Comments on the Case.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 245, 10 March 1888, Page 8

Comments on the Case.

It is hardly necessary, says tho " Daily Telegraph," to pronounce any public vcrrlicfc on this oxcopbional narrative. Tho readiness of Mr Brockington bo do anything or allow anything so that his first wife 1 uuyhb bo provoked into applying for a rtivorco testifies, no doubt, to his intense i hatred of on uncongenial companion and to his violent lovo for Miss Bryan. He reminds one of the country actor who, playing Othello. <c blacked himself all over for tho part." Then one can hardly admire the lovo of bombast — almost elation — with which Mr Brockington recites his deed?. There are men and women who, goaded by intolerable suffering at home, have broken the law of God and man, unable otherwise to obtain respite from a cruel situation ; but they have not been proud of their offence. Tennyson describes the noble Launcelot's visago when he fell under temptation : " Tho great and guilty love he bare the Queen, in battle with the lovo he bare his lord, had marred his face and marked it ore his time. Another sinning on such heights, with one the ilower of all the West and all the world, had been tho sleeker for it." Mr Brockington represents that alternative ; ho glories in tho condemnation of tho Divorce Court, and chuckles over the success of his silence. When undou the Bourbon Restoration a Liberal Deputy paraded too often the fact that he had been hned for free speech, a colleague said to him, " It is not enough to bo convicted ; one ought to be modest." This wo recommend to Mr Brockington. Let him bear what he thin ks his honours more meekly. He considers himself a hero ; the people of HenleyinArden evidently regard him ao one who took passion for his guide. Nor does he explain some important points. His wife may have provoked his wrath ; but

What About His Seven Children They at least, we presume, were innocent of offonce ; yot the lovor and husband of Mis 3 Bryan leaves them to the care and support of his divorced wife. But, above all, why should this belated marriage be *o triumphantly proclaimed. There are men among us who have erred in wedlock, and who make the best of it—endeavouring b> suporb kindness and sublime patience to extract happiness from a foolish choice, and, even if they fail, enduring all things for the sake of their vows, their children, and the women they once loved. These men aro the true heroes —not the blatant Brockingtons of the world, who break old and form new bonds in torn pests of wrath and passion, and then advertise themselves as champions of liconce and violators of law.