MADAM, To the Editor of the English Woman's Journal. The originators of this Journal are justly proud of having been also the originators of the "Women's Petition" to parliament in 1856-7, which contributed so greatly to procure the insertion of that clause in the new Divorce Bill, commonly called the "protection clause," by which hundreds of deserted wives have been secured in the possession of their earnings and property. Much good has been done, but that much still remains to be effected the following extract from the "Evening Herald" of February the 5th will show. "WORSHIP STREET.-SEVEN YEARS OF MISERY.-Henry Jay, a thick-set, morose-featured man, twenty-seven years of age, was charged before Mr. Hammill with assaulting his wife, Mary Ann Jay. The complainant whose general appearance clearly denoted anxiety and privation, was accompanied by a pretty little girl and an elderly respectable woman, who evinced great solicitude for her. She gave the following evidence :-My husband, the prisoner, is a chair carver, and we live in Chatham Gardens, Hoxton. I bring him here upon a warrant for assaulting me on the 2nd instant. About twelve o'clock in the day he came home intoxicated, and said I had taken a shilling out of his pocket. I denied it, and observed that I had not seen a shilling for a long time. He insisted that I had got it, and swore that he would have it out of me. He then struck me on the back of the head with his fist, and repeatedly on the face. He also forced me on to the bed and pinched me in the back several times. After that he broke up a drawer and hit me with a portion of it on the shoulder. I am still suffering great pain from the attack, particularly in the shoulder. My child, who is six years old, was present at the time. By the magistrate: I have been married seven years; he had £1200 with me. A month after our wedding he commenced ill-using me. I have been a victim to his indiscretions. At one time he kept nine men at work, but is now obliged to work as a journeyman. He can earn from thirty shillings to thirty-five shillings a week, yet has pledged everything. He says that he will starve me out, and calls me a walking lamp-post. On the evening of the 1st instant, he took my only blanket away, and returning in the night, asked me, "Áre you cold, dear ?" Witness produced seventy duplicates relating to property of every description, from jewellery to bed and body linen, all pledged by him. The mother of the ill-used woman was questioned by the worthy magistrate, and stated that the prisoner had often beaten her daughter, who, although she had twice furnished their house, was each time deprived of it; and the wife here observed, that although she had been advised to punish her husband, she always refused, believing that "time would improve him.” Prisoner: I was aggravated to do as I did, for I really had lost a shilling; but I'll tell you what, I'll allow her eight shillings a week-well say ten shillings—but then it must be when I am at work. Wife: I cannot take his word, sir,-impossible. Mr. Hammill, who repeatedly manifested his indignation at the scoundrel's conduct, as detailed by the miserable wife and mother, took not the slightest notice of the profferred terms, but sent the offender to the House of Correction for the full term of six months with hard labor, at the same time kindly directing that £2 should be given to the victim of his brutality." When this ruffian, who has already squandered his wife's £1200, comes out of prison, every penny that the unhappy woman may have earned and laid by, every shilling given her by her friends or charitable persons, during his absence, will be at his disposal; for unless a woman is fortunate enough to be deserted, there is nothing to prevent her husband from living in idleness on her earnings, and disposing of her property in dissipation. In France a woman can obtain an order from the magistrate which protects her property and earnings even while living under the same roof with her husband. husband is allowed to appear in court and show his reasons why the order should not be granted, but if he is proved to be idle or a drunkard, the magistrate has it in his power to protect effectually the industrious or The wealthy wife; for after the order is granted, the husband who should possess himself of his wife's earnings or property, would be liable to punishment lik any other robber. If a petition to parliament were got up, praying that the discretionary power of the police magistrates might be increased to this extent, it would surely receive thousands of signatures. If granted, it would prove a blessing indeed to the working women of England, and might be a step towards yet greater improvements in the law, by revealing, from the number of applications for relief that would ensue, the extent to which domestic oppression is practised in this country. Might I suggest that the organization of such a petition would be a work worthy of the Editors of this Journal?