es to human improvement; it
ought to be replaced by a principle of perfect equality, admitting no
powers or privileges on the one side or disability on the
other.--_Subjection of Woman, John Stuart Mill_.

[220] The _Worcester Chronicle_ of recent date gives an account of a
wife sale in England. Thomas Middleton delivered up his wife Mary M.
to Philip Rostius, and sold her for one shilling and a quart of ale,
and parted from her solely and absolutely for life, "not to trouble
one another for life." Philip Rostius made his mark as a witness. A
second witness was S. H. Shore, Crown Inn, Trim street.

[221] In the peace made by the Sabines with the Romans, after the
forcible abduction of the Sabine maidens, one of the provisions was
that no labor, except spinning, should be required of these Roman
wives.

[222] THE FAIR SEX IN THE ALPS.--The farmers In the Upper Alps, though
by no means wealthy, live like lords in their houses, while the
heaviest portion of agricultural labors devolves on the wife. It is no
uncommon thing to see a woman yoked to the plough with an ass, while
her husband guides it. An Alpine farmer accounts it an act of
politeness to lend his wife to a neighbor who has too much work, and
the neighbor in return lends his wife for a few days' labor whenever
requested.

[223] Lord Shaftesbury bringing the subject before Parliament.

[224] A STORY OF IRELAND IN 1880.--Recently, a young girl named
Catherine Cafferby, of Belmullet, in County Mayo--the pink of her
father's family--fled from the "domestic service" of a landlord as
absolute as Lord Leitrim, the moment the poor creature discovered what
that "service" customarily involved. The great man had the audacity to
invoke the law to compel her to return, as she had not given
statutable notice of her flight. She clung to the door-post of her
father's cabin; she told aloud the story of her terror, and called on
God and man to save her. Her tears, her shrieks, her piteous pleadings
were all in vain. The Petty Sessions Bench ordered her back to the
landlord's "service," or else to pay L5, or two weeks in jail. This is
not a story of Bulgaria under Murad IV., but of Ireland in the reign
of the present sovereign. That peasant girl went to jail to save her
chastity. If she did not spend a fortnight in the cells, it was only
because friends of outraged virtue, justice, and humanity paid the
fine when the story reached the outer world.

[225] The son of the lat