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    ^O02 THE LEADER. [Saturday, ¦ ^ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦¦...

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    An Englishman Abroadgleanings From Picca...

    martyrdom of our sel £ tormenting voluntary ¦ exiles : they learn to love home more obstinately , and to put up more resignedly with the anomalies of our * ' glorious institutions , " after exchanging -the innocuous austerity of a * Peeler' for the tender mercies of an Austrian gendarme . We have feftown the most dissatisfied revolutionary sympathiser almost weep with satisfaction at the comfortable prospect of those oligarchical cliffs of poor < old England . " Now that I have returned home I laugh quite as heartily as younger men at all the small miseries and mishaps we must get through , without wincing , in out wanderings about the world . They are exactly the ups and downs , and joltings out of our drawing-room and club easy-chairs , we set out to—enjoy I "

    _ There is no mistaking the faithfulness of this confession . In the experience of most travellers the charm of the adventure is in the reminiscence , and the romance of travel in the telling . For" our own part -we confess we have little patience with these victims of small miseries and mishaps . Let them stay at home , and not make their country ridiculous abroad . Englishmen who must have indigestible dinners , Gargantuan beds , and dirt-creating carpets , are free to bask in those luxuries on their own free shores , without denying to foreigners the privilege of contrast . Assuring the Captain that he need not fear- the " freedom of his strictures upon men and things , " which , we repeat , are presented in the best form , that of a careless diary , we pass on from the IVeface , over which we have lingered too long , to the Gleanings from Piccadilly to Pera . These alliterations appear to be infectious .

    To do the Captain justice , he does not wait to cross the Channel to fcegin growling . Before he has left Piccadilly he has a growl about cablaws , which he thinks unfair to CaT > by , and accordingly he pays " sixpence , If not a shilling , over his fare , " to " avoid disputes . " At Folkestone , the Captain , who has an eager eye for beauty , observes the .-short supply of " oeaux" for the " dashing handsome girls , linked in twos and threes . " " How ^ many , " he feelingly exclainas , " of our charminglilies and roses ' waste their sweetness on the desert ( watering-places ) air !'—at last , any sort of two-legged animal is welqome . " The prevalence of this disastrous state of affairs was amusingly illustrated at a salubrious ( and cal lace the

    evangeli ) watering-p on western coast , the other day , where the local paper actually advertised for a " few gentlemen wanted' * ' for a pic-nic . ^ We cannot pause in Paris , wh « re the Captain has his eyes and ears actively busy in the new streets , the theatres ,, and the churches , and where he is as much at home as in London , We ieartily sympathise with any man who has " lost all the better chances in life" at Paris , and proceed by railway and river to Lyons , where the clean and comfortable aspect of the ¦ crowd provokes an outburst of iridignation . at the miseries of our own streets . At Marseilles , a look at the shipping , in which England is scarcely consp icuous enou gh , is moralised into a complaint at the legislative obstructions to the complete removal of commercial monopolies ; and the absence of beggars suggests a passage which deserves to be quoted . is

    Another sign of ^ prosperity here total absence beggars , — 'begging is indeed f 6 rbidden ,-r-but I do not see such rags , such fitter reckless destitution , in any of the narrow meaner streets , or the more lonely suburbs , as among ourselves ; indeed I have not seen a single being in rags , or unmistakably a beggar . This sets me to thinking < ra'that line of Pope's about governments : —

    " Wxiate ' er is best administered , is best . " Here is an active , unmistakable comment on the scribbling of the age among ourj selves , of ten thousand brilliant , but very worthless speeches in " botlohouses" In ^ p ite x > f various . wars , civil wars , changes of dynasties , in spite of much ignorance , much hotrheadedness , much religious superstition , and even , worst of all , much . scarcity this winter , both in bread and wine , here is a land , whose government we affect to despise or pity , that has infinitel y more reason to despise or pity us ! They retain at least the solid good to the poorest creature ; they have enough to eat , and arc decently clothed ; their police-courts drag to light nothing approaching the diro distress , nor the excessive , heartless brutality of our lowest classes . What signifies

    diversity of ignorant or prejudiced , opinions I It is indeed high time for us to bo awake to facts , our opinions would be too ridiculous were they not too melancholy , — tut vfQ love our opinions , wo live on and enjoj them ; very well—meantime " clothes , food . r and Jive" for the multitude becomes every day a moTo and more serious question , only helped a little of late by the tide of emigration . Crime is multiplied oven by the very laws made to redress it . Beggars swarm in our streets , beset our doors ; the children of our back slums and blind alleys , loft to run wild , pour out and commit all . sorts of petty mischief , besides their noise , qniite unchecked by the police , who stalk abiwt holding familiar conversations with pot-bays , maid servants , or with the knots « f idlers banging about our taverns and gin palaces , where they can bo—no doubt tinware too often—treated hy the moat good-for-nothing characters , and made sofa I

