IRISH CHIEF LIBERATING HIS ENGLISH SLAVES, 
 
 rn accordance with Act of Council, held in Armagh, 1171, ordering the manumission of all 
 
 Saxons sold by their own relatives. See p. 135. 
 
 
THE CONDITION igT~ 
 
 OF 
 
 WOMEN AND CHILDREN 
 
 AMONG THE 
 
 CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 
 
 JOHN M’ELHEEAN, M. B. C. S. E. 
 
 1808T0N COLLEG® LIBRARY 
 CHESTNUT HILL, MASS, 
 
 WITH ILLUSTRATIONS, DESIGNED AND DRAWN ON WOOD BY THE AUTHOR. 
 
 > 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 PATEICK DONAHOE, 
 
 23 FRANKLIN STREET. 
 
 185 8 . 
 

 
 4.q 
 
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 -<* • 
 
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 ... 
 

 TO THE MEMORY 
 
 OF HIS 
 
 CHRISTIAN MOTHER, 
 
 AND ALL THE BEAUTIFUL, GOOD, AND TRUE 
 
 Meters flf tfe* §ul, 
 
 THIS HUMBLE PRODUCTION IS DEDICATED 
 
 BY THE AUTHOR 
 
Diqitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2015 
 
 
 https://archive.org/details/conditionofwomenOOmelh 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 One of the grandest triumphs of Christianity is to 
 be seen in the spectacle of the kneeling Irish, praying 
 with all the fervor of their generous hearts for the 
 conversion of England. The most persecuted and 
 vengeful race in history offer up sacrifice for the tem- 
 poral and eternal welfare of the most vile, perfidious, 
 rapacious, and cruel nation on the globe, — the English, 
 — who still treat the Irish and the Irish character with 
 unrelenting malignity. It is a sight to agitate the 
 whole host of heaven. 
 
 It is true that the educated Irish, who know English 
 history, and can comprehend English policy, loathe and 
 execrate the national Saxon character. Be it remem- 
 bered that the Irish are the injured party ; yet it has 
 never been their practice to abuse the English in pri- 
 vate conversation as well as in the public print. On 
 the contrary, the English, by a loud and incessant 
 blowing of their own trumpet, have introduced cer- 
 tain notions about John BulPs blunt honesty and fair 
 
 ( 7 ) 
 
8 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 play even among the robbed, martyred, and maligned 
 Gaels. 
 
 I admire the charitable sentiment of the Catholic 
 clergy, that it is better, if possible, to heal the ulcers 
 and conceal the deformities of English character than 
 to tear them open to the horrified gaze of Christendom. 
 We cannot glorify Celts by debasing Saxons, though 
 the converse term of this idea is very prevalent. 
 
 I should engage in a much pleasanter task, and pro- 
 duce a more salable work, by painting only the bright 
 features of the human soul, than by dwelling tediously 
 upon human animalism. But in this noisy day of An- 
 glo-Saxon arrogance, and Anglo-American self-glorifi- 
 cation, it is absolutely necessary to humble the Phari- 
 sees. English writers have enviously, meanly dragged 
 us down into the mire, and we must fight our way out 
 to higher ground. I come forward more as a public 
 prosecutor than as a simple historian or judge, because 
 the circumstances drive me necessarily into this posi- 
 tion. The virtues of the English, and the dirt and 
 debasement of the Irish, are well known wherever 
 “The Times” and “Punch,” and all that tribe circu- 
 late. I dwell rather on the other view of the case, be- 
 cause it has been omitted. 
 
 The boasting of the English over the once proud 
 
 Irish — those Irish who used to house, clothe, feed, and 
 
 * 
 
 educate the Anglo-Saxon savages, those Irish who 
 owned and generously liberated Anglo-Saxon slaves — is 
 analogous to the insolent tyranny of the Turk over the 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 9 
 
 once proud Greeks. A vulgar instinct of the Turk, as 
 well as of the Englishman, is to degrade the subject to 
 a piteous state, and then exultingly and before the 
 world to point at him the finger of scorn. John Bull 
 thus exhibits his fair play and blunt honesty. 
 
 Denied education by English penal laws, the Ijdsh 
 are called ignorant and superstitious . Robbed of all 
 but honor, they are called poor and dirty — loiv Irish . 
 Defrauded of their wages, the Irish laborers are called 
 lazy by the idle English gang of armed banditti. 
 Robbed of their inheritance, the Irish farmers are 
 driven forth into the sea as dishonest rascals if they 
 cannot meet the demands of landlord, and church, and 
 state. Defeated by the superior resources, as well as 
 by the broken treaties, of Albion, and with the bayonet 
 ever at his throat, and the Orange bloodhound ever at 
 his heels, the Irishman is called unprogressive. 
 
 Burned out, crowbarred out, like noxious vermin ; 
 groaning under the weight of the most ponderous 
 church and state oligarchy the world has ever seen ; 
 written down by the most talented hirelings of a mighty 
 press ; humbled to the earth — behold the descendants 
 of a noble race sitting at the road side with fevered 
 hands covering their tearful eyes. There they sit, lis- 
 tening to the vulgar boasting of their brutal drivers, 
 whose Saxon insolence stings unceasingly. 
 
 A chief source and support of the Anglo-Saxon doc- 
 trine is the rapacity of state-churchism. In order to 
 plunder “ Papists 55 with impunity, it must be shown 
 
10 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 that Popery is a very bad, a very low thing ; and in 
 order to sustain this proposition, it must be demon- 
 strated that none but silly, inferior races could perpet- 
 uate Popery. It is not the mere flunky desire to appear 
 respectable, by claiming kindred with the royal Saxe- 
 Gotlia, that Anglo-Saxonism has of late years become 
 fashionable ; there is sectarian malignity and political 
 rapacity at the bottom of it. “ It is the natural order 
 of Providence that inferior races shall melt away before 
 the advance of the superior Anglo-Saxon ; the Celt 
 must go with a vengeance,” exclaims the brutal exter- 
 minator. “ 0, verily, the Irish Papists are suffering the 
 penalty of their idolatry,” cry the saints of Exeter Hall. 
 
 If the hypocrite deserves the deepest hell, what 
 should we say of those philosophers of Old and New 
 England, who, while they claim the Negro as a man 
 and a .brother, endeavor, both in writing and in illus- 
 trations, to degrade the Celts (partly their own ances- 
 tors) to the level of the baboon. Whence this extraor- 
 dinary hatred of Irishmen and Celts generally ? Is 
 it in natural instinct ? No ; but in sectarian envy and 
 political antagonisms. We see English-educated Irish- 
 men’s sons becoming Saxons ; that is, as the word is 
 used in Ireland, renegades, outlaws, haters of their 
 race, contemners of the mother that cherished their 
 infant growth. But this exception among the Irish is 
 a national feature of the British. Nations have been 
 persecuted by men of their own stripe, but it has been 
 reserved for the British to deny their own origin. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 11 
 
 What can be more humiliating than the fact that the 
 British people, from ignorance, vanity, religious big- 
 otry, political rapacity, and envy, have been casting 
 odium upon their own Celtic British ancestors, simply 
 because the rebellious Irish are called Celts , and be- 
 cause the future rulers and dispensers of patronage 
 have been born of a Saxe-Gotha. Has this boastful 
 John Bull no shame in thus bastardizing himself? Is 
 there no vein of charity in his heart ? 
 
 The people of England, New and Old, seem to know 
 nothing of their own origin. 
 
 The people of England, New and Old, desire to know 
 nothing true about the Irish ; they only take notice of 
 the Irish beggars and the drunken, disorderly ruffians 
 who come before the public eye. The thousands of 
 industrious, respectable Irish in their cities, and the 
 hard-working, peaceable, honest poor, who crowd the 
 Catholic churches, are unobserved. It is in vain that 
 a few honest men tell the English public that the Irish 
 are preeminent in all the higher qualities that distin- 
 guish the man from the brute — in natural intelligence, 
 docility, tender affections, and strong passions, yet hav- 
 ing the power to subdue them — in love of learning, 
 music, poetry, the beautiful and the imaginative — in 
 constant communion with departed friends and the 
 bright spirits of the upper world. In short, it is ad- 
 mitted that the Irish are Christians, and that, being 
 Christians, they have within them the seeds of social 
 and political regeneration. Even “ The Times,” our 
 
12 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 slanderer, in a relenting moment said of the Irish emi- 
 grants, that “ they are affectionate and hopeful, jovial 
 and witty, industrious and independent ; in fact, the 
 rude element of which great nations are made.” But 
 after all, the British public will only take cognizance 
 of the Irish wretchedness, improvidence, wrangling and 
 intemperance before their eyes, and Puritan Americans 
 will to associate these vices with Popery and inferiority 
 of the Irish race. 
 
 The Irish nobility and people lost the refinement and 
 civilization that flow from wealth and independence, 
 because they abandoned this world for the sake of the 
 world to come. Even before the reformation, had the 
 Irish slavishly submitted to the half Gothic Norman 
 soldiery, the parties would have amalgamated ; there 
 would have been peace, and consequent prosperity, more 
 sensual enjoyment, and a greater disposition to embrace 
 heresy ; or, when the more terrible reformation came, if 
 the Irish had abandoned God, and become slavish, and 
 selfish, and sensual, and entirely carried away by world- 
 ly interests, like the English, their condition would now 
 be much superior. But they preferred poverty and the 
 cross, in hopes that God would restore happy days. 
 English Protestant ascendency, and Irish Catholic mag- 
 nanimity and indifference to worldly and sensual affairs, 
 have been the causes of Irish social degradation. Like 
 all Europe, in the first ages of Christianity, Ireland has 
 been wasted as a battle field. Catholicity and heresy, 
 self-sacrifice and selfishness, have been the contending 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 13 
 
 parties. But the case was different in England. There 
 the people, though broken up into countless sects and 
 parties, have a united nationality. Organized rapacity 
 has made England great. Pagan civilization has sup- 
 planted Christian civilization, and England has acquired 
 all the mercantile qualities and the enjoyments that 
 flow from the acquisition of wealth. 
 
 The Christian Irish could not rise in the world in the 
 face of a pagan domination ; they had no chance with 
 an aristocratic party whose pride of life, selfishness, 
 lust of ascendency and wealth, gave them the complete 
 mastery in worldly affairs over the Catholic population, 
 who thought more of the other world than of this. 
 The self-sacrifice of the Irish was necessary to the pres- 
 ervation of the faith. God destined them to preserve, 
 through ages of poverty and suffering, the seeds of 
 Christian civilization, which are beginning to spring up 
 again, now that the Irish Catholics are winning eman- 
 cipation from English acts of Parliament. Irish Catho- 
 lics are still proverbially an improvident class. This 
 characteristic originated in the noble devotion of our 
 forefathers in preserving their liberty and faith ; but in 
 our day this spirit too often degenerates into a criminal 
 apathy, a fatalism which is mistaken for Christian res- 
 ignation. The clans of the Gael must stir themselves, 
 for the sun of their prosperity has arisen. Irish pov- 
 erty and suffering certainly make the most glorious 
 page in the history of Christianity. But there is yet 
 another glorious triumph to be accomplished. Already 
 
 2 
 
14 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 many thousands of Irish and their sons have gained 
 the highest honors and independence. This fact speaks 
 well for the Milesians, and it is far more creditable 
 than hereditary wealth or title, or the mean blood- 
 colored ribbons of the English autocracy. 
 
 > 
 
 v 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 i 
 
 » 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Natural History op Man , 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Condition op the Family among yarious Nations. . . . 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Leads to a Comparison of Celts and Saxons 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 De Moribus Germanorum 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Domestic Life of the Ancient Celts 100 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Roman Virtue 118 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Slavery among the Anglo-Saxons 132 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 The Anglo-Saxon Nation never quite Christianized. ... 158 
 
 (15) 
 
 Page 
 
 17 
 
16 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER IX. * 
 
 Savageism of Anglo-Saxon Legislation 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Tiie Baseness of English Public Opinion, and the Injustice 
 and Cruelty of English Law in Regard to Woman. . . 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 English Evidence on the Turpitude of the English Race. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Anglo-Orange Goths in Ireland 
 
 -'■'T'-'MC 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 English Niggers 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Mormonism, Infanticide, and other English Traits. — 
 Retrospect of English History 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Domestic Economy 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 Conclusion 
 
 Page 
 
 171 
 
 209 
 
 226 
 
 240 
 
 263 
 
 310 
 
 324 
 
 Appendix 
 
 329 
 
WOMEN AND CHILDREN 
 
 AMONG THE 
 
 CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAN. 
 
 It is necessary here, once for all, to define certain 
 terms. I use the word Celt to designate all the oval- 
 headed races of South and West Europe, which was 
 anciently called Celtica. This Celtic type extends, as 
 I might prove, through Asia Minor into North Hin- 
 dostan. Without insisting here on the identity of 
 any two tribes, I will, with the learned reader’s per- 
 mission, use the word Celt , for want of a better, to 
 designate that stripe of nations indicated. In the 
 same manner I use the word Goth to comprehend all 
 the North European tribes, such as the true Germans, 
 and their Anglo-Saxon descendants, who have angular 
 or round heads, &c. ; and as I apply the title Celtic to 
 the oval heads in the East, like the Celts, so I have 
 in some cases applied the word Gothic to Eastern 
 square-headed carnivora . 
 
 2 * 
 
 ( 17 ) 
 
18 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 A Goth is only an undeveloped Celt, just as a child 
 is an ungrown man ; and, conversely, a proportion of 
 individuals in a Celtic nation may, in a true and physi- 
 ological sense, be called Goths, being undeveloped — 
 animalized. 
 
 Let the reader bear in mind, while perusing the fol- 
 lowing work, that the most perfectly-constituted hu- 
 
 4 
 
 man passes through the stages of development pecu- 
 liar to inferior beings. This explains how the noblest 
 individual retains in himself the radices and instincts 
 of animalism. The greatest saint or philosopher may 
 sink into the most debased creature. Celtic men and 
 Celtic women may and do act occasionally like beasts ; 
 but it is impossible for the idiot, the half idiot, or the 
 savage, with brutal formation, to attain the profound 
 reflection and fine feelings of God’s gifted ones, 
 though the simpleton may have faith and affection as 
 acceptable in the presence of the Father. We must 
 look at the aggregate, not at individual cases, and re- 
 member that the Celts are considered higher than the 
 Goths, because they, in general, rise higher. But a 
 demoralized or drunken Celt may act like a sober 
 savage — morose, gluttonous, sensual, and cruel. 
 
 The physiological diversity of individuals and 
 races is a most prominent fact ; but from this we are 
 not to infer that religion is useless, as some material- 
 ists assume. On the contrary, human degeneracy 
 and depravity render more necessary the influence of 
 a divine agency, which supplies to the animalized 
 man that moral force which he does not naturally 
 possess. 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 19 
 
 The majority of physiologists agree to the revealed 
 doctrine of unity of races. But types of men have been 
 formed, and their distinctive peculiarities are permanent. 
 The degenerate forms of inferior races correspond to 
 their manner of life, and resemble the herbivorous or 
 carnivorous animals. The Gothic, Mongolian, and 
 red Indian nations have the carnivorous develop- 
 ment ; and so also have the lowest races of Africans 
 and Australians. In fact, the carnivorous type be- 
 longs to the original nomadic races all over the world, 
 and its radical peculiarities remain unchanged under 
 different phases of civilization. 
 
 The Hindoos and superior tribes of Africa and 
 other fruit-bearing countries exhibit the herbivorous 
 type, and its accompanying docility. 
 
 The Celtic type of the Mediterranean is the superi- 
 or and central. It degenerates on the south into the 
 Arab or African, on the east into the Hindoo, and on 
 the north into the Goth ; the races farthest removed 
 from the Celt being the most degraded, such as the 
 Laps and fair-haired Fins, Ogres, Baskirs, &c., the 
 Samoiedes, the Kamtchatkans, &c., the Hottentotsj 
 Bushmen, and Australians. 
 
 The Celts are characterized by variety of complex- 
 ion ; the figure is spare and athletic, the limbs long 
 in proportion to the trunk. The features are expres- 
 sive, and small in proportion to the cranium, which is 
 generally oval. The Celt has the largest brain in 
 proportion to the size of jaws and length of spine. 
 
 The Celtic Pelasgic type governed Egypt ; the Phce- 
 
20 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 nicians, Milesians, Greeks, Romans, Spaniards, Gauls, 
 Britons, and Gaels of Erin and Caledonia, are the 
 members of the Celtic family. 
 
 The Celtic nations of the old world have occupied 
 only a small tract of land, stretching from Asia Minor, 
 along the northern shores of the Mediterranean, into 
 Erin. 
 
 The Gothic race, to which the Anglo-Saxons belong, 
 formed vast hordes, occupying an immense territory in 
 North Europe. They were all more or less nomadic, 
 and merged into the Mongol tribes of Asia ; and 
 like the carnivorous red men of America, they present 
 a remarkable uniformity. Saxons, ilngles, Jutes, 
 Danes, Dutch, Swedes, Goths, Fins, Russians, Ogres, 
 Huns, Kaisack, and Turks, all stretching originally 
 from the Caspian to the Baltic, are of one type — fair, 
 sandy, or red hair, blue, gray, or green eyes, square or 
 round cranium, brain small in proportion to size of 
 jaws and length of back. The face is large, and the 
 features generally lumpish and inexpressive. They 
 have little or no beard ; they are bulky, and liable to 
 grow exceedingly fat, like all inferior tribes. The 
 lower extremities are short and ill made. The whole 
 organization is essentially of the carnivorous type. 
 
 The true Gothic type of man in North Europe, to 
 which the original Anglo-Saxons belonged, have 
 broad, flat skulls, of the animalized or base form. 
 
 The Crania Britannica, lately published, shows that 
 the skulls in the Anglo-Saxon graves belong to a 
 mixed race. Some are oblong, though inferior to the 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 21 
 
 British ; others are broad, flat, and distorted, like the 
 lowest type of North American Indians. These are 
 the true Saxons from North Europe. I have proved 
 by millions of facts got from hatters, &c., that the 
 North German skull is short, broad, and distorted, like 
 the old Saxon lately dug up, and like the red Indian 
 and other savages. My lecture on this subject having 
 received the high stamp of approval of the Academy 
 of Medicine, I subjoin a brief report. 
 
 From the American Medical Monthly, December, 1856. 
 
 Lecture on Ethnology , by Dr. AT Ether an, M. R . C. S. E . 
 
 “ The Academy of Medicine met in the University 
 on Wednesday, November 5. Seldom has there been 
 a larger attendance of professors and the elite of the 
 faculty. The chapel was nearly filled. It was pro- 
 posed by the secretary, Dr. Foster, seconded and car- 
 ried unanimously, that Dr. M’Elheran, member of the 
 Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh, be invited to 
 address the Academy on the 4 comparative anatomy 
 of human crania.’ 
 
 “ The lecturer said that he would have sought the 
 high privilege of addressing them two years ago, but 
 he had found the field of his investigations still widen- 
 ing, and he was anxious to come before the Acade- 
 my with an essay as complete as possible. From our 
 works on archseology, our museums, and from dentists, 
 hatters, &c., he had reaped a rich harvest of facts. 
 This world’s fair of human specimens, where the sons 
 
22 
 
 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 of men stand side by side, is the greatest school for 
 the student of ethnology. Whatever credit his work 
 might attain, is, therefore, due to the free spirit and 
 kindly cooperation of the members of the profession 
 in his adopted country. 
 
 “ The lecturer maintained that ethnology has hith- 
 erto been only an empiricism, because the transcenden- 
 tal doctrines of development, such as they arc, have 
 been misapplied or entirely disregarded by ethnolo- 
 gists. He contends that Nature has repeatedly 
 changed her mode of operation, and that she converged 
 her forms in approaching man, who presents the most 
 distinct evidence of antagonisms, of unity and variety, 
 and of a versatile vital principle, the animus of which 
 is not to be confounded with the anima , or soul. 
 
 “ He believed that the true doctrine of development, 
 which he briefly elucidated, and the radiating degen- 
 eracy of the human family from the Celtic centre, 
 supported the dogma of original unity. But races 
 have been stereotyped, and evidently as permanently 
 distinct as if they had been created separately. Op- 
 pressed Celtic types have repeatedly regained their 
 true position physically and mentally ; but no inferior 
 Gothic or other carnivorous race ever rises above a 
 certain level; for in them the vital principle itself 
 seems impaired. They are stereotyped . 
 
 “ The lecturer demonstrated that the brain and skull 
 of the herbivora are superior to those of the carnivora, 
 and that, therefore, we must have a new classification 
 of animals. 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 23 
 
 u He divides men, according to natural history, into 
 omnivora , herbivora , carnivora . These are the types, 
 found under various forms, infantile, athletic, intellect- 
 ual, in the several continents of the world. We find 
 ethnology a chaos of contradictions, because authors 
 have not discriminated between forms arrested in de- 
 velopment, accidental types , and permanent stereotypes. 
 The common facts of natural history, which eluci- 
 date these phenomena, have been disregarded. Tran- 
 scendental anatomy explains the varieties of forms, 
 that is, degrees of development. Man is naturally 
 omnivorous, but he degenerates and diverges into the 
 other stripes. This fact supplies a philosophic basis 
 for ethnology, including phrenology and physiognomy. 
 This oval-headed, fine-limbed, beau ideal of the Celtic 
 nations is the central type and perfect form, contrast- 
 ing with the Goths, Kalmucs, and other square-headed 
 carnivora, and with the true Negroes, Hindoos, and 
 other narrow-headed herbivora. The unmixed, car- 
 nivorous Anglo-Saxons have crania like the red sav- 
 ages, being generally broad, short, and distorted ; and 
 such is the characteristic of the Gotho- German at 
 this day. The average white American head is a 
 regular long oval, like the Irish, Welsh, and Highland 
 Scots. The aborigines of the old world were, and 
 are, degenerate in proportion to their distance from 
 the Celtic Mediterranean — degradation being most 
 rapid southward into Africa and northward into Eu- 
 rope and Asia. Degeneracy is more gradual eastward. 
 
 “ The great trunk of the Celtic or central type 
 
24 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 stretches through India, where it is modified. In 
 China it is enfeebled and stereotyped. It terminates 
 in Central America, which was the high central realm 
 of the new world, as Celtica was of the old. This 
 radiating degeneracy of men is like a process of crys- 
 tallization ; the centre is most perfect, the superficies 
 amorphous. The outer rind of the tree of life is most 
 guborganized. These observations apply to races in 
 their aboriginal nativities. The Anglo-Saxons, for ex- 
 ample, still retain the evidences of their descent from 
 the outer rind of humanity in North Europe. 
 
 “ In 1850-51, he made statistics of complexion, &c., 
 of the inhabitants of Great Britain. He was the first 
 to analyze that conglomeration of races, and to demon- 
 strate that the Celtic type of Shakspeare and Wel- 
 lington is dominant. His published address to the 
 British Association, and his memorable controversy 
 with the Times, in October, 1852, had extinguished 
 Anglo-Saxonism in Britain ; but the false theory still 
 prevails in America. His friend and teacher, Dr. 
 Knox, of Edinburgh, although merely theorizing, had 
 inoculated our whole scientific and public press with 
 Anglomania. He (Dr. M’Elheran) had spent years 
 of travel and study, investigating this special subject. 
 He made and compared collections of portraits of the 
 Celtic and Saxon races, specimens of which he now 
 exhibited. By a combination of anatomical and ar- 
 tistic skill he had thus been enabled to enlighten dubi- 
 ous history. Beginning with living facts, he had 
 traced the Celtic type back through Italy, Greece, 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 25 
 
 Asia Minor, and Egypt, in illustration of their monu- 
 ments, collections of crania, portraits, antique statua- 
 ry, coins, &c., particularly in the new gigantic work, 
 the Tresor de Numismatique. While even the latest 
 writers, Nott, Davis, &c., still erroneously dogmatize 
 over a few crania, he had broken up new fields of in- 
 quiry, in the reports of hatters, dentists, hair-dealers, 
 &c., and produced aggregate millions of facts in proof 
 of our Celtic origin. 
 
 “ The history of emigration, and the peculiarity of 
 our language, so different from the Saxon dialects of 
 East and North England, prove that our ancestors 
 came from the Celtic south and west of England, 
 and the other persecuted Celtic parts of the three 
 kingdoms, not to mention Celtic Spain, Celtic France, 
 and Celtic Belgium. 
 
 “ The Celto- Germans, from the borders of the Rhine, 
 probably outnumbered the Gothic immigrants from 
 North Europe, whose type has been submerged in the 
 general Celtic tide. The true American type is there- 
 fore not a hybrid Anglo-Saxon, but a pure-bred Celtic 
 race, as their language, their history, their physique, 
 and impulsive, versatile genius testify. 
 
 u This lecture, which fixed the attention of the learned 
 assembly during two hours, was very profusely illus- 
 trated with cranial forms and portraits of the Celtic 
 and Gothic races. By merely changing the head- 
 dresses and style of wearing the hair, the lecturer 
 demonstrated that the physiognomy, as well as the 
 phrenology and lathy figure of the French and Gaelic 
 
 3 
 
26 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 peasantry, is exactly and unquestionably the same as 
 the typical Americans, such as Washington, Jackson, 
 Taylor, Clay, Webster, &c. ; and that the Anglo-Sax- 
 on is like the red Indian and other carnivorous savages. 
 
 “ The Academy expressed their approbation of the 
 demonstrations by prolonged rounds of applause. It 
 was proposed by Dr. J. W. Francis, and seconded by 
 Dr. Smith, that the thanks of this Academy be ten- 
 dered to Dr. M’Elheran for his noble and lucid exposi- 
 tion of this intricate subject — the developments and 
 causes of variety in mankind. Passed unanimously. 
 
 “ Considering the vast future of our country and 
 the international interests involved in the question of 
 race, this discourse of Dr. M’Elheran may be consid- 
 ered an event in our history, as well as a triumph 
 over the popular Anglo-Saxon error.” 
 
 Races are distinguished chiefly by natural propen- 
 sities, sentiments, and faculties. Carnivorous tribes 
 are, like the tiger, essentially, stupid, uneducable, false, 
 cruel, treacherous, base, and bloody. The Goth is 
 always, and in ail circumstances, a selfish utilitarian, 
 with little of the soul that distinguishes humanity 
 from brutality ; he has little or no faculty for poetry, 
 music, or abstract science. 
 
 The divine spark of genius radiates from the Celtic 
 centre of the world. The talent and energy of Great 
 Britain and America belong to the Celt, not to the 
 flaxen-haired, small-brained, and grossly-organized 
 Saxon or Dutchman. The genius of both Germany 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 27 
 
 and Russia belongs, partly to the Celts, but chiefly to 
 the Southern Sclaves, or Venetians , as they were 
 anciently called. This race is closely allied, physical- 
 ly and intellectually, with the Celts, and is totally dif- 
 ferent from the Goth, or true German, and the Musco- 
 vite, or true Russian. 
 
 The observations of phrenologists, though in most 
 cases accompanied by ridiculous explanations, bear 
 out the physiological distinctions which I make be- 
 tween the carnivorous and the gentle races. 
 
 Phrenology establishes these facts : That the crani- 
 um of the superior type, the Celtic, is highly arched, 
 and oval, and large in proportion to the face and 
 length of spine. The features, even when coarse, 
 are expressive of intelligence and benevolence. The 
 ears are delicately cut, and set close to the head. On 
 the contrary, it is a fact that the skull of the Gothic 
 and Anglo-Saxon woman is flat. Look at the head 
 of a North German or Saxon Englishwoman, and if it 
 be of the pure Gothic type, you will observe that the 
 back of the head forms nearly a straight line with the 
 neck. The skull is broad between and behind the 
 ears. The intellectual organs are tolerably well de- 
 veloped, but the upper and back part — the region of 
 the moral sentiments — is deficient. 
 
 It is the head of a woman who reasons more than 
 she feels, who would destroy her own child if domes- 
 tic economy required the sacrifice, or who would rea- 
 son herself into free-loveism, and practise it. 
 
 History confirms anatomy. The Gothic tribes were 
 
28 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 most difficult to convert to the chastity, the charity, 
 and the temperance of Christ. And they in one gen- 
 eration threw off fasting and celibacy, and returned to 
 infanticide, and free love, and wife-beating, and glut- 
 tony. What is true of the Gothic race in England is 
 true also of the same race in Germany. 
 
 Doctors Gall and Spurzheim, in their generation, 
 had little difficulty in getting for examination dozens 
 of heads of infanticidal women in Germany. These 
 heads proved to be of the true Gothic type, as seen in 
 the Saxonized English, and in the North German and 
 Swede. These phrenologists erroneously supposed that 
 the brutality accompanying the organization was ow- 
 ing to the smallness of a certain organ ; but the true 
 explanation is, that the Saxon is the carnivorous type 
 of skull, like the destructive animals, as the cat that 
 will sometimes eat her own kittens. It is not the ac- 
 cidental enlargement or occasional development of an 
 organ, but the type of a race. 
 
 The moral distinctions of mankind are affected by 
 physiological development. The male of herbivorous 
 races retains more of the carnivorous organization, ra- 
 pacious instinct, and cruelty, than the female. The 
 latter has a more oval head, smaller cheek bones, less 
 angular jaws, smaller clavicles, shoulders comparative- 
 ly narrow, &c. This rule applies to all races of 
 
 / 
 
 mankind. 
 
 Woman’s occasional wickedness is mercy, in com- 
 parison with the natural cruelty of man towards his 
 family. 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 29 
 
 Even among the purely carnivorous races, woman 
 partakes of the herbivorous physique and character. 
 Hence, in all the realms of the wide world, woman 
 surpasses man in beauty, goodness, and truth. Ex- 
 ceptions to this rule are found chiefly among the de- 
 graded nations. The cannibal women were the fore- 
 most to murder and eat the unsuspecting Spanish ad- 
 venturers. But in the higher Indian tribe, Pocahontas 
 evinced the true female clemency, where no mercy 
 could be expected from savage man. 
 
 In the highest nations, as well as among the hum- 
 blest members of the human family, woman is supe- 
 rior in all those emotional attributes that feebly link 
 our wretched nature to the angels. Even in the ma- 
 terial instincts of order, cleanliness, &c., woman is the 
 civilizer, whether we meet her in Asia, Africa, Amer- 
 ica, or Europe. 
 
 Morton, of Dr. Kane’s expedition, found that the 
 huts of the Eskimo were less filthy and rude after the 
 arrival of the women, who improved upon the bes- 
 tiality of the bachelor settlement. When they were 
 travelling, on one occasion, as they stopped at the huts 
 on their way, the Eskimo women were ready, without 
 invitation, to dry and chafe the worn-out guests. 
 
 Mr. Ledyard, the African traveller, says, u To a 
 woman I never addressed myself in the language of 
 decency and friendship without receiving a decent and 
 friendly answer. If I was hungry or thirsty, wet or 
 sick, they did not hesitate, like the men, to perform a 
 generous action. In so free and so kind a manner did 
 
 3 * 
 
80 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 they contribute to my relief, that if I was dry I drank 
 the sweetest draught, and if hungry I ate the coarsest 
 morsel with a double relish.” 
 
 The Negro and Hindoo women of the pure herbiv- 
 orous type are eminently cheerful and gentle, and 
 have an extraordinary love of offspring. The squaws 
 of the red Indian and other carnivorous tribes are 
 affectionate to their children ; Nature would forget 
 herself were it otherwise. Should a squaw lose 
 her infant, she will carry the cradle stuffed with 
 feathers, and talk to it in the most endearing terms, 
 as if the little one were still there to hear its mother’s 
 voice. 
 
 The Anglo-Saxon and German mothers do not for- 
 get their love for their children ; neither do the sons of 
 these races prove generally ungrateful to their mothers. 
 The natural affections rule in all races of men, as 
 well as of lower animals. But among the carnivora 
 this rule has exceptions. It is only among the carniv- 
 orous type of lower animals and human beings that 
 we find instances of the mother destroying her own 
 offspring — such as the tiger, the cat, the sow. The 
 New Zealand savage, the Chinese heathen, the Gothic 
 Englishwoman, and Saxon frau, — these races have 
 the carnivorous type of skull. The men of these races 
 sell their wives and daughters ; the women of these 
 races murder their own infants. The English were 
 infamous in Catholic ages for selling their children ; 
 the English are infamous in Protestant times for 
 butchering their children. 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 31 
 
 All the hunting and wandering tribes of the earth 
 are of this carnivorous type. The Saxons and other 
 Goths, originally belonging to this class, were from 
 their habits necessarily ferocious and cruel. Always 
 in motion, and prepared for war, these savages never 
 had time, if they had the inclination, to cultivate the 
 social affections ; the force of circumstances, as well 
 as selfishness, always operated to enslave the wife of 
 the barbarian, whose God was the God of Might. 
 From these causes also sprang up infanticide, espe- 
 cially of female children, who could not be reared into 
 warriors. The Gothic woman and the Indian squaw 
 were held in the utmost contempt, unless where super- 
 stition gave some woman a supernatural gift in their 
 eyes. 
 
 Christianity and the power of civil government may 
 subdue the animal passions, but no race ever changes 
 its radical character. The Christian historian takes 
 physiological and other material conditions into ac- 
 count ; were he to neglect these, the church would be 
 put in a false light, and fruit expected where none 
 could be produced. Christianity found the Gothic 
 and Tartar races of a low type, carnivorous, brutish, 
 proud, intractable, and constitutionally averse to tem- 
 perance and chastity, while the first law of nature — 
 the love of a mother for her child — was very weak. 
 After several centuries of Christianizing, the national 
 Saxon character again appeared in full force. Since 
 the reformation, it is a fact that the most sensual 
 forms of belief and practice have spread among the 
 
32 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 most Gothic populations of Europe ; the low develop- 
 ment of inferior races thus appearing to be the rocky 
 soil oil which the seeds of truth fall. 
 
 The apostles planted the gospel in Italy and 
 other Celtic nations with the greatest care. Rome, 
 the centre of the Celtic tribes, was made the citadel 
 of Christendom, because the Celtic race was least 
 fallen, and most highly gifted and amiable^ and capa- 
 ble of preserving and propagating the faith and the 
 charity of Christ among the degraded races of the 
 earth. _ In this we must acknowledge a divine Provi- 
 dence. The noble development, strong affection, and 
 eminent chastity of the Celtic woman have been more 
 powerful in preserving the faith than the genius of the 
 Celtic man. 
 
 I ^ . v|p 
 
 The chief sphere of Christian action involves the 
 domestic affections ; and therefore the gentle, good, 
 true-hearted woman plays a vital part in the history 
 of the gospel. 
 
 The Virgin Mother gives us the most sublime idea 
 of feminine dignity and purity. This Christian doc- 
 trine readily extended among the highest race, who, 
 after all the revolutions of eighteen hundred years, 
 salutes the Madonna and her divine Son, while the 
 brutal Goth, and the sensual Englishman, and the pa- 
 gan Turk trample on her image. 
 
 The Celts were not free from the primeval curse 
 upon the human family. There is ample evidence to 
 prove that the Celtic woman and child were, and are, 
 often barbarously used by their lords and masters of 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 33 
 
 the stronger sex. But the reader will observe, as he 
 goes through the evidence, that t he Celts w ere the only 
 race in the whole world who voluntarily and naturally 
 emancipated woman from brute-force thraldom, even 
 before the time of Christianity ; and that since the 
 advent of Christ, the Celtic race alone have consis- 
 tently established perpetual chastity, and carried out 
 the divine precepts in regard to woman’s rights and 
 woman’s duties. 
 
 There is an intimate connection between the re- 
 vealed and the natural laws, and between the physiol- 
 ogy of human races and the success of Christianity. 
 Walker, on Intermarriage, says, u By some, it is con- 
 tended that modesty is not a natural feeling, but one 
 oJ^Dcial regulation. In our own days, it certainly 
 seemed to be unknown amongst the women of Ota- 
 heite ; they came naked to the South Sea voyagers 
 when they landed, and offered to them the charms 
 which they exposed, striving, too, to increase their 
 effect by expressive movements and postures. On the 
 contrary, we are told that, in ancient times, owing to 
 the frequency of suicides at Miletus, the magistrates 
 declared that the first female who committed suicide 
 should be exposed naked in the public square ; the 
 Milesian women consequently became reconciled to 
 life ; and it is thence concluded that modesty is a nat- 
 ural sentiment.” 
 
 But by this it would appear that primitive races were 
 not all equally modest, though all were pagans. For 
 our Milesian mothers learned to drape themselves, and 
 
34 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 to abhor exposure, not through consciousness of guilt, 
 but from innate modesty. On the contrary, as we 
 shall find, the Germans and Anglo-Saxons whipped 
 their offending women naked through the public streets, 
 in order to chasten public sentiment. 
 
 English modesty cannot bear to look at the Greek 
 or Italian sculptures, but it can, bare-breasted and in 
 close embrace, dance the polka — a modest German 
 invention. This amorous dance is one of the accom- 
 plishments which the Celts have learned from the 
 Saxons. 
 
 The English, from their physiological constitution, 
 and, as it were, by instinct, quote Scripture against 
 chastity. The Irishman may be profligate, but yet he 
 knows that chastity is possible. The argumen^jgf 
 English divines and writers, that chastity is unnatural , 
 and celibacy of clergy an imposture, is not sustained 
 by facts. 
 
 The medical officers of certain institutions in large 
 cities know that houses of ill-fame are supported 
 chiefly by married men ; and they are also cognizant 
 of the fact that the very busiest time of the brothels 
 is during the sessions of the general assemblies of the 
 Protestant clergy. This fact was made public in a 
 court of justice not long since, in Edinburgh ; but it is 
 equally true of the other large cities in England and 
 the United States. 
 
 Englishmen should know that man is not to be 
 judged by the same physiological standard as other 
 animals. Anglo-Saxons may except themselves, if 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 85 
 
 they will. The most distinguished physiologists as- 
 sert that continence becomes a habit in man, not in- 
 jurious, but highly beneficial to mind and body. 
 
 The Anglo-Saxon horror of celibacy, and fasting, 
 and humiliations, and poverty, arises, not from a pure 
 reading of the Bible, but from the gross animalism of 
 the race, which the Catholic church failed to eradicate. 
 Reading of the Bible will not explain how it is that 
 spiritual fanaticism characterizes Celtic dissenters, 
 while beastly fanaticism is the gospel reading of the 
 Saxon. Celts become Methodists, or Presbyterians, 
 or Spiritualists, as in Wales and the Highlands; Sax- 
 ons become Mormons, Free-Lovers, &c. 
 
 Let the reader not infer that I saddle all the faults 
 and horrors of England upon the Anglo-Saxon race. 
 The English are a mixed race ; they inherit the vices, 
 with few of the virtues, of their ancestors. Nor do I 
 forget that when England was “ merrie,” and hospitable, 
 and pious to a certain extent, she was under the influ- 
 ence of the confessional, the fasting, the obedience, 
 and the discipline of the Catholic church. 
 
 If certain Americans will ignorantly persist in call- 
 ing themselves Saxon, let them abide by the disgrace 
 of Saxon history. 
 
 The matchless hypocrisy and inhumanity of Old 
 England and New England is no proof that the race 
 is Anglo-Saxon, that Gothic breed being long since 
 absorbed ; it is only proof that the hybrid is as bad, if 
 not worse, than the pure Goth. There is no necessity 
 for attempting to estimate the relative quantity a ? sas - 
 
36 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 san blood in Great Britain and America. We have 
 only to compare the conditions of women and children 
 in the most Saxonized populations of Europe and 
 • America with their condition in the present Celtic 
 nations of the same. 
 
THE CELTIC ? GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 37 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 CONDITION OF THE FAMILY AMONG VARIOUS 
 
 NATIONS. 
 
 It may be stated here as a general rule, that the 
 herbivorous tribes of savages are more humane than 
 the carnivora. Red Indians are generally affectionate 
 to their squaws. A warrior, if unobserved , will carry 
 his child, or the load which, according to custom, the 
 poor, weak woman must bear ; but this fear of being 
 seen helping a wife proves the rule of severity. 
 Among red tribes the old women must bear the heavy 
 load, while the young wife is spared, and only made 
 to drudge when there is no mother on whom to im- 
 pose the burden. 
 
 Among the Negroes, on the contrary, especially 
 among the more herbivorous, there is more justice and 
 humanity. For this fact I have the authority of Rev. 
 Father J. Kelley, of Jersey City, who was a mission- 
 ary in Africa. 
 
 Rev. Mr. Livingston observes that among the Ne- 
 groes he saw, the son-in-law is obliged to carry water, 
 &c., for his mother-in-law. This is as it ought to be. 
 
 When an Indian slays game, he leaves it where it 
 falls, and sends the squaw to drag it home and cook it. 
 She must also take off his moccasons, wash his feet, &c. 
 
 4 
 
38 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 u The education of Moorish girls is neglected alto- 
 gether ; they are regarded as an inferior species of 
 animal, and seem to be brought up for no other pur- 
 pose than that of ministering to the sensual pleasures 
 of their imperious masters. Voluptuousness is there- 
 fore considered as their chief accomplishment, and 
 slavish submission as their indispensable duty.” (Mun- 
 go Park.) 
 
 Those Moors are described by the same eminent 
 traveller as being a flesh-eating, gluttonous, treacher- 
 ous, and cruel race, proud and haughty beyond de- 
 scription, yet mean and mendacious. The concubines 
 of the rich are forcibly stuffed with meat and drink to 
 make them fat, while the women of inferior rank are 
 subjected to incessant drudgery. These Moorish 
 women are immodest and less cheerful and hospitable 
 than the Negresses. 
 
 Among the Mandingo Negroes every man of free 
 condition has a plurality of wives. A separate hut is 
 assigned to each ; all the huts belonging to the same 
 family are enclosed, and a number of these enclosures 
 constitutes a town. 
 
 The Negro women suckle their young until they 
 are able to walk of themselves. Three years’ nursing 
 is not uncommon. Wives are usually purchased from 
 the parents, under the guise of presents. The girl’s 
 consent is by no means necessary to the match. She 
 may, indeed, refuse the suitor, but if she do so contra- 
 ry to the parental wish, she must remain unmarried all 
 her life. 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 
 
 39 
 
 The Negroes, as well as the Moors, whether Ma- 
 hometan or pagan, allow plurality of wives. Mungo 
 Park says that the Negroes seldom treat their wives 
 cruelly, nor did he perceive that mean jealousy among 
 them so prevalent among the carnivorous Moors ; and 
 though the Negro women are very cheerful and frank 
 in their behavior, they are by no means given to in- 
 trigue. Conjugal infidelity is uncommon. A wife 
 can appeal against marital injustice to a jury, who 
 hold a palaver on his conduct ; but the wife’s com- 
 plaints are not always considered in a very serious 
 light. If she murmurs at the decision of the court, 
 the magic rod of Mumbo Jumbo soon settles the busi- 
 ness. The Negro wife is treated as a child ; the 
 Moorish wife as a slave, or inferior animal. 
 
 Polygamy exists throughout Africa, and the king of 
 Dahomey might well excite the envy of the Anglo- 
 Saxon Mormons — he has regiments of wives. 
 
 On the death of an African king or prince, a num- 
 ber of women, according to his wealth, are slaughtered 
 at his grave, either to accompany him, or to prevent 
 them marrying any other. 
 
 Mungo Park gives a passable character to the agri- 
 cultural Negroes, whose industry and kindly-forgiving 
 nature forms a contrast with the carnivorous Moors 
 on the one hand, and the Kaffirs (infidels) on the 
 other. The Negro women, in particular, he always 
 found to be kind-hearted, and extremely affectionate 
 to their families. This feeling is reciprocated by the 
 children. It is a common expression among them 
 
40 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 when quarrelling, “ Strike me, but do not curse my 
 mother.” One of the first lessons in which the Man- 
 dingo women instruct their children is the practice of 
 truth. A mother’s greatest consolation under the be- 
 reavement of a son, is the reflection that he never told 
 a lie. 
 
 In Cochin China, women are freer than they are 
 among the Celestials. 
 
 In Siam and the East Indian Islands, woman, al- 
 though enslaved, is freer and more honored than in 
 China, which is geographically and ethnologically far- 
 ther removed from the Celtic centre. 
 
 The Malays are physically a very brutish race, of 
 the carnivorous, square-headed, flat-faced, Gothic type. 
 Their marital laws in many parts require a bridegroom 
 to slay some men before being admitted as a suitor. 
 The heads are presented to the bride. 
 
 Montesquieu says the Tartars, who may marry their 
 daughters, never marry their mothers, as we find in the 
 accounts we have of that nation. This law *is very 
 ancient among them. “ Attila,” says Priscus, “ in his 
 embassy, stopped in a certain place to marry Esca, his 
 daughter — a thing permitted,” he adds, u by the laws 
 of the Scythians.” (P. 22. ) 
 
 “ In the tribe of the Naires, on the coast of Malabar, 
 the men can have only one wife, while a woman, on 
 the contrary, may have many husbands. The origin 
 of this custom is not, I believe, difficult to discover. 
 The Naires are the tribe of nobles, who are the soldiers 
 of all those nations. In Europe, soldiers are forbidden 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 41 
 
 to marry. In Malabar, where the climate requires 
 greater indulgence, they are satisfied with rendering 
 marriage as little burdensome to them as possible ; 
 they give one wife amongst many men, which conse- 
 quently diminishes the attachment to a family, and 
 the cares of housekeeping, and leaves them in the free 
 possession of a military spirit.” 
 
 We learn from Allan Butler’s Life of St. Francis 
 Xavier, that the Japanese are extremely superstitious, 
 haughty, and shamelessly abandoned to all kinds of 
 incontinence. The laws are excessively cruel, and 
 the people themselves, on the slightest occasion, com- 
 mit suicide by ripping open the bowels. They exceed 
 even the English in the slavish worship of the sacred 
 person of majesty. The Japanese have not learned, 
 like the English, to make money by infanticide ; but 
 we are told “ poor parents expose and murder their 
 infant children, and see them expire without changing 
 their countenance.” 
 
 Polyandry must have originated and prevailed only 
 among those nomadic savages who found it necessary 
 to check the growth of population by means of infan- 
 ticide of female children, the males being spared as 
 young warriors. 
 
 In Tartary, for example, a the practice of polyandry 
 prevails amongst the Ladakis, but it is strictly con- 
 fined to brothers — each family of brothers having 
 one wife in common. This system, however, prevails 
 only among the poorer classes ; for the rich, as in all 
 
 4 * 
 
42 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 Eastern countries, generally have two or three wives, 
 according to their wealth.” 
 
 “ Throughout the broad expanse of Asia, from time 
 immemorial, the lot of woman has been that of 
 wretched personal slavery and social abasement ; but 
 in China her miserable condition seems to touch 
 the extreme that is possible for human nature to en- 
 dure. Sold and married without their consent, starved 
 and beaten, and used like a dog in the family of their 
 new husbands, the Chinese women have no means of 
 retaliation but to commit suicide. Then the China- 
 man, avaricious as he is brutal, weeps because he 
 must buy a new wife.” ( Hue’s Chinese Empire.) 
 
 The mean, bullying selfishness of the Chinese of the 
 present day towards their women is but a counterpart 
 of their inhuman cowardice, and readiness to sacrifice 
 them to their conquerors in former times. An account 
 of their treaty with the Huns, before the Christian era, 
 is concluded as follows : — 
 
 “But there still remained a more disgraceful article 
 of tribute, which violated the sacred feelings of hu- 
 manity and nature. * * * A select band of the 
 
 fairest maidens of China was annually devoted to the 
 rude embraces of the Huns ; and the alliance of the 
 haughty Tongans was secured by their marriage with 
 the genuine or adopted daughters of the imperial fam- 
 ily, which vainly attempted to escape the sacrilegious 
 pollution. The situation of these unhappy victims is 
 described in the verses of a Chinese princess , who 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 48 
 
 laments that she has been condemned by her parents 
 to a distant exile, under a barbarian husband, who 
 complains that sour milk was her only drink, raw flesh 
 her only food, and a tent her only palace ; and who 
 expresses, in a strain of patriotic simplicity, the natu- 
 ral wish that she were transformed into a bird, to fly 
 back to her dear country, the object of her tender and 
 perpetual regret.” ( Gibbon .) 
 
 I may here quote the following paragraph on the 
 subject of Chinese love of offspring: — 
 
 u There are various opinions as to the extent of in- 
 fanticide in China ; but that it is a common practice 
 in many provinces admits of no doubt. One of the 
 most eloquent Chinese writers against infanticide, 
 Kwei Chunk Fu, professes to have been specially in- 
 spired by c the god of literature 5 to call upon the 
 Chinese people to refrain from the inhuman practice, 
 and declares that 6 the god ’ had filled his house with 
 honors, and given him literaiy descendants, as the 
 recompense for his exertions. Yet his denunciations 
 scarcely go farther than to pronounce it wicked in 
 those to destroy their female children who have the 
 means of bringing them up ; and some of his argu- 
 ments are strange enough. ‘ To destroy daughters , 5 
 he says, ‘ is to make war upon Heaven’s harmony , 5 
 (in the equal numbers of the sexes ;) c the more daugh- 
 ters you drown, the more daughters you will have ; 
 and never was it known that the drowning of daugh- 
 ters led to the birth of sons . 5 He recommends aban- 
 doning children to their fate i on the wayside , 5 as 
 
44 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 preferable to drowning them, and then says , 4 There are 
 instances of children so exposed having been nursed and 
 reared by tigers. Where should we have been,’ he asks, 
 4 if our grandmothers and mothers had been drowned in 
 their infancy ? ’ And he quotes two instances of the 
 punishment of mothers who had destroyed their in- 
 fants, one of whom had a blood-red serpent fastened 
 to her thigh, and the other her four extremities turned 
 into cow’s feet. Father Ripa mentions that of aban- 
 doned children the Jesuits baptized in Pekin alone not 
 less than three thousand yearly. Sir John Bowring 
 says he has seen ponds which are the habitual recep- 
 tacles of female infants., whose bodies lie floating 
 about on the surface.” 
 
 The apology usually given for Chinese bestiality is 
 over-population. This is no excuse. Europeans had 
 often to complain of the same ; but they preferred, 
 because they were a brave race, to spread out and 
 subdue other nations before murdering their own 
 babes. 
 
 But the Chinese are a cowardly, cat-like, carnivo- 
 rous race, and, like all their type over the world, devoid 
 of humanity. 
 
 In many respects, physically and morally, the old 
 outlandish Goths in the north of Europe, and their 
 descendants, the Anglo-Saxons, are like the Chinese, 
 especially in regard to their treatment of women, and 
 their infanticidal propensities, and their low, mercena- 
 ry ideas of marriage. In this respect, even the Chris- 
 tianized Saxons were lower than other savages. 44 By 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 45 
 
 most of the American tribes, by some of the Pacific 
 Islanders, and generally by the domestic despots of 
 the East, an adulteress is doomed to death ; but the 
 avaricious Chinaman, who parts with his money as 
 with his life’s blood, sells her into slavery.” (Hue.) 
 
 One would think that the natural affections should 
 be as strong among the lowest race as among the 
 highest, and that the savage sho uld inspect his wife 
 and love his child, as do the Celts ; but such is not the 
 case. 
 
 In America, the more highly organized and civilized 
 tribes are also the most affectionate and respectful to 
 their wives and children, as seen in the contrast be- 
 tween the Peruvians and the Caribs, &c. Among the 
 races of New Holland and Polynesia, the lowest and 
 farthest off are the most brutish to their wives and 
 children, while the more highly organized Sandwichers 
 and Tongans hold their women in esteem, yet not 
 so great as among the Peruvians and Mexicans, with 
 whom marriage was held in great reverence, and “ di- 
 vorce only allowed by mutual consent, and after a sol- 
 emn trial.” (Prescott.) 
 
 In Mexico, marriages were conducted with much 
 public ceremony. Divorces were voluntary on both 
 sides, the daughters going with the mother, the sons 
 with the father. 
 
 Hasty separations were guarded against by the pro- 
 vision, that should they cohabit after being once sepa- 
 rated, both husband and wife should suffer death. 
 
 Widows did not marry, and sometimes immolated 
 
46 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 themselves on their husband’s tomb. The Span- 
 iards give an interesting history of a Mexican girl, 
 whom they called Donna Maria, and who had been 
 sold by her own mother. 
 
 Dc Soto’s rencontre with a queen of Florida, who 
 governed her nation, reminds one of the meeting of 
 Cleopatra and Antony, so grand was the lady’s pal- 
 anquin, canoe, and retinue. 
 
 Polygamy was universally practised among the 
 Mandans and other tribes, by all whose rank and means 
 enabled them to pay the stipulated price of wives. 
 
 The females of Paraguay were of most remarkable 
 beauty, but preeminent among them was the widow 
 of Caonabo. Her queenly demeanor, grace, and cour- 
 tesy won the admiration of all the Spaniards. 
 
 These Indians were naturally good and chaste. 
 Some one of the Spaniards having committed an in- 
 decency, the principal cacique, Guarioux, refused to 
 listen to the doctrines of those who were guilty of 
 such villanies. 
 
 When the Portuguese landed at Cape St. Roque, 
 a young man went, forward alone to communicate 
 with the natives, “ when, in plain sight of his com- 
 rades, he was set upon by the women, knocked down 
 by a club from behind, and dragged off beyond range 
 of the firearms, dismembered, broiled, and eaten.” 
 Such scenes were often witnessed. 
 
 But among a superior type of savages, we have 
 the memorable scene of the generous Indian girl, 
 Pocahontas, saving the life of Captain Smith. 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 47 
 
 The Guaycuros of Paraguay, one of the most sav- 
 age and warlike tribes of South America, are described 
 by Count Castelnau. They are probably the de- 
 scendants of the northern carnivorous Caribs. The 
 author says that each warrior has his mark, which he 
 burns on all that belongs to him — his horses, dogs, 
 and ivives. One of the most atrocious traits in the 
 manners of this people is that of putting to death all 
 children born of mothers under thirty years of age. 
 
 We know that in like manner the Saxons used to 
 brand their female property, and that the Germans 
 were averse to early marriages, as Csesar informs us. 
 We are told that this was an evidence of virtue in the 
 Germans. But of course, in the eyes of the Saxe- 
 Gotha writers, the German savages were like no other 
 savages, being very divine and virtuous savages. 
 Even their gluttony and drunkenness were only indi- 
 cations of u that robust energy which Heaven designed 
 should ultimately rule the world.” 
 
 The Hurons pay considerable respect to woman. 
 The Guarimies prohibit polygamy, and several of the 
 North American tribes prohibit any approach to incest, 
 even compelling their young men to marry out of their 
 own tribe. 
 
 These are the exceptions to the general rule among 
 American savages, and are very probably entirely due 
 to the early teaching of the Jesuit missionaries. 
 
 Dr. Kane says of the Eskimos, “ Miserable, yet 
 happy wretches, without one thought for the future, 
 fighting against care when it comes unbidden, and 
 
48 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 enjoying to the full their scanty measure of present 
 good. As a beast, the Esquimau is a most sensible 
 beast, worth a thousand Calibans, and certainly ahead 
 of his cousin, the polar bear, from whom he borrows 
 his pantaloons.” 
 
 Elsewhere he says of the tribes, “ Destitute as they 
 are, they exist, both in love and community of re- 
 sources, as a single family.” In the dreary night of 
 winter, “ they interchange with each other the sympa- 
 thies and social communion of man, and diffuse 
 through the darkness a knowledge of the resources 
 and condition of all.” 
 
 “ Among the regal perquisites of the nalycik-soak 
 [the king] was the questionable privilege of having as 
 many wives as he could support.” 
 
 The old practice, which is found among some of the 
 Asiatic and North American tribes, of carrying off 
 the bride by force, is common among the Eskimos, 
 and reluctantly abandoned even by the converted. 
 The ceremonial rite follows at the convenience of the 
 parties. 
 
 Parental affection, the law of animated nature, holds 
 its sway in the dark, icy north ; children are cared for, 
 toys manufactured, and joy expressed at their gam- 
 bols. They can love each other, and the social in- 
 stinct of man makes them, as all savages are, hospi- 
 table. They were friendly and honest towards Dr. 
 Kane’s party, when mutual interest associated them. 
 
 But these good qualities depend more upon a pre- 
 carious animal instinct than upon that intelligent 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 49 
 
 feeling that guides the actions and animates the sym- 
 pathies of the higher races of men. 
 
 Dr. Kane relates an instance of infanticide among 
 the Eskimos. Awahtok and his young wife, a pleas- 
 ant and happy couple, when he first saw them, were 
 exulting over the first pledge of their union — a fine 
 little girl. But the bestial ferocity of the cold-blooded 
 carnivora happened to be aroused by a natural weak- 
 ness in the infant, 44 and the parents, lately so fond, 
 took out the poor child, and buried her alive under a 
 pile of stones. When Dr. Kane afterwards ques- 
 tioned the parents, he says, 44 Their manner satisfied 
 me that the story was true ; they turned their hands 
 downward, but without any sign of confusion ; they 
 did not even pay its memory the cheap compliment 
 of tears, which, among these people, are always at 
 hand.” 
 
 An Eskimo king, Noluk, 44 on his last visit, [to his 
 dying wife,] saw her through the window a corpse, 
 and his infant son sucking at her frozen breast. Pa- 
 rental instinct was mastered by panic ; he made his 
 way south, without crossing the threshold.” 
 
 From the extreme north, let us turn our eyes to the 
 extreme south of the world. I. I. Jarvis, an American 
 missionary, says that the Polynesians, even of the 
 higher type, in the Sandwich Islands, made the de- 
 formed, dependent, foolish, and blind, the cruel sport 
 of idlers, or they were left to perish. Aged and help- 
 less parents were frequently cast out from homes 
 which their own hands had reared, and abandoned 
 
 5 
 
50 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 to die on the roadside, uncared for and unpitied by 
 neighbor or relative, their corpses the prey of prowl- 
 ing dogs. 
 
 “ Humanity to the aged and afflicted could not be 
 expected from those whose 4 tender mercies were cru- 
 elty ’ to their own offspring. Multitudes were yearly 
 destroyed before birth, by means which will not bear 
 record, and which caused permanent injury to the 
 mother. As many, perhaps, were murdered weeks, 
 months, and even years, after they saw light. Parents 
 had authority of life and death over their young, ac- 
 countable to no one ; infanticide was more prevalent 
 among the poorer classes than the rich ; whim, expe- 
 diency, or fear of diminishing their personal charms, 
 to them were adequate motives to doom their young 
 to a barbarous death. The poor destroyed most of 
 their children, to avoid the expense or trouble of rear- 
 ing them ; other classes, from laziness, ill humor, or to 
 gratify a malignant disposition. Should a quarrel 
 arise between the parents, the child was liable to be 
 sacrificed. A case happened in Hawaii, in regard to 
 a boy seven years of age. Both parties became fran- 
 tic with rage ; the father seized the child by the wrists 
 with one hand, and the legs in the other, and with one 
 stroke broke its back across his knee, and threw the 
 mangled corpse at the feet of his wife. The child 
 was his own ; no one could have interfered to prevent 
 or punish. Some spared two or three, but more de- 
 stroyed all but one. It was sometimes done by stran- 
 gling, and often by burying the innocent sufferers 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 51 
 
 alive, both parents uniting in trampling the earth over 
 the form of their murdered babe, the floor of their own 
 hut not unfrequently being the grave. Those who 
 indulged in such a fiendish disposition, it is said, de- 
 stroyed upon an average two thirds of their children. 
 For the credit of humanity, it is to be hoped that it 
 was not so prevalent as some recent writers have sup- 
 posed ; else its increase was latterly great. Numbers 
 of women are to be found, who confess to the murder 
 of from three to six and eight children. I have seen 
 one, who herself was buried alive by her own mother, 
 but disinterred in time to save her life, by a charitable 
 neighbor, who adopted her. Females, being consid- 
 ered as less useful than males, were more often de- 
 stroyed. 
 
 “ Cook, in his account of Kauai, praises their parental 
 affection and kindness. But voyagers, in such super- 
 ficial observations as shortness of time and ignorance 
 of language allow them to make, are liable to error. 
 More authentic records and subsequent examinations 
 have proved infanticide, in all its horrible shades, to 
 have been a common custom ; not perhaps to such 
 an extent as, by itself, to occasion a great decrease of 
 population, though, joined with other causes, it pro- 
 duced most deplorable results. Tenderness to the liv- 
 ing was not to be increased by the exercise of so fell 
 a passion. Hawaiian parents had a kind of animal 
 affection for their offspring, which, like any instinct, 
 was not governed by reason, and was as often injuri- 
 ous as beneficial. The ill effects of this were apparent 
 
52 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 in their education. There was no regular family dis- 
 cipline, a caress or blow being the only reward or pun- 
 ishment. It was a common practice to give away 
 children, towards whom a community of feeling, the 
 result of the very promiscuous intercourse of the sexes, 
 must necessarily have existed. Children could seldom 
 determine their real parents. Dogs and swine were 
 quite as frequently objects of fondness, and allowed 
 more indulgences and better food than fell to the lot 
 of their biped companions, their mothers’ breasts giving 
 suck to the brute in preference to the immortal being. 
 
 “ The cleanliness of the islanders has been much 
 praised, but equally without reason. Frequent bath- 
 ing kept their persons in tolerable order ; but the same 
 filthy clothing was worn while it would hold together. 
 The lodgings of the common orders were shared with 
 the brutes, and their bodies were a common receptacle 
 of vermin. All, of every age and sex, herded in com- 
 mon ; the same mat beneath them at night, and the 
 same tap a above. If a fly perchance alighted on their 
 food, their delicate stomachs became sick ; but the 
 same sensitive organ found delicious morsels in the 
 raw, uncleaned entrails of animals or fish, and, the 
 choicest of all, in the fruit of mutual craniological 
 pickings. 
 
 “ Oppressive as were the laws to the men, they were 
 far more so upon the women. Their sex was but an 
 additional motive for insult and tyranny. The right of 
 blood gave to the highest female the power to rule ; but 
 she, equally with the humblest dependant, was subject 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 53 
 
 to the iron law of the ‘ tabus.’ Neither could eat with 
 men ; their houses and their labors were distinct ; their 
 aliment was separately prepared. A female child from 
 birth to death was allowed no food that had touched 
 its father’s dish. The choicest of animal and vegeta- 
 ble products were reserved for the male child, for the 
 female the poorest ; and the use of many kinds, such 
 as pork, turtle, shark, bananas, and cocoanut, were al- 
 together interdicted. Whatever was savory or pleas- 
 ant man reserved for his own palate, while woman 
 was made bitterly to feel her sexual degradation. Her 
 lot was even worse than that of her sex generally in 
 the southern groups. She was excused from no labors 
 excepting such as were altogether too arduous for her 
 weaker frame. When young and beautiful, a victim 
 of sensuality ; when old and useless, of brutality.” 
 
 The same author says that no regular marriage cere- 
 mony existed among these savages. Polygamy and 
 incest were usual. Common men had one wife 
 each, because they could not support two. The 
 sexes joined or separated according to caprice, and 
 without regard to consanguinity. Visitors enjoyed 
 extempore nuptials as a necessary exercise of hospi- 
 
 talitv- 
 
 «/ 
 
 In all this we see that savageism is the same every 
 where, in the Pacific as in old Scandinavia. 
 
 Dr. Lang (on the Polynesians) says that these peo- 
 ple hold their women as slaves. Human sacrifices 
 are offered. He quotes the authority of a Scotch 
 captain, who knew the case of an old Polynesian wo- 
 
 5 * 
 
54 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 man who reared an orphan with the greatest tender- 
 ness and eare. She wanted to fatten and eat the boy, 
 which she did. This almost equals the patience and 
 self-denial of the English mothers, who pay up the 
 regular fee for their children in the burial clubs, until 
 killing time has come. 
 
 The Catholic missionaries, Rev. Fathers Rougeyson 
 and Colin, say that among the savages of New Cale- 
 donia, woman holds the lowest position of perhaps 
 any in the world. She is absolutely a slave, does all 
 the work, procures all the food. The husband taboos 
 every delicacy, so that she dare not touch it on the 
 peril of her life. Sometimes she herself will be eaten, 
 should there be no prisoners to devour. 
 
 u A Neiv Use for the Female Sex . — Our correspond- 
 ent on board the United States ship John Adams, in 
 his letter published on Sunday, remarks that the na- 
 tives of the Marquesas Islands, in the Pacific, with 
 whom he had been staying, are in the habit of wooing 
 the fairest damsels they can find, wedding them, and 
 then eating them up. Our gallant correspondent is 
 indignant at this sad misuse of so much loveliness ; 
 especially as the native pork and game are good of 
 their kind, and so plentiful as to make it obvious that 
 no man need pick his wife’s ribs, or cut steaks 
 from her person, from necessity. We need not say 
 that we concur with our countryman in this view, not 
 only on humane, but on hygienic grounds. Ev- 
 ery medical man will vouch that the flesh of female 
 mammalia is less wholesome than that of males. We 
 
.THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 55 
 
 fear the people of the Marquesas must be injuring 
 their health by their unwholesome diet. 
 
 “ The most curious feature in the business is that 
 there is a large body of Christian [Protestant] mission- 
 aries on the islands, many of them from this country. 
 We are not led to suppose, indeed, that these reverend 
 gentlemen are in the habit of lunching off their tender 
 spouses, nor even do we hear of their accepting invi- 
 tations from the native chiefs to partake oY a nice 
 wife ham, or a rasher of young girl broiled with bread 
 fruit. But they are there, and from the popularity of 
 these repasts it is evident the missionaries know of 
 them, and cannot prevent them. It would perhaps be 
 well for some of the gentlemen, whose contributions 
 go to sustain these missionaries, to inquire what has 
 been done during the past, and what may be expected 
 for the future. We are aware that, in May next, we 
 shall have, in the proper column of the usual report, an 
 exact list of the number of Marquesas souls converted 
 to grace, and of those which are considered to be in a 
 softening state ; we think it would be well to add, in a 
 foot note, a classification of these fortunate converts 
 according to their gastronomical performances. A few 
 asterisks might do the business. And if in a second 
 note, merely for curiosity sake, a financial account was 
 given, showing — in a word — how much the salva- 
 tion of each Marquesas’s soul costs this country, we 
 think that also would be useful information.” ( New 
 York Paper.) 
 
 Regarding the Australians, a correspondent of the 
 
56 CONDITION OF WOMEN ANI) CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 Illustrated London News, March 21, 1857, writes, — 
 “ As regards the religion of the natives, I believe 
 their principal belief is in an evil spirit, of which they 
 have a great dread, imagining that it walks about at 
 night; and they therefore avoid, when dark, the vicin- 
 ity of the burying grounds. They frequently bum 
 their aged dead ; and should a woman die having a 
 young infant, the living child is buried with the 
 mother.” 
 
 Regarding courtship, he says, 44 The native, having 
 determined on his future spouse, who is generally se- 
 lected from another tribe, steals upon her secretly, 
 when she is at a little distance from her protectors, 
 stuns her by striking with a wooden club or wattle, and 
 then drags her away to his own tribe. This is often 
 the cause of their going to war.” No doubt many an 
 Iliad could be written in Australia if there were Ho- 
 mers to write them. 
 
 Another writer says, 44 A New Hollander secures 
 his bride by knocking her down with a club, and 
 dragging the prize to his cave.” 
 
 44 In Western Australia the chief absolutely monopo- 
 lizes the fair sex, the refuse being left to the common- 
 ( as among the Saxon Mormons.) Female chil- 
 dren are betrothed to men, and they must never form 
 attachments to any other. In New Zealand, if the 
 future husband should die, the betrothed must remain 
 single.” ( Broivri’s New Zealand .) 
 
 Consequently wife-stealing is the fashion, and if 
 the girl should refuse to go, or if the ravisher is over- 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 57 
 
 taken by her friends, he thrusts a spear through her 
 flesh. “ The early life of a young woman at all cele- 
 brated for beauty is generally one continued series of 
 captivity to different masters, of ghastly wounds, bad 
 treatment from other females among whom she is 
 brought a stranger by her captor,” &c., &c. ( Grey's 
 
 Journal.) 
 
 Woman is much in the same condition among the 
 Polynesians, the Caribs, and other Indians, the most 
 degraded races being the greatest slaves and tyrants. 
 
 Now, according to the preceding general review of 
 the nations on the earth, we observe, first, that woman 
 is degraded in proportion as her nation is barbarous; 
 and secondly, we find that the na tions were and are 
 barharous, and unjust, and cruel to woman in propor- 
 tion to their distance from the C^tic group, whose 
 pagan virtue and philosophy foreshadowed Christiani- 
 ty^ an d where t he chu rch built her citadel, and reaped 
 her richest harvests of heroic and sanctified souls. 
 
 Do the Anglo-Saxons, who belonged to the most 
 outlandish and savage tribes in North Europe, form 
 an exception to the general rule ? If I had any 
 respect for the English writers, and Prince Albert of 
 Saxe-Gotha, I should make a very remarkable excep- 
 tion in favor of Saxon barbarians. But I have no 
 desire to flatter these great persons, and I must there- 
 fore* put the Saxon down where nature placed him 
 originally, among the outside Goths. 
 
