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This week the Edinburgh and Quarterly ar...
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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.
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¦ THE LEADEB , [ No . 304 , Saturday , I
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This Week The Edinburgh And Quarterly Ar...
This week the Edinburgh and Quarterly are out ; both good numbers , the latter an especially entertaining number . The Edinburgh opens with a sketch of Cromwell , written by one who is veil versed in the subject , but who has spoiled the matter by the manner , which is that of a mocking-bird ofMACAOLAY . It is a close reproduction of Macaulay s manner , without any reproduction of his style ; all the felicity and pieturesqueness of the
| the degree of urgency employed ; and -will sometimes * go away leaving a balance M unpaid , simply because he was not forced to pay it . M Of literature in its lighter forms the Edinburgh has only one article , a nj pleasant sketch of the " Life and Writings of Stendhal . " | | Of light literature we are always certain to find delightful papers in the m \ Quarterly . This number is even lighter than usual , five of the eight articles S belonging to that class . The opening group on " Table Talk" is erudite and W entertaining ; it runs through the series of " Ana , " from the " Memorabilia , " | | down to Coleridge's " Table Talk , " culling by the way many a lively | saying , and setting the extracts in a readable and suggestive commentary . g After characterising the wit of le grand si ' ecle , the writer comes to the wit of |
original axe unattended , or , if attempted , unachieved . Anotner ana more valuable historical biography is that presented in the paper on the Minister Von Stein ; six solid volumes of German biography axe dexterously compressed into forty readable pages . But the most startling paper in the Review , and one which will produce I the deepest impression is that on " The Use of Torture in India . " In June , 1854 , Mr . Blackett moved for a commission of inquiry into the " tenure of land in the Madras Presidency , formally declaring that the Govern-* nftTit officials were in the habit of employing torture to extort payment from I
Elizabeth and James : — | | The great men of that day said many witty things aud many wise ones , but we | cannot fail to be struck with the singular contrast between the robustness of their | intellects , their solemn , and often ponderous wisdom , and the poor facetue to fc which they sometimes stooped . With the foolis , who entertained the guests of | kings and nobles , and who bore some resemblance to the laughter-maker of the | ancients , we are familiar through the plays of Shakspeare . Their sallies were | characterised as much by impertinence as by wit . Indeed the impertinence was ' § often Itself the joke . To put one person out of countenance afforded mirth to | the rest . The womanly vanity and queenly pride of Elizabeth shrunk from | these rude rebukes . She would not allow her fool , Pace , because of bis caustic 3
the miserable ryots . The declaration was received with amazement by the House , with indignant denial on the part of the Indian representatives ; but a commission was granted , and on their report th $ present article is founded . If Mr . Bi / ACKETT ' s statement amazed the House , this report will exaspe-1
vein , to enter her presence ; but once being persuaded to have mm m , come on , > Pace " said she , " now we shall hear of our faults . " " I do noV bo replied , " use to , | ! talk of that which all the town talks on . " She never probably ventured to | repeat the experiment , and in this case no one can do otherwise than sympathise jjj with the sensitiveness of Elizabeth , and wonder at the taste of our ancestors who | I - •¦ « .- » ¦ i ' a . 1 __» x « Va l \« nU / % n it- * » ina « V * tt t " . T ** o nr \ iT \ 7 i * PR"t * . c 2 qtiH Pnnraa ' / ia wuiwju h "j ¦ * j j ~~»~ —~^
rate the ; nation :- — , The tortures which the commissioners find to have been employed are of various kinds and of different degrees of ; severity . Some of them are so light as to amount to little more tiian a menace . Some are so severe as to cause not only extreme present pain , but permanent injuries , mutilation , and even , notunfrequently death . Some of them exhibit an amount of diabolical ingenuity on the part of the torturer , and a degree of moral abasement and degradati on in the victim , of which our western minds can hardly form a conception ; some , in fine , are so loathsome and indecent , and . at the same time so excruciating , that , although I * hfiT 7- are set db-wn nakedlv in the Report , we must abstain , from any specific
allucouIcl sutler tn & ir couveraauou > u ° m . ^» v" - * - "' >~ - ~ . ~^^ m ^ , personalities of a licensed buffoon . From Shakspeare we learn equally how X the paltriest puns in that day were received for wit ; and Lord Bacon ' s Apoph- % thegrns the best repository of the smart sayings of the ancients which was ever % made , bears testimony no less to the fact that an indifferent play on words was 1 ; held in estimation by sages like himself . | I The second literary paper is on Menandeb , the third on Henry Field- % ing—both biographical studies . The article on Mr . Jowett , which bears f the tide " Neology of' the Cloister , " is a substantiation of the charge of | I - ¦» i » _ j _ 1 _ I _ -J- ! H xl * j * . n /\ ViiifA 4 *\ + iirninn I-H IS * f ~ 2 IP . t . I ) U V . M ^ f . T-T 1 ? T iu tuc uiac ¦ + »* + * + * 9 —*¦ " * . ^ w-. *
