Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1878-07-17
MRS. BESAAT'S
solemn Protest against che Adverse
Decision OF sir George JesseI-
The Right OF Woman 10 her
Offspring.

London Erolation: During the long strug-
gle which began in March, 1871 no word
has escaped me against the respective Judges
before whom | have had to plead. Some
have been harsh, but at least. they have been
fairly Just, and even If sign OF prejudice
appeared, 1t was yet not sufficient 20 be a
scandal to the bench. OF Sir George Jessel,
however, l cannot speak in terms even OF re-
spect, for IN his conduct toward myself he has
been rough, coarse and unfair 10 an extent
that | never expected to see In any English
judge. Sir George Jessel is suOttG and acute,
but he is rude, oVerbeGrlng and coarse; he
has the sneer of IA Mephistopheles, mingled
with curious mOnkish pleasure IN inhicting
pain. Sir George Je sci prides himself on
being "a man of the world, andh expresses
the low morality common t. that class when
the phrase Is taken in its worse sense; he
holds, like the men Of the world who ''see
life" IN Leicester square and the Haymarket,
that women are chaste only through fear and
from lack of opportunity; that men may be
loose in morals if they will, and that women
are divided into two classes for their use
one to be the victims and toys OF the mo-
mant, the others to be kept ignorant and
strictly guarded, so as to be worthy of being
selected as wives. Sir George Jessel consId-
ers that woman becomes an Outcast from
society because she thinks that women would
be happier. healthier and safer If they had
some slight acquaintance with physiology,
and were not condemned, through ignorance,
to give birth to human lives fOredoomed to
misery, to disease, and to starvation. Sir
George Jessel says that no modest women"
will associate with one who spreads among
her sex the knowledge which will enable her
sisters to limit their families within their
means. The old brutal, Jewish spirit, re-
garding women as the mere slave OF men,
hFpa Ia ont IN tho which dc
graced himself, rather than the woman at
which it was aimed. Sir George Jessel might
nave been surprised had he been IN the Free
Trade hail. Manchester, on the following day,
and seen it filed with men an women,
quiet-looking, well-dressed, and respectable,
and had heard the cries of ''shame on him!'
which rang round the hall when his brutal
remark was quoted. Such language only
causes reaction toward the insulted person,
even among those who would otherwise be
antagonistic, and Sir George Jessel has
ranged on my side many a woman who, but
for him, would have held aloof. Sir George
Jessel is a Jew; he thinks that a parent
should be deprived of a child if he or she
withholds from it religious training. Two
hundred years ago, Sir George Jessel's emil
dren might have been taken from him be-
cause he did not bring them up as christians
Sir George Jessel and his race have been re-
lieved from disabilities, and he now joins the
prosecuting majority, aud deals out to the
atheist the same measure dealt to his fore
fathers by the christians. The master of the
rolls pretended that by depriving me of my
child be was Inf1ictlng no punishment on me.
Ii the master of the rolls have any children
he must be as hardhearted in the home as he
is on the bench, if he would not feel that any
penalty was inflicted on him if his little ones
were torn from him and handed over to q
christian priest, who would teach them to
despise him as a Jew, and hate him as a
denier of Christ. Even now, Jews are under
many social disabilities, and even when rich
~ gilt, christian society looks upon them with
thinly concealed dislike. The old wicked
prejudice still prevails against them, and 1t
Is with shame and with disgust that liberals
see Jew trying to curry favor with christian
society by reviving the absolute penalties
once inflicted on his own people. Sir George
Jessel was not only brutally harsh; he was
also utterly unfair. He quoted the lord chief
Justice as agreeing with him in his Judgment
on knowlton, on points where the chief had
distinctly expressed the contrary opinion, and
ne did this not through ignorance, but with
the eloquent words of SIR Alexander Cock
burn lying IN front of him, and after | had
pointed out to him, and he had deliberately
read, or protested to read, the passages which
contained the extract contrary to that which
they put into the chiefs mouth. OF one thing
C1 pCOISC OCSsCi dDO HIS CuElSbldn IElcnQS
may be sure, that neither prosecution nor
penalty will prevent me from teaching both
atheism and Malthuslauism TO all VINO will
listen to me, and since chris ianity Is still 81
bigoted as to take the child from the mother
because OF ID difference of creed, | will strain
every nerve to convert the men and women
around me, and more especially the young,
to creed more worthy Of humanity. Sir
George Jessel pretended to have the child s
10 s1k L.
nored them. | Offered to settle one hundred
and ten pounds sterling year on the child if
she was placed IN the charge of some trust
worthy and respectable person, but the mas
ter did not even notice the offer He takes
away the child from plenty and comfort, and
throws her into comparative poverty; he takes
her away from the most tender and watchful
care and places her under the guardianship
of a man SO reckless of her health that he
chose the moment Of her serious illness to
ask for her re moval; he takes her away from
cultured and thoughtful society to place her
among half educated farmers. Nay, he goes
further: Dr.. Drysdale's affidavit stated that
1t was absolutely necessary at present that
she should have her mothers care, and Sir
George Jessel disregarded this, and in her
still weak state, drags her from her home
and all she cares for, and throws her into the
hands of strangers. If any serious results
follow, Sir George Jessel will be morally,
though not legally responsible for them. In
her new home she can have no gentle wom-
anly attendance. No christian lady of high
character will risk the misconstruction to
which she would b. exposed by living alone
at Sibsey vicarage With young clergyman
who is neither bachelor nor a widower,
the child will be condemned either to solitary
neglect at home, or to the cold strictness of a
boarding school. She is bright, gay, intelli-
gent and merry now. What will she be at a
years end? Ny worst wish for SIR George
Jessel is that the measure he has melted out
to me may, before he dies, be measured out
to him or his. ANNIE BESANT,