On this page
-
Text (3)
-
No. 417, March 20,1858.] ^1E AEAI)EK 283
-
OUDE AS A NATIVE KINGDOM. A Journey thro...
-
LITERARY HISTORY. Illustrations of the L...
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.
-
-
Transcript
-
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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Supposes Ardent Study Cf Original Docume...
^ oduced by the reason ; they are nourished by the passions . It was so easy to overthrow royalty in France that liberty , being acquired with comparative facility , became less dear than equality , which if earned apparently bva vote , was only maintained by that great war amidst which the whole of Europe by suffering and struggles , advanced to its present state of civilization It is a mistake to suppose that Europe took up arms m support of the monarchical principle ; it was far more influenced by the cries of the nobles than by the danger of the King . All along , the real struggle of the nation was against the aristocracy of birth ; and the throne perished almost by accident . We should , perhaps , rather say that the throne perished because the Revolution , exasperated by the resistance it encountered , lost its reason and went beyond its original intention . But this would seem to imply that Louis XVI ., the dishonest and feeble representative of monarchy , was a . possible king . He was not . The Girondins , then , were the true culminating point of the Revolution . They helped to destroy monarchy ; but they would have spared the man , not because there was anything estimable about himbut because they knew that the smell of his blood would rise to
, the brains of the Mountain , madden it , and make it give the signal of that Ion » series of useless massacres which have sometimes been excused because supposed to be perpetrated in the name of liberty , but which , in reality , could only tend to consolidate the frightful and degrading despotism oi Robespierre , or some such narrow-minded fanatic without bowels . As to the idea that the Terror was to prepare the nation for liberty , it must be dismissed as a deplorable illusion . We mig ht as well listen at present to the promises of Napoleon III ., who , whilst he is destroying the last vestiges of the freedom of the press and of the individual in France , still continues to pretend that some day or other liberty will crown the edifice . ' If the Corporation of London were to begin pulling down St . Paul's , and were to cry out , as every layer of stones was removed , " Wait a bit , good people ; will fine twice
as soon as we have finished we put a new gilded cross , as big as the old one , on the top , " what should we say to them ? There is one agreeable feature in M . Lanfrey ' s book , namely , the comparative absence of all allusion to ' Humanity , ' with which French writers about the Revolution generally identify their nation . Now and then he seems , by inadvertence , to fall into the usual error of mistaking the fall of Louis XVI . and the few years of convulsion that led to the reign of Bonaparte for a turning-point in the history of the species . But in general he gives due importance to the efforts of other nations . This is a more important matter than at first sight appears . The absurd views current in France on this subject are disastrous to all hope of liberty . It is usual there to speak with contempt , as of unimportant and isolated circumstances , of the history of the Dutch Republic , of England , of America , of the hundreds of experiments of liberty which have been " made in various parts of the world during the three
hundred years which are usually described as the modern times . It is only when a similar experiment , abortive as most of the others were , is made in France that we hear talk of the efforts of ' humanity . ' This is the extreme of national prejudice—quite as bad as if the rebels who are now desolating China were to set up as representatives , nay , as an imperso nation of the species . The French Revolution was a wonderful , but to a certain extent disastrous , episode in the great struggle of liberty against authority which in one sense is contemporary with our race , but which of late has chosen the West of Europe as its chief scene . There was nothing in its principles which is not to be found in the principles of the reformers and revolutionists of England ; but it had everything to do at once , and therefore applied some of those principles in a completer manner . Practically , however , its results were less beneficent than thoso of which we can boast . The reasons of its failure were never better set forth than in the book of M . Lanfrey .
No. 417, March 20,1858.] ^1e Aeai)Ek 283
No . 417 , March 20 , 1858 . ] ^ 1 E AEAI ) EK 283
Oude As A Native Kingdom. A Journey Thro...
