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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.
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TREATMENT OF WOMEN . Ix ia an old remark to which the circumstances of the day give a new force , that much of our boasted progress is the reverse of being in advance . If we have got rid of those rough sports of the ring which nauseated our more refined feelings , or the brutal game of throwing on Shrove Tuesday , the annals of our police arid law courts make us doubt whether the change is not one of substitution rather than abolition .
For the antagonist of the boxer is no longer a man , but a woman , and a woman also is substituted for the wretched shrove cock , only that the sport is not limited to one day of the year . The character of society , indeed , maybe gathered from the statutes : Mr . Martin legislated for the proteetionof animals ; Mr . JFitzroy for the protection of women . We have frequentl y touched upon this subject , but the raw material , in the shape of outrage , outruns our power to keep pace with it in comment .
We do not . speak of the graver tragedies , though abundant , materials crowd to our hand . Such as that total neglect of wife and children b y a miserable man , who positively spends all his earnings upon himself , cooking and eating his st ^ ak in the presence of his starving family . It is a burlesque upon the shocking ; but what hopeless feelings must have , possessed those who looked on while he ate ! W " e do not speak of women first made the sporfc of enjoyment , and then abandoned to dispose of their children as
they may—in the grave too Often . But we allude to the cases now of daily occurrence , in which some passing impulse seems to dictate wanton brutality almost as a variety of amusement . At Worship-street , the other day , two mechanics of a superior class were placed before the magistrate on charges of this kind ; one , because a woman refused to talk to him , struck her , and ran away ; the other , taking offence at some trifling request , Idteat a woman on the forehead with a pewter-pot , struck her with his fists , and kicked her after she fell . But these cases
are not exceptional ; they appear to represent a class ; and really the most tangible sign of our advanced civilization seems to be , that such cases are left to be dealt with by the magistrate , instead of being handled by the bystanders summarily . ] But perhaps the portrait of society in regard to these engaging traits is best painted by itself . It is the artist ' s own hand alone that can fetch
out the full unconscious smirking all-sufficiency of his meanness . A cabman deemed himself quit of all blame the other day because he had exercised one virtue : " I had not , " he said , astonished that he could be condemned for overcharge , " used any abusive language . " At York Assizes two prisoners were charged with shooting a man in a riot at Yeadon after a dispute between
for possession of a chapel me vv esieyan Conference party and the Wesleyan Reformers . The judge , however , admitted that the prisoners were " men of conscience , " and the plea of their counsel was not disputed , that " they had fired under the excitement of religious dispute . " Ine quarrel has raged violently amongst tjie VVesleyans , and the weapons have advanced . , by a naturai transition from argument to law , and from law to bullet ; but note the singular confession involved in the agreement of counsel and excitement
bench upon the truth that the or religious dispute is a species of intoxication which may naturally , if not excusably , betray men intcf manslaughter . The same kind of self-confesaion . has become a plea in court for that meanest class of those who inflict injury upon women , the breakers ot promises to marry . Tho current assizes give us several instances . A gentleman , at tho indiscreet age of forty-five , had , with great assiduity , nm-auaded a vounK lady of considerable personal
attractions , good character , and some propoi ty , to marry him . It turned out , however , that her property was not certain , and then tho ardent suitor declined to fulfil his promise . In some farce , where tho low comedy man coiicoivoh himkolf to bo in presence of a canmba ] potentate , lie endeavours to disarm the appetite of tho monster tor disparaging his own quality . . 1 wn not Xlosome , " he cries . In tho case to wluch wo allude , the moanneas of retractation was crowned by this self-disparagement to avoid tho consequences of bail faith , ^ excellent ch n a . ^ of tho young kdy was admitted , but , said the defendant ' * eWisol , " fco wfla * man advanced
in life "—aman who had been twice wived , and was now " encumbered with three children "—lower in society , and the young lady would actually have thrown herself away in marrying such a man . His conduct was not to be justified ; but was he worth heavy damages P , The jury , perhaps influenced by tliis species of appraisement , only awarded 400 £ . damages . On these occasions , a man causes himself to be cried down as if he were his own old clothes , and his candour took the part of the Jew purchaser ; but there is a fallacy in the argument . The damages , properly speaking , ought not to be regarded as
compensation for the loss of " such a man . it , indeed , you were to admit that plea , the retractor might sometimes set up an equitable claim for payment , on the score of the benefit afforded to the lady in being rid of such " vagrom company . " The injury which demandVcompensation is the act of usurping the p lace of a genuine suitor , perhaps to the exclusion of another , certainly to the outrage of the lady . To have crept into the confidence of a girl—perhaps to have deprived her of a genuine suitor , —those , and not the loss of such a man , are the injuries which he has to compensate . Thus we see that the meaner the fellow is , the more despicable ; the greater , not the less , should be the damages for his outrage .
