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%1O ' THE LEADER. TyO.37'7.S. 1T
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A VISIT TO CHINA. A Residence among the ...
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The Pranks. The Franks, From Their First...
districts of Germany on the banks of the Rhine . Their name indicated their enjoyment and lore of freedom , which their ferocious valour enabled them to snaintain by enslaving their less warlike neighbom-s . The motive for forming this league was probably twofold : the necessity of emigration through the increase of population , and a desire to possess themselves of the wealth of the Gallic provinces . They accordingly burst upon the enervated outposts of the Roman empire in two torrents of invasion , known respectively as Salians and Iiipuarians—rthe former ; probably , being the dwellers on the Sal , or Yssel , and the latter on the Rhine . Their progress ; however was slow and gradual , and centuries elapsed before they had
Tendered themselves the undisputed masters of Gaul . Towards the close of ifche fourth , and the beginning of the fifth century , the Franks were engaged 3 n an incessant struggle to drive back the fresh hordes of barbarians who followed in their track , impelled by necessity or excited to cupidity by their example . So little is known of the internal state of the Frankish league at this period that a name has been adopted to veil the obscurity . That name as Pharamond , regarded by tradition as the founder of the French monarchy , but only recognised by history as the appellation of a family , of whom various members ruled * over the different tribes by that time firmly established in Gaul . Of these chiefs the most distinguished was Clodion , the
Teputed father of Merovseus , from whom—if he ever existed—descended the long-haired kings of the first royal dynasty of France . At the end , how--ever , of the fifth century light began to dawn upon the thick darkness , and the chaotic confusion to assume form and order . Clovis , ' the eldest son of the Church , ' had espoused the cause of Catholicism , and , with the zeal of a ^ convert and the charity of an orthodox believer , conquered the heathens and persecuted the heretics . His conversion was effected b y a divine miracle , ¦ unless it be ascribed to his wife ' s influence and to worldly interest . Catholic writers agree in representing him as a patriot , a hero , and a faithful servant of the Deity , whose eternal laws of justice and mercy he continually violated . But , as Mr . Perry justly observes , "
If , in far happier ages than those of which we speak , the most polluted consciences have purchased consolation and even hope , by building churches , endowing monasteries , and paying reverential homage to the dispensers of God ' s mercy , can we wonder that the extraordinary services of a Clovis to Catholic Christianity should . cover even his foul sins as with a cloak of snow ? He had , indeed , without the -slightest provocation , deprived a noble and peaceable neighbour of his power and life . He had treacherously murdered his royal kindred , and deprived their children of their . birthright . He had on all occasions shown himself the heartless ruffian , the greedy conqueror , the bloodthirsty tyrant ; but by his conversion he had led the way to the triumph of' Catholicism ; he had saved the Roman Church from the Scylla and Charybdis of heresy and Paganism , planted it on a rock in the very cenire of Europe , .. and fixed its doctrines and traditions in the hearts of the conquerors of the West . Nor was Clovis the only monster panegyrised by the monkish chronicles as sapiens , bonus , solus fonnosus , et rex . Clotaire was equally indebted to ¦ Gregory of Tours for rescuing his name not only from oblivion , but from xnerited infamy and execration .
The historian has related to us in full and precise terms the several enormities of -which Clotaire was guilty ; how he slew with his own hand the children of his . brother , in the presence of the weeping Clothildis , and under circumstances of peculiar atrocitv ; how he forced the wives of murdered kings into a hateful alliance with himself ( he had at least seven wives , and several at the same time ); how he not only put his own son to a cruel death , but extended hie infernal malice to the latter ' s unoffending wife and children . And yet the learned , and , as we have reason to believe , exemplary bishop of the Christian Church , in the very same chapter in which ho . relates the death of Chramnus , represents the monster as having gained a victory by . the special aid of God ! In the following chapter , he also relates to us the manner in which Clotaire made his peace with Heaven before his death . In the 51 st year of his jeign , he sought the threshold of the blessed Martin of Tours , bringing with him many gifts . Having approached the sepulchre of a certain priest , he made a full confession * of the acts of negligence of which he had , perhaps , been guilty , and jirayed with many groans that the blessed confessor -would procure him the mercy of . the Lord , and by his intercession obliterate the memory of all that he had done irrationally ?
