The Campbell divorce case : copious report of the trial / With numerous portraits of those concerned drawn from life by Harold Furniss.
- Date:
- 1887
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The Campbell divorce case : copious report of the trial / With numerous portraits of those concerned drawn from life by Harold Furniss. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.
48/160
![COLIN CAMPBELL lie could never have signed. The charge referred to in that letter was put into shape in a petition filed on July 28, and served on Lord Colin on August 4. In that petition Lord Colin was charged with comtaunicatin a a enereal disease to his wife, and, further, with treating her with neglect unkindness, cruelty, and ill-usage—among other things, with swearing at her. Lntil that charge was put forward in Mr. Lewis’s letter of July 23 it had never been heard of by Lord Colin Campbell. It never was men- tioned by Lady Colin to Lord Colin in the whole course of their married me, as he will prove to you. Would not a wife who thought that the result of connection with her husband had been to injure her health have communicated with him in the first instance ? There can only be one answer if it were a bond-fide complaint; but if it were a trumped-up large of cruelty of an infamous kind, concocted for the purpose of screening a guilty woman by endeavouring to blast her husband’s repu- tation and prevent him from coming into Court to get that redress to which he was entitled, you would expect it [to be put forward under the circumstances of this charge when it was first alleged in any shape or form after the quarrel at Sion House, when Lord Colin had intimated to his wife his suspicion as to her conduct. Sir Charles Russell: Cruelty is not denied here, my lord. The Judge: That is so, and therefore it is not in issue here. I do not think that that is the point. Mr. Finlay: At the same time it is necessary to refer to it. The Judge: Certainly. Mr. Finlay is entitled to refer to it. On the following day, The Judge said : Before you resume, Mr. Finlay, I wish to mention that the Prayer-book [in which Lady Miles made a note of the Mary Watson incident] has arrived, addressed to the Registrar. It is marked, “ To be opened in Court ” It is here now. Mr. Finlay: I should like to see it, my lord. The Judge: I suppose it will be formally identified by Lady Miles. Counsel consulted on the point, but Lady Miles was not asked to identify the book. J Mr. Finlay, resuming his address to the Jury on behalf of Lord Colin, said: On Saturday, you will recollect, I had given you an outline of the married life of these people up to July, 1883. I called your attention to certain statements of fact. I told you that there was m-thing in Loz-d Colin’s state of health before and after marriage, which might not just as well have been the result of any external injury. I had called your attention to the fact that the Blood family were made aware of what his state of health was before the marriage. They were told that married life, in the ordinary sense of the term, was, for a time, inexpedient for Lord Colin’s own sake. They not only permitted the marriage, but urged it on and took advantage of LotI Colin’s passion to coerce him virtually into marrying Miss Blood; but Mrs. Blood assured Lord Colin that her daughter'was willing and anxious to e his nurse. I pointed out to you that married life in the ordinary sense, first began towards the end of the year 1881, and that Lord Colin had been advised by two surgeons of great experience that it was right to begin. I pointed out what the course of that married life had been ; how frequent were Lady Colin’s absences from her husband, even when he was confined to his bed by serious illness; and how, when they were living in the same house in London, her life was one totally indepen- dent of her husband, having her own pursuits, her own interests, and being her own mistress. I have told you how, after she followed her husband to](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28405134_0050.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
