The Sun.
London, England, 1865-04-03 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

THE " SATURDAY REVIEW" ON WIVES AND THEIR
FOLLOWERS.—There are various theories of mar-
riage. There is the Protestant theory, with its
corollary, the Divorce Court ; and there is the
Catholic theory, to which Mr. Matthew Arnold turns
in these days with such infinite relief. But the
theory which seems to obtain most favour just now
in the fashionable world may be defined as the elastic
theory. It is that which allows a young wife, in
addition to her husband, a select train of male
adorers. There was an old-fashioned notion that
husband and wife were all in all to each othrr. The
conjugal relation was viewed' as a snug little vehicle,
expressly constructed to carry two. In it Darby and
Joan jogged pleasantly along, too much engrossed
in each other's society to nd the journey dull.
Marriage a la mode in 1865 suggests a different com-
parison. Instead of the modest conveyance to which,
20 years ago, it might have been likened, it resem-
bles now-a-days a gaudy Parisian omnibus, capable
of accommodating plenty of outsiders. In other
words, it has become the fashion for the young
matron of the modern school to supplement the
prosaic attachment of her husband by the attentions
of any handsome young man or men whom she may
be able to attract to her side, and hold there in silken
fetters. So systematic has the practice grown,
that it is said that, in the newest form of mar-
riage settlement drawn by fashionable solicitors,
the contingency of "followers" is expressly provided
for. After the stipulations for pin-money and join-
ture comes a special clause limiting them to any
number not, exceeding twenty. If this should
be true, we cannot say that it causes us much sur-
prise. Nothing that fashionable wives can say or do
will henceforth cause surprise. Ces mb.es de famille
sont capables de tout. The high jinks they have
lately been up to are evidently the prelude to higher.
When the mother of promising lads at Eton may be
seen prancing about London ball-rooms as if re-
cently bitten by the tarantula,when elderly peeresses,
who should be at home dandling their grandchildren,
foot it nightly upon parquet floors, we feel instinc-
tively that a crisis must be approaching. The old
decencies are crumbling away, and society is about
to enter on a new phase. In what shape the fashion-
able world will emerge from the disintegration which
seems imminent, how regulated and reconstituted,
it is impossible to foretell. Whether young-ladyom
will succeed in regaining the rights and privileges of
which it has been ousted, or whether an iron despo-
tism of married Amazons will crush out all opposi-
tion, we do not venture to predict. We only note
the signs of the times, which seem to portend an
impending storm. The rancorous hatred which
exists between the dowagers and the young married
women cannot long smoulder on. There will soon
be an outbreak of hostilities. In the first instance,
perhaps, the attack will be carried on by constitu-
tional means. Already it is whispered that, led by
a mother who has suffered many things of frisky
matrons, the Young Lady's Defence Association in-
tends to apply to Parliament for an Act declaring
it penal for a married lady to take part in any but
square dances. On the other hand, it is said that
a Minister who enjoys the full confidence of the
confederate sirens has promised to retaliate by a bill
for the suppression of dowagers, as included in the
category of common nuisances. The conflict may
end in secession. Female London may be split into
two camps. Tyburnia may be allotted to the dow-
agers and their daughters ; Belgravia, to the young
married women. In this eventuality, much will
depend on the attitude of the male sex.
Should they adopt a policy of non-intervention
and strict neutrality, the rivalry will soon come
to an end. Even now, if young husbands could be
induced to assert the authority which is dropping
from their hands, they might easily reclaim their
skittish partners to a sense of duty and propriety.
As it is, they remain cynically indifferent to their
vagaries, flattered to find their wives admired, and
thankful to be relieved from the trouble of admiring
themselves. Possibly they think that in a multi-
tude of adorers there is safety. An adorer is usually
a young man with a great deal of time on his hands,
and no particular inclination to marry. His train-
ing is generally on this wise. He has had, or
fancies he has had, a disappointment in love. For
this heart-ache a certain amount of relief has been
obtained by shooting expeditions to Albania, and
fishing excursions to Norway. Such consolation as
a French cook can afford has not been wanting. A
stud of hunters at Melton or Market Harborough
may be regarded as a strictly medical prescription
for a poor young fellow suffering from chronic de
pression. To a being thus cruelly blighted the
balm of female sympathy is unspeakably delicious.
