MARRIAGE IN ENGLAND.

Timaru Herald, Volume IX, Issue 340, 29 August 1868, Page 2

MARRIAGE IN ENGLAND.

[From the Daily Telegraph.}

; /' The-coneys/' Scripture says* " f tae.; a feeble folk, and so are the Coles of India, but one may leann a lesson from these poor hill people, as well as from tfhe revki-rablit of Holy Writ. There is no doubt that 4he letter which v> c lately printed from, our , correspondent. v "A' Barrister," laid bare one majn 1 ? irioot of the awful evil which we have exiJosecl -atid ' denounced ' m' 5 5 these ; columns. The outrageous expectations of parents m behalf 'of their marriageable daughters, 'and- the inflated sumptuary ideas of the young ladies ; themselves, are past, all question; a - ojause— and a cardinal cause — of this cruel traffic m the souls and bodies of 'foreign"! women. *■' It sounds- like kf .coarse and ill-bred thing to say — bnV s»y it we must, till the ears'of Belsjraviaai manahjas' and- tof delicately ■ reared) damsels tingte with shame*-^ ; t|iat part of the Jruit"\>f the selfish iafad- woridly -view- whieb—they-■♦(*«---npw^da^s—of-'-marNaaey— i^-e^ewß. üboß the bitter find black trfee of thdlrj ffetefrs' agony; theW riward," in 1 unions wi&ont affebtion oVJ n^tutal 4)ondTT-wheTe,.,to begia with,: loxurysuppknts Jo^, ; ,§nd, jq ; 4hfljsidj wjeariness and injficteUtj too often? punish. .tbaoiuMrcable-eseaaiigei — These-' -results,.Uowfiver, spring from, their own . sin, and, from their own puniahmpnt . but when by such deplorablejjortuption \ thevi cause others to sin their souls away,- aW to bear the frigirtfijl pen^ : , j^ wjjolftnhbod riimeq^ existence turned i to a! ghastly penance, it is time fh6t ■ plain words' shiald be used. We aveiy thenj Ajit th* TOprceliar^' pteiensic^iM i of pajren^ "&d.Jh'e po«itive gree/i which \ ' prevails among middle and upper-class 5 maiuuus Jor v~ guuu *p^iSTu&Dy 'uiHimP loiejf before true a^fectiOßj'ftyfSfeTiialilineps, worthy chaActer/ and^personal f ■ honour, are directly chargeable with i many a sad. consignment 0/ .trapped wo^men to J the London Naders In vice, 1 and with much of that marketing,^; J youtS : aid^ut^'whiA^Se^W^ , streets at night so. piteons and vile, r Wfio are the cns"tom*r¥ of ; thre iftafltetpi tflace of the Devil, except those of opr. f y6nfh7~who, if the old simplicity of [ manners afld mddesty JriP deriJand i/ 1 isted, would seek wires instead Of » early days to the maintenance, and the _ saored affections of a* household. - But ! the pertinent modeinr ,thopiy-T is to b beiin where our grandfathers andgrand--1 mothers' left "oC< " Jb-yo4Ag ! *in»ir- if* r measured m the parental eye by his * njqney. Few ask, when he comes as •

