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9. Endowment of Adulteress out of Damages.
Here we come upon a marvellous specimen of judicial legislation, wherein Parliament has not been troubled. In case of a husband succeeding under the Act of 1895 he will have difficulty in future in getting a divorce from his wife by reason of adultery. He is entitled to damages from the co-respondent for the injury to him, done in breaking up his home, and exposing him to mental suffering and material loss. The damages are supposed to be paid to the husband on this basis—that they were in compensation for his loss. They are still assessed on this basis, but at the end of the nineteenth century we find the judges creating a legal fiction. Influenced by the wave of feminist sentimentality, the judges have actually seized on these damages as a fund for endowing the adulteress.
The way this insidious device was introduced was as follows:—It not unfrequently happened that a husband assented of his own free will to the damages, which in law were his own property, being settled on the children of the marriage. Sometimes he included his late wife in that dedication of the fund. This was generous of him, as the woman had obviously forfeited her claims on him. Now, however, the judge, without consulting Parliament, has deprived the injured husband of the merit of generosity. Without the husband's consent, in fact, notwithstanding his opposition, the judge will hand over the damages, which in strict law are the husband's, to such trustees as they think fit, and transform the fund into an endowment for the adulteress who has prudently selected a rich man as co-respondent.
To understand the iniquity of this proceeding, let us take the opposite case. In some American States the wife's trade union has procured the passing of a law that enables a wife to sue for damages for her husband's seduction. What would be thought of the American Courts if they siezed on the damages so secured and
