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July 14, I860.] The¦ ¦ Saturday Analyst ...
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••¦NOBLKSSK .OHL.H-1E." I ORD WILLTAM fl...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Pride And Christianity. " R T^He Desire ...
have the appearance of doing " , for of course we are not writing to those who sniff at , and pooh-pooh , al ] approximation of the rich Christian to the poor one as absurd and out of the question . There are some , indeed , who are willing to treat the poor Christian as " Dr . Armstrong loved to treat the poor countryman , and to give him at least a transient feeling- of equality— " Sometimes at . eve , for I delight to taste The native zest ai \ d flavour of the fmit , Where sense grows wild , and takes of no nianuiv , The decent , honest , cheerful husbandman Should drown his labours in my friendly bowl , And at my table find himself at home . "
Christianity might , perhaps , even thus far proceed , with no more sacrifice of cool judgment than mere good nature and genial humour are sometimes inclined to make . Men of no contemptible station and judgment have sometimes tried the experiment , and do not seem to have found it a failure . The great Sir Matthew Hale , as his biographers inform us , usually invited his poor neighbours to dine with himj and made them sit "at table with himself , and if any of them were sick , so that they could not come , he would send meat warm to them from his own table . Dr . Arnold , too , seems to have been a true Christian in this respect . " With the poor
generally , " says Stanley , " though his acquaintance was much more limited than it had been in the village of Laleham , yet with some few , chiefly aged persons in the almshouse of the place , he made a point of keeping up frequent and familiar intercourse ' . . . talking to them with the manner of a friend and an equal . Feeling keenly what seemed to him at once the wrong and the mischief done by the too wide separation between the higher and lower orders * he wished , to visit them as neighbours ! , without always seeming bent on relieving or instructing them . " We quote this to show that the conduct of the poor-does not necessarily make this kind of bearing towards them impracticable . ; No doubt such men felt that a communion of religious sentiment and feel ingy being one of the
strongest ties , ought naturally to lead to sympathy , and that this synipathy _ cduld ^ carcejy bevfelt to exist without a certain degree of intimacy between the rich and poor of the same faith , hopes , an _ d feelings ; However , ; few religious people are religious enough to encounter the risk of " liberties ''— -that is the term—disposed though they may be to show the greatest kindness in the form of condescension . We believe there is a manner that may temper somewhat this condescension vyith cordiality , and with a kindness which would never tempt a good poor man to any freedom that could be construed into impertinence . These remarks do not refer so much to the poor indiscriminately , as to those who have a claim to be considered fellow-Christians , as well as fellow-creatures .
There would be less danger to dignity now than at the period when the humbler classes were more indifferently educated—at least , on the whole , we think so , though some may here differ with us—however , there is , at all events , sufficient radical difference , in general manners and habits , between rich and poor , to indispose the latter , even on their own account , to a pushing and intrusive familiarity . On the side of the rich , the intercourse should only be attempted where there is a heart to carry it through graciously and cordially ; without this , though there might be an apparent sacrifice of the general spirit of pride , there would probably be great temptation to distinct and offensive acts of pride and repulsion—such , indeed , as might lead in the end to less sympathy than exists even at present between the religious rich and the religious poor .
People and preachers too generally fix their attention so much on sensual , and so little on intellectual sins ; so much on the mere flavour of Eve's apple , and so little on her ambitious aspirations ; and this vice puts on such an extremely respectable suit of clothes , and walks arm-in-arm with so many apparent virtues , deceiving—often in their own case . —even the very elect , that perhaps our readers will excuse a sermon from the press which they are not particularly likely to hear from the pulpit .
The theme is a wide one , there being almost as many forms of the manifestation of pride as there are varieties of human action ; we , have taken one in which pride ! , though m ^ tise'd , ~ is 1 ea 8 F " c ^ nsi 8 TentrnM '" mo ^ t ~ 6 ~ utof ' place .
July 14, I860.] The¦ ¦ Saturday Analyst ...
July 14 , I 860 . ] The ¦ ¦ Saturday Analyst mid ' Leader . ( j 53
••¦Noblkssk .Ohl.H-1e." I Ord Willtam Fl...
••¦ NOBLKSSK . OHL . H-1 E . " I ORD WILLTAM flOliOLPHIN OS ' BOKNE lias given a J view version to nn old miying . We confess that , till the prosent time , we possessed no vorv clear or definiteconception unto tlio exact obligations of ivobilitv , but now . thanks to the Cambridge Insolvent Court and " Woolly Laxton , " wo know to what " noblesse " obliges . . TuHt as S . C » . <) . exposes benevolence , so his kinsman , W . G . () ,, exposes aristocracy . Hoth are usefiil in their generation .
