The Sun.
London, England, 1857-11-10 00:00:00

WORDS WORTH ON POETRY.

(From Professor Wilson's Works.)
Of all poets that ever lived Wordsworth has been
at once the most truthful and the most idealising ;
external nature from him has received a soul, and
becomes our teacher ; while he has so filled our
minds with images from her, that every mood
finds some affinities there, and thus we all hang for
sustenance and delight on the bosom of our mighty
mother. We believe that there are many who have
an eye for nature and even a sense of the beautiful
without any very profound feeling ; and to them
Wordsworth's finest descriptivepassages seem often
languid or diffuse, and not to present to their eyes
any distinct picture. Perhaps sometimes this ob-
jection may be just; but to paint the eye is easier
than to the imagination—and Wordsworth, taking
it for granted that people can now see and hear,
desires to make them feel and understand. Of his
pupil it must not be said—
" A primrose by the river's brim
A yellow primrose is to him,
And it is nothing more ;"
the poet gives the something more till we start at
the disclosure as at a lovely apparition—yet an ap-
parition of beauty till that moment seemed to usbut
an ordinary bunch of leaves. In these lines is a
humbler example of how recondite may be the
spirit of beauty in any the most familiar thing be-
longing to the kingdom of nature ' • one higher far
—but of the same kind—is couched in two immortal
verses—

" To mo the humblest flower that blows can give
Thoughts that too often lie too deep for tears."

In what would the poet differ from the worthy man
of prose if his
.imagination possessed not a beautify-
ing and transmuting power over the objects of the
inanimate world ? Nay, even the naked truth itself
is seen clearly but by poetic eyes ; and were a Bumph
all at once to become a poet, he would all at once
become stark-staring mad. Yonder ass licking his
lips at a thistle, sees but water for him to drink in
Windermere a-glow with the golden lights of setting
suns. The ostler or the boots at Lowood, inn takes
a somewhat higher flight, and for a moment, paus-
ing with currie-comb or blacking brush in his sus-
pended hand, calls on Sally the chambermaid forgra-
cious sake to look at Pull-wyke. The waiter, who
has cultivated his taste from conversation with
Lakers,leams their phraseology, and declares the sun-
set to be exceedingly handsome. The Laker, who
sometimes has a soul, feels it rise within him as the
rim of the orb disappears in the glow of softened
file. The artist compliments nature by likening
her evening glories to a picture of Claude Lorraine
—while the poet feels the sense sublime
" Of something far more deeply interfused,
Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,
And the round ocean and the living air,
And the blue sky, and in the mind of man;
A motion and a spirit that impels
All thinking things, all objects of all thought,
And rolls through all things."

TuE OUTWARD BRAZIL AND RIVER PLATE MAIL.—
The Royal Mail Company's steam-ship Medway, Capt.
J. Hammack, left Southampton yesterday with the
monthly mails for the Brazils and River Plate, 134
passengers (among whom are Count Bellinghausen, B.
Oliveira, Esq., &c.), a full cargo, specie of the value of
71,1331., and jewellery to the amount of 42,000/.
IRRIGATION of SEWAGE.—Dr. Southwood Smith,
Professor Way, and Mr. H. Austin, of the General
Board of Health, have gone as a deputation to Milan
to inspect works of irrigation there, with a view to the
important question of the application of sewage to
agricultural purposes, in connection with tie great
metropolitan sewage problem in particular, and the
utilisation of the sewage of towns in general.
SOME DISTINCTIONS OF CASTES.—To the Brahmins
all animal food, save that of fishes and kids, is fc.rbidden ;
yet in some districts they will readily partake of the
flesh of any animal whatever, if only, as in the case of
other Hindoos, it be not killed with their own hand.
The Rajpoots eat fish, mutton, and venison ; fowls, beef,
and pork are held in abomination. Many castes follow
the same rules. With some, however, pork is the fav-
ourite diet, beef only is prohibited. Those who shrink
from the polletion of eating the flesh of domestic poultry
will eagerly devour that of the jungle fowl, which
.differs
from the game cock only in size. All Hindoos consider
themselves defiled by contact only with feathers ; among
the tribes at the foot of the Himalayas, who are in
other respects strict Hindoos, this prejudice does not
exist. An earthen pot is polluted beyond redemption
by being touched by one of an inferior caste ; a
metal one suffers no such deterioration. Coolies will
carry any load, however offensive, upon their heads ;
bid them carry a man for a few paces, and, though it be
a matter of life and death, they will answer you that it
is the business of another caste. The Roliillas will sub-
mit to be flogged within an inch of their lives with a
hathern martingale, but to be struck with a whip or
cane would be an indelible disgrace, and very likely to
s
be resented with a bullet or a stab. Spirituous liquors
are in general allowed only to Pariahs. In somepartsr
of Southern India the Brahmins partake of them with-
out scruple. Among the Nairs of Malabar the women
enjoy a plurality of husbands. Among the Tatiyars' on
the same coast, those within the degrees of consangun ity
possess their wives in common. Many castes are only
to be known from one another by the cut and colour of
their clothes, the shape and arrangement of their trin-
kets, or some other equally frivolous and unimportant
distinction.—/rving on Caste,

