The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1855-11-28
4frsoaaI 9ketebes.
COUNT

50
had died in 1923. and his Iordship, un-
der the influence of what is TO be regard
ed as a partial insanity, entered into an
arrangement for leaving his fortune to
Count DaOrsay, on condition OF his mar
rying one or the other of his lordship's
daughters. This arrangement he en-
bodied in a codicil to his will, dated
june 2, 1928, when his daughters were
respectively only eleven and twelve
years of age. BY the same deed he
left to Lady Blessington a jointure of
| ca. 600 a year, reduced by a subsequent
settlement to $1,000 a year. Lord
Blessiugton may have been Insane in
making such a will-charity, mt least,
would hope so but what shall we say
of the pruer chaudlier, who took benefit
by it, and, wedding the fortune, made
miserable the child, who wal sacrificed
with it? How, either, are we to excul-
pate Lady B~lessington, who, as a wife
and a woman, ought to havc prevented
SO scandalous an arrangement, aad whose
influence with her husband could, no
doubt, have succeeded in doing so p
She appears, however, to have raised not
one mnrmur of remonstrance, and four
years afterwards Lady Harriet Gardi-
ner, his lordship's legitimate daughter,
was brought from Ireland, where she had
been living under the care of IN aunt,
aud, while only fifteen, was married at
Naples to Count D'Orsay, who was then
twenty-seyen. Lady B~lessington's own
experience of a forced marriage to Cap
tain Farmer at the same tender. age, If
not her instincts as a woman, surely
might have made her resist a union SO
unseemly and full of hazard. But, so
far as can be judged from Mr.. Madden's
statements the poor girl herself was not
considered BY any of the parties in the
affair at all. Her feelings we're driven
inward by tue sense of slight and iudif-
ference, and by the strangeness and cold
ness of everything around her and she
became indifferent, and strange, and
cold, and apparently devoid of all vivac-
ity and interest in society" Thus do
we find the story of Mrs. Farmer, in its
worst features, repeated in her stcpehild
"The Count says Mr.. Madden, sep
arated himself from Lcr almost at the
church door," carrying with him, how
ever, E40,0 600 of her furniture. They
lived estranged till his death, during
which period, besides an annuity Of up
wards of $500 a-year, the Count con-
trivcd to spend G103, 800 of his widowed
brides fortune. Withinfve months af-
ter his death she married again, just as
Lady Bless;ngton had married within
four months after the death of Captain
Farmer. What a pitable story is thisi
seA father cruel asd aSstepdamc false
and a husband more eFueland more false
than either. Not all the brilliant tai
,ents or agreeable manner of Count
di0rsay can, or s'Iould. screen his con-
duet in this disgraceful affair from uni
versal Reproduction.
With all lis gifts and power of pleas
ing, it is impossible to think highly of
this mau. His life is without the digni-
ty of self-respect. the grace o fself-sac
ri6ee. From first to last his career APP
pears to have boon of selfish indulgence.
With a fortune ample for any gentleman,
he was early involved In debt a second
fortune, how acquired we have already
seen, was insufficient for his extrava-5
gance. He embittered the life of the
lady through whom that fortune came
to him, and he compromised the posi-
ton in society of another whom it was
duty 70 have protected. Her long
and heart-wearying labors to earn the
means of maintaining her position were
not sufficient to rouse him from his life
of sensual ease, and he involved her in
the ruin of which his own ya~stefulness
was the primary cause. lie may have
been kind, generous, brave, honorable,
as tho world uses the terms. But with
such facts in his life before us, we must
deny to him these qualities, except
where his selfish interests did not inter-
fere, or his personal comfort was not
materially disturbed. The man is not
kind who can crush a young girls heart !
the man is not brave who, with abilities
conquer fortune, accepts it on dishon-
orable terms the man is not generous
places in a false position before the
world the woman he loves ; and he is
not honorable who contracts debts which
be knows he cannot pay. Let US call
by their right names 1t is easy
to be witty and agreeable ifyou are reck
less and insincere ; to be liberal at 9TH
peoples expense; to be kind and gen
srous where no sacrifice is involved
The want of common honesty and CONF
non feeling in the testing acts of his
life is poorly supplied by such snowy
traces as distinguished Count Ds0rsay.
We must estimate a MAJ not by the en-
lowments with which heaven has charged
him, but by the use to which he puts
hem. Try Count D'Orasy by this rule,
ind what must be the verdict