The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-05-20

bic from that OF 1nhdel1ty and immortality,
and are thus bringing upon il an odium
which does not Justly belong TO it and which
they ought sedulously to avoid.
We have already pointed out the mistaken
Interpretation which The sisters of the Soro-
Sis, many of whom are prominent Womens
Rights advocates, have put upon the result
of the Mcfarland trial. They defend the
truant wife and her paramour, and profess to
believe that the jury, in acquitting McFar-
land, meant to justify the ill-treatment of
wives by husbands and to deny them all pro-
lection.
The fact is, that what was really decided in
the case was that husband NAV shoot with
impunity any man who comes between him
and his wife, and aienates her from him.
Had Mrs. Mcfarland left her home without
any love-making from Mr.. Richardson, and
waited till she was honestly divorced from
her husband before she cultivated the devo-
t1on OF another man and engaged to marry
him, she would have escaped censure. 1t was
the indecent haste she displayed in endeavor-
ing to exchange one husband for another,
which has caused her to be condemned by
public opinion; and the same indecency in
applauding her conduct will bring like con-
demnation upon the women of the Sorosis.
But, as if this were not enough of load
for the Womens Rights party to carry, Mrs
Stanton, its most distinguished and able
leader, also falls into the mistake of making
this same Mcfarland case the occasion of
still more decided assault upon the inviola-
bility of marriage. In her lecture to ladies
only at Apollo Hall on Tuesday morning, she
advocated sweeping amendment to the
divorce laws of this State, and in the course
of her remarks used the following language:
Gwen these protracted divorce trials with all
their sickentng details, are giving woman new cou-
rage TO sunder the ties they loathe and abhor and
nnh in fironn tn
true marriage relation"
81 think divorce at the will OF the parties is not
only right, but that it is sin against nature, the
family, the State, for man and woman to live to-
gether in the marriage relation in continual antago-
ntsm, Indifference, disgust"
"The Protestant world have never regarded mar
rage as an ndissouble tie therefore 1t no great
stretch Of the civil and religious conscience of our
rulers to multiply the causes for divorce with adj
yancing civilization"
We will not attempt here to combat the
views which Mrs. Stanton so boldly avows.
We wish merely to point out that if they are
to be made an integral part of the women's-
rights platform, the whole movement is ire
trievably lost. There is SO much involved in
the maintenance of the sanctity of the mar
riage tie, that the doctrine of divorce at the
will of the parties-that is to say. of absolute
and unrestricted free love-must DESTROY anv
cause with which it may be identified how
ever true and good the intrinsic character of
that cause may happen to be.
THE THREE PROTHONOTARIES.
From the Patsturg Gazette.
The period is at hand for the regular ap-
polntment OF the prothonotaries of the
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania There are
three of these officers, one for each district.
The present incumbents are all Democrats.
and all of them have been conspicuously sue
cessful in rendering themselves obnoxious.
for their political partisanship, to a maj iority
of the people Indeed the record in that
regard of one of them, Snowden, at Phila-
delphla, has richly earned a public censure
not limited by the State boundaries. In this
Western district, the officer has discharged
his duties as competently as many Republi-
cans would have done and not more So He
has held that lucrative post for at least nine
years-and, strange as it may seem,
appears confident of still retaining it. But
we think better of Mr. Keenan's good sense.
He is himself too active, bitter, and shrewd
partisan not to understand that the people of
the Commonwealth gave, last October, very
clear expression of their desire that the Judi
cial service should be in all particulars COM
mitted to Republican hands. We thus re-
formed the bench for the express purpose of
redeeming our highest tribunal of Justice
from any shadow of suspicion of its continued
prostitution to merely partizan influences.
Moreover the friends of the present incum-
bent must be aware that in political sense.
he has succeeded in making himself peeu-
liarly unpopular with a majority of the bar
and the people. Yet more, they, his friends,
are all Democrats, and adhere to the Demo-
cratic dogma of rotation in office.
We express, then, the unanimous senti-
ment of q majority of the people of the
district, that it is time for him to retire. If
a Democrat must have it, let the Judges ap-
point some other man from that party; but
If the recent votes of the majority of the peo-
pie of Pennsylvania mean ANYTHING at all.
they signify clearly that this important Off
cial trust should be confded to some officer
in sympathy Herewith.
This is not at all question to be gov
erned by personal predictions. There are
plenty OF gentlemen who will equally we'll fill
the post, and some of them may be Republi-
cans. We have no doubt, therefore. that our
Supreme Bench, with which those appoint
ments rest, will approach their obnoxious
duty In the premises with sense of all the
responsibilities which clear majority of the
people have imposed upon their choice. And
1t is clear that this majority could never be
reconciled to a reappointment of either
Messrs Keenan, or Snowden.
WHAT OUR NAVY is AND WHAT IT
OUGHT TO BE.
From the NJ y. Herald.
The Secretary of the Navy in his annual
report recommends, as nucleus for navy,
forty iron -clads or monitors, for coast defense;
ten hrst class armored vessels, for foreign
service; ten first class wooden steamships,
each of three thousand tons; twenty second
class steam sloops, of two thousand tons each;
twenty third class steam sloops, of one
thousand tons, and fifty-fve fourth class
steam gunboats, averaging six hundred tons
This would make our effective navy one hun
dred and sixty yessals One hundred and