil
Hicks; harmonium, Master Williams ; Director, Herr F.
Jonghmans. Commence at Seven o'clock prezisely. Sip-
pers, ere., until twelve o'clock