THE WIFE MARKET.

Waikato Times, Volume XXII, Issue 1818, 1 March 1884, Page 2

THE WIFE MARKET.

Ihat Frenchmen live on frogs and English-men sell their wives are two tenets of the ethnical creed which die very hard, Possibly, by this time, the British Philistiue has discovered that srenouilles, though sufficient toothsome dainties, are rather too costly for an habitual article of diet ; but, if one may judged from the Gallic drama, it is still generally accepted that when the average Briton gets tired of his spouse lie has ouly to put .1 rope round her neck and offer her to the highest bidder. "Go, sell your vife in Smifel ! "cried a model paragon in a popuhr play, and though the origin of this extraordinary fiction is perhaps of ancient date, the report of a ease which has just been tried before Mr Justice Denman at the Liverpool Assizes goes far to confirm our amiable neighbours in this view of our insular eccentricities. Betsy Wardle. of Eccleston, was charged with having bigamously mai ried George Chesnel, of the same locality, and confessed the impeachment, but with the proviso that her former husband having thus sold her for a q tart of beer the divorce thus promptly obtained was sound in law and not very bad in morality. Witnesses appeared in support of this extraordinary plea, all es identiy convinced that Betsy Wardle was the victim of a vexatious indictment, and though the husband who had sold her wisely kept out of the way. George Chesnel confirmed the account of the transactions in undisguised astonishment at the fresh view of the marrage ceremony which Mr Justice Denman then and there expounded. Indeed, either actually or as accessories before the fact, everybody seemed to have committed bigamy, but as the occupants both of the dock and the witness box were evidently convinced that a man had as good a right to sell his wife as his pig or his bull-dog, the majesty of the law was sufficiently vindicated by Mrs Wardle— who insisted on considering herself Mrs Chesnol— being imprisoned for one week. The story is, doubtless, an interesting one for the antiquary and folk lorist. But for the good people who have been spending the past_ week in celebrating the mental emancipation which becan at Wittenberg, this slight insight into the darkness of the nineteenth century is rather depressing. And the worst of what we must call a degrading business is that the case is by no means singular, and might be capped by a Bcore of others just as unflattering to the race, the country, and the times in which such beliefs are possible. Indeed, scarcely a year elapses without some event of the kind. Usually a shilling, or its equivalent in beer, is the value received by the husband who resolves on this primitive mode of divorce. Occasionally, if the lady happens to be possessed of peculiar attractions, a bull pup is thrown in ; and at other times, when the wife market rules low the quotation as with Betsy Wardle, falls as low as sixpennyworth of malt liquor. Now and then the transaction is gone about with a show of what are regarded as legal forms. The wife, who plays a willing part in the negotiations, is foi merly exposed with a halter round her neck, and knocked down at Dutch auction, and there are instances on record in which something in the shape of a fornnl lecord of sale and delivery ha& been drawn up, with the object of rendering the transaction bindiug on all parties In 1835, a farmer, finding that he and his w ife were not likely to lead a happy life, brought her into Carlisle, and announcing the auction by means of the town bellman, disposed of her to one Henry Mears for 20s and a Newfoundland dog, Meat's and the woman going one way, the late owner and the dog another— all four apparently well contented with their respective shares in the bargain. The most amazing part of the story is that the authorities placed no obstacles in the husband's way, though the local papers preserved the speech with which he prefaced the auction. "Gentlemeu," remarked the wife-selling farmer, " she can read novels and milk cows, she can laugh and weep with the same etse that you can take a glass of ale w hen thirsty. She can make butter and scold the maids ; she can sing Moore's melodies, and paint her frills and caps. She cannot make rum, gin, or whisky ; but she is a good judge of the quality, from long experience in tasting them." In lSlo, at the regular action held in Pontefiact Market-place, a wife was sold for 11s, and in 1820 a decent-looking man named Brouchet, failing to get a cattle salesman to dispose of his wife in the Canterbury Maiket, hired a pen, and with a straw rope round her neck — all in due form — sold her for the sum of ss, less Gd, which lie was charged for the use of thestind. But, as the following entry in the Brighton market book proves, this had its match six years later :: — •' May 17, 1826," so runs the business-like memorandum, "Mr Hilton, of Lodsworth, publicly sold his wife for 30s, upon which the toll of Is waa paid." In 1835 there occurred an instance in which a wife brought the unprecedented sum of £15, and proved so healthy a bargain that she survived both buyer and seller and married again, and, notwithstanding the contention of the defendants to the contrary, waa able to maintain her rights to some property which she inherited. The verdict created great surprise, and in 1837, when a man was sentenced at the West Riding Sessions to a month's hard labour for selliug his wife, rural Yorkshire waa loud in protest against the injustice of the finding. Again, in 1858, a women described as " young and pretty " was exposed for sale in a beershop at Little Horton. The auction was duly announced by the bellman, and the husband, anxious to do everything iv what he considered legal style put a ribbon round her neck, instead of • the rope which is regarded in popular esteem as an indispensible adjunct to the proceedings. Scores of similar incidents might be culled from the current history of the last few years, through the only instruction derivable from them would be the proof of the parties to the " sale" being implicitly of belief that they were taking part in a legal ceremony, and that by such a formal disposal the husband clearer! himself of all further liabilities for supporting his wife.

" Ik my airly days," said the old roan, as he shovelled the coal into an upcountry scnool-house basemeat, " they didn't depend on no coal to keep us school 'uns warm, I kin tell yon." " What did they use V asked a boy near by. A dreamy, retrospective look passed over the aged man's wrinkled face, and he sighed as he responded : " They used birch, my boy — birch.'' Minister (softly) : " I hope I see you keeping well, John. I hope ." John (heartily): "Thank ye fur speerin, minister ! I hae little tae compleen o* but the rheumatisms in ma left leg. Minister (earnestly) : "Just that, John ! Now look at the matter seriously. Yon are growing old. See what > old age brings. I hope ." John (shortly): "Auld nee? Hoots awa ! Ma weel leg's as aulds ma game yin, an' it disna compleen !" Mr Trewin of Te Awimutu offer* a f«r»ni fot