It would be unreasonable , however , to expect from the laity a purity and . strictness of morality superior to that which prevailed among the clergy . When Agilbert , Bishop of Paris , and Probus , Bishop of Rhehns , wished to persuade jDuke Martin to repair to Ebroin ' s camp , they guaranteed hid personal safety by a solemn oath sworn upon a x'eceptacle supposed to contain sacred xelics ;—The bishops , however , to eav e themselves from the guilt of perjury , had taken oaro ithat ( he vessels , which were covered , should be left empty . Martin , whom they omitted to inform of this important fact , was satisfied with their oaths , and accompanied them to Ecri , where he and his followers were immediately assassinated , without , . as was thought , any detriment to the faith of the envoys .
Again , Cautinus , Bishop of Tours , a . d . 553 , is described as being " excessively addicted to wine , and generully so drenched in liquor , that he « ould scarcely be carried from a Tmnquet by four men . " His avarice led Jbiim to commit acts of open violence , and he oven punished a presbyter for refusing something which he had demanded by causing him to bo buried alive in the crypt of his . church . Badigesil , Bishop of Mans , a . j > . 580 , was ¦* ' a monster in human form , and had a wife oven , worse than himself . " i . he Abbot Dagulfus , about the same period , frequently indulged in theft , homicide , and adultery , and was killed , while in a drunken fit , by a husband whom he had wronged . A priest of Mans went about with a woman of ffood family in male attire , but , being discovered by her relations , was at fencth unnrehended . His paramour was burned , and he himself put up for
. sale . •'•• Bishop iEtherius , of Lisieux , redeemed him ( east it / at urn verois lenilms ' ) by paying twenty gold pieces , and afterwards entrusted him with the instruction oFthe boys of his diocese . " Eonluu . iin . the year 580 , fell down in a drunken flt when performing mass at the . altar in Paris ; and " was generally eo disgustingly ( jltfonnHer ) drunk , that he could . not walk , " The Bishops Palladius and Bertohramnus having quarrelled , at the tublo of King Guntrani , accused © aoh other of " adujtory and- porjury , " at which , says ¦ Gregory , " many laughed , but some who woro possessed of greater wisdom grieved . The deeds of Pappolus , Bishbp of Langres , wore of uu . oh a character that the historian . thinks it better to pass over them without . notice . . . Sagittarius and Solonius , XUohopfj of Gap and Embrun , in Dauphino " , lived in perpetual bloodshed and
lasot that sex . JNot a tew notable instances of the disastrous efiects of th undue influence may be found in the volume under notice . It -was " * sequence of the suggestions of his queen Aimlaberg , niece of Theod °° " the Great , an ' inestimable treasure , ' that Hermenfried , a kinn-ofThur ° destroyed his two brothers . The celebrated Brunhilda "became one ' ftl * ' leading spirits in an age of intrigue and blood , and is charged by her enem with having instigated so many murders as to have fulfilled the prophecv of Sibylla : < Bruna shall come from the parts of Spain , before whose face many nations shall perish . ' " Yet more terrible and relentless-was Fredegunda , originally the mistress , and subsequently the wife of Chilneri <* Kin » of that sex . Not a few notable instances of t . lm flisnst ™ , ' ,,, „<*• . _! : ° . _ a
cmousness , and though twice deposed for their crimes , tliey were twin ^ to their episcopal chairs , and King Guntram believed that his Wb a ^ agail consequence of his having put these wretches in prison . aeath was the So much for the virtues of the episcopacy in those oarW a Christian Church , which are usually exalted to the heavens fo ^ i - *• emplary piety and zeal . And if we turn from fierce warriors i GX " righteous prelates , wo find no redeeming points in female character t !?* experience of past ages is certainly not in favour of investing wc-niA u irresponsible power . Where they have not subjected themselvowA , whims and caprices of unworthy favourites , they have almost in ° exhibited cruelty so remorseless , fraud so unscrupulous , and vindier so implacable , that one might almost imagine the fallen angels to hi ^
of Soissons , whom she instigated to the murder of his first queen B Fredegunda were hired the assassins who mortally wounded Si gebert the high-minded lving of Australia . To her counsels was due the death ofher stepson Merovaeus , and to the same source of evil has b een ascribed the murder of her husband Chilperic . Another stepson , Clovis , and his unfortunate mother , perished through her vile suggestions ; and she even " endeavoured to kill her own daughter by forcing down the lid of an iron chest upon her neck . " To say tliat she committed many other murders , vliich want of opportunity and power alone prevented her from doubling ; that she brought false accusations against all who displeased her ; that she ground the poor with intolerable taxes ; that she attempted the life of her benefactor Guntram , who foolishly and wickedly maintained her cause when she was most in need of his assistance—will scarcel y add one shade to the blackness of the character we have attempted to portray .
