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PEEBS AND BARONETS
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PEEBS AND BARONETS.
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the wild agitation , we ought nevertheless energetically to insist that holiness is merely the health of the soul . The more , then , the soul is unhealthy , the more it is unholy . Religion is the 'blending oi 4 oy and of awe : it ' is the consciousness of . the Unseen—it is . identity with ' 'it . The most religious natures have been the least clamorous in their ¦ ut terances of adoration . By gorgeous ritual , by pregnant srmbol , they tried to give breath to their rapture in the pre ^ em- *? of the Invisible . It is loathsome to be furnished with what Mrs Wilkinson calls the dynamics of prayer , to have hysteria , epilepsy , catalepsy , &c ., disputing the ground with the Holy Ghost . The ' lethargy of the churches no one in England deplores niore than we deplore it . But there are only two ways in which it can be vanquished ; first , by the assertion of a valiant individuality , whatever may become of churches and creeds ; and , secondly , by claiming a development as harmonious for the religious life as the march and music of the stars . Men will fall very low if they are not convinced that there is a heroic , immutable , incorruptible morality , independent altogether of theologies ; they will fall lower still it they do not see in the religious life the return to the healthier , which means holier , commune with God . In these kingdoms at this hour there are no voices to preach sublime virtue , none to declare the true nature of the religious life , for which religions excitement is foolishly mistaken . The order of the universe is , it seems , to be worshipped by disorder . It is silly to tell us that put of religions excitement something nobler than itself may arise . Out of religious excitement assuredly the religious life never yet sprang ; and the more we are content to accept religious excitement for the religious life , the more impossible are we rendering a complete religious redemption . ; The places affected by the Irish Revival will , in ten years , have rushed biiek to a worse than their former indifference and sin . Nowhere in the world has religious excitement been so absolutely the substitute for the religious life as in the . United States of America . But has nob each fresh religious excitement left America more depraved tliitn before—moi'e sunk in every abomination and iniquity ? We pretend neither to judge God ' s niysteries , nor to limit His miracles . But the religious life must be as slow as it is stupendous in its operations , otherwise it loses its affinity with life in general .. Mere conversion ,-. or the mere adoption of a faith , differs entirely from the religious life , though so often identified with it . He who cometh under the influence of the religious life is riot converted ,- does not adopt a fViilh . God steals so insensibly into his soulj that it is only by a great gladness , by a great love to God and the brethren that he knows thereof . ; A » appeal to a vulgar wonder , to a gross incredulify is easily made ; and , by ghastly pictures of hell-fire , and by an acciitrmlation of melodramatic agencies , thousands may be convinced one moment Unit they are the children of wrath , and the next -that- they are the children of grace . But what is the process other than materialism and charlatanism combined ? Our age ,. truth , is so materialistic , that even its spiritualism is only a materialism of a subtler sort—a clever or clumsy theatricality , as it may . ' bo . To speak the whole of our thought with utmost frankness , we are afraid that Protestantism is galvanising itself , and trying to galvanise society . Far below the religious life must ever stand religious revivals , as we have said . Hut what the Covenanters did in Scotland , and what the Caniisards did in France , —though Only a form of religious revival , was a revelation of God ' s glory and of man ' s valour , and beauty , aud love . Yet who would venture to compare these noble Covenantors , these noble Camisards with the howling creatures in Ulster and America ? We are filling India with almost as many Mis . siun » ries as troops . But is there ought more furious or fantastic in the performances of the Hindoos before one of their idols than in the antics of an Ulster man or woman before Jehovah ? Our countrymen are drifting fast toward Fetichism ; the louder they yell , the uglier the gestures—the better the Christian . Mr . Wilkinson is an accomplished master of the legerdemain whereby what is detestable in otliur religions is made adorable in Christianity . Is Christ—is Christianity—thereby honoured ? We think not . If we have not already reached , wo are approaching the time when alii religions will be tented with regard to their merit , and not with regard to their authority , If you are a Feticliist in England , y ou are a no more exalted being thaii . ft Fotichist in Africa or in Hindostan . Mr , Wilkinson ' s phrases are ponderous , but they are not persuasive ; there is a touch of the Jesuit in * him . Will ho oblige us by showing how we are to distinguish between sacred books produced iu one part of Asia , and sacred books produced in another ? We reverence all religions too mucii to scoff at any . But how fatal the blow you strike at Christianity by asserting- that to be permitted to the Christian which is not permitted to the Buddhist . Verily there is no humble Christian disciple , no deep Christian mystic , no undaunted Christian martyr , who could so speak or who has so spoken . ' Iteligion from its very name is inclusive , is Catholic ; it confers that all its countless daughters have , however defaced , a celestial loveliness ; that it is not willingly but unwillingly that man is unduLil ' ul to his Omnipotent Father ; thut how far soever ho may have gono astray ho always rejoices to return j that ( ho lonelieat orisons arc the most welcome at the starry gate ; that religious revival in of pnrth , while the roligious life jls of Heaven , and that the religious life never arrives till nations )» ave wearied thomselvea in tram ? to imitate it .
