On this page

• Text (2)

  Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

  • 

    Apint 7, 1860.J The Leader and r Safywda...

  • 

    DELPIIOS AT FAULT. npHRRE is something v...

• Transcript

  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    The T11eaty Bktwekx Spaix Ant) Mokqcco. ...

    given the Spaniards a swaggering confidence in their own strength ., . .. - . . Small successes' in war are as dangerous as small winnings are to a young gambler . They often lead on to great disasters and ¦ final * . ruin . ' Spain has done reasonably well in tins foray on African oround—has won some yards of sea-sand , and obtained some b a o-s of piastres in return for the men she lias buried in the Moorish land . Her garrisons at Melilla and her convicts at Ceuta may now , for the present , stroll beyond the walls without being . shot down by Moorish matchlocks . For a- few months she will enjoy the privilege of dealing for Moorish slippers and shell necklaces at her own prices . She may stand on the shores of the Atlantic , and clap her wings and crow till they hear it in . the small

    Canary Islands ; but woe to her if these successes tempt her to * further aggressions ; her march to Fez may prove more dangerous than that safe alongshore on to Tetnan . The next time 3 the Moors may gather in numbers thick ns the locust clouds , and numerous' as the flies round a dead camel . Hunger and thirst , those two great generals , may lead them on , and cohorts of fevers waitjai ambush for the invader . The Spanish transport maybe lost by tempest , their provisions ¦ plundered ,, tlieir horses slain , their guns taken ; while inner Africa , rousing like the .-wild beasts in a jungle on fire , ' may-gather darker and darker around their march : a common danger makes a nation feel that in unity is common safety .. The Moors . may tlien exact from their captives the . three hundred years' rent of the Athambra that is owinsr ¦ them .

    Seriously , in conclusion , we say , that if Spain is wise she will be content ¦ with , her small triumph , and hang up again quietly her blooded arms in her crank arsenals . The Moors are . the only people she is lit to cope with ; and had they been united , even the Moors Ayould have been too much for her . . With-. great loss of . men she has won from them a bucket or two full of piastres , and some strips of sea shore . Let her be thankful and humble ; the victory is no great tiling , and she has bled freely to win , even , so much ' sand . Her difficulty " now begins in holding it , and in being the generous and not the vulgarly bragging conqueror . Was it worth eight or ten thousand lives to obtain the privilege of forcing a meddling- Catholic priest upon the chafed inhabitants of Fez ? ¦ ,

    Apint 7, 1860.J The Leader And R Safywda...

    Apint 7 , 1860 . J The Leader and Safywday Analyst . 323

    Delpiios At Fault. Nphrre Is Something V...

    DELPIIOS AT FAULT . npHRRE is something very mournful in seeing tlic strong reduced X to feebleness , kings discrowned , mighty--warriors in tears , Delphos mourning over its own ignorance ,, the millionaire reduced to sue informd pauperis , and the Times wringing its bands and confessing its utter inability to penetrate the mists of the future—the oracle tlinfc knows every thing , tells every tiling-, teaches every thing , calling- on heaven and earth for a . little . information as to the probable results of tlic New Reform Bill . ' If . s thousand tributories bring ifc nothing , and yet there are a thousand minor oracles waiting to be fed , '' .., ¦ '

    Yet , . after all , there inoy be , a little jifiWation in this . The maiden who has been admired long enough Tor her buXomnesB , often tries to get up a little fresh interest us an invalid : and the muscular mendicant niay' ' whino fur the mere Am of the tiling , whilst all the while you see a roguish twinkle in his eye , and a good thick cudgel ihJiis grasp . We have not the slightest doubt that the Times could write currente calamo a . good strong slushing article on the jiewlleform Bill and its results , just as easily as the jifisereros it has been lately giving us . Formerly , the main ground of objection to the extension of tho franchise was the ignoranoe of the . classes below what goos in ovdidinary acceptation for tho middle class of ^ England , Tho alternative had for centuries boon thus put : — " Whore one pnrfc does disdain witli oause , the other Insult without all reason : whore trontrytitlewisdom

    , , , Camiot conclude but by tho yen and no Of gbnoralignorunco . " Or Ve may turn from Shakespeare to one of tho queries of Bishop JBiSRJvMc y nfc a hitor date —• . " Wliothor to comprehend tho real intorost of a pooplo , and the moans to procure it , doth not imply some fund of knowledge , historical , moral , and political , with p , faculty of reason improved by U'lirning ?" A portion of tho inference meant to be drawn from this we arc very much inclined to resist , both retrospectively , and far inoro aa ifc xnight bo applied in the present day . As to that high history ^

    cultivated wisdom , which would really give n man weight and authority as a portion of the constituent body , wo believe ills existonco to bo now , as formerly , ftn accident , and an exception rtithur than a rulo . Wo speak not jiero of prejudices deooruted with aluHsioal taste , or ignorance elegantly woinlod , because tho education of our educated classes tends inoro ' especially to the ornamental , and to tho wisdom of past rather than present times ; and those two wisdoms are t ' tiv troxn being always nopossiirily the Hume . Wo will however concodo to tho upper and tho middle clasHes the advantage of mental oxer * ciflo , of a considerable amount of reasoning power gained , if in no other way , by the more cultivation of tho lunyungofi , and that general education of tho taste which servos na o aort of freemasonry

    between man and man ; and here , as far as regards the results of a gentleman ' s education in . England ; we should be very much inclined to stop , Does any of our renders seriously believe , that out of the first ten of his acquaintances who may occur to him as at p-resenfc holding the franchise , there are more than two at the utmost who could give an intelligent and intelligible account of the political motives , causes , effects , and consequences of any half-century of English history ; of course hot including time within his own lneiriory , though in most cases even that might be included without raueh danger to our avijuraent ?

