The Campbell divorce snit ended on Monday in a most
unsatisfactory muddle. The jury at first reported themselves unable to agree, the numbers, it was hinted, being six and six; but on the Judge imploring them not to leave the parties in such a position, they retired, and at last returned with a verdict affirming that neither Lord Colin nor Lady Cohn had committed adultery with anybody. That verdict, of coarse, according to the evidence, affixes the stigma of perjury upon a great many persons, as also, indeed, the contrary one would have done. It is not the least of the many evils of the Divorce Court that it impairs the sense that perjury, besides being a high moral offence, is perhaps the greatest of civil offences, certainly the most dangerous to society. The jury added a rider to their verdict, savagely condemning General Butler as neither officer nor gentleman for failing to appear. What do they mean by that ? If, as they affirm, they are convinced of his innocence, they did not want him ; and if he were guilty, be must either have perjured himself, or have betrayed an accomplice. If juries are to reprimand those who abstain from the box in this ferocious style, their legal right of abstinence will soon be whittled away to nothing, to the frightful increase, we fear, of false swearing.
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