A Hundred Years Ago
THE SPECTATOR, AUGUST 18T, 1829.
NEWS OF THE WEEK.
Letters from India, received yesterday via Bordeaux, contain a very remarkable invitation, in the shape of a circular from the Governor-General, for " suggestions tending to promote any branch of national industry ; to improve the commercial intercourse by land and water ; to amend any defects in the existing establish- ments ; to encourage the diffusion of education and useful know- ledge ; and to advance the general prosperity and happiness of the British Empire in India." This invitation is " addressed to all native gentlemen, landholders, merchants, and others, to all Euro- peans both in and out of the service, including that useful and respectable body of men the indigo planters " ; and it may not improperly be looked upon as the commencement of a system of more liberal government, of which the permission to Europeans to lease lands was the forerunner.
THE STEAM COACH.
The Bath Chronicle of Thursday, after announcing that Mr. Gurney's steam-coach was on its road to Bath, stops the press to say— We have just heard that Mr. Gurney's coach arrived at Melksham yesterday evening, at eight o'clock, and was coming through the town at a steady pace, when a great mob collected round the carriage, it being fair day, and commenced an attack on Mr. Gurney and his friends. They at first attempted to stop and injure the carriage, and after following it for a mile, commenced throwing stones at them, by which two of the engineers were seriously injured. The gentlemen were obliged to get out of the carriage to resist the mob, and the engineers, being disabled, it was thought advisable to seek shelter, and the carriage was taken into Mr. Iles's yard for security. The magistrates were promptly on the spot, and the yard was guarded by constables. Mr. Gurney and his friends were severely wounded. This disgraceful and unheard-of attack origi- nated, we understand, in the dislike to machinery, so strongly felt in that manufacturing district."
MORALITY OF THE DAY.
We cannot take up a newspaper without seeing a report of some instance of infidelity, seduction, or breach of promise of marriage ; and the parties almost uniformly belong to the middle classes. Such crimes have certainly multiplied of late in that order ; but we doubt whether in proportion they yet exceed the frailties of their superiors. But the two classes are not on an equal footing as regards the matter of sentiment. A man with extensive connexions has not only his own feelings or those of his immediate family to consult. His kinsmen have claims on him ; and his name must be preserved from the disgraces of an esdandre. The little people have fewer regards, and are freer to act upon the dictates of their personal feel- ings, which are apt to seek the solace of every ill in gold. The law which offers this remedy, and so freely, has a pernicious tendency. Damages do not tempt gallants to love to other man's wives ; but the prospect of them has, we fear, the effect of rendering many a husband careless to the progress of an amour. In the common instance of breaches of promise of marriage, we see an analogous result : these affairs are now quite a trade, thanks to the encourage. ment offered by law,
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