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No . 417 , March 20 , 1858 . ] , TH E _ JLI * ABEB . 283
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induced by the reason ; they are nourished by the passions . It was so Ssy to overthrow royalty in France that liberty , being acquired with comparative facility , became less dear than equality , which , if earned apparently hva vote , was only maintained by that great war amidst w ^ hich the whole of Europe , by suffering afld struggles , advanced to its present state of civilization It is a mistake to suppose that Europe took up arms m support of the monarchical principle ; it was far more influenced by the cries of the nobles than by the danger of the King . All along , the real struggle of the nation was against the aristocracy of birth ; and the throne perished almost by accident . We should , perhaps , rather say that the throne perished because the Revolution , exasperated by the resistance it encountered , lost its reason and went beyond its original intention . But this would seem to imply that Louis XVI ., the dishonest and feeble representative of monarchy , was a possible kipg . He was not . The Girondins , then , were the true culminating point of the Revolution . They helped to destroy monarchy ; but they would have spared the man , not because there was anything estimable about him , but because they knew that the smell of his blood would rise to the brains of the Mountain , madden it , and make it give the signal of that Ion" - series of useless massacres which have sometimes been excused because supposed to be perpetrated in the name of liberty , but which , in reality , could only tend to consolidate the frightful and degrading despotism of Robespierre , or some such narrow-minded fanatic without bowels . As to the idea that the Terror was to prepare the nation for liberty , it must be dismissed as a deplorable illusion . We might as well listen at present to the promises of Napoleon III ., who , whilst he is destroying the last vestiges of the freedom of the press and of the individual in France , still continues to pretend that some day or other liberty will ' crown the edifice . ' If the -Corporation of London were to begin pulling down St . Paul's , and were to cry out , as every layer of stones was removed , " Wait a bit , good people ; as soon as we have finished we will put a fine new gilded cross , twice as big . as the old one , on the top , " what should we say to them ? There is one agreeable feature in M . Lanfrey's book , namely , the
comparative absence of all allusion to ' Humanity , ' with which French writers about the Revolution generally identify their nation . Now and then he seems , by inadvertence , to fall into the usual error of mistaking the fall of Louis XVI . -and the few years of convulsion that led to the reign of Bonaparte for a turning-point in the history of the species . But in general he gives due importance to the efforts of other nations . This is a more important matter than at first sight appears . The absurd views current in France on this . subject are disastrous to all hope of liberty . It is usual there to speak with contempt , as of unimportant and isolated circumstances , of the history of the Dutch Republic , of England , of America , of the hundreds of experiments of liberty which have been " made in various parts of the world during the three hundred years which are usually described as the modern times . It is only when a similar experiment , abortive as most of the others were , is made in France that we hear talk of the efforts of ' humanity . ' This is the extreme of national prejudice—quite as had as if the rebels who are now desolating China were to set up as representatives , nay , as an impersonation of the species . The French Revolution was a wonderful , but to a certain extent disastrous , episode in the great struggle of liberty against authority which in one sense is contemporary with our race , but which of late has chosen the West of Europe as its chief scene . There was nothing in its principles which is not to be found in the princip les of the reformers and revolutionists of England ; but it had everything to do at once , and therefore applied some of tho ° e principles in a completer manner . Practically , however , its results were less beneficent than those of which we can boast . The reasons of its failure were never better set forth , than in the book of M . Lanfrey .
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OUDE AS A NATIVE KINGDOM . A Journey through the Kingdom of Oude in 1849-50 . With Private Correspondence relative to the Annexation of Otule to British India . liy Major-General Sir W . H . Sleeman , K . C . B . 2 vols . Bcntley . < jENJERAi , Su 3 EMAN , Resident at the Court of Luckuow , performed his journey under the direction of Lord Dalhousie , who desired to receive a full and minute picture of the native kingdom by a person at once competent and unprejudiced . Such a person was the Resident , and his diary , the publication of which was not authorizpd until December last , forms a remarkable addition to Anglo-Indian literature . It is precisely the work that was wanted , for if one topic connected with tho luto rebellion has more than another been superficially discussed and perverted , it is that of the annexation of Oude . The members of the dethroned family who came to London with their grievances were successful in spreading a number of ingenious representations calculated to play upon easy sympathies , and have persuaded a . certain sort of philanthropists into tho belief that they belong to a dynasty of martyrs . Now , those picturesque and entertaining volumes by the late General Sleeman wilL supply n very wholesome and much-needed corrective to the current version of Oudean politics ; the writer had no personal objects to serve ; he was distinguished by tho uprightness and independence of his judgment ; he was not tho man to have coloured his reports so that they might harmonize with a foregone conclusion ; as a soldier aind ^ as a politician he was hold in high respect by all classes in both services . Thus wo have , at length , an ninpTe and faithful report , simpl y and vividly written , of tho inferior Btato of Oudo before its final absorption into tho British Indian Empire ; and the first thing likely to strike tho render is , that General Sleoman's sketches , taken at Court , boar out to tho letter tho descriptions of "' fienBualityr ~ abnSGmentf ~ nnd--brutality ~ conta » ned ^^^^ Eastern King . Novcr did a more odious and contemptible dospot occupy a throne than the lust reigning King of Oudo ; novor was a palnco more polluted than his by tho vilost und basost passions ; never did a country sufForjnore bitterly for tho profligate imbecility of its rulers . General Slooinan pictures tho land , although naturally rich , going out of cultivation , the increase of robbery and violence , tho impoverishment of tho artisan nnd agricultural populations , tho decay of towns , tho atrocious tyranny of tho fiscal system , tho ghastly caprice of tho tribunal ' s , and tho fouds of tho chiefs and tlio groat
landlords , whose rapacity swept from the village the pittance that had been spared by the tax-gatherer . The people had no remedy , and could devise none ; they saw their wretched government encircled by British bayonets , sanctioned by the presence and counsel of British functionaries , and otherwise hopelessly imposed upon them , and they could do nothing but suffer , despair , and struggle for the bare essentials of life . It was useless to build habitations which the tax-gatherer might at an 3 ' moment burn down ; it was vain to collect riches when they must be hidden in the earth , whence they would probably be extorted by torture : thus the process of demoralization and degeneracy perpetuated itself , and it is historically demonstrated that every year the inhabitants of Oude became poorer , more improvident , and more unhappy . This expresses , in generalities , the judgment passed by General Sleeman of the administration of the kingdom by its native sovereigns under the direct and material protection of the East India Company , without which the whole State would in a month have drifted into anarchy . ' .
