The Sun.
London, England, 1859-08-29 00:00:00

FEMALE LOVE OF RANK.

The love of aristocratic distinction seems to be
imprinted in the heart and soul of the
woman. We are about to connect,
for a moment, the Peerage and the Police-court,
A still
n g 10. deeplysaxo n .
but not in any way which will give offence to the
haughtiest noble. Even froth a source so impure
as the one indicated the Peers of England may
gather waifs and strays of admiration and respect.
Surely, it is not a small matter that the same prin-
ciple which induces the millionaire cotton-
spinner to . cast his fortune at the feet of a
bankrupt— Duke's unprepossessing daughter
should extend downwards to classes in society
where the letter H is a mystery, and a
baked shoulder of mutton with potatoes
under it an extraordinary repast ? What a poin t
for Mrs. Hobbles, the relict of the late Mr. John
Hobbles, of her Majesty's Customs, not to marry
again, but to "contract an alliance!" How, if the
hook was baited with the smallest fragment of a
title of honour, would that unfortunate woman ne-
glect those ordinary precautions which are to the
inhabitants of Jewsbury-crescent in the place of
the conveyancer's labours and the jealous protec-
tion of the Chancellor ! It is seldom indeed that
people have a chance of involving themselves in
such splendid ruin, but when it occurs it is not to
be neglected. Let our Radical philosophers say
what they will, the love of the purple is a
fact, just like the harmony which exists between
lemon-juice and native oysters. Let us leave our
own countrywomen alone for a moment and pass
to other lands. The same feeling is foundin demo-
cratic America and in aristocratic Germany. The
best thumb book in the public library of Boston is
—what ? That sacred volume which is, somewhat
irreverently, known in the land of its birth as the
Snobs' Bible—we mean the British Peerage. lii
Germany, in the same manner, notwithstanding
Revolutions of 1848, Frankfort Assemblies, and
what not, the admiration for 64 well-guaranteed
quarterings is as rife as ever. In that land of
somewhat dreary bliss a man is still described as
" cap tble" or " incapable of roast-meat"—just as
we used to speak of persons who were entitled to
sit above or below the salt. It is quite the same
thing whether we seek for a solution ,of the
mystery in the land of equality or the land of
inequality. The youthful Lady Blanche Ever-
gules—a young, noble, and unmarried lady verg-
ing on 45—naturally avails herself of the admis-
sion, and holds that these social distinctions were
"established by Providence for the wisest and best
of purposes." Not being in the Privy Council where
such matters are discussed, we are not prepared
with a contradiction.

This strange love for rank in any forit has just
received a strange illustration at the Lambeth
Police-court. Mrs. Jane Hayes applied to the sit-
ting magistrate to relieve herself from an unfortu-
nate connection she had formed with a young noble-
man—at least she supposed him to be so. On the
28th of September this lady was conducted to the
hymeneal altar at St. George's, Hanover-square, by
the Hon. Wm. Denbigh Sloper Harrison, the son of
a nobleman, and an officer in the army. She lived
with him for a time, but a small black cloud
arose on the horizon, and soon darkened the
brilliant sky of the Hon. Mrs. Sloper Harri-
son's honeymoon. She began to suspect that
there was a slight hitch in that gay young
nobleman's domestic arrangements, and, in point
of fact, there was another Hon. Mrs. Sloper Harri-
sari still extant and breathing vital air. This was
bad enough, but far worse remained behind. Had
the Lothario been a real officer and a nobleman the
bitter pill of bigamy might-have been digested ; but
it turned out that he was neither the one nor the
other. So far from being an officer, it turned out
that the young aristocrat's only connexion with
the military force of the country was that he had a
brother in the Militia, and in the somewhat
humble though honourable capacity of a pri-
vate. In the next place, what noble
was there of the name of liarriinr! The Peer-
age was searched in sr.irt It was then dis-
covered
that the young nobletaan was sometimes
known by the name of Marshall, just as we
might say Hamilton and Brandon. Neither
under this head could anything to his advantage
be discovered. The noble family still remained
a mystery. Something positive, however, was at

last brought to light by the discovery—first, of
the fact that the young nobleman had recently
amused his leisure by accepting jobs as a
journeyman paperhanger; and, secondly, that the
lady who had prior claims on him as his wife
was actually forthcoming. Both ladies were pre-
sent at Lambeth Police-court on Thursday last,
when the pseudo-nobleman was committed for
trial at the Central Criminal Court on a charge of
bigamy. He seems to have been a pitiful vagabond
of the liriah Heep order when it came to the
point, at one moment denouncing himself as a
blackguard and scoundrel—so far the Court was
with him—and the next wanting to go down on
his knees to his wives, or to anybody who wished to
have his boots licked by such a paltry vagabond.
There seems, indeed, to be a probability that there
is a third wife living, inasmuch as the prisoner pro-
tested, " that, as God was above him and his judge,"
he had not any third lady to whom he stood in the
relation. This form of language in the
mouths of such people is almost invariably
evidence of falsehood. The Hon. Sloper Mar•
shall was, however, removed at last to prison to
await his trial at the Central Criminal Court, beg-
ging the spectators not to laugh at him, " because
they themselves might get into a hobble some day
or other." So of him there is an end for the present.
The only r,ason why we call any particular at-
tention to such a case as this is, that it is a curious
illustration of the fondness of our countrywomen—
however humble their station may be—for rank
and title. Here was a wretched little whining
creature, of contemptible appearance and address—
not tainted but saturated with vice—who was able
to betray one woman after another simply because
he gave out that he was a nobleman's son.—Times.