Year: 1861

tion introduced proposing to terminate debate


in Committee of the Whole on Tuesday next. Th


resolution was violently opposed, and without com
ing to vote the Convention adjourned.


The YELvERToN case which has lately created 8
tremendous sensation abroad, and excited no little


interest on this side of the water, deserves, We
think, few words of comment before it is oblit
Grated from mems memories by some newer and
dftier scandal The story, however, is neither
as naughty nor as tragica, nor as sentimental as
many of those with which the public has been en-
| tertained within few years past Bad as it is il
does not afford to prurient imaginations so lus-
cious feast as is offered by nine in ten of the
trashy novels that issue daily from the press. 1t
is not, therefore, on account of anything very
startling or peculiar in the case itself that we deem
1t deserving of a moments consideration. But
there is much in its surroundings that will bear
COMMENT and we cannot refrain from referring to
few of the extraordinary incidents which
marked the progress of the trial and the surprising
demonstrations which attended its conclusion.


twill be remembered that Major YELvERToN and
Miss LoNGwoRTH first met on board of channel
steamer On that occasion the Major extended
some courtesies to the young lady, which being
graciousy received, served as the beginning of an
acquaintanceship which rapidly blossomed into
friendship and ripened into love- Through some
mysterious influence the parties were subsequently,
drawn into each others sphere, and though the
Major went successfully TO Malta, to the Crimea
and to Edinburgh, Miss LoNGwoRTH also found
IN, f,rp Of


several places. Into the character of their court
ship we need not too curiously inquire; and it
will suffice TO say that they married themselves in
Scotland by reading together the marriage cere-
mony of the English Church; and that they were
afterwards married in Ireland, in due form, by
Catholic priest and in Catholic chapel Time
passed away, and carried the Majors affections
with it. He grew heartily tired of his wife; and
believing, or affecting to believe that some legal
informalites rendered the marriage void, he repu-
dated Mrs. YELvERToN, and married another
woman. The quondam Miss LoNGwoRTH naturally
enough objected to this proceeding, and hence the
trial IN Dublin. The questions submitted to the
jury were in regard to the validity of the Irish
and Scotch marriages. and as both were decided
to be legal, the Major found himself united by
double boSds to the original object of lis atten-
tons. Such is mesgre outline of case which,
though by no means novel one, has set all
Ireland and England wild with virtuous rage and
maudlin enthusiasm. The Judge, in summing up
the evidence, charged the jury to ''divest their
'mnds of every feeling calculated to influence
"their calm and dispassonate consideration of
''the case before them," and then went on to
discuss the testimony in an impassioned philippe
against the defendant, which must have insured a
verdict against the latter, had there been no
fair proof to sustain it. The verdict was awaited
with breathlesS interest by thousands upon thou
sands, who filled the streets and squares around
the place where the Court was sitting. When the
jury pronounced in favor of Mrs YELvERToN, the
scene is said to have baffled description. Men
yelled, and laughed, and shook hands with those
whom they did otknow, and threw their hats into
the air, and flung themselves madly into jaunting
cars, in order to carry the tidings speedily to all
parts of the city. Finally, when Mrs. YELvERroN
appeared, they made one tumultuous rush upon
her carriage, and, embarrassing the horses drew
her in triumph to her hotel There also they
found another mass of humanity, which filed the
square to overflowing, and the lady was compelled
TO return thanks to her admirers in neat speech
from the balcony Of the house An immense con-
course was in the meantime waiting for the de-
teated MAJOR 10 leave the Court, with the
avowed purpose of throwing him into the Liffev,
and it was only through resort to sundry inge-
nious devices that he made good his escape In
England the excitement was as general almost as
in ireland, though not, of course, as intense as
near the scene of action. The press teemed with
editorials in which the MAJOR was pelted with all
the unpleasant epithets which our vocabulary can
supply. Gentlemen Of the House of Commons
could not contain themselves and an rate mem
ber lost no time in making inquiry of the Under
Secretary at War, whether the MAJOR had or had
not been instantly suspended? At the Horse
Guards, too, the same indignation was manifested,
and it has been decided that the MAJOR is TO be
arraigned before Court Martial for 'conduct un
'becoming gentleman" 1t might be naturally
supposed, from the unanimity and fury of these
demonstrations, that no man in all England had
ever before wronged woman or behaved like a
villain to his wife.


| Now, we do not intend to take up the cudges
| for Major YELvERToN Far be it from us so TO do.
for we heartily admit that he has acted like a
scoundrel, and that no punishment he is likely to
receive can be too severe for him. And impartial
justice compels US to state in this connection, that
we do not defend the conduct of the lady, that
we have little respect for her character, and that
we do therefore decidedly protest against her be-


ing canonized as the patroness and exempar oi
injured innocence for all time to come We sim.
ply mean to insist that there has been a
most extraordinary excitement about very Or
dnary criminal and very common case
But why have our Transatlantic kinsmen flown into
such paroxysm of excitement upon this subject ?
Cases trial continually, of which the details
are more narrowing or DISCUS ting. What then
is the cause of so sudden an outburst of rage and
sympathy as has been manifested towards the
respective parties? There are hundreds of injured
women in Great Britain who can find no cham.
pions to do battle in their behalf. There are
nunoreoS OF men in every walk of lile from the
highest 10 the lowest, who have notoriously per.
petrated orutalities and crimes, from which even
MAJOR fELVERToN, rascal though he is, would, in
all PROBABILITY shrink; but these branded knayes
and ruffians are by no means ostracised. They
are not set upon by mobs in the street or by
country gentlemen in the House of Commons q,
by military moraists at the Horse Guards. Or
the contrary, society takes many of them by tn,
)hand, and dimes, and transacts business will


them, and does them many kindly service ant


genial courtesy. Why then have all classes com


bined to taboo Major YELvERToN? The foowin,


extract from one of Lord MAcAULAY's essays


gives, we think, a clear answer to the question. =


He says; ''We know no spectacle so ridculou


''as the British public in one of its periodical fit


"of morality. In general, elopements, divorces


"and family qaarrels pass with little notice w


'read the scandal, talk about it for day, an,


'forget it. But once in six or seven years on


Virtue becomes outrageous. We cannot suffe


"the laws of religion and decency to be violated


1--WE must make stand against vice. We mus


teach libertnes that the English people appreciat


'the Importance of domestic ties. Accordng


"some unfortunate man, in no respect more de


'praved than hundreds whose offences have bee


'reated with lenity, is singled out as an expiatc


Try sacrifice. If he has children they are to b