 The brutality of these Chinese and Tartars we 
 shall find surpassed by the Anglo-Saxon pagans, and 
 
58 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 their inhuman cowardice equalled by the Anglo-Saxon 
 Christians, when they gave their wives and daughters 
 to the Danes, and sold their children to bondage. 
 The carnivorous type of man is the same atrocious 
 tyrant and mean coward all over the world. 
 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 59 
 
 CHAPTER I fl. 
 
 LEADS TO A COMPARISON OF CELTS AND SAXONS. 
 
 The position of the wife and her child is the best test 
 of the position of a race of men in the scale of hu- 
 manity and civilization. I therefore propose to give a 
 sketch of the history of that divine institution — the 
 family . I undertake the task of opening up this sub- 
 ject, because English writers have slurred it over ; for- 
 eigners are only now beginning to get at the materials 
 for writing English history. The sequel will show 
 why Englishmen have not written a true history of 
 their country and their race. It is true that we get 
 a fact from this writer, and another from that, regard- 
 ing the condition of the Saxon woman. 
 
 The following work is compiled chiefly from Eng- 
 lish authorities. It must have been shame and fear 
 of the result, not want of material, that have prevented 
 English encyclopedists from giving a full history of 
 the social and political condition of women and chil- 
 dren among Celtic and Gothic nations. 
 
 Lest any one should accuse me of partiality, I shall 
 avoid as much as possible those general remarks that 
 writers indulge in, as the result of their reading. 
 
 Unfortunately, the history of the human mind and 
 the domestic affections has been overwhelmed and 
 
60 
 
 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 eclipsed by the prodigies of war, and the spirit of 
 hero worship, which seein to have inspired almost 
 every poet and historian. It is only by inference that 
 we arrive at some of the most important truths re- 
 garding the inward life of a race, and the domestic 
 and social position of the women and children among 
 the nations of antiquity. 
 
 In my physiological discourses I have proved to 
 the satisfaction of the most scientific assemblies, that 
 the Celtic is the highest type of mankind. I have now 
 to show that there is a radiating degeneracy of morals 
 among the nations, in proportion to their distance from 
 the Celtic centre. 
 
 It is becoming more evident every day, that the an- 
 cient Celtic nations preserved the elements of good- 
 ness, and truth, and faith, and knowledge of the true 
 God, longer than any other races on earth; that this 
 knowledge of original truth was existing among them 
 in a great measure at the coming of Christ, and that 
 the farther the Christian church spread from the Celts, 
 the more rocky and barren she found the human heart 
 and soul ; the more degraded the races, the more in- 
 tense the repugnance to Christianity. 
 
 The Celtic nations, belonging to and spreading 
 
 * # 
 
 from the Mediterranean, were in a great measure 
 chained by the system of castes , and slavery, and sen- 
 sual idolatry ; but in the midst of all this, we see 
 flashing out the principles of goodness and truth, of 
 purity and justice, which no other race on the face of 
 the earth possessed before the Eternal Light came 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 61 
 
 into the world. The Hindoo philosopher alone rivals 
 the allied types of Greek and Druid sages. But the 
 Hindoo woman was a slave compared with the west- 
 ern Celtic maid. 
 
 The Celtic nations of South-west Europe, while 
 they exercised a strict mastery over their families, still 
 cherished their children, and allowed more or less hon- 
 or and freedom to their women. The Jews, the Arabs, 
 the Persians, and Hindoos were less humane in their 
 family life than the Celts, but far superior to the 
 Gothic and Turkish races. The Tartars and Chinese 
 are still more cruel and contemptuous to their wives 
 and children, and the Australians and New Zealanders 
 are the most brutal of all the races in that direction 
 of the globe. * 
 
 The same gradation of family tyranny pervades 
 Africa, the most southern women being the most de- 
 graded, and the matrimonial idea least perfect. 
 
 These remarks apply equally to the red men of 
 America. The Peruvians and Mexicans are geograph- 
 ically placed in the temperate, mediate, and fertile re- 
 gions of the new world, as the Celts are in the old. 
 These Peruvians and Mexicans are agricultural, and 
 their anatomical, moral, and social characteristics are 
 more like the Celts than are any other tribes of red 
 men. The Peruvian and Mexican women held the 
 highest position of their sex in aboriginal America. 
 
 Modern research has proved that the ancient high- 
 caste Egyptians were the same race as the Phoeni- 
 cians, Milesians, and Greeks, and other Celts. In 
 
 6 
 
G2 CONDITION OP WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 fact, the Mediterranean shores were a family circle of 
 Celtic nations. Ia Ireland, as in Egypt, women held 
 a very high social and moral position. 
 
 Mr. Smith O’Brien, in Notes of Travel, quotes 44 a su- 
 perstition which formerly prevailed in Ireland as well 
 as in Greece, and which is not yet entirely eradicated 
 from either country. In order to guard against the 
 effect of the 4 evil eye,’ it is necessary, if any one ad- 
 mire very much a young child, that the nurse should 
 affect to spit in its face, and exclaim, 4 God bless it ! ’ ” 
 
 I quote this little family feature, because such a pe- 
 culiar nursery custom, preserved in distant nations long 
 separated, is as powerful a proof of common origin as 
 the stone monuments, the language, politics, religion, 
 &c., quoted as proof of the consanguinity of the Mi- 
 lesians and the Greeks. 
 
 The fine oval head, small face, with, in many cases, 
 a full, generous mouth, were characteristic of the an- 
 cient Egyptians and Greeks, as well as the Irish. The 
 moral instincts of these races are also similar. 
 
 It is impossible to conceive society to exist without 
 the care of children, which presupposes a rule for as- 
 certaining them. The first sovereigns of all nations, 
 therefore, are said to have instituted marriage — 
 Menes, the first king of Egypt; Fohi, the first sover- 
 eign of China ; Cecrops, the first legislator of the 
 Greeks. The earliest laws of many civilized nations 
 likewise provided encouragements for matrimony. By 
 the Jewish law a married man was for the first year 
 exempted from going to war, and excused from the 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 63 
 
 burden of any public office. Among the Peruvians he 
 was free for a year from the payment of all taxes. 
 The respect for the matrimonial union cannot be more 
 clearly evinced than by the severity with which the 
 greater part of the ancient nations restrained the 
 crime of adultery. In reality no moral offence is 
 equally pernicious to society. 
 
 In the marriages of many of the ancient nations a 
 custom prevailed in many respects more honorable 
 than the modern practice. The husband was obliged 
 to purchase his wife, either by presents or by personal 
 services performed to her father. When Abraham sent 
 Eliezar to demand Rebecca for his son Isaac, he charged 
 him with magnificent presents. Jacob served seven 
 years for each of the daughters of Laban, who were 
 given to him in marriage. Homer alludes to this cus- 
 tom as subsisting in Greece. He makes Agamemnon 
 say to Achilles that he will give him one of his daugh- 
 ters in marriage, and require no present in return. 
 That the same custom was in use among the ancient 
 inhabitants of India, of Spain, Germany, Thrace, and 
 Gaul, appears from Strabo, Tacitus, and many other 
 writers ; and the accounts of modern travellers assure 
 us that it prevails at this day in China, Tartary, Ton- 
 quin, among the Moors of Africa, and the savages of 
 America. 
 
 As Herodotus is not always to be depended on in 
 matters that did not fall under his own observation, I 
 know not whether we should give implicit credit to 
 what he relates of a singular practice which prevailed 
 
64 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 among the Assyrians, with respect to marriage; 
 though it seems to have a natural foundation in the 
 custom above mentioned, which prevailed in most of 
 the ancient nations. In every village, says that author, 
 they brought together once in the year all the young 
 women who were marriageable, and the public crier, 
 beginning with the most beautiful, put them up to 
 auction, one after another. The rich paid a high price 
 for those whose figure seemed to them the most agree- 
 able ; and the money raised by the sale of these was 
 assigned as a portion to the more homely. When it 
 was their turn to be put up to sale, each woman 
 was bestowed on the man who was willing to accept 
 of her with the smallest portion ; but no man was 
 allowed to carry off the woman he had purchased, un- 
 less he gave security that he would take her to wife ; 
 and if afterwards it happened that the husband for 
 any cause put away his wife, he was obliged to pay 
 back the money he had received with her. The same 
 author informs us that the Assyrian laws were most 
 strict in providing that women should be well used by 
 their husbands. 
 
 After a fine description of the first stages of savage 
 life, when man had scarcely advanced beyond the 
 brute, the poet says, “ But when they began to build 
 their first rude huts, to clothe themselves in skins, and 
 had discovered the use of fire, — when first one woman 
 was joined to one man in the chaste endearments 
 of mutual love, and saw their own offspring rising 
 around them, — then only did the ferocious manners 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 65 
 
 of the human race begin to soften.” ( Universal 
 History .) 
 
 Were it necessary to enter into details, it might 
 be shown that the Jews, Carthaginians, Persians, and 
 Assyrians formed the links between the Mediterra- 
 nean and the outside barbarians, and that they were 
 more sensual and tyrannical over their women and 
 children than any of the pure Celtic nations ; that 
 the Greeks, and more particularly the Spartans, were 
 more corrupt and cruel than the Romans or the west- 
 ern Celts, because they were brought into closer con- 
 tact with the east and north. The same remarks 
 apply to the Circassians, Georgians, and Mahometan 
 Arabs, mixed with Turkish and Eastern blood. 
 
 The Assyrians and Persians were far more sensual 
 and tyrannical than any nation on the shores of the 
 Mediterranean. Open profligacy and incest existed 
 in Babylon, and other cities of that region. The 
 Jews, in going into captivity, were warned against the 
 Babylonish abominations. But the public preaching 
 and denunciations of the prophets indicate that there 
 was, even then, a public opinion in favor of virtue ; 
 they knew good from evil, and were, therefore, the 
 more guilty. We see in these luxurious nations the 
 sinking into brutality, which, in the far north and east, 
 terminated in soulless, unconscious animalism . 
 
 The Hindoos had a high idea of marriage ; but in 
 many respects they treated their women with great 
 injustice. (See Sir W. Jones, Dubois' People of India, 
 and Halded's Gentoo Code.) 
 
 6 * 
 
66 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 In analyzing the ethics of India, we must remember 
 that it is inhabited, as most countries are, by northern 
 tyrants, remnants of aboriginal carnivorous savages, 
 and the higher herbivorous gentle type. Hence we 
 have a mingling of sanguinary rites and amiable 
 institutions. 
 
 The northern conquerors of India — the men of 
 Tartar origin, related to the brutal Huns and Goths — 
 no doubt introduced the most cruel debasements of 
 woman into India. 
 
 Burke, the sublime Irishman, in his speech against 
 Warren Hastings, gives an account of cruelties prac- 
 tised by Debi Sing. The following extract will serve 
 to indicate the system which the English have main- 
 tained in India, as well as to show the depravity of 
 the Indians themselves : — 
 
 “ The treatment of the females by Debi Sing cannot 
 be described. Dragged forth from the inmost recesses 
 of their houses, which the religion of the country had 
 made so many sanctuaries, they were exposed naked 
 to public view. The virgins were carried to courts of 
 justice, where they might naturally have looked for 
 protection ; but now they looked for it in vain ; for, in 
 the face of the ministers of justice, in the face of as- 
 sembled multitudes, in the face of the sun, these ten- 
 der and modest virgins were brutally violated. The 
 only difference between their treatment and that of 
 their mothers, was, that the former were dishonored in 
 the face of day, the latter in the gloomy recesses of 
 their dungeon. Other females had the nipples of their 
 breasts put in a cleft of bamboo and torn off.” 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 
 
 67 
 
 Now, the English and the Nena Sahibs have been 
 perpetrating all the brutal atrocities that were prac- 
 tised by the English and Debi Sing. But as Nena 
 Sahib and the English have, like thieves, quarrelled 
 about the plunder of the country, and as the English 
 system now recoils upon the English, a great outcry 
 is of course made by “ the friends of civilization.” 
 The most brutal and indecent outrages and tortures 
 were inflicted upon Indian mothers and maids by the 
 English tax-gatherers up to the very time that this 
 Nena Sahib seized the rod of iron from the British 
 grasp. We are assured of this by British Blue Books 
 on the late inquiry into the conduct of the East India 
 Company. 
 
 Ancient Egypt was called u the land of purity and jus- 
 tice” But in the later monuments we see the obscene 
 evidences of barbarian conquest. So, when India be- 
 came subdued and corrupted with Turkish blood, 
 cruelty and obscenity supervened upon the ancient 
 humanity of the Vedas. I believe that the researches 
 of Eastern scholars will bear me out in asserting that the 
 ancient Brahminical, herbivorous race of India were a 
 noble people until their religion and customs were 
 altered by the northern carnivorous conquerors of Asia. 
 
 In Sharpe’s History of Egypt, we have evidence 
 that the gentle people of that country preserved strict 
 monogamy. After the barbaric conquests, the people 
 broke through the law ; but the priests continued to 
 hold it sacred. The women were not confined to 
 harems, but walked abroad. Dead husbands and 
 
68 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 wives arc represented side by side, with his arm 
 around her waist. Loguct, in his Origine des Lois , 
 proves that the Egyptian women exercised extraordi- 
 nary sway over their husbands ; and we may almost 
 credit the statement of Diodorus Siculus, that men 
 promised obedience to their wives. (See Westminster 
 Review , October, 1855.) 
 
 The Egyptians had their vestal virgins who hon- 
 ored the chaste moon, beneath whose mild beams they 
 chanted in procession. 
 
 Plutarch alleges that the women were obliged to 
 go barefoot, in order to keep them at home. This is 
 doubtful. At all events, they did not stay at home, 
 but enjoyed freedom out of doors, as shown in the 
 practice of public bathing in the Nile. 
 
 They were free from harem surveillance, as seen in 
 the affair of Joseph and Potiphar’s wife. “ Women 
 might sit on the throne as sovereigns ; they governed 
 the kingdom during the minority of their successors, 
 and in the case of joint sovereignty, as Isis (the god- 
 dess) took rank over Osiris, so women sometimes 
 took rank above men.” ( Sharpe .) 
 
 Herodotus mentions the name of an Egyptian 
 queen, Nitocris, who reigned about 1722 B, C. 
 
 The Jews and Carthaginians were the most cruel 
 and perfidious nations bordering on the Mediterranean ; 
 but these, we must remark, were ethnologically and 
 geographically placed between the Celts and the 
 sensual tyrants and savages of Asia and Africa. The 
 severe laws of the Jewish code show the degraded na- 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 
 
 69 
 
 ture of that race which required such restrictions and 
 punishments ; wives were severely treated, and we 
 shudder at the murder of the innocents by slavish 
 Jews ; but we also sympathize with “ Rachel weeping 
 for her children, and would not be comforted, because 
 they are not.” 
 
 Yet the Jews, who have, generally speaking, crania 
 like the Saxons and Goths, — short and broad, with 
 large features, — were a cruel people. At the siege 
 of Jerusalem, God’s vengeance came down, it is said, 
 because the mother forgot her love for her child. 
 
 How far the Jews had acquired the blood of their 
 more northern and eastern conquerors, it is impossible 
 to say. Certain it is, they became corrupted in Baby- 
 lon ; and like all other nations near the Mediterranean 
 primitively virtuous, they became degraded by con- 
 tact with the outside barbarism of the invading hordes 
 of the North, and by the gilded corruption of the East. 
 
 The Egyptians left to themselves, the pure Pelasgi 
 of Athens left to themselves, the Romans by them- 
 selves, and the ancient Irish by themselves, show us, 
 in their lives, the natural tendency of the pure Celtic 
 race, uncontaminated by Gothic bestiality or East- 
 ern sensuality. 
 
 Monogamy prevailed in Egypt, and woman was 
 free and honorable, so long as Egypt existed within 
 herself ; so it was with the primitive Celtic nations of 
 South-west Europe. 
 
 Jeremiah the prophet (vii. and xliv.) denounces the 
 Jewish women for baking cakes for, and paying horn- 
 
70 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 age to, the Virgo Coelcstis , or Queen of Heaven, by 
 certain impure^ rites. But what does this prove ? 
 Certainly that the Jewish women, through Eastern 
 influence, had, like the Carthaginians, Greeks, &c., 
 converted an anciently chaste and pious ceremony 
 into a sensual idolatry. This Celestial Virgin .was an- 
 ciently considered a most pure and chaste being, prob- 
 ably the prefigure of Mary . If not, why should she 
 have been anciently called Virgo — the Virgin ? 
 
 The Romans — the virtuous Roman pagans — 
 preserved the ancient homage to the Bona Dea — the 
 Good Goddess — in its primitive innocence. 
 
 The Roman matrons held a yearly meeting in the 
 house of the praetor, where they celebrated the myste- 
 ries in honor of the chaste virgin. 
 
 “ Berosus, quoted by Eusebius, wrote a history of 
 Babylon in the time of Alexander the Great. He 
 says that at Babylon there was in early times a resort 
 of people of various nations, who inhabited Chaldaea, 
 and lived without rule and order, like the beasts of 
 the field.” ( Bryant .) 
 
 These brutal savages were called by the Persians 
 Saca ?, or Sasones , or Sassini . (See Ptolomy’s ancient 
 maps, where these tribes are located beside the canni- 
 bals and the Sogdones, who used to eat their parents.) 
 They were in the region of the present Kaisacks and 
 Kosacs, fair-haired tribes ethnologically related to our 
 Saxons. The influx of these northern savage merce- 
 naries destroyed the social fabric of the East, as Rome 
 was afterwards ruined by the mercenary Goths in the 
 West. 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 71 
 
 Christ taught the sacred and indissoluble nature 
 of marriage. The Pharisees, objecting, asked, “ Why 
 did Moses then command to give a writing of di- 
 vorcement, and to put her away ? He said unto 
 them, Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, 
 suffered you to put away your wives, but from the 
 beginning it teas not so.” [Matt, xix.) 
 
 Here we have the authority of Christ himself, that 
 anciently the Jews were virtuous, monogamous, and 
 affectionate. But either they were primordially inferi- 
 or, as they are now, in intellect and generous feeling, 
 or they became degraded by contact with the outside 
 infidels. 
 
 Why the Almighty chose the Jews for his people is 
 a question for theologians. Certainly they were a 
 barbarous, stiff-necked, avaricious, and cruel people, 
 far inferior to the intellectual and affectionate Egyp- 
 tians. 
 
 The Jews and the Carthaginians formed the outer 
 rind of the Celtic nations, and they were, in many 
 respects, analogous to the Spartans, whose cruelty of 
 heart and materialism of mind formed a contrast to 
 the purer Celts of Athens. 
 
 The murderous severity of the Jews against their 
 unfortunate women increased in proportion with their 
 own sensuality. 
 
 “ People of the Caucasus, at the present day, are a 
 mixture of Tartars, Greeks, &c., but the Tartar pre- 
 dominates. They are lean, tawny, hair red or black, 
 strong features small nose and eyes, unsettled and 
 
72 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 barbarous. They sell their daughters into concubi- 
 nage. Red-haired girls are preferred in the market.” 
 ( W. Tooke.) 
 
 The Arabs of the Mediterranean honor and respect 
 woman more than do the Tartar and Turkish Mahom- 
 etans, who go so far in their barbarous paganism as 
 to deny that women have souls. It is important here 
 to remark that the Turks of pure blood are a red- 
 haired, green-eyed race, ethnologically related to the 
 Goths. 
 
 It is certain that Mahomet and his Arabs believed 
 that women have souls, because they had emerged 
 from Judaism and a form of Christianity. But the 
 Chinese and the carnivorous Tartars, converted to 
 Mahometanism, infused their own native idea that 
 woman has no soul . This most brutalizing of all doc- 
 trines has a Gotho-Tartar origin, not an Arabic. 
 
 The Circassian and Georgian slave market originated 
 among the Turkish nations who mingled with the Cir- 
 cassians. The women are valued and well treated 
 in proportion to their beauty ; and certainly their con- 
 dition, by all accounts, is far superior to that of the sex 
 in the north of Europe, or in the far east of Asia. 
 
 The ancient Assyrian, and Persian, and Indian 
 woman was far inferior to that of the ancient Roman, 
 Greek, and Egyptian, but superior to the Chinese, and 
 Tartars, and Turks, and Goths. These facts are well 
 brought out by the writer in the Westminster Re- 
 view, October, 1855 ; though he gives them in a pro- 
 miscuous heap, and does not observe the gradation of 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 73 
 
 woman’s debasement in proportion as her race is re- 
 moved from the Celtic type of the Mediterranean. 
 
 It is hard to say whether Gothic power and con- 
 tamination in the Western Empire, or Turkish tyran- 
 ny 3 and debasement in the East, have produced the 
 greater degeneracy, and done most to beat down the 
 Christian church, and enslave the noble Celtic aborigi- 
 nes. The Christian Celtic powers of Europe are now 
 in the ascendant. The eagle of France soars excel- 
 sior, but God knows what ensanguined rivers have yet 
 to flow, and what generations have yet to sutler, 
 before the tiger blood is eliminated from European 
 veins, and the carnivorous Goth has fulfilled his desti- 
 ny of destruction. 
 
 The Gothic and Turkish hordes are ethnologically 
 related. Both, when unmixed, have greenish, gray, or 
 blue eyes, red or sandy hair, broad, bullet head. Both 
 are carnivorous, treacherous, bloody, and brutal. Both 
 are cruel and tyrannical. Both delighted to buy and 
 sell women, and to brutalize them, to whip, mutilate, 
 and kill them. 
 
 The Georgian women were most easily degraded, 
 because they are a half Turkish breed. But the pure 
 Celtic woman of Greece, with her noble physique, 
 blue eyes and dark hair, — peculiarities which belong 
 also to her Milesian sisters in Ireland, — resisted the 
 utter debasement of the Turk, as the Irish have re- 
 pelled jthe A nglo-Saxon pollution. 'THe Engli sti7'al r 
 though they pretend to monogamy, are greater liber- 
 tines than the Turks, and far more disposed to degrade 
 
 7 
 
74 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 and abandon their victims. In the present day, we 
 find that the old ferocity of the Turk is greatly sof- 
 tened, and that he treats the fair sex with much great- 
 er respect, and a higher idea of honor, than we find 
 among the English. Excepting Paris, the rendezvous 
 of Europe, and Dublin and Anglo-Orange Belfast, the 
 head quarters of pious, loyal Saxondom in Ireland, 
 we cannot find in any Catholic Celtic country that 
 open, promiscuous, and general profligacy that charac- 
 terizes even the small towns and villages of England, 
 Germany, and Sweden. (See Laing , Key , &c.) 
 
 Of the Turkish harems, Sir James Porter says, 
 u Whence the idea of the transcendent beauty of the 
 Turkish women has arisen, it is difficult to say, unless 
 it be from the warm imaginations of inventive travel- 
 lers, who first raised these beauteous forms, sketched 
 their charms, and became enamoured with originals 
 they never saw. 
 
 “ Hence, throughout Christendom, the fair Circas- 
 sian has been the subject of romance and song ; when 
 perhaps there are not two Christians who ever saw 
 one of these Venuses. It is certainly impossible in 
 Turkey, for, from infancy to old age, scarce a single 
 trace of a Turkish woman’s face is perceptible. No 
 adult maiden is ever visible, and no married woman, 
 except to their parents, brother, or husband.” ? 
 
 All a stranger can see of them is black or blue 
 eyes. The author shows that the stories about in- 
 trigues with Turkish women are fabulous, as the ha- 
 rems are totally impregnable, and the women are in 
 reality shy and modest. 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 75 
 
 “ The Greek women are not tied down to the rigor- 
 ous observance of Turkish restraint; they visit fre- 
 quently, and, except in the street, their faces are not 
 muffled up in the macremma. Of these we may 
 speak with certainty ; they have, for the most part, 
 good features, and pleasing countenances, but, in 
 general, rather a tanned than a fair complexion.” 
 England is more barbarous than Turkey. Here is an 
 account of the Turks by Sir James Porter: — 
 
 u A man, meeting a woman in the street, turns his 
 head from her, as if it were forbidden to look on her ; 
 they seem to detest an impudent woman, to shun and 
 avoid her. Any one, therefore, among the Christians, 
 who may have discussions or altercations with the 
 Turks, if he has a woman of spirit, or a virago, for his 
 wife, sets her to revile and browbeat them, and by 
 these means not unfrequently gains his point. 
 
 “ The highest disgrace and shame would attend a 
 Turk who should rashly lift his hand against a woman ; 
 all he can venture to do, is to treat her with harsh and 
 contemptuous words, or to march off. The sex lay 
 such stress on this privilege, that they are frequently 
 apt to indulge their passion to excess, to be most un- 
 reasonable in their claims, and violent and irregular 
 in the pursuit of them. They will importune, tease, 
 and insult a judge on the bench, or even the vizier at 
 his divan ; the officers of justice do not know how to 
 resent their turbulence ; and it is a general observa- 
 tion that, to get rid of them, they often let them gain 
 their cause. * * * 
 
76 CONDITION OP WOMEN ANI) CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 44 I have heard it avowed by a person of great ve- 
 racity, who had lived for some years in a^sultaivs ha- 
 rem of the blood royal, that it was impossible for 
 women to behave with more decency and modesty 
 than the Turkish ladies, and that they treated each 
 other with the greatest politeness. In families of the 
 higher class, where education is more extended, while 
 reading their own language or the Arabic is care- 
 fully cultivated, precepts of virtue and morality, of 
 gentle demeanor and good breeding, of chastity of 
 manners, with whatever decorates the sex, are likely 
 to be inculcated.” 
 
 Now, will any candid Englishman presume to say 
 that the average condition of woman is higher in 
 Saxondom than it is in the realm of Tartars ? 
 
 Women are secluded in Turkey, but they are pro- 
 tected and highly respected. Women are free in Eng- 
 land, but they are degraded and despised. 
 
 A few more examples of woman’s condition in the 
 East and North may be interesting. 
 
 The Morlachians and other descendants of the 
 northerns still retain their women in slavery. Wife- 
 beating is the custom. Being treated like beasts of 
 burden, and expected to endure submissively every spe- 
 cies of hardship, they naturally become very dirty and 
 careless in their habits. The wretched wife, after she 
 has labored hard all day, is obliged to lie upon the 
 floor, (as a dog would beside the master’s bed.) 
 When the Morlachians have occasion to speak of a 
 woman before any respectable person, they always 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 77 
 
 say, “ Saving your presence,” as if apologizing for the 
 mention of ^things so disgusting, and in answer to in- 
 quiries, reply, “ It is my wife — excuse the word.” 
 (Lydia Maria Child.) 
 
 The Tyrolese form a remarkable contrast to the 
 above, in their domestic virtues and maternal affection. 
 
 In Sweden and Lapland, drunkenness among wo- 
 men is common. In the latter country, “ a lover can- 
 not make a more acceptable present to the girl of his 
 choice than a bottle of brandy.” 
 
 In North Holland, there is no modesty in courting. 
 
 In Prussia, there is what is called a left-hand mar- 
 riage, a kind of concubinage degrading to the woman, 
 and established by law. 
 
 A letter published in the New York Daily Times, 
 dated Cassel, Wednesday, May 6, 1857, contains the 
 following regarding the elector or king : — 
 
 “ He purchased his wife of a Prussian officer, who 
 would give her up only for gold ; and when the officer 
 made the bargain, he said, 4 You must purchase her 
 children, for I will have nothing to do with any of 
 them.’ So he purchased the children, and they have 
 cost him a fortune every year since, by their extrava- 
 gance. So the beautiful woman was divorced from 
 her husband for the sake of marrying one of a little 
 higher rank, and as far as private interest and family 
 happiness is concerned, there seems to be no regret in 
 the matter.” 
 
 Again he says, “ An historian of the Seven Years’ 
 War, in speaking of the devastation, says, 4 An officer 
 
 ry * 
 
78 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 rode through seven villages of Hesse after the peace 
 of 1763, and met only a single man, and he a clergy- 
 man ; ’ and adds, that ‘ women were digging and 
 ploughing in the fields.' Whether this was the cause 
 and the commencement of c women ploughing in the 
 fields,’ we do not know; but we do not pass a field in 
 Germany now where they are not. The men are all 
 required for soldiers, and, dressed in gay uniforms, are 
 practising military tactics, or idling away their time in 
 barracks. We have often seen it alluded to as an evi- 
 dence of oppression and cruelty, that women perform 
 the labor of men. To work in the sun makes them 
 look coarse, but the labor itself is not more exhausting 
 than many kinds which belong exclusively to the 
 house. To wash, and iron, and cook, day after day, is 
 considered womanly employment; but, compared with 
 it, digging and hoeing are trifling affairs.” 
 
 Women labor in Bohemia . — 66 The men walk up- 
 right, with unburdened backs, while their women lose 
 all grace, all comeliness, nay, even the very form their 
 Creator gave them, beneath the fardels they bear alone. 
 Not an hour since, we saw from our windows an in- 
 stance of the merciless fashion after which they are 
 permitted by their husbands to abuse their feeble 
 powers, in a couple passing beneath our windows. A 
 woman, the heavy basket — familiar to all who visit 
 these parts — strapped to her back, was bearing therein 
 a more than sufficient load for one stronger than she 
 seemed to be ; but on her left arm she carried a pig — 
 no less ! — which she maintained there with evident 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 79 
 
 difficulty ; she grasped the muzzle of the animal with 
 her right hand, (thus drowning its cries, in her respect 
 for the repose, or, rather, the gentility, — save the mark ! 
 — of those before whose dwelling she was passing, poor 
 soul !) while her own slight frame was shaking and 
 quivering, as she tottered along, with the immoderate 
 exertions she was making. And the man’s share in 
 all this — what was it? Why, he carried the rope by 
 which one leg of his pig was bound ! ” ( Travels in 
 
 Bohemia .) 
 
 Perhaps it will be said by the Saxe- Gotha writers 
 that Christianity has only degraded woman in Russia, 
 where they are not only chattels, but used as beasts 
 of burden, and made to do the most severe drudgery, 
 such as paving roads, &c. Those who have read the 
 persecutions of the nuns of Minsk can estimate the 
 Russian’s idea of woman’s dignity. The tender ladies 
 were stripped naked and flogged, according to Rus- 
 sian custom. They had to act as masons’ laborers, 
 carrying bricks and lime, wheeling barrows, &c. It is 
 said that a Russian bride presents her husband with a 
 stick for her own correction ; and none are considered 
 loving spouses but those who beat their wives. This 
 is no doubt an exaggeration in the present day ; yet it 
 is significant of popular feeling, and of former usage. 
 
 An English writer in Household Words ridicules the 
 notion of Englishmen selling their wives. I am re- 
 minded of the latest example of wife-buying in the 
 case of the Marquis of Chandos, who purchased his last 
 wife in the public market from an English boor. 
 
80 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 In this same Household Words, the same writer, if 
 I recollect right, shows that flogging women is now as 
 common in Russia as it formerly was in England ; it 
 being a usual practice to send servant girls to the po- 
 lice office, in Russian towns, to have them whipped, 
 naked. 
 
 In a book called Journal of a Residence in Norway, 
 by Samuel Laing, the author says that in Christia- 
 nia, he saw the galley slaves working along with free 
 laborers. He saw a party of them marched into a 
 house from which he had before heard music, with 
 female voices, with which the clanking of the chains 
 did not exactly harmonize. “ They seemed chained, 
 too, in a brutal way, with iron collars round their necks 
 and legs, which have projections, that must prevent 
 their resting in any position.” This is “ a daily spec- 
 tacle which deadens human feeling and sympathy.” 
 These malefactors talk freely with the women and 
 children in the streets ; “ they lose all sense of their 
 disgrace, and perhaps the citizens do the same.” 
 
 The author says that the proportion of illegitimate 
 to legitimate children is about one in five. 
 
 Illegitimates are rendered legitimate by the subse- 
 quent marriage of their parents ; and a father may, 
 previous to his contracting a marriage with another 
 party, declare that his children are to be held leniti- 
 
 o 
 
 mate. 
 
 Dr. Clark and Mr. Derwent Conway observed in Nor- 
 way that a great deal of laborious drudgery is im- 
 posed upon women, and that even ladies are in the 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 81 
 
 position of domestics, never sitting at table, but wait- 
 ing on the guests. 
 
 There must be a change for the better lately, as re- 
 cent travellers do not chronicle this state of affairs 
 among the higher class, at least, who have acquired 
 ideas of modern civilization. But that women were 
 held in a servile state even until lately, is strong proof 
 of the ancient degradation of the Scandinavian women. 
 
 The Norse Folk , by C. L. Brace . 
 
 The following notes from Mr. C. Loring Brace, on 
 the moral status of Scandinavia, are to be relied on 
 as within the truth, the author being an evangelical 
 Protestant, and Anglo-Saxon in his prejudices. His gos- 
 pel readings and abolitionism, &c., we may pass over. 
 Mr. Brace gives a long extract from old Scandian his- 
 tory, showing how Christianity was introduced by the 
 sword, and maintained by conquest. Religion never 
 penetrated the hearts of these carnivora. Of their 
 moral sincerity in the present day, we may judge by the 
 statistics given by the author. Mr. Brace also gives 
 the substance of a conversation he had with an evan- 
 gelical Norse lady regarding the present state of the 
 Lord’s vineyard among her people. 
 
 “ In this lady’s judgment, — and she had a clear, 
 sharp sense, — a great deal of the religion of the farm- 
 ers and peasants was merely religiosity — a strong 
 feeling of reverence, and a susceptibility to ceremoni- 
 als. It seemed to her that their consciences had some- 
 thing of the toughness and hardness of their bodies. 
 
82 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 They were able to endure any thing physically, and 
 sufTerings, or trials, or thoughts of death, did not 
 affect them as they do others. They came in crowds 
 to church and communion, but she could not say that 
 religion, in her observation, had a strong hold over 
 their practical life ; still there were exceptions, very 
 beautiful ones, and the evil might be no greater than 
 it is every where. 
 
 “ They have been converted to Christianity, and a 
 singular movement has commenced within a few years 
 among them, of which I cannot as yet speak with 
 confidence. It began with terrible outrages and fanat- 
 icisms ; the murder of the sheriff of the district, and 
 an attempt to offer a Protestant clergyman as a 
 bloody sacrifice to God — the poor creatures believing 
 themselves acting under divine inspiration. They 
 were punished ; and since that time, under the influ- 
 ence of Swedish missionaries, the religious excitement 
 has taken a more healthy direction. 
 
 “ The feeling towards the Fins and Laps seemed 
 to be very much like the feeling of an intelligent west- 
 ern company towards the Indians. The poetry of the 
 race is quite obscured in their debased or drunken 
 habits. The Laps are simply ignorant, dirty men, 
 who live in a barbarous way among reindeer, or who 
 catch the cod and the ducks which the Norwegians 
 want.” 
 
 Education in Sweden is universal, and like the Eng- 
 lish, the Swedes are fond of cant tract societies, (dis- 
 tributing millions of tracts,) Sunday schools, inner 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 83 
 
 missions, &c. Mr. Brace shows from statistics that 
 the ratio of suicides is immense — in 1849, one out of 
 every four hundred persons, or probably one out of 
 every two hundred adult men and women. 
 
 “ Out of every hundred children bom into the world 
 in the city, nearly fifty are illegitimate ; in the whole 
 kingdom, one out of nearly eleven. The consump- 
 tion of human life in the Swedish capital, and the 
 prevalence of vice, are facts not to be dissociated. 
 
 “ The whole kingdom appears to have been steadily 
 retrograding since 1780, in this regard ; in 1840 there 
 being fifty per cent, more illegitimate births to legiti- 
 mate than in the above year, and a worse ratio than 
 in France. However, there are extenuating circum- 
 stances in regard to Stockholm, which do not appear 
 in figures, and it is very possible that Stockholm is 
 not materially worse than New York, or Paris. 
 
 “ There are scarcely any houses of ill fame, it should 
 be remembered, in the city. There is not such a des- 
 perate, abandoned, God-forsaken class of women as 
 in our large cities. The grisettes of Stockholm pre- 
 serve some decency, and have a chance, at least, of a 
 better life. They are occupied as seamstresses, or ser- 
 vants, or shop-women, and frequently, after many years 
 of unlawful companionship, are married. The cause 
 of these numerous liaisons is probably here, as with 
 us, the difficulty of woman’s earning an honorable 
 support. The laws, too, of former times, which for- 
 bade the clergy from investigating the illegitimate 
 births, must have furnished an additional safeguard to 
 
84 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 the guilty parties. It should be borne in mind also, 
 that the parents of an illegitimate child, in Sweden, 
 are frequently married subsequently to the entry of 
 the name on the church books, so that an exact judg- 
 ment of the present state of morals of the people can- 
 not be formed from these certainly rather alarming 
 statistics. 
 
 u It is significant, in this connection, that the Swe- 
 dish prayer book, alone, perhaps, of all the church 
 books of the world, has a prayer for “ mothers who 
 have been deceived by promise of marriage.’ ” 
 
 The apology offered for this disgraceful state of so- 
 ciety by the author is singularly characteristic of Saxe- 
 Gotha writers. He makes it a merit that prostitutes 
 are not abandoned characters, but that they enjoy so- 
 cial equality in every respect, and often get married 
 after years of public infamy, or what would be con- 
 sidered such in a Celtic nation. Englishmen, like their 
 northern cousins, do not scruple to marry prostitutes. 
 
 It appears also that these northern sisters of ours 
 — the single, the married, and the unmarried who have 
 children — wear head-dresses peculiar to each; a last 
 proof that female modesty is unknown. 
 
 Mr. Brace says that the stumpy form of the Norwe- 
 gian women is the effect of hard drudgery. “ A great 
 want of attention to women is very marked here in 
 Norway.” He describes the people of Scandinavia 
 generally as very filthy in their persons and habits, and 
 in their hovels. Elsewhere he says that the ladies bore 
 themselves in the presence of their husbands as if 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 85 
 
 they were accustomed to be treated on terms of 
 equality. Something astonishing! Every thing is 
 delightful among our northern ancestors, especially the 
 ancient dignity of the female sex. 
 
 In the counties of Upper Romerike, Osterdal, Hede- 
 rnark, and Gudbrandsdal, the number of school chil- 
 dren to each teacher, in 1840, was one hundred and 
 three; the proportion of non-attendants on schools 
 was more than nine per cent. The expenses of 
 schools in these districts are about seven cents for 
 each person. The population in the whole province 
 to each preacher is larger than in any other province. 
 
 In the same counties, to every one hundred mar- 
 riages there are ninety-two illegal liaisons , bearing 
 children, among the women, and eighty-five among the 
 men of the laboring class. Among the freeholders, 
 the proportion with the men is only twenty-six per 
 cent, and with the women twelve per cent. 
 
 It is doubtful whether any district in Europe will 
 show among the laboring class an equal immorality. 
 
 Proportion of illegitimate to legitimate children, at 
 Stockholm, 1 to 2.25 ; in the other cities, 1 to 5.03 ; 
 in the country, 1 to 1.434. 
 
 Stillborn children in 1850, three thousand six hun- 
 dred and fifty-two. 
 
 Drunkenness is so radical a vice in Norway and 
 Sweden, that liquor laws are necessary. The people, 
 in fact, have no moral power, no self-control, and re- 
 quire the same regime as the Red Indians. 
 
 A minister informed Mr. Brace that formerly, in his 
 
 8 
 
86 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 parish, the farmers used to bring their brandy bottles 
 and knives to church, and perhaps to the communion 
 altar; then, after service, they would take their meals 
 on the grass before the church, drink, quarrel, and 
 sometimes have very disagreeable scenes. 
 
 Every tenth child in Norway is illegitimate. Lov- 
 ers are allowed to visit servant maids or peasant girls 
 on Saturday nights. This is an old Scandinavian 
 custom, called fria. In New England it was called 
 bundling •, and the author says that it is probable that 
 it was introduced by the Norwegians who settled in 
 Northumberland. It is equally probable, however, 
 that it came from Wales. The author says that no 
 harm comes of this custom of allowing young un- 
 married people to go abed together ; yet he afterwards 
 contradicts himself in the Appendix, where, after giv- 
 ing copious statistics of crime, he says, — 
 
 “ It will be observed in these statistics that Norway, 
 in respect of sexual morality, has been steadily retro- 
 grading since the beginning of this century. In the 
 four years preceding 1855, every tenth child born in the 
 whole country was illegitimate ! and in the four years 
 preceding 1850, the number of unlawful connections 
 between the sexes amounted to one third of the whole 
 number of marriages. 
 
 “ It will also be observed in the succeeding statistics 
 that the immorality keeps very even pace with the 
 want of religious opportunities, and that the most 
 vice prevails where are the fewest preachers to the 
 population. The singular custom of the fria is ob- 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 87 
 
 served in many districts of Norway ; and I am in- 
 formed by the statician, Mr. Sundt, from whom these 
 facts are obtained, that the proportion of unlawful 
 births is in almost precise relation to the extent of this 
 custom, as is certainly to be expected.” 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
88 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 DE MORIBUS GERMANORUM. 
 
 The British oligarchy, and their servile press and 
 flunky authors, having committed themselves, through 
 spite and policy, to the Anglo-Saxon theory of superi- 
 ority, feel bound to attribute every thing glorious in 
 human history to a Gothic source. The Germanic 
 and Anglo-American writers and orators gladly re- 
 echo the English sentiments. 
 
 Van Amringe, an American writer on the natural 
 history of man, says, that 44 the Germans saved Chris- 
 tianity and the world from destruction and barbarism, 
 
 and woman from slavery.-’ This bold assertion he 
 
 •/ 
 
 thinks it unnecessary to sustain by any evidence ; he 
 has the prejudiced ear of the public, and that is suf- 
 ficient. 
 
 Mrs. Child’s work on the 44 Condition of Woman” 
 supplies many important facts, though ill arranged 
 and without leading to any particular moral or prin- 
 ciple. She is elaborate on the Greeks, Romans, &c., 
 but, like all Engliiied writers, miserably dark regarding 
 northern women. This is not to be wondered at, 
 when we know that the great point with English his- 
 torians is, not to expose, but to conceal, the true his- 
 tory of their race — not merely to conceal, but to 
 belie it. 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 89 
 
 In the usual strain of Saxonism, Mrs. Child says, 
 “ The Goths were remarkable for purity of manners. 
 Their laws punished with heavy fines the most trifling 
 departure from scrupulous respect towards women.” 
 Why were these heavy fines necessary, if the Goths 
 were naturally chaste and gallant ? Mrs. Child forgets 
 to say that these laws sprang out of Christianity, and 
 are a proof that nothing but the severest pains and 
 penalties could restrain the Gotho- Saxon instincts. 
 
 “ After the conquest of Rome,” she adds, “ they 
 [the Goths] were accustomed to say, ‘ Though we pun- 
 ish profligacy in our own countrymen, we pardon it in 
 the Romans, because they are by nature and educa- 
 tion weak, and incapable of reaching to our sublimity 
 of virtue.’ ” If the Goths did in reality utter such 
 fulsome bombast, I should not be surprised ; their de- 
 scendants in England, the most immoral and cruel of 
 white races, use the very same language at this day. 
 
 It is amusing to see with what coolness these Saxon 
 writers transfer the remarks of Tacitus upon the Rhine, 
 and apply them to their own Scandinavian and North 
 European savage ancestry. Yea, they hand over to 
 them the original credit of all the Christian virtues, of 
 which the Saxons and other Goths were the most 
 deadly and persistent enemies. 
 
 Let us begin to read a chapter in any of the An- 
 glican writers, regarding the ancient northerns, and 
 immediately we find ourselves not among the original 
 savages , but in the company of the half-converted 
 Christians . 
 
 8 * 
 
90 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 In order to prove that the Saxon and Germanic race 
 honored the fair sex, and were otherwise humanized, 
 they slyly draw evidence from the middle ages, and 
 from Christian history. All the time, the ignorant 
 reader is under the impression that the author con- 
 tinues, as he began, to describe the original and native 
 character of the Goth. 
 
 - Falsehood distorts the plainest facts in history. 
 Frygga, their ancient goddess, that the decent pen 
 cannot describe, is put on the same footing as Juno, “ in 
 whose temples sacred fire was kept burning, watched 
 b y virgin prophetesses.” There is no evidence to 
 prove that the Saxons had devoted virgins . Mrs. 
 Child cannot point to a fragment of evidence that the 
 northern savages had any temples in their primeval 
 swamps. Their instinct was not to build, but to de- 
 stroy temples. 
 
 All we know regarding the northern women is found 
 in their history, after they came within the pale of 
 Christianity and civilization. The picture is lamenta- 
 ble. The women were like the Indian squaws — evi- 
 dently not so well treated ; they were not allowed to 
 eat with their masters ; they were obliged to follow 
 them, of course, everywhere, carrying the burden, even 
 to the field of battle, where they generally “ mixed in,” 
 and fought like wildcats. 
 
 On one occasion, Mrs. Child says, “ they laid hold 
 of the Roman shields, caught at the swords with their 
 naked hands, and suffered themselves to be hacked 
 and hewed to pieces, rather than give up one inch of 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 91 
 
 ground.” Beautiful picture of feminine heroism ! 
 This masculinity of women was not peculiar to the 
 German savages. 
 
 Mrs. Child says they fought that way, and even 
 
 strangled themselves, to save their virtue! Mrs. 
 
 Child forgets that the lowest savages do the very same, 
 not through love of virtue, but through fear of savage 
 cruelty. Horror of captivity is greatest among sav- 
 ages, because merciless brutality is their system. 
 
 Old historians generally represent the European 
 Scythians as red Indian savages are now known to us. 
 But some, of a more poetic fancy, described them as 
 the children of nature, unsophisticated, truthful, tem- 
 perate, and chaste, as the American novelists fanci- 
 fully paint the red men. 
 
 Rollin quotes Justin’s account of the Scythians, 
 their perfect ignorance of all law, arts, and sciences ; 
 they were too good and innocent, he says, to need 
 these. They had no money, because they did not 
 covet such things ; and he takes occasion to reprove 
 the luxury and avarice of his own race. Horace, the 
 poet, also, like Tacitus, expands upon the happiness 
 and purity of savage life. Speaking of the magnifi- 
 cent Romans, he says, “ A hundred times happier are 
 the Scythians, who roam about in their itinerant 
 houses. * * * The wives do not pretend to dom- 
 
 ineer over their husbands, on account of their fortunes, 
 (poor Horace !) nor are to be corrupted by the insin- 
 uating language of spruce adulterers.” 
 
 Clothed in the skins of beasts, and covered with 
 
92 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 rancid lard and vermin, the savages could not certainly 
 be called spruce adulterers. Generally half starved, 
 their brutal passions were kept in check ; but that 
 these Germans or Gothic Scythians had any idea of 
 chastity or woman’s honor, is disproved by a thousand 
 witnesses regarding their conduct when they broke 
 into the regions of civilization. 
 
 Leaving the poets and Roman satirists aside, the 
 matter-of-fact historians, like Herodotus and Strabo, 
 tell us that the Scythians were a bloody, savage, and 
 sensual race, thieves by profession, and ravishers when 
 they had the chance. 
 
 The conflicting evidence regarding the Scythian 
 manners may have arisen from the fact that some of 
 the northern Celts were called Celto-Syths. But Am- 
 mianus Marcellinus, the latest and most accurate por- 
 trayer, lived among the brothers of the Saxon. He 
 describes them as a most filthy and bloody race. His 
 plain, matter-of-fact style contrasts with the poetic 
 varnishing of the politic Tacitus. 
 
 Sidonius, in writing to a friend, sums up his obser- 
 vations on the Burgundians thus : “ Blessed are your 
 eyes that do not see them, blessed are your ears that 
 do not hear them, blessed is your nose that does not 
 smell them.” He says they were covered with rancid 
 lard , and his description reminds one of the disgust 
 that the old Welsh bards expressed against the Saxons 
 and their women. 
 
 The natural affections preserve a kindly relation be- 
 tween husband and wife in all climes. It is only in 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 93 
 
 the extremely Gothic tribes that woman is daily sub- 
 jected to blows, and kicks, and insults. The slave 
 wife of the Saxon, or of the red Indian, ordinarily 
 passes a tolerable life, because she is unconscious of 
 her degraded position. We need not, therefore, ask 
 the Gothic wife, is she content? We need not go 
 with Tacitus to inquire into the purity of savage 
 life, and contrast it with the corruption of civilized 
 Rome. 
 
 Woman is naturally more chaste than man ; but the 
 barbarian woman is chaste because she dare not be 
 otherwise. The savage insists on fidelity in his 
 spouse, not from any abstract idea of purity, but sim- 
 ply because she is his property. He is jealous just as 
 the wild bull is jealous of a rival. He may cling to 
 his wife, and she to him, through the force of natural 
 affection ; but to speak of chastity as a savage virtue, 
 founded upon an idea of sanctity , is absurd, and Taci- 
 tus might as well have shamed his countrywomen by 
 quoting the conjugal fidelity of the bear and his mate, 
 as the Goth and his wife. If these Germans on the 
 Rhine entertained any idea of chastity as an abstract 
 virtue, they must have had it from the contiguous 
 Celts in the south. It is certain they did not bring it 
 from their mother country, in the north of Europe, or 
 Asia. The Anglo-Saxon hordes, who were composed 
 of the most northerly tribes of Goths, had no idea of 
 marriage, in our sense. They had not the faintest 
 idea of that conjugal bond which prevailed among 
 the ancient Celts. It is enough to say that the earliest 
 
94 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 Anglo-Saxon laws that sprang out of their conversion 
 to Christianity provided against wife-selling, and the 
 customary murder of infants by their fathers. 
 
 The Saxons could not have had any idea of a 
 holy bond of matrimony, when they would, as they 
 ordinarily did, sell their wives. (See Lingarcl , Turner , 
 and other English historians.) 
 
 Montesquieu (Spirit of Laws) shows that monog- 
 amy among the Germans (so praised by Tacitus, and 
 the modern writers who glorify the Gothic race at the 
 expense of Christianity) was a necessity. The Goths 
 were nomadic, their country was poor, and they could 
 not support more than one wife each. As we see 
 among the Anglo-Saxon Mormons, their descendants, 
 the rich old fellows monopolized the young women, 
 some of the poor young men having none. 
 
 Gibbon shows that Gothic women were wretched 
 slaves, compelled to do all the work, and that the Ger- 
 mans had several wives, when they could afford it. 
 
 But after all, these Germans of Tacitus were Celto- 
 Germans, Celto- Scythians, an intermediate race, as 
 they are still, on the banks of the Rhine, barbarous as 
 compared with the Gauls, but civilized as compared 
 with the more purely Gothic northern outside savages 
 on the Baltic, from whom the Anglo-Saxons are 
 clearly descended. 
 
 Aristotle says that the Germans used to take their 
 new-born children, and dive them in rivers, to try 
 their strength. Claudian writes, Nascentes explorat 
 gurgite Rhenus 7 but he does not believe the report that 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 95 
 
 this cruel custom of putting new-born babes under 
 water was to discern the base-born from the legiti- 
 mate. 
 
 At all events, the ceremony was a cruel outrage 
 upon the helpless mother, as well as the infant. This 
 was analogous to the Saxon custom of exposing 
 infants, the father murdering them if he took the 
 notion, which he often did, as proved by the laws 
 enacted to suppress the institution. John Mitchel 
 Kemble, the author of “ Saxons in England,” says 
 that the Catholic church passed laws which punished 
 infanticide among the Saxons with years of sore pen- 
 ance. 
 
 The method that Englishmen sometimes take to 
 live by the dishonor of their wives and daughters, is 
 but a civilized and more disgusting form of the old 
 Saxonism. When you hear that Saxon women were 
 slaves, you are not to suppose that they were kept in 
 ease and luxury, like the women of the East. No ; 
 they were wrought like beasts of burden. Gibbon 
 shows that the Goths were lazy brutes, who could 
 only be aroused by the scent of blood, or hope of plun- 
 der. Like the red squaw of America, the red or flaxen- 
 haired Saxon woman was obliged to dig the soil, when 
 they did cultivate any, and in fact u to do every thing 
 that required labor.” 
 
 u Polygamy existed only among the princes, because 
 they alone could support more than one woman. 
 Poverty, solitude, and drudgery may have saved the 
 women among them ; but when fathers leave the off- 
 
96 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 spring to perish, they cannot have a strong faith in the 
 wife.” ( Gibbon.) 
 
 Although Tacitus wished to shame the bad women 
 
 o 
 
 of Rome by an imaginary picture of German chastity, 
 he acknowledges that polygamy was common amongst 
 those Germans who could afford it. In later ages, we 
 know, by laws of the church, that the Germans mar- 
 ried their full cousins, and even their own father’s 
 widow. ( Kemble.) 
 
 St. Augustine wrote to the Pope concerning the 
 incestuous and brutish habits of the Saxons. ( Bede , 
 Lib. i. cap. 27.) 
 
 The learned Balmez very ably points out the politi- 
 cally social object that Tacitus had in satirizing the 
 corrupt state of Rome by a comparison with the bar- 
 barians. We can easily see to whom Tacitus alludes, 
 when he makes these severe remarks : “ Nemo enim 
 illic vitia ridet , nec corrumpere et corrumpi sceculum 
 vocatur ” “ There vice is not laughed at, and corrup- 
 
 tion is not called the fashion.” 
 
 Caesar, an eye witness, relates that the German 
 king Ariovistus had two wives, (De Bello Gallico, i. 1 ;) 
 and this was not a solitary instance, for Tacitus him- 
 self tells us that a few of them had several wives at 
 once, not on account of sensuality, but for distinction ! 
 “ Exceptis admodum paucis , qui non libidine , sed ob no - 
 bilitatem,pluribus nuptiis ambiuntur.” This distinction, 
 non libidine , sed ob nobilitatem , is amusing. But it is 
 clear that the kings and nobles, under one pretence or 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 97 
 
 another, allowed themselves greater liberty than the 
 severe historian would have approved of. 
 
 Balmez asks, u Who can tell what was the state of 
 morality among those (North German) forests ? ” But 
 we can tell exactly what it was, by a reference to the 
 state of the Anglo-Saxons, according to their own 
 history, in England, and even after their supposed 
 conversion to Christianity. Now, we must infer that 
 the Saxons brought their pagan bestiality with them 
 into Britain, or we must conclude that Christianity 
 made them the slaves and brutes we find them — a 
 conclusion which no man can for a moment en- 
 tertain. 
 
 The truth is, that while the church predominated on 
 the continent, and kept in check the Gothic instincts, 
 the Anglo-Saxons were never thoroughly Christianized. 
 They never abolished slavery or free-loveism until 
 forced by the Norman-French Catholics, and the Irish 
 refusal to buy any more of their women. ( Council of 
 Armagh , 1171.) 
 
 It is astonishing how M. Guizot, and the Saxon, 
 and Protestant, and infidel writers, could have per- 
 suaded themselves and the public that liberty and wo- 
 men’s rights came from the Gothic savages, and not 
 from the Celtic Christians. The honor paid to certain 
 Indian prophetesses does not make the squaw less a 
 slave ; the honor paid to certain German witches did 
 not make the Saxon women less miserable helots of 
 cruel masters. In pagan times, the Anglo-Saxons 
 worshipped witches ; in Puritan times, they burned 
 
 9 
 
98 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 them : but all the time, women were kicked, whipped, 
 and sold. Cromwell and his Puritans sold cargoes of 
 women into New England ; these women were Eng- 
 lish malignants and Scotch prisoners, but the great 
 bulk were Irish. With these facts before us, are we 
 to believe that woman was a free and honored being 
 in the Saxon swamps and forests of the north, and 
 that she was never degraded until her husband was 
 converted to Christianity? The truth is, as I will 
 prove, that brutish slavery was inherent in the Saxon 
 character. 
 
 Montesquieu says that poverty was the cause of 
 monogamy among the Germans ; yet in another place 
 he inconsistently indorses the opinion of Tacitus, that 
 the polygamy of the German chiefs was only “ a con- 
 sequence of dignity, and it would have wounded 
 them in a tender point to have deprived them of such 
 a prerogative.” When the German tribes come under 
 actual observation in the south of Europe, he does not 
 find them at all virtuous ; but this, he says, was no 
 doubt owing to the relaxation of the fibres, which, in 
 warm countries, “ produces a great evacuation of the 
 liquids.” 
 
 The unintelligible jargon of ancient physiology 
 about humors and fibres, and the “ laws relative to the 
 distempers of the climate,” he brings in to explain 
 every social and political phenomenon. His intention 
 is correct, but he gropes in the dark to find a physi- 
 ological key to history. His acknowledgments and 
 explanations of the gluttony and drunkenness of the 
 
99 
 
 THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 
 
 northerns are very inconsistent with his defence of 
 their chastity. 
 
 There never yet was a drunken nation or society 
 chaste. It is a physiological impossibility. England, 
 Scotland, and Sweden are examples. 
 
 BEAUTIES OF THE RHINE. 
 
 <£ Beauty draws us by a single hair.” — •« T. Hood. 
 
100 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 DOMESTIC LIFE OF TIIE ANCIENT CELTS. 
 
 The law of primitive Celtic Europe is the basis of 
 Roman law and republicanism. The ancient Cells 
 were almost Christian in the family institution. It 
 existed in an admirable form among the ancient Egyp- 
 tians, who were, according to recent inquiries, of the 
 Pelasgic, that is, the Celtic race. The founders of 
 Rome were Celts, chiefly from Cisalpine Gaul and 
 Etruria. The Etruscans, like the Egyptians, Jews, 
 and Milesians, had but one wife, though they pos- 
 sessed also handmaids. The Etruscan marriage was 
 a sacred bond, indissoluble. Some of the old forms 
 and customs at weddings existed in Ireland until 
 lately. For instance, the tasting of salt cake, the su- 
 perstitions in regard to fire and water, and the ill luck 
 that would follow if the bride should stumble at the 
 threshold of her new home. These, and other such 
 ideas connected with fire worship, the purity of salt, 
 &e., are still existing in Ireland. At the ancient 
 Etruscan marriage, the priest offered the sacrifice of a 
 lamb, and, with prayers, married the pair in the pres- 
 ence of witnesses. The sacrifice of the lamb, and the 
 eating of blessed cake, may have been a type of the 
 Christian faith. 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 101 
 
 Beating the breast, and funeral cries, and such su- 
 perstitions as the belief in an evil eye, were common 
 to the Graeco-Egyptians, Graeco-Milesians, Italians, and 
 other Celtic nations. 
 
 The abduction of Helen was but one of a series, 
 which, according to Herodotus, was the beginning of 
 wars between Europe and Asia. 
 
 The Phoenician traders were the first offenders, when 
 they carried off lo and her maidens, who came down 
 to look at the sailors and the merchandise. Abduc- 
 tion was considered a manly way of getting a wife 
 among the ancient Celts. The Jews, as well as the 
 Romans, practised it. But for the honor of the race, 
 it must be said that the ravishment of married women 
 was considered atrocious, and led to the most bloody 
 wars. 
 
 The Milesian youths considered it a brave feat to 
 abduct an heiress ; but the honor of the lady was in- 
 variably respected, and the ceremony of marriage per- 
 formed in due course. 
 
 Buying women like cattle, in the Saxon manner, 
 was never practised among the Celts. The bride- 
 groom gave presents, but the bride, on the other hand, 
 brought her dowry, and could say yes or no to the 
 proposal. 
 
 The Roman laws in regard to woman are justly 
 admired by the learned, but they were evidently only 
 the continuation or revival of ancient Celtic law, 
 which existed in Gaul, and Britain, and Erin, as well 
 as in Italy. In fact, the position of woman was, po*. 
 
 9 * 
 
102 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 litically, higher among the ancient Celts than ever it 
 has been since. She could be a queen and ruler, and 
 commander even of the army ; she could sit as a judge, 
 and, as a priestess and prophetess, preside over the 
 mysteries of religion. 
 
 The Brehon Laws of Ireland, still preserved in man- 
 uscript, are the most valuable documents in existence, 
 as showing the condition of Celtic Europe before the 
 Gothic destructions, and even before the Greek and 
 Roman civilizations. My friends Dr. O’Donovan and 
 Professor Eugene Curry, are now engaged in trans- 
 lating these old laws. I am indebted to them for in- 
 formation regarding the primitive institutions of Ire- 
 land, and consequently of ancient Europe, which no 
 mere English historian possesses. Saxon arrogance 
 will be silenced when these Irish scholars unfold the 
 true history of the past, and show the Celtic origin 
 of democratic liberty, with elected kings, and a true 
 nobility of merit. 
 
 At present, I have only to speak of the domestic 
 life, and woman’s rights. 
 
 The position of the ancient Irish woman was equal 
 to that of the Egyptian, and analogous to the Israelite. 
 But the Milesian matron, at the head of her household, 
 exercised a far higher moral control, and enjoyed a 
 greater share of liberty and justice, than ever the Jew- 
 ish woman could claim. 
 
 Lingard, in speaking of the government of Britons, 
 says, “ With respect to the succession, there are in- 
 stances where the father had portioned his dominions 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 
 
 103 
 
 among his children, and others in which the reigning 
 prince left his crown to his widow, who both exercised 
 the more peaceful duties of royalty, but also, with 
 arms in her hands, conducted her subjects to the field 
 ^of battle.” ^ 
 
 The ruling power of Boadicea is but one out of 
 many such cases among the Celts, related by Diodo- 
 rus, Mela, Tacitus, and others referred to by Lingard. 
 
 The learned Banier points to the fact that the Gauls 
 made a compact with Hannibal, that if a Gaul and a 
 Carthaginian should have a dispute, it should be re- 
 ferred to the tribunal of the Gallic women. 
 
 Ireland had several ancient names, from the illustri- 
 ous queens that ruled that once happy country. 
 
 The law of monogamy prevailed in Deland. In 
 certain cases among the chiefs, concubinage was al- 
 lowable. But the entire household, and the conduct 
 of the husband within doors, were under the absolute 
 control of the mother. The husband dared not raise 
 children by a handmaid, unless the wife consented. 
 The Irish chiefs were therefore under more restraint 
 than the Jewish patriarchs. In fact, the Irish wife 
 stood equal with her husband, in every respect. Mar- 
 riage was an equal contract ; every bride brought her 
 dower of wealth or beauty, and was not considered 
 dependent upon her husband. 
 
 Divorce was practicable, evidently too much so, and 
 woman had her rights, perhaps more than enough. 
 
 Beauty was a dower prized above all riches ; the 
 handmaids held their position in the household ac- 
 
104 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 cording to their personal charms, the least beautilul 
 being obliged to grind at the corn mills, and do the 
 drudgery of cooking, &c. 
 
 Irish women were not secluded, nor subject to per- 
 sonal restraint, although under the strict mastery of 
 the Druidic moral code. 
 
 The male and female domestics were sometimes 
 slaves, but only in a limited degree — such as pris- 
 oners of war, and debtors, who were obliged, in de- 
 fault of payment, to work for the creditor until they 
 paid the last farthing. There were no hereditary slave 
 serfs nailed to the soil, and chattels of their masters, 
 in Ireland. 
 
 Considering that the ancient Irish were pagans, 
 their Brehon laws show them to have been a civilized 
 people. Even in their superstitions, we see an amia- 
 ble disposition. Unlike the Christians, they had no 
 asylums for orphans, but they practised adoption and 
 fosterage — generous and endearing customs. They 
 had a horror of bastardy, and would not adopt an 
 illegitimate child. Foundlings were put in a boat, 
 and sent out to sea ; the man upon whose estate it 
 drifted in was obliged to maintain the child. There 
 was a cruelty in this, seeing that the poor infant might 
 be lost. But on the other hand, it shows that legiti- 
 macy was a valued jewel, and it shows that even the 
 worst of the Irish pagan women abhorred infanticide, 
 but chose to hide their shame by leaving the little one 
 at least a chance for its life, like Moses in the Nile. 
 
 Marriage, in the perfect Christian sense, was not 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 105 
 
 understood by the pagan Celts ; but the great care 
 that every Irishman took in preserving his pedigree, 
 proves that they highly estimated legitimacy. v 
 
 Bede relates that a band of Pictish warriors (per- 
 haps from the Pictones of Aquitania, in Gaul *) went 
 to seek a settlement in Ireland ; but the Irish directed 
 them to Caledonia, where they might conquer the 
 land. It appears these Piets w T ere a friendly tribe, for 
 the Irish gave them wives, with this stipulation : that 
 if ever there should be a dispute for the crown, it 
 should be given to the man who claimed royal descent 
 through his mother, in preference to one who could 
 claim descent only through his father ; thus giving the 
 preference to the female line. 
 
 The venerable Bede would not have related this in- 
 cident if it were not known that the Irish held woman 
 in the highest honor. This law in favor of females 
 actually prevailed in Scotland. It was the very oppo- 
 site of the Germanic and Saxon system, and the 
 Gothic salic law, which repudiated woman’s political 
 existence, and denied her the rights of person and 
 property. 
 
 The natural position of woman is within the house- 
 hold, and her duty the fostering and education of her 
 children. But instances of female influence, and even 
 command, are as frequent among the ancient Celts as 
 among the modem nations ; as in the case of Boa- 
 dicea, Erina, &c. 
 
 * Had these been Scottish Piets it is not probable that they would 
 be directed back to their own country. 
 
106 CONDITION OP WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 It is an undeniable fact, that the Saxons and North- 
 men first introduced the trade of buying and selling 
 women like cattle in the market. 
 
 As I have already remarked, marriage was an equal 
 contract, and the wife brought her dower to match the 
 wealth of her husband, according to their station. To 
 this day, it is a common practice in Ireland for match- 
 makers to conduct this pecuniary part of the marriage 
 contract. But the custom of buying wives like slaves 
 never existed in Ireland, and as far as we know, this 
 degrading sale of women never prevailed in any Celtic 
 nation of Europe. The Saxons, Danes, and other 
 Goths traded in women and children, and brought 
 with them other most degrading forms of slavery. 
 
 We may set it down as a positive certainty, that 
 the ancient Irish were not prone to any brutal, incest- 
 uous, or bloody usages, or human sacrifices, because 
 the old laws, poems, and traditions make no mention 
 of them, and St. Patrick and the early missionaries do 
 not accuse them of any of these savage and bloody 
 abominations, which we shall find distinguished the 
 pagan Saxons. 
 
 What is true of the ancient Irish, whose valued 
 records escaped the destroying hand of the barbarous 
 invaders, must be more or less true of the ancient 
 Britons. 
 
 It is clearly established by Dr. Webster, by Sir W. 
 Betham, by the philologists and antiquarians, and by 
 the learned Abbe Pezron, that the ancient Greeks — 
 the Pelasgi — were pure Celts) and we know from 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 107 
 
 Grecian history and legend, that the women in the okl 
 heroic ages were free, noble, divine. J± We find the 
 wife occupying a station of great dignity and influ- 
 ence ; she even seems to live less secluded, and to 
 enjoy a wider sphere of action than was allotted to 
 her in historical Greece. A large portion of the ro- 
 
 mantic interest which Grecian legend inspires is de- 
 
 — 
 
 rived from the women. Penelope, Andromache, Helen, 
 Clytemnestra, Eriphyle, Jocasta, Hecuba, &c., all 
 stand in the foreground of the picture, either from 
 their virtues, their beauty, their crimes, or their suffer- 
 ings.” ( Grote’s History of Greece .) 
 
 If the pagan Greeks had their Venus Popularis , or 
 sensual goddess, we must not forget that they had 
 their Venus Coelestis , or chaste goddess. They had 
 also their noble band of virgins, priestesses of Ceres, 
 whose persons were held sacred and inviolable. In 
 like manner, the Egyptians and Romans had their 
 vestal virgins ; the western Celts had their Druidical 
 virgins ; the Phoenicians and Carthaginians wor- 
 shipped the Virgo Coelestis , represented by the moon, 
 and called the Queen of Heaven. 
 
 The ancient Pelasgic Celts of Greece had the same 
 high idea of woman that prevailed in other Celtic 
 tribes. “ The poets’ delineations of Grecian heroines 
 in the legendary ages make us glow with the assur- 
 ance that the noble spirit of humanity has not only 
 become dominant, but will continue to rule. 
 
 “ The earliest traditions of the Greeks relate, not to 
 wars and conquests, but to the settlements of their 
 domestic institutions and marital relations.” 
 
108 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 Authentic history testifies the exalted position of 
 the ancient Irish Milesian matron. The Milesians 
 and Greeks had a common origin, and they both re- 
 ceived their civilization from Egypt, or Egypt received 
 her enlightened spirit from them. It is therefore a 
 legitimate inference, that the ancient Greek mother 
 and daughter held as noble a position as the Egyptian 
 or Milesian, before war and commerce with the sen- 
 sual East and barbarous North had corrupted Grecian 
 manners. 
 
 A learned reviewer in the u Westminster,” October, 
 1855, says, “ It is remarkable, that during the progress 
 of Greek civilization, the women of Athens did not 
 advance, but rather retrograded. The same fact is to 
 be observed in Italy, which gave rise to the angry com- 
 ments of Tacitus, who contrasted the Roman ladies 
 with the barbarous but virtuous women of the Rhine.” 
 We remark the same degeneracy in Ireland and Brit- 
 ain after the Saxon invasion. No doubt a false civ- 
 ilization corrupted Celtic nations, and degraded the 
 Celtic woman. But I maintain that in no Celtic na- 
 tion did corruption and slavery of woman extend, 
 until it was brought in contact with northern or east- 
 ern Gothism. On the other hand, it is a truth, that 
 the Greeks, the Romans, and other nations of Celts 
 elevated the condition of woman in all their early con- 
 quests over barbarians. 
 
