Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERT EVENING. GISBORNE. TUESDAY. JANUARY 13, 1903. ENGLISH NEUROTICS.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 9638, 13 January 1903, Page 2

Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERT EVENING. GISBORNE. TUESDAY. JANUARY 13, 1903. ENGLISH NEUROTICS.

When, as we read m our mail uews published last evening, society women of high degree throng the Law Courts day after day to listen to the unsavory details of a fashionable divorce suit, it is not surprising to find that English papers are discussing the question of the neurotic development m high life. Two lawsuits illustrating this development were before tlie public at the end of November, and were being discussed by everybody. One was the Peur'uddocke case and the other the Hartopp divorce case. The peculiar feature about the former was that a high

society lady, whose ,l.u>baji(l \>- the first cousin to a Cabinet Minister, although convicted <if persistent cruelty to one of her own children, a puny little mite, slightly deformed, lias been let oil' with a nominal monetary penalty. The judge, practically apologised to the prisoner for haying to inflict, any penalty at all, and this, coupled with the fact that a tine d! £50. is no real punishment, is arousing a storm of public indignation which is helplessly beating itself against the grim rocks of official impassivity. There certainly is m England, remarks the correspondent of a Sydney paper commenting.! on the ease, not exactly one law for the rich and one for the poor, but a, difference m the administration of the law as affecting the two classes. In Mrs Pt?nruddoeke's case the oilmen wa.s so brutal that the obvious punishment, was a prison, but the judge practically negatived the verdict of the jury by inflicting a. £50 line on a rich county lady, whose husband had only just previously paid over a cheque of*soo guineas to Sir Edward Clarke to defend her, besides, probably, incurring another £500 expenses m junior counsels, solicitors and witnesses' fee.s. Not a newspaper m the country has defended the judge. Nearly all have severely, and m some cases savagely, at tacked him. Yet so strong is the class influence m political life m this country that nothing has been done by Parliament beyond placing on record a few questions and answers relating to the case. In New Zesdaiid, we are thankful to think, the adjournment of the House would have been moved at the next sitting day, iind a heated debate, reflective of the general public indignation, would have extracted from the Ministry an expression, of opinion that would practically have rendered it impossible for the same, or any other, judge to repeat this grave error of judgment. In England both the Ministry and the majority of the members of Parliament have a class sympathy with the judge and the convicted delinquent, and thuir chief anxiety is to smother the thing up as soon as possible. On the very next day follow!nig the nominal imposition, of the money penalty, three women of tl»> poorer classes were convicted of similar offences, and sentenced to terms of imprisonment. The contrast m. tlie measure of punishment excited so much resentment that when, a few days later, the same judge who presided m Mrs Penruddocke's ca.-e .had to adjudicate m a case m which a working man's wife was concerned, the jury acquitted her without leaving the box. The other case which was tilling the papers and engrossing public attention was the Hartopp divorce case. Lady Hartopp is the daughter of the Hull Wilsons (the big shipowners) and a relative of the Tranby Crolt Wilsons, who will be remembered m connection with a celebrated bacarrat case. The evidence given throws a lurid light on the decadent conditions under which at least some members of the aristocratic classes of England are living. Not many weeks ago every club smoking room m London was discussing the reported seclusion of a wealthy peer who was accused of unmentionable immoralities. The fact that such things can be attributed to a man m his position, and even discussed as within t.he region of possibility, is, remarks the correspondent referred to, indicative of the mental attitude of the public towards the aristocracy. The writer, who is understood to be the editor of one of the leading Sydney dailies, proceeds :—"ln common with most Australian visitors to England during the Coronation period, I had many opportunities of seeing something of" England's aristocracy at such close quarters as may be provided by garden parties, luncheons, dinners and receptions. The impression, left on my 'mind as the result of these experiences is that the newer generation of English aristocratic women is largely neurotic. They have wealth and leisure; they are highly strung ; their nerves . are on the surface, and always at a high state of tension; they are saturated with literature of the order of the French novel and the English sex problem novel; and their mental and moral standard generally is perilously close to the "risque." The men are better, for the reason, I suppose, that their energies find an outlet m athletics, m sport, m. politics and sometimes m business. The women have no such resource. Their lives are. superficial, and they live under such excessive social strain that physical vitality has to be artificially sustained, and the absence of domestic and business occupation m their lives has to be supplied by unwholesome excitement. This is not time of women of the middle class. They are usually well educated, much more so than the men m many cases. They have many accomplishments, such as m literature, art. and music; they are fond of home life and out-of-door sports, and altogether are. I think, the brightest and bonniest women m the world. They di> not suffer from that restraint of convent life exclusion to which most of the* French girls are subjected, and they have not that artificiality of the American girls. The women 'of the poorer class m England are much the same as women of a similar class all over the world, with the exception I have pointed out m previous communications that they are more addicted to drinking habits. So far as English women are concerned the danger with this and the coming generation is with those of the aristocratic class. This neurotic phase may be only temporary, but it is very serious."