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who are immortalized in the Terse of a Tasso or an Ariosto , as quellere of men and tamers of horses . Would : tbafr this genial spirit were more generally developed ! Would that my tailor ' s eldest daughter , and my bootmaker's pretty wife , would call in person to solicit my " further favours ! " The wife's place is by the side of her husband—a domestic aphorism that might he brilliantly illustrated by Tom Sayers and the Tipton Slasher if , at the forthcoming struggle for the champion ' s belt , they would come up to " the scratch" supported by their loving spouses .
It has long been a matter of sorrowful conviction in my mind that m this prosaic England we do not pay sufficient attention to ] the importance of beauty and grace . Should it ever please an all-wise and inscrutable Providence to place your modest correspondent on the throne of these realms , a very great change should be introduced in that respect . In the first place I would have all deformed and ill-conditioned people put carefully out of sight . Unhappily , there still exist prejudices against shuffling off the mortal coil , of a nature to prevent the most economical disposal of these unsightly individuals . But , most certainly , they should be removed far from public gaze . In their stead , to obviate the vacant appearance our streets might at first be expected to exhibit , I would erect beautiful statues at all the crossings , and would make even the lamp-posts of an
elegant and ornamental design . There should be none of the monstrous effigies of bareheaded , barefooted gentlemen , of a rusty hue , and loosely wrapped in unwashed peignoirs that at present disfigure our cities . There can be no doubt that our own features , and secondarily our temper and disposition , are gradually moulded into a resemblance of those that most frequently fill the eye , and , through the eye , the mind . It is thus that married couples after a time are so generally taken for brother and sister . And in like manner the unborn babe would acquire the expression of the angelic statue in front of the drawing-room windows . Depend upon it , sir , that this would prove superior even to Mrs . General ' s system . Apollo and the Graces would do more than " paper , potatoes , prunes , and prism . " But this by way of parenthesis .
There is another point connected with electioneering time that appears to me in the highest degree favourable to the feelings and convictions of a believer in human , nature like ni 3 'self . At no other period will you witness such magnanimous sacrifices of private friendship , or such complete postponement of friendly ties and interests to the public good . Men may for 3-ears previously have suspected their intimate acquaintances of dishonourable conduct , but never have they breathed a syllable of such suspicions , in the hope that their neighbour would see the error of his ways , and turn and repent . But let the blast of a disputed election sound in their ears , and instantly they drag into light the hidden things of darkness . For their country ' s sake , the 3 are
willing to renounce those dear friends with whom they have so often taken sweet counsel and a social glass . And with equal alacrity do they open their arms to the sinner so soon as their country no longer demands of them the renunciation of their gossips . A notable instance of this lately came ¦ within my own knowledge . I was sojourning for a few days in a very populous and wealthy city , enjoying a most prosperous trade , and beautified through the spoliation of towns in the interior . The excitement of the election and consequent abnegation of self were at their height . One of the candidates was a gentleman of ample fortune , acquired in trade , who for long years had been an honoured citizen , and whoso invitations to dinner or to a dnnco had never been declined but with regret . All this long time he had been suspected of defrauding the customs in the
first place , and his customors in the second . lint who would throw the first stone at such a pleasant , such a prosperous , such an hospitable gentleman ? It was not to bo thought of . Now , however , it would havo been equally wrong to turn a deaf car to their country ' s call to do their duty . Suddenly , a band of patriots stopped forward , regardless of pafit or future conviviality , and on the very hustings charged this gentleman with being *—a . cheat . They had , indeed , insinuated as much beforehand , during the preceding- day or so , but now the }' openly denounced him in unmistakable language . The election was consequently lout— " and , with it , the character of an English gentleman ? " Oh , dear ! no . Not at all . His character was merely sntilled out for the occasion , because England demanded the sacrifice . But it was rolighted on the day after , and , no doubt , now blazes forth more brilliantly than ovor .
And then , . sir , how grant a moral Iohboii has boon taught to public man by what 3-011 call tlio " liugo ingratitude" of the electors of Cottonlmin . Honeelbi-lh they will learn to labour without hope or expectation of uny such vulgar roward as ( ho grutitudo of their fellowcountrymen . They will do good for it * own sake , nor will any baser motives influonco their conduct . . Hitherto , our Htatcsmon have been too fond of popular apphiun <> , too proud of the grateful ncolnmntioriH of their admiring fellow-aitii ' . ens . They will now estimate ) that admiration at its propcu' value , and porhaps will think a little- more of the preservation of tlioir own health and property . Ihna , all things arc for the boat ; mid-whalovor in , iw "ght , oven when apparently most wroiitf . —And no , oncn more , I havo tha honour to bo , wir , vour obodlont BGrv «» t > ' C ' anihoic .
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NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS , The Italians in Alexandria , " "Icaria , " Miss Parkes' fourth letter , and other communications , are unavoidably omitted this week . It is impossible to acknowledge themass of letters we receive . Their insertion is often delayed , owing to a press of matter ; and when omitted , it is frequently from rea sons quite independent of the merits of the comtnuniea : tion . Wo cannot undertake to return rejected communications . Communications should always be legibly written , and on one side of the paper only . If long , it increases the difficulty of finding space for them .
