Page:English laws for women in the nineteenth century.djvu/43

31 principle, by the amount of the penalty enforced,—"I call upon you to. mark by your verdict,—in the. only way in which the law. allows,—your sense of the conduct of the defendant." Nothing was omitted to be urged that could be urged, on this point; and no doubt,:—if the accusation had been believed,—very heavy damages would have been; awarded; but the jury pronounced against Mr Norton, without even retiring to discuss their verdict, and the speculation failed; both as regarded political and pecuniary interests.

When the woman died, to whom my children had been sent, Mr Norton proposed to me to "forgive" the public trial, and return to him. After that, he proposed we should submit to referees; to whom he gave a written promise that he would abide by their decisions, and then refused to, be bound. Then he, advertised me as a, run-away in the public papers; and he has, I believe, the unenviable distinction of being the only English gentleman who ever resorted to such an expedient;; on which even my solicitor remarked,: "There are few men in Mr Norton's rank of life, or in stations much under it, who will not know what to think of the measure" For two years I remained without one farthing of support from the husband who had owed to me the greater portion of his income. He then made what compulsory allowance he pleased; till in the year 1848, being desirous of employing the trust-fund settled on me and my children, in improving the estate left him by the woman to whom he first sacrificed us, he entered, into the written contract with me, to which I have already alluded. The history of the breach of that contract will be found in my general narration, and I here close that portion which, relates exclusively to pecuniary affairs.

The treatment I received as a Wife, would be incredible if, fortunately (or unfortunately), there were not witnesses who can prove it on oath. We had been married but a few weeks