And it is an article to be had now-a-days in any
quantity, upon very easy terms. It is this parti-
cular combination of melancholy and money upon
which the sharp young matron of the modern school
pounces. It offers a remunerative investment for
any superfluous sympathy which she may have at
her disposal. With clever management, she may
count on having a yacht and a mail phaeton for
years at her command. Sighs and sentiment are
well bestowed when they yield a profitable return in
kid gloves, opera boxes, whitebait dinners, and
Derby-day luncheons. This is the black-mail
which Beauty, in this material age, exacts. One
approaches it no longer with a sonnet addressed
to the eyebrow, or the chivalrous devotion of an
Dimond to his " dear mistress," but with tribute of
a more solid and substantial kind. When the adorer
is sufficiently broken to harness, he is exhi-
bited in public, dancing attendance at ball and opera
upon his liege lady. As a precaution she drops a
few hints that his story is a sad one, and that she is
giving him 44 good advice." If this flow of good
advice were suspended, she darkly intimates that he
might turn desperate, and throw himself into the
Seepentine. The thought that she alone stands be-
tween an impetuous young man and a muddy grave
ought to silence the malicious comments of Lady A.
and the prudish remarks of Mrs. B. This process
of advice-giving is evidently no sinecure. - It begins
about lunceon-time, continues at intervals during
the afternoon, is resumed in the Park, is suspended
during the-dinner-hour, when both monitress and
pupil feel'• pressing need .of restoratives, recom-
mences at the Opera to . the accompaniment of
Miens' or Patti's warblings, and is finally ad-
journed to the •ball-room or supper-table, where
champagne and lobster-salad impart irresistible
cogency to the lady's arguments, . and render her
listener particularly amenable to reason. One can
only guess at the gist of all this advice. Judging by
the result, it must consist of an earnest exhortation
to the duty of extravagance, with practical sugges-
tions how a gay young bachelor can best fulfil that
duty. It bears fruit, too, in silly little resolves
pour les beaux yeux de Madame—such as the senti-
mental vow to dance with her alone, to stand in a
tableau as Romeo to her Juliet, and to fill a photo-
graph book with her likeness in every attitude
known to the fashionable artist. 111-natured
people persist in thinking that advice which has this
tendency is the advice of Circe rather than that of
Mentor ; but who expects words of wisdom from a
lovely idiot, intoxicated with vanity, who can dis-
pense with only one thing less than flattery—pearl-
powder ? They would be as much foreign to her
nature as disinterested counsels would be to that of
the pretty rake who hides a mercenary soul beneath
a fascinating manner, and who, having married for
money, flirts for valuable consideration only
THE " LONDON REVIEW" ON BAITS FOR GUD-
GEONS.—A newspaper paragraph is now before us,
stating that " in an elegantly furnished villa, a
married lady, fond of old persons, accomplished, an
excellent reader, affable and cheerful, offers the
above" (i. e. board and residence), with the kind at-
tention of a daughter, to any lady or gentleman
seeking a home in a true sense of the word. We
suspect it must have been an advertisement of this
class which was answered not long ago, by a person
whose name is not announced, but who has lately
become notorious in the country papers as " the
sandy-complexioned young gentleman." He appears
to have engaged lodgings at Sheffield, where he re-
presented himself as the son of a London engineer in
extensive practice. He stated that he had come to
Sheffield to pursue his professional studies, and that
he expected his parents to join him in a few days,
which thus relieved him from the necessity of bring-
ing with him more than a scanty wardrobe. The
" sandy-complexioned young gentleman', had not
been long he
became in his new quarters before e
became desperately enamoured of a photograph
which was hanging in his room, and which turned
out to be the likeness of his landlady's niece. The
young lady was away from home at the time ; but
her aunt, flattered by the admiration of the young
student, determined that he should see the original
of a portrait which had already won his heart. She
sent for her neice. The young people met, fell in
love with each other, and became engdged. 'The
wedding-day was fixed. The wedding breakfast
was ordered. Nothing was wanted but the presence
of the future bridegroom's relative, who, strangely
enough, had not yet appeared upon the scene. The cere-
mony was to take place on Tuesday. Train after train
came into Sheffield on Monday without the expected
passengers. The last was at 7 o'clock, p.m. The
" sandy-complexioned young gentleman" went
alone to meet it, but the " sandy-complexioned
young gentleman"- never returned—possibly be-
cause, as we are informed, he by that time owed his
landlady the sum of £l5, and thought lie had better
bring the game to a close before he was called upon
to liquidate his little bill. It is difficult to say which
is more worthy of admiration—the cool impudence
of this adventurer, or the complacent vanity of his
victims. Further comment on the story would be
superfluous. Its circulation will, we trust, have the
effect of putting foolish people on their guard, and
render them distrustful of such advertisements as
the following, which has recently appeared in the

Times A young single gentleman, of indepen-
dent means, keeping his brougham, four-in-hand
waggonette break, saddle-horses, &c., will be happy
to place them at the disposal of a family of good
position, in London or suburbs, in exchange for
partial board and the advantages of cheerful and
musical home society. The Latter being the object
of the advertiser, who is of quiet habits, no one need
apply who cannot offer a happy and cheerful home."