 That in the pure Celtic age of heroic Greece, wo- 
 man was virtually and actually free as her Milesian 
 sister was in ancient Ireland, we learn from the Gre- 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 109 
 
 cian laws. The idea of chastity also existed; thus 
 “ it was considered scandalous for a wife to leave her 
 husband, but if he brought an hetcera into the house, 
 he thereby gave her a legal ground for separation,” 
 &c. (See subsequent description of hetcercB.) Now, 
 although the Greek husband, like some husbands every 
 where, may have unjustly coerced his wife, these laws 
 prove that s^e was no slave, and that she had rights. 
 The Greek slave wife was unknown until the red- 
 haired, green-eyed monster, the Turk — the ethnologic 
 brother of the Ogre and the Saxon — gained power on 
 classic soil. 
 
 The legends regarding the Amazons prove, whether 
 true or false, that woman’s power and influence was 
 a recognized public fact. 
 
 Juno, Minerva, Diana, and Isis of the Egyptians, 
 
 •~ tt t- 8 ******* **’"“"'*' “ 
 
 attest the popular estimation in woman’s divinity and 
 equality, even in heaven. 
 
 Shakspeare borrowed his heroines, not from English 
 but from Celtic sources ; but the poets of Greece 
 and Italy find their feminine ideals at home. Sappho, 
 Aspasia, Corinna, Virginia, &c., not to forget the 
 Sibyl of Cumae, and the Pythia, or virgin, to be seen 
 like a familiar angel at all the temples. 
 
 Woman was considered too sacred for the stage. 
 Female characters were assumed by young men. 
 
 Widows were venerated in their widowhood, but 
 despised if they married again. 
 
 Extraordinary veneration was shown to the vestal 
 virgins. Lictors cleared the way for them; and if a 
 
 10 
 
110 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 condemned criminal, on his way to execution, was 
 fortunate enough to meet one of them, he was imme- 
 diately freed. 
 
 Virginity was considered absolutely necessary, in 
 order to acquire the gift of prophecy. The person of 
 the Pythia, or prophetess, was held sacred. 
 
 In primitive generations women in Greece were 
 faithful and the men were modest ; therefore the wo- 
 men were not confined, and they appeared even with 
 scanty raiment in public. Cynisca, a virgin of Sparta, 
 won the prize in the chariot race of the Olympic 
 games. As society grew older, modesty draped from 
 head to foot took the place of nude simplicity. 
 
 It is recorded that the Milesian Greek women were 
 at one time affected with a mania for committing sui- 
 cide. Many measures were tried to check the calam- 
 ity without effect, until it was enacted that the bodies 
 of suicides should be exposed to public view. The 
 mere threat had the desired effect ; it immediately and 
 completely frightened them into their senses, and there 
 were no more cases of self-destruction. 
 
 Monogamy was the general rule among the Greeks 
 and other Celtic nations. It is true that Greece more 
 than Italy, or any other Celtic country, was contami- 
 nated by the example of the Eastern woman slave sys- 
 tem ; but there is no evidence to show that the Greeks 
 ever treated their women with Gothic cruelty and 
 degradation. Egypt civilized Greece. Had the 
 slavery of woman been a radical vice in the Greek 
 nature, as it was in the Eastern and Gothic, Egyptian 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. Ill 
 
 influence might have modified, but could not efface, 
 the evil. 
 
 Christianity labored for many centuries to free the 
 Anglo-Saxon wife from her brutal husband’s depotism ; 
 but the vice is still radical. We may venture to say 
 that if the ancient Greek had been naturally cold 
 hearted and tyrannical towards his sister, wife, or 
 daughter, no Egyptian balm could have cured the 
 moral ulcer. 
 
 Monogamy was legally established, but soon the 
 commercial intercourse of the Milesians and other 
 Greek colonists with the Gothic nations north of the 
 Black Sea, and with the voluptuous kingdoms of the 
 East, corrupted Grecian manners. In some places the 
 Greeks endeavored to save their people by appointing 
 officers to deal with the barbarians at a distance from 
 the cities. 
 
 I repeat that the women of the Mediterranean were 
 the most free, and their children the most beloved 
 and cherished of any nation in the world. The ex- 
 ceptions to this rule are to be found among tribes who 
 were either mixed with Tartar blood, or who resem- 
 bled the Goths in their material and carnivorous pro- 
 pensities. In these respects the barbarous Spartans 
 were among the Greeks what the Saxons are among 
 the Britons. The Spartans were more uniformly 
 light haired and fleshy, a connecting link, like the Cal- 
 edonians, between the true Celt and the true Goth. 
 The Spartans, like the Anglo-Saxons, used to expose 
 and try the strength of their infants. The Spartan 
 
112 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 mother, in showing want of feeling at the death of her 
 sons, exhibited her Gothic character. There are many 
 words in the Greek like the German. If there was 
 Gothic blood in Greece, we may look for it among 
 the Spartans, who were, however, far superior in gen- 
 erosity and humanity to the Goths, but far inferior 
 to the gentle Athenians, these heroes of Marathon — 
 these Celtic children of the Pelasgi. 
 
 The Greek girl held a lower position than her sister 
 in Egypt, Italy, and the Celtic west. 
 
 Greek women “ were always in a state of tutelage, 
 perpetually in the power and subject to the directions 
 of their fathers, husbands, or other legally appointed 
 guardians.’’ The Athenian women were more or less 
 confined. But they were virtuous ; the Spartan moth- 
 ers were personally free, and joined in public gymnas- 
 tics ; but they were licentious ; the marriage of girls 
 was controlled by fathers and guardians. Public in- 
 tercourse and u passional attractions ,” even among the 
 married, were lawful in Sparta, but not in the other 
 states. The Spartans were more like Goths in their 
 propensities, and even in their physique. Among the 
 purer Celts of Athens, adultery w r as punished by in- 
 famy and excommunication from society and from the 
 temples. Greek women could obtain a divorce on 
 just grounds, and claim their dowry and a support. 
 In this and other respects we see the remnant of the 
 noble old Brehon laws of Celtic Europe. But there 
 woman’s rights had already become only a theory, 
 seldom in practice. Virtue decayed before Greece 
 began to decline. 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 113 
 
 Domestic life in Druidic Erin was much the same 
 as in Greece. But in as far as the ancient paganism 
 of Ireland was more pure and exalted, being farther 
 removed from Eastern and Gothic contamination, so 
 their manners were more primitive and innocent. 
 
 The following description of domestic life in Greece 
 (Chambers’ Tracts) will apply to Celtica generally : — 
 
 “ The only literary education of Greek women was 
 what they got at home. They were expected to de- 
 vote themselves chiefly to the domestic arrangements 
 and household industry, or the operations of spinning 
 and weaving. They had their own apartments, and 
 were rareJy allowed to leave the house ; their chief 
 public appearances were at festivals. After marriage 
 they were more at liberty in this respect ; attended 
 by a female slave, they might go a shopping or pay 
 visits. Of course the wives of the poorer citizens 
 could not be kept under such restraint; but even they 
 do not appear to have gone to market so frequently as 
 their husbands. 
 
 “ Marriage was considered as a duty to the gods, in 
 order to provide for the continuance of their worship. 
 The procreation of children was also a duty to the 
 state. Moreover, the attentions paid to the tombs of 
 deceased ancestors would be suspended if a family 
 were to become extinct ; and this interruption in the 
 worship of either gods or ancestors was considered a 
 very great calamity. Marriages were, for the most 
 part, urged by these religious motives, in combination 
 with the maintenance of a household. Love matches 
 
 10 * 
 
114 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 were the exception. It was not unusual for a father 
 to choose a wife for his son. In general, more regard 
 was paid to the connections and dowry of the bride 
 than to her personal charms or accomplishments; 
 these there was little opportunity for becoming ac- 
 quainted with. Equality of rank and fortune was to 
 some extent insisted on. Near relationship was no 
 bar, excepting, of course, members of the same family, 
 who were prohibited by public opinion from matrimo- 
 nial alliance. It was generally arranged that the 
 • bride should be considerably the younger of the two. 
 The giving of dowries was universal, and was one of 
 the burdens entailed on the father of a family of 
 daughters, so much so as to constitute a motive for 
 refusing to bring up female children. A marriage was 
 solemnized by various ceremonies. Some time before 
 the wedding, an offering was made to the tutelary 
 gods of marriage. On the wedding day, the bride 
 and bridegroom washed with water brought from a 
 particular well. The marriage procession from the 
 house of the bride to her future abode took place 
 towards evening, and besides the bride and bride- 
 groom, consisted of a numerous train, both men and 
 women, dressed for the occasion, and preceded by 
 torch-bearers; the procession was accompanied with 
 music. The wedding feast took place at the house of 
 the bridegroom or of his parents ; and as an exception 
 to the rule of dinner parties, the women were present, 
 but at a table apart. Bridal cakes were distributed as 
 an essential part of the ceremony. The bride was led 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 115 
 
 off veiled to the nuptial chamber, and an epithalami- 
 um was sung before the door by a chorus of girls. 
 
 “ Household management, and the bringing up of 
 the children, became thenceforth the woman’s occupa- 
 tion. She shared the company of her husband, but 
 was not allowed to be present at his convivial parties, 
 nor to receive strangers in his absence. She had the 
 management of the servants, who were slaves, and 
 on her devolved the care of the sick, whether of the 
 family or the domestics. 
 
 “ Gallantry to women in the modern sense was un- 
 known ; but in their presence men would, it is said, 
 maintain a certain stately dignity, to keep up the 
 respect they considered due to themselves. But there 
 were abundant instances of the utmost familiarity be- 
 tween married couples, as might be expected, and not 
 a few cases of the reversed relation denominated pet- 
 ticoat government.” 
 
 “ The Greek hetserae, or female companions, were 
 women who had broken loose from domestic restraint, 
 and lived apart in free intercourse with the other sex, 
 and were of all degrees of talent, character, and re- 
 spectability. Some of them acquired so extensive a 
 celebrity in their own time, that their names have de- 
 scended with renown to posterity. They often pos- 
 sessed the highest charms of intellectual accomplish- 
 ment, as well as beauty and personal fascination. 
 
 “ These hetaerae generally lived in houses of their 
 own. It was a peculiarity of the Greek mind to carry 
 pleasures and enjoyments to a very great length with- 
 
116 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 out allowing them to relax and destroy the whole tone 
 of the character ; hence we must not attribute to 
 these females or their lovers the same characteristics 
 as would attach to similar characters in our own coun- 
 try. The Athenian youth spent much of their time 
 and fortune in such company. There were besides 
 hetaerae — an extensive class of prostitutes, who were 
 slaves procured for that purpose, and kept in numbers 
 at particular houses. Corinth was the most noted 
 town in Greece for this species of voluptuousness.” 
 
 The history of the slave among Saxon Christians is 
 a tale of atrocity when compared with the same 
 among pagan Celts. The Athenians treated their so- 
 called slaves with the tenderest humanity. Serfs were 
 held inferior only because God made them so. (See 
 the elaborate evidence on this subject given by Rollin.) 
 Abolitionism was far more disinterested in those an- 
 cient days, if we are to judge by the numbers of 
 freedmen. 
 
 ♦ 
 
 The temples were inviolable asylums for slaves, 
 who fled from the cruelty of masters. It was unlaw- 
 ful for a master to insult a female slave in Athens. 
 
 Women had their political rights, and could vote, 
 officiate in the temples, and sit as prophetesses, queens, 
 and judges. This was the liberal theory, though, 
 practically, the stronger genius of man ruled society. 
 By the contention of Agamemnon and his wife about 
 their daughter’s marriage, we learn that in theory, and 
 often in practice, the mother was absolute mistress 
 of the household, as'was the case in ancient Ireland. 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 117 
 
 The exceptional cases of cruelty or lewdness in an- 
 cient times prove the rule of general virtue ; and the 
 laws of Lycurgus, Solon, and others, in later eras, 
 prove the existence of a public opinion that was not 
 yet quite enslaved to vice. 
 
 Hecuba, chained at the gate of the long-exasperated 
 Agamemnon, calls loudly for public pity and sympa- 
 thy, while Alexander and Cyrus were deified for their 
 gallantry and magnanimous chastity, under tempta- 
 tions greater than Joseph’s. 
 
 The custom of going half naked, and of erecting 
 nude statues, was not the cause of depravity, nor 
 the result of a depraved appetite. On the contrary, 
 the close covering of the person became imperative 
 only when corruption ate its way into society. The 
 fine of a thousand drachms of gold for appearing 
 naked proved that there were still virtuous people in 
 plenty to be scandalized. The humble, good, and 
 modest wife of Phocian was venerated in the midst 
 of licentiousness and extravagance, and applauded 
 when her name happened to be mentioned in the the- 
 atre. What more have we in society now? 
 
118 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 ROMAN VIRTUE. 
 
 The laws of nations are the most positive land- 
 marks and most truthful guides to the history of the 
 peoples. 
 
 The Celtic nations had retained many fragments 
 of divine truth, sufficient to preserve the social fabric ; 
 but when Greece became corrupt, and Rome began to 
 fall, the pagan philosophers in vain tried their for- 
 mulae and their systems. 
 
 Their speculations were beautiful in theory, but they 
 would not work. In utter bewilderment, the great 
 men, like Plato and Aristotle, recommended infanticide 
 as a remedy for over-population. But it does not ap- 
 pear that this practice was actually instituted, and the 
 recommendation only proves that, bad as these Greeks 
 were, they had never sunk to Gothic depths of bru- 
 tality. Now, on the contrary, we find among Chris- 
 tian Saxons, first and last, laws to prevent infanticide, 
 child-selling, wife-murder, &c., &c. In the one case, 
 pagan Celts are recommended,' in their distress, to kill 
 their offspring; in the other case, Saxon Christians 
 must be threatened with civil punishment and eternal 
 condemnation, to prevent their killing or selling their 
 children, — these crimes being committed in times of 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 119 
 
 prosperity. The proof of this we shall find when I 
 come to quote the old laws, suppressing these inhu- 
 man institutions of the Saxons. 
 
 There is this mighty difference between the Greek 
 and the Gothic infanticide — that whereas the practice 
 originated among the Greeks in the wise heads of 
 heartless old legislators, and whereas it was necessary 
 to drag “the condemned and worthless abortions” 
 from the arms of their mothers, and whereas the abor- 
 tions, diseased and crippled as aforesaid, were tried, 
 condemned, and executed according to law, by these 
 old men, therefore Greek mothers are not to blame as 
 the originators of this murder by law. 
 
 But the Spartans were to blame for so long submit- 
 ting to this new tyranny. In extenuation it may in- 
 deed be said, that these warlike men considered that 
 
 THE HAND OF AN ENGLISH MOTHER. 
 
120 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 deformed, idiotic abortions had slavish souls, accursed 
 of the gods, as unfit for the council as for the battle. 
 
 But on the other hand, Gothic infanticide arose from 
 an instinct of destruction in the hearts of the parents 
 individually, and the children, whether healthy or 
 weak, whether in paganism or in Christianity, were 
 invariably slaughtered by the hands that should be the 
 last to hurt them, the first to defend them. Private 
 convenience, not public good, was the motive of 
 Gothic murders. 
 
 Caesar was not very exact or nice in his account of 
 the British race, that drove him and his vast army into 
 the sea. He says that the Britons had wives in com- 
 mon, brothers with brothers, and fathers with sons, and 
 that the children were given to him who had first taken 
 the woman. Caesar’s word may appear sufficient evi- 
 dence, but it is obvious that he was under a misappre- 
 hension of British customs. Anciently, it was con- 
 sidered a dreadful misfortune to die without issue. In 
 such case, the Jews, and I believe the Phoenicians, 
 gave the widow to her deceased husband’s brother, in 
 order that he might raise up children for his brother. 
 The same custom may have prevailed in South Brit- 
 ain, and therefore Caesar was right in saying that the 
 children belonged to the brother who first espoused the 
 bride. 
 
 From this remark of Caesar, the learned Balmez has 
 rather loosely assumed that the institution of the fam- 
 ily, and the virtue of chastity, were unknown to the 
 Britons. Such an assumption is very unwarranted. 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 121 
 
 Caesar himself describes the preeminent virtue and 
 chastity of the British Druidism. Druidesses were of 
 three orders ; first, those who lived secluded in celibacy ; 
 second, those who were married, but only saw their 
 husbands once a year ; third, thqse who attended to 
 the care of families and household duties. ( Banier .) 
 
 Will any one presume to say that these Druids of 
 Britain, who are allowed to have had extraordinary 
 power over princes and people, would have tolerated 
 the state of society which authors deduce from some 
 loose remark of Caesar ? 
 
 Among the Jews, as well as among other nations 
 of antiquity, the marriage of relatives was occasion- 
 ally permitted on political grounds. Montesquieu 
 says that u the law which prohibited people from hav- 
 ing two inheritances was extremely well adapted for a 
 democracy. It derived its origin from the equal dis- 
 tribution of lands and portions made to each citizen. 
 The law would not permit a single man to possess 
 more than a single portion. 
 
 a From the same source arose those laws by which 
 the next relation was ordered to marry the heiress. 
 This law was given to the Jews after the like distribu- 
 tion. Plato, who grounds his laws on this division, 
 made the same regulation, which had been received as 
 a law by the Athenians. 
 
 “ At Athens there was a law whose spirit, in my 
 opinion, has not been hitherto rightly understood. It 
 was lawful to marry a sister only by the father’s side, 
 but it was not permitted to espouse a sister by the 
 
 11 
 
122 CONDITION OP WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 same venter. This custom was originally owing to 
 republics, whose spirit would not permit that two por- 
 tions of land, and consequently two inheritances, 
 should devolve on the same person. A man who mar- 
 ried his sister only by the father’s side, could inherit 
 but one estate, namely, that of his father; but by es- 
 pousing his sister by the same venter, it might happen 
 that this sister’s father, having no male issue, might 
 leave her his estate, and consequently the brother who 
 married her might be possessed of two. 
 
 “ The Romans had no particular magistrates, like the 
 Greeks, to inspect the conduct of women. The cen- 
 sors had not an eye over them but as over the rest of 
 the republic. The institution of the domestic tribu- 
 nal supplied the magistracy established among the 
 Greeks. 
 
 “ The husband summoned the wife’s relations, and 
 tried her in their presence. This tribunal preserved 
 the manners of the republic ; and at the same time, 
 those very manners maintained this tribunal, for it de- 
 cided not only in respect to the violation of manners, 
 but likewise put an end to public accusations. 
 
 “ The domestic tribunal inspected the general conduct 
 of women ; but there was one crime which, beside the 
 animadversion of this tribunal, was likewise subject to 
 a public accusation. This was adultery ; whether that 
 in a republic so great a depravation of manners inter- 
 ested the government, or whether the wife’s immorality 
 might render the husband’s suspected, or whether, in 
 fine, they were afraid lest even honest people might 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 123 
 
 choose that this crime should rather be concealed than 
 punished. 
 
 “ Romulus permitted a husband to repudiate his 
 wife, if she had committed adultery, prepared poison, 
 or procured false keys. He did not grant to women 
 the right of repudiating their husbands. Plutarch calls 
 this a law extremely severe. 
 
 “ As the Athenian law gave the power of repudia- 
 tion to the wife as well as to the husband, and as this 
 right was obtained by the women amongst the primi- 
 tive Romans, notwithstanding the law of Romulus, 
 it is evident that this institution was one of those 
 which the deputies of Rome brought from Athens, 
 and which were inserted into the laws of the twelve 
 tables.” 
 
 Mark ! that the Athenians gave equal rights to wo- 
 man, and that the Roman practice was similar, despite 
 the law . Crimes existed in Rome, mentioned by 
 Tacitus, Juvenal, &c., which St. Paul says are not so 
 much as to be named among Christians. 
 
 This awful corruption, we must still bear in mind, 
 was subsequent to the arrival of the German mercena- 
 ries, and other savage troops in Rome. 
 
 Montesquieu says, “ At Rome the husband was per- 
 mitted to lend his wife to another. Plutarch tells us 
 this in express terms. We know that Cato lent his 
 wife to Hortensius, and Cato was not a man to violate 
 the laws of his country. 
 
 “ On the other hand, a husband who suffered his wife 
 to be debauched, who did not bring her to justice, or 
 
124 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 who took her again after her condemnation, was pun- 
 ished. These laws seem to contradict each other, and 
 yet are not contradictory. The law which permitted 
 a Roman to lend his wife was visibly a Lacedccmonian 
 institution , established with a view of giving the re- 
 public children of a good species, if I may be allowed 
 the term ; the other had in view the preservation of 
 morals. The first was a law of politics, the second a 
 civil law. 
 
 “ Coriolanus, setting out on his exile, advised his wife 
 to marry a man more happy than himself. We have 
 just been seeing that the law of the twelve tables, and 
 the manners of the Romans, greatly extended the law 
 of Romulus.” 
 
 Such facts as these prove clearly that, even before 
 the German contamination, the natural virtue of the 
 pagan Celts was regulated by no transcendent fixed 
 principle , such as Christianity afforded. Yet the gen- 
 eral practice of the pagan Romans, who were nat- 
 urally good, was better than the general practice of 
 the Christian Saxons, who are naturally bad. 
 
 In the first rude, warlike age of ancient Rome, when 
 the young giant had to fight his way, the god of might 
 was the chief god, and the military idea of implicit 
 obedience kept the wife in a state of childhood, and 
 the children owed submission to the will of the father’s 
 power. Marriage was an important legal ceremony ; 
 fidelity in the wife, and affectionate, but unyielding 
 parental authority, were among the brightest traits in 
 • the old Roman character. The father of the familv — 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 125 
 
 pater-familias — was the patriarch, the absolute ruler of 
 his own household, and over his daughters until they 
 got married, when they passed under the protection 
 and authority of their husbands. The daughter did 
 not require the consent of her parents to her marriage, 
 but the son did, because his children might come as 
 heirs of the property. The son remained obedient to 
 his father in domestic affairs as long as the latter lived ; 
 but as a citizen in office, the son might command or 
 punish his own father. At the death of the father, the 
 son became his 6wn master, but the daughter still re- 
 mained as a child under her brother ; if married, under 
 her husband. 
 
 The reviewer in the Westminster, evidently a 
 learned lawyer, sums up his outline of ancient laws, in 
 regard to woman, thus : — 
 
 “ What a wonderful contrast to the stolid, immova- 
 ble Orientals [and he should add, the Goths] is pre- 
 sented in all ways by the Romans, and especially in 
 the rapidity of their social developments! Though, 
 from the first, they neither immured their women, nor 
 allowed of a plurality of wives, they held them in the 
 most complete and systematized subjection ; and yet, 
 in the course of their national career, which, compared 
 with that of the Chinese or Hindoos, was extremely 
 short, the rights of woman, in nearly all respects, were 
 gradually recognized, and at length firmly established 
 on a legal basis. Slowly, but surely, she was trans- 
 formed from the condition of slavery into that of free- 
 dom ; she became independent of guardianship ; as a 
 
 11 * 
 
126 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 woman, she could repudiate the unjust obligation of 
 infant betrothal; she could save herself from falling 
 into the legal power of her husband ; she could con- 
 tract marriage with him as with an equal, retaining 
 for herself during the union equal freedom ; and finally, 
 the law of divorce — equitable for the first time in the 
 history of civilization — gave to her, as well as to him, 
 the best security possible against unfaithfulness or bad 
 treatment, seeing that if he persisted in reprehensible 
 conduct, she could not only leave him, but claim resti- 
 tution of such of her property as, through marriage, 
 he had been permitted to use. We may hereafter 
 characterize the Roman laws relating to the inherit- 
 ance and tenure of property so far as they affect 
 woman ; whoever is acquainted with them, as well as 
 with those affecting her person, as above described, 
 cannot fail to be impressed with the profound wisdom 
 and justice they display. How vastly superior they 
 are to those of England, no philosophical mind can 
 deny. Indeed, we may safely affirm, that neither be- 
 fore nor since these laws were in force have men ever 
 been animated, when legislating for woman, by so 
 noble a spirit of rectitude and enlarged common sense, 
 as was that which finally obtained supremacy in the 
 Roman world.” 
 
 This is very good for our English lawyer; but had 
 he been acquainted with the ancient Brehon laws of 
 the Celts, and had he paid more consideration to the 
 Christianity foreshadowed and developed in the Celtic 
 nations, he would not have given the entire credit to a 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 
 
 127 
 
 passing race of Roman senators, but to the eternal 
 idea of justice in the Celtic soul, and the divinely in- 
 spired charity of that Christian faith which the Celts 
 embraced, and still retain. Roman justice, we shall 
 find, was revived and purified by Christianity, after it 
 had been submerged by Gothic ignorance and des- 
 potism. 
 
 Dr. Fredet (Ancient History) is of opinion that 
 Heaven granted the empire of the world to the Ro- 
 mans as a reward for their great virtues. He says, 
 “ We must acknowledge that the providence of God 
 was the primary cause of Roman greatness and pros- 
 perity. Almost from the beginning of their national 
 existence, the Romans were conspicuous for many 
 noble qualities ; during several centuries, an honorable 
 poverty and simplicity of manners, frugality, sobriety, 
 courage, patriotism, disinterestedness, respect for law, 
 fidelity to social and domestic duties, &c., were virtues 
 of no rare occurrence among them.” In a note, the 
 author says, “ Divorce was not of frequent occurrence 
 among the Romans till the latter times of the republic, 
 [when Gothic slaves and mercenaries were numerous,] 
 when corruption of manners had already made fearful 
 progress. But it was not so in the preceding ages, 
 [before they felt the Gothic and Eastern influence.] 
 Five hundred years elapsed after the building of the 
 city before any divorce took place in Rome ; the first 
 of all occurred in the year B. C. 231, and still the Ro- 
 mans were no more than a heathen people. What a 
 lesson, and what a sad rebuke, to some Christian na- 
 
128 CONDITION OP WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 tions ! ” But this is only a rebuke to the Gothic ancl 
 Saxon Christians, who look upon marriage as a mere 
 bargain, to be broken when desirable. 
 
 The history of pagan mythology shows the gradual 
 corruption of manners, and the ascendency of the 
 wicked and unchaste gods over the beneficent and 
 pure divinities. Thus the Bacchanalia was at first a 
 harmless rural ceremony, by men only, but afterwards 
 it became a sensual orgie of both sexes. 
 
 The mysteries of Ceres and her virgin train, for- 
 merly innocent and picturesque, became associated 
 with disgusting midnight debauchery. 
 
 But, in the midst of all the corruption that called 
 loudly for the birth of Christ, we may observe, that 
 these pagan Celts never lost a conscious idea of vir- 
 tue ; they never ceased to venerate the chaste goddesses 
 I have mentioned. Hercules was deified because he 
 chose the hardships and self-denial of a virtuous life 
 before the soft luxuries of vice. 
 
 Even the mob, in the worst days of Rome, respected 
 virtue. When Cato, during his censorship, came to 
 look at the Floralia, the ceremonies were suspended 
 through Rome, till he thought fit to withdraw, such 
 was the influence of virtue over the dissolute mob. 
 
 It is also to be remarked that the obscene fables re- 
 garding the gods and goddesses arose out of a fear of 
 public opinion. 
 
 These fables were invented to screen certain ladies 
 from public infamy. 
 
 While the mobs indulged in obscenities and fables, 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 129 
 
 and even ridiculed the gods in theatrical representa- 
 tions, there is no doubt that the ancient public and 
 solemn worship of the Greeks and Romans was essen- 
 tially virtuous in intention, just as, in our own day, 
 religious ceremonies and Christian doctrines are re- 
 spected and practised on Sunday, while vice and in- 
 justice rule supreme throughout the week. 
 
 Among the pagan Celts, there was always a public 
 opinion in favor of chastity and womanly dignity ; 
 there was always a chosen band of devoted virgins, 
 which we look for in vain among Christian Saxons of 
 the nineteenth century. 
 
 In the worst of their excesses, the pagan Celts were 
 far superior to these so-called Christian English. 
 
 Bossuet, Catholic Bishop of Meaux, gives great 
 praise to the ancient Greeks. He shows that they 
 had an inherent, intense, and eternal hatred of tyr- 
 anny and vice. They delighted in Homer’s poems, 
 because they celebrated the triumph of Grecian liberty 
 and virtue over Asiatic vice and despotism. u On 
 the side of Asia was Venus, that is to say, the pleas- 
 ures, idle loves, and effeminacy ; on that of Greece was 
 Juno, or, in other words, gravity, with conjugal affec- 
 tion, Mercury with eloquence, and Jupiter with wise 
 policy. With the Asiatics was Mars, an impetuous 
 and brutal deity, (whom they represented with a 
 Gothic head, the face being as broad as it was long,) 
 that is to say, war carried on with fury; with the 
 Greeks the chaste Pallas, or, in other words, the sci- 
 ence of war and valor, conducted by reason.” The 
 
130 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 Greeks made war to defend the honor of a husband, 
 and to punish wickedness. The Irish did the same, 
 when the English took up the cause of a base traitor 
 and seducer. The result has not been equally glorious, 
 but who can say that the war is ended ? 
 
 “ Still onward the green banner waving, 
 
 Go ! flesh every sword to the hilt ; 
 
 On our side is virtue and Erin, 
 
 On theirs is the Saxon and guilt.” 
 
 The Romans, like the Greeks and Milesians, fiercely 
 resisted insults to their women. Puffendorf (Universal 
 History) shows that the French were driven nine times 
 out of Italy because of their insolent familiarities with 
 the fair sex. In ancient times, the Romans often 
 owed the restoration of liberty to the same spirit. 
 The deaths of Virginia and Lucretia are among the 
 grandest scenes in human history. 
 
 From the foregoing evidence, I think we are justified 
 in concluding that the ancient Celts had a great ven- 
 eration for chastity, that our pagan mothers were so- 
 cially free and dignified, and that the Celtic woman 
 was unquestionably a purer and nobler being than was 
 to be found among any other nations of antiquity. 
 
 Eastern sensuality and northern savageism had crept 
 into Italy and Celtic Europe before the barbarians 
 effected the downfall of the empire. 
 
 The Almighty gave the Light to the world when it 
 was most needed. The blessed Virgin, the morning 
 star, shone forth when the ideas of purity and strict 
 monogamy were trampled under foot, even in Rome, 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 131 
 
 the centre of the Celtic nations. Without the sword 
 and shield of Christianity, Gothic and Tartar despot- 
 ism would have prostrated the white human race, be- 
 cause men are more powerfully affected by the ex- 
 ample of vice and violence than of peace and virtue. 
 
132 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 SLAVERY AMONG THE ANGLO-SAXONS. 
 
 The history of Christianity among the Anglo-Sax- 
 ons began with the sale of Saxon children by their 
 fathers, and it ends with the murder of English chil- 
 dren by their mothers. 
 
 We are told by the venerable Bede, that the Saxons, 
 even in the glory of triumph and prosperity of con- 
 quest over the Britons, sold their own flaxen-haired 
 children to merchants. Some of these children found 
 their way to the Roman market, and it would appear 
 that this unnatural custom of the savages was well 
 known ; that it filled the minds of the noble Romans 
 with horror, and that they considered the Saxons of 
 England as some kind of half-brute beasts, as ugly in 
 appearance as they were atrocious in character. 
 Judge, then, the surprise of the holy Gregory, who, 
 when he saw the children of A’sassans , exclaimed 
 Non Angli , sed angeli , “ Not Angles but angels.” It 
 was the surprise a facetious priest might express in 
 seeing the pretty children of cannibals, and say, “ These 
 are not Sandwichers, they are Bewitchers.” 
 
 If English writers were not so thick-headed, they 
 would cease to boast of this anecdote, which, in fact 
 brands their race with infamy. 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 133 
 
 Deira, the northern province, whence the children 
 came, was lately subjected by the Saxons. The in- 
 habitants were still mostly Britons. (Bede.) These 
 children may therefore have been of the fair-haired 
 race of old Britons in the north, described by Otesar ; 
 and if so, the Saxons need not take credit to them- 
 selves for the beauty ot the boys. If they were, as 
 Bede says they were, Saxons, then the rulers and par- 
 ents of these fine children must have been worse 
 
 than brutes to sell them. 
 
 \ 
 
 The children may have been British ; yet this would 
 not imply that the Saxons would not sell their own. 
 
 The English, now prevented from selling their babes, 
 continue to make money by butchering them in thou- 
 sands. The English historian, Hume, quoting Taci- 
 tus and others, says, “ The selling of themselves or 
 children to slavery was always the practice among 
 the German nations, and was continued among 
 the Anglo-Saxons.” (P. 163. Laics of Ince , sect. 
 11. Laics of Alfred , sect. 12. Tacitus , de Mor . 
 Germ.) 
 
 Some writers of late doubt the authenticity of this 
 “ Angli, sed angeli ” story. However, the fact remains 
 that Bede relates it, and he would not give credence to 
 such a tale if it had not been a well-known fact that 
 the Saxons were in the habit of selling their children. 
 
 The prevalence of the custom may have suggested 
 the story. The incident is said to have occurred when 
 the Saxons were their own masters, and when the 
 Saxon mothers were slaves. It is ridiculous to talk 
 
 12 
 
134 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 of the liberty and honor of German women, when we 
 know that all history presents the Saxon child as a 
 chattel, and the Saxon wife as a whipped slave. 
 
 I have already related the historic fact that there 
 were no hereditary slaves among the Irish race. But 
 there were always a class of foreigners enslaved as 
 prisoners of war, to be ransomed, like St. Patrick, but 
 they were humanely treated, as his life testifies. 
 
 While the Saxons were rampant in England, they 
 sold their own daughters and sons as slaves into Ire- 
 land. Old Irish records, especially the Book of Rights , 
 show the great extent of this traffic. 
 
 “ The nation of saints and sages ” Christianized the 
 Saxons as far as possible, and first gave them laws 
 and letters, (erroneously called old English letters.) 
 But it turned out that not even the gospel could erad- 
 icate the Saxon instincts. The Irish, even when pa- 
 gans, never enslaved their own wives and infants; 
 they never sold their own fair daughters to infamy. 
 Irish pagans were better than the so-called Saxon 
 Christians. 
 
 When the Danes had established themselves in the 
 south-eastern Irish seaports, the Saxon slave trade was 
 briskly revived. 
 
 The Irish chiefs bought the English and treated 
 them kindly ; but it was the Danish merchants and 
 pirates who seized or bought the “ live stock ” from 
 English parents or masters. The Danes conducted 
 the horrible preliminaries of the traffic. Danish ships 
 carried the round-headed wretches through the middle 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 135 
 
 passage. Lingard indorses the numerous records. 
 English and Irish testify that the Danes revived the 
 slave trade in Ireland, and that the Saxons cooperated, 
 until the French conquerors and the Irish themselves 
 put a stop to it. All the English slaves in Ireland 
 were liberated by an act of the council held in Ar- 
 magh, in 1171. (See Frontispiece .) There was no 
 compensation spoken of, because human beings were 
 held to be unlawful property in Ireland. In the pre- 
 amble of this generous deed, the Irish council takes 
 occasion to remark, however, that the enslavement 
 of the Anglo-Saxons was a just chastisement for their 
 own slavish and tyrannical habits when they were 
 still a nation ; that the English people, while yet an 
 independent kingdom, had the vice common to their 
 race, ( communi gentis vitio ,) to expose their free-born 
 for sale, and that they used to sell their relatives and 
 children to the Irish, even when they sustained no 
 wants nor privations. 
 
 Here are the words of the preamble to the act, as 
 quoted by the old English historian : — 
 
 “ Anglorum namque populus adhuc eorum integro 
 regno communi gentis vitio, liberos suos venales ex- 
 ponere, et priusquam inopiam ullam aut inediam sus- 
 tinerent Alios proprios, et cognatos in Hiberniam ven- 
 dere consueverant.” (Ex Giraldo Cambrensi , cap. 
 xxviii. — Hibernice expugnatcr , .) 
 
 Irish wills and Irish annals make copious allusions 
 to this trade in Saxons. It is, therefore, a clearly es- 
 tablished fact, that the Anglo-Saxons sold themselves 
 
J 36 CONDITION OF, WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 into slavery, until they were forcibly prevented by the 
 French rulers. The laws abolishing Saxon slavery 
 are in the French-Celtic language, and in the Latin- 
 Irish- Celtic languages. The English sold themselves 
 to the Irish until the Irish refused to buy the English. 
 
 Ireland was invaded by the Norman-French and 
 Welsh. The Saxons went there only as slaves. 
 
 Irishmen used to buy and sell English women and 
 children, but they never sold their own pure, free 
 blood. Virginians buy and sell colored people, and 
 sometimes their own hybrid offspring, but they never 
 prostitute their own wives, and sell their own pure- 
 blooded daughters, as did the Anglo-Saxons. 
 
 Hallam (Europe during the Middle Ages) says, 
 “ In England it was very common, even after the con- 
 quest, to export slaves to Ireland, till, in the reign of 
 Henry II., the Irish came to a non-importation agree- 
 ment, which put a stop to the practice.” He says in 
 a note, “William of Malmesbury accuses the Anglo- 
 Saxon nobility of selling their female servants, even 
 when pregnant by them, as slaves to foreigners.” (P. 
 102.) I hope there were not many of these Yaricos, 
 and should not perhaps have given credit to an histo- 
 rian rather prejudiced against the English, (his own 
 nation,) if I had not found too much authority for 
 the general practice. He gives, for example, the act of 
 council in London, 1102 : “ Let no one from hence- 
 forth presume to carry on that wicked traffic, by which 
 men of England have hitherto been sold like brute 
 animals.” (Wilkin 1 s Concilia .) 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 137 
 
 Bat the English disregarded these acts, and con- 
 tinued to deal in flaxen-haired slaves, until the Irish 
 put a stop to it. Hallam quotes Cambrensis on the 
 sale of Saxon children by their parents, and the well- 
 known Irish act of emancipation for Saxon slaves in 
 Ireland. Littleton, the great English law authority, 
 says that this noble conduct of the Irish seems to 
 have been designed to take away all pretext for the 
 threatened invasion of Henry II. It would appear, 
 then, that the Norman, in threatening to fillibuster 
 against a peaceful country, made pretence of freeing 
 Saxon slaves. This is like British hypocrisy at the 
 present day, in regard to negroes. If he was so zeal- 
 ous for the freedom of Saxons, why did he permit the 
 Saxons to sell themselves to the Irish ? Why did he 
 not march his forces against the drivers of white 
 slaves in Bristol? The kings of England continued 
 to enslave the Saxons until the French priests under 
 Archbishop Langton wrung Saxon emancipation and 
 Magna Charta from the tyrant crown. 
 
 If the British rulers were so zealous for the English- 
 woman’s liberty, why did they hold her in chains as a 
 beast of burden up to this our generation ? 
 
 The world can record nothing more generous than 
 the act of the Irish for the emancipation of the Saxon 
 slaves. 
 
 There is Celtic British blood in England, but the 
 Saxon, as long as he had power, never relaxed the 
 slave goad, never pitied woman. Bristol was the last 
 slave market in England, because it was convenient 
 
 12 * 
 
138 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 to Ireland; but the most Saxon and most Danish pop- 
 ulations of the east and north of England were the 
 last to quit “ selling their friends and relatives.” Dr. 
 Lingard says that “ habit and the pursuit of gain had 
 taught the Northumbrians (the most Saxon and Da- 
 nish district) to bid defiance to all the efforts of the 
 ’ legislature. Like the savages of Africa, they are said 
 to have carried off not only their own countrymen, 
 but even their friends and relatives, and to have sold 
 them as slaves in the ports of the continent. Bristol 
 agents travelled through every part of England. 
 They were instructed to give the highest price for fe- 
 males in a state of pregnancy ; and the slave ships 
 regularly sailed from that port to Ireland, where they 
 were sure of a ready and profitable market. (Lin- 
 gard, vol. i.) 
 
 Now, let this historical fact be recorded and kept in 
 mind, that the institution of indecent slave-breeding 
 was introduced by the Anglo-Saxons and Danes, and 
 that it was continued in spite of the church and the 
 government, even after the Norman conquest. 
 
 England had a great many saints, but their example 
 had little effect upon the mass of the people, who 
 never heartily loved Christianity, and who sank into 
 atheistic paganism after. the reformation. 
 
 Lingard gives ample testimony that the brutal 
 slave-breeding prevailed in the twelfth century. 
 
 Hallam (History of Middle Ages) could not credit 
 William of Malmsbury, who testifies that it prevailed 
 in the early Saxon period, until he inquired of other 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 139 
 
 authorities, such as old laws, the surest guides, and he 
 found too much authority for the general practice to 
 doubt the existence of the Yaricos. 
 
 Let that word be put upon the Anglo-Saxon mon- 
 ument ; it records their own peculiar institution. 
 
 The Irish looked upon the Anglo-Saxons exactly 
 as a Virginian now regards the Negroes. 
 
 That the Irish preferred, and gave the highest price, 
 for pregnant English females, is proof that these 
 slaves were not imported for the purposes of prostitu- 
 tion, but to serve as domestic or farm drudges. Nu- 
 merous old Irish bequests mention fair-haired Saxon 
 servants along with other property. 
 
 It is probable that the Englishmen were yoked and 
 whipped ; but to the honor of Irishmen be it said that 
 they did not dishonor their female slaves; they did 
 not systematically practise slave-breeding. They may 
 have kept on the dog’s collar with the owner’s name, 
 which the Saxons put upon each other, but there is no 
 evidence that the Irish chained and harnessed women, 
 
 OLD ENGLISH MODE OF BRANDING WOMEN. 
 
140 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 or tortured, or branded them with hot irons in the 
 English fashion. On the contrary, the Irish, when ap- 
 pealed to by their clergy, nobly emancipated the 
 whole of the Saxon slaves of the kingdom without 
 compensation . Had the French and Irish acts not 
 compelled the Saxons to abandon slavery, it is certain 
 that England would still be a market for flaxen hair 
 as well as woolly hair. 
 
 In both England and Germany, the Saxon race 
 used to sell themselves to any lord who would feed 
 them, and lead them to plunder. The numbers of 
 those who surrendered themselves as slaves, and 
 “ commended themselves to some kind lord,” was so 
 great that the German laws provided for such cases. 
 (See Kemble's Saxons in England .) 
 
 The great French philosopher, M. Guizot, may 
 despise the civilizing efforts of Christianity. He may 
 trace European liberty (where is it ?) to the Gothic 
 savages who knew no law ; but liberty under the 
 restraints of civilization, the only true liberty, could 
 never be understood by the Anglo-Saxon and Gothic 
 tribes. They are essentially flunkies, the only white 
 race that debased and sold themselves, and had to be 
 prevented from doing so. 
 
 We need not wonder at the shocking degradation 
 of the Englishwoman, when we know the enslaved 
 condition of the Englishman. 
 
 “ That Saxons of one nation (or family) made 
 slaves of the Saxons of another nation, if taken in 
 war, appears from Bede, iv. 22.” 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 141 
 
 There was a class of slaves called Ceorles, attached 
 • to the soil, and belonging to the lord’s property, like 
 the cattle ; these slaves u could not leave the spot on 
 which they were born.” But who can sound the 
 depth of Saxon thrall ? Dr. Lingard says, “ There 
 remains, however, another class of men, of still inferi- 
 or caste ; slaves in the full sense of the word, and 
 condemned to suffer the evils of bondage in its most 
 degrading' form .” But what is still more degrading, 
 the Anglo-Saxon, if poor, in order to get good feed- 
 ing, used to enslave himself The ceremony is thus 
 described : “ The unhappy man laid on the ground 
 his sword and his lance, the symbols of the free, and 
 took up the fill and the goad, the implements of 
 slavery, and falling on his knees, placed his head in 
 token of submission under the hands of his master.” 
 
 What would such a people not do, what have 
 these Saxons not done, for the sake of their god — 
 their belly ? For seven centuries the Irish sacrificed 
 their lives and fortunes, and suffered famine rather 
 than yield their God-given liberty. They perished in 
 myriads rather than sell their souls, and take the 
 proselytizing soup of perfidious Albion. 
 
 The chaining, whipping, and branding with hot 
 iron, and sale of negro girls, was in fact only the con- 
 tinuation of the practices of the Saxons upon their 
 own women. Wade says, that during the Saxon pe- 
 riod of a thousand years, this race continued in a state 
 of savageism. “ Two thirds of the people were either 
 absolute slaves, or in an intermediate state of bondage 
 
142 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 to the remaining third. They might be put in bonds 
 and whipped. They might be branded.” Turner 
 shows from the old laws that they were actually yoked. 
 “ Let every man know his team of men, of horses, 
 and of oxen.” 
 
 Cattle and slaves were called live money , “ and were 
 the medium of exchange in which the prices of com- 
 modities were estimated.” 
 
 “ The predominant crimes were of an atrocious 
 character : assassinations, female violations, the plun- 
 dering of whole towns and districts, and perjury, were 
 offences of ordinary occurrence by persons of condi- 
 tion.” “ Neither persons nor property were secure 
 from violence. And robbery from the absence of po- 
 lice was tolerated as a legitimate vocation.” I make 
 these quotations from English authors, to show what 
 must have been the condition of woman in such 
 societv. 
 
 4 / 
 
 Kemble says that “ all children bom of slaves were 
 irrevocably serfs ; but if the father was free, the child 
 •became free, unless the mother was a slave to another 
 man, when the child remained his property ; but if the 
 mother only was free, the child could not be free : 
 thus woman was not recognized in society, and had 
 virtually no freedom, until the church stepped in.” 
 We learn further that the Saxon master was entirely 
 irresponsible for his flaxen-haired slaves. “ He might 
 beat or kill them at his pleasure. If a man ran away 
 or did theft, &c., he was flogged to death ; if a 
 woman, she was burned.” 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 143 
 
 These laws prove that there was always, as there 
 still is, a surplus of slave labor in England. The ne- 
 gro is higher than the Saxon. Men do not kill or 
 starve valuable property. 
 
 Indecent slave-breeding was a profitable virtue, but 
 theft was a damnable offence, for which men were 
 flogged to death, and women burned to death. Why 
 this distinction ? 
 
 Truly these Anglo-Saxons are an eccentric race of 
 Christians. 
 
 The goad mentioned above was used to drive the 
 male and female slaves, yoked to ploughs and carts. 
 The laws refer to the u teams of horses or of men.” 
 Each Saxon slave wore an iron collar, with the own- 
 er’s name engraved thereon. 
 
 In the language of the Anglo-Saxon laws, the hus- 
 band is said to buy his wife, and her parents are said 
 to sell her. No dower was given with Saxon brides. 
 This was contrary to the Celtic custom, that put the 
 bride on an equality with the groom — another proof 
 that the savages, even after conversion, considered that 
 women were only slaves. Christianity, however, 
 ameliorated the condition of the weaker sex, and the 
 suitor was obliged to give security that “ he desired to 
 keep her according to the law of God, and as a man 
 should keep his wife.” That is to say, Saxons were 
 bound to keep their wives, not according to old Saxon 
 law, but according to God’s law, and not to prosti- 
 tute them by sale. But after all, the trading in women* 
 continued more or less, as long as the Anglo-Saxons 
 were a nation. 
 
144 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 Cromwell’s parliament ordered that all “ masterless ” 
 vagabonds should be caught, and sold in the American 
 colonies. From the earliest Saxon period, every man 
 should have a master , or owner, responsible for his acts. 
 “ Even a man of rank could not leave his land with- 
 out fulfilling certain conditions. 
 
 “ If a runaway was caught by the lord in pursuit , 
 (so called,) he was severely punished, and his harbor- 
 ers fined.” ( Kemble .) 
 
 Fugitive slave laws are therefore as old as slavish 
 Saxondom. 
 
 Women were chained and yoked, on the roads and 
 fields, up to a late date. The last remnant of this 
 slavery was in the mines ; women are yet living who 
 were thus yoked ; men are living who saw the day 
 when Saxon men and women were sold with the 
 mines, in the Saxon Lowlands and north of England. 
 (See History of Glasgow .) 
 
 Dr. Lingard says, “ It is proper to add that the sale 
 and purchase of slaves publicly prevailed during the 
 whole of the Anglo-Saxon period.” The French con- 
 querors and the Irish put a stop to it. Dr. Lingard 
 says that Bishop Wulstan persuaded the Bristol mer- 
 chants to give up the traffic in slaves for the Irish mar- 
 ket. But he conceals the fact that the Irish them- 
 selves had put a stop to it, and freed all their English 
 slaves, without asking compensation. Had the Irish 
 continued to buy, there is no doubt that the English 
 would have continued the supply of Saxon men, wo- 
 men, and children. 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 145 
 
 But when the English, after the Reformation, had 
 defied the law of Christendom, they revived their old 
 slave trade. The notorious kidnappers used to go 
 about stealing children, who were sold in other parts 
 of the kingdom, or into America, and never saw their 
 parents any more. 
 
 These English kidnappers were particularly busy 
 among the rebel Irish, who received no protection from 
 the infamous English government. Bancroft shows 
 that the English courtiers used to scramble for the vic- 
 tims, rebels, criminals, and prisoners of war. Twenty 
 thousand Scots, taken at Dunbar, were sold. The 
 English, even after solemn treaties, used to murder 
 the Irishmen that fell into their power. But Irish- 
 women, though often cruelly massacred, were gen- 
 erally sold to slavery, (see the reports of the republi- 
 can commissioners under Cromwell, who recommended 
 “ that Irishwomen be sold to merchants, and trans- 
 ported to Virginia, New England,” &c.) This was in 
 1652. A manuscript in Dr. Lingard’s possession gave 
 the total number sold at sixty thousand. Broudin, a 
 contemporary, sets it at one hundred thousand. These 
 Irishwomen got married here ; thus their Celtic names 
 have been lost, but they formed, nevertheless, the ma- 
 jority of American mothers. These ladies were 
 mostly exchanged for tobacco. About a hundred 
 years after, we find that the whole slave trade had 
 ceased, and that emigration alone prevailed. Why 
 was this ? 
 
 In one year, that of 1729, there emigrated to the 
 
 13 
 
146 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 single province of Pennsylvania no fewer than 6208 
 persons, of whom 242 were Germans, 267 English and 
 Welsh, 43 Scotch, and the remaining 5653 all, or 
 mostly, Irish. '(Wade, History of Working Classes.) 
 
 It is probable that England would have continued 
 the white slave trade, had not the invention of negro 
 slavery given a new channel for English enterprise. 
 The employment of negroes was intended by Spain 
 to Christianize the blacks, and benefit the red men, 
 who were too weak to labor. (See Bancrofts Amer- 
 ica.) But the savage English converted the enterprise 
 into the most cruel and frightful traffic that ever 
 shocked humanity. Under their virgin Queen Bess, 
 they and the Dutch monopolized the kidnapping, and 
 the horrors of the middle passage. The English gave 
 up selling flaxen-haired Saxons when they were forced 
 to it. They took up the black wool trade, and gave it 
 up too, when they were whipped out of this country. 
 They have now enslaved the Hindoos, and make them, 
 while I write this, work and pay taxes, by the most 
 cruel system of ingenious tortures that ever demons 
 conceived. (See the official Reports on Indian Affairs.) 
 The British want a monopoly of slavery, and therefore 
 they strive to free the negro. 
 
 Slavery of the most degrading kind “ existed during 
 the whole of the Anglo-Saxon period,” and was abol- 
 ished by the French and Irish. Let that be put on 
 the Pilgrim monument of the runaway slaves from 
 Saxondom. 
 
 . From a perusal of Lingard, McAuley, and others, 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 147 
 
 we learn that the most Saxon and Danish parts of 
 Great Britain, that is, the south-east of Scotland, and 
 north-east of England, continued longest in a state of 
 savageism and slavery. Lingard shows that the slave 
 trade prevailed longest in these parts, and McAuley 
 says that long after the reformation, the Saxons and 
 Danes in the north-east of England were half-naked 
 savages, who might be seen dancing a war dance and 
 brandishing their daggers, while the women squatted 
 in a circle on the ground. Will Americans, who have 
 heard so much about the free-souled, noble Anglo- 
 Saxons, believe this fact, that the parents of many of 
 the present generation of Saxon colliers were bought 
 and sold like cattle, along with the pits and the ma- 
 chinery ? I learned this from the local records, and 
 from old men, who were themselves sold in childhood, 
 in the south of Scotland, and at Newcastle-on-Tyne. 
 
 Cobbett describes the condition of woman a gen- 
 eration back in England. She was as much the slave 
 of her husband as in the days when Englishmen sold 
 their daughters to Irishmen. 
 
 It was a common thing, says Cobbett, to see wo- 
 men, half naked, working like beasts, chained to carts 
 upon the common roads in England. 
 
 In the report of Lord Ashley’s commission on the 
 Factories Bill, it appeared that there were over five 
 thousand females at work more than one thousand 
 feet under the ground, in the coal mines of the north 
 of England, (the most Saxon and Danish locality.) 
 These women were “ nearly naked, and drew trucks in 
 
148 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 harness, on all fours, like beasts of burden.” They 
 had no morals, and lived promiscuously, although men 
 claimed certain women as their wives and daughters 
 — their property. Some of these colliers were asked 
 if they knew Jesus Christ. They replied that no 
 hand of that name had ever wrought in their pit. 
 The owners of these wretched beings are the men who 
 fume, or pretend to fume, at negro slavery, while their 
 wives weep over Uncle Tom’s Cabin. 
 
 The Saxon women are now nominally free ; but God 
 knows, and the world knows, that they are now more 
 than ever the slaves of Juggernaut capital, and that, 
 if poor, they have not even yet a right to leave their 
 own parish, and that they have no liberty but to pros- 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 149 
 
 titute themselves, or starve, or go to the bastile when 
 unfit for work. 
 
 D’ Israeli, in the Sybil, thus describes the English 
 miners coming from the pits in the evening : — 
 
 “ They come forth : the mine delivers its gang, and 
 the pit its bondsmen ; the forge is silent, and the en- 
 gine is still. The plain is covered with the swarming 
 multitude : bands of stalwart men, broad-chested and 
 muscular, wet with toil, and black as the children of 
 the tropics ; troops of youth — alas ! of bottr sexes — 
 though neither their raiment nor their language indi- 
 cates the difference ; all are clad in male attire ; and 
 oaths that men might shudder at issue from lips born 
 to breathe words of sweetness. Yet these are to be 
 — some are — the mothers of England! But can we 
 wonder at the hideous coarseness of their language, 
 when we remember the savage rudeness of their lives ? 
 Naked to the waist, an iron chain, fastened to a belt 
 
 ENGLISH WOMAN AND CHILD IN A COAL PIT. 
 
 13 * 
 
150 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 of leather, runs between their legs clad in canvas trou- 
 sers, while on hands and feet, an English girl, for 
 twelve, sometimes for sixteen hours a day, hauls and 
 hurries tubs of coals up subterranean roads, dark, pre- 
 cipitous, and plashy — circumstances that seem to 
 have escaped the notice of the society for the abolition 
 of negro slavery. Those worthy gentlemen, top, ap- 
 pear to have been singularly unconscious of the suf- 
 ferings of the little trappers, which was remarkable, as 
 many of them were in their own employ. 
 
 “ See, too, these emerge from the bowels of the 
 earth! Infants of four and five years of age, many 
 of them girls, pretty, and still soft and timid; in- 
 trusted with the fulfilment of most responsible duties, 
 and the nature of which entails on them the necessity 
 of being the earliest to enter the mine, and the latest 
 to leave it. Their labor, indeed, is not severe, for that 
 would be impossible, but it is passed in darkness and 
 in solitude. They endure that punishment which 
 philosophical philanthropy has invented for the direst 
 criminals, and which those criminals deem more terri- 
 ble than the death for which it is substituted.” 
 
 There are many good-hearted English ; but the 
 English alone, from their long practice in driving their 
 own Anglo-Saxon women as beasts of burden, — -the 
 English alone, from their long practice in whipping 
 their own white slaves, (like Gurth, the swine-herd, 
 with iron dog collars on their necks,) — knew how to 
 make negro slavery atrocious and inhuman. They 
 who used to strip and whip their own women, had 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 151 
 
 little compunction in exposing naked negro girls in 
 the Liverpool markets, and branding them with red 
 hot irons. In a recent History of Liverpool, these 
 atrocities are pointed out — obscene cruelties covered 
 over with the usual English canting hypocrisy. Here 
 is an extract from one of their bills of lading : 
 “ Shipped, by the grace of God, in good order and 
 
 well conditioned, by James , in and upon the 
 
 good ship the Mary Borough, &c., twenty-four prime 
 slaves, six women slaves, being marked and numbered 
 
 BRANDING WOMEN IN THE LIVERPOOL SLAVE MARKET. 
 
 (with hot irons) as in the margin (on the right buttock 
 o o) and are to be delivered in like good order, &c., 
 and so God send the good ship to her destined port in 
 safety. Dated at Senegal, 1st February, 1786.” 
 
152 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AM1JNG 
 
 “ Liverpool has been a stronghold of the anti-slavery 
 societies of late. But its foundation was laid in the 
 slave trade ; 4 the Goree Piazza ’ and other streets 
 remain monuments of the fact till this day. Cooke 
 said, 4 Every stone in its walls was cemented with the 
 blood of plundered Africans!’ And this is the town 
 that cants most against Americans holding slaves.” 
 [Rath drum.) 
 
 Mrs. Stowe has drawn the portrait of a true Saxon 
 Goth — the brute Legree. Short and broad, with a 
 revolting aspect, round bullet head, light gray eyes, 
 with thin, shaggy, sandy eyebrows, stiff, wiry, sun- 
 burnt hair, large, coarse mouth, hands immensely 
 large, hairy, sun-burnt, freckled, and very dirty, and 
 garnished with long nails, in a very foul condition. 
 
 It is such Anglo-Saxons who have made slavery a 
 revolting and inhuman institution. Wherever there is 
 the blood of the Goths, be assured there is inhuman- 
 ity, savageism. 
 
 On the contrary, where we find a preponderance of 
 Celtic blood, as in Louisiana, (which is a heaven for 
 the black man, compared with Massachusetts, where 
 free negroes are treated like dogs,) the negro slave is 
 honored and happy, compared with the Anglo-Saxon 
 pauper or menial of the English household. 
 
 In Louisiana, there are many humane laws in favor 
 of the black. For example, no master dare sell or 
 separate the mother from the child, as 44 the guardians 
 of the poor ” do in England. 
 
 44 In New Orleans lately, a man named Hunter has 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 153 
 
 been sentenced to pay a fine of a thousand dollars, 
 undergo an imprisonment of six months, and forfeit 
 certain slaves, whom he illegally sold in such a man- 
 ner as to separate the mother from the children, con- 
 trary to the laws of Louisiana.” ( New Orleans Delta.) 
 
 In as far as Americans are more Celtic, they are 
 more humane than the English. Always appreciating 
 the large class of benevolent people in England, — 
 we must remember that that country is notorious 
 among the nations for philanthropic jobbing, and a 
 singular mixture of brutality and Bible hypocrisy. 
 The English slave-drivers, who left here a negro legacy, 
 having stolen the negroes and used them, they created 
 a politico-religious party, to pay for the West India 
 slaves. 
 
 Thus the cunning rascals pocketed the price of their 
 stolen property, and the negroes remained in a worse 
 condition than ever. How different the emancipation 
 of the Saxon slaves in Ireland ! 
 
 I cannot here discuss the slave question, and God 
 forbid that I should hide the cruelties of American 
 slave-drivers. I only remind the reader of the pal- 
 pable fact, that the negro woman and child under 
 Celtic control in^ America, is superior to the Saxon 
 woman and child under the English poor law guar- 
 dians. In nearly all the slave states, the natural bonds 
 are respected. Paganism is not so prevalent among 
 the negroes as it is among the English, even of Lon- 
 don, where, as Mayhew says, “ there is no honor 
 attached to marriage.” 
 
154 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 Here disabled and aged negroes can claim, and do 
 receive, a comfortable support as long as they live. 
 They are not imprisoned, insulted, herded and fed like 
 swine, as English women are. 
 
 But, after all, it is said liberty is sweet, and the 
 English widow, orphan, and aged mechanic can go 
 where they please. That is a lie. An English pau- 
 per dares no more leave his own parish, than a Negro 
 dares leave his master’s plantation. English vagrants, 
 as they call their runaway slaves, are dragged back as 
 felons, and punished with the tread-mill. 
 
 Negro slaves have short hours of work ; they have 
 time to earn money for themselves, and purchase their 
 freedom — the master not daring to refuse the price. 
 All the slaves are comfortable, well fed and housed ; 
 most of them have a little saved. Some of them are 
 rich ; but this naturally slavish and feeble-minded race 
 prefer the protection of “ kind massa,” who is respon- 
 sible for them in sickness or old age. 
 
 Negro criminals are punished far less severely than 
 the transported felons of England. Her slavish sol- 
 diers and sailors are still under the dog-lash and cat- 
 tail. It is only lately that they ceased to lash naked 
 white women. 
 
 Negro women, under Celtic influence, are superior to 
 English menials. The black nurse under an Ameri- 
 can roof is musical, religious, affectionate, and untir- 
 ing in playfulness and attention to her little charge. 
 But the unmusical, matter-of-fact, utilitarian English 
 mother looks coldly through her white eyelashes at 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 155 
 
 her child, while perhaps the ideas of an ogress or an 
 economist darken her mind. 
 
 The title u Uncle ” Tom gives the lie to the spirit 
 of that work. Do English children respect their ser- 
 vants, calling them “ Uncle ” and “ Aunt ? ” No ! 
 even the English governess, more accomplished than 
 her mistress, is treated like a spaniel. The black 
 nurse, the “ Aunt,” rules the children, and sometimes 
 the whole house. 
 
 There are many joyous, virtuous women among the 
 English, but the nation is not so humane, nor so 
 truthful, nor so Celtic, as America. Americans do not 
 mock their slaves by telling them that they are free. 
 New England, it is true, is the most Saxonized part 
 of America, and most resembles Old England in fe- 
 rocity, selfish intolerance, and Bible hypocrisy. “ The 
 day comes,” said General Dearborn, lately, u when we 
 must massacre the foreigners, or make them our 
 slaves.” This is the sentiment of the Anglo-Saxon 
 party who lately murdered foreign men and women, 
 and “ spattered their dead bodies with the brains of 
 their infants.” (See the Louisville inquests, where it 
 appears that the savage leaders were Anglo- Orange 
 men.) If we wanted any proof that New England is 
 the most Saxonized part of the States, we have it in 
 the fact that she has hatched and propagated Know- 
 nothingism and Mormonism. 
 
 In New England, there is a large element of benev- 
 olence, as there is in Old England. But the element 
 of scoundrelism has always predominated in that 
 
156 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 thriving country. Organized hypocrisy sends fire and 
 sword to rob and murder, to fillibuster — that is, to 
 Christianize and protect weak nations. The reader 
 knows what British protection means. Jobbing phi- 
 lanthropy moves heaven and earth to evangelize and 
 liberate every race but that within its power. 
 
 The English make an everlasting boast that they 
 are utilitarians — a practical, common-sense people ; 
 political economists, who subject even the human 
 commodity to the law of supply and demand. It is 
 interesting to trace the growth of this Englishism 
 from the early germs of Saxon institutions, when the 
 Saxons were savages, without trade or commerce ; and 
 when their slave market was dull, they killed off* the 
 surplus children. Allow the English once more to sell 
 their children — then, and only then, they will cease 
 abolitionizing and child-murdering. We may suppose 
 that the pope’s laws against infanticide were respected 
 when, and only when, the slave market revived, when 
 the demand increased, and when it became expedient 
 even to breed Yaricos, just as the pope’s laws against 
 this slave-selling were obeyed, when, and only when, 
 the demand ceased, in 1171. But it revived again 
 when the Gothic race in England and the continent 
 protested against any more Popish interference ; when 
 English kidnappers, like their Saxon forefathers, 
 prowled about like beasts of prey ; when rovalists 
 scrambled for the enslaved Presbyterians and Papists ; 
 when Cromwell sold ship-loads of Irishwomen into 
 America, and when Puritans butchered hundreds of 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 157 
 
 virgins, and cut out babies from their mothers, who 
 would not yield to heresy; when Anglo-Saxonism 
 was most rampant, then slave-selling and witch-burn- 
 ing were most prosperous. 
 
 The white skin trade declined only when the trade 
 in black wool offered a more profitable speculation. 
 By negro-selling, England made that wealth which 
 enabled her to enslave India. When she was whipped 
 out of America, she got the fools to pay for her West 
 India negroes, and she has striven to liberate negroes 
 here in order that she may have a monopoly of slave 
 labor in India. Is English power to last ? Has the 
 nature of the Saxon changed ? Will moral force con- 
 vert him ? 
 
 14 
 
158 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE ANGLO-SAXON NATION NEVER QUITE CHRIS- * 
 
 TIANIZED. 
 
 Dr. Lingard describes the Saxons as warlike sava- 
 ges, who considered labor disgraceful and robbery hon- 
 orable. “ They consigned the culture of their lands 
 and the care of their flocks to the meaner labor of wo- 
 men and slaves ; ” the women and the slaves being 
 held in the same category. 
 
 We have seen that the Roman missioners, knowing 
 the atrocious character of the Saxons, considered it a 
 desperate and hopeless task to attempt their conver- 
 sion by pure moral force. St. Augustine found it very 
 difficult to induce a party to go with him to Britain. 
 When they landed, they were received by King Ethel- 
 bert and his queen, Berta, a Christian Frenchwoman. 
 By her influence the king was baptized, and of course 
 the mass of Saxon savages and slaves were ordered 
 to be baptized, to the number of ten thousand, in the 
 little kingdom of Essex. But they repeatedly revolted, 
 and were in fact only Christians in name. By the 
 laws of this same King Ethelbert, it was ordained that 
 “ any one who committed adultery with his neighbor’s 
 wife was obliged to pay him a fine, and buy him an- 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 159 
 
 other wife.” (La ivs of the Anglo-Saxons, published 
 by Lambert and Wilkins.) 
 
 Dr. Lingard, being a Catholic priest, is excused for 
 passing over such facts. He acknowledges that ex- 
 traordinary indulgences, not extended to other races, 
 *were necessary to the Anglo-Saxon savages. 
 
 On the other hand, Protestant historians write as if 
 the priests alone were vicious, and the whole tenor of 
 their arguments would go to prove that the Saxon 
 savages were a very noble and virtuous people until 
 debased by Christian doctrine and example. Such 
 stupid falsehoods are peculiarly English. The truth is, 
 and the key to English history is, the fact that preach- 
 ing the gospel to Saxons was casting pearls to swine. 
 
 It 'will not mend the matter to say that the Saxon 
 is a white man. There are fair-haired Finnish races 
 in North Europe and Asia, who are physically and 
 morally as low as the Negro, not to mention the brutal 
 Beshkirs and red-haired Kaisacs, who hospitably lend 
 their wives to travellers for a consideration. ( W. 
 Tooke .) Calling the Saxon a Caucasian will not 
 alter the shape of his head, nor change the nature of 
 his savage heart. In filibustering, robbery, and mur- 
 der, and ruling by brute force, the Saxon will always 
 master the Negro. 
 
 But in all the attributes that distinguish the man 
 from the brute, such as docility, benevolence, religious 
 fervor, love of music, love of children, the Negro sur- 
 passes the Saxon. 
 
 The great historian, M. Guizot, compares the condi- 
 
1G0 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 tion of the ancient Germans and the modern savages 
 in various parts of the world. He says, — 
 
 “ You will be astonished at the resemblance between 
 the manners of the Germans and those of the more 
 modern barbarians — a resemblance which sometimes 1 
 extends into details, where one would not have had 
 the slightest idea of finding it.” He makes twenty- 
 one parallels between the Germans and other barba- 
 rians. 
 
 So it is in comparative anatomy of the Gotho-Ger- 
 mans, Saxons, Kalmucks, red men, and Hottentots. 
 These have a resemblance in anatomical details where 
 one would not have had the slightest idea of find- 
 ing it. 
 
 The venerable Bede gives the correspondence x^hich 
 St. Augustine held with the pope regarding the Anglo- 
 Saxon converts, and it proves that these savages had 
 most filthy customs ; that they had no ideas of that 
 chastity, and the rites of purification, &c., which 
 were found among the pagan Celts. 
 
 In order to explain the philosophy of their history, 
 we must always bear in mind that the Angles and 
 Saxons were from the most outlandish and savage 
 tribes of the Gothic race, inferior to the Germans on 
 the Rhine, described by Tacitus. Their subsequent 
 history proves this : they did come from the far north. 
 
 We find them acting like heathens after they made a 
 pretence of Christianity. 
 
