Injustice

The Ladies tracks abuses of women that go unpunished in the courts, gradually creating through its brief reports an impression of a legal system and a newspaper industry (casually reporting cases of abuse) inured to female suffering. Some examples:

A very painful case of wife-beating was heard at Bow-street on Tuesday, the result of which was, the prisoner was "sentenced to six months imprisonment with hard labour, and ordered at the expiration of that term to find a surety in 5l. for his good behaviour for a farther period of six months." Now what had the prisoner done to deserve this punishment? He had struck and kicked his wife in the most brutal and violent manner, so that when she appeared in court her face was fearfully bruised, her eyes were nearly closed, and her body ws covered with bruises. And what made the case still worse was the fact that the wife had been repeatedly beaten previously by her husband, "but she was reluctant to prosecute him." Probably, had she not prosecuted on Tuesday the next attack would have assumed a more dreadful form. Now this case appears to illustrate more forcibly than ever, either the necessity of a change in the law itself, or a change in the way that it is now administered. We are not wishful that wife-beaters should be punished by the "lash," but we do think that a ruffian who half murders his wife should be kept in prison for a longer term than six months, and when there severely dealt with both as regards the hours of labour and those of relaxation. ... It is, at any rate, high time that the question of wife-beating should be dealt with by the Government, and dealt with properly. We can afford to put up with many abuses provided that this one is taken in hand and finally disposed of, and it is a matter of surprise, and we may add sorrow, that those who are in authority should manifest so much callousness as regards the proper protection of women, as not to have provided a protective measure by this time. As we have said on former occasions, Mr. Straight's Bill affords no protection, and it is an object of dislike to those who have the truest interests of women at heart.

... Another case is one which we have really some hesitation in referring to in these columns; but it appears to us that there has been, so far as the published report enables us to judge, a very lamentable failure of justice. An old man was charged with following and assaulting, in a manner that we cannot describe, a little girl, telling her to meet him on the following evening. Her parents watched for him, and gave him into custody. He was tried for the offence at the Middlesex Sessions. There can be no doubt about the facts, and he was ordered to come up for judgement when called on; in other words, no punishment whatever was inflicted. We tremble for the safety of females in the public streets if Justice thus shuts her eyes at Clerkenwell.