The Express.
London, England, 1868-03-30 00:00:00

ROMANCE I. THE PULPIT.

SERMON.ytha so
wontar°nuencoathte:
The publicrEXTßAanno°unßDoeiNmeAßnt
occasion of his second marriage would be preached fa
Oldawinford Church, by the Rev. C. H. Ciudad
has, daring the last week or so, caused a great deal
of gossip in the neighbourhood of Stourbridge. The
church, yesterday morning, was open an hour before the
time for the commencement of the service, and people
began to as even at that unusual time. Ere long
they swarmed in in large numbers, and every part of the
*arch wee crowded. The rector took his test lat Cor, 4th
'4lllPtertel shallow Nut'l'4jtry:Oiled Jots or
EMU': hit2shsjbauedvgrawMasesils;ll{theinwg.'t
owned his recent marriage with one of plebeian birth, mid
the superintendent of his domestic establiabrueot:
that they had no right to judge her or him. If they did
so, to be judged of them ought to be, and most assuredly
would be, a very small thing. But nevertheless, to avoid
all reasonable reuse of offence, and to justify in
their sight—unless, indeed, their mental ophthalmia
was utterly irremediable—what was incongruous, he
should, in consequence of his connexion with Ohm
as their rector, afford them some explanation. Though
it might appear to some egotistic, he began by telling
them more particularly who, by birth and connexion he
was. He was the eldest son of a thldier, second to the
great duke alone. Such was his unrivalled renown that
an the year 1806, though only a colonel—and tho
appointment of • man of his rank was entirely without •
precedent—he was raised, for special purposes, to the grade
of brigadier, that he might be sent out with an expeditionas loader. Were not money the object of his (the preacher's)
utter scorn, he might adduce boartingly the fact that his
father's share of prize money we, estimated to exceed
half • million. A large and most unnecessary
addition was made to the force, and, as all the officers
of higher rank would have been lady to throw up their
oornmiasioas if so large a force were entrusted to a bri-
gadier, his father was superseded, and, under a cowardly
commander, a disgraceful failure ensued. His father
army rank and standing were ouch that, if he bad not
prematurely fallen before the walls of Roderigo—as, alas!
he would not but for the too chivalrous and more than
knightly courage with which he exposed himself on the
top of a gleam, shouting his orders at a pitch of voice
which drew 011 him the whole fire from the enemy
bad he not thus prematurely fallen, he would, on the con.
elusion of the war, as a were matter of course, from his
abilities as a soldier, have been elevated to the peerage,
and raised therein at last one step. He was the friend of
Queenabury, of Granville, of Winnhame and of Moore.
He was the friend and moat intimate associate of the father
of our present Queen, and in his youth was an objcet of
favourable regard to the heroic Frederick of Prussia. The
gal Lust Marquis of Londonderry loved him as a brother, and
followed him heart-broken to the grave. He was inferior
in opportunity alone to Nelson, Abercrombie, and Moore.
Such was his gallant father. s regarded his ancestry he
would only say it was not unconnected with the heroin
Wallace, and that he was at least collaterally allied to, if
not descended from, the lords of Cranford, who
ruled their broad domains in all the majesty of feudal
state for centuries before the many mushrooms who
swarmed at the present day had sprouted from their
native dunghilL He would not trouble them with en ac.
taint of Ms mother'a good, but less illustrious, family.
Before he attained his highest elevation, an offer of mar-
riage was made to one of that family by the Emperor of
She French, and by her rejected. Mr. Craufurd than
detailed the aristocratic alliances of his uncle,
Sir James Craufurd, his cousins, Colonel Alexander
enacted, and Sir George Cranfurd ; and his h-
eaved uncle, who supplied to him • father's
place, Lieut.-General Sir Charles Cranfurd, whose wife
was • daughter of the Earl of Harrington, and widow of
the Duke of Newcastle. Such was the thrt of alliance
which, in point of birth and connexion' he might have
fairly expected, and when • man in that parish had the
effrontery to aspire to the hand of one of his daughters,
thou& he bad never spoken • word to her in his life,
the highest lady in the land could not have been more as-
branded and indignant when he told her of the insult she
had received, and ha felt his insolence could not have
been greater if he had demanded the daughter of a
duke. It was partly to save them from the repeti.
Nog of the insult, that he permitted them to fix their
residenes elsewhere. A woman who married beneath
her station fell to her husband's level, and was disgraced
for ever, with scarcely an exception. For it was the ap-
pointment of God that the man should rule over the
woman, and that the wife should be in subjection to her
husband. But by the usages of society, if a man married
one of inferior pollinate, instead of falling to the ranks of
his wife, he exalted her to his, and online a feeble fool—
and such should remain unmarried except they found
• strong•minded woman—unless a feeble fool, or
careless of his beauty, and • traitor to his
trust, • lowly woman, whom God's providence
might have guided him to manT, and thus committed
to his care, would, under his undue= care, be raised, in-
structed, refined, and made in all respects ft helpmeet for
him. With such • woman (confined Mr. Cranford) it had
been his will and pleasure to form an alliance—an alliance
little more in accordance with his rank—and be wax sure
his wife would pardon him in saying it—than was that which
occurred when King Cophetur espoused the beggar
gill Well, he had married her, and pray what
thin •? Circumstances to which it would be am improper
as needless for him further to refer had for some yeah
condemned him, of course voluntari, to a life of almost
unbroken solitude, till at lAA, his h th and spirits having
greatly given way, but he felt it newt:wary to leave a cow
pinion of his solitude, and an attendant upon the infir-
mities of his declining years. He had told them folly
what were his birth, family, and connections, in no
boastful spirit, and as he might fairly ask them to be-
lieve far during the thirty-two yews he had occu-
pied that
He was no more able to the little °petal distinc-
tions which existed In that and which wen,
chiefly founded on money, than to conic he t height of
'pulpit he had never before spoken of himself,
wife was of
molehills from • mountain's top.
plebeian birth, and as such was by the providence of God,
it was no diagram. Wharewaslas,who had not mixed inthe
great world of Loodenshatie • young land moat "dal
renhaaa.""ldveisausaindeem:sigreeitti:asefi honour
.?wraniaugholtothshatotertvetan.
eFraygdemoccoapnwlegsce—onWiz
Ps reproach him with his wife's lowly parentage,
could endure the twat, and his only retort would be to
inquire, " Who was your grandfather?" Having, then, se
choice to him appreciable in rank, and atterlyil=
money, he had chosen one whose
whom kindness of heart,
.whooe love on y
tended, whose simple piety, were incoorparsblt
more to him than her birth. But she was
iptalalYwerradillOre
master,e high
781:
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Pay a little, sing • little, and dance ce This
wars deeply read in novels and superficially, peric=a,
saes ether things. could write, sod perhaps
or Italian. That his wife
slink ]Mend, and lees
one &ions* hi these respects was not their Ices, and,
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hw
ba apesAbtad at a ion nth Man
Isl
wriarojoir et iheisinnitles, his Anna habits,
weeniest, and her quiet domestic tra-
Pasehed *a bad • life of almost cemplrte
ilitatanoisl/4 "PPlNelahrsedfingtevilliallailssoe iliandexpeseadetee :tbinistterh:lytowie:Tneriria-0. al:ILI° 3
• theniestrus te their inpretenssOßlßZ
end tho preparation el their tee
las ibla pressaimati inn the Biralaf
insonspotiss

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.24 LI.