New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1857-06-15

tAnity has worked IN the world, strange 10 say,
in most Of the lands through which il has shed its
benign and beauteous influence il has worked little
or no change in the condition of woman. Recent
horrible tales, which drag aside the curtain from
social life both of the higher and lower classes Of
England. show that women are still there almost in
the same position as two thousand years ago, when
Druds filed the place now held by 4" Henry of Ex-
eter" and John of London As she is in the
Orient, so is she in England-so far as law is con-
cerned the abject vassal of her Gege lord with
scarcely any right and no hope in justice. From
time to time il is true, voice came from the seat
Of Justice from some humane judge, or from the
closet of some sage Of Jurisprudence, calling for
change; but the sacred principle of British states
manship, "quieta non morere," prevails, and the
wrongs of woman remain unredressed. 1t needs
the roar of the lion TO shake open the gates of
British justice. No janitOr will answer to the
complaining of lamb
combination of startling cases however, sue
ceeding each other with rapidty, seems at last TO
have reused public sympathy and sense of justice
in Ell gland on this question, and to give hope that
The principle will at last be acknowledged that
woman has rights as well as duties. Some short
time since, morning after morning were the annals
of the days crime of the City of London, as told
in her police reports stained with the foul story of
some brutal savage who, in the riot of drink or
sullen gloom of dependency, had struck and
kicked and battered some helpless and unofending
woman, too often at the very moment that she was
watching with devotion his return to his home. AT
last the startling frequency of these cases reused
pity and attention. Long debates ensued in the
British Houses of Parliament, and worthy peers
and members, forgetting for the moment the cases
Of Mrs. Norton ard Lady Bulwer, deplored the
atrocities, thanked Heaven that they were not as
these men, and set themselves to deyising some
remedy. A Society for the propagation of Ches.
terfele's Letters was suggested, and strong sup
DIV in the most diseased districts of Hints on
Etiquette proposed. But in the midst of all this
there appears a case which is rather calculated to
sake the enthusiasm of England's hereditary legls
lators, and is certainly sad commentary upon all
the cant and cacke which preceded it. Without
having the curse Of poverty or of brutalized isno-
rance which belonged to the of the savages of
London sinks and stews, and may have pleaded
somewhat their extenuation, it surpasses them in
hideous atrocity. 1t is the case of a peer of the
realm Lord Westmeath, one of those hereditary
legislators who by the glorious Constitution of
England was permitted during the preparation of
the atrocities we are about to narrate to frame and
administer laws, and still contributes his wisdom
10 the National Councils.
Within the last fortnight pamphlet has ap-
reared in London from Lady Westmeath, the wife
of this nobleman, containing a story Of atrocities
and persecution extraordinary and incredible
that it would be impossible to accord it shadow
of credence were it not sustained in every line by
indsputable circumstances and documentary evil
deDce, chiefly taken from judicial records. The
lady is daughter of the Marquis Of Salisbury, one
Of the noblest houses of England, and has always
borne most pure andirreproachabe character, hay-
ing filed the position of Lady Waiting down to tho
hour Of her death to the late Queen Adelaide who
was like the present Sovereign, scrupulousy fas-
tidious about the reputation of the ladies' who sur
rounded her. Many Of the documents, too, on
which the case rests were found among the papers
of the late Duke Of Wellington, who stands out as
rather a prominent figure in this filthy picture,
having been contributed by the present Duke who
aids largely in the bringing to light Of many dark
and hidden things BY these documents and rec
ords il is shown that this hereditary law-maker
kicked his noble wife, and beat her in all manner
Of forms and plaees-before childbed, in childbed
and out Of il; backened her eyes and bruised her
breasts; kept her without half Of the necessary
food or fire, and wholly without money and out
ragged every obligation most priced by wife, mother
and woman in the most atrOcous way In one IN
stance Lord Westmeath attempted, like another
Othelo, but without his suspicion, to smother her
with pillows. Again, when on a visit to Carton,
the residence of the Duke of Leinster, and within
two months after marriage, when the first warm
bloom of love should have scarcely passed, the fol-
lowing panorama Of patrican life was exhibited,
as pictured on oath by one of the Dukes domes-
ties woman named Mackenzie:
In the course of the night, deponent awoke
by Lady Westmeath running into her room, followed
by Lord Westmeath; she was flying from him, and
told deponent be had been beating her; he continued
rs ordering and then begging her to return and that
he would not touch her again; Lady Westmeath at
length went back, very much frightened, deponent
with them; the Watering had plainly been emptied
in the fire. which had been put out the bed was III
confusion the clothes pulled OF, and lying on the
hOor."
The epithets which ornamented this endearing
scene were quite in keeping but cannOtbe printed IN
our columns. Anxious to cultivate her mind too,
in a manner becoming the wife of British peer,
il appears that be took out Of the library at Carton
and pressed upon her for perusal number of
works. which she names, Of the most filthy and
immoral character, for possessing which any book
Ill = ,;tt uvopli ha indicted and which