The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1898-03-13

II everybody had their ~delinquenoies brought to
light after seven years there would DO a great
many courts occupied to-day"
AS might have been expected, there has been
much wagering Of heads and tongues over this.
Grave editorials have sDokon Of tho important
social interests which the law as to bigamy 10
designed to safeguard" and while recognizing
the practical common sense Of the Judgment"
the writer's would like to have seen q nomina
punishment inflicted" Some have written Of
judicial encouragement Of bigamy,' and to
many 1t seems a terrible thing for q bigamist to
be called "a respectable man" To understand the
feelings which have been reused 1t Is necessary
To bear in mind that Responsibility" is the
deity, or DOGGY, Of tho British middle GLASS.
And this quality OF "rcspectability" has a very
vague and indeflnable nature. Its personlfca-
ton is Mrs. Grundy. And It is difficult to know
exactly what will and what will not offend
this stern lady's feelings Of propriety. To call a
bigamist respectable is obviously outrageous,
but her scnsibility is equally shocked at hear
ing a transatlantic cousin Talk of maybugs.
The second syllable Of that harmless word is,
in her vocabulary, confined to the denizens OF ILL.,
kept bed furniture. and II IL q word not to be
mentioned aloud. The effect OF It's utterance In
n party OF respectable" ladies would only be
equalled by the explosion of an internal machine.
eON@s W. hoNg ~ thho VIC
amy case Is the fashion in which the Judge dis
regarded the law in the interests Of Justice.
Sir Henry Hawkins and the Lord Chief Justice
frequently do this. AS long as the Judge is q
strong man. with an honest and impartial mind,
there can BIO no doubt that in this way justice
will more often be attained than otherwise.
But with weaker men and biased minds, 1t 10
easy to sec that no small danger lies in such
procedure.
The world learns for the first time, through
Temple Bar for March, that ColerfdEe was
the victim of q sad calumny which embittersd
at least some moments of his life. He was &C.
'cused Of neglecting to return borrowed books.
and his resentment under the :mputation Is
rather strong. especially when turned against
his friend. poor Charles Lamb" A letter
which the roet wrote upon this subject Is print
cd In a collection entitled. IAN Ambassadors
Letter Bag" being the correspondence Of tho
late. John H. Frere. Coleridge, in G letter to
Frere written In July, 1916. says.
"" " " Now. my dear sir. will Jou pardon
me II I take the liberty Of unbosoming myself to
you on q circumstance which. though q seeming
triie. has both wounded and injured me. Many
years ago Mr.. Sotheby lent mo the old folio
edition of Petrarch's works. 1 read it through
and communicated my remarks. Just on the
eve of my leaving England for Malta had tho
book put up to be returned, but In the depres-
sion of disease and amid the hustle and the
heart sickness of leaving all I loved, with little
confidence of ever seeing them again, this was
forgotten, and the book remained at Keswick.
ut was not till long after my return that 1
discovered this. i then had the book sent up to
London. and supposed It to have been returned.
but by another piece of i'll luck 1t was sent
Though directed to Mr.. Sotheby> among Nor
gan's books to Bishopsgate street. from which
place 1t did at length arrive at its true owners.
Likewise, some gears ten ago poor Charles Lamb
took IL into his head that he had lent me a vol
ume Of Dodsley's old plays. 1 thought him in
joke at first, but hearing that he talked 1t of
whenever he was tipsy ian effect which three
glasses of wine will produce at any time), I
begged him to let me have the other Yalumes
and I would send him . new got. This he re-
fused, with oaths that he would never speak to
me again il / attempted II. At length. how
ever. I was lucky enough to procure the odd vol.
ume from Southey, and gave II to Lamb. His
wild speeches (half joke, half dreamy had, it
seems. been caught up by Robinson. who had
talked land o. We gods. how he does TALK at
the Westminster Library and elsewhere.
Yesterday I had an opportunity Of cross
questioning him.. Robinson. I have borrowed
moro books from you than from all my acquaint-
Az SoiASS oJ = Souio vi
German books elsewhere. Have 1 ever lost
onei' No. Have 1 ever retained your books
beyond the given time without obtaining your
permission3' NO Then you ought In JUS
tice to do your best to contradict the calumny
which your knowledge Of poor Charles Lambs
character ought to have prevented you from
helping to spread Except these two cases,
and / dare challenge all my acquaintances to
mention o single instance in which / have even
furnished an occasion for this charge have been
most grievously sinned against in this respect"
A large number of sketches by the late Sir
Frank Lockwood have been borrowed from
various owners and are now on view in the st.
James's Galleries. To walk round this unique
exhibition is to read a mans character literally
drawn by himself. When one sees the great
number of frames, some of which hold many
sketches, and then realizes that these form only
an infnitesimal portion of the numbers he pro-
duced, you need no one to tell you that Lock-
wood was a man Of exuberant vitality and en-
ergy, or he could never have produced such a
quantity of varied work simply as q relaxation
to the labors of his profession. in which he was
ever one of the busiest Of men. When you no.
tice the good nature of all this mas OF carl
cature. when you see that the subjects Of his
satire are often the owners and exhibitors of
inc drawings, IL ID cdny W hHOW, Without read
ing a biographical notice. that Lockwood was
a man Of kind and genial heart. When you see
with what swift. sure strokes he gets his effects,
you can realize that he was a man who went
sharp and straight to the point. and understand
we'll that when he had a brief to study few
men excelled him at rapidly apprecfating the
essential points. When you see that many OF
these sketches have real serious artistic merit.
apart from their humor and satire, and then
note they are all scribbled on any sort of ma
terial that lay to hand. often forming portions
of hastily written notes. you can recognize that
lockwood was a man of becoming modesty and
FREQ from small affectations. Clever draughts.
man as he was, he does not seem TO have ever
taken himself with sufficient seriousness as an
artist to provide himself with any materials
for his art beyond those he used In writing an
ordinary pen and a piece OF notepaper or large.
sized copy paper, the corner of a brief, a bit OF
blotting paper and a lead pencil-were sufh.
cient to content him, though many an inferior
ariiaf unnsf ha Va N afIdin and nil the nrfhndny