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party , who asked it to adopt financial measures that ought properly to have teen submitted to the new Parliament ; and the Colonial Secretary , Mr . Montagu , not only fostered these disturbances , but openly displayed his wish to procrastinate , if not defeat , the constitution . The matter was referred home ; Commissioners were sent to London to urge the claims of the colonists ; but
they Trere treated with slight , not , we believe , only on one political side . They went back in great disgust . The constitution is still delayed ; and now the colonists , who have previously found a determined resistance to the Government of the mother country successful as a means to obtain their wishes , have passed the following resolutions : —
" That viewing with grief aud alarm the conduct of her Majesty ' s present advisers , in delaying the fulfilment of her Majesty ' s gracious intentions towards this colony , with respect to the introduction of representative institutions , solemnly granted by letters patent , dated May , 1850 : — " They considering the delay and the apparent disposition of the present head of the colonial department to distrust the colonial "voice and to listen only to official representation , or the opinions and wishes of individuals in the service of Government , as highly injurious to this community , and pregnant with danger to the hest interests of the colony , and to the honour of her Majesty ' s Government : —
" And having reason to believe that it is the intention of the Right Honourable the Secretary for the Colonies to bring a bill into Parliament for the purpose of annulling the said letters patent of May , 1850 , and substituting in the place of the constitution therein granted and guaranteed , a scheme of Government wholly repugnant to the feelings and wishes of the inhabitants : —
" This Board resolves by all lawful means in their power to promote such measures as may seem hest calculated to protect the colony against so great an injury and insult , to obviate the perils likely to ensue , and to secure as speedily as possible the entire fulfilment of her Majesty ' s gracious grant in the letter and spirit of the promises which those letters implied . "( Signed ) " H . C . Jakvis , " Chairman of the Cape Town Municipality .
" By order of the Board of Commissioners , " P . J . Denyssen , Secretary . ' " ' This resolution was passed by the Board of Commissioners in Cape Town , on the Gth of October ; and it is transmitted to us with a letter from the Chairman of the Cape Town Municipality , who gives some- further explanation : — " The Commissioners have adopted this extraordinary
step , to prevent any misconception of the views of the Colonists in respect of the several mutters alluded to iu that Resolution , and to place the Imperial Parliament of Orcat Britain in possession of the fact , that this Colony is determined not to accept any Constitution reserving a right in favour of the Crown to nominate the Members of either of the Assemblies thereby constituted .
" as the unsatisfactory accounts received by the last Mail Steamer ( which arrived yesterday , and leaves Table liny the day after to-morrow ) , added to the many other breaches of promise on the part of Her Majesty ' s Advisers in reference to the Constitution granted by Her Majesty ' s Letters Patent of May , 1850 , have already created considerable excitement and alarm ;—¦ and as any alteration of the said Constitution might be the means of causing very serious consequences , 1 am desired respectfully to request the favour of your influence and vote , if required , to oppose any hiic . 1 i objectionable couihi :, and by promoting a speedy completion of the mud Constitution , to obviate the dillicultioH which are otherwise apprehended . "
Nothing could be wiser than for the Homo Government to conciliate the ndectioiiH of these sturdy colonists , who prove their worth in their very mutiny . Wo uho tho strong expression , because it would bo trifling to uiinco mutters . When Lord Grey endeavoured to force convietn upon tho Cape of Good . Hope , after repeated pledges not to do no , tho Cane colonists adopted n plan of iion-inl . om > urne , and by that means they
succeeded in forcing the Governor lonend t . ho convicts away . They are now resorting to exactly the mime menus of action ; and wo believe they will be HuecoHBful . But i-Iits same intelligence ai >< l energy which these colonists display in resistance to the mother country may bo engaged on the Hide of any Ministry thai , would simply fulfil tho promise of Lord . John RuhhoII ' h administration .
