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STABS AND GAKTEKS, AND ORDERS OF MERIT.
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cle ver boys to cite to the public , and to keep the school in . credit ; bnfc what becomes of the idle and careless ones , in the reclaiming of whom-the most important part and the most difficult of a schoolmaster ' s business lies ? So . Arnold said , or something tantamount to it .
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ME . THACKERAY , who has the reputation of being the most satiric and aciid of all authors , the one whose ridicule at all shams is the sharpest , and whose scorn at all " snobbisin " is the loudest if not the deepest , has written a paper in his Magazine recommending a new order of merit , which he would call the Ofder of Britannia , and a medal of which should be given to all those of our gallant stamen who distinguish themselves , not in the horrid trade of slaughter , nor in defending our shores , no / in battering down the forts of our enemies , but in rescuing the crews of sinking ships from destruction , and in showing the wondrous bravery and magnanimity which the great majority of our seamen always do in the * lumr of " danger , and such as especially the officers and crews of the Birkenhcad and the Sarah Sands exhibited . lie is probably ignorant that a gold and silver medal for the-purpose do exist , and
that the Humane Society also bestow a decoration for those who save life—for we also , like the Romans , believe it to be nobler to . save the life of a citizen than to slay an enemy . But we believe the principle which our satirical author sets out with is wrong . Our common work-a-day Englishmen do not care for bits of ribbon and bits of metal . Virtue is its own reward with us . Why should a man who has done his duty be parcelled and ticketed out from men who , when the time came , and the opportunity with it , would do their duty just as well ? The story of the brave man ' s deeds is known ; his . comrades are aware-of his valour if the-world . -is not ; nay , bv multiplying the orders of distinction , we doubt whether we do ' not " weaken and effeminate the mind . Our nation , thank Providence , is too manly to need many such ; nay , the very multitude of the Ciineari medals rather hurt than honoured Jchn Hull . Sentimental writers may thitik- . it' very fine to hang -bits-of ribbon on the breasts of their heroes ; but the heroes themselves do not .
has had his portrait painted by a master hand—one Edward Gibbon , Esq ., as neat a limner of a portrait in pen and ink us need be . His sketch is by tip . means'flattering '; . There is one ,-, of . the usual extravagantly sanctified and incredible style , of tlie author of that ' book-of extraordinary fables * , the "Lives . of the Saints . " Of the two we prefer GiBBONi The successful pig-deahr in those days could not rise to be a praetor , nor a consul , nor to fill any honourable office ; but he could be a bishop , and we must remember that Christianity was not then the religion of the ** tate , and that it was by no means fashionable ; -consequently , our Cappjidocian did episcopate , and in a by no means regular way . H « took up better men ' s leavings ; and this quietly introduces us to the Athanasian Creed . H <> vv few of our interesting High Church , Low Church , Broad Church , or flat'Cuurch young ladies ever think about Si . Geoege , when the \ are repeating that grand and glorious Credo of St . Athakasius , that ; ihnost successful attempt to unveil and
explain the mi > aculous , and to render uumy > terio < is the grand . Mystery I That Creed stands like a rock liefore the services of the Chinch , a rock uhich the tide of Infidelity may b » -at against , but e : umot remove . It used to be fashionable to hiugh at it , to call it contradictory , to bespatter it with silly epithets ; but" still it stands . " When I was writing the 'History of the Church , says oli Fuller , " I wjis advised to be quick about it , lest , before iny Historv tt-as out , the Church-should be gone ; but 1 have oWrved tnat our Church . 'has a -strange knack of bein * r always falling with some people ; and yet it stands . " "It is full of mystery , " mivs one . "Aye , " returns Montague , " and when one will explain the greater m \ tilery to me , how when I was born , and live and twenty years before my father was attacked , anil t-ixty-tivt ! years before it made its appearance . in my body , an hereditary complaint ( the stum ) was born with n \ e , then I will talk to him of lesser mysteries . " Which , look vou , should shut any Arian up .