" suitor, whether lie is honest, earnest, j chaste, industrious, and manly? the question is, can he secure a wife " a position ?" Is he "m society 1" Has he " expectations ?" What is his income, and what will his father give him ? Such is the catechism which they put to his sickened heart. Too often, . the prudent object 'of • hi* affections governs her ownJmpalse by similar considerations ; she likes her lover to be well gilded, like children's gingerbread ; she must be wooed like lanae, with a shower of coins. Time was when the rule ran, that if two young people loved each other, they went forth into , the world linnd-in-band, trusting to Uod, to their love, and the manliness of the husband ; and from such marriages grew up the Hower of a beautiful faith, and homes made street, m -the fortunate after days by the recollection of brave past efforts and loving mutual help. Now the Hymenceus oif our nuptial alters is Mammon, the flower of the bride's wreath must be jewelled, her vows must be uttered m silk and brocade, or not at all. She must be bought and sold by a legal process, which thinly disguises the elegant prostitution of the ceremony. The upshot is, that these venal damsels "pine m "single blessedness," while the men who should have made them happy wives and proud mothers take their own despair away to resorts not mentioned to ears polite, and ; there, with their humble means, purchase those " smiles of silver and kisses of gold" which are far less costly, and scarce less more unlike the true and noble love of natural aiid honest humanity. Let us, then, be for a moment geographical and ethnological, and see if the "noble savage" cannot teach us something. On the hills m: India dwell an aboriginal people named the Coles. They are a blackskinned, barbarous race — a remnant of the tribes conquered by the invading Aryans, and m most points the old Bea captain's description of the Malagashes would be true of them — " Manners they have none, and their customs are bepstly." Till quite lately .they had, we regret to state, a weakness for human sacrifice ; and if the crops were not good, it was their custom, till we interfered, to cut a little Cole up into email pieces and use him as a kind of superphosphate. But m one respect they are, or were, as well-bred and particular as Belgravia itself- — it is m this matter of marriage. Tife Cole mamas and papas have for many generations past estimated the value of a suitor m bullocks. Three hundred a year is the very lowest limit, we believe, at which human love is recognised m the. West-end of London, and m these hills all respectr able huts had long fixed fifty bullocks as the minimum price for the hand of a Cole "girl of the period." Precisely as the British papa asks sternly after the salary and personal property of the ingenuous pretender, careless about his personal worth, so the Cole papa's first query ; was ever " How about the cattle V Now fifty bullocks are. much m grassy Devon ; but on the Madras hills they are opulence, they are dignity, they are a carriage and pair," a box at the Opera, and aliondon house. The consequence has been, for some time past, thai Cole society has grown worse and worse, as bullocks gr<*w more difficult to provide. Fashion, would not take/ a single beast less' than the fifty ; yoiinff Cole love, with all its energy and nLnbition, could m most cases, neither beg, borrow, nor steal such a drove ; and the result was there as here, that the Cole young ladies never tied on the butuhnri, or marriage dress, while -the Cole young gentlemen went to dissolute and disgraceful ways. Things came to a frightful pass, and the elders held a Punchayet, or meeting, at . which prer cisely the same evils that we are witnessing were deplored; but the Cole mama protested that bullocks • were better tban decency and happiness, and the Cole priest quoted the holy bijoks. and immemorial custom ; so nothingwas done. Happily the British Com? missioner was a man of influence and earnestness. ;He called another Pun-i chayet, and spoke as we have spokenin the ears of the savage Belgravia.' " They would be bullocks, themselves," he said, " mere beasts if they kept" Mpl this foolish custom, and preferred to have cattle rather than .' a man,',and to see their children debauched instead of married." The Cole papa's' thereupon " 'put on the puggree of \ itie'ditation," and finally swore that &c, Sabit), was right, and should be:. obeyed* They passed a new Act of ; Fashions-Co the effect that five bollocks, instead' of fifty, should form the nVarniigfl -isft> the suitor m Other respects', being eligible ; and ever : since " alii a& gone merry as a marriage bell" m those hills: morality is refltoneeb, wedehAgfr «re numerous and haj>pv, ~Ag' worthy lover sigHs his soul .awajr lo|f Wsntf of cattle^ and, the jßjiwiia^^-aftW.XiaU babies ¥as made the tribe , great, ; m. ,the eyes^of ' neighbouring ... .races ; while agriculture is everywhere extendedjand there is more wealth' than ever, because, on those mountains, instead of cupidity with its ugly consequences.' of hope outraged and Jioy.a « travestied/ m profligacy, therq is natural affeptjpm^ with its faithful servant, industry. -;.,.■« Would to Heaven tha^se .game abjf and wise Indian Cpromissionercouj^ie set to teach the poles of Lomfofy to; bid them worship" Bhowanee no. longer,. but prefer the real riches of honour, and „ffile.. affection, to j |Kj» miserable question of the fifty .bullocks, which. uMef 'the fpirm\ iof, , jje* Cents., aßi-Betdeirjepts, aw* exacted a» the price of a wife ! Will Sir John Lawrence Kradljrspate him to us for a' little white-^on fuij pfty, • of : c6uts'<p v with traTel^ing allowance,; and will lift bring a deputation of Cole parents, > t» talk a little decency and nature m the salons of West Londohif Whor )cnQ>vs wha^mijghtrjßsult from a Punchayet of Belgravia matrons, if they [heard how savage and brutal their elegant code" of nupDal-law mtiat( now ieem ' to tb»se enlightened batbarisn»? And if 'we told the naked taissibnariesbf! humanity the 'iruSiftfbdut bur vile commerce m foreign .wome%shqw<jd tii^mW streets

at night, translated for them the horrible truths disclosed by our hospitals and dead-houses explained to them the deadly rujn of honour and youth which ooiites of iMgravian restrictions, gave them some dress-clothes, and took them to the halls and kettle-drums where the marriage-market is held, and pointed out on one side the loveless daughters' of the rich, on the other the victimised daughters of the poor — selfish worldliness on one hand, brutal passion on the ottyer, suppressing wedlock to create sin- and shame — would the Coles, we wonder, think us or themselves the savages ? We cultivated people cover our skins with black broadcloth, and our socinl blasphemy ot Nature with maternal and paternal sophistries, which are refuted by human understanding and Divine law. On the other hand, our savage teachers wear the suit of black m which they were born ; but, when they find out that they have been outraging nature and ruining their simple society, they have the sense to "change all that." It was the voice of* the good Commissioner which brought them to reason. Cannot the sigh of these victims who are shipped for infamy, the drunken oath of the country girl whose purity has paid for ( Belgravian ideas, the horrible streets, the miserable' 1 gaiety, and the wasted youth of our city, arouse no echo of shame and no effort for reformation m the breasts of jhe cattleclaiming Coles of our own community.