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Order ascribed to such things by " the vulgar ;" and in this case the vulgar , upon the whole , has , vcith the experience of some thousands of years , arrived' at tolerably sound conclusions on the essentials of the subject , though there are still differences of opinion iu regard to the modus . The bridegroom did not fetch away-his . bride himself ;' the bride did not hasten to the impatient arms , but with something more than " a coy , reluctant , amorous delay , " reached Portugal with a good deal of circumviation , wasting the fruitless moments in English sight-seeing , and other somewhat dilatory diversions
. The marriage , in fact , painfully resembles royal marriages in general , which appear to be the mere pretexts for ceremony , oi \ contracts formed entirely for genealogical purposes . There are , indeed , [ some peculiar circumstances in the present case , _ arising from the peculiar character of the young King , who " is every inch a gentleman . " He has shown it , not only by the discretion of his behaviour under his tutors , but since he has left them ; not only by the assiduit y with which he has applied himself to public business , and his treatment of all who approach him , but by the devotion with which , when others fled , he became a
watchman over the stricken inhabitants of Lisbon , and attended at their bedsides when they lay prostrate with an . epidemic ; He then set an . example that must have saved many from , death , and probably lent an impulse to an elevation of feeling throughout the whole of Portuguese society . Personal character can greatly influence even these formal marriages , as we have seen in our own Court ; where an ardent attachment , with many of the traits falsely ascribed to " romance " alone , Las been succeeded by the development of family relations in their heartiest , most genial , and most sterling shape . But ifc is not often that individual character can thus assert itself . Where it is not exceedingly strong , it is -overlaid , by the power of circumstances—becomes mechanized
to the grooves of custom au . A ceremony . And these Court marriages , we truly believe , do more to unhumanize the established rulers of the civilized world , than any other misery to which they are subjected . Such a union tends" to segregate them from the society over which they have to preside ; cuts off their sympathies ; shuts out more than one inlet of knowledge ; prevents them from understanding those whom they have to guide , or even coerce ; debars them from learning what are the greatest pains , what the greatest rewards of life ; and making the monarch ignorant , compels him to govern ill , drives him to be a bungling tyrant , and sends him to the grave with pomp , but without honour . Ifc is indeed true that fortune allots to the
millions who are born into this world a most unequal share of life , insomuch that there are some amongst us who go about possessed of thoughts , exalted by knowledge , sustained by objects within their sight , which are not only shut off from the multitude around , but are of such nature that'their existence is unknown to the many , in some cases known but to the very few . A Herschcl is accustomed to see , and watel ) , and think of tilings which " John , " who waits upon him , could not imagine if he were told about them . But Hcrschel himself is a beggar in thought , unless he has learnt of other things in life besides what the telescope or the pedagogue can teach .
The monarch , in . his own experience of llii ' s world , ought to comprehend what should be tlie experiences of his fellow-creatures , as tho greater should include the less ; but by the laws of custom which tyrannize over crowned heads and their families , the royal class U doomed to make a mockery of life in its moat sacred ties , and sentenced to a cramping and unliappy ignorance .
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THE CRISIS IN FRANCE . Whether the moment of crisis be near or distant , the state of Trance at the present moment is such as to command tho gravest attention of Europe . Ever since the termination of the late war , her trade and commerce have been in an almost stagnant condition , nnd her public securities subject to a depression from which tho Imperial powers have failed to relievo them . During the continuance ol the war , an explanation of tho bad state of affairs was sought in tho abnormal condition of the country ; but on the return of peaco , it was found that all the influences which were to have acted beneficially upon the fortunes of franco either lay dormant or actively helped to bring about results tho very reverse of those which had been anticipated . Public credit has sunk to a point which threatens disaster .
The nuances of the country are set forth , in such a manner as to betray the fact that tlie truth is , above everything , to be kept from the people . In ten years the National Debt has been increased by something like 110 , 000 , 000 / . ; and the yearly excess of expenditure over income is about-10 , 000 , 000 / . But , as an example of the false face put upon the public accounts when they appear in the form of a budget , it may be observed that only half the sum named as deficit appears directly against the Government , the other half being debited as paid away for purposes to which
it is never applied . In fact , a sum of 6 , 000 , 000 / . is annually voted (!) for payment of the Sinking Fund , and is used by the Government for any purpose for which it stands in need of money . A commission appointed to consider the details of the Budget of the present year have set ibis in a very clear light , in spite of the endeavour evident in their proceedings to make the discrepancies of the Minister ' s figures-as ^ little offensive as possible to the Imperial Finaiicier-in-Chief . " When we find , therefore , the public accounts of France tampered with and contorted until it is impossible to put the smallest trust in their nominal results , we need not go much further in search , of a cause for tiie decline of public credit , with its natural
consequences , stagnation of trade and commerce . The very attempts which have been made to bring about commercial and speculative activity have been of a kind to confirm suspicion and to alarm distrust . The Imperial conferences with the promoters of great railway schemes and Bourse Operations were not calculated to inspire any one with hope of sound improvement . Nor are the measures taken at this moment to compel the Charitable Institutions of the country to sell their lands for the purpose of investing the '' proceeds . ' -in the Funds , on pretext of enabling them to draw larger resources , any more calculated to bring about public confidence . The proceedings are too obviously empirical—too random , to be confided in as earnests of the Imperial wisdom and power to rectify tlie evils with which they are intended to deal . -
But it is not only in the embarrassments of her finances tliat we see at this moment subject-matter for grave and even anxious attention , to the state of France . Again and again , since 18-i-S , has Louis Napoleon stepped in to save the poor . of . Paris from starvation , . which signifies revolution . He has regulated the price of food , subverting the ordinary operations of trade , without securing the least permanent advantage to the trader or to the workman . A temporary end was served ; the settlement of the bill of expenses was deferred ; but this mode of getting over a difficulty , cannot be
cmployed for ever ; the price of food cannot be artificially regulated in the face of a natural scarcity . This scarcity has now to be dealt with . There is not animal food enough in . the country to supply its wants ; and already the effects of the iong-continued endeavour to bear with the deficiency is telling upon tlie bones and sinews of the people . America , England , Belgium and Spain are ready to furnish France with beef ; but the people of France are too poor to avail themselves of the remedy for their want , and they have to set earnestly to work to find some substitute that is within their means .
