The Express.
London, England, 1856-03-15 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, SATURDAY EVENING, MARCH 15, 1858.

This dm Of eh sissei, is.,
OUR RELA'IIObB wish AMERICA. The
Corropcsukhoe Kumla Ur SoIKI lad AMMO'S 73471711
err owe twos the tottootist Qualls% on pnwoolod to UN United
ct,ocrout, fib. 211, UK
am Los. rvo, owl Ce., End* sod llatittiolsokeeders sad
47, Luttgatobill. Leselea.

re', elx;preoo.

ft
aillilellnieliblQed in "The lairea,94paiss Swift lefs.
mobosse• MIK w.. Mtvirierlnst.W Tee Wink la the
dvallala

KEYS WATII AT LONDON BAUM.
Ts. Dav--riams, n. 1ka........Anana" 116.
TIMONIMPIP44IIIIIII6 LOU. I.

Or course we are all of us eager to suppress the
national abomination of wife•beating. The sandal
and infamy of the thing are becoming utterly intole-
rable. Morning after morning the nerves of the
well-regulated portico of the community are wrought
up into a perfect shudder dinner and disgust by the
monotonous record of atrocious brutalities mailed
in the police reports. The Mika as is only oatmeal,l
are vehemently indignant, and, as is equally natural,
vigorously prompt in their schemes of repressions. 1
We don't refer, of worse, to the MART How ITTS and
the ELIZABETH BARRETT BIOWKINGII, but to those
more average specimens of womanhood whose forts
lies rather in feeling keenly than thinking deeply, and
who are apt to rush epee a social evil with the first
legislative weapon that indignation supplies. With
these Menus of the breakfast table the leek is the
favourite remedy for wife-beating. Mr. Dir.Lwtri
of the Wind opinion. Lamed of six months' hard
labour he suggests two, with the addition, ia all suss,
of one private whipping.
If legislation were a mere affair of feeling and
impulse, we should be strongly disposed to renew
with Mr. DILLW7N. Taken in itself, the operation
of flogging a wife-beater is an act undeniably grate-
ful to those instincts of wild justice of which the
most advanced utilitarian can never, we an told, be
wholly cured. Bat when we are asked to make laws
we cannot afford to owed, too much even to the
finest prompting' of uncultivated manhood. Other
considerations necessarily present themselves. Highly
agreeable as this penalty may be to our natural sense
of vindietiveoess,will it remedy the mischief we want
to put down P Does it go to the root of the evil—does
it deal with causes, or only with Where P bit likely to
mitigate the ferocity of the brutal husband, or abate
1 his habits of druokenness, or shake the foundations
Dither marital despotism with which be is now /s-
-uited by the folly of the law P On the other hand,
bee it any tendeasy to check the tongue, or incubus
the clesalinses, or improve the household knowledge,
or, more dna all, to elevate the legal status of the
coarse and slatternly and helpless wife P These are
the main sums of that social disorder of which wife-
beating is but the most flagrant symptom. In what
sense is your law a remedy, if it merely provides a
doubtful palliative for the symptoms, and leaves an.
touched the sources of disease P No: other things
remaining as they are, wife-beating would still
be the practice, though hasband-fleggiog should
be established u the law. You would have
done absolutely nothing to remedy the plague
you want to extirpate. Yon would merely
have defaced your statute-book with a barbarous
law in a vain attempt to suppress a barbarous prac-
tice. You cannot lash human brutes into manhood
you may brutal, them into still more repulsive un-
manlier:.

