Chapter XXVII

Cases of wife selling--Duelling--Cases of--O'Connell and
D'Israeli--Other duels.

There were two amusements somewhat fashionable in this reign, wife selling and duelling. The former is still in existence, the latter is extinct in England. The halter round the neck was used when the wife was sold at market, it being considered that, being thus accoutred, she was on a level with the cattle, and thus could be legally sold. Here is a ballad of the period thereon.

"SALE OF A WIFE.

"Attend to my ditty, you frolicsome folk,
I'll tell you a story--a comical joke;
'Tis a positive fact, what I'm going to unfold,
Concerning a woman who by auction was sold.

_Chorus._

Then long may he flourish, and prosper through life,
The sailor that purchased the carpenter's wife.

"A carpenter lived not a mile off from here,
Being a little, or rather, too fond of his beer;
Being hard up for brass--it is true, on my life,
For ten shillings, by auction, he sold off his wife.

"The husband and wife they could never agree,
For he was too fond of going out on the spree;
They settled the matter, without more delay,
So, tied in a halter, he took her away.

"He sent round the bell-man, announcing the sale,
All in the hay-market, and that without fail;
The auctioneer came, with his hammer so smart,
And the carpenter's wife stood up in a cart.

"Now she was put up without grumble or frown,
The first bid was a tailor, that bid half a crown;
Says he, 'I will make her a lady so spruce,
And fatten her well upon cabbage and goose.'[23]

"'Five and sixpence three farthings,' a butcher then said,
'Six and ten,' said a barber, with his curly head;
Then up jump'd a cobbler, said he, 'In three cracks,
I'll give you nine shillings and two balls of wax.'

"'Just look at her beauty,' the auctioneer cries;
'She's mighty good-tempered, and sober likewise.'
'Damme,' said a sailor, 'she's three out of four,
Ten shillings I bid for her, not a screw more.'

"'Thank you, sir, thank you,' said the bold auctioneer,
'Going for ten. Is there nobody here
Will bid any more? Is not this a bad job?
Going! Going! I say--she's gone for ten bob.'

"The hammer was struck; that concluded the sale,
The sailor he paid down the brass on the nail;
He shook hands with Betsy, and gave her a smack,
And she jumped straddle-legs on to his back.

"The people all relished the joke, it appears,
And gave the young sailor three hearty good cheers;
He never cried stop, with his darling so sweet,
Until he was landed in Denison Street.

"They sent for fiddler and piper to play,
They danced and they sung, till the break of day;
Then Jack to his hammock with Betsy did go,
While the fiddler and piper played 'Rosin, the beau.'"

[Footnote 23: As applied to tailors, "cabbage" means the remnants of cloth stolen in making up garments. The "goose" is the large iron used for pressing seams, etc.]

I have eleven cases of wife selling in this reign, copied from the _Times_, and I have no doubt I have overlooked some more. The first is--

"SELLING A WIFE.

"The following memorandum (says the _Stockport Advertiser_),
drawn upon a 1_s._ 6_d._ stamp, will best explain the nature of a
bargain between two fellows at a beer shop, in the Hillgate, in
this town. Milward is a butcher, and was last week fined before
our magistrates for using uneven balances in his trading
transactions. The other persons are unknown to us:--

"'I, Booth Milward, bought of William Clayton, his wife, for five
shillings, to be delivered on the 25th of March, 1831, to be
delivered in a _alter_ at Mr. John Lomases house.

"'WILLIAM CLAYTON.
"'Witnesses: Joseph Gordon, G. Wood, George Whalley.'"

The next is from the _Times_, February 25, 1832--

"BUYING AND SELLING WIVES.

