Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1860-06-19
A Knot not to be United.

| A Knot not to be United.
| A very curious case has lately been heard and
decided in the English courts, in which The
| question was raised, how far divorces between
French subjects married in England, could be
| granted in England for causes arising under the
| French laws.
young Frenchman from the provinces be-
came very much enamored of an actress of the
Theatre Francis, and proposed marriage. By
the French law, no marriage of woman under
21 or men under 25, is valid, without the con-
sent of their parents, or in the want of parents
of the grandparents, if Surviving. Women be-
tween the ages of 81 and 25. and men between
the ages of % and 80, in order to make a mar.
riage valid, must ask this consent; if refused,
may renew the request within month, and i!
again refused, may marry without the consent,
after another delay of a month. Persons above
these ages need only make one request, and if
refused need only delay one month. No mar
riage is valid while parents or grandparents sur
vive without these formalities.
The French lover. Mr.. Morac. despaired of
getting the consent of his parents in advance of
the marriage, pursuaded the young woman, Mile
Simonin, to accompany him to England, and be
married there, in due form, on the faith that
the parents would thereupon consent to repe-
tition of the ceremony in France The law
provides for the legalization of marriage by
the subsequent consent of parents within given
period. The parties were accordingly married
in England, but the young lady was so discreet
as to refuse to consider the ceremony complete
until it had been legally solemnized in France,
On the return to France, she continued to re-
fuse to live with him, unless REMARKED. 81
Within three months he formally announced
that he could not re-marry her under the French
law, and proposed to her to consider the English
ceremony as sufficient, and to live together as
man and wife, She, who is described as of ex-
cellent character and department., refused, and
instituted proceedings in the French Tribunals,
for annuling the marriage as void for illegality,
and never consummated The Court granted
her divorce in full She resumed her profess
sion, when the ex-love commenced series of
prosecutions and annoyance, from which she
escaped by going to London with her mother
and sister, and having abandoned the stage,
commenced a business with them as a domicled
British subject, in the reparation of ancient
books and manuscripts. She then made an ap-
plication to the courts to declare the marriage
null and void, in England, as it had been in
France.
It was case appealing evidently to sympathy
and to equity. She was a neritoriOus lady,
who had been trapped into false position was
a married woman, under the English law, and
unmarried by French law and decision, and was
thus tied in this distressing manner to very
worthless parsonage. But the English court
decided that the courts of England could give
DO relief. They would not recognize or admin
lister in England any of the local restrictions
placed upon marriage by the French Code, but
must pronounce all marriages contracted in
England, in compliance with English law, to be
valid. So this unfortunate lady is condemned
to be, in the eye of the English law, wife of a
man who refused to marry her, and whom she
has repudiated for his perfdies in every possible
way. This may be good law, probably it is, but
it is very harsh and unjust.
THE CAREER OF A "GooD FELLow."-A New
York correspondent of the Philadelphia Sunday
Dispatch, in writing up the history of Ex-Post
master Fowler, says: @4a
For several years his rooms at the New York
Hotel have been the focus OF political sentiment
for they were open to all, and champagne and
cigars were as abundant as at a banquet. No
matter who you were, if you dabbled in politics,
you had only to choose between the ''green
seal" and the golden sealn fo1 beverage, and
the Havannas were unimpeachable. His week
1y bill at the hotel must have been enormous
Then, again. he was Grand Sachem at Tamma-
ny; and, as he was always lavish in his contri-
buttons, he was at the head, besides being the
soul and two-thirds of the body, of many other
political organizations. In this manner he
squandered money, without the first idea of its
real value; and it does not demand long peri
cd, with such wide-gaping sources of exodus, for
the most capable of resources to exhaust itself.
Fowler's father was President of the High. |
land Bank. He was similarly dashing, gay
and exuberant gentleman. He became the vic |
tim OF defalcation to q heavy amount, and
committed suicide in his modification. His son
inherited his sires love of brilliant existence,
and spent patrimony of sixty thousand dollars
in his first dash at social experience. He next
spent hundred thousand for his mother, when
she wisely cut off his supplies. His third appl-
cation was through the funds of the postoffice, |
and his deficit there will reach one hundred and
eighty Thousand. Besides this, he expended
much money that he was constantly making in
successful speculations, and lost much in host |
of unfortunate ones, for he was ever dabbliEg in
enterprises of the dazzling and desperate kind. |
He made fifty thousand dollars in three days, in
the purchase and sale of lots on Staten Island,
but it did not last him over week and had he |
been favored with million month, he could
have squandered it all, with the greatest ease,
elegance and moncholGnce Imaginable. This |
spirit Of careless profusion necessarily won
Fowler many friends. Everybody liked him,
and hence everybody pities his misfortune.
AN ARIsTooRATIo ORGAN GRINDER.-About
iTe years ago Count Bulinskof, Russian noble
man, was accused of political crimes. An e.
dict was issued confscating his estates and con-