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shall tom; savkrs ilwk a statue? is b at moment
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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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Jiullo ia oy no means an unperiineni question a . wneu - ^ the fume of " the gallant Tom" is eclipsing that of all the warlike heroes of the world . Were our fathers , in IS 15 , more stirred by the news of Welunutox '!? defeat of the Goksica . n' Hoy ut Waterloo than we , their sons , are now stirred by the . accounts of the Battle oi ' Farnborough ? Geobge the Fourth embraced the dirty groom who brought him the intelligence , and his faithful metropolitan subjects lighted up u few extra , candles , and niu out into the . streets to raise the voice ' of rejoicing ' . Wo will not imagine Her Gracious Majesty giving way to any such demonstration of delight on hearing' that Toaj Saykjjs had gallantly maintained the honour of England in , the P . It . Hut . have we not lighted ui > our candles and crowded the
streets , and shouted and tolegraphed , . and altogether worked ourselves up into a state of the highest excitement ? ( Did we do more , or even as much , when we heard of the full of Sul » wtO |» iI or the relief of Lueknow p , Was Kaouan or CoLix Cxmvuki . i . more in men ' s mouths then than Tom Savkus is now ? Tho 7 '< Vrs-. sent ft . special reporter to the Crimea to chronicle tho deeds of the i > riii * h army . It also sent u correspondent to chronicle tho deeds of To . \ t SAYisua and the JJk . nicia Boy at l'Vnborough . _ Tliu hand which traced those throe columns of graphic description wan the . same winch so brilliantly described tho Buttle of BalnUluvu . in the Mom hi a . Jlovald , So , to begin with , the leading journal of
England sent its best man to furnish tho public with a lull , true , and particular account of this great event . Lot us now glance round the ring on that marshy slope at Furu borough , and seo who are come thithov to shod tho light of their countenance and patronago upon tho British Amyous . Here are roughs in plonty , grooms , betting-men , ooatennongorH , dog-fanciers , and thieves , astonishing even American experience of Jtowdios and Filibusters . But whom have we in tho front row—the reserved seats of tho arena ? Two noble dukes , three marquees , hali-adoxon noble lords , a ( statesman and poet , and it sprinkling of clergymen , arnons whom stands prominently forward the High Pnest ot
t )» e revived aeet of muscular Christians . And now Amyous ana Pollux enter tho ring , and see each other for the first time—tlio one an undersized man of five feet oight , tho other a niunt of six feet two . Whou Amycl-s and Poli' . ux fought , us wo aro icmiudoU by Walthu Sicvuilx , Esquire , of the Council Oilico , Whitehall , it was by skill that Porxvx overreachod his opponent , and caused nil the eountoimneo of the Inttor to bo struck with tho rays of the sun . In tho case of Saykus and JIkjcnan this wua decided by tlio toss ot a coin , so that the laws of tho Prize Ring have rather been brutaliKOd than ameliorated by modern inUuonoea . " Hereupon , to use tho
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April 28 , I 860 . ] The Leader and Saturday Analyst . 399
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is no special evil of the present day , any more than the herding together of the civic or rustic poor in promiscuous lodgings or rabbit-hutch cottages . A recent work has shown us how rife adulteration in all its kinds Was in the earlier period of bur industi-ial history ; every man can add something to the list from his own reading . One of the happiest quotations of Addisojt , and "the wittiest , occurs in that paper of the Tatter in which he dilates on the subterranean philosophers employed in the transmutation of liquids , and by the power of magical tricks raising under the streets of London the choicest products of the hills and valleys of France , squeezing Bordeaux out of the sloe , and Champagne out of the apple , and fulfilling-, in a burlesque way , Virgil ' s prophecy , — Incultisque Tubens pendebit vitibus uva . The blushing grape shall hang on every thorn . We could compare the purposely darkened drapers' shops of which Tayloe the water poet complained , with the " faux jour" of Ia Bbuyere , though we fear that we do not now-a-days merely run neck and neck in rascality with our French neighbours , simply because their police is infinitely more efficient , and because' we ¦ -constantly 1 see in the French papers lists of the interdicted and ¦ exposed ; they have a surveillance whose energies are not intermittent , and the state of the people's food has long been considered fealty worth the attention of the legislature or legislator . Else where , in the Spectator , Addison speaks of the " apothecary countermining the vintner . " As no allusion is made to philosophical mixtures in this passage , we presume that he means the unsophisticated apothecary counteracting the natural wine merchant , for the counterfeiting of drugs was probably then not so common—laudanum really sending you to sleep , and an emetic , not imparting a sudden appetite . Now the countermining in all directions in the dark really deserves the name , and the druggist as often countermines the physician whose prescription he has professed to rnake up , as the vintner whose compound is unknown ; in-short , in the confusion , nothing- is certain but the undermining of the patient . Even if these matters are suddenly bettered , which Ave hardly anticipate * we shall long have the smack of a diseased imagination ! . We may go on a long while , as a high authority tells us , whilst ¦" our knowledge is not infected ; " but we have drunk , and if we have not " seen , " we have been told of " the spider . " " There may be in the cup A spider steeped , and one may drink , depart , And yet partake no venom , for his knowledge , Is not infected ; but if one present Th' abhorred ingredient to his eye , make known What he hath drunk , he cracks h-is gorge , his sides , With violence hefts : I have drunk and seen the spider . " . —Winter ' s Tale . Some natures may ,. it is true , be happily insensible to these impressions , a fact which seems to be indicated by the circumstance that the benevolent providers of the first London drinking