It would be too much to assume that this advertise-
ment has been inserted for a dishonest purpose ; but
appearances are against it. Under what peculiar cir-
cumstances does it come to pass that a " young gen-
tleman" of fortune is reduced to such an expedient for
securing a home ? He desires cheerful andmusical so-
ciety. Where are his own friends? Has he ever had
any ? Has he lost them all, and does he think to find
others by driving about the world in his four-in-
hand ? Fancy the family of "position " who would
be ready to receive into their circle a perfect
stranger, in exchange for the loan of his " saddle-
horses." The advertiser stipulates for " partial "
board—which means, we presume, that he wishes to
dreakfast in the family and dine at his club. But
where is his club, and how on earth did such a
friendless young gentleman manage to become a
member of one ? He announces the fact that he is
single. It is possible that he is.bent on matrimony,
and wishes to take this means of securing a wife.
Could any ladies possibly resist the attractions of a
gentleman who keeps his brougham and waggonette
break ? We can imagine shadowy doubts arising
in the minds of the sceptical as to whether those
magnificent equipages exist at all. We can conceive
it possible that the wealth of our youthful bachelor
might possibly fade away before a closer inspection
of his banker's pass-book. But supposing the os-
tentatious account of his worldly means to be cor-
rect—granting the independent property—the
brougham—the waggonette, we are still as far from
a solution of this mystery as ever. The " young
single gentleman " may not, indeed, be an adven-
turer of the class to which the Sheffield imposter
belonged, but he may represent one which is more
dangerous. There are treasures in every family far
more precious than those of the cash-box and strong-
room, and they are only to be protected by that sort
of caution which turns a deaf ear to such question-
able overtures.
THE " SPECTATOR" ON THE DISASTER IN BOOTAN.
—The Government of India has relied for the first
time since the mutinies upon the native army alone,
and the weapon has broken in its hands. When the
Government of Bengal at the beginning of last cold
weather carried its point of declaring war upon
Bootan, the Viceroy insisted upon the despatch of
an adequate force to the frontier, but declined to
send any Europeans. If the sepoys were good for
anything they were good enough to fight the
Booteas, and European lives were too valuable to be
squandered in jungle service. Accordingly a strong
corps darmee numbering some 8,000 men was col-
lected, but left without European support save such
as might be obtained from some twenty artillerymen
selected to manage two light Armstrong guns. This
force entered the country at four points widely sepa-
rated from each other, passed through the Dooars or
low country, in which they met no resistance, and
seized the stockades commanding the four main
entrances into the Bootan plateau. Garrisons were
placed in each, the low country was declared an-
nexed, and the Government of Bengal, which had
from the first been annoyed at the precautions in-
sisted on by the Viceroy, announced with some
exultation that it could govern the district by the
aid of the police alone. A flourishing report was
prepared showing the resources of the country
in cotton, tea, and grain, and the eagerness of
the people to be delivered from their Mongol
oppressors, the war was declared at an end,
and the army, greatly enfeebled by disease, was
distributed among the nearest military stations.
Negotiations were at the same time commenced with
the Durbar, or conclave of chiefs and officers sup-
posed to govern Bootan, to induce them in consi-
deration of an annuity to abstain from marauding
into the annexed territory. It was believed that
they would accept this offer, and the Government
of Bengal reviewing all the facts, the success of the
inroad, the increase of territory, and the submission
of the people, was rather proud of its successful ex-
ploit. The secretary, Mr. Ashley Eden, in parti-
cular, felt that the stain upon his robe had been
washed white, that the insult offered through him to
the Imperial Government had been speedily and
most amply avenged. The public considered the
affair at an end, and with that imperial pride which
marks the Anglo-Indians, which induces them now
to make head against a nation in arms, and then to
court destruction by careless contempt for their foes,
declared the Booteas savages, and in a week forgot
them. They forgot also a man named Tongsoo
Penlow, chief of the warparty of Bootan. This man,
who was the main author of the outrages upon Mr.
Eden, refused, it may be from ignorance, but it may
also be from patriotism, to hear of submission, and
spent two months in raising his clansmen, and, as
we strongly suspect, in obtaining arms from Ben-
gal. There are Mahommedans in the Eastern dis-
tricts who do not love us, and who have command
of great stores of arms, which again might be slowly
supplied from within the Nepaulese frontier.
