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life in attending to the business of the State . _ ,. . - , , There would be an end of this if the councils of Parliament were serious : but they are not . No questions ? are solved in them , no practical decisions are formed , no conviction is produced . In fact the speakers do not take the right way to produce any conviction- They never lay their minds together . Each man makes a detached speech , as it were in vacuum , exhausting his own
views , or viewlessness upon the subject . An intelligent and candid auditor comes away with his mind wholly uninfluenced , and with no impression but that of having heard a series of diluted newspaper articles , sometimes reaching to the length of reviews , badly delivered and with very little reference i ; o each other . Any amount of irrelevancy and bad logic is tolerated , provided the speech is exciting and amusing . Tou may bring in a motion on the question of peace and war and support it with a lampoon . Rhetorical
evasion and trickery of every kind can be practised with impunity . The fallacious reasoner cannot be brought to book , aa he would be immediately if he were talking with half a dozen sensible men round a table . te This lampoon is all very well , but how does it justify your motion ? " " You censure us for not saying whether we mean peace or war : do you mean peace or war yourself ? " These questions which , would instantly be put in conversation , cannot be put—at least an answer to them cannot be extorted—in the House of
Commons . The whole thing serves as a grand parade of party arguments and sentiments , and an exposition of the views of individuals to the country or to Bunham , which might just as well be made in the newspapers or in the Bunham Town Hall respectively . Notoriously the only rhetoric that really tells is that of the party leader and that of the whip . One can imagine taciturn ability , if it should ever get into Parliament , sitting for ever without adding to the tide of aimless loquacity by a maiden speech . And yet oratorical success is the only road to a Parliamentary position .
The nation , of course , is to blame much more than the members of the House of Commons . The nation likes to have its oratorical cockpit . It likes to have the speeches reported for ita own amusement , which is the grand incentive to babbling . It applauds the courage of invective—as if invective required courage—and it crowns a man as a great statesman when he has proved his power of
lungs by filling three or four yards in the columns of the morning papers . For this our statesmen waste in useless debate the cerebral energy which they ought to spend in maturing great measures . jFor this all questions are' enveloped in a mist of party rhetoric through which the real thing is seldom seen . For this the faculty that acts is set aside in favour of the tongue that talks .
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" MORE HONOURED IN THE BREACH . " The hero of our tale is a gentleman of family , and of high honour , for he ia a captain of militia ; he is of the most interesting age in life , for he is thirty-two ; and , in abort , he is exactly the man to be the hero of a novel . Our hero , then , encountered at Clifton a young lady of great personal
attractions , six years younger than himself , and possessing " considerable fortune . " He Avowed his sentiments , and sentiments were avowed in return . The correspondence , more happy but less classic than love letters which have been rendered immortal , proved to bo Very affectionate . The young lady received all that ** John" vouchsafed . with an affectionate desire to make the best of it , expressed a heartfelt interest in his welfare ,
t - i . j •* .. , t .... . * #
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THE INDEPENDENT STATES OF INDIA . Were it ever to happen that Persia should be come a province , or even a tributary , of the Rus sian Empire , there can be no doubt that tht security of our Indian possessions would be seriously compromised . For , even if we succeeded in repelling force by force , a wore permanent source of danger and disturbance would spring up in our own dominions . The presence of a powerful enemy on the frontier would embolden every petty princo to " exhalt his horn , " and to realise the independence he now only nominally
enjoys . India would be in a constant state oi fermentation , and the attention of the Government would be diverted from the works now in progress for the improvement of both the people and the country , and solely directed to the preservation of internal tranquillity . And this would prove a task of no ordinary difficulty , for it is finite possible for an Indian prince to conduct an intrigue under the very eyes of the British authorities , and when surrounded on all sides by British territory . His only , or at least his principal , chance of detection lies in the treachery of his own
people , who may be moved by malice or cupidity , to reveal his machinations . An instance of this occurred in the year 1839 . Tho Nawnb of Kurnool , in the Madras Presidency , had converted his fort into a complete foundry and arsenal , and prepared tho nucleus of a formidable outbreak without exciting the slightest suspicion on the part of tho English magistrates on his frontiers . Even after his designs were betrayed to tho Government , tho commissioners who wore sent to examine into the matter , although readil y admitted into the fort , failed to discover any proofs
of guilt . The information received , however , was of too positive a nature to be thus set aside , and a regiment of native infantry , oesides some companies of H . M . 39 th , were accordingly inarched into the fortress . On thin the Nawab took the field with a thousand Pathans , but was easily defoated and himself made prisoner . A minute search being then instituted , there was discovered ! a largo quantity of gunpowder , charcoal , tmltj > ctre , shot , shell * , and guns—some of the latter still unfinished . Jl was generally reported that this prince hud been in . stigatcd by tho Nizam ' s Government , but this point has not been clearly ascertained ; nor in it u