St . ATHANASirs . put forth his Crerd boldly ; notso Ins opponent , who dsingle ' * in - effigy , -on the breast of our ' noblest knights , and before the very heart of our Queen . Burn in a fuller ' s shop , of thevery nature of greasy din , fron which the fuller ' s . earth should have cleansed him , St . George rose step by step , always fuwning , always parasitic , to the post of pork purveyor to the army of the Emperor Julian the Apostate . * When there , hem-. idu plenty of money . That was-his god . Some historiaiiSi wishing to flatter liim . say that he was Commissary -General to the siitny , an urn itype of . FitPEE in . the Crimea . -He " . made his fo > tune , anil' men who have made fortunes , if of active minds , wish lor-something "to do . He " took to" •' religion , joined the Arians , and when good old Athanasxus was a second time driven from Alexandria , our St . G-EOBGE _ sat ; iu his place . He . was one of those easy-going , n aiethe-liest-ofVboth-worlds sort of prelates , who was , alas ! popular , too popular With the crowd . Consequently , lie shs \ v the'dragon .
And pray who was the . dray on . and when did he come into the storv P Where the Princess Sabka , where ¥ : ' ... - ' Why . fustunroll the mythic story , and ifc i 3 as plain as a pikestaff . ' These ' Ch . urchiuen * fought with ' . their tongues . The synod over which the Empress of tV . e Apostate Julian presided was the arena—the -misbelieving bishop was St . Geokgk—the i > rincess Sabba , either a type of Iii-liyiuU , or tiie benign , eiisily-civdent J £ i . i . iMJu «^ iinl _^ ini ' . t » . oml old St . ATi ' tAXAsnJs wtis the Drauu . n I Yes . he was the beast , ' bcllu ? h-ia , as JLuUrt s opponents
But whilst we were on the point of voting : a new order , let us look at those we have , beginning with our .-Star and Garter and St . GehEge , the . honour of all honours , sprung . from a patron saint who was a pi > rk butcher ! This is undeniable : we choose our own members of Parliament , but patron saints comeT as a gift ' of" nature . ' St . IVIliHAEi , St . Bokiface , Sti Hocus-Pocps , and Huklo-Thecmbo , chosen for good deeds in their day , now lost to sight their memory is "green " enou ' trl'i ; so let it be . But of all saints in the Calendar ( and unless we Protestants are grossly ignorant , there be some queer ones there ) really and positively we believe St . Geobge to be the worst . We shall come to him presently V but we Would rather pray to the sagacious god of-the Mandingoes than to St . George .
Those benighted woolly heads in bowing to their " sense-gods " as the Rev ! . Mr . BvisE of Trinity College , Dublin , calls them , * had some reason . "A pig had b y- chance / ' says OxbENpoar in his account of these same Mandingoes , " led an army of these natives , w . hi > , i \ uira-peiashed-. -for want of water , to a pond ; the pig being desperately thirsty itself , and rather more acute in its senses , or " knowing the way better than the human animals . The army . was saved , and the pig was deified . " The celebrated hog of St . Antony , which has long formed part of a proverb , " following one about like a tewtony pig , " was never more venerated by the Irish than this one by the JVJandingoes . Asa nobleman in England dignifies his family , so this porcine Mandingo rendered his descendants blessed .
He , they , aunts , cousins , male and female , and the whole generation of thern are elevnUd to that earlier pee ) age of which the Roman Emperors wished to be . In Ireland , to , be sure , a pig lives a luxurious life . He is referred to as " the gintleinau who pays the rint . " He lounges about , so to speak , with his hands in his pockets . He has been seen by veracious tourists loaning , against door-posts , and smoking a dudeeu : be is undoubtedly admitted to the bent apartments ol the house ; He is freo of the drawing-room , parlour , kitchen and all , and enjoys the 'blandishments of Irish female society ; but he is better off with the Mandingoes , for with our friends over the water he does " pay the rint , " and just to save his life ho is hilled , or lie is shipped off at a certain period of his fiweet existence , probably at the sweetest , just as the full glory of youth dawns upon him , to supply the English . market . At the very moment when , in the language of his poet , Mr . Moobe , he is
politely term linn St Axuaxasius lieu to the d . seits of Upper * Eg \ pt , until the diath of his perst-cutor , iu 3 < i 2 a ' . d . —a period-of six years ; he . was then brought back in triumph , and as the pork butcher and bacon commissary ' would not give , up his see , out of revenge for many cruelties , und disgust for himself , the populace lost their temper , as they did with Count Ajnviti , aiid killed -him , and thus unwittingly made a Marty u of him ! We do not-hear-any .- mure of the Saint till the lime of the Crusades , when , at the great siege of Antioch , our soldiers were
ab . ut to give way , when up rushes Bishop Adhemau , followed by i > fresh party of " horsemen , in ' the leading rank of who . ni w » mc . three knighis .. ' . ' Behold , " cried thu Bishop , " here is hel p- from Heaven ; the holy martyrs , Guobge Dkmi-. tbius and TiiicoboKE , light for you . " " I'll " take the iirut , " cried a hravo Eii « lihhniJin for my patron saint . St . Geouoe for murry Euglund I " And away the besiegers rushed again , frightened their opponents , and gained the \ ictory . Madcap Kin . tr Dick the First also saw St . "Geo ' koe in a vision , and was thereby relieved from grout tit raits ; und so St . Geokge wjis , somehow , adopted as our patron saint . Our soldiers
we ' ie lot bidden to use any other cry . The whole thing was got up . His day was fixed , and ho whs a fixture ; the red crows ot inuriyrdoin waved ' upon the white fbig of his innocence , —our cliiuf city took it for its aims , with a dagger or llotnau sword . for a dialinclinn in the iirst quarter;—the story about Walwobth introducing that is apocnplml . Churches were built for the saint , und our seuli x ht « rs and soldiers wore the rod cross in their caps and btuoiiuts , crosses winch remain to this day on the liltlo square brass brcat > tplato und buttons of the Grenadier Guard * . When in 1341 or 1350—more than live hundred years ago—Ki » f ? Euwaud formed the Order of the Garter , - lie took St . Okoroe us its ttaiut . Mora of this order anon , Now to otliem . (> There were , nnd are , Knight h of the " Broom How or in tho Musk , of St . Bjupget , of two St . CXtiU ' rin ' jjs , of the CV'lestia | C \» llnr of the KoHiirx . of thive Cuaklks , ol miy miniher ol Ooncc | itioUN , M ) f t \ Vo
" All truth , all tendcrneas and grace , " he is driven on board ship , und trni ^ ported . He objects to this ; ho « ries out ; he ia melmicholy , remote , unfriended , but by no means slow . He is borne from the place where his forefathers dwelt . Ip vain , as he departs , " He sings tho wild song of his dear native land ;" .... his ., voice is unheeded . Ho becomes horridly wick in crossing the channel ; he is luiided ^ if riot wrecked , indeed—and ho terminates hin existence in pickled pork . Sometimes ho ia wrecked , and then he puts a period to his Hufleriugs , if we en dit popular trudition , by cutting his throat us he swims . If so , his corpse , when cast ashore , in eagerly devoured by some Welsh wrecker . If not , as wo say , pickled pork is his fate ; and here St . George takes him in hand , nnd we take in hand tft , Geoboje . That person , who , says SHAKSrKARK , ' " " Swinged tho Drngon , and now Bits Still on Ilia horseback , at mine hostess' door , "
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May 26 , I 860 . ] The Leader und Saturday Analyst . 495
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* In An admirable article on the Religions of Mankind .
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* Th ru in a capital story of Lord Kknyon mldrensifiK nn ' witorant jury on the cptimation in which Religion should bo held , ui . d wan held by variouB sovticigiiB . " Amongst them , " m » id hia L » rdbhi |> , ' la that vxccl . lent Bmperor Juwan , who wi » 8 « o , retiyioua thut Uo vraa culled tho Avoath . "
Stabs And Gakteks, And Orders Of Merit.
FAES AND GAKTEKS , AKD OEDERS OF MERIT .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), May 26, 1860, page 495, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2349/page/11/
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