Peebs And Baronets
sort are of a retiring disposition . They shun large towns , but are well known in the country . In London , Birmingham , or Manchester they would be lost ; and if they wandered up the High-street afc Preston , a Lancashire " lass" would not mind treading on their toes with her clogs j should they move about the black country , one Of the aborigines might possibly " heave > lf a brick" at any one supposed to be an aristocrat . But it would be better if , as wel l as abusing them , we took care to know something , about them . * When we make ail attack , it is convenient to know our opponent ' s strength . If we wish to abuse a man , we certainly ought to find out his weak
points ; if we wish to praise him we should know his virtues , lest , being mistaken ' , our blame fall harmless , Or our praise be mistaken for satire . In truth , there is about as much ignorance existing even in the bestinformed middle classes about the Peerage , as there is about anything else in the world , save the millennium and the British constitution . Not all of us have seen a lord ; in fact , very few . JVon omnibus datum est habere nasum . Time was when we , like others , took an unknown thing to be magnificent . We were first awakened from our dream by seeing an Irish marquis borrowing money in a little back parlour from a feeble old woman , he himself at the time rejoicing in a ragged shirt collar and wristbands frayed out to their utmost . What I we were ready to exclaim with the song- — -
" What ! that the : Kino ! what that man there ? Why I Beed a man at Bartlemy fair More like a king than that man there . *' But our earl was a real live peer after all . Our measure of wonderment still exists with many of the young- and middle age . Those who write should afford a pretty good criterion of ideas of the educated on the subject—and yet take our modern plays and novels , and mark what the peer or the baronet is there . Take Bulwer ' s creations—Bulwer , as we shall see > is a " Bart . " himself—and what glittering spasmodic dolls tlie dukes , earls , marquises , and barons are his . Earls arid dukes ; are popular in novels ; viscounts the authors omit . Baronets on the stage are generally wicked , clever , ' . daredevil feliows ^ very effective , no doubt , but not real ; " good men and , mrV crnnA Knivipi-a . " fo rmnte Costard , but for "Alexander i' faith . good bowlers" to quote Costardbut for " Alexander 1 iaitu .
very , , You see how it is , 'tis a little o ' er parted . " The utter nonsense which female writers give vent to about their noble heroes is immense , and never enough to be condemned whilst they can beg , borrow , steal a peerage ( the books , by the way , are books of reference , and may be found hi the large reading-room at the British Museum ) . We write this for the benefit of lady novelists , one of whom objected , with half the world , to Mr . Thackeray ' s Sir Pitt " Craw ley ,- " You draw your characters very well , but surely you must be wrorig , indeed utterly mistaken , in making a baronet such a coarse , brutal clown ; oh , you are wrong . " " That , madam , " said the great author , " is the only character I have painted without exaggeration ^ arid most closely to nature itself . " We have no doubt that he spoke tlie literal truth . When Vanbrugh drew his Sir Francis Wrdnghead , or his Sir John Brute , he did riot give us a poor ideal in Pelharn costume and yellow kid gloves .
A few statistics of the peerage taken from the books under review will help us amazingly . The kingdom , or rather the three kingdoms , is populous with peers . Burke ' s volume has upwards of twelve hundred pages in very small type , containing only a very short digest concex'ning each peer or baronet . Of dukedoms we have twentyseven ; marquisates , thirty-eight ; earldoms , about two hundred , and thirty-one ; viscounties—or , as Sir Bernard puts it , viscounteiesseventy-seven , not counting " Wiscount Williams ; " of baronies , we have three hundred and eight . From these , also , we have hundreds of courtesy titles : bo that , what with the lords in reality ,
i . e ., barons , and the courtesy people , we may double the latter number . Of baronets , a lesser hereditary nobility , we have close upon six hundred . Of these , of the baronets of James I ., we have only thirty-one remaining j of King- Charles I ., forty-eight ; of Charles II ., severity-eight ; of James II ., four ; William and Mary , six ; Anne , eight ; George I ., nine ; George III ., three hundred and forty ; and of Victoria , one hundred and five . Amongst th . e very freshest creations of these latter will be found Sir Archdale Wilson , of Delhi ,-Sir Henry Havelock , Sir John Lawrence , Cunard , and Nicholson , besides the Parsee baronet , Sir Jamsetjee Jejeeblioy .
Amongst so many , it follows that the aristocracy , as they areconventionally terme ' d—although the word means a form of government , not a class , and our aristocracy cannot claim to be the aptarof , i , e ., " the best "—it follows , we say , that amongst so many , some must be fools , knaves , dolts , vicious , and the like : no class is exempted from the common lot . Many , also , must bo clover , good , bravo , noble , generous , great , and wise . Proud moat of them are . If you were to take one boy out of any family , call him f My lord , " give him place , obedience , subservience even , attention and honour—single him put for preference , and overwhelm him
with it at school and college , at homo , and in the world , he would be a vory remarkable boy jf lie did not imbibe proud , lofty notions , and think himself hotter thai ) the rest . We think that it must be conceded that the members of the peerage generally do think themselves better than the roat . They are nous aulres ; we are the people ; noblesse oblige : nyo , aye , it does , and in more souses than , one , The Queen herself , who is , by the way , in some House a peer , appeals to the pride of the baron when she terms him " right honourable , " and " right tvusty and well beloved . " Tho vlseounfc she is more polite to ; moving ^ we may say at once , in a crescendo
* Pewaflo atid Baronotar / o . 1860 . Twcnty-eooond Edition . By Sir Barnard burko , Ulatbr KinK-ftt-Axwo . JJodd ' a l poryao and JJaronoGago . 1800 . Whittukor &a Go . Jlardwk'Wa Shilling X * oerago . 1800 . Hardwloke .
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gg The Leader and Saturday Analyst . [ Jan . 2 S , 1 SCO .
Peebs And Baronets.
PTCTOtS AND BARONETS .
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M Jt , HHTGHTliaa lately brought tho Peerage mtoRomo notoriety . He lias thought it worthy of hia abuse , and ono source of popularity nmy bo found iu the disdain of a democrat . Peers of the bettor
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 28, 1860, page 88, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2331/page/12/
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