CHANGE IN ENGLISH SOCIETY.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 274, 26 November 1878, Page 4

CHANGE IN ENGLISH SOCIETY.

The Saturday Review, commenting on the famous B ago t will case, Baj/B- ; :-~ "One wonders how many more public exposures of the extravagances, follies, and Woreo elements,' now so largelyprevalent in those ranks of Bociety whicli to a considerable extent regulate the tone of national life, will be needed before people awake to a cooseioosness of the Dooeesity of a thorough reformstion in taste and morale, if the English character is to retain . that '. simplicity and right-thinking which we are wont to claim as among its peculiar virtues. The worst feature is that the cteqadence ' appears more rapid and Widespread in the case of women than- of men. So j long sb women continue to uphold a high standard of morality, courtesy, and respect for what ia ; worthy of respect,! so long at leaat will men endeavor to i disguise their lower tastes and modes of (bought. It is women who set the feeling of society, and men have peri force to avoid outraging that feeling; when women thought none the Worse of a man for drinking hard, men goi drunk in society; when : "women ,,.tqli9r rated. swearing, men swore in ; Bociety; Signs are unhappily, not wanting that the influence of women in, EngljaH. society is either being less strenuousljii exerted for good, or is actually, tending/ to produce the opposite result.-; To^ judge merely from the public we nave ladieß^ spending largo" 'for lUßea in dres^s, submitting themselves! to t^a degrading, operations of enameHers, making frea usa of latch-keya. aod Indulging in dangerous dissipations, while the Divorce Court deals with still more heinous deriieciions . of female : doty; Nor can an observant person fail to be struck with the manifest intolerance of restraint exhibited but too commonly by women who, from their position;, might be expected to take a higher/ view of their calling in life. We have now^got to the stage at. whip^ r thi& symptom is moat strongly developed , in the younger members of -the . .aex— >ai discouraging omen for the future. It' is painful to dwell on thiß feature of modern life; bat the evil is '% crying

onj>, ahdLubfiirtunitely. .ieeros likely: -id? become more permanent aud progreg-li siv ; e, to tho'dpxof&lt pf allitliatciaTgopd and elevating is.soeiety. '.'