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Southland Times, Issue 1553, 19 March 1872, Page 3

The well-established axiom that " circumstances alter cases," has been curiously illustrated in England. While the respectable portion of our British cousins hold up their hands in holy horror at the improprieties with which Paris has flooded the London stages, they quietly tolerate a far more indecent exhibition in broad daylight. We allude to the famous Lady G-odiva procession at Coventry, where as the yearly anniversary comes round, a young woman rides through the town, in the nearest approach allowable to the nudity of the wife of Earl Leobric. That there is no difficulty in obtaining young women to represent the character, is shown by the fact that this year there were rivals for the honor. An English paper says : — "So equitable are our laws, and so gloriously impartial as to the abstract morality or immorality of any claim which may come before them on its purely technical merit, that the court of common pleas has been occupied in deciding the compensation due the Lady G-odiva for not allowing her to ride through Coventry. A speculator had engaged a person not too careful of appearance to act Jthe Saxon heroine in the fresco manner stated. By some misunderstanding or other, another woman was subsequently engaged and sent through the business. The first Gtodiva claimed damages for the broken contract, and the jury found for her — damages, fifteen pounds, eighteen shillings. Who, after this, will complain of the Puritan spirit in England ? "