fountain selected ( with that singular felicity which marks nearly all combined action in England ) the side of St . Sepulchre's grave-yard for the oozing out of the aqueous supply . A draught of this may be better , however , than the-port wine or porter of some neighbouring publican , whose compounds poison hospital patients , and so may send them to the fountain , head which we have just indicated . There was an old joke—we believe of Jebuqi / d ' s—about " water with a body in it , " but we shrink from particulars . We shall not exhaust or further disgust our readers with any of the details , easily to be collected , of filthy compounds , or fatal cases , or wholesale public robbery ;—we shall content ourselves with making only a few remarks on " parties , " penalties , and publication . Magistrates should be very careful how they punish small retailers , except in certain trades whore adulteration is easy , as the publicans and bakers , for instance , and the milkmen . The little shopkeeper may offend by rather short weight , and in tho fashionable neighbourhoods on the outskirts of London , by extravagant prices -wherever he dares ask them . Tho greengrocers , for instance , who have little opportunity for other frauds , are in this latter way terribly extortionate ; but it is cortain that the principal adulterations arc not carried on by this class ; they have few opportunities , and often know too'litUe about what they doul in to understand the master arts of ¦ " ¦ falsification . " Yet even these should be lightly fined ; and always compelled to indicate the wholesale houses from which they are supplied . Then aa to penalty , we sometimes regret that wo are too refined for the pillory , or promenading in a cage through the prinoipal thoroughfares ; the notoriety of tho person being much more likely to be effectual than tho more notoriety of the name , which will ' be referred to presently . For the great detected offenders there ought to-be no miserable petty penalties , no paying ton pounds fqv a rascality which enables a man to pocket a hundred . Tins is the very dotage of legislation , known and protested ngainst agos "Oftfcimoa the rioh offence itself BuyB out tho law , " says Sitakspeahb . Hero tho crime pays tho oounsol , — " Whore fraud ie groat it furniahoB woupons to defend itsolf . " •—Sioift ' m n'qjodtfor advancing Jiuliflion . Now for the publication , or exposure . The man was no moan humorist who proposed fo make one of our banes our antidote , ana «• advertisement , " so often taken into tho service < Jf imposition , the means of protecting us against it . Tho idea that the detected rogue . should pay for his own advertisement as a cheat and swindler , is admirable , but it may bo done rather too cheap , us fur asi firat cost goes . It may bo proposed ns an amendment that it should be clone in all our principal papers , once at least , ana in tho largest
admissible type , not merely with the offenders nanie , but with a full account of / tis processes of-adulteration . We once thotig'ht of the church doors ; we remember , however , Sheeidan ' s objection at the time of the dog-tax -measure ; he thought that it would be necessary to enlarge all the church and chapel doors in the kingdom , for they would be no more sufficient than the parish registers would be for the births of the new puppies . We do not much care about the retailers and puppies , and should be content only to post up the big dogs and the black ones ; but unfortunately the Church Extension ; Act has not come into full play * and we should be obliged to eke out with the hoardings of what are to be , perhaps , at some future age , public ¦ memorials . ' This leads us to a suggestion of J 3 eiikele 1 l ' s > or at least a hint which may be used as a suggestion , lie tells us that in some of the towns of-Italy memorial columns were set up to indicate fbr a continuance those who had deserved ill of their felloWcitizens ; and he adds , " perhapa a pillar of infamy would be found a proper and exemplary punishment in cases of signal public villany . " There -might be many such pillars ; where should the first be placed P Doubtless in one of our most public places . Might we suggest the opposite corner to that where the peaceful Jen nek is waiting patiently for Ne 1 so > t to come down and Napiku to sit down , and where all . that is wanted is a great church ' tnan in the most appropriate attitude , and a representative lawyer on all-fours ( no degradation to the law ; only an indication of those infinite resources which would not have allowed us to ' . the-lawyer on his back ) . What a graceful and beautiful graduation—already commenced by the national taste , and embracing all the professions !—" un escalier geixtil comme $ a ne fatigue - gas . " - What a nice little tea-party ; the water is near , so are the dumb waiters , and the caddy is not far off . V But to return to our column at the other corner ; we would w llingly add to the names of our provision-rogues those of scoundrel attorneys who niake their living out of purely vexatious actions ; there . are plenty such , and there is- scarcely anything so villanous that some of these reptiles will not undertake ; let the perverters of justice take their place with the falsifiers of food . We might catch now and then , perhaps ,-. even' a barrister , and of flagrant election bribers not a few . Some people may think it cruel to add to the already afflictions of Trafalgar Square , but We say , without any joking-, that good substantial- posts , pillars , or colunvr . s might be erected , with very great advantage to the public and cost to the inscribed ofi'enders , in some of the more public thoroughfares with the names of those found guilty painted thereon : si year after the sentence the name might be obliterated to make room for some more recent rogue ; tho columns ¦ ought , of Course , to be sharply looked after by the police , a rather Juss troublesome pint of their cilice than detecting the criminals . This hint , in case our present legislation should prove a failure .
Shall Tom; Savkrs Ilwk A Statue? Is B At Moment
i \\ moment shall tom ; saviors lLwrc a statue ?
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), April 28, 1860, page 399, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2345/page/11/
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