But Mr . Perry has not restricted himself to picturing the vices and crimes that marked those truly-dark ages . Incidentally we read of perjury , fraud , violence , murder , adultery , and religious imposture , but in the midst of that horrid Saturnalia of human passions pur attention is drawn to the leaven that was working out a better state of society . As through a magnifying glass we watch the embryo ef the future Christian empire taking shape in the womb of time . We see how women and minors created temptation and opportunity for usurpation ; how the usurpers established their position by enlisting the" support of the clergy , and how ' divine grace' through the medium of St . Peter ' s successor supplanted natural and hereditary right . We mark the gradual rise of the nobility and their assumption of peculiar privileges , and the first stand made by the crown and the people against the encroachments of this arrosant class . At one time we treinUe for the
Christianity of Europe , and dread lest the logic of the sword should raise the Crescent above the Cross ; but our fears are presently allayed by the consideration that the same argument may be wielded by the followers of Christ , and we applaud Augustine ' s conviction of the necessity of persecution , " The Lord himself , " says that holy man , " first orders that men should be bidden to bis supper , but afterwards compelled to come . " Finally , ive rejoice with excusable pride that it should havo been reserved for our own countryman , Win fried of Kyrton—the Boniface of monkish , literature—to regenerate the Church and save it from relapsing into Paganism ; and we forgive the feebleness of his doubts as to the propriety of indulging in horseflesh , in consideration of the courage he exhibited in dying the death ot a martyr Seriously , we commend Mr . Perry ' s excellent work to all students of the rise and progress of the political and social system of modern Lurope .
%1o ' The Leader. Tyo.37'7.S. 1t
% 1 O ' THE LEADER . TyO . 37 ' 7 . S . 1 T
A Visit To China. A Residence Among The ...
A VISIT TO CHINA . A Residence among the Chinese : Inland , on the Coast , and at Sea . Being » N »" otJj ? of Scenes and Adventures during a Third Yiait to China , from l * oi to I 860 . Wy liobert Fortune . T J ' Mn Fortune is already known in connexion with . China by the authorship to tlie f
of two other works , Three Years' Wanderwys and A Journey J « ™ $ tries . In the present volume ho takes us over u good deal of now g ouna and acting , as lie says , on the hint of certain reviewers endeuvoms Io no completcrVicturcs »» d *'» llcr dtitaiIs on mutters which he has llllhyl t ° ^ nnrntively neglected-the character and manners of the . Chincfu' £ " \ t suit is / very nqreonblo and rcaduble volume , full of P wturo J ' °£ ^ thinly painted it " is true , but evidently taken from nature . ^ - 1 « JJ ; has not much technical akill , and his imagination does not ™« ™ »^ £ , sions forcibly ; but ho is careful , conscientious , nud « V f rvIll v «' . " ^ » t 8 ever he does not discuss political and diplomatic . PpinlB-w » ^ . « " « , little nutnon i
with a candour and simplicity quite engaging , but » . « - - always worth listening to . Uottcr and newer peeps into China ^ nnvo been indulged with for many a day . . , ac . Wo iihi »? soiul our readers to Mr . Fortune ' s pages for hi * « , » ua q ^ counts of the earthquake and of the mysterious produoUon ol ^ "JJ report of u sunken village-common enough in ononlu com it « > I grlmugoto Ayukii'fl Tmnplo , tho descriptions of tca-iarins , t t , utu with mandarins and their ladies , tho sketches o <^ . nc , c ^ ^ to trado-infommtion , the adventures with vobbors , and tboiomwticjou ^ tho Snowy Yulley and its bounding wutoriulls . lho ^ " ^" ud expeis indicated by these allusions . We find , liow « yer , flo no 1 ^ ^ ^ rienceswitU the rebels which lrnve a . peculiar interest at the mt » ment , and to which we shall move particularly diroot attention . lti . 03 , Mr . fortune says : f tho oauntry While thoao ovonts woro going forward tho rebellion In tho »™ mi £ , M amo ng » t was causing the greatest excitement , not only amongst tll ° » "" thov belong ' ° residents . Tho robote woro known aa tho Kwanff-sl men , us thoy uow *
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), June 13, 1857, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_13061857/page/18/
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