What then is to be done P Many things, to delay
which any longer would be a scandal and reproach
to our Legicature, as greet as wife-beating is to our
population. In the first place, the legal status of
women in married Life must forthwith be altered by
the supreme authority of the Legislature. It is a
matter of the highest gratification that the necessity
for this step should so clearly have been discerned
by the foremost women of our time. The Woman's
Petition, presented last night to both Houses of
Parliament, is the commencement of a womanish
destined, we feel convinced, to work out a most bene-
ficial change in the domestic relations of English
society. It points to the only effectual remedy of the
=iamb's social disease, the spread of which has
done so mach to mar the happiness and degrade the
character of oar coantry. Foreigners universally,
and unthinking people at home, attribute English
wife-beating to inherent brutality of temper in the
English husband. The best and wisest of English-
women have ventured to think otherwise. They have
come to the conclusion that in this, as in so many
other ours, evil habits are the result of evil laws.
Any law that sanctions slavery, engenders despotism.
The commas law of England makes marriage a
slavery on one side and a despotism on the other.
By the amass law, the wife is merged in the
husband. She eon bold no property of her own :
all her wings are his ; all bar 'moveables
are hie ha is sole lard of all her sub-
steam sad of all her industry. Equity, indeed,
has her., as ia ether asses, stepped in partially to
relieve the extreme rigour of the law, and enabled
the married "mass to protect certain description' of
property from the group of her hubead, by the cum-
brous process of having it settled on trustees to bar
own separate use. Bat we are not now talking of the
Glasses who ere provided with 'dotes or protected by
settlements; ws are talking of that class which has
the unenviable distinction of supplying the daily
papers with nine-tenths of the wife-beatleg cuss;
sad in speaking of this class it is the 'Met truth to
say that the wife, as far as all rights of property or
means of separate livelihood are concerned, is the
absolute slave of the husband. As long as she
lives with him, all she has or earns is indefeasibly
his; it, driven out by ill-usage, she leaves him, and
endeavours to earn a separate subsistence, he can
come whew he plasma on her little store, and, with
all the authority of English jurisprudence to
beck him, seize it as his own property is the
name of the common law. CAM of the kind are
occurring every day. Four years ago (what has been
due la those four lug years?) Lord Sammie,'
stated before the Commissioners on the Law of
Divorce, a ease of the kind which bad occurred in •
higher social rank than those to which we have last
been alluding. A wife, driven from her home by her
husband's brutality, was recommended by her Mends
to set up a schooL Their sympathy and bar own
talents mending her efforts, else wee moon in a fair
way of realising for herself and her children a
modest competency. The husband discovered her
adders, forced himself into the house, claimed the
property as his, squandered it while it lasted, and
lett her when it was spent. The whole subsequent
history ot the poor woman's life was a series of
similar attempts on her part, succeeding for a time,
and then utterly thwarted by the legalised and irre-
sistible injustice of her husband's spoliation.
When such is the state of the law who can wonder
at the state of the life P Absolute power is good for
none—in the hands of the coarse and violent it is cer-
tain to be abused by the most deplorable .:nausea of
tyranny. The first step towards a law which is to be
realty remedial of wife-beetle& is to raise the legal
status of the English married woman, with respect to
property; to enable the woman, who, by literature
or art, or manual industry, possesses the means of
making • livelihood, to secure to herself some inde-
pendent share—wow inviolable interest, in her earn-
ings. This ie the first step and the moat important of
the whets; many other things would follow se ot
course, if this step were once secured. When it was
coos sacertained that the married Englishwoman did
not, by the mere formation of the conjugal tie, lose at
once all independence and all individuality, a change
for the better would smu be discernible in the habits
and training of the lower classes of oar fellow- eouot ry-
women. The ignorance and the 'backbone—the

Spica! habeciliti and the ostentatious seallellieWl—
which now war against the happiness of so many
bumble homes would fast disappear, sad in
their steed we should have that happy coo.
inanity in exertion, that friendly and so-equal
participation in toil, which now gives so ouch
hearty sad healthy enjoyment to the marriage

'relation among the peasantry of France. Let the
advocates of the lash remember that the fault is not
so much in our people as in our laws : it is very easy
to flog, it is very difficult wisely to reform t but the
%reser 411 the hasty espediestot barbarous poser,
the latter ts. true function of advanded *Motion.
This Hew* Legislature has been toe long supine in
Able matter; anises they wish the conjugal relation
as it exists among our lower orders to be a by-word
of reproach throughout the whole world they must be
supine no longer. The task before them is not to
brutalise the husbands by an application of the lash
but to improve the position of the wives by an amend-
asset of the law.

Ice we remember aright it was Sir Thomas Mona
who tauntingly told his wife that in return fee her
wearying HEAVEN with prayers for • boy, she bad
got one who would be a boy aLL his life. We wonder
if any of the blood of the Monts rune in the veins of
Mr. Baron ALDERSON. At Maidstone, on Wednes-
day last, the learned Baron addressed a group of
obstreperous school-boys from the Bench in the cha-
rming of an " Old boy;" and a vein of most rollicking
boyishatie ran through the whole of his parenthetical
remarks on the ease he was trying at the time. He
interrupted the principal witness, and reprimanded
him—a boy of fourteen years of age—for unag the
word " papa :" adding, "If a boy talks atont
his papa at school he is sure to get into
it." The facetious "old boy" next entered
into an elaborate defence of the system of fogging.
" He said there was no harm in it, where the boys
were all treated alike, and the son of the duke could
claim no exemption." Perhaps if Baron ALDERSON
had sot been doomed, like the heir of the great author
of the " Utopia," to perpetual puerility, he might
have understood that the thrashing of the pony son
of a duke by some great lollopiog plough-boy, is as
objectionable as the thrashing of some ofiaxen-headed
now-boy, as simple as might be," by the athletic son
of a duke. Bat this was • flight of philoeopby
beyond the juvenile intellect of the " old boy," and
accordingly he proceeded to apply his doctrine of
equality to the case before him. It appears that at
the School of Tunbridge there are two classes of
school-boys : the free day-scholars, and the boarders
who pay a handsome annual sum to the muter. It
is alleged that the latter clam are allowed to take
gnat liberties with the former; and though this was
denied in court by the barrister retained for the de-
fence, no evidence was offered in support of the
denial. Among the plebeian day-soholars is, or was
till lately, the son of a clergyman, a sickly lad of four-
Ina years. This luckless youngster, on being
ordered by a hale, healthy member of the patrician
ulnas, aged seventeen, to " fag for him in the cricket
eissed; declined, on the plea that his father had for-
bidden him to enter the cricket ground. For this
sot of insubordination the sickly boy was next

