The Sun.
London, England, 1826-05-22 00:00:00

MR. EDWARD GIBBON WAKEFIELD.

We copy from John Bull the following extraor-
dinary article, said to lte Mr. Wakefield's statement of
facts regarding his marriage with Miss Turner. We,
however, can scarcely believe that it is an authentic
cornmunication.from that person, for it is written in a
style of flippancy and levity which it seems impossible
to suppose any man in his present situation could use,
while at the same time it affords the most complete
specimen of consummate. impudence, deceit, cold-
heartedness, and want of principle, which was ever
exhibited. Hesitating, therefore, in crediting its
authenticity, we give it only as other papers have done,
and shall he glad to receiv,! from Mr. Wakefield a
denial of its .having been published by him or by his
authority :
STATEMENT OF FACTS, SILOARDING THE MARRIAGE OF S.

WITIS MISS TURISTA.
In the end of:Pebruary I went to Macclesfield, for the purpose
of paying a long-promised visit to my friend the Rev. Dr. Davie.
At that time I had heard Mr. Turner's name mentioned, but
merely in casual conversation about Cheshire people ; and I had
no more knowledge or thought of his daughter, or any of her
family, than I have of people in the Moon:
1 will now state how I Valle to think of her, and to do what I

have done.
Mr. Turner has lately purchased an estate near Macclesfield.
Upon this property he has built a house, into which when I wag
in Cheshire, he was abut to remove. iie is sheriff for the

county this year.
Mr. Turner having, till the lute purchase, been a stranger to
the county, and having, as is euid, made a very large comet by
trade, which he has diacontinittel, to become, all at once, what is
celled a " country gentleman," it is not surprising that he should
be an obje..t of jealousy to the old-established gentry, and of envy
to the numerous manufacturers of the neigtibourliniel where -tie
has settled. But unless I bad witnessed it, I never would have
believed that those passions could exist to .the extent in which I
found them preying upon tl.e peace of Mr. Turner's neighbours.
A wish to obtain information respecting the silk-trade '(of
which " the distress" has of late been a subject of deep interest at
Macclesfield) led me into the company of the people, awl partieu-,
larly amongst some, whose hatred of the " new squire" seemed,
like the odium ilseologiennt, to be great in proportion to the little
diffilence that exists between his station and theirs.
This display (which, probubly, I never should have tviinessed,
unless the envy and jeislotisy of Mr. Turner's " friends and ac-
queintances" had been just then particularly excited by his pre-
partitions to " du honour," as they said, " to the office of Sheriff")
was so new, and therefore so amusing to that I was led by a
merellow of spirits, and the want of some better occupation, to
take pleasure in observing it, and afterwards, in exciting such
pitiful spite, by finding provoking answers to the. Many 111-uatured
stories against Mr. Turner, of which such, spite appeared to be
the only principal foundation.
Of course, amidst all this back-biting, Mr. Turner's only
daughter was not forgotten. Sbe was described as ugly, iguurant,
awkward, and vulgar.
I was truly informed, however, that Miss Turner was a pretty,
clever, unusually well-educated, high-spirited, and most amiable
girl ; and I wee thus enabled to seize every opportunity of des-
cribing her in all the colours of the rainbow. A good Hitcher
must often contradict. The Macclesfield School for Scandal, end
one Sir B. Budd* in particular, found 'sue an inappreciable
audience for their stale sneers, till- etlitet my ears rung with Miss
'Turner's name, and I became her champion, its well as her father's.
Still I had no thought of marrying her, I had sought and
,enjoyed the fun of talking about her and her father, because the
keople at Maccleafieht would, with the exception of the silk trade,
talk about nothing else, and I have said before, because my high
spirits had no better einployrueut ; but if I had left Macclesfield
two days sooner than I did, I should in a week have forgotten
Mite; Turner's name and all that concerns her, as completely as I
now forget how and when it was that I learned the alphabet.
But on one of the last days of my stay at Maceleifield, I beard
a discussion as to whether any " country gentlemen" would ae-
company the High Sheriff on his way to the Chester Assizes.,
Thisaliecueekut ended in the expression of a general opinion iu
the'neeetlee. My friend, Dr. Device, who is one of the most
noble-minded persons I know, wea near me at the time. I ask-
ed hint, with a look and manner that begged him to say "Yes,"
whether he would join Mr. Turner's procession? He answered
Yes, that I will, if it is only to show that Ido not share peo-
ple's spiteful jeelousy." Clod knows why I—l cannot tell—hut
I exclaimed, "So will I!" A thought, a wish, a determina-
tion, just then entered my head. It was, that I would marry. Miss
Turner myself before the Chester Assists, and get up such an
escort for her father, as mud have. driven the most leilioua of his
detractors mad.
• Nothing could appear so preposterously extravagant. All I
knew of Mies Turner was, that she was at school at Liverpool. I
had no chance of meeting her. Meeting her! I hail no chant.,
.of pereuading her to marrying me without her father's consent;
and his consent was out of the question, for I had made weep-.
peintment at Calais within sixthly' from that time, end I would
not allow any thing to interfere with that engagement. " What
folly ! what madness !" I exclaimed ; and yet I could not drive the
crazy wish from my head. I foresaw that, even -though I should
persuade Miss Turner to marry me; I should obtain, not a rich
heiress, but a beggar • for I knew that she bad no property in
her own right, and I had I,eard enough of the vindictiveness of
her father's temper' to be almost certain that he wall never for-
give us. I thought of the paleioe of hatred towards myself that
would probably take possession of him, of the apparent impossi-
bility of success, of the great danger of the attempt, of the world's
reproaches, and of everything that would have deterred me,• bad
I been in any sense% from committing the act of a rnmiman.
Still I had nut entirely lost any sense; ' • for my determination to
marry Mise Turner was clogged with three very reasonable con-
aitionw. They were, first—that I should find her to be a sort of
parson whom f could love and cherish for her own sake ; ea-
°°llli, that I should bring her to believe that she would be
happy in marrying me; and, thirdly, that I' would not use force,
tir the ehaeh.av of force, nor even put the slightest restraint upon
h inclinations, in any part of the adventure.
litre was a task I To marry 'within three days a person of
whom i knew at, little, and whose knowledge of me must have
been equally limited; and (for this toedethe diffieultiee almost in-
surmountable) to become pleseed with her, and make her pleased
with me, before even proposing marriage to her !
The apparent Impossibility of the thing urged me on ; and I
pursued its execution 'with rm.:khans activity. I fore and re-