CHEVALIER COSHING ANJ3 THE LADIES,

(Front the New Pork Herald.)
The knights of old were in the habit of wasting a
great deal of valuable time by defending at sword's
point the reputation cf some particular damsel to
whom they inclined. The Chevalier Cushing goes
further, and enters the li,t to do battle for all the
ladies. He declares that they are not at all respon-
sible for the present financial vevu7sion ; that their
flounces and furbelows are only a bagatelle in the
question of exports and imports ; that their crino-
line did not stop the Erie Railway ; that their silks
did .not break the Ohio Lift.: and Trust Company ;
that their kid gloves and Lilliputian bonnets had
nothing to do with the stoppage of the great dry
goods houses; and further, that their style of dress
is quite the correct thing; in every way. And he, the
said Chevalier, makes public proclamation that he
will defend this issue after, the good old chivalric
custom. Hear ye, all men ! the Chevalier, armed
at all points, his vizor: down, his lance in rest,
awaits the combat. The Knight of Salamanca
again is in the field.

Now, we do not yield to any man in devotion to
the fair sex, but we we bound to say that♦ nearly
all our countrywomen who have money or credit,
or could obtain either, have been for several years
shamefully extravagant ; that they are almost re-
sponsible for the excessive imports of articles of
luxury, which imports have drained our specie
reserve and loaded down our warehouses with
articles which are of no earthly use ; and that they
are even now spending too much money for articles
they do not need., but which they buy simply on
account: of a decline, in price. Let us see the
figures :-- _ _

