The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1872-05-09
undying Sin.

a late review of the strange and pteouS case
Of Lady Travers rwss, in London referred TO
the somewhat similar history and fate of the
once famous Emma, Lady Hamilton, ~ a pre-
cfdent for the alternate elevation OF feminine
Wit and beauty from Il lOwlv and even vicious
estate to the highest social relations and consid-
GRAFTON, and their ultimate arav tlt0n 10 the
depths again. either by force OF some innate
perver>ity OF moral nature or through the in
eXOrabe working of that eternal principle Of
retrbution which eXacts OF the decorou> pres
ent the penalty Of the reckless past. Probably
n reference more practicable to the popular
knowledge might have been found in the Lady
DPdlOck Of Bleak House." who, although a
character in fiction, is typical both of the re-
yengc OF the Vulgar past upon tile socially pre-
tentious present and of the kind of instruments
ever eligible to the errors of an earlier
condition of lite for the pursuit and punish
ment of the sinner in Il later. The beautiful and
stately wife of the arrogant and doting baronet
OF the novel, struggling, detantly for a time in
the tolls Of the pItiless lawyer. Tulkinghorn,
who has mastered the Wretched story OF her
passionate youth, and finally flying like a crimi-
nal hy night to houSelesS despair and death at
the grave of her humble youth, miseader and
idol, is scarcely ldeaZed prototype of Lady
TwisS, Swallowed at every turn of her arsto-
cratic married life by the lawyer Chatfers and
finally fleeing in terror from both home and
country before that wretch's publication of her
past and her fond husbands consequent insan-
ity. Indeed, this type OF domestic mystery and
misery finds illustrations in reality as freqlent-
ly as in the imaginative delineations of the ro-
nance, even although they do not ALWAYS reach
public notice.
Som thing in the logic of common natural
law dictates but imperfect happiness to the
character abruptly raised from lower to n
higher grade of existence, even where uney-
ceptionabe virtue combines with love or for
tunes caprice, in the sudden change; and when
anything of sin goes before that change as if
too often does, the moral certainty of the sin
finding out its perpetrator at last makes the
bitter coming Of remorse and rerbution but a
question of time Greatly ''unetual'' marr
ages are never wholly uncommon; a large nor
ton of them must involve degree of passionaI
inflammation permitting but little discrimination
to personal moral antecedents and there
must be many and many a Lady Hamilton
Lady Dedlock, or Lady Twiss, whose stories
are dreadful indications of natures relentless
balance, or despairlng with the revenges of
early error, even though the public know moth
ing OF them, No country can be without IFS
share of these unhappy romances but in Emo
iand they appear to attain the brand of nrint
most frequently. Thus, while the world Is still
wondering, deploring, and plying over the
Twiss case, another of the same general class
has been developed in Il criminal prosecution at
the last Kingston assizes. OF this latter affair
some information was published here under the
localiZing caption OF '"Fhe Weald of Sure v,
early in September. 1t was late in August that
"A poorly dressed but military looking man,
private interview with Mrs. Richard Christie
pher Darlington, at her husbands scientific re-
treat in the weird ''weald" of Surrey near
Farnham, attempted to Kill both the lady and
limselt with knife, and when arrested ana
examined by the constabuary avowed that he
had been Mrs. Carringtons greatest earthly
benefactor, and had been driven to his donnie
crime by her treason to him in her married
prosperity. AS both he and his intended VIC
tim were suffering too much from their wounds
at that time to bear a prOtracted investigation
The solution OF the mystery in court was DELAYED
for a time, though the circumstances of the IN
terview and assault as described by an caves
dropping servant, suggested "A domestic history
OF an extraordinary kind. The last English
papers report the trial of the would be assassin
and suicide, as having been concluded onIv a
few days ago; and from the testimony which
Mrs. Darlington herself was obliged to Give the
following facts of her history are collated
A number of years ago she was poor. illit-
crate, friendless orphan in the City of Bristol
and her pi'ifu condition excited the compassion
Of an elderly ex-dragoon, at that time manag
erlally associated in some way with the exhibit
ton OF the famous American dwarf known as
Tom Thumb" This man was Roadway, who,
leading solitary moody kind of life, and de-
Gliding suddenly to have an adopted daughter
for u companion, took the ragged mere street
hid from her vagabondagc, and resolved to
allow strangers to think her his sister. He was