The case of " O'Kane v. O'Kane and Lord Palmerston,"
which has for the last three months been one of the main interests of the clubs, has come to a somewhat mysterious ending,—the peti- tioner refusing to press the case, which has been dismissed by the Judge Ordinary, with the remark that the character of the respon- dent (Mrs. O'Kane), who had "challenged the fullest inquiry and proof," " should receive no tarnish from this ordeal," and that " it is a matter of great satisfaction to the Court that the name of the co-respondent, which is never mentioned in England without a just pride, should have passed from its annals without a stain." Not so the name of the obscure petitioner, on whom Sir James Wilde passed a severe censure, predicting that he would meet with the contempt which any one who tries to take away the character of the woman he calls his wife without offering any proof of his accusa- tions, may expect. It seems from a letter of Mr. O'Kane's solicitor (Mr. Wells) to Mrs. O'Kane's solicitor (Mr. Horsley), quoted in the proceedings, as well as from Mr. O'Kane's letter to his own soli- cites, also quoted, that there had been an attempt, as the Judge Ordinary remarked, to represent the resolve spontaneously taken by the petitioner—and taken, as he represents, on his children's account, and at the advice of his friends,—as a " compromise" or " arrangement," which is always understood to be between the parties to the suit. The imputation thus conveyed Mr. Browne, the counsel for Mr. O'Kane, expressly withdrew, stating that it was " an arrangement by which persons who are not a party to the suit have brought it to a close." Of course, who these persons are,—whether, as there was apparently some wish to suggest, they were the Roman Catholic clergy, who, having solem- nized the marriage between Mr. and Mrs. O'Kane, would probably be steadily opposed to a secular divorce,—or whether it were some convenient Mrs. Harris who interested herself warmly in the little O'Kanes,—will probably now never be known. It must be suffi- cient for the public that Lord Palmerston's reputation remains absolutely unaffected by the suit.
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