day thrashed by the strong boy in presence
of the assembled school-boys. liii.misfortune did
not end here. Sickened and stupefied by the in-
fliction he loitered on the way, and on his entering
school was punished by the mashie kw being tee
late. Either the master did not assicessed to irk
whether the boy had any excuse for his want of pus►
tuality, or he upheld the authority of the yewg
patrician whose blows were the cause of his befog
behindband. The father of the twice flogged lei
sought redress from the master of the school; is
vain. Be sought redress from the Justices of the
Pease ; in vain. He appealed to the Court of NAM
and the presiding Judge bullied the injured lad, joked
with those who had beaten him, and finally scoffed
the ease out of court. It is not an unfrequent trick
with dramatic writers to stuff a heroic moral sentiment
into the mouth of some fanny character at the elms
of the piece—a device which seldom fails to befog
down the galleries. The " old boy" of the farce we
have been describing availed himself of a tag of this
kind. Re pathetically adjured the young ,boys to
remember that if the Patricians mauled the Plebeians
in future they would not act like gentlemen. So far
geed; balk wield have bees better to have added
Sat if a bin Wen boy best a weak little bey he
exisid ail libe a rallies and a coward. The hems
tint eleasstb ought not to be abused against the
weak, eased be taught too early or too often. The
bully of the play ground is the domestic tyrant le
embryo. We have, perhaps, as little sympathy with
I milk-sops or sneaks as the "old boy" himself; bat
we have not hie pndileelist for the big bullies of the
play-ground. We baresamemeksted mildly with the
"old boy =and iteMeirbet is his own strain—in
the preens& Wass% begin he may mend. But if
we Sad Idea again eseearaging big school-boys in
ads of musky to little ones, and disporting himself
at the bomb as he might do is his inn after dinner,
to shall be obliged to speak to him more seriously.

The following are the meetings of the Literary sod
flottatidelbseistiss for dot imolai mak :—Mooday—Moysl
Anode:ll,o. "On Sonlptsee." by Ms R. Wastotssott ; Sta-
ostiosl,B, Ths Book of England, its prosiest cosontattoo
and optratlons," by Mr Jellises. Toroday—ltortbroltasel.

2, 0 (5a British osk Timber; " restitution of Civil Begi-
nner, 8, "Oa Imprivaasate la D.viag Dram," Its., by
Kr. Betake; Linnets, 8. Wedseeday—Soriety of Ara, 8,
Oa the Prlaelplse regulable the Transfer of Bahl
Plants of one country to mother," by Kr. Yashiro; 1390-
ivied. 8, " Oa eons say( osd ilLansaaliaa Bassist from
the Bus of tb• Liu," by the Bet. Kr. Derma ;" "Note
oa the Borings in the Valecelesses Co .1.8r1d," by K.
Leonia; "Oa the Age of some of the Baadstosee and
Breadas is the (loath of Bs shad," by Profane Hark.
sae; "Oa the Osoiegy of the Idle of Trialdad," by Kr.
Bower. Thanday--Boyd Aseirlay, 8, "Os Palming,"
by Professor Hart.

Government (we leers from the ittliewauns) hu et
inith dose someditag &Ades with regard to oar State
paper. Tares sateinat watigaariee have be.. net at work
epos them—to mart, arraap, sad calendar their contents.
Mr. Imam, Keeper of the State Paper., takes the nips of
Patrud the Sixth (already *gleaned sear stages) sad the
sell tines reigns, Yrs. Bwrstt Orres—anther of "Ides
of the Princesses of Essiand"--is laboariag at the times of
James the First. Mr. John Brea hit undertaken the
rags of Charles the First sad the perioi of the Common-
wealth. Is a few yam we may hops to see three Papers
IN available to biologic.' Musts se are the Measscripts in
the British Idaseans.

