The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1869-08-21 00:00:00

DEATH OF MARSHAL NIEL.
---

Dunniow.
In 1851, vriirk the " World's Fair" gave a fillip to
e• ery kind of extravagance all over the country, a
wit the pair. named Barrels, sought to make their
connubial bliss notorious, and were so determined to
achieve this wonderful deed that, when repulsed by the
lord ~f the manor, they rallied round them a knot of
sielolib mrs, with whose help thy succeeded in gaining
a compromise. The ancient re-emony Was di-
penned wi‘h ; but at a rustic f6te in Easton Park, this
4.1 eounle recoived the elea Salt and appropriate token
of w. died love, to which our fertile Engii-h tongue
has lent th- pl-htsing name of "gaminon." It was, as
we have sa d. in 1855 :hat a deservedly popular
novelist, bitten perhaps by one of his leastuiisciptined
historical fancies, determined to revive the custom, in
a for mire effective and effectual fashi in as regards
seetimy, dresses, and do corations, as well as dramatis
p rdomr, than the fashion adopted by Mr. and Mrs.
Barrels. It was a time of much effusion of interna-
tional sentiment; and an amiable French gentleman,
who had devoted his time so successfully to the study
of English literature as to have been able to render
into his OWIT language, metrically, Chaucer's " Flower
and the Loaf," good naturedly fell-in with Mr. Ains-
worth's med weal project. A faithful historian of the
event says :
The had of the manor refused to allow the ceremony to
take place at Little Denniow, and some of the clergy and
gentry ‘trenuoualy opposed its transference to Great Dine
mow. On the loin of July, however, Mr and Mrs. Barlow,
of Chipping Ougar, and the Chevalier de Chstemin and his
wife, am eared before a mixed jury of bachelors
and spinster. in the ',MO hall of DIIIIDIOW. Mr. Ainsworth
Was judge. and Mr. Albert Hell counsel for the claimants ;
Sir. Dudley Costello conducting the examination in orpo.
sition. After two hours and a half questioning and deli-
beration, both couples were declared to have fulfilled the
necessary conditioi is, and the Court, counsel, and claim-
ants adjourned to the Windmill Field, where the oath was
administered in the presence 01 folly seven thousand people,
and the flitches presented to the deserving quartett
That a French gentleman and his English wife, both
being peraons if more than ordinary refinement and
culture, should have not merely brooked, but actually
should have courted, a "twit hours and a half ques-
tioning and deliberation," the matter in hand being
their compatibility of temper, as regarded its moral
and material bearings On a side of cured hog's flesh, is
certainly wonderful ; but so it was ; and one of the
possible complications of the abnormal proceeding
might have been the diffusion, all over France,
of an ineradicable belief that we immlaries are
just as much aiven to this odd baconian system
of matrimonial rewards as we axe to the opposite
extreme of selling our wives in Mmithfield. It is
comfortable to know that somewhere in Brittany the
came mime= as that of Dunmow obtained for about a
hundred years, by which time the Bretons of the part
affected appear to have grown sick of it. Into the
aachteology of the Essex tradition we need not enter.
The jest was at all events a welbestabl shed one in
Chaucer's day ; for his frolicksome Wife of Bath says
of her dear dead and gone husbands, who were more
than one or two: "The bacon was not fet for him, I
trow, That some men have in Essex, at Dunmow."
On Monday the train which left Bishopsgate-street
Station at half.past eight o'clock took down a goodly
freight of Londoners ; and from many adjacent towns
and villages troops of holiday. makers were poured
Dmanow. Mr. E. T. Smith, who had ailed Mr.
Ainoworth in getting up the pageant of 1855, had taken
the whole of the day's proceedings on his own hands,
and had placarded the two with large hills setting
forth the attracti n of his " Moustre" Festival of the
Hitch of Bacon. There were several bands of
Inman in the town, generally within hearing of
one another; and the anything but harupinions union
was continually being celebrated of " Magige May"
and "Champagne Charlie." Arches of evergreens were
erected here and there ; and one triple arch, in the open
spice before the Saracen's Head, was especially im-
posing. The announcement had gone forth that Mr.
Harrison Ainsworth, who is represented as taking
a deep interest in the "revival," would assist at the
ceremony ; but his presence was missed, as was
that of a member of Parliament whose name had
been honoured with a conspicuous line in Mr. Smith's
"rnonstre" poster. A field near the r Il‘vay station,
and opposite the Dunmow Union, s. Mob, by the
bye, is one of the prettiest of modern Gothic build.
ings put to the use of a work had been
hued for the occasion ; and a sort of fair was carried
on at one end, where also was a tit.i booth fitted
up ts ith a stage and pros,eniunt Betore the trial,
a cricket match between eleven theatrical clowns and
the Ouninow Club was commenced. The clowns,
under 51r. Harry Croueste, lost the toss for first
inning., and thereby gained an opportunity of drolling
altogether in the field. One of them got endless fun
out of an old umbrella ; and a strange effect was pro-
duced, whenever &wicket fell or a batsman was caught
out, by the cloc us turning over and over in a series of
ecstatic somersaults, supposed to express delight and
triiiiiiph.
When the company had been assembled within the
Immth, al. 1 or !rcstra had }dep.,' a long overture,
the curtain was raised upon a scene not unlike that of
the trial Beene in the burlesque of the "Merchant of
Venice," when the late Mr. Robson was wont to asto-
nish and plate° the audiences of the Olympic by his

