her, and, squeezing her throat violently, causes
a rupture of the gall-duct and the liver, which
eventually bring about the woman's death. We
have these facts on the testimony of an eye-witness,
a little girl who calls these two her father
and mother.

Another day's record comes before us, and we
read, this time, about Joseph Wood, a Crimean
pensioner, and his wife. These two, on the
days when the pension was paid, were in the
habit of going the round of the public-houses
and getting very drunk. On one such occasion
—again the principal witness is a child of the
accused criminal—they come home specially
drunk and quarrelsome, and the man orders his
wife to go up-stairs, and demands, for some
drunken reason, that the blinds shall be drawn
down. The woman goes up-stairs, as she is
told to do, and gets under the bed, apprehensive,
no doubt, of what may be coming, and
thinking, perhaps, in her drunken stupidity,
that her husband, in his drunken stupidity, will
forget all about her if he does not see her. He
does not do so, however; but coming up-stairs
himself sends one of the children, a boy, down
below for "a razor and a knife." Then the
man, as this wretched boy testifies, begins, at
first, cutting the woman with these instruments
as she lies under the bed; but presently afterwards
drags her out from her hiding-place, and,
getting her on to the hearth, falls furiously
upon her, beats her with a "bed-rail," and, in
the end, kills her. More instances of rage and
detestation at work between married people are
forthcoming as we read on. Here is the case
of Ann Slack, killed by her husband at the
Holmes, Doncaster. As, in most of the other
instances quoted, drink seems to have been the
original cause of the dissensions which sprung
up between these two people. The woman, it
seems, was addicted to drink, and was in the
habit of pawning the smaller articles of furniture
in the house for the purpose of supplying
herself with liquor. The man, "up to the last
two years, had conducted himself respectably,
but within that period he also had fallen into
intemperate habits." His conduct towards his
wife was, however, generally kind and forbearing,
and he had endeavoured to reclaim her
before he had himself fallen into drunken habits.
The old monotonous story follows. The man
comes home drunk, finds his wife drunk also;
they quarrel, and the man drives his case-knife
into the woman's neck, and the blow, dividing
the carotid artery, she dies in a very few
minutes.

These assaults on women do not always
terminate fatally. The women survive them
sometimes, and go about their ordinary avocations,
maimed, and bruised, and disfigured, as
we may see for ourselves, if we choose to
frequent the courts and by-streets about Drury-
lane and Seven Dials, or, indeed, in any other
"low neighbourhood." We might have met
with a poor woman thus disfigured, in the
Clerkenwell district, if our occasions had taken
us there, a few weeks ago. Let us hear what
is to be heard about her. She was married, it
seems, to a man named Stallard, who assaulted
her three weeks after marriage, and with whom
she had lived very unhappily since. One night,
reduced to desperation, and afraid of his
violence, she took a dangerous step, and locked
him out of the house. Of course this only
inflamed his anger. He broke open the door,
seized a candlestick, and beat her with it on the
head and arms. Her cries of murder brought
assistance, and she was saved from further
violence; but the injuries which she had received
were visible a week afterwards, and caused her
much pain.

Here is another instance of assault which
does not terminate fatally, but only in bruises
and contusions. This case and the last are
reported in the same newspaper. "Frederick
Jenks" is the name of the assailant this time,
and he is described as a labourer, and accused
of committing a violent assault upon his wife,
"a young woman of respectable appearance,"
who states that her husband had frequently ill-
used her, and that he was imprisoned two years
before for six months for assaulting her. One
evening, recently, he came in and made use of
violent threats towards her. "He left the
house, and returned about ten o'clock, and the
moment she opened the door he rushed upon
her, struck her a severe blow on the breast, and
knocked her down. While she was down, he
struck her several blows, and deliberately
kicked her on the left eye. She remained
insensible for a short time, and on endeavouring
to rise, he seized a chair, and threatened to dash
her brains out." The woman's cries brought
assistance when things had reached this point,
and the man was given in custody.

These attacks on women, of which we read,
are not confined to acts of violence committed
by men on their wives. In one of these
reports, with which we are occupying ourselves,
we find a son guilty of the almost impossible
crime, as it seems, of assaulting his mother.
Let us hear her own evidence against her son.
It is very terrible. "Mrs. Colman, an aged,
respectable person, said that she carried on
business as an upholsterer at 48, Union-street,
Kennington-road. On Saturday night the
prisoner went to her house in a state of drunkenness,
and abused her in a most fearful
manner. He struck her two violent blows in
the face, and knocked her down. While on the
ground, he followed up the outrage by kicking
her on the head and body. He continued this
conduct for some time, and threatened her with
a knife and a poker. She was very ill from the
effects of the prisoner's violence, and went in
bodily fear."

Surely after this it is unnecessary to quote
any more instances of assaults committed by
men upon women. We may get away from
this unpalatable subject—only, however, to
approach another.

Perhaps next to the frequency of those savage
attacks upon women, which we have just been
considering, there is no single circumstance more
calculated to strike any attentive observer of our
crime records than the continual recurrence of