OUDE AS A NATIVE KINGDOM . A Journey through the Kingdom of Oude in 1849-50 . With Private Correspondence relative to the Annexation of Oiule to Brit tali India . By Major-Gcneral Sir W . H . Sleeinau , K . C . B . 2 vola . Hentley . General Sliskm an , Resident at the Court ofLucknow , performed his journey under the direction of Lord Dalhousie , who desired to receive a full and minute picture of the native kingdom by a person at onco competent and unprejudiced . Such a person was the Resident , and his diary , the publication of which was not authorized until December last , forms a remarkable addition to Anglo-Indian literature . It is precisely the work that was wanted , for if one topic connected with the Into rebellion has more than another been superficially discussed and perverted , it is that of the annexation of Oudo . The members of the dethroned family who enmo to London , with
their grievances were successful in spreading a number of ingenious representations calculated to play upon easy sympathies , and have persuaded a certain sort of philanthropists into the belief that they belong to a dynasty of martyrs . Now , those picturesque nnd entertaining volumes by the late General Slceman will supply a very wholesome and much-needed corrective to the current version of Oudenn politics ; the writer had no personal objoots to serve ; ho was distinguished by the uprightness and independence of his judgment ; he was not the man to have coloured his reports so that they might harmonize with a foregone conclusion ; as a soldier and as a politician he -was held in high respect by all classes in both services . Thus von lmvn nf , lansrLh . an nninTe nnd faithful renort . ahnnlv and vividly written ,
of the interior state of Oudo before its final absorption into the British Indian Empire ; and the first thing likely to strike the roader is , that General Sleeman ' s sketches , taken at Court , boar out to the letter tho descriptions of ——sensuality , —abasementr- and ~ brutttUty ^ oontaw > edJiuiyza ^ i ^ : « w ^ fi ^^_ < 2 ^ jf £ & ' Eastern King . Nover did a moro odious and contemptible despot occupy a throne than tho last reigning King of Oude \ never was a pnlaco more polluted than his by tho vilest and basest passions ; never did a country sufformoro bitterly for tho profligate imbecility of its rulors . General Sleoman pictures tho land , although naturally rich , going out of cultivation , tho increase of robbery and violence , the impoverishment of the artisan and agricultural populations , t ; he decay of towns , tho atrocious tyranny of tho fiscal syatom , the ghastly caprice ottho tribunals , and the feude of tho chiefs mid the groat
landlords , whose rapacity swept from the village the pittance that had been spared by the tax-gatherer . The people had no remedy , and could devise none ; they saw their wretched government encircled by British bayonets , sanctioned by the presence and counsel of British functionaries , and otherwise hopelessly imposed upon them , and they could do nothing but suffer , despair , and struggle for the bare essentials of life . It was useless to build habitations which the tax-gatherer might at any moment burn down ; it was vain to collect riches when they must be hidden in the earth , whence they would probably be extorted by torture : thus the process of demoralization and degeneracy p erpetuated itself , and it is historically demonstrated that every year the inhabitants of Oude became poorer , more improvident , and more unhappy . This expresses , in generalities , the judgment passed by General Sleeman of the administration of the kingdom by its native sovereigns under the direct and material protection of the East India Company , without which the whole State would in a month have drifted into anarchy .