The total value of the imports—for the fiscal year
ending June 30, 1855, was 314,639,942 dole., of
which, for articles of luxury consumed by women,
we have spent 43,624,553 dole. Forty-three
millions of dollars ! That is equal to the whole
product of the gold mines in California for one year,
and that would have more than sufficed to save us
from the crisis. Of this sum 31,218,766 dols.
were paid for silks and manufactures of silks ;
6,376,853 dole. for laces and embroideries ;
shawls, 2,529,771 dole. ; gloves, 1,344,550 dole. ;
furs, 864,731 dole. ; jewellery, 844,630 dole. ; silk
and worsted piece goods, 1,336,247 dols. We ex-
pended two millions more for silk than for final)
and so on. We have omitted many items which
would tell against the women, as it may be urged
that men consume a portion of the articles above
enumerated. The articles omitted—bijouterie, ar-
tificial flowers, French shoes and boots, fancy ar-
ticles, and a thousand and one fripperies that make
up that wonderful mystery, a fashionable woman's
attire—would more than balance the account.
There is a little item of 42,000 dols. for perfumed
soap, which is quite a good index to the whole thing.
Again, it must be remembered that these figures
are taken from the Treasury reports, and that the
articles are 'valued at something under the whole-
sale rate, while our fair countrywomen are charged
upon all such matters as laces at least 100 per cent.
profit. A set of laces which cost in Paris 20 dole.
could not be bought here in flush times for less
than 60 dole. It should further be remembered
that 20,000 or 30,000 of our -women either
teside abroad or go to Europe nearly every sum-
mer. The amount of rich stuffs—silks, satins, vel-
vets, shawls, and jewellery —which they run
through the Custom-house free is something enor-
mous—not less than a million dollars' worth a-year ;
and all luxuries of not the slightest use to anybody
on the face of the earth. We have seen on board..
one ship a lady enter as her personal baggage 20
large trunks. No princess in the world would have
so much.
The travelled American cannot fail to have no-
ticed the marked distinction between the prome-
nade dresses of our women and of those abroad.
The French and English women go out to walk in
plain, neat, serviceable dresses, while ours drag
their heavy silks in the gutters. American women
are guilty of shameful extravagance and bad taste
in wearing for walking dresses robes—which are
made for the carriage or the drawing-room.
Moro we might allege, for the subject is of the
deepest importance ; but, statistically, quite enough
has been proved. The worst fact of all remains to
be stated. As far as the question of fashion goes
—how a robe shall be cut, or the exact size of a
hat, or the measure of circumference to be allowed
to a skirt—that is no great matter. If women desire
to make themselves the targets of coarse jokes, it is
not for us to deny them that luxury. But we will
put to the Chevalier Cushing and those who think
with him the plain proposition that, as the women
of America are placed on a pedestal but a little below
the angels, as they toil not (we mean who are guilty
of extravagances such as we have noted), neither do
they spin, the men have to pay allthebills—whether
so much money can be spent for luxuries and be a
mere bagatelle in the question of exports and im-
ports. We do not know that crinoline and kid
gloves broke the Ohio Life and Trust Company—
probably the president and directors can tell better.
But the majority of our women in good circum-
stances are drags upon their husbands instead of
being helpmeets to them. If one does her duty
simply it' is trumpeted through all the papers as
an example of Spartan virtue. The inference is"
plain that such examples are almost unprecedented.
Women rarely throw away their own money ; no
one is more prudent and careful than a woman who
has a fortune in her own right ; but once her taper
fingers Close on another'is cheque-book the grasp of
Hercules could not unloose them.
The Chevalier Cushing asks, "Did the women
break the dry goods houses ? Yes. The women in
the flush times of '54-'55, spent twice as much money
as they ought ; they were capricious and difficult to
please—they demanded new styles—the magasins
of Paris and the manufactories of Lyons and Valen-
ciennes and Brussels were ransacked for them. The
importations were double what they should have
been. There was nothing to pay for them with.
The crisis came. The houses broke, and their coun-
ters groan with stuffs for which there is no market.
Nowhere in the world are the women dressed so
badly and so expensively as in America. When we
go abroad we are astonished by the simple morning
and promenade costumes of the daughters of the
English nobility—men with rent-rolls to which an
American fortune is a drop in the sea. A. French
Countess, with a fixed income of 100,0001. a-year,
will not spend half so much on her dress as the wife
of a New York merchant whose business may give
him a profit of 10,000 dole. a-year, and may bring
him in debt to double that amount. Let not the
Chevalier Cushing look at the vulgar display made
at Saratoga, Newport, or Cape May, and compare
it with the modest attire of the aristocracy at Baden,
Brighton, or Biarritz. The fact is, our women take
French lorette fashions at second hand, and were
they so attired in a European city they would be
taken for what they seem to be rather than what
' they are.
We trust that both the women of America and
their champion will think seriously of these things,
for they are the truth, and just new we must drink
the cup, however bitter it may be. We do not be-
lieve that there is anything radically wrong in our
women ; we are willing to believe with the sage of
Newburyport, that any one of them, were she pro-
perly instructed, would be "as prompt to please
by frugality as by luxury, and proud to make any
sacrifice of fashion at the voice of duty and love."
We believe that manygood women in the land will
make this sacrifice cheerfully, for the sex is quick
enough in perception and prompt enough in action.
We hope they will all remember the lesson they are
now learning, but we cannot sincerely say that we
believe in the working of any such miracle. The
eleventh satire of Juvenal is as true now as it was
18 centuries ago.

MARRIAGE FACILITIEi ONE HUNDRED

TEARS AGO.

The law of marriage had hitherto been so loos©
that all kinds of hurried and clandestine unions
could be formed all over England with more facility
than they are now at Gretna-green. No notice or
publication of banns was required, no licence was
looked for, and any parson might perform the cere-
mony at any time or in any place, without consent of
parents or any other preliminary conditions what-
ever ; and the worst or the most needy of the clergy
would often forward the most rash or disgraceful
marriages for the sake of the paltry fee. The great
temple of the pseudo Hymen was the Fleet Prison.
Parsons confined for debt, scoundrels fuddled with
gin and tobacco, would marry in three minutes, and
for the small charge of 2s, any couple that presented
n
themselves. "In walking along the street
thisin p myr
youth," says Pennant, on the side ex.
son, I have often been tempted by the question: Sir,
i
will you be pleased to walk in and be married ?
Along this most lawless space was hung up the fre-
quent sign of a male and female hand conjoined
with " Marriages performed within," written be-
neath. A dirty fellow invited you in. The parson
was seen walking before his shop ; a squalid pro-
fligate figure, clad in a tattered plaid night-gown,
with a fiery face, and ready to couple you for a dram
of gin or roll of tobacco." To put 9. stop to these
crying abusesa bill wasprepared by the judges under
the auspices of Lord Chancellor Hardwick°, and
brought into the Upper House. It provided that all
marriages should henceforward take place either
by banns published on three successive Sundays, or
by licence granted in a regular manner ; and that
all other marriages should be void, and the parson
that solemnised any such transported for seven
years. —Knight's Pictorial History of England.

