child of his residing with them. The
undivorced wife was living with an omnibus man,
and had been in a lunatic asylum. Mr.
Russell Gurney, in deciding the case,
observed, with epigrammatic truth, that ' this
was one of those unfortunate cases, in which,
in the present state of the law, if a man
was not possessed of wealth, he had no
power to remedy his situation: ' and knowing
(as we do know), that if, instead of
plain Mr. Gray and obscure Mary Adams,
these people had been Lord Grayton and Lady
Mary, we should simply have had ' Grayton's
Divorce Bill' going quietly through the House
of Lords, we can scarcely wonder if murmurs
arise against this wonderful system of legislation.
Another case: A Mrs. Adsett claimed
support from her husband, a gun-maker. The
husband very coolly informed the magistrate
that he could not support her; on the
contrary, for some months she had supported
him; but she might come back to him.
The wife replied that he had a mistress, and
she had three children. The magistrates
remarked that they were very sorry, but the
wife must go to the home provided for her,
mistress or no mistress — the law of England not
making that a ground of special protection."*

If anything could add to the ridicule and
absurdity of this part of the law, it is the
fact that, although it is law in England, it is
not law in Scotland. In that country divorce
is obtainable by a simple process, and is
open to the appeal of either party. A wife
accused of infidelity defends herself when
her presumed paramour may be prosecuted:
her property is protected; alimony is allotted
to her; and her clothes and " paraphernalia"
cannot be seized by the husband.

What golden magic is there in the silver
Tweed that, dividing the Scottish from the
English matron, throws over the one the
shield of the law, and overlooks the other
as a legal fiction? The opponents to easy
and equal divorce declare, with trembling
voice and prophetic solemnity, that it would
be productive of the grossest immorality.
Therefore, England is virtuous, and
"Caledonia, stern and wild," a nursery of vice.
Everybody who knows that hot-blooded
nation, knows that, solely in consequence
of its protection of women, it is a land
dedicated to Cupid. " Statues of Venus
are set up in all the principal squares
of Edinburgh. The marriage-tie is a mere
true lovers' knot. The ladies who present
themselves at Holyrood are triumphant
Messalinas. And on the decks of the emigrant
vessels which crowd the harbour of Leith,
groups of melancholy cast-off husbands may
be seen, bidding reproachful farewell to that
inhospitable country where they only exist to
be repudiated! " * The Scotch ladies will deny
their guilt. They will deny that the upper
classes of their nation have proved themselves
more immoral than the upper classes in
England. They will prove, that in five years, only
twenty Scottish couples have availed
themselves of the privilege of divorce. In vain. The
Lord Chancellor and the House of Peers have
pronounced that, to permit women in England
to enjoy the privileges accorded to women in
Scotland, would be productive of the grossest
immorality and of multitudinous divorce.
* Letter to the Queen on Lord Chancellor Cranworth's
Marriage and Divorce Bill. By the Hon. Mrs. Norton p. 43.

Nevertheless, the Solicitor-General
promises to acknowledge the existence of English
wives, some of these fine days. He said he
would bring forward a measure with that object
immediately after the Easter recess. But
Easter ,Whitsuntide, Midsummer, have passed,
and still the English matron remains a legal
fiction.

If the eloquence, energy, and wrongs of one
English wife could dispel it, her sisters in
adversity would not have to wait until after
"Parliament had expressed an opinion on the
Testamentary Jurisdiction Bill " (the Greek
Calends to which the Solicitor-General
postponed the matter from Easter, or Whitsuntide,
or any other definite time), until the eye of
the law condescends to open itself to their
existence. The spirited letter to the Queen
which we have here quoted*—written by a
lady whose statements of her own case include
almost every moral wrong and deprivation,
suffered in her own person, that a wife can be
subjected to — ought to give such a stimulus to
public opinion and sense of right, as will
hasten the slow operations of law-making.
* Mrs. Norton's Letter.

               COUNTY GUY.

SIR WALTER SCOTT has a refrain to one of
his charming ballads, in the form of an
interrogation. The guests are met; the bride is
ready (as far as I can recollect), but the
bridegroom is missing; and the poet plaintively
asks:

            Where is county Guy?"

I shall be glad to inform the literary executors
and assigns of the Wizard of the North
of the whereabouts of the Guy so anxiously
inquired after. It needs not an advertisement
in the second column of the Times to
move him to return to his allegiance. County
Guy is to be found, in great variety of form,
and in most flourishing condition in the County
Militia.

Now, I do not object abstractedly to Guys
in their proper place. If bigotry and intolerance
never found a more dangerous outlet
for their cruel passions, than the forlorn
straw-stuffed old scare-crow, with steeple hat, pipe
in mouth, outward turned fingers, and inward
turned toes, that with dark lantern and
matches, and doggrel rhymes, is paraded about
London, every fifth of November, we should
hear far less about Maynooth, and Peter Dens,
Orange processions, and the Scarlet Woman.