The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-03-15 00:00:00

TOR fltoPofigl3 MARITAtin rir-1

(14'00i peaertioy'.,9 Lortilou Times

_
have an early opportUnity of reverting to the very iu-
portant subject which called forth our rentarks tin Thursday,
occasioned by the announced motion of Lord Francis Eger-
ton, to legalize the marriage contract between a man and his
deceased wife's sister. Various k lions also, as we have
fore said, of a similar nature'liave been made by others. We
trust, however, that we shall be able so to explain this whole
subject, as.to-induce Lord Francis to desist from his attempt,
and to lay the matter at rest fur ever. The English are a
great people; let us also be a pure one.
But expediency is urged upon this occasion :—" Who is so
proper a protector," it is 'said, " of the deceased wife's
children 's their aunt?" Who, indeed, so proper? But
then, observe what you do by making that aunt their step-
mother as well as aunt : you overpower the feebler tie of
nature by an obligation of a closer character, if the new wife
have children of her own : and the argument supposes her
to be a young woman; for if she be an old one, and the
children consequently groWn up, the whole case is an absur-
dity, and there is no occasion to marry at all. Does our
legendary lore tell us of no cruel uncle, who preferred his
own children to his brother's? Religion and a sense of duty
may induce the stepmother-aunt to treat the two families
alike externally, but it is impossible that she should not feel
a stronger affection_to her own children than to those of her
sister. No trials with respect to property are more frequent
in our courts of law than those which result from the pre-'
ference of children to nephews and nieces. You enfeeble
the protection of the aunt—perhaps convert it into aversion
—by giving her children of her own from the same father,
and thus making her,•as we have said above, a stepmother-
aunt. _ _ •

—Besides, look at the mixed blood which you throw into the
children's veins. What is their relation to each other?
They are first cousins, we suppose; may they in that cha-
racter intermarry ? (You will come to that at last, after your
first incestuous step.) No; they are brothers and sisters
besides—only in the half blood. What classical scholar does
not recollect the amplifications of. tortured Orestes, in the
scenic Poet, praised by Longinus, after his unhappy mar-
riage 1—( Vide Smith's Longinus.)
But look further at the unhappy position of the surviving
sister, after the death of the first wife, if you allow the hus-
band to offer his addresses to her in a legalized form. He
may be the object of her aversion personally. It is, indeed,
hardly probable that she shiiirld prefer him to every other
man ; but she must either accept him, or be content to tear
herself for ever from the orphan offspring of her deceased
sister. It is impossible she should any longer live in the
same house with him and them, after the declaration of his
passion, if she reject it ; she cannot even see them often, or
in his presence. By this, and even without this, you sever,
or render impossible, a pure intimacy, in order to gratify,
what we must call, an unholy passion. Is this protecting
the children ? On the contrary, it is exposing both aunt and
children to the severest trials.
But there is another sense alsp in which you are depriving
the orphan children of their proper protector. It is most
probable that the widowed husband, being young and having
no notion of any legal cohabitation with their aunt, will look
out for some other union. Should the new stepmother prove
unkind, to .whom could the ill-tfeated children fly to utter
their complaints and claim red-fess but to their aunt? You
have robbed them of that resource by having made that aunt
their steprnother.
Fhe aunt, in fact, can perform all,the duties required of
her to the orphans of her deceased sister without the forbid-
den union with their father: That union weakens every. rno-
tive,'both of nature and of duty. We hope to bear no more
of it. 'People of pure feelings are shocked at the proposition.
'Your first step towards carrying it into effect must be the re-
peal of that religion which has said, "They twain'shall be
one flesh : wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh."
Mat. xix., 5. Look at the endearing appellation also which
has sprung from this eternal law of the Saviour of mankind.
What has the aunt beeri used to call the husband while her
sister lived ? "My brOther-in-law," or "my brother such
an one." A brother converted into an husband!
Two more observationa we would make,:of a theological
character, though we generally avoid such. One is-this
We would ask thdse who found their feelings On their reli-
giOn, and their religiOn on the 'Bible, what distinct authority
theygliave tbr abhorring any the most terrible form of incest
which is not also 'applicable to this
,gerieral feelings and
popular notions of apparent exnediencyare deceitful things,
—nay, even our own sink with the scale of popular morality,
—though we obey them, and must do so. And the only ex-
press law promulgated by Divine authority (LeViticus xviii.)
includes this.conmexion in the same terms, and under the
same denunciation, as those which most shock our nature.
That law draws a distinct line, and we have no other guide.
Is it a safe thing to remove such a land-mark?
Next, the law so stated is not mere Jewish law. If so, its
authority doubtless would be slight. It would furnish at
most but an analogy. But the context shows that divine
wrath rested on those who did such things before the promul-
gation, as it will do after the revocation, of that the first
written law.- After recounting these forbidden unions, in
connection with one or, two othr crimes of a still deeper die,
it- adds, not' a command to Israel only, bnt a terrible
warning to all people :—" Defile not ye yourselves in any
" of these things : for in all these the 'nations are defiled
" which I cast out before gt ; and the land is defiled :
" therefore do I visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the
" land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants." ,

