The Sun.
London, England, 1857-05-28 00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

Sir,—On Saturday last, you published,
.by re-
quest of Mr. W. W. Carus Wilson, an extract from
a review, containing he says, " a complete answer
to the statements regarding his father's charitab!e
ins!itutions."

The statements referred to are, I presume, the
following :----That the.unhealtby situa+ ion of Cowan
Bridge, unwholesome fo3d, exposure to cold, Azic.,
enfe-bled the girls and predisposed them to disease;
that fever broke out among them ; that ab ;ut forty
of them suffered from it ; that the surgeon, who
was called in, condemned the girls' daily food
by the expressive action of spliting out a portion
of it which he had takon in order to taste it ; that •
the school was ramoved to a new situation and a
committee of management appointed.
Now, let us examine the " Complete answer,"
and see how these charges are disposed of. And,
fir:4, the reviewer assumes that these statements
rest solely on the testimony "of one who, when
but a child of nine, left the establishment." A re-
ference, however, to " The Life of Charlotte
Brow e," will show that this is a false assumption.
Ile praises the situation of the school, "on Mr.
Carus Wilson's property, halfa mile from Castertion-
hall, high and healthy ; " but he has not the can-
dour to state that this description applies to he
present site, and not to that referred to in "Jane
Eyre."

He eulogises Mr. Wilson's liberality, but omits
to state that funds are raised from the public for
the supprt of the establishment, which Mr. W.
W. Carus Wilson modestly calls his " father's
charitable institutions."

He makes no mention whatever of the condem-
nation of tlie food by the medical gentleman, of
the fever which scourged the schoo!, and the c(•nse-
queut change of site, and reformation of the estab-
lishment.

But, surely, the ladysuperintendent, "whose able
letter appeared in a review," will supply the gentle-
man's omissions, and in her " long and complete
answer to the assertions in Jane Eyre," make some
reference to this eventful period in the existence of
"the clergy daughters' school." She does no such
thing, at least as quoted in the review.
She eulogises Mr. Wilson ; asseverates her own
impartiality ; refers to her apostacy from her
Church, and expatriation from her country ; makes
a somewhat erroneous statement respecting Mr.
Bronte's family ; hazards sotne conjectures about
the intentions of the author of " Jane Eyre ;"
and lays before us a bill of fare at Cowan B►idge
—" meat, vegetables, and puddings daily in
abundance." Very good, Madam but what
about the ccoking that spoiled these provisions ;
boiled the puddings in unclean water ; compoutMed
the Saturday's nauseous mess from the fragments
accumulated in a dirty larder during the week ;
and too often cient up the porridge, not merely burnt,
but with offensive fragments of other substances disco-
verable in it ?

The Reviewer says " the whole of this letter Mrs.
Gaskell must have seen, as she quotes one sentence out
of it word for word." Whether Mrs. Gaskell has seen
this letter, I do not know ; but if the Reviewer will
refer to the "Life," vol. i., page 78, he will find that
Mrs. Ga;kell quotes from a letter which she bad herself
received from the same lady, who evidently in both
instances used the same form of expression—identical,
however, in only three words, "bright, clever, little"—
in reference to the same child. May I not justly retort
the charge of disingenioumess on the Reviewer ; who
must have known this, when he aecused Mrs. Gaskell of
making a garble-1 quotation ?
" Jane Eyre" was published in 1847 ; Lowood
was almost immediately identified with Cowan
Bridge, yet " the Lady who was superintendent in
1824" was discreetly silent for more than seven
years, until, in fact, the author was laid in her
grave. So were Mr. W. W. Carus Wilson and the
Reviewer, for aught I know. Their present pro-
ceedings are merely an illustration of a very old
fable.
To the day of her death "Ctirrer Bell" maintained
that the picture drawn in " Jane Eyre" was, on the
whole, a true picture of Cowan-bridge school, as
she knew it by experience ; that the institution was
subsequently im?roved she knew, and stated in the
same work in wnch she had exposed its former
mismanagement
I am told thal the Reviewer, referred to in this
letter, has, with exquisite taste and treat charity,
alluded to the closing hours of my wife's life, de-
scribing them as painful. Painful indeed they
were, but not iu his sense of the term. On this
subject I would say to him, " Who art thou that
judgest another Judge not that ye be not judged.
First cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and
then shalt thou see clearly to pull out the mote
that is in thy brother's eye."
Trusting to your sense of justice to give this
letter a place in your impression,
I am, Gentlemen, )our obedient servant,
A. B. NICHOLLS.
Haworth Parsonage, May 20th, 1857.

