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.
53/160
![4? ance at which Lord Colin was entrapped into. Was Lady Miles justified! or not in giving that description of it ? When you recollect, gentlemen, what took place at that meeting, you will agree with me that no more appropriate expression could be devised than “that odious and unfair stance. What took place ? The Blood family, in full council assembled, requested Lord Colin to sign a paper agreeing that, for the future durino- the whole of his married life, there would be no marital intercourse between him and Lady Colin. I need not refer to the other odious and degrading stipulations made in the letter of Mr. George Lewis, who obviously was consulted before that meeting. I hat paper, which Lord Colin was asked to sign, contained admissions that he had behaved towards his wife in an infamous way. Lord Colin most pio- perlv said, “I cannot make any bargain of that kind. I am willing and desirous, as I always said, and told Lady Miles to trust to time, and kind- ness, and affection, for bringing about a happier state of things between me and my wife. I do not force her to approach my bed. I am not going to make such a bargain. It would be an odious and unnatural arrange- ment.” It is one that is very common in this country. It is one that you would repudiate, and that you ought to repudiate. And they urged him into the marriage when they knew that married life, in the ordinary sense of the term, could not exist for a very considerable time; and in coercing him to marry Miss Blood, said she was quite satisfied to be his nurse. I hey proposed to carry this out, stating that these would be the terms. A more odious, a more unfair, and a more revolting proposal was never made. Gentlemen, its odiousness and its unfairness are the more apparent when you consider that they could not live together as man and wife. They had not at that time slept together as man and wife since the 19th of June, 1882 Lord Colin did not propose that they should. What could be the reason for this, because Lord Colin was ready to allow his wife to approach his bed when she chose t do so. He had not talked of doing so. He said he would never do so, and that he would allow time alone to bring his- wife to her proper senses. Ia the name of wonder what were they after? What were they doing wdien the document was prepared at Mr. George Lewis’s office, and when those additions to the document, of which yon have already heard, were made by Mr. George Lewis. M hat could be the object cf it ? It could not be a legitimate object—I am per- fectly certain of that—because nothing had taken place to show that Lady Colin wanted any protection from that husband who had not approached her for a year. He said he would never do so. Gentlemen, a document of that kind, if Lord Colin had signed it, would have been a very sufficient protection to Lady Colin. No matter what Lady Colin might have done,, if Lord Colin had signed that document, he could never have got any redress. It would have been an indemnity against all Lady Colin s mis- conduct in the past and in the future. I appeal to you as gentlemen, as English husbands—what could have been the obje it of sue*1 an extraordinary document as this, gentlemen, the petition, as tiled on the 28t,h of July ( And just listen to its allegations. [The learned Counsel read the petition, which stated that Lord Colin had treated the petitioner with great ^kind- ness and cruelty, and had sworn at her and abused her ; that he had forced the petitioner to occupy the same sleeping apartment with him at a time when he was suffering from a specific ailment, and had threatened to con- tinue to do so, though he was still suffering from the same complaint.] t n whose instructions were these charges made ? There was never any evidence of them brought forward. The charge of forcing Lady Colin against her](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28405134_0055.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