"In an evening paper we find the following story: 'A most
disgusting and disgraceful scene happened in Smithfield Market on
Monday last, which at the present day is of very rare occurrence.
About two o'clock in the afternoon a fellow came into the market
leading his wife by a halter, and gave her to a drover, desiring
him to tie her to the pens and sell her to the best bidder. The
woman, who did not appear to be above twenty-five years of age,
and not bad looking, suffered herself to be tied up very quietly.
A crowd of persons soon gathered round, and a man of rather
respectable appearance entered into a negotiation with the drover
for the purchase of the wife; and, after some higgling, she was
finally knocked down to him for the sum of ten shillings. The
money was paid, but the drover refused to release her except on
payment of two shillings as his commission for the sale which he
had effected. Some confusion took place about the demand, but it
was eventually paid, and she was released from the pens, opposite
the Half Moon public house, and delivered to her purchaser, who
appeared highly pleased with his bargain. The parties adjourned
to a neighbouring public house, where the late husband spent the
greater part of the money in brandy and water.'"

The following is from the _Times_ of April 26, 1832 (from the _Lancaster Herald_), and is somewhat out of the common run of these affairs:--

"SALE OF A WIFE BY HER HUSBAND AT CARLYLE.

"On Saturday, the 7th instant, the inhabitants of this city
witnessed the sale of a wife by her husband, Joseph Thompson, who
resides in a small village about three miles from this city. He
rents a farm of about forty-two or forty-four acres, and was
married at Hexham in the year 1829 to his present wife. She is a
spruce, lively, and buxom damsel, apparently not exceeding
twenty-two years of age, and appeared to feel a pleasure at the
exchange she was about to make. They had no children during their
union, and that, together with some family disputes, caused them
by mutual agreement to come to the resolution of finally
parting. Accordingly the bellman was sent round to give public
notice of the sale, which was to take place at twelve o'clock.
This announcement attracted the notice of thousands. She appeared
above the crowd, standing on a large oak chair, surrounded by
many of her friends, with a rope or halter made of straw about
her neck. She was dressed in rather a fashionable country style,
and appeared to some advantage. The husband, who was also
standing in an elevated position near her, proceeded to put her
up for sale, and spoke nearly as follows:--

"'Gentlemen, I have to offer to your notice my wife, Mary Ann
Thompson, otherwise Williamson, whom I mean to sell to the
highest and fairest bidder. Gentlemen, it is her wish, as well as
mine to part for ever. She has been to me only a bosom serpent. I
took her for my comfort and the good of my house, but she became
my tormentor, a domestic curse, a night invasion, and a daily
devil. (Great laughter.) Gentlemen, I speak truth from my heart
when I say, "May God deliver us from troublesome wives and
frolicsome widows!" Avoid them as you would a mad dog, a roaring
lion, a loaded pistol, cholera morbus, Mount Etna, or any other
pestilential phenomena in nature.

"Now I have shown you the dark side of my wife, and told you her
faults and her failings, I will introduce the bright and sunny
side of her, and explain her qualifications and her goodness. She
can read novels and milk cows; she can laugh and weep with the
same ease that you can take a glass of ale when thirsty; indeed,
gentlemen, she reminds me of what the poet says of women in
general--

"'Heaven gave to women the peculiar grace,
To laugh, to weep, to cheat the human race.'

"She can make butter and scold the maid; she can sing Moore's
Melodies, and plait her frills and caps; she cannot make rum,
gin, or whisky, but she is a good judge of the quality from long
experience in tasting them. I therefore offer her, with all her
perfections and imperfections, for the sum of 50_s._

"After an hour or two, she was purchased by Henry Mears, a
pensioner, for the sum of 20_s._ and a Newfoundland dog. The
happy people immediately left town together, amidst the shouts
and huzzas of the multitude, in which they were joined by
Thompson, who, with the greatest good humour imaginable,
proceeded to put the halter which his wife had taken off round
the neck of his Newfoundland dog, and then proceeded to the first
public-house, where he spent the remainder of the day."

In the _Times_ of March 25, 1833, is the following:--

"A grinder, named Calton, sold his wife publicly in the market
place, Stockport, last Monday week. She was purchased by a
shopmate of her husband for a gallon of beer! The fair one, who
had a halter round her neck, seemed quite agreeable.--_Blackburn
Gazette._"

The _Times_ of May 24th, 1834, quoting the _Paisley Advertiser_, says--

"SALE OF A WIFE.

