Curious Trial Cases. (From Our Special Correspondent.)

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 383, 10 July 1889, Page 5

C urious Trial Cases. (From Our Special Correspondent.)

Lo^dox, May 17. A decision of considerable importance to " grass " widdws and unattached husbands was come to in bhe Law Com fes on Saturday by a conclave of touvtcen of England's wisest judges. Hibhorto it lias boen necessary for wives with missing husbands (or husbands with missing wive-), who wish to guard against a charge of bigamy, to wait seven years before manying again. The judges have now come to the conclusion that this is too much to ask. In the slow old days, of sailing vessels, Robinson Crusoes and desert islands, an occasional traveller or ancient mariner mi'j/U be involuntarily expatriated for six years or so. Now, what with t>teamei\s and telegraphs, such a catastrophe ib hardly possible. Generally it is puie devilment which induces a man to keep his existence secret fiom his wife for lour or fi\e years, and then to burst upon her with a prosecution for bigamy. The law has played into the hands of such scoundiels a meat deal too much latterly. Henceforwaid tnio victim will merely have to prove to the courtb-that she had good reason for .supposing her hu&baud de:id, and — well — dead to he>* he will remain. No period of probation is tixed. You will easily see that what might be too long in one cate might not be long enough in another. "Act with good feeling and commonsense and trust your cat-e, it trouble should ensue, to a judge and jury."' is the advice now gi\en by the Bench in conclave, and bound advice it seems. Of course test cases were lequircd to bring about this decision. They are thus described by a daily paper :—: — There were, it appears, lately two women named respectively Tolson and Strippe — the law in its rude fashion will not allow polite prefixes — who, after being mairied, were deserted by their husbands. Mrs Tolson and Mrs Sbiippe thereupon, like good, dutiful, and law-abiding spoiibes, waited for years for the return of their errant consorts, and waited all in vain. No Mr Tolson brightened, or darkened, the portals of Mrs Tolsou's dwelling ; nor could it be said that one line summer evening, when the lamp w a burning in Mrs Strippe's boudoir, and the fair occupant was sitting sadly with her head, buried in tier hands^ having lecently put the fatherless children to bed, the lono Ilosb Mr Strippe hurried up the front gra\el walk, cast a look of mingled agony and raoture into the window, and in a moment more clasped his wite once again in his manly arms. On the contrary, the sober urosc of the affair is that the ladies mariicd again ; they had been infoimed that their husbands were dead, and they believed the authoribabivo story. It so happened that in both]cases, which were tiied.togetherior the sake of convenience, but which had no real connection with each othor the wives had waited neaily &e\en yeais betoro the ceremony of the re-marriage took place. Now the law says that after a wife has not been heard of or from a husband for as many as saven years, a prosecution for bigamy is impossible ; and, if these ladies had consented to regulate their lo\e afihiis by the advice ot a good piactical solicitor, the\ would, no doubt, luuebcen advised to put oil the .nuptial day until the exact period had actually expired. Unfortunatefy for themselves, they did not take this course ; and, w hen it turned out tlmo Messrs Strippe and Tolson, &o fai fiom being defunct, were both ot them alive and kicking 1 againso the hymeneal proceedings ot their respective betterhalves, the thundeibolt of a prosecution for bigamy was launched. The cases weie onginally both tiied befoie Mr Justice Stephen, who directed the jury that it a woman reasonably believes her husband to be dead, and re-mariies befoie the seven ycais, that is no defence agam&t a chaige of bigamy. Not that Mr Ju-feice Stephen himself formed this view ; but he felt that the law leqturcd dealing up on the point, and he consideied that the best wav to have it elucidated was for the woman to be eon- j \icted and then for the justice of the conviction to be tested by the Court for Crown Cases Reset ved. The jury convicted, being bound to do so by the Judge's direction ; but they aLso found in each case that the woman had acted under a bona-iide belief that her husband was dead. When Judge met Judge in the subsequent tug of legal war which took place m the Crown Court, theie were tound to be nine in favour ot quashing the ccnvicoion, and only the in its support. In the ma]ority were counter the Lord Chiet Justice, Mr Justice Stephen himself, as well as Justices Wills, Day, Smith, Hawkins, Granthatn, and Charles. The minoiibv is not to be despised, considering that it contained Mr Justice Manitty and Mr Baron Pollock, and three other learned justiciars ; still it io the view of the majority which stands, and so it is now declared to be the law of England that, wheie a woman has reasonable cause for believing her husband dead, ehe can marry again within seven years without exposing herself to all the pains and penalties which bigamy entails. If a man chooses to absent himself fiom home, and remain for the space of three years without corresponding with his wiie, most people would say that he had forfeited all right to claim the conjugal happiness which he had known so little how to appieciate when it was within his grasp. There are a few wives who might think differently — who would declare it worth while to wait for an absent spouse all their life long. A touching story of this sort is that told in Mr and Mrs Hall's delightful book ot Thames reminiscences — of the handsome river boatman who married a rather vixenish woman a good deal his senior, who was, nevertheless, a good mother to his children, and as true as steel to him. One evening the Thames waterman took his craft for a paddle, and he was nob seen again for ten years. Appearances led to the supposition that he had been drowned ; but the wife never believed the theory, and kept his place at table and his room always ready for him, and a lamp perpetually burning in the window of the little cottage. The stray-away did return, and the wife never allowed him to be questioned as to where he had been all those years. He himself really vouchsafed the information that he had been 'seeing the world.' JFor one case of this sorb there are a thousand where the man deserts his home is not, and is not thought, worth waiting for indefinitely ; and the law in punishing bigamy must take into consideration, nob the isolated instance of real inability to return, but the huge preponderance of instances in which absence either denotes death or is really intentional.

A Bachelor's Soliloquy : " Marriage is a lottery ; lotteries are illegal : therefore, I obey the law by remaining single.' * There is not in all the city, one entitled raor to pity, than the chap who makes th wtity little paragraphs you read ; For he must be always tunny, in his bilious moods or sunny, like a bee, extracting honey, from the flower or the weed. But when fate \mprovidential, and the management potential, says his jokes arc not essential— from a business point of view : In retrenchment he is fated, lo be lirstdecapi- ' tated; then his shade is relegated into posthumous ado. .