New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1860-08-10
MIRA. GURNEY.


Of the readers. 1t is quite certain to receive that
without any suggestion of ours-attentIon, earnest
absorbing, serious and, we have no doubt, sad
Nor have we any apology to make for laying such
a confession before theI-the confession OF ssul
without faith, of life without moral purpose of
sentimeutahty morbid to idiotcy, Of passions wild
and shameless and Of an immodesty 20 unchecked
that we seem TO have here woman without
9oman's first instinct. Hardly in the worst pro.
ductions of the worst school of fiction is there
more subtle, more ingenious, and more unblushing
avoWal that there is no other good in the world
than the qualification of unbridled passion. But
the raper before us is no fiction. 1t il sober fact
that this is the Defense not merely the deliberately
written, but the deliberately printed defense which
a young wife and mother offers Of her conduct,
months after che had abandoned her husband and
her children for the qualification OF her love
with paramount And therefore we print it.
fact like this cannot be covered up out OF sight;
such development of social wrong must be met
face to face; met all the more openly, and all the
more earnestly if there be the slightest danger that
an example so peInicious can have the least infu.
ence.
Mary Quincy, the author Of this paper, is the
legal wife of John Henry Quincy, member OF
Parliament for Lynn.Regis, Norfolkshire, England.
They are second cousins, be being the son OF the
late Joseph John Quincy, the well-known banker
ard minister of the Society of Friends at Norwich,
ard she the daughter of the late Richard Hamburg
Quincy, also banker. The two fathers were first
cousins. Samuel Quincy, the banker and philan-
thropist, of London; Elizabeth Fry, the prison
reforner, and another sister, the wife of Sir
Thon as Powell Buxton the great leader in Parlia
ment for West India Emancipation, were the
brother and sisters of Joseph John Quincy. There
is hardly private family in the world better known
than this. Some months ago, some scandal was set
af1oat in regard to this Mrs. John Henry Quincy,
which eliminated, at length, in her elopement with
her groom, William Taylor. She gives to the
world now this defense. The position Of her FAM
iy, the notoIety of the abandonment of her home,
the publication OF such an apology for that act,
indeed the fact that any apology should be offered,
ano the universal interest, therefore, which at
tscbes to the whole affair, are reasons why We
should not withhold it from the public. That it is
full Of subtle poison We do not deny Perhaps it
is so baneful that like some poisons, it carries its
own antidote. But, we repeat, when such apollo
gies are offered for the worst of social sins, it is
best that they appear where there may be some
counter action to their deadly influence.
There are monsters in the moral world as well
as IN the material. Men are sometimes born who
have genius for crimes, and who generally die on
the gallows; and women are sometimes born 80
possessed Of enc single DoDstrous passion that they
know no real life except in its indulgence. These
are mora monsters Neither intellect, nor ability,
nor beauty, nor power of will, nor power OF charm
ing can ploze .er the ntial character of such
moral oeformities. In this letter Of Mrs. GurDeys,
running through it from beginning to end, per-
vading il like pungent essence, is one single SEN
tment-" l love, love, and / love-" Her song
has no other burden, her music no other tule
q love love, and l love-" She believes in no
institution of man that checks or hindeIs the free
way of her detres. She scouts the traditions of
her childhood and the faith of her fathers when
they hint at restraint. Religion is thing only to
be glbed and scOfed at, if it limits lust. She has
DO trust in Cod except that she may appeal to
Him as the author and approver of her great pas
sion. There il no other sentiment in this long
Letter but the sentiment of lust. 1t stares out
boldly; it turks in hidden and unexpected places;
where one looks for some tender pity for the hus-
band she had deceived, ludicrOus picture is pre-
scented of an imbecile Johnny on the edge of a
chair;" where the expression Of some lingering
longing for the children she had abandoned would
seem inevitable comes the fierce growl of lusty
woman who had borne puny young ones to an
almost incompetent husband. or her Paramour
We should know from this letter, if we did not
know from other sources, that he was an animal
Of noble proportions, younger than herself, strong
lmbed, of good STATURE full Of blood aud yigor.
She can only say Of him that he is man; and she
measures manlness by physical strength--the
strength of those old Gournai and LIE Brazil,
| from whom she is descended, who scorned reading
and writing as gnoble and eaeminate, and who
knew no higher merit than to. ceaye Paynim
from skull to midriff. Could she have claimed O
Roman descent, she would have sighed, in like
manner, fos the Rape Of the sabines. Faugh
never was the word love used to cover more licen-
tious sentiments. As we read on, our fear Of any
possible harm from such a document to any cres-
ture, not fore-ordained from the beginning Of the
world to be o prostitute, fades away. lts very
| nstsAness of Inst must teach th0se who have eye