sion . to their nature . ¦ , J The two most common forms of torture appear to be the Ktttee ( in lelpogoo called Oheerata ) , and the Anundal , which in the same language is called Gingeri . The liittee corresponds with the thumbscrew of the European torturer . It is a wooden instrument somewhat like a lemon-squeezer , between the plates of -which the- ' hands , the thighs ( in women also the breasts ) , the ears ,, and other more sensitive-parts of the body , are squeezed to the last point of endurance , often to fainting , and even to permanent disablement . In many places the kittee has been superseded-by the more simple plan of violently compressing the hands under a flat board , on which , a heavy pressure is laid , sometimes even by the peons standing upon it : or of compelling the sufferer to interlace his fingers , and delivering himJ over to the iron gripe of the peons ( or policeman ) , who sometimes rub their hands 1 ui iuci gujjv ^ jiu uuuv » ^ ™ u &—
h 6 rdsy brougnt against jjiiu > . vu v * . i ***^** **** - ^ - » ** * . ling , Fichte , Goethe ^ Caklyle , Comte , Emebson , the " Vestiges , " Harriet Maktineau , and Mr . Atkinson , are cited as holding the same language which Mr . Jowett holds—a fact-not perhaps significant of orthodoxy , but significant of Mr . Jowett's being in very high company . "I would rather be damned with Plato and Spinoza than go to heaven with Paley and Malthus , " was the energetic phrase of Shelley ; and it might have occurred to this reviewer that there was something dangerous in his thus grouping together such intellects as the advocates of opinions he " shudders at . " win interest
witn Sana , in oraer w give me » m . ovu "" — - . bent back till the pain becomes unendurable . The anundal is a more purely eastern torture . It consists in tying the victim in . a stooping or otherwise painful and unnatural position , generally with the head forcibly bent down to the feet , by a rppe or cloth passed round the neck and under the toes . The posture , however , is varied at the caprice of the executioner . Sometimes the poor wretch is made to stand on one leg , the other being forcibly tied up to his neck . Sometimes the arms and legs are curiously interlaced , and the frame , thus violently distorted , ia kept bound up for hours , in a condition little short of dislocation . Sometimes a heavy stone is laid upon the back , while thus bent ; and it often happens that the peons amuse themselves by sittinec astride upon the unhappy sufferer who is undergoing anundal . More than the
" Landscape Gardening is a paper wmen many , anu me " Zoological Gardens , " a paper which will interest all . From this latter we . must borrow an anecdote about the chimpanzee , now at Paris : — The last time I saw Mm ( May , 1854 ) he came out to taste the morning air in the large circular enclosure in front of the Palaia des Singes , which was built for " ourpoor relations" by M . Thiers , Here Chim began Mb day by a leisurely promenade , casting pleased an d thankful glances towards the sun , the beautiful sun of early summer . He bad three satellites , coati-mundis , either by chance ' or to amuse him , and while making all manner of eyes at a young lady who supplies the Singeri with pastry and cakes , one of the coati-mundis came up stealthily "hekind and dealt him a small but malicious bite . Chim looked round with
one of the witnesses depose to the infliction of this torture under nerce I Indian sun , upon a number of defaulters p laced together in rows , for two , three ,- ] four , and even six hours ; and this in the immediate vicinity of the cutcherry , or revenue office , and in the presence of the tahsildar , or native collector , and of the assembled villagers . Not are these the most wanton cruelties : Will it be credited , for example , that it is not uncommon to apply to the most sensitive parts of the body ( enclosed in a cloth or a cocoa-nut shell , or other similar receptacle ) , a biting insect or reptile , such as the poollnb , or carpenterbeetle , and to leave it to gnaw the flesh of the miserable sufferer ? That by a . r .. _ j . li .. . nAnnmon * . r \ f imiaU . v TMnQTif . + r » <•»/ - » Tn ¥ » inPi Vmf . li miiTi nr \ r \ Hiimilinf irvn +. Iia tJ \ f / 1 V \ iv ¦ j ii ~* v + M )>» v *«»/
| astonishment at this audacious outrage on his person , put his hand haughtily upon the wound , but without losing hia temper in the least . He walked deliberately to I the other side of the circle , and fetched a cane which he had dropped there in his promenade . He returned with majestic wrath upon his brow , mingled , I thought , with contempt ; and , takirig ^ etJati by the tail , commenced punishment with his cane , administering such blow s as his victim could bear without permanent injury , and applied with equal justice to the ribs on either side , in a . direction always parallel to the spine . When he thought enough had been done , he disposed of Coati without moving a muscle of hiB countenance , by a left-handed jerk which threw the delinquent high in nir , head over heels . He camo clown a sadder and a better Coati , and retired with shame and fear to an outer corner .
