The Sun.
London, England, 1859-11-19 00:00:00

MARRIAGE AMONG THE DR USES.

Their women are generally very beautiful, being
fairer than the other inhabitants of Lebanon, and
they are distinguished by the most lovely dark blue
eyes, long raven tresses, and teeth of pearly white-
ness. The men generally marry at from sixteen to
eighteen years of age.; they take but one wife, and
always choose partners from their own tribe. The
bride is usually from thirteen to fourteen years old.
Three days lefore the wedding the bridegroom,
accompanied by his male friends, goes to the house
of his intended, and demands hot- in a formal man-
ner from the hands of her father, who formally
gives his consent. They then agree upon the amount
of dowry which the husband is to settle on his wife.
The bride is led forth for a moment, closely veiled,
accompanied by her mother, who vouches for
the purity and honour of her daughter. The bride
then presents her future husband with the khanjar
or dagger, which serves at the same time to show
the protection she expects to receive from him, and
as an instrument of punishment should the decla-
ration of her mother bo false, or should she subse-
quently break her marriage vows. The bride, at-
tended by the women, spends the day gaily in the
bath ; while the bridegroom and his friends amuse
themselves with horsemanship, or in drinking coffee
and smoking chibouks at the house of the bride's
father. This continues for two days; on the third
the bride is conducted, with considerable ceremony,
to the house of the bridegroom, closely covered with
a red gold spangled veil, which in the nuptial cham-
ber he removes and presents her with the tantoor.
This he places upon her head, where it remains both
night and day, while life remains. The Druse pos-
sesses absolute power to divorce his wife, first pay-
ing the stipulated dowry. Nevertheless divorces
are exceedingly rare, and they seldom take place
at all except for very serious causes. If a woman
is guilty of conjugal infidelity (which is extremely
uncommon), she always pays the penalty with her
life. The husband sends his wife back to her father's
house, and with her, the khanjar which he had re-
ceived..en jiiS marriage, but without the sheath.
This notifies her disgrace to the family. The dis-
honour does not attach to the husband but to the
relatives of the wife, and can only be washed out
with her blood. The father sits in solemn judg-
ment over the wife at her husband's house, and if
the evidence is sufficient her doom is pronounced.
A father's love is of no avail, a mother's shrieks
cannot stay the hand that strikes, nor a sister's
tears mitigate the punishment. The executioner,
generally the eldest brother, severs her head from
her body, and the tantoor, with a lock of her hair,
steeped in blood, sent to the husband, testifies that
the deed has been accomplished.:—Two Years in
Syria.

The mortal remains of the Earl de Grey were
removed from St. James's-square yesterday morning to
Wrest Park, Bedfordshire, preparatory to their interment
in the family vault.

The Moniteur.of yesterday publishes the following
announcement Moon, Sir James Duke, and David
Salomons, all three formerly Lord Mayors of the city of
London ; Henry' Muggeridge, Alderman ;C. Crosley,
ex-Sheriff ; Thomas Weguelin, Thomas Dent, William
Gladstone, John Distin Powles, Matthew Uizelli, and Sir
William 'Popham, COMmander of the Royal Body Guard,
have been nominated 4CheValiers de la Legioncl'Hontioni.' "

BUTTERFLIES IN NOVEMBER.—A correspondent
of the Plymouth Journal,: writing on the 14th instant,
says:—" I was agrevably surprised'yesterday, while walk-
ing through Saltram Woods, to notice a large and magni,
fl2ently coloured butterfly fluttering gaily among some
shrubs. It was the largest and gaudiest I ever saw; and
to be found here in the month of November is, I think,
rather a rare occurrence."

TRIAL BY JURY IN THE CASE OF DR.
SMETIIU ItST.—While the Home Secretary's clear percep-
tion of his duty in the case of Dr. Smethurst will command
the acknowledgment of all reasonable men, it is to be
doubted whether the comments with which his act of
authority is accompanied will meet with such general ap-
proval. Some of these remarks deserve all the closer
scrutiny because .they appear designed to imply that the
Government do not intend to direct Parliamentary attention
to a blot in our system of criminal judicature which the
Smethurst case has brought into ugly prominence. "The
necessity," says Sir G. C. Lewis, "which I have felt for
advising her Majesty to grant a free pardon in
this case has not, as it appears to me, arisen from
any ';defect in the constitution or proceedings of
our dtirrrinal tribunals." Now, if on the face
of the matter it is evident that our criminal tribunals have
come to a decision which the Minister finds it necessary on
his own responsibility to reverse, how can it be pretended
that there is no defect either in their constitution or proceed-
ings ? "It (1. e., the necessity) has arisen," he continues,
from the impe,fection of medical science, and from the
falibillity of jrul gineo I, in an obscure malady, even of skilful
and experienced medical practitioners." There is a degree of
confusion hero which we should not have expeetad to meet
with in any sentence traced by the Home Secretary's prac-
tised pen. The considerations referred to may very con-
ceivably account for the necessity of setting Smethurst at
large in spite of the weight of suspicion against him, but not
for the „necessity of his being pardoned by the Queen.
The question is, who is to decide whether in a special in-
stance medical science is imperfect and professional judg •
merit untrustworthy `; Common belief is that this function
devolves upon the Court before which tho case is brought,
and if the Court is unable to perform it in a way which shall
command, humanly speaking, absolute acceptance and sub-
mission, we are totally at a loss to know how its constitu-
tion and method of procedure can be considered perfect.
As it is, we cannot help asking Sir George C. Lewis what he
thinks of the jury who tried Smethurst at the Central Cri-
minal Court ? It is to he presumed they were men of fair
intelligence, wd animated by a conscientious sense of the
solemn; duty they \vete called upon to perfolin. If they
were pat, tiit•re must certainly be a very (1(440 "defect in
the constitution efow tribtkuals,"—,jl-4-4-iimotcr 044).g.int.

