The Statesman.
London, England, 1818-10-17 00:00:00

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JUDGMENT BY MR. COMMISSARY FERGUSSION;
•:tfl 4001**** TS A CASE OF DIVORCE.
.41"' titizaisctri •cott., THE WIFE, AGAINST T. •V. CoLei
THE 'IA:SHAND.
The pror.f in this case being 'concluded, it is tow
the duty of the Court to give judgment t— ".
ilt the evidence, ft ii established,'th'at the ptirlies
were matrievi in the parisi of St. Mary.le. Bonne, in
the county of Middles's, in the year 1804; were
• ellen 1.0411 domicilitted citizens of
nAngland,.and have
since cohabited as husband and wife in that kingdom
*ply.; but that the Defender navies for several years
deserted the society of the Pursuer, and being in this
city last spring then lived at his lodgings here for the
-- spice a five weeks irropee adeltery, with a woman
- erf the towti,and was here convened by citation upon
the libel.
• Since this action came into Court, according to the
rote of our procedure, the Pursuer has been inter-
rogated upon oath, and she has sworn, in the most
unequivocal lerma,heth,the.t there is no collusion be.
tweet) them, and also lhat.ahe bropght her suit for
.the dissolUtion of their _warrior, as soon as
. she discovered that it was in het power to take this
--step. These solemn averments are likewise not dig.
credited by any circumstance which appears from the
record. indeed, in no case of the kind is it now to
be expected that any such concert, agreement. or on.
derstancling between the parties, as amounts to col.
lesion by. the Law of Scotland, will really take place:
'for it IS. Perfectly plain, that aversion, and desire to
br free from the conjugal bonds, may be mutually en.
tertsined, and may he espressed in a thousand ways,
without say communication, direct or indirect, that
can affect the title to sue fOr divorce. The state of
the Law of Scoilanden the head is matter of noto-
riety. By the mere commission of adultery upon
this side of the Tweed, which will not be concealed
if the dissolution of the marriage is the object of this
crime, opportunity is afforded. The other party
only needs to be on the watch, and to seize that op-
. portunity. But if there had been grounds in this
—.mese to suspect collusion between the parties, the de.
• et lons of the Court of Review, in the recent cases
erbie-wle and O'Brien, prove that we could inves-
tigate these only by interrogating the*Pursuer, which
has been already done.
Upon the other hand, it is no doubt certain, that
the Pursuer could not claim the .remedy of a divorce,
a rrinculo, under the law of their own country. It
is equally clear, that if :nevertheless she is entitled
to succeed in this action, it must he not less com-
petent to sue here for dissolution of any other mar.
ciage, contracted nosier the Law of England, or no•
der any other foreign law, upon the grounds alone
that one of the spouses has committed adultery, and
been cited for divorCe within this jorisdiclion. lint
the judgment given at the Assizes of Lancaster, after
c.tisulttog the twelse Judges. of. England, in the
year 1813, declared the rule of the law of that king.
glom to be, that a regular decree of divorcee vinculo,
of on English marriage, obtained in thisCourt,coutdaf.
ford no defence even against' is criminal prosecution
for bigamy, if either of the parties, during the life
of the other, should afterwards contract a second
marriage in England ; and condemned William Mar.
tin .Lolly, who had been found guilty of that crime,
to transportation. Hence it follows, that the children
of such second marriages most he bastards in Eng.
land and in all other ...parts of this empire, although
legitimate in Scotland; and that as to every effect,
and consequence, the same decree of divorce which'
is valid in this realm must be heti! a mere nullity in
the other united kingdoms, and in all our colonies
and foreign dominions.
In further proof of these propositions, it can only
be uecesvare to mention, that in the case of Lolly,
the husband and wife were cohabiting together in this
city when he committed adultery—that he appeared
as a defender—that both parties were judicially ex-
amined, in order to ascertain whether there had been ,
any collusion—and that the conduct and suit of his
wife, the pursuer, were found to be liable to no just
suspicion.
This collision of the laws in the same empire and
island, fraught with danger so manifest and extensive
to those sacred relations of domestic life upon which
civilized society depends for nil its value, and even
for its existence, cannot. however enter into consi.
deration in deciding the present case. Here the law
of Scotland only can be consulted ; and a series of
uniform, solemn, and recent judgments of the Su-
preme Court of Review in this kingdom have ruled,
that neither the law of the real domicil of the parties,
nor the law•of the place of their contract, when dif-
ferent from our owe, is to be regarded in a fosse of
divorce sued here, between strasigeis who have been
married in another country, but one of whom has
committed adultery, and been cited within this ju-
risdiction.

'I he circumstances in the la•est of these cases were the same
ns in the present, except th .t the husband was an a tornry of
London, and both pat ties had all their lives been inhabitants of
the Inns of Court o. that city, where they had been married
aid cohabited. But during a vacation jaunt, in which his wife
slid not accootpany him. he ',hiked Edinburgh, and invited by
latter a woman of the town in London to come to him at his
hot -I here, which invi:aiion having been complied with in the
most open manner, his wife gave him n citation neon a summons
of divorce before he re urned home to keep his Term, She had
not, however, time to call her action in Court previous to his
departure from this crostvry ; yet there was not the least ground
to infer collusion against the suit of the Pursuer, who acct.unt.
ad satisfactm ily f .r her knowledge of her husband's guilt, and
fur her own measures.
Both that and the present may, indeed, be regarded as ex-
treme cases, but the principles which have been established
embrace and regulate these, not less than others of the ordinary
description. In all of this class, the number of which it i•
evident may become infinite, there can no longer be ally doubt
that this Court must allow the divorce to proceed.
The influx for some time after those very decisions, by-which
it teems to lie finally sanctioned, did, indeed, unaccountably
erase; but it now revives, and no bar to it can be opposed here.
Unconscious we cannot he of the grow and flagrant injuries to
morality, and great and manifest discredit to the administra-
tion of justice among us, arising (ruin the crimes of strangers,
that would not have been committed here, and probably would
not have been committed at all, but for the temptation afforded
by the defect whi. h apparently exiles, not in the municipal l iw
of reinter of the sister kingdoms. but of the international law
between them Judges, 11111%eVitr, can do no more to stay this
plague than solemill) and puh'icly, Ulm each occasion, to in.
form both the innocent and guilty party, bow little respect is
paid to the decree they obtain here in the other realms of the
empire. And In perforating this indispensable duty, we (tel.
ti;er deceive ourselvii nor our fe.l.,w citizt.ns, so far as to sup-
p. that the admonition can have any oilier effect but to lead
these to who It is addrestesEilf they shrill have previously
made arvangernents for enteiling tato seenntivtlarringes, to cele-
brate these before they, return home, or if they shall
atticwortedseontrourt such marefielvit, to make an excursion to
Gretiat-gretu, ur SYmr tab./ place nu' made. the jististi.c ion of