The Irish standard., 1913-11-08

T.
that We have just described or did she
make the right to use the civil divorce
laws condition of her consent?
Count Boni de Castellane asserted the
latter; the judges in the first instance
held that he had not established his
case, and consequently that the null
ity Of the marriage had not been
proved.
Count Castellane appealed and pre-
scented his case again. Madame Gould
refused to appear. Count John Cas-
tellane testified that on the eve of the
marriage she said she was Protest
ant and could get divorce whenever
she pleased. that she would never be-
come a Catholic. for then she would
lose her right to divorce her husband
and marry again, and that this right
1t was that treasured her in her
doubts concerning the marriage she
was about to contract. Prince John
del Drago more than confirmed this,
for he testified that Miss Anna Gould
declared explicitly to him that she
was marrying on condition that she
should be free to divorce her husband
in case of his infidelity. This was
again confirmed by the testimony Of
the bridesmaid who said that, in reply
to her question, whether she thought
she would be happy with Count Cas-.
tellane. Miss Gould replied that in
case she was not she would divorce
him, a resolution she expressed more
than once in her presence and that Of
others.
Here, then, was something more
than a mere error of judgment, or a
vague complacency in divorce as a
means of escape from possible difficult
ties. There was definite act of the
will as definite and as strange as the
will to contract marriage. In such a
case one has to harmonic II possible
the two wills. Can one harmonic the
resolution expressed again and again
to use divorce in case of unhappiness
with will to contract Christian mar
riage? The judges held they could
not. It was attached, then, to the
marriage consent as a real condition.
The bridesmaid was clearly of this
opinion, for she closed her testimony
with these words: "In America al
most all the girls who marry have
this intention, to use divorce If the
marriage does not make them happy"
Moreover, that Madame Gould main.
tanned that resolution constantly after
her marriage was proved by several
witnesses, among them being the Mar
quise de Tallyrand, an English Prot.
estant.
Against all this was, first, the de
NAL of Madame Gould at the first trial
AS we have seen, she entered no ap-
pearance at the second. But in it the
Judges noted several inaccuracies. She
implied, for instance, that at the time
of her marriage she was an inexperi
enced girl Of about Is, having natural
" no other idea than of getting mar
ried as everybody else does. She said
too. that she was brought up to dis
approve utterly of divorce and tina
she did not change her mind unit
} some years after her marriage. Blu
with regard to the first point, a docu
ment she executed just after her wed
ding shows that she was then of age
while as to the second, if she spoke o
her religious education, it must be re
marked that, though nominally al
Episcopalian, she was not baptized un
} til month before her marriage; an,
} If she spoke of her domestic educa
! ton. it must be remembered that di
vorce is not unknown among the mem
bers of her family. The Judge dele
gated to take this testimony note,
J that Madame Gould refused to b,
sworn on the gospels, saying that sh,
had never done so, but added that sh,
; would certainly tell the truth. Sec
J ondly. there was the testimony o
members of the Gould family. Blu
with one exception 1t was either neg
, alive or the expression of the witness
es' personal opinion. One only, whe,
| asked whether his sister had express
: ed the intention Of divorcing her hus
band in case of trouble, answered tina
, she had told her the contrary. Blu
even this would not prove fixed in
, tention against the many witnesses O,
ii Tho nthar eiJn