On this page
-
Text (2)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
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.
-
-
Transcript
-
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.
Untitled Article
been in life , it must be presumed that he does not belong to the aristocratic or wealthy classes of society : yet he must resort to means "which imply the possession of wealth , and ^ esteem himself happy too ; for how many , liaving the same reasons to claim divorce , have not at command the price of justice ! To all who sought divorce on the same
grounds , Lord Cranworth ' s bill afforded the double relief , of concentrating the authority and diminishing the expense . It would no longer have been , necessary to obtain three favourable judgments in two courts and in Parliament ; and the cost would have been greatly diminished . Not enough , however , to give the relief to the poor man : the bill ¦ wou ld only , so to speak , have extended the Tight of divorce to the middle classes .
That was something . But the measure is arrested , and why ? Because the officers and others interested in the maintenance of the vicious and condemned Ecclesiastical Courts try to . gain time by delays ; and so , to delay the judgment . on , the unjust income of those persons , numbers of men and women condemned to the torture of undissolved though impracticable union , must continue in their suffering . The expectations which had been formed of the bill were indeed extravagant ; . and many expected ainder . it a release which they would jiot ihave had . Others were more
correct . A lady writing to the Daily JSFews denounces it as " for the first time flagrantly drawing a distinction between the comparative culpability of men and women in breaking the marriage vow . " "Hhough it might be bad morality , " said Lord Cranworth , in defending his bill , " there ¦ was no blinking the fact that a husband . vxyuld scarcely ilose caste Son an offence of this -kind [ adultery ;} , whereas , a wife would forfeit her-station in society . " And on this Mrs . Margaret Hallen sends her protest to our contemporary :
" Hardly as our sex have been treated by the matrimonial statutes of previous ages in England , it is reserved for the boasted civilisation of the nineteenth century to endeavour to deprive us of the small protection against insult and indignity which law and public opinion have afforded us hitherto ; for -whilst by the measure proposed facilities are afforded to the husband to dissolve bis union -with an unfaithful wife , should the case be reversed , and the wife the injured party , no redress of grievances , no sundering of the marriage bond , except under the most extreme cases of viuany , ia procurable . By the measure proposed , the husband may revel in
profligacy , he may convert his home into a harem , he may insult his -wife with the presence of the accomplices of 'his guilt , and yet commit no legal crime which may enable his outraged partner to come before a court of justice for relief . That a measure involving such a principle as this should have emanated from some of the most distinguished personages in the land is a matter that cannot but excite surprise , indignation , and regret in the minds of many a woman in this country . Must we not feel that that it ia because we have no Advocate to plead our cause—that advantage is taken of our silence , weakness , and helplessness , to deny us that justice which man can claim so forcibly for himself ? ' '
JNo , that is not the reason . The first reason is thia : IJord Oranworth has considered the justice of granting the wife the right of divorce for adultery on the husband ' s part ; but he darod not grant itthe cases that might bo advanced on that ground would be so innumerable , that the very institution of marriage would bo imperilled . Wonderful candour of a Lord Chancellor ! Wonderful confession of tho marriage law as it ia !
The next -reason , which Lord Cranworth might justly plead , is , that the real origin of any law , good or bad , lies in sociofcy itself . The legislature does bat ahapo laws . It ia tho absence of distinct practical ideas in- society , on thia subject of marriage , "which are the xeal source of tho
injuaingly examine into the evidences , and come to some conclusions of their own , or suppose they do . But on the most practical class of questions called moral , they are content to take the dicta of theologists ,- legists , and Popes , —rof Pagan , Jew , and Gentile , ages ago ! Women abet the men in passing these spurious convictions for real ; and those who cry out for reform in their own case , are as likely as not to turn round and dogmatise ,
tice . In the discussion of such questions , true principles are mixed with assumptions founded on customs in distant ages and distant countries , and with religious dogmas . In morals especially men arrogate the title to say that such a practice is " right" or is " wrong , " without taking any pains to judge for tliemselves , or to test the judgment by tangible and practical considerations . They claim the right to exercise private judgment on tlie existence of a Deity , and all the attendant questions of religion ; and do
accordeven on the old principles , upon the right or wrong of their neighbour ' s ease . Hence , having neither clear ideas , positive conclusions , nor accord of action , those who want the reform must take just so much as a Cranworth may please to give ; and when he pleases : the " much" being the bill now thrown to the rats of Doctors * Commons ; the " when" that legislative to-morrow " next session . "
Untitled Article
BEWABE OF THE DOG . It is an old proverb that when you give a dog a bad name you hang him . But it appears that the result to the dog is much the same even when you give him a good name —in the sense of speaking in his favour . Benevolent people have had a " movement " to release dogs from the carfc specially known among vehicles as the dog-cart ; the Lords
