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Petersburg society ; and with his doctorship , his republicanism , and his servility , be actually procured a commission from the Czar , for garrison service , we believe . We presume , bowever , that his object was not to perform onerous duties at that post , for he remained only a short time , and returned to St . Petersburg , and so to his own country , with a commission
to sell Sitka , the north-western corner of America ,, to the Republic . He did not , perhaps , leave Russia too soon ; for hi 3 sudden departure , coupled with his English language , suggested to some acute Russians , who have as much facility as other folks for looking through mUl- stones , that this precious Dr . Cotman was an English spy . ¦
•• So at last the Doctor figures in around half-dozen of capacities : he is a physician , — - amazing fact ! he is ' a great traveller ; he is a Russian officer ; lie is an agent to negoeiate between the great potentate and the ^ Repub lic ; he is ail English spy ; and abov / e all , by favour of the llimes , he has become , if we may be allowed the expression , of all the world the most * diistdnguished— -no , Balaam forbid bur being so ; r ^ de as to write the word !
Sitting on the sxtmiiait of his own greatness ^ he begins inditing epistles to all and sundry , and ainongst others'he fhvours Mr . GredrgeW San < ders , whom the authprities at Washington have chosen t 6 lose for their representative ¦ ¦; Here ; he addresses Mr . Sanders sis ' -Colonel" Sanders , and instructs that genr tleman . in the virtues of Russia and tl * e vices of England . Mr . Sanders is at least as well able to judge of tne European affairs as Dr . Cotman ; lieis no Colonel , and we have reason to believe that hie gave the -Doctor no
authority to write to him ; - —that , in f&cb , the Doctor ' s epistle has first reached him in print through an Ameridan journal . But Cotman understands his trade . He will ; it seems , utidergo any disgrace to be distinguished ; so that 'he associates himself with prominent names , he will bow down before the Ozar . He inay smile at being regarded as an
English spy ; and he can easily constitute himself the % nauthorised correspondent of any eminent man . He is like the Snob who boasted that he had spoken to ( George the Fourth . " And did he answer you ? " asked the friend to whom , he boasted . "' Oh , yes ; in the most familiar manner . " " What did he say then ?" " He told me to go to the devil !"
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at an inn before her marriage ? Now men of family have married barmaids , and while the escocheon descended untainted to the progeny , " new blood" would sometimes beneficially influence the stock . "We affect , indeed , no contempt for " aristocracies . " There has " been no country in a state of greatness and advancement that had not , either germinating in it or developing itself , an effective aristocracy ; that is , a body of men who were acquiring for themselves and their sons , by acts of gallantry and public usefulness , a name which secured them credit
even by inheritance , and which constituted a standard obliging the children to maintain the honour of their parents . Every great and growing country has , under some name or other , its aristocracy ; and it is a reproach and warning to our own country , that men who possess the opportunities of wealth and inherited honour , are so unambitious , so
feeble , so self-seeking , so forgotten , that they dp not make themselves felt as ail aristocracy ; but only as pensionaries and encumbrances . ' : ' , God preserye pur old : oiobility I 3 > for in their dotage they evidently do not fcn ow how to take care o £ themselves . Meii of family do wander into trade , and a younger son often becomes the tradesman " meek and much a
liar . " But whether ; atfcaining to the tank by inheritance or by achievement , thegentlemian is known in the nobility of his actions ; and he who marks a stain upon the inherited esco cheon , is lower than a churl , for he is a recreant . "We must , however , judge Mr . lipyd Evans by a high standard , since he
claims to be of " good family . " In November , 1850 ; Ijloyd Evans marries Sophia Carringtorij the daughter of a gentle-Wan who distinguished himself in the public service of Ceylon . Lloyd Evans was at that time thirty-two years of age , his wife five or six years younger •;' ¦ and they went to live at Leicester . It was a residence which Mrs *
Evans did not like , but which Mr . Evans did , for they were in the house of his ; mother , and hs enjoyed the sport of hunting , which ate up his leisure for many days in the week , from morn to dewy eve . There are intimations that about this tim © the lady showed some petulance ; but the grounds of her chagrin are not stated . Let us note that in all these cases , the circumstances which constitute the grievance of the " injured husband" are brought forward with a complete
and disgusting minuteness—witness the case of Norton , and this case almost as infamous ; but the circumstances which beget motives on the other side— -the injuries of the wife , sometimes the deep tragedy whose outward traces are a petulance looking pitiful enough , —^ -seldom can be stated , almost never get thoroughly explained , and the judgment is as often ex parte . Whatsoever the cause ,
DOMESTIC MOLOCH—HIS WIFE . Are we to understand the verdict of the jury in the case of Evans versus Robinson as a healthy reaction in favour of genuine morality , against cant and spurious ihorality ? The case , indeed , was one sufficiently glaring in the character of its worst incidents , and the most prejudiced of juries might well pause , even at a former day , when everything was taken for granted in . favour of an " injured husband , " But we truly believe that the discussion of some deeds which were con *
sidered incapable of discussion , although they were nob incapable of perpetration , has had a healthy influence on the public inind , and has beneficially reached even juries . We know nothing of the present case beyond that which was stated in court . We have no dosiro nor any claim upon us to show favour for one aide more than another . We will state the facto simply , « s wo find them .