"Monday night a party of doughty neighbours met in a house in New
Sneddon to enjoy a tankard or two of reaming swats, and to decide
by which of the rival 'best possible instructors' they were,
henceforth, to be enlightened. In the course of the discussion,
one of them announced his intention of setting up a dram shop,
and stated that there was only one article wanting. 'What was
that?' 'A wife!' 'A wife!' exclaimed the host--whose name is as
the name of the upper part of the garment in which the humble
daughters of St. Mirren delight to conceal their beauties--'I
will sell you mine for twenty pounds Scots.' Some higgling took
place, in the course of which the virtues of the wife shone out
with such conspicuous lustre that her price was raised to twenty
pounds sterling. This sum the purchaser agreed to pay, a contract
was drawn out, and signed by three witnesses, the conditions of
sale being that the money was to be tabled, and the transfer
completed by next day, at noon.

"Next day came, and found the seller, the purchaser, and their
witnesses once more assembled, discussing at once the terms of
agreement and a can of grog. Some of the witnesses seemed to
think that the joke was carried far enough, and proposed that the
whole proceedings should be nullified on the host forfeiting £1,
to be 'melted,' in the house; but the host was too well up to
trap to be wheedled out of his £20, and saddled with his wife to
boot; he therefore persisted in the fulfilment of the contract,
and, as the purchaser was equally averse to a rue bargain,
arrangements were put in operation to complete the transaction.

"Meanwhile, the wife, whose good qualities may be judged of by
the great rise which took place in her price, while the terms
were under discussion, got a hint of the negotiations that were
pending, and, being a good deal nettled that her opinion should
not have been asked in an affair in which she was so nearly
concerned, sallied out to a neighbouring court, known by the name
of 'Little _Ire_land,' and sounded the tocsin of alarm. A much
smaller matter than the sale of a wife was enough to agitate
'Little _Ire_land.' With _ire_ akin to that which animated the
bosom of 'Cutty Sark' and her compeers, as they sallied out of
Alloway Kirk to avenge themselves on Tam o'Shanter and his mare
Meg, sallied out the daughters of Little Ireland to avenge the
insult thus offered to one of the best half of creation. Every
damsel who could wag a tongue--mercy on us, how numerous a
class!--every one who could wield a poker, fender, or pair of
tongs, flew to arms, and resolved on a simultaneous attack; while
the high contracting parties, and their assistant negotiators
were within, discussing terms, wholly ignorant of the storm that
was brewing around them. How the victory would have gone it is no
way difficult to predict; but before active hostilities
commenced, the police arrived, and conveyed the negotiators to
the office, where they were detained until the vast crowds which
had collected had dispersed, and until security had been given
that appearance would be made next day. There the whole party
were brought before the magistrates, and looked exceedingly
foolish on the occasion. No such an affair as the sale of a wife
seems ever to have been heard of in these northern latitudes,
and, as the fiscal knew from the parricide case of old, that to
prescribe a punishment for a crime was a powerful means to get
the crime introduced, he resolved not to be privy to such a
doing, and, therefore, restricted his charge to a breach of the
peace. The magistrate did not find that a breach of the peace
could be brought home to the parties; and, after animadverting in
severe terms on the disgraceful nature of such proceedings, and
addressing the salesman and purchaser in terms which, we dare
say, they will not soon forget, he dismissed them from the bar.
The purchaser, who is verging on three score years and ten,
seemed to have come into court predetermined to appeal, and
declared that a bargain was a bargain; but, with the whisky still
buzzing in his head, he appealed at a wrong time, and tabled his
shilling before the sentence of dismissal was pronounced."

The lady got the best of it on another occasion, according to the _Halifax Express_, quoted in the _Times_ of April 4, 1836--

"On Wednesday, May Day Green, Barnsley, was the scene of an
extraordinary encounter. A woman beat her husband on the face
till the blood flew about; he, in turn, sent the bellman round to
proclaim the sale of his wife by auction; but, when he appeared
with a halter to sell her, the Amazon rushed upon him again with
her fists, and put him to total rout."

