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Untitled Article
those of the two extremes , — the " outrageously virtuous , " who gladly thought the worst of it , and the most liberal speculators upon the ordinations of Providence ; who ( though coming to a conclusion for the
best ) are struck with wonder to see one system of morals proclaimed from the high places , and another acted upon , and associated with flourishing perpetuities . Charles the Second , whose restoration is still thanked
for in the churches , and who was the most avowed libertine that ever sat on the British throne , has left hundreds of descendants ( thousands rather ) from his various mistresses , the
chiefs of which are still flourishing in the highest rank , and carrying forward the united dignities of a zeal for church and state and an unlawful origin . The spectacle , it must be allowed , is puzzling . But
seen with an eye of charity ( the only final reconciler ) , there is " a preferment in it , " better than what it is supposed to include , but which it will be
easier to investigate two hundred years hence , when loyalty and piety shall have ceased to have stumbling-blocks in their way , to which they at once bow down to and are bound to be
shocked at . In speaking as we do however of the Duke ' s marriage , we do not at all assume that Harriett Mellon and Nell Gwynn had led the same kind of life . This , we are aware , is the general assumption , or something like it ; but the
Untitled Article
Duchess was introduced at the late court , where , in spite of certain retrospective appearances to the contrary , the demands on conventional propriety were undertood to be in no lax keeping in the hands of
the present Queen Dowager : —and Mr Coutts was very old when he died—upwards of ninety , we believe—and had not been married many years . Who is to say that his residence with the lady , under any circumstances , was not of as innocent a nature as the
marriage ? Who knows anything to the contrarv ? and who , in default of knowing it , has a right to assert it ? A case was probably made out for the introduction at court , which we
are bound , on the lady ' s word , to take for granted . We daily take hundreds of more unlikely things for granted on the like principle , especially in high life . Half the court and west
end of the town would be a mere chaos and tempest from morn to night , if words , and even deeds , had not the handsomest constructions put upon them . Besides , marriages have taken place between ladies and their elders in numerous
wellauthenticated instances , where the gentleman sought nothing but a nurse , or a pleasant talker , and was desirous of gifting her with his wealth to shew his gratitude ;—and a very reasonable gratitude too , considering how precious the moments of life are , —provided ho just expectations suffered for it , on the part of others , It has
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156 Duchess of St Albans ; and
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 1, 1837, page 156, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1835/page/12/
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