Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1858-08-10
sTAUNTON, VIRGINIA, TUESDAY, AUGUST TO- 1853.
Sir e. BuIwer Lytton and His Wife.

( Sir T.. BuIwer Lytton and His Wife.
The Somerset County Eng) Gazette gives
long. but remarkably calm and dispassionate &C
count of the recent Imprisonment OF Lady Lyt
ton in mad-house by her husband, on the pre-
tence. which every one knew was false, that she
was insane The marriage of Sir Edward and
| Lady Bulwer occurred, under very promising
auspices, twenty-seyen years ago; in about ten
years The mutual unamabiity of the pair led TO
a fierce outbreak. Mr.. Bulwer having broken
down in his maiden speech in the House OF Com
mons, Mrs. Bulwer was SO unwomanly as 10
taunt him with his failure and he so unmanly
as to strike her blow. From that time they
separated finally, and made war upon each other
continually. She wrote several novels, attack
ing Sir Edward and lampooning his friends
He, however, has become rich and powerful, his
annual income being estimated at from $4,000
to 10000, whilst, officially, he holds the inn
portant position under Lord Derby's administers
traton, of Colonial Secretary.
The Somerset Gazette states that for three
years past Lady Bulwer has been living at
| Clarke's hotel, in Taunton, in that county
Taunton is small place, and like asuch places,ev-
cry body knows the business and the habits oi
every body else, and no one is disposed to De
too charitable abont any body. Of course, q
person of Lady Bulwsr's distinction could not
escape pryng eyes and gossiping tongues, and
yet subjected to this inqusitorial scrutiny, la
dy Lytton," says the Gazette, 'never did aught
that we are aware of, (and we have taken pains
to ascertain the TRUTH to cause in any one with
whom she had communication, the slightest sus-
pcion that in her case reason had been dethron.
ed, or that her brain was in any degree affected
with lunacy" When the fact of her committal
to mad house was first mentioned in Taunton,
it was received with increduity, but when con-
vinced of the truth of it, the exclamation was.
"Good Heavens Lady Lytton in mad house !!
For what2 Who can have sent her there 2
She is no more mad than am or any one else"
"There is on all hands," says the Gazette "a
/ firm belief that Lady Lytton is the subject of o
horrible and appalling injustice and wrong;
that, while perfectly sane, che has been shut up
in lunatic asylum, merely that a woman who
has, no doubt, been a constant cause of annoy
ance to her husband, may be prevented forever
from giving him similar trouble"
The Gazette is not q partisan, nor even an ad-
mirer of Lady Lytton. 1t regards her as una
miable and naughty it says that her later lit
literary works seem to have been under
taken principally for the purpose of publishing
| to the world the sutferiugs and wrongs she has
endured from her husband, and that in more
than one instance she has evinced unkind feel
ipgs in her writings towards very estimable and
excellent persons. A particular example is men,
toned of an excellent lady OF Taunton, who is
held up to ridicule in one of her ladyship's Ia
test productions, "Very Successful" merely be-
cause she had not paid to Lady Lytton such at
tentions as her ladyship thought were her due.
But all this is very far from lunacy, for, as the
Gazette pithily observes, "if unkind and often.
sive personalities in print were considered evil
dences Of a deranged brain, few writers would
be safe from incarceration in lunatio asylum"
The immediate train of circumstances which
led to the late explosion were, briefly, as fol-
lows When Sir Edward Bulwer married his
wife, she had small property worth @4oO
year. and her husband being then in INDECENT cir
cumstances, she transferred this sum to him in
order to give him qualification for seat in
Parliament. When, in 1886, their separation
took place, he consented to pay her E400 year
during her life which has been her allowance
fruni that time to the present. notwithstanding
bis own annual income is estimated at from 3d.
900 to $4,000. Lady Bulwer desired an allow
ance more in proportion to bis income, and the
wants of woman moving in her circle, than
the miserable pittance which the baronet had
yielded. Her appeals were quite unsuccessful,
and it was while snarting under this disappoint-
ment that she lately confronted the astounded
baron on the hustings at Hertford when he was
seeking reelection to Parliament, and whilst
in the act of paying glowing tribute to the
female beauty by which he was surrounded, La
dy Bulwer suddenly appeared upon the ground
and gave the electors piece of her mind. The
baronet it is sad "trembled exceedingly, and
looked like man suddenly attacked by paraly-
SIS" lie retreated from the hustiDgs, while his
wife cried "Coward," and remained for the time
master Of the situation.
But the great baronet has had his mighty re.
venge. He seems to have collected bis faculties
completely after the scene at Hertford, and Sc
lected mode of punishment which would have
done honor to the ingenuity and malice of the
devil He sent spy to Taunton to observe and
make note of her ecceutricities and oddities,
and he dispatched DR.. Thompson and a nurse
from unatc asylum, who held conversation
with her for five hours Introducing only topics
that were calculated to excite intense indigba-
ton. She, however, preserved her equanimity,
and it was not till subsequent period that, the
worthy emissary, under circumstances OF great
aggravatiou, gave her up into the hands of the
police, on certificate of insanity, signed by two
medical tools of Sir Edward, and also, it is be.
lived, by that excellent gentleman himself The
occurrence excited the most intense Indignation
in Taunton, and public meeting was held, in
which committee was appointed to see that
Justice be done to Lady Lytton, and resolution
adopted declaring that such an arrest under such
circumstances called "for public expi ession of
alarm for the rights and liberties of the subject"
The Gazette points out in strong terms the wrong
and danger of sending person to the mad house
lnD tha of fyun
confinement in luDatio asylum shonld only be
possible after public inquiry similar to that
which must precede the committal of person
accused of felony to the common goal. If this
case should lead to some legislative provision by
which sane people may not be consigned by in
terested parties to the society of maDiacs, enough
of itself to drive reason from its throne, good
will come out of the evil.
The latest intelligence of this extraordinary
case is the release of Lady Lytton from impris-
enment, and compromise of some kind by
which an armistice is established between the
hostile parties But no compromise, no armis-
! tice can retrieve the character of Sir Edward
Bulwer Lytton, or save him from the odum of
an enormous crime, or throw veil over the
trightful nature of which, in this act of unspeak-
able maiignity, he has permitted mankind to
have a glimpse, He may still continue to as.
tonish the world with the "brillant light" of
his "noble sentiments" but men will henceforth
look upon them as the phosphorescent light OF
moral decay and corruption.-R. Dispatch.
Iron FURNACES IN AUGUSTA CsUNTY.-We
shall merely mention few of the furnaces In
the Southern part of Augusta, since we are not
at present familiar with the locality of the iron
works generally, in this part of Virginia, but in
tend to become better acquainted with them all,
bye and bye. We can only mention "Ootopaxi," +"
near Midway, owned by the Messrs. Newtons,
ctaIal;,a1- nI,l ssAIaI,at