In his interesting evidence before the Divorce Commission on Tuesday
Sir Edward Carson pointed out very justly that every new facility for divorce would lessen the blot on the character of the person divorced. The tendency would then be for divorce to become an everyday matter instead of a disgrace ; as it was, young couples in their early squabbles too easily turned to thoughts of the Divorce Court. Sir Edward Carson then expressed his opinion that the damages awarded in divorce cases were entirely inadequate ; £5,000 was looked upon as large damages, but in his opinion a man having an income of 220,000 or 230,000 a year who stole away another man's wife should be called upon to pay at least 2100,000. We should agree if cases of stealing could always be clearly established. But the thought of such large sums inspires a misgiving that the result might be a good deal of trickery, or collusion, or even cruelty. Husbands might in fact be tempted to sell their wives, or drive them into unfaithfulness with wealthy men, in order to enrich themselves by huge damages.
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