Wirt, v, Hussayo int ut Cours-—By Claude Mullins, Magistrate at South Western Police Court, London. With 1 Preface by Sir B. Marlay Samson, wax, ko, Stipendiary Magistrate of Swansea, Chairman of the Magis {rates Association, Allen & Unwin, London. 9/6.
Mr, Claude Mullins has long taken a close interest in the reform of the divorce laws procedure and in recent years, especially since he became a magistrate of the South-Western Police Court in London, he has endeavoured to draw public attention to the working of the courts in deal~ thg. with matrimonial affairs. This book does not discuss the question of divorce court reform. Its object to describe the matrimonial work of the police courts in England, to show where changes are desirable, and also to prove that a great num ber of valuable reforms can be carried out even without any change in the law. In a recent speech Mr. Mullins gave an interesting review of his own experience in applying hiis theories to the cases coming fore him in the South-Western Court. His object has been prevention rather than cure, and the mainspring of his method lies in assisting the parties in a matrimonial dispute to come to an amicable agreement with the help of the court officials and 0 avoid the unfortunate effects of a formal magisterial hearing. This, of course, must be done with the consent of the parties. Mr. Mullins clearly of the opinion that the minute a case has to be decided by Jaw the chances of effective reconciliation are lessened. In matrimonial eases, whether in the police or the divorce courts, a peculiar condition arises, Unlike' matters which appear in the courts, whether civil or eriminal, in other branches, the actual charges or allegations "which the cour! has to consider are not really the root causes of the trouble. They are merely the pretexts which the Parties have by law to adopt for obtaining what they believe to be a redress of their grievances. So when 'a husband is accused by his wife in a police court of certain conduct, Mr. 'Mullins's argument is that it is desir. ble, if possible, to get at the circu ances which produced that char; rather than at once to investigate the charge itself. English people, he points out, are apt to be contemptuous about' American marriage laws, merely because some states have Jaws which do not appeal to English points of view. But Mr. Mullins declares that the English divorce law disgraceful both on account of the with which decrees are obtai able for adultery and for the denial fof divorce on other grounds. He goes on, indeed, to maintain that many American states are far ahead of England in their methods of handing matrimonial disputes.
As a study of social conditions in England this book has a value out of "all proportion to its slender volume, and it is fortunate that an experienced magistrate is also gifted with an exceptional facility with the pen, It may not be indiscreet her to observe that long before he tained his. present judicial eminence, Mr. Mullins was widely known Journals of good standing within and without the British Isles for his admirable powers of literary disquisition and shrewd judgment on public
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.