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-Critics are not the legislators , but the judges and police of literature . They do no make laws-tiiey interpret and try to enforce them . — Edinburgh Kevteic .
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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 well versed in the subject , but who has spoiled the matter by the manner , which is that of a mocking-bird of Macadlay . It is a close reproduction of Macaulay ' s manner , without any reproduction of his style ; all the felicity and pieturesqueness of the original are unattempted , or , if attempted , unachieved . Another and more valuable historical biography is that presented in the paper on the Minister Von Stein ; six solid volumes of German biography aie dexterously compressed into forty readable pages . But the most startling paper in the Review , and one which will produce
the deepest impression is that on " The Use of Torture in India . " In June , 1854 , Mr . Bl . a . ckett moved for a commission of inquiry into the tenure of land in the Madras Presidency , formally declaring that the Government officials were in the habit of employing torture to extort payment from 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 the , present article is founded . If Mr . Bi / ACkett's statement amazed the House , this report will exasperate the ; nation :-
—the degree of urgency employed ; and will sometimes go away leaving a balance unpaid , simply because he was not forced to pay it . Of Literature in its lighter forms the Edinburgh has only one article , a pleasant sketch of the " Life and Writings of Stendhal . " Of light literature we tire always certain to find delightful papers in the Quarterly . This number is even lighter than usual , five of the eight articles belonging to that class . The opening group on " Table Talk" is erudite and entertaining ; it runs through the series of " Ana , " from the " Memorabilia , " down to Colebidge ' s " Table Talk , " culling by the way many a lively saying , and setting the extracts in a readable and suggestive commentary . After characterising the wit of le grand si ' ecle , the writer comes to the wi t of Elizabeth and James : —
The great nien of that day said many witty things and 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 which they sometimes stooped . With the fools , 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 play 3 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
vein , to euter her presence ; but once being persuaded to have him in , " come on Pace , " said she , " now we shall hear of our faults . " " I do noV ho 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 with the sensitiveness of Elizabeth , and wonder at the taste of our ancestors who could suffer their conversation to be broken in upon by the sorry jests and coarse personalities of a licensed buffoon . From Shakspeare we learn equally how the paltriest puns in that day were received for wit ; and Lord Bacon ' s Apophthegms , the beat repository of the srnart sayings of the ancients which was ever made , bears testimony no less to the fact that an indifferent play on words waa held in estimation by sages like himself .
The second literary paper is on Menandek , the third on Henry Fielding—both biographical studies . The article on Mr . Jowett , which bears the title ' Neology of' the Cloister , " is a substantiation of the charge of heresy brought against him , in the course of which Hegel , Oken , Schelunc , Fichte , Goethe , Caklyle , Comte , Emebson , the " Vestiges , " Harriet Martineau , and Mr . Atkikson 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 liigb company . " I would rather be damned with Plato and Spinoza than go to heaven with Palev 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 . " " Landscape Gardening" is a paper which will interest many , and the
' ^ 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 Palais des Singes , which was built for " our poor rel ations " by M . Thiers , Here China began hits day by a leisurely promenade , casting pleased and 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-niundis came up stealthily behind and dealt him a small but malicious bite . Chim looked round with
astonishment at this audacious outrage on Ms person , put his hand haughtily upon the wound , but without losing bis temper in the least . He walked deliberately to the other sid « 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-CtJati by the tail , commenced punishment with his ' cane , administering such blows as his victim could bear without permanent injury , and applied with equal justice to the ribs on cither side , in a direction always parallel to the spine . " When he thought enough had teen done , he disposed of Coati without moving a muscle of hiB countenance , by a left-handed jerk which threw the delinquent high in air , head over heels . He came clown » sadder and a better Coati , nnd retired with ehaine and fear to an outer corner .