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SIR JAMES BROOKE IN BORNEO . We must go back a little before we can rightly estimate tlio importance of the late events in the Indian Archipelago . The Raj ah ate of Sarawak , under the independent domination of Sir James Bkooke , is a territory about eighty miles square , forming the north-west corner of the vast island of Borneo . It has a mixed population of Malays , Dyaks , and Chinese , the Chinese occupying a cluster of settlements isolated from " the rest of the community . Sir
James Bbooke , having obtained the sovereignty of the province , established a code of laws applying equally to all classes of the inhabitants ; the peaceable Malays and Dyaks at once acquiesced ; the piratical tribes resisted , and were subdued ; the Chinese were incessantly restive , and waited for an opportunity to relieve themselves from the presence of a regular Grovernment . It mattered not that they prospered under the new system of rule , or that they saw Sarawak flourishing . Within a few years ,
a wilderness becamo a garden ; a wretched population of fourteen hundred increased to fourteen thousand at the capital alone ; in tlio several districts large spaces wei * e opened to agriculture ; slavery , head-hunting , and infanticide were abolished , confidence was established , the country was brightened by the aspects of industry and civilization . There was not a more picturesque town in the East than Sarawak , with its broad-eaved houses raised on wooden pillars , its elegant
plantations , and the river dividing its various quarters . Certainly , there was none with happier prospects . Yet the Chinese , though benefiting by tho development of trade and the extirpation of piracy , remained obstinate and sullen , wliilo tho Serebas and Sakarrans , formerly Sir James Brookio's enemies , adopted his authority and wero among his moBt efficient coadjutors during the brief but terrible campaign among tho villages and forests that followed tho March massacre . Somo
time ago , tho acting-commissioner aviis compelled to tnko a force of Malaya and Dyaks down to tho Chinese quarter , and to obtain tho surrender of a culprit at tlio point of tho sabre . In every respect , tho Ohinoso exhibited their contumacy and their hatred of tho British Kajah ' s Government . They conspired to defeat his plans , and the recent outbreak was simply tho development of their intention to overthrow hia authority altogether , to take hia life , and to establish their own supremacy . 1 b was , wo believe , tho branch of a great conspiracy in Eastern Asia , in which a largo section of tho Chinese people on the mainland and in tlio scattered
settlements are implicated . The incendiaries of Hong-Kong passed the signal to the incendiaries of Sarawak ; but nowhere wa& the manifestation of their animosity so brutal , so merciless , or so' deliberate as- in the Rajahate of Sir James Brooke . They collected by night ; they crept in swarms to the residences of the English settlers ; they first flung burning brands upon the roofs , and then fired through the lattices ; as the inmates ran forth , man , woman , or child , these miscreants carried on the havoc ;
they murdered one Englishman as he stumbled in the grass ; they cut down a woman as her husband bled in her defence ; while she lay , " calm and conscious , " weltering in her blood , they hacked at her head , and tore the rings off" her fingers ; they kicked the heads of children about like footballs ; they decapitated one unhappy gentleman , and bore off his skull as a tropny . The houses of the European residents were burned ; Sir James Brooke ' s entire possessions , the accumulations of a life , including a noble library were lost to him ; ten thousand dollars were abstracted from the
Borneo Company's treasury . The night was a revel of assassins , pirates , and incendiaries . The British Rajah himself , surprised during his sleep , called his servant , armed himself with a cutlass and a revolver , gained the creek , swam across , " struggled through the deep mud , and lay down exhausted and panting in the road . " It was not long , however , before he recovered his energy and proceeded to the rescue of the settlement . All honour to the Dutch—his old foes—that they proffered their assistance ; but before
their screw schooner appeared , Sir : James Beooke had retaliated with condign justice upon the bloodthirsty horde of burglars who had broken into the peace of a happy and beneficent community . The land Dyaks , or tribes of the interior , wero let loose upon the Chinese ; tho Malays worked up the rivers , and thus caught them between two hostile lines ; they were slaughtered at some points , and at others hunted
into the jungle ; their settlements , with one exception , were obliterated— " not a roof-tree left to cover their dastard heads in the country . " Perhaps we are to hear an outcry against this act of retributivenecessity . But of . this we feel assured , that from the vast majority of intelligent Englishmen and Englishwomen , Sir James Bkooice will receive encouragement , sympathy , and admiration . He has sacrificed all he ' possessed on eartli to the civilization of Borneo ; ho has
spent tho better part of his hie m endeavouring to push commerce beyond its ancient limits , to ameliorate tho condition of the natives , to teach them tho advantages of law and order ; he has dono more than a hundred missionary societies to humanize and christianize a barbarous population . In the midst of these efforts he is attacked by a band of cowards thirsting for his life , but alao maddened by a common fury agaiust tho European settlers . They afterwards professed to have aimed only at him and his oilicial associates ; but what ' were among tho incentives of Sir James JSkookk to visit them with
retribution ? ' A young , delicato , beautiful woman , tho wife of his friend , with her head cruelly hacked , twice stabbed , . and slashed across tho shoulder with a jagged weapon ; tho head of a defenceless guest , whoso body had been lost in tho flamed ; tho ashes of 0110 child burnt , and tho mutilated limbtf of another hewn to pieces ! AV " o trust that if any sympathy is aroused , soino of it at least ; will bo spared for the victims , ll ' nyy human creatures may bo described an vorinm , they are the Chinese , who mako wur with arsenic , and light with tlio ( labors ol assassins . Sir Jamjcw JJkookk did not yield
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Ma y 2 , 1857 . ) THE LEADER . 419
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Ifinblh Matix
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^ F There is nothing so revolutionary , because ttujreia nothing so unnatural and convulsive , as the strain to keep ' things fixed when all the world is by thevery law of its creation in eternal progress . —Dr . Abtjoid .
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— s - \__ * SATURDAY , MAY 2 , 1857 .
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Leader (1850-1860), May 2, 1857, page 419, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2191/page/11/
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