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DRAWING-ROOM SORROWS.* 1 _l_ j... .1 x» _ j.i • _ '. . 1 i... j.i 1 i_ j.1 J.J. indobtotl for this to the booktho
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only in the misapprehension of Chinamen , but in the misconduct of Englishmen . ' There was a time when the English Government tried to have commercial relations with China , but they utterly " failed . British merchants would smuggle , would defraud the Chinese revenue . The Chinese would ' apply their laws to Englishmen ; they seized British subjects as hostages ; they threatened our official representative ; they fired on our flag 1 , and , finally , forbad us to trade with them , under penalty of death . Wars have since sprung , to a very great extent , from the same causes , mercantile rapacity and Chinese official violence , and Chinese incapacity to think or act as Europeans . Another evil is the fact , that from . Chinese official subordinates correct information never reaches the Emperor . If it did , an end would soon be put to the system of peculation , extortion , and petty tyranny , by which such officials existed , and by which they , each in turn , hoped to amass a fortune . Moreover , heeding only their peculiar interests , a large mass of the European mercantile community in China were averse to such relations with the Court of Pekin as would compel us to place our trade relations upon a really healthy footing . With few honourable exceptions they opposed the resident minister in Pekin , extension of open ports , and assistance to the Chinese Government in checking fraud upon their customs . And thus we have been involved in three wars with China , and endless acts of violence against Chinese officials . What a picture , on both sides , of the corruption of human nature ? West or east , both were alike transgressors . The affair of the Peiho River , however , crowned a series of acts of imperial duplicity with one of treachery ,, not to be paralleled perhaps out of China . Yet England has been in no hurry to resent the insult . This slackness to avenge a defeat is not without injury , " With a Chinaman , as with any other Eastern , delay in acting against him , when he assumes a hostile position , does not increase the chance of his taking a more enlightened view of the irrational nature of Ms own proceedings , but merely confirms him in his own folly , and lie considers ybur forbearance to arise from fear or hesitation . " The Court of Pekin , meanwhile , has naturally treated our diplomatists with scorn . Unfortunately , too , our leading * mercantile firms in China abetted the obstructive factions , being equally opposed , to the general opening up of China , and thus arrayed themselves against the interests of Great Britain , and against the treaty of Tientsin .-Our weakness , in regard to China , consists in our being a house divided against itself . Hence the difficulty felt by Government ; and , perhaps , the delay in taking those active measures which ihvst at last be resorted to . We are at home , indeed , the victims of a base monopoly , established by our own countrymen . Captain Osborn has well argued this point , and rightly shewn the enormity of the offence . It is the objections and the influence of the founders of this monopoly " which have alarmed the Foreign Secretary of Great Britain , and which at this moment threaten to sacrifice the interests of the manufacturer and consumer at home to the vested rights of the exporters from China . " . He thinks , how * ever , that they will not succeed in the end , and that the " sound good sense of this country will outride eventually all their jog-along 1 theories . " In the course of his argument , he puts a case . The tea that the wife of the poor English labourer pays 2 s . lOd . or 3 s . a , pound for—and even at tliat price it is adulterated with every abomination under heaven—sells on the spot where it is produced at 80 cash per catty , or in rough terms 3 d . a pound English , Who is it , he demands , that takes the remaining 2 s . 6 d . for delivering 1 a pound of tea at our doors P Is it the mandarin , the merchant , or Mr . Gladstone ? " One thing is certain , that the half-crown does not go into the hands of the poor Chinese tea-farmer , and that it comes out of the hard-earned wages of the English labourer , or starving half-pay officer . " To remedy all this evil , our author argues that tbe Court of Pekin should be summarily punished for its late perfidy , that wo should insist upon our rig-lit of having a representative at Pekin , who shall communicate directly with the prime minister or sovereign ; and , lastly , that we should give all countenance and support to the establishment of the new-raised Chinese and European Boards of- Customs in China . Every clause in the Treaty of Tientsin ought to bo exacted to the full extent . An armed exploration of the sea-board and interior of China is needed , if China is to bo opened , and our import trade to China to become as flourishing as tho export trade from China . Not until England appeared as a belligerent did European civilisation progross in the face of Chinese exclusivoness . It was to the strong arm of the executive that Western nations were indebted for this extension of trado to the five ports , and for our increased knowledge of that Empire ; it waa to the strong arm of the executive , not to the diplomatist , and not to tho persuasions or enterprise of merchants * or missionaries then rosidont in Canton , that Great Britain is indebted for her present revenue derivable from China . Tlio wholo life of tho Chinese is so totally absorbed in temporal interests , that it is merely materialism put in action . Honco , their indifference to any logic but tho stern logic of facts and force , and their wunt of susceptibility to religious impressions . War with tho Chinese , in future , must cease being a solemn farce , and become a terrible reality . They will then aoon learn to think nlilco with ourselves , and condescend to tho proper measures for tho mutual good of both countries . JL»—«—¦ i ¦ ' ¦¦¦¦ i»—liiim'ii ¦ ii t »*»
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Sept . 8 , I 860 . ] The Saturday Analyst and Leader . 785
Drawing-Room Sorrows.* 1 _L_ J... .1 X» _ J.I • _ '. . 1 I... J.I 1 I_ J.1 J.J. Indobtotl For This To The Booktho
DRAWING-ROOM SORROWS . * 1 _ l _ j ... . 1 x » _ j . i _ ' . . 1 i ... j . i 1 i _ j . 1 J . J . indobtotl for this to the booktho
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Wlii aro phrase , title of which , we subjoin . It is asuuill , but docidedly good book , addressed to a young married wifo , and at tlio commencement , ¦ warning her that tlie The it « al ami the UoaifMvut . i ) y tho Aullior of " Vlnltlntf my Mo ) tUloim , "&o . Ktclinrd UonUoy ,