The Council of the Royal Academy has at length
takes up the (pasties of Piciorial Copyright. Last sight
a mating was ball is Trafalgar-aqure, tom:adder the beat
mane to he adopted.
In Mendelssohn's °vertu, to the "Midsummer
Night's Drum," Stacy Costa was ammo& when he eon.
maned his labours at the Philharmonic Concnta, of eon-
dastarg at a racing spool!. A correspondent of the Athe-
neum writes I heard Meadessohn myself, at Birming-
ham (.s the self-seine year whin t • charge waaksid .gayest
the Lanza e inductor sea pleas of Italian grimace) tike the
Map of th.t cheir&ag overture (aster than I ever heeri it
takes ti say or • also; end I asked him, altar the concert,
whether that was his intestios. "Oh, doer, so,' was Men
dalseohn's mower, but one most be in a nary humour
sometimes. Music cannot always go at the same rata.'"

The eniermeops is now aged against thieves. A boz,
containing meaty, was lately lifted from a railway train la
Prude. emptied of its elating, sad BIM with sand. The
°lice set to work; bat the lead around almost every sta.
Lion in the mirth of Prussia to Beady; sad the Berlin thki!-
e dam mem at (talk Member' come into the field. H.
carotene examined t►e mad is she box; sad thee mat for
wimples of seed along the Has. To the eye ell the Daman
appeared alike; bat the powevfal fastrament &Meted
'light varietioas in dm minute vegetable life; end the fits.
tics whore tap qu bad bees abducted res SCOI feud and
the thief fa jail.

Vbe Court.

Nees &tweed of Saxe Weimer visited the Queen
yesterday atHoekiaghant Paleee.
Prices Albert, attended by Captain the Hee. D. de Pm,
rode oo hariebtek te the moraine, end Tidied the Pods'
lately maimed atHenslagtoe Gore by the Reyal Cosa-
missies.
Sir W. Cebitt sad Mr. Edger Bowriog we.. present to
etedset hie Royal Highness over the property. The Prises
v int,d the Royal institution la Albemarle-greet la the
&Smoot'. _ _ _

Prince Victor of Bohanlobe paid visits on Thursday to the
Dueness of Glomeeter at Olouseeter-"osse, and the Dachas'
of Cambridge at her residence in S. James's Palace. His
8000011 flinMeas left Baeklagliam Pilaus yesterday for
Portsmouth...

flwerbreck had the heaver of sub-
ealttiag to the Queen and Prism Albert his portfilio of
061061 drawings and sketches in Bostlaad sad other ports.
The Queen ass Priam Albert, with the Prizes of Wale.
sad Prises Alfred, homonred the Haymarket Theatre with
their preterce in the evening. In at:mdse.,' were Laiy
Churchill, the How. Flees Macdosald, Lord Casey', Maier-
Gam! Buckley, mad Captain the Hos. D. de Roo.
The bllowii g gentlsmse were presented to the Queen, at
the Levee, on Wednesday:
Breve-5640t Cinhant, 41st Regiment, es promotion and
return from the Cringe, by Sir Adolphus Dalrymple.
Corer' R Lass, on appointment to 9rd Light Dragoons,
by Lientenant-G•sera! Lenient..
Cure' t A L 5,,,,,, i n app.:stared to Sed Light Dragoons,
by Lisstanazt-Cisaaral Lamour.

A depatat'on of the Greet Western and the Oxford,Wor-
water. and Wolverhampton Railway Companies, had an
interview with Lord Stanley of Murky sad the Right
Hon. Rohert Lowe yesterday, at the Board of Trade. The
deputati,m consisted of the Right Hee. Simon Walfolc,
Viroonat Berringtem, Mr. Williams, red Kr. Brunel
(Greet Writers); and Mr. Panes (Deputy Ch.irmso),
Ur. Pakiegeon (Director), Mr. Harebell (S Bator), end
Mr. N. T. Smith; (Scientary) Orford, Worcester, sad Wol-
verhampton.
Sir William Macarthur had en interview with Mr. So-
maim Labour:hen deiy, at the Cnlonial-oglce.
A meeting of the Oxford University Commiesion wu held
at No. 17, Greet Queen-street, Weitntierter, on Wednes-
day. The Cnerniiirioners present were the Earl of Elles-
mere, the Earl of Harrowtre. the Hu. Edward Twilletos,
the Dun of Wells, and Striolus W. Awdsiry, and the Sure.
tube.