It , is impossible to receive tlie-HO intimations ol nhakcu allegiance from pioviucon of ( Jio UritisU empire without associating thorn wifji other fuels
bearing upon the general position of the empire . The influence of the English Government is receding in its own provinces , at the same time that it is receding on the Continent , for reasons quite similar in both cases , although on the surface they would appear to be opposed . On the Continent , England is suffering the principle of constitutional government which it has upheld to be broken down ,- —is suffering its natural allies , the free constitutional countries of Europe , to be gradually overthrown by the influence and
strength of the despotical alliance . On the other hand , in the colonies , by a tyrannical treatment , or by a not less tyrannical slight , our influence is shrinkiug almost to nothing . The Australias , which are daily acquiring new proofs of their extreme value , —which are , in fact , in the ratio to population , the most valuable dependencies of any crown , —are strongly imbued with feelings of alienation towards the
mothercountry , because they cannot have their simplest desires gratified . The Australias have before now shown a disposition to follow the example set by the Cape , and the present example will not be lost . We speak by the card when we say that , although the Australians woidd be outraged to the last degree by any sudden coup-de-main which should transfer them from the British crown to any European enemy of that crown , they would not be very much vexed were the chances of fate to transfer them to the United
States . They have a feeling , common to many of our colonies , that were they aljied by some species of federation to the great Republic of the west , they would be freer to develop their resources under the Republican Government than they are under the Government of Downingstreet . That feeling exists , not only in British North America , but in the West Indies , and in the Australias ; and the Cape of Good Hope is now taking a position of overt mutiny . The cry of " Wolf ! " has been often repeated ,
but after all , the wolf came . Let those who think that it may be desirable to be relieved from the burden of our colonial dependencies ask themselves whether any sudden separation from the mother-country might not give a shake to the power and influence of England that would lay us more than ever open to aggression from the Continent . And all such risks are incurred by the most naked , the most stupid , and mostwanton species of injustice that public Ministers ever committed .
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CURIOSITIES OF LITERATURE—PLAGIARISM . ( BY DISRAELI THE YOUNGER . ) " He is welcome to anything of mine , " said Rossini , when he was reminded that he bad taken passages by wholesale from the work of a musical rival . Great geniuses have been great p lagiarists . Raphael and Michel Angelo plagiarised their predecessors and each other . The graceful Gray is still prized , although his every line may be traced to another . Tho tedious Howe 11
writes—The heralds and sweet harbingers that move From cast to west in embassies of love—They can the tropic cut and cross the line ; whereon the polished Pope says—Heaven first taught letters , for some wretch's aid , Sonic banish'd lover ^ or some captive maid , since they Speed the soft intercourse from houI to soul , And waft a sigh from lnduH to the Polo .
Virgil ascribes to ^ Encas lumen juventua purpureum ; Tasso , to his hero , Godfrey , " l ) i giovinezzu il bel purpureo lume ; " and Cray NingH " The bloom of young desire , and purple light of love . " Tasso describe *) the concert of Hong , wind , and waters ; and Hpoiicor amplifies the luxurioiiH description . In fact , you may multiply Mich canes without end . 'I n here in a danger in such studies of parallelisms . It may become a habit to speak in other men ' s ideas . We have heard a savant boast' that , lie
ho well know all the authorities on a given subject , that he could deliver a long and complete ( liHcourHo upon it oil-hand , entirely in the eitafioiiB from thono authorities , lie lisped in quotations , for the quotations eanie . The habit would seem capable of hereditary transmission . Tho elder Dim-aoli formed a large collection of parallel paHHugen , " merely as oxeroiHes to form my IfiHte ; " and Ihe yomiger . Diariieli introduces wholosalo paralleli » mB into his oflicial spooohos .
