Grand River times. [volume] (Grand Haven, Mich.) 1851-18??, 1853-10-12
TREATMENT OF WOMEN IN ENGLAND.

American ladies, after reading the following
article from the London Leader, may be as pat
riotic as they find it convenient. The facts sta
ted by the Leader are most disgraceful, and are
an undeniable contrast to the state of things
among ourselves.
"Natons, it is said, may be measured in their
civilization by the consideration which they
show for their women; and, if so, while ndvd-
ual Englishmen must be subjected to great va
rety of scales, some of those who most habitu-
ally cross ones path cannot claim very high
rank Taking the average or mean standard of
the people, the beau.ideal for an Englishwoman
appears to be that she should settle down as her
husbands housekeeper her childrens nursemaid,
and her own monthly nurse after "the month y
and the Englishman who preserves to his wife
the mmunities and restrictions of that cond-
ton, fuflls the expected duty towards her; be-
you'd that he needs not 60 to be virtuous
man. Take it in trifles, or take it in vulgar
Sights, or tragic calamities, and you find the
same growing tendency of treating the women
lightly.
There may be reasons for that on both sides |;
but we will not here enter into speculation; we
are only dealing with present facts, and The most
familiar incidents will substantiate our averment.
Perhaps the place in which your average Eng
lshman most meets with his own class, out of
his own private circle, is the omnibus and it
cannot fail to have struck every observer of that
public convenience, that the disposition TO crowd
and hustle the female passengers in the compe-
tition for seats, is growing habit. At any cor
ner where the omnibus usually stops, men may
be found to rush into the door of the carriage,
even TO push back women, and to take their
seats, sometimes without even u murmur of re-
monstrance from the other passengers. lnstan-
ces have been known Of the conductors vindi-
eating the traditional respect for the sex, by
keeping back the gentlemen until the women
were seated but such chivary is rare. The wo-
man goes to the wall nowadays. Violent as
saults upon women are not only becoming COM
mon, but are treated with levity which appears
new to our time.
A fellow was brought up the other day for as
saulting his wife, and being a smart man, he tri-
ed an appeal to an ordinary cant. He challeng-
ed the magistrate 20 inquire whether his wife
believed in Christ. DO you believe in God (!
asked the magistrate. 'No, no. cried the sane.
timonious husband 'ask her if she believes ir
Christ He was in hopes that the woman's
short comngs on the point Of dogma would dis
qualify her from claiming JUSTICE and he did
not argue without warrant, since justice has
been refused in court, as by Mr.. Commissioner
Phillips, on closely similar grounds. In this in.
stance, however, the magistrate had rather high
er idea Of religion, and the woman was sworn
Yet the fellow would find many respectable per
sons who would stand by him in his fidelity to
dogma, whatever might be his conduct to hi:
wife, The body of woman was picked out ol
the water, the other day, with an infant tied tc
her breast. She had been seduced by man tc
whom she appealed when she was starving, and
who refused her and to his child, the slightest
aid 1t is not stated, in this ease, any more thar
in the other, that the man was hooted from the
neghborhood; nor are we to suppose, from
what we observed generally that any materia
Inconvenience would result to him.
| Another case, though less fatal, and not sin
gular even within the week. is yet more revolt
ing. Matilda Deighton brings before the Wor
ship street magistrate, her husband. She il
twenty.six years of age; he is thirty-three.-
She has supported him in his drunken idleness
and ho has habtually repaid her with violence
He has struck me- she says repeated blow
with his clenched fist upon my face, neck, shoul
ders, and under my ears, till both my eyes wer
closed up by his blows, and could not see til
the next day. He fells her to the ground h
follows her as she runs away from him; and al
ter long enduring such treatment, she asks TO
protection. When he was arrested, he exclam
ed, What damned fool was, to be sure, no
to sell off all the things before this came of
Al L q