In a lengthy judgment delivered in the divorce action of Mr. Basil Beesley against Mrs, Hope Beesley, which was heard in H.M. Supreme Court, Judge P. Grant Jones stated that it was held in the Ecclesiastical Courts that "Condonation is forgiveness with an implied condition that the injury shall not be repeated; therefore on breach of the condition the right to a remedy for the former injury revives." A decree nisi was pronounced in favour of the respondent on the ground of petitioner's cruelty and the petition was dismissed against her and the ce-respondents, Messrs, Albert Dockwrey and Tobias Hunter, with costs of action reserved for further consideration.
The judgment went on to state that it was held by the courts and is still law, that a slighter offence than the original will revive condoned cruelty and that harsh and degrade ing treatment, short of personal violence, would revive it. If there was condonation by the respondent of the petitioner's cruelty, that condonation was clearly cancelled and his cruelty revived by the petitioner's conduct towards her subsequently, it was stated.
Legal cruelty has been defined at law, the judgment stated, as conduct of such a character as to have caused danger to life, limb or health, bodily or mental or as to give reasonable apprehension of such danger. The judgment then cited authority to Show that before the court can find a husband guilty of legal cruelty towards his wife, it was necessary to show that he' has either inflicted bodily injury upon her, or has so conducted himself towards her as to render future intimacy more or less dangerous to life, or limb, or mental or bodily health: Although one act may be so grievous as by itself to constitute cruelty, this is seldom the case, but a blow followed by minor acts may be enough, and continued acts of ill-usage, none of them in themselves sufficient to support such a charge, may accumulate until a charge of cruelty arises. It is immaterial that there was no intention of being cruel, if the intentional acts amount to cruelty. A course of conduct creating mental distress and anxiety, and thereby injuring bodily health, amounts to cruelty. Such a course, designed to make a wife disgusted with her husband, was held io be cruelty. Threats of violence Sometimes constitute cruelty, but not mere vulgar or obscene abuse.
A fuller text of the judgment will appear it the "North-China Herald" on March 26.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.