The Sun.
London, England, 1853-07-15 00:00:00

£25 16 8

On the other side there is to be reckoned the loss of

the sixpence which Mr. Gladstone is so anxious to levy.
What would this amount to ? We counted just now a
page of advertisements in the Manchester Guardian,
and found it to contain 98 advertisements ; or,
not quite 400 for the whole four pages. Now, we
would concede the probability that small advertisements
would increase' in number proportionately, if the duty
were wholly repealed, and we will therefore suppose
that the second supplement might contain 600.
Well, the levy of sixpence on these 600 advertisements
would produce 151.
Clearly, therefore, if, by remitting the wlide duty,
instead of only two-thirds of it, Mr. Gladstone can
so far encourage advertising as to force the Man-
chester Guardian and the Leeds Mercury to publish
double supplements weekly, he would lose 151. by the
surrendered advertisement duty, and gain 251. 16s. Bd.
by the supplement stamps and by the duty on paper.
It seems, therefore, quite clear that by this remission
the Exchequer would gain considerably. The only ex-
ception to be taken to this argument is that the remis-
sion might not produce the result we have supposed,
i.e., a large increase of the number of advertisements.
On this point, however, we believe that any man of ex-
perience could satisfy the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
No one who is at all acquainted with the wants of the
commercial world canintertain the least doubt that per-
fectly " free trade" in advertising would produce this
result—would lead to such an increase of business .as
would oblige all the leading papers to publish double
supplements frequently.
If this view be correct—and we have no doubt that
it will bear a close scrutiny—when the Chancellor of the
Exchequer is showing great pertinacity in defendiing
the Treasury from Mr. Milner Gibson's attacks, when,
in truth, he would probably gain more than he would
lose by entirely conceding all that is asked of him.

house.

BRITISH ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.—The preamble of this
company's bill has been declared proved in the Lords.
NEW MEXICAN TARIFF.—The synopsis published of
the New Mexican tariff, which is to go into operation,
as regards European vessels, on the Ist of October next,
seems to confirm the doubts already existing as to any
broad views on the subject being entertained by Santa
Anna. The details, however, being loosely given, and
unaccompanied by any comment, it is impossible at pre-
sent to form any precise view with regard to them.
THE ESCAPE OF PATRICK OTIONOHOE.—The Free-
man's
thedetailing theescapePatricke
e Irish
convicts.
ber, he escaped from his dist • ay,
t, crossed Bass's Straits
in a storm, and arrived on the Australian continent on
the 22d. Previous to Startingit
by he wrote out a vindi ca-
by a sure hand to one of
the most distinguished members of the Legislative Coun-
cil. After his arrival in. Austra*
tra-
versed 300 miles of the beach anmayindon the 22d, he
on! of Hob-
son's Bay, seeking a ship bound fors:3lle
be was received on board a vessel bounrnderifocra'a Sp aOncne-
nish settlement, and had paid the captain 1901.
pas-
sage money, but the captain went off his bargain.
sleep
For many days and nights he was without or
rest, and one day he travelled ninety-one miles through
the bush, subsisting on brackish water, without a
particle of food. On New Year's Day ie went, dis-
guised, alongside the Great Britain, in Hobson's Bay, to
ascertain if he could get off by her. He could not ac-
complish this, and he entered the city at night, clothed
in a sou'wester and blue shirt, tar -like,
e and storm-beaten.
He walked into a house which was kept by an Irishman,
where he received the tenderest welcome. Four armed
Irishman mounted guard at hit door, and on the follow-
ing day he held a levee, at which it is stated the'principal
men of the town attended, armed for his defence. Five
hundred policemen and the Government sympathisers
are said to have known of the meeting. On the follow-
ing day he placed himself in communication with a few
trustworthy friends, and these few gentlemen had
O'Donohoe immediately removed to the country for
safety. They then entered into a subscription amongst
themselves for the purpose of chartering a small vessel
to take him to California. Three of the five gentlemen.
who constituted the Committee of Safety subscribed 751.
each, and the remaining two (poor men, comparatively
speaking), subscribed 501. each, making the handsome.
snm of 3251. All things having been arranged, O'Dcr-
nohoe was placed on board a small cutter that was ostew
sibly cleared out at the Sydney Customs for the South
Sea Islands, but, in reality, for San Francisco.

A " DASHING" WEDDING.

