LORD HALIFAX AND CATHERINE BARTON.
(Vol. viii., pp. 429. 543.)
One has some doubt, in reading Professor De Morgan's article on the above subject, what inference is to be drawn from it. If it is to prove a private marriage between Halifax and Mrs. Barton, on the strength of the date on the watch at the Royal Society being falsified, it is a failure. I have examined that watch since Professor De Morgan published his Note, and can testify most decidedly that, if anything, the inscription is older than the case, nor is there a vestige of anything like unfair alteration; and any one accustomed to engraving would arrive at the same conclusion. The outside case is beautifully chased in Louis Quatorze style: but the inner case, on which the inscription is graven, has no need of such elaborate work, nor is such work ever introduced on the inside of watches; they are invariably smooth.
And all that is noticeable in the present instance is, that the writing has lost the sharpness of the graver by use, or returning it into its case; or more probably the case has not been used at all, being cumbersome and set aside as a curious work of art, which indeed it is.
The date on the watch is 1708, and Professor De Morgan states that Mrs. Barton was married in 1718; the watch therefore denies this; but when she married Conduit ought, if possible, to be found out by register, which might prove the watch date untrue; but the watch declares she was Mrs. Conduit in 1708. She was then of course twenty-eight years of age: thus we come to a
plainer conclusion that when she lived with Halifax, or whatever other arrangement they made, a position which is said to have occurred between 1700 and the time of Halifax's death in 1715, she was really Mrs. Conduit, and not Catherine Barton. And thus we are brought to think that if there is any private marriage in the case, it is between the lady and Mr. Conduit; at all events she went back to her husband, if the watch is true.
As to an apology for Newton, I look upon it in a very different light: first, I should say he had no clear right to interfere in the matter, as the lady was married; and supposing he had, he could have done no more than expostulate. He lived in a world of his own studies, and did not choose to be interrupted by quarrels and scandals. And it is certainly a proper addition to say, that the public morals of that age are not to be judged by the present standard. All these account very well for Newton's silence on the subject; but to settle the matter, some search might be made in the registers of the parishes where they resided, in order that the subject may be fully explained.
Weld Taylor.