jewellery purchased and never paid for , and disposed of . somehow to raise money , and watches pawned ; and monies borrowed from ustleis -T n ^^ tag ^ lrei ^ TersT ^^ Then , too , there is a mysterious connection between the young nobleman and a certain London tailoring 1 firm , also apparently of . Jewi > -li parentage , who , strange to say , do not oppose at t |> c t * x : titiui : iti <> ii . This confiding linn used to honour Lord William ' s orders lor clothes for himself and friends . The clothes thus .. obtained wore apparently sold to " Laxtox , " a stranger still , the orders were handed to Cojik . n , who gave the nobleman ten shillings , or even a sovereign at a time , for the trouble . Yet . somehow , the firm' in London seem to have found their account in the transactions . Recollecting what we do of Cambridge in our time , the idea crosses us whether a firm oi Jew tailors may not have employed"thft son of an English duke , as their commission tonter . When a peer is in difficulties , " noblesse " does indeed " oblige . " "
Indeed , this last exposure confirms us in a conclusion we had come lo long ago . A poor nobleman is an anomaly . A nobleman lias no more business to be poor than a livery servant has to be out at elbows , or a beadle without a staff . We sympathise with the butler who hated poor men , but as to poor noblemen , faugh I the very name stinks in our nostrils . If the hereditary aristocracy of Great Britain is to endure , some institution like . the * ' Happy Despatch " must be introduced . When a lord ' s income sinks Wneath ;« minimum of say lour figures , there should be nn end to him . A " niau of three letters " was the Latin expression tor n thief , : i *• nobleman of" three ligures" stands for what we are too polite to add . We can pardon a wicked peer , " Inimanmn est errare . " We can tolerate a foolish peer , we are so accustomed to the class , but a pour peer is nothing but the elongation of a pauper .
If any one doubts tne justice of our theory , let liini con the story of Lord William Osboene . This unfortunate young man was educated at Maryborough School . What business , we would ask , by the way , has the son of an English Duke at a school intended for the cheap education of the sons of poor clergymen I At the age of' sixteen he came to reside with his father , in the neighbourhood of Cambridge , and there , with the short interval of a college life , and various enforced visits to those various continental wateringplaces where an English writ runneth not , the career of the lad was spent , till at last , at the ripe age of twenty-five , it has culminated in the Cambridge Debtors' Gaol . His allowance till he-came of age amounted to £ 12 a year . His cigar bill alone , which , however , he did not pay , to £ 10 . When he arrived at years of discretion , this munificent allowance was increased to the enormous sum of £ 100 . together with the run of his ( Jrace the Duke ' s mansion .
Mr . Thackebay has described how a man lived on nothing ; iyear . Lord William , has solved , the far more / difficult problem of how a nobleman may live on £ 100 ; i-ye : u \ Fronv the first'day he started in life he was , of course ^ head over ears hi deb t . Like all embarrassed men , he had a Jfuh ' -i Axrhutea in the person ; of ; i Mr . ¦ Hisadlky , whose sister he ultimately married , IjomI William stated to the -. Judge that his only prospect (>{' paying his debts was that which every son of a Duke has , and Mr . If ea ply ' s only prospect seems toliave been that which every 'brother-iu-law of a lord has . With these problematic assets , the firm of . ¦ " Gsbounk and Heaply " managed to struggle ori for nine long years . ' 'There was a party called *• ' Cohen . " sni old clothesman of Jewish
extraction , who knew a , party by the name of " Laxton , " or ' " Woolly Laxton ., " as his intimates termed him , a dog-fancier , and these- parties had between them an '' "Unknown friend , " who acted as banker to the-firm , It is ~ the old story , which has been told a hundred times . There was a bill of £ 20 signed by the lord arid his brbther-iii-law , for which theyT each received in cash the sum of 50 s .. andtlien there was a . renewed bill for £ 25 to cover expenses , and so on , \ vit-li writs , and protests , and loans , and advances on account , and blank acceptances , and exchanged cheques , and pve- < lated receipts , and the whole devil ' s machinery , till at last the usual result came , and the insolvent was utterly unable to tell what'he-had received , or what he had repaid , beyond the broad general fact that he had got very little , and paid a great deal , and owed a great deal more still ; Then - ' there was
For all this sin and shame , and wretchedness , what is it that the unhappy Lord has to show ? ' The only feats of daring , or claims In distinction , recorded of him in his trials tire , that he used to give sumptuous breakfasts at which ' Woolly Laxton " was n frequent guest ; that he was seen drunk in Norfolk-street , Cambridge , with two ladies , about whose character , considering our recollection of 1 lie locality , there can be little doubt , mid that he once drove u four inhand to Newmarket . IIi » final crash has not even the grandeur ul a great ruin . The total of his debts is only n little over £ l , 0 l ) u . His whole recei p ts for the nine years are ainother . C 1 , 000 and his largest creditor is only a MM ) pound man . Why such an insolvent is a disgrace to the Court ! A greengrocer or a . shoemaker would
bo ashamed to fail with such at . schedule . If you get nothing inoiv llnui this , by nine years' paltry roguery , you had better he an honest mu n . We know that in these matters it is hard tojud ^ e , Somewhere or other there must Imve been grievous ^ i'yscaijjty . JM'XPl ^ V . atc » l , mim ! V \ o own tlfai"lH ^ n'Ti " TiMi " rirpt'riumi «) f tlie evidence . wt » suspect Loril William ' * wan more sinned against thtui sinning . It is j ( U vt'iy well and proper for the learned judge to toll the insolvent " that he should have devoted . himself to some honourable pur-suit , and lived within Iuh means—a course oi ' conduct not derogatory even to tin * swi of u Duke ;" ' but how , in the name of eonn \ ion sense , can n Lord live on . » hundred a-vear ? " There is one thingii 1 anv rate that vnohleNse ought to oblige , and that is to wash one ' s ' dirty linen at home : and out of regard for his order , if not for respect to his ninnc . the Duke of Li : kdh should hiive hindered the . exposure of Lord William Oshch . m :.
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 14, 1860, page 5, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_14071860/page/5/
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