The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1862-10-25

WIFE SALEs.-It is a prevalent notion
amongst the rude aud ignorant in England
that man, by setting his wife up to pub
lie auction, and SO parting with her, legally
dissolves the marriage tie, and escapes
from all its obligations. Of course an af
fair of this kind is simply an outrage upon
decency, and has no legal effect whatever
1t can only be considered as a proof OF
the besotted ignorance and brutal feelings
OF O. portion of our rural population
Rather unfortunately, the occasional in
stances Of wife sale, while remarked by
ourselves with little beyond a passing
smile, have made deep impression on our
continental nelghbors, who seriously be-
lieve that it is a habit of all classts Of our
people, and constantly cite it as an evi
dence of our low civilization. 1t would
never occur to US as a proof OF any such
thing, for we recognise it as anly an eccen-
tricity yet 1T may be we'll for US to know
that it really does take place now and
then-more frequently, indeed, than al
most any are aware os--and is a SOCIAL
feature by no means unworthy of the grve
consideration of educationists IN 1915, a
man held a regular auction in the Market
Place, at Pontefract, offering his wife 1T a
minimum bidding of one shilling, and
knocking her down for eleven shillinss
In 1920, man named Brouchet led his
wife n decent looking woman, into the
cattle market at Canterbury, from a neigh
boring village of Broughton; he asked a
salesman to sell her for HIM the salesman
replied that his dealings were with cattle,
not with women, and he refused. The
man thereupon hired a pen or stall, for
which he paid the usual foliage of sixpence,
and led his wife into it by halter; and
.oon afterwards he sold her to young
man at Canterbury for FIVE shllings. In
1884, q man led his wife bv halter. in
precisely similar way, into tho cattle
market At Birmingham but the local
Journal did not report the sum at which
the unfortunate lot, was knocked down
4 case occurred in ls45 in which woman
was sold by her husband for fifteen pounds
she at once went home with the buyer
she survived both buyer and seller, and
then married again. Some property came
to her in the course of Years from her
first husband, for, notwithstanding claims
put forth by other relations, she was able
to maintain in a court of law that the sale
did not and could not vitiate her rights as
his widow A good deal surprise was felt
in many villages of ignorant peasantry, in
1897. at the result Of trial at the West
Riding Sessions in \ yorkshire, where man
was committed to months imprisonment
and hard labor FOR selling, or attempting
TO sell, his wife the right to do tais be
ing believed in more extensively than we
are apt to imagine IN 1853, in a beer shor
At Little Horton. near Bradford, man
named Hartley Thompson put up his wife
described by the local journals as pretty
woman, for sale; he announced the sale
beforehand by means Of 4 crier or bell
man; he brought her in vito \ riband
round her rec8 By way OF halter. These
two persons had live unhappi!y together,
and both entertained Il belief tka; by suc!.
Z. process rs til is they ght legally separate
for life Ii is difficult. indeed TO credit
how such things can be. unless the wife
be more or less 4 coESentiIg party; this
suppOsit!ou once made, however, so cheap
a a,ubstitutc for the Divorce Court, becomes
ineligible Doubtless in some cases, the
hubapd acts wholly for himself in the
matter; as happened in 1859 at Dudley,
where man sold his wife for sixpcEce,
under the full bell f that by so doing she
would have 40 further legal claim on HIN
for support Tie Book Of D5us