Star.
London, England, 1801-05-21 00:00:00

dens and

Mr. W.Taylor, Warwick-court, Newgate-ttreet ; at the Chap-
ter and Pecle's Colfec-houfes, London, (where it will be regu-
larly filed); and by all the principal Bookfellers throughout the
Counties of YO-4 and L4l,enier.

PARLIAMENTART PROCZZDINGS.

1 HOUSE OF LORDS, WEDNESDAY, MAY to.

A number of Bills were brought in from rbe Commons, and
read a heft time, among which, was Ac Clerical liaclulionLill.
•DDISON'S DIVORCE BILL.

The Order of the Day for going into a Com-
mittee upon this Bill being read, the Houfe ac-
cordingly refolved itfelf into the fame. Lord
WALSIN9HAP4 in the Chair.

The Preamble of the Bill havingbeing difpofed
of, their Lordfhips came to the confideration of
the main and leading Claute in the Bill, namely,
that which goes to diffolve the Marriage between
Mrs. Addifon and her now Hatband, and to ens. II
ble her to marry again.
The Duke of CLARENCE Paid, he ilould limply
move, that the Claufe be expunged—but finding
no other Lord inclined to rife, his Royal High-
nefs Paid, he had not been forward to open the
Debate, from the hope that tome Noble Lord,
better acquainted with Coe rules of the Houle, and
of greater experience, from having fat longer
than he had,would have begun it.—Plefaid it had j
at firti been his intention to have oppofed the
Honfe's going, into a Committee on the Bill, but I
in confequenee of a converfation that he had held
with a Noble and Learned Friend of his, he had
-been induced to wave his iatention. He now,
however, should conclude with a Motion, which,
after much confideiation of all the circumflances
of the cafe, he felt it his duty to make, viz.
" That the Claufe enading the Divorce be es-
' pinged." He was free to confetti, that Mrs. Ad-
difon had made out fo very strong a cafe, that if
any criminal conduit of ,a hatband towards his
wife ,ould be allowed to afrount to ajullificatkin of
her obtaining a divorce from him at the hands of
the Legiflature, he &mild be ready to admit that
Mrs. Addifon's was that very cafe but when he
confidered'the novelty of the Legiflature granting
a divorce to a wife on complaint of adultery on the
part of her hatband, the infinite mitehicfs it might
lead to by encouraging the couleft collations be-
tween married couples, to obtain an effeetual
charge from their marriage vows and-cumiedious,