    There is much sagaoity in our auth or's remarks on the municipal and sanitary administration , and the moral condition of the two great manufacturing and commercial cities of France . From Marseilles we are carried to Toulon , whore an eccentric English [ yachtsman is made a note of ; thence to Hyeres , the French Torquay , which , it being bitter cold weather ( and nothing is bo intolerable as cold weather in the South ) , we are sick of in a , fo rtnight , and get back to Toulon , and are off to Cannes and Nice . We are unable to linger at Geaioa , Leghorn , Pisa , and Naples , with our thoughtful and observant companion , who improves on acquaintance . lie distributes , as he proceeds , his severities pretty equally between the delusions . and discomforts he encounters in his travels , and the cantg , corruptions , Anomalies and servilities he hua left at homo . Sometimes , after inveighing most bitterly against English social hypocrisies and tyrannies , we find hina sittingj down super ft . u . mina Bab } jlonis and calling to rem « xnln'ancc , in touching accents , the Ucah-pots of hie native land . Who can read without emotion the following gastronomic apostrophe' ? The Captain h " enjoying " the winter at Waples .

    O how I long for noirje of our own nice , tiavory , relishing dishes 1 what would 1 not gWe for ft ourry , or good rumpHtoalc and o > y « tor sauce ? 1 had groen peua j but , there is no auuh thing u « ntuftbd cluck : all thoir di « h « a , like the French , uro only pro-

    sauce , stuffed turkey or goose , any of our homely hashes would be exquisite compared to the messes they set before one ; and yet we travelled English to talk such un-Ena ; - lish nonsense of Continental cookery ! Yes , it is the fashion—So-and-So has a French cook—gives capital dinners ; now , I should say that would be the very reason why I would by all means avoid his table , if I cared to eat any dinner at all ; still I might hope , in this continental flood of tortured insipidities and affectation which so likes it that some despised English dish might smoke on the sideboard . ' A sailor is always worth listening -to on all sxibijects : he speaks his mind Captain Oldmixon ' s views _ on art and artists ( in his , chapter on Naples and Pompeii ) may not be singularly profound or refined , but they are at least genuine , and this sort of genuineness is as valuable as it is rare . We may always learn something from one who tells us what he really thinks and recounts what he really saw and felt . A -visit to Sicily draws forth a " «* ord or "two of honest sailor-like indignation at the disgraces of our diplomacy , and the iniquity and faithlessness of our policy towards that devoted island . The indolent apathy of our costly Ertvoys , their exclusiveness and inattention , their " squinting forbearance" towards petty despotisms , and the consequent contempt of the English where the Americans are respected and feared , are vividly and , we fear , too faithfully represented .

    From Malta Captain Oldmixon takes wing in a serew-steamer for Constantinople , where all the world is hurrying . It is the spring of the present year . We pass by the descriptions of the Dardanelles , the Sea of Marmora , the Golden Horn , and the traditional lions of the Sultan ' s capital . The lion of lions at the present moment is the British Lion , who appears to wag his tail in Turkey much , as he does at home . The sublime insouciance of the True Believer is already indifferent , if not accustomed , to the antics of his deliverers . The English are all as shy of their travelling countrymen as usual , not always without reason , for Constantinople is crowded with the detrimentals of all nations , seeking whom or what they may devour . * ' One of these young men , with a . revolver which threatened to shoot backwards on its owner j was on his way to join the French General I ' aeha commanding at

    -Kars ^—as a volunteer , not knowing whether the Pacha would have him or not . " In the middle of last May people at Constantinople knew nothing of what was passing at the then seat of-war on the Danube , except through a stray Times ten days old , or a tattered and torn Galignani . It was an on dit " that the Russians are bombarding Constantinople ; anon dit " that two or three of the Baltic fleet were sunk before Cronstadt . " Pera was mysterious as ever ; and the allied troops were as ignorant of the next move as the pawns on a chessboard . The adiuirable correspondence of the daily journals has daguerreotyped with picturesque fidelity the incidents and the ennui of the camps at Scutari and Gallipoli in the spring , when the war was in suspense . Captain Oldmixon contributes a lively page or two to the leminiscences ^ of that strange episode in the history of Turkey . He regards the Turks with benevolent sympathy , and a sort of compassionate affection . He likes " their