The amount paid into the treastry of the East India►
Company for bills on India from the 25th of October to
the 9th inst, 18 5,8271.

THE ['BREA OF A POLIOE-001VST ABLE
iN HiUTFORDSHIBE.

STEVENAGE, Nov. 9.
The inquest on the 1 hotly of John Sterking, of the
Hertfordshire county co uqtabulary, who was found
barbarously murdered in -
a few days ago, was resun IldPend' near Stevenage,
to-day at the National
School-room in that tow. before Mr. C.Times,
coroner.
The case up to the present:t tirao is one of entirely
the man appre-
.
circumstantial evidence as a e-a
hen Jed. The crime has cauei d 113,5
athe deepest feeling
appeared. on
of horror in the neighbourhoe
;such ht:cl been the
examination of the body that.. it had
strength with which the knife was used th,"`.l
ebrm at the be'cic of
actually penetrated to the ver
dropping off..
the neck, and the head was nearly
Captain Robinson, the chief , constable, attended
to watch the proceedings.
The first witness examined a
w 6 Mr. Dunn, sur-
geon, who made the post-mort em examination.
He stated that he had found ou i nspection of the
body that the scalp
.had been real oved, the head
sawn off, and the brains examined by another pro-
fessional man. On the day of the inquest he had a
c =ramification with Captain Robin: ion, who desired
him to make an immediate examine Lion, as it was
important that it should be made at o lice. Witness
said that he could not do it that eve,aing, but was
prepared to do it early next morni.3g. Finding
that the body had been partially examined, he com-
municated with the coroner, who directed him to
proceed with it. On the following Thursday, when
he presented himself to make the examination as
directed, he was refused who lesion to the room by
the police until Mr. Smith, tide other practitioner
who had been called in, arrived: when they pro-
ceeded to make the examination together. The
deceased was 5 feet 9 inches high, About 25 years
of age, and of a robust constitutien't The body
appeared to have been soaking a doe`' or two in
water, the hands and feet in particular tieing quite
sodden. There was a piece of skin kliockeed off the
joint of the little finger, apparently by a blow.
There was also a wound on the lips, as if tlhey elad
been torn by a point of a knife. Below tire chin
was a wound about two inches long, and an oblique
cut on; left side of the neck. The principal
wound was one in the throat, about six inches long,
extending from one angle of the jaw to the othe r.
The wound had irregular edges, and appeared to
have been done with three distinct cuts of a knife.
The commencement of the wound was on the r:glit
side. The knife appeared to have been thrust two
inches deep into the neck and then violently drawn
across the throat. Both the internal and external
carotid arteries were divided, as well as each of the
jugular veins. The knife appeared to have cut
close down to the spine ; consequently the head
was alnasot severed from the body. On the left
side the jugular veins were also divided. In con-
Sequence of the length of time that life bad been
extinct the rigor mortis had nearly disappeared.
The carotid artery on the left side was not divided,
the consequence of which was that the head being
lower than the body some blood might have run
into the head and caused the general extravasation
visible in the skull. It did not appear to have re-
sulted from strangulation. No doubt in case of
strangulation the brain would be greatly congested,
but he was of opinion that in consequence of the
large vessels being cut the blood would have run
out of the body very soon, and the extravasation
would disappear. There was no doubt that the
large wound on the throat must have caused almost
immediate death. Probably the man was dead in
less than a minute after the wo.and was made. It
appeared to have been caused by a pointed instru-
ment, but not a very sharp one, though sufficiently
sharp, with the exertion of some strength, to have
caused the cut. His reason for supposing that it
was not a very sharp knife was because it appeared
to have pushed aside some of the cartilage, which a
sharper one would have cut through. There was
no doubt in his mind that the wound could not
have been inflicted by the deceased. Witness saw
the body soon after it was taken out of the water,
before it was undressed. The collar was cut as if
by a pointed knife, such as was sometimes used by
labourers.
The coat and also the stock of the deceased were
here produced and shown to the jury, and the witness
said that, from the mutilated condition of the coat
collar, and the fact of the stock being bent down,
it appeared to him that some person had grasped
the deceased by the collar, forced him down, and
then cut his throat. There were also no traces of
blood from the place where the marks of a struggle
were visible to the pond in which the body was
found ; whereas, if it were possible to suppose that
the man crawled to the pond, there must have been
a distinct track of blood. The wound appeared to
have been made when the man had been brought
to the ground by another leaning over him or while ,
standing in front of him.
By the Jury—The wound was much deeper on
the right side of the throat, and the cut on the coat
seemed rather to have been made after the knife
came out of the throat.
By the Coroner—The back of the coat appeared
to have been drenched with blood, as if the wound
had been made either when the man was standing,
and that he had fallen on his back, or that the
wound had been made when he was he was lying
on the ground. Witness thought that from such
an incision as appeared to have been made a great
quantity of blood would have spurted on the person
who inflicted injury. When veins of that descrip-
tion were cut the blood jotted out with considerable
force. The elasticity of the stock would probably
have prevented a good deal of the blood from
covering any person near, because after the person
had let go his hold the stock would go back again
to its original position. When the body was found
the stock completely covered and almost concealed
the wound. If blood jetted out from the neck of
one man on to the body of another it would depend
upon the distance whether the blood would be in
spots ,or patches upon the clothes of the other.
Witness thought that the bands and wrists of the
murderer must have been covered with blood,
especially if one hand grasped the stock of the man.
The Coroner then addressing the jury, said that
it was quite clear that the deceased had met his
death by foul means, and not by his own act ;
therefore it now became their duty to investigate
the matter further.

