The Express.
London, England, 1868-07-18 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, SATURDAY

of women with every virtue but oiisortio ktne
devoted their lives to preserving dm youth o
England from the fell snare of matrimony. The
club, as an instrument used .by saitvess to keep
off and threaten women, wee extendvely em-
ployed in the first great controversy upon matri-
mony, and has been scarcely seen in the last.
The cost of kmurieis, of servants, winos, party
giving, and travelling, had full consideration in
theione, and are all glided over or unmentioned in
the other. In short, a lower grade of society is
appealed to, and appealing now it asks, with
touching earnestness, whether it may marry
without the certainty of disaster. The impulsive
young gentlemen and ladies who believe in their
" strong right hand" as a talisman with which
to satisfy the butcher, baker, and tax-gatherer,
are rebuked by correspondents who condemn
their effusions se " bosh," while happy wives and
husbands of many years standing toll us of their
difficulties and triumphs in a way which tempts ono
to regard life as a fairy tale. The simple faith of
TRADDLES and " the dearest girl," whose recrea-
tions and expenditure wore at one time limited
to the looking in at the windows of shops, ap-
pears to bo duplicated all over England by human
chameleons who live principally on air. The old
copy-book axiom that " a contented mind is a
" continual feast" must be taken literally, if
many of these letter-writers are to be believed. A
Scotch young lady writes of her " brew laddio"
and his " 1001. a year," in terms which suggest
Arcadia—save that the poor fellow is ill and not
yet " her own, her own ! " Gentlemen who appear
on their own showing to have been unsuccessful
in all they have turned their hands to,
quote emigration as the one panacea for social
inequalities, and are ready to marry off-hand on
the splendid prospects they foresee in the TOM
TEDDLBR'S ground of their imagination. " Who
" will show us any new thing under the sun ?"
asked the ancient philosopher, and the question is
repeated in other forme throughout this surprising
correspondence. We suppose no ono ever was or
ever will be driven into matrimony, or dissuaded
from it, by reading what other people think or
prognosticate as the correspondents of newspapers.
But these discussions are not without their
value. They remind the people prone to
luxury and extravagance how modest are the
hopes and how narrow the horizon of thousands of
educated men and women in this country. The
money many a man who believes himself to be
economical will throw away annually in cab-hire
or club-dinners would enable some of these
trustful couples to settle themselves without fear.
For it is noteworthy that the whole problem of to
marry or not to marry turns upon the question of
being able to feed and clothe a wife and family.
No other doubts appear to disturb the
aspirants of either sex ; the bare neces-
saries of life are within the reach of the
middle class, people who marry on from one hun-
dred to two hundred a year, but these are held to
bathe the world in rose-colour by the ardent advo-
cates of early marriage. The young ladies are,
perhaps naturally, in the majority of those holding
this view ; and the worldly counsel of a French
girl who sneered at love in a cottage, and the
prudent whisperings of damsels who prefer the
comforts of their father's home to the uncertain-
ties and bitter struggles of poverty outside it, are
condemned as treasonable by their fellow writers.
Much of the poverty and misery of the world
seems to be explained by the argu-
ments used and the experience given. For
tho possibility of living is the utmost insisted
upon even by the most prudent. That " provision
" for the family" which gives rise to so many anxious
thoughts in other spheres of life never seems to
trouble the people who marry upon bare sub-
sistence-money. Saving being out of the question,
and keeping up the payments for any useful sum
of life-insurance equally so, thousands of men are
satisfied if they can keep the wolf from the door
in their own life-time ; and go out of the world
with the full knowledge that they are leaving a
widow and children destitute. Nor must those
who condemn this extensive class as cruel and sel-
fish be too sure of their own wisdom. The popu-
lation and the prosperity of the country would both
receive a speedy check lino one married until they
could do so prudently; and the letter-writers of
to-day are but types of the deeply rooted desire
which permeates every condition of life. With
scarcely an exception the men and women
who remain single up to middle-age have
done so in spite of themselves. The im-
pulses are cold now, the fancy has died
out, the love has turned to ashes;
but the prudent maxims and philoso-
phical precepts, ever on the lips, are but so
many endearments which have frosted for want of
use, or been petrified by time. An early disap -
pointment lurks behind the wise saws and modern
instances. The plain truth is, that people will
marry, whether it be good for them or not ; and
the useful lesson for the public teacher to en-
force is moderation in expectations, and patience
under cares. The young man of Brasil income
whose position necessitates clean linen and broad-
cloth will assuredly find a wife and family a
heavy addition to his anxieties, and will pro-
bably discover that his " strong right hand'"
will have more than it can do. The young
woman who males him will have an existence
which, if it were not sanctified by love, would be
that of a slave. But ' a true woman
loves martyrdom, and the twain will.
probably rub through the world more
ussefully than if they had kept apart. That they
will enjoy the happiness they expect,. no one with
experience of life believes. But as this remark
applies to every position under Heaven, it need
not act as a deterrent. It is the constant crav-
ing site: happiness, inherent in humanity,
to which our astute contemporary Is profitably
pandering by its present eccentric publications.
" Which of us," asks the moralist, " has what he
" deeiras, or having it is satisfied ?" and the
unlveriedity of the answer is not effected by the
holy state into which so many young people long
to rush.

sa acourate writot,Tallw9
letrieturqsan, ibe or
some value. * says " Altheugh many '
" of the preisitt day areiodopendent df grammasial
" entirdytlesaythatiltirox wagons°, thaischadt
Redoubtleas meant to write, " that Miutoir was Ono
"of them." This, however, is the peer who con-
siders himself competent to play the critio, and
who does not hesitate to allege that "we should
" all of us be poets if poems were written in this
" fashion." Whether the poem be by Mwrox or
not, it is at least as good as any of the verses
with which Lord Wrxerrruizi has favoured an
unappreciative public,. More important is the
itatement made by theAsaistant Keeper of printed
books at the British Miumium. lie says that the
initials are not "J. M.," but "P. M.,"
ind that the handwriting is not Mu,-
•oir's. If this be substantiated, then there
is an end to the question. But it is on that*
points that the discussion will be most protracted,
end least satisfactory. We may expect that, as is
their custom, one sot of " experts" will affirm
something which another set will deny. Indeed,
instead of regarding the controversy as settled by
any opinions yet vouchsafed, we consider
that materials have boon supplied for an
interminable dispute. The famous Shakes-
peare with Ml 3. annotations is still believed in
as firmly by some as it is repudiated by others.
Those who have pronounced this to be a genuine
poem of Murex's will consider it their duty
to defend the acuteness of their percep-
tion, and will in consequence reject all
evidence which clashes with their own esti-
mate. In one respect, MILTON'S renown will be
increased by this discovery, Those who have
been accustomed to mention his name with re-
spect, but who have passed by his works with
indifference, will now turn to his pages
out of curiosity. What MACAULAY'S ar-
tide did for him in 1825, will be re-
peated, owing to the publication of Professor
MOBLEY'S letter. It is well that in this, if no
other way, the memories of classical writers should
be brought prominently before the notice of a
public which is too apt to forget those who ought
to be held in perpetual and living remembrance.