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May 26, I860.] The leader and Saturday A...
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STABS AND GARTEES, AND OKDEKS OF MEKIT. ...
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* In an admirable article on tho Religio...
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'• Th-re is u capital story'of Lord Kkny...
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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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Punishment Of Boys. E Very Two Or Three ...
clever boys to cite to the public , and to keep the school in credit ; but what ' becomes of the idle and careless one * , in the reclaiming of whom the most important part and the most difficult of a schoolmaster ' s business lies P So Arnold said , or something-tantamount to it .
May 26, I860.] The Leader And Saturday A...
May 26 , I 860 . ] The leader and Saturday Analyst . 495
Stabs And Gartees, And Okdeks Of Mekit. ...
STABS AND GARTEES , AND OKDEKS OF MEKIT . MR . THACKERAY , who has the reputation of being the most satiric and aciid of all authors , the one whose ridicule at ail shams is the sharpest , and whose scorn at all " snobbisin " is the loudest if not the deepest , has written a paper in his Magazine ¦ recommending a new order of merit , which he would call the Order of Britannia , and a medal of which should be given to all those of our gallant seamen who distinguish themselves , not in the horrid trade of slaughter , nor in defending our shores , no ; - in batteringdown the forts of our enemies , but in rescuing the crews of sinking ships from destruction , and in showing the wondrous bravery and mairnanimity which the great majority of our seamen always do in the hmir of " daiijrer , and such as especially the officers and crews of the Birkenhead and the Sarah Sands exhibited . He is probably ignorant that a gold and silver medal lor the purpose do exist , and those who
that the Humane Society . also bestow a decoration for gave life—for we also , like t he Romans , believe it to be nobler to save the life of a citizen than to slay an enemy . But we believe the principle which Our satirical author sets out with is wrong . Our common . work -a-day English men do not care for bits of ribbon and bits of metal . Virtue is its own reward with us . Why should a man who has done his duty be parcelled and ticketed out from men who , when the time came , and the opportunity with it , would < 3 o their . drily'just as well ? The story of the brave man's deeds is known ; his " comrades are aware of his valour if the world is .. not ; nay , by multiplying the orders of distinction , we doubt whether we ¦ do ' not weaken and effeminate the mind . Our nation , thank Providence , is too manly to need many such ; nay , tlie very multitude of the Ciiu ean nie ' dals rather hurt than honoured Jchn Hull . Sentimental writers may think it very fine to hang biIs of ribbon on the breasts of their heroes : but the heroes themselves do not .
But whilst we were on the point of . ¦ voting- . . a new order , let us look at those we -have ,.-beginning- ' with our Star and Garter and St . Oeoege , the honour of ail honours , sprung from a patron saint who Was a p ' tivk butclu r ! ~ This is undeniable : we choose our own members of Parliament , but . ' ¦ ' . patron saints come as a gift of nature . "St . Michael ,- St . Boniface , St . Hocus-Poctjs , " and Hublo-Thuumbo . chosen for good-deeds in their day , now lost To . sight tbeir . lnenrery is " greenl ' eiio ' u ' irh , ; so let it be . * But of all saints in the Calendar ( and unless we Protestants are grossly ignorant , there be some queer Ones there ) really and positively we believe St . George to be the worst . We shall come to him presently ; but we would rather pray to the sagacious god of the Mandiiiiroes than to St . George .