Mr. Chalkley, one of the jury, demurred to this
course of proceeding, stating that he thought all they,
had to do so was to say whether the man had com-
mitted suicide or had been murdered.

The Coroner reminded the jurymen that they
were bound to inquire by what means the deceased
came to his death.

Mr. Chalkley appeared inclined to dispute this
ruling, and was about to raise a discussion on the
question, when

- The Coroner said that, as 14 jurymen had been
sworn, he might retire if he thought fit. Mr.
Chalkley accordingly adopted that alternative, and
retired from the room.
Thomas Cooper, a flydriver, living at Stevenage,
stated that last Friday evening week he took a lady
from the Stevenage staticn to to Chapel Bury be-
tween five and six o'clock. As he passed Norton-
green lane ho saw a policeman standing on the rail-
way-bridge, looking about. Although he did not
like to swear to the fact, he was pretty well sure
that it was Starkins.

Elizabeth Rowe, the inhabitant of a cottage
situated in a field a short distance from the pond
in which the body was found, stated that she saw a
person answering the description of the policeman
pass down alone at the bottom of the field in which
her cottage was situated, and go on in the direction
of the field called Cooper's Beaches, in which is the
pond in question. She knew a man called Jere-
miah Carpenter, who had been apprehended on the
charge of murder, but did not see him pass her
house that evening on his return from work, though
she remained out ide the door till six o'elock.
Mr. Edward Horn, the occupier of a firm in the
neighbourhood of Stevenage, called Norton-green
Farm, deposed that he employed Jeremiah Car-
penter, the accused person. Witness was present
at the time the body was found last Monday, and
in the afternoon of that day, on making an inspec-
tion of the field, he found some wheat on the
ground in a place where there seemed to have been
a scuffle. The wheat was of the same description
awheat that he bad been sowing, and was mixed
vvith some barley. He finished sowing the day
before the murder. it was a very unusual thing
for barley to be mixed with wheat. To the best of
his belief the wheat belonged to him, and he sup-
posed from that circumstance that it had been
stolen from him.
Some wheat which had been found in a re7gh-
bouring wood was here produced, and compared
with the wheat picked up at the place at which the
struggle occurred, and with wheat taken from Mr.
Horn's barn. This wheat was closely examined by
the jury, most of wh,m were farmers, and who de-
,!!ared all the samples possessed a general resem-
blance.

Examination resumed.—The sample taken from
the wood did not seem to b exactly the same in his
opinion as the other. Carpenter was employed by
wituess on Friday week in a field on Norton-green
Farm, and Cooper's f3rachesi
would b 3 n a direct
lino to Carpenter's cott Igo from that spot. Car-
penter's cottage was in the high road near Steven-
age, a little under a mile from the field in which he
was at work. It would take him about 20 minutes
to walk to the field in which he worked. From the
puce at which the marks of the struggle were V;S:1-
ble to Carpenter's house was about 150 yard, and ,
it might take him two minutes to walk there. Car-
penter left work at half-past 5 o'clock. On Thurs-
ay, the 29th of October, Carpenter was assisting in