Wherever they Caine from they were obtained, and
by the middle of January Tongsoo Penlow was at
the head of a small body of musketeers and a large
force armed with bows, arrows,- and billhook-s, the
latter, we may remark, very formidable weapons
indeed if their owners can but close. His object was
of course to regain the command of the passes, and
for this purpose it was essential to carry the stock-
ades, Dalingkote, Buxa, Bala, and Dewangiri, by
which they are commanded. The first-named post
was neglected, probably as being furthest off from
the seat of the chieftain's local poWer, and the main
attaok was directed on Dewangiri, at the north-
eastern extremity of the Doors, and close to the
Penlow's property. This was assailed by the chief-
tain himself with a force represented by prisoners
at 6,000 men, who had taken possession of all the
surrounding eminences. One detachment, as far as
we can judge from the hurried descriptions for-
warded to Indian papers, gained a position directly
commanding the stockade, another cut off the bam-
boo aqueduct through which it was supplied with
water. The garrison, commanded by Lieutenant-
Colonel Campbell, of the 43d Native Infantry, con-
sisted of about 600 men, all native, and 14 or. 15
Europeans in charge of two Armstrong guns, light
pieces they must have been, as they were dragged
by men. That force should have been amply suffi-
cient to defeat any attack, and was declared to be
so by the brigadier commanding at Gowhatty, who
peremptorily refused to send the reinforcements ap-
plied for by Col. Campbell until it was too late. It
is probable that the officer in command, in addition to
other sources of anxiety, perceived signs of depres-
sion among his men, who never like frontier service,
who were gettingweak with dysentery, and who were
accustomed always to see Europeans by their side.
With a dispirited garrison, many sick, an open
stockade, water failing, ammunition falling short,
and a resolute enemy swarming all around, he ap-
pears to have considered his post untenable, and to
have decided on retreating, or if necessary cutting
his way to Gowhatty. The Indian journals blame
him severely, but Anglo-Indians are very intolerant
of failure, and there is neither courage nor capacity
in a fight against thirst. Col. Campbell for all that
appears may have been perfectly right—at all events
he gave the order for a secret retreat, and during
the night of the 4th February the evacuation be-
gan. It speedily became a rout. The night was
dark, the guides missed the route, the different par-
ties, advanced guard, main guard, sick guard, and
artillery got separated, officers could not be found
when wanted to issue orders, and finally the sepoys
were seized with one of those panics of confusion
which are so apt to arise in an expedition by night.
They grew, it is asserted, almost mutinous with
alarm, quitted the sick, and declined to pull at the
guns, all stores were pitched down the hill sides,
rifles were thrown away, and at last the artillery-
men, utterly worn out, were compelled to abandon
the two guns. The retreat had become a rush, and
the force when it gained Koomrehatta, the nearest
halting point, no longer consisted of soldiers. A
British garrison had been driven out in confusion from
a British 'possession by men whom they held to be
little better than savages. In the meanwhile, on
dates still uncertain Bala and Buxa, two other stock-
ades, one 50 and the other 100 miles away, had also
been abandoned, the first after two unsuccessful at-
tacks,the latter after several days of determined fight-
ing, in which we lost two officers and several men. Dal-
ingkote alone remained in our hands, and the " Doo-
ars" but just annexed with such a flourish of trumpets
had been torn from our hands. The " savages" had
beaten the seyoys. The instant the news reached
Calcutta Sir John Lawrence felt the gravity of the
situation. The road into Assam was open to the
victorious Booteas, and the defeat of the British
arms would be carried with endless exaggerations
through all the Mussulman villages of Eastern
Bengal, giving new hope among others to the
" Ferazees," the Wahabee community, whom it is
even now so difficult to restrain. The disaster must
be repaired at once, and the terrible blunder of
trusting to natives alone for the success of a dig-
tasteful expedition must not again be repeated. The
Viceroy at once declared the expedition a war, thus
taking it into his own hands, ordered her Majesty's
55th to the front and her Majesty's 80th to the
nearest point of support, despatched two more native
regiments, a regiment of Punjabee Irregulars, a
European battery of artillery, and a company of
sappers and miners, and appointed Lieutenant-
Colonel Tytler, an officer already decorated for con-
spicuous efficiency, to the immediate 'command in
Bootan. One of the most dashing officers in the
Indian Army, Brigadier Tombs, has been summoned
from Gwalior to take command of the entire force.

