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July 8,1854.] THE LEADER. 639
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[1JT THIS &EPAEXMEKT, Aj9 AM. OPINIONS, ...
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There is no learned, rbiua but -will con...
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TBDE AUSTRIAN ALLIANCE. (To iheEdUorpfih...
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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The Yenerable Loud And His Fair Circassi...
tional" in deference to the assurance that such , occurrences , frequent as they may be , are to be regarded , not as a custom , "bat as a breach , of custom . The abduction case at Tipperary ia not an . exceptional case , but it is ratler an evidence of conservatism in Ireland ; for confessedly , amongst Irish manners and customs , abduction ranks as well as marriage ; and it belongs to all classes . It ia not denied . It is supposed that something of the
irregular chivalry of the Irish character enters into the offence . Men confess that they have been guilty of abduction as they would confess that they had been victorious in a duel , or that they are generously imprudent . At all events the abducer , as in this particular case , must be to a certain extent in earnest , and prepared to risk himself and his bones , as well as his purse with what it may contain . Young ladies may not like to have their consent presumed , or forcibly discounted ; they , like the Austrian subjects ,
may resent a compulsory loan of their affections . But it has happened before now that th » display of desperate earnestness , the braving of cudgels and kicks , has so far impressed the female heart , that these compulsory courtships have ended in willing matrimony , and the couple liave " lived happy ever after . " It is rather remarkable that this practice of marriage perforce exists in a country where the rule oi matrimony is far more strictly observed than in moral lEngland or super-moral Scotland .
But the case to Which we refer , in . the Court of Common Pleas , is so " exceptional , " that people hesitate to talk about it distinctly . The facts are obvious eDough . Here is a young lady whose Christian , name is Ellen , and whose surname is said to be French , apparently on the strength of her having occupied that name as a tenant-at-will . It would be very wrong to describe the lady as admitting the principle enunciated by Queen Dido , and regarding Trojan or Tynan without
discrimination . For twelve years , according to the statement made in court , this lady has been living ostensibly in the marriage state , and during that ; period the successive husbands , , by courtesy , have only amounted to four or five in number . She lived with a gentleman ; then with the son of a chronometermaber ; then with a nobleman , who is called a . venerable nobleman ; then with Mr . Kolt . It is not exactly correct to say that she lived with , the venerable nobleman : she lived , under his " protection , * and had a house at
Uutlandgate . "With Mr . Eolt , the arrangement was , that Bhe should have a house in Lowndesstreet , Lowndcs-square , leased under a majorgeneral , Mr . Eolt paying the rent . She furnished the house , paid the servants , including footmon and coachman and a " proper establishment , " Avith a valet for Mr . lloltand in short kept up the mansion . Ho arranged , it is said , to pay her 502 . a month . When humbler persons are passing through the regions of Belgravia , looking up at the
great mansions , they surmise , correctly enough , that a person ' living in any one of Ihoae houses must enjoy an income measured not by hundreds but by thousands . And if the surmise is not correct , the trades men in the neighbourhood have to pay for tho mistake But if tho passenger Avoro to presume that tho tenant of each house , as he passes it , is settled in lilb , or about to settle in life ,
according to tho professed custom of England , ho would mjvlco a mistake Hero and thcro , we cannot venture- to eay how frequently in the order of houses , thoro will bo a lady married only in name . Hero and thoro will bo a " venerable" nobloxnnn , whoso ostensible ) establishment , pcthapa , inoludos a venerable lady and irreproachable daughters , but whoso actual establishment also includes a lady of a
class whom it is not polite to talk about . Here and there will be a Mr . Rolt , whose establishment . we have already described . A _ ud , perhaps , in less aristocratic parts , there will be the son of the chronometer-maker , and other gentlemen who partake more or less in the life which as carried on at these exceptional mansions .- For the mansions , we presume , must be exceptional—like the money , the jewels , the plate , and several other very tangible things , which Mr . Oxenham , the auctioneer , can handle ; which will sell for thousands and thousands of money , and which are requisite for such a sphere of life .
Novr we have no desire whatever to penetrate into private life ; but we cannot avoid remarking the distinction observed in court between commoners , whose names are dragged forward freely , and other persons , morally in the same category , whose names are withheld because they are " noble" or " venerable "
—venerable notwithstanding Ellen French ; noble , notwithstanding they are doing things which tliey are ashamed to have talked about . "We do not desire to penetrate the veil ; we have no wish to know whether the " venerable" jiobleman is " the old Marquis" whom we , hare before met ; or not the Marquis , but the noble Earl , or Lord —— , or Xord
——' . It might be either one of these men , whose habits and customs are generally well known ; or some others ; for they are no worse than their kind , and can easily bring forward parallels . "We should not care even to have known the name of Mrs . Holt ' s husband during those two years ending in August , 1852 ; nor the son of the chronometermaker . Sufficient for us that there are Such
people , living in such houses , conducting their affairs according to a well-recognised etiquette more or less known to each other , and able to say that they are no worse than their class . Sufficient to us that they do not belong exclusively to the rank of commoner or of noble , but to both ; not to one district of London or to another , but to all , from Belgravia to Bethnal Green , from Marylebone to Newingtoa Butts .
