The Sun.
London, England, 1853-09-20 00:00:00

rriIEATRE ROYAL, DRURY-LANE.- .!
I. see, Mr. E. r. sM I fit Twelve N4:hts of Mr.
Gl.T.T.4,vcrs V. iIItrJOICE —First Iteprestntattm of a New Vlay,
in five acts, by G. H. ttaicer, E 641., euiitle.i •43-4 F, F,'l`rit)
whi h Mr. G. V. Elio ge, s iiiported by Messrs. I),ivenpor .
Edgar, Evans, Nlesdame, An ton. Feithei stone, BWtt al. iSto., will
appeix. To conclude wall THE FoUNTA IN ui REAury, in win :b.
alias Fea.lierstoue will app,ar. Reduced price as usual.

THEATRE ROYAL ADELYII.I.
Proprietor, Mr. R. Webster —Directress, Madame Celeste.

THIS EVENING, SEPT. 20,

Will be performed GENE VI EVE. Characters by Messrs. Pantie,
Leigtt ltftirray, A. Wigan, Bedford, Keeley, and 0. Smith ; aliss
Woolgar, and Mrs. Keeley.
After which, will be presented SA.RDANAPALUL
To be followed by THE CAMP AT CHOHHAM.
To conclude with WHAT I NO CAB?

Ii.OYAL OLYMPIA: TIIEATAE.
Lessee and Manager, Mr. Farren.

THIS EVENING, SEPT. 20,

Will be performed Tti E TIME Characters by Messrs. Farren,
J. Joianstone, William Farren, G. Cooke, ani Shalders; Ilezdamt s
Barred Lyons and Bartlett, &c.
With sHYLOCE; or,
THE MERCHANT OF "VENICE PRE-
SERVED."

TLIE WANDERING MINiTREL. Jem rags, Mr. F. Robson.

ASTLEY'S ROYAL ANIPIIITHEATHE.

Sole Lessee and Manager, Mr. William Cooke.
The unanimous voice of the public Preqf has pronounced the New
Classical Burlesque to have reached the acme of perfection. No
spectacle produced at the lns phitheatre has ever created so great
. a sensation. The Dresses and appointments have met with un-
qualified approbation, while the Classical Grouping.; and Grano
Ballet are nightly received with demonstrations of delight tram
• fashlonab e and crowded audiences. Mr Cooke wilt (by desire)
introduce his highly-trained Barb steed, whose matchless per-
formance is pronounced perfect. Miss Emily ooke will continue
her elecant Equestrian Act on a rapid steed, concluding with her
wonderful Feat of Leaping through 16 Balloons. Continuation of
the Battle of Waterloo.

THIS EVENING, srpT. 20,
And during the week, will be presented (the 9th time) the New
Classical Burlesque, entitled JUPITER'S DECREE, AND THE
FALL OF PH.,RTON; or, CITE FIERY COURSERS OF THE SUN,
with its.magnitteent Tableaux, military evolutions, and grand ballet.
- -

Ta be followed by Mr. W. Cooke's Scenes in the CIRCLE, in
which that matchless wonder, Miss Emily Cooke, will appear on
her rapid Courser and Marvellous Flight throu.h .16 Balloons.
.

Concluding with (81st time) THE BATTLE OF WATERLOO.
Box-office open from Eleven till Pour. Stage Manager, Mr.
West

ROYAL SURREY ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS.
,LAST WEEK OF THE SEASON.

THIS EVENING, SEPT. 20,
The Brilliant Routine of Entertainments on this occasion will
include the Panorama of CHUSAN, splendid MENAGERIE. First
Exhibition of the rare Baboon, "liamadryas," Promenading capa-
risoned Elephants.
EXHIBITION of the MARINE AQUARIUM, a Collection of
Sea and Fresh Water Fish in large Glass Tanks.
Vocal a, d Instrumental CONCERT. Two favourite Songs by
Miss Poole, the popular English Vocalist.
The whole concluding with THE " FEAST OF LANTERNS,"
brilliant FIREWORKS, and EXPLOSION of CHINESE WAR
JUNKS.
Concert at Six. Fireworks at Nine. Admission, Is.

