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MjutcH 29, 1M6.V THiS LEADER. 3O5
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LIFE AND POLITICS IN SYRIA. Syria and tl...
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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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Mrs, Fitzherbert. Memoirs Of Mrs. Fiizhe...
Wore tie aee of twenty-five , a widow , with a good fortune , and a house on Smond-hUl About four years afterwards , in the npeness of womanhood she became acquainted with the Prince of Wales , then a boy-a very fooksh and SE * boy-of twenty-three . Her soft and white skin , her large clear eves £ r rich and abounding curls , her lovely figure , her winning and grace-Si Says ! subdued the imag ination of the booby Prince , who came repeatedly to SSond , admiring and soliciting . Had she been a girl , the result might have been what the result usually is when royalty asks and commonalty is bashful . But Mrs . Fitzherbert was twenty-nine , with a battalion ot Jesuits in her rear , and she " fought off" the fat Hanoverian . He , too , had his body guard , Kent , Onslow , Southampton , and Bouvene who > bled him to produce a romantic pallour , and probably gave him that safe stab which reqoncUed the " lass of Richmond Hill" to visit an unmarried gentleman at his own house . The Duchess of Devonshire played propriety , and the first mockery of marriage was performed between the fainting Prmce of Wales and Mary Anne Fitzherbert . This , however , secured her no " position" she believed that George had actually attempted to immolate
, himself , though her friends suspected he had taken a lesson from the shepherd of Cervantes , who plaeedawine skinfullof bull ' sblood under hisarmandstabbed it in presence of his faithless bride . However , that -was not her object . She iledto Aix-la-Cbapelle , to Holland , though never beyond reach of herroyal Satyr , who followed her thick and fast with protests and passionate letters-one of which was seven and thirty pages long—full of mendacity and extravagance . Lord Holland says , that " Mrs . Fox , then Mrs . Arinistead , had repeatedlyassured him , that the Prince came down more than once to converse with her and Mr . Fox on the subject ; that he cried by the hour ; that he testified the sincerity and violence of his passion and despair by extravagant expressions and actions—rolling on the floor , striking his forehead , tearing his hair , falling into hysterics , and swearing that he would " abandon the country , forego the Crown , & c . "
At last came the offer of marriage . The Catholic lady returned from the Continent , and , in her own drawing-room , in the presence of witnesses , was married by a Protestant clergyman to the Protestant Prince . The docu * mentary evidence of this transaction remains at Coutts ' s Bank . Lord StoUrton says : — The first signal interruption to this ill-fated engagement arosefrom the pecuniary difficulties of his Royal Highness , when , on the question of the payment of his debts , Mr . Fox thought himself justified by some verbal or written permission of the Prince , to declare to the House of Commons that no religious ceremony * had united the parties . This public degradation of Mrs . Fitzherbert so compromised
her character and her religion , and irritated her feelings , that she determined to break off all connexion with tie Prince , and she was only induced to receive him again unto her confidence , by repeated assurances that Mr . Fox had never been authorised to rnake the declaration ; and the friends of Mrs , Fitzherbert assured her , that / iu this decrepancy as to the assertion of Mr . Fox and the Prince , she was bound to accept the word of her husband . She informed me , that the public supported her by their conduct on this occasion ; for , at no period of her life were their visits so numerous at her house as on the day which followed Mr . Fox ' s memorable speech ; and , to use her own expression , the knocker of her door was never sfcili during the whole day .
George desired to be reconciled with Fox , whom he had duped , though , with characteristic turpitude , he afterwards denied the part he had taken . When he married Caroline he pursued his Mary Ann as he had done -when she was Queen of Richmond Hill ; and she resented his legal marriage , as she was wont to resent the shameless excesses of bis youth ; - ^ ran away , stood afar off , coyly corresponded with her Jesuit friends , and with much eompunction " and swearing she would ne ' er consent—consented '*—to live with a notorious profligate who recognised Caroline of Brunswick only as his official wife : The next eight years wore , she said , the happiest of her connexion with the Prince .