Horseflesh is the remedy nearest to hand , and the highest scientific authorities are brought to bear upon the public mind to familiarize it with the idea of hinpophagy . This is a strong sign of the condition of the French people—of the masses , enormously taxed , and without hope of improvement , as regards their physical welfare . Looking to the social and political condition or France the portents are still stronger and more directly against the possibility of an improved public confidence . Since the affair of the 14 th of January the Imperial acts have bocn for tho most part directed against the last vestiges of civil liberty left to tho people ; and , in fuct , the Government
lias become a veritable tyranny . We know that , for weeks after that date , numbers of men were carried ofT from every department and transported without public accusation or trial . We know that , since that time , the whole press of France has been gagged , and e very means by which the public voice could be made to be heard has been cut off from it . The Imperial will is not iu the lcaat degree relaxed , and within the last week wo find oven presses used for Fine-art purposes arc no longer to be permitted to remain in the hands of unlicensed persons , for fear of tho machines being perverted to uses adverse to the Government . Tho pressure is becoming too heavy , and already
we have many signs of impatience . Let the venal press attempt as it will to deny the fact , the late Op . position elections in Paris , and more particularly the re-election of Count Migeon in the Haut Rhin , are so many protests of the people against the present regime . The struggle , in the ease of Count Migeon was carried on face to face with the Government which exerted in Tain its whole power to defeat the popular candidate . There was not even an attempt to conceal the Imperial influence which , was brought to bear against this man , whose only special claim to popular support against the Imperial nominee lay in the fact that he had been scandalously persecuted at the previous election for having dared to oppose the candidate provided by the Government —for . '' tlie free choice of the electors . " The decision of the electors of the Haut Hhin is more significant than the retributive attempts of any number of foreign conspirators . But it is in the attitude of the . ' French Army that we see most clearly the all but imposs ibility of a restoration of public confidence . The conspiracy of forty subalterns to murder a civilian who had had the temerity to write a very mild jest upon tlie maladroitness of sous-bfliciers iu the carriage of their spurs when in tlie neighbourhood of . ladies ' dresses , shows at a glance the military terrorism by which France is at this moment governed . There is no mistake . In France , the writer of a joke against a soldier is beyond the pale of civil lav or protection : the sous-officiers of the Imperial array are judges and executioners , beyond even Imperial power of control ; they do their bloody work , and not a hand is lifted against them by Imperial authority . History , it has been said , never repeats itself , and in a large sense that is true ; yet historical parallels are not wanting , and it will be strange if the attitude of the French army does uot call up to the mind of France a picture of the throne of another Empire surrounded by Prsetofian guards—and of the fate of him who sat upon it . With such thoughts in their heads the people of France are not likely to be either trustiul of their Government , or sanguine on the subject of Public Credit .
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SIGNS OF INSANITY . " 'Tis a mad world , my masters . " The lieverend Mr . Leach has been tried this week on a charge of insanity for actions which in themselves seem reasonable enough . He lived in a country house , far from so-called " society , " and he was afflicted with a domineering mother : to mitigate his loneliness ,-and also , he admits , to retaliate on his mother , lie admitted his servants to his table , and was-in-the habit of taking one of the servant-girls , the prettiest we suppose , on his knee , and kissing her . Dr . Johnson did the same at the Mitre Tavern , whereto he invited some " pretty fools , " who came f o talk to him ; other wise men have followed his example ; and though it is certainly against bie / istunce to see a clerical gentleman toying with servant wenches , yet the man might do it excusably enough in a fit of Sternc-like sympathy , or as a mere relief from the tedium of a lonely studio . It is strange enough , if we consider the matter deeply , to find ourselves excusing a Christian minister for associating on terms of perfect equality willi his dearly beloved brethren . Is it really and truly un-Christian and unbecoming in a minister of the Gospel to siL down at the same taT > le with servants ' i Would the earl y apostles have done it—or was St . l ' mil on his missions always invited into tlie parlour , and not allowed to preach , or talk , or cat in the servants ' hall ? If is said , also , that Mr . Leach used to give out a hymn between rounds of ctml-playing . A very odd notion , and showing a very eccentric tone of mind ; but , possibly , Mr . Leach had some general notion that card-playing in itself was as innocent as eating and drinking ; that interrupting it with religious exercises was only like tho daily fftd of afternoon service between luncheon ami dinner . As to his treating the servants on an equality , we arc reminded ol tho different conduct of the Spanish grandee , who , afflicted with fc \ y visitors in a lonely castle , was compelled occasionally to call in a domestic to take a band at a game of cards ; but insisted that the new player should rest on one knee , to establish his social inferiority . 1 ' oor proud heart too sociable to sit alone ; too proud to allow his fellow-man even a temporary equality . Mr . Leach committed other acts of insanity . He kept loaded pistols ( no madness iu a country-house ) and he wore his beard—mi insanity now sinvml by nearly half the population . But the crowning madness waa his intention to marry one of tho
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Stfr TM LlEAiJEB . [ N (> , 427 VMay 29 , 1858 .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), May 29, 1858, page 516, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2244/page/12/
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