I\cal
7.0 %

LONDON, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 1853.

Notwithstanding the stringent provisions of the
new act for the prevention of offences against
women and children—notwithstanding the sum-
mary jurisdiction thereby conferred on magistrates,
and the energetic determination with which the
law is put in force against the brutal offenders
by many of our magistrates, we regret to say that
these horrible outrages have apparently increased
in number and in atrocity, and that even six
months' imprisonment, although accompanied by
hard labour, appears to be insufficient to deter the
cowardly ruffians from indulging in their favourite

recreation of habitually ill using their wives or

female companions, of venting at home the ill

humour excited by a course of drunken profligacy

out of doors.

If we turn to the records of the

Police Courts, we find a black catalogue of crime,

all characterised by the same unfailing attributes,
committed, without cause or provocation, upon
miserable women, who have linked their fates

which she was concealed, when she unfortunately
coughed. The discovery was thus effected. Her
first exclamation was "Spare my life, and let me
go ! ! "—what horrible words of long-continued
and harrowing brutality were contained in the
brief appeal ! She was not, however, mistaken ;
the man who had vowed to love and cherish her,
who was bound to be her protector through life,
"dragged her by the hair of her head from under
the bed, jumped on and kicked her until she be-
came insensible," in which state she was found by a
policeman, who was called in byan indignant neigh-
bour, who did not, however, venture to interfere
for the protection of the injured woman. It was
elicited in the course of the investigation that the
poor creature had about six weeks previously had
a premature confinement in consequence of the
prisoner's brutality, that " she was a very honest
woman, who acted honestly towards her husband"
—that " she had been lying under the bed more
than five hours I" and " had bruises all over her
body." The wretched woman was so ill indeed,
that Mr. COMBS declined to adjudicate summarily
on the case, and remanded the prisoner for a week
in order to ascertain the result of her injuries.

The other case was of a similar description.
EDWARD LEACH, also a powerful, determined-
looking ruffian, was charged before Mr. BRODERIP,
at the Westminster Court, with violently assault-
ing his wife. As in the former instance, it was
an indignant neighbour who called the attention
of the Police to the outrage, and thus secured
its punishment. The miserable sufferer had
been long accustomed to constant and al-
most uninterrupted abuse. When the case
was called on, a thrill of horror ran through the
Court on seeing the complainant, " whose right
eye presented a most shocking appearance from
the effects of recent violence, and whose face and
neck was covered with contusions." " She had
been married two years, and it was his daily
habit to ill-treat her. He never came home
in, the evening without doing so (!). On
Thursday morning after breakfast he asked
her to give him sixpence. She replied
that she had not got so much, when he
declared with a fearful oath that he would kick
her brains out, and forthwith commenced beating
her about the head I" This was apparently bad
enough, but it further appeared that the mis- '
creant was in the habit of biting her ! and that
she was " covered with bruises all over her
body." When assistance came he threatened, in
language too horrible for repetition, that "if he
could get at her he would kill her, and would
kick her - liver out."

The unfortunate woman, like her fellow-sufferer,
was declared to be " a sober, quiet woman, al-
ways attending to her home " Indeed it is a
remarkable fact, that it is the best-disposed
women, of unimpeachable conduct, that are selected
as the victims for such horrible and unprovoked
brutality. Women who turn on their assailants
—who bandy epithets and are ready to resort to
blows—are seldom thus treated. The mere fact
of striking a woman shows the cowardliness, com-
bined with ferocity, of the culprit. This is an
additional reason why protection should be af-
forded to these unhappy sufferers ; and why, if
the social experiment has failed, other and more
stringent means should be devised to repress out-
rages alike disgraceful to humanity and to the
national character, where such outrages are pos-
sible—where ruffians could be found so vile as to
take part in such transactions, and the law should
be incapable of condemning them to adequate
expiation.

