With regard to the connection between Mademoiselle de Luzy and the duke, I add these few words. Either it was criminal,— or it was not. In either case she might have gained ascendancy over his mind, for she is, (there can be no doubt of it,) a remarkably clever woman, and no man can live in habits of daily intercourse with such a woman without being influenced by her. There seem to me to be several reasons in favour of supposing that Mademoiselle de Luzy exercised over the duke no influence but that of a highly esteemed and thoroughly trusted friend; one of the opposite sex, indeed, which circumstance often adds to the strength of the friendship, without making it at all criminal even in thought. In the first place the Duke de Praslin had, we are given to understand by his unhappy wife's letters, amours elsewhere, and it is not probable that he would select as his mistress, a person who was not beautiful nor very young, and who was inconveniently under his wife's observing eye. We all know that it is not uncommon for women who are engaged as governesses in families to become mistresses to the fathers of their so called pupils. But in these cases the mistress soon takes care to leave her arduous and wearysome situation, and to obtain an establishment of her own. In the case of Mademoiselle de Luzy, supposing she had a criminal liaison with the duke, she certainly must have lost her intellect at the time, or she would not have remained in the house with the duchess and the children; subject to the ill treatment of the former, and to constant contact with the latter; which must have been a continual source of annoyance and self-reproach to her, and a very probable means of one day recalling the duke to a sense of propriety and duty. The duchess herself has frequently declared in letters written in her calmer moments, that she does not believe there was any criminal liaison between her husband and Mademoiselle de Luzy. Finally, the best proof of her innocence seems to me to be in the internal evidence afforded by her replies on being examined. No woman, however talented, could have gone through such an examination immediately after the shock of that terrible tragedy, as Mademoiselle de Luzy did, and be guilty of the crimes imputed to her. She has been, I firmly believe, most cruelly injured; and I shall be obliged if you will insert this letter in your Magazine, as it may turn the attention of others toa careful consideration of her case, who may have more power to set the public right in this matter, than Yours, very truly, Old Brompton, Sept 20th, 1847. J. M. W. P. S.-On laying aside my pen just now I took up to-day's Times, and the first thing I read was an announcement of another examination of Mademoiselle de Luzy and the steady denial on her part of the charges brought against her. The public is also informed that she has received a letter from a young English lady who was formerly her pupil; and that the letter is full of expressions of affectionate sympathy for her in the painful circumstances into which she has been thrown. It is added that Mademoiselle de Luzy was much affected at sight of the well-known handwriting, and that she was employed half the night in replying to the letter. Does not this little incident tend in some degree to confirm the view of the case taken above? A heartless and depraved woman would not surely be so loved by one who had an opportunity of knowing her well. YE ARE WISER THAN YOUR DAY. BY MRS. ABDY. Ye men of soaring talent, who courageously explore Ye do not proudly seek to dwell in solitary might, Fain would ye guide our feeble steps to share your dizzy height, Your wild pursuit of knowledge, had ye lived in ages back, And even in these degenerate days, the light unfeeling jeer, In future times, your projects to perfection may be brought, Vouchsafe to laud the spirits who were wiser than their day! Why is it thus? why should we boast, with inconsistent pride, By turning from the spirits who are wiser than their day? Oh! may the doubts soon disappear, by baleful envy nursed, Come, ye THE UNFOUNDED SUSPICION. BY MRS. EDWARD THOMAS. CHAPTER I. "THERE was a merry fellow who supped with Pluto three thousand years ago, and the conversation turned on love, and the choice of wives. He said he had learned from a very early tradition, that man was created male and female, with a duplicate set of limbs, and performed his locomotive functions, with a kind of rotary movement as a wheel: that he became in consequence, so excessively insolent, that Jupiter, indignant, split him in two; since that time, that each runs through the world, in quest of the other half; if the two original halves meet, they are a very loving couple: otherwise they are subject to a miserable, scolding, peevish, and uncongenial matrimony. The search, he said, was rendered difficult, for the reason, that if one man alighted upon a half that did not belong to him, another did necessarily the same, till the whole affair was thrown into irretrievable confusion." I have been induced to quote this quaint and curious account of the theory of marriage, from a conversation lately held on