As a last example,[24] I will give another, which occurred in London, and which is thus reported in the _Times_ of August 2, 1836--

[Footnote 24: The reader can find others in the _Times_ of March 18, 1833; February 1, and November 2, 1836; and February 9, 1837.]

"SALE OF A WIFE.

"Yesterday morning, between ten and eleven o'clock, one of those
disgraceful scenes, the sale of a wife, took place at the New
Islington Cattle Market. It appears that at about nine o'clock a
man about forty-two years of age, of shabby genteel exterior, led
a well-looking young woman, about thirty years of age, with a
halter round her waist, to Smithfield Market; and, having tied
her up, was about to offer her to the highest bidder; but,
several persons interfering, it was agreed to go forthwith to
Islington Market to accomplish their object; and, in order to
expedite the matter, they jumped into a hackney coach, and were
driven off at full speed, to the spot where the marriage knot was
to be dissolved. They were followed from Smithfield by a young
man of plausible appearance, who on seeing the wife tied up at
Islington Market for sale, bid 5_s._ for her, but he was outbid
by several persons, but, subsequently, became purchaser of the
lot for 26_s._, and conveyed her home in a coach to his lodgings.
The other man walked home, whistling merrily, declaring he had
got rid of a troublesome, noisy woman, and that it was the
happiest day of his life. Surely the police ought to have
interfered to prevent such a disgusting outrage upon Society."

Well! the lower classes of the time were simply animal brutes, with very little of Arnold's "sweetness and light" in their composition. Uneducated, ignorant, very seldom moving from one spot, badly housed, and nobody's care, it would have been a wonder had it been otherwise. The middle-class were steady-going, stay-at-home people, with not too much brains, and even of them making but little use--and they were only emerging from the barbarism which required the solution of any disagreement among men to be settled by physical force, either by fists or the duel. It is astonishing to see how these contests fell off in this reign, as public opinion declared itself against the practice of duelling.

People of old quarrelled and killed each other about such very trifles. Colonel Montgomery was shot in a duel about a dog, Captain Ramsay in one about a servant, Mr. Featherston in one about a recruit, Sterne's father in one about a goose, and some one else about an "acre of anchovies" instead of "artichokes." One officer was challenged for merely asking his opponent to have another glass, and another was compelled to fight about a pinch of snuff, while General Barry was challenged by a Captain Smith for declining a glass of wine with him at dinner in a steamboat, although the general had pleaded in excuse that wine invariably made him sick at sea.

But when William the Fourth was King, public opinion was set against the practice, and this was so felt, that quarrelsome persons betook themselves abroad to settle their differences. This was the case in a famous duel in 1834, between Captain Helsham and Lieutenant Crowther, at Boulogne, in which the latter was killed. Captain Helsham stood his trial for murder at the Old Bailey on October 8th, and was _acquitted_. In September of the same year Lord Bingham and Major Fitzgerald met at Brussels, but they did not fight. O'Connell's tongue got him into many scrapes. In 1815 he shot D'Esterre in a duel. In October, 1834, he was challenged by Sir Henry Hardinge for having applied most offensive and outrageous terms of personal insult to him; but the Irishman refused to fight, which was a wonder, as they were generally too eager for the fray. Witness a hostile meeting which took place near Ashbourne, about ten miles from Dublin, on December 23, 1834, between Messrs. Pope and L'Estrange, in which "the misunderstanding arose from expressions used in the theatre regarding a lady whom Mr. Pope had attended thither." One newspaper, the _Times_ of October 2, 1832, records three duels.

The O'Connells were particularly fond of duelling. On December 13, 1832, William John O'Connell, nephew of the "Liberator," fought a Mr. Richard Kearney in the deer park at Greenwich. All the parties concerned had dined together at the Piazza Hotel, Regent Street, and afterwards adjourned to some place of amusement, where a row ensued, and the outcome was a meeting at Chalk Farm the same evening, but as the evening was too dark, it was adjourned till the next morning, and came off in Greenwich Park. O'Connell shot his man in the leg, and was afterwards apprehended by the police, and bound over to keep the peace for six months. On May 11, 1834, a duel was fought at Exeter, between Dr. Hennis, a young physician, and Sir John Jeffcott, recently appointed Chief Justice and Judge of the Vice Admiralty Court, Sierra Leone. Dr. Hennis did not fire, but was mortally wounded by the judge, who at once got on board a ship and set sail for Africa, thus eluding the police. The seconds were arrested, as accessories, but at their trial were acquitted.

