A snit for nullity of marriage which has greatly interested
town was decided on Wednesday. Miss Line Scott, who had married Mr. Arthur Sebright before a Registrar in South Andley Street, prayed for a declaration of nullity, on the ground that her husband, with whom she had never lived, had obtained her consent by fraud and threats. Mr. Sebright, she said, had in- duced her to back his bills to the amount of £3,500, and had left her to pay them ; had then said her only escape would be to marry him, and had threatened if she did not—she had £20,000, and E14,000 more to come—he would ruin her reputation or shoot her. She therefore yielded, under an impulse of terror which left her scarcely sane. The pecuniary facts and the terror were abundantly proved, and the Judge held that as Mr. Sebright was in Court, and did swear that he had not seduced Miss Scott, his omission to deny the remaining charges against him was strong corroboration of the petitioner's story. He therefore, with some well-deserved comments on Mr. Sebright's conduct, dissolved the marriage. It was almost impossible to expect any other decision; but many observers shake their heads at a precedent which seems to allow a wife to urge " temporary insanity " as a plea for the dissolu- tion of her marriage.
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