 Eadbald, the second Christian king, fell in love with 
 and married his own mother-in-law; and he and his 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 
 
 161 
 
 whole people immediately returned to idolatry. The 
 history of the entire Saxon period is little better than 
 a succession of scandalous and murderous crimes in 
 the rulers. What must have been the state of the 
 people ? Pregnant Saxon women were proffered in 
 ithe slave market in certain cases. It is therefore 
 doubtful whether marriage was recognized among the 
 lowest class of Saxon slaves, any more than it is now 
 ii among the Negro slaves. When the Irish and Roman 
 missioners had died out and the Saxons were left to 
 themselves, they seem to have relapsed into a half-pa- 
 gan state. King Alfred describes the awful demoral- 
 ization of the country, and the ignorance of the native 
 clergy. Wade (History of the Working Classes) 
 shows that in the Saxon period, “ so little delicacy was 
 there in the relations of the sexes that societies for 
 promiscuous intercourse, of the nature of those found 
 in the Polynesian Islands, were common, and the 
 utility of the marriage institute scarcely recognized.” 
 Free-loveism is not a modern Anglo-Saxon develop- 
 ment. 
 
 The Anglo-Saxons, all along up to the twelfth cen- 
 tury, practised brutal slave-breeding for the foreign 
 market.. 
 
 We have already seen that numerous localities in 
 !“ Christian ” England had an infamous notoriety, like 
 Sodom and Gomorrah. 
 
 Infanticide always prevailed in England, as we find 
 by the laws of the church and the state regarding this 
 crime. (See Kemble’s Saxons in England .) 
 
 14 * 
 
162 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 The Christian church wages eternal war against 
 the selfish instincts and animal passions of man in all 
 nations within her pale. Her priests have to baptize 
 and begin their work anew with every new generation. 
 But in Celtic nations, virtue, through parental example, 
 became, as it were, hereditary. In the Gothic tribes, 
 Christianity held only a life tenure. “ Heathen prac- 
 tices remained in spite of the Christian missions. 
 The Christian Franks, when they invaded Italy, of- 
 fered human sacrifices. The martyrs suffered for their 
 4 Papal aggressions ’ on the good old Gothic laws. As 
 late as the twelfth century, (while the English were 
 still breeding and selling slaves,) the clergy in Germany 
 were still occupied in eradicating the remains of 
 heathenism.” ( B . Thorpe on Northern Mythology .) 
 
 Muller, the German historian, relates how Christi- 
 anity received the strongest opposition from the Sax- 
 
 * 
 
 ons in Germany. We know that Charlemagne had 
 to beat them into at least a toleration of Christianity. 
 
 I do not mean to deny that the Anglo-Saxons pro- 
 duced saints. I believe that a divine and miraculous 
 power converted many Saxons into Christians ; but I 
 do deny that the Anglo-Saxon race at large have ever 
 yet been Christianized. (See Antiquities of the Anglo- 
 Saxon Church .) 
 
 Seeing their barbarous condition during the Heptar- 
 chy, and up to the period of the conquest and French 
 settlement, it would be a gross insult upon Christian- 
 ity and the Catholic church to say that the Anglo- 
 Saxons were Christians, much less saints. The 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 163 
 
 bloody ordeals and brutal customs of their old pagan- 
 ism which they persisted in, their indecent slave-breed- 
 ing, and their inhuman treatment and sale of their 
 wives and children, during the middle ages, form a 
 striking contrast to the Celtic nations of Christians. 
 While England shone with saints and noble institu- 
 tions, the mass of slaves and tyrants remained in a 
 half-pagan state. This was fully proved at the period 
 of the reformation. 
 
 The shocking account that history presents of the 
 condition of the ancient Saxons would appear fabu- 
 lous, if we had not the daily evidence that the English 
 have still sanguinary and incestuous propensities, un- 
 known in other civilized nations. 
 
 In his History of England, Dr. Lingard is more free 
 in exposing the Saxon character ; but even there he 
 passes lightly over some of the most disgraceful fea- 
 tures of Saxonism. Some of these I must notice as 
 smoothly as possible. 
 
 One can hardly touch English morality with tongs ; 
 but we cannot appreciate the priceless jewel of Chris- 
 tian faith, without contrasting it with the swinish con- 
 dition of the Goth. 
 
 “ The Saxon kings at first exercised rights over 
 marriage,” says Kemble ; but gradually, as Christian- 
 ity prevailed, the connubial sacrament was emanci- 
 pated from Gothic rule. 
 
 This has reference to a peculiarly Gothic institution 
 which the noble Anglo-Saxons preserved in a certain 
 shape through their period of power. 
 
164 CONDITION OF WOMEN ANI) CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 Both on the continent and in England, the Gothic 
 lords used to pick and choose concubines from among 
 the daughters of their vassals. The girls were usually 
 carried off by force to the castle dens. The Anglo- 
 Saxons recognized the rights and privileges of their 
 lords over the peasant maidens and brides, after such 
 rights had ceased to exist on the continent. 
 
 Dr. Lingard mentions, but seems ashamed to ex- 
 plain the nature of, the old English custom called ger - 
 sume , or merchetce mulierum . This was a fine which 
 the kings exacted for waiving their ancient right to the 
 person of the bride of any dependent, on the night of 
 marriage. The church evidently had only been able 
 to check this iniquity by allowing the tyrants to exact 
 a ransom for the bride. 
 
 Spelman (in voc. Maritcig ) quotes the Doomsday 
 Book , regarding the same custom, and the fines exact- 
 ed according to the rank of the bride. This base 
 flunkyism prevailed in all ranks. The charters grant- 
 ed by Henry I. and King John show that the ancient 
 Saxon custom was still prevalent, the Norman French 
 having continued such native institutions as afforded 
 profit. The Saxons and Danes introduced this custom 
 into South Scotland. Buchanan explains its nature, 
 and Boece says that a mark of silver was the compen- 
 sation demanded by the king for the bride. Low-born 
 brides were ransomed from the nobles for less sums. 
 
 The gersume appears first in Scotland after the ar- 
 rival of Queen Margaret and the Saxon plantation in 
 the Lowlands. 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 165 
 
 McPerson (Dissertations, &c.) says that from its to- 
 tal absence among the Celtic clans “ it may be inferred 
 that the old Scots [of the Lowlands] stood obliged to 
 their neighbors [the English] for the Merclietce Mull - 
 erumP 
 
 If you want to get right at the bottom of English 
 history, you must not rely altogether upon native 
 English historians. The Scotchman Buchanan gives 
 the real explanation of the gersume , and the indecent 
 liberty which it gave to the lord over the daughters and 
 brides of the Saxon vassals. According to Livingston’s 
 (another Scotchman) quotations, the disgusting power 
 was exercised by the Danes after it had been converted 
 into a fine or ransom for the bride among the Saxons. 
 The English allowed the Danish conquerors a privi- 
 lege which had anciently existed among themselves. 
 Dr. Lingard, oil other points kiost profound, merely 
 glances over this custom, after it had been abolished by 
 Christianity, and a ransom for the female substituted. 
 He says, — 
 
 u There is reason to believe that the Saxon, like the 
 Norman kings, (and their example was probably imi- 
 tated by inferior lords,) claimed occasionally the ward- 
 ship of heiresses, and disposed of them in marriage. 
 The laws, though their language is not sufficiently 
 explicit, seem to allude to such a custom. They pro- 
 vide that no maid or widow shall be compelled to 
 marry against her will, and very inconsistently forbid 
 the female to be sold in marriage, while they allow a 
 present to be accepted [by the lord] from her husband.” 
 
166 CONDITION OF 'WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 Now, these laws prove that Saxon women had been 
 compelled to marry against their will, and in obedience 
 to the king or lord ; and that Saxon women had been 
 sold in marriage, and the ransom given by the hus- 
 band to the lord, points to the old pagan power of the 
 lord over the person of the bride, which power was 
 restored, for a time, by the pagan Danes. 
 
 The principle of the gersume still exists among 
 some of the primitive cousins of the Saxon in the 
 north. (See W. Tooke's Travels , and C. L . Brace's 
 Norse Folk,) 
 
 AN ANGLO-SAXON TAKING IIIS PROPERTY TO MARKET. 
 
 A worthy gentleman on the Topographical Survey 
 told a friend of mine that he witnessed an instance 
 of it among the Germans of Pennsylvania. The 
 public sale of a wife with a halter round her can still 
 be seen occasionally in England ; and we shall find 
 evidence that the sale of the wife’s honor is still a 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 167 
 
 common English practice. Sweet memorials of an- 
 cient usage ! 
 
 No converted nation made slower progress in 
 Christianity than the Anglo-Saxons. As late as the 
 Danish invasion, we find them easily yielding to gen- 
 tile pollution and debasement. In every Celtic country 
 we see the principle of 66 death before dishonor,” arid 
 crowds of heroic, unflinching martyr maidens butch- 
 ered. The infanticidal Englishwomen alone submit- 
 ted to infamy. The Englishman alone has system- 
 atically yielded up the honor of his wife or daughter 
 through fear or avarice. There were crowds of holy 
 nuns and priests in England who suffered martyrdom, 
 it is true ; but the people, the nation at large, that na- 
 tion that afterwards crawled to the brutal Harry and 
 the bastard Bess, that nation submitted to the most 
 infamous debasement — the dishonor of their women. 
 The Saxons were any thing but deficient in courage ; 
 but they were a base, selfish race, and they did not 
 think enough of their women to sacrifice their lives 
 for them. What could be expected from a nation of 
 white slave-breeders, who trafficked in their own flesh 
 and blood, and who were always glad of a good mar- 
 ket for their women ? The reader of history knows 
 that the Gothic tribes never respected the helpless 
 women of the conquered. The pagan Saxons who 
 came into Britain, and who fought against Charle- 
 magne, w r ere peculiarly brutal. This same race, in a 
 nominally Christian state, we find crouching under 
 pagan barbarism, and shutting their eyes to the Da- 
 
168 CONDITION OP WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 nish pollutions in their own houses. Livingston, of 
 Glasgow, would even make it appear that the Danes 
 took every infernal plan to degrade the English, and 
 that these pagans used to dishonor English wives and 
 daughters in the presence of their husbands and broth- 
 ers, who should have defended them with their lives. 
 
 This looks like exaggeration ; but there is even a 
 worse feature authenticated in English history. When 
 the English, under the Celto-educated Alfred, and the 
 Celtic heroes of Devonshire and Cornwall, had broken 
 the Danish power, the Saxon nobles and gentry kept 
 bands of Danish mercenaries. These pagans were 
 distinguished from the English gentry by their cleanly 
 habits, bathing, changing their clothes, and combing 
 their hair. “ By all these arts of effeminacy, as well 
 as by their military character, they rendered themselves 
 so agreeable to the fair sex, that they debauched the 
 . { wives and daughters of the English, and dishonored 
 many families.” ( Wallingford and other old English 
 . writers quoted by Hume.) 
 
 We can believe that “ the English wore dogs’ col- 
 lars, and did eat dirt,” under the rampant Danish con- 
 querors, when we find^Saxon princes and gentry al- 
 lowing their own mercenaries to convert their houses 
 into brothels. The English actually submitted to 
 this, because they valued woman’s honor lightly ; but 
 when they discovered these Danes plotting with the 
 enemy, then they treacherously murdered them when 
 they were bathing. 
 
 The so-called Saxon Christians were little better 
 
 * 
 
 V 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 169 
 
 than the Danish pagans ; and they were not so clean- 
 ly. They put the Danes to death by torture, and 
 spared neither sex nor age. 
 
 “ Even Gunilda, sister to the King of Denmark, 
 who had married Earl Paling, and had embraced 
 Christianity, was, by the advice of Edrick, Earl of 
 Wiltz, seized and condemned to death by Ethelred, 
 after seeing her husband and children butchered be- 
 fore her face.” As every historian knows, this is but 
 an average sample of incidents that track the whole 
 Anglo-Saxon period. 
 
 The Saxons were treacherous, fierce, and sanguina- 
 ry, when their property was in danger, but lambs of 
 Christian resignation when only their wives’ and 
 daughters’ honor was at stake. 
 
 It was the Devonshire and Welsh Celts who stoutly 
 and successfully resisted the Danes, and gave men and 
 moral courage to King Alfred. 
 
 The Irish resisted the Danish hosts, and finally 
 drove them out. The Irish suffered death before dis- 
 honor to their women. The Danish King Turgesius 
 demanded select virgins for himself and chieftains; 
 they expected, of course, that the Irish would comply, 
 as the Saxons had done. But instead of young ladies, 
 a band of handsome young Irishmen went in female 
 attire, and slew Turgesius and his Danish libertines. 
 The Gothic hosts were soon routed, and the Emerald 
 Isle freed from their disgusting presence. 
 
 At the reformation, the county of Devonshire was 
 particularly prominent in its opposition to the new 
 
 15 
 
170 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 state church, and the new married clergy, who seized 
 the inheritance of the poor. And it was not until the 
 unarmed peasantry were subdued by those mercenary 
 German bayonets, ever at the service of despots, that 
 the law church was established among the most Celtic 
 people of England. 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 171 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 SAVAGEISM OF ANGLO-SAXON LEGISLATION. 
 
 As the Anglo-Saxons, Germans, and Dutcho-Irish 
 Orangemen converted the blessed gospel of peace 
 into a bloody Koran and penal code against Papists, so 
 they made the image of the Virgin worthy only of a 
 niche in hell. They made an instrument of torture 
 which outwardly represented the blessed Mother. 
 
 This machine opened out in front, and was inside 
 
 'tip 
 
 studded with sharp spikes to pierce the eyes, heart, 
 &c., of the victim. When a condemned man was 
 put into the embrace of the Virgin, it closed upon 
 him, piercing him to death. This, in the ghastly wit 
 of the Goth, was called “ the Virgin's kiss." 
 
 We must look into the history of Germany and 
 of England for the origin of the most cruel tortures 
 of Protestants upon Catholics, and Catholics upon 
 Protestants. 
 
 Even in Spain and Italy, the worst atrocities of the 
 Inquisition may be traced to the influx of Moorish and 
 Gothic- Austrian blood and influence. The Celtic na- 
 tions, even in paganism, were not bloo^' minded. 
 
 From the early persecutions of Christians by Diocle- 
 tian and the other Gothic rulers and mercenaries to the 
 latest murders in the name of Christ by Orangemen, 
 
172 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 we can perceive the taint of Gothic blood. Christian 
 chivalry itself, originated by Celtic Christians, became 
 a demoniacal institution in the hands of the Teutonic 
 Knights. 
 
 You, Anglo-Saxons, and Dutchmen, and Danes, are 
 the descendants of the savages who were anciently 
 infamous in Europe for massacring sucking infants, 
 and tossing them from spear-top to spear-top. “ Jam 
 pueros sursum jactatos lancearum acumine susceperunt .” 
 
 THE OLD SCANDINAVIAN BANNER. MODE OF TREATING ENEMY’S CHIL- 
 DREN BY GOTHS, SAXONS, AND OTHER CARNIVOROUS SAVAGES. 
 
 The Gothic ancestors of the race that now execrate 
 nuns, degrade mothers, and strangle their own chil- ; 
 dren, used, like wild beasts, to tear open pregnant 
 women, drag the infants from the womb, and raise 
 them on spear-tops — “ Parvuli a matrum uberibus 
 
 [H. Hunt , p. 347.) 
 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHI£, AND OTHER NATIONS. 173 
 
 avulsiy aut lanceis excipiuntur .” [Roger de Hoveden , 
 
 p. 431.) 
 
 The same horrors, the same Saxon ways of respect- 
 ing helpless women, were enacted also in Ireland as 
 late as the sixteenth century, not by the Norman 
 French, but by the low, Saxonized Puritan ruffians 
 under Cromwell, the enemies of God and of the Irish. 
 (See O’ Conne IPs Memoir on Ireland, for the original 
 authorities, and Meehan's edition of The Geral- 
 dines .) 
 
 These horrible accounts of Saxon bloodthirstiness 
 and brutality towards Irish women, and British 
 women, would be altogether incredible, had we not 
 the unquestionable authority of English history itself, 
 regarding the treatment of Anglo-Saxon women by 
 their own protectors. 
 
 It is an historical fact that the English rulers, dur- 
 ing the American war of independence, used regular- 
 ly to receive large packages of scalps of American 
 men, women, and children, and even of babies “ cut 
 out of their mothers’ bellies.” The scalps were regu- 
 larly marked with hieroglyphics, to show the sex, the 
 age, and the manner in which the victims were slaugh- 
 tered. Yet this violating of virgins, this slaughtering 
 of women, and tearing of infants from their mothers’ 
 wombs, was knowingly encouraged and paid for by 
 the highest class of Englishmen in the eighteenth 
 century. 
 
 * Colonel Schaffher has been the last to call attention 
 to this fact. He gives a copy of one list of scalps, 
 
 15* 
 
? 
 
 OLD ENGLISH MODE OF EXECUTING A WOMAN FOR TREASON. 
 
 * 
 
 The English method of execution for high treason, 
 &c., was to half hang the victim, to cut him down, 
 strip him, and while yet alive to rip up his bowels, 
 drag out the heart and entrails, and fling them into a 
 fire. The body was then divided into four quarters 
 and parboiled, the head stuck on a pole, and the 
 quarters hung up in various parts of the city. 
 
 174 CONDITION OF WOMEN A^D CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 taken from the original document. (See the New 
 York Herald , Jan. 20, 1856.) 
 
 Contrast the German brutality of George III, who 
 presided over these horrors, and the Celtic genius of 
 the sublime Burke, who protested against them. 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 175 
 
 Women, as well as men, were thus executed for 
 high treason. 
 
 During a famine among the English settlers in Vir- 
 ginia, one of them killed his wife, salted her, and had 
 part of her eaten before it was known, for which he 
 was executed. 
 
 The English allowed the Indians in their service — 
 the Mohegans — to torture their prisoners. One was 
 torn asunder by fastening one leg to a post and tying 
 a rope to tl\e other, by which they pulled. 
 
 On one occasion the Puritans treacherously slaugh- 
 tered and burned alive about six hundred men, women, 
 and children. Increase Mather says, “ This day we 
 brought six hundred Indian souls to hell.” 
 
 Hubbard says that the English allowed the Indians 
 to torture prisoners to death, “ lest by a denial they 
 might disoblige their Indian friends ; partly, also, that 
 they might have an ocular demon: nation of the sav- 
 age, barbarous cruelty of the heathen.” The English 
 also introduced the beheading and quartering of trai- 
 tors, that is, the Indian chiefs who fought to save their 
 homes and families. 
 
 I have made some extracts from Irish history, exhib- 
 iting the manner in which the English used to treat a 
 fallen foe ; fallen, in most cases, through confidence in 
 the treaties and the honor of the Sassanach. No 
 wonder that this word, Saxon , came to signify all that 
 is perfidious and fiendish. Irishmen were usually 
 murdered by drowning, hanging, or shooting, after 
 treaties guaranteeing safe conduct. One Englishman 
 
176 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 invited the Irish gentry to dinner, and after they 
 arose from table, had them hanged, “and caused 
 their heads to be broken with hatchets before execu- 
 tion.” Some are murdered in their beds : other poor 
 fellows are asked to dig a pit; it is their graves. 
 One treacherous Englishman asks his Irish guide to 
 blow into his pistol, and so shoots him dead. In many 
 cases there is a wholesale slaughter of women and 
 children smothered in caves or hacked to pieces, in- 
 fants’ brains dashed out against the wall, thousands 
 burned alive in woods, old people burned in their 
 houses, individuals roasted, men emasculated and 
 blinded, women’s breasts cut off, soldiers surrendering 
 on quarter being disarmed and treacherously murdered, 
 and the hearts of some of them pulled out and put 
 into their mouths. (See O'ConnelVs Memoir , Val- 
 laneey , See.) 
 
 The English aie ever saying, “ We are not as our 
 savage fathers were.” When Smith O’Brien and T. 
 F. Meagher were condemned for high treason, — that 
 is, for attempting to save the poor expiring people 
 from the hellish jaws of England, — these traitors 
 were sentenced to be hanged, drawn, and quartered, 
 and their remains disposed of according to the pleas- 
 ure of her sacred majesty. She might hang them up 
 to dry, or make soup or sausages of them, as best 
 pleased her royal *xvhim. John Bull’s fear of a re- 
 bellion and of depreciating stocks prevented him from 
 carrying his savage design into execution. 
 
 The laws of the Anglo-Saxons, like those of other 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 177 
 
 carnivora, were most cruel and diabolical. When the 
 Goths overran the empire, and even after their tribes 
 were nominally Christianized, it required the whole 
 power of the church to save the people from the tor- 
 tures of the Saxon executive. 
 
 The Peace of God and the asylums from law indi- 
 cate the fiendish spirit of the Gothic judicature. The 
 greatest punishment that the church could inflict upon 
 a rebellious child was to drive him forth, to excommu- 
 nicate him, to hand him over to the civil law, which 
 was tantamount to giving him up to demons. Half 
 
 OLD ENGLISH MODE OF PUNISHING WOMEN BY MUTILATING EYES, 
 NOSE, MOUTH, AND EARS, AND BY AMPUTATIONS. 
 
 hanging, disembowelling alive, quartering, amputation 
 of hands and feet, scalping, putting out the eyes with 
 hot irons, cutting off the nose, ears, and upper lip, burn- 
 ing alive, ordeals of fire and boiling water, were among 
 the Saxon modes of punishment for theft, witchcraft, 
 &c. Yet, strange to say, a man might murder as 
 
178 CONDITION OP WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 OLD ENGLISH PRACTICE OF PUTTING OUT CHILDREN’S EYES WITH 
 
 HOT IRONS. 
 
 many people as he chose, if he could only pay certain 
 fixed sums* The head of a poor family was of far 
 less value than a rich thane’s. Such were the clemen- 
 cy and wisdom of u our Anglo-Saxon ancestors.” 
 
 “ The law of the Visigoths enjoins that the slaves 
 of the house shall be obliged to bind the man and 
 woman they surprise in adultery, and to present them 
 to the husband and to the judge — a terrible law, 
 which puts into the hands of such mean persons the 
 care of public, domestic, and private vengeance ! ” 
 (j Montesquieu.) 
 
 The same indecent severity was manifested by the 
 English in that law which condemned every woman 
 who, having carried on a criminal commerce, did not 
 declare it to the king before her marriage, violated the 
 regard due to natural modesty. It is as unreasonable 
 to oblige a woman to make this declaration, as to 
 oblige a man not to attempt the defence of his own 
 life. ( lb .) 
 
 “ The law of Henry II., which condemned the woman 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 179 
 
 to death who lost her child, in case she did not make 
 known her pregnancy to the magistrate, was not less 
 contrary to self-defence. It would have been suf- 
 ficient to oblige her to inform one of her nearest 
 relations, who might watch over the preservation of 
 i the infant. 
 
 “ Gundebald, King of Burgundy, decreed, that if the 
 wife or son of a person guilty of robbery did not re- 
 veal the crime, they were to become slaves. This law 
 was contrary to nature : a wife to inform against her 
 husband ! a son to accuse his father ! to avenge 
 one criminal action, they ordained another still more 
 criminal. 
 
 “ There has been much talk of a law in England 
 which permitted girls at seven years of age to choose 
 a husband. This law was shocking two ways : it 
 had no regard to the time when nature gives maturity 
 to the understanding, nor to the time when she gives 
 maturity to the body.” ( Montesquieu .) 
 
 u Our ancestors, the ancient Germans, lived under 
 a climate where the passions were extremely calm. 
 Their laws decided only in such cases where the injury 
 was visible to the eye, and went no farther. And as 
 they judged of the outrages done to men from the 
 greatness of the wound, they acted with no other del- 
 icacy in respect to the injuries done to women. The 
 law of the Allemans on this subject is very extraordi- 
 nary. If a person uncovers a woman’s head, he pays 
 a fine of fifty sous ; if he uncovers her leg up to the 
 knee, he pays the same ; and double from the knee 
 
180 CONDITION OP WOMEN ANI) CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 upwards. One would think that the law measured 
 the insults offered to women as we measure a figure 
 in geometry ; it did not punish the crime of the imagi- 
 nation. but that of the eye. In their punishments 
 they seem rather to humor the revengeful temper of 
 private persons, than to administer public justice. 
 Thus, in most cases, they reduced both the criminals to 
 be slaves to the offended relations, or to the injured 
 husband.” ( Montesquieu .) 
 
 “ That the women among the ancient Germans 
 were likewise under a perpetual tutelage, appears 
 from the different codes of the Laws of the Barbari- 
 ans. This custom was communicated to the mon- 
 archies founded by those people, but was not of a long 
 duration.” (lb.) 
 
 St. Boniface, writing from Germany to Ethelbald, 
 King of Mercia, who was leading an evil life, says 
 that if a married woman or virgin among the old 
 Saxons was convicted of incontinency, she was 
 strangled, and her body burned ; or she was stripped 
 and publicly scourged on the back by women, and 
 stabbed with knives, first in one village, then in the 
 next, and so round the country, till she expired under 
 her torments. The treatment of poor Jane Shore was 
 a mild imitation of this old institution of the pagan 
 Goths. 
 
 It is a strange inconsistency in English writers, that 
 they record the severe marital laws of the Saxons, 
 both pagan and Christian, as if they were the only 
 savages who kept their wives in order, and still more 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 181 
 
 inconsistently do they praise the brutal severity of 
 husbands. 
 
 Dr. Lingard says, “ The importance of conjugal 
 fidelity was understood and enforced by the ancient 
 Saxons, even before their conversion to Christianity. 
 The jealousy of the husband guarded with severity 
 the honor of his bed ; and the offending wife was fre- 
 quently compelled to be herself the executioner of his 
 
 A SAXON HANGING HIS WIFE, SHE BEING OBLIGED TO FIX THE 
 
 ROPE ROUND HER OWN NECK. 
 
 vengeance. With her own hands she fastened the 
 halter to her neck ; her strangled body was thrown into 
 the flames ; and over her ashes was suspended the 
 partner of her guilt. On other occasions he delivered 
 her to the women of the neighborhood, who were 
 
 16 
 
182 CONDITION OP WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 eager to avenge on their unfortunate victim the honor 
 of the female character. They stripped her to the 
 girdle, and scourged her from village to village, till she 
 sank under the severity of the punishment. But if 
 the justice of the Saxons was inexorable to the dis- 
 turbers of connubial happiness, they indulged them- 
 selves in a greater latitude of choice than was con- 
 ceded to the more polished nations, whom the wisdom 
 of civil and religious legislators had restrained from 
 marrying within certain degrees of kindred. The son 
 hesitated not to take to his bed the relict of his 
 deceased father, nor was the widow of the dead 
 ashamed to accept the hand of the surviving brother. 
 These illicit unions shocked the piety of the first mis- 
 sionaries ; and to their anxious inquiries, Gregory the 
 Great returned a moderate and prudent answer. He 
 considered the ignorance of Saxons as deserving of 
 pity rather than severity ; commanded the prohibition 
 of marriage, which was regularly extended to the 
 seventh, to be restricted to the first and second genera- 
 tions ; and advised the missionaries to separate the 
 converts who were contracted within these degrees, 
 and exhort them to marry again, according to the ec- 
 clesiastical canons.” 
 
 These indulgences, unknown among Celtic Chris- 
 tians, were granted by the pope because the Saxon 
 character was well known ; yet writers praise the chas- 
 tity of pagan Saxons. 
 
 When the Saxonized nobles got temporary power, 
 in the Puritan period of England, the old Gothic in- 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 183 
 
 stinct guided the popular superstitions, and poor, weak, 
 defenceless widows, and old maids, and beautiful 
 young girls, the objects of envy, were sacrificed. 
 
 During the witchcraft time, the English burned 
 about thirty thousand women, generally poor retired 
 females, who had no man to defend them. The vic- 
 
 A WITCH IN THE HANDS OF THE SAINTS. 
 
 tims were bound hand and foot, and thrown into deep 
 
 water. If they floated, that was evidence of a guilty 
 
 magical power, and they were taken out and burned 
 
 at the stake, while the “ rigidly righteous ” sung 
 
 psalms. If the accused sank and were drowned, that 
 
 was evidence that they were innocent, and it was a 
 
 pity they were drowned! ( Chambers’s Journal) 
 
 “ The Puritans hanged their old women, because it 
 
 is written , 4 The witch shall die.’ ” [Bancroft.) 
 
 Woman is physically weaker than man, and there- 
 
 % 
 
184 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 fore the pagan Saxons, like all other carnivorous 
 savages, subjected their females to the most cruel 
 slavery. Under the gospel dispensation, they have 
 always legislated and quoted Scripture against 
 woman’s rights. 
 
 The old English custom of whipping women was a 
 practice of the northern tribes, from whom the Sax- 
 ons are descended. English ladies stripped their 
 female servants and scourged them for small offences. 
 Shakspeare gives immortal record to the English cus- 
 tom of flogging naked women publicly. The story 
 of Jane Shore affords a striking illustration of the hu- 
 miliating and cruel treatment of weak woman in 
 England. She was obliged to Avander barefoot in a 
 white sheet, and no man dared give her meat or drink, 
 and no woman ventured to relieve her. She died mis- 
 erably in the streets, abandoned by the slavish popula- 
 tion, most of whom were far worse than this unfortu- 
 nate victim of kingly lust. 
 
 It is remarkable that Saxon prudery and piety have 
 always been manifested in a ferocious zeal. Bancroft, 
 the American historian, relates that the Puritans re- 
 strained every thing by the cruelest despotism, mutila- 
 tions, and “ whipping women was common.” 
 
 As late as the reign of George III. “ flogging was a 
 common punishment of women convicted of larceny.” 
 (See Dickens's Household Words , April, 1850.) 
 
 The Saxon woman was lashed like a dog, or sold 
 like a heifer, by her own husband and father, and in 
 her turn the Saxon mistress used to scourge her 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 185 
 
 naked female slaves. (See the old pictures repre- 
 senting this practice in the London Art Journal , 
 1854 .) 
 
 ANGLO-SAXONS WHIPPING A WOMAN AT THE CART’S TAIL. 
 
 Verstegen says, if either wife or maid (among the 
 old Saxons) were found in dishonesty, her clothes 
 were cut off round about her beneath the girdle, and 
 she was whipped and turned out, thus naked, to be 
 derided of the people — a peculiarly Saxon way of im- 
 proving morals. Archbishop Magunee, reproving Eth- 
 elbald for his unclean life, declareth the punishment 
 of such offences to have been among the old pagan 
 Saxons far more severe than is here set down. What 
 these* r punishments were we learn from Henry. (His- 
 tory of Great Britain .) 
 
 16 * 
 
186 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 He boasts that the German ancestors of the Sax- 
 ons were very chaste. “ The husband of an adulteress, 
 in the presence of her relations, cut off her hair, 
 stripped her almost naked, turned her out of his house, 
 and whipped her from one end of the village to the 
 other.” 
 
 Another boaster, following Tacitus on German 
 morality, says that an adulteress used to be stripped 
 naked, and the women, full of pious fury, whipped her 
 along, and pierced her flesh with their scissors and 
 bodkins. 
 
 The Jews and others put faithless women to death ; 
 but this manner of stripping women naked, and put- 
 ting them to public torture by the hands of men and 
 women, was peculiar to the Saxon and Gothic types 
 of men. 
 
 How different the awful but merciful domestic tri- 
 bunals of the noble old Romans and Western Celts, 
 who readily adopted the mild teaching of Christ ! 
 
 A Celtic woman might fall, but her better sisters 
 would not torture and trample on her, much less would 
 they expose her nakedness to the public. Even the 
 Turks abhor indecent exposure, preferring to give their 
 women the sack. 
 
 The most sensual races — those that practise polyg- 
 amy — are also the greatest tyrants in punishing faults 
 in their women. This we see in the barbarous East 
 and North. 
 
 Among the savages who are little better than brute 
 beasts, women are tortured or put tf) death for adul- 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 187 
 
 tery, not because they have any idea of virtue in the 
 abstract, but because tyrant man will not allow female 
 property to have a will of her own. 
 
 New Zealand women were not only condemned 
 to death, but in many cases were afterwards eaten — 
 an effectual means, as Mr. Polack says, of “ annihilat- 
 ing the enemy to public morals and decency.” 
 
 The disgusting cruelty of the Germans and Saxons 
 towards their women is therefore no proof of a chaste 
 disposition. 
 
 The polygamous Turk and the sensual Saxon, who 
 have least claim upon woman’s affection and fidelity, 
 are the most cruel lords and masters. 
 
 ANGLO-SAXON WOMEN WITH IRON COLLAR AND MUZZLE. 
 
 In Ballou’s Pictorial, November, 1856, there are il- 
 lustrations of the German instrument of torture, “ the 
 virgin,” and of the English instrument of torture, 
 “ the bridle,” used to punish scolding wives. It con- 
 sisted of a kind of muzzle made of iron, with a sharp 
 spike in the mouth, so that if the woman attempted to 
 speak, her tongue got wounded. With this humiliat- 
 
188 CONDITION OP WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 ing muzzle on the head, Englishwomen who ventured 
 to give u back jaw” to their male owners were com- 
 pelled to walk the streets, exposed to the derision of 
 the rabble. 
 
 There was also the famous “ ducking stool,” on 
 which English mothers were carried through the 
 streets to the horse-pond, where they were thrown in, 
 amid the jeers of the enlightened English. What 
 must have been the brutality of the husband, and the 
 humiliation of the child, to see the mother, perhaps 
 for no fault, returning home like a drabbled slut! 
 
 I find in a New York paper that some lawyer in 
 Carbondale City, Luzerne county, Pennsylvania, has 
 been lecturing on this subject of English woman’s 
 rights. An extract is given, beginning with my very 
 words already published. 
 
 “ 4 In the London Art Journal of 1854, and agree- 
 ing with Macaulay, we find that the Saxon woman 
 was lashed like a dog, or sold like a heifer by her hus- 
 band or father, and in her turn the Saxon mistress 
 used to scourge her naked female slaves. Yet Black- 
 stone highly extols the liberty and wise common law 
 of England, when in fact the only common civiliza- 
 tion which England had at an early period was from 
 Rome, Hibernia, or Gaul. Saxon laws ! Neverthe- 
 less, even amongst men of education, we find many 
 who laud and glory in the laws of England, as if the 
 very code so highly extolled had not been imported 
 into that island ; and it is an undeniable fact that a 
 large number of English laws enacted by themselves 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 189 
 
 are no credit, and do not sustain the fulsome adulation 
 of the talented bigot Blackstone. I shall lay it down 
 as an established axiom, that in whatever country the 
 rights of the fair sex are protected and guarded with 
 the greatest care, there civilization and refinement are 
 advanced to a high standard. But by the common 
 law of England, as laid down by Blackstone, vol. i. 
 chap. 15, the husband was allowed to give corporal 
 chastisement to his wife, in the same manner that a 
 man is allowed to correct his apprentice, or his own 
 children. The lower ranks of the people, who are al- 
 ways fond of the old common law, still claim and ex- 
 ert their ancient privilege.’ Barbarous ! and on the 
 same page he has those words : 4 So great a favorite 
 is the female sex of the laws of England ! 5 Gildas, 
 who wrote his Ex. Brit., etc., about 565, says, 4 The 
 Saxons were the most brutal and perfidious of all the 
 German tribes.’ 
 
 44 The same commentator, vol. i. p. 445, n., says, 
 4 Female virtue is perfectly exposed to the slanders of 
 malignity and falsehood, for any one may proclaim in 
 conversation that the purest maid and chastest matron 
 is the most meretricious woman with impunity, or 
 free from the animadversion of temporal courts.’ 
 Thus we see the compound folly or knavery of the 
 commentator, when he says, 4 So great a favorite is 
 the female sex of the common law of England ! ’ 
 The cool, unblushing falsehood and effrontery of 
 
 Blackstone cannot be surpassed. 
 
 * 
 
 44 4 The husband and wife are styled baron and 
 
190 CONDITION OP WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 femme . The word baron , or lord , attributes to the 
 husband not a very little courteous superiority. But 
 we might be inclined to think this merely an unmean- 
 ing, technical phrase, did we not recollect that if the 
 baron kills his femme , it is the same as if he had 
 killed a stranger or any other person. But if the 
 femme kills the lord, or baron, it is a species of trea- 
 son ; and for every species of treason the punish- 
 ment or sentence of woman was to be drawn and 
 burned alive,’ up to the 36 George III. chap. 48. 
 The 3 and 4 William and Mary, chap. 9 — 4 By the 
 common law all women are denied for capital 
 felonies the benefit of clergy,’ also 4 for simple lar- 
 ceny, bigamy, or manslaughter ; ’ 4 though a man who 
 could read, for such offences was only subject to burn- 
 ing on the hand and a few months imprisonment.’ 
 
 * 44 Again in his fourth book, chap. 1, on public 
 wrongs, amongst other things, he says, 4 We may glory 
 in the wisdom of the English law.’ And on the very 
 same page are these words : 4 It is a melancholy 
 truth, that amongst the variety of actions which men 
 are liable to commit daily, no less than one hundred 
 and sixty have been declared by act of Parliament to 
 be felonious without benefit of clergy, or in other 
 words, to be worthy of instant death : so dreadful a 
 list, instead of diminishing, only increases the num- 
 ber of offenders.’ And now, fellow-citizens of this 
 glorious republic, what think you of English laws, 
 which, with poll-parrot flippancy, are lauded by base 
 and corrupt presses for baser purposes? Figure to 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 191 
 
 your minds what those one hundred and sixty crimes 
 must have been, that did merit death by the merciful 
 laws of England, so late as the reign of George III., 
 in the days of Sir William Blackstone. 
 
 “ In 4th vol., p. 49, he says, 4 The writ to burn 
 heretics was enforced in two cases against Anabap- 
 tists, in the 17 Elizabeth, and against two Arians, 
 in the 9 James I. ; although in the prior page he 
 says, 4 that by the 1 Elizabeth, chap, i., all former 
 statutes relating to heresy are repealed.’ The truth is, 
 v religious intolerance and persecution made crime in 
 England where none existed ; and I am bold to de- 
 clare, without fear of contradiction, that a more big- 
 oted, beastly, and brutal code of laws did not exist in 
 any other nation in Europe than there did in Eng- 
 land, from Henry VIII. to George III. No matter 
 what circumstances brought them into existence. 
 Thus the contrast between such a monarchy and this 
 happy land endears to our minds our own republican 
 institutions.” 
 
 The reader may not have noted the most horrible 
 feature in Anglo-Saxon punishments — the denial of 
 “ benefit of clergy ; ” that is, to be instantly put to 
 death without receiving absolution from the priest. 
 “ Benefit of clergy ” ordinarily meant the exemption 
 of clerics from trial by civil courts. In the case of 
 woman, it would appear, by this lawyer, to mean in- 
 stant death . 
 
 The Catholic church had a terrible battle to fight 
 against the innate brutality of the Goth. The admin- 
 
192 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 istration of the last sacraments was not only consid- 
 ered in most cases necessary to salvation, but also 
 afforded a merciful delay, and chance of reprieve for 
 the victim ; but the malignant tigerism of the English 
 contrived to defeat as often as possible the Christian 
 influence, and it was therefore customary to kill per- 
 sons, women particularly, when caught in the act of 
 theft, for instance, believing that their souls would go 
 to hell, and burn there for all eternity. Instances of 
 this horror may perhaps be quoted in all countries ; but 
 in England it was an institution daily practised, and 
 founded in the carnivorous constitution of the people. 
 It is the climax of demonism. 
 
 We learn from Kemble that the Saxons used to 
 murder their superfluous babes ; and Dr. Lingard 
 shows how they murdered their wives at pleasure. 
 Query . Was the priest called in to baptize the child 
 or confess the wife before execution ? I think not 
 usually. 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 193 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE BASENESS OF ENGLISH PUBLIC OPINION, AND 
 THE INJUSTICE AND CRUELTY OF ENGLISH LAW 
 IN REGARD TO WOMAN. 
 
 From what I have quoted, and have yet to quote, it 
 will appear undeniable that the Anglo-Saxon woman 
 and the German frau were personally slaves of the 
 most degraded class in ancient or modern Europe. 
 Even the women of the nobles were denied rights of 
 person and property. 
 
 It was the Goths who introduced such laws as the 
 salic, excluding women from power to rule or hold 
 property. These laws were innovations, opposed to 
 the Roman law, and abhorred by the Gauls. German 
 women were held as property, and could own nothing 
 of their own. Tacitus (chap. 18) says, “ Dotum non 
 uxor marito , sed maritus uxori confert .” 
 
 Hallam shows that in the laws of the Thuringians 
 and Saxons, women were excluded from holding prop- 
 erty, and “ the ancient lawgivers of the Salian Franks 
 prohibited the females from inheriting the lands as- 
 signed to the nation upon the conquest of Gaul, both 
 in compliance with their ancient usages, and in order 
 to secure the military services of every proprietor.” 
 Now, these laws, he tells us, were framed by a Chris- 
 
 17 
 
194 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 tian. They could not, therefore, have been more se- 
 vere than pagan ancient usages. 
 
 He says of this exclusion of women, “ But this 
 usage was repugnant to the principles of Roman law, 
 which the Franks found prevailing in their new 
 [Celtic] country, and to the natural feeling which leads 
 a man to prefer his own descendants to collateral 
 heirs. One of the Precedents in Marculfus (1. ii. form. 
 12) calls the exclusion of females diuturna et impia 
 consuetudo — an ancient and impious custom.” In 
 another passage of Marculfus, a father addresses his 
 daughter on the cruelty of this law among the Ger- 
 mans — “ apud Germynos .” 
 
 'Jr 
 
 “ These Precedents are supposed to have been com- 
 piled about the latter end of the seventh century.” 
 They were therefore written when old German cus- 
 toms were well known. But such historical facts are 
 overlooked by men who wish to discredit the civilizing 
 influence of the Catholic church, and to glorify the 
 Saxon. 
 
 They rest their whole argument on the remark of 
 Tacitus, that the Germans adored witches, overlooking 
 the undeniable fact that German and Saxon women 
 were at the same time slaves. A future historian 
 might as well say that Negresses were all chaste, free, 
 and highly honored, because some of them are re- 
 spected as fortune tellers. 
 
 In the early history of the Saxons, we do not find 
 that woman held any dignity whatever, nor any influ- 
 ence, further than what a queen might exercise as the 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 195 
 
 wife of the ruler. This title and dignity, which we 
 first find in the person of Berta, daughter of the King 
 of France, was afterwards abolished by the Saxons, 
 in consequence of the crime of the murderess Ead- 
 burga. There is no historical evidence to show that 
 the early Saxons allowed to females any more power 
 or privilege than did their brother Germans. 
 
 Montesquieu says that the salic custom of excluding 
 females from possession of property existed among 
 the Franks long before they left Germany. But the 
 salic law, he shows, became considerably modified in 
 certain cases. He says, “ It would be easy for me to 
 prove that the salic law did not absolutely exclude the 
 daughters from the possession of the salic land, but 
 only in the case w T here they were debarred by their 
 brothers.” 
 
 The laws of these barbarous nations, who all sprang 
 from Germany, interpret each other, more particularly 
 as they all have nearly the same spirit. The Saxon 
 law enjoined the father and mother to leave their in- 
 heritance to their son, and not to their daughter; but 
 if there were none but daughters, they were to have 
 the whole inheritance. 
 
 The learned writer in the Westminster already 
 quoted concludes his article rather lamely, in my 
 humble opinion. He slurs over the fact that the 
 Gothic invasion into the Roman empire destroyed the • 
 liberty and dignity of woman, and he does not as 
 much as acknowledge the fact that woman’s liberty 
 and honor were restored by the revival of Celtic and 
 
196 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 Roman law, under the influence of the Catholic 
 church, and in spite of Gothic feudal tyralmy. 
 
 He merely states, in general terms, that Celtic law 
 “ never ceased to exert its influence, and was more 
 or less incorporated in the barbaric codes. The laws 
 of the Visigoths were completely impregnated with 
 Roman justice, and recognized neither distinction of 
 patrimony nor preference of sex, (unlike the Gothic 
 injustice which continued among the Germans and 
 Saxons.) “ At length, however, the [Gothic] feudal 
 overcame the Roman spirit throughout Europe, * * * 
 and the indivisibility of military service led at once to 
 the law of primogeniture, the exclusion of daughters 
 from their rightful inheritance, and the complete de- 
 pendence of woman on her c lord and master.’ * * * 
 But a new social era dawned with the revival of learn- 
 ing ; the scholars of Christendom gradually acquired 
 (once more) a knowledge of the legal literature of 
 Rome.” The old Celtic law, still preserved, thank 
 God, in the written Brehon laws of Ireland, was, and 
 is, the basis of democratic liberty. 
 
 The English savages burned ail the old Irish libra- 
 ries they could lay hands on, but fragments enough 
 remain to illustrate ancient Celtic history. 
 
 The reviewer concludes by saying that the revival 
 of Roman (that is, Celtic) law has already exercised 
 a vast influence on modern European law ; and it is 
 to be hoped that even England, the most persistent 
 conservator of the feudal system, will ere long be so 
 far inspired by the spirit of the Roman legislators, as 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 197 
 
 to adopt from them what may seem suitable to the 
 genius and needs of her people. 
 
 This is a mild, lawyer-like way of saying that the 
 English are still in a state of barbarism. He says in 
 a note, that we must remember that it is in spite of 
 English laws, that English women are well treated, 
 and he hopes for the redress of those legal wrongs 
 against person and property “ to which English women 
 are constantly exposed, and from which they still fre- 
 quently suffer.” 
 
 Berta and the mother of Alfred the Great were 
 Celtic women. Several of the Saxon queens were 
 saintly. But in Saxon history we have no female 
 heroines, none of those beautiful romantic angels, 
 whether real or ideal, who abounded in Celtic regions. 
 
 The queens of England, in general, during the 
 Saxon period, were only remarkable for cold-blooded 
 murders of their relatives, and for incestuous and 
 adulterous crimes. 
 
 I cannot in this limited work give even a list of 
 illustrious queens — heroines and lady saints of Eu- 
 rope. Regarding England, I may merely remark, that, 
 as in the case of Napoleon, the greatest of the sons 
 of men, the English nation and Parliament violated 
 the sound rights of hospitality in the person of Mary, 
 Queen of Scots. They murdered that beautiful, in- 
 teresting, helpless lady ; while, at the same time, the 
 great Anglo-Saxon nation crawled on their bellies to 
 the Virgin Bess, the red-haired hyena. Elizabeth had 
 Celtic blood in her veins (like Cromwell, who was also 
 
 17 * 
 
198 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 of Welsh descent ;) from this she acquired her force 
 of character; the English felt it, and adored. But 
 God help English women of amiable and gentle dis- 
 position. 
 
 I myself heard the common cry of the Saxonized 
 Orangemen, “ To h — with Victoria !” when they 
 thought she was inclined to goodness and justice to 
 all her subjects alike. But as a tool in the hands of 
 the Orange aristocrats, she afterwards turned out a 
 mere nonentity ; they began to cheer her, and boast of 
 woman’s dignity upon the British throne. 
 
 Some English writers pretend that the English hon- 
 ored the virginity of Elizabeth, and punished the guilt 
 of Mary, I cannot here discuss the respective char- 
 acters of these women ; I am engaged in showing the 
 English estimation of woman’s dignity and purity. ' 
 It is a fact, recorded in the English archives, that the 
 English, in Parliament assembled, passed an act to 
 legalize Elizabeth’s offspring, legitimate or illegitimate. 
 Perhaps the virgin felt certain misgivings at the time. 
 At all events, the English promised that if their queen 
 should have a bastard, as she herself was one, they 
 would put it on the throne and worship it. 
 
 It was a worthy compliment paid to the Protestant 
 she-pope by the slaves who roared for the Bible, while 
 they smashed the image of the Infant Saviour and his 
 Virgin Mother. The crawling indecency and public 
 corruption of these acts have never been equalled by 
 any other savage race or civilized nation in Europe. 
 
 Cobbett, after detailing the bloody treachery and 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 199 
 
 meanness that pervaded England during the time that 
 Mary, Queen of Scots, Lady Jane Grey, Mary, and 
 Elizabeth occupied the English stage, says that u no 
 reign, no age, no country ever witnessed rapacity, 
 hypocrisy, meanness, baseness, perfidy r such as Eng- 
 land witnessed ” in those days. 
 
 The murders of Mary, Queen of Scots, of Lady 
 Jane Grey, of the old Countess of Salisbury, and 
 many other ladies executed throughout England, in a 
 most brutal and indecent manner, cover the name of 
 Englishman with infamy. 
 
 Whipping naked women, and branding, them with 
 red hot irons, even for the crime of begging, were quite 
 common, especially during the reign of the queens. 
 It cannot be said that the bestial tortures were in- 
 flicted by individual tyranny or by religious fanati- 
 cism. It was all the same, whether the Bloody Mary 
 or the Bloody Bess ruled the roast of Christians. 
 The English people found it easy to obey any tyrant, 
 and to turn from Catholic to Protestant, and Protes- 
 tant to Catholic, and back again, with equal facility. 
 They were, as they are to-day, a nation of flunkies, 
 lord-worshippers, and woman-beaters. 
 
 The utter debasement of the English under Henry 
 VIII. is fearfully illustrated in the murder of the 
 Countess of Salisbury. 
 
 The lords and gentlemen of England, in Parliament 
 assembled, passed a bill of high treason against this 
 helpless old lady, because her son was rebellious, and 
 beyond the king’s power. Here is a spectacle ; the 
 
200 CONDITION OP WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 foremost men in England, like the vilest flunkies, 
 eating dirt and wallowing in bloodshed to please their 
 master! The countess was dragged forcibly to the 
 scaffold. “ She who was upwards of seventy years 
 of age, though. worn down in body by her imprison- 
 ment, maintained to the last a true sense of her char- 
 acter and noble descent. When bidden to lay her 
 head upon the block, ‘ No,’ answered she, ‘ my head 
 shall never bow to tyranny ; it never committed trea- 
 son ; and if you will have it, you must get it as you 
 can.’ The executioner struck at her neck with his 
 axe, and as she ran about the scaffold, with her gray 
 locks hanging down her shoulders, he pursued, giving 
 her repeated chops, till at last he brought her down/’ 
 ( Cobbett.) 
 
 This was done in the presence of assembled Eng- 
 lishmen, and no man raised hand or voice to redeem 
 that brutal slaughter of an aged lady who ivas known 
 to be innocent . 
 
 The reader knows the history of the profligate and 
 unfortunate Anne Boleyn, and the noble Queen Cath- 
 arine, so disgracefully deserted to her fate by the English 
 nation ; but in order to exhibit the baseness of which 
 this race is capable, I need only quote from an Eng- 
 lish Protestant writer in the Critic, Nov. 1, 1856, who 
 is commenting upon the trial of Anne for high treason. 
 
 “ Four noble gentlemen, one of whom was her own 
 brother, were charged severally with distinct acts of 
 adultery with her ; against all, the grand juries of 
 Middlesex and Surrey found true bills ; and on these 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 201 
 
 bills, all were indicted and found guilty by petty juries. 
 One had previously confessed or stated his guilt. All 
 were executed. The queen herself was arraigned be- 
 fore the first peers of the realm. By them she also 
 was tried, found guilty, and sentenced to decapitation. 
 
 “ In this terrible tragedy, Mr. Froude entertains a 
 strong opinion that the facts were proved ; but unfor- 
 tunately no record of the evidence remains, and again 
 we are left in the doubt which hangs over so many of 
 the prominent events of the age. It seems inconceiv- 
 able that sixty Englishmen, many of them men of 
 distinction, should have been brought to convict four 
 illustrious and innocent men of unproved crimes. It 
 is remarkable that Cranmer, who at first was strongly 
 convinced of the queen’s innocence, was afterwards as 
 strongly convinced of her guilt. It is also inconceiv- 
 able that the ‘powerful majority of English peers could 
 have been so far lost to every sentiment of manly 
 justice, as to convict a royal lady merely to please a 
 royal master. On the other hand, there is extant a 
 touching letter from the queen to the king, in which 
 she asseverates her total innocence, with all the ap- 
 parent signs and circumstances of truth. It must also 
 be remembered that, inconceivable as it may be to 
 Englishmen of our day, that sixty Englishmen of that 
 day could deliberately, under the influence of despot- 
 ism, sanction and recommend a series of foul murders, 
 yet 4 English juries ivere not then what they are now] 
 he says ; and if Mr. Froude be acquainted, as doubt- 
 less he is, with the state trials, and especially with 
 
202 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 such trials as that of Raleigh, he must be fully aware 
 that trial by jury in the sixteenth century, when the 
 crown was concerned, was a mere mockery of justice 
 and customary engine of tyranny.” 
 
 The English system is a curious complication of 
 reactive tyranny and flunkyism. Is the Saxon boor 
 a freeman or a slavish hypocrite, when he touches his 
 hat at every sentence he says to a lord or lady ? Is 
 the English lord a true nobleman, or is he a hypocrite, 
 when he bows, and kneels, and kisses hands, and per- 
 forms the crab-walk before royalty ? On the other 
 hand, is Victoria in reality a sovereign ? She who 
 was compelled to marry within an incestuous circle, 
 in order that the breed of sacred geese might be pre- 
 served in the temple of English flunky dom ! 
 
 This word flunkyism , used by Carlyle, is very appli- 
 cable to himself and the British writers of our day, 
 who, in order to flatter the German prince of Saxe- 
 Gotha, have elevated the Anglo-Saxon to that dignity 
 which, until lately, was due only to the word Briton . 
 It is said in the East, of any one who defames his 
 ancestry, that he heaps asses’ dung upon his mother’s 
 grave. 
 
 British baseness appears inexplicable, until we re- 
 member that the English race are made up of the 
 slaves left by the Romans, and by the savages who 
 afterwards mixed in. 
 
 As the Anglo-Saxons were always slaves and sav- 
 ages, they are not surprised at the inhumanity of laws 
 which trample on the natural affections. Their legis- 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 203 
 
 lators may and do tear the fondest ties of our nature 
 with impunity. 
 
 Lord Shaftesbury brought in a bill to give power to 
 Exeter Hall to take poor children from their parents, 
 nolens volens , and to rear them in the principles of the 
 law church, the chief commandment of which is, 
 Honor the queen more than thy father and mother . 
 An example of this spirit of English law has just 
 reached us, while I am at work on this book. A child 
 has been torn from her widowed mother, who is a 
 Catholic, because the father is said to have been a 
 Protestant. The law of nature may be strong, but 
 the law of Victoria is stronger. While “ Her Sacred 
 Majesty ” is lauded for domestic virtues, and attach- 
 ment to her progeny, her sceptre strikes down the arm 
 of the helpless widow who clings to her orphan child. 
 
 After the reformation, the holy institution of the 
 family, in England and Ireland, was trampled under 
 foot, and the dominion of hell instituted on the do- 
 mestic hearth. Marriages between those of different 
 private opinions were annulled, and the children bas- 
 tardized. Every priest who performed the ceremony 
 of marriage was condemned to be hanged. There 
 was no intercourse between Catholic and Protestant 
 lawful but prostitution. Adultery was not held crim- 
 inal, but marriage was punished with death. Even at 
 this day, the law of England, church and state, does 
 not punish adultery as a sin, but only as a damage 
 to a man’s property, to be atoned for by a sum of 
 money, and without money there is no absolution. 
 
204 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 The family institution was outraged by the English 
 in other respects. A Catholic father could not be 
 guardian to, or have the custody of his own child, if 
 the child, however young, pretended to be a Protes- 
 tant. In such case, the child was taken from its own 
 father. O ye Englishmen, talk of your humbug Mag- 
 na Charta after that ! 
 
 The English law also encouraged wives and chib 
 dren to rebel against their husbands and fathers. An 
 English Catholic could be robbed of his property by 
 his own wife or child, who were only required to pre- 
 tend Protestantism. Thus hypocrisy, perfidy, and 
 family ingratitude were the virtues encouraged by 
 English law. The history of the world can present 
 nothing so base as this out of England. The Eng- 
 lish nation sank to the lowest depth of human turpi- 
 tude in their penal codes against conscience. Yet our 
 ears are continually stunned with the loud praises of 
 the Anglo-Saxon race, that elevated woman, and 
 emancipated the human mind. 
 
 In Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, November, 
 1854, is an article on civilization and the census. 
 The author, noticing that part of the census which 
 treats of the female element, says, — 
 
 “ The writer of this portion of the census, wisely 
 dissatisfied with the assumed causes of our progres- 
 sive population, — namely, the mechanical inventions, 
 which have apparently found employment for the 
 people, — ascribes it to the influence of the changes in 
 the conjugal state of the people. He passes in review 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 205 
 
 the period of our history extending from 1651 to 1751. 
 The population increased very slowly ; and we find 
 that after the restoration of Charles II., such a general 
 dissoluteness of manners was inaugurated as can now 
 be scarcely understood ; while shortly after 1751, the 
 law of marriage — which, like the institution itself, 
 had grown inconceivably loose, and had at the same 
 time been greatly abused — was reformed.” Puritan- 
 ism had drawn the social bow with too strong a hand ; 
 the string had broken, and it had hastily flown back in 
 the opposite direction. Profligacy was a fashion. 
 The writer is here unsparing, yet justifies his severity 
 by authorities given in the notes. 
 
 “ The light poets, the players, and the gay men and 
 women on town, led crowds of votaries into the ex- 
 treme opposite to Puritanism. Young people of both 
 sexes were brought from the country to Whitehall, 
 where, instead of hard lessons of elevated thought 
 and patriotism — such as Lady Jane Grey and her 
 contemporaries learned from Plato — they masked, 
 they ‘ ogled,’ sang, and danced, under the eye of the 
 4 Mother of the Maids,’ and the higher auspices of 
 the queen, the queen dowager, and the Duchess of 
 York, until, wounded or terrified, they flew into con- 
 cealment, or, as it was every where deemed, ridic- 
 ulously married, and ingloriously discharged the duties 
 of English wives and mothers. The sisters, daugh- 
 ters, and wives of the loyalest subjects, the greatest 
 generals, the wisest statesmen, and the gravest judges, 
 figured in the Paphian train, glittering and smiling as 
 
 18 
 
206 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 the troop of Boccaccio in the pages of Grammont, 
 and on the walls of Hampton Court ; but with ad- 
 vancing years, shattered, patched, degraded, fading — 
 as they are seen in the authentic memoirs of the age, 
 and life-like portraits of Hogarth.” 
 
 As Hogarth was not born till 1698, the tenth year 
 of the reign of William and Mary, it is surely strain- 
 ing a point for the picturesque effect of portraiture, to 
 introduce him as depicting in the dramatis persona of 
 his scenic works the profligacies of the reign of the 
 beauties of the court of Charles II. In the frigid 
 court of William and Mary, “ vice lost its graces and 
 charms ; ” but profligacy is not at once eradicated ; 
 and it would be strange indeed if there was not 
 enough of it in practice of the then world of fashion, 
 to justify the satire of the moral painter. The 
 “ homely but not shining qualities ” which regulated 
 the court of the “ devout, chaste, and formal ” Queen 
 Anne, so designated by Lord Chesterfield, a writer 
 very tolerant of old vices, were not suffered to have a 
 permanent effect upon the manners of the people, by 
 the succession of the two first Georges. Among all 
 classes, “ the institution of marriage was unsettled to 
 its foundations.” 
 
 The effect of this state of things upon families was 
 most pernicious. The due ratio of increase of popula- 
 tion was stayed. A gradual improvement in the mor- 
 als of the people commenced after 1751. Lord Hard- 
 wicke's bill, in 1753, was “ one of the first evident re- 
 forms in the law of marriage.” Historians do not 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 207 
 
 express the same sentiments upon the operation of 
 this bill, some viewing it as a means to secure to the 
 aristocracy fortunes by marriages, others as giving a 
 greater respectability to marriage itself. It was, at 
 the time, considered by its opponents as likely to af- 
 fect the population of the country. The writer in the 
 report observes, “ Experience soon showed, that in- 
 stead of stopping marriage and the growth of popu- 
 lation, the act had the contrary effect, by depriving 
 the marriage ceremony of disgraceful associations — 
 by making it not a mere verbal promise, but a life 
 contract, to be recorded, to be entered into with delib- 
 eration, by persons in the enjoyment of their faculties, 
 and to be kept inviolate till death.’ 5 And here it is fair 
 to remark, that probably no small share of the disre- 
 spect in which marriages were held, and the conse- 
 quent dissoluteness, may be ascribed to the Puritans, 
 who, before Charles’s arrival, in 1653, had passed a 
 bill for solemnizing marriages by justices of peace. 
 The removal of any part of the sanctity of marriage 
 has a tendency to bring it into disrepute ; it is better 
 that it should be held even as some would say with a 
 superstition, than merely as a civil contract, which, 
 like most other civil contracts, may be broken ad libi- 
 tum by those who are willing to incur the penalties. 
 Modern legislation has, however, in this respect, 
 brought the ceremony of marriage down still lower 
 than the act of the Puritans, by reducing even the 
 official dignity of performance, and authorizing mar- 
 riages at the public register offices. Where there is 
 
208 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 little distinct religious feeling or principle, there is a 
 superstition akin to it ; and there are few who do not 
 receive, or remember with a sense of awe, the solemn 
 words, “ Whom God hath joined together, let no man 
 put asunder ; ” and the evil suggestion, in the contrary- 
 case, is ready enough — whom man joins, man may 
 put asunder, and if man only, it little matters what 
 man. Parties may assume that privilege to them- 
 selves. It is hard to see how the church of England 
 can, at any after time, by their other official acts, 
 recognize such marriages. What is to be said of the 
 monition or warning, that “ so many as are coupled 
 together otherwise than God’s word doth allow, are 
 not joined together by God, neither is their matrimony 
 lawful ? ” 
 
 Farther on, the writer says, u I believe Eusebius,* I 
 speak of a notorious fact, that it is short of a century 
 since, for election purposes, parties were unblushingly 
 married in cases where women conveyed a right of 
 freedom, a political franchise, to their husbands, and 
 parted by shaking hands over a tombstone, as an act 
 of dissolution of the marriage, under cover of the 
 words 4 till death us do part.’ ” 
 
 Need we be surprised that Mormonism, Freeloveism, 
 temporary marriage, spread rapidly among the Eng- 
 lish? * 'W : ^ 
 
 * The imaginary friend whom the writer addresses. 
 
THE CELTIC ^ GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 209 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 ENGLISH EVIDENCE ON THE TURPITUDE OF THE 
 
 ENGLISH RACE. 
 
 In the heat of controversy and recrimination be- 
 tween Catholics and Protestants in England, we are 
 apt to forget they were all English. We may shud- 
 der at the treatment of English women, even under 
 the reign of English queens, and we may discuss 
 whether it was more English to be disembowelled 
 alive under Elizabeth, or roasted alive under Mary ; 
 but the pious Englishmen who industriously circulate 
 Fox’s Book of Martyrs should remember that all the 
 executions of men, and indecent torturings of women, 
 were inflicted by the English upon the English, in the 
 face of the whole nation — that slavish, hypocritical 
 nation that changed the national religion three times 
 in one generation, at the nod of tyrants. 
 
 The keepers of Mary, Queen of Scots, refused to 
 murder her privately, without trial, though encouraged 
 to do so by Queen Bess and the lords. This is quoted 
 as an act of Roman virtue ; and indeed, considering 
 what Englishmen were, this may be regarded as a 
 chivalrous act. 
 
 Not to commit a base deed deserves a golden statue. 
 
 18 * 
 
210 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 But after all, English chivalry looked on at the mur- 
 derous breach of hospitality. 
 
 The history of Saxon morality and mentality, as 
 related by Saxe- Gotha writers, is a singular kaleido- 
 scope of human nature. Shifting issues and special 
 pleading constantly change with the prejudices of 
 those men, who, each in his own way, imagines ne is 
 exalting the character of the Anglo-Saxon race. Now, 
 all is black and beastly ; anon, the same nation is all 
 bright and angelic. Beginning with such awe-inspir- 
 ing men as Carlyle and Macaulay, we can have Eng- 
 land done up in any colors, according to fancy, or to 
 meet the social and political difficulties of a day. 
 Whether the difficulty be Irish treason or Papal ag- 
 gression, it can be shown that the Anglo-Saxon is 
 God’s highest and best creature, and that Providence 
 intended to starve out Celts to make room for him. 
 In comparison with Popish countries, England is 
 sanctified and favored of Heaven, and the Saxon race 
 always most moral and evangelical. But in order to 
 avoid Popery now, it can be easily proved that the 
 Saxons were not always holy ; for in Papist times, and 
 before the reformation, the Anglo-Saxons and Ger- 
 mans were most brutal. Thus it is with these Saxe- 
 Gotha writers : they are continually making angels or 
 devils of themselves and their race, according as Prot- 
 estantism or Catholicity turns up. Such works as 
 Fox’s Book of Martyrs exhibit this propensity in an 
 eminent degree. 
 
 If I desired to give an invidious account of the 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 211 
 
 Saxe-Gotha races of England and Germany, I need 
 only quote the humiliating and disgusting condition 
 of the English and the Germans before the reforma- 
 tion, as related by their own Saxe-Gotha historians. 
 It is certain that most of these historians are false, and 
 so blind with bigotry that they perceive not the dis- 
 grace they accumulate upon their own blood. Nor do 
 they observe the inconsistency of lauding a nation 
 turning Protestant, who are represented as being at the 
 same time in a most brutish and ignorant state. 
 
 It is true that before the reformation, many abuses, 
 and much ignorance and immorality, existed in Chris- 
 tendom. It is equally undeniable that society was 
 corrupted and civilization thrown back by the Danes 
 in the west, and other Gothic savages in the north, 
 who were yet scarcely reclaimed from their piratical 
 habits and heathenish propensities. It is also a fact 
 that the advocates of the Lutheran revolution and 
 sanguinary tumults find their illustrations of ecclesi- 
 astical abuses and social corruption almost exclu- 
 sively in England, and Germany, and Sweden, and 
 the nations that revolted from the church. 
 
 Let us take a few examples. 
 
 I must avoid, as far as possible, the disgusting de- 
 tails, whether true or false, that form the staple of 
 Protestant books and tracts. 
 
 The author of Luther by a Lutheran says, “ Look at 
 the hundred grievances presented to the pope’s nun- 
 cio at the diet of Nuremburg ; and look, too, at the 
 speech of Duke George at Worms, where he admits 
 the corruntions of the priests,” &c. 
 
212 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 “ The rural districts were the scenes of numerous 
 excesses. The abodes of the clergy were frequently 
 the resorts of the dissolute,” &c. 
 
 “ The council of Schaffhausen prohibited the clergy 
 from dancing in public,” &c. 
 
 “ In several places the priest paid to the bishop a 
 regular tax for the woman with whom he lived, and 
 for every child he had by her ! A German bishop, who 
 was present at a grand entertainment, publicly de- 
 clared that in one year eleven thousand priests had 
 presented themselves to him for that purpose. It is 
 Erasmus who records this.” 
 
 Mylonius, who was superintendent of Gotha from 
 1524 to 1541, gives an account of that place, with its 
 unnatural crimes, too dreadful and indecent to be 
 quoted, although English ladies and youth have been 
 taught all about it. Tischer, a German contemporary 
 of Luther, is another authority of the same class. 
 
 John Schiphorver, a German, thus praises the 
 monks of his race : “ They are hardly able to sing the 
 requiem , and yet, like horned cattle, they raise them- 
 selves up, and undertake to oppose learned men. 
 
 * * They much better understand how to draw 
 
 liquor from goblets than information from books. 
 With drinking and carousing they sit in taverns, car- 
 ry on gaming and illicit amours, and daily getting 
 drunk ; and these are priests — they are indeed so 
 called ; but they are asses.” 
 
 The Rev. Dr. Schmucker quotes Giesler, a German, 
 who says that the German priests became so corrupt 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 213 
 
 that it was necessary to forbid them having any fe- 
 males near the house but their own relatives. “ But, 
 horrible to relate, from a decree of the council of Mo- 
 guntiae, A. D. 888, we learn that some of them had 
 children by their own sisters.” 
 
 The reader must excuse these elegant extracts. 
 Were I before an audience of English ladies in Exeter 
 Hall, I might be at liberty to give a profusion of quo- 
 tations far worse, in order to illustrate the historic fact 
 that the Goths of the continent, like their Anglo-Sax- 
 on brothers, have never been altogether Christianized, 
 — not so much as the red men of America. This is 
 true, or the Saxe- Gotha writers are all liars. 
 
 A writer in the North British Review, May, 1856, 
 makes a very labored and lame attempt to prove that 
 the Puritans were really pure, and no hypocrites ; 
 not narrow-minded, savage-hearted haters of art and 
 poesy, but were, in fact, lovers of poetry. How ? 
 “ There was poetry enough in them, to be sure,” he 
 says, “ though they acted it like men, instead of sing- 
 ing it like birds.” Yes, indeed, they acted tragic po- 
 etry in the wholesale murders, in the burning and 
 whipping and mutilations of women and children. 
 In the disembowelling of mothers, and the elevation 
 of babes on spear-tops, truly the Puritans acted poe- 
 try, not like birds, but like beasts. 
 