_ _ . _ . _ _ . . , . , . , , The effect of General Sleeman ' s narrative must be to destroy much of that popular opinion which still sympathizes with the deposed ^ royal family of Oude , and judges harshly of the measure which deprived it of its only privilege—that of torturing and plundering an afflicted people , and o £ riot in ^ ° in abject excesses within the walls of a palace reeking with all imaginable and unimaginable depravity . The General began by describing a series of horrible outrages crowded into the first few days of his inspection , and the means by which the petty Rajahs asserted their authority . Among these processes were stiffening the beards of men with moist gunpowder , leaving them to dry , and then firing them , mutilating them with atrocious ingenuity , laying their villages in ashes , destroying their half-ripened crops , piercing the flesh of women with red-hot ramrods , whipping them naked , wrapping their hands and even their bodies in thick cloth steeped in oil , so
that they blazed like torches . Not one of the agents employed in perpetrating these villanies to fill their own coffers and those of the King was ever punished or coerced during the period described by General Sleeman . Oude was systematically and habitually governed upon these principles . The writer presents in this portion of his narrative a personal account , which will be read with much avidity , of Maun Singh , the great Zemindar now , or lately , in arms against the British forces in Oude . Of the King himself his description is even more characteristic . That potentate , having been offended by a courtier , or-dered all the females of his family to be stripped naked and turned into the streets . This order Was not carried out , the British Resident having interfered , but the degraded tyrant was a stranger to any compunction of
human decency . A slave of slaves , with eunuchs and dancing-girls as his principal courtiers , an adept in cock-fighting and falconry , and in all respects mean and corrupt , this prince , after living for years in dread of poison , so much so that he locked down the cover of his private well » died , and the usual episode of sanguinary confusion preceded the installation of his successor . What the King of Oude was in 1852 General Sleeman plainly indicates : " The longer he reigns the more unfit he becomes , and the more the administration and the country deteriorate . " The females maintained by former sovereigns were driven into the streets ; eunuchs , fiddlers , and a base sort of improvisatore consumed ' half the revenue ; ' upon the throne was a crazy imbecile ; ' throughout the Court a rabble of low and voracious parasites . We are only stating generally what the late Resident illustrated in detail in his diary and in his correspondence .
To all who have formed , or may form , an opinion on the affairs of Oude , a perusal of these volumes is a necessity . They abound in graphic matter ; they are interesting as travel and valuable as history .
Literary History. Illustrations Of The L...
LITERARY HISTORY . Illustrations of the Literary History of the Eighteenth Century . Consisting of Authentic Memoirs ami Original Letters . By John Bowyer Nichols , F . S . A . Vol . VIII . Nichols und Son . Tub final volume of the Nichols collection of Literary Illustrations has now been published , with an index , which in itself is a work of unique interest and value , and a Memoir of Mr . John Nichols , sometime editor of the Gentleman ' s Magazine . The book belongs to no latter-day order . It is characteristic of the last century . The paper , the illustrations , the type ,
clear and handsome , befit the correspondence of Dr . Percy , Bishop of Dromore , with notes by Sir Frederick Madden , Mr . John Mitford , and Mr . Joseph Hunter . This selection includes many important letters from eminent men of all ranks and professions . Mr . John Bowyer Nichols haa compiled a large body of additions , with reference to which ho says , " I fuel fully conscious of having occasionally trespassed on the literary history of the present century . In all such instances the individuals had at least by their learned studios in tho Eighteenth Century prepared themselves to benefit a succeeding generation . Tho notices of such persons will bo found to bo short , roferring generally to longer memoirs . Most of thorn were either patrons or friends of myself , and 1 had rather bo guilty of some inconsistency than deficient in showing cither gratitude or respect . Tho immense variety of the contents precludes any analysis of thorn . Allusions will bo found to almost every person of note who figured during
tho period referred to . Wo shall best illustrate tho character of tho illustrations by selecting a few passages from tho correspondence , characteristic of individuals and fashions passed away . Among tho most conspicuous per . SQnages . ^ Qrr . cspon , ^ Molra , " oldest daughter of 'flieophilus ninth Lnrl ot Huntmgdonr by-the celebrated and eminently pious Solina Countess of Huntingdon , second daughter and co-hoiress of Washington Earl Fonars . Here aio her thanks to the Bishop of Dromoro for a hook on royal cookery : — Lord Moira indeed lius not . studied that work a * much aa his lordship '* other friend has done , who ia one of thoso infected with tho atrnngc curlewty of feel ng intereuted about every trifle in a stronger degree for every century removed in which they wore tranBaotea . Slio has found out a most incomparable broad aauco m a list of curry , to
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), March 20, 1858, page 19, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_20031858/page/19/
-