desperately thirsty itself , and rather more acnte ^ TriT-Tts ^ seireesrknowing the way better than the human animals . The army was saved , and the pig was deified . " The celebrated hog of St . Anton y , which has long formed part of a proverb , " following one about like ivtavtony pig , " wasnever . more venerated by the Irish than this one by the Mandiiigoes . As a nobleman in England / dignities ' his family , so this porcine JVJundingo rendered his descendants blessed . He , they , aunts , cousins , male and female , and the whole generation of them are elevaU d to that earlier peerage of which the Roman Emperors wished to be . In Ireland , to be sure , a pig lives a
luxurious Hie . Hois referred to as . " the gintlenian who pays the rint . " He lounges about , so to speak , with his hands in his pockets . He has been seen by veracious tourists . leaning against door-posts , and smoking a thirteen : he is undoubtedly admitted to the best -apartments ol the house . He is free of the druwing-roorn , parlour , kitchen and all , and " enjoys the blandishments of Irish female society ; but he is better off with the Mmidingoes , for with our friends over the wnttir he does " pay the rint , " and just to save his life he is killed , or he i « whipped off at a certain period of his « weet existence , probably at the sweetest . jut * t as the full glory of youth dawns upon him , to supply the English market . At the very moment when , in the language of his poet , Mr . Moore , lie is
" All truth , nil tenderness and grace , he is driven on board ship , and tram-ported . lie objects to this ; ho cries out ; he is melancholy , remote , unfriended , but by no menus slow . He is borne from ilio place where hia forefathers dwelt . In vain , sis he departs , He sings tho wild nong of his dear native land j" his voice ih unheeded . Ho becomes horridly wick in crossing the , channel ; ho is Jiuidiitl—if not wrecked , indeed- —and he terminate * hi » existence in pickled pork . Somolinien ho ia wrecked , and then lie puts a period to his sufferings , if we en dit popular tradition , by cutting his throat us ho s * iniH . If so , his corpnc , when cast ashore , is eagerly devoured by porno Welsh wreekor . If not , ub wo say . pickled pork is his ' f ' ute ; und hero St . Gkohoe tithes him in hand , and wo tuko in bund St . Geoboe . That portion , who , says Shakspkaee , " Swlngod tho Drng pn , and now Bits Still on hia horseback , nt mine hostess' door , "
has had his portrait painted by a master hand—one Edwaed Gibbon , Esq ., as neat a limner of a portrait in pen and hik as need be . His sketch is by no means flattering . There is one , of the usual extravagantly . sanctified and incredible atyle , of the author- of that book of extraordinary fables , the " Lives of the Saints . " Of the two we prefer Gibbon . The suceesslul pig * deal » r in those days could not rise to be a praetor , nor a consul , nor to-fill any honourable office ; but he could be a bishop , and we must remember that Christianity was not then the religion- of the States and that it was by no means fashionable ; consequently , our Cuppadocian did episcopate , and in a by no means regular way . He took up better men ' s leavings ; and this quietly introduces us to the Athanasian Creed . How few of our interesting High Church , Low Church , Broad Church , or flat Church young ladies ever think about St . Geoege , when the \ are repeating that grand and glorious Credo of St . Athanasitjs , that almost successful attempt to unveil and
explain the miraculous , and to render unmy > terious the grand Mystery That Creed stands like a rock before tlie services of the Church , a rock which the tide of Infidelity may beat * against * , but . cannot remove . It used to-be fashionable to laugh at it , to call it contradictory , to bespatter it with silly epithets ; but still it stands . " When I was writing the ' History of the Church , "' ways oli Fuller , " I was advised to be quick about it , lest , before my History was out , the Church should be gone ,- but 1 have observed that our Church has a strange knack of being always falling with some people ; and yet it stands . " "It is full of mystery , " > ays one . "Aye , " returns Montague , " and when one will explain the greater nvvstery to me , how when I was born , and five and twenty \ ears before my father was attacked , and Vixty-five years be'lore it made its appear-since in my body , an hereditary complaint ( the stone ) was born with me , then I will talk to him of lesser . mysteries . " Which , look you , should shut-any Arian up .
