THE LORD CHANCELLORmoved the second reading of this Bill, the object of which, he said, was to introduce into the law of Scotland three distinct things. The first was to give to Scotland the advantages of certain provisions of the Matrimonial Act of 1857, which enabled a magistrate to grant an order protecting the earnings and property of a deserted wife against a profligate husband. The second was to extend to Scotland the improved process of obtaining a judicial separation, or what was usually called in law sentences of divorce a mensd et thoro. A third provision of the Bill was to provide a remedy similar to that which was called in England a divorce a vinculo matrimonii. There was a power reserved to the Lord Advocate of intervening in cases 1784 of collusion or imperfect evidence similar to that which had been given to the Attorney General in England. Another portion of the Bill introduced into the Scotch law the principle known in England as the wife's equity, by which a woman upon whom no settlement had been made at the time of her marriage could require a provision to be made for her out of property subsequently accruing to her.
§ Bill read 2a, and committed to a Committee of the Whole House on Thursday next.