THE IMMORALITY OF PADDINGTON STAGES.
FROM the Morning Herald of Wednesday, we learn that a young. gentleman, about to be tried for bigamy, fascinated the young: lady, the object of his second love, by announcing himself as a Post Captain and the brother of the Countess of SHREWSBURY; and that the opportunity was afforded him by the conveniency of the Paddington stages,—which Mr. MINSHULL, the Magistrate, has thereupon denounced as immoral contrivances, and warned all parents against permitting their daughters to ride in them. We have often seen Paddington stages complained of for " furious driving," but we never knew before that things were carried on as hotly inside, and that while the coachman was whipping on his horses, the gentlemen were whipping off the ladies. We should like to know the Magistrate's opinion of omnibuses: is an omni- bus more or less immoral than a stage 5' Fourteen inside is a more promiscuous congregation than six ; but then, publicity is the death of flirtation, and the distance between the corners of the vehicle is such, that a man might as well make love through a telescope as the tunnel of an omnibus. But if a young lady will pick up a husband in an omnibus or stage-coach, and marry him on his own showing, we think that there must be something more to blame than the Paddington coach. The magistrate should not only have warned parents against immoral shilling's-worths, but against a vicious education. —against gross ignorance, or evil habits. In this case, not im- probably, the " biter was bit"—for a lady, who marries the brother of the Countess of SHREWSBfHtY, without making any inquiry concerning him, knows she is doing wrong ; and if the gay bachelor, Captain TURNAUD, R. N., had not turned out Mr. M'GILL, with a wife and family at Kennington, it is just possible that the virtuous and injured Miss CAMPBELL might have proved na better than many others. Be that, however, as it may—let the lady enjoy her fair reputation—let Mr. M`GILL sail to Sydney— but blame not the innocent Paddington stage ; frighten not all unhappy families of the Regent's Park and the New Road, who now and then suffer their females to try the dangers of the City, with the Horrors of the Omnibuses. Let it not be supposed that these huge vehicles are like the Minotaur's cave, where thousands. of virgins are yearly offered up to the insatiable appetites of dashing bigamists. The vehicle in which they meet is no more to blame than the church in which they are married. Opportunities are so numerous in this vast and vicious capital, that the pains of parents must be directed to deeper sources than the Paddington stage.
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