She used to say that they were extremely poor , but aa merry as crickets ; and as a proof of their poverty , she told me that once , on their returning to Brighton from London , they mustered their common means , and could not raise £ 5 between them . Upon this , or some such occasion , she related to me , that an old and faithful servant endeavoured to force them to accept £ 60 , which bo said . he had accumulated ia the service of the best of masters and mistresses . She added , however , that eveu this period , the happiest of their lives , was much embittered by the numerous political difficulties which , frequently surrounded the Prince , and she particularly alluded to what has been termed " the delicate investigation , " in which Queen Caroline and his Royal Highness had been concerned .
At last he ca ? ' ner off for Lady Hertford ; at the death of Caroline he married once r .. ore , and Mrs . Fitzherbert , finding herself eclipsed at Court , accepted the conditions of her ill-chosen life , and , though ever hovering about the palace , especially after the accession of William the Fourth , never met " George P . " again . Her last degradation was on the occasion of n royal dinner , when she was told by her " husband , " " You know , madam , you have no place . " Having come to this resolution , she was obliged , on the very evening , or on that which followed the royal dinner , to attend an assembly at Devonshire House , which was the last evening she saw the Prince previously to their final separation . The Duchess of Devonshire , taking hor by the arm . said to her , " You must come and flee the Duke iu his own room , as lie is suffering front a fit of the gout , but ho will bo glrid to see an old friend . " In passing through tho rooms , she saw the Prince and Lady Hertford in a tQte-a-toto conversation , and nearly fainted under all the impressions which then rushed upon hor mind , but , taking a fclaos of water , she recovered and pnssed on .
Whatever Mrs . Fitzhevbert was , she was not the legal wife of the Princo of "Wales . It is idle to say that , under tho penal lows against Catholics , all unions contracted b y them were disavowed by the law , unless a Protestant clergyman officiated to insult their faith . It was not in this sense that the alliance was null and void , because a Protestant clergyman was present ; tho Royal Marriage Act , which was known to Mrs . Fitzherbert as well aa ' to tho Prmce , rendered it a seduction on his part , and a fatal mistake on hers . If her position satisfied her , it mattcra little whether the Pupal Church approved the means by which ahc attained it . We are , of course , bound to believe that the document which camo from Rome , did contain tho Pope ' s assent ; but why did she , "in a momentary pauic , " destroy this hol y testimonial , so important to her character and of her co-religionists ? The Hon . Mr . Langdale , however , bIiows , clearly enough , that his Church would not have annulled
the convenient marriage . But , to argue that the act was justifiable because the Church sanctioned it , it is to ignore the thousand scandals legitinaatised at Borne—Court divorces , tortures , assassinations , adulteries , and other violations of human and national law .
Mjutch 29, 1m6.V This Leader. 3o5
MjutcH 29 , 1 M 6 . V THiS LEADER . 3 O 5
Life And Politics In Syria. Syria And Tl...
LIFE AND POLITICS IN SYRIA . Syria and tlie Syrians ; or , Turkey in the Dependencies . By Gregory M . "Wortabet 2 vols . . Madden When the Turks were powerful , they were universally hated ; now that they are feeble , they are universally despised . Wherever the relics * of their authority remain , scorn and detestation invariably exist together in the mind of the subject race . The evidence against them is not reducible to Greek conceit or Armenian jealousy , to Syrian prejudice or Maronite bigotry . Whether by the Mahomedan sectaries , or by the Christians of the East , their rule is equally identified with rapacity , tyranny , and all the evils resulting from a feeble and insolent despotism . Their co-religionists in Egypt dislike them ; they are distrusted by the Circassians ; by the Maronites and Druses they are abhorred ; the Greeks regard them with a scarcely human rancour .