 This same reviewer, following in the path opened 
 up by Macaulay, exposes the matchless depravity of 
 England after the reformation. He judges the state 
 of the Anglo-Saxon by the tone and elevation of the 
 
214 CONDITION OP WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 popular songs, novels, and plays. These are almost 
 invariably sensual. lie says, “ Now, we cannot but 
 agree with the Puritans, that adultery is not a subject 
 for comedy at all. It may be for tragedy, but for 
 comedy never. It is a sin ; not merely theological- 
 ly, but socially, one of the very worst sins — the pa- 
 rent of seven other sins — of falsehood, suspicion, 
 hate, murder, and a whole bevy of devils. The 
 prevalence of adultery in any country has always 
 been a sign and a cause of social insincerity, division, 
 and revolution ; and where a people has learned to con- 
 nive and laugh at it, and to treat it as a light thing, 
 that people has been always careless, base, selfish, 
 cowardly, ripe for slavery. And we must say, that 
 either the courtiers and Londoners of James and 
 Charles I. were in that state, or that the poets were 
 doing their best to make them so. 
 
 “ We shall not shock our readers by any disgusting 
 details on this point; we shall only say that there is 
 hardly a comedy of the seventeenth century, with the 
 exception of Shakspeare’s, in which adultery is not 
 introduced as a subject of laughter, and often made 
 the staple of the whole plot. The seducer is, if not 
 openly applauded, at least let to pass as a 4 handsome 
 gentleman;’ the injured husband is, as in that Italian 
 literature of which we shall speak shortly, the object 
 of every kind of scorn and ridicule. In this latter 
 habit (common to most European nations) there is a 
 sort of justice. A man can generally retain his wife’s 
 affections if he will behave himself like a man ; and 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 215 
 
 injured husbands have for the most part no one to 
 blame but themselves. But the matter is not a sub- 
 ject for comedy ; not even in that case which has been 
 always too common in France, Italy, and the Romish 
 countries, and which seems to have been painfully 
 common in England in the seventeenth century, when 
 by a 6 manage de convenances a young girl is married 
 up to a rich idiot or a decrepit old man. Such things 
 are not comedies, but tragedies — subjects for pity 
 and for silence, not for brutal ribaldry. 
 
 “ The tragedies of the seventeenth century are, on 
 the whole, as questionable as the comedies. That 
 there are noble plays among them here and there, no 
 one denies — no more than that there are exquisitely 
 amusing plays among the comedies ; but as the sta- 
 ple interest of the comedies is dulness, so the staple 
 interest of the tragedies is crime. Revenge, hatred, 
 villany, incest, and murder upon murder, are the con- 
 stant themes, and, with the exception of Shakspeare, 
 Ben Jonson in his earlier plays, and perhaps Massin- 
 ger, they handle these horrors with little or no moral 
 purpose, save that of exciting and amusing the audi- 
 ence, and of displaying their own power of delinea- 
 tion, in a way which makes one but too ready to be- 
 lieve the accusations of the Puritans, supported as 
 they are by many painful anecdotes, that the play- 
 writers and actors were mostly men of fierce and 
 reckless lives, who had but too practical an acquaint- 
 ance with the dark passions which they sketch.” 
 
 This Puritan writer would have us believe that the 
 
216 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 immorality of the English stage, and of English so- 
 ciety at large, came from Italy, from the circumstance 
 that the drama originated in that Romish country. 
 But he slurs over without comment the fact, glorious 
 for Italy, that the drama had its birth in the sacred 
 temple of religion in that fair land of art. Plays 
 were at first introduced by the church as tableau vi - 
 vants of sacred history, in order to instruct the igno- 
 rant masses by the most lively and effectual method. 
 
 If this sacred drama became converted into a fount 
 of corruption, we must remember that Italian litera- 
 ture was not all corruption. And we must remember 
 that the abominations of the Cities of the Plain were 
 national in England long before the Italian plays were 
 invented. The English left what was beautiful and 
 good, and sucked in only the corruption, because base- 
 ness hath an affinity for baseness. 
 
 England was just the land to imbibe and become 
 saturated with corruption wherever found. There 
 were fountains of pure poesy in Italy, but the Anglo- 
 Saxon writers preferred to draw from the foul waters, 
 knowing the taste of their Anglo-Saxon patrons and 
 audiences. 
 
 Shakspeare was partly an exception, as the review- 
 er remarks : he had a truly divine instinct for finding 
 honey where others found poison. 
 
 Yet Shakspeare’s English characters are full of 
 baseness, treachery, and brutality, and his plays in the 
 original form, as acted before Queen Elizabeth and 
 the public, are full of obscenities. 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 217 
 
 I 
 
 
 It cannot be denied that since the period of Gothic 
 infusion into Italy, first through mercenaries, and then 
 by Austrian conquest, the Italians have displayed 
 great vices, as well as great virtues. But the Celtic 
 nations have drank of the pure fountain, while the 
 English and the German have instinctively, and by 
 preference, imbibed the fetid streams of filthiness. 
 Here is a fact that all the sophistry of English writers 
 cannot overthrow. While the Irish and other Celts 
 reject what is poisonous, the great Saxon stomach 
 greedily digests every dirty garbage thrown out by 
 other nations. 
 
 I believe it was Dean Swift who complained that 
 the English picked up every foul weed thrown over 
 the wall out of St. Peter’s garden, referring to the 
 fond reception given to every bad and disgraced priest 
 expelled from the Catholic church. 
 
 In our own day, as every one knows, the most filthy 
 and ferocious ruffians that Italy or Ireland can pro- 
 duce, are received with open arms by the English and 
 Anglo-Americans. Crowds of mothers and daughters 
 flock to drink in, with greedy ear, all the obscene sto- 
 ries that the disgraced priest has to relate. 
 
 Regarding the Italian drama, the writer says, “ We 
 have yet to learn how much our stage owed, from its 
 first rise under Elizabeth, to direct importations, from 
 Italy.” Now, it is evident that the English drama of 
 bestiality owed little or nothing to the Italian. 
 Where English writers take their plots from the Ital- 
 ian, it is from Italian novels and romances not from 
 
 19 
 
218 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 public plays. The aristocratic nobles, lay and clerical, 
 of Italy, in the sixteenth century, were very corrupt, 
 and they bought up these novels; but there is not a* 
 particle of evidence to be brought forward that the 
 unreading masses of the people were in the same con- 
 dition. 
 
 England was, and is, rotten from head to foot, from 
 skin to core. Not so the peasantry of Ireland, Italy, 
 and other Celtic countries. The disgusting creation 
 of the public drama in England was indigenous, and 
 is very properly ascribed by Macaulay to the depravity 
 of the public taste — let the Saxon Puritan say what 
 he will. All the Christianity that England ever had 
 was imparted, first and last, by Italy and by Ireland. 
 
 Ben Jonson, although a loose writer himself, could 
 not suppress this outburst regarding the English stage. 
 He says, “ The increase of which lust is liberty, to- 
 gether with the present trade of the stage, in all their 
 masculine interludes, what liberal soul doth not ab- 
 hor ? where nothing but filth of the mire is uttered, 
 and that with such impropriety of phrase, such plenty 
 of solecisms, such dearth of sense, so bold prolepses, 
 such racked metaphors, with indecency able to vio- 
 late the ear of a pagan, and blasphemy to turn the 
 blood of a Christian to water. 5 ’ 
 
 Considering the bias of this reviewer, I am aston- 
 ished to find that he gives due credit to an Irishman 
 for being the first who purified the English stage. He 
 says, “ We will go no farther into the sickening de- 
 tails of the licentiousness of the old play-houses. 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 219 
 
 Gosson and his colleague, ‘ the anonymous penitent,’ 
 assert them, as does Prynne, (who says ‘ their atmos- 
 phere was that of Gehenna,’) to have been not only 
 schools, but ante-chambers to houses of a worse kind, 
 and that the lessons learned in the pit were only not 
 practised also in the pit.” What reason have we to 
 doubt it, who know that till Mr. Macready commenced 
 a practical reformation of this abuse, for which his 
 name will be ever respected, our own comparatively 
 purified stage was just the same ? 
 
 So, then the Italians have not always been the cor- 
 rupters. English men and maids are now just the 
 same as they were five hundred years ago, and they 
 were then just the same, almost, as they were in pa- 
 ganism. Semper idem — always the same. 
 
 An old English author called Stubbes wrote a work, 
 in 1583, on “ The Anatomy of Abuses.” He draws a 
 shocking picture of the English women of his day, 
 with their “ absurdities and endless ornaments of dress, 
 coloring the face, ruffs, lace spangles, clock stockings, 
 feathers, &c., incontinence, gluttony, and drunken- 
 ness.” Speaking of the amusements in which they 
 delighted, such as stage plays, u The arguments of 
 tragedies are anger, wrath, immunity, cruelty, injury, 
 incest, murder; the actors, gods, goddesses, furies, 
 fiends, nayges, kyngs, queens, and potentates. Come- 
 dies are of love, bawdrie, cozenage, flatterie, adulterie, 
 and the persons, queans, bawdes, scullions, knaves, 
 courtezans, letcherous old men, amorous young 
 men, &c.” 
 
220 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 From the time when the court of Charles II. was 
 a public brothel, nudity balls became fashionable 
 throughout England. 
 
 Hogarth’s obscene engravings were bought up with 
 great avidity. (For an account of the shocking state 
 of English women during this period, see Macaulay, 
 and recent authors.) 
 
 The Catholic church, with all its temporal and su- 
 pernatural powers, could scarcely keep the Saxon na- 
 ture within bounds, because their nature was brutish. 
 It required such a saint as Henry VIII. to free the 
 Saxon from the pope, and let u the swinish multi- 
 tude have it their own way, without note or com- 
 ment.” 
 
 Wade (History of Working Classes) informs us that 
 seventy-two thousand rogues, and thieves, and mur- 
 derers were put to death in the reign of Henry VIII. 
 u The cause of these outrages may be traced to [the 
 destruction of monasteries, &c.] the abolition of vil- 
 lenage” — the Saxon set free showing his whole 
 character. 
 
 Human nature is always the same. Speaking as a 
 physiologist, I should say that the reformation was the 
 rebellion of the great Anglo-Saxon stomach, and the 
 bursting of the Gothic propensities from spiritual con- 
 trol. Luther had mental powers far above the average of 
 his race, but his physiological development was Goth- 
 ic — large occiput and bull neck, small, sensual eyes, 
 and large jaws. He had the gross physique of his 
 brother Goth, the Anglo-Saxon Cranmer, who broke 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 221 
 
 his vows of chastity and temperance. Luther violated 
 his oath, and profaned the nun Catherine de Bore. 
 This glutton and toady, this furious beast, who 
 “ tore away the sacred veil of virgins consecrated to 
 God,” who persecuted those faithful to their vows of 
 chastity, who allowed the landgrave of Hesse-Cassel 
 to have two wives, — this Luther was the worthy 
 champion of that Saxon race that has always degrad- 
 ed and enslaved woman. 
 
 That reformation was truly Gothic which evinced 
 itself in repugnance to fasting and celibacy, by indul- 
 ging their stomachs and taking wives, thus breaking 
 their sacred vows. 
 
 Macaulay, who is a strong anti- Catholic, admits 
 that “ no part of the system of the old church had 
 been more detested by the reformers, [Saxon and Ger- 
 man,] than the honor paid to celibacy. 
 
 “ They held that the doctrine of Rome on this subject 
 had been prophetically condemned by the apostle 
 Paul, as a doctrine of devils ; and they dwelt much 
 upon the crimes and scandals (of their own An- 
 glo-Saxon and German priests) which seemed to 
 prove the justice of this awful denunciation.” The 
 very same argument is now used by the very same 
 race against the institution of marriage, by those Eng- 
 lish Mormonites, and free-lovers, and German gos- 
 pel libertines. Still there are good people in Eng- 
 land. 
 
 Macaulay shows that the Puritan age was an age 
 of hypocrisy, that was followed by an age of impu- 
 
 19 * 
 
222 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 dence. The Saxon mind, let loose again, showed its 
 disgusting features. “ From Dryden down to Durfey, 
 the common characteristic was hard-hearted, shSme- 
 less, swaggering licentiousness, at once inelegant and 
 inhuman.” “ Nothing is more characteristic of the 
 times than the care with which the poets continued to 
 put all their loosest verses into the mouths of women, 
 and nothing charmed the depraved audience so much 
 as to hear lines grossly indecent, repeated by a beauti- 
 ful girl who was supposed to have not yet lost her in- 
 nocence.” 
 
 After the emancipation of the Anglo-Saxon from 
 the pope, where do we find the teacher of the gospel 
 and the defender of female chastity ? We find him as 
 a luxurious state bishop, who left the cultivation of 
 the vineyard of the Lord to the parsons and common 
 chaplains, who were mere scullions and flunkies, in 
 the lowest grade. Macaulay proves this, and says 
 that “ the chaplain was the resource of a lady’s maid 
 whose character had been blown upon, and who was 
 therefore forced to give up hopes of catching the stew- 
 ard.” The same Protestant authority shows that 
 respectable girls considered it disgraceful to marry a 
 clergyman, because it was a proverbial fact, that the 
 parson generally got promotion to his living by marry- 
 ing some girl who had been seduced by the patron. 
 This disgusting meanness of men and degradation 
 of women is peculiarly Saxon, and still prevails in 
 England, as we shall see. 
 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 223 
 
 From the Critic, November 1, 1856. 
 
 Macaulay’s Young Levite. — For his character of 
 the clergy in the early volumes Macaulay has been as- 
 sailed possibly with greater virulence than for any 
 other portion. The following verses of a poem, enti- 
 tled The Chaplain's Petition to the Honorable House 
 for Redress of Grievances , from the unpublished his- 
 torical MS. collections of the British Museum, seem 
 confirmatory of his views : — 
 
 i. 
 
 Since the ladies ’gainst men 
 Have to paper put pen, 
 
 By way of humble petition, 
 
 In hope your good pleasure 
 Will once be at leisure 
 To mend now their scurvy condition. 
 
 * * * * 
 
 VI. 
 
 Next, when we’ve said grace, 
 
 Let’s at table have place, 
 
 And not skulk so among the waiters, 
 
 Or come in with the fruit, 
 
 To give thanks, and sneak out 
 To dine upon half-empty platters. 
 
 VII. 
 
 But besides store of dishes, 
 
 (One part of our wishes,) 
 
 To fortify man sacerdotal — 
 
 Eleemosynary junk, 
 
 And beare to get drunk, 
 
 We humbly desire you to vote all. 
 
224 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 VIII. 
 
 Item, pray make us able 
 To command steed in stable, 
 
 When we are disposed ad reddendum 
 And if we want boots, 
 
 Whips, spurs, or surtouts, 
 
 Oblige surly grooms straight to lend 'em. 
 
 IX. 
 
 Nor let our great patrons, 
 
 Or their ruling matrons, 
 
 Read the butlers a juniper lecture, 
 
 If sometimes they pass 
 To our hands a stole glass, 
 
 Or some little orts of confecture. 
 
 x. 
 
 Where long we have served, 
 
 And preferment deserved, 
 
 Let’s not miss of our expectations 
 By every Soph’s letter 
 For a friend — that’s no better, 
 
 Our patron's blockhead relations. 
 
 Anglo-Germanicus. 
 
 31 Burton Street, Burton Crescent. 
 
 It appears, then, from the above, that the English 
 women of the present day only follow the example of 
 their mothers in sending up petitions u to mend their 
 scurvy condition.” 
 
 The desire of his reverence to get “ charity junk, and 
 beer to get drunk,” does not sound quite orthodox. 
 
 I will say nothing of the Dolly Tearsheets and pert 
 waiting maids who have always been pet characters 
 on the English stage. But let us look at the respecta- 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 225 
 
 ble Wives of Windsor. Could women of their posi- 
 tion in any other country behave so ? Could you get 
 any decent tradesmen’s wives in Ireland to enter into 
 such intrigues, and to promise, even in joke, to com- 
 mit adultery ? No ! None but an English virgin 
 queen could command such plays to be acted before 
 her. But Shakspeare is truly modest, compared with 
 the poets, novelists, dramatists, of less talent, but 
 more baseness and vulgarity, who pandered to the na- 
 tional English taste. 
 
 Is morality any better under Victoria? We shall 
 find the answer to that in its proper place — where 
 parliamentary Blue Books and English writers prove 
 that the English at large are the most brutified race 
 in Europe ; yet there is plenty of Celtic blood and 
 many good people in England. 
 
 
226 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 ANGLO-ORANGE GOTHS IN IRELAND. 
 
 Irishmen may indeed weep over the history of their 
 emerald home, as it is written by English-bred men, 
 who consider that bloody battles, political intrigues, 
 and loyalty or disloyalty to scoundrel kings, makes 
 up the sum of human destiny. But the philosopher 
 who believes that human progress is coexistent with 
 the extension of Christian faith, and that true liberty 
 and happiness are founded on individual virtue and 
 social fraternity, must glow with satisfaction as he 
 traces the history of man’s heart and soul in the social 
 life of Ireland. Until the Irish were set upon by 
 Orange bloodhounds ; until society was poisoned by 
 sectarian malignity and Saxon cant ; ay, even until 
 the union with England was at last effected in 1800, — 
 the Irishman’s hearth was cheerful, joyous, hospitable, 
 and musical. Friend or foe was equally welcome, 
 high and low met and shook hands, in that upper 
 world, that heaven on earth, where the Irish matron 
 ruled supreme. 
 
 Cead mille failtlie expressed the overflowing good- 
 ness of the Irish mother’s heart. 
 
 The Norman-French conquerors retained through * 
 all their tyranny a dash of generosity, a chivalrous 
 
* 
 
 THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 227 
 
 spirit, a sense of honor, a love of music, a respect for 
 woman, and affection for children, until they got mixed 
 with the blood of the English, and were nursed on the 
 milk of English mothers. 
 
 I say it is a clear historical fact, that every succeed- 
 ing generation of the English aristocracy became more 
 self-conceited, more base, bloody, and brutal, since 
 their blood was Saxonized. The Irish landlords, who 
 i have more of the Dutch-Orange blood, and boast 
 more of their Saxonism, are, if possible, worse than 
 the English. The Times, even the London Times, 
 acknowledged that “ their name stinks over the earth.” 
 
 Ah, how different were the old Celtic chiefs and 
 the Norman-French invaders, who mixed with the 
 
 r 
 
 Celtic people, and nursed at Celtic breasts. They 
 were often fierce and tyrannical, but they had none of 
 that crawling, flunky loyalty and vulgar conceit. 
 They did not, in cold blood, starve and exterminate 
 the poor with the fiendish hatred and gospel hypocri- 
 ! sy of the Orange landlord. 
 
 The conduct of the proud Norman-French conquer- 
 ors in England forms an extraordinary contrast to the 
 behavior of the same race in Ireland, as regards 
 woman. When Henry had a design upon Ireland, he 
 made a pretence of civilizing it, and of freeing the 
 Saxon slaves, who sold themselves to the Hibernians. 
 
 ; He endeavored to misrepresent them to the pope, an 
 ! Englishman. 
 
 While the noble, brave, free Milesians fought 
 against the disgusting flunkyism and slavery of the 
 
 ! f 
 
228 CONDITION OP WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 English system, they were misrepresented to Europe, 
 as they are to this day; and it was considered merito- 
 rious to assassinate an unarmed or unsuspecting 
 “ mere Irishman.” But the Norman-French, who 
 came to know the country and the people, formed very 
 different opinions of them. The proud conquerors of 
 England, who called even the Saxon aristocracy “ Sax- 
 on porkers,” and even looked upon the English as 
 mere savages, were struck with admiration of the free 
 and enlightened Irish institutions. The beauty, dig- 
 nity, and purity of Irish ladies were such that the chiv- 
 alrous invaders considered it an honor to form alli- 
 ances with them. The English kings persisted in 
 their misrepresentations, and in their ideas of conquer- 
 ing Ireland; but the nobles sent to reduce the country 
 became u more Irish than the Irish themselves,” exhibit- 
 ing the usual zeal of converts to truth, virtue, and liberty. 
 
 The English tyrants wanted to crush the democrat- 
 ic spirit of the Irish institutions, and the endearing 
 and generous customs that bound the nobles and the 
 peasantry in the bond of fraternity. The invading 
 nobles were in vain forbidden to marry with the proud 
 Irish, or to associate themselves with the peasantry by 
 means of fosterage. This was a custom the Irish 
 kings and chieftains had of sending their infants to 
 be nursed and reared by the peasant women, who 
 were therefore called foster mothers , and treated with 
 the most affectionate respect by the family of the 
 chief. Sons of the nobles and of the peasantry called 
 each other “ foster brothers,” from having nursed at 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 229 
 
 the same breast, and they used to stand by each other 
 in the field of battle. 
 
 The noble-born infants were sent to the peasant’s 
 cottage, where they were received as guests. The 
 Irish lady never degraded the nurse of her child by 
 treating her as a menial, in the manner of the English 
 aristocracy. 
 
 They had their Saxon female slaves about the 
 house, but the Irish mothers would not let their chil- 
 dren drink the milk of a? Sas Sana. 
 
 It was an old opinion that an infant imbibes the 
 propensities of the wet nurse, and that its impressible 
 mind becomes stamped with her character, whether 
 for integrity or meanness. There is much truth in 
 this opinion, because tender infancy acquires, by in- 
 stinct, impressions and ideas that form the ground- 
 work of character through life. 
 
 I mention this fact, or superstition, to prove that the 
 peasant foster mother was highly honored among the 
 old Irish. 
 
 The idea that an infant imbibes the character of 
 the nurse along with her milk is very ancient among 
 the Celts. It is said that the chaste Pallas took the 
 infant Hercules and put him to the breast of the 
 sleeping Juno, and that he thereby acquired his nobili- 
 ty of soul, love of virtue, and immortality. 
 
 This idea seems to have been popular also in Judea. 
 A woman cried out to our Saviour, “ Blessed is the 
 womb that bore thee, and the paps that gave thee 
 suck.” The reply of Christ is an approval of the ob- 
 
 20 
 
230 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 servation, and implies that his mother had still a great- 
 er merit, in belonging to those who know the law and 
 keep it. 
 
 Honest poor persons are respected in Ireland when 
 they show humility without servility. The term beg- 
 gar is only applied to mean people, crawling depend- 
 ants. It is a terrible reproach to say of any one, “A 
 beggar nursed him,” assuming that he had imbibed 
 the base spirit of the nurse. 
 
 44 In English the word family now excludes the ser- 
 vants. But in Spain and Italy (as once in England) 
 the word family embraces the servants, who are con- 
 sidered to form a part of the family.” ( Cardinal 
 Wiseman.) ^ 
 
 The old Irish institution of fosterage speaks volumes 
 in favor of the proud position which the Irish woman 
 maintained, even in the peasant’s cabin. The Celts 
 were always inclined to respect and elevate woman, 
 while the English have made even their wet nurses 
 beggarly menials of the household. The English, in 
 degrading 46 the lower orders,” as they call them, only 
 debase themselves. There is scarcely one of the pres- 
 ent English aristocracy of whom we cannot say, 44 A 
 beggar nursed him.” 
 
 There is a worse feature in Englishism. Most of 
 the wet nurses are unmarried, and these are taken in 
 preference, so that it can be said of the English gen- 
 tleman, 44 A nursed him.” 
 
 But there is a worse feature still in Englishism. 
 Many of these unmarried and unblushing wet nurses 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 231 
 
 kill their own babes in order that they may have no 
 encumbrance in the way of their admission to the lux- 
 urious home of the aristocrat. But, generally speak- 
 ing, the unnatural mothers send them to the old hag 
 nurses, who kill them with spoon-feeding and lauda- 
 num — the poor infant being sacrificed for the benefit 
 of the rich one. 
 
 English ladies are well aware that their wet nurses 
 generally leave their own poor babes to the care of 
 old women for a miserable pittance. Instead of the 
 mother’s breast, the poor deserted infants get spoon- 
 feeding and the laudanum bottle. English ladies 
 know all this, and wink at it. How different the old 
 Irish system of fosterage ! 
 
 English ladies who would refuse the hand of a gen- 
 * tleman’s son consider it an honor to marry a lord’s 
 bastard. In fact, the honor attached to matrimony 
 and legitimacy is held by English ladies in small 
 ; esteem, compared with wealth and title. 
 
 English women of the upper class are more moral, 
 
 ■ because under less temptation ; but in many cases they 
 : wink at iniquity. The proof of this serious charge is 
 in the fact that prostitution is indirectly encouraged 
 by the ladies of England, who prefer unmarried wet 
 nurses for their children. Dishonored young English- 
 women are not ashamed ; they do not hide themselves, 
 
 . I as unfortunate Irish girls do. English lemans need 
 not blush in English society ; on the contrary, they 
 publish themselves in shop windows and in newspa- 
 pers ; as for example, — 
 
090 
 
 CONDITION OP WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 / 
 
 & 
 
 a 
 
 “Wet nursing wanted by an unmar- 
 ried, healthy young woman. Milk 
 three weeks old. She can give respect- 
 able reference as to character. Appl 
 
 Such girls are taken into the English lady’s family. 
 In advertising for a breast of milk, Protestantism is 
 usually insisted upon, and “ no Irish need apply,” be- 
 cause Irish women have superstitious notions about 
 the necessity and honor of marriage, and these Eng- 
 lish ladies do not wish to be bothered with low Irish 
 husbands coming to visit their domestics. (See a re- 
 markable series of letters on this and kindred subjects, 
 by S. G. O., in the London Times, 1853.) 
 
 Ancient fables point to the character of men, by 
 representing them as nursed by certain kinds of ani- 
 mals. Thus, for instance, the founders of the warlike 
 Romans are said to have been nursed by a she wolf. 
 If the great Irish artist Maclise, who adorned the 
 British House of Parliament, were called upon to 
 paint the English infant lord and his nurse, he would* 
 not make the foster mother a wolf or a lioness, but a 
 sow, the impure beast that sometimes destroys her 
 young ; the very animal, in fact, that the old Saxons 
 worshipped. 
 
 In his beautiful poem, “ The Geraldines,” Davis 
 sketches the history of that noble old family, first in 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 
 
 233 
 
 their native Italy, then in France, then as conquerors 
 in England. Then he describes their chivalry in Ire- 
 land, and how they (as did the proudest Norman 
 French) fell in with the noble, free, Irish spirit. 
 
 “ These Geraldines ! these Geraldines ! not long our air they breathed ; 
 
 Not long they fed on venison in Irish waters seethed ; 
 
 Not often had their children been by Irish mothers nursed ; 
 
 When from their full and genial hearts an Irish feeling burst. 
 
 “ The English monarchs strove in vain, by law, and force, and bribe, 
 
 To win from Irish thoughts and ways this ‘ more than Irish tribe ; * 
 
 For still they clung to fosterage, to breitheamh , cloak, and bard; 
 
 What king dare say to Geraldine, ‘ Your Irish wife discard ’ ? ” 
 
 Alas ! the time came when Irish thoughts dare not 
 be expressed, and when Irish ways were crushed by 
 the Dutch usurper and his mongrel breed of new pro- 
 prietors, and when Irish honest servant girls were in- 
 sulted by the “ No Irish need apply ” of the sensual 
 and profligate English advertisers. 
 
 Englishmen did not find Irish servant maids com- 
 pliable, and therefore yelled out, “ No Irish need ap- 
 ply.” That is the fact. 
 
 The Saxon woman, so debased and animalized in 
 her own nation, was held in contempt by the surround- 
 ing Celts. ^Ve have seen that the Fish preferred to 
 buy pregnant English women, which proves that they 
 employed these slaves only as domestic drudges, dis- 
 daining to marry or cohabit with them. 
 
 The Welsh held the greasy Saxons in equal con- 
 20 * 
 
234 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 tempt. Vortigcrn was deposed for marrying Rowena. 
 The explorer of British antiquities is struck with the 
 fact that the Welsh bards of old pour out lamenta- 
 tions over the degeneracy of some Bretons who had 
 degraded themselves by marrying Saxon women. 
 (See the Quarterly Review , October, 1852.) 
 
 When the French settled in England, they used 
 such imprecations as, “ May I be an Englishman.” 
 u Do you take me for an Englishman? ” 
 
 “ One of the ablest among them (the French) at- 
 tempted to win the hearts of his English subjects by 
 espousing an English princess ; but by many of his 
 barons this marriage was regarded as a marriage by a 
 white planter and a quadroon girl would now be re- 
 garded in Virginia. In history, he is known by the 
 honorable name of Beauclerc ; but in his own time, 
 his own countrymen called him by a Saxon nickname, 
 in contemptuous allusion to his Saxon connection.” 
 (See Macaulay's History of England , vol. i.) 
 
 It is no wonder that English women were always 
 held thus in contempt. How could females enslaved, 
 whipped, and brutalized at home, command respect 
 abroad ? 
 
 Wife-murder, infanticide, free love, and Mormonism 
 always were, as they are now, Anglo-Saxon propen- 
 sities. 
 
 I repeat the observation, because it is an important 
 one, that there is no fact in our history clearer than 
 this — that the Norman- French conquerors and settlers 
 retained the elements of Christian chivalry, honor, and 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 235 
 
 humanity, until they intermarried with the English, 
 and gave their children to nurses, who inoculated 
 them with the Saxon character. The English aristoc- 
 racy have been growing more sensual, perfidious, ava- 
 ricious, mean, and merciless, every generation since 
 their advent in England. On the other side, the in- 
 vaders were ennobled and humanized by their mar- 
 riages with the Celts, and the Irish milk of human 
 kindness. But the new Dutch hybrids, the low-bred 
 ruffians under Cromwell and William III., did not 
 mix with the Irish ; and what are they ? Let their 
 acts answer. 
 
 If you want to study the character of the Gothic 
 race in power, — I mean the mongrel Goth, — look at 
 the Anglo-Orange landlords of Ireland, the descend- 
 ants of fifers, drummers, and troopers, of low Dutch 
 and English boors. 
 
 The absentee landlords, who have beggared Ireland, 
 pretend that they are afraid of their lives, and cannot 
 live in that hateful country. But the real danger and 
 cause of hatred is in the fact, that Irish girls are too 
 virtuous, and Irish fathers and brothers dreadfully dan- 
 gerous to those who insult their daughters and sisters. 
 The Irish are too patient under national robbery, but 
 dishonor they will not suffer ; and so the descendants 
 of nun-slayers and priest-hunters hate Ireland, and 
 betake themselves to the stews of “ merrie England, 
 their mother country.” Thus the wealth of Ireland 
 has been abstracted, and Irish homes made desolate 
 through Irish virtue. This is the literal truth. The 
 
236 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 Goth may boast of national progress and material 
 comfort. But the Celt might have enjoyed the same ; 
 if he had turned with the tide of Protestantism and 
 loyalty, he might have kept his lands, and also shared 
 in the plunder of helpless Indians and stolen Negroes. 
 But the martyr Celt abandoned worldly considerations 
 and the promptings of sensuality, and preferred pov- 
 erty, fasting, chastity, and the eternal truth. Having 
 come through the fire, he may yet enjoy national pros- 
 perity and domestic comfort. 
 
 It is probable that the unfathomable baseness of 
 the Gothic and Saxon character never fully developed 
 itself, as it could not, until the race was brought into 
 a civilized region ; then they found themselves to be 
 the most relentless despots in power, and the most 
 crawling wretches in distress. The self-debasement 
 of the Saxon was also a characteristic of his German 
 cousin. 
 
 We have already seen that the Anglo-Saxons and 
 Germans used to sell themselves for their feed, when 
 they had no wives or children to dispose of. It is the 
 distinction of this flunky race, that they alone of all 
 nations in history had to be prevented by law from 
 selling themselves. 
 
 The most brutalizing slavery and debasement of 
 woman are peculiar only to the Saxons and Goths. 
 The Turks are gentlemen compared with them. The 
 Frenchmen who conquered England were proud, 
 fierce tyrants, yet they could also be gallant and hu- 
 mane. But their descendants have been so mixed 
 
 
 
 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 237 
 
 with the Saxonized Orange blood, and the Dutch, 
 Hessian, and other German invaders, with Prince 
 Albert Saxe- Gotha at their head, that the aristocracy 
 of Great Britain and Ireland are now, as every one 
 knows, the meanest and most perfidious in the world, 
 incapable of any thing generous or glorious. We 
 find them base in proportion as they are Saxonized. 
 For example : near Ballinasloe there is a noble landlord 
 family. They were originally of the Low Dutch fol- 
 lowers of William, Prince of Orange. Their name is 
 Trenck. By the stingy penury peculiar to the race, 
 and, it is reported, by swindling, and perjury against 
 rebel Papists, and by loyalty to the sacred person of 
 majesty, this family arose from meanness into afflu- 
 ence. One of them is now nicknamed Lord “ Clan- 
 cloaky.” His brother, an archdeacon, was called 
 “ Skin-em-alive ,” because he used to flog poor women 
 naked in the public market. These men were most 
 zealous when they had the power to degrade the peas- 
 antry according to Anglo-Saxon style. 
 
 In 1835, these Saxon-Orange landlords got harness 
 made for their servants, and yoked them to ploughs, 
 and made them plough the bogs of Clancarty. There 
 is no doubt but that this practice would have contin- 
 ued and extended into other Orange estates, if the 
 peasantry had submitted to it. But the people, who 
 bore, with the best grace they could, defeat and rob- 
 bery by a more powerful nation, could not yield to 
 this Saxon debasement. They arose in their fury, and 
 
238 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 compelled the Gothic lord to put away his Saxon 
 harness. 
 
 These facts are well known in the county of Gal- 
 way, and Dr. J. Brannique, of Brooklyn, can testify to 
 them. 
 
 I have in my possession a petition from a poor 
 man, Michael Hammon, begging for work ; and the 
 answer of this Lord Clancarty, this scion of an Or- 
 ange-Dutch boor, this loyal flunky, who crawls to 
 royalty, refuses to grant work unless the wretch would 
 sell the souls of his family ; unless he would send his 
 children to become Protestants, knowing it was 
 against their conscience. 
 
 This is but one of many examples I could quote to 
 prove that the most debasing slavery and degradation 
 of man and woman have ever proceeded from the Goth- 
 ic race. The lords of Ireland are chiefly of Gothic or 
 mongrel blood. They do all in their power to torture 
 and humiliate the poor. In the workhouses the chil- 
 dren are separated from the mothers, and the husband 
 from the wife. Wherever the base-born landlords can 
 manage it, they exclude the nuns from attending to 
 the wretched victims of oppression. 
 
 These nuns, these pure, devoted, angelic ladies, are 
 daughters of the old race, and even of the noble and 
 royal blood of Ireland ; consequently they are hated 
 by the vulgar, kid-glove savages that a mysterious dis- 
 pensation of Providence has put in power. 
 
 These Gothic hypocrites, who soil the Bible with the 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 239 
 
 blood of innocents, — these Orange beasts of prey, 
 who have laid Ireland waste, — these swindling black- 
 guards, who spend the fruits of peasant industry in 
 London brothels, — these lords and squires have of 
 course a hatred for nuns, and object to their educat- 
 ing the young girls in ideas of purity. 
 
240 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 ENGLISH NIGGERS. 
 
 In speaking of the condition of children, we must 
 not forget the white slaves of England, still bought 
 and sold, called chummies , or chimney sweeps. In 
 illustrating their condition, I cannot do better than 
 quote from the new work, “ Tit for Tat.” The au- 
 thor says, — 
 
 “ There is a race of beings, by the initiated facetious- 
 ly denominated 4 chummies ,’ which exists only in hu- 
 mane Britain. Outside barbarians call them chimney 
 sweeps. This race is black, not from blood, but from 
 soot. I beheld specimens of these crippled, distorted, 
 bleeding bits of humanity, and at sight was taken 
 down by a sympathetic fever ” — that is, the black 
 fever, the Uncle Tomism that rages in England. 
 
 The author shows from parliamentary reports that 
 there are about four thousand infants employed in 
 England, instead of sweeping machines, to climb up 
 and clean down chimneys. 
 
 It is true that a law was passed abolishing this kind 
 of slavery, and of consequence preventing English 
 parents from selling or using their children for such 
 purposes ; but English master-sweeps and the English 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 241 
 
 
 public find that it is cheaper to employ children, and 
 so they are still employed in defiance of law. 
 
 “ This law to put down all the atrocities of climb- 
 ing children, is essentially a law to protect the children 
 of the poor, even from their own parents, who, I am 
 sorry to say, are among the very foremost to sell their 
 children into this slavery. The evidence on the com- 
 mittee before the bill was passed was most revolting, 
 was most overwhelming. It was an opprobrium upon 
 any civilized country. 5 ’ The evidence which led to 
 this law showed that many thousands of children were 
 found to be exposed to the most hideous cruelties, 
 burned and roasted alive, tortured by brutal and drunk- 
 en masters, driven up chimneys in flames, falling down 
 chimneys on fire, going into boiler flues so hot that 
 they were obliged to have boards put under them to 
 prevent them from being gridironed alive ; and in ad- 
 dition to all this, the children were constantly sold by 
 their parents and masters for five shillings a head to 
 undergo all this iniquity. It was impossible to edu- 
 cate them, because they were never able to herd with 
 any others in their own class. Scarcely any of them 
 could read or write. Very rarely washed, they slept 
 upon heaps of soot in most revolting cellars ; they 
 had little or no food given them, except the broken 
 victuals that they begged at the houses where they 
 were employed. They began this incarnate degrada- 
 tion as young as five years of age, when our own 
 children have not escaped from the nursery. And, 
 finally, by their constant contact with the soot, they 
 
 21 
 
242 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 laid the seeds of a most revolting cancer, (called 
 chimney sweep's cancer ,) which frequently terminated 
 their existence under circumstances of the most offen- 
 sive suffering.” 
 
 The poor children, in their first essays, find it almost 
 physically impossible to climb up the narrow, crooked 
 chimneys ; but with the black cap drawn over their 
 faces, up the fearful passage they must go. Their 
 natural repugnance to the business must be overcome 
 by the most unflinching brutality. “ A child is put up 
 a chimney, and if he will not climb, the master puts 
 his hand under him, and runs some sharp instrument 
 into him. Generally, I believe, an old boy is sent up 
 after him with a pin, or a shoemaker’s awl, and some- 
 times fires have been lit under a child, who is thus 
 driven up to escape the flames.” 
 
 The following extracts are from minutes of evidence 
 taken before the select committee of the House of 
 Lords, appointed to inquire into the expediency or in- 
 expediency of the regulations contained in the Chim- 
 ney Sweeper’s Regulation Act Amendment bill, and 
 to report thereon to the House, at the session of 1852-3, 
 and ordered to be printed June 7, 1853 : — 
 
 “ Was all that established by evidence in a court of 
 justice ? — Precisely. The Lord Chief Baron entered 
 into the case minutely, and told the prisoner at the 
 bar, in his judgment, in addition to causing the death 
 of the boy, he was punishable, by allowing a child at 
 so tender an age to sweep chimneys at all. His lord- 
 ship then said, on the prisoner being found guilty, that 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 243 
 
 the case, from its atrocity, required some considera- 
 tion; therefore he should defer his sentence. On the 
 following day, the prisoner being brought up to receive 
 sentence, his lordship observed, that the prisoner had 
 violated a law intended to do away with the cruelties 
 practised on young persons employed by individuals 
 in the business which he, the prisoner, followed, and 
 that he had, besides, caused the death of a fellow- 
 creature by the course he had pursued. After com- 
 menting on his crime, his lordship said he hoped the 
 punishment he was about to inflict would act as a 
 warning to all persons, and he sentenced the prisoner 
 to ten years’ transportation. The date of this case 
 was August, 1847. The next case bears date Decem- 
 ber, 1850. Stephen Ratcliffe, eleven years of age, was 
 employed by his master, William Davies, of Manches- 
 ter, to cleanse the flues round a steam engine boiler. 
 He and another boy went into one of the flues, the 
 master being engaged in clearing away the soot, as the 
 lads brought it to the mouth of the flue. After some 
 time, the master called out for a doctor, stating that he 
 believed the boy Ratcliffe was dead, which proved to 
 be the case. About twenty minutes after the deceased 
 was taken away, a person went into the flue which 
 the child had been sweeping, and found the heat so 
 great, that, to use his own words, he c would not have 
 liked to have kept his hand there more than five or ten 
 minutes.’ The dead boy was found about ten feet 
 down the flue. He had been out before, and com- 
 plained of the heat ; he was afterwards heard to cry. 
 
244 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 On examination of the dead body, there was a burn 
 found on the left shoulder, another on the left arm, 
 and a third on the left hip; both his ankles, his face, 
 and his ears were also burned. Some of the burns 
 were severe, the skin being oil’; the internal organs 
 were found congested with blood, and gave evidence 
 of the child having died of suffocation. The verdict 
 returned by the coronor’s jury was, 4 Accidentally suf- 
 focated in a heated flue.’ That is all that follows the 
 murder of this child. In the year 1850 this is the 
 only result of such a frightful case. 
 
 44 Was the man never put on his trial ? No. In Feb- 
 ruary, 1850, at Nottingham, a boynamed Samuel Whitt, 
 ten years of age, was sent up a chimney, in the grate of 
 which was smouldering a small portion of fire. As the 
 child remained some long period without attempting 
 to return, and made no answer when called, an elder 
 boy was sent up the flue to bring him down ; but find- 
 ing the child jammed fast in the chimney, beyond all 
 power of extrication, the elder boy was obliged to re- 
 turn unsuccessful. A bricklayer was then employed 
 to cut a passage through the wall ; but this process, 
 being difficult, from the extreme thickness of the 
 building, and likely to occupy much time, was aban- 
 doned. The elder boy was again sent up the chimney, 
 when, taking hold of the little boy by the legs, he sus- 
 pended himself from this child of ten years of age ; a 
 third person below attached himself to the legs of the 
 second boy, and thus they attempted to drag him 
 down, by doubling the weight. By these means the 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 245 
 
 unfortunate child was torn away in an almost lifeless 
 state, half naked, bleeding, and bruised ; and, after 
 lingering many hours in dreadful torture, death, more 
 kind than man, put an end to his existence. 
 
 “ What was done upon it ? The result of this in 
 the town of Nottingham showed that the master did 
 not possess any machinery ; the child’s murder never 
 caused any sensation in the place, and the master was 
 unvisited with any punishment whatever. 
 
 44 Was there any verdict of the coroner? No notice 
 seems to have been taken of it at all. There are two 
 cases which go back to 1848 ; in one case a sweep 
 was stolen from Nottingham, and brought to the 
 chimney sweeping trade in Hull. In another case, a 
 child was proved to have been sold five different times 
 to as many different master sweeps ; and, at last, this 
 coming before the magistrates on sworn testimony, the 
 child was brought forward in court by a stout, middle- 
 aged woman, Mrs. Chapman, in whose care he had 
 been put by Mr. Perritt, surgeon. The lad was una- 
 ble to walk, and was placed by the woman on the table. 
 On partially removing a large shawl which covered him, 
 and taking away from him certain cloths which were 
 wrapped round the right arm and both legs, their ap- 
 pearance gave a very shocking sensation to the magis- 
 trates, who found both knees very much swollen, and 
 also the ankles and the right wrist, the nurse who put 
 him on the table saying that both his legs were as soft 
 as a mummy. 
 
 44 What was the age of the child ? — Ten years of 
 
 21 * 
 
246 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 age. The boy, and other witnesses corroborating him, 
 informed the magistrates that in this enfeebled condi- 
 tion he had been carried on his master’s back from 
 place to place, as he was unable to walk, and had 
 been forced to go up and clean several chimneys. The 
 boy stated that his master had beaten his arm with a 
 boot, which caused the swelling of the wrist; and in 
 this state he was carried to climb twelve chimneys on 
 Saturday morning. The day before this evidence was 
 given, after this child had swept two chimneys, he was 
 taken and laid under the window of Mr. Maloney, and 
 thence removed on the back of a man named Batty, 
 to sweep other chimneys. The surgeon, on being ex- 
 amined, deposed that he was called in to view the child 
 on the day before the testimony was given, and that he 
 considered the child’s life to be in danger. Alderman 
 Cookman, the magistrate, who tried the case at Hull, 
 declared from the bench that such a state of things 
 was so horrible that he would see the master should 
 be prosecuted, and he would pay the expenses him- 
 self. 4 As to slavery,’ said the alderman, 4 talk about 
 slavery, — there is no slavery in the world like this.’ 
 
 44 Do you know what the result was ? No. The 
 next case happened at Sheffield, on the 1st of July, 
 1848. A climbing boy having dropped one of his 
 shoes in a ditch, the master, being informed of it, took 
 the lad up by his leg and foot, and dashed him with 
 considerable violence on the ground. The child being 
 rendered insensible, the prisoner’s brother exclaimed, 
 4 Thou hast done it now ; thou hast killed him.’ It 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 247 
 
 was then proved that the prisoner had been in the 
 habit of making this lad stand for a long time on one 
 leg, with two bricks on his head. The child, on being 
 brought forward, exhibited a wound to the mayor be- 
 hind the left ear, which had been made by his master 
 penetrating the lower lobe of the ear with his thumb 
 nail. On being made to show his feet, they exhibited 
 severe marks of excoriation, the result of climbing 
 chimneys ; and it was proved, that on the preceding 
 Wednesday, in the fair-week, he had climbed no fewer 
 than nine chimneys ; and into this slavery the child 
 had been sold by his own mother. 
 
 “ What was done on those nine offences ? — There is 
 no decision reported on the cruelty in that case. We 
 now come to one of the latest cases, the case of George 
 Wilson, ten years of age, who, on the 19th of June, 
 1851, at Hunslet, near Leeds, was, by his master, sent 
 up to clean nine chimneys, one after the other. In 
 the tenth chimney the child expired. On this case 
 coming to my knowledge, I immediately wrote to the 
 coroner of the district, Mr. Blackburn, who sent me 
 the following reply : 4 Sir: in answer to your inquiry, 
 I beg to say, that I held an inquest last week upon 
 the body of George Wilson, ten years old, who was 
 suffocated in a flue at Hunslet. near this place. It 
 appeared in evidence, that on the same day the boy 
 had swept nine chimneys prior to entering the flue ; 
 but there was not sufficient evidence to show the mas- 
 ter’s knowledge of the circumstances, or I should have 
 directed the jury to find him guilty of manslaughter. 
 
248 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 It was a cruel case, and I immediately communicated 
 with the magistrate’s clerk upon the subject, who, I 
 expect, will take up the matter. From what I could 
 learn, I believe the practice of sending boys up chim- 
 neys and flues is very common here, and there is a 
 difficulty in getting parties to make complaints. 
 
 “ Can you give any estimate of the number of in- 
 fants still employed in defiance of the law, and there- 
 fore liable to be similarly murdered to the boy at 
 Hunslet? — Yes; as near as we can calculate, in the 
 United Kingdom, the children employed in defiance 
 of the law are no less in number than four thousand. 
 
 “ Now, in your opinion, to what cause is this gross 
 violation of the law due ? — In London, where, of 
 course, in a population of two millions and a half, as 
 many difficult chimneys must exist as any where, and 
 larger buildings, the act is perfectly observed. There 
 may be an exception here and there, which proves the 
 general rule ; but in the country, as a general rule, it 
 is totally disregarded ; and for this reason, that in the 
 country the law is administered by unpaid magistrates, 
 and in London it is administered by stipendiary magis- 
 trates. In London the magistrates do their duty ; in the 
 country the magistrates neglect their duty. This is 
 additionally strengthened by the fact, that in London 
 public opinion is omnipotent, and there is a powerful 
 press which depends upon no one ; and this is, there- 
 fore, wholly free ; whereas, in the country, the only 
 press that does exist is a sort of bastard and depend- 
 ent press, which has for its subscribers and supporters 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 249 
 
 the magistrates, who throughout the country are the 
 chief persons violating the law. The consequence 
 is, that when any case is known of a child climbing 
 in a magistrate’s mansion, the press does not court an 
 exposure of the cruelty, because that magistrate is one 
 of the chief subscribers and supporters of the paper. 
 
 “ What was the case at Leeds ? — That was not my 
 case, but I was a witness to it. It was a case in con- 
 sequence of a boy being admitted into a boiler flue ; 
 they dismissed it, considering that the flue did not 
 commence until it had got through the bed of the 
 boiler. 
 
 “ Do you know any instance in which a child has 
 been kidnapped for the purpose of being devoted to 
 this employment ? — I have one on record in my pock- 
 et, that I took from the Stamford Mercury. 
 
 “ What effect do you think it would have had if the 
 magistrates generally had set the example of obeying 
 the law, instead of breaking it ? — It would have had 
 great influence — no doubt of it. 
 
 u Do you mean to say that the magistrates generally 
 have set the example of breaking the law ? — Yes, I 
 do ; because they allow children to sweep their chim- 
 neys, and they do very little to protect them. 
 
 “ Can you state the earliest age at which you have 
 known this disease to come on from this cause ? — In 
 order to be able to give you the best evidence, I in- 
 quired of my nine colleagues at the Court of Examin- 
 ers of the College of Surgeons upon this subject, and 
 ascertained that the earliest age at which any of them 
 
 
250 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 had seen the disease, was in a child of eight years 
 old ; it usually appears about twelve or fourteen, and 
 at any after period of life. It may be removed in the 
 first instance by operation, and the patient may get 
 well ; but the disease is very apt to return, and if it 
 does, it usually destroys life ; it is an awful complaint, 
 to which children should not be exposed, if it can be 
 avoided. 
 
 “ Have you seen many instances of chimney sweep- 
 er’s cancer ? — Not many ; I have seen some. 
 
 “ Were those which you have seen in children or in 
 adults ? — Generally in young men. 
 
 “ Of what age ? — Nineteen or twenty ; I have sel- 
 dom seen it in children. I should state that I have 
 been very much connected with hospital practice, and 
 the in-patients of a hospital generally must possess a 
 degree of comfort which is beyond the reach of poor 
 chimney sweepers ; they seldom attain the degree of 
 comfort that entitles them to go into a hospital ; the 
 going into a hospital implies that the person has de- 
 cent external covering, and one or two changes of 
 linen. Therefore these poor children are more often 
 to be met with in the infirmaries of workhouses, and 
 in the wretched abodes attended by dispensary 
 surgeons. 
 
 u Generally speaking, are you of opinion that the 
 poverty of the sufferers presents many instances of 
 this disease being known in hospitals ? — Yes ; I think 
 a great deal more of them is known among parish 
 surgeons. 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 
 
 251 
 
 “ Do you know of any cases of children having been 
 roasted to death in the business? — I know of two 
 cases ; I witnessed one : two chimneys went into one ; 
 near the top it was one chimney, and below two ; it 
 was forked a few yards from the top ; the poor fellow 
 I went up one of the chimneys, and when he had got 
 near the top of that chimney, some of the soot of this 
 chimney fell into the chimney in which there was a 
 fire ; the flames went up like gunpowder, I suppose, 
 and the poor boy came tumbling down the one where 
 there was a fire, and was burned to death. 
 
 66 What was the other case ? — The other case was at 
 a factory near Mr. Houldsworth’s ; the boy was clean- 
 ing a boiler flue ; I was foreman of the jury, so that 
 I am acquainted with all the particulars of that case. 
 The boy went into the flue, but after going up a short 
 way, he returned and said, ‘ Master, it is very hot; I 
 cannot bear it.’ The master said , 6 O thou little rascal, 
 thou art larking,’ or something of that kind, and he 
 drove him up by force, and said that if he came back 
 again he would give him a severe punishment. He 
 did not come out again alive. This boy’s name was 
 | William Wall. 
 
 “ It was after that that the magistrate made the ob- 
 servation, that the magistrates were most unwilling to 
 convict in those cases ? — Yes ; and it is not at all 
 denied.” \ 
 
 At this very hour, or until very lately, there was a 
 poor child condemned to the slavery of sweeping chim- 
 neys in defiance of the law, at Scarborough, whose 
 
 
252 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 • 
 
 father was, and in all probability still is, a dissenting 
 minister preaching in that town. Some benevolent 
 person, having found out the child, offered to teach 
 him to read ; to this his father objected, on the ground 
 that if the child were taught to read, he would no 
 longer work at his business as a climbing boy. 
 
 The Earl of Shaftesbury, in introducing the Chim- 
 ney Sweepers’ Amendment bill, in the session of 
 1854, (see Times , April 5, 1854,) detailed to the 
 House of Lords this most horrid case, in which a mas- 
 ter sweep at Nottingham had forced his climbing boy, 
 James Hart, five years old, up a chimney, by the inhu- 
 man stimulus of lighting a fire under him in his own 
 house ; and when this barbarity failed of compelling 
 the poor infant to climb the flue, the master (it being 
 in the depth of winter) plunged the child into a large 
 butt full of water in the yard, with threats of murder. 
 Owing to the child’s total ignorance of religious be- 
 lief, his evidence had been necessarily excluded by 
 the magistrates, although the burns upon his person 
 and the testimony of the surgeon fully bore out his 
 statement. 
 
 The master had also beaten the child with great 
 cruelty, and for this assault was imprisoned for six 
 months. 
 
 Mr. Reckless, the mayor of Nottingham, appeared 
 to have taken up the case with the most praiseworthy 
 vigor. He said, “ I saw the boy, and a more pitiable 
 object I never saw.” 
 
 William Phillimore Stiff’, being sworn, said, “ I am 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 253 
 
 one of the medical officers of the Nottingham Union. 
 On the 21st November inst., I saw the boy James Hart, 
 at his mother’s house, in Sandy Land, in Nottingham. 
 He was in a most deplorable state. He had ulcers on 
 his elbows, both his knees, back, fingers, toes, instep, 
 and other parts of his body ; swelling at the back of 
 his head ; ulcers arising from burns, which appeared 
 to have been produced by putting him up a hot chim- 
 ney. Those burns must have been done more than 
 four or five days. He had scratches on his back, and 
 contusions on his head, produced by blows.” Sworn 
 at Nottingham, 25th November, 1853. 
 
 Another witness, speaking of the boy, said, “ His 
 shirt appeared to be dipped in blood.” 
 
 Lord Shaftesbury went on to say, “ There was a 
 great deal of professed zeal for the inculcation of reli- 
 gion and the education of the people; but this system 
 was as destructive to the soul as to the body. He had 
 caused an inquiry to be made, and it was found that 
 among four hundred and eighty-two boys, in one hun- 
 dred and seventy different places, there were only 
 twenty-one who were acquainted with the common 
 rudiments of reading, and only two acquainted with 
 the common rudiments of writing. No less than four 
 thousand children of tender years were still consigned 
 to this disgusting and unnecessary employment.” 
 
 This evidence from a few witnesses gives but an 
 idea of the great institution of chummy ism. It has 
 happened more than once that when the men hung on 
 to a child’s legs, to pull him out of the place where he 
 
254 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 was stuck fast, lliey dragged the body out, leaving the 
 head in the chimney. This is a fact not elicited in 
 the above evidence. 
 
 Apropos of this subject, we may take the following 
 account of a boy, u Devildust,” from D’lsraeli’s Sibyl, 
 or the two Nations : — 
 
 “ About a fortnight after his mother had introduced 
 him into the world, she returned to her factory, 
 and put her infant out to nurse — that is to say, 
 paid threepence a week to an old woman, who takes 
 charge of these new-born babes for the day, and gives 
 them back at night to their mothers, as they hurriedly 
 return from the scene of their labor to the dungeon or 
 the den, which is still by courtesy called 4 home.’ The 
 expense is not great; laudanum and treacle, adminis- 
 tered in the shape of some popular elixir, affords these 
 innocents a brief taste of the sweets of existence, and, 
 keeping them quiet, prepares them for the silence 
 of their impending grave. Infanticide is practised as 
 extensively and as legally in England as it is on the 
 banks of the Ganges — a circumstance which apparent- 
 ly has not yet engaged the attention of the Society 
 for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. 
 But the vital principle is an impulse from an immortal 
 artist, and sometimes baffles, even in its tenderest 
 phasis, the machinations of society for its extinction. 
 There are infants that will defy even starvation and 
 poison, unnatural mothers, and demon nurses. Such 
 was the nameless one of whom we speak. We can- 
 not say he thrived ; but he would not die. So, at two 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 255 
 
 years of age, his mother being lost sight of, and the 
 weekly payment having ceased, he was sent out in the 
 street to 4 play,’ in order to be run over. Even this 
 expedient failed. The youngest and the feeblest of 
 the band of victims, Juggernaut spared him to Mo- 
 loch. All his companions were disposed of. Three 
 months’ 4 play ’ in the streets got rid of this tender 
 company, — shoeless, half naked, and uncombed, — 
 whose age varied from two to five years. Some were 
 crushed, some were lost, some caught cold and fevers, 
 crept back to their garret or their cellars, were dosed 
 with Godfrey’s cordial, and died in peace. The 
 nameless one would not disappear. He always got 
 out of the way of the carts and horses, and never lost 
 his own. They gave him no food : he foraged for 
 himself, and shared with the dogs the garbage of the 
 streets. But still he lived ; stunted and pale, he de- 
 fied even the fatal fever which was the only hab- 
 itant of his cellar that never quitted it. And, slum- 
 bering at night on a bed of mouldering straw, his 
 only protection against the plashy surface of his den, 
 with a dungheap at his head, and a cesspool at his 
 feet, he still clung to the only roof which shielded him 
 from the tempest.” 
 
 Human suffering excites no English sympathy, un- 
 less it appear in a black envelope. But as the black- 
 ness of the sooty English is only artificial, though the 
 agony is real, English sympathy hath no tears to 
 spare for it. On the contrary, when a few good-heart- 
 ed gentlemen push through the House a bill for the 
 
256 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 relief of the home black slaves, the English public 
 combine to render ihe law null and void. 
 
 Apologists of England declare that the abuses of 
 society result from the system of government, not from 
 the wickedness of the people. That the constitution 
 is a sham, and the system a curse, no one but the mo- 
 nopolist of plunder can deny ; but it is also self-evi- 
 dent that if the Saxonized people of England were 
 lovers of justice and mercy, and haters of iniquity, 
 they would not tolerate their system of government, 
 much less force it upon the Irish. 
 
 It is hard to say whether the British mob or the 
 British legislature is most inhuman. A good move 
 on the part of one is sure to be counteracted by the 
 other. They are unanimous only in robbing and ex- 
 terminating less powerful nations. Whether it be 
 mob law or lord law, England is a well-spring of cru- 
 elty and injustice. Look at the chummies in the 
 flues, and the little slaves in the factories. 
 
 The Saxon instinct develops itself in the English 
 school of political economy. This is emphatically the 
 science of selfishness . It holds that this selfishness, 
 however, works for the creation of capital and the 
 “ consequent” benefit of society. 
 
 Flesh and blood is under “ the inexorable law of 
 supply and demand.” The over-wrought supply and 
 the starving surplus must take the consequences. 
 
 The English State Bishop, Whately, is the high 
 priest of this pagan doctrine, that grinds the faces of 
 the poor — women and children. 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 
 
 257 
 
 The Whately doctrine is an elaborate lie, but it is 
 only the practical expression of the cold-blooded, ra- 
 tionalistic, infanticidal instinct of the Gothic race. 
 
 There are many virtuous homes in England, but I 
 should be guilty of indirect falsehood and cowardly 
 forbearance were I to speak mildly or respectfully of 
 the standard English views in regard to woman. I 
 say that the state bishops and clergy, and legislators, 
 and English writers and orators, generally, are animat- 
 ed by sensuality. They cannot bear to see beautiful 
 young virgins devoted to chastity and to God’s poor. 
 It is a reproach upon themselves. They say it is 
 against the law of nature and the law of God, which 
 commands us to multiply and replenish the earth ; but 
 these same hypocrites do not scruple to separate the 
 husband from his lawful wife and children, if they 
 are poor. These same hypocrites cannot afford to let 
 their soldiers marry ; but it is cheaper to loosen them 
 upon the towns, and let them prostitute all within 
 their reach. In times of peace the English officers do 
 nothing but gamble and feast, and debauch the wives 
 and daughters of the citizens. But the Bible Phari- 
 sees of Exeter Hall dare not for their lives notice these 
 enormities. 
 
 The command to increase and multiply is only held 
 applicable to the nuns and priests, and the class who 
 are able to pay rents, rates, tithes, and taxes. But 
 poor people have no right to increase, unless there 
 should be a demand for them. The spirit of English 
 social and political action is the law of supply and 
 
 22 * 
 
258 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 demand. If hands arc scarce, then multiply and 
 replenish the labor market. But if it should be dis- 
 covered that bullocks and sheep arc more profitable 
 than peasantry, then the surplus population is cleared 
 out, and killed off, by an ingenious process, which 
 makes it appear that the wretches died of their own 
 accord, or “ by the visitation of God.” The bread is 
 taken out of their mouths, and the means of labor out 
 of their hands, and then it is said they die from their 
 inherent laziness and want of foresight, and because 
 they married improvidently. 
 
 But when priests and nuns are mentioned, then the 
 gospelers remind us of what God said at the creation, 
 “ Increase and multiply, and replenish the earth.” 
 ( Gen. i.) 
 
 The hereditary disposition of the English upper 
 class to brutify the English lower class, and to treat 
 them like cattle, is forcibly manifested in the pet doc- 
 trine of English political economy, called the Malthu- 
 sian doctrine. This gospel of English legislation for 
 the poor receives its name from an English state 
 churchman, called Malthus. This inhuman infidel — 
 this wolf in the garb of the Good Shepherd — attempt- 
 ed to prove, if the natural increase of the popula- 
 tion were not checked, that the world would soon be 
 unable to sustain its inhabitants. This blasphemous 
 lie against God’s providence was eagerly taken up, and 
 has been to the present day practically advocated by 
 Protestant Anglo-Saxon archbishops, as well as by 
 exterminating lords. 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 259 
 
 The men who robbed the poor of their glebe lands 
 now hate the sight of the poor, and in order to kill off 
 the surplus , and prevent increase, the laws of God and 
 nature are violated. 
 
 The clergy of the state church who break their vows 
 of chastity, and raise families on the stolen goods of 
 the widow and orphan, — these men who put no re- 
 straint upon their own passions, but who denounce 
 voluntary celibacy of clergy as anathema, — do force 
 the poor to live in a state of criminal celibacy. 
 
 In order to diminish poor rates, a bill was brought 
 in by Mr. Scarlett to prevent the poor from marrying. 
 The base proposal of such a bill, and its solemn discus- 
 sion in the House, prove that the low English are con- 
 sidered as mere cattle, without a will even in the most 
 tender and sacred institution of society. It is certain- 
 ly a fact that the state bishops have larger incomes 
 than Christ and his apostles ; but modern civilization 
 has rendered it necessary to support the church respect- 
 ably ; and the increasing families of lordly bishops 
 cannot be maintained in a manner suitable to their 
 rank , if the increase of the turbulent rabble is not 
 checked, and poor rates diminished. As bishops are 
 no longer shepherds, so the poor are no longer God’s 
 heirs ; they are now “ the turbulent rabble,” “ the igno- 
 rant mob.” 
 
 Paupers must be diminished, and the breed of cattle 
 improved, by the new gospel dispensation. 
 
 The inferiority of the Celtic race formed an excel- 
 lent text in Ireland and the Highlands. In England, 
 
260 CONDITION OP WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 where the same holy plea could not maintain, the 
 political economy of Parson Malthus and Archbishop 
 Whately is enacted in its naked hideousness. 
 
 Smith O’Brien (Principles of Government) says, 
 “ It is the fashion of late , in England, to treat poverty 
 as a crime, and to visit it with penalties nearly as se- 
 vere as those which are inflicted upon guilt.” There 
 are two errors in this statement of a well-known truth. 
 First. It is not of late , that poverty has been treated 
 as a crime in England. The poor were never above a 
 state o*f cruel bondage in England. The efforts of the 
 Catholic church to relieve the mass of misery in 
 “ Merrie England ” only proved the despotic rule. 
 Secondly. The penalties of poverty are more severe 
 than the punishments of guilt, because the people are 
 systematically robbed and hopelessly crushed down 
 into poverty. 
 
 The philosophy of England is, that work and the 
 production of wealth is the true gospel ;J;he ivork and 
 the economy being reserved for the poor, idleness and 
 extravagance for the rich. 
 
 It is said that the working classes ought to save 
 enough to guard them against the misfortunes of sick- 
 ness, &c., and the decline of old age. Most of them 
 do so, when they are able. Witness the savings of the 
 Irish girls and laborers in the United States. At the 
 same time these hard-working people can relieve their 
 friends still groaning under Victoria, and they can 
 build churches, colleges, and schools for themselves, 
 and support numerous charities. The lazy and thiev- 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 261 
 
 ing aristocracy of England need not affect to lament 
 over the improvidence of the working classes. Are 
 they not working classes. And if these working 
 classes had the power, would they not retain at least 
 enough of the fruits of their labor to keep them- 
 selves and their children after them in comfort ? The 
 working classes in England are robbed by the swin- 
 dling and violence of the army, state, and state church, 
 and all the monopolies of these men who lecture to 
 them about economy . 
 
 The remarks of Smith O’Brien on this subject are 
 pertinent. He says, “ How unreasonable, then, is it 
 to suppose that the working classes ought to forego 
 all the affections and all the enjoyments of life, in 
 order that they may guarantee themselves against 
 that dependence which is, as it were, forced upon them 
 by the artificial condition of society in which they 
 live ! But even if we were to admit that the father 
 of a family is to blame for not having made an ade- 
 quate provision for his children, it surely does not fol- 
 low that those children ought to be treated as crimi- 
 nals on account of such his neglect. Perhaps his wife 
 may have daily remonstrated with him for spending at 
 the alehouse the pittance which would have formed 
 the basis of such a provision. Does she deserve to be 
 treated as a criminal at his death, because she is left 
 destitute as a widow ? No ! the voice of nature and 
 the teachings of Christianity alike repudiate this doc- 
 trine. Away, then, with the speculations of a false 
 philosophy ; away with the miserable selfishness of a 
 
262 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 false economy. The orphan is the child of the state. 
 The aged laborer, worn out with the toil which his 
 industry has given to society, must no longer be 
 spurned as an intruder into the social system. If a 
 state provision for the poor be established, let it be 
 administered in the spirit of Heaven-blessed charity, 
 not as a mere regulation of police.” ( Principles of 
 Government .) 
 
 The great efforts of all English reformers, pious 
 preachers, political economists, noble and scientific 
 lecturers, &c., are directed to the instruction of the 
 lower orders in economy, the blessings of industry. 
 In other words, the idle talkers wish to get the greatest 
 amount of work out of the people, with the least 
 amount of duty or responsibility on the part of those 
 who seize the fruit. The prevailing ideas in English 
 aristocratic circles are, that, as regards government 
 legislation and the distribution and management of 
 national wealth, the vulgar masses are totally incom- 
 petent, but that the happiness of the people must de- 
 pend upon self-reliance. This is a leading idea put 
 forth, when the monopolists are called upon to dis- 
 gorge ptart of the plunder for the benefit of widows 
 and orphans. Self-reliance for the orphan ! “ More 
 
 than likely the father was intemperate and improvi- 
 dent,” and therefore the orphan must starve, or sub- 
 mit to the cruel slavery and degradation of the poor- 
 house bastiles. “ To treat poverty with kindness is 
 only to encourage it,” These are the English ideas of 
 this glorious nineteenth century. 
 
THE CELTIC ? GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 263 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 MORMONISM, INFANTICIDE, AND OTHER ENGLISH 
 TRAITS. RETROSPECT OF ENGLISH HISTORY. 
 
 It is a law in nature, and a Christian consequence, 
 that the purest women have the tenderest and deepest 
 affection for children. “ The heathen hath no natural 
 affection.” The heart of a sensualist is devoid of love. 
 It is a corrupted, deadened piece of flesh, a mere 
 mechanism to sustain animal life. An innocent girl 
 is full of true love and sympathy ; her pure heart over- 
 flows with delight in children. It is not alone the 
 stern duty that devotes the nun to the life-long service 
 of homeless orphans; her affections become centred 
 in the little innocents that she cherishes with a fond- 
 ness unknown to the sensual mothers of a corrupt 
 society. Under heaven there is not a more sublime 
 spectacle than that of a beautiful girl devoting her 
 youth, her affections, her talents, and her fortune, to 
 the service of God, making herself a drudge and nurse 
 to the poor afflicted, and a mother to the motherless. 
 
 There are many beautiful, good, and true English- 
 women, but Celtic Catholic nuns are hated because 
 their noble self-denial is a reproach upon the woman- 
 hood of England. When an English woman remote- 
 
 * 
 
 ly imitates the sister of charity — when Miss Nightin- 
 
264 CONDITION OP WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 ^ • l 
 
 gale ( rara avis) comes out, she is lauded to the skies 
 for virtues which are exercised in a tenfold higher de- 
 gree by nuns who neither desire nor expect reward. 
 
 The English can respect virtue when it occurs 
 among themselves. There is also a large amount of 
 charity in England. I believe that in no other coun- 
 try is there such a multiplicity of institutions for de- 
 cayed old gentlemen, decrepit sailors, maimed soldiers, 
 superannuated spinsters, and desolate old widows. 
 Those institutions are dying out since the new poor 
 law came in force. Now those public establish- 
 ments are filled with the aged. The meaning of all 
 this is to be found in the fact, that decrepit old people 
 in England and Lowland Scotland are generally re- 
 fused aid, and are driven out by their relatives. In 
 the administration of the English poor law, cases are 
 constantly coming up of children’s, or brothers’, or sis- 
 ters refusal to support their aged relatives. 
 
