The Sun. — 1855-10-03 (London, England)

BRUTAL ASSAULTS ON WOMEN.  (From the Derbyshire Courier.)  For several years we have thought it our duty to urge upon the public, and through their influence and that of the public press, upon Parliament, the necessity of checking, by greatly increased severity of punishment, the increased and increasing amount of atrocious brutalities perpetrated by certain miscreants of the lowest orders (the term is quite appropriate) on women. For a considerable time few public writers rendered auy assistance in the attempt to obtain redress for the weakest and most defenceless members of the community. 'We felt perfectly certain that redress must come. Eut out of regard to the character of our countrymen, and from a wish to diminish the amount of aggravated human suffering, we urged on Parliament immediate attention to this subject. Lord Palmerston, much to his discredit, insisted on " waiting a little longer," till a few more wretched women had been beaten, kicked, and knocked into eternity. It was, indeed, according to his Lordship's view, a grave consideration whether the women-beaters and women-kickers should be degraded by the infliction of corporal punishment. This grievance was therefore left to the usual course of grievances in England—viz., to increase and expand till it became intolerable.  That period appears now to have arrived, and Parliament and Lord Palmerston—now that " the Times has written a strong article on the subject "—will perhaps condescend to notice the disgraceful state of the law under which brutalities which render the name of Englishman a byword and a hissing throughout the civilised world, are daily perpetrated in London and our large towns, and daily reported and sent to every quarter of the globe. Why did not the Times express the opinions which they have expressed in an article which we give in another column two years ago ? Because it is notorious that the Times does not aspire to lead the public forward in the cause of justice and humanity, but comes boldly forward to advocate the right when the right has become the popular feeling. However, better late than never, and so we are ready to give the Times all the credit, and more than all the credit it deserves, for its advocacy of the cause of the hapless victims of these brutal assault cases. The punishment of six months' imprisonment is, says the Times " a sigral failure." The brutality of numbers of the working classes to women and children is a " blot upon our age." " Something," says the Englishman's oracle, after keeping silence through years of this state of "horrid barbarity"—" Something must be done." That something is, we hear ail Englishmen say, who now discuss the subject in public and private, to flog men for half-murdering their wives, and hang them when they go a little too far, and murder them outright. The poor should also have the same facilities as the rich in obtaining divorces. " Unmarried women," says the Times, "are just as frequently the subjects of attacks as married women." True, but the law does not bind the unmarried woman for life to a brutal wretch. A man cannot legally break into the house of the unmarried mother of his children, and deprive her and them of the fruits of their industry whenever he wants means of his own self-indulgence. At all events an unmarried woman can leave her brutal persecutor whenever she pleases— the married woman with a brutal husband is a hopeless slave for life, and her tyrant knows it. This state of things being a disgrace to our;uenhtary:e a disgrace to the national character, and a disgrace to Parliament, let us hope that for very shame, if no higher or better feeling, these awful brutalities will be, as far as human laws avail, prevented.