--
Marshal Nil is dead, and in him the Emperor Na-
poleon losen another of his ablest servants. The
ieeeased Marshal was not one of the political supports
of the Imperial Those. like Marshal St. Arnaud, and
an ninny who have been taken away since his death;
hot he was one of its greatest military illustrations.
His name is not connected with any dramatic episodes,
,r dazzling stage exploits on the field of battle ; the
reputation of the Engineer officer has to dispense with
these popular aide. But when any plan of opera-
tions required to be elaborated or criticised, when
it was necessary to measure the difficulties of a dis-
tant army, or examine the resources of an ally,
Niel was sent for, and his judgment commanded the
utmost confidence. In all the military enterprises
ordered by the Prince President or the Emperor he
had a part. Ile was chief of the general engineering
staff in the expedition to Rome. In January, 1855, he
was sent to the Crimea to report for the information of
the Emperor upon the exact situation of the army,
of which he subsequently became a general,
at the head of the corps of Enginerre. Before
the Italian war of 1859 he went to see the Pied-
montese fortresses, and report on the military cepa-
nilitiss of the monarchy, and soon after was made a
commander of one of the French army corps which
took part in that campaign. His military carter, if
'tat brilliant, was entirely successful, and it was re-
warded not only with the highest military rank, but,
according to the usage of the Empire, with civil and
• political distinction. The young student of the Poly-
' echnic in 1821, after serving the Bourbons of the Re-
-1 etoration and of the Revolution, has died Marshal of
' France, Senator, and President of a General Council,.
----
Marshal Niel was officially buried on Tuesday with
all the pomp and circumstance of war. Its body, pre-
ceilsd by etrong detaehatents of the army of Paris,
antler the command of Marshal Canrobert, was re-
moved that morning from the Ministry of War to the I
Invalides, where the funeral ceremony took place, the
Archhi.hop of Paris officiating. The Emperor wished
his War Minister to have been buried in the Invalides
between Turenne and Vauban, but it was the desire
tif the Marshals wife and his relatives that he should
repose in the family vault in the Haute Garonne, and
when the funeral service was over the coffin was re-
moved to the Lyons railway to be Bent south.
Marshal Niels death was occasioned by the breaking
of an instrument during an operation for the stone, the
broken pieces of which could not be extracted.

A DETERMINED OPPONENT TO
VACCINATION.
At the Thames Poligeicaurt. in London, lest Friday, Ann
tipple, a young woman, residing at Shadwell, who carried
a healthy infant in her arms, was summoned for a violation
of the VACCillatiOn Act.
The Magistrate said, an the defendant was not re-
presented by counsel or attorney, he would explain to
her what she was charged with. She wax summoned
for neglecting to have her child vaccinated according
to an order of Mr. Benson. a magistrate of that court.
The defendant said she fully understood the charge.
She hail been alumni mei before Mr. Benson.
The Magiete te: Have you hail the child vaccinated.
The defendant I have not I plead guilty. Ido
not agree with the principles laid down in favour of
vaccination. I will not have it dune. Ido not wish
to poison my child's hlood.
The Magistrate: Do you know the danger of neg-
lecting vaccination.
The defendant :I know the danger of vaccination.
I have had five children. One of them was vaccinated,
and died three days afterwards quite rotten. The
other four wgie not vaccinated. They all had the
small-pox, and lived. I have been vaccinated myself,
and have had the small-PDX notwithstanding.
'Ehe Magistrate thought the defendant WWI furnish-
ing arguments in favour of vaccination. Four of her
children were afflicted with small-pox who had not
been vaccinated, and she herself, who had been vacci-
nated. was alio afflicted, and recovered. It was pro-
bable if she had not been vaccinated she would have
been disfigured, and her face anal:mill, marked all over.
There was not a mark upon her. Did the defendant
know the millions that had fallen a sacrifice to small-
pox lef ore the great discovery id Dr. Jenner, and the
introduction of vaccination? The greatest and wisest
men of all nations hail approved of and strongly re-
oonomended vaccination. and compulsory vaccination
was pa:t of the law of England, and must he enforced.
The defendant said she had already told Mr. Benson,
and she now repeated that she would not have her child
vaccinated.
The Nlattistrate : Now don't he obstinate. The
highest in the land have their children vaccinated. I
have been vaccinated three times.
The fendant : Has it done you any good?
The dagistrate : Yes. I attended on a sick friend
who was afflicted with the small-pox, and before! went
to him I was vaccinated for the third time. I was with
him during the whole progress of the terrible disease,
and I came away from him without being affected.
Where is your husband?
Defendant : I have no husband.
The Magistrate : You are a widow?
Defendant : No, lam not I have got a father to