M. THURNEYSSEN AND THE CREDITS

MOBILIER.

The following communication regarding the fail-
ure of M. Charles Thurneyssen, is from M. Isaac
Pereire, the President of the Credit Mobilier Com-
pany :

" Paris, May 25.
11" Sir,—ln announcing the failure of M. Chas.
Thurneyssen, yon have referred to the Credit Mo-
biller, and have also stated that he was connec:ed
with me by relationship and business transactions.
"Your good faith has been imposed upon by
statements emanating from malicious motives, for
M. Charles Thurneyssen has never had any busi-
ness connexion with me or with the Credit Mobi-
lier. He was never at any time mixed up with the
operations conducted by that establishment, nor a
director of railway companies or other industrial
undertakings.
" The insinuations therefore regarding the Credit
Mobilier are without foundation, nor have they
any better basis as respects myself. Although a
cousin of M. Charles Thurneyssen married one of
my nieces, he can scarcely be looked upon as my
relative ; and I have never had social intercourse
or business transactions with him. I regret that
this abuse of the privileges of the press should
render it necessary for me to enter into my private
affairs ; but I feel bound to add that on one occa-
sion I rendered a service to M. Charles Thurneys-
sen, solely out of regard to his fa-mily, and that I
have suffered in consequence. About three and a
half years ago I lent him 500,000 f. to extricate him
ft om the embarrassments into which he was plunged
by speculations in land, and that sum is still due
to me.
" His uncle, M. Auguste Thurneyssen, whose
declining years are embittered, and whose fortune
is largely diminished by this painful event, is one of
the most highly esteemed and respected men in
Paris. He was formerly a banker, and connected
with the house of Stieglitz, and for the last 20 years
his name has been associated with those of the most
respectable English and French capitalists as g
director of the principal railways. Like his son,
M. George Thurneyssen, it is only as a creditor
that he is connected with his nephew's failure,
which, deplorable as it is, does not possess the ex-
aggerated important e which has been attached to it.
• I doubt not, sir, that, having given currency to
reports so unfounded, you will give equal publicity
to these explanations. Every one has a perfect
right to form his own estimate of the Credit Mubi-
lier as an institution, but it is an abuse of that
right, and one unworthy of the English press, to
connect that society with events to which it is com-
pletely a stranger, and to attack it through its ad-
ministrators, who are at least entitled to some con-
sideration from the position they occupy in public
esteem.—l am, sir, your obedient servant,

" I. PERIERE."

THE PARLIAMENTARY OATHS BILL.--The following is
the form of oath to be taken henceforth (in all cases) in
lieu of the oaths of allegiance, supremacy, and abjura-
tiou, viz. :—" I, A. 8., do swear that I will be faithful
and bear true allegiance to her Majesty Queen Victoria,
and will defend her to the utmost of my power against
all conspiracies and attempts whatever which shall be
made against her person, crown, or dignity, and I will
do my utmost endeavour to disclose and make known
to her Majesty, her heirs and her successors, all treasons
and traitorous conspiracies which may be formed against
her or them ; and I do faithfully promise to maintain,
support, and defend, to the utmost of my power, the
succession of the Crown, which succession by an act
entitled a An Act for the further Limitation of the
Crown, and better securing the Rights and Liberties
of the Subject,' is and stands limited to the Princess
Sophia, Electress of Hanover, and the heirs of her
body being Protestants, hereby utterly renouncing and
abjuring any obedience or allegiance to any other per-
son claiming or pretending a right to the Crown of
this realm ; and I do declare that no foreign prince,
person, prelate, state, or potentate hath or ought to have
any jurisdiction, power, superiority, pre-eminence, or
authority, ecclesiastical or spiritual, directly or indi-
rectly, within this realm. So help me God." The act,
however, will ❑ot affect the form of oath prescribed
for papists by the Roman Catholic Relief Act (10th of
Gee. IV,, cap. 7).