This is carrying the formation of taste to the on posite extreme . ^" But much may be allowed to parental exempli - fication , thus enforced— v " The mode of literary composition adopted by that admirable student , Sir William Jones , is well deserving our attention . After having fixed on his subjects , he always added the model of the composition ; and thug boldly wrestled with the great authors of antiquity On board the frigate which was carrying him to India he projected the following works , and noted them in this manner : — -
1 . Elements of the Laws of England . Model The Essay on Bailments . Aristotle . 2 . The History of the American War . Model Thucydides and Polybitts . 3 . Britain Discovered , an Epic Poem . Machinery—Hindu Gods . Model—Homer . 4 . Speeches , Political and Forensic . Model—DEMOSTHENES . 5 . Dialogues , Philosophical and Historical . Model Plato . "
Thus , the parallelism detected by the Globe , in which the present Mr . Disraeli eulogizes the Duke of Wellington in the terms employed by Thiers to eulogize St . Cyr , is evidently no more than the result of this rule . Mr . Disraeli would set down his subject and model thus : —
6 . Wellington , his Life and Character . Model — Thiees . If almost all the phrases which Thiers applies to St . Cyr are applied by Disraeli to the Duke of Wellington , it only shows that the original has come very close to his model . Nay , the paternal authority supplies Mr . Disraeli with an example even of a Minister stooping to forgery—and that example a very fit one for Mr . Disraeli , since it is the romance writer , Horace Walpole ; who forged the King of Prussia ' s letter to Rousseau .
Mr . Disraeli the Younger , however , lias introduced a totally new feature into the history of literary parallelisms , when he passes off the eulogium of a French writer upon a French general as the eulogium upon Wellington . As though England herself , in her People ' s Chamber , had no words for her own soldier ! To deludo publishers and patrons , as Chatterton did , was questionable ; but to make a , dupe of the House of Commons was , indeed , a stroke worthy o £ a ¦ Boneaeeio to record . We do not , indeed , know
how the dupes relished it . It must have mortified the reporters to find that they Lad wasted the energies of their fingers in noting and transcribing , when they might have saved themselves that trouble by a direction to the printer— " soo Thiers , " Ac . ; or , Lord John accepted the " [ ' oquent" passage without ringing it on the table . Nay , it is possible that some enthusiastic member may have been moved to drop a tear ; and we can conceive the spite of a senator unmanned , at finding that he has been thus moved by a counterfeit—fancying that he was weeping over Disraeli , and finding that ho was weeping
over Thiers ; led b y mistake , as it wore , to pour his grateful emotion Upon the tomb , nol <« Wellington , but of St . Cyr . , ' Of course , the smasher of elogies wi 11 bo < : »¦ " ¦" roughly to account by those who have urea duped , and the effect of tho delusion will go I - yoml a mere doubt in his eloquence . J < l will ask when he is impressive , Who is 1 ^ from H And whatever tho subject may He , uhj will probably suspect that it really appli ^ tiX
something ckse . A telling passage , * < w " , ; , [ on the rights of the British peop le , Un > v _ „ probably trace to . Do . Toinvillo <>» the i » v « s « > < England ; or a pathetic epigram on ti « ^ matron may be found lurlung m the ll " u > u , - Dumas the Younger to tho . ' Dame aiix " " ' [ Indeed , tho inquiry in likely to ari . se , _ a * «> portions of Disraeli ' s works are by various him ¦ » and a Heard , of Hansard by Home emulator oi ¦ ^ elder Disraeli might be fruitful in i ; " ™^" ^ J 1 ()( , impossible , however , to supposo that . mm ' , ,, mi uiiHwer ; and wo already foresee tlie-n' V ; is nol , Mr . Disraeli that h . w Wv . n F' * , £ Thiern , but it , is Thiern that I . iih been ,, hifti . i" *» *>
Mr . Disraeli- by anticipation . ,. Mr . Diaraoli nas adopted the d . ctum oM tain Hectionof HocialiBtH—that man is t jo not according to Iiifl capacity , but hcm h ^ bin needs , miS in the nenne ofr » oo > m' ' ^||( , presumed Mr . Disraeli has ft xro'iU * \ % ,, ] , »(; in passage thun Thiern . Ye * it i « " > " ** the plagiarist . La roprUt 6 , c vst to vol .
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1114 THE LEADER , [ Saturday ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 20, 1852, page 1114, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1961/page/14/
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