LADIES BY PURCHASE.

New Zealander, Volume XVIII, Issue 1725, 20 September 1862, Page 6

LADIES BY PURCHASE.

A transaction of a very questionable nature is announced as likely to take place on the outskirts of the fashionable world. The public will he astonished to learn that a lady of " high title'' is leady, for the modest sum of £5,000, io play the part of Tarpeia, and to deliver over the gates of the Capitol to any of the fair barbarians who are clamouring round them for admission. Everybody knows that it is possible occasionally for outsiders to drift into the innei circles of Atshion under the wing o f some interested chaperon who has a motive for doing a kindness. Extensive political interest, a rent-roll, a powerful patroness, and sometimes conspicious personal merit, are all of use to those who are fortunate enough to possess them, and serve in turn as a magic tl talisman to open the doors of Paradise. Introductions, no doubt, are often bestowed on these who have no especial claim to be introduced ; and very little in this world is given away for nothing. But it is the first time that an introduction to " exclusive society" hj is been put up as a marketable article, to be knocked down to any one, good, bad, or indifferent, who will bid £5,000 for it. The Countess of Beam was pursuaded to present the Dubarry at Couit, in reuiru fur tne promise of a successful termination of her provincial law suit. Human nature has its weaknesses, and feminine integrity is not always ploof against the tremendous influence of self-interest. But the Countess of Bern did not put an advertisement in the papers, to say that she would initate anybody into mysteries of fashionable life who would give her her own price. This, however, is what " a lady of high title and first position I ' proposes, in the papers of the week, to do. She ''will receive at her husband's Westend mansion, a lady wishing to be properly presented, or aspiring to advantages, derivable from an introduction to exclusive society. Confidence must be kept, name and all circumstances stated, and no ambiguous inquiries wili succeed. XJ.OOO is requisite.—K. li. t 2, Spring-gardens, Whitehall." The history of a London season is a history, among other things, of struggles triumphs, and disappointments. The inmost circle, contains, or is supposed by those outside it to contain, all that life can give of social attractions, honours, and delights. Round about arc numberless larger rings the coulisses of fashion— occupit d by aspirants who view the position of those outside them with disdain, their own position with dissatisfaction, and that of the more fortunate with admiration and envy. Half the ballrooms in London at this time of the year are filled with people whose pleasure for the night is spoilt by the reflection that they are not able to be somewhere else. It would save a great dol of trouble and ol expense if the plan pursued by the lady of high title were to be universally adopted. The acquaintance of a duke or a duchess, from asocial point of view, appears to be worth something ; and as their number is not capable of being indefinitely increased, the value of the acquaintance on the principles of Adam Smith himself—is capable of being referred to a pecuniary standard. If the world were universally conducted on such plain commercial relations, everybody would know what attitude to assume The lady of title receives fees for introductions io her friends. The next step will be for ladies of title tc receive fees for introductions to themselves. Money may soon be taken at the doors, and reserved tickets in the middle of the room kept for those who choose to pay an additional price. A lull price season ticket will enable the holder to address herself freely to any one she chooses : while the less fortunate are to be restricted to the conversation of Scotch law lord*, Irish peeresses, and K. C. B.'s Different articles of social furniture would have a run upon them at different times. Titles of more than 150 years' standing will have to be paid in advance, Peeresses above the rank of marchioness to be paid for extra. Foreign stock never could be looked upon with favour, and bishops will, in all probability, always continue to be a little flat. But eldest sons will go toa high figure directly ; and a great deal might be done in the cily with a skilful investment in old county families. If matters were put at once upon this wholesome and intelligible footing, and soccty were reduced to a grand system of promotion by purchase, there would be nothing to complain of in the procedings of the '"lady of title" who is ready io sell the society of her friends for £5,000. In the days of Hudson and of the railway mania such things were done on a large scale, and every day they are done upon a small one, but they Lave seldom been dene with such open and barefaced effrontery. In all probability the advertisement is perfectly genuine. It is not less of a swindle for all that. In the first place it is a gross imposition on the members of the " exclusive" society in which the lady of title moves. If the £5,000 belongs toanybody.it belongs in all conscience and equity to the whole body, and not to her, and she ought to be compelled to disgorge it when she has got it. Any attempt to extort money for showing her friends to the public is in reality converting ihem into asocial Zoological Garden without their knowledge and against their will. In the second place, the advertisement is a fraud upon the credulous simplicity to which it is addressed. There are not half-a-dozen ladies in London who have the power of palming off an unknown and obscure acquaintance on the world. A great deal may, no doubt, be done by assiduous puffing and champeroning but there is a limit even to this, Continually it happens that an attempt of the kind is made. It is seldom or never a complete success. Lady Dash may stand at the head of her protegee's stair case and receive the guests whom she herself has invited. She may procure transferable invitations to the parties and balls of the "exclusive society" to which she herself belongs. But it will always hi beyond the power of any single individual to confer the stamp of fashion upon an acquaintance as if it were a patent. Fashionable sociely has its follies and its vices , but it is probably not 80 foolish as to elect into its inner circle those of whom it knows absolutely nothing, When it is (laceived it ' ahoosifctq be derjojyed vyjthjl* oyes opfm. (t tol^riitss.

the rich, it endures the vulgar, and caresses occasionally the disreputable: but it does so for its own distinct purposes; and not because it is deluded by the credentials they present.— London Review,