    Take wide classes ; take the ordinary country gentleman , or the gentleman farmer : asa rule lie-knows . no more of the intrigues of Waxpolu , Granville , and the PiiLHAiis than his horse does of the motto on his master ' s carriage . He reads the paper , or part of it , perhaps , and his advantage in political knowledge over his ^ room is that his paper is rather dearer , and probably honester . We are hinting here at that realty useful degree of political and historicalknowledge which might probably enable a man to judge in some measure of the-future from the modern past . Take , again , the professional man , jaded with cares and witli eases ,

    who has been educated at a decent school , and read just enough to pass at the University ; will he , in most instances , pass the little examination we have just proposed ? Will the clergyman , who , like a nun of Venice taking ; the vows , lias thrown even his classical nosegay behind him for the sterner work of fabricating- the Gospel net and visiting the cottage—will he bear catechising on the principal events in the reign of Queen-Akxe , decide between abdication and expulsion , or toll us bow long the experiment of tlie triennial parlianient lasted ? X > r . AftNOLD hinted that the clergy , as a body , studied little any such topics , and thereby roused a bitterness perbans proportioned to the truth of the accusation . least

    Tew can , in tlie Gladstone sense of the passage at . , follow tlie kind advice of Shen-stoxe , — " From -mnjest . Mako ' s awful strain , -Or towering TJombr let his eye descend To trace with patient industry the page Of" income and expanse ;"tliougli attention to the latter clause in a domestic sense may probablv compel him to give-up the former altogether . If few ot the individuals in the classes above mentioned possess to any large extent Berkley ' s very reasonable desiderata , " koiuo fund of . ' knowledge , historical , moral , and political . " still less should we find them in loungers of fashion-, tbe best ofwliotn

    " Pick tip their little knowledge from reviews , And lay out all their stock of faith in ne \ vs . '' 1 Perhaps , on the whole , subjects commercial and ecclesiastical are tlie best understood of any within what may be called the range of political knowledge , because they are the most bruited in common talk , and' made the most frequent topics of social discussion ; yet even here we should be cautious of claiming any very extended or enlightened views exclusively for those who have been hitherto in the possession pi" the franchise . There is here no desire to make an onslaught on all those classes which . form the mass of English gentlemen ,- and nmny of whom are inoro respectable , and more respected in attending to their duties and their families , than in-making . n study of Bubnet , 3 oMiaivii , l , B ,

    Adam Smith , and lUiLi , ; but when " an immense superiority ot knowledge , worthily called political , is assumed over . tho m ( iehsinic , we very " much < lnubt tlie justice of the assumption ^—though the mnss ' pjf' ganunil infonnnlii » n sown broadcast , a bit hero aiYd u scrap there , anioiigtft the up [) cr-and-. nii ( l < llo olasacs , is just now doubtless considerably more than in that next below thorn . This clnss however is probably now hotter informed than that lor which Chatham hjuV bis son-oncro chiiinqd tho liaiicliise j and what is more , Lhoy are yoarly and daily ginning ground , tlieir fooling of tho want of the finish ' of elegant iicquiro . ! iii !! itH nnluviilly leadingthui ' n all thuinore to seek for tho solid . Wo do not wish to depreciate tho vu . st fund of

    miscellaneous Unowloihro hold in solution by what in in England ternied good' society , but . wo think r / ctiorai education hns boon rather rated above it ' s worth w regards its . boariug upon niortt of the . political questions thnt nrirto ; and we sincerely believe that with reading , writing , nritlunetjo , and tho denii-o of knowlod ^ e , a moeiuinic of even tho huinblor chins , niight , with an hour ' s remling a day for tsyo years , make himself ut lonst as woll if not bettor acquaintod with those hinges on which political questions and subjects turn , thnn the ovlinnry run of thoao who now onjoy tho iVaiMjhino ; provided only that tho inoolmnUj ' H curiosity mid reading rucuivad a who and holiest direction , a siil-joct to which wo shall probably

    rofor in a subsequent pnper . ' l ^ ormorly , what hiiiuII degree of political information thoro was w « nt with wealth ; now there in growing daily u ( Joiisidurublo dis ^ connection- —wealth and compnrutlvo inioll'goinjo , poverty and brutal ig-nomnce , are no loiitfor linked in nqin'tmnyy iralc-j-njty : tbiw is one of the groub obangos of tbo jigo . No ioubt tho conmarutivu information and intelligence question between class mid cIuhh / oi-iiih ono of tho complications in tho knot which the Timos U anxious to out or to untio ; but wo muy bo wrong : this point , which usod to bo tho Ibroinoal topic in nil discussions on claims for tho frnnohiiie , may , and we siispoot lias boon , driven by many ignoinhiiwurily into tho roar , whilht pow < ir , H and intore » tB confoHwodly oooupy tho vanguard , wul tl » o wll . olp fiooms soniotimofl a nit're " o ' oaiiHG pull for poll 1 and powor . Wo hud nearly fortfplfcun ono point , Uml ; of tlio com pit vi \ live morn * lity of thooo who possess and . those who oltiiin tho ininoliiMe ; now , in morality us connected with politics it is perfectly natural to give a prominent place to what may fiuvly be culled political morality

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), April 7, 1860, page 7, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_07041860/page/7/