We may have spoken severely ; but it is time to speak so,
when a respectable Christian legislator proposes to legalize
what Holy Writ has laid down among the crying iniqui-
ties of the Canaanites when their. iniquity was full.

mml.m=limilautanwmczma

THE LATE SCANDAL CASE IN PARIS

The following are extracts from Lord William Paget's
statement of this extraordinary affair :
"Another trifling circumstance had also some little weight
which was,
in deciding me
that upon my remonstrating
•
with Mr. Cassidy on the brutality and indecency of hiS 'con-
duct, he exculpated hiniself by placing in my hands a note,
hearing the initials of Miss Bellew, making an ii-Signation
to receive him in her bedroom.* Under these circumstances,
I ventured to decline the honour proposed for Lady William,
and Miss Bellew took her departure from Paris. I heard no
further on the subject until I lerlrnt, by the public journals,
Abet Lady William and myself ha been engaged in inveigling
a young heiress from Devonshire to Paris
" Unfortunately, however, for the veracity of their in-
formants, neither Lady William nor myself had been in
Devonshire at all; nor had either of us accompanied Miss
Bellew to Paris, nor did we leave London for several days
after her departure with blr. errs4c/k,.nor had our original
intention of visiting Paris the most remote reference to her ;
although, from the accidental circumstance of my detention
in London owing to the illness of two of my children, I
unfortunate/y made her acquaintance, and thus became
tangled with her and her friends,in this affair; And, after'
all, one whole knowledge of tliis:aMiableyoung,lady, extends
but to five days' acquaintance in tondon, (if, indeed, such
trifling intercourse as we had with her during so short a
period can be called an acquaintance,) and four days in Paris.
" The public, I think, will wonder that a young lady of
rank and fortune (and with clean hands) should resort to the
columns of a Sunday Paper,
instead of the laws of her coun-
try, to address her wrongs and to' establish her innocence.
*** *. And here I may ask, had Miss B. no friends, no
father, no uncle, no brother, no male relative to come for-
ward, and bring to a just account, by some means' or other,
some one, at least, among those who have so wronged her ?
It would appear she had not.
" It has always been quite Clelipto me what has been the'
head and front of Lady Williarir'soffence and mine towards
this young' lady—namely, the rejection'orher appeal to us
for protection, under circumstances in which I think, as a
husband, I was fully justified.. But, even for this Lady
William is not to blame (if blarrie there be); for so utterly
ignorant was she of,'lny motives for declining to make her the
future depository of Miss Bellewss virtue, so entirely with-
out a suspicion was 'she that Miss Bellew. entertained any
but the most friendly feelings towards her, that, unknown
to me, (and quite as a matter of course), on her arrival in
London, she wrote to know when and where she would see
her. Ido not feel called upon to .nake a single remark upon
,the conduct of any person Connected with this affair, but that
of Lady W. and myself ; but I cannot help'declaring (which
I most solemnly do) that I never saw on the part of any of
the famous conspirators tlie slightest attempt to influence
or control Miss Bellew in. anything ; or anything but the
greatest kindness shown towards-her ; and, without at-
tempting to defend the conduct of Mr. Cassidy, 1 will
say that no man could recciveibe encouragement which
he always received from Miss 'Bellew without having a
right to suppose that she intended to become his wife.—
For my own part, I am quite ready to confess that I
looked upon a marriage between Mr. Cassidy and Miss
Bellew as so probable an event, and I believed the parties
to be so equally matched, in point of -worldly position and
circumstances and both so fully aware of what they were
doing, that if I did Say or do anything which might have
had a tendency to the furtherance of this object (hut of which
I am ignorant), it was only in accordance with may feelings,
and with my belief that there existed no grounds whatever
against it ; and 1 am sure if I had been asked by Mr. C. to
do anything to forward it I should unhesitatingly have done
so. On the other hand, if Mr. Cassidy was himself aware
of, his impending bankruptcy (which does not at all follow as
a matter of course), or if any of the other parties mentioned.
,were aware of it, which rdo not believe, I can find no words
to express my detestation and disgust at such atrocious vil-
lany towards Miss 8., as well as towards Lady William and
myself. In conclusion, I shall only add, that every syllable
which bas been uttered or written, whether by Miss Bellew
or her friends, to the prejudiee,of • Lady William Paget
and myself in regardlo this affair, is a scandalous and infa-
mous falsehood. •
. .