LATEST NEWS.

The following telegrams have been received at
Mr. Reuter's office :

PARIS, Nov. 19.

The Conslitutionnel of to-day confirms the state-
ment which appeared in the Patric., namely, that
the And de la _Religion would be prosecuted for
publishing the letter alleged to be from the King
of Sardinia to the Emperor of the French, relative
to the Regency of Prince de Carignan.

PARIS, Nov. 18.

Prince Latour d'Auvergne will replace the Mar-
quis de Moustier as Ambassador at Berlin. It is
supposed that M. Buoncompagni will tender to the
Sardinian Government his resignation as Regent of
Central Italy.

MADRID, Nov. 18.

The Correspondencia Antografa contradicts the
rumour that the Spanish Government had received
a diplomatic note from England, relative to the ex-
pedition to Morocco.

The Patrie of this evening asserts that the letter
published in the Ami de la _Religion, alleged to be
an answer of the King of Sardinia to the Emperor
of the French, bears the full character of an apo-
cryphal document. The same journal fUrther says
it has reason to believe that the Amide la _Religion
has been seized for this publication.

MARSEILLES, FRIDAY.
The Akhbar publishes the following despatch of
General Martimprey, dated Isly, 9th inst. :

" General Durrieur announces that after an im-
mense razzia, undertaken against the Maias and
the Angades, Benigel and Si-Hamza have been
taken by surprise by the commander of our troops.
Our conditions ha-ie teen accepted, and hostages
surrendered to us, The expeditionary force will
recross the frontiers on the 11th, and will then be
broken up." .

The Paris correspondent of the Times (Second
Edition) says :
" I have reason to believe that, with the view of
obviating the effect produced in England by the
violent language of a considerable portion of the
French press, a confidential communication of
an important nature has been addressed by the
Minister of the Interior, M. Billault, to all the
Prefects in France. If lam correctly informed—
and I have reason to believe that I am—the Minister
expresses his regret that such exaggerated language
should be used when speaking of the English
people, as well by reason of the disquietude which
it must excite among them, as that it tends to
destroy the confidence and embitter the feelings of
those of whose opinions the English press is the
channel. The prefects are reminded how much
greater that unpleasant effect must be when this
violent language is employed by journals usually
supporting the policy of the Imperial Government,
and which is made responsible abroad for these ex-
cesses. The Prefects are therefore instructed to
request the journals in question to be more circum-
spect ; and, while they are at liberty to refute errors
and protest against injustice and calumny, and to
defend energetically the rights of the country, they
might easily avoid offending the susceptibilities of
a great people, and rather promote friendly rela-
tions between the two countries.

"By pursuing this line of conduct the Minister
is:of opinion that the dignity of the Imperial policy
may be reconciled with the interests of the alliances
of France, and the maintenance of peace, and with
this view the Prefects are invited to use their in-
fluence with the press, and with public opinion.
The Prefects are requested to communicate their
views on this subject, in a confidential manner, to
those journals that usuually support the Govern-
ment, and not to interfere with the others unless in
cases where their exaggeration tends to manifestly
counteract the wishes of the Government on this
point,

"The foregoing is a fair summary, though not a
literal transcript, of the instructions transmitted
within the last five or six days to the Prefects of
Departments by the Minister of the Interior. I
believe them to be authentic, and I have little doubt
we shall soon see the effect. I confess I attach
some importance to the measure. I have, of course,
a strong dislike to the hand of authority inter-
vening to prevent the expression of opinion, how-
ever passionate, unjust, or hostile. The inconve-
nience to the Government of a system like that
under which the press in France exists is great, for
the governing power is, as the Ministerial instruc-
tions imply, naturally identified with the hostility
of a journul which is supposed to exist only on suf-
ferance. But these instructions seem to me im-
portant from the fact that they imply, if they do
not express, the desire of the Emperor of the
French to ' preserve the good relations between the
two nations,' and to reconcile the interests of France
with the interests of her allies, and 'the mainte:
nance of peace.' Whatever importanee you may
attach to them, I have only to repeat the assurance
that they are perfectly authentic."