PUBLICITY IN THE DIVORCE COURT. [To TIM ICDITOR or Till
"EPROTA'FOR1 SIR,—Will you allow one who has read the Spectator for nearly half-a-century to thank you for your well-timed protest in last week's issue against the publicity given by the Press to the revolting details of Divorce Court trials ? With tens of thousands in every walk of life, I feel sure that the perusal of these details is injurious to the morals of the race as well as a disgrace to the Press that reports them so fully. May I recall what our late illustrious Queen Victoria wrote on the subject to Lord Chancellor Campbell in 1859?— " Windsor Castle, 26 Dec., 1859.
The Queen wishes to ask the Lord Chancellor whether no steps can be taken to prevent the present publicity of the proceedings before the new Divorce Court. These cases, which must necessarily increase when the new law becomes more and more known, fill now almost daily a large portion of the newspapers, and are of so scandalous a character that it makes it almost impossible for a paper to be trusted in the hands of a young lady or boy. None of the worst French novels, from which careful parents try to protect their children, can be so bad as what is daily brought and laid upon the breakfast-table of every educated family in England ; and its effect must be most pernicious to the public morals of the country."
Surely a measure similar to that which the Lord Chancellor could not give effect to in 1859 could be introduced into Parlia- ment and carried in 1909, and, while the results of all judicial procedure are reported, the cross-examination of witnesses and the speeches of counsel be withheld from the newspapers.
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