THE LANGWORTHY MARRIAGE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1611, 16 July 1887, Page 4

THE LANGWORTHY MARRIAGE.

(" Lyttelton Times.") Towards the end of April last London began to be very much excited about the Laugwortby marriage, and by the middle of May the excitement became oxtreme. What is the Lanftwortby marriage 1 It is the subject of the last sensation of the '♦new journalism" [by the Pall Mall Gizette] which Matthew Arnold has taken to writing about bo much. . . . The story is a Btory of woman's imprudent trust, and man's calculating perfidy. It opacs with a dramatic touch— a >oung man, rich, passably good looking, very idle, is enjoying, with many chuckles, the protracted death a^oniea of a wretobed animal he has tortured and flang into a well to drown. This cruel wretch is the hero, Mr Langworthy, barrißter-at-law, owner of the steam yacht Meteor, inheritor of great wealth, etc., etc. He is a widower, who, during his life, wbb supposed to have been unkind to his wife, who, poor lady, " died," — the reference is highly BUggeßtlve — "m mid-ocean." The heroine is a high-spirited, handsome, clever, virtuous, impulsive, trustful Irieh girl, a graduate of Trinity College, Dublia, who at the time of meeting the hero is making a comfortable living by the profession of teaching. They meet, and they love, Hepropoeen, she accepts, and there are the usual demonstrations and rapturous exclamations, by vrhlch it is ma^e apparent that troth is, if not siranger than fiotion, at least very muoh like it. She had a holiday, be persuades her to take a run acrons to France m bis yacht the Meteor, a floating palace, m which ho offers her "a love of a cabin," and the moat stern, and the most respectable of etern and respectable ohaperonea. She agrees m a moment of weakness and embarks. At Caen she is surprised, at two hours' notice, into marriage by some wretched " Abbe," or pretended" Abbe," m a village churoh with, out a vritneßß or spectator. Naturally she is not satisfied, whereupon Mr Langworthy carries her to Antwerp, and takes her to a fine old Amerioan Presbyterian olergyman, who agrees to marry the pair. They are married according to the beautiful ceremony of the Presbyterian Churoh before two witnesses. Nothing can be more solemn, nothing more binding to the human conscience thf n the marriage oath so frequently repeated during that service. We hava the words and procedure of the service, the demeanour of tho parties, and the witnesses, and ihe pious simple exhortation which good old Or P Us gives to tho Dewly-mani«d pair, aooording to the custom of the divines of the Presbyterian Church. Miss Long fa satisfied that she is no longer Miss Long Edward, who, bfing a barrister of the loner Temple, kai ws ali about it-, and alao being her Fdward, 1b incapable if deception, Edward has told hia Milly that she is Mrs Laug worthy from that day forth. Edward however, keeps the marriage certificate, informing Mrs Milly that he Intends to eend it to hia solicitors, the Messrs Birobam, for hotter securing the secrecy of their marriage. Why was It neoessary to be secret ? Edward has a mother, a very dragon of an old lady, who enjoys almost fabulous wealth, who has refused to allow her aristocratic son — also the son of a most respectable though successful ootton spinner — to wed with a person who has " been engaged m teaching." Now what Edward, who was a barrister, knew about this moßt satisfactory marriage waa not wbat ho had told hie poor wife, He knew that a marriage between British subjects celebrated m a foreign place, to be valid m the eye of English law, must be valid according to the lex loci. In Belgium the marriage Is, according to tho law, a civil contract merely. Anybody that pleases can add a religious ceremony, but the religious ceremony is, for tho purpose of the Belgian marriage law, useless. Indeed, anyone conducting a religions marriage service without proof that the civil ceremony- has been gone through is subject, under the Code, to fine and imprisonments Mr Liugwortby, therefore knew thftt : tfc|.

marriage by Dr Potts was not a marriage valH m the eye of tho law. The cruel deception dons not seem to havo spoilt Mr Langworthy'a enjoyment of tho honeymoor. For some months the newlywedded pair travelled, Mrß Langworthy being alwaya introduced to fritods aa Mrs Langworfchy, and finally they Btarted In the Meteor for Buenos Ayrea where Mr laugworthy baa some vary fine propertii 8, and is considered a vary rising and moneymakin;» peraou. Before arriving at Buanos Ayrea "Mr Langworthy learns that hlawlfo is about to become a mother. There ia a change m his manner. Love departs, aud brutality ttikrs his place. Finally, Mr Langwnrthy tolls his wife that she is no wifa at all, ordem her ont of the yaobt into a tender waiting alongside — they had $ot to Buanoß Ay res by tMs time -gives har £50, a box- of ooarae fhunel for her child, and tickets for herself and her sister for a passage on board a tub of a trader about to start for Europa. The distracted helplern women leave the yacht, aud thus enda the Grst p*rt of tho story. The second deals with tho law. Tho wife, abandoned an \ flung off, outraged and si an dered, applies for redress to the courts of her country . How she was kept at bay for two years by subterfuges of winch it is impossible to write with calmne- s ; how at last Sir James Hnnnen was obliged reluctantly to declare the marriage invalid ; how the injured wife was awarded £1200 a year alimony for the time her suit had been pending ; how the ! husband ws»s ordered to pay all the costs ; how he kept out of the jurisdiction and paid nothing ; how his wife at last pounced upon him and distrained on his goods ; how these goods turned out to bo ! chiefly his mother's property ; how ho therefore failed to get his decree absolute ; how many artistic Hob and scientific falsehoods there were m the suit ; how fortunate the wife was m her solicitors, Messrs Lumley and Lumley ; how at last tho wife, having been caat off, has brought an action for breach of promise ©f marriage, and the rich husband has flown to the protection of the Bankruptcy Court — these are things it is impossible to go into here m detail. They are all set forth m great minuteness, and with great power, method, and clearness m the columns of the " Pall Mall Gazette," where they constitute one of the most remarkable chapters of the romance of fact which has ever been printed. The publication ha 3 stirred the hearts of many thousands of people, evoking sympathy ef the tenderest and the moat lively with virtue outraged and m distress. Subscriptions come m to the editor, and many have declared their determination to help this poor, forlorn, deceived creature to wrest from her destroyer compensation for tho awfal wrong he hae done. That la one of the reaaonß why tbe editor has taken this new departure m tho new journalism. Another is that a scoundrel ,7.ho is beneath the reach of morality and beyond the pale of honor may feel the shame of public opinion On his last voyage to Europe it may be as well to mention that tbe scoundrel was subjected to a general boycott. Other reasons there are for this publication, which may be gathered from the story too. The marrlßge laws require to ba understood, and, when understood, reformed. For example, a m m who swindles a woman of her honor should be punished just as he would, be for the commission of any. other fraud. Again, though the same law binds the rich and the poor, that law fs accessible always to the rich, and but seldom to the poor. That fact cannot be too plainly stated, or too long kept before the public, or, when condemnation is neoeasary, too severely condemned. And yet another reason. What Is the practice with the lawyers, even the moet eminent, when conducting their cases 1 Do they con tout themselves with fair means of protecting the moneybags oat of vrhiuh came their fat fees ? Or do they reeort sometimes to practices which honorable men onght to blush to mention ? Let any man read tbta etory of the Lsngworthy case, and he will find much food for well-directed speculation m this direction. Having read the story, we aay without hesitation that it Is well for the pure light of free comment to be thrown upon tbe practices of lawyers, even of so oh men as Sir Charles Russell and Mr Inderwick, whose names are so frequently m the repots of great oases, and of the Messrs Biroham, who are said to have an unblemished name and • high record.