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    undertaken by Mr . Nobton *? Pf ^^ s wife , but it resulted from the tnal that « the ereditors cannot sue the < non-existent married woman : the husband cannot contract with a < non-existent' married woman , and the * non-existent' married woman cannot be compelled to pay if she refuses to discharge the Irtebt . " Mr . Norton sent her letters signed " Q-beeitaobb , " inviting her to meet

    him in an empty house ; and when she declined to return to him , he advertised her in the papers as having left him , her family and home . Her husband has stopped 1500 Z . of her year ' s income , and she cannot raise it . "No one would lend money to a married woman ; she can give no security . " But it is impossible to follow this amazing case into all the details of its injustice .

    "I declare , " says the injured wife , summing up her own case , " upon t he holy sacraments of God , that -I-was not Lord Melbourne ' s mistress ; and , what is more , I do not believe ( and nothing shall ever make me believe ) that Mr . Norton ever thought that I -was . In that miserable fact is the root of all my bitterness , and of all his inconsistency ! Me never -had a real conviction ( not even an unjust one ) , to make him consistent . He wavered , because he was ioing , not what he thought nece ssary and just , but what he imagined would " answer : " and someand

    times one thing appeared likely to answer , sometimes another . He thought the course he took respecting me and my children , in 1836 , would answer ; and so far it did answer , that he is two thousand a year the richer . He thought his defence to the tradesman ' s action , in 1853 , would answer ; and so far it did answer , that he is five hundred a year the richer . But he never believed the accusations on which he has twice founded his gainful measures of expediency . He acknowledged he did not believe them , to others -who have published his

    acknowledgment . " It ought not to T > e possible that any manj by mock invocations to justice , should serve a mere purpose of interest or vengeance ; it ought not to be possible that any man should make 'the law' his minister , in seeking not tHat which is just , but that which may ' . answer . '" Ought this to be ? That question is the gist of Mrs . Norton ' s letter to the Queen . She establishes her case by reference to the testimony of Sir John Bayltsy , Lord "Wtk - other who

    forb , and many persons are engaged , some of them on Mr . -Norton ' s own side . She is quite right when she says , that if she had committed the offence charged against her , she would have attained freedom from her husband , and au independent existence before the law . Nay , if her husband had been more successful , and had succeeded , however falsely , in establishing the charge against her , she would have been free , More than one story shows what may bo done by breaking the law instead of obeying it . before the of liords

    There is a case Houso thia week — Sitmner ' s divorce . In 181-9 , Penelope Btjbisja Maria Valsamachi was married to Morton Corntsii Sumner , only son of Mr . [ Richard Sumner , of Putenham Priory , in Surrey : and in 1855 Morton seelts a divorce from hia wife . The whole story has happened in the " interval . In 1849 , soon after their marriage at Corfu , Penelope writes to her husband ' s parents , telling them that Morton lias been severely ill under an attack of brain fever . She speaks kindly of him , and evidently she devoted herself to protect his shattered health . Sonic few

    ' months afterwards a fall brought on a premature confinement , and she gavo birth to a child . The couple returned to tbo Ionian Islands , they travelled in . Germany , thoy came to England ; and here , in 1850 , Mrs . Mobton meets her husband ' s parents . By this time she had conceived a repugnance to her . husband , whom who declares to have been in . such a state of health that , in point of fateb , he had never been a husband to her . How then could she hav 6 given birth to a pfrftd ]? . I ** * ki& father that asks ' tho quos-. tion ., It must be remembered that the child was born within five months and one week

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    ITALIAN NECROLOGY . { From a Corretipondent , ) Itai-t is losing her eminent men—indeed her most eminent . Last year Pinrxico , Gnosar , Rossetti ,

    Hubini , and Visconti passed away ; and this year , in the course of a few months only the world has lost Paci . o Toschi , the celebrated engraver ; Giovanni Rosini , the historian of Italian painting ; Cabi . o Marenco , the powerful dramatic writer ; and last , the greatest of all , the philosopher Ajstonio Rosmini Ijerbabti . To the national mourning of the Italian people let us join our voice , for we feel deeply sorrowful that men so learned , so laborious , so faithfully devoted to the great traditions of their country , should not have secured a better fate for the nation to which they- belonged .

    Giordani , the most acute and severely cesthetical critic , of whom also Italy has been deprived within the last few years , said , that as to Raphael alone was granted . the power to unite boldness to sweetness , pride to modesty , vigour to grace , and strength to gentleness , so to Toschi only was conceded the power to imitate these qualities with the burin . " All the frescoes of Correggio in Parma , and four of Tiirmigiano , with the Spasimo di Sicilia of Raphael , engraved by him , are the finest works the art of intaglio has ever produced .

    The Storia della Pittura IlaHana , by Giovanni RosrNi , Professor of Eloquence to the University of Pisa , has long been familiar to the English amateurs of Italian art , many of whom have used it as a manual to enable them , when travelling in Italy , to distinguish mediocrity from talent , and talent from genius ; in fact , Rosini ' s impartial criticism and refined taste have often caused him to be referred to by our own tourists . His loss , sensibly felt throughout the whole peninsula , but more especially at Pisa , will be painful even to his

    English admirers . Rosini has also rendered great service to Italian literature by his typographical labours with regard to the corrections and variations of the classics . His edition of Twmo , oi which only 250 copies were printed , is held in high estimation by literary men in Italy and abroad ; ¦ while his three historical romances , La Monaco di Ifonza , Luisa Strozzi , and Ugolino , with a great number of comedies , essays , and poems , prove the versatility of his genius and the activity of himind .