BY ELIZA COOK.
(From. Eliza Cook's Journal. )
" Well, if ever we should get married, we shall cer-
tainly adopt the sensible advice of Punch, and make the
affair runaway match with the consent of our friends.' "
This was our fervent mental declaration some fourteen

months since, when, much against our inclination, we
were staying at the house of a young neighbour during
the preparations for her marriage with a good-looking

clerk in the Bank.
This young neighbour was Emily Mason, the eldest
daughter of a retired commercial traveller, who managed
to keep up a very respectable appearance, with a wife and
five children, on three hundred a year. We had always
given the Masons credit for being people of good common
sense, and used to quote them as an example of prudence ;
but, alas ! the folly they exhibited at the union of Emily
with George Burleigh quite sapped our veneration for
their mental superiority, and caused us to imagine that
weddings, like cards, were invented to amuse mad people.
We knew that George Burleigh had scarcely two hundred
a-year, and that "comfortable apartments" near Islington,
with a "small domestic," would form the extent of his
establishment ; we knew that Mr. Mason had nothing to
spare for extraneous luxuries ; and of course were con-
siderably startled when we heard of six bridesmaids,
a grand breakfast for forty people, four dashing carriages,
with grey horses and white favours ; that Emily was to
wear a splendid lace veil instead of a bonnet, and that

the whole paraphernalia was to be in imitation of the
style in which the daughter of a duke is married.
Every member of the family seemed bewildered by the
approaching event, and the simple legal contract of mar-
riage was evidently about to be performed in much such
a temporary galaxy of spangles, foil, white tulle, and
blue fire, as one expects to witness in the last scene of a
Lyceum Christmas-piece. The confusion and profusion
of dressmakers, tailors, white gloves, orange-blossoms,
milliners' boxes, confectioners' trays, wine-baskets and
silver-decked cards, completely destroyed the natural state
of household propriety, and every room and every person
seemed bitten by a matrimonial tarantula. The staid
and stout mamma grew so "puce" in the face amid the
perplexing anxieties and duties crowding on her, that she
rushed about like an animated pickling-cabbage. No
sooner had she tried on a very tight-fitting dove-satin
dress, under the scrutiny of Miss Flouncem, which added
a deeper suffusion to her cheeks, than the cook, hired for
the occasion, begged her most earnestly to look out the
jelly-glasses : no sooner were the jelly-glasses produced,
than her presence was demanded in the passage touching
the arrival of " the cake" from Purssell's ; then, where

was the blonde lace she had promised Julia ? in her
private drawer upstairs ; then, where was the parcel of
almonds for blanching ? in the store-closet down-stairs :
Emily begged her to go directly to Regent-street to
match some pink silk, and Maria requested her to be
sure to call in Covent-garden to insure the bouquets.
Poor Mrs. Mason (she might with justice have been
taken for the long-sought realisation of "perpetual
motion") ! but she wanted to "do the thing hand-
somely," and to show her friends that she knew " what
is proper on such occasions," so she endured bravely,
like a maternal heroine as she was, and felt as im-

portant amid her embarrassing duties as a parish beadle
at the head of a charity-school.
It so happened that we wished to indite some business
correspondence, and few would believe how vainly we
tried to get a quiet hour and a foot or two of covenient
space to ourselves. We sought the front parlour—there
was a white silk skirt with seven flounces, three gauze

scarfs, and "a love of a cap" on the large table, and a
pink jacket, with numerous pairs of ethereal sleeves, on
the "Pembroke." We retreated immediately, and tried
the back parlour—there we encountered Mrs. Lovelace,
in close conjunction with Julia and Maria, amid heaps of
delicate materials, sprinkled with ribbons, flowers, and
marabouts, to such a dazzling extent, that one might have
fancied Oberon and Titania, with their elfin crew, had left
their clothes behind while they went to take a bath. Not
an inch of mahogany, not a glimpse of a chair-seat was
visible, and we felt that our epistolary intentions in that
quarter were completely "bonneted., We sought our
own bedroom—there was Emily packing up for her
" tour" to Brighton, and everything was everywhere;
we peeped into the brother's dormitory—surely a chance
existed there—but, lo and behold ! the toilet-table was
covered with glass and tumblers, and the very floor oc-
cupied by plates and dishes. We cast a sort of longing
look on the landing-place, and when we found that in-
vaded by four bandboxes, Mr. Mason's new blue coat,
and three pairs of dress boots, we gave up our purpose
in despair, and resigned ourselves to helping Mrs. Mason
to cut out some paper ornaments for the breakfast.
Where George Burleigh was during his visits on the
two last evenings of preparation we could not quite
make out. We fancied we caught a fading shadow of
him at the street-door once or twice as Emily gave rather
an abrupt slam to the said door, but certain it is that he
was not admitted into either of the receiving-rooms, and

it is our belief that he was positively ordered out of the

The night before the eventful morning the excitement
and confusion increased to an alarming extent ; some of
the most important essentials were found defective at the

last moment. Mr. Mason had discovered that the sherry
was not drinkable, and then doubted if there were cham-

