The Press.
London, England, 1858-11-27 00:00:00

NOVEMBER 27, 1858.

1157

the same manner in which claims to the Peerage are watched and scru-
tinized by the Attorney-General on behalf of the Crown. This suggestion
our American cousin may certainly claim some merit in having elicited,
although we were not prepared for the almost French misappreciation of
English affairs which characterize the greater part of his reflections.

Another London tradesman has this week been tried, convicted, and
punished for the very same offence which was committed by a well-known
house in Oxford-street some eighteen months ago. In that case the
sufferer was a young lady of some personal attractions, if we recollect right,
and the damages awarded her were such as to make the culprit howl. In
this case it happened that the complainant was only the wife
of a warehouseman, and though the indignities to which she was
subjected were at least equal to, and the substantial injury she sus-
tained much greater than, those undergone by the lady to whom
we have alluded, yet the Jury, with a just estimate of her inferior
position, awarded only 201. The facts are briefly these. In the month
of June last a Mrs. TRUSS, a highly respectable woman, went into a
shop in Deptford, and asked for a bottle of ginger beer, tending half a
sovereign in payment. The girl in the shop said it was a bad one, and
broke it in two, upon which her customer took it back again, and at first
refused to give it up, when the master of the shop demanded it. After
some altercation the man declared he should give her into custody. In
vain she tendered her name and address ; in vain she referred the infuriate
greengrocer to a brother tradesnian only a few doors off, who knew both
herself and her husband. The retailer of cabbages was inexorable. Two
policemen were summoned, and the unfortunate woman dragged through
the streets to the police-station, where she was stripped stark naked, and
saw every garment subjected to the closest scrutiny, at the conclusion of
which process a person came to inform her that the half-sovereign was a
good one! When we add that the prosecutrix was within a week of her
confinement, we have said all that is necessary to describe this most
atrocious outrage. The justice of the damages depends to some extent on
the position of the defendant. But they ought to be such as he would feel
severely : and we are apprehensive that twenty pounds was too little. We
most cordially concur in the observation of the Learned Judge, Baron
MARTIN, on this occasion, who, while he expressed just indignation at the
brutal conduct of the tradesman, took the opportunity of pointing out to
the police that they were exceeding their duty in arresting people charged
under such circumstances without making all the inquiries in their power
concerning their alleged respectability.

It is not so very long ago since we felt it our duty to protest against
the introduction of superfluous indecency into the columns of our daily
journals; and latterly, and more especially during the past week, we have
noticed more than one flagrant violation of the rule which public delicacy, to
say nothing of public morality, would require to be observed. We cannot
understand what benefit is expected to accrue to society from the publica-
tion of those filthy details of which a certain class of cases necessitate the
investigation. Is it pretended that unless every revolting circumstance be
given in full either the accuser or the accused might not meet with justice ?
But obviously no such conclusion could be maintained in the face of so
many cases never reported at all, and others of which nothing but the
merest outline is afforded. We arc entitled to ask, then, What is the rule
upon which journals act in this matter ? Why do they publish
this case, and withhold that ? Why do they say of one offence
that the details are unfit for publication, and perhaps in
the very next impression come out with descriptions which,
if not absolutely so disgusting as some that arc withheld, are more
immoral, because they leave something to the imagination. A case, for
instance, was given at the latter part of the present week, in which every
detail might have been copied from the warmest scene in " Pamela." The
relationship which the parties concerned bore to one another, while it in-
creased the horror of the offence to an older class of readers, did not
diminish its prurience to a younger class, though for both alike it tended
to familiarize the picture of vice, and deaden the sense of modesty. Of
course, it is easy to say that there arc some cases in which every detail is
necessary, and sonic in which it is not so. That is credible enough. But
it is no answer to our coniplaint, which is of cases in which these
details are unnecessarily given. To prove our point more com-
pletely we should have to show the same disregard for decency
with which we tax our contemporaries. But can any of our readers
show us what there was in the case of the girl RUMEN:F., or anything that
made it necessary to state the exact coercion practised by her step-
mother, and to indicate with unerring preciseness the nature of
the defence set up ? It a case of aiding and abetting was made out on the
one hand, or of previous vice on the other, surely that was sufficient for
the public to know, without setting the heated fancies of a certain class of
readers to gloat over highly-coloured details, or disgusting another class by
the coarse exhibition of grossness.

The Army Clothing Commissioners terminated their inquiries at Wool-
wich last Tuesday. The two principal abuses which they have brought to
light at present arc the brokerage system, a characterestic invention of
Lord l'Axmunii's, and the payment of money by the clothiers to the
Quartermasters of regiments. Of course a good deal of general mismanar-
merit in the shape of unneeesary dilatoriness has been from time to time
exposed. But that was no novelty. The Commissioners are expected to
resume their inquiries on the second of December at the Tower.

I
I

11