matter of any moment further than as » n illustration of the very slight confidence that is to lie p laced even in thoso stntO 9 that are nil but subject to our control . And it ia impossible to overestimate tho consequences thnt niighfc ensuu from a partial aiicccs * at tho commencement . When Mooh'aj , tho Dewan of Mooltan , first entered upon hostilities his whole foroo did not exceed -JIMM ) men , nud thoso mostly adventurers from other difitrjotB . It was not long , however , boforti he was joined by large nuiubora of turbulent n |> irittf , many of whom had formerly served un < Utr the Ameers of Scinde ; for Asiatics generally ure fl > nd of warlike enterprise ; The prospect of plunder and commotion never fuilarfo draw a rookies *
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and did not withhold endearing epithets . She was delighted with the first ring he gave her—his " dear ring ; " she hoped that "he would be careful how he came out of hot rooms ; *¦ ' she called him " my dearest John , " " my dearest Jack , " " dear old fellow ; ' * and his handwriting was " dear . " She dreamed that he had an accident , and that she was bathing in his blood ; she would foYlow him to Corfu ; she was " his ever-loving Agnes , " " his own dear pet . " And froni time to time she sent him " lots of love and lota of kisses . " It was with this kind of charming kisses . " It was with this kind of charming
crescendo that the correspondence moved . The day for the wedding was fixed , the cards were printed , and presents were purchased and presented ; when , behold ! a day or two before , " John" receives a letter in the veritable handwriting of his " ever-loving Agnes , " beginning " Dear Sir ! " This is what we commonly call " a damper , " and if a man were indignant , outraged , shocked , driven to despair , we could not wonder or think ill of him for exhibiting some want of self-command . In similar cases men have
proceeded to dire extremities : they have rushed into misanthropy ; women have been shot or stabbed ; empires have been betrayed . John Holder was not proof against emotion , and as his chosen adviser says , " when he received this letter he was so much agonised at this statement , that he felt it necessary for his dWn honour to or ing an action at law for damages "
No gentleman refuses to receive an explanation from a lady . Wo man can fail to be touched by a truth-telling account , especially when it comes from a woman who has put herself in his power . The explanation given by Miss Josling is one that on the face of it looks consistent . She told Mr . Holder that " when she accepted his offer she had only just lost her parents , and that at the time she was grateful to any one who would offer her a home , but she could not unite herself to . any one whom she could not love ;" and her affection for him was not sufficient
to justify marriage . It was rather late to find this out , but not so much too late as it would have been after marriage . Undoubtedly collateral circumstances may contribute to qualify any statement of the kind ; we may believe it or we may disbelieve it ; but still it must be received . Presuming that in this case the young lady spoke quite ingenuously , wo should say , that in making the explanation she did justice to the gentleman as well as to herself , and that she showed a sound feeling of honour as well aa sense . If it were true , we should say that no man who had a perception of what is duo to a woman when she
throws herself upon his generosity , or to himself when the appeal is made , could refuse to accept such an avowal explicitly . ! Let us suppose that in s ' ome cases tho avowal might be untrue—a pretext merely—still there are some occasions ia which wo are precluded from searching beyond a pretext ; and when a lady makes a statement respecting herself
alone , her feelings , and her wishes , any gentleman is precluded from asking more . There are favours which are not to bo given unless they be almost taken before they can be yielded ; but no man would wittingly snatch the kiss which was to bo really refused ; or , if he did mako so unlucky a mistake , he would be glud to be lot off with pardon , and to deserve it by the ingenuousness of his
submission . It is more than probable that there nro many cases exactly like this courtship of JonN and Agneb : that tho gentleman ia much " smitten , " and not indiffcrcnftMto a considerable fortune , or perhaps not indifferent to the attractions of the lady without a fortune ; that the young lady ia much pleased by being choeon , flattered by
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the attentions , anxieties , and even troubles that have to be gone through in sucl cases ; that , nevertheless , she discovers the want of a real affection before actual union yet has not the strength of mind t ( say so ; and then the pair become wedded The mistake is discovered some years after wards , more or fewer . It sometimes happem that a natural affection is engendered by th < relation of the two ; but we believe thai
quite as often it happens that an mtnnac > which necessarily exists , when unconsecratec by affection , has not unfrequently engenderet a cold indifference , or something worse thai indifference—positive dislike or actual revul sion . A union such as f / tat is an outrage to the individuals who suffer by it , and i disgrace to the country under which il can be ; but we have reason to know , frou the evidence which comes forth in so main
different forms , that ninny a Joiin and Agnes are living in that state of fettered revulsioi which is worse than divorce—worse than tin torture of Mezentitjs ; for if a living body ii not bound to a dead one , each to the other i : a corpse incapable of returning affection , aiu endowed only with n ghastly life to torturt the feelings which it mocks .
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^ T > HB & B AtB jB : B . [ Na 282 / 8 atukuay ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 18, 1855, page 792, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2102/page/12/
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