the same really momentous subject, with a friend, whom I candidly consider a most unreasonably dissatisfied wife; having, in my opinion, found exactly the half suited to her in every respect. "I can but wonder," she exclaimed, in a pettish, angry tone, 'why girls, who do not absolutely want a home, should be so eager to get married; yet, it appears the whole and sole study of every foolish giddy thing, the instant she is emancipated from the thraldom of the school-room, to captivate some arbitrary lord of the creation; and resign to him her liberty. Alas! alas! how little is she aware of the greater, the more unendurable slavery she thus voluntarily embraces; the tyranny she is submitting to, - the coldness, neglect, indifference, and ennui, which await her through the tedium of a hateful and wearisome existence; for among all our mutual acquaintances, how few, even tolerably happy couples, do we know. "There is something, I am convinced, in the institution itself, which requires immediate reform and modification; it being now only an odious state of bondage, for our unfortunate and ill-used sex. "Do not so sweepingly condemn one of the holiest and best institutions ever founded, for the present and future felicity of God's ungrateful creatures," I replied with some degree of warmth. "Blame, rather the terrible abuses of its divine laws,-blame the motives which too frequently induce youth, beauty, and innocence, to sacrifice itself to age, profligacy, and disgust,-blame the avarice, the ambition, the vanity which produce the lamentable results you deplore. Blame, in short, the parents who remorselessly immolate their offspring at the shrine of pride and ostentation, exulting boastfully in the gorgeous chains which bind the victim to the desecrated altar,-gilded manacles, that gall deeper than iron,-rosewreathed garlands, whose blushing blossoms conceal the venomous serpent, the cankering rot! "These are the causes of the many miserable and uncongenial unions, of which we are but too sadly cognizant; but, where no such fatal disparity exists, where the age, fortune, and pursuits are equal, where the purest affections of the heart are alone consulted, I do aver, and defy the most chilling scepticism to contradict my assertion, that marriage then comes as near to perfectibility as is permitted for mortals' enjoyment on earth.” November, 1847.-VOL. L.-NO. CXCIX. "Granted. But, where will you find the disinterested pair ?" "In our young friends, the Hamiltons.". -- "Ah! I forgot them, they DID appear, certainly, to love each other." "Yes, fondly and fervently; every one admitting, that when George Hamilton and Margaret Wilmot, became man and wife, their marriage had indeed been made in heaven, so truly and perfectly were their ideas in accordance." What I here advanced in favour of undoubted and permanent happiness being found in the marriage of two purely attached hearts, was strictly and simply true; for never had I witnessed more complete felicity, than in the instance above cited. George, endowed with a warm and manly affection, tempered by firmness and good sense, held in check, without a shadow of severity, the little waywardness of Margaret's otherwise generous, tender disposition; who, conscious of his superiority of understanding, without a feeling of mortification or oppression, submitted to his mild corrections, or rather expostulations, with the obedience of a child, being the first to see and acknowledge her errors, and promise to amend them. Brought up from infancy together,—their fathers being partners in the same profession,-their mothers old and most sincere friends, the fondness of childhood ripened in maturity, into the more exquisite and enduring passion of love; so, that long before they were united, their tacit betrothment was acknowledged and sanctioned, by all who had their welfare seriously at heart. Margaret had, consequently, imbibed with the earliest rudiments of her education, a thorough conviction of the noble and amiable qualities, the unspotted integrity, undeviating rectitude of principle, and christian benevolence of her destined husband; hence, her love for him was intense, absorbing, almost reverential, the one cherished thought of her guileless bosom. She had no wish but what he could gratify, and every motive and action of her life had reference to his comfort and happiness. Day after day glided on in calm and unruffled serenity, not one adverse cloud appearing, to darken the bright horizon of domestic joy. Fortune, the handmaid of prosperity, seemed to scatter only blessings in their path. George had for some time succeeded his father-in-law, in the most extensive and fashionable medical practice of a large and populous neighbourhood, which was yearly increasing, so that he was enabled to indulge Margaret in all her innocent ambition; their house and grounds, therefore, soon became unequalled for neatness and beauty; Margaret's pretty green-house contained the rarest plants; her carriage, dress, and entertainments, were pronounced unique, evincing taste and elegance in the highest degree; for a marvel, none envying, but all approving, whatever |