A letter from a clergyman to Miss Mary Blandy, now a prisoner in Oxford Castle; with her answer thereto : as also Miss Blandy's own narrative of the crime for which she is condemn'd to die ... To which is prefixed, a letter occasioned by reading Miss Blandy's trial.

  • Blandy, Mary, 1720-1752
Date:
[1752]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A letter from a clergyman to Miss Mary Blandy, now a prisoner in Oxford Castle; with her answer thereto : as also Miss Blandy's own narrative of the crime for which she is condemn'd to die ... To which is prefixed, a letter occasioned by reading Miss Blandy's trial. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    oe thands of jufticey perhaps to be more exquifitely punifi- ed in the ftate of a profligate abandoned fugitive; fent, ike the firfl murderer, to wander over the earth, till he fhall cry with Cain, My punifbment is greater than can But I will leave this wretch likewife to the horrors of his own confcience, to wandering, to beggary, to fhame, to contempt. This letter is defigned for the ufe of the ation, who feldom ftray but when they are mifled by men; by whom they are deceived, corrupted, betrayed, and often brought to deftruétion, both of foul and body. In the fequel, therefore, I will treat in general of thefe corrupters of the innocence of women; and of the ex- tream bafenefs, as well as cruelty of this practice, how favourably foever the world may pleafe to receive it. This bafe and barbarous man was, they fay, an officer ‘in the army 3 a fort of people who, I know not for what ‘reafon, live in an eternal {tate of real hofltility with the female fex; and feem to think, that by deftroying our enemies in war, they contract a right to deftroy our wives and daughters in time of peace. I would not be here underftood to infinuate that there ‘are many Cranjflons to be found in the Engli/h army. On tthe contrary, I fincerely believe it would be difficult, per= it is, that through the prevailance of cuftom, the ruin of a woman is far from being regarded amongft our mili- tary gentlemen, or indeed amongft others, with that ‘made the fubject of mirth ; nay, I am deceived, ifin{tead ‘of being confidered on the man’s fide as a mark of dif- grace, it is not fometimes treated as a point of honour, viewed in the light of a vidtory, and thought to add new laurels to thofe which have been acquired in the field, —