Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1875-11-21
Respectfully dedicated 20 The Lalcyers Of He7
phls-d liberal and learned class.


| u0leS3 IL De american, winch is OUT Eng
ligh with emendations: Law is the
perfection of eason. II commands what
Is necessa y, and forbids what is wrong"
What admiration and awe naturally
arises in the mind on hearing this fine
sonOrous sentence; yet at the very time
Coke wrote it, on the records of E0giish
law were many it would seem parlia-
ment OfdemOns could hardly enact mole
cruel, or an assembly OF idiots more
foolish. In proof whereof IL is only
necessary to cite some few laws of
peculiar atrocity, aud some Of peculiar
folly. The heresy laws are red with
human blood. The witchcraf laws
burned its million, chiefly poor old
women. The gypsy laws executed men
and women ss felOns for no crime but
remaining on English soil longer than
one month. The Benefit of clergy law,
born ofsssinine folly and gross injustice.
| Coke could not have forgotten these
hideOus laws; they make up part Of
| that s'perfectiOn Of reason, they COM
manded what was right and forbade
what was wrong" according to Coke.
These laws were terribly severe on
men, on women they bore down with
| fOuTiOld severity. The witchcrsft laws
| scarcely touched men. Blackstone tells
| us-"they existed to the terror Of all
| ancient females" Any gypsy remain
| ing over q month in England was exc
| cuted as a felOn; these legal murders
| were often committed up to the time OF
Charles II. II the gypsy were man he
was hanged, ifa woman, she was dragged
to the place Of execution, disembOweled
and burned alive. This was the differ
ence English law made in the punish
ment of a male aud female felon.
Blackstone's explanation Of this greater
severity of punishment to the female
felOn is indeed remarkable. He puts it
on the score of deeency; greater |
decency was due to women" To q
modern mind it is difficult to see where |
the decency comes in. We feel very |
sure had their been one woman in that |
assembly of lawmakers, she would not |
have been deluded by that pretense of |
decency-nO woman can see the superior |
decency of being dragged to the place of |
execution, disembOweled before crowd !
of people and burned alive. Any ordi-
nary female mind would think hanging
far more decent. The benefit of clergy |
law was all for the benefit OF rasoally |
men, rsScally women had no share in
the benefit. For unmixed, SimOn-pure
folly; for absolute and uuadultersted in
justice, devoid OF one ray of reason,
destitute of one grain of right, the bene-
fit of clergy law stands unriyaled in the
history of erring humanity, yet this law
existed and was in force until the reign |
Of 0eorgeIV. The Witchcrsft laws were
more atrOciOus, and wrought more suffer-
ing in the world, but there seems this
difference between the Witchcraft laws
and the benefit of clergy-the WitchcrafU
laws was the result Offeeling, was phase
of fsnaticism growing out of the be-
nighted religious element thai charae-
teriZed all christendOm at that time
The benefit of clergy seems to have been
q calm, calculating scheme to screen
wicked men from the punishment due
their deeds The Witchcraft laws were
repealed in England in 1876, in Austria
in 1855. 1t is estimated that by these laws
of christian countries nine millions of
human beings were burned as witches,
and nearly all of those nine millions
were women. In l7l6, at Huntington,
England, q Mrs. Hicks and her little
girl, aged nine years, were hanged for I
setting their souls to the devil, and raising
a storm By pulling off their Stockings and
making q LdtheT Of soap. The learned
Blackstone approved OF those horrible -
laws in these words: "To deny the ex-
istence OF witchcraft and sorcery, is at
once fatty to contradict the word OF
God. And the thing itself is q truth to
which every nation in the world hath
borne its testimony This is the way
great legal minds accepted testimony
that murdered millions of innocent per-
SONS. Soon after recording the above
wise opinion, Blackstone complacently
remarks that the witchcraft laws existed
to the terror of all ancient females.
Had women from time immemOri al
held the law-making power, instead Of
men; and had they, as men have, COM
mitted the million blunders, and fOllies Z
and crimes on record against the male !
Lawmakers of the world; and had
the woman lawmakers made every 9
part aud parcel of their enact
ments relating to the male half c
Of humanity, bear on that male '
half with fourfOld the. severity they
bore on the female half; it does seem, 1
II at the present day, men were to come Q
forward with agentle expestulation, and L
kindly offer their assistance in the future
aw-making business, it does seem we i
would thankfully accept their offer, and
not turn up our noses in disdain, and o
continue to consider ourselves the as 8
embled wisdom of the land. The e
heOry OF the benefit Of clergy was this: q
he law only permitted men to become Y
priests. The Office made the man sacred L
rom the laws punishment. A clergy q
nan could rob, steal, murder, commit p
rape or incest with impunity.
IN order to become clergyman it was
equisite that man should know how II
o read, therefore it followed, any man d
Who knew how to read might become q o.
,riesf. Therefore any man able to read, .
hOugh convicted of murder, or any .
elOnious deed, by that benefit of clergy
sw, escaped with slight burning on
he thumb and few months imprison-
nent. II the murderer were a man,
nd could not rea1 he was simply 3.
Hanged. If the murderer were a
Voman, she was dragged to the place of 10
Xecu,iOn, disemb0weled and burned pl
live. No amount Of learning sOftened q,
er sentence. Women were executed M
q England, in this horrible way, for @
etit larceny, and many other small a.
fenses. These are the laws that were -
ne perfection Of reason" These are
ne laws OF which women were the
great favOrites.n That a priest should n
e permitted to commit any and every q
rime, and escape legal punishment, ap- ~
ears unreasonable enough. But to permit
lale felons to escape because it was in
he range Of possibilities that they should I'm
~SNhAO BAACCbof lOCO luuccO appear
lie very perfection of asnTeason. Con-
der the great intellects that lived and Is
led under these laws, and uttered no
rotest. That these great men did not r.
AXE the heavens ring with their out
y; that they did not deafer the nations
18th denuDcistiOn; that they did not
the lawmakers with petit
Ons, that, in short, they did nothing to
eaken or destroy those monstrous laws,
melancholy proof of the limited GI
Ipacities, the short comings of the
eatest human minds. 1t may be said
extenuation, these laws existed in the A
.rk ages. Wesnswer, they came down va
most to our modern doors They were an.
lacted by christian people, under the -
adow of thousand churches, approx
by ten thousand ministers of God. 1t
ay be said the inequality pointed out =
the punishment OF men and women, ~,
iginated and ruled in anenlightened rs, Ysi
mes. We answer this cruel inequality III
AZ practiced by a christian people for nir
AIRY two thousand years after Christ the
e divine gave the world that divine I RiS
son Of equsIity-that lesson on the abb
1hf IF yuOrnan 10 cau aIfFry | Eri