The Speeches in Parliament of Samuel Horsley; Late Lord Bishop of St. Asaph (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1813 edition. Excerpt: ...licebit innocenti novum ad matrimonium si volet progredi; nee enim asque adeo debet Integra persona crimine alieno premi, coelibatus ut invitae possit obtrudi. Quapropter, Integra persona non habebitur adultera, si novo se matrimonio devinxerit." But as the ReformatTM Legum never passed into a law, the practice came in by degrees of giving this liberty to the husband separated from an adulterous wife, by those private bills of divorce which are now become so common; but it never was in the imagination of the Legislature, when such bills were first introduced, that they were to go to the effect of setting the adulteress at liberty, --that an act of the Legislature, relieving the injured husband from the difficulties his wife's guilt had brought upon him, was to enable the guilty wife to carry her wicked purpose to its ultimate effect. This extravagant notion, I believe, took its rise from the strange principle set up by Archbishop Cranmer and his associates in the case of Lord Northampton; which was recited by a noble lord, I believe with accuracy, in a former debate. Archbishop Cranmer, and those who sat with him upon that question, upon his suggestion said, that a marriage once dissolved was as though it never had been had, and that both parties were set at liberty. With a great reverence for the memory of that illustrious reformer, I have no hesitation in saying, that upon this occasion the venerable Archbishop reasoned more like a monk than a senator: He came to a conclusion upon a great question of law and justice upon a mere logical sub-tilty; applying abstract principles to a practical question, without due accommodation of them to the particular circumstances of the case; in which way of application abstract principles are apt to be...