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THE POLICE TAKING ORDERS . " All are equal in the sight of God , " arid therefore , we suppose , in the house of God—except the beadle , who must touch his hat to the churchwarden , and may take his revenge on the little boys ; except the poor , who cannot afford pews , and are allowed to edge themselves into the " free sittings" in some out of the way corner ; or except the policemen , who must come in their uniform , and know their place in the parish . The policemen must not enter the vestibule of heaven without his regulation clothes ; he cannot pass on the holy way save as " B 2129 . " As John Williams he is beyond the pale of salvation ; the clergyman who says , Let us pray , must not invite John Williams to do so ; but he is only to let " B 2129 " approach the Divine goodness . This ought to be carried out entirely : when the policeman says his catechism , he must
not say that his name is " M . or JN ., the ordinary name of a Christian catechumen , but he must answer that it is " B 2129 . " When the congregation pray for the Eoyal family , parliament , and all classes of the people , they ought to add , " the police , " who are set apart for a separate salvation in uniform , a regeneration in divisions under their Serjeants . Why our respected fellow-creature , John Williams , however , should be required to figure in the house of God in his temporal disguise , we do
not know . Perhaps it may be to take up the trespassers , or to keep account of incorrigible sinners , or to tell the sluggard soul that it " must move on . " If so , we must conclude that misconduct is terribly , dangerously on the increase ; since exhortation , collect , homily , sermon , all failing , the pastor is obliged to call m the police . There might , indeed , bo excellont employment for tho blue coat on the spiritual highway , if he were entrusted with , a genuine commission . For it is inconceivable how many bad characters throne- the sanctuary . There is St . Ananias , a
dignitary of episcopal and capitular importance , who has long been guilty of malversation , impropriating tho tribute of the Lord , denying his quota to the poor , or withholding what ho ought to have surrendered to tho Ecclesiastical Commissioners . There is St . Barabbaa , shrewdly suspected of intonding to purloin tho church itselfand to it all
plate , if not tho church , carry off to an eminent receiver of stolen church property , who wears a triple hat . 1 hero is bt . Judas , who is moro than suspected of systematically embezzling church-rates and church property of all kinds for tho benefit of a JJissenting coneWation , which ho is impudent enough to brina : into tho church itself , by way of saving theexthus low
penae of a brick chapol ; and cnurcn gets m and feasts with the Borvants , while high church has trone to a fancy ball at Bolgmvia . There is St Barnwell , who has no vocation in tho church , at all , but employs himself in robbing its till for tho m oro indulgence of luxurious " fast living . In short , thoro arc as many spiritual stags and swell mob gentry in tho sanctuary as over there woro in Wtytefriars ; and if the police have been Bent for to take up eucj * frauduion * person ^
"B 2129 . " The Scotch clergy boast of being " a moral police : " the new p lan would only render the metropolitan force a true hierarchy on the Scotch principle . It would only be adding one more function to the many which are gradually concentrated in Mr . Commissioner Mayne — - henceforth Archbishop Mayne , " Richard Cant , " or "Innocent the Fiftieth , Poritifex Macsarcasm . He is appointed to teach us how to hire our cabs , how far we have ridden and no farther , which way the horses heads must turn on leaving the evening party or theatre , and why not the way our own heads must turn in the true pathP We should then , in a much clearer , and more explicit mode than we find among those saints , all contradicting each other , have regulation sign-posts pointing the way
there will be a wholesome clearance of the establishment . _ ¦ , The difficulty , perhaps , is to understand who would be left . None , we fear , who might not be classed in this slang calendar of samts , or else be convicted of some heterodox ideas , such as Platonism , doubt of churoh-rates , Socinianism , latitudinarian ideas about the Ecclesiastical Communion , disbelief in the Privy Council , or some other abomination , amongst the many that are now undermining the establishment . So that if all the saints were taken up , and the heretics were left without colour , whom should we put into the pulpit P . For want of a better , why not put into it
^ p ° TO SALVATION . B 2129 will " take us up" to bliss ; Pachard Cant will authorize the e ssential truths for all good citizens ; and if we are troubled with any " doubts , " we can carry the appeal to Mr . Henry , of Bow-street , w-ho will , no question , show us as j well as any person the way to pay " the costs . " Now then we understand the objection of the police at being called into the church : it is a formal expression of humility—the B Division crying , " Kolo episcopari . "
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AN ENGLISH LANDLORD . " Ageicultttee is the most simple , the most innocent , and the most honourable employment of man : "—a truth so pregnant , although so ancient and so oft repeated , that Judge Halliburton deemed it fit to a ^ orn his epigrammatic speech , at Gloucester ; while it has been the basis for the public morals of more than one great State . After trying other avocations , other means of attaining wealth , power , and glory , nations return to the field , and content themselves
with the humble worlf of tilling the land . The nation that has won itself an immortal name in victory , thinks its victory but half crowned , until it can turn its sword into a plough-share ; and we , who appear to be doomed to an sera , —brief , we trust , —in which land , like labour , is to be made a merchantable commodity , look forward to the dawn beyond that darker age , in which agriculture shall recover , by the inherent strength of its own natural philosoph y and natural religion—when tho tradesman himself , subdued to the moro innocent and honourable
occupation , shall cease to make profit an idol . It is under tho coercion of adversity that Agriculture , which has bo long resisted the wedlock with Science , ia now forced to that . sacred union ; the farmer ' s business is ceasing to be empirical . If he has had difficulties , —and they have been enormous , —ho has found out the means of encountering them . It is true , as Lord Ashburton said , in his noblo speech , " you cannot stop the deluge of rain , but you drain off tho superfluous moisture ; you cannot prevent drought , but you give such a crumb to the surface of the soil , by your implements , such a strength to the crop , by your manures , as to defy it . You cannot arrest tho plague of insects , but you hurry tho growth and it
of tho turnip , by artificial means , nuso out of their reach . " Tho result is , that tho farmer of England , " thwarted b y nature , as no other industry is , smarting under heavy blows and soro discouragements , dealing with nature in her wildest moods , ' and with powers delivered into hia hands , controlled , mastered , and domesticated by his machinery , has learned almost to defy the vicissitudes of the elements . " But how has ho learned to do this P By studying " tho law of nature , and of tho God of nature . " Thus , by tho law which our Almighty Father " has mado to regulate tho growth of all that is , that law which speaks out to them in their fields , in $ he \ r woodfl / Wby t-Jw ^ law tfye lagging farmer js
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July 23 , 1853 , ] THE LEADER . 711
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 23, 1853, page 711, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1996/page/15/
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