pagne enough. A journey from Bayswater to Fenchurch-
street after 8 p.m. was indispensable, and off he went,
poor man, looking very like an escaped lunatic. Frank,
the youngest son, declared his vest was too short for the
fashion, and flung himself into a severe hysteric of bad
words about the tailor's masculine want of attention.
Tom, the eldest, had not been able to get grey horses to
all the carriages, without extra charge. Maria was in an
agony to find that one of the bridesmaids intended to wear
a far more splendid dress than her own. Julia was
loquaciously bitter against a pair of tight shoes just come
from the makers's ; and Emily, the bride, was on the very
precipice of fainting, from the effect of general flurry.
Mrs. Mason, long after midnight, was busied among the
" things for breakfast," and was so lost to reason that
when Mr. Mason asked where his new black trowsers
were, she replied, " They will be brought up with the
custards, my dear." Dresses had to be altered, trades-
men had to be sent to, servants had to be schooled, and
everything had to be looked for that should have been
found a week before. We suspect that not a member
of the family got one hour's sleep, and for our part we
own to having entertained desperate notions that the
mere " broomstick" system of marrying was preferable
to such a dreadful disturbance in a quiet family.
We can never describe the wedding morning. We
seemed in a sort of mist, and can only distinctly recol-
lect that Emily was dosed with neat brandy, and that
George Burleigh had to go back for the ring ; that the
guests made long speeches while the bride was gasping ;
that the bridegroom looked as happy as a duckling in a
larze-bush ; and that Mr. Mason. between French
champagne, Italian cream, and English sentiment, was
compelled to retire from the public breakfast-table to
the private bed-room.

W e were never more glad than when, after an un-
limited amount of tears, and hugs, and distresses, Emily
and her husband left for the London Bridge station ;
and so sickened were we by the foolish wedding display
of the Masons, that we resolutely made up our minds to
abjure any chance of a like infliction in future.
About a month since we paid a visit to Mrs. George
Burleigh under very different, and what most ladies con-
sider very interesting, circumstances ; that is, she was
sitting up in a close bedroom in a dingy-white dressing-
robe, with two dirty basins and ditto wine-glasses on the
mantlepiece, a mysterious looking small panikin on the
hob, a vast amount of untidy all-sorts scattered about,
and something in her lap which might have been mistaken
for a large wax doll, had it not exhibited a degree of
crimson in the face which no wax doll of the slightest
lady-like pretensions ever displayed. A rather subdued
but very expressive vocal sound issuing from this small
pipe in the grand Haarlem organ of life brought us to a
full conviction of its being a real identity ; and after
congratulating its mamma on her new possession, we
instantly discovered an intense general likeness to its
papa; within a few minutes we saw a strong trace of
both grandpapas in the nose, with a dash of a maternal
uncle about the chin ; while in the hands we detected
the thumb of the whole Mason family. We nursed the
cabbage-rosebud for some five minutes with such ner-
vous care and practical dexterity that its dear little head
came in contact with the powder-box, and its robe of
innumerable tucks got intimately acquainted with the
cinders. We resigned it to an elderly woman, who smelt
so strongly of "something," that our vivid imagination
immediately saw written under her mouth the Inscrip-
tion often observed on the doors of various taverns,

"Bottle and jug department." At last "the lovely in
fant fell into an Elysian slumber of beatific serenity," ' as
we read in a new novel the other day, and the lady of
the immortal " Gamp" fraternity left us, no doubt, to
fall into the Elysium of "Barclay's best."
" Well, Emily," said we, "isn't George delighted with
his daughter I" "Oh dear, yes," she replied; "but do
you knbw it has been a dreadfully expensive time, and do
you know, he says, that as soon as ever we can get rid
of the nurse, we must go into smaller apartments. I
wish we had now what was spent on our wedding. Do
you know," continued she with a confidential, long-
faced whisper, " that what with the carriages and break-
fast, and all those fine dresses which you said I didn't
want, the presents to the bridesmaids, the three weeks
at those uncomfortable lodgings at Brighton, and one
thing and another, that upwards of one hundred and
twenty pounds went ; and where was the good of it ?
but Ma and Pa would have a " dashing" wedding, and
I was very foolish myself in the matter. I only wish
we had the money now. George often gets cross about
it when he thinks of it.
This outpouring of Emily's did not at all astonish us,
for we knew that she possessed some common sense,
although the matrimonial earthquake had shaken it for a
time. She then paid us the compliment of wishing that
she had taken our advice, and got married more quietly.
" Do you know," continued she, " that I think people in
our station of life are very foolish to waste so much
money on their weddings ; and when Julia and Maria get
married, I shall do all in my power to prevent such a
stupid set out. Not a soul cares for you a bit the more,
after all the bother and expense, and I'm sure it's no
pleasure to the parties. What do you think ? Mrs.
Harley told Mrs. Mitfield the other day, that she thought
Mr. Mason had much better have put by the money for
e to
t he hear,b r
e hasakf
his girls than have cut such a dash for a few hours • and
bothMr cam Mr.
Harris,
breakfast"
some rude remarks ;bout
• the champagne not being paid for yet,—and yet they
We smiled at Emily's honesty, and a long expatiation
ensued on the conventional a,bsurdity of "grand weddings"
in the middling ranks of society. We summed up, that the
general results are embarrassment, discomfort, and undue
expense. That most brides in such a position are pain-
fully distressed ; that most bridegrooms are either ridicu-
lously " spooney," or unbecomingly excited ; that the
immediate connections are awkwardly anxious ; that the
guests are seldom perfectly comfortable, and often censo-
rious and ungrateful ; and that the whole affair, instead
of being a rational, solemn, and quiet ceremony, becomes