Note 245b — JOURNAL TO STELLA (continued 6)

“Marmaduke Coghill, LL.D., was judge of the Prerogative Court in Ireland. About this time he courted a lady, and was soon to have been married to her; but unfortunately a cause was brought to trial before him, wherein a man was sued for beating his wife. When the matter was agitated, the Doctor gave his opinion, ‘That although a man had no right to beat his wife unmercifully, yet that, with such a little cane or switch as he then held in his hand, a husband was at liberty, and was invested with a power, to give his wife moderate correction’; which opinion determined the lady against having the Doctor. He died an old man and a bachelor” (Deane Swift). See also Lascelles, Liber Muner. Hibern., part ii. p. 80.