We are no advocates for corporal punishment.
We have felt, with the lamented hero who has so
recently passed from amongst us, that flogging, un-
less under very peculiar circumstances, should be
excluded from the articles of war. That our
gallant sailors and soldiers, men in whose minds
a feeling of honour should be diligently cultivated,
should be freed from the disgrace of the humili-
ating cat. We would also have the disgusting
and degrading punishment excluded from the
civil code, with the exception of one class of cases.
Let the man who wantonly, and without provo-
cation, brutally ill-treats his wife, be flogged--
soundly scourged at the whipping-post. No punish-
ment could. further degrade the Muurmrs and the
LEACHES above referred to. They are already
dead to every moral influence. There could be no
feeling of self-respect in the brute guilty of such
' horrible .atrocity. Nothing but fear can act on
such minds. The evil has reached to a fearful
height, and nothing should be left undone that
could prevent or even diminish its magnitude.

with those of their cowardly assailants, and who That part of Colonel JEBB's Report which re-
frequently, with extraordinary devotion, would lates to Parkhurst (see The Sun, Sept. 9) is pecu-
excuse or mitigate the conduct of the prisoners, liarly gratifying. Changes have been introduced
forgetting the crimes in their unchanging and un- of late years, having for their object first to give
altered love for the criminals. With few excep- greater encouragement to good conduct, and next
tions, we find the complainant, after narrating a to provide better for the industrial training of the
piteous and harrowing tale, urging something boys. These changes have been attended with
in extenuation—something that may be taken
growing success.
,The instances of misconduct
into account by the presiding magistrate when have decreased by a larger ratio each year—in-
deciding on the punishment. "Heis a good hus- deed, most of the offences are committed by the
band when sober," is frequently asserted by the boys
of the first year's standing ; by the second
meek and long-suffering creature, and sometimes year they begin to understand that the strictness
she is prepared even to take a portion of the blame of the discipline is intended for their good, and
to herself, and, by "a pious fraud," to acknow- that their rewards and privileges increase with
ledge that she had given provocation—anything good behaviour. Only four attempts to escape
she will confess to, to save the "father of her chil- were made last year, and these from open field
dren" from well-merited disgrace and punishment, work ; and the chaplain, who has been connected
to retain the means of support for herself and with many schools, testifies that in none has he
children, which, in the majority of cases, are de- seen such uniform steadiness of conduct, and such
pendent on the prisoner at the bar. We cannot attention to the instructions of the masters, as in
feel surprised, then, at her forbearance, when the this juvenile prison school. Nor does he think
irritation of the moment has subsided ; for his that, even leaving out of consideration the former
imprisonment, generally speaking, breaks up her training of these boys in every species of vice, he
home, and consigns herself and children to the can ever expect to see a better moral state
tender mercies of the union workhouse. There exist, taking human nature as it is, than
is no doubt that the unmanly miscreants who
amongst them. An evening school of one hour's
fig at
at the Police Courts fully understand their duration daily, is attended voluntarily as a re-
feel gs
in, and are well aware of .the consequences ward for good conduct by 108 scholars, and these
ht must result from their own punishment, are permitted to write home and receive answers
They, therefore, calculate on the lengths to which every three months, a privilege greatly valued.
they may proceed with impunity ; but sometimes, There is one statement made by the Chaplain
~. in Cases to which at present we shall not which deserves the serious attention of all con-
further allude, •th ey suffer their vile malevolent corned in the education of the working classes,
passions to
. get the better of their judgment, and and perhaps of all classes. We give it entire :
inflict ; injuries of the most serious description "The Chaplain expresses his opinion that lessen-
that may occasion sentences more formidable than ing the time spent in' intellectual instruction, and
