William Henry Maule

He was offered the post of professor of mathematics at the East India College but, in 1810, Maule had already entered Lincoln's Inn with the intention of practising law.

[2] His retention by the bank did not prevent him from acting for Nicholas Aylward Vigors who faced an election petition over his County Carlow by-election victory in February 1837.

Maule's ironic address in 1845 to a convicted bigamist was said to have contributed to the climate of opinion which led to the passage of the 1857 Divorce Act:[4]Prisoner at the bar, you have been convicted before me of what the law regards as a very grave and serious offence, that of going through the marriage ceremony a second time while your wife was still alive... You plead in mitigation of your conduct that she was given to dissipation and drunkenness, that she proved herself a curse to your household while she remained mistress of it, and that she had latterly deserted you; but I am not permitted to recognise any such plea...

You would then be obliged to prove by evidence your wife's criminalty in a court of justice, and thus obtain a verdict with damages against the defendant, who was not unlikely to turn out to be a pauper.

But so jealous is the law (which you ought to be aware is the perfection of reason) of the sanctity of the marriage tie, that in accomplishing all this you would only have fulfilled the lighter portion of your duty.