—but if their time be too fully occupied for such a task, it might well be undertaken by some of the ladies who frequent the reading-rooms in Princes Street, if there be any who possess energy and leisure to devote to such a useful and noble cause. For myself, I fear I must be an idle spectator of other people's labors, being a COUNTRY RESIDENT. To the Editor of the English Woman's Journal. I have read with great interest in your last number (for December, 1858) of the "Englishwoman's Journal" the appeal to all heads of families on behalf of Life Assurance. During the existence of the " Waverley" (devoted also to female advancement as well as to other objects affecting the important object of human weal) I addressed to you a letter with suggestions for the origination of a fund by which the immediate and pressing necessities of a widow's family, or helpless dependents of a single female, say sisters or boy-brothers, on the demise of the widow or female support of such little household, might be relieved; not by appeal to charity on behalf of the now entirely orphans, but by her own contributions, during her working life, on the death of other (widows or single females) members of the sisterhood of which I would here suggest the formation. Simply a women's or ladies' club, to which, on the decease of any member, three shillings should be payable for her family or members thereof, as should be intimated by her during life. If twenty die annually out of two thousand members, £3 only would be paid to the club by each member, but £300 would be secured to each bereaved family. Now if a person aged fifty wishes to assure her life for £100 only, which is a very inadequate sum, (funeral expenses being added to immediate family wants,) it will cost her £4 and upwards annually; whereas by the Mutual Family Aid Club, as it might be called, three times that amount would be guaranteed, deducting only the expenses of postage to the two thousand members, making them aware of the death, £8 6s. 10d., and other expenses of collection, the whole of which would not exceed £10, leaving for the bereaved family £290 at least. The intended recipients of this benefit should be bound to continue members for two years after the death of the widow, or other female support of the family, and thus secure to the next bereaved the same sum: but the contributions on each death being so comparatively small as three shillings, no daughter or even son would object to such engagement on such terms. And to this no doubt they would superadd efforts to obtain a new permanent member in the room of the one removed. By such a plan the annoyance of medical examinations would be obviated, for a mutual aid society would not be necessarily so anxious about medical certificates which are to secure to parties entirely uninterested in the welfare of families their share of the profits of the company. A contribution of two shillings by each person, besides the three shillings payable at the death of each member, would pay a secretary, room for holding monthly meetings of the committee, etc. The secretary might also be collector, either personally, if near at hand, or by letter, of members in London. There are, however, matters of detail on which more extended discussion might be entered into hereafter. I would offer myself as provisional honorary secretary to any committee that could be formed for carrying out this proposition, and am, dear Madam, 11th January, 1859. Yours faithfully, S. E. M. P.S.-In order to guard against the very possibility of foul play, as great horrors have been enacted in this Christian England in connection with burial societies, a certificate of the medical attendant of the deceased, and of a female friend or nurse, as to due care and kind treatment during illness, should be forthwith furnished to the committee on the decease, accompanying the registry of death, and transmitted by the clergyman after perusal. MADAM, To the Editor of the English Woman's Journal. In this February number,-article, Colleges for Girls,-in the enumeration of " women who have contributed, and that largely, to the foundation and endowment of colleges for the use of men in both universities the writer concludes " finally' " with Frances Sidney, who munificently endowed Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. But such instances have not come to an end. "To the honor of the present age" (we may say, as did Camden speaking of this noble donor) a scholarship has lately been added to Trinity College, Cambridge, by a lady now deceased; and only last December, another presented £10,000 towards the maintenance of a student there, versed in astronomy, and for the advancement of that science generally in the university. True that both were guided by private sympathies and memories, and so I trust it has ever been; and if the time has now come for men to aid women in corporate or educational establishments it must be by helping out their plans which knowledge acquired by personal enjoyment or privation suggest. A. E. XII.-PASSING EVENTS. QUEEN ELIZABETH is said to have inquired of a certain Speaker of the House of Commons what had passed since she last saw him, and to have received for answer "five weeks have passed." So say we; four weeks have gone since the last record of "Passing Events "—and, anxiously as the papers have been scanned, there is little else than the fact itself to note. Parliament has met, various small business has been got through; the Bill for Legalising Marriage with a Deceased Wife's Sister has been brought upon the tapis, the usual amount of pros and cons has attended its first and second reading, and every one knows, that when having passed the Commons it goes to the Upper House, it will there be discussed and rejected. Through this form the bill will pass again and again, until the time is ripe, and people are set at liberty to decide upon the question for themselves, each man and woman according to his or her conscience. Baron Rothschild has taken his seat in the House of Commons, and Alderman Salomons has been elected for Greenwich. 