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all that they are daily and hourly struggling against , all that they are striving" to make their countrymen ashamed of . The disposition to hold fast by a favourite vice does not stand in need of any foreign support . The moral teachers of England , those who are labouring for the regeneration 6 f England ' s national character , might have hoped for aid and encouragement from the nobler spirits abroad ; they are at least justified in presuming
that they know their own country as well as M . Chales knows it , that they wish every jot as well to it , and are quite as unlikely to judge it harshly , where harshness is not deserved . Mr . Bulwer has employed a large part of his work in contending against what every Englishman of the slightest elevation of soul has long cried out against , as emphatically and disgustingly our national vice : the universal and all-absorbing struggle to be
or to appear rich , and the readiness to make any sacrifice of ease , comfort , or personal dignity , for the appearance of mixing * . with , or of being honoured with the notice of , the wealthy . For his spirited denunciation of this vice he is called to account by M . Chales in the following terms : —
* Supposez qu ' un Anglais , qui sait que le commerce c ' est toute la Grande Bretagne , et que le commerce sails la garantie de la proprie ' te ' iTexiste pas , derive deux volumes pour se moquer de la proprie ' te ' , pour la bafouer , corn me fille aine ' e de l ' e * goisme et comme mere de tous lea abus ; que penseriez-vous -de lui ?—Qu'il faut Tenvoyer & la maison de force s'il est dans son bon sens , et a Bedlam s'il est en de'lire . —Envoyez-y done M . Bulwer , 1 ' auteur de Paul Cliffbrd , de Pelham , et de Devereux , M . Bulwer devenu saint-simonien , M . Bulwer qui se moque de la proprie ' te" et qui n ' epargne pas le commerce . Imaginez ce que ce serait
qu ' une Angleterre sans commer e , une A ngleterre spartiate , qui croupirait dans son ignorance et dans son abrutissement . Le bel esprit M . Bulwer a des railleries tres mordantes contre le patriotisme e ' goiste de Yhomme qui aime son pays comme sa propriety personnel le . Tout ce que nous aimons , ne raimons-nous -pas comme nous appartenant , ou comme devant nous appartenir ? M . Bulwer fait de& caricatures vives , grotes ques , colorizes , et s ' attaque surtout au gros commer ^ ant de la Cite " ,
appuyt * sur la colonne de cluffres et plein de son importance , Ou . serait , san » de tels appuis , la prospe ' rite de la Grande Bretagne ? Oh . seraient ses immenses fabriques > sea gigamtesques usines , et ses admirablea ports ? Ces clioses ne se font pas avec du dandysme et du bel esprit . M . Bulwer ressemble trop a ces sophistes Athe * niens qui arnusaient le peuple aux depens de ce qu'il avait de rneilleur et de plus utile , pour lui ^ pprendre les jolies phrases , les images agreables , et les frivoles combats ^ e la parole /
We have heard of sophists , bath at Athens and in other places , who have amused the people at the expense of what are usuall y considered to be ' ce qu'ils a . vaient de meilleur et de plus utile , ' their love of virtue , their love of freedom , their love of their country , their love of the pursuits of intellect , their love of God . ** ut this is the fii st time we have seen any one reproached with attempting to laugh his countryman out of the love of money :
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The Journal den Dibat * and the English . 387
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1834, page 387, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2634/page/3/
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