my children.
The Magistrate : I suppose so. You have given
me no valid reason why your child should not be vac-
ciliated, and I fine you 20e. and costs, or the alterna-
tive of seven days' imprisonment.
Defendant I shall not pay the fine. I will go to
prison.
The Pall Mall Gazette has the following
upon the above case :
However true it may be, as Mr. Paget, the magistrate, said
'that the greatest and wisest men of all nations approve of
and strongly recommend vaccination," that "the highest in
the land have their children vaccinated." and—what is more
to the purpose perhaps—that compulsory vaccination is part
of the law of England, it Is clearly becoming more and
more necessary that the public should be reassured as
to the merits of the process. Explain it bow we may,
the fact is that for many years past a strong distrust
of vaccination has been spreading, a distrust which
in every case is believed to have good grounds in
actual experience and observation Inquire not amongst
"the highest in the land," perhaps, but amongst the
poorer classes, and you suit find almost every woman
ahounding in instances of healthy children destroyed by vac-
cination. Ills sot often alleged that the children die of the
Process ; what you commonly bear is that "they were never
the same aster aals"—were never well again. So general
is this conviction, so fast is it spreading, it rests upon
grounds of such painful experienee (as they who hold it say),
that we may confidently look for increased evasion and de-
fiance of the law. Dread of a fine will not weigh much with
men and women who believe the health of their little ones
to be at stoke; and we may even find parents going to prison,
like the poor woman whit was dealt with by Mr. Paget
yesterday, rather than subject one child to a process which
they believe killed another. Something must be done to re-
assure the public mind on this subject, or presently it will
give us trouble. When the law conflicts with domestic in-
stincts and affections, the sooner the misunderstanding is
cleared up the better.

observations

WESLEYAN METHODIST
CONFERENCE.
The final session of the Conference at Hull com-
menced on Friday evening, at four o'clock. Educe-
tioual affairs were brought before the Conference by the
Rev. G. Olver, B.A. In addition to the usual
resolutions, endorsing the action of the Committee
during the past year, and appointing committee and
ufficeis for the year ensuing, two others were passed:
one complaining of the intolerant action of the clergy,
in preventing children attending national day schools
unless they would also attend Church of England
Sunday Schools; the other, authorising the President
of the Conference to call together during the year the
Education Committee, with the Committee of Privi-
leges, and such other persons as he might see fit, after
consultation with the officers of the Education Com-
mittee, to consider any proposal that may be laid before
the country respecting primary education.
It was desired by Dr. Itigg, the principal of the
Normal CoLege, at Westminster, that cases of clerical
intolerance should be sent to them confidentially, for
use in private communications with members of her
Majesty's Government.
'l'he motions of which notice had been given were
then brought on. Rev. John Bedford wished the mind
of the Connexion to be turned to the question of
whether, by enlarging the powers of district meetings
much of the detailed business now transacted by the
Conference might not be rendered unnecessary, and so
the time of the Conference be saved. He would not
this year make any definite proposition, but satisfy
himself with having called the attention of the Con-
nexion to this matter.
Rev. Dr. Osborn moved for a committee to consider
whether auy, alai if any, what action should be taken in
respect tit the proposed changes in the higher education
of this country. (Agreed).
Rev. Hugh Jones proposed that the Conference
should direct the ministers to preach on the importance