" * This letter is in tbe, hands of my solicitor, Mr. Bebb,
of 12, Argyll-street, wbo has my full Permission to show it
to the curious in such matters."

The Rev. R. W. Sibthorp has, we have just heard from
private sources, subscribed two thousand pounds towards the
erection of a large Popish.- meeting.house, at Nottingham,
and that he is about to be sent on a mission to that town as
soon as the 'intended 'meeting-hnuse is. completed, to pervert
people from the Catholic, church and, the simple Catholic
faith to the Popish sect and the Tridentine faith.—Church.
.144elligencer. - -

, -
. PERILOUS EXPLOIT.-It having been found necessary to
make some repairs-in ,the weather-Cock on the spire of St.
John's Church, in this. city, the work was commenced this
week, and the operation has developed instances of daring
courage, and cool presence of mind in circumstances of un-
expected danger, which are almost romantic. The turret of
the church is about 40 feet high, above which a slender spire
rises, we should suppose 100 feet. The only workman em-
ployed in removing the weather-coek was a young man,
named John Shipway, 26 years ut age, a native of Stone,
• Gloucestershire, in the employ of Messrs. Wilcox and Sons,
of this city, but acting in this case on his own account.. Of
this young man, who undertakes such business, it may be
proper to state that he has ascended the spire of Salisbury
Cathedral, 399 feet high! and those of several other churches,
by the same daring and singular proeUss as he used in this in-
stance. On Wednesday
.morning lait, shortly before eight
o'clock, he raised ladders reaching to 54 feet of his distance,
which he ascended. • From that point he clambered, amidst
the gaze of hundreds of astonished spectators, by only his
hands and feet clinging to the holesAtithc sides of the spire,
to the summit.. He there found that the vane was planted
on the top of a strong iron bar, 7 feet 4 inches in.height. As
this was beyond his reach, he formed, in that dangerous ele-.
vation, a noose in a rope which he carrie up w
ith, him,
and, uscendini by it
slung it strongly over the weather-cock,
to the required height, while he clung with one arm to the
iron bar, with the other he took off.the mimic bird. Placing
this in due equipoise on his right shoulder, he descended in
the same manner as he went up, and safely carried his trophy
to the office of Mr. Alexander, the churchwarden, in Broad-
street, by one o'clock. But John Shipway, on his voyage
into air, had, Like other voyagers, made discoveries. In his:
descent he clambered round the steeple at a certain part to
examine if it was perfect, and observed a place where a block
of stone about two feet in length was loose, and likely to come
down. He also saw that it was necessary, for some purpose,
to shorten the iron bar by two inches. Accordingly, about
half-past ten o'clock yesterday morning, he again ascended
in the same manner, to commence cutting the bar. When
at his highest elevation the gale was So strong that he was
unable long to, keep his footing, and he commenced his de.
scent. In coming down he felt.his knee touch the loose stone
above-mentioned, and knowing the consequences that would
follow, in full confidence in his own nerve, he called " Ware
the stone" to the crowd below, in time for them to be out of
reach, when it fell to the ground, and then firmly keeping
the grasp with his hands, directed his feet to a place on which
he could stand. After this he caine down in safety.—
Bristol Journal.