Here is another on the Epicurean fancies of serpents : — We have before referred to the extraordinary length of time ft python has been known to faet without injury . Their fancies as well na their fastings aro rather ecoentric . Every one haB beard of the snako who swallowed his bluukot , a meal which ultimately killed him . A python who had lived for , yearn in ' a friendly manner with a brother nearly as largo an himself , wcib found ono morning boIub . As the cage was secure , the keepers wore puzzled to know how the serpent had escaped : at last it was observed that the remaining inizmto had swollen remarkably during the night , when the horrid fact became plain enough ; the fratricide had succeeded in swallowing the entiro portion of his brother ; it was his lnHt
meal , howover , for in oomo months ho died . A friend informs ub that ho onco Haw in thefje gardens a rat-snake of Coy Ion devour a common coluber natrix . The rat-snake , however , had not taken the moaauro of hi « victim , as by no effort could he dispose of tho lnflt four inohos of his tail , which wtuck out ruthur jauntily from the fiido of his mouth , with very much tho look of a cigar . After n quarter of an hour , tho tuil began to exhibit a u-otrogrado motion , jind tho Hwallowod nnako wan daHgorged , nothing tho wovho for Iu ' h living Hopulohro , with tho exception of the wound mncto by bin partner when ho first aoized him . Tho ant-outer , who lately inhabited tho room lending out of tho 1 ' ython npnrtMieiit , him died of n want <> t ants .
It is some consolation to know that , if the nut-cater is dead , Professor Owisn liaa dissected him , and h preparing a monograph on the subject . We must sny a word before closing nbout tlie Oxford and Cambridge Magazine , a new shilling periodical , written by tho young Cantabs and Oxonians , trying their literary wings . Of comae , there is nn article on Tennybon ; of course , there is an article on Thackeray , no young men
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 than 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 ah amount of diabolical ingenuity on the part of the torturer , and a degree of moral abasement and degradation 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 they are set down nakedly in the Eeport , we must abstain , from any specific alluslon . to their nature . The two most common forms of torture appear to be the Kittee ( in Telpogod called Qhieerata ) , and the Anundal , which in the same language is called Gingeri .
The Mttee corresponds with the thumbscrew of the European torturer . It is a wooden ; instrument somewliat 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 hind over to the iron gripe of the peons ( or policeman ) , who sometimes rub their hands with sand , in order to give them a firmer gripe . In other cases the fingers are bent back till the pain becomes unendurable .
The anitntlal 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 sitting astride upon the unhappy sufferer who is undergoing anundal . More than one of tho witnesses depose to the infliction of this torture under the fierce Indian sun , upon a number : of defaulters placed 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 .
Nor 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 poollah , or carpenterbeetle , and to leave it to gnaw the flesh of the miserable sufferer ? That by a further refinement of cruelty , meant to combine both pain and humiliation the 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 these and similar irritating drugs in other ways too revolt ing to he even hinted at ?
The ludicrous smallness of , ' thc sums for which these horrible cruelties are inflicted implies a state of tyranny , which is absolutely terrible to contemplate : — Thus we find an unfortunate man , Nangun Clfaloovra , subjected to tho anundal tortured with tho kittee , and exposed to the burning sun during four hours , in order to compel payment of nn illegal demand of tc % annas ( fifteen pence ) ! Another Ryot , named Singurinh , who refused to pay the sum of one ruLc four ampw ( two sbiJlmga nnd mxponoe ) , had his hnada ^ ied behind hie back nnd his w ? M ° iV ! n to hlB feot Wlth a coir r ° ° f 0 * two hours . Nay , in " iromtne effects of the violence employed , tho mm 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 : — Somilves a ^ Wellington , "but X" violent ^ w ^ " 0 ^ BftyB a ^ ot rofonwl to b ^ Mr ' will often como to tC o ^ W »« w « i ^ T * " ° ?! d ^ W Tho ^ ot amount U of his Wat in 1 » poSflil « ? ? Z mother officer , with the ftill h , prepared to ^ ffSTS ^ X ^ ^ t f ^^* g
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64 THE L E ADEB . [ No . 304 , Saturday ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 19, 1856, page 64, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2124/page/16/
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