_ J | y ^^ - ^ mjj ^ " H . \ JJKr " V fl ^ ^ VA *<» MV % * J ¦ A ** V « - ** - * 1- ' * W ( H » 'V **"' v » ' »* ^^»« - «« * m— . u «** u > vuy defaulters are sometimes tied by the hair to the tail of a donkey or a buffalo ? That they are occasionally hung up with the head downwards ? And that it is an ordinary practice to put pepper or powdered chillies into the eyes or the nostrils , and to apply the ^ e and similar irritating drugs in other ways too revolting to he even hinted at ? The ludicrous smallness of 'the sums for which these horrible cruelties are inflicted implies a state of tyranny , which is absolutely terrible to contemplate : — p Thus we find an unfortunate man , Nangun Chaloovun , aubjcctecl to the anundal , tortuxed with the kittoo , and exposed to the burning sun during four hourB , in order to compel payment of nn illegal demand of ten annas ( fifteen penoo ) ! Another Kyot , named Singurinh , who refused to pny tlie sum of one rupee four cwmicw ( two shillings and sixpence ^ , had his hnnds ^ tied hohind liis back nndJriH ] head hound down to his feet with a coir rope , for two hours . Nay , in the terrible cose of Voncatncholla Rnjnuleo , in wliich one of the partios actually died from , the effeots of the violence employed , the Bum demanded was but ten rupees ! The natives seem so inured to this system that it is thought no other system will succeed in obtaining the money : — M ! o , Tiy of the witnesses , too , concur in stating that the ryota , ia gonoml , appear to expect this violence de a part of tho prooosH of collootion , and that they prepare Jhomaelves accordingly . « % hrouglit tho money , " Bays a ryot roforrod to by Mr . LuBhington , " but oa no violence woa ueod towards mo , I did not pay . " Tho ryot will often oomo to tho outoherry , aH wo lonrn from another officer , with tho lull amount of his kist in Inn POB 8 o » flion , tied up in email sums in different part * of hw dreBB , prepared to dole it out , rupee by rupee , and < innu by anna , according to
Here is another on the Epicurean fancies of serpents : — We have l ) efore referred to the extraordinary length of time ft python has been known to faet without injury . Their fancies as well as their fastings aro rather eccentric . Every one haB heard of the snake who swallowed hiB blunkot , a meal which ultimately killed him . A python who had lived for , yearn in ' a friendly manner with a brother nearly as largo as himself , waB found ono morning boIub . As tho cage was secure , tho keepers were puzzled to know how tho Horpont had escaped : at last it was observed that the remaining innuvto had Bwollon remarkably during the night , when the horrid fact became plain enough ; tho fratricide had succeeded in swallowing tho entire poraon of his brother ; it was his laut meal , howover , for in nomo months ho died . A friend informs ub that ho onco Haw in thefje gardens a rat-snake of Coy Ion devour a common coluber no-true . Tho 1 rat-snake , howovpr , had not taken tho measure of bin victim , as by no ot fbrt could he dispoBO of tho last four inohos of his tail , which stuck out ruthor jauntily from the Hide of bun mouth , with very much tho look of n cigar . After a quarter of an hour , tho tuil began to exhibit a rotrogrado motion , auul tho Hwallowod nualco wan daHgorged , nothing tho wovho for Inn living Hopulohro , with tho exception of tho wound maclo by bin partner when ho fn-Bt Hoisted him . Thoant-oator , who lately inhabited tho room lending out of tho 1 ' ython npartmont , linn died of n want <> t ants . It is some consolation to know that , if the nnt-cutcr is dead , Professor Owen liaa dissected him , and h preparing a monograph on the subject . We must any a word before closing nbout tlie Oxford and Cambridge Magazine , a new shilling periodical , written by the young Cantabs and Oxonians , trying their literary wings . Of comae , there is nn article on Tennyson ; of course , there is an article on Tuackkhay ; no young men
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 19, 1856, page 16, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_19011856/page/16/
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