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    •NOULESNH OtfLKlK"

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    Untitled Article

    have the appearance of doing , for of course we are not writing to those who sniff at , and pooh-pooh , all approximation of the rich Chr istian to the poor one as absurd and out of the question .. There are some , indeed , who are willing to treat the poor Christian as . Dr . Armsi-bong loved to treat the poor countryman , and to give him at least a transient feeling of equality— " Sometimes at . ere , for I delight to taste The native zest and flavour of the fruit , Where sense grows .. wild , and takes of no manure , The decent , honest , cheerful husbandman Should drown his labours in my fdendly bowl , And at my table find himself at home . " Christianity might , perhaps , even thus far proceed , with no more sacrifice of cool judgment than mere good nature and genial humour are sometimes inclined to make . Men of no contemptible station and judgment have sometimes tried the experiment , and do not seem to have found it a failure . The great Sir Matthew Hale , as his biographers inform us , usually invited his poor neighbours to dine with him , and made them sit at table with himself , and if any of them were sick , so that they could not come , he would send meat ¦ warm to them from his own table . Dr . Arnold , too , seems

    to have been a true Christian in this respect . " With the poor generally , " says Stanley , '' though his acquaintance was much more limited than it had been in the village of Laleham , vet with some few , chiefly aged persons in the almshotise of the place , he made a point of keeping up frequent and familiar intercourse . . ' , ¦' . talking to them with the manner of a friend and an equal . Feeling keenly what seemed to him at once the wrong and the mischief done by the too wide separation between the higher and lower orders , he wished to visit them as neighbours , without always seeming bent on relieving

    or instructing them . " We quote this to show that the conduct of the poor does not necessarily make this kind of bearing towards them impracticable . No doubt such men felt that a communion of religious sentiment and feelings Jjeing ; one of the strongest ties , ought naturally to lead to sympathy , and that this sympathy could scarcely be felt to exist without a-certain degree of intimacy between the rich and poor of the same faith , hopes , and feelings . However , few religious people are

    religious enough to encounter the risk of " liberties "— -that is the term— -disposed though they may be to show the greatest kindness in the form of condescension . We believe there is a manner that may temper somewhat this condescension with cordiality , and with a kindness which would never tempt a good poor man to any freedom that could be construed into impertinence . These remarks do not refer so much to the poor indiscriminately , as to those who have a claim to be considered fellow-Christians , as well as fellow-creatures .

    ~~^ ffreTe ^ otifd ^ e ~ tess-daTige ^ when the humbler classes were more indifferently educated—at least , on the whole , we think so . though some may here differ with us—however , there is , at all events , sufficient radical difference , in general manners and habits , between rich and poor , to indispose the latter , even on their own account , to a pushing and intrusive familiarity . On the side of the rich , the intercourse should only be attempted where there is a heart to carry it through graciously and cordially ; without this , though there might be an apparent sacrifice of the general spirit of pride , there would probably be great temptation to distinct and offensive acts of pride and repulsion—such , indeed , as might lead in the end to less sympathy than exists even at present between the religious rich and the religious poor .

    People and preachers too generally fix their attention so much on sensual , and so little on intellectual sins ; so much on the mere flavour of Evk's apple , and so little on her ambitious aspirations ; and this vice puts on such an extremely respectable suit of clothes , and walks arm-in-arm with so many apparent virtues , deceiving—often in their own case—even the very elect , that perhaps our readers will excuse a sermon from the press which they are not particularly likely to hear from the pulpit . The theme is a wide one , there being almost as many forms of the manifestation of pride as there are varieties of human action ; we have taken one in which pride , though much practised ^ ie least consistenVund most out of-plnco . - .,.-

    Untitled Article

    July 14 , I 860 . ] The Saturday Analyst and Leader . H 5 ?>

    Untitled Article

    LORD WILLIAM ( ' ur > , rc nns given now version to am old Haying . We confess thnt , till the present time , we possessed no very clow or definite conception as to the exact obligations of nobility , but . now , thanks to the Cimibrulge Insolvent / Court arid" Woolly Laxttm / ' we know to what " noblesse " oblige * . Just as S . < 3 . O . exposes benevolence . m > hie kinsman . W . ( X . O ., exposes uristoeriicv . 1 it > 111 are uscnil in their generation .

    Indeed , this last exposure confirms us in a conclusion we had come ; to long 1 ago . A poor nobleman is an anomaly . A nobleman has no lnore business to be poor than a livery servant has to be oiit at elbows ., or a . 'beadle without , a staff . ¦ "We '' . sympathise with the butler who hated poor men ., but as to -poop -noblemen , faugh ! the verv name stinks in oui nostrils . If the hereditary aristocracy of Groat . 'Britain is to cndni'e , some institution like the '" -Happy Despatch " must be introduced . When a lord's income sinks beneath a winimum of say four figures , there should be tin end to him . A ' man of three letters " was the Latin expression for a thief , a " nobleman of three figures" stands for what we are too polite to add . We can pardon . a wicked peer , '" ' Itunuunnv c . * t crrarc . " We . can tolerate a foolish peer , we are so accustomed to the class , but a poor -peer is nothing Imt the elongation of a pauper . If

