Lord Shand, all able Scotch Judge, has, in a long
letter to the TilY6C8 of Thursday, explained that the consequences of the decision in the Clitheroe ease may not be so serious as is imagined. He maintains that the wife who deserts her husband loses her claim to alimony, and may even, if she has means, be compelled to assign part of them to her husband's support. That is, of course, good law ; but it does not affect the cases in which the wife really supports herself, and in part her children, by her labour. Lord Shand believes that the true remedy would be to grant divorce, as in Scotland, for wilful desertion, and would even reduce the statutory period to two years. He says the Scotch law has produced no perceptible evils, but forgets how much more amenable to religious opinion Scotchmen are than the people of any other Protestant country. In England, we fear, deser- tions would be endless, every man or woman uncomfortable in wedlock emigrating without notice ; and the whole idea of marriage, as a contract only to be dissolved by death, would be deteriorated, Separation may be repented of, but the married divored cannot shake off the now wife.
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