realities of matrimony will break in , and , perhaps , jar with the idealities of courtship j and giving- such advice under the circumstances as is rrtost expedient . Too much of fancy , of feeling , of passion , however ¦ delightful for a time , will not last for " time , times , and half a time . " It is the more" sober view of things that wears longest . Personal and perpetual . homage must not be exacted from the husband ,, however , willingly rendered it may be by the lover . That wife is mistaken who thinks that a husband worth having will continue to be enslaved by his feelings . These lessons come with all the more force , as they proceed from the pen of a lady . She reasonably objects greatly to the flimsey mode of education in which women are usually reared , and which will not bear the rude touch of actual life . Triends of both sexes will probably be possessed by the husband , and these will excite groundless jealousies in a wife whose mind is ill-regulated , and who foolishly expects to be her husband ' s idol to the end of the chapter . We repeat that these admoni-. tions , proceeding from a female source , have great cogency and weight . Our authoress in her argument uses analogy with advantage . She detects a correspondence between music and religion , which she identifies somewhat after , this fashion . Education in both is generally superficial . She tells her correspondent that the latter is in some sort a musician , loves music , plays pleasingly on the piano , and might , with her taste and genius , have reached high excellence as a performer if she would have borne the discipline necessary to that end ; might , in a word , have become an Arabella Goddard . In the days of her pupillage , under good Mr . Dash , she tried for a quarter of an hour , or so , to practise her musical exercises ; but , soon wearied , her eyes would rest upon < me amongst them that looked easier than the rest , and , perhaps , it was prettier , more simple , and altogether what would , tell better to learn by rote and please a drawing-room audience ; amongst which few know , and still fewer care , how intense and unremitting must be the labour to master those of a more difficult character . Much applauded for this easy victory , her correspondent ! however , was not altogether happy under the praise ; because she was conscious that if her wandering admirers knew as much of the matter as she did , they would see that she was less deserving of praise for her pains , than of censure for her want of them . Resolution would follow on this to produce what real practice would put it into her power to exhibit , and for a day or two would be persevered in , and so far convince her that she really possessed the power to triumph over all obstacles . But other objects would , then interfere , — -objects of a more facile and enticing character , and requiring less labour ; and away went the exercises , and all chance of acquiring the excellence of Arabella Goddard . And thus , also , in . religion , our fashionably educated young lady regards only its shewy externals , not its inner sense . That this inner sense must be believed in before it can be obeyed , she will as readily grant as that , two and two make four ; but has she any idea of what believing in it comprises ? Seldom has her religion been of the kind that turns inward for its manifestations , which it must do in order t . o become a living and a growing thing , and to produce the sentiment called faith . Little of a living principle can she find stirred into activity by Sunday visits to church ; yet in 'these visits , for the most part , does all her religion consist ! She may there listen to powerful sermons , and indulge in the tenderness of . devotional feeling , but the impressions thus made have about the same vitality of fact in them , in so far as her . religious state is concerned , as her musical condition possesses . She " can play very nicely all the pretty and agreeable music she knows , and which she has picked up as easily as she could gather a flower out of the garden ; but her ability goes no further . Why P not because it is not there , but because it had never been developed by the labour and continuous attention requisite for that purpose . " There is something . Socratic in this kind of teaching :. Our authoress then goes on to tell a story of an old couple who read daily together tho lessons of the day , but without the routine practice producing any oft ' ect mi their moral temper or mental discipline . She regards life as a condition of education , and accordingly in disposed " to submit rationally and willingly to pain and disappointment . " Lessons on the folly of unguarded speech , and the beneficial influence of silence , next follow . Misplaced confidences are fatal . Bettor it is to practice patience , than to seek such consolation . Next , tho relations that a mistress should boar to her servants are fully entered into . These remarks oannot fail of being highly serviceable to now-married people . Our relations to the world , with . all its dissatisfying condition * , aro then treated . In this portion of tho book , we find some criticism on tho poet Keats , which wo cannot but consider as too auiwtore , and even perhaps misdirected . But , to counterbalance this dof'cut , there airo noino speculations on life and death , together with " tho groat mystery of human discontent and misery which are really beautiful . " Some practical directions us to the duties of mothers towards * their offspring 1 will , wo should think , be found of much value . But tho author vecurH evormoro to her leading arguments—tho relation of wife and husband . There will eoino a time whon tho ideal of tho former is no longer roalisted in the hitter ? and tho signal soon arrives that the nairi timo is at hand whon the lady must iibdieate the power to which she has been accustomed . Thin signal , perhaps , consists in a slight fault-finding with tlio viands provided for dinner . This is a trying portion , verily . " To descend from tho nodvtitul on which tho imagination of u lover hud pliiootl it , and to behold the deification which had boon such a voluntary oflbring , that it < yas really excusable to reckon upon its duration , thus threatened with extinction in the miro of iin nppotito for savoury dinhos , —nil tins is
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 8, 1860, page 785, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2364/page/9/
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