In 1834, Sir Robert Peel challenged both Dr. Lushington and Joseph Hume, but the causes of quarrel were courteously explained, and no meetings took place. On May 5, 1835, a duel was fought, in a field on the Finchley Road, between Lord Alvanley and Morgan O'Connell, son of the "Liberator." The ground was measured at twelve paces, and it was agreed that Colonel Damer should give the word, which was to be "Ready!--Fire!" The parties were placed, and the pistols were delivered, Colonel Damer gave the words, and O'Connell fired; but not so Lord Alvanley, who said he thought the words were only preparatory, and claimed his right to fire. This was disallowed, and another round was fired without effect. Mr. O'Connell not being satisfied, yet another was arranged, after which, Lord Alvanley's second declared he would walk his man off the ground; this also was fired, without effect, and the duel terminated.

I have now to chronicle a passage of arms which, luckily, was bloodless, between two celebrities--Daniel O'Connell and Benjamin D'Israeli. At a meeting of the Franchise Association, held on May 2, 1835, at the Corn Exchange, Dublin, O'Connell stated that he had something to mention, personal to himself. Of all the abusive attacks that had ever been made on him, that recently volunteered by a Mr. D'Israeli, the unsuccessful Tory candidate at Taunton, was the most reckless, unprovoked, and unwarrantable. All that he knew of this Mr. D'Israeli was, that he had sent to him (Mr. O'Connell) in 1831, to write a letter in his favour to the electors of Wickham, for which he was a candidate in the Radical interest. On that occasion he was unsuccessful, as well as in a subsequent attempt as a Radical in Marylebone. Since then he had made some attempts to get into Parliament as a Tory, and certainly no one was so fit for the Tory faction as a man who had been twice rejected by the Radicals.

He had called him (Mr. O'Connell) a traitor and an incendiary; and, having thus grossly and maliciously assailed him, he should not be restrained by any notion of false delicacy in describing Mr. D'Israeli in the terms his conduct merited. Here the honourable and learned gentleman uttered a terrible philippic against Mr. D'Israeli, of which the following passage is a specimen. In describing Mr. D'Israeli as a descendant of a Jew (without meaning to cast any imputation either on the name, or the nation, which he respected) Mr. O'Connell said that he verily believed that, although the people of Israel were the chosen of God, yet there were miscreants amongst them also, and Mr. D'Israeli was one of those, for he possessed the quality of the impenitent thief who died upon the cross, and he (Mr. O'Connell) was convinced that that thief's name was D'Israeli. For aught he knew, this D'Israeli might be his heir-at-law, and now he forgave the descendant of the blasphemous thief who died impenitent upon the cross.

It is not possible to suppose that Mr. D'Israeli could pass this calmly by; and he did not, but wrote to O'Connell's son as follows:--

"31A, Park Street, Grosvenor Square,
"Tuesday, May 5.

"Sir,

"As you have established yourself as the champion of your father,
I have the honour to request your notice to a very scurrilous
attack which your father has made upon my conduct and character.

"Had Mr. O'Connell, according to the practice observed among
gentlemen, appealed to me respecting the accuracy of the
reported expressions, before he indulged in offensive comments
upon them, he would, if he can be influenced by a sense of
justice, have felt that such comments were unnecessary. He has
not thought fit to do so, and he leaves me no alternative but to
request that you, his son, will resume your vicarious duties of
yielding satisfaction for the insults which your father has too
long lavished with impunity upon his political opponents.

"I have the honour to be, Sir, your obedient servant,
"D'ISRAELI.

"Morgan O'Connell, Esq., M.P."

To this the younger O'Connell replied--

"9, Clarges Street, Tuesday, May 5.

