11 DECEMBER 1886, Page 3

The Campbell divorce case has been dragging on all through

the week, and may possibly last till Tuesday. Mr. Justice Butt and the counsel before him all say they are doing all they can to terminate a scene which the Judge declared to be "a horrid daily scandal;" and we do not suppose they are con- sciously avoiding any duty. Only, in that case, what frightful injustice the poor must suffer when their cases are settled at the rate of three a day ! We have received numerous letters on the subject, but publish only a representative one from Mr. Samuel Smith. The writers all mean well, but they all make the fatal mistake of pleading that divorce cases should be heard in camera'. The effect of that would be not only to increase greatly the number of divorces, adultery being committed merely to procure decrees, but that in England divorce would be procurable without public disgrace. We might as well establish divorce by consent at once, as, we regret to see, one respectable journal already advises. Divorce by consent means, in reality, marriage on trial, and is utterly opposed both to the Christian view of the institution and to the utilitarian one, which is based on the supposition that each generation as it advances will benefit by the help of both parents. The trite remedy for the present scandal, which is exciting irritation throughout the country, is to keep back the evidence till the verdict has been given.