authorised to pronounce.
It is unhappily n Its applying more to industrial occupations, has
necessary to go very far back
to adduce instances that worked well, and that, according to his experience,
illustrations of the crimme ayf be referred to as fitting industrial employment ought to form a part of the
nd the trivial and made disgusting disgusting details, routine of every school intended for the working
grounds on which
it is perpetrated. Twe'eases were r classes." We certainly do not undervalue the
impression of Saturday, that may
beported in our really religious instruction given in our schools
regarded as
fair types of the ordinary cases of assaults on • for the poor, but we are confident that the zeal
The first was heard at the Southwark rves. expended upon securing sectarian instruction in
Police-court
before Mn. COMBE. The prisoner, Davin 34
T , almost all of them, might have been employed
THY, described as a man of Herculean frame was pp
jg" with the happiest results in industrial education.
, Joint occupation of the body and mind, desirable
accused of an aggravated assault on EettN, his ,
wife. The unfoi tonate compliiirraiit was found '
. for the health of adults, indeed for that of every
insensibly immediately after the re- i person, is necessary for children. What is
by the police insensi
she came before the Ma- learned, too, is better learned if acquired amidst
volting outrage. When
!the pursuit • • lars of her melancholy 'i, . sin which life is to be occupied than
gistrate to detail the particulars
i it b
weak and ill as scarcely to be e a mere isolated section of life, hardly
story, she was so connected
Her story was the the lit • . with the rest ; and what is of
able to give her evidence. importance
'n " the habit i Power
of e . , the children recognise the
usual one—the husband had been 1
of ill-using her," a deplorable fact, arntne. an honestlivelihood somewhere
of which her , and somehow. '''
In schools in manufacturing dis-
the most powerful eon- ! tricts this is _c _.
own proceedings afforded
pe uharly important, since most
noon drunk, and operatives there learn
firmation. He came home at
but some minute portion in
concealed the whole process of s
the poor creature, dreading his wrath,
ome manufacture, and are He perfectly at sea when
herself under the bed to avoid his violence. through any cause that ma-
did
there- nufacture, or their own not perceive her at the moment, and Particular
fore lonaer needs their services. _0 part., of it, no
fore contented himself with stripping the mantel- ,
Mg% yg trained as at
. s of Parkhurst to do every part of the w
shelf of its ornaments to provide the mean
work
e f a farm
carrying on his degrading debauch. The wife
could emigrate successfully if they could di')
.•
saw the articles, s, dear to the female heart, car- no,nina else ; and lads who had learned black
work, carpentering, bricklaying, „qie
tied away in silence—she dared not interfere. Sad smiths'
~
~ could
- quite at a loss in the "wide wide
experience had convinced her of the liopelessnes hardly b,. world."
'.ilin d youth such training possesses a
of attempting to arrest the scoundrel in his mad For our cu.
career. She saw the property go without ventur- double value ; it not only increases their chances
ing to utter a syllable—teo happy in escaping the of success if they remain . athome, but slould they
personal violence to which she would be exposed or their relatives (if they have any who know.
from the scene of their
if detected in her concealment. Alas, what a them) refer their removal
in the
frightful picture of the state in which she had I)
temptations, their industrial training
old temptations, lived, the terror reieni
literally a Little fortune
ng supreme, that could prison school may become
banish every other idea from her despairingcolonies. The
mind. to them in our labour-craving
Two or three times the ruffian returned, but on 'average number of the boys
each occasion she sought the friendlyOOH 1. Is. 3d.,
refuee and their earnings have amounted to 2,
succeeded in escaping observation. At len' 9
length the a small sum per head, of course, com?ar. ed with
crisis arrived ; at seven o'clock he came home differences
that of the adults in Portland; but the,
moody and sulky—the means of carryings on his in the case are too obvious to need mention.
sunken debauch being probably Wanting. The The result is that the net cost of each boy is
inebriated miscreant stretched upon the bed under 181. Bs. id. ; for this sum, however, we have
I