"Sir,

"I have this day received a letter from you, stating that a
scurrilous attack has been made upon you by my father, without
giving me any information as to the expressions complained of, or
when or where they were used, and which I now hear of for the
first time.

"I deny your right to call upon me in the present instance, and I
am not answerable for what my father may say. I called on Lord
Alvanley for satisfaction, because I conceived he had purposely
insulted my father, by calling a meeting at Brookes's for the
purpose of expelling him from the club, he being at the time
absent in Ireland.

"When I deny your right to call upon me in the present instance,
I also beg leave, most unequivocably, to deny your right to
address an insulting letter to me, who am almost personally
unknown to you, and unconscious of ever having given you the
slightest offence. I must, therefore, request that you will
withdraw the letter, as, without that, it will be impossible for
me to enter into an explanation.

"I have the honour, etc.,
"M. O'CONNELL.

"B. D'Israeli, Esq."

To this Mr. D'Israeli replied that he could not withdraw the letter, but assured his correspondent that he did not intend that it should convey any personal insult. On the same day he wrote old Dan a long and scathing letter, which wound up thus--

"I expect to be a representative of the people before the Repeal
of the Union. We shall meet at Philippi, and rest assured that,
confident in a good cause, and in some energies which have been
not altogether improved, I will seize the first opportunity of
inflicting upon you a castigation which will make you at the same
time remember and repent the insults that you have lavished upon

"BENJAMIN D'ISRAELI."

There was more letter writing, but it never came to a fight.

Willis says that he met Moore at Lady Blessington's, and, in the course of conversation, speaking of the "Liberator," he said--

"O'Connell would be irresistible were it not for the blots on his
character--the contribution in Ireland for his support, and his
refusal to give satisfaction to the man he is still coward enough
to attack. They may say what they will of duelling; it is the
great preserver of the decencies of society. The old school,
which made a man responsible for his words, was the better. Then,
in O'Connell's case, he had not made his vow against duelling
when Peel challenged him. He accepted the challenge, and Peel
went to Dover, on his way to France, where they were to meet;
O'Connell pleaded his wife's illness, and delayed till the law
interfered. Some other Irish patriot, about the same time,
refused a challenge on account of the illness of his daughter,
and a Dublin wit made a good epigram on the two--

"'Some men, with a horror of slaughter,
Improve on the Scripture command;
And honour their wife and their daughter,
That their days may be long in the land.'"

In November, 1835, Mr. Roebuck, M.P. (commonly known as "Tear-'em"), and Mr. Black, the editor of the _Morning Chronicle_, fought a duel at Christchurch, Hants. At the first round Mr. Roebuck fired in the air, but at the second, both principals fired simultaneously, but no mischief was done. I wind up this account of duels of the reign, in which, however, I have not given a tithe part of those that occurred, with the last one in my notes, taken from the _Times_, June 15, 1837.

"DISTRESSING DUEL.

"Yesterday morning, between three and four o'clock, a meeting
took place in a field near St. John's Wood between the Hon. Henry
D---- and Mr. Robert ----. The parties are nearly related to each
other, and the misunderstanding arose in consequence of an
elopement of a distressing nature. The parties had taken their
stations and were upon the point of firing, when a cabriolet
dashed up the adjacent lane at a tremendous speed, and a lady, in
a wild and hurried manner, rushed up the field towards the party,
but ere she could succeed in reaching them the word 'Fire!' was
given, and one of the combatants, Mr. Henry D----, fell. The
lady, who proved to be the Hon. Mrs. D----, perceiving this,
uttered the most heartrending shrieks, and, rushing to the spot,
accused herself of being the murderer of her husband. The
gentlemen present had the greatest difficulty in forcing her from
the spot. A surgeon in attendance at first pronounced the hon.
gentleman's wound to be fatal; but, subsequently, a consultation
of medical men having been held at the hon. gentleman's
residence, some slight hopes are entertained of his recovery. It
is said that the unfortunate cause of the catastrophe has been in
a state of delirium since the event, and has twice made an
attempt to lay violent hands on herself."