Year: 1861

The Advantage of Bnchelor M n Divorce


Judee-WisdOm of Queen vicTorin,s Ap-


poIntment. II ~ -


A writer in FTdzer's Magazine processes to
have studied 1.-THE Philosophy of Marriage -
IN the new English Court of Probate and
Divorce. It is a curious circumstance that
Judge Cresswell, of that Court, is bachelor,
and 1t is argued that the selection by Queen
Victoria, Of an unmarried man for the posi-
tion, was not an accident. The author of the
article above named thus pleasantly refers to
this suggestive subject:
Sir Q. Cresswell is a free man, untram-
melled by those cares and vexations, those
delights and dalliances which would be likely
to warp and distort his Judgment. He has
no ugly prejudices, no "reminiscences pleas
ant or unpleasant, to stand in the way of
equitable decisions. He has no dread of A
curtain lecture at night for dealing heavily
during the day with some errinp one who
might have attracted his wife's pity. Be.
sides, a Judge who has just left scolding
wife, depend upon it, does not assume com.
posure with his wig. He would assuredly
deal roundly with any such vixen whose
conduct came Immediately after under his
adjudication. .,.. ..'..''


'In the reigns of the Tudors," it is said





armed to the teeth, from Carlisle to Newcas
tie, and avenged themselves for the fears and
tatigues by the summary execution of whole
patches of suspected malefactors." What
could be more natural And might not a
Judge of the Divorce Court who at the best
is but mortal man, after enduring battery
OF hard words from his wife at breakfast, re-
venge himself on the same day by making
havoc OF some virtuous shrew who had
yielded to no infrluity beyond the ,yenial
feminine one OF an excitable temperament
and tery tongue, and sent forth her winged
arrows rather too briskly.


Socrates no doubt was a model husband
but would you have ventured to place him
in Sir Q. CresswelTs seat after an earwippino
from Xantippe? Or, take the more agreea.
BILE side of the question. View human
nature in its more amiable aspect. Suppose
the judge to be some Sir Coddle Coddle. He
regarded his wife as an angel clothed in
flesh, blood and crinoline. He never leaves
her in the morning without kiss, and an
earnest request from her that he will be care
ful Of his health. She assists him as he puts
on his overcoat, ties q muffler round his
neck with her own dear hands, and sees him
safe in his carriage.


Why, that man would be of more than
human type if he could act as an impartial
judge. He would imagine that all wives
were ducks like his own, and he would
avenge himself on the brakes, who might be
innocent and harmless. II is said that the
whole creation of married men may be
logically divided into two classes, the hem
pecked and the wheedle-peOked. Now, as a
judge of the Divorce Court, if married, must
come under one or other of these eategores,
it follows as logical conclusion that his
perception would be clouded and bis faculty
ofjudgment distorted, when he ought to be
administering even-handed justice.


Then, with what feeling of seIEcompla-
cency will Sir Creswell regard the cases that
pass through his Court.


IT'S IT'S pleasant prIS.a safely to behold from shore


Not that anothers pain is our delight


But pains untelt produce the pleasing sight


IT'S pleasant also to behold from far


The moving legions miDgliug in the war.


We do not acquiesce altogether in the phi
losophical dieta of the Epicurean poet; but
if there be any truth in this passage our
present Judge Ordinary must be happy
man as he beholds the misery of married
life passing like gloomy phantoms in review
before him from day to day. He sees at a
distance the raging of domestic storms, and
hears the artillery of matrimonial warfare
as he sits on his eminence of state, undis.
tracted and unbiased. Then follow him to
his own mansion after the business of the
day. Will he not eat his dinner with pecu.
liar relish, and sip his claret afterward with
the SaaUe mari magHo feeling of the poet
AS he falls asleep in his easy chair, what
strange dreams will disport themselves in
his brain-wild, fantastic and dimly pleas
urable And when he retires to rest, will
he not lay his head on his pillow with a
sense of self satisfaction that no other head
is near-that he is not teased with frilled
night caps-that he can lie abed longitudi
nally, diagonally, or curviinearly, according
to his own sweet willP o happy Sir O.
Cresswelll