66 The oracular announcement of Louis Napoleon, "L'Empire c'est la paix," threw oil upon the troubled waters of European politics in the early part of the month. Let us beware that we cry not, peace, peace, where there is no peace." The revision of the treaties of 1815 is a tempting theme for emperor and subjects, and this cloud on the horizon, now no bigger than a man's hand, may break in tempest over the heads of all Europe. The business in the Divorce Court has become so overwhelming that petitions filed in March, May, and August, of last year, which were in the list for November, and postponed for February, are again obliged to stand over, to the great loss and detriment of the parties concerned. A solicitor, in a letter to the "Times," says: "The fact is that there has been an utter miscalculation of the probable amount of business in the new Probate and Divorce Courts. The November list for the Full Court contained thirty-nine undefended cases, of which not one was heard, although the witnesses in most of them were summoned. The February list contained seventy-three cases, of which ten only have been heard. What the next list will contain may be conjectured." From India the intelligence is cheering. The rebellion in Oude is entirely suppressed, the Begum and her followers having gone by night marches into Nepaul, "partly forcing, partly bribing her way." It is rumoured that Lord Clive is about to return home, " to lay his title and fortune at the feet of some fair lady." Next Monday is looked forward to with considerable eagerness and excitement. The government Reform Bill is to be brought forward, and members and constituents are on the qui vive. Leaving legislators to legislative reform, let us dwell for a moment on the great step in social reform about to be inaugurated on the Wednesday following at the Marylebone Institute. Elizabeth Blackwell, M.D., with whose interesting biography we presented our readers in the "English Woman's Journal" for April, 1858, will on the afternoon of that day deliver the first of three lectures on Physiology and Medical Science, to ladies only. A deep interest in Miss Blackwell's labors has been gradually gaining ground during the seven years of her last absence from her native country. She is a native of Bristol, but passed many years of her youth in America. After gaining her degree in medicine at Geneva College, New York State, she revisited England, and passed some months as a student in St. Bartholomew's Hospital. She again quitted us in 1851, but returned among us last autumn. We hope that she will be induced to remain and practise among her own countrywomen, as her sister, Dr. Emily Blackwell, is well fitted to supply her place across the Atlantic. For particulars of the lectures we refer our readers to the prospectus printed on the first page of our advertising sheet, where they will find every detail. We also desire to call attention to a very beautiful and ingenious apparatus in photography, called the New Pistol Camera, by which (while it photographs in small any object of still life within the range of larger cameras) pictures of objects in motion can be taken. The whole apparatus, including camera, box of a dozen glasses, (concave glasses are used for the negative,) and all necessary chemicals for sensitizing, developing, and fixing, can be stowed away ready for immediate use in an overcoat pocket or lady's travelling-bag. This perfect little instrument is peculiarly suited to the use of ladies and travellers, who may by means of it bring home in their pockets dozens of views and portraits, which can be reproduced on almost any scale. Mr. Hogarth of the Haymarket will shortly have it on sale, and its accomplished inventor, Mr. Skaife, of Vanbrugh House, Blackheath, purposes giving lectures and instruction as to its use, the particulars of which can be obtained of Mr. Hogarth, and to which we cordially commend the attention of all who are interested in this beautiful and available art. THE most interesting of all studies is human biography, the story of some man or woman who lived, loved, worked, enjoyed, and suffered, even as ourselves; and were such stories written so as to bring out the essential details of their subjects, we believe they would outweigh the fascinations of romance on the one hand, and the absorbing charm of natural science upon the other. But ideas also have their biography, each one to itself; its birth, growth, maturity, and at last its death, or transmutation into some other form; and the life of a great idea is by its very nature intimately involved in those of the great men of the ages during which it flourished; yet it is neither them, nor in them,—it rather seems to dwell in the very social air they breathe, and it seizes on them and makes of them its willing ministers, and they speak it, write it, read it, and catch it from one another, till at last it has done its work, and, according to its veracity, either passes into an accepted and universally acted truism, or dies the death of falsehood brought face to face with time. A century is sometimes as one day in the lifetime of these spiritual entities; and so it comes to pass that a very active and promising young idea, born some time in the early part of this century, is at this moment militant in all parts of the United Kingdom, carrying out plans of vigorous antagonism to many of our ancestral customs, and trying to revive not a few which we have let slip in a very heedless manner. We mean the Sanitary idea. The notion of cultivating health according to what we now call the laws of life is very modern indeed, (unless we look back to classical antiquity,) and has as yet hardly penetrated the official or the rustic intellect; but mid-way between these two extremes, it occupies a large portion of the English citizens' time and mind. We should like to know the increase in the manufacture and sale of tin baths alone in the last twenty years; how many sponges have been disturbed in their zoophytic meditations, and what profit has been secured upon flesh-brushes. The drains of London present a longer mileage than her streets, and the marshy places of the land are literally sown with pipes. Almost every town, large or small, has its particular type of sanitary medi VOL. III. G |