    quiet smoking , contented barbarity . " Making allowance for the temper of the writer , there is good feeling and good sense in his conclusion—that " know very little of the real sense or feeling , or ideas , or notions of the Oriental , or any foreign nations . ... If we could only find out , and did but understand each nation ' s train of thought and train of reasoning !" There is an almost Shandean humour in the Captain ' s defence of those muchabused wild dogs—" a yellow-brown race , "between a wolf and a jackal" - — whom we have always heard described as the terror and nuisance of Constantinople , and whom , it seems , our officers found sport in shooting . But the captain has an inexhaustible sympathy for the mute creation . He solaces his speechless loneliness with the society of a few cocks and hens , in

    the backyard of his lodgings . Ke thinks " -one of the most remarkable and lovable things about the Turks is their gentle kindness to every living thing about them . " But the Turks are dwindling away , while the Christians are fast increasing ; and with all his sympathy for the race , the captain concludes that , in the midst of all varieties of bad governments of mankind , that of the Turks is tho very worst . " Here is the captain ' s summary solution of the Eastern Question . We may preface it by his declaration in another place , that " generals and admirals should be our only diplomatists . Statesmen and ambassadors have constantly thrown away the advantages gained by our armies and our ileets . . . . Witness the winding up of our last war ! stripping ourselves , and imbecilely leaguing tho whole Continent against us , for whose interests alone we had been fighting . "

    To do any real good , the great balancing powers should divide at least the European half among themselves ; and let Constantinople bo in our sharo , —a slice including tho Bosphorus , the Sea of Marmora , mid tho Dardanelles I To talk of tho rights of any Government—indeed of any one nation—has over been , and ever will "be , a mere mockery : when they ccaso to bo masters on tlwir own ground , thoroia , and there should 1 > o , an end of it . The affectation of muddling by ambassador on paper only , whilo a country gooa on to deeper ruin , —while a population of millions groans under a barbarous oppression , and implwos aomo chaiigu from without , — -is simply adding hypocrisy to i ' olly ; nay , n hard-hoar toil iiuliiruronoo to tho suffering !) of a whole people . I 3 ut this in . Lord Aberdeen ' s business , and tho three emperors , who might easily settle it , any flno morning . Tho exodus of every Turk in Europe over to tho Asiatic side , led by tho SuLtiui himself iu hia Htato cui <|» o , would bo felt as a very groat blessing ; judiciously and justly managed , oven by tho 'I urlw themselves , wJ > o must be tired of fluttering botweun hawk and buzzard , mid are , I dare quite ready to fulfil what they already consider their destiny .

    aay , J-ust now , wo must first seo our -way by cutting tho claws of tho UusHian boar ; talto Sobastopol and tho Crimea : —that inoolonco chucked , tho high contracting poivura nuiy do anything vory much moro easily and cheaper than neiuUug ilwU and uriiiuw to support -what is , in every hgiiho of tho word , inmipportablo . ' But people naturally ask , not for thin or thai ; man ' s opinion , but what , aruthfl ' nirlcs like now ? What are tlioy atV And this too has boon ably anww « red l > y m-ont booka ; and wo have it fourth and fresh from a dozen " corroni > uiuli'iitn" <> '' " " ^ paper * . Allah Kerinil What , can 1 nay ? Tvirkoy , as ho wuIUh the Mt . iwt . t ur i >\ u in lii . i caK (| uo , droMso .-t m » ru and mwro uftor tlio furthion ol' friend Europu , wlu > ' "'" '" )* taking him by tho button and bothering iiml boring him . Ho «> puun hln liiili-. i "' ' cyort on Htouin anil Htomnci ' , 1 , triiw to |» lity at , ^ oology , uliumirtlry , and tlu : htuin ; 3 ° Allah Acbar ! comprehondH notiting , and ituta it down , on rugdiiilng bin i'l |» 'i t'J ' "' and robe , hh nioru IjomIi I Ho bull own in thu chilling of hln TacticoD , and « iln l '" i'l ! 11 " puy . zlori , liHtoning to the uar-wigging and contradictory uUhnatuma of a cohiiij lafldol amliaHHadora .

    ^O02 The Leader. [Saturday, ¦ ^ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦¦...

    ^ O 02 THE LEADER . [ Saturday , ¦ ^ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦¦ ¦ ^ ¦ ¦ ^ ¦¦ ^ ¦¦ iwwaww ¦ MMBWiM— i—j ¦¦¦ _ ¦ ¦ ; .. —¦ -- ¦ ¦ ¦¦ ' — ¦ - ¦ - — — ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ —¦ — : _^^

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 21, 1854, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_21101854/page/18/