If the cases are " exceptional , " as it was said in the case of Alice Leroy , of Margaret JReginbal , and a hundred noted crim-cons ., it is curious how they dovetail into each other . Unless there are half-a-dozen venerable noblemen or marquises doing all the Don Juanism , of their class , there must be several persons of that select body whose wanderings can he traced in most of the -well-tenanted
parishes of the metropolis . Yet , muster the body , —peers , heirs , and cadets , —ask them for their opinions on moral subjects , —and , in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred , if not more , you will find a solemn profession of the orthodox sentiments . But again let us ask , how can morals sealed by the ratification of authorities like these he worth anything ? Ask which is right , tho practice or the profession of society ? Or are neither of thorn quite ia the right p
Wo axp induced to think that tho last supposition ist the true one ; but at all events , let us noto the fact , that the exceptional cases , although under tho surface , are so widely spread as to become connectod with each other ; and that those who make laws for us politically na wcn aa socially , the wealthy as well as tlio parliamentary , oxo as often jtound in theso exceptional cases as in
price paid for her . A " femme incomprdse " is one who cannot get her price . The ambition of the fair Circassian is to be bought , conveyed to Constantinople , and settled for life in an harem . It is in form rather than in substance that the custom of our own country varies ; only that the lot of tho woman purchased may be of trtfo kinds . She may be bought and married , and take her chance of happiness in the ostensible home
of a venerable Lord ; or she may be bought , and not married , but take her lot in the tuiostensible home . And then , for the certainty of the harem , she exchanges the freedom of London . Three different women will follow the three different paths ; and viewing the three chances together , we are not quite sure which of the three ladies has the best of the bargain . A death-bed comparison of notes might ^ be an interesting and a ghastly con * fession .
their recognised position . An English ofliqoy cruising with our ileet in tho Black Sea , recently , discovered a family of Circassians , father and daughters . Tho daughters Mere fair , tho English were comely , and tho liulios were anxious to be " bought ; . " Such is tho custom of their country ; and a woman understands how much who is appreciated , litorally , by tho
July 8,1854.] The Leader. 639
July 8 , 1854 . ] THE LEADER . 639
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[1jt This &Epaexmekt, Aj9 Am. Opinions, ...
[ 1 JT THIS & EPAEXMEKT , Aj 9 AM . OPINIONS , nOTTBVEK EXTBE 1 TE , ABB ALLOTTED AX EXPRESSION , THE EDITOB tTECES 3 ABILT HOLDS HIMSELF RESPONSIBLE JOB KONEJ
There Is No Learned, Rbiua But -Will Con...
There is no learned , rbiua but -will confess he hatB irmeh profited by reading controversies , his senses awakenecL and his judgment sharpened . If then , it be profitable fox turn / to read , why should it not , at least , betolerablefor his adversary to write . —Mjltok
Tbde Austrian Alliance. (To Iheeduorpfih...
TBDE AUSTRIAN ALLIANCE . ( To iheEdUorpfihelL ^ aier . ') - JTewcastle-on-Tyne , July 3 , 1854 . Sir , —I regret that you-should give any sanction whatever to the Austrian , alliance . I do not think that it is the business of out Government to pick a quarrel -with Austria or to interfere in her internal affairs . I think they ought to have opposed the Russian intervention in 1849 , but I would neither make that , nor the partition , of Poland , a ground of any attack upon Austria at the present time . But having said so much , let me say , on the other hand , that I feel it my duty as an ! iEnglishman and a lover of English principles , to protest solemnly against the occupation of any part of the Turkish territory by the Austrian armies with the permission of the English Government . Lord John Russell informs us , indeed , that the convention for that purpose is one to which England is not a party—in other words , our ministers wink at what they do not formally sanction , possibly "because they dare not ; and what they wink at is positively- nothing less than the entrance of a fresh and formidable army _ upon the theatre of war . With equal dignity , with equal honesty , and with equal wisdom , they winked at the march of the Russian armies into Hungary . Instead of Austria adopting English principles , as some have fondly expected , it would seem , from this sample , that Austrian principles are making way in England—in high quarters , at least ; among the people they never can . The national instinct is intensely anti-Austrian .
No good man of any party has a good word to say for Austria , and no one will have until she conciliates her oppressed subjects . I pretend not to prophecy ; I do not say she will never do this ; "but I see no sign of it , a , nd I say that she cannot bo our ally to any good , honest , English purpose , until such a blessed change has taken place . The best assistance which Austria could give us against Russia would be by justice to her own subjects , and by atonement , if atonement be possible , for her crimes against humanity . Shameless and unrepenting as she is , the Govcrnrognt may embrace her , but the people will recoil from her touch , and from the touch of the Government that haa touched her . Tho same shudder will bo felt in France ; from the date of the alliance with Austria tho revolutionary ferment will
re-coraraence . I protest against this alliance as unnatural , dangerous , and unnecessary . 5 If Austria had not been content to havo observed a strict and honest neutrality , how j usfc and glorious and easy it would have been for England and Fmnce and Turkey to have awakened by a siwglo blast of the trumpet Poland and Hungary nad Italy from a Bleep which is not death . Either thus , or by the Austria and
downfall of Itussia alone , looking on trembling-, it did scorn us if tho eunsluno ot freedom , waa again about to illuminate tho European darkness : but juat where ita rays wcro first beginning to glimtner , upon tho plains of Moldavia , and Wnllnchio * tho cloud of tho Austrian alliance already intercepts thoni , and the amis of England and France and Turkey aro dunned in its shadow . Xours , & c , Geougje CuAwsnAv .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 8, 1854, page 15, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_08071854/page/15/
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