 There are very few establishments for the aged in 
 Ireland, because the Irish make it a duty to cherish 
 their helpless relatives. During the last seven years, 
 the working Irish of those states sent home over fifty 
 millions of dollars , exclusive of the tickets paid for the 
 passage of their friends. Most of this money was 
 transmitted by Irish servant girls. God bless them. ^ 
 Such are the “low” Irish, in contrast with the An- 
 
 . i \ 
 
 glo-Saxon women, “the great, pious, and glorious 
 Saxons.” I ^ 
 
 The Celts can boast of nothing more glorious than j 
 this, that their race has held fast to a self-denying 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 265 
 
 faith, and that their wealthiest virgins devote their 
 youth and fortune to the service of good works — 
 worldly joy giving way to fasting, and prayer, and 
 alms-deeds. 
 
 The Anglo-Saxon race is marked by nothing more 
 disgraceful than their want of faith in woman’s puri- 
 ty. The English of Gothic blood, and the Orange- 
 Irish of Dutch and Saxon descent, are ever ready (be- 
 cause they cannot believe chastity possible) to bum 
 out nuns. 
 
 English gentlemen earnestly maintain that priests 
 and nuns are hidden profligates. The Gothic race, 
 speaking from their own experience and their own 
 instincts, in Sweden, North Germany, and England, 
 sincerely believe that continency is against nature, 
 and that perpetual chastity is impossible. This doc- 
 trine is propounded in English pulpits and on English 
 platforms. 
 
 It is an historical fact that the English lords and 
 gentlemen, in Parliament assembled, have repeatedly 
 slandered the nuns — that is, the daughters and sis- 
 ters of their fellow-countrymen. 
 
 The reason that English gentlemen have such an 
 implacable hatred of nuns is, that these ladies teach 
 chastity to poor girls. For proof of this I have only 
 to refer to the English workhouses, mills, &c., which 
 were converted into vast harems for the guardians and 
 owners, and their friends and subordinates. See the 
 horrible revelations of the parliamentary committee in 
 1832. “ From these inquiries, it appeared that very 
 
 23 
 
283 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 disgusting atrocities were perpetrated in factories.” 
 (See Wades' History of the Middle and Working 
 Classes , p. 59.) 
 
 The same distinguished writer quotes the cruel and 
 inhuman treatment to which the women, and children 
 under nine years of age, were subjected. The wretches 
 were obliged to work night and day. They were dy- 
 ing like rotten sheep, until even the British Parliament 
 took pity on them, and gave them at least an appear- 
 ance of protection. 
 
 Englishmen, who have in their veins the blood of 
 the most savage race in North Europe, have always 
 inclined to enslave and dishonor the female character. 
 
 There are virtuous families in England, but want 
 of faith in woman’s honesty is peculiarly Anglo-Sax- 
 on. We see this manifested among them on all pri- 
 vate and public occasions when the subject is brought 
 up. If the Saxon race were not stupid, as well as 
 wicked, they would see that their doctrine supplies a 
 terrible commentary upon themselves. 
 
 An evangelical John Bull, in a large company of 
 gentlemen, took occasion (because there was a poor 
 priest present) to launch into the abominations of nun- 
 neries, and the hypocrisy of the Romish clergy. He 
 declared, in the usual strain, that continency was 
 against nature and impossible, and that no woman 
 could resist temptation. The priest merely asked him 
 if he remembered his own mother, or wife, or sister. 
 John Bull gaped, and then shut up his face for the rest 
 
 V 
 
 of the evening. 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 267 
 
 No doubt I shall be called a partisan, a false wit- 
 ness, and a base slanderer of English women. Sax- 
 ons who pay no regard to virtue but the homage of 
 hypocrisy, will defend the honor of their race, just as 
 a blackguard bully will knock a man down for calling 
 a prostitute by her right name. But I demand no 
 other evidence than the public testimony of these Sax- 
 ons themselves. Popular expressions are the natural, 
 spontaneous, and sure indications of national char- 
 acter. 
 
 Irishmen swear by J— — , by the Book , by Holy Mo- 
 ses, &c., because they believe in these. The Saxon- 
 
 ized rowdies of America call each other b es and 
 
 sons of b — — es. Such expressions are in daily and 
 hourly use wherever Saxon blood is to be found ; they 
 are fearfully significant, and any thing but compliment- 
 ary to their own mothers; but Anglo-Saxons ought 
 to know what names befit themselves. As to the 
 English gentlemen, I do not belie them when I say 
 that their private social conversations are the most an- 
 imalized in the world; good-eating, and fine women, 
 and dogs, and fast horses, being put in the same cate- 
 gory as mere slaves of pleasure. I admit, however, 
 that the stomach is the most invariable English topic. 
 
 Contempt for the blessed Virgin is one of the most 
 remarkable features in English religionism. While 
 the Irish almost worship the pure Queen of Heaven, 
 Tower of Ivory, Morning Star, Help of the Weak, the 
 English have gone so far in their hatred as to corrupt 
 the sacred text, and make our Saviour offer his mother 
 
2G8 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 an insult at the marriage of Cana of Galilee. The 
 fierce malignity of Exeter Hall and the English mob 
 never mounts into madness until you mention mon- 
 asteries, nunneries, and the vow of perpetual chastity. 
 
 The Anglo-Saxon mind cannot realize the idea of 
 purity, no more than it can imagine how any man can 
 thrive without pork, or beef, and ale. 
 
 English gentlemen pay every respect and deference 
 to ladies , but not to women . 
 
 I will venture to say that in the wide world there is 
 not such a mean, money-hunting class as the young 
 English gentlemen ; they will toady and court age, 
 ugliness, or vice itself, if accompanied with a large 
 purse. A poor girl, however beautiful, accomplished, 
 or virtuous, is held in the utmost contempt. English 
 noblemen and gentlemen pay great attentions to such 
 fine girls, it is true, but only for the purpose of acting 
 the part of perjurer and scoundrel. Any thing is tol- 
 erated by English society but marriage with poor 
 people. This is considered disgraceful. In the few 
 rare cases where English aristocrats or gentlemen 
 marry humble girls, they thereby become outcasts ; as 
 their wives are not admitted into the society of born 
 ladies. 
 
 We can imagine the disgust that the English felt 
 when the French emperor espoused the beautiful ple- 
 beian Eugenie. 
 
 Populations are debased in exact proportion as they 
 are contaminated with Saxon, Danish, or Swedish 
 blood. In Britain and America we find a class of 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 269 
 
 Saxonized women who are sensual slaves to brutal 
 men and unnatural exterminators of their own off- 
 spring. The debasement of so many British and 
 American mothers is not proof that the race at large 
 is Gothic. It is only evidence that Anglo-Saxon 
 blood is not yet extinct, and that one diseased sheep 
 can infect a flock. 
 
 How is it that Protestant Highland or Welsh moth- 
 ers do not habitually neglect and even murder their 
 infants ? How is it that Protestant Frenchmen, and 
 other Protestant Celts, do not make a practice of 
 dancing on their wives ? 
 
 The contrast of the Celtic and Saxon woman arises 
 not from any variety of gospel readings, but from dis- 
 tinction of blood. 
 
 Why is it that the Presbyterian Highland girl is 
 such a superior being to the lumpish Lowland lass, 
 who has equal access to her Bible ? 
 
 Bastardy in the Lowlands was as notorious and free 
 from blame, as the traffic on the Clyde River. Within 
 the last fifty years Glasgow has been raised up, and 
 filled with Highland and Irish immigration, and there is 
 great improvement. But a century and a half ago, 
 when the population of the Lowlands was more Sax- 
 onized, the condition of the country was truly savage. 
 In an impartial work, The Annals of Glasgow, 
 written by a Scotchman, w r e are told that at the be- 
 ginning of the last century, while the population of 
 Scotland hardly exceeded a million, two hundred 
 thousand people lived by begging and thieving. 
 
 23 * 
 
270 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 “ They have lived,” say the Annals, 66 without any re- 
 gard or submission either to the laws of the land, or 
 even those of God and nature — fathers incestuously 
 accompanying their own daughters, the son with the 
 mother, and the brother with the sister ; many mur- 
 ders have been discovered among them.” “ At coun- 
 try weddings, markets, burials, and other like public 
 occasions, they are to be seen, both men and women, 
 perpetually drunk, cursing, blaspheming, and fighting 
 together.” This is the Scotchman’s account of his 
 own Bible-reading country. The free Bible reading 
 was not to blame, however, as much as the Saxon 
 blood. The Highlanders, nor any of the Celtic tribe, 
 were never guilty of such bestiality as the history of 
 the Saxons and Saxonized populations presents to 
 the horror and disgust of mankind. 
 
 The Catholic Connaught Rangers, and the Presby- 
 terian Highlanders, form the most moral regiments in 
 the British service. ( Civil and Military Gazette.) 
 
 General Stuart, of Lowth, and others, speak of the 
 Highlanders, their piety and intelligence, buying books 
 instead of drink, and saving a deal of money, which 
 they sent home. They were not subjected to igno- 
 minious punishments. 
 
 After the reformation, the ceremony of marriage 
 was disregarded in Scotland and Wales. But the 
 English profligacy, and the beating and false desertion 
 of woman, were wanting to bring the Celt to the Sax- 
 on level. I can affirm that the betrothed Welsh al- 
 most invariably remain faithful and loving to each 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 271 
 
 other. The Welsh mother is a tidy, temperate, and 
 industrious spouse, and loving her children dearer than 
 life. 
 
 Mormonism and Freethinking have had some suc- 
 cess among the Anglo-Orange Irish, who ferociously 
 hate nuns. But the Mormon mission has been a com- 
 plete failure in Celtic Ireland and the Highlands. 
 Mormonism and Freeloveism make progress among the 
 English, whom a British aristocrat called “the swinish 
 multitude.” 
 
 Mormonism succeeds best among the Germans and 
 the rural English, the most Saxonized population of 
 that nation. 
 
 Mormonism is the revival of gersume , the disgust- 
 ing and distinctive peculiarity of the old Saxon race. 
 Mormons are not a few isolated brutes, but a whole 
 formidable Anglo-Saxon and German nation on 
 American soil. 
 
 Read these American reviews of them : “ While 
 Mormonism rests as a nightmare on the heart of this 
 fair territory, even the laborer who surrenders himself 
 to its influences flies only from destitution and servi- 
 tude at home to become the victim of a still deeper 
 destitution and of a still harsher servitude abroad. 
 The old knaves of Utah are far greater tyrants than 
 either Nicholas or Victoria. The Polish and Irish 
 serf may be in rags, but at least the sacred hearth and 
 holy influences of home are not invaded. In Utah 
 there is no home. For the Salt Lake elders there is 
 no God but Mammon, and no gospel but the gospel 
 of the flesh. 
 
272 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 “ The English or German serf in Utah cannot work 
 unless he works for the benefit of the elders, and can- 
 not marry because he is not permitted to acquire the 
 means of supporting a wife. Should he marry with- 
 out their consent, the daughters are doomed to a pros- 
 titution which is surrounded with threefold atrocity, 
 by being, with huge blasphemy, committed in the 
 name of God. 
 
 “ The high priest dignitaries of the church are said 
 to be exceedingly skilful in procuring young girls for 
 wives ; inculcating the idea that the older members, 
 who have been tried and found faithful, are surer in- 
 struments of salvation for women than young men, 
 who may apostatize. These women are continually 
 divorced, to make room for others ; and then they are 
 * sealed ? to young men, who are glad to get even the 
 castaways, the old male saints monopolizing nearly all 
 the young females in the community.” 
 
 Are these Anglo-Saxons any thing less slavish and 
 beastly than they were a thousand years ago ? 
 
 The Evening Express, New York, an Anglo-Saxon 
 Know-nothing paper, says, April 30, 1857, — 
 
 “ An English clergyman, who left England to join 
 the Mormons, returned to London in September last. 
 He has just published a volume, giving his opinion of 
 the saints found in the vicinity of the Great Salt 
 Lake. We quote : — 
 
 u 4 One of the most repulsive features of Mormon- 
 ism is the proxy system. This is so destructive of 
 every good and honest feeling, that many stanch 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 273 
 
 k 
 
 Mormonites reject it altogether. I heard one of the 
 oldest disciples say that nothing on earth would ever 
 persuade him to believe in it, and that if he had a dog 
 who believed it, he would shoot him. Nor will any 
 reader be surprised when he knows what it is. I will 
 endeavor to explain it briefly. When a married man 
 is called by conference to a foreign mission, he has a 
 privilege, as they call it, before leaving home, of choos- 
 ing some one to take the oversight of his cattle, goods, 
 and whatever he may possess ; to provide for and 
 overlook the family, and to become the pro tempore 
 husband of the wife.’ 
 
 “ The ostensible reason for this arrangement is to 
 prevent the husband from c suffering any loss’ during 
 his absence on missionary labors, since the greatness 
 of his i future kingdom ’ depends on the number of 
 children he has here. To carry out this idea, the wife 
 is handed over to a deputy husband, who maintains 
 his position in the family till the husband returns. 
 Base and immoral as this theory may be, it is strongly 
 advocated by the leading men at the Great Salt Lake. 
 We again quote the returned clergyman : — 
 
 “ 4 But there is something more awful and paralyz- 
 ing than all I have yet narrated. I mean the fearful 
 sin of incest, which is so intimately and closely con- 
 nected with polygamy. I could particularize in- 
 stances where mother and daughter are married to the 
 same man, and live with him as his wives ; others 
 where brother and sister are man and wife ; and so on. 
 Brigham Young, speaking once upon this subject in 
 
274 CONDITION OP WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 I 
 
 the tabernacle, said that he hoped the day was not far 
 distant when these principles would be more fully 
 taught and acted upon, and that children would be 
 brought up to regard each other as future partners, for 
 that thus the family would become more compact. 5 
 
 “ As ‘ a case in point, 5 we would mention that some 
 
 t 
 
 ten months since there was a man at Liverpool, who 
 held the office of counsellor to the British presidency, 
 who, aided by the authorities there and the emigration 
 fund, persuaded a family — the father, mother, and 
 three daughters (the youngest in her teens) — to emi- 
 grate to Zion. They had been a highly respectable 
 family, and their character irreproachable. On arriv- 
 ing at their destination, the missionary demanded the 
 three daughters in marriage, and the parents gave a 
 most reluctant consent. This man of God (as he 
 styled himself) was married by Brigham to these three 
 on the same day, and took them together to his house, 
 where he had a young wife already, and which house 
 consisted of but one room for the accommodation of 
 them all. In about a year one brought forth a daugh- 
 ter and another a son. This caused him great rejoi- 
 cing, as he said the sons would in time marry the 
 daughters, and thus inalienably become the founda- 
 tion of his kingdom. 55 
 
 A correspondent of the New York Herald, about 
 the same time, writes, “ In 1855, Salt Lake City con- 
 tained about twelve thousand inhabitants, and realized, 
 to some extent, our idea of 6 Rus in vrbe .’ In enter- 
 ing the Mormon city, a stranger is struck with the 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 275 
 
 coarseness of the men, the number and rudeness of 
 the children, and the ugliness of the women.” 
 
 I must here cut short the quotation. The coarse . 
 men, ugly women, and rude children are the Saxon 
 North European (that is, Gothic) features which we 
 might expect to find in such a community. 
 
 It is said in defence of Englishmen, that they are 
 debauched by the corruption of swollen cities ; but it 
 appears on the authority of the criminal records, that 
 the English rural population are worse, if possible, 
 than the towns. On the contrary, look at the rural 
 population of the remote and ignorant Highlands. 
 The beautiful picture that Wordsworth draws of the 
 Highland maid, her goodness and innocence, her mod- 
 est, yet frank, open gaze, is true to life. 
 
 Highland Mary is a pure star, shining far above the 
 Lowland beauties of Burns’s poesy. 
 
 Irish girls are sometimes debauched in Saxonized 
 cities, but the Irish peasants at home are the purest 
 on earth. (See the testimony of Sir Francis Head, 
 Dr. Forbes, — queen’s physician, — and other English- 
 men.) 
 
 These gentlemen express their surprise on behold- 
 ing the beauty of Irish ladies and the intelligent and 
 modest look of the young girls at the public schools, 
 so agreeably different from what they had ever seen in 
 England among the lower orders. 
 
 I will take the latest English and Protestant author- 
 ities that have come to hand, — official reports that 
 cannot be controverted. 
 
276 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 
 Here is an extract from the latest notice on the sub- 
 ject in the English Civil Service Gazette, referring to 
 the English counties : — 
 
 “ The winter assizes arc proceeding ; and Heavens ! 
 what a picture of crime and ignorance, of sin, sorrow, 
 and suffering, do their records present ! To such a 
 picture no common fiction can do justice. The lan- 
 guage of divine inspiration can alone describe it. It 
 is ‘the abomination of desolation.’ The facts are not 
 within the compass of human words — their effect 
 must be left to the imagination. But what name 
 shall we apply to such a commission as that now sit- 
 ting ? None half so applicable as that with which 
 history is already familiar — ‘ the bloody assize.’ And 
 is it not such ? If you doubt it, read the morning 
 journals. Hear what an account they give of the 
 state of the calendar in the various towns which the 
 judges are now in the course of visiting.” 
 
 Then follow extracts too long to quote. In one place 
 66 offences are of a very dreadful character ; ” at another, 
 “of the deepest dye,” — murder, perjury, unnatural 
 crime, infanticide, rape, robbery, forgery, &c., &c. 
 
 “ Sir John Pakinton calculates that it is only every 
 eighth person of the adult population of England 
 who has mastered that accomplishment, (of reading,) 
 and Earl Grey declared some time ago, in the House 
 of Lords, that, bearing in mind the relative propor- 
 tions of population, there are more readers among the 
 savages of New Zealand than among Englishmen.” 
 Ay, just so, my lords. Blame it all upon the igno- 
 
 
 
 
 
 t 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 277 
 
 ranee of the people. You want to build more 
 churches and fat livings for younger sons. You want 
 more railway loads of the Bible. 
 
 No doubt ignorance of letters helps to make Eng- 
 lishmen and Anglo-Saxon women as they are — lower 
 than the New Zealand savages. But let us turn to 
 the most remote and illiterate county in Ireland, Don- 
 egal, — the land of O’Donnell, — the land of the 
 beautiful, the good, the true, the proud, but oppressed 
 Celtic race, — oppressed by a race of rich savages, as 
 the noble Greeks are subjected by the ever-barbarous 
 Turks. 
 
 An official paper drawn up by the Rev. Edward 
 Clarke, local inspector, and (Protestant) chaplain of 
 the county of Donegal jail, shows an astonishing de- 
 crease in crime throughout Ireland. 
 
 The few crimes are not of the Saxon beastly and 
 thieving character, but arise out of landlord tyranny ; 
 they are agrarian, killing cattle, combining in societies, 
 administering unlawful oaths, killing, or attempting to 
 kill, landlords and agents. Such crimes are the result 
 of Saxon tyranny. But let us look into the domestic 
 state, and the condition of woman, the best criterion 
 of a people’s real character. 
 
 The inspector says, — 
 
 “ Officially connected for many years with the county 
 of Donegal, I observed with much pleasure a fact (pre- 
 suming that the small number of acquittals denotes the 
 absence of crime) highly creditable to its population, 
 namely, that the number committed in that county in 
 
 24 
 
278 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 1854 amounted to but 0.10 per cent, of its total popu- 
 lation, and that as to females to but 0.04 per cent., or j 
 one in two thousand six hundred and sixty-two j 
 females.” 
 
 There would be no trace even of common decency j 
 in England, if the Pharisees in high places did not j 
 enforce at least an outward show ol decorum. There .* 
 were hundreds and thousands of shops in England 1 
 that dealt in gross publications and obscene prints, 
 exhibited in the public windows, until the strong arm 
 of the law interposed; but the trade goes on privately. 
 
 If we are to judge a people by their popular litera- h 
 ture, then we must set down the English as the most 
 lascivious and bloody-minded on the face of the earth. 
 
 I saw an estimate some years ago of these infidel 
 and filthy publications, by which it appeared that their 
 aggregate annual circulation was twenty-five million 
 copies. Now, when we recollect that it is only the 
 better class of English who can read, we may judge 
 the state of the female mind in England. The artists 
 and authors did not create this gross taste. These 
 genii sprung into existence to satisfy the old and eter- 
 nal craving of the Saxon stomach for rape and murder 
 stories. 
 
 Mayhew says of the low English in London, that 
 “ there is no honor attached to the married state,” 
 and “ only about one tenth of the couples living to- 
 gether are married.” He says that the Irish girls, liv- 
 ing in the same low sphere, “ are chaste ,” and that the 
 laboring Irish are “ deeply religious.” This Mayhew 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 279 
 
 is an English barrister, and the best and most distin- 
 guished investigator of the condition of the poor. 
 
 The awful state of the rural Saxons and their un- 
 mentionable crimes are too notorious to call for special 
 quotations from Mr. Kay and others. The open mar- 
 ket for English women is abolished, but the females 
 of the low English still consider themselves as mere 
 animals. A Saxon virgin is such a rarity in rural dis- 
 tricts, that a zealous state clergyman offered a prize to 
 any young woman who had not been a mother, or was 
 not enceinte on the day of her marriage. 
 
 To afford an example of English ideas in general, I 
 may relate this authentic anecdote : — 
 
 An English woman having behaved very scanda- 
 lously, her husband was asked, why he did not put her 
 away. “ O, no,” replied the outraged husband, “ I 
 can’t part with her ; she’s a d -d fine cook.” 
 
 Every man of the world who has been among the 
 Lowland Scotch or Saxonized English, must have 
 heard some of the countless anecdotes of Saxon ani- 
 malism. These afford the most significant and true 
 criteria of “ the godlike Anglo-Saxon ” character ; but 
 they are too awful to be repeated. And yet there is 
 morality in England. 
 
 I have read reports of English Methodist mission- 
 ers, who declare that in the rural and mining districts 
 of the east and north of England, mothers often boast 
 of the success which their daughters have had in the 
 trade of prostitution. 
 
 Nearly all the thousands of flash houses in Great 
 
280 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 Britain are owned and furnished by rich gentlemen of 
 good standing in society, who go, Bible in hand, with 
 their families on the Sabbath, “ to praise the Lord” 
 
 During the parliamentary discussions on Stuart 
 Wortley’s Bill of Incest, it appeared that above thirty 
 thousand cases of marriage with wife’s sister were 
 discovered in England. 
 
 Horrible conjectures were afloat regarding the rela- 
 tion of the parties before the death of these women, 
 who were succeeded by their own sisters. Knowing 
 the habits of the English, it was judged that in many 
 of these thirty Ihousand incest cases the wife had 
 been slowly poisoned by her own husband or sister. 
 
 The most loathsome and terrible disgrace upon the 
 Anglo-Saxon character is the notorious fact, that such 
 is the grovelling nature of the English, that men 
 are to be found among them who make themselves 
 lower than the brute animals for the sake of good eat- 
 ing and drinking. Every bad English woman has an 
 assassin , (that is, Irish for Saxon,) a bully , to follow 
 at her heels like a dog for the sake of his feed. It is 
 a common practice for prostitutes to marry, (and there 
 is no lack of matches,) and to retire into respectable 
 life. I have elsewhere quoted Macaulay, who shows 
 that the parsons in Queen Bess’s time used to get 
 promotion by marrying some girl who had been dis- 
 honored by the patron. At the present day it is said 
 that Englishmen who have pretty wives have the best 
 chance for promotion. The American reader will 
 hardly believe this terrible accusation ; but in England 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 281 
 
 it is a notorious fact that men occasionally sell the 
 honor of their wives. The case of the Mannings, 
 who murdered their victim, O’Connor, is but one of 
 many examples, even in respectable society. 
 
 This feature in modern Englishism is but a revival 
 of the Anglo-Saxon institution of the gersume in its 
 primitive, pagan state. 
 
 Let us examine old files of newspapers or the latest 
 arrivals, and the same repulsive features of Saxon 
 crime stare us in the face. The sale of the wife’s 
 honor by the husband, the murder of the child by the 
 mother, and the committal of crimes against nature, 
 that formerly brought down fire from heaven, are still 
 quite common in England. 
 
 The reader will find in the Appendix (page 368) a 
 most interesting report on prostitution, from the Lon- 
 don Globe, January 15, 1858. 
 
 The chief point to be observed in the report is the 
 fact, which is well enough known, and which I have 
 already mentioned, viz., that Englishmen in general 
 do not object to marry notorious prostitutes. There 
 is no civilized country, pagan or Christian, so vile, so 
 brutal and debased as England, the mother of Mor- 
 monism. 
 
 One out of every thirteen or fourteen English 
 women is a prostitute. (See Report.) But besides, 
 there is the large class of women, married, respectable 
 mothers of the English, who, having retired from pub- 
 lic life, are absorbed , as the report says, into the bosom 
 
 24 * 
 
282 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 of English society. Well may the English call each 
 
 other “ sons of b .” A verse of a popular old 
 
 English song illustrates this national feature of Saxon 
 life : — 
 
 “My breeches are torn behind and before, 
 
 My purse is very scanty ; 
 
 But I will go and marry a wh , 
 
 Who’ 11 keep ine in money plenty.” 
 
 The late trial of the African Roscius, for seduction, 
 brought out the fact that a lady’s husband, unable or 
 unwilling to support her, told her to go and live by 
 prostitution : she did so, and she bore a child to the 
 rich nigger. Then the virtuous husband comes in and 
 prosecutes the nigger, thinking to get damages ; but 
 he got only a trifle. 
 
 The laws of Ethelbert forced the adulterer to pay 
 the injured Saxon a fine, and “ buy him a neiv wife” 
 At the present day an Englishman is compensated for 
 damages done to his property, the sin itself not being 
 considered criminal in the eye of English law. The 
 pagan Saxons only killed their damaged wives when 
 they could not sell them. 
 
 In the February number of Harper’s Magazine, an 
 American lawyer gives an account of a late tour 
 throughout the English assizes. He says that trials 
 for crimes against nature were common every where, 
 also for infanticide, &c. 
 
 The New York Daily Times, though English in 
 prejudice, says, in commenting on the late English 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 283 
 
 divorce bill, that “ it is simply a bill to provide for the 
 extension to all classes of the British public of those 
 facilities of divorce which have been heretofore con- 
 fined to the wealthy and the powerful. Up to the 
 present time the injured British husband has been 
 forced to seek redress for his wrong in the shape of 
 pecuniary compensation for his wife’s honor, and his 
 own, before a court of justice, and relief from an in- 
 tolerable bond before the House of Lords. Of the 
 miserable history compressed into this brief statement, 
 what imagination can afford us an adequate idea ! 
 Yet so demoralized by the force of prescription is the 
 4 collective wisdom’ of Britain, that the attempt to 
 remove a damning disgrace from British jurisprudence, 
 and to afford a righteous and honorable redress to 
 respectable Englishmen and Englishwomen smarting 
 under the bitterest of wrongs, was denounced as a 
 kind of treason to the state. 
 
 “ Yet this bill, of which the history is so discredita- 
 ble to British legislation, and the passage of which is 
 justly regarded in England as a victory of progress, is 
 of such a character that it would be scouted in any 
 assembly of decent Americans as an outrage upon the 
 one sex, and an insult to the other. It has indeed sur- 
 rounded the proprietary rights of women with some 
 frail barriers ; it has done away with the scandals of 
 the suit for criminal conversation, and has abolished 
 the insufferable caste distinctions of the old system. 
 But while it attempts to make adultery a crime, it 
 
284 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 stultifies that attempt by a provision to the effect that 
 when both parties are proved guilty of that crime, 
 neither shall be punished ; and it denies to the wife of 
 an adulterous husband the divorce which is conceded 
 to the husband of an adulterous wife. 
 
 “That six hundred Englishmen, claiming to be honest 
 men and gentlemen, should have permitted the intro- 
 duction into their presence of a proposition so revolt- 
 ing and so unjust, would hardly be credible if we were 
 not forced to believe the further abomination that by 
 a majority of their number that proposition was adopt- 
 ed. Nor are we left in doubt as to the motives of this 
 proceeding. For when a member objected to the in- 
 troduction of a clause equalizing the relief of divorce 
 to both sexes by asking, 4 If this clause were adopted, 
 I should like to know how many married men there 
 would be in this house ? ’ he was answered with 
 4 roars of laughter.’ Here, then, we have the testimo- 
 ny of six hundred and odd English gentlemen, that 
 Englishmen of consideration do not regard the habit- 
 ual violation of the marriage contract by a husband 
 as a serious offence, coupled with the tacit confession 
 that such habitual violation is generally prevalent in 
 the higher ranks of English society. Of the force of 
 this testimony, and of the sincerity of this confession, 
 we have the further and irrefragable evidence that a 
 measure embodying both was passed to a law by the 
 gentlemen aforesaid, and by them presented to the 
 royal lady who represents the sovereignty of England, 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 285 
 
 she, in her turn, affixing her signature to a bill which 
 bestows a more than Eastern license upon her own 
 husband and her sons. 
 
 “ To eulogize the 4 domestic morals ’ of Britain in 
 the face of such facts as these, must somewhat severe- 
 ly tax the brazen audacity of the bells of Bow them- 
 selves.” 
 
 But corrupt as are the aristocracy, or what is called 
 “ good society,” in England, the lower orders are 
 worse. 
 
 The ignorant working class in Ireland are the most 
 Celtic, and beyond question the most virtuous in Ire- 
 land. The ignorant working class in England have 
 been, since the conquest, the most Saxon, and they 
 are certainly the worst of bad classes in Great 
 Britain. 
 
 North, south, and west, humanity in the British 
 Isles becomes elevated in proportion as we distance 
 Saxondom. 
 
 Laing says that, although education is very general 
 in Sweden, the state of female morals is worse than in 
 any other European country. I thought the English 
 were the worst, but the Swedes and North Germans 
 are of purer Gothic breed ; that accounts for it. 
 
 In the first French revolution of ? 92, the mob 
 committed the most dreadful outrages against women. 
 In reading the account of that frightful epoch, we are 
 astonished at the horrid deeds that were perpetrated. 
 In the cathedral of Notre Dame, that temple dedicated 
 
286 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 by the pious old Parisians to the Queen of Virgins, 
 the mob placed a half-naked prostitute upon the altar, 
 and honored her as a Goddess of Reason. Was this 
 an evidence of the natural propensities of the race, or 
 was it not rather the result of a temporary madness in 
 the public mind ? Any one acquainted with French 
 character knows that they are the most tender-hearted 
 people, and the most respectful towards woman, and 
 that there is nothing that distinguishes the Gaul from 
 the Saxon more than his womanish fondness for 
 children, and the little attentions and caresses which 
 are beneath John Bull’s dignity. 
 
 The truth is, that oppression had made the French 
 people stark mad; and the proof of this is the utter 
 absence of any trace of reason in their proceedings. 
 They did in their fury what the English mothers do 
 in cold blood, and what English political economy ex- 
 ecutes upon scientific calculations. 
 
 The Celts alone elevated woman. 
 
 Let us look back upon the life of the old Gauls, 
 who venerated the purity of their Druidesses, who 
 held their wives in honor, and who submitted their 
 disputes to the gentle tribunal of Gallic women. 
 Let us remember the matchless gallant of old Gaul, 
 and the worship of female beauty and purity, which 
 the French crusaders instituted in European society, 
 and we must conclude that the horrors of the French 
 revolution afford no true criterion of French charac- 
 ter. But let us impartially compare the history of the 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 287 
 
 Celt and Saxon for a thousand years, and we find 
 that the excesses of a temporary insanity in France 
 have almost uninterruptedly marked the Anglo-Saxon 
 character, through all its history. 
 
 Even in the French madness, mothers did not slay 
 their own infants, fathers did not sell their daughters ; 
 they did not commit crimes against nature. 
 
 What are the Celts and Saxons doing for the eleva- 
 tion of woman in America ? The crusade for “ wo- 
 man’s rights ” is an effort to bring us back to the 
 Celtic pagan system of judges and Druidesses, the 
 lawyers and the parsons ; but the pagan women mod- 
 estly retired from the crowd, and they were under the 
 supreme control of the sex that God has endowed 
 with energies to rule society. 
 
 “ Modesty is a quality that highly adorns a woman.” 
 ( Copy book.) Let the strong-minded female doctors 
 first try to heal the moral ulcers that are eating into 
 domestic life. I pass over in silence the abuses which 
 American writers satirize, and which are topics of 
 table talk. 
 
 American ladies are physically, intellectually, and 
 morally ahead of the English ; certainly they are more 
 Celtic. They are very charitable, with all their Celtic 
 extravagance and want of economy. Religious man- 
 ifestations and revivals evince an intensity and sin- 
 cerity that we do not find in England. 
 
 It is hard to disintegrate the Saxon from the Celtic 
 influence in a community like this; yet we find 
 enough to show, that in the most Saxonized parts of 
 
288 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 the Union, seduction, abortion, &c., arc most common. 
 The trade of abortion is general, the number of pa- 
 tients incalculable. While I write this, there are cor- 
 oners’ inquests on the bodies of two young ladies, vic- 
 tims of unskilful treatment. The writings of Fowler 
 & Wells on the disgusting vices of Young America, 
 on infanticide, &c., and the condition of woman in 
 New York, and other Saxonized localities, have been 
 charged as exaggerations. But the large sale of abor- 
 tion instruments, and the immense over proportion of 
 still-born and infant deaths on the records, are star- 
 tling facts, not to speak of the police list. 
 
 The ship loads of Irish passengers contain inno- 
 cent girls, who have no thought but to work diligent- 
 ly, to relieve their poorer friends, to attend their reli- 
 gious duties, and to get well married if they can. 
 The ship loads of English passengers have honest 
 girls too, but they also contain a majority of Mormon - 
 iles amd free-lovers , coming out on speculation, or to 
 fulfil some indecent engagement. In fact a great 
 many have already sold themselves to prostituting 
 agents, who leave this, and avoiding Celtic countries, 
 go to England, North Germany, and Sweden, where 
 they procure white slaves for the promiscuous harems 
 of America. 
 
 England, especially, supplies the market of Mor- 
 mondom, a power that threatens to be rebellious and 
 troublesome, as well as a source of corruption to the 
 whole Union. The Anglo-Saxons of Mormondom 
 should commemorate the arrival of their women, in a 
 monument to “ our Pit err im Mothers .” 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 289 
 
 The perusal of old English books, especially those 
 intended for other purposes than the exposition of 
 manners, gives us very interesting hints regarding the 
 moral sense of the nation. Old plays, tales, and songs 
 might be quoted, if they were not too indecent ; but 
 take for example the book before me, published at 
 Kendal, in 1821, and written by a lady — Mrs. Whee- 
 ler. It is a collection of dialogues to illustrate the 
 dialects of the north of England. The preface intro- 
 duces an account of a fisticuff and skull-dragging be- 
 tween two women. The first dialogue opens with in- 
 decent language between Ann and Mary, “ upon run- 
 ning away from a bad husband.” Mary proposes to 
 go away to service, or to prostitute herself, rather than 
 stay and be starved and beaten by her husband, and 
 she seems to care little about leaving her barns, (chil- 
 dren.) It appears that she had had a barn before 
 marriage, and that this was not unusual, but that it 
 did not increase the husband’s respect for the wife. 
 It is to be noted that the husband in these English 
 dialogues is called “ master.” Ann warns Mary not 
 to run away, because “ no one dare take you in ; the 
 husband has terrible power; no justice could interfere 
 with him ; he can do what he pleases with you. He 
 may beat thee, nay, half kill thee, or lame thee, or 
 famish thee, nay, sell thee, and no one dare interfere 
 with him.” u Nae justice can bang him ; ne can dae 
 what he wull wie thee ; he jrxay Mck thee, nay, hoaf 
 kill thee, or learn thee, ox clam thee, nay, sell thee, an* 
 nae yan dar n^eil on him.” Mary complains that 
 
 25 
 
290 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 not only “ fels her wie his gripen neaf,” (knocks her 
 down with his fist,) but he takes all the “ brass ” she 
 earns and spends it with a u lairly ugly,” (prostitute,) 
 and leaves her and the “ barns ” to starve, and she 
 envies the ladies of easy life in London. These dia- 
 logues, written by a lady, and intended only to illus- 
 trate the Saxon dialect, are full of indecencies, and 
 the custom of having the wedding and the christening 
 at the same time is frequently commented upon. 
 One old woman says it was not so in her time. 
 English virtue is always retrospective. If we believe 
 English newspapers, wife-beating is a new English 
 crime, and conjugal infidelity and maternal depravity 
 unprecedented. 
 
 O, gentle author of a The Women of England,” 
 have you seen English women dragged to prison ? 
 Have you seen the brutal English police with cords 
 on their female prisoner’s wrists, trailing her on her 
 back through the dirty street, or tying her, like a rabid 
 thing, on a handcart, amid the jeers of the multitude ? 
 Have you seen her doused in cold water, and her long 
 hair — woman’s gift from modest Nature — cropped 
 off close to the skull ? Have you seen her indecently 
 stripped and whipped in prison ? Have you seen her 
 from day to day on the monotonous, cruel treadmill, 
 that brutifies while it degrades humanity into a ma- 
 chine? Have you seen English women on the chain- 
 gang, led through the street to transportation ? If 
 you have not seen these scenes, you cannot give a 
 full history of the women of England. 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 291 
 
 At the present day England is the only civilized 
 country where the strong arm and ubiquitous eye of 
 the law is demanded, but fails to protect the English 
 wife and daughter from the fists and feet of the pater- 
 familias. In primitive Saxon times, an Englishman 
 could sell or murder his wife or female slaves with im- 
 punity ; but we are getting more civilized. Murdered 
 women have not been forgotten by the new school of 
 philanthropists, who prevent cruelty to animals. By 
 a late act it is ordained that an English woman must 
 not be smashed and kicked under penalty of five 
 pounds. For five pounds an Englishman can drag 
 his wife by the hair of her head,* kick her, and beat 
 out every feature in her face. I am afraid that the 
 fine of five pounds will not put a stop to a general 
 national practice that has prevailed since Saxons 
 were made Saxons. The practice goes on, and will 
 go on, as long as Britons have any Saxon blood in 
 their veins. Is it not remarkable that many Saxon- 
 ized Irish and Americans have acquired the English 
 brutalities that were and are unknown among the 
 pure Celts ? 
 
 I believe that Irishmen are more given to wife-beat- 
 ing and murder than the French, Spanish, or other 
 Celts, not because they are less affectionate husbands, 
 but because they are brought more within the Saxon 
 influence. Any one who has taken the trouble to in- 
 quire into the subject, must have remarked that Irish- 
 men are the most excitable of all races when in a 
 state of intoxication ; and secondly, that Irish murders 
 
292 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 are almost invariably com mil ted during a drunken 
 brawl. It is equally notorious that English murders 
 are usually cold-blooded, and committed after long 
 calculation as to ways and means. 
 
 We hear of agrarian murders committed on the 
 oppressors of the poor, and of murders by drunken, 
 fighting Irishmen. But though there are ruffianly 
 Irish, they cannot be compared with the Saxons. 
 
 No young Irishman would marry a prostitute ; 
 much less would any Celt compel his wife or daugh- 
 ter to support him in idleness and gluttony by the 
 wages of iniquity. 
 
 The English Parliament, in this nineteenth century, 
 is called upon yearly to enact more stringent measures 
 to save the English wife from her husband ; thus 
 proclaiming to the world that the Saxon is still a sav- 
 age, and the English woman still a slave. 
 
 The English woman is still denied the legal rights 
 of person and property. The English legislator may 
 read the laws of old pagan Italy and Ireland, and 
 blush for the Saxon race, that is, if an Englishman 
 can blush. 
 
 Since the above was written, the news of a woman’s 
 rights agitation has arrived from England. The New 
 York Herald and other papers give us a copy of a pe- 
 tition from English women, praying, not for political 
 rights, as demanded in America, but mercy , legal pro- 
 tection, and emancipation from the absolute control 
 which the Englishman still legally exercises over the 
 person and property of his slave wife. The petition 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 293 
 
 repeats the English slave laws affecting wives and 
 daughters, especially in regard to the appropriation of 
 the women’s earnings by the men. 
 
 The petition “ humbly showeth, that the manifold 
 evils occasioned by the law, by which the property 
 and earnings of the wife are thrown into the absolute 
 power of the husband, become daily more apparent ; 
 that the suffering thereupon ensuing extends over all 
 classes of society,” &c. 
 
 These ladies then go on at length to show that men 
 live in idleness in proportion as the women are hard 
 wrought. Read what follows : — 
 
 “ But for the robbery by a man of his wife’s hard 
 earnings there is no redress ; against the selfishness of 
 a drunken father, who wrings from a mother her chil- 
 dren’s daily bread, there is no appeal. She may work 
 from morning till night to see the produce of her la- 
 bor wrested from her and wasted in a gin palace ; and 
 such cases are within the knowledge of every one.” 
 u The newspapers constantly detail instances of 
 marital oppression — ‘ wife-beating ’ being a new com- 
 pound noun lately introduced into the English lan- 
 guage, and a crime against which English gentlemen 
 have lately enacted stringent regulations.” 
 
 The responsibility of the husband for the wife’s debts 
 is but a mark of woman’s slavery. They pray for its 
 abolition, and conclude by showing that the laws of 
 foreign countries are “ much more just ” than the Eng- 
 lish in regard to woman. 
 
 The spirit of English law and the conduct of 
 25 * 
 
294 CONDITION OP WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 English officials are unjust, cruel, and merciless, in ex- 
 act proportion as their victims are helpless and deserv- 
 ing of pity. The heartless inhumanity of the English 
 system towards poor women and children would 
 make the African savage nations shudder with horror. 
 
 The law of nature and the law of God say that 
 you shall not separate the mother from the infant, nor 
 the husband from the wife. But the English lords 
 and bishops treat the poor as so many cattle. These 
 Christian legislators ordain that if sickness, and grief, 
 and poverty should drive a poor family to the work- 
 house, the infant must be dragged from the mother, 
 and the husband from the wife, thereby outraging hu- 
 manity and increasing the notorious immorality of 
 these bastiles. The poor, and especially the poor 
 children, were murdered wholesale in the Irish work- 
 houses, by the Anglo-Orange guardians of the poor, 
 who reduced the food of the victims to less than a 
 pennyworth a day for each. Occasionally we have 
 revelations of the like murder of the innocents in 
 English poorhouses, surpassing in atrocity any thing 
 that Dickens could conceive of these establishments ; 
 see, for instance, the Edmonston Union reports, where- 
 in we find that the children were flogged and starved, 
 wasted away by scrofula and other diseases ; the poor 
 things scarcely looked like human beings. They fell 
 by slow, deliberate murder, because they were poor 
 orphans. 
 
 The government inquiry into the discipline of the 
 Leicester and Birmingham jails brought out some 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 295 
 
 dreadful revelations. For the slightest faults, or for no 
 cause but the brutal whims of the keepers, women in 
 a naked state would be drenched with buckets of cold 
 water, handcuffed in a very painful position, with 
 their hands behind their backs, their bed and light 
 taken from them, and they would be allowed nothing 
 but a little bread and water for days together. The 
 cruelties inflicted on boys for whistling, or calling to 
 each other, and such crimes , were so severe that many 
 of the poor lads committed suicide. Weakly boys 
 were obliged to make ten thousand to fifteen thousand 
 turns of the crank in a day. If they could not ac- 
 complish it, they were taken away and starved and 
 flogged without any mercy. They would be chained 
 up to a wall, with a collar round the neck choking 
 them. When they fainted, which they usually did, 
 buckets of cold water were dashed on them, and they 
 were left to lie on the cold flags. After this they 
 would be sent to do double work on half allowance of 
 food. If they failed, they were flogged again. If 
 they complained, they were chained up again with the 
 dog’s collar, and beaten, and often kicked in the 
 mouth. Such was the general routine of English dis- 
 cipline, according to the evidence of visiting magis- 
 trates, and the confessions of jailers themselves. (See 
 Report of Tail Discipline , edited by Joseph Allday, 
 Churchwarden. Published by F. Pitman, Paternoster 
 Row, 1853.) 
 
 It would be far happier for widows and orphans to 
 sink into the ocean and be devoured by sharks 
 
296 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 than to fall into the hands of English poor-law 
 guardians. 
 
 Even in the year of the Irish famine, when the 
 hardest heart might have relented, thousands of help- 
 less women and children were driven out of England 
 to seek their own parish in Ireland — ay, widows and 
 orphans of men who had toiled hard through their 
 best years to create England’s wealth. Many of these 
 poor outcasts, even in sickness, were thrown on the 
 decks of steamers, where they perished on the passage. 
 The mayor of Dublin, with Mr. Delany of Sackville 
 Street, and a committee of other charitable gentlemen, 
 relieved in that city alone over eleven hundred in one 
 year of the victims of English hospitality ; poor crea- 
 tures driven away because they were no longer able to 
 work for England’s white-slave drivers. 
 
 The British government declared and proved by 
 their acts that it was no part of their duty to save the 
 lives of the people, but only to coerce them, and make 
 them pay rents, tithes, and taxes. And it is one of 
 the leading principles of the political economy that 
 guides English legislation, that surplus populations 
 have no right to exist. 
 
 Consequently, the wholesale famine murders were 
 considered a visitation of kind Providence to help out 
 the laws of political economy. The English found out 
 many private means of helping out the designs of 
 their beneficent economy. For example, the reader 
 may remember the murders at Tooting, in 1848. 
 
 “ There were found to be a great many Irish 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 297 
 
 orphans in the London workhouses ; more than 
 twelve hundred of them were farmed out at four shil- 
 lings and sixpence per week each, to a man named 
 Drewitt, near Tooting, in Surrey, with instructions 
 not to pamper their appetites. Ten died the first 
 week, thirty-seven the next, then eighty-six, and so on, 
 till the number of deaths weekly exceeded one hun- 
 dred and seventy ! This was overdoing the job, so 
 Drewitt was brought to a mock trial, but of course 
 received no punishment.” 
 
 In the English workhouses, mothers are allowed to 
 attend their infants on the breast, because this arrange- 
 ment is most convenient and least expensive. But 
 children who are able to know a mother’s voice, to 
 feel her love, and to imbibe her Catholic teaching, are 
 separated from their parents. The holy institution of 
 the family is trampled under foot by the English sys- 
 tem. Poor people are arranged as an English squire 
 arranges his library, not according to the spirit of the 
 works, but the size of the books. 
 
 The English and Anglo-Orange guardians break up 
 the family ; but they are generally heedless of how 
 they let in abandoned characters to corrupt the inno- 
 cent. I have known, in several Irish poorhouses, cor- 
 rupt girls put in among the innocent, while the nuns 
 were excluded. 
 
 What is the conduct of England in regard to poor 
 girls ? If they are virtuous, they may sit in rags, with 
 aching joints, fevered brain, and eyes red from want 
 of sleep ; they may sing the “ Song of the Shirt ” for 
 
298 CONDITION OK WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 
 rascally employers, and there is but little private and 
 no public or legislative notice taken of them. They 
 are called able-bodied , and are not entitled to relief. 
 If they dare to beg, they are dragged to prison, their 
 hair cut off, and cold water dashed upon them, and 
 they are condemned to pick oakum. If, on getting out 
 of prison, they prostitute themselves, and if they suc- 
 ceed and get into a fine house, and strut about in 
 silks, then indeed their persons are respected by the 
 minions of the law ; but what is worse still, the un- 
 fortunate girls who bear children either kill the little 
 ones or send them to an old dry nurse to be spoon-fed, 
 and dosed with laudanum, while the mother goes to 
 luxurious quarters as wet nurse in some nobleman’s 
 or gentleman’s family. 
 
 The great Burke said that “ the vicious perfection ” 
 of English law tended in all things to demoralize and 
 brutify the Irish race. 
 
 English government grants were never voluntarily 
 given to Ireland for any good purpose. The Castle 
 of Dublin and the English garrisons were a propa- 
 ganda of bastardy in Dublin. Carleton shows (in his 
 story of “ The Foster Brother ”) that the government, 
 in endowing a foundling hospital, only held out a pre- 
 mium to debauchery. 
 
 But how did the English institution succeed? 
 Were the infants farmed to nurses neglected and 
 killed by ill treatment, as in England ? Did immorality 
 increase in Ireland ? No ! Carleton proves by the 
 evidence of a commission to investigate into the 
 
 
 
 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 299 
 
 working of the Foundling Hospital, that the orphans 
 and foundlings, called Parisheens , were generally bet- 
 ter treated than the children of the nurses, because 
 they were forlorn creatures. “ Innumerable instances 
 have occurred where the parisheens, after being sent to 
 good situations, have eloped back to the poor sheds of 
 their nurses, and nurses have frequently come to Dub- 
 lin with tears in their eyes, begging to have back their 
 nurslings, offering to support them at their own ex- 
 pense. We would naturally suppose, judging by Eng- 
 lish experience, that the forsaken children would, in the 
 houses of their mercenary nurses, experience neglect 
 and ill treatment. Yet the affection of the nurses for 
 these children, and of the children for the nurses, was 
 proved by a force and extent of testimony which no 
 scepticism could encounter.” 
 
 Montesquieu, in his Spirit of Laws, quotes Voltaire’s 
 account of a sect of women in Denmark, who made 
 it their mission to strangle every babe within their 
 reach, in order that its soul might go to heaven. They 
 also took the Bible for their guide, and it made them 
 tigresses, because it was in their nature as it was in 
 the nature of the Anglo-Saxon women, their sisters. 
 
 “ The earth is filled with English crime, and it can 
 hold no more.” Such was the bitter confession of the 
 London Times, when the English Parliament was 
 obliged to pass laws against infanticide, and the sys- 
 tematic trade of abortionists. The too tedious enact- 
 ments of law was a public confession to the whole 
 world that the first and last link of humanity, the 
 
300 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 love of a mother for her child, was broken in Sax- 
 on do m. 
 
 In Celtic nations infanticide is a very rare crime, 
 committed to cover shame. In England infanticide is 
 a common crime, committed to satisfy gluttony. In 
 England the murder of the innocents is wholesale, in 
 order to get money from Burial Societies, or to get 
 rid of surplus children, which the admirable practical 
 Saxon economy calls “ encumbrances .” 
 
 The fear of public scorn, and the pride of preserv- 
 ing her family name from disgrace, will sometimes 
 madly drive an Irish or Highland girl into the crime 
 of infanticide. I speak of exceptional cases, for it is 
 very, very seldom that a Celtic girl suffers dishonor 
 among her own people. But it is among married 
 women in Saxondom that child-murder, even in utero , 
 is most common. u The enviable practical spirit of 
 the Anglo-Saxon,” and the “ admirable economy,” reg- 
 ulate the number of children to the husband’s income. 
 Young mouths must not come too fast to curtail the 
 beefsteak and the ale of the parents. The English 
 are not so improvident as “ the foolish Irish, who 
 marry young, and struggle through life with a large 
 family.” The instinct of tiger mothers prevails only 
 where Saxon blood is infused in Great Britain and 
 America. For proof of this I have referred to the 
 English police reports, and the writings of such Eng- 
 lishmen as Kay, Mayhew. See also Lord Ashley’s 
 reports, and the parliamentary Blue Books. But the 
 readiest reference is the police reports, and the popular 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 301 
 
 £ 
 
 newspapers, as the Weekly Dispatch, Reynolds’s News- 
 paper, &c. See the parliamentary debates, and the 
 acts passed regarding the poisoning of children, and 
 the extensive trade of procuring abortion in England. 
 
 The systematic traffic in seduction, and the national 
 practice of wife-beating, necessarily spring up with 
 these other vices. 
 
 We are not to judge of a people by such great 
 cities as London or Paris. I speak of the country of 
 England generally, and especially the more Saxonized 
 lower orders. 
 
 46 
 
 The Artisan, June 1, 1853, in answer to a corre- 
 spondent, says, u There is reason to fear that your sup- 
 positions are not ill-founded. We have been informed, 
 by several pharmaceutists in Manchester, that red 
 chromate of potassa is, in all probability, extensively 
 resorted to for secret poisoning, since the sale of arsenic 
 was placed under legal restrictions.” 
 
 As I have referred to the celebrated work of May- 
 hew, I may quote his own words ; he says of the moral 
 degradation of English women, that “ even mothers 
 forget their affection for their helpless little offspring, 
 and kill them as a butcher does his lambs, in order to 
 make money by the murder, and thereby to lessen 
 their pauperism and misery.” But authentic history 
 tells us that they sold or murdered their children when 
 they were in no need. Mayhew says the boys who 
 are likely to be useful to their parents are not poisoned. 
 This was exactly the old Saxon and red Indian 
 
302 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 This political economy of the working classes is 
 analogous to the royal British policy, that starves and 
 murders nations — “ surplus populations.” 
 
 The report of the registrar general in 1838 (when 
 Irish mothers starved themselves in order to feed their 
 little ones) says, that in Manchester city alone, thirteen 
 thousand three hundred and sixty-two children perished 
 in seven years, over and above the natural mortality ; 
 and this owing to the neglect of mothers, and the 
 practice of giving infants laudanum, that they might 
 be less troublesome. The registrar should, moreover, 
 have thrown the blame of many of these cases upon 
 the husbands, and the cotton lords, and white-slave 
 drivers, who kept many of these mothers so hard at 
 work that they had no time to nurse their infants, but 
 left them crowded in with some old hag-nurse. How- 
 ever, it is in Saxondom that these horrors have oc- 
 curred in every age. It is nothing new. 
 
 All the varied exhibitions of human vanity sink into 
 mere commonplace beside the vain-glorious boasting 
 of the English people about their progress and en- 
 lightenment. We could understand the exultation of a 
 rich, ignorant, coarse brute, who had cut throats and 
 enriched himself with the plunder of his neighbors. 
 When the Saxon shakes his well-filled purse of gold 
 in our eyes, we can see the argument and acknowl- 
 edge his advantage, although we may question the 
 means by which the treasure was acquired. But 
 when he raises up his filthy carcass, defiled with un- 
 mentionable bestiality, above the heads of other 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 303 
 
 races, and calls himself an apostle from God, — when 
 he turns over the leaves of the sacred volume with 
 fingers reddened in the blood of his own wife and her 
 infant, — when he talks of temperance and poverty 
 through that glutton throat that has devoured the 
 meat snatched from the lips of starving Irish children, 
 
 — when he mouths and mouths again and again at 
 the adorable name that makes hell tremble and the 
 heavens to move, — when he talks of Christ, and in 
 the same breath slanders the Blessed Virgin Mother, 
 
 — when in a snivelling tone he quotes the lowly 
 Saviour’s humility, while his own heart swells with 
 English insolence, and hatred, and contempt of Irish 
 poverty, — when he talks of Christianity while tram- 
 pling on the cross, the standard of Christ, — when, in 
 short, we see England calling herself Christian, and 
 affecting to convert Ireland, while her own walls 
 are placarded with atheism, and the vitals of her so- 
 ciety ulcerated with all manner of crime, I cannot 
 find words to express my horror of such blasphemous 
 hypocrisy. 
 
 If England is not the prostitute drunk with the 
 blood of nations, and murdering her own offspring, 
 I don’t know where she is. Scripture says that 
 “ the heathen is devoid of natural affection,” and we 
 believe that in no country nor age can there be found 
 a more cold-blooded, white-livered pack of dogs than 
 are to be found among the English ; nor could we find 
 any where — no, not even among the Hottentots, nor 
 among the mangy dogs of the East — a more revolt- 
 
304 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 ing class than the Saxon mothers of England. Eng- 
 lish history proves that material progress cannot hu- 
 manize an aboriginally savage race. 
 
 When the bull-necked Luther repented of his vows 
 and sought a wife, and when the old Saxon instinct 
 reasserted itself in the reformation of England, good 
 men predicted that the lust-built, blood-built, robbery- 
 built church would produce a heretical brood of inhu- 
 manity. Mammon became the god of England, aristo- 
 cratic pride became the ruling spirit of England, and 
 beastly vice became the distinctive peculiarity of Eng- 
 land. Still the English press sought to conceal the 
 national leprosy by spreading before the eyes of the 
 world the golden robe of national prosperity. 
 
 The Times endeavored to draw attention from Eng- 
 lish infamy by foul-mouthed attacks on the Christian 
 priesthood and virtuous people of Ireland. But now 
 that the last bond of humanity — the love of a moth- 
 er for her child — is broken in Protestant England, — 
 now that the infant must be taken from the murderous 
 embrace of its own Saxon mother, — now that the 
 root of all society is rotten to the very core, — now 
 that hell yawns beneath, and the vengeance of heaven 
 threatens above, England confesses before the world 
 the deep damnation of her heathenism. 
 
 This is the England, the model nation , that was set 
 up for an example of Papist nations in general, and 
 Celtic Ireland in particular. This is the England that 
 sent us white-chokered, smooth-tongued preachers of 
 Protestantism. This is the England that robs us, 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 805 
 
 throttles ns, sets & law church over us, to consume the 
 substance of the poor and insult the holy faith of 
 Christendom, and tells us that we must be united to 
 her and incorporated with her forever, bone of her rot- 
 ten bone, and flesh of her bloated flesh. O God, send 
 us a deliverer before Ireland loses her virtue and her 
 ancient nationality. Send us famine, plague, war, 
 death, any thing but this increasing connection with 
 England. We ask not vengeance for ages of penal 
 torture, but only separation from beastly, perfidious 
 Albion, and the whitewashed hypocrisy of Exeter 
 Hall. 
 
 I find in Dickens’s Household Words, April, 1850, a 
 very good summary of English history. It is intend- 
 ed as an answer to those who lament the degeneracy 
 of English morals, and fondly regret the good old 
 times of Merry England. I quote it because it is 
 written by an Englishman. It proves that the English 
 always were as they are now — savages. 
 
 “ In the reign of George III., men were hanged in 
 dozens, almost weekly, for paltry thefts, when a nurs- 
 ing woman was dragged to the gallows with her child 
 at her breast, for shop-lifting to the value of a shilling. 
 
 “ In the two or three reigns previous, the prisons 
 and prison discipline were barbarous. Unfortunate 
 debtors confined indiscriminately with felons, in the 
 midst of filth, vice, and misery unspeakable ; crimi- 
 nals in the condemned cell under sentence of death 
 tippling with the ordinary for their pot companion ; 
 flogging a common punishment of women convicted 
 
 26* 
 
306 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 of larceny. What say you of the times when Lon- 
 don streets were absolutely dangerous, and the passen- 
 ger ran the risk of being hustled and robbed even in 
 the daytime ; when not only Hounslow and Bagshot 
 Heath, but the public road, swarmed with robbers, 
 and a stage coach was as frequently plundered as a 
 hen roost ; when, indeed, 4 the road ’ was considered 
 the legitimate resource of a gentleman in difficulties, 
 and a highwayman was commonly called captain , 
 if not respected accordingly ; when cock-fighting, 
 bear-baiting, and bull-baiting were popular, nay, fash- 
 ionable amusements ; when the bulk of the landed 
 gentry could barely read and write, and divided their 
 time between fox-hunting and guzzling ; when a duel- 
 list was a hero, and it was an honor to have 4 killed 
 your man ; ’ when a gentleman could hardly open his 
 mouth without uttering a filthy or profane oath ; when 
 the country was continually in peril of a civil war 
 through a disputed succession, and two murderous 
 insurrections, followed by more murderous executions, 
 actually took place. This era of inhumanity, shame- 
 lessness, brigandage, brutality, and personal and politi- 
 cal insecurity, what say you of it ? Queen Anne’s, a 
 reign of favoritism and court trickery at home and 
 profitless war abroad ; the time of Bolingbroke, and 
 Harley, and Churchill’s intrigues ; the reign of Sarah, 
 Duchess of Marlborough, and Mrs. Masham. 
 
 44 William III., war, war — nothing but war. 
 
 44 James II., when Judge Jeffreys sat on the bench ; 
 when Monmouth’s rebellion was followed by the 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 307 
 
 bloody assizes. Charles II., with a court full of riot 
 and debauchery ; a palace much less decent than any 
 modern casino ; while Scotch Covenanters were having 
 their legs crushed in the 4 boots,’ under the auspices 
 and personal superintendence of his royal highness the 
 Duke of York. The time of Titus Oates, Bedloe, and 
 Dangerfield, and their sham plots, with the hangings, 
 drawings, and quarterings on perjured evidence that 
 followed them ; when Russell and Sidney were ju- 
 dicially murdered ; the public money wasted by 
 roguery and embezzlement, while sailors lay starving 
 in the streets for want of their just pay. 
 
 u Cromwell’s reign, the most brutal period of all. 
 
 “ Charles I., endeavoring to assert arbitrary power. 
 Next, the Parliament, fighting against him in the open 
 field ; his death. 
 
 “ James L, gunpowder plot, burning witches. 
 
 “ Good Queen Bess and the Ecclesiastical Commis- 
 sion, with its power of imprisonment, rack and tor- 
 ture ; Roman Catholics and dissenters butchered, 
 fined, and imprisoned for their opinions ; and charita- 
 ble ladies butchered, too, for giving them shelter in the 
 sweet compassion of their hearts ; Mary, Queen of 
 Scots, murdered in those days, whose emblems are 
 cropped ears, pillory, stocks, thumbscrews, gibbet, axe, 
 chopping block, and scavenger’s daughter. 
 
 “ Henry VIII. — Richard III., war of Roses ; when 
 Jack Cade marched upon London ; when we were 
 disgracefully driven out of France under Henry VI., 
 or as disgracefully went marauding there under Hen- 
 
308 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 ry V. Richard II., assassination, and the battles, 
 burnings, massacres, and cruel torments and atrocities 
 which form the sum of the Plantagenet reigns ; 
 John’s dental operations on the Jews; forest laws 
 and curfew under the Norman kings. Over all that 
 period somebody or other was constantly committing 
 high treason, and there was a perpetual exhibition of 
 heads on London Bridge and Temple Bar, Danish 
 ravage and slaughter, Saxon invasion.” 
 
 The London Magazine and Journal of Educational 
 Science, February, 1837, says, — 
 
 “ In the earlier periods of our history, during the 
 times of the Saxons , the predominant crimes of the 
 age were of an atrocious character. Assassinations, 
 the plundering of whole towns and districts, and bare- 
 faced perjuries, were offences of ordinary occurrence 
 by persons of condition. The punishment of delin- 
 quents was either shockingly cruel or strangely incon- 
 sistent with modern notions of penal justice. The 
 horrible torture of burning out the eyes was not only 
 inflicted for delinquency, but sometimes merely to in- 
 capacitate a rival. Although theft to the amount of 
 twelve pence was a capital offence, yet the taking away 
 of life might be commuted for a pecuniary penalty. 
 This varied with the rank of the sufferer. A stranger 
 might be killed if he went through a wood without 
 first blowing his horn. There were laws made for the 
 protection of the stranger, against whom the Saxons 
 were very inhospitable and unjust. The forest laws 
 were shockingly severe. For killing a royal stag a 
 freeman became a slave, and the serf lost his life. 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 809 
 
 “ Alfred and one or two others were exceptions to 
 the general character of the Saxon kings, who were 
 generally too much engaged in war to attend to the 
 domestic government of the country. After the con- 
 quest, this state of things was somewhat improved ; 
 but in 1425, an act of Parliament was passed, in 
 which it is recited 6 that many evils, as murders, rob- 
 beries, and manslaughters, have been committed 
 heretofore in the city, by night and by day, and peo- 
 ple have been beaten, and evil treated , and other mis- 
 chances have befallen against the king’s peace. It 
 is therefore enjoined that none be so hardy as to be 
 found going or wandering about the streets after 
 curfew tolled at St. Martin’s le Grand, with sword 
 or buckler, or other arms for doing mischief, or where- 
 of evil suspicion might arise, nor any in any other 
 manner, unless he be a great man, or other lawful per- 
 son of good repute, or their certain messenger having 
 their warrant to go from one to another with lantern 
 in hand.’ ” 
 
 Previous to the time of the reformation, the state 
 of society in England was fearfully rotten, as we learn 
 from various sources. Seventy-two thousand rogues 
 and thieves, Wade informs us, were put to death in 
 the reign of Henry VIII. These robbers often strolled 
 about the country in bands of three or four hundred, 
 robbing and murdering. 
 
 The cause of these outrages may be traced to the 
 abolition of villeinage — the Saxon set free showing 
 his character. 
 
810 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 DOMESTIC ECONOMY. 
 
 I would be very sorry to obtrude myself into the 
 domestic life of the English, were it not incumbent 
 upon me to defend poor, robbed, ragged, slandered 
 Erin. Retaliation is but a weak argument ; still it is 
 lawful as long as it is assumed that cleanliness and do- 
 mestic economy are the peculiar and inherent gifts of 
 the Anglo-Saxon woman, while everlasting filth and 
 improvidence are the inherent faults of the Irish 
 woman, and the Celts generally. If English writers 
 had any Christian charity, they might see that poverty 
 and ignorance are the parents of dirt and improvi- 
 dence, and that these vices are not peculiar faculties 
 with cranial organs in any race. The English, like 
 the Irish, are clean and tidy in exact proportion as 
 they are able to buy soap. There is no need of any 
 English cant or snivelling rigmarole to explain an ob- 
 vious fact. Cleanliness arises from an animal in- 
 stinct in the royal chamber as well as in the dog’s ken- 
 nel, and this instinct is exercised where the means of 
 comfort are enjoyed. 
 
 In former times, when the English had not acquired 
 their neighbors’ goods, — when negroes were free, and 
 Indians unprotected , then English men and women 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. £11 
 
 were poor and dirty ; yes, positively filthy in their per- 
 sons and in their houses. “ The fine old English gen- 
 tleman ” was crawled over, and his house was like a 
 pig-sty : unlike the cabin of the Irish peasant, the 
 ancestral mansion of the English squire was positively 
 stinking. Erasmus, who was on a visit to England, 
 and who was certainly not in the worst English 
 houses, says, “ Their floors are of clay, strewn with 
 rushes, among which lie, unmolested , a collection of 
 hog’s grease, fragments of bones, dirt of swine, dogs 
 and cats, and of every thing that is nauseous.” 
 
 The elder Scaliger testifies to the same state of 
 matters in the English gentlemen’s houses, and says, 
 that “ in England he could not find so much of the 
 marks of civilization as convenience to wash his 
 hands.” 
 
 Wade says, (in his History of the Working Classes, 
 which every one should read,) “ The private vices of 
 the Saxons were those of half-savage men. Super- 
 stitious, slothful, sensual, addicted to gluttony and 
 drunkenness, without taste or refinement, mean and 
 wretched in their attire, and their dwellings void of 
 comfort — such are the peculiarities attributed by most 
 writers to their moral and domestic economy.” 
 
 The same learned English historian goes on to say 
 that the Saxons made no advance until the Norman 
 invasion. The French settlers afforded an example of 
 elegance, cleanliness, comfort, and economy “ in their 
 festivities, ‘in their apparel, and in their whole expen- 
 diture.” “ Instead of wasting the most of their 
 
812 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 wealth (as the Saxons did) in eating and drinking, 
 their pride was to devote a greater part of it to works 
 of permanent utility, or embellishment, &c.” (P. 7.) 
 
 But it would appear from what I have already 
 quoted, that English filth still held its ground even in 
 the days of Erasmus. 
 
 “ The Anglo-Saxon cities appear by Doomsday 
 Book to have been at the conquest little better than 
 villages. “ Malmesbury tells us that the great distinc- 
 tion between the Anglo-Saxon nobility and the French 
 and Norman was, that the latter built magnificent and 
 stately castles, whereas the former consumed their im- 
 mense fortunes in riot and feasting, and in mean 
 houses.” ( Hume .) 
 
 Wade says that at the time of the Tudors great 
 improvements had been made in the building of ca- 
 thedrals and castles. “ But the spirit of improvement 
 did not extend lower under the Tudors. The houses 
 of gentlemen [fine old English gentlemen] continued 
 sordid , the huts of the peasantry poor and wretched. 
 The former were thatched buildings, composed of 
 wood ; the latter were slight frames prepared in the 
 forest, and covered with clay.” “ The cities were built 
 in the fashion of an existing Egyptian or Syrian town, 
 (streets dark and narrow,) and, combined with the 
 dirty habits of the inhabitants, doubtless contributed 
 to the frequent plagues of England.” 
 
 Hallam, speaking of England after the Norman con- 
 quest, says, “ It is an error to suppose that the English 
 gentry were lodged in stately, or even in well-sized 
 houses.” 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 313 
 
 The only buildings of note were the castles of the 
 feudal French lords, and the cathedrals built by Ital- 
 ian and French architects. The houses of the Eng- 
 lish gentry were “ a frame of massive timber, inde- 
 pendent of walls, and resembled the inverted hull of a 
 large ship.” The principal beams were set in the 
 ground. 
 
 In the Saxon ages the houses were all of mud or 
 timber — no windows, nor chimney, but only a hole 
 in the top to let in light and let out smoke. 
 
 The Saxon savages had destroyed all the cities, 
 mansions, and temples of the Romano-British period. 
 After the French settlement, the art of building with 
 brick, which had been lost since the Roman dominion, 
 was introduced, probably from Flanders. 
 
 From the miserable inventories quoted by Hallam, 
 it appears that the Saxon nobility and gentry were 
 housed no better than the red Indians. 
 
 The old Saxon gentry ate with their hands off a 
 bare plank ; spoons were introduced about the time of 
 Edward the Confessor ; the fork was not yet brought 
 into use, but this invention came in due course. In 
 Ben Jonson is the following : — 
 
 “ Sledge . Forks ! what be they ! 
 