_ _ _ __ _ . , . , . , , The effect of General Slceman ' s narrative must be to destroy much of that popular opinion which still sympathizes with the deposed royal family of Oude , and judges harshly of the measure which deprived it of its only privilege—that of torturing and plundering an afflicted people , and o € rioting ° in abject excesses within the walls of a palace reeking with all imaginable and unimaginable depravity . The General began by describing a series of horrible outrages crowded into the first few days of his inspection , and the means by which the petty Rajahs asserted their authority . Among these processes were stiffening the beards of men Tvith moist gunpowder , leaving them to dry , and then firing them , mutilating them with atrocious ingenuity , laying their villages in ashes , destroying their half-ripened crops , piercing the flesh of women with red-hot ramrods , whipping them naked , wrapping their hands and even their bodies in thick cloth steepedin oil , so that they blazed like torches . Not one of the agents employed in
perpetrating these villanies to fill their own coffers and those of tbe King was ever punished or coerced during the period described by General Sleeman . Oude was systematically and habitually governed upon these principles . The writer presents in this portion of his narrative a personal account , which will be read with much avidity , of Maun Singh , the great Zemindar now , or lately , in arms against the British forces in Ou . de . Of the King himself his description is even more characteristic . That potentate , having been offended by a courtier , ordered all the females of his family to be stripped naked and turned into the streets . This order was not carried out , the British Resident having interfered , but the degraded tyrant was a stranger to any compunction of human decency . A slave of slaves , with eunuchs and dancing-girls as his
principal courtiers , an adept in cock-fighting and falconry , and in all respects mean and corrupt , this prince , after living for years in dread of poison , so much so that he locked down the cover of his private well , died , and the usual episode of sanguinary confusion preceded the installation of his successor . What the King of Oude was in 1852 General Sleeman plainly indicates : " The longer he reigns the more unfit he becomes , and the more the administration and the country deteriorate . " The females maintained by former sovereigns were driven into the streets ; eunuchs , fiddlers , and a base sort of improvisator © consumed ' half the revenue ; ' upon the throne was ' a crazy imbecile ; ' throughout the Court a rabble of low and voracious parasites . We are only stating generally what the late Resident illustrated in detail in his diary and in his correspondence .
To all who have formed , or may form , an ^ opinion on the affairs of Oude , a perusal of these volumes is a necessity . They abound in graphic matter ; they are interesting as travel and valuable as history .
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LITERARY HISTORY . Illustrations of the Literary History of the Eighteenth Century . Consisting of Authentic Memoirs and Original Letters . By John Bowyer Nichols , F . S . A . V ol . VIII . Nichols and Sou . The final volume of the Nichols collection of Literary Illustrations has now been published , with an index , which in itself is a work of unique interest and value , and a Memoir of Mr . John Nichols , sometime editor of the acutlemtoi's Magazine . The book belongs to no latter-day order . It is characteristic of the last century . Tho paper , the illustrations , the type , clear and handsome , befit the correspondence of Dr . Percy , Bishop of Dromore , with notes by Sir Frederick Madden , Mr . John JMitford , and Mr Joseph Hunter . This selection includes many important letters from eminent men of all ranks and professions . Mr . John Bowyer Nichols has compiled a large body of additions , with reference to which he says , " I feel fully conscious of having occasionally trespassed on the literary history of the present century . In all such instances the individuals had at least by their learned studios in the Eighteenth Century prepared themselves to benefit a succeeding generation . Tho notices of such persons will bo found to bo short , referring generally to longer memoirs . Most of thorn wore either patrons or friends of myself , and I had rather bo guilty of some inconsistency tlum deficient in showing cither gratitude br respect . Tho immense variety of tlie contents precludes any analysis ol them . Allusions will bo found to almost every person of note who figured during tho period referred to . Wo shall best illustrate tho character of tho illustrations by selecting a few passages from tho correspondence , characteristic of individuals nnd fashions passed away . Among the most conspicuous personages-corresponding ^ w ! tU ~ lJishopJL > jer . cy J $ M ^ J ^ 'zai ^ JiCp ^ t joss oC Moira , " oldest daughter of Thoophilus ninth E . trl of Huntingdon , by £ ha celebrated and eminently pious Sclina Countess of Huntingdon , second daughter and co-heiress of Washington Earl JJVsrrurs . " Hero uro her thanks to the Bishop of Dromoro for a . book on royul cookery : — Lord Moiro indeed has not studied that work aa muoh as hia lordship ' * other friend has done , who Is , pno of those infected with tho strange curiosity of fooling '" to ™ ' ** about every trifle in a etrongor clo K roo for every century amoved m which they wora transacted . She . has found out a moat incomparable bread saueo in a list of curry , to
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), March 20, 1858, page 283, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2235/page/19/
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