It has been resolved to retake Dewangiri, and by
April a small army completely appointed, will be in
readiness to thread once more the passes which com-
mand the ceded territory. Unless the Nepaulese,
encouraged by reports from the victorious Bhooteas,
should resolve to assist them, there is no
chance of such a force as this being repulsed ;
but we shall, nevertheless, pay heavily for
the blunder already committed. The original
conquest cost half a million, and the outlay for the
second campaign will amount to a sum the Treasury
can ill spare. Transport in these regions so far
from civilisation is exceedingly costly. We hear of
carts being built in thousands and by contractors,
of elephants sent from Patna hundreds of miles
away, of steamers chartered for months, of depots
of ammunition, and tents, and spiritS, and all things
necessary to keep Europeans in good heart. Nor
is this the worst of the affair. The rains commence
in Bootan before May, there are no barracks on
this side of Bengal fit for Europeans, the hospitals
even must be in tents, and the men will have not
only to march across Bengal and to conquer Bootan,
but to march back again during the most dangerous
of Indian seasons. The regiments will lose a third
of their strength, perhaps a half, and this wretched
little war will cost us six or seven hundred acclima-
tised soldiers, a million and a half sterling, and all
the consequences which flow in India " from any
event which destroys the impression of British in-
vincibility. It is all, of course, unavoidable. If the
wilder tribes of the frontier once fancy that they
are beyond the Viceroy's arm the frontier counties
will soon be uninhabitable, and we shall have to
commence operations to which the war in Bootan is
child's-play. Our territories march with the
hunting-grounds of tribes more or less savage and
as brave as Maories for nearly three thousand miles,
and steady defence is impossible except on the prin-
ciple of never enduring defeat. Any other would
cost the whole revenue of the frontier counties, per-
haps bring us a concerted invasion made from all
points at once. The second expedition is unavoidable,
but we do trust the affair will teach Anglo-Indian
statesmen two very much needed lessons, one that
the Government of Bengal is not organized for war,
does not understand it, and ought not to be en-
trusted with its prosecution ; the other, that to rely
on native soldiers alone is the most costly of eco-
nomies. Their business is to be auxiliaries to the
legions. One hundred Europeans in the stockade
would either have defended it successfully, or have
inspired among the sepoys the confidence necessary
to a dignified and well-planted retreat ; would have
either spared us a war which compels us to retain
the income-tax, or enabled us to wait with dignified
patience till the arrival of another cold weather
made it safe fcii Europeans to move.
THE " EXAMINER PELIZZIONI'S CASE.--Sir
George Grey bast wisely decided that Pelizzioni shall
be put upon his trial for stabbing the two men who
were wounded in the affray at Saffron hill. This
will, in effect, be a completely new trial of the facts,
and probably with more sifting of the direct evidence
than there seemed occasion for on the present trial.
And how will matters stand if Pelizzioni should be
convicted ? In that case there can be no reasonable
doubt that the hand that stabbed the two men sur-
viving was the hand also that struck the mortal blow
to poor Harrington. It would then be clear that
Mogni was not really guilty of the manslaughter
for which he is sentenced to five years' penal servi-
tude, and justice would require his restoration to
liberty. And thus he would have got Pelizzioni's
neck out of the halter by the confession of a crime
he had not committed, and in turn Pelizzioni's con-
viction would clear Mogul 'of all guilt and open his
prison doors. Such would be the curious result,
unless it should appear that Mogni was aiding and
abetting Pelizzioni, but not a particle of evidence
has yet appeared to that effect.

COUNTRY MARKETS.

-.1,-

NORWICH-SATuRDAT.

Tho supply of wheat was tolerably good at this day's
market to-day, and rates of this day so'nnight were about
maintained for all good qualities. Little done in barley,
most of the buyers being well in stock, and good malting
sorts may be quoted the same as of late. In other articles
little doing.
White wheat (weighing 631 b to 641 b), 44s to 45s ; red
ditto (weighing 631 b to 641 b), 36s to Ms ; best malting
barley (weighing 551 b to 561 b), 30s to 33s ; runs ditto
(weighing 541 b to 551 b), 28s to 30s ; distilling ditto (weigh-
ing 521 b to 531 b), 248 to 26s ; oats, 24s to 26s ; beans, 370
to 39s ; peas (maple), 36s to 38s per qr ; flour, 25s to 250
6d per sack.
verages":—Wheat, 2,428 qrs, 38s 7d ; barley, 3,027 qrs.,
28s 10d ; oats, 30 qrs, 28s Od.