 Meercraft. The laudable use of forks . 
 
 Brought into custom here, as they are in Italy, 
 
 To the sparing of napkins.” 
 
 If we believe some English historians, the English 
 people were a gentle, effeminate, and refined Christian 
 
 27 
 
314 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 nation, when the filthy, brutal Danes came upon them. 
 But according to Wallingford, and other old authors, 
 the Danes were remarkable for combing their hair once 
 a day, changing their linen, and bathing once a week. 
 The Danes had acquired French dress and customs. 
 “ They rendered themselves so agreeable to the fair 
 sex, that they debauched the wives and daughters of 
 the English, and dishonored many families ” — no 
 difficult task. 
 
 It was while the Danes were bathing that the dirty 
 Saxons massacred them in 1002. 
 
 It appears, then, that the fine old English gentleman 
 did not comb his hair, as we find him staring at the 
 machine by which the Dane performed the operation. 
 These pagan Danes were considered great Frenchified 
 dandies because they washed themselves. The an- 
 cestral log cabins and mud-holes of the Saxons were 
 ignorant of soap in those days. 
 
 An old tenure in England binds the vassal to find 
 straw for the king’s bed. Straw and a blanket was 
 the bed of the English lady and gentleman. (See the 
 copies of old pictures in the London Art Journal , 1853, 
 showing the old English gentry in bed without night 
 linen.) 
 
 Macaulay paints the boorish condition of the old 
 English gentleman, and the low state of the gentle- 
 woman, and the filthy condition of their houses, even 
 after they had been under the influence of French civ- 
 ilization. 
 
 The English squire, he says, “ troubled himself little 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 315 
 
 about decorating his abode ; and if he attempted dec- 
 oration, seldom produced any thing but deformity. 
 The litter of a farm yard gathered under the window 
 of his bed chamber, and the cabbages and goose- 
 berry bushes grew close to his hall door,” &c. 
 
 Such being the condition of the fine old English 
 gentleman, with straw bed, no night linen, the pig in 
 the parlor, and the dung heap under his nose, what 
 must have been the state of the Gurths, the swine- 
 herds, who wore iron collars with the owners 5 names 
 engraved thereon ? 
 
 The Saxon commonalty used to live in mud huts 
 half under ground. They did not call them houses, 
 but holes . At the present day you may hear one fel- 
 low inviting another to come to his hole , this name for 
 house being still in use. 
 
 The Saxon nobles and gentry lived, like Tartar or 
 Indian chiefs, in large mud and stone huts.* But 
 generally the mansion was the log cabin described by 
 Hallam. 
 
 The slaves who formed the great bulk of the An- 
 glo-Saxon nation lived in cavities of earth, or holes , as 
 a low Englishman still calls his dwelling. They had no 
 chairs, no knives and forks, no bed but straw. Their 
 houses were, in fact, the same as their ancestors’, and 
 the savages in the north of Europe. They were 
 troglodites like the Hottentots, and for a thousand 
 years, until the French came, the mass of the Anglo- 
 Saxon slaves were dressed in the skins of wild beasts, 
 — wolves, foxes, &c., — in which the country then 
 
816 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 abounded. It must be said, however, to the credit of 
 the Saxons, that they imagined heaven a cleanly place, 
 
 where thev would be free from vermin. 
 
 «/ 
 
 Dr. Johnson, in the introduction to his Dictionary, 
 quotes an old Saxon poem, a description of heaven. 
 After mentioning the joy of eating and drinking , it 
 says, — 
 
 “Nor is there fly, flea, or louse, 
 
 In clothes, down bed, or house.” 
 
 It would appear from this that vermin were a na- 
 tional torment, when the poet considered it necessa- 
 ry to represent the blessed in heaven as free from 
 them. 
 
 That the Gothic race was very filthy we learn from 
 the old Roman Sidonius, who describes their dirty 
 persons covered with hogs’ grease. Writing to a 
 friend he says, “ Blessed are your ears that do not hear 
 them,* blessed are your eyes that do not see them, 
 blessed is your nose that does not smell them.” 
 
 The Saxons in England and the Lowlands lived 
 chiefly on hogs’ flesh, a diet productive of skin disease 
 and vermin. When the French settlers conquered 
 and somewhat civilized the English, they got in ad- 
 vance of the Lowland Scots, and then they called their 
 northern brothers lousy, itchy Scotchmen, who were 
 still in a savage state. 
 
 The lousy Scots referred to were their own Saxon 
 race in the Lowlands, because the English had little or 
 no social connection with the Highlanders. The Low- 
 land Saxon dialect is full of filthy proverbs and ex- 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 817 
 
 pressions, which could only originate among a very 
 filthy people. 
 
 The heather beds, the kilt dress, and the more vege- 
 table diet of the Highlanders made them a more 
 cleanly race. As a general rule the Lowland house- 
 wives are now tidier than the Highland or Irish, be- 
 cause latterly they have not been so much robbed by 
 the exterminating government, and the Lowland lairds 
 being resident, and of the same race and religion as 
 the workers, they promote their comfort and wel- 
 fare. When “ The Cottagers of Glenburnie ” was 
 written, the Lowland Scotch housewife was a dirty ' 
 trollop. 
 
 The poor Irish are cleaner than the poor Saxons, 
 because the former are a noble, civilized race reduced 
 to poverty. The latter were never any thing but 
 slaves and savages. And I can aver that the poor 
 Lowland Scotch in Glasgow, and the poor English in 
 Newcastle-on-Tyne and other English cities, are very 
 filthy. In the latter place the Board of Health had to 
 order that no night soil should be thrown out of win- 
 dows into the street. 
 
 The condition of Edinburgh and Glasgow, until 
 lately, cannot be described, without making the reader 
 nauseate. The poor low English that crowd the cities 
 are a filthy-skinned race, that will not wash themselves 
 even on Sunday, while you see the poor Irish, outward- 
 ly in rags and patches, going with a clean skin, and a 
 clean, coarse shirt, to assist at the holy sacrifice of the 
 Mass. 
 
 27 * 
 
318 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 The low English are the most hopeless, thriftless 
 class in the whole world. The poorhouse is the goal 
 of their ambition. The poorhouses were forced upon 
 the Irish, and thousands perished rather than submit 
 to the disgrace of entering them. 
 
 The Saxon race, that is, the North Germanic , and 
 the women of this Saxon race, are the very dregs and 
 offal of the white population in America. They are 
 the jackals of society. These flaxen-haired German 
 men and women, called “gutter-snipes” are lower 
 than the race with black wool. They go about 
 'gathering up every rag, bone, or piece of fat offal that 
 they can pick out of the gutter. Every American 
 knows that the low Germans are a mean, beggarly 
 race. 
 
 Even when they are well to do, they send out their 
 children to beg. And in their lodging houses the Ger- 
 man clerks and journeymen feed upon the refuse bits 
 of bread and meat, and fat drippings, begged at 
 American doors. 
 
 The Irish who are able to earn a dollar by the hard- 
 est labor never stoop to such meanness. 
 
 I only state what is a notorious fact — that the poor 
 German women are the most dirty and slovenly in the 
 United States. 
 
 They are now like what their Anglo-Saxon sisters 
 were, before their husbands succeeded in their business 
 of slave-selling. 
 
 We get highly-perfumed pictures of the Irish mud 
 cabins and the pigs from the men who reduced the 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 319 
 
 the once noble Irish to that pitiable state. But every 
 one who really knows the Irishman’s cabin can testify 
 that its beds are clean, and that the pig house and the 
 manure heap are allowed near the house because the 
 peat charcoal, or ashes from the fire, has a deodorizing 
 power, and completely destroys unpleasant smells. I 
 know that I often wished myself in an Irishman’s 
 cabin, when in some English fine house, and the pipes 
 of the water closet going wrong: they will go wrong 
 in thelDest regulated families. But I must finish this 
 chapter on dirt, which the dirty observations of Eng- 
 lishmen have called forth. I will only add, that if 
 John Bull had not such a stomach for the flesh of the 
 unclean animal, poor Paddy would have a better cabin, 
 and less care in the raising of hogs for the English 
 market, to pay English taxes. 
 
 Poor Paddy sells his pigs to the English, and is 
 obliged to give back the money in the shape of rent 
 and taxes. No wonder his cabin is still a mud one. 
 
 There is nothing that the English boast of more 
 than their hospitality ; and certainly the English gen- 
 tlemen of cities are generally understood to be hospi- 
 table, as men of the world are in all countries. In 
 the country mansions, hospitality and courtesy marked 
 the French settlers. The monasteries, too, were pe- 
 culiarly animated by hospitality, because they were in 
 fact the public alms houses of the day. But the An- 
 glo-Saxon lord and squire was a repulsive savage, who 
 punished with death any one who dared to approach 
 his den without first blowing his horn and getting per- 
 
820 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 mission to enter. Perhaps the reason of this was ow- 
 ing less to Saxon boorishness than to the fact that the 
 English were at all times a nation of thieves, and no 
 man could trust another to approach his premises, or 
 enter his house, without danger of having his throat' 
 cut and his place pillaged. 
 
 That this was the condition of England during the 
 whole period of Saxon rule is clearly established by 
 history. The Saxons were, as a nation, cold-hearted 
 and inhospitable. 
 
 Kemble shows that a feeling of humanity crept in 
 among the Anglo-Saxons along with the influence of 
 the church. There were laws made for the protection 
 of the stranger, against whom, especially the Jew, the 
 Saxons were very inhospitable and unjust. 
 
 The Saxonized English of the present day — the 
 John Bulls and country boors — are also an inhospita- 
 ble race ; partly because they are naturally reserved 
 and selfish, and partly because the English are still the 
 greatest nation of thieves in Europe. (See statistics 
 of crime in Wade’s History of the Middle and Working" 
 Classes.) 
 
 Englishmen were and are inhospitable, because 
 Englishmen were and are thieves. 
 
 • At the present day, the poor way-worn Irish reaper 
 is often denied a cup of cold water at the English 
 homestead. These reapers travel in squadrons for 
 mutual protection from the Anglo-Saxon savages of 
 the nineteenth century. If they went in small parties 
 they would be beaten, and perhaps murdered at some 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 
 
 821 
 
 cross road, where some of the natives would raise the 
 / 
 
 war whoop against them — not altogether because 
 they are Irish, but because they are strangers. I have 
 heard journeymen in Belfast and Glasgow, who had 
 tramped through England, say, that in country places 
 they were often chased for their lives. I was informed 
 by English gentlemen in Newcastle-on-Tyne, that a 
 stranger, especially if he were well dressed and worth 
 plundering, dare not go into the mining districts, where 
 the men are all of Saxon and Danish blood. 
 
 This Anglo-Saxon hospitality is so notorious that 
 Punch one time gave a drawing of two Saxon boors, 
 ill made, brutish-looking fellows, with the peculiar 
 carnivorous jaws of the race; a gentleman is seen in 
 the distance ; one of these amiable savages says, — 
 
 “ ’Oos ’im, Bill ? ” 
 
 “ A stranger.” 
 
 “ Well, ? eave ’arf a brick at ’im.” 
 
 I must repeat, however, that there are a great many 
 generous and gentle people in England, and the num- 
 ber of these increase as we leave Saxondom, that is, 
 the north-east and eastern counties. 
 
 The English are held up as a peculiarly sociable, do- 
 mestic people. While the Frenchman is away at the 
 cafe , John Bull is at his own fireside, and his wife and 
 little ones about him, singing, “ Home, sweet home.” 
 But this air is a borrowed one, a Sicilian hymn, and 
 the domesticity of the Englishman a delusion. 
 
 The Scotch are a very domestic, kind-hearted people 
 at their “ ain fireside,” and they take their wives and 
 
322 CONDITION OP WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 children out with them : so do the Irish, the French 
 provincials, the Germans of the Rhine particularly, 
 and above all the Americans ; but the Englishmen, I 
 can safely say, spend less time at home , sweet home , 
 and take their wives out less, than any other nation in 
 the whole of Europe. The English aristocrat spends 
 his life at the club ; the man of business shuts up shop, 
 and goes to the hotel, theatre, &c., the tradesman to 
 the tap room, where you may watch them sitting for 
 hours, each man drinking by himself, and paying for 
 what he himself takes. They never invite each other 
 to drink, as men and Christians do in Ireland and 
 America. 
 
 They discuss politics, — that is, the sayings and do- 
 ings of the aristocrats, — or they retail beastly anec- 
 dotes, or they talk about eating. This is the literal truth. 
 You will never see a lady in a public restaurant along 
 with the gentlemen. In the tap rooms, you will never 
 see a tradesman bring in his wife or daughter, as the 
 French and other nations do. The reason is, that an 
 Englishman dare not bring his family into a company 
 of Englishmen ; they would be insulted, or they would 
 place too intolerable a restraint upon the conversation. 
 This observation also applies more or less to the Or- 
 ange gentry in Ireland, and the Irish who are Anglified. 
 Ladies must clear out after dinner. 
 
 I have spoken of what is the general rule in Eng- 
 land. But there is the class of merchant princes, too 
 high to go to hotels, taverns, &c., in the evenings, 
 and too low to be admitted to the aristocratic club 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 323 
 
 room. These men do go home, and such homes, for 
 solid elegance and real comfort, are not in the world. 
 The physique you will observe in such mansions clear- 
 ly marks descent from the Norman-French, and is to- 
 tally distinct from the Anglo-Saxon, or the man of 
 mixed breed, who is only beginning to get his head 
 above water after the wreck of his nation at Hastings. 
 
 The mass of the English people are Saxonized bar- 
 barians, and therefore ladies have no inducement, if 
 they had the will, to mix with the people in public so- 
 cial intercourse, as they do in France and other Celtic 
 and Celtified countries. In Ireland the ladies never 
 fear to go among the poorest peasantry, and the nuns 
 go into the lowest alleys of the cities ; but as a general 
 rule, Protestant antipathy and the vulgar pride of the 
 aristocrats (whose fathers were Cromwellian troopers 
 and Dutch fifers) keep them from mingling with the 
 democracy, many of whom have royal blood in their 
 
 veins. 
 
324 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 CHAPTER XYI. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 I have scarcely alluded to the noble institutions that 
 refine and elevate Celtic women — nor to the many 
 beautiful and endearing traits in the Celtic household. 
 Pagan and Christian history testify that this race is 
 superior. But I make no invidious boasting, because 
 I see in America how even the Celts degrade, where 
 Saxon influence is strong, and Catholicity weak. 
 The Celts are gifted, but Christian faith transcends all 
 natural endowments. 
 
 The Saxon and Germanic race abolished the institu- 
 tion of virginity, and even destroyed marriage as a 
 holy sacrament, which death only can annul. 
 
 Read the masterly disquisitions of Balmez on this 
 subject, (Protestantism and Catholicity compared in 
 their Effects on the Civilization of Europe.) 
 
 u One, with one only, and forever,” is the Christian 
 law, which the ancient Celts readily conformed to, and 
 have still maintained. 
 
 Without this law, no woman or child is secure 
 against the capricious lust of man. 
 
 I have now shown the real position of the woman 
 and her infant among the Anglo-Saxons, that race who, 
 in the idiocy of self-conceit, call themselves the “ glo- 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 
 
 325 
 
 rious, pious, godlike Saxons ” — “ defenders of liberty 
 and civilization ” — u angels of the gospel ” — “ the 
 foremost race on earth ” — destined to occupy and rule 
 the whole world. 
 
 In the foregoing historical sketch, we have seen that 
 the pagan Celts retained many fragments of divine 
 truth, and that they were on the whole a virtuous peo- 
 pie, who honored and elevated the female character. 
 
 But having no positive divine guide, having no 
 conservative principle, they fell into corruption when 
 brought in contact with Gothic and eastern animal- 
 ism. Christianity came in right time to save them, 
 and through them the rest of mankind, and the Celts 
 generally have proved faithful to their divine mission. 
 The history of the Anglo-Saxons and the continental 
 Goths depicts them as mere animalized beings, whose 
 mythology, as Banier remarks, was u the most filthy 
 and stupid of all.” During the Catholic Christian 
 ages, while England was made illustrious by many 
 saints and noble institutions, the mass of the Saxons 
 obstinately remained in a half pagan state, given up 
 to slave-breeding, infanticide, the sale of women and 
 children, whipping and branding naked women, chain- 
 ing them and making them work like four-footed 
 beasts ; not to mention the general practice of robbery 
 and murder, and other crimes, followed as regular pro- 
 fessions in all ranks of society, during the whole Saxon 
 period of the so-called Catholic Christian England. 
 
 But the truth is, that two thirds of the Anglo-Sax- 
 on population were always in a state of slavery, while 
 
 28 
 
326 CONDITION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG 
 
 the masters were barbarous tyrants. The Anglo-Sax- 
 ons were never fully Christianized ; they turned round 
 with the greatest ease to Protestantism and pagan- 
 ism. Protestant England revived all the worst vices 
 of even Saxon heathenism — witch-burning, the 
 whipping, mutilation, chaining, branding, and sale of 
 women, white and black ; the sale of woman’s honor, 
 both by husbands and parents ; nudity balls, free-love- 
 ism, Mormonism, and crimes against nature ; whole- 
 sale incest, as discussed over Stuart Wortley’s Bill; 
 wife-beating, and a. want of faith in woman’s virtue ; 
 Orangeism, and a hatred of the Blessed Virgin and of 
 nuns ; a general tendency to brutalize women in the 
 public institutions and factories ; viftuous girls neglect- 
 ed, and prostitutes preferred before married women as 
 nurses ; wealth and title preferred before legitimacy ; 
 boys and young women tortured in prisons and poor- 
 houses ; infants starved ; mothers forcibly separated 
 from their children, and husbands from wives ; poverty 
 punished as a felony. 
 
 The English have been the most self-debased race 
 in Europe. No nation but the Anglo-Saxons made a 
 practice of selling themselves for their feed. 
 
 The Puritans revived the slave market, and the 
 whipping and burning of defenceless women. They 
 also restored the old Saxon practice of murdering in- 
 fants, tearing them even from their mothers’ wombs. 
 “ The mother country ” paid the red Indians to per- 
 petrate the same barbarities on Americans. 
 
 Anglo-Saxon women resumed their old pagan 
 
THE CELTIC, GOTHIC, AND OTHER NATIONS. 327 
 
 institutions of infanticide and abortion, especially 
 among the married . The Anglo-Saxon Mormons 
 have restored polygamy. This same race have also 
 the distinction of introducing into America nudity 
 balls, free-loveism, priest-hunting, nunnery-sacking, 
 church-burning Orangeism, with the shooting and roast- 
 ing alive of helpless men, women, and children. In 
 short, there is a scrofula in society that spreads from 
 the pork-eating race. The reader has had ample evi- 
 dence from English authority, that populations are 
 brutalized in exact proportion as they are Saxonized. 
 
 The Saxon was originally as low a savage as the 
 red man. Saxon animalism, pride, sensuality, and 
 gluttony are still unsubdued. 
 
 I speak of the race contaminated with Saxon blood ; 
 a pure Anglo-Saxon race has no existence. It is a 
 hybrid, but not the less vicious. 
 
 Here is a serious question. Can Christianity ever 
 prevail as long as the savage blood is uneliminated ? 
 I doubt it. As pagans, the Goths brutalized pagan- 
 ism. As Christians, they have paganized Christiani- 
 ty. The most hopeless feature in their case is — hy- 
 pocrisy. When I see these Freelovers, Mormonists, 
 and Orange K. N.’s, parading the Bible, I consider 
 this a sure symptom of inveterate ruffianism and 
 sensuality. I have no hope of Pharisees who boast 
 that they are “ the most moral and enlightened people 
 on earth .’ 5 
 
 Humanity may rejoice in the hope of Christian re- 
 vival, and the full establishment of old Celtic law in 
 
328 CELTIC AND GOTHIC WOMEN AND CHILDREN. 
 
 America, because the age approaches that will see 
 America essentially Celtic. Spanish and French 
 blood in the south, Irish, Scotch, Welsh, and French 
 blood in the north, is killing out the Gothic. Even 
 the English Pilgrims, and the Virginians, &c., came 
 mostly from the north-west, west, and south-west, the 
 most Celtic parts of England, also from Wales ; not to 
 speak of the Irish women, whose names are lost, but 
 who formed a large proportion of American mothers. 
 
 The chaste Irish, even in their distress, are the most 
 vigorous, healthy, and fruitful of any other American 
 class. They do not produce abortions. Their sturdy 
 numerous children do not pine away and die. This 
 race will outlive the English breed, whose decay is 
 seen in their flat chests and carious teeth. It is true 
 that many Celts become Know Nothings, calling 
 themselves Anglo-Saxons ; but nevertheless, Celtic 
 blood extends, and will ultimately promote all that is 
 poetic, musical, beautiful, good, and true. Thanks to 
 the virtuous Irish mothers ! 
 
 “ The nations are fallen, but thou art still young; 
 
 Thy sun is but rising, while others have set ; 
 
 And though slavery’s cloud o’er thy morning has hung, 
 
 The full noon of freedom shall beam round thee yet.” 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 M. ROUSSEL REVIEWED. 
 
 The article below is a review, by the well-known 
 and eminent M. Lemoinne, (in the Journal des De- 
 bats, ) of a recent work of M. Roussel, an eleve of the 
 Genevan school. This book is entitled Catholic and 
 Protestant Countries regarded under the threefold As- 
 pect of Prosperity, Learning, and Morality. 
 
 It has been M. Roussel’s purpose to contrast the Catholic 
 and Protestant countries in the triple aspect of their well-being, 
 learning, and morality. Unfortunately, in this comparison, 
 “ Morality,” which should be allotted the first place, holds only 
 the last, and the least ; u Learning ” is placed in the second 
 rank; and, as in the title, “Well-being” is paraded, and, so 
 to speak, struts preeminently foremost. We shall not offend 
 M. Roussel if we say that, fortunately, he can hardly be 
 deemed the author of his book ; it is little else than a confused 
 mass of quotations, taken right and left, and selected with re- 
 gard to the necessities of the cause. M. Roussel has, in this 
 way, compiled two volumes of extracts, from which he shows, 
 with a great display of figures, that Protestants are infinitely 
 more happy in this w^orld than Catholics ; that they have 
 28 * (329) ‘ 
 
330 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 larger possessions, more stocks and shares, more silver plate, 
 more coverings both for the body and the feet. Until now, we 
 had always believed that at the day of judgment God would 
 put on one side the good, and on the other the wicked ; but, 
 on the plan of M. Roussel, the world is divided into two dif- 
 ferent classes, viz., those of the rich and fat, and of the poor 
 and lean. God will not try the reins and the hearts, but the 
 stomachs of men. If M. Roussel permitted St. Peter to guard 
 the entrance of paradise, he would charge him, as at the doors 
 of the Tuileries, to admit only those who were well dressed 
 and respectable looking ; in his theology, in order to be saved, 
 a decent exterior is imperative. 
 
 It is necessary to observe the complaisance with which M. 
 Roussel details the accounts of all the Catholic and Protestant 
 countries. We shall at once dispute, if not the exactness, at 
 any rate, the value of his figures. In estimating moral ac- 
 tions, there can be no greater mistake than to suppose that 
 two and two necessarily make four : that is the philosophy of 
 the shop and of the counter. God calls to account not only 
 for crimes which are committed against the laws of men, but 
 also for those which are committed against his own laws. He 
 sees and he judges the motives and the hearts of men, while 
 human laws can only see and reach their actions ; and the 
 most virtuous society in his eyes is not that, perhaps, to which 
 statistics would assign the prize of moral and good conduct. 
 There is, for example, a member of the Academic des Sciences 
 who has contrived a map of France divided into departments, 
 and has colored each department more or less bright, accord- 
 ing to the extent to which the elements of education are im- 
 parted within it. Let M. Roussel make use of this plan to 
 reckon the number of Catholics or Protestants who know how 
 to read and write — so be it ; but of the number of those who 
 shall be saved, neither M. Roussel nor the Academic des Sci- 
 ences Morales can ever know any thing. 
 
 Let us put aside, then, the question of morality, and turn 
 to the primitive question of “ well-being.” On this earth, M. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 331 
 
 Roussel and Protestantism reign supreme — they are the rich- 
 est. Look, for instance, at the appearance which that sad and 
 wretched Ireland presents beside her Protestant sisters. M. 
 Roussel gives us, from an official report, an account of the 
 effects of a parish of four thousand souls, “ all Catholics,” he 
 takes care to add ; and these four thousand Catholics possess 
 among them “ one wagon, one plough, sixteen harrows, eight 
 saddles, two side saddles, .seven table forks, ninety-three chairs, 
 two hundred and forty -three stools, twenty-seven geese, three 
 turkeys, two mattresses, eight straw mattresses, eight brass 
 candlesticks, three watches, one school, one priest, no hats, no 
 clocks, no shoes, no turnips, no carrots,” — let us stop a mo- 
 ment in this inventory. M. Roussel adduces whole pages 
 which present nothing strange to those who have visited the 
 country of which he speaks ; and, after having accomplished 
 this sort of hospital visit, he exclaims, triumphantly, “ Let us 
 now cross the channel, and, after having seen Catholic Ireland 
 and her misery, let us contemplate Protestant Scotland and 
 her prosperity.” 
 
 Like those persons who have the jaundice, and who see 
 every thing to be yellow, M. Roussel discovers Catholicism in 
 corners where we could not have believed it to be hid. He 
 instances, for example, the account of a tight in Ireland, the 
 combatants maltreating each other, the supporters bathing 
 them with vinegar, and making them swallow whiskey — in 
 short, all the usual accompaniments of this kind of sport. But 
 wherein, do you think, consists the offence ? It is that the Irish 
 use shillelahs instead of their fists, like “the noble pugilists 
 trained in England ” ! M. Roussel gravely adduces this fact 
 as an example of the rudeness of Irish and Catholic manners. 
 What a difference from those “ noble Protestant boxers ” and 
 their surprising fisticuffs, no doubt inspired by the true faith ! 
 Here is a new criterion, of which we had never thought. 
 
 Continuing his tour of the world, M. Roussel submits to a 
 similar comparison Catholic and Protestant Switzerland. Here 
 is a traveller who arrives in a Catholic canton, and his first 
 
332 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 expression is, “What dirtiness! What a yellow, dark, and 
 livid hue ! ” It is quite right ; all the Catholics are yellow. 
 Here is yet another impression on his journey — we quote it : 
 “ We arrived about two o’clock at Fluetlen ; this Catholic 
 ground was advertised to us by some wretched persons affected 
 by scurvy and other complaints, and some half-dozen tattered 
 unfortunates who appeared as if they had just emerged from the 
 tomb.” This is better and better ; a little while ago the Cath- 
 olics were yellow ; now they are all scurvied. Let us avert 
 our looks from this sad spectacle, and hasten to be comforted 
 by the sight of Protestant earth. “ What valleys ! what cul- 
 tivation ! ” exclaims the tourist imagined by M. Roussel. 
 “ What abundance and industry ! Zurich and its beautiful 
 environs appeared to me the asylum of wisdom, of comfort, 
 and of goodness. I entered a thatched cottage, when its mis- 
 tress offered me milk and cherries, and placed upon the table 
 nine or ten large silver spoons.” Mark well — ten silver 
 spoons ! What holy people ! It is not the scurvy Catholics, 
 those livid persons, who could show you any thing like that. 
 Will you follow M. Roussel into Spain ? There again, with 
 a great display of figures, he will prove to you that the roads 
 are badly kept, that the inns are dirty, that the people use 
 pewter dishes ; then he will contrast that land of Catholicism 
 with England, the country of Protestantism, which is known 
 by its silver dishes, its roads of iron, its linen clothing, &c., &c. 
 
 We cannot accompany M. Roussel in all his journeyings ; 
 we do not deny the correctness of his accounts, and we allow 
 to Protestantism all the benefit of its wealth. But when M. 
 Roussel travelled in Ireland, for instance, did he never expe- 
 rience the least remorse of conscience ? Did he never ask 
 himself if the Protestants had any share in producing the 
 misery of that Catholic country? If the Protestants repre- 
 sent but one tenth of the population of Ireland, by what right 
 have they laid violent hands on all the property and all the 
 revenues of the Catholic church ? And when M. Roussel, to 
 prove that the Catholics in Ireland are not oppressed, tells us 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 333 
 
 that they have four archbishops, twenty-three bishops, two 
 thousand five hundred churches, more than two thousand 
 priests, can we fail to have some little admiration for this 
 nation of beggars, which, notwithstanding its wretchedness, 
 finds means to support its church, whilst the Protestant bish- 
 ops and clergy live plentifully and sumptuously on the produce 
 of confiscation? How was it that a minister of the gospel 
 failed to remember these simple words : “ I tell you, indeed, 
 this poor widow has given more than all those who have put 
 into the treasury, for they have given of their abundance ; but 
 she has given of her indigence even all that she had, and all 
 that remained for her support.” 
 
 Why, when collecting his statistics, did not M. Boussel also 
 reckon the taxes paid by another portion of the population, of 
 which we desire to say nothing offensive in stating that it is 
 generally deemed to be sufficiently well taxed ? — we mean 
 the Jews. Who knows if he might not have found the Israel- 
 ites still more “ wealthy,” and then, of course, more virtuous 
 than the Protestants themselves ? John Lemoine. 
 
 SCOTLAND AND SWEDEN. 
 
 Scotland is now praised and lauded for having levelled 
 the cross of Christ, and trampled it under foot. She is called 
 Evangelical . Let us see if she deserves the title. Laing, the 
 Scottish historian, says in his work, Travels through Europe, 
 that he met with only one country, and that is Sweden, which 
 approached near to his own, Scotland, in her dreadful depths 
 of vice and crime. Sweden, like Scotland, is a truly Bible- 
 reading country, i. e., the Bible is read in the truly Protestant 
 fashion ; and yet in Sweden morality is so shockingly low, that, 
 according to correct statistics, there are three out of every five 
 births illegitimate ; and in Scotland — O, look at the picture ! 
 — out of every five births there are three and a half illegit- 
 imate. Poor old Scotland ! 
 
334 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 ENGLISH MORALS. 
 
 The entire annual revenue of Bible teachers in England 
 and elsewhere has been, up to the present time, the enormous 
 sum of thirteen and a half millions of pounds sterling! 
 
 If ever there was a people learned, refined, moral, religious, 
 and Christian, the English ought to be that nation ; and if any 
 city on earth should rise in preeminent public virtue and social 
 works, London ought to be that city. Yet, strange anticipa- 
 tions ! London is the most infidel, immoral, and criminal city 
 in Europe ; and the English lower orders are amongst the most 
 ignorant and irreligious people of any Christian country in the 
 whole world. 
 
 1. From government reports within the last ten years it 
 appears “ that one half of the working classes cannot read.” 
 
 2. Lord John Russell, at a late meeting at a mechanics* 
 institute, stated “ that one third of the population was sunk in 
 social barbarism.” 
 
 3. The daily journals publish records of English vice and 
 crime which have never been equalled in any Christian coun- 
 try, and which, without doubt, never was surpassed in moral 
 turpitude amongst any corrupt people of pagan antiquity. 
 
 The English murderer is so hardened, so reckless, so care- 
 less of responsibility, such a disbeliever in the Saviour, in fu- 
 ture rewards and punishments, such an infidel, he takes small 
 precaution, he sees comparatively small guilt in the act, and 
 therefore he is easily detected. He is never at church ; 
 amongst his wicked companions murder and poisoning are 
 almost every-day acts ; he is not shocked with blood : he 
 never hears a sermon ; he is off his guard ; he is caught in an 
 hour after the act. He will carry the reeking knife in his 
 possession ; walk home through crowded streets ; keep his 
 bloody clothes on his person, and the plunder in his pocket. 
 Murder is a practice amongst his class. He is obdurate in 
 heart, infidel in idea ; one glance from the “ detective,” and 
 he is known and arrested. — Dr, Cahill, 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 335 
 
 ENGLISH CRIMINALS. 
 
 “In England/’ says the London Times, — aiming a side 
 blow at the Irish police, whilst it slanders the people, — “ in 
 England, the certainty of detection has passed into a proverb, 
 which, if not as strictly true as it is wholesome, still represents 
 a fact worthy of notice.” 
 
 Does not this, if it be the case, prove a little too much ? 
 Since, if the certainty of detection is invariably so great as to 
 pass into a proverb, must not the recklessness, ruffianism, and 
 bloodthirstiness of the English criminal be greater than in any 
 other country ? With detection staring him in the face, and, 
 as it were, laying its hands upon him whilst he is in the act ; 
 with punishment overtaking him as he leaves the spot where 
 he has dealt the death blow ; with all this to deter him, he 
 nevertheless perpetrates the cold-blooded deed of darkness, as 
 if escape and impunity, rather than detection and punishment, 
 were certain and secure. There is another loose statement in 
 the article to which we are adverting — a kind of corollary to 
 the equally-unfounded statement that nearly all crime is de- 
 tected and punished in England : — 
 
 “ It is proved, beyond a doubt, that murders in England are, 
 in proportion to the population, much fewer than in any con- 
 tinental country.” 
 
 Now, we will quote one or two authorities, including, strange 
 to say, the Times itself, on this head ; but first, the London 
 Weekly Dispatch of the 30th March, 1851, which, in its num- 
 ber of that date, says, — 
 
 “We have, unfortunately, seventy-four thousand reasons 
 annually for not entering upon a comparison of the influence 
 of Protestantism in Britain and Popery in France or Belgium 
 in repressing serious crime — the average convictions for such 
 crimes amounting every year to that number.” 
 
 In the Times of the 12th June, 1855, where is published a 
 
336 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 report of the Education No. 2 Bill, it states that Sir John 
 Pakington, in his speech, asserted, — 
 
 “That the whole number of convictions in that year (1855) 
 was ninety thousand ! — indeed, no comparison with other 
 countries could be properly drawn, for that the amount of 
 undetected crime in England was so serious that any calcula- 
 tions founded upon the number of convictions must prove fal- 
 lacious.” 
 
 Another authority says, — 
 
 “ Our moral depravity keeps pace with, or rather outsteps, 
 our mental advancement.” 
 
 And such is, undoubtedly, the case. Nevertheless, English 
 journalists cannot furnish their readers with an account of a 
 crime committed in Ireland, without instituting odious and in- 
 vidious comparisons between the people of the two sister 
 kingdoms, and uniformly in disparagement of the Celtic sis- 
 ter. Is this ingenuous ? is it becoming the press, whose 
 peculiar office it is to promulgate truth, to decry and dispel 
 falsehood, and to furnish reliable materials for the historian 
 of the past, the present, and the future ? — Dublin Telegraph . 
 
 HORRIBLE DEPRAVITY IN LONDON. 
 
 At the Lambeth Police Court, recently, a surgeon, named 
 Cunningham, of Slough, but who also went by the name of 
 Smith, and other aliases , and Surgeon Currie, of Norfolk 
 Street, Middlesex Hospital, were charged as principal and 
 accessory in procuring premature childbirth, (or infanticide, 
 it not being at the time known which the offence amounted 
 to.) The unfortunate young lady, whose shame it was thus 
 attempted to conceal, is a Miss Mardon. Neither her mother, 
 the servants in the house, or any of her friends, seem to have 
 entertained the least suspicion of her actual situation. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 337 
 
 CRIME IN IRELAND AND ENGLAND. 
 
 A correspondent of the London Weekly Regis- 
 ter furnishes the following statistics : — 
 
 “ Murders Fourfold in Ireland to One in Eng- 
 land.” — Sir : The heading of this is the text of the Christmas 
 discourse sent by the Protestant chaplain of the Pentonville 
 Prison to the Times, and published in a recent number of that 
 paper. Permit me to bring forward facts officially stated in 
 opposition to Mr. Joseph Kingsmill’s “ Notions of Foreign 
 Catholic Nations,” and of Old Ireland. In the revenue re- 
 turns for the year 1849 it is officially stated that there were 
 in London alone, “Murders and attempts to murder, 91 ; for 
 all Ireland, 51. Of another hateful class of offenders in 
 London, 39 ; in Ireland, none. Crime in London, 4071 ; 
 crime in Ireland, 883.” In the year 1851, there were 28,000 
 persons convicted in England and Wales, of whom 70 were 
 sentenced to death, and 3000 to various periods of transporta- 
 tion — a great part for life. In the same year there were 
 2000 persons convicted in Ireland, of whom 9 were sentenced 
 to death. So much for Mr. KingsmilFs “ fourfold murders in 
 Ireland to one in England.” 
 
 That eminent member of Parliament, Sir J. Pakington, 
 stated in a speech in the House of Commons, that in England 
 “ one in 300 of the population is detected in crime.” In Cath- 
 olic Austria, “ one in 800 of the population is detected ” in 
 crime. If foreign Papists have committed murders in Eng- 
 land, who is not horrified by the awful and frequent murders 
 of infant children by English mothers, worse than the very 
 pagans ? In the official report made to the House of Com- 
 mons regarding the poor in the workhouses of England and 
 Wales, it is stated that in the workhouses in England there 
 were, in four years, 92,820 legitimate children, and 62,066 
 illegitimate children. In Wales there were in the work- 
 
 29 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 n O Q 
 DO O 
 
 houses 2677 legitimate children, and 3070 illegitimate chil- 
 dren ! In Catholic Munster, in the workhouses or poorhouses, 
 the number returned were 84 legitimate children for every 4 
 illegitimate children. In Ulster, where the Protestant element 
 is large, the returns give 28 legitimate children for every 4 
 illegitimate children. For all Ireland the official return gives 
 for one year 274,786 legitimate children, and 16,677 illegit- 
 imate children. The Rev. Mr. Clay, Protestant chaplain of 
 the Preston House of Correction, in his report for the year 
 1849, stated that of 1919 persons committed to that jail, 48 
 and a fraction per cent, were “ ignorant of the Saviour’s 
 name ” ! It is said that comparisons are odious ; but Mr. 
 Kingsmill’s uncalled-for attack on the people of Ireland and 
 other Catholic countries has induced me to send you a few 
 authenticated facts, for the purpose of rebutting the Penton- 
 ville Prison chaplain’s notions. 
 
 I remain, sir, with great respect, 
 
 Yours, Mr. Editor, 
 
 A Lover of Ireland. 
 
 A NEW DIRECTION. 
 
 Education in England does not check crime ; it merely 
 gives it a new direction. The more a man knows, the less he 
 fights, murders, and robs ; but the more he forges, and deals 
 in counterfeit coin and bogus bank notes. 
 
 Nearly all thefts are committed by men who sign their 
 names with an X, and who could not tell what a shilling’s 
 worth of eggs would come to at twelve for a shilling, even if 
 their lives depended on the answer. Nearly all elopements 
 and crim. cons . are committed by gentlemen of education — 
 people posted up in stage roads and geography. 
 
 Mr. Allison, the Sheriff of Edinburgh, states that the crim- 
 inal returns for a single twelvemonth exhibit 2834 educated, 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 389 
 
 and 696 uneducated offenders. This is in Edinburgh. Eng- 
 land, at large, is not much, if any, better off — as witness the 
 following percentage of educated and uneducated crime, based 
 upon the actual returns for one year. Reference is had to the 
 entire population : — - 
 
 Could read and write imperfectly, 
 
 59.28 
 
 Could read and write well, 
 
 8.12 
 
 Education not ascertained, 
 
 2.41 
 
 Superior attainments, 
 
 .42 
 
 Could neither read nor write, 
 
 29.77 
 
 
 100.00 
 
 While the rough and cruel crimes committed by ignorance 
 are nearly at a u stand still ” in England, those requiring ed- 
 ucation to commit, appear to be rapidly increasing. 
 
 The following is from the report of a Liverpool detective : — 
 “ The average commitments for ‘ malicious offences against 
 property/ and ‘ forgery, and offences against the currency/ 
 were in the following proportion : — - 
 
 “ 1841-5, malicious offences against property, such as rob- 
 bery, with violence, burglary, &c., 1079; from 1845 to 1850, 
 1115. 
 
 “ 1841-5, forgery and offences against the currency, where 
 education and art must be employed as absolutely necessary to 
 success, and as evidenced in the cases of such persons as Rob- 
 son, the Royal British Bankers, John Deal, Paul, Strahan, & 
 Co., Sadlier, and others, 2725 ; from 1845 to 1850, 2971.” 
 These figures are not as full of encouragement as we could 
 wish. Whether our statistics would furnish a similar balance 
 sheet is more than we can say. 
 
 During the year 1855, England spent over $600,000,000 
 for reforming society at home and abroad ; and yet, in spite 
 of this vast expenditure, we find that the higher class of crimes, 
 such as forgery, is increasing faster than the school houses ! 
 What is the cause of this ? Who’ll answer? 
 
340 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 IGNORANCE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 It has been calculated that there are in England and Wales 
 six millions of persons who can neither read nor write — that 
 is to say, one third of the population, including, of course, in- 
 fants ; but of all the children between five and fourteen, more 
 than one half attend no place of public instruction. These 
 statements — compiled by Mr. Ray, from official and other 
 authentic sources, for his work on the social condition and ed- 
 ucation of the poor in England and Europe — would be hard 
 to believe if we had not to encounter in our every-day life 
 degrees of illiteracy which would be startling if we were not 
 thoroughly used to it. Wherever we turn, ignorance, not al- 
 ways allied to poverty, stares us in the face. If we look, in 
 the Gazette, at the lists of partnerships dissolved, not a month 
 passes but some unhappy man, rolling, perhaps, in wealth, but 
 wallowing in ignorance, is put to the experimentum crucis of 
 “his mark.” The number of petty jurors, in petty districts 
 especially, who can only sign with a cross, is enormous. It 
 is not unusual to see parish documents of great local impor- 
 tance defaced with the same humiliating symbol by persons 
 whose office not only shows them to be “ men of mark,” but 
 men of substance. We have printed, already, specimens of 
 the partial ignorance which passes under the pen of the Post 
 Office authorities ; and we may venture to assert that such 
 specimens of penmanship and orthography are not to be 
 matched in any other country in Europe. A housewife in 
 humble life need only turn to tlie file of her husband’s bills 
 to discover hieroglyphics which render them so much arith- 
 metical puzzles. In short, the practical evidences of the low 
 ebb to which the plainest rudiments of education in this coun- 
 try have fallen, are too common to bear repetition. W e can- 
 not pass through the streets, we cannot enter a public assembly, 
 or ramble in the fields, without the gloomy shadow of ignorance 
 sweeping over us. The rural population is, indeed, in a worse 
 plight than the other classes. — Household Words. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 341 
 
 POISONING IN ENGLAND. 
 
 Mr. Walter Wilson, of Birmingham, in a letter to the 
 London Times, states that five hundred and thirty-six persons, 
 upon an average, are annually poisoned — ten in every week, 
 or one in every sixteen hours, irrespective of those who die 
 from the same means, (whose true cause of death is only 
 known to those who possess the dreadful secret of murder,) 
 and are registered with those who die from “ cause unknown,” 
 “ sudden death,” or by the u visitation of God.” The follow- 
 ing analysis of deaths from poison, in England alone, taken 
 from the Registrar- General’s Report for six years, will show 
 this : — 
 
 
 Males. 
 
 Females. 
 
 Total. 
 
 1848, 
 
 308 
 
 261 
 
 569 
 
 1849, 
 
 290 
 
 236 • 
 
 536 
 
 1850, 
 
 304 
 
 249 
 
 553 
 
 1851, 
 
 275 
 
 253 
 
 528 
 
 1852, 
 
 253 
 
 300 
 
 553 
 
 1853, 
 
 270 
 
 219 
 
 489 
 
 Total deaths in six 
 
 years, 1700 
 
 1518 
 
 3211 
 
 On examination of the books of the Birmingham General 
 Hospital, Mr. Wilson says, — 
 
 “ I find that sixty-three cases of poisoning had occurred in 
 eight years, and out of that number arsenic had only been 
 used in three instances. The number of females was forty- 
 two, and males twenty-one. The deaths out of that number 
 were only five, making, in round numbers, one death to every 
 twelve cases of poisoning. It will not, I think, be unreason- 
 able to infer that the average deaths from poison, in proportion 
 to those who have been the subjects of poison, will be the same 
 throughout the country — viz., one in every twelve. 
 
 “ According, then, to this computation, we have another im- 
 
 29* 
 
342 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 portant fact, that 6432 persons, of all ages, annually, either 
 take poison themselves or have it administered to them by 
 others, and almost in every instance avowedly for the purpose 
 of self-destruction, or murder by other parties. In 1831 the 
 number of chemists and druggists in England was 5835, while 
 in 1851 there were 3632 men and 12 women under the age 
 of twenty years carrying on business, and 11,701 men and 208 
 women of twenty years of age and upwards, (exclusive of 
 16,163 surgeons and apothecaries,) making a grand imperial 
 host of 15,643 persons, unrestricted, uncontrolled, and irre- 
 sponsible, with a stock in trade sufficient, to depopulate the 
 whole continent of Europe. The present law for restricting 
 the sale of arsenic was passed in 1851. The average number 
 of deaths, annually, for three years previous to this enactment, 
 was 549, and for the three subsequent years (inclusive of the 
 year 1851) was 523, the deaths being only lessened 26 out of 
 546. This shows that other poisons are resorted to ; and if 
 deaths from poison are to be lessened by an enactment, there 
 must be one judicial and administrative head invested with 
 authority to grant licenses, and armed with strong powers, who 
 will have all the poison shops and poison venders under his 
 control, and subject to his official glance.” 
 
 SUNDAY TIPPLING IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 Nearly two hundred gentlemen in Edinburgh, not long 
 since, agreed to ascertain the actual amount of Sunday traffic 
 in the public houses of that city, and their report, entering 
 into the statistics of each house, the character of the visitors, 
 &c., was subsequently published. There are, in all, 464 
 licensed houses in Edinburgh, and 312 of these were open 
 on the Sunday referred to. The visitors were — 22,202 men, 
 11,931 women, 4631 children under fourteen years of age, and 
 3032 children under eight years of age. Total amount during 
 the day, 41,796. — Liverpool Chronicle . 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 343 
 
 PROTECTION TO HUMAN LIFE. 
 
 Dr. Taylor, from his profession and position, knows the 
 English character well ; and he asserts, in the following ex- 
 tract from a letter in the London Lancet, that the protection 
 of human life from a wholesale poisoning and murder in Eng- 
 land is not to be derived from the feelings of religion, but from 
 the rope : — 
 
 “ In concluding this letter, I would observe that during a 
 quarter of a century, which I have now especially devoted to 
 toxicological inquiries, I have never met any cases like these 
 suspected cases of poisoning at Rugely. The mode in which 
 they will affect the person accused is of minor importance, 
 compared with their probable influence on society. I have 
 no hesitation in saying that the future security of life in 
 this country will mainly depend on the judge, the jury, and 
 the counsel who may have to dispose of the charges of mur- 
 der which have arisen out of these investigations. 
 
 “ I am, sir, your obedient servant, 
 
 “ Alfred S. Taylor, M. D., F. R. S. 
 
 “ St. James’s Terrace, Regent’s Park, 
 
 “January, 1856.” 
 
 ENGLISH VAGRANTS. 
 
 The mere vagrants of England constitute a nomad and 
 wholly irresponsible population of not less than two hundred 
 thousand — more than equal to the whole native population 
 of New Zealand, and far more dense on the area than the 
 inhabitants of any Arabian or Siberian desert. So that, if 
 the settled and orderly population of England were withdrawn, 
 it would still be as populous in vagrancy and moral barbarism 
 as New Zealand itself. 
 
844 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 STATE OF TIPPERARY. 
 
 The Clonmel Free Press says, 44 Within the memory of that 
 time-honored personage, the 4 oldest inhabitant/ Tipperary was 
 never so tranquil. The police have, literally speaking, notli- 
 " ing to do ; and it is only in the towns that their functions are 
 at all called into requisition. Mr. Sergeant Ilowley, in his 
 charge to the Nenagh grand jury, said, 4 1 am happy to inform 
 you that the cases before me are very light in number, and 
 none of them are of any importance. I may make the same 
 remark of this Riding of the county that I did when leaving the 
 southern division of Tipperary, and that is, that it is at present 
 in a most peaceful and satisfactory condition. When they 
 remembered the former state of this county, it was no less a 
 pleasing than an extraordinary fact, that at the last Assizes 
 for the South Riding of this county, her Majesty’s judges had 
 only three cases for trial ; and I have the satisfaction to state 
 that there are only two cases for trial at the approaching As- 
 sizes for this division of Tipperary. At the present moment 
 there is no part of the empire in a more peaceful condition 
 than the North Riding of the county of Tipperary.’ ” 
 
 A GENUINE BRITON. 
 
 The late seducer of a respectable servant girl in London 
 robbed her of her money and clothes, and when he found she 
 had nothing else to give him, he proposed that she should turn 
 prostitute to keep him, and that he would act as her 44 bully.” 
 She was so low spirited from this proposition that she soon 
 after threw herself from Lambeth Pier; and although the fel- 
 low was with her, he did not attempt to save her. The poor 
 creature was rescued by another person, however, and con- 
 veyed to an asylum. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 345 
 
 PAUPER FARE. 
 
 A great deal has been said and written during the past 
 twelve months on the growing prosperity of Ireland. Heaven 
 granted us an abundant harvest ; various circumstances con- 
 tributed to raise the price of labor ; money circulated, and a 
 gleam of material prosperity fell on people long unused to it. 
 The effects of this great change soon became visible all over 
 the country, in better houses, better coats, and often in rather 
 unpleasant manifestations of lighter spirits. But there is one 
 class of persons amongst us to whom these brighter times have 
 brought no benefit ; who have not participated in the general 
 improvement; and who find themselves, at the present day, 
 thrown back into the cold and hunger of the famine years. 
 They are the inmates of our workhouses. The number of 
 these sufferers, of course, is much less than it was during that 
 sad period ; the wealth of the rate payers has increased since 
 then, but we have not heard of a single instance in which the 
 scale of pauper dietary has been improved. In one Union we 
 perceive there has been a revision lately ; but, we are sorry 
 to say, for no good purpose. The guardians of the Cionakilty 
 Union have been looking into their affairs, and have found they 
 had been doing rather too much of a good thing for some time ; 
 they resolved to make an end of it, which they did without de- 
 lay. This excellent proceeding consisted in reducing and dete- 
 riorating the food they had been giving to the paupers. The 
 children’s allowance was first attacked. The quantity of food 
 to be given daily to children between five and nine years of 
 age, as laid down in the General Order of the Poor Law Com- 
 missioners, bearing date 5th of February, 1849, was, for break- 
 fast, four ounces of Indian meal and a half pint of new milk ; 
 for dinner, six ounces of brown bread and one pint of soup ; 
 and for supper, four ounces of brown bread. 
 
 At one time, however, when dysentery raged, and it became 
 probable that such coarse and wretched fare would send the 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 346 
 
 little creatures, one and all, into the hospital, the medical 
 officer recommended that this dietary should be improved by 
 giving them a half pint of milk to moisten that little lump of 
 nasty brown bread in the evening. His recommendations were 
 carried into effect, and the little paupers went to bed every 
 night with somewhat of a less craving at the stomach than 
 they used to feel after supper. Possibly, they prayed for the 
 doctor, and thought their guardians were very good ; but cer- 
 tainly they imagined the new and improved order of things 
 would continue, and never fancied their little cans of milk 
 would be snatched away again from them. But they were 
 doomed to be disappointed. The guardians, after some time, 
 discovered that dysentery had disappeared, recollected that the 
 half pint of milk was in excess of the minimum dietary ordered 
 by the commissioners, clearly saw that therefore it was not 
 wanted, and ordered it to be discontinued ; so the little chil- 
 dren in the Clonakilty Workhouse get their pellet of four 
 ounces in the evening, swallow it how they can, go to sleep, 
 and dream of next morning’s breakfast. 
 
 Then came the turn of the adults. The commissioner’s or- 
 der states that the males shall receive at least eight ounces of 
 Indian meal and a half pint of new milk at one meal, fourteen 
 ounces of brown bread and a quart of soup at another. The 
 guardians are not required to give a third ; but should they, 
 in their goodness, choose to do so, the commissioners have so 
 high an opinion of the humanity and integrity of Irish boards 
 they only insist on one simple thing, and that is, that the quan- 
 tity of food given in the three meals shall not be less than the 
 quantity they have ordered for two. As may be supposed, 
 two meals are the order of the day in all the Unions of lie- 
 land. But, at the time to which we have above referred, this 
 bowel-tearing dietary was improved in the Clonakilty *Woik- 
 house by making the eight ounces allowed for breakfast to con- 
 sist of two thirds Indian meal and one third rice, instead of 
 Indian meal pure and simple. This was an agreeable and not 
 an expensive alteration ; but like the delights of Hinda, in the 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 347 
 
 poem of Lalla Rookh, it was too good to last. The guardi- 
 ans have returned to their first love, — the scale of 1849,— 
 and the unfortunate paupers starve slowly, but surely, within 
 the white walls of the workhouse. It is a process of slow 
 starvation. Perpetual hunger preys on the vitals of these 
 poor people. They are hungry before meals, and hungry 
 after them. Male and female, young and old, suffer alike — 
 all are pinched down, thinned down, and struck down by that 
 cruel scale which hard-hearted men might strive to justify 
 during the years of famine and poverty, but which cannot be 
 defended now. Those who are at present within our work- 
 houses are, for the greater part, old and infirm people, who 
 have no home to go to, and no chance of earning a living, and 
 orphans who have no one to support or care for them. — 
 Nation . 
 
 CRIME AND IRRELIGION IN ENGLAND. 
 
 Let any foreigner visit England, the country of Protestant- 
 ism, and examine London, the metropolis of Protestantism: 
 he notes the churches deserted ; crime knee deep in the city ; 
 and the laboring classes sunk in the inextricable mire of a bru- 
 tal iniquity. lie cannot fail to see that the every-day poi- 
 sonings, child . murders, adult murders of England surpass in 
 number the crimes of all the rest of Europe, while the unnat- 
 ural circumstances of cutting, boiling, and roasting their vic- 
 tims are the index of a ferocity not known amongst the savage 
 tribes of the trackless forest. More Bibles have been circu- 
 lated in England than would cover the very surface of the 
 country ; and yet, who can shut his eyes to the unceasing flood 
 of crime and irreiigion in the land ? In fact, the clergy have 
 lost all hold on the people ; and the fine, noble, generous Eng- 
 lish character has sunk into mere animal appetite and brutal 
 instinct, from the absence of all spiritual instructions on the 
 part of their overfed worldly teachers. 
 
348 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 THE CRY OF THE WOMEN. 
 
 In the year of light 1848, the wisdom of the Egyptian gov- 
 ernment manifested itself by rebuking its women. The women 
 had become noisy, and they were to be silenced. They, in 
 their ignorance and effrontery, — for the boldness of women, 
 where women hide all of their faces but their eyes, is not to 
 be thought of without a flesh-quake, — they had “made lam- 
 entations,” and “ lifted their voices,” and the upshot was, the 
 paternal and affectionate Egyptian government could no longer 
 endure the hubbub. If the women lamented, they should have 
 still greater cause to lament ; if they continued to lift their 
 voices, they should be made to pitch them still higher and 
 higher. “ Any woman,” said the edict, “ making lamentations 
 for a dead person belonging to her, Allah will certainly make 
 her tongue the length of seventy cubits ” — a punishment, it 
 might be thought, held to be no punishment whatever by the 
 lamenting female. F urther, such a woman would “ be raised 
 from the dead with a black face, blue eyes, and the locks of 
 her hair stretched out to her feet.” Finally, “ It is better for 
 women to sit at home than to go and pray at the mosque.” v 
 
 Now, at the present time, our liberal and otherwise peaceful 
 country is much disturbed by women who make lamentations — 
 by women who lift up their voices even to the altitude of Par- 
 liament. They lament their wrongs, and lift up their voices 
 for what they call their rights ! What shall be done unto such 
 women ? It avails not in our land of light to threaten to visit 
 the offenders with a longitude of tongue of seventy cubits. 
 What then, we say, should be done unto them ? 
 
 A woman marries a man ; for there can be no doubt of the 
 fact that for every man who marries a woman, no less than 
 twenty women marry men ; therefore, we say, a woman mar- 
 ries a man, and becomes his property. She is the bone of his 
 bone, the flesh of his flesh ; and it proves how little the heroic 
 man often thinks of his own bone or own flesh, seeing how 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 349 
 
 often he fractures the one and bruises the other in the body 
 of his wife. Bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh, she is, 
 nevertheless ; but not pocket of his pocket. Now, these la- 
 menting women lift their voices up to Parliament, and pray 
 that a very little pocket, even the smallest of separate pouches, 
 may, under certain conditions, be permitted them. 
 
 “ Our husbands beat us,” they lament ; “ our husbands,” 
 lifting up their voices, they cry, “ desert us ; yet desert not 
 the property they hold and do not maintain in us. O, ye wise 
 men of Parliament, ye sages of St. Stephens, help us, and 
 vouchsafe to us the allowance of a little pocket ! We are 
 deserted by the husbands of our bosoms ; and when we labor 
 with our fingers, or think with our heads, (if it be not too pre- 
 sumptuous in us to think at all,) the savage and the sot whom 
 we are chained to, carrying the link of the manacle on our 
 third finger, returns and takes unto himself all that we have 
 worked for, and have gained ; and taking it, leaves us, we 
 preventing it not. 
 
 “ We, therefore, O St. Stephens ! lift up our voices, and pray 
 that you will step between the wicked and the weak ; that you 
 will assure to the wife the wages of her toil, nor suffer them 
 to be taken by the hand of the deserting, but a while return- 
 ing, husband — the savage and the drunkard. 
 
 “ Lift us from the dust, O ye wise men ! and, with your 
 horse hair, O ye sages, wipe the tear drops from our eyes ! ” 
 
 Now, this petition or lamentation — in which Mr. Punch 
 gives willing ear to the cry of weakness and unjust suffering 
 — has been rebuked, pooh-poohed, pished, and fiddle-de-dee’d ; 
 but in these scoffings Mr. Punch joineth not. He cannot, for 
 the life of him, say, with certain editorial porcupines of the 
 male gender, “ Of what avail these lamentations of lamenting 
 women, whose cries are foolishness ? Wherefore should wo- 
 men, at any time, lift up their voices ; when, is it not manifest 
 from the beginning, that women were created to sing small ? 
 And, finally, if women be beaten by savages, and robbed by 
 sots, what of it ? It is better that women should be beaten, 
 
 30 
 
350 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 and crouch in the dust, it is better they should be robbed, 
 and sit at home, than go and petition Parliament.” — Punch , 
 April 12, 1856. 
 
 Mr. Dillwyn’s motion for the enactment of a law to flog tire 
 brutes who beat their wives, has been rejected by a majority 
 of thirty-eight. Now would be the time to move for the total 
 abolition of military flogging, if that were advisable ; for surely 
 the House cannot but consider that punishment too degrading 
 for the army, which it regards as too degrading for the ruf- 
 fianry. 
 
 The strongest argument that can be urged against flogging 
 the wife-beater is specious, but sophistical. It is, that the sav- 
 age is, perhaps, tormented by a cat of a wife. 
 
 Is it possible that the real cause of the rejection of Mr. Dill- 
 wyn’s bill was the fact that wife-beating is not confined to the 
 slums ? and that if all offenders in that particular had their 
 deserts, some highly respectable gentlemen would not escape 
 whipping ? — Punch , May 27, 1856. 
 
 WHO ARE THE MORMONS? 
 
 Now let us see where these Mormonites come from. There 
 is among them a slight sprinkling of the people of all nations ; 
 but the vast mass come from one particular country ; and 
 which is that ? Surely, it cannot be England, the land of Bi- 
 bles, the land of “ civilization and enlightenment,” the land so 
 rich in cotton and gospel truth that all other lands under heaven 
 are, in comparison, poor, woe-begone, and to be pitied ! Well, 
 the truth must be told : the mass, almost the whole of these 
 depraved beings, have come from England ; this abominable 
 community is a clot of the “glorious Anglo-Saxons.” The 
 English newspapers confess it, and fresh instances of the fact 
 turn up every day. A short time since we quoted from the 
 Manchester Examiner a sketch of the “ baptism ” of one hun- 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 351 
 
 dred of these wretches in a river near the town of Manchester ; 
 and now a despatcli from Boston informs us that eight hun- 
 dred and fifty Mormonites had just arrived at that port, from 
 Liverpool, in the packet ship George Washington. Yet, mark 
 the incurable impudence of assertion, the stolid self-conceit, of 
 the Englishman. In the London Times, of a recent date, a 
 writer, with whose words ninety-nine out of every hundred of 
 the English people will agree, says, “ It is not with the English 
 as with the French women. The former have generally had 
 in childhood a semblance of religious training; our race is, 
 besides, in itself, perhaps, more moral than any other in the 
 world.” This, indeed, has fairly taken the breath out of us. 
 We must let the subject drop till some other time. — Nation . 
 
 ENGLISH DIVORCE BILL. 
 
 The Divorce Bill came to the Lords from their Select Com- 
 mittee, and Lord Lyndhurst most ably explained its present 
 character. What is proposed is this. A new tribunal for de- 
 ciding upon matrimonial causes. That a divorced woman who 
 acquires property shall have it for herself ; that she may sue, 
 in actions, as a single woman ; that a wife shall be placed 
 somewhat more upon a footing with a husband, as regards the 
 obtaining divorce ; that in all cases of a husband’s infidelity, 
 (accompanied with cruelty,) in certain still worse cases, and 
 in those of bigamy, a woman shall be entitled to ask divorce. 
 Lord Lyndhurst — ever “ a woman’s man,” but now so in the 
 noblest sense of the word — added, that he had endeavored to 
 get the committee to assent to abolish the scandalous and un- 
 fair “ action for damages,” and to substitute prosecution ; and 
 he instanced a remarkable case in which the present system 
 inflicted the most cruel and wicked wrong upon an innocent 
 lady, who was permitted to give no evidence in a cause whose 
 result was to brand her with infamy. But the committee were 
 
852 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 not prepared to go so far. They, however, added a little boon, 
 namely, that a wife who has been deserted for two years, in- 
 stead of four, should be entitled to alimony. Lord Lansdowne 
 gave eloquent support to the bill. The Lord Chancellor, 
 Keeper of the Rojal Conscience, defended the refusal to 
 give more equality, on the ground that “ unquestionably the 
 public regarded a husband’s errors as less criminal than a 
 wife’s ; that it was not unreasonable to expect a wife to par- 
 don a husband’s infidelity ; but that the reverse was not to be 
 expected. The cases could not be considered as equal.” Lord 
 Campbell supported the bill. The Bishop of Oxford (Mr. 
 Punch does not misrepresent him, for the Church’s stalwart 
 friend, the Standard, manifests indignant surprise at his lord- 
 ship’s speech) objected to the proposed increased facility of 
 divorce. He thought it ought to be confined to persons who 
 could pay two thousand pounds. “ The lower classes did not 
 demand the privilegia afforded to the higher and wealthier 
 classes.” The Bishop of St. David’s thought with Dr. "Wil- 
 berforce. Lord Campbell, in reply, cited Mr. Justice Maule’s 
 scorching irony, when a poor man, whose wife had robbed him 
 and absconded, had sought to provide his children with a 
 mother, and had committed bigamy. Judge Maule’s speech 
 concentrates so much of the poor man’s case, that Mr. Punch 
 must quote it. “You have acted wrongly. You ought to 
 have brought an action for criminal conversation ; that action 
 would have been tried before one of her Majesty’s judges at 
 the Assizes ; you would probably have recovered damages ; 
 and then you should have instituted a suit in the Ecclesiastical 
 Court for a divorce a mensd et thoro . Having got that divorce, 
 you should have petitioned the House of Lords for a divorce 
 a vinculo , and should have appeared by counsel at the bar of 
 their lordships’ House. Then, if the bill passed, it would have 
 gone down to the House of Commons. The same evidence 
 would possibly be repeated there ; and if the royal assent had 
 been given, after that you might have married again. The 
 whole proceeding would not have cost you more than one 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 353 
 
 thousand pounds.” “ Ah, my lord,” replied the man, “ I never 
 was worth more than one thousand pence in all my life.” The 
 judge’s answer was, “ That is the law, and you must submit to 
 it.” The Bishop of Oxford contrived to carry a postponement 
 of the next stage of the bill, which he means to “ amend.” 
 Let the lords protect the women of England against the 
 priests. — Punch . 
 
 PICTURE OF THE PEOPLE. 
 
 A man was married recently in one of the eastern counties. 
 When the ceremony was over, and the register book brought 
 out, the clergyman inquired what was his father’s Christian 
 name. If he had been asked what was the Hebrew for donkey 
 he could not have looked more puzzled and perplexed. Nei- 
 ther the bride, nor the bride’s maid, nor the groom’s man 
 could help him ; so at last the hopeful and respectful son, 
 scratching his head, made answer, “ Well, dang it, if ever I 
 heerd th’ old chap’s first name in my life ! ” The clergyman 
 was obliged to leave it a blank in the register. — English Paper. 
 
 WIFE-SELLING. 
 
 It is no unusual thing for a low Englishman to lead his wife 
 • into a market with a halter round her neck, and sell her by 
 auction. The price varies from a gallon of beer to five dol- 
 lars. There are innumerable circles of society in England, 
 and the like takes place in all, but under different forms, ac- 
 cording to their various notions of a profitable bargain. Late 
 English papers mention such a sale as taking place in the 
 Manchester Market. — Pathdrum . 
 
 30 * 
 
354 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 QUEEN-GOVERNED GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 Brutal crimes continue to be rife among us — especially 
 those connected with marriage relations. Husbands, beating 
 and even murdering their wives, are among our commonest 
 criminals. It will behoove the magistrates to put the law in 
 force with more vigor ; and government must see if it cannot 
 devise some mode of either preventing these demoralizing 
 incidents of city life, or punishing them severely when com- 
 mitted. We should be a greater nation if we pursued and * 
 eradicated the low vices that deprave and demoralize our poor, 
 and paid less attention to the crimes against “ property ” — sa- 
 cred idol ! Unquestionably a man may nearly kill his wife, 
 and escape with six months’ imprisonment ; but if he steal a 
 watch, or forge a signature, he lives some years at her Majes- 
 ty’s expense, with other gentlemen of like breeding and voca- 
 tion. Our Queen is a woman ; and this is not as it should 
 be. — The Leader . 
 
 A SYSTEMATIC SEDUCER. 
 
 What law reaches the thousands of men, now in the enjoy- 
 ment of ease and fortune, some seated in the very senate, who 
 have been the seducers of women now infesting the streets, and 
 in whose service, or in the service of whose employers, they, in 
 very many instances, once lived ? I could name one man of 
 large wealth whose life appeared to be systematically devoted 
 to the seduction of girls ; who employed female agents se- 
 lected from amongst the degraded objects I have visited ; who 
 spared neither money nor effort ; and who actually, I am in- 
 formed, kept a carefully-noted journal of his assignations, and 
 sums expended. Of this document he was robbed, adjoining 
 my district, and it afforded much wretched diversion to the 
 thieves and prostitutes of the neighborhood. — Vanderkiste’ s 
 Mission to the Dens of London . 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 355 
 
 SOCIAL CHARACTERISTICS OF ENGLAND. 
 
 The brutality of assaults on women is still unchecked. 
 Several cases in the police offices recently we have not re- 
 corded, the character of most of them being common. One 
 deserves to be brought forward. Davison was imprisoned for 
 two months for beating his wife. He was released some time 
 since, and, returning home one evening, assaulted his sleeping 
 wife and beat her cruelly, saying he would never forgive her 
 for getting him imprisoned. He has now been imprisoned 
 again for six months, his poor wife, meanwhile, depending on 
 the parish. There have been some additional cases of domes- 
 tic cruelty. Catharine Asher, a mere girl in appearance, was 
 beaten most mercilessly by her husband, Benjamin Asher, a 
 Jew. He has been sentenced to two months, and hard labor. 
 Eliza Phillips, a young woman living as wife with Thomas 
 Jones, was sitting in their room, when a male lodger in the 
 house came in and asked for the loan of some sugar. She 
 gave it. This and some previous suspicions excited Jones’s 
 jealousy, and he immediately assaulted the young girl. He 
 struck her in the face a blow so hard that she immediately fell 
 to the ground. He then kicked her in several parts of the 
 body. It is feared that her spine is injured. He has been 
 imprisoned for two months. — The Leader . 
 
 A PICTURE OF LONDON. 
 
 A Ragged School association, in a public appeal, states 
 that there are in London 1,400,000 who never attend public 
 worship, 150,000 habitual drunkards, 150,000 open profligates, 
 
 20.000 professed beggars, 10,000 gamblers, 30,000 destitute 
 children, and 30,000 receivers of stolen goods. More than 
 
 10.000 young men, under eighteen years of age, are annually 
 committed for theft in Great Britain. 
 
356 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 A TIGRESS. 
 