Any peddling smoker of cigarettes , surnamed Leonidas or Pericles , will tell you glowingly , how , during the war of independence , the Greeks took a ship crowded with Turks , and dragged every man on board tothebulwarks ,. where they cut his throat , and flung him into the sea . Such is the spirit of the people , though they naight not all approve the ruthless illustration . But it tells irresistibly against the Ottoman system , that from one limit to another of their enormous empire , they have never , during the four hundred years of their dominion , conciliated one population submitted to their sway . A large proportion of the eliarges preferred against them by the Greeks are affirmed by sentimentalists in England to be libellous ; but , if so , what ? The Epanocastron of Smyrna has witnessed some scenes that might embitter the blood of a less vindictive race ; and what can that government be , which all classes of its subjects , composed of
distinct and jealous nationalities , conspire to libel ? Moreover , since the outbreak of the war , when exact descriptions of Turkish morals , politics , and manners passed for calumnies , what Englishman has visited the East and not returned disgusted . ? The correspondents of the press , of all shades of opinion and feeling , have concurrently declared the governing class of Turkey to be corrupt , ignorant , helpless , destitute pf public spirit , as well as of the administrative faculty * and in trade , industry , and general intelligence , utterly eclipsed by the Christian nationalities . The author of The Thistle andtheCedcir of the Lebanon , who may be suspected , however , of carrying the dark lantern of Russia , presented in his picturesque and original volume a strong plea against the Government of the Poute . Mr . Gregory Woftabet , who , though
arrogant and superficial , appears to possess national sympathies , confirms this view , and testifies to the malignant reputation of the Turks , among Maronites , Druses , and Christians . He is a native of Beyrdut , and In that city his affections centre . There , lie says , the commercial spirit of Phoenicia survives ; all that is trusted to * private enterprise prospers ; but there is no lighthouse , no harbour , a tottering quay . Here , it might be supposed , the Syrian writes , in the bitterness of his heart , against the Turks , his conqueror , master , oppressor . But no . Though a Beyroutian , who talks exultingly of " the Syrian mind , " the Syrian girls of more than Georgian beauty , the flowery lustre of the suburbs , and all the thousand and one enchantments that belong to the place and people , he has one serious admission to make : —
The people , generally speaking , are honest , and will pay if time is given them . It is Bald that the Mahomedan is more trustworthy than the Christian ; this fact is true ; and is thus accounted for on the sanie principle as the Christian of the interior is more honest than he of Beyroot , so is the Mahomedan of Beyroofc tonester than his Christian neighbour . The spirit of duplicity which characterises the Christians of Beyroot , they have learnt from their intercourse with foreigners . Not so the Mahomedan ; he is reserved , and has no interchange of habits and customs with the European population of the place , hence Ms honest predilections remain intact , and consequently are noticed to the disadvantage of the Christian . Take th « Christian before Europeanism visited Beyroot , and ha was as scrupulous , and as honest as the Mahomedan . So is the Christian of the interior no-w . This is one of the evils which foreign influence has wrought upon the land .
Probably the tricks and evasions of trade " are indigenous in Syria as elsewhere ; but Mr . Wortabet ' s patriotism travels in search of aa apology , and finds it in the " West , whence the Javans say they derived their profligacy , the Negroes their drunkenness , the Red Indians their small-pox , the South Sea Islanders their hypocrisy . The West may take the imputation , and pass it on , for in Western sea-ports , knavery and vice accumulate more profusely than in " the interior , " and they " who come down in ships " bring moral contagions . The reason is as palpable as the reason why cathedrals are generally surrounded by a vicious neighbourhood , a monument of the sanctuary laws .
Syria is divided into five pachaliks , or governments , of which Boyrout is one , the other four being Aleppo , Damascus , Acre , und Jerusalem . Each pnchalik , as the name implies , is ruled by a Pacha , whose authority is almost us absolute as that of the Sultan , and more effective . He governs with tho assistance of two divans , or Curts . besides the local tribunals ; his revenue consists of the land rent farmed by the collectors , and of the polltax levied on all the population , and , until lately , with extra severity upon Christiaina . Events will show whether the abolition of this odious tribute ia to bo a reality , or an official deception . Mr , Wortabet remarks : — I should like to wn . it and sec the new laws paaa into offoob—tho Christian , a
Boldior and an offioor in the Turkish , army , holding civil rank , his words respected all over fche Turkish empire , his testimony in tho interior as good as , the Mahomodan ' e—ore I give thorn to the world ns bonft fide faofcfl . Laivs can be easily framed ; but it is not auch an easy tiling with Turkey to carry thorn out ; she hoa a fioroo Islamisin to contend with . And hero I will say , that Turkey and Mahomedaniam ore daily becoming two distinct things . I doubt not that Sultan Abd-ul-Mejid and the better part of his cabinet mean well to their subjects ; but what botwoen the meanness of paohau who ore oasily bribod—a corrupt court whiofc will not rodroHs the wrong—a weak government whioh cannot prouaiso the traveller safety In its dominions , and Mahomedan fanatioism , —tho mopt diffloull
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), March 29, 1856, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_29031856/page/17/
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