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158 The Leader and Sal^daq Anal yst. [Pe...
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. . THE ABUSE OF REWARDS. A DMIBAt. HOPE...
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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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A Serious Sovereign. Neae.Ly All Writers...
allowed to predominate . As for ourselves , we only profess here to < nyeone main colour ; in detail we really can scarcely get further tlian " that eccentric member of the Buonaparte family , " as he was palled before 7 ns successes , in the little School French History book . The naturalist does not draw his bird whilst still on the wing , and ho hiunan being can say from present appearances whether our bird will be finally drawn perched on the pillar of despotism or the tree of liberty , on the laurel of eonr quest or the olive of peace , or whether this ^ phoenix of the ashes of a revolution will expire in some blaze like that which gave him birth . : ¦'¦'¦ . '
Those who knew him even in earlier and less active days , seem only to have drawn him with those neutral tints which often conceal in the young the higher colours of maturity Whether we see him amiably rowing Mr . Jehdan in a wherry at Richmond , or listen to his friend' Madame Emile Gibardin whilst she describes him as rather an amiable mother-loving boy ; like most French boys , watering his favourite flowers with warm water , lest he should take cbld—his mother ' s care , not his own ; or , in later days , having really " no ambition further than that of being colonel of some French regiment , " not to add other glimpses of equally small significance , given by friends , casual or constantof former days . .
, _ But sincethenhas he not had good studies of " seriousness ?" a life as private , though scarcely as taintless as Gromweli / s ; imtcb of that solitary consideration which sent Mahomet and Ltjther forth at a mature age to the strife and thes mastery ; long studies ; , not by any means of engineering only , at the " university of Ham ; " his language to OitLOFFi a youth of troubles , lii : e-those which . encorapassed twoofthe greatest and most fayouiite Sings of France ; , Charles the Seventh and
Henry the Fourth , with the latter of whom he has certain points of comparison ; a similarity in one or two particulars to which we may hereafter refer ; still niore like bur own Henry the Seventh in his gravity , his tacitiuniity , his policy , to use the words , of BacoK , "by no nneans vulgar ; " or Charles EinMA ] StT . > L of Savoy , of whbmtlie historian Watson says that ¦ so various were hisstratagems ., thatthe most penetrating of his contemporaries professed themselves unable to form any probable conjecture concerning his designs . "
In his anger , too , how serious and quiet ! None of tlie undignified fretting , fuming , and quarrelling of the first Napoleon with his generals and his topis i The Emperor is said , indeed , to . have shown some temper towards the Austrian ambassador ; compare it with the following description of the bearing of his uncle , under similar circumstances j- — " Let me tell you , while I think of it , says ¦ VVilbekfokce , ¦ writing to i a friend , that the account you will see in the newspapers of Buonaparte ' s violent language and demeanour to Lord WnmyoK ^ H , at Madame Buonaparte ' s drawing-room , is perfectly true . He spoke lotwl enough to be heard by two htindred people , andjiis countenance was perfectly distorted tfith passion . " .
His nephew ' s seriousness seems to be of an assimilating character ; IDe MornA > s lose their violence beneath its influence ; find if Walewskis refuse'to be assimilated , ' they are calmly put on . ttie shelf till they find it convenient to submit to the process . Tery serious , too , is he , in his triuirlphs and successes . On that memorable ' daymen , thei yictprioiisi Arniy of Italy entered I ^ nris , the , . , faintest flush of emptipn on the cheek , just a soujifon of pleasure in the eye , w ; ere all we could detect on this the most glorious day of his life . ,
His speecnes , also , and ' . letters ore very serious ; there is very little ! rhetprio , " with none of the old rhodompntode bf the first , Ei ^ ire , witlV > yhi ; cl [ i highly-coTfouVed tyllet-dovx France u , sed once to be' delighted' ' awl ( fyceiv *}/ : ! , ' Xet Aiistrid , j ^ ussla , tlie Pope , and ^ jNtpiis . ^ ViijuJLLOTcpiif ^ ss , in chorus , that lfriuice has gpt a very . series sovereign j at any rate , in two senses out of three which that word sometimes bears—for the third two of the parties named will sparcely grant him . Of England , no matter what his motives , lie hos showji himself thus for , with equal seriousness , substantially the friend—if we except a few little ' mattersj sueli as the . Charles et Georges '
case in its commencement , and the ebullitions of the French colonels , lie knows well tftat atonm imist have a safety valve , no matter how strong the riiochiiieay , and thai the iron of Ins own firm will might have to yieild to the dangerotia vapour of French vanity , if compressed too rigidly ; and so he would rather allow it-to have ft ft'eo puff or two than 1 ) 0 blown up himself , and have lijs best nejiglibpiixs scaWed 5 a , t the same time , he judipionsly WkHa the btaportnnity whefrt it pflfei's itself , of condonsiing it by a sjight "douche of aprious cold water , which no one knows bettor how and when to odnnnistei j ; han himaelf . And so , anon , come the fn ; st solt , ^ ravo pipings of pence from Monsieur Chevauek ' s reed , of which it wna very easy to see