 A most dreadful murder was discovered, not long since, at 
 a house in Cable Street, W ellclose Square, London. It ap- 
 pears that a Jewess, named Sarah Lipman, aged thirty years, 
 who was a widow, and had three children alive, became en- 
 ciente . She sent her servant girl, Bridget Tooney, out upon 
 an errand. When she returned she went into the parlor, and 
 observed the head of an infant in the fireplace. Her mistress 
 immediately seized her arm, and begged of her not to disclose 
 what she had seen, offering to give her money to keep the 
 secret. She, however, ran out of the house and brought in 
 a policeman, who discovered the woman Lipman sitting in a 
 pool of blood, and found in the fire the head of the infant, and 
 different pieces of human flesh. There was a knife, also, in 
 the room, which seemed to have been used for cutting up the 
 body of the child before it was placed on the fire. Lipman 
 was removed to the police station, and thence to the work- 
 house. When removed from the house, the prisoner was sur- 
 rounded by a mob of persons, who followed and hooted her 
 along the street. 
 
 FILIAL DEVOTION. 
 
 Peter Sawyer was brought before the Lord Mayor of Lon- 
 don, charged with having assaulted his mother. E. Williams 
 said that he had heard the shrieks of a woman in Trinity Lane. 
 Upon going to the place, he found the prisoner, in a state of 
 intoxication, ill using his mother. They were both on the 
 ground together, and the prisoner called her a most revolting 
 name, and struck her at the same time. The poor woman went 
 into a fit in consequence of the gross conduct of her beast of 
 a son, who seemed to care for nothing and for nobody. The 
 Lord Mayor committed the fellow to prison. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 357 
 
 A BRITISH HUSBAND. 
 
 John Wagstaff, a ruffianly, dissipated looking fellow, was 
 charged with a series of brutal assaults and cruelty upon Mary, 
 his wife. & 
 
 The prosecutrix appeared in the witness box dreadfully 
 beaten and mutilated, with her head bandaged up, and she 
 gave her evidence with much difficulty. She said that the 
 prisoner had been in the constant habit of treating her in a 
 cruel manner. He returned home to his dinner, which she 
 had prepared for him, and, being drunk, he quarrelled with 
 her without the least provocation, and after beating her vio- 
 lently, left home. He returned at midnight, when she was in 
 bed, and, after abusing and swearing at her, dragged her out 
 of bed, and turned her into the streets nearly naked, when she 
 - took refuge in the house of a relative. He also thrust a 
 lighted candle in her face, which burnt her, and swore he 
 would kill her ; and he beat and kicked her about the head 
 and body until she was insensible. 
 
 SELLING A WIFE. 
 
 An extraordinary instance of selling a wife occurred at 
 Bodmin, in Cornwall, not long since. A couple came to the 
 superintendent registrar to be married, their banns having been 
 previously called before the board of guardians. The l'egis- 
 trar having heard that one of the applicants had been married 
 before, cautioned them, and told them that, if it was the case, 
 they were rendering themselves, by a second marriage, liable 
 to transportation. The man then produced before the regis- 
 trar a document from another man, who was the husband of 
 the woman, in which she was assigned over to him for a sov- 
 ereign. The registrar thereupon refused to marry them, and 
 they went away much disappointed. 
 
358 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 LONDON THEATRICALS. 
 
 There was performed for some time at one of the London 
 theatres an operatic piece called La Travista. It is intended 
 to realize the close of the life of a prostitute, who, after falling 
 in love with a young man, dies of consumption and disappoint- 
 ment. Some of the London papers, among others the Times, 
 took the subject in hand, and denounced the performance as a 
 disgrace to the stage, and a school of imitation for the coarsest 
 vices. These attacks brought out defences, which led to noth- 
 ing save this — that the condemned play became the rage, and, 
 on its closing night of performance, the house was not able to 
 admit half of those eager to get in. The mothers and daugh- 
 ters of England, ladies of birth and rank who had been ap- 
 pealed to, as they respected the honor of their sex, the purity 
 of their children’s minds, and their own characters, to discoun- 
 tenance such a performance, — these constituted the major 
 portion of the audience on that occasion. 
 
 So much for the lady morals of “ the upper ten thousand.” 
 The lower appear equally refined in another way. 
 
 A mob in Kelso set fire to a Catholic chapel recently. Ap- 
 parently by private arrangements with the police, the latter 
 were kept at a distance, and the mob were allowed to look on 
 quietly till the fire had done their work, and nothing remained 
 but the blackened walls. 
 
 Again, the same week, in Glasgow, a similar gang of ruffians, 
 male and female, beset two Sisters of Charity, and insulted 
 them. They lifted their veils, and were taking other liberties, 
 while the police were — nowhere. And but for a few gentle- 
 men who interfered to protect the helpless ladies, and see them 
 home, followed by a howling mob, it is hard to tell where their 
 violence would have ended. 
 
 These are but trifling incidents in the chronicle of current 
 English crime. On the authority of the judge of Assize at 
 Liverpool, it is stated that “ offences of the highest character 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 359 
 
 are rapidly on the advance ” in England ; and so strong is the 
 popular 'penchant that way, that Palmer and Dove have al- 
 ready received an intellectual apotheosis — become gods in the 
 moral heaven, that strange region set apart for English lower 
 and even middle class ideas of right and wrong. 
 
 OUTRAGES ON WOMEN. 
 
 In the papers which gave the account of Mobb’s execution, 
 and the circumstances of his crime, (says the London Exam- 
 iner,) appear no less than four cases of outrages on women, the 
 atrocity of which is only less black than that of Mobb’s, because 
 death did not happen to ensue. 
 
 This national propensity has also been dilated upon in the 
 Morning Post, as follows: “An ancient proverb describes 
 England as a paradise for women, and a hell for horses ; Italy 
 as a paradise for horses, and a hell for women. What amount 
 of truth the adage may still retain in its reference to Italy, it 
 were needless now to inquire ; but it is sad to think that, in so 
 far as it relates to England, it is in process of gradual refutation. 
 What either of pleasure or of dignity can there be for the wife * 
 who lives in daily expectation of being throttled by her hus- 
 band, and has no other consolation in her agony but the sad 
 thought which comforted the dying daughter of Jephtha ? — 
 
 i If the hand that I love lays me low, 
 
 There cannot be pain in the blow.’ 
 
 “ Scarcely a day passes that the columns of this and other 
 journals are not defiled with such stories of domestic butchery 
 as sicken the sensibilities of the reader, and would utterly 
 transcend his belief, were they not attested on the evidence of 
 sworn witnesses, and made the subject of judicial investigation 
 before the tribunals of police. Sometimes, as in the case of 
 Mobb’s victim, the wife dies on the spot — her throat cut like 
 
860 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 a sheep’s ; but more frequently she lingers on, maimed and 
 mutilated, disfigured and discolored, a ghostly, yet mute, un- 
 complaining witness to the merciless barbarity of the man who 
 should have laid down his life for her. The murderous mar- 
 riages of Henry VIII. are the reproach of our history ; but we, 
 for our sins, live in an age when the most debased and besot- 
 ted of mankind renew the memory of those royal atrocities in 
 their dark cellars and mouldering garrets.” 
 
 BRITISH TORTURE IN INDIA. 
 
 The Edinburgh Review, in an article on the report pre- 
 sented to Parliament of the commissioners appointed to investi- 
 gate certain cases of alleged torture in the collection of the rev- 
 enue in British India, discloses some fearful truths, calculated 
 to astonish a world prepared to believe that a Christian sense 
 of justice has accompanied British sway in the land of the 
 Orient. 
 
 “ The two most common forms of torture appear to be the 
 kittee and the anundal . The kittee corresponds with the 
 
 thumbscrew of the European torturer. It is a wooden in- 
 strument, somewhat like a lemon squeezer, between the plates 
 of which the hands, the thighs, (in women, also, the breasts,) 
 the ears, and other more sensitive parts of the body, are 
 squeezed to the last point of endurance, often to fainting, and 
 even to permanent disablement. In many places the kittee 
 has been superseded by the more simple plan of violently 
 compressing the hands under a flat board, on which a heavy 
 pressure is laid, sometimes even by the peons standing upon it ; 
 or of compelling the sufferer to interlace his fingers, and deliv- 
 ering him over to the iron gripe of the peons, (or policemen,) 
 who sometimes rub their hands with sand, in order to give 
 them a firmer gripe. In other cases, the fingers are bent back 
 till the pain becomes unendurable. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 361 
 
 “ The anundal is a more purely Eastern torture. It consists 
 in tying the victim in a stooping or otherwise painful and un- 
 natural position, generally with the head forcibly bent down 
 to the feet, by a rope or cloth passed round the neck and 
 under the toes. The posture, however, is varied at the caprice 
 of the executioner. Sometimes the poor wretch is made to 
 stand on one leg, the other being forcibly tied up to his neck. 
 Sometimes the arms and legs are curiously interlaced, and the 
 frame, thus violently distorted, is kept bound up for hours in a 
 condition little short of dislocation. Sometimes a heavy stone 
 is laid upon the back, while thus bent ; and it often happens 
 that the peons amuse themselves by sitting astride upon the 
 unhappy sufferer who is undergoing anundal. More than 
 one of the witnesses depose to the infliction of this torture, 
 under the fierce Indian sun, upon a number of defaulters, 
 placed together in rows, for two, three, four, and even six hours ; 
 and this in the immediate vicinity of the cutcherry , or revenue 
 officer, and in the presence of the tahsildar , or native collector, 
 and of the assembled visitors. 
 
 “ These tortures are often used simultaneously — the kittee 
 being applied to a man’s hands, ears, or thighs, while he is 
 actually undergoing the anundal. 
 
 “ Flogging, in various forms, is also one of the ordinary in- 
 struments for the collection of revenue. In most cases the 
 defaulter is hung up by the arms to a tree, or to the roof beam 
 of a house, as a preparation for the lash, which consists either 
 of a scourge of leather thongs, or of the tough fibres of the 
 tamarind tree, or of the coir rope. Many witnesses complained 
 of having been flogged to laceration. 
 
 “Various other minor, but yet most degrading and painful, 
 species of violence are detailed. One of them consists in pull- 
 ing the person about violently by pinching the thighs, whether 
 with the kittee or by a hand gripe. Another, is pulling a man 
 about by the ears. Occasionally a man is held aloft from the 
 ground by the ears, by the hair, and even by the mustaches ; 
 and the latter torture, in some instances, is applied so savagely 
 
 31 
 
862 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 as to tear away the mustaches by the roots. Sometimes a sort 
 of bastinado is inflicted, sometimes violent blows on the shin, 
 the ankles, the elbows, or other highly sensitive points. Pro- 
 longed immersion in the water tanks or the river ; forcible 
 compression of the arms, the thighs, and even the body, by 
 tying a coil of coir rope round them, and then applying cold 
 water so as to cause it to contract and sink into the flesh ; 
 burning with hot iron ; hanging heavy stones round the neck ; 
 the stocks ; tying two or more individuals together by the hair, 
 so that every movement is attended with pain ; placing a neck- 
 lace of bones, or other disgusting or degrading materials, round 
 the neck, — these are a few of the minor inflictions devised by 
 these masters of the Oriental school of torture. If we add to 
 these a few practices like those used at home by amateurs of 
 the turf or the ring, for the purpose of 6 reducing flesh/ — 
 such as starvation, prolonged deprivation of sleep, compulsory 
 driving up and down under a broiling sun, forcing the unhappy 
 wretches to run long distances, their hands being tied to the 
 axle of a bandy, or country carriage, — we think the catalogue 
 of torture will be admitted to be tolerably complete. 
 
 “ And yet there are other devices that evince in their very 
 conception an amount of hateful ingenuity which, however 
 possible in an individual, it would be difficult to understand 
 as forming part of a system, were they not seriously detailed 
 by the witnesses examined before the commission. Will it be 
 credited, for example, that it is not uncommon to apply to the 
 most sensitive parts of the body (enclosed in a cloth, or a 
 cocoanut shell, or other similar receptacle) a biting insect or 
 reptile , such as the poollah , or carpenter beetle, and to leave 
 it to gnaw the flesh of the miserable sufferer ? that by a fur- 
 ther refinement of cruelty, meant to combine both pain and 
 humiliation, the defaulters are sometimes tied by the hair to 
 the tail of a donkey or a buffalo ? that they are occasionally 
 hung up with the head downwards ? and that it is an ordinary 
 practice to put pepper or powdered chillies into the eyes or 
 the nostrils, and to apply these and similar irritating drugs in 
 other ways too revolting to be even hinted at ? ” 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 363 
 
 The report modestly avoids the most shocking particulars, 
 but says that “ the women were also ill treated, and the kittee 
 (hand vice) applied to their breasts.” 
 
 “ Nullandy Naik complains that his son and his son’s wife, 
 on suspicion of being concerned in a robbery, were hung up 
 by the hands to the branch of a tamarind tree for an Indian 
 hour, and beaten with tamarind switches, in the presence of 
 the tahsildar. The woman died in eight days afterwards, 
 Naik complained to the judge, but 4 no notice was taken.’ 
 Three ryots of the village of Coviloor were seized at night, 
 on a similar suspicion, taken to a cow shed, tied up by the 
 hands to the roof of the shed, and beaten till they consented 
 to buy themselves off by a bribe of twenty -five rupees. They 
 also ‘ complained to the magistrate, and proved their statement, 
 both as to the beating and the extortion ; but they got no 
 redress.’ 
 
 “ There is not one of the forms of torture here described, 
 of which the appendix of the report does not contain some 
 examples. The use of the lash and the cudgel is frequent 
 and unsparing. 
 
 “ In the village of Syadoorgum, (in the Cudalore district,) 
 Soobapatha Pillay was 4 tied hy the legs , and hung up with his 
 head downwards ; ’ 6 they put poivdered chilli in his nostrils ; ’ 
 and passed a strong tape round his waist, and violently tight- 
 ened it. Other details of the torture inflicted on this wretch 
 are too revoltingly indecent to be referred to. It is right to 
 add, however, that this was a police, rather than a revenue, 
 case.” 
 
 CHRISTIANITY ^5. BARBARISM. 
 
 But one slight advantage that has come to it is, that Turkey 
 has got the reopening of the trade in the free-born white women 
 of Circassia — the traffic in Christian slaves. While Russia 
 predominated in the Black Sea, the sale of the Circassians was 
 
364 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 stayed ; Russia called the trade piracy — contraband, and treat- 
 ed it so, to the great curtailment of Moslem life ; but when the 
 Christian allies proceeded thither, as the champions of civiliza- 
 tion and justice, when they shut up the Russian fleet in forti- 
 fied harbors, the trade was reopened with greater vigor than 
 before. Such is one fruit of the intervention of the Western 
 powers between Turkey and Russia. Now, this opening o£ 
 the traffic in white slaves has become so notorious that the 
 Bishop of Oxford, a member of the House of Lords, and a 
 son of William Wilberforce, of abolition memory, — this bish- 
 op, after long pondering of the circumstances, thought that a 
 decent respect for lawn sleeves and silk apron required that 
 he should do something in the matter ; that he should calmly, 
 and in a Christian-like manner, advert to the circumstances in 
 Parliament : so he mentioned it in Parliament. He was in- 
 stantly satisfied by his noble friend, Lord Clarendon, by his 
 being assured that the attention of government was turned to 
 that painful thing, and moreover, that Schamyl, the Circassian 
 chief, was opposed to it. The bishop knew that all this was 
 false ; that Schamyl was not opposed to the trade ; that he 
 had warred against Russia for years to maintain it ; but he 
 was satisfied that he had done his duty, and he sat down with 
 all the becoming satisfaction that a man feels who has done a 
 good action ; and the trade remained, and still remains, grow- 
 ing more horrible every day. And, since the day the bishop 
 so called the attention of government to the fact, we find that 
 the trade has been increasing to such an extent that the old 
 stock of slaves had become utterly valueless, and murder has 
 become more frequent in Constantinople. Every night sacks, 
 with the mangled corpses of females, are thrown into the Bos- 
 phorus. Two sentences by English authors, relied on by the 
 bishop, will give some idea of what the trade is. One says, 
 that at present the only trade carried on in Constantinople is 
 that in white women, and this seems to be extraordinarily 
 active at present. Another — and, to his credit be it said, he 
 disapproves of it — writes from Constantinople, regretting to 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 865 
 
 see that the slave trade is on the increase ; every boat from 
 the port of Abazia brings in ten or a dozen white Christian 
 women for the market in Constantinople, while even the Aus- 
 trian steamers do not refuse to bring cargoes of hundreds into 
 port. Think of this British nation that is so filled with horror, 
 righteous and virtuous horror, at the black slave trade, that it 
 sends out one fleet to stop the trade in blacks on the African 
 coast, and sends another to open the traffic in white slaves. 
 
 What a profundity of hypocrisy in that bishop, and all the 
 rest of the bench of bishops, to sit by in Parliament, and help 
 with their votes, and give by their votes all the sanction of 
 religious association to ail the abominations of English rule in 
 east and west. So for Cabool, burned down, and so with Ire- 
 land, starved. Lo ! unto you, hypocrites, the gory soil of India 
 will long cry out for vengeance on your hoary heads. Not a 
 Circassian girl will float in a sack down the Bosphorus, stran- 
 gled by the bowstring of her master, when he is tired of her 
 beauty, but it will cling to your souls to curse you to perdi- 
 tion. — J. Mitchel . 
 
 KILLING NO MURDER. 
 
 The sentence of death passed upon Caroline Sherwood, at 
 the Sussex Assizes, lately, for the murder of her child, has 
 been commuted to transportation for life. A similar commu- 
 tation of punishment has also taken place in the case of Jane 
 Clenworth, convicted at the Assizes at Bodmin, recently, of 
 drowning a child intrusted to her by its mother, under pre- 
 tence of having occasion to leave it for a short time to make 
 some purchases, but with the intention, as subsequent events 
 proved, of deserting it. Ann Marshall, who, with two other 
 persons, was convicted at the High Court of Justiciary at Ed- 
 inburgh of throwing a man out of the window of a brothel, 
 whereby he was killed on the spot, has also been reprieved by 
 her Majesty. What peculiar claim these female miscreants 
 had upon the royal mercy, we are at a loss to know. 
 
 31 * 
 
866 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 A WIFE AT AUCTION. 
 
 One of those disgraceful scenes, the sale of a wife, was very 
 nearly being witnessed in Boston (England) market place re- 
 cently. A large concourse of people assembled in the expec- 
 tation of seeing the disgusting exhibition, but fortunately the 
 town was spared the degradation. It is said that the auction- 
 eer, being dubious as to the legality of the proceeding, declined 
 to act. The young woman proceeded towards her home, fol- 
 lowed by a large mob of people, yelling and hooting in a 
 frightful manner, and who showed such a disposition to attack 
 her, that she was compelled to seek refuge in the Woolpack 
 Inn. Here Superintendent Hambleton took her under his 
 protection, and eventually got her out the back way, unseen 
 and in safety. It appears that she had not lived with her 
 husband for some time past, and that he proposed to her this 
 plan of effecting a permanent separation, which she gladly 
 accepted, believing it to be perfectly legitimate and regular. — 
 Stamford Mercury . 
 
 THE CRIME OF POVERTY. 
 
 The Halifax Guardian publishes a proceeding of a board 
 of poor law guardians and magistrates. Five men, described 
 as very respectable working men, out of employment, were 
 brought up before these magistrates, charged with nothing in 
 the world but with having no money, and with having applied 
 at the workhouse the previous night for a night’s shelter — 
 which, by the way, was refused them. They were guilty of 
 the crime of poverty. These five respectable working men, 
 out of employment, were committed to a felon’s cell in the jail, 
 and sent to hard labor ; u for,” said the magistrates, “ they are 
 candidates for hard labor, — they are looking for work, — let 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 367 
 
 them have it on the tread mill.” The report goes on to state 
 that the innocent mayor of Halifax remonstrated. “ How is 
 that ? ” said the mayor, who did not feel authorized to commit 
 men to prison unless they had committed some offence. “ But 
 what is a man to do ? ” said Mr. Farnham. “ Why, they must 
 go to jail.” In vain some suggested on that occasion, that if 
 they were turned from the door of the poorhouse they would 
 till up the jail, and what advantage would it be? In vain 
 they urged there would be no gain, inasmuch as they were 
 still supported by the county, and men out of employment 
 would get in jail for a shelter ; so that in this happy, prosper- 
 ous country, there are a number of respectable laboring men 
 out of employ that are happy to get into jail to secure bread 
 to eat. 
 
 But if he be fortunate enough to get into the workhouse, how 
 is it ? Let me give a fact. In the city of London, two of the 
 richest parishes are St. Pancras and Mary-le-bone. Each has 
 its workhouse Bastile ; and it has come out, by mere accident, 
 that, in each, they are in the habit of flogging women ; of 
 keeping them in order by flogging; poor women, guilty of 
 that unpardonable offence against the London Holy Ghost — 
 poverty. A small publication has been got up since the rev- 
 elation of this treatment, and it is sold by hundreds and thou- 
 sands of copies among the working classes. It is entitled 
 Dred : a Tale of the Mary-le-bone Workhouse . In the style 
 of the work, well known under a similar title, it asks, Where 
 are the Earl of Shaftesbury and the Duchess of Sutherland ? 
 Where are those men who keep audiences sobbing, as they 
 detail the sufferings of the blacks of this country ? Alas for 
 Mary and Sophia Elizabeth, for their names have become 
 “ familiar as household words ” — their skins are white ! Ex- 
 eter Hall has no tears for them. — J, Mitchel. 
 
368 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 PROSTITUTION IN LONDON. 
 
 AGITATION AGAINST THE UNFORTUNATES. OCCASIONAL 
 
 MUNICIPAL CRUSADES INJURIOUS. — CURIOUS STATISTICS. 
 
 LICENSING THE HOUSES ADVOCATED. 
 
 From the London Globe , January 15, 1858. 
 
 Yesterday afternoon an influential meeting of gentlemen, 
 including several clergymen connected with West End parishes, 
 was held at the rooms of the Society for the Suppression of 
 Vice, Lincoln’s Inn Fields, for the purpose of considering and 
 bringing under the notice of the government the steps that 
 should be taken to suppress the open exhibition of street pros- 
 titution in various parts of the metropolis. 
 
 Mr. Beaumont was called to the chair, and observed that he 
 was glad to see so general an interest elicited on this subject, 
 and that he hoped it would lead to some practical result. It 
 would, in fact, be impossible to aggravate the evil, for neither 
 in Paris, Berlin, New York, nor even in the cities of Asia, 
 was there such a public exhibition of profligacy. There was 
 a plausible fallacy connected with this subject, to the effect 
 that if the unfortunate women who infested the streets were 
 driven from one locality they would go to another. But, even 
 if this were true, it would be something to dilute the evil, and 
 enable respectable women to pass along thoroughfares like the 
 Haymarket without being exposed to insult. It was not, how- 
 ever, the fact, that if vice were removed from one neighbor- 
 hood, it would necessarily exist in another. It was true, the 
 evil would continue to exist, but not in the same degree ; 
 neither would there be that open and public exhibition of 
 profligacy which offered such a temptation to the unwary. 
 He believed that Sir George Grey and Sir Richard Mayne 
 would do much, if any practical suggestions were made to 
 them to deal with the supper rooms, cigar shops, and night 
 houses, which were the great feeders of street prostitution. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 869 
 
 Mr. Crane, one of the church wardens of St. James’, Picca- 
 dilly, said that in his opinion no permanent cure of evil could 
 be effected until the law were so simplified that it could be 
 carried into effect without difficulty. In prosecutions against 
 the keepers of brothels, for instance, the difficulty of obtaining 
 the class of evidence necessary to secure a conviction was so 
 great, that many offenders were enabled to escape the penal- 
 ties of the law. He thought it would be also well to strengthen 
 the hands of the police by enabling them to control night houses. 
 
 Mr. Acton (late surgeon to the Islington Dispensary, and 
 Fellow of the Royal Medical Society) said, that in his opin- 
 ion the subject under discussion was one worth legislating for. 
 As a surgeon, he had investigated the subject not only in Lon- 
 don, but in Paris and other continental capitals, and he could 
 speak with some authority as to the statistics of prostitution, 
 and the manner in which the women became, as it were, ab- 
 sorbed in the population by whom they were surrounded. 
 From calculations based upon the census tables , it had come out , 
 that of all the unmarried women of full age in the country , one 
 in every thirteen or fourteen ivas immoral . This might appear 
 a startling announcement ; but the calculation had been made 
 upon returns the truth of which had not been questioned. It 
 was a popular error to suppose that these women died young, 
 and made their exits from life in hospitals and workhouses. 
 The fact was not so. Women of that class were all picked 
 lives, and dissipation did not usually kill them. They led a 
 life of prostitution for two, three, or four years, and then either 
 married or got into some service or employment, and gradually 
 became amalgamated with society. It was estimated that in 
 this manner about twenty-five per cent, of the whole number 
 amalgamated each year with the population. Mr. Acton con- 
 cluded by moving, — 
 
 “ That a deputation do wait as early as possible upon Sir 
 George Grey, for the purpose of most respectfully but ear- 
 nestly representing to her Majesty’s government the necessity 
 of effectual measures being taken to put down the open exhi- 
 
370 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 bition of street prostitution, which in various parts of the me- 
 tropolis, particularly in the important thoroughfares of the 
 Ilaymarket, Coventry Street, Regent Street, Portland Place, 
 and other adjacent localities, is carried on with a disregard of 
 public decency, and to an extent tolerated in no other capital 
 or city of the civilized world.” 
 
 Mr. Stevens moved the second resolution, — 
 
 “ That such deputation be instructed to urge upon her 
 Majesty’s government the following measures, whereby it is 
 believed that the evil complained of may be effectually con- 
 trolled : — 
 
 “ Firstly, the enforcement, upon a systematic plan, and by 
 means of a department of the police specially appointed and 
 instructed for that purpose, of the provisions of the 2d and 3d 
 of Victoria, cap. 47, in reference to street prostitution, which 
 provisions have, in certain localities, been heretofore carried 
 out with the best effect, and in others have been ineffectual 
 only because acted upon partially, and not upon any uniform 
 system. 
 
 “ And, secondly, for passing an act for licensing and placing 
 under proper regulations as to supervision and hours of clos- 
 ing all houses of entertainment, or for the supply of refresh- 
 ments, intended to be opened to the public after a certain fixed 
 hour, it being matter of public notoriety that the houses of this 
 description, popularly known as night houses, have, by becom- 
 ing the places of resort of crowds of prostitutes, and other idle 
 and disorderly £>ersons, at all hours of the night, greatly con- 
 tributed to the present disgraceful exhibition of street pros- 
 titution.” 
 
 Professor Marks moved, — 
 
 “ That the attention of the government be also directed to 
 the number of foreign prostitutes systematically imported into 
 this country, and to the means of controlling this evil.” 
 
 Sir J. Hamilton seconded the motion. 
 
 Mr. Horace Green considered it due to the association to 
 clear up the misapprehension of their sentiments which had 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 371 
 
 arisen from a misreport of liis remarks at the last meeting. 
 He would now state his impression at some length, and trusted 
 the press would give as great publicity to the amended version 
 as they had done to an erroneous one. He begged to remind 
 the meeting that a change had already been effected through 
 the action of the police in the aspect of the Haymarket and 
 Regent Street, heretofore so much complained of. The sense 
 that the public eye was upon their class had caused a corre- 
 sponding amendment in the dress and demeanor of the females 
 frequenting those streets ; and the objects of this association 
 were, so far, in good train. Strongly oppressive, or, as some 
 delicately said, repressive, measures could only be carried out 
 by an extent of police interference inconsistent with the preju- 
 dices of English people, who were indisposed to deny a large 
 extent of personal freedom to persons of even the most disor- 
 derly classes who had not absolutely forfeited their civil rights. 
 If the association went the length of advocating that the act 
 of prostitution should involve such forfeiture, and the entire 
 riddance of London streets from the presence of prostitutes, 
 they would soon find their hands over full. Unless they 
 thought it possible to exterminate the vice altogether, they 
 would find that its wholesale clearance from the streets would 
 necessitate registration, licensing, and confinement in certain 
 authorized quarters or streets, as prevailed abroad ; but such 
 restrictions would entail a more ample recognition and legal- 
 ization than had hitherto obtained, and so ample indeed as 
 to be very distasteful to what was called the religious public. 
 It had been objected to him that the public liberty of the 
 young and virtuous should not be sacrificed to that of the 
 vicious. It was said to be shameful that youths should be in 
 peril of temptation, and virtuous women shocked by the parade 
 of immorality, to maintain the personal freedom of a limited 
 number of street walkers. But how, he would ask, was the 
 diagnosis between virtue and immorality to be effected ? It 
 would be obviously unjust to exempt from pressure the lady- 
 like, prosperous harlot, while a miserable, vulgar, painted out- 
 
372 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 cast was consignable, because she stood out from the picture 
 somewhat broadly, to the police cell and the bridewell. It 
 must not be forgotten that, in considering sweeping measures, 
 the cost of sucli agency would be alarming. What was done 
 for the morality and comfort of St. James’s, must not be de- 
 nied to Whitechapel and St. Giles’s. The tax payers of Lon- 
 don, who were taking up the cry for street purgation rather 
 inconsiderately, would be no parties to a general rate for such 
 an item of local management. The meeting must be aware 
 that there was already abroad among the lower half-million of 
 Londoners an impression that the police was already strict 
 enough, and that this opinion was shared by numbers of intel- 
 ligent men, neither paupers nor criminals. They must remem- 
 ber that many a gentleman of character had passed a night in 
 a police cell for interfering in the defence of prostitutes against 
 the police. And this sentiment would deepen very danger- 
 ously if the police pressure were put on double, or, as some 
 would have it, tenfold. The very policemen, too, — men sprung 
 from the same class of society as those female offenders, — were 
 as likely as any one else to be fainthearted in the work of re- 
 lieving the eyes and ears of gentility from the presence of those 
 whose situation they were not slow to trace to the schemes and 
 desires of the genteel class. He did not think that the power 
 of discrimination could be safely intrusted to the ill-paid con- 
 stables of the metropolitan police, and the association of cer- 
 tain rate payers with the police as witnesses, as hinted at by 
 one of the delegates, would soon, if established, fall into des- 
 uetude. With the view of checking the evil in a satisfactory 
 manner, he would recommend the institution of a special ser- 
 vice of strict orderlies or regulators, in uniform, a well-paid, 
 superior, temperate, and discreet class of men, if possible, 
 whose functions should be to observe, not to spy, upon all 
 prostitutes, especially those of the street-walking order, and 
 whose circulation, as opposed to loitering and haunting partic- 
 ular spots, they should insist upon. They should work, not by 
 threats, but by entreaty, advice, suggestion ; but in case of 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 373 
 
 contumacy, should have the right to call in the regular force. 
 The calling of the foreign women in Regent Street would soon 
 fail if a certain number of these officers were sprinkled among 
 them. If they changed their scene of operations without 
 change of system, they should be similarly harassed, for the 
 streets were as free to the police as to the public; but the 
 chances were that both women-farmers and their victims 
 would soon find out their own interests in complying with 
 the demands of society, and enlarge the radius of their beats 
 from yards to miles. As regarded the blockade of the Hay- 
 market, that street being in the vicinity of theatres, and such 
 obstructions in such streets being provided for by the 5 2 d 
 clause of the Police act, he thought it ought to be cleared by 
 the police for a short time at the time of closing the theatres, 
 and be treated as an avenue or approach to those theatres. 
 He believed that the right of entry and inspection of all places 
 of ill fame should be vested in the home secretary and his del- 
 egates, and this would be attained least oppressively by a proper 
 system of licensing. Forced concentration would not be tol- 
 erated here ; but concentration was valuable, as bringing im- 
 morality more under control. Parochial crusades, though 
 prima facie a public blessing, had often the effect of spread- 
 ing corruption. It was recollected at Cambridge that when a 
 certain proctor made very frequent descents upon the hamlet 
 of Barnwall, where much of the parasitical vices of that uni- 
 versity had taken root, the people in question, far from cure 
 or conversion, merely extended their radius into more rural 
 villages. These were so soon corrupted that representations 
 were addressed to the university by the parochial clergy, pray- 
 ing that the plague of Barnwall should be confined to its old 
 bounds, and not let loose upon their simpler parishes. It was 
 notorious that the same kind of thing followed, on a very large 
 scale, the expulsion of prostitutes from Brussels, and it could 
 not be supposed that the attempt to strangle the growth of im- 
 morality by broadcasting its seeds, which was found impracti- 
 cable under the powerful discipline of the English university 
 
 32 
 
374 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 and the Belgian capital, could answer among this enormous, 
 and, when roused, unmanageable population. The evicted of 
 Noron Street, in the parish of All Souls, had settled quietly 
 down in the next parish. Incompressible as water, the vice 
 had but shifted its ground, and from a really moral point of 
 view, more harm than good had accrued from the change. 
 
 The Rev. Mr. Kemp said it was very satisfactory to learn 
 that the evil was already somewhat abated in the neighborhood 
 of the ITaymarket — a fact which he attributed, in a great 
 measure, to the closing of the Argyle Rooms. 
 
 THE DARK DAYS OF 1855.— SPIRITUALISM 
 AND THE MURDER CALENDAR. 
 
 There is not much doubt that in point of morals in the 
 United States we are retrograding. We build great clippers 
 and astonishing bridges, but in the arts we are behind the old 
 Greeks ; in the graces we sadly need missionaries ; a wild In- 
 dian is more polite, more generous, more civilized than many 
 a New York politician. In morals we have examples of de- 
 formity almost as gross as those of the lowest South Sea 
 Islanders ; and future historians will write that we are more 
 superstitious and bigoted than the most insane worshipper of 
 Brahma, the most profound devotee of Johanna Southcote, or 
 the most ardent disciple of witch-hanging, Quaker-whipping 
 Cotton Mather. 
 
 The criminal calendar of 1855 will substantiate a great deal 
 of what we have said. The Mormons at Utah, the Free Lov- 
 ers in New York and Wisconsin, the insane asylums filled with 
 maniacs on the subject of spiritualism, the general tendency 
 on the part of a large portion of our infatuated people to run 
 after any thing that is new, however absurd it may be, and the 
 readiness of certain presses to sustain novel doctrines, without 
 any regard to their foundation and tendency, is further evi- 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 375 
 
 dence that, although we may be “ smart people ” in the mak- 
 ing of revolvers and patent pitchforks, we are in some respects 
 the greatest mass of fools that ever lived in any age of the 
 world. 
 
 RELIGIOUS DELUSION. 
 
 The New York Herald, in a leading article, December 28, 
 1856, says, — 
 
 “ There is not an insane asylum in the country that does 
 not contain one or more victims of this delusion, and their in- 
 sanity is generally incurable. In New Haven, Connecticut, 
 last week, a most horrible murder was committed by the dupes 
 of an old woman, who pretends that she is one raised from the 
 dead, and who has quite a large circle of followers. The scene 
 was more horrible than any that transpired in Massachusetts 
 during the dark days of the Salem witchcraft delusion. A 
 man named Mathews, it seems, was blindfolded, bound, and 
 murdered by the New Haven maniacs, on the ground that he 
 was possessed by an evil spirit that must be cast out. His 
 sister blindfolded him, and tied his hands. One woman tes- 
 tified, at the inquest, that she believed in the divinity of Mrs. 
 Wakeman, (the prophetess.) 4 I believe,’ said this witness, 
 Abigail Sables by name, 4 that judgment would come if Mrs. 
 Wakeman should die; Mathews (the dead man) was driving 
 away her spirit with his evil powers.’ She also swore that 
 Mathews fasted three days in order to starve out the evil 
 spirit. It further appeared that the murdered man was per- 
 suaded that if he offered himself up as a sacrifice, the millen- 
 nium would come ; and that he consented. He was first 
 knocked down with a club, his skull fractured, and his throat 
 cut. Ten or twelve people were in the house ; they all heard 
 his cries, but made no effort to help him. All this transpired 
 in the nineteenth century, in the pleasant city of New Haven, 
 the capital of the moral State of Connecticut, which is distin- 
 
37G 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 guished for the piety and enlightenment of its people, the ex- 
 cellence and number of its common schools. Let us not talk 
 about foreign missions. We could take a lesson in decency 
 and true religion from the man eaters of Borneo.” 
 
 FORTUNE TELLERS. 
 
 We venture to say that nine tenths of the seductions accom- 
 plished among the working girls, are the results of fortune- 
 telling machinations. The fortune tellers also get hold of 
 shallow-pated wives and husbands, and create domestic dis- 
 cords which never can be healed. In several instances of 
 this sort of interference that have come to our knowledge, 
 families have been broken up, and children unjustly disin- 
 herited and sent forth into the world poor, miserable, and 
 hopeless. 
 
 Now, is it not remarkable — is it not wondrous — that these 
 wretches, arrogating to themselves the attributes of God, and 
 pursuing a system of fraud, sensuality, and error that is mon- 
 strous, should be allowed to flourish unmolestedly in this com- 
 munity ? 
 
 POOR IRISH GIRLS. 
 
 The majority of the female victims of crime and disease in 
 our public hospitals a,re Irish. The simple reason of this is, 
 that the German and American nymphs understand their busi- 
 ness, and move in a more respectable sphere. But the poor 
 Irish girls, seduced in American families, thrown upon the 
 wicked world, find their way to the public hospital or the mad 
 house. Among their own people, the Irish girls are the purest 
 on earth. But to the disgrace of American Catholics be it said, 
 that here they have done little or nothing to protect, reclaim, 
 or aid the poor wanderers. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 377 
 
 IRISH AND AMERICANS. 
 
 In answer to American attacks upon the Irish, the Boston 
 Pilot lately said, — 
 
 “ Though the poorest, and the hardest working portion of 
 the community, they are very far from being the most vicious. 
 The misdoings among them are upon the surface, — open as 
 the day, — and do not indicate that grave degree of moral tur- 
 pitude which is to be found within the native class. Take 
 Boston, for instance : the immigrant class constitute about one 
 third of the population ; but, of the unfortunately very large 
 numbers of persons engaged in the most demoralizing course 
 of life, not one in twenty belongs to the immigrant class, not- 
 withstanding the deep and discouraging poverty of most of 
 them. Drinking, brawling, and fighting are censurable, un- 
 questionably, and frequently bring those who are guilty of 
 them under the animadversion of the law ; but there are other 
 immoralities practised in Boston, in comparison with which 
 these offences almost rise to the rank of virtues. But we look 
 elsewhere than among the immigrant class for the greatest por- 
 tion of those who practise these immoralities as a vocation, or 
 as habitual votaries of vice. Counting both sexes, we have a 
 morally ruined class of at least ten thousand in Boston, nearly 
 all natives. We have, it is estimated by those who have been 
 in a position to know, a thousand native females who are 
 privately supported by married men. Connected with these 
 destructively immoral relations has grown up a numerous pro- 
 fession, whose vocation is to conceal, by certain criminal prac- 
 tices, the natural effects of guilty intercourse. Recent statutes 
 prove that the evil had reached such a height that the inter- 
 ference of legislation was deemed necessary; but it Ms not 
 availed to check it. Connected with it, also, are constantly 
 occurring crimes of theft, embezzlement, and swindling ; and to 
 this dark catalogue may be added suicide, where the professors 
 of the ‘ black art ’ fail in their attempts at concealment.” 
 
 32 * 
 
378 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 BURIAL CLUBS. 
 
 From the London Times. 
 
 TnE foundation of human society, it is commonly felt, is 
 laid in that deep and almost invincible instinct which leads the 
 mother to watch over the life and wellbeing of her child. Ex- 
 cept in those terrible cases where the social existence of the 
 mother is at stake, and, after a frenzied struggle, the fate of 
 the offspring is sealed ere it be born, the spectacle of a parent 
 deliberately allowing and even compassing the death of the 
 child, is more unnatural than suicide, more atrocious than 
 murder, more hideous than sacrilege, and more monstrous 
 than any other extravagance of crime. Yet the grand jury 
 at the Liverpool Assizes, presided over by the enlightened 
 and dispassionate member for South Lancashire, are unan- 
 imously of opinion that the interference of the legislature is 
 imperatively called on to arrest the frightful progress of this 
 crime — to arrest it by preventing the pecuniary temptation 
 afforded by “ Burial Clubs.” As matters now stand, a parent 
 may insure in one or several of these societies, and by 
 a small weekly subscription secure the payment of several 
 pounds, in the event of a child’s death, for the vain consola- 
 tion of a handsome funeral. A payment may be secured far 
 beyond the wants of the occasion, and, in order to procure a 
 few pounds that must soon be dissipated, as the wages of crime 
 always are, there are found parents who will put a child into 
 several burial clubs, carefully pay up for several weeks, and 
 finish the horrible speculation by the murder of the unsus- 
 pecting child, and the mockery of a mournful ceremonial. 
 This crime is said to be increasing. The grand jury has no 
 doubt that the system of burial clubs operates as a direct in- 
 centive to murder, and that many of their fellow-beings are, 
 year by year, hurried into eternity by those most closely 
 united to them by the ties of nature and of blood, if not of 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 379 
 
 affection, for the sake of a few pounds. Such is the state of 
 things, such the tendency, such the new era opening to us in 
 the middle of the nineteenth century, after generations of phi- 
 lanthropy, education, and reform. The worst scandals of bar- 
 barism are revived and surpassed by those of civilization. To 
 the brutality of the savage are added the mercenary calcula- 
 tions of a civilized age. The homeless wanderer that deserts 
 the child she can no longer feed or carry, the Spartan parent 
 that sacrifices a maimed and therefore useless progeny, the 
 pagan devotee that offers the blameless victim on the shrine 
 of some hideous deity, and all other forms of infanticide, are 
 surpassed in a new crime, which does all this for the sake of 
 a little money, and the few momentary indulgences it may 
 purchase. In a time of peace, fulness, and security, the worst 
 horror of the besieged city is perpetrated, not to satisfy the 
 ravenous appetite of a delirious mother, but, on a sober calcu- 
 lation, to buy a few days’ holiday, a dress or two, and some 
 superfluous comforts. Scores of such cases have been detected 
 and punished ; many more are suspected ; they are pronounced 
 frequent and increasing ; and the legislature is invoked to with- 
 draw the irresistible pecuniary temptation. 
 
 To stop the practice of burial clubs, or to put them under 
 such limitations and rules as shall render the loss of a child 
 no gain to the parent, is a practical measure, which goes to 
 the root of the crime in its actual and developed form. To 
 that there can be no objection, ignominious as it must be to the 
 Senate of this great empire to recognize so hideous a crime, 
 not in a subject tribe, but in its own manufacturing population 
 at home. At the risk of publishing the scandal in the ears of 
 all our enemies and calumniators, this must be done. As to 
 the value of the other suggestion offered by the grand jury, 
 there may be different opinions. For our own part, we can- 
 not help fearing that, if nature proves insufficient to keep the 
 mother from murdering her child, education can do little more. 
 This is not an offence against knowledge, but against instinct, 
 and the first laws of our physical and moral being. “ Can a 
 
380 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 mother forget her sucking child ? ” Can she learn more than 
 nature teaches her ? Can she acquire at school a feeling which 
 maternity has failed to generate ■ Much may be done, indeed, 
 by the general improvement of the working classes, and by 
 brineim* them more under the eye and within the civilizing 
 and moralizing influence of their superiors. Say what sat- 
 irists will of the vulgarity of the middle class, the fireside in 
 that rank of life is the home of domestic virtues, and, as a 
 general rule, may teach some good lessons to the ranks both 
 above and below. But more must be done than is now done 
 to cement the different orders of society, and introduce them 
 one to another. The great work of the day is to fill up, if it 
 may be, that now almost impassable gulf that yawns between 
 the employers and the employed nowhere so much as in our 
 great manufacturing cities. It is not the village laborer, with 
 his ten hungry mouths to be fed out of as many shillings a 
 week, who does this horrid deed, but the occupant of some 
 cellar or garret, under the smoke of tall chimneys, and ’near 
 the ceaseless bur of machinery. Uncared for, unvisited, un- 
 sought, and unknown ; buried in sensuality, and hardened by 
 want ; dark and moody, aimless and miserable, the wretched 
 parent conceives a morbid longing for some indulgences be- 
 yond her means, and having no pure and kindly influences to 
 correct the horrid craving, lets it take its course, and sinks to 
 a depth below humanity and brute nature itself. 
 
 But, while the grand jury of Liverpool are quietly suggest- 
 ing legislative remedies, another still more serious comment 
 will suggest itself to many a reflective mind. Such a crime is 
 more than a crime ; it is a prodigy — a portent — and has its 
 horrid significance. A deed scarcely more hideous, and sub- 
 stantially the same, but with more temptation, marked the 
 character of an awful siege, and the doom of a protected, but 
 then abandoned, people. When the mother had forgotten her 
 sucking child, then Heaven forgot its chosen race, and surren- 
 dered it to the fury of the nations. The people whose land 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 381 
 
 was thus first defiled, and then profaned, had left their deliv- 
 erer and the guide of their youth. The general wreck of nat- 
 ural feeling was consummated and represented in one hideous 
 act. But when we find among ourselves not one act alone, 
 but a prevailing and still increasing practice of the character 
 thus denounced, ought we not to draw the most fearful sur- 
 mises as to the general depravation of domestic feeling ? 
 Here are children born, nursed, nourished, fed, clothed, taught 
 to meet the mother’s smile, to lisp the mother’s name, to stand 
 upright, and make their first essays in the world, where they 
 might act so great a part. This, the work of years, and of 
 such cost and trouble, is all done, as it seems, with no more 
 heart than a woman would plant a row of cabbages, or let a 
 hen hatch a nestful of eggs. It is simply a crop to be planted, 
 watered, and then gathered in — a useful animal to be bred, 
 and converted into money in due time, — a speculation to be 
 wound up at the earliest opportunity. With what amount of 
 heart are families generally reared ? What is the inducement ? 
 Whose weal, and what weal, is the object of the long toils and 
 sacrifices ? When is it a work of nature, and when a mere 
 pecuniary speculation ? When for the child, and when for 
 the parent ? Certainly it is one of the scandals of civiliza- 
 tion that it sacrifices nature to schemes of ambition and ag- 
 grandizement, in which the more substantial interests, because 
 the more vital and eternal, are sacrificed. Is there not some 
 analogy in these sacrifices to the portentous deeds now so rife, 
 we are told, in the depraved population of the manufacturing 
 districts ? A reflection so painful, so delicate, and yet so 
 suggestive, we gladly leave in the hands of our readers, with 
 no further remark than that there does seem something hid- 
 eously significant in so extensive and so increasing a horror. 
 
382 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 PALMER, THE POISONER AT RUGELEY. 
 
 The cold-blooded murders of this ruffian are memorable ; 
 and the truly Saxon form of his heavy jaws and broad skull 
 was particularly noted. He is a type of criminal peculiarly 
 English. An American traveller says, — 
 
 “ It appears that one of the culprit’s favorite amusements, 
 both before and after his wife’s death, was the seduction of 
 country girls, whose virtue, I can readily believe, in these 
 parts, would not hold out long against a ‘ gentleman.’ It is 
 proved that on the night of his wife’s death he seduced the 
 servant girl who had been watching with him her last mo- 
 ments. Seven other girls have borne children to him, to each 
 of whom he allowed a weekly stipend for their support. Of 
 these, three died suddenly, in the full bloom of health and 
 youth ; and two others (now married) aver that they left his 
 house because they found themselves so frequently sick after 
 drinking a glass of wine with him. In their own words, they 
 ‘ consaited as how Measter Palmer wur tryin’ his physic on I, 
 i’ fun, as he did on dogs and cats.’ Poisoning would seem to 
 have been a controlling passion with the wretch ; he could not 
 refrain from experimenting upon his acquaintances in their 
 convivial moments. He exhibited neither tact nor caution in 
 his villany, — named one of his horses Strychnine , as if in 
 bravado, — a mere brutal, clumsy monster, in fact, who poi- 
 soned 6 i’ fun.’ ” 
 
 The same writer thus describes Rugeley, the scene of 
 Palmer’s wholesale poisonings, which description will apply 
 to a great many towns and villages in England as well. 
 
 66 Few Americans ever visit these rural districts in the cen- 
 tral counties of England ; and, without personal acquaintance 
 with them, no adequate conception can be formed of a state of 
 brutality, coarseness, and villany, coexistent with much wealth, 
 luxury, and no little parade of religion and church-going on a 
 Sunday. Rugeley is a pleasant little town enough, though very 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 383 
 
 old fashioned. The ancient hotels, and most of the larger res- 
 idences, are in a tumble-down condition. These last are gen- 
 erally surrounded by spacious and well-kept gardens, chiefly 
 owned by their occupants, who are, with few exceptions, per- 
 sons of independent means, unconnected with trade, and affect- 
 ing much contempt for all persons engaged in, or who have 
 retired from, business. The complacent snobbishness of these 
 little aristocrats is the most amusing feature of the place. 
 You meet here none of the squalid poverty and cringing men- 
 dicancy so common in the larger cities and manufacturing 
 towns. The laboring class appear to find sufficient employ- 
 ment on the surrounding farms, and are, I believe, better paid 
 than in any other county in England. The shopkeepers main- 
 tain a respectable appearance, and the numerous taverns and 
 beer shops seem to keep a roaring trade from morning till 
 night. Few strangers ever settle here, and few of the natives, 
 I presume, ever leave the neighborhood. Quick ruin awaits 
 any ‘ outsider ’ who is adventurous enough to seek his fortune 
 here, unless he happens to be as unscrupulous a rascal as they 
 who are to the manor born. The Rugeley man delights in 
 fleecing a stranger, and boasts how soon such-a-one was ‘ done 
 up/ and such-a-one was 6 cleaned out/ and sent back. The 
 population, therefore, presents somewhat the aspect of a snug 
 family party of gamblers and sensualists, — the son succeeding 
 to his father’s tavern, or store, or bankruptcy, and faithfully 
 preserving and transmitting his vices, his ignorance, and his 
 bigotry. 
 
 “ The place abounds with recrimination ; the buried scan- 
 dals of past years are resuscitated ; the clowns in the beer 
 houses speak with new-found boldness of the hushed-up vil- 
 lanies of their masters and the surrounding gentry; the 
 wealthier part of the community are at feud with each other 
 in consequence of mutual recriminations : many have aban- 
 doned the town in disgust ; and the only impression that a 
 stranger can form, from the stories now circulating in their 
 midst, is, that there never was an honest man or chaste woman 
 
384 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 in this detestable den. The superstitious lower classes dare 
 not pass the house at night where Palmer lived, nor could 
 they be induced after sundown to cross the churchyard where 
 the victims of the arch-poisoner are buried. These classes are 
 pure specimens of the unadulterated Saxon churl, — the iden- 
 tical clowns that Shakspeare drew, — ignorant, sensual, and 
 contented, speaking a dialect that a Christian man cannot un- 
 derstand, and which changes somewhat in every ten miles of 
 country you travel. Their master is 6 measter ’ or 4 gaffer,’ 
 their mistress is ‘ dame,’ their wives and daughters are ‘ gude 
 wenches,’ themselves are 6 chaw bacons ’ and ‘ clodhoppers.’ 
 They ‘ fettle ’ your horse, and servilely touch their felt hats if 
 you look at them. They attire themselves in corduroy breech- 
 es, and tremendous ankle boots, the soles of which are thickly 
 studded with large hob-nails ; and for an upper garment they 
 wear, in all its original elaborateness of stitch and embroidery, 
 the traditional ‘ smock-frock ’ or tunic of the old Saxon 6 vil- 
 lein.’ Their recreations are drinking and boxing ; and poach- 
 ing and sheep stealing are important parts of their occupation. 
 
 “ One wonders chiefly, on arriving at a town like this, how 
 the inhabitants gain a livelihood, and contrive to maintain the 
 sleek appearance most of them present. Once a week, on the 
 market day, a little animation is visible in the forenoon ; at all 
 other times an air of strange lethargy pervades the streets. 
 Groups of decently-dressed men lounge at the street corners, 
 having apparently nothing on earth to do or care about ; and 
 the storekeepers pass the day in loafing wearily in the door- 
 ways of their shops, gossipping with passers-by, while their 
 white-aproned apprentices inside loll about the counters as 
 lazy as their masters. The only relief to this tiresome mo- 
 notony is afforded in the afternoon by the arrival, on shopping 
 excursions, of dashing equipages belonging to the nobility and 
 gentry whose mansions are in the neighborhood.” 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 CONVENTS AND NUNS. 
 
 To the Editor of the Times . 
 
 Sir : Since you were choked off the Celt, you really seem 
 at a loss for something to worry. I cannot refer your attack 
 upon unoffending nuns to any Christian motive; it must be 
 the impulse of Saxon blood — the indiscriminate ferocity of 
 the bull-dog, that sees no distinction between a man and a gen- 
 tle virgin. O, in your might, let convents alone ! They don’t 
 cost you any thing, and they are not rich enough to be plun- 
 dered. These islands have had some respite since your in- 
 stinct got vent in India and elsewhere. But is virtue now so 
 high in England that Saxon propensities are no longer the 
 mainspring of Protestant liberty ? You improve as you are 
 becoming more Celtic. But the old plundering, violating, 
 murdering, book-burning, arts-destroying, music-hating Saxon 
 blood runs thickly in your veins yet. You are more hypocrit- 
 ical, that’s aH You come with your sleek bacon face to pro- 
 tect ladies from their own fathers, brothers, priests ; but, if 
 necessary , you will smash into nuns’ bedchambers, and call in 
 the aid of your English officers, those guardians of female 
 virtue in cities sanctified by their presence. You say that you 
 do not urge the convent-smashing bill on religious grounds. I 
 believe you, my boy. Celibacy or marriage are matters of 
 expediency with you. Very few of your military slaves are 
 permitted to marry, which no doubt adds immensely to the 
 morality of towns. When leave of marriage is granted to a 
 slave, he must bring his wife into the common barrack room. 
 You separate man and wife in your poorhouses ; you recog- 
 nize prostitution as a regular trade by giving publicity and 
 awarding damages to unmarried mothers. You have nothing 
 to say about your thousand houses of infamy, always let and 
 often furnished by your respectable citizens, who go with their 
 gilt Bibles on the Sabbath to praise the Lord. Penance and 
 retirement are too Popish for you. Your ladies often patron- 
 
 88 
 
880 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 ize and prefer unmarried wet nurses ; in short, you are indif- 
 ferent to married or single. You hate nunneries because they 
 are a Christian institution, and because you cannot, will not, 
 believe that any people could live in perpetual chastity. You 
 cannot smother your infidel contempt for the name of the 
 Holy Virgin. The profligate translators of your lion and uni- 
 corn Bible falsified the text in order' to put into the Redeem- 
 er’s mouth words insulting to his mother at the marriage in 
 Cana, and in all your endless editions your hireling churchmen 
 have, with the Greek text before them, perpetuated the blas- 
 phemous lie. Your whole moral existence is a horrid mock- 
 ery; your legislation a farce. Y"ou have no intention of re- 
 peating the old game of exciting us to premature rebellion. 
 You don’t seriously intend to violate the sanctuaries of our 
 women ; you merely wish to keep us in mind that there is a 
 ruling providence in Downing Street. If we did not feel the 
 rod occasionally, we might forget how to send up humble 
 petitions — a very wholesome and necessary practice for the 
 subject. Our devoted loyalty would want exercise ; our knee 
 joints might become anchylosed, our necks might stiffen. The 
 grand secret of English statesmanship is to promote an amus- 
 ing excitement among the people — to set the rabble by the 
 ears. This will prevent the mere serfs thinking of their own 
 selfish interests. Kick up an infernal dust about ecclesiastical 
 titles, and convents, and thumbscrews ; this will divert the 
 vulgar gaze from the curse of income taxes, and the salaries 
 and important services of my lords the silver sticks and sugar 
 sticks in waiting. When war or rumors of war produce ex- 
 citement enough, you can then withdraw internal stimulants, 
 and it may even be necessary to soothe and throw a sop to 
 the clamorous multitude whose opportunity is your difficulty. 
 As bloody murder gets up, Exeter Hall goes down — one 
 devil being enough at a time to keep the people infatuated. 
 
 Good Heavens ! what a struggle this little nation has had 
 with the devouring Saxon beast, half lion, half serpent. The 
 breath of history is laden with the victorious cheers and the 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 387 
 
 dying groans of the children of the Gael. Who can count 
 the heroes that bled on the field and on the scaffold ? What 
 mind can estimate the self-sacrifice of a people who abandoned 
 all and suffered all for God’s sake. The bodies of a million 
 martyrs are not yet decayed. If they had cursed God, and 
 spat upon the Virgin, your Saxons would have fed them with 
 soup — ay, would have emptied their bursting coffers to save 
 them. Your poorer murder their children. Your legislators 
 murder or starve nations. You take a savage delight in starv- 
 ing the Hindoos, denying them salt, the most important element 
 of their food, the want of which created cholera, that plague 
 which may be called the breath of Saxon tyranny. You know 
 it was the universal custom of your Saxons to murder their 
 babes when they grew too numerous — your laws record the 
 fact. It is equally notorious that the Saxons sold their own 
 wives and children into slavery. The poisoning trade has 
 merely succeeded to the Smithfield sales. Tyrants have 
 wasted with fire and sword, but there never was a nation of 
 such sleek-faced, cold-blooded, paternal rulers as you are. I 
 have witnessed death by starvation in this wealthiest of united 
 kingdoms. Corpses of large gaunt men, mothers, virgins, 
 babes ; and the ghastly eyes of the dead burned vengeance 
 into the hearts of the living never to be effaced. Was it un- 
 natural that I should have joined the devoted ranks of those 
 who abandoned their own worldly prosperity, and only hoped 
 to meet }^ou in bloody conflict ? And can it be credited that 
 our mother, the church, whom you blaspheme, taught me after 
 all this to forgive you — ay, even you ? It was a miracle, or 
 I am no man. I submitted to believe that Englishmen are 
 like other men, but this last act of yours has revived old feel- 
 ings, and confirmed me in the conviction that there is some- 
 thing inherently brutal in the Saxon nature. I believe that 
 your state is the rampant lion, and your church the hypocrit- 
 ical wolf of prophecy. You robbed and confiscated to your 
 hearts’ content — you hanged and butchered till you were 
 tired, or till the work was no longer safe. But the strong 
 
388 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 will of the Catholic Celt is unsubdued, and his heart is yet 
 uncorrupted by Saxon teaching and example. 
 
 Your mission has now less of brute force, but it is still more 
 hateful. Your generation is animated by the most dreadful 
 and loathsome devil. Your fathers were mere robbers, cut- 
 throats — somewhat blunt and open ; but you are a race of 
 vipers, of slanderers, and hypocrites. You habitually commit 
 the greatest crime against society — the murder of character. 
 You slandered the poor Celtic peasant when lie was in the 
 agonies of death. It was not enough that your fangs trans- 
 fixed his heart, you must also cover him with the filth of your 
 poison ; you slandered his humble priest that consoled him in 
 the last hour. And now you must indorse the malignant cal- 
 umnies of Exeter Hall and law-Bishop Whately against our 
 devoted virgins — our pride, the great glory of our humanity. 
 Ah ! “ Nothing canst thou to damnation add greater than 
 that.” I can now believe any thing of you. I can believe 
 that your aristocratic legislators secretly joined in the gloat - 
 ings of Exeter Hall over the starvation of Irish Papists. I 
 can believe that education, and rank, and title, and gaudy 
 equipage, may encircle rotten hearts. Christianity could work 
 a miracle on your Saxon nature. It did work miracles on you 
 before the apostle Harry and the immaculate Bess aroused the 
 latent instincts of your race. Now you are a nation of hyp- 
 ocrites, who talk most of The Word , and pay least attention 
 
 to it. 
 
 This nuns’ question is a fine subject for discussion in the 
 Commons. Why should we not reason upon it ? You pull 
 us by the nose, and insult our women, and you bid us reason 
 upon the matter. Well, you have certainly the one adiniiable 
 quality of coolness ; but some of us are cool enough too. Tou 
 have only to send your Queen, or your inspectors of nunneries, 
 and we will kiss their hands — some of us will. Pray don t 
 delay — prepare the royal yacht. We are most loyal and 
 obedient. We know that the arm of the law is strong, and 
 that you can make it triumphant against our gentle nuns. W e 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 389 
 
 will join Mr. John O’Connell in prayers for patience. We 
 are a moral-force people. We submit to the will of 
 Heaven ; and is not every thing the will of Heaven ? The 
 beastly banner of England is still rampant over the divine 
 emblems of Erin. The peasant is still under the hoof of land- 
 lordism. We are still forced to pay your ecclesiastical flunkies. 
 We did not fight in ’48, and, therefore, you suppose us cowards, 
 that will curse God if you bid us. 
 
 Powerful, and drunk with insolence, having no faith in per- 
 petual chastity, your indecent pimps come “ to inspect ” the 
 homes of Irishwomen. Already the Orange flunkies lick their 
 lips in anticipation. I made it a boast that all sects of Irish- 
 men loved decency and honor. In future I must except the 
 Orange press, and the hired clerical cook who panders to the 
 Saxon stomach. 
 
 Your insulting tone can arouse indignation, but not fear. 
 Your menaces are blustering, empty sounds. Your despotic 
 friends have turned against you in disgust. The Catholics in 
 Ireland were never more conscious of their true political course 
 than they are at present. We were never so united. In break- 
 ing up the clans, you merely strengthened us, by leaving the 
 only true and lasting bond — religion. 
 
 In this position we forced you to yield emancipation. We 
 have compelled you to swallow the ecclesiastical titles act. 
 Your nunneries bill may be a very harmless, a very good 
 thing, but we don’t like it ; and you may, therefore, smother 
 it, choke it, Saxon, choke it. It is your own offspring. 
 
 Sir, your bigotry makes you a booby, and a contemptible 
 despot. You bring disgrace upon modern legislation by pass- 
 ing acts which you dare not enforce, and proposing infamous 
 laws which no honest man could obey. 
 
 I am, sir, yours, &c., 
 
 John M‘Elheran. 
 
 Dublin, June 20, 1853. 
 
 33 * 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 890 
 
 ENGLISH AND FRENCH WORKMEN. 
 
 Mr. Iremenbere draws a comparison between the Eng- 
 lish and French workmen, the latter being much superior in 
 temperance, forethought, and economy. 
 
 “ I have conversed with many English gentlemen who know 
 the habits of the English colliers and other operatives, and 
 they all declare that the English are very improvident. The 
 Englishman generally has eaten up his wages before they are 
 earned. This is a general rule. Landlords of taverns run 
 up scores, and the foreman, who pays the men generally in a 
 tavern, pays the landlord. 
 
 “ Among the miners of Cornwall and the south-west, on the 
 contrary, the people are temperate and provident. They pre- 
 fer to clothe themselves neatly, and to put on their backs what 
 the Saxon puts in his belly. 
 
 “ The English managers of mines at Valenciennes say, that 
 were French artisans going to England they would be so dis- 
 gusted they would not stay. They would think they had got 
 among a savage race.” 
 
 ENGLISH IDEAS OF CRIMINALS. 
 
 The Illustrated London News, April 6, 1851, in an article 
 on 66 Our Criminal Population,” says, — 
 
 u As regards the present generation of men, who live amidst 
 the increasing crime, — which is the most unhappy fact, and 
 the most disgraceful feature, of our civilization, — the opinions 
 of the best informed are greatly divided. One class, with the 
 eccentric Mr. Carlyle at their head, would deal with criminals 
 upon the old system : they would flog, starve, chain, hang, be- 
 head, or quarter them — do any thing, in fact, to extirpate 
 them from the land as fast as they sprout up amongst us, like 
 noxious and over-prolific weeds. As for trying to reform them, 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 391 
 
 that is out of the question. Criminals may be men, but they 
 are not the brothers of the diseiples of this school. 4 Brothers ! 9 
 says Mr. Carlyle, 4 how can they be our brothers ? They are 
 our enemies/ How he would treat them all, appears from his 
 address to an imaginary criminal — the type of the whole class 
 
 — whom he thus apostrophizes in his pamphlet entitled Model 
 Prisons : 4 Caitiff ! 9 exclaims this wrathful prophet of the lat- 
 ter days, 4 we liate thee! We — not to be partakers in thy 
 destructive adventure of defying God and all the Universe — 
 dare not allow thee to continue any longer amongst us. As a 
 palpable deserter from the ranks where all men, at their eter- 
 nal peril, are bound to be — palpable deserter, taken with the 
 red hand, fighting thus against the whole Universe and its laws, 
 we send thee back into the whole Universe ; solemnly expel 
 thee from our community ; and will, in the name of God, — 
 not with joy and exultation, but with sorrow stern as thy own, 
 
 — hang thee on Wednesday next, and so end/ 4 Hopeless 
 forever,’ he continues, 4 is the method of love with criminals. 
 These abject, ape, wolf, ox, imp, and other diabolical animal 
 specimens of humanity, who of the very gods could ever have 
 commanded them by love ? A collar round the neck, and a 
 cart whip flourished o^r the back — these, in a just and 
 steady human hand, were what the gods would have appointed 
 them/ It is not many men who speak like this Habakkuk of 
 the Gentiles, but there is a good sprinkling of people who think 
 this trenchant mode of undoing the knotty question is the only 
 proper one, and that all mercy is misplaced which is shown to 
 criminals. 
 
 44 Another class would run to the opposite extreme, and 
 lodge the delinquents in the model prisons which so power- 
 fully raise the bile of the philosopher just quoted, and give 
 them, to use his words, 4 light work — picking oakum, and the 
 like — in airy apartments, with glass roofs, of agreeable tem- 
 perature and perfect ventilation ; ’ and feed them on 4 bread, 
 cocoa, soup, meat, and other kinds of food — all of excellence 
 superlative/ ” 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 892 
 
 The editor quotes the various methods, the severe and the 
 lenient, that have failed to reclaim the Anglo-Saxons. “ Soci- 
 ety is utterly puzzled what to do ; ” but “ society is rightly 
 served. It has sown criminals, and it must reap them.” Ig- 
 norance and poverty, he concludes, are the sources of crime. 
 But the educated and comfortable English are proved to be as 
 murderous and dishonest almost as the low English, and they 
 have easier means to elude detection. 
 
 Carlyle is right. Nothing but the halter ever kept the 
 Anglo-Saxon in order. Jack Ketch preaches the gospel for 
 him. England never found a respite from the fever of Gothic 
 blood in her veins. Her disgusting scrofula never seemed to 
 dry up until transportation gave an outlet to the bad blood. 
 But now that this relief is arrested, immediately we see Eng- 
 land again the England of Saxon times — with the exception 
 that choking has taken the place of the knife, or sac , from which 
 the Sacsans got their name. 
 
 England is Christian just in as far as her people are forci- 
 bly restrained from taking the license of private judgment and 
 consequent action which Protestantism allows. The true 
 Protestant is he who takes faith alone as his rule, and whose 
 faith is his own private judgment^ and whose own private 
 judgment allows him to gratify his natural instincts, to break 
 from restraint, and trample on authority ; whose reading of 
 the Bible guides him in his own private judgment, and whose 
 own private judgment guides him in reading the Bible. 
 
 The English, with all their roaring bigotry, and snivelling 
 cant, and slimy, sanctimonious souperism, care not a farthing 
 for religion. The mock establishment exists simply because 
 it is an institution, and because there is no party strong enough 
 to wrench it from the high class who live by it. It remains 
 because the mediocracy get their pickings out of it one way 
 or another ; and there is the gentility of it, and the family 
 connections, and the aristocratic patronage and influence ram- 
 ifying through society. But, above all, it is an engine of po- 
 litical power — an act o f Parliament , and as such defended by 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 393 
 
 the sword of state, and the policeman’s baton. But the people 
 at large despise it, and care not one fig for the supposed Chris- 
 tianity of the thing. 
 
 There is this distinction between Irish and English crime, 
 that the Irishman is impelled by some fierce passion of anger 
 or revenge, and is conscious of crime ; the Englishman gen- 
 erally commits crime with animal indifference, and without 
 after remorse ; his only conscience is fear of the civil law. 
 This is what makes England truly pagan. There is always 
 hope of a people who have a conscience. But the most hope- 
 less feature in Anglo-Saxonism is hypocrisy. 
 
 The Anglo-Saxons affect to despise the superstitions ” of 
 the Celts in paying honor to the Mother of Christ ; but they 
 themselves readily afforded a multitude of believers in Jo- 
 hanna Soutlicote, who declared herself pregnant with the true 
 Messiah. 
 
 The people of New York remember the congregation of the 
 most wealthy and intelligent class who worshipped a man call- 
 ing himself God Almighty. Many proved the sincerity of 
 their belief by signing over to him their property. They 
 raised him on a grand throne, and paid him divine honors as 
 long as the fever lasted. This, however, was a harmless farce 
 in comparison with the sanguinary rites of Mrs. Wakeman. 
 
 The English are a very credulous people in material mat- 
 ters. Meaningless blasphemies, if they appeal to the senses, 
 are gulped down with a voracity astonishing. Witchcraft, 
 rappings, quack medicines, miraculous pills for all diseases, 
 Dr. Haygartli’s Metallic Contractions, Greatrake’s Sympathetic 
 Salve, which infallibly cured a wound if rubbed on the knife 
 or pistol that inflicted the injury, homoeopathy, &c., not to 
 mention the famous Cock Lane Ghost, and the dancing por- 
 ridge pots of Baldanach — all firmly believed in by the en- 
 lightened British people. 
 

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