are passing a bill to prohibit such use , and the owners of such dogs are preparing , accordingly , to hang their dogs thus usedthe dogs being 50 , 000 in number . That , however , one would think is merely the dogs ' affair ; we malce this generation of canine cart-drawers suffer , but we bless future
generations of dogs—that is , we prohibit the possible propagation of varieties of supernumerary curs ; and we , in no way , hurt ourselves —merely indulging what one noble lord called our " philanthropy , " severely indifferent as to the fate- of those we insist on benefiting . Bub the Earl of Eglintoun warns us that there's not an end of the dog , when he dangles from a rope in the popular back yard ; it is intimated , to us that the dog will reappear in the popular pie ; and his lordship warns us , who despise Chinese tastes , to be careful of quasi-pork during the period of what should be the dog days . l $ ow if it could be conditioned that the "
philanthropists " alone should eat all the pork pies to be produced during the next three months , we would have no objection to tho bill passing . But tho " philanthropists" will do nothing of the kind ; to a suggestion of that sort they would answer , like Rabelais ' s cook consulting with the chickens , who objected both to roasting as well as boiling , that we wore wandering from tho question . We must submit , therefore , to a now spocios of " adulteration , " under that system of which wo have spoken in another article . Consequently ,
cave cancm . Lord Eglintoun ' a hint , however , ia so carelessly forcible as to urge to the consideration : why should wo , a kind-hearted people , be generous to dogs , and cruol to tho human raastioators of pork-pies ? It looks meritorious to enfranchise dags : and tho Lords' moor suro will be spoken of aa an advance in " civilisation . " xot it strikes certain Peers with
horror that animals of soft paws should b ( used for draught , while it only excites a laugl when a grave Peer refers to the notorious and more "hideous fact that our Christian trades men engaged in certain departments of the provision trade would , without compunction put " Dash" into a pork-pie .. Do we , thus set off one national sin against another bj arranging only to be experimentally good it corpore vili , —our national cur ? The gentle man who was shocked at the use of a goose in cleansing , —by being nappingly drawn upa chimney , and who recommended that two
ducks should be used , in that way , instead was perhaps only guilty of the national logic In certain districts of Ireland the literary market—engaged in denunciations of th < oppressor—is supplied with quills gatherec from the living and screaming goose : anc the peasants , remonstrated with , enquire " would you have us , then , starve ? " Tlier < is some syllogistic process developed in tha question . But the English public is to b < forced , into goodness to dogs , in order thai they , the public , may eat—what they don ' like .
Still larger questions arise out of this debat < —managed too frivolously . Opinions were di vided for and against the dog—the dog alon < being able to determine which were the tru < ayes , and which were the veritable noes several young Peers improperly absenting themselves on an occasion when their orde : would have been indebted to them for ai opinion . The Peers who were in favour o the use of dogs in carts , contended that th < dogs did not suffer ; by which they mean
that they didn ' t suffer more than was gooc for them , their paws being accommodated t their functions , and their masters having ai interest in taking care of them . On th < other hand , other Peers quoted the inten tions of Providence , as printed in the saic paws , and argued , generally , that physica organisations should not be diverted to arti ficial purposes . This is an awkward firs principle for a Peer to venture on : and Lor < Lynfthurst ' s cynical enquiry when the Q-o
vernment would bring in a bill to provide fo the comfort of industrious fleas , pointed th moral of that line of argument . Is th House of Lords prepared to arrange for th " eternal fitness of things ? " IsTo doubi among the benefactors of dogs who vote < was the venerable nobleman who provide * for the " accomplished party" lately in court of law suing Mr . JRolt for board an lodging expenses : —did the venerable noblt man consider that it was the intention c Providence that women should be prostitute
—there being no benevolent law against sue a diversion of moral organisation f Was : intended that lobsters should pass one phas among lettuce , eggs , and mustard , in broo dishes : or that the foie gras should bo d < veloped before a good fire ? Are Smithfie ] and Billingsgate visible intentions of Pr < vidence ? vVero old gentlemen , with certai numbers of acres , intended to bo hereditai legislators , and decree tho general susponsic of unsuspicious dogs , felicitous under tl carcases of thoir several Launces P
"When Madame Poitovin , the Europa the minute , wont up , and camo down , in bullock-harnessed balloon , the Jupiter comh down dead , the secretary to tho Society f the Prevention of Cruelty to Animala kill * several horses , perhaps , in hurfting about f evidence ; tho witnesses dining together < beef which had been dragged to Smithfiol < and thai ; sort of inconsistency , very innoccr cannot ; bo ovorlooked on such occasions aa tl Dog-cart Debftto . How many Peers talkii of " humanity" on Monday had " books" < steeplechases ; how many kept hunters ; he many need cabs ; how many preserved , pi ciaoly for the purpose of finally wounding a :
Untitled Article
j gE ® THE LE A D E R . [ Saturday ,
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), July 15, 1854, page 662, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2047/page/14/
-