from the first who held the stops with the right hand , Whilst he was modulating Monsieur A ? out ' s with the left—a pipe since destined to give a short Huguonbt air by way bf an- interlude . May it be a prophetic one ! May he , though a professed Catholic , favour , like Henry Quartre , the weaker creed . ! May he resemble that ever dearest monarch of France also in liis permanent and faithful friendship to England , as he has exceeded Us , like Henry Quartre , in Ids aid rendered to an oppressed riationalityj desiring freedom , and deserving to be free ; for , to pur shame be it said , that the relief which England and Elizabeth rendered to the struggling Netherlands in those days was beggarly and temporising compared with the thorough and ' hearty friendliness of the French Henry . At all events ^ may hebe spared the fate of his . great predecessor , and experience only what Sheridan called facetiously " providential outrages , " which not only leave a monarch in life , but make him stronger than ever in power and ih favour ; and once more may he see that there is one point in which he may exeei the first and greatest of the BouEBONs , Who gave to his beloved France a rich legacy of gloiy , but left her without the one thing needful- —a good and free constitution;—arid may he do this , as he does everything , seripusly and . in earnest . People are fond of finding and making mysteries , and exceedingly fontl of talking mysteriously of the inscnxtableness and depth of the French Empei-or . , They are fond , in the words of the old dramatist Daniel , of . ¦ " joining to a present fact , More of time past than it has ever bad ] To dp withal ;" but no politician can call up events as a prestidigitator does cards , or make them to his mind . ZSTAPOLEOif ' s mystery lies a great deal in his gravity , in his utter freedom from French levity and chatter j in keeping his counsels when made quite as much as in making them ; in his unflinching steadiness of nerve—in our opinion His greatest attribxite— -a steadinessi which " Nor shrinks , not steps aside for , Death , . ¦ .. .. ¦'¦ Butwith unaltered pace keeps on , . ' . ' . : ¦ . Providing for eyerits to come . " He rarely makes the * events , but * like other great men , he knows how to mould the clay wet from the wheel ; he has the instinct to see which f ' seeds will grow and which will not , " and out of the mass of time to pick out the " moments pregnant with the future . "
158 The Leader And Sal^Daq Anal Yst. [Pe...
158 The Leader and Sal ^ daq Anal yst . [ Peb . 18 , I 860 ,
. . The Abuse Of Rewards. A Dmibat. Hope...
. . THE ABUSE OF REWARDS . A DMIBAt . HOPE is , we do not doubts a very brave officer ; j [ X bxit his friends in the House of Gommoas , including Sir C . Napier , who sets up for a reformer , must have comical notions as to the gj-ounds on which a Government is justified in granting conspicuous and honorary rewards , when they claimed a Victoria Cross for the defeat on the Peilio . A mere display of personal courage on tlie part of a commander , so far from being meritorious , is sometimes a proof ^ f incapacity , and demands punishment instead of reward . The Government have done right in promoting half-a-dozen officers , who did their best with the silly orders they received from their unthinking admiral ; their courage was meritorious , because it was calculated to make the best of their position , and not stained by the folly of a design over . whicli they had no control .
After the Crimean > yor our military > authorities disgraced themselves and the country by rewarding every conspicuous offender , who hod brought discredit upon our arms or caused the death of our troops ; but although we would not do Admiral JioFE tlie injustice of cipmparing him with those melancholy monuments of official corruption , it is clear that an equally vicious principle woiild have heen established if the Government hod been foolish enough to give way to the ill-judged clamour of Admirals Napier and Walcot ; and wo congratulate Lord Charles Paget upon his juclicipus decision , not to decorate " imprudent officers , who might be led to undertake expeditions at a great loss of life in the hope of receiving rewords . " Our whole of
system of rewards is greatly in wont of revision , and the value such distinctions as the Crimean medal- is rnucli reduced by theindiscriminate way in which they , ore bestowed . The , y do not , os they ought to do , mork out the men who actually fought in the wor—in some eases , we believe , lounging in llogent Street was equally efficacious with fighting in the field . The Victoria Cross has , on the whole , been better bestowed ; but wo know an instance in which a distinguished officer was recommended for the Region of Honour on account of , conspicuous bravery in the field , and then omitted from the Victoria Cross list because ho wos too independent to submit quietly to the insufforoblo ohiconory which characterises the Horao Guards' administration , and which the well-meaning Duke of Camiuudoh has not the inorol cpurage to brook through .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 18, 1860, page 10, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_18021860/page/10/
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