Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 5.djvu/135

 12 S. V MAY, 1919.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

129

MB. JUSTICE MATJLE ON BIGAMY AND DIVORCE (12 S. v. 64). In answer to W. B. H. concerning the oft-quoted dictum of Mr. Justice Maule, I may say that The Times of April 3, 1845, p. 7, in its law report of the Assizes at Warwick on April 1, gives the following report of the trial of Thomas Hall for bigamy :

MIDLAND CIRCUIT. Warwick, Tuesday, April 1, 1845. Thomas Hall, alias Thomas Rollins, a poor man not possessed of a farthing, or a farthing's worth, in the world, aged 35, was indicted for having, on the 18th of Apr'L 1830, at the parish of Northleach, in the county Giocester, taken for his wife Mary Ann Nicholls, and afterwards, on the 15th of February, 1840, at the parish of Hampden-in- Arden, in this county, married and taken to wife Maria Hadley, his former wife being then alive, contra formam. The offence was clearly proved, but he stated that within a year or two of his marriage with Mary Ann, she robbed him, and sallied forth with the child, and he had never since Been either, though he had at the time obtained .& special warrant for her apprehension, armed with which he proceeded to the region of her seclusion or retirement, where he got sadly handle j by ruffians, and was made heartily glad to make the best of his way home to save his life, leaving his baggage in his precipitate departure from that profligate retreat. The substance of this, or at least much of it, he elicited from the witnesses for the prosecution. He had, however, represented to Maria that he had never entered into the holy state, and she had given birth to two children by him. He was of course, under these circum- stances, convicted, and

Mr. Justice Maule, in passing sentence, said, "that it did appear that he had been hardly used. It was hard for him to be so used, and not be able 'to have another wife to live with him, when the former had gone off to live in an improper state with another man. But the law was the same for him as it was for a rich man, and was equally open fro him, through its aid, to afford relief ; but, as the rich man would have done, he also should have pursued the proper means pointed out by law whereby to obtain redress of his grievances. He -should have brought an action against the man who was living in the way stated with his wife, and he shoxild have obtained damages, and then should have gone to the Ecclesiastical Court and obtained a divorce, which would have done what seemed to have been done already, and then he should have gone to the House of Lords, and, proving all his case and the preliminary proceed- ings, have obtained a full and complete divorce, after which he might, if he liked it, have married ragain. The prisoner might perhaps object to this that he had not the money to pay the expenses, which would amount to about 500 1. or 600Z. perhaps he had not so many pence but 'this did not exempt him from paying the penalty for committing a felony, of which he had been convicted. His Lordship might, perhaps, have visited the crime more lightly if the prisoner had not misrepresented himself as a bachelor to Maria Hadley, and so deceived her. If he had told her the circumstances, and said, " Now I'll marry you if you like to take the chance," &c. ; but this Sxe had not done, and thus he had induced her to

live with him upon terms which she perhaps else would not have done. It was a serious injury to her, which he had no right to inflict because his wife and others had injured him. For this offence he must receive some punishment, and the sentence was, that he be imprisoned and kept to hard labour for four months, which he hoped would operate as a warning how people trifled with matrimony.

R. A. CUNNINGHAM.

" LICK INTO SHAPE " : " LAMBENDO EF- FINGEBE" (12 S. v. 69). The Greek equiva- lent or equivalents are to be seen in ^Elian's ' De Natura Animalium,' ii. 19 and vi. 3. In the former passage, after saying that the bear gives birth to a formless lump of flesh, he proceeds : 17 8f yjftrj c/uAet /cat TtKvov, /cat VJTO rot? ^urypots ddXirci, /cat rrj yAarrn?, Ka ^ *TWOt ets apOpa, Kal /cat /caret /zi/cpa e/c/xop<ot. At the second reference his expression is T"{i jX^rry StapOpol avrrjv (sc. crdpKa acnjjuov), /cat otovet Sia-

Aristotle, ' De Animalibus Hist.,' vi. 29 (34), says that fox-cubs are even more shapeless at their birth than young bears, and that their mother warms them thoroughly by licking them with her tongue and matures them (TQ yXutrry

Pliny, 'Nat. Hist.,' viii. 36 (54), 126, uses the words " lambendo paulatim figu- rant " when he describes the process of licking bear-cubs into shape.

EDWARD BENSLY.

University College, Aberystwyth.

BIBLIOGRAPHY or EPITAPHS (12 S. v. 68). The undernoted publications can be added to the list of works which deal with this subject :

Historical Description of Westminster Abbey, its Monuments and Curiosities. London : Printed for A. K. Newman & Co. 1834. Price Two Shillings.

A History of the Church and Parish of St. Martin

Carfax), Oxford. By the Rev. Carteret J. H.

Fletcher, M.A., late Rector. This work was

published in 1896, soon after the demolition of

Jhe church. The tower is still standing.

The Churches of Whitehaven Rural Deanery. By the Rev. Caesar Caine, Vicar of Cleator. A most useful and interesting publication. Would that other rural deaneries would issue somewhat similar volumes.

Ad el and its Norman Church. By the Rev. W. H. Draper, Vicar of the parish. Leeds : Richard Jackson, Commercial Street. 1909.

Fulham, Old and New. 3 vols. By Charles James Feret. 1900.

A New Select Collection of Epitaphs. London : Printed for S. Bladon, No. 16, Pater-Noster Row. MDCCLXXV.