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    Mat 23, 1857.] THE LEADER. 493

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    MR. DISRAELI'S REFORM BILL. Mr. Disraeli...

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    THE PRINCESS EOYAL. We have at all times...

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    New Society For The Suppre Ssion Of Vice...

    fact are to go before a jury ; the Judge Ordinary is on all occasions to be attested by one of the chiefs from the Westminster courts , and in suits for full divorce by all those chiefs ; and in the full cotirt barristers and solicitors may practise . The divorce a mensa etthoro is made more distinct : it will be granted for cruelty or desertion ; the wife will be protected under clear decrees ; the court will be able to grant her a separate income , and she will enjoy full power over her own property and earnings . Divorce can only

    be granted for its present reasons—adultery in the wife , and adultery of very aggravated kinds in the husband ; the action of criminal conversation is retained , but is forbidden until after the dissolution of marriage . The costs will be regulated by the judges . The improvements here are , that the whole process for divorce is brought into one , instead of three , as at present ; the proceedings will bevivdvoce ; the law is rendered more certain ; the expense is reduced to that of the

    Court of Queen ' s Bench or Common Pleas . But the cost will still exclude all but the middle class , and even all but the richer portion of that class ; ' criminal conversation ' will still be a subject of suit for money ; an ecclesiastical judge , ecclesiastical lawyers , monopolise the greater part of the business ; ecclesiastical principles govern the whole . Great as an improvement on the present law , the bill goes to establish a law of which the false principles , false methods , inequality and injustice , are glaring .

    But may it be carried ! For it Would be a grand improvement . Had it been law forty years back , we should have been spared many painful and odious cases . Whatever may be the merits of a matrimonial dispute—often obscure—the truth can be best ascertained while the recollections of witnesses are fresh ; and , at all events , the worst scandals are spared by closing the case . The Marchioness of Westmeath has been publishing a * Narrative' of her case—a hideous tale of seven

    years' matrimonial conflict , with suits in nearly all the courts , and complaints of cruelty the most unmanly—of hard words and hard blows . The Marquis affirms that the case is one of conspiracy and perjury against himself , in which the lady that does him the honour to bear his name has not left him in peace for thirty-eight years . For nil that time have the recriminations of the

    husband and wife been unsettled . The case of Mrs . Norton is well known ; that of Lady Lytton is less clear , but not leas notorious . The Taltcot caso waa dealt with in the most uu satis factory way ; the jury granting the requisite ' damages' on proof of a 'fact' which remains extremely doubtful , if not incredible , but being influenced probably by the notoriety of evidence which was untenable , though it looked ugly . An excellent review of thia case has just boon published , in a volume of letters reprinted from the Conservative Standard . * The simple recapitulation ia nn exposure of the atrocious working of the proacnt system , from which Lord CitANWOKTii ' s bill would release us .

    But some Peers object . Virtuous Lord Malmeshury fears that it would extend the c privilege ' of the aristocracy to the ' lower ' clasaea of society , and hence he foresees a now extension of vice . Wo have already Been how visionary ia thia apprehension : the bill scarcely concerns the lower clauses — they cannot indulgo in the luxury of law even at Westminster prices . . But , it seems , there is an unknown , unavowed Society for tho Suppression of Vice sitting in the House of * Divorce in 1857 : tho Talbot ( Jiiho . JLottoru by Cujuh , containing full particulars of this celebrated divorce catio . Published by Ward and Locke , and sold for olglituenponco or two Hhillings .

    Lords , and keeping up the price of divorce , solely that its temptations may not f all within the reach of the lower orders . For several Peers spoke with Lord Malmesbury , and dreaded the effect of allowing divorce , except at a price that excludes the ' lower orders , ' if not the middle class . Let Lord Malmesbury look at home , into the house which he adorns , and ask if it possesses such a monopoly of forethought and good feeling as his argument presumes . In what class of society have arisen the cases

    which we have named ? Among peers , honourables , and landed gentiy . Look at the peerage , passim . We despise the man that can set class against class ; but the peers challenge the odious comparison . Hitherto the well-born and wealthy have had a monopoly of Societies for the Suppression of Vice : if they talk so much about different orders of society , they may force us to ask by what right they affect to stand forward and teach their fellow-creatures of the ' lower orders ?' Is their own condition immaculate and

    happy ? Evidently there is a c mission vacant—a mission for the suppression of vice among the upper classes . The clergy ^ ought to have undertaken it , but it is only in despotic France we have bold outspeaking in the pulpit . No , there will be no society for the suppression of vice in the West-end until it is undertaken by some philanthropic working men . Perhaps they mig ht have the courage and the disinterestedness necessary for the Augean labour of purifying the Peerage .

    Mat 23, 1857.] The Leader. 493

    Mat 23 , 1857 . ] THE LEADER . 493

    Mr. Disraeli's Reform Bill. Mr. Disraeli...

    MR . DISRAELI'S REFORM BILL . Mr . Disraeli has been studying the subject of Reform : " We should be the greatest idiots in the world if we did not , " he sa } s . He has been getting at the figures , and his deduction is , that the counties have too little representation , and the towns too much . TV e are gratified to find that the colleague of Caleuon du Pre has

    been spending his leisure so seriously ; but it may be doubted whether , after all , he is likely to be a useful Reformer . First , he hates Reform ; that he admits . Secondly , he admires prescription . That is a sentiment , however , not an opinion , and cannot be made the basis of a policy , or even a manoeuvre . Thirdly , ho complains of the measure of 1832 , but does not know how to rectify its partiality , except by numbering the agricultural labourers—giving them more representation , but not giving them votes . A hundred and forty-four county members

    represent ( or do not represent ) eight million seven hundred thousand people . Three hundred and nineteen borough members represent ( or do not represent ) eight million one hundred and forty-four thousand peoplebeing one member to every sixty thousand persons in the caso of the counties , and one to every twenty-five thousand in the case of the boroughs . Here ia an anomaly ! But how docs Mr . Disraeli propose to remedy it ? N * ot by cxtonding tho franchise , but by taking * from tho boroughs to give to tho counties . Decrease the borough

    constituencies , multiply the county constituencies , and you have Mi . Disraeli's Reform Bill . Thus , Cheshire will bo avenged upon Chester , North Durham upon Qatcshead and Sundcrland , tho \ Vest Riding upon its nine groat towns . This is the Newport Pagnoll specific for putting us all under tho operation of the CiiANDoa clause . Mr . Disraeli : counts tho cottagers , and demands—say , for every forty thousand—a Member of Parliament elected

    for them , not by them . Ho would retain the qualification at the fifty pounds and forty shillings standard . AV ^ o aro to reform next year , and all in bohalf of tho landed interest .

    There is an opinion , not at Newport Pagnell , that the landed interest is too powerfully represented already , so that when Lord John " Russell is made a political grandfather , we scarcely expect that the new bantling will be surnamed Disraeli . " It is an ancient weakness ; " but , happily , it is the weakness of a diminishing minority . Once he was careful to describe himself as a Conservative ; now , the ancient weakness returning , he exults , " These are Tory principles . " Mr . Disraeli has the landed interest in * charge , but the Liberal party is responsible for the future history of England .

    The Princess Eoyal. We Have At All Times...

    THE PRINCESS EOYAL . We have at all times expressed an opinion favourable to the Prussian marriage of the Princess Royal . Granted that our princesses must contract alliances with the bloodroyal of Europe , the young lady could scarcely , in a public sense , have formed a wiser engagement . The Prince of Prussia , standing one step from the loftiest Protestant throne in Continental Europe , is in all respects a fitter husband for the eldest daughter of our Queen than any of the Serene Highnesses belonging to that brood of petty States enumerated by the Treaty of Vienna . The outcry against Germanism we must leave to other journalists , with other sympathies than ours . It is better to be possible Queen of Prussia than Grand Duchess of Heching en . The Princess Royal , therefore , lias had her hand confided to almost the onl } Prince in Europe who may be expected to place upon her head a conspicuous crown . Yet , we must say , the advantages of the contract are upon his side . To marry the eldest daughter of the Queen of Britain is an honour which any potentate of Europe might

    envy . Yet , with the English Princess it is proposed to give away a dowry of forty thousand pounds sterling , and & pension of eight thousand a year . We suppose that the dowry was not to bo avoided , but the proposal of a pension is altogether obnoxious to the sense of the English people . We have five lloyal Princesses already ; are we to provide for all upon that gigantic scale ? It is to no purpose that soothing assurances are put forward with reference to the Duchies of Cornwall and Lancaster , the sources whence the Prince of Wales—in other times a bottomless pit of expenditure—is expected to derive his entire income . The House of

    Commons must sift that question , and we shall know , when Mr . Coninoham introduces tho motion of which he has given notice , whether the Government has anything to conceal . In the meantime , we must treat the affair as it comes before us . Is it consistent with modern ideas of economy or moderation to charter the young bride of the Prussian Prince with an annual income , largo in amount , derived f rom the British Exchequer ? There is a strong appeal to tho loyalty of tho House of Commons ; the House of Commons assents to tho dowry ; but Sir Counewall Lewis takes credit to tho

    Government for moderation on the ground that it simply asks for tho Princess Royal a , dowry of -10 , 000 / ., and a ponsion of 8000 / . a year . Anticipating his proposals , however , Mr . Roebuck expressed tho real feeling of the Liberal party . He was very anxious , he said , to provide amply for the Princess Roval , but what ia asked for her may bo asked for her sistors ; and why should not Parliament redeem its responsibility by a ainglo vote , discharge ; its obligations , and relievo the country , for tho futuro ^ from the tribute of" loyalty , payable to Continental Courts ? Wo say nothing of tho 40 , 000 / . It is a comparatively moderate sum . But there is no force whafcover in the argument

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), May 23, 1857, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_23051857/page/13/