    JMauknco largely contributed to the formation of a National Italian Drama , the subjects of which all tend to illustrate , the History of Italy- Among the more celebrated of his long list of trngedie .-¦ we may mention Jiuondelmonle e gli Amcdci , Adelisa , and Pia . His full , energetic , and passionate style , though wanting in the harmony that , distinguishes Nicolini , has " " not the occasional harshness of Alfieri . His life was tranquil , he was respected by all , and his death is deeply reyretted .

    To close this painful enumeration , Ros > : uini % loss may be considered ns the gravest for philosophical science , since from the present ^ system ol superficial acquirements and light sturlies he cannot easily be replaced . Rosmxni ' s mind was one of the strongest even among philosophers ; and to thia power of thought was added a fund Qf erudition , which he has copiously infused into all his works . The antagonism of Gioberti . who in three heavy volumes , entitled JZrrnri < lt

    fioftmmi , severely criticised his Nuovo Saggin yiril 'Origine dalle Idee , did no harm to the great ideologist ; and ( whatever may be the op inions ol the philosophical world on his social , political , ami religious doctrine ' s , which it is not my present object to discuss ) no 6 nc , can deny that ho possessed the highest attributes of a great thinker . It would bo well if some of our move important reviews would break the silence which lias so unjustly suffered Rosmjni ' s contributions to the science of thought to remain uriholiced , as tin . *) would offer a fair criterion of the actual state ot

    this branch of learning in the country of Vieo . of Galileo , and of Macchiavelli . The works ol this author are very voluminous ( nbnut sixteen vola in royal 4 to . ) , and are the result of forty ycArs of study . Prominently among the ** , l > e ,- > ide ^ the one already mentioned , are La Fih $ <> J i <* < l : lhi Politica , the Principi della ' tSclmza Morale , mimI tlie Filosofia del Diritto :

    Macauiay suys , that during the gloomy and disastrous centuries which followed the ; downfal ol tlie Roman Empire , Italy had prune-wed , i" »¦ tlu ' greater degree than any other part of Western Kuropo , the truces of ancient civilisation . u The night which descended on her was the night of an Arctic summer . 11 Under the present unfavourable circumstances , it is remarkable that Italy not only does notshroud herself in tho darkness of night ,

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    of the marriage . To the father ' s inquiry she answers that Mr . Sfmneb was 'not the father of that child , and that she would swear to it . She leaves her husband ; is lost to his view for some time ; writes that she has procured a divorce in America , and in Corfu again marries a certain Nicholas Kallegabi , with whom she is now , apparently , at Galatz or Bucharest . The summons to appear hefore the House of Lords pursues her to Turkey ; and , throwing her arms around her second lmshand , she

    hopes that in any new marriage which Morton may contract , he may be as happy as she is now . The story is told before the House of Lords this week , and on the deposition of their own messenger , the Lords have no doubt as to the adultery , since Mrs . Morton Sumner has married a second time . Sometimes we call this bigamy : to the House of Lords , viewing- it technically , pro Me vice , it is adultery ; and the Lord Chancellor " moves that Sumner ' s Divorce Bill be read a second time . " Morton is free , and so is

    Penelope . Mrs . Norton might attain ler object , if her husband were more unscrupulous than she paints him . Another story has already been told in print , although it does not stand very conspicuously before the public . A gentleman of property is married to a lady of good connexions , and of some attractions , but his desire for an heir is not gratified . He appears to be an attached husband , and certainly the lady is an attached Tvife . She is household and watches

    attentive to the over his interests as carefully as if he were not himself captious and niggardly . Suddenly , however , he brings forward a story that she is too familiar with one of * the grooms ; ' that she has proceeded to the last familiarities , and has even made herself notorious in the stable-yard ! This statement , accompanied by very circumstantial details , is told to her father , and is believed ! The lady indignantly denies the

    calumny . Other servants are set to watch or to persecute her ; the butler taking advantage of her position to become a suitor on his own account . The husband , told this fact , does not appear to disbelieve it , but does not remove the butler . Perhaps if the butler had succeeded , it would have been as useful as if the story about the groom had been true . Let the reader picture to himself a lady living in a country-house in Ireland , and subjected to treatment of this kind—her husband calumniating her , her own friends believing him , her servants conspiring against her , the butler insolently and alarmingly

    invading her very bedroom at night . The lady actually goes mad ; and being mad , confesses that her husband ' s story is true . Tho \ uitruth of the tale is proved by tho circumstantial statement of one servant , and by a number of facts collected elsewhere , which are incompatible Avith the story . A judgment of the Ecclesiastical Court , however , has pronounced a divorce a monad ct thoro ; and the husband's way to a bill in Parliament appears to bo clear . Such is tlio story told in a pamphlet by Mr .-Joitn . Pagkt , tho barrister acting on behalf of the lady in tho case of " Talbot v . Tjilbot . "

    If the husband had sueceoded , Mrs . Talbot would at all events havo been free Penelope- VatMa . ua . cui actually became bo , and is a happy woman . No matrimonial oiFence has beounroved against Mrs . Norton ; she is " non-exifltent" in law—in a condition worse than the slave ' s , for she is bond yot unprotected .

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    * . , « . « THE LEADBB . [ No . 277 , Saturday ,

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), July 14, 1855, page 672, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2099/page/12/