    . ¦ any one doubts tne justice of our theory , let him con the story of Lord Wtltjam Osborxi :. This unfortunate young man was educated at Marlboroug'li School .-- What business , we would ask by the way . has the son of an English Duke at a school intended for the cheap education of the sons of poor clergymen V At the agv of-sixteen he came to reside with his father , in the neighbourhood of Cambridge , and there , with the short interval-of * a-college life , and various enforced visits to those various continental wateringplaces where an English writ runneth not , the career of the lad was spent , till at last , at . 'the ripe age of twenty-five , it has culminated in the- 'Cambridge Debtors' ( Jaol . His allowance till he came of ag'e amounted to £ 12 a year . His ' cigar bill ¦ alone , which , however , he did not pay , to £ 10 . When he arrived at yours of discretion , this munificent allowance was increased to ' the enormous- sum of £ 100 . together with the run of . his . Grace , the Duke ' s mansion . Mr . ¦ Tn"AfK"KR 4 V bus described how a msm lived on nothiiiir n-

    year . Lord Wn . r . iAii has solved the far more difficult problem ol how a noblemsm may live on £ 100 a-year . From the first day he started in life he was , of course , head over ears in debt . Like all embarrassed-men . he had a JSuhis Achates in the person of a Mr . Headi . ey , whose sister he ultimately married . Lord William : stated to the . Judge that his only prospect of paying- his debts was . that-which . every son of a l ) uke has , and Mr , HWdly ' sonly prospect seems to have been that which every brother-in-law , of a lord has . With these problematic assets , the firm of ' Osborm : and Hkadly " managed to struggle on for nine long years . There was a party Called . *• CoiTEy , " an old . clothesrnan . of Jewish

    extraction , who knew a party by the name of i" Laxtox , " . orj * Woolly Laxton , "_ as his intimates termed him . a dog ^ imcier . and these partiesrhad between them aii " unknown friend . " who acted as banker to the firm . It is the old story , which has been told a hundred times . There was a bill of £ 20 signed by the lord and his brother-in-law , for which ' -. they each received in cash the sum , of 50 s ., and then there was a renewed bill for £ 25 to cover expenses , and so on , with writs , and protests , and loans ; and advances on account , and blank acceptances , and exchanged cheques , and pre-dated receipts , and the whole devil's -machinery , till at last the . usual result caine , and the insolvent was utterly unabletotellwhat he had received , or what he had repaid , beyond the broad general fact that he had got very little , and paid a great deal , ; -and owed a great deal more still . Then there was jewellery purchased and never paid for , and 'disposed of somehow to

    raise money , and watches pawned , and monies borrowed from ostlers and dog-keepers , and tailors ; and petty ¦ basenesses without end . Then , too , there is a mysterious connection between the young nolUeman and a certain London tailoringfirm , also apparently of Jewish parentage , who , strange to say , do not oppose at the examination . This confiding firm used to honour . -Lord-William's orders for clothes for himself and friends ' . The clothes thus obtained , were apparently sold to " Laxtok , " a stranger still , the orders were handed to Con icn , who gave the nobleman ten shillings , or even a sovereign at a time , for the trouble . Vet , somehow , the firm in London seem to have found their account in the transactions . Recollecting what we do of Cambridge in our time , the . idea crosses ' us whether a firm of Jew tailors may not have employed tlie son of an English duke , as their commission touter . When a peer is in difficulties , " noblesse " does indeed " oblige . "

    For all this sin and shame , mul wretchedness , what is it that the unhappy Lord has to show V The only feats of daring " , or claims to distinction , recorded of him in his trials are , that he used to give sumptuous breakfasts at which " Wootj . y Lax ton " was a'frequent guest ; that he was' seen drunk in Norfolk-street , Cambridge , with two ladies , about whose character , considering 1 our recollection of the locality , there cisn he little doubt , and that he once drove a four-inhand to Newmarket . His finill crash has not even the grandeur ol a great ruin . The total of his debts is only a little over £ 1 , 000 . His whole receipts for the nine years arc another £ 1 , 000 and his largest creditor is only a # 00 pound man . Why such an insolvent is a disgrace to the Court , ! A greengrocer or a shoemaker would

    be ashamed to fail with such a schedule . If you get nothing more thin ) this , by nine years' paltry roguery , you had better be an honest u inn . W < 5 know that in these matters it . is hard to , judge . Somewhere or other there must have been grievous rascality perpetrated , and \ VC , o \ YJji thi ^ t froin a jiiere pm W i i . i . i vm " Wiis more sinned Multilist t linn sinning ' . It is all-very-well and proper for the learned judge <<» tell the insolvent " that he siimilii have devoted himself to sonic honourable pursuit , jimt lived within his menus- , —a course oi ' cnnduc . t not derogatory even Ik tin * so 11 "' " Duke ; " lint how , iii th < ' name of common sense , enn n Lord Use un : j huiulreil a-yenr ? " There is one thing' ill niiy rnltr that nubli-usc ought to ( ti > ligc , iiuil Hint is to wji ^ Ii tine ' s dirty linen at home ; )»>> d out <> i' regard for Ins order , if not lor ivspcot t «) liis inline , ( Ik 1 I'UKe of Lkkds should luive hindei « 'd the exposure of Lord U ' ir . i . M u () sur » n \ i :.

    •Noulesnh Otflklk"

    • NOULESSW O . HLKJK .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), July 14, 1860, page 653, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2356/page/5/