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Leader (1850-1860), 30th August 1851, Edition Town of 1, Page 829, (Drgrtnijates nf tyt Ifimyli, POLITICAL AND SOCIAL.

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      Untitled Article

      £ 6 ere f > e man master and ass the slave ; but man and ass should labour each according to his gifts , and each should have his own place and his own labour ' s worth ; and happy days should come when the asses should never be beaten any more . Many fine words were spoken , and long speeches made ; but the ass ' s voice has not wide variety of note , and all were to the same purpose , and pitched in the same tone . Far beyond his brightest hopes Gaberlunzie's success had risen . He rose again , at last , and tears of joy were streaming down his cheeks . " Yes , " he said , ' it shall be . Prunk has shown you the sublime possibilities which lie latent in your asses' nature , and our dear enlightened Boldewyn , himself a witness what the ass can be when he has the chance , has well reminded us

      how from time to time , even in the darkest of our past sad story , the truth has shone through in spite of all and witnessed against the tyranny of custom . Only , " he went on , " remember the work is not done : _ it is not begun . To-day we are full of burning hopes , to-morrow our drivers will come among us each for his own . They will come with the lash and the halter ; and it is for us to say what we will do . ' * A hundred pair of heels flew into the air as the simultaneous answer . Some of them unhappily ill directed , as a few bloody noses testified .

      " Good ! " said Gaberlunzie , " good , only inexperienced . The intention is good ; but force will be brought to meet force , and I have a better plan than that . Those men are strong : but how are they strong ? The ass carries the man , but could the man carry the ass ? I think not . They are strong because they stick together . Let us stick together then and we may defy them . Together we can do everything . Separate , they will trip our heels and then woe to our poor hides . 3 ingle ass to single man , even the men themselves wouldn ' t pretend to be a match for us ; we can kick harder than they , we can run faster than they ; where have they the advantage ? It ' s because as I said they stick together . Look at us now . It one of us wouldn ' t work for the stuff they give us , and

      ventured to kick to get peas and cabbage , why if he wouldn ' t do it another would , wretched creature Haven ' t we all of us , haven ' t I myself drudged along for months together with the wet moor to lie down upon at night , and npthing to eat but chopped straw ? and why ? because if I did n ' t another , as I said , wouldand I should have to go without so much as the chopped straw ; and , perhapjs , get knocked on the head into the bargain .. So now there shall be no more of all that , what one won't do another jnustn ' t do ; and as the men must have the work done somehow , we will have peas and cabbages , and we will have our little ones sent to school , or it shall not be done ; and so when they come in the morning , we will tell them , and let them do their best or their worst . "

      Great was the delight of the assembled asses when they heard Gaberlunzie ' s plan ; for though they had kicked their heels up with a show of being very brave about it , yet they had all felt that somehow fighting was not their strong point , and their hearts beat lighter "when they learnt that was not what they were to try . A very old ass , who had seen Service under many masters , and had waited with a sort of an odd grin to hear the end of what was to be said , as soon as the noise was over , observed that it was quite true they were hard-used brutes , a good dinner was better than a bad one , and a soft dry bed than a wet hard one .

      But somehow he didn ' t know . No doubt it would be much better for all creatures if they could have everything which was good for them . But it was an odd sort of a world . Things didn ' t go as they were expeoted to go . And what looked like a bunch of nice grass a little way off , turned out but a bunch of Bting-nettles when one got to them . He was going on to make more difficulties and suggest that they had belter wait a little longer , that the men were queer fellows to deal with ; but hi « voice was drowned in the uproar of anger which rose at him , and he let his face settle off into its old grin and walked leisurely off to his breakfast . ( To be concluded in our next . }

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      THE SYRO-LEBANON COMPANY . If you desire to take a dip into the East , and to refresh your recollections of the Arabian Nights , > ou have only to go to the Egyptian Hall , wiiere you will find a family of genuine Orientals , duly installed in the Holy Land . 'J he evening I had the privilege of assisting at a private view , the Syro-Lebanon company were evidently suffering from the severe change of climate ( think of Lebanon to Piccadilly !) , the reaction of sea-sickness , the new and strange die , t , and , possibly too , a little of the nostalyie which even Frenchmen feel when

      they are for the first lime reduced to " rost bif and beer . " Besides , would it not be slightly embarrassing to an English family , transported into some outlandish country , to have to go through some one of our peculiar domes lie or national solemnities , such as a " tea and turn-out , " for the edification of " gaping strangers ? ' * But the utter genuineness of this Eastern group was to me delightful . The bridal procession and festival you may have seen any day these many centuries , from Aleppo to Damascus . The dark and languid beauty of the almondeyed bride , the three musicians discoursing anxiously on the cka-noon , the tam-boura ,

      and the darabookeh ; the first , simplicity itself , the second , restless animation , the third , dreamy complacency ; the hunchback , a very incarnation of the Arabian Nights , improvising sonorously , and , just as he reaches the point of thrilling interest , going round with a grin of ineffable finesse to receive u whiff from a narguileh : the interpreter , who sneaks English unexceptionably , and with a face beaming with fun , and a keen sense of the ludicrous , explains " the bride coining to the bridegroom , who has never seen her before ; " ihe rest of the group relieved by quaint little children in the background ; and all in costume untnistakeably true . I recommend you to go and see , and you will then t >« able to eay you have " done the

      East , without having got as far as a Peninsular and Oriental packet The exhibition is thoroughly novel and unique , and , with the passion for the East so prevalent , cannot fail to excite a sensation . I was sorry to hear that the party had lost one old man on their voyage , and that four others had been frightened back by this calamity . L . C . H .

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      HOW TO IDENTIFY THE REFUGEES . To afford facilities of existence to the political refugees , who from Italy and Poland have sought our shores , is the common duty of an hospitable people . This has not been done in the name of our Government—it has not been a national act , in an official sense . It has been the act of the generous and sympathