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February 16, 1856.] THE L EAI)£R, 14Q
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THEJfAE. "When the news of the proposed ...
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WAR MISCELLANEA. Sir George Macxean, Con...
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THE PEACE. Baron Brunow arrived in Paris...
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Transcript
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
To The Honourable The House Of Commons, ...
would hope that before long it will also come to be recognised in matrimonial legislation . That it is proved by well-known cases of hardship suffered by women of station , and also by professional women earning large incomes by pursuit of the arts , how real is the injury inflicted . That if these laws often bear-heavily upon women protected by -the forethought of their relatives , the social training of their husbands , and the refined customs of the rank to which they belong , how much more unequivocal is the injury sustained by women in the lower classes , for whom no such provision can be made by thear parents , who possess no means of appeal to expensive legal protection , and in regard to whom the education of the husband and the habits of his associates offer no moral guarantee for tender consideration of a wife .
That whereas it is customary in manufacturing districts to employ women largely in tlie processes of tx'ade , and as women are also engaged as sempstresses , laundresses , charwomen and in other multifarious occupations which cannot here be enumerated , the question must bo recognised by all as of practical importance . Tliat newspapers constantly detail instances of marital oppression , " wife-beating , " being a new compound noun lately introduced into the English language , au < l a crime against which English gentlemeix have lately enacted stringent regulations . But that
for the robbery by a man of his wife ' s hard earning-s there is no redress—against the selfishness of a drunken father , who wrings from a mother her children ' s daily bread there is no appeal . She may work from morning till night , to see the produce of her labour wrested from her and wasted in a Gin Palace , and such cases are within the knowledge of every one . That the law , in depriving the mother of all pecuniary resources , deprives her of the power of giving schooling to her children , and in other ways providing for their moral and physical welfare ; it obliges her , in short , to leave them to the temptations of the street , so fruitful in juvenile clime .
That there are certain portions of the law of Imsband and wife which bear unjustly on the husband , as , for instance , that of making him responsible for his wife ' s debts contio cted before marriage , even althcragh he may have had no fortune with her . Her power also after marriage , of contracting debts in the name of Uer husband , for which he ia responsible , is too unlimited , an . d often produces much iujuetice . That in Tendering the husband responsible for the entire maintenance of his family , the law expresses the necessities of au age , when the man was the only but that siuthe
money-getting agent ; « e custom of the ^ country has greatly changed in this respect the position of the female sex , the law of maintenance no longer meets the whole case . That since modern civilisation , iu indefinitely extending the sphere of occupation for women , has iu some measure brokeu down their pecuniary dependence upon men , it is time that legal protection be thrown over the produce of their labour , and that iu entering the state of marriage , they no longer pass from freedom into the condition of a slave , all whose earnings belong to his xnaster and not to himself .
That the laws of various foreign countries are in this respect much more just than our own , and afford precedent for a more liberal legislation than prevails in . England—and your Petitioners therefore humbly pray that your Honourable House will take the foregoing allegations into consideration , and apply suoh remedy as to its wisdom shall seem fit—And your Petitioners will over pray .
LADIES SANCTIONING THE ABOVE . Anna Blackwell ; Iau Magden ; Elizabeth Barrett Browning ; Sarzanna Browning ; Mrs . Cowden Clarke ; Charlotte Cushman ; Amelia B . Edwards ; Eliza F . Fox ; Mrs . Gaskell ; Matilda M . Hays ; Mary Howitt ; Anna M ^ iry Howitt j Mis . Jameson ; Harriet Martinoau j Honble . Julia Maynard ; Mary Mob . 1 ; Bessie Raynor Parkes ; Mrs . iteid ; Misa Sturch ; Mra . Carlylo ; Miss JewBbury j Mrs . Lovell ; Mrs . Loudon ; Hiss Leigh Smith . ,,
February 16, 1856.] The L Eai)£R, 14q
February 16 , 1856 . ] THE L EAI ) £ R , 14 Q
Thejfae. "When The News Of The Proposed ...
THEJfAE . "When the news of the proposed armistice reached the northern forts of Sebastopol it pi'oduced a great sensation among the Russian troops , as preparations were being made for alarming the advanced posts of General d'Automarre ' s division , by moans of an attack to be made by way of Janisalc and Koluluz ^ , This design , of course , was countermanded } and so was an order which had been given to reinforce Lieutenant-General Wagner uear Kertcb . The fire from the northern forts has now entirely ceased , and the troops before Eupntoria have fallen back on Tulatt . Fort St . Nicholas has been mined . Five English regiments , according to a despatch from Marseilles , are preparing to return to England ; but , on the other hand , 404 of the Scota FuaiHera and
Coldstreams left London for the Crimea ou "Wednesday . Three thousand infantry , and two batteries of artillery have been sent to Kertcb . The thaw has begun at Kinbum . Reinforcements have arrived , and all is quiet . On the Danube , also , the thaw has set in- There are very few foreign troops now in Constantinople . One thousand French are in camp at Maslak , and two English battalions , with a small cavalry detachment , still occupy Pera and Scutari . The Russians have evacuated part of Turkish Armenia , and have retired to Erivan .
The Moniteur contains a decree , fixing the number of men to be called on to recruit the army in 1 856 . It is precisely that of last year . This looks like a determination , to push on the war should necessity require it-General Zomoski has bad an audience with the French Emperor , and has left for Constantinople to assume the command of the Polish regiment formed in that city . THE EXPXOSION OF THE DOCKS .
The French have done their share of the work very effectually , and I see nothing that remains for them to destroy . For various reasons , the English works were more gradual in their progress , but have not " been less thoroughly carried out . I believe the first idea was to blow up the whole at once , which would probably have given a more picturesque and , to appearance , more thorough ruin . But this plan was abandoned by reason of the dampness of the ground . Water flowed in from the ravine iu rear of the docks , and rose in the shafts of the mines . It is probable that , had the engineers waited to explode the numerous mmes until all of them were complete , the
powder would have become damp in many of them and would not have ignited ; so it was resolved to blow up a little at a time . Our respect for the power of powder is vastlv increased by a view of tie havoc it has played in sucsh stupendous works as the docks — -structures formed to last for ages , and to the duration of which no limit could be assigned . The diflitjulty of destruction was enhanced : in the case of the docks allotted to the English by the fact that these were in part hewn out of solid rock . The basin thus formed was lined with huge masses of stone , and , between rock and stone earth was filled in . The engineers availed themselves of the soft interval for
their mines , and blew the walls and counterforts inwards , but the rock remains , maxkiug in places the outline of the docks . Everything is i-emoved and riven without being scattered ; and this is the object at which our engineers have constantly aimed . They have sought all along , and generally withnaueh . success , so to proportion the charges of their mines that , while everything should be overturned , rooted out , and thrown into the utmost confusion ( literally topsyturvy ) , as little as possible should be thrown out of
the crater . And accordingly most of their explosions have not had the appearance which would popularly be anticipated from the letting off of two , three , orjmore thousand- ' pounds of powder . There was no diverging gush of stones , but a sort of tumbling convulsion of the ground ; a few blocks and fragments were cast iip to a moderate height , but the effect upon the spectator was that ' of some gigantic subterranean hand just pushing the masses a short distance out of their places , turning them upside down , and rolling them over each other in a cloud of smoke and dust .
Of accidents occurring from tho explosions I have heart of none , excepting the one on Saturday last ( Jan . 26 th ) , which was of a peculiar nature . Tho explosion by the dock gate had take plnce , and some Sappers were busy at the bottom of a shaft forty or fifty feet off , when a noxious gas generated by the explosion entered the gallery , filtering through the intervening earth . Tho effect was gradual—one after tmothor the men became giddy , and bodio of them insensible , With infinite alacrity and courage noncommissioned officers and soldiers descended the shaft , braving a danger whioli seemed the greater because its extant and , nature were unknown , to suctheir mrades
cour co , and aa they got clown they in turn were overpowered by the offensive gas . Major Nicholson and Lieutenant Graham also went down , and suffered iu consequence . Tho former was insensible , when , supported by his men , he reaotiod tho top of the shaft , and it was some time before ho recovered . To sum up the accident ; one man perished , and seven or { eight wore seriously affcoted , but have since recovered . A man went down into the mine , after the acoidont , holding in his mouth tho extremity of a tubo down which air wan pumped to him , and ho walked about with perfeofc impunity and collected tho iuou ' h caps and things they had loft behind . —Times correspondent .
TIIK HOSPITAL AT KBNKIOITho Andes steam transport arrived off tho North Pier on tho 21 at of January from Balulclava , during n heavy galo from tho south , with ninety patients , a large proportion being bqvovo ca « oa of fever ; there were also many oases of frostbite , ninny of extreme
emaciation and exhaustion from repeated attacks of fever , from dysentery , from diarrhoea , or from continued exposure to the severity of a Crimean winter . Altogether , there were many more requiring the assistance of stretcherB to be lifted from , the caiques than upon any previous occasion . In most instances , the patients were quiet and passive when they reached the shore , but among the fever eases I heard the nurtterings of delirium . One poor fellow fancied that he had landed iu England , and was begging to have bis children brought to him . His haggard face and sunken features looked particularly ghastly , obscurely seen by the flickering light of tie corridor lanterns , as the fatigue party bore him to his bed ; but it is needless to pain your readers by again attempting to portray these scenes of suffering with which they are already familiar . They will hear with pleasure that
the transport service for the siek on this station is in a most efficient state . The Andes , formerly one of Cunard ' s fine mail steamers , is a model of cleanliness and comfort , quite equal to the Alps or the Imperador , or any of the vessels which have touched here ... One point of pre-eminent advantage respecting this hospital is now established ; fevers and other contagious diseases do not spread from bed to bed . It is doubtful if a single instance of "the kind has occurred since the opening of the first ward ; nov have any of the attendants , men or women , suffered in health . When this is contrasted with -what is known to have happened in other places , we must in common justice acknowledge that in the appointment of the present chief of the establishment , Dr . Parkes ( by whom all these matters are directed ) , the Government has exercised a very sound judgment . — Times Correspondent ( Rerikioi ) .
War Miscellanea. Sir George Macxean, Con...
WAR MISCELLANEA . Sir George Macxean , Conamissary- - € feagra ^ has received a severe reprimand & om Lord Pan mu ^&^^ officiously suggesting the immediate suspension of all shipments from Constantinople , and the cancelling of home contracts under the present probability of peace . New Russian Modes of Defence . —The InvaZide has published hi detail the report drawn up by Admiral Glasenapp as to the construction of the rowgunboats now building in Russia . In the course of this description , we are made acquainted with the new weapons which the Russians have had made for the
purpose of repelling boar ding attacks . They are represented as consisting of a . u iron lance , about seven feet long , and a mace of cast iron , the massive head of which resembles a pineapple , and like it is beset with a number of o"btuse projections . Each boat is provided with from thirty to forty lances and from fifteen to twenty maces , in the management of which the Fins are said to possess great stall . From this description , these maces would appear to resemble the morgemtern , still in use with the watchmen in Sweden , and" with one of -which the Marquis of Waterford some years back came inconveniently into close contact . —Times Berlin Correspondent .
Strange , if True . —A soldier ' s letter published in the Durham Chronicle contains the assertion that many men have got the In " kermn . n , n andBalaklava clasp wh were not in the least degree concerned in those actions
The Peace. Baron Brunow Arrived In Paris...
THE PEACE . Baron Brunow arrived in Paris at half-past ten o ' clock on the night of Tuesday , a , nd took up his quarters in the Hotel of the Russian Embassy , now vacant for two years . Aali Pacha , it is thought , will not arrive before the 22 nd ; Counts Buol and Cavour were expected yesterday ( Friday ) ; and the Earl of Clarendon will start to-day . Count Orloff left St . Petersburg on Monday , and arrived at Berlin on Thursday . The Conferences , it is believed , will open on the 23 rd of the present month . Tho Marquis do Moustior , the French Ambassador at Berlin , arrived in Paris on Saturday last , on a visit of some days , oonnectecl , aa some suppose , with the intrigues which are still going forward to obtain the admission of Prussia to the Congress .
Austria , in the person of her representative , Count Reohbcrg , invited tho Bund , on the 7 th in & t ., to give its adhesion to tho conditions which form tlie basis of tho Paris negotiations . The Diet declined to enter at onco into tho consideration of tlie proposal , but roferrod ib to tho political and military committees of the Bund . It is apparent that Auatna contemplates tho conclusion of peace ivh almost cortain , as who continues to disarm her frontiers noavost Ruhsjo , and to reduce her army . Her interposition has probably Bavod ttuHsia from au oxhibition of exhaustion which might have lod to grave results ; for it ' m now whispered on the continent that , if Huesia h « d risked a third ownpaign , her internal wcaknoos would havo become so evidont that tho Allies would htwe made vory different conditions of poaoo . If thia be two , Austria still remains tho friond of Russia .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 16, 1856, page 5, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_16021856/page/5/
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