and the detrimental effed the pradice wouldhahe
on the morals of fociety, however much.he might-
lament the hardnefs of the- particular cafe, -
acing as a Leginator, he fhould hold it tb be his.
indifpentible duty to refill die prefent applkationi
fur a divorce. and think the Houk would Klett.
fecure thernfelves from the poflibility of being-leer
into any improper conduit in telpett to Divorce'
Bills in future, by laying it down ae a rule, never
to give ground of hope of a wife's being able to
obtain a I-nitlative divorce from her huftrand
merely on the ground of his adultery.
_He raid
this upon the general principle r but it was to be
obferved, that the fubjea of Divorce had occupied
a confiderable deal cf their Lordthips time and at-
tention within theft two or three laft Saone of
Parliament, that neverthelefs applications for di-
vorce multiplied tatber than decreafed that it
abfolutely necetary to check them, and nothing
in his mind could do fo more effeaually than to
guard againft adding to the facility ofitl)cir being
obtained. The Learned CounfaThOkywith great
ability and ingenuity; argued- the partitular 1114.
ture of the cafe at their Lordfhips Bar, but thole
ver; arguments appeared to him to be the ftrougeft
grounds of objection to granting the divorce.
The Duke laid he fhould therefore, on that ac-
count, and for the reafons he had hated, move,
" That the Claufe be expunged."
Lord THURLOW, in anfwer to what had fallen
from the Royal Duke, difPlayed uncommon abi-
lity and legal knowledge of the fiibjee. After
treating the cafe generally with refpee to the ex-
iting Law as applying to it, he adverted to the
peculiar circumtlanees of the cafe itfeif, which he
confidered as one of a very aggravated and extra-
ordinary nature. On fuels occafions his opinion
was,that the rule which fhould guide the decifions
oftheir Lordthips, was the particular and intrinfic
merits and circumftances of each particular cafe ;
and this rule, he ftrongly contended, fhould be
applied in the indent intlance. With refpee to
the degrees of affinity between the parties in quef-
tion, he confidered the point as referring to the
Statute of Hen. VIII. and to other Aes, from
which we uaderftood the Noble and Learned Lord
to fay; that the law prohibited the fubfequent
inter-marriage of a man with a woman related
within the given degrees of affinity, with ;vhota
it was provided he had a carnal intercourfe. Re-
curring more particularly to the cafe before their
Lordthips, he recuefted them to confider the etre&
of a Divorce, a paellas acre, as already obtained
by the Petitioner : no intercom re could take place,
and in fuch a cafe as the prefent, be confidered, as
it was well e: relied in the Bill, a reconciliation
to be impartible. Their Lordfhips would alto re-
coiled, that fortunately in fuel cafes' they were
hound by no rule, they were to decide folely from
their own feelings and conviaions. He referred
to the cafe of the infamous Lord Audley, who
fufferedfor the molt odious and abominable crimes,
and the accounts of whole (hocking and atrocious
conduct towards his own wife mud be known to
all their Lordibips. He would put the cafe to
their Lordfhips, whether they could pollibly refute
a Bill of Divorce, did that much injured woman
apply for one againft herhufband Fie would put
it to the heart and feelings of the IllultriousPrince,
who flood forward the decided oppofer of the Bill
before the Committee, whether he could for a
moment her:tate to grant a Bill of Divorce to a
*woman fuing under filch terrible circumftances as
the Lady he alluded to? In the prefent inttance,
the aggravated and atrocious circumftances of the
cafe were before their Lordfhips. On there the
Ecclefiatlical Courts had thought proper to great
a Divorce a metV2 et there. Under the circumftan-
ces of fuch a cafe, and confidering it in the way
he had defcribecl,the remaining mode of Divorce,
a vincula matrimenti, may be confidered, after what
had taken place, as a kind of form, he wot.ld
therefore generally recommend its being granted.
The Houle, he repeated, were tied down by r,o
pofitivc rule ; let the Bill be accorded to merely
on the fpecial grounds and peculiar circumltances
of the particular cafe, which his Lordfhip argued
would entirely do away all apprehentlons tntcr-
tained on the fcote of precedent.
The Loan CHANCELLOR. ClLliEtectithe-W.tiAfeeks
and feemingly expre6ld his concurreneenvith what
had fallen from the Noble and Learned Lord re•
fpeeting the law upon &eh cafe; and, malt frig*
additional obfervations, refpating the ditTei coca
that obtains between a hatband and a wife a?ply-
ing for a Divorce. on''accotint of the important
contideration of the charge of the children. With
refped to the particular cafe before their Lord-
fhips, he confelfed, that much of his apprehen Gott
on the (core of granting fuch a Bill, forming a
dangerous precedent, and taking it on the ground
that the Bill was granted on account only of the
peculiar circumftance of the incefluous la.niltery
in the cafe, and therefore ((waning no kind of pre-
cedent, with refpee to cl.fes of common adultery
on the part of the hufband, the cafe was materi-
ally altered, and he was happy in finding a prin-
ciple on which he could fafely reft in deciding ill .
on the prefent cafe, and all cafes of Wild sINI
aaorral unckannefs, namely, that the charaeter c f
incett was held to be filch as to jutlify a proceed-
ing of this kind; dill keeping in view the coot:aer-
ation that it was to form no precedent for ordi-
nary cafes, he fhould not feel much difficulty in
voting for the clank.
The Earl of Rosstia teemed to esprefs himtalf
*early "to the fame effect, and adverted to fame
peculiar circuit:dances in the prefent cafe,
which (hould facilitate their Lordship.' de:ifion
with teipea to the Bid, as the veto lai..tahle con-
do& of the Lady, in Co arduous and delicate a ern .
Mare, cuutraltQd with the platligacy of the

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