The Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1861-01-07 00:00:00

THE PROPAGATION OF SCANDAL.

The following explanation of the rise and spread
of the extraordinary rumour in reference to the
Marquis of Downshire and his yacht Sylphide,
which has afforded such food for the wonder and
scandal-loving portion of the public for the last
week or two, is given by the London correspon-
dent of the Manchester Guardian, who was the
first to cause it to appear in print :
As I have been an agent in giving publicity to the
"Sylphide Scandal"—though with such reticence of
names as would have prevented identification of the per-
sonages of the story, had not Lord Amherst thought fit
to give the Marquis of Downshire's name in his letter
to the Times, contradicting the report—l have
thought it my duty to investigate the mode in
which so utterly unfounded a story should have
obtained such extensive credence and wide circulation,
as well as that extraordinary circumstantiality of
detail, and parade of authority, which completely-took
me in, as it did so many others. Every honest man
who has helped to propagate a false report—however
free he may have been from sinister intention in so
doing—must be anxious to do his utmost that any con-
tradiction and explanation he can supply should spread
as wide as the report. Acting under this feeling, I am
desirous of now informing your readers that the report
in question is without any more substantial foundation
than a blunder caused by the literal interpretation of a
figurative expression. What I ern further in a position
to explain is the mode in which this blunder grew into
the scandal that for so many days formed the most
exciting topic of club and -West End comment in Lon-
don. The marquis, it appears, had a passenger and
guest on board his yacht, who either grew tired of his
company, or his company of him. In consequence,
the guest was put ashore at Civita Vecchia ; and
some one on board, in writing an account of the
matter to an acquaintance in Turin, used some
such common phrase as "D. and E. have
bad a row, and D. has thrown him overboard, "
meaning, of course, has brought his cruise on board the
Sylphide abruptly to an end. The unlucky figure of
speech was taken literally by the person to whom it was
addressed. He, naturally, acting under the impression
that the unfortunate E. had been thrown overboard,
lamented among his acquaintance the tragical catas-
trophe. The Piedmontese Government, sharing in the
mistake, telegraphed it to their minister here. The
Marquis d'Azeglio took the story to the Foreign-office.
It spread like wildfire through the staff of the office.
From the Foreign-office to the Travellers'—from the
Travellers' to any other club in Pall-mall or St. James's-
street—from the clubs to West-end dinner tables and
drawing-rooms—are easy, and indeed inevitable, stages
in the progress of a report. Very soon every button-
holder was busy with the startling tale. As it
spread it gathered consistence. Suppositions grew
into circumstances, and the surmises of one nar-
rator became the facts of the propagator of the story.
"There were men just returned from Naples who could
vouch for the truth" of what, however widely spread,
needs must be met with incredulity at first. " The
Marquis was in custody." "No ; the Marquis had fled,
and was biding." " The Foreign Office had received a
telegram, inquiring what course was to be taken."
Men were speculating on the chances of getting places
on the trial in Westminster Hall, &c. Of course, the
report soon reached the ears of the relatives and friends
of the family. They, who knew that the captain of the
Sylphide was a respectable, mature, weather-beaten
commander in the navy, the father of a family, who
had exclianged the unromantic duties of a coastguard
station for the command of the yacht, were more
immediately sensible of the gross improbability of
the story, which had by this time acquired all its
plumage, than those who heard it in ignorance of the
personnel of the party aboard the Sylphide. But
when those facts as to the captain were urged in
disproof of the report—ingenious gossip shifted its
ground—" No, it wasn't the captain, that was a mistake,
it was the doctor." At last a member of the late
administration, and one of the most intimate friends of
the Marquis of Downshire, heard the report, and set
about probing it. He traced it back and back till he
came to its Foreign-office fountain head. From the
Foreign-office he was referred to the Sardinian Minister,
who showed him the original despatch from Turin.
The keen legal mind pierced at once to the fact. It is
all the misinterpretation of a figure of speech—and so it
turns out to have been. lam bound to say, in leaving
the subject, that even when rumour was most inventive
and most tragical, she showed a certain tenderness for
her victim, for she was careful to add the circumstances
showing the probability that the catastrophe was acci-
dental—the result of an exertion of uncalculating
strength—and that the assailant did all he could to save
the life of the unfortunate subject of his sudden on-
slaught. I was careful to mention these circumstances
in my narrative of the facts, and it is some, though a
poor satisfaction, now that the report turns out not to
have a leg of fact to stand on, to think that I suppressed
the Marquis of Downshire's name, and that I described
the circumstance in the light of a misadventure, and not
a murder. At the same time I would infinitely prefer
not to have repeated the story at all. My justification
must be that, like many older and wiser heads, " I was
completely taken in."

ECCLESIASTICAL INTELLIGENCE.

BENEFICES AND APPOINTMENTS VACANT.

RECTORY.
Freystrop, Pembrokeshire : dio St. David's : val £145 : pat
Lord Chancellor : Rev. J. T. Walters, prom.

VICARAGE.

Urchfout, w Stert C, Wilts : dio Salisbury : val £320 with
residence : pats D and C of Windsor : Rev. H. Killick,
prom.

XPLArN:CY.

Warminster Union : Rev. H. E. Dicker, prom.

CURACIES.

Aldridge, Staffordshire : dio Lichfield : stipend £l6O with

. .
residence.
Black-Chapel, Essex : dio Rochester.
Bray, Berks dio Oxford.
ChurclistAke, Shropshire : dio Hereford : stipend £BO.
Eckington, Derbyshire : dio Lichfield.
Fradswell, Staffordshire: dio Lichfield.
London, St. Mark, Old Street
Scissctt. Yorkshire : dio Ripon : stipend LSO. '
Toddington, Beds : dio
Warminster. Wilts : d:o Salisbury.

MASTERSUIPS.

Felstead Grammar School, Essex : Assistant : Rev. C. B.

Wardalc, prom.
London. Stationers' School, Bolt-court, fleet-street.
Rothbury Grammar School, Northumberland : Uuder : Salary
£4O : testimonials before January 21.
Shcrborne School, Dorset : Assistant : Rev. E. M. Acock,
prom.