The Sun.
London, England, 1859-12-13 00:00:00

TILE ACTION FOR SEDUCTION.

Last night the attention of the Society for Pro-
moting, the Amendment of the Law was directed
by Mr. Allen to the defects in the state of the law
in reference to actions for seduction. Mr. Allen's
paper chiefly referred to the anomalous circum-
stance that a father, however pained might be his
feelings on finding that his daughter had been
made the victim of a seducer, had as against him
no remedy unless he could prove loss of service, a
state of the law which was a barbarous tradition
from the time when women were looked upon as
mere chattels. There was often a difficulty found
in establishing that loss of service which entitled
the father of a young woman to stand to her in the
suit in question in the relation of a master to his
servant, and it also frequently happened that when
the suit was prosecuted it broke down through the
proof of the former immorality of the woman, the
law not allowing any amount of good conduct on
her part subsequent to her loss of chastity to be
taken into consideration as giving her master the
locus standi of a plaintiff. lie would do away with
the fiction of proof of service, and give the father
directly the right of action if the daughter was a
minor, the damages when recovered to be shared
between them ; and in case she was over age, he
would allow the woman herself to institute the

suit.
Mr. EDGAR thought there were only two ways of
getting rid of the difficulties which, under the ex-
isting state of the law, surrounded this action—
either to allow the woman to bring her own action
or to require a proof of substantial loss of service.
With regard to the first, he did not think it right
that the woman, a consenting party, should bs
allowed to bring an action for damage which she
Lustaincd through her own wilful conduct. The se-
cond course was the alternative of a total abolition
of the suit, by which the cause of morality would,
he thought, be on the whole better served; but the
only real remedy was the elevation of the moral
feeling of men.
A discussion ensued, in which Mr. Wingfield,
Mr. Joseph N. Higgins, Mr. Alfred Hall, Mr.
Hastings, and others took part, and the considera-
tion of the question was referred to a committee.

A short discussion afterwards took place upon a
paper read by Mr. Dempsey upon infanticide, in
which he advocated the strongest punishment in
case of concealment, not of birth, but of pregnancy,
after which the proceedings terminated.

DEATH FROM CRINOLINE IN YORK.—About a
-fortnight ags an accident occurred at York to Miss Watson,
a rising vocalist, well known throughout the county.
Whilst moving about the room the unfortunate young lady's
dress caught lire, and she was severely burnt. She expired
on Saturday morning from the effects of the injuries she
received.

ATROCIOUS OUTRAGE..--A ferocious and most
cowardly assault was lately made by some white barbarians
on a party of blacks quietly encamped near Breakfast Creek,
Queensland district. Without any warning, a murderous
discharge of buck-shot was thrown into the encampment,
with serious, and already in one case, fatal effect, for a girl
has died of the wounds she then received, and others, in-
cluding some piccaninnies, have been injured more or less
severely. It is probable that the villains who perpetrated
this most cowardly murder had, or supposed they had, suf-
fered wrong at the hands of some of the aborigines ; but the
idea of such an indescriminate revenge could only occur
to a most diabolical mind. Several of the blacks thus das-
tardly assaulted were employed on some of the neighbour-
ing farms, and were known to be quiet and harmless, but
no one pretends to suppose that the perpetrators of this
brutal attack believed them to have committed the injuries
which it was probable it was meant to redress. It is hoped
that the miscreants will be discovered and punished.—
Australian Hail.