gni s. VL 150, Nov. 13. '58.] NOTES AND QUEKIES. 



385 



LONDON, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 13. 1858. 



BICHAKt) SAVAGE. 



(^Continued from p. 365.) 



What became of the child Eichard Smith, son 

 of Lady Macclesfield and Lord Rivers, who was 

 taken away from his nurse at Hampstead by Mrs. 

 Portlock, the baker's wife, in the summer of 1697 ? 

 If we are to believe Savage's story, the Countess 

 from that hour — nay, from the hour of his birth — 

 " discovered a resolution of disowning him," and 

 would never see her child again ; suffered a legacy 

 left to him by his godmother to be embezzled for 

 want of some one " to prosecute his claim;" told 

 the Earl Rivers, his father, on his death-l)ed that 

 his child was dead, with the express object of 

 depriving him of another legacy of 6000/.; en- 

 deavoured to have him kidnapped and trans- 

 ported; and, finally, interfered to the utmost of her 

 power, and by means of an " atrocious calumny," 

 to prevent his being saved from the hangman. 

 Such a story is in itself improbable enough, as 

 even Johnson admits : — 



" It is not indeed easj'," he says, " to discover what 

 motives could be found to overbalance that natural affec- 

 tion of a parent, or what interest could be promoted by 

 neglect or cruelty." 



And he adds that it was — 



" Xot likely that she would be wicked without tempta- 

 tion ; that she would look upon her son from his birth 

 with a kind of resentment and abhorrence; and instead 

 of supporting, assisting, and defending him, delight to see 

 him struggling with misery, or that she would take every 

 opportunity of aggravating hia misfortunes and obstruct- 

 ing his resources ; and with an implacable and restless 

 cruelty continue her persecution from the first hour of his 

 life to the last." 



It does not appear to have occurred to Johnson 

 that wickedness where there is no temptation, neg- 

 lect and cruelty which is unnatural, which serves no 

 interest, and lor which k is not easy to discover 

 motives, ought not to be accepted as truth with- 

 out good evidence. The statements of the wit- 

 nesses on the trial as to the Countess's behaviour to 

 her illegitimate children render such charges at all 

 events more improbable, and it should not be for- 

 gotten that the facts thus disclosed are in formal 

 and sworn depositions; whilst we have on the other 

 side nothing but the statements of Savage and 

 his friends. Neither on the part of the mother, 

 nor of Lord Rivers, the father, does there appear 

 throughout the whole period deposed to — nearly 

 three years — to have been the slightest disposition 

 to abandon the children, or to neglect the duties 

 of parents towards them. This is evident, in the 

 case of the first child, from the fact of its being 

 baptized with tlie Christian name of the mother, 

 and the surname of the father. It should be re- 

 membered that the Countess had the strongest 



possible motives for caution and secrecy : her 

 dread of discovery is everywhere visible in the 

 evidence. She spoke with her nurse in a mask; 

 and during her confinement is described as hav- 

 ing "kept her face covered as long she could," 

 and until " her mask fell off or was taken off." 

 In the hope of concealing her condition, she re- 

 moved from her sister's house but a few hours 

 before her confinement, and although supposed, 

 during her delivery, to be so near death that her 

 mercenary attendant begged her to leave her 

 the "sprigg'd Indian pettycoat which the lady 

 had," the Countess returned within six days to her 

 home, by which haste she suffered a long and dan- 

 gerous illness. Notwithstanding this secrecy, 

 however, and the danger of her being seen with 

 the child, her attention to it appears to have been 

 constant. Her anxiety about it, and her tenderness, 

 of which the depositions of the witnesses contain 

 such abundant proofs ; her instant determination 

 to remove it from Walthamstow on learning that 

 it was not well nursed ; her seeking Mrs. Phea- 

 sant after her own illness to thank her for her 

 kindness to it ; her imprudent visits to it at Chel- 

 sea ; her bribes to the nurse for extra care, and 

 injunctions concerning it; and, finally, her send- 

 ing privately after its death for a lock of its hair, 

 were among the strongest points in the husband's 

 case. 



On the birth of the second child, still greater 

 caution had become necessary. The Countess, 

 rendered desperate by the information that a 

 rumour of her first confinement had reached the 

 ears of Lord Macclesfield, had again fled from her 

 sister's house for some months, and now trusted to 

 nothing but her chances of temporary concealment 

 in Fox Court ; after which, the husband having 

 discovered the midwife, and being in active search 

 for the Countess, and urgently pressing her family 

 to reveal her hiding-place, she fled to the house of 

 a Mr. Montague in the city, where she remained 

 for some time concealed. During this period of 

 trouble and confusion, the second child is for a 

 time naturally lost sight of, and we have therefore 

 no evidence of the mother's feeling towards it. On 

 its birth, however, we are told by Sarah Redhead 

 that she had often "wislied the child to be a boy, 

 and was mightily pleased when she heard it was a 

 boy." The child, moreover, was baptized with 

 the Christian name of the father, whose friend.':, 

 the Ousleys, were also at the ceremony, as before, 

 and were godfather and godmother. Even in bap- 

 tizing the children, or at least in baptizing them 

 so early, and having a formal registry made in the 

 presence of new witnesses, the Countess was 

 greatly increasing the risk of detection, for what 

 she doubtless considered a duty. The clergymen 

 and their assistants in both cases were in fact wit- 

 nesses against her. How, then, are we to believe 

 that, when she at length found rest from her hus- 