St . ' Athanasics put forth bis Creed . boldly . ; not so '} uV opponent , who dangles in effigy on the breast of our noblest knight ' s , and before the very heart of our Queen . Bi-rn in a fullers shop , of the very nature of greasy dirt , frou > which the fuller's eaith should .-have cleansed him , Sfc : Gegege rose step by step , always fawning , always parasitic , to the post of pork purveyor to tlie army of the Emperor Julian tlie Apostate . * When there , lie ms . de plenty of money . That was his god . Some historians , . wishing to-Hatter -him . slTy that he was-Cominissiiry-Genenil to the army , an antitype of Fildee in the * Crimea . He made bis fortune , and men who have made fortunes , if of active minds , wish fur something to do . He " took to '" ieligion ,-joined -the ; Ariaiis , and wheii . good-old * Athanasius was a second time driven from Alexandria , our St . George sat in his place . " He was one of those easy-going , naiictlie-best-of-both-worlds sort of prelates ,, who . was , ahis ! popular , too popular ; with the crowd ! * ¦¦ . Consequently , be slew the dragon . ' and when did he into the
And pray who whs the dragon , come story p . ' Where the Princess Sabea , where- ? Why . just unroll the ' ' mythic story , and it is as plain as a pikestaff . ' These Churchmen ' fought with tbeir tongues . The synod over which the Empress . of the ApostateJuLiAN presided was the aivna— the ' misbelieving ' ¦ bishop was St . Geokgk—the princess Sabra , either a ' type , of Religion , or the benign , easil y , m-dent Emprusa ^ -and our yood ol d St . Athanasius was the ' Dration J Yes . he was the beast , ' SeTluu . tufa , as Outlier ' s opponents- — - politelv term linn St " AtuaNasius fled to the d . seits of Upper * Egvpt , until tho ' death of "his persecutor , in 302 \ . d . —a period of six years ; he was then brought back in triumph , and as the pork -butcher and bacon commissary would nutgi \ e up 11 is see , out of revenge for many cruelties , and disgust for himself , the populace lost tbeir temper ,- as" they did with Count Akviti , and killed himand thus unwittinifly made a Maktvu of hint !
, We do not . hear any more . of the Saint till the time of tho Crusades , when , at the ' gr «» t siege ' of Antioch , our soldiers were ab « ut to vivo , way , ' when up rushes Bishop Adiiemak , followed by i > fresh party of horsemen , in the leading rank of whom were three knights . " Behold , " cried tho Bishop , " here in h . lp from Hesiven ; the holy martyrs , George Dumi . trius and Theodore , fi ^ ht for you . " * " 111 take the first , " cried a bravo Ennlit-hman for my patron saint . St . George for merry England ! " And away the besiegers rushed again , frightened-their ' opponents , and gained the \ ictory . Madcap King Dick the First also saw St . George in a
vision ' , and whs thereby relieved from grout struita ; and so St . George whs , somehow , adopted as our patron saint . Our soldiers were forbidden to use any other cry . The whole , thing was got up . His day was iixed , and bo whh a fixture j tho red crows of nuu-iyrdom waved " upon the white ilng of his innocence , —our chiuf city took it for its arms , with a dagger or Koman aword lor a distinction in the ih-st quarter;—tho story about Walw . outii introducing that is apocryphal . Churches were built for tho saint , and our Beafighters and soldiers wore the red cross in their caps und biuonets , crosses which remain to this dnv on the liitlo square brass breiibt-plutu und
buttons of the Grenadier Guiuds . W hen in 134 t or X 3 G 0—more than five hundred yearn .. ago- — lying EmvA-itii foiineU tlie Order of the Garter , he took St . George ua its Huiut . More of this order ¦ nnou . Now . to other * . There wore , and are , Knighlaof the " Broom flower in tho Husk , of St . Buii > aKT , ' of two Si . Cathakines , ol the Cclostiul Collar <>/ ' the HoHurv , of three Chablks , of any number ol Couwptjoiiw , » t two
Those benighted 'woolly ' heads . in bowing'to their " sense-gods " as the Bev . Mr . Byne of Trinity 'College , Dublin , calls them , * had some reason . "A pisr had by ' chance , " says Oldekdob p in his account of these same Ms ' mdingoes , " led an army of these natives , who w ere perished for want of water , to a pond ; the pig being
* In An Admirable Article On Tho Religio...
* In an admirable article on tho Religions of Mankind .
'• Th-Re Is U Capital Story'of Lord Kkny...
'• Th-re is u capital story ' of Lord Kknyqn . addrcBBinjc 'v > i wnoront jury on tho cftimation in which Religion should bo lield , and whh held ov various mycicIuiis . " Amongst them , " snicl im Lortohlu , l » that excellent Emperor Juman , who wuh eo rcti < fiova thufc he w « s oulled the Aposth . "
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), May 26, 1860, page 11, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_26051860/page/11/
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