m counsel for tho plaintiff stated that his client , Mr . Lloyd Evans , « ' ia a gentleman 01 good iamily and fortune in tho county of Gloucester . " Wo see ifc intimated by ono of tho witnesses that Mr . Evans was tho son ot a chemist and druggist in Tewkeabury—a statement not incompatible with his being a man of good family . A question also was raiaod whether Ins mother had been barmaid
Mr . and Mrs , Evans did not agree ; and in April , 1851 , before tho birth of their first child—which subsequently died still-bornthey separated by mutual consent , under an agreement binding both parties never to seek a compulsory reunion . They were divided in tho world , but tho husband , it seoms , required his wife thenceforward to maintain a life of abnegation ; that he did so is evident from the nature of this case . We have no
dence does not show that the suspicion w . is groundless , but it evidently had very slight ground to rest upon , since on no other supposition could even an advocate . in court justify the measures taken by the " injured husband" to procure testimony . Let us always remember that Lloyd Evans is a man of " good family , " having , of course , the right to bear arms , and bound bj that right to behave honourably to all , but most especially towards women ; and he regards a wife as a thing sacred .
He had no proofs against his own wife , but he suspected her , and he invoked an intervention to assist him in preserving the sacred relation . What was the intervention ? It was that of a detective officer of police . The officer of police went to the wife ' s lodging , —induced the landlady to tolerate his intrigues ,- —intro ^ duced into the house a woman who was ostensibly cook , but was Teally a spy , —^ instructed her how to keep watch upon the wife , —and supplied her with an instrument for rendering the espionage effectual . That instrument was a gimlet .
Informer daysthe injured husband , doubting the uprightness of another gentlemiiB , would have invited an explanation or an appeal to the swpid . In this superior age , it seems we have substituted the gimlebifor tlie sword . The gimlet is the trusty weapon by which the injured liusband is to redeem his honour . . ¦ ' ' ¦ ¦' ¦ ¦ . ' ' ¦ ¦ .... ¦ , . ' . ¦' . - . ¦ ¦ ¦ ' V- . ,. ;' - ' :-. " ; - . ' ¦ ' ¦ ¦ ' Mrs . Grroeott , the matron who condescended to co-operate in this mission for the redemption of Mr . Evans ' s honour , employed the implementy tinder the advice of tie detective , to bore holes in . a sitting-room , door ;;
the door thus perforated , a private room was rendered by Mrs . Grocott , and two other yromen who were with her , a peep-show for spying upon the conduct of the lady . The injured husband , ^—who must have regarded the . ' ¦ marriage .- ' relation as something . sacred : — who hail of course professed the tenderest regard for Sophia Carrington when she surrendered herself to his care ^ thus gathers a story with revolting details , and drags it into court for the amusement of the whole . British empire next day in the columns of the Times , And this is done in order to obtain some
legal triumph—some technical release , against a woman from whom ' he was already separated in fact who had not crossed his path , who suspected no suclx pursuit . Supposing that the story told by Mr . Evans ' s witnesses were true , —which we have no reason to suppose , for persona who could hire themselves out to the raeauness of espionage are guilty of a worse offence than concocting a lie—the real question involved in the case is whether justice would be furthered by giving a triumph to the husband over tho wife ? Who had clone
the gi'eatest wrong to tho other ? who had most outraged natural feeling ? who bad inflicted the deepest wounds Upon morality ? Such cases , indeed , have hitherto been judged entirely upon fanciful grounds—a presumed state of society which does nob exiat , But who vna tho offender here , who the wronged ? Was tho woman who might have dono that which was stated in the story disbelieved by tho jury , or tho husband who thus pursued the wife that ho had parted from for over , — hot
who used theso means to any upon actions , —und , violating every dicta to of delicacy or mosey , dragged tho story , true or false , before tho eyes of tho world ? Candaules wo despiso " making a show of lua wifo ' s beauties : but whafcnro w © to think of the Auti-Candauios who tears down tho curtains of the nuptial couch , from which ho has parted for over , in order to pillory his wifo in public contempt , whilo ho asks a detective and n hireling to aid him in exposing to shamo the faults aud weaknesses of a helpless woman . ?
knowledge of Mr . Evans's conduct , and desire none ; but ; wo aak aivy man of tho world whether , under such circumstances , husbands decree a litb of abnegation for themselves ? Mr . Evans suspected that his wife did not obey his idea of proper life ; she waa much with a Mr . Bobinsou , « . gontlomau fifty years of age , an old friend of her lather's ; aud 33 vnus . who had not secured her to himsolf in
tho ouly way by which man can secure woman—that ia , by thoroughly engaging her affection and her willing devotion , —suspoctod that ltobinson might have dono so . The evi-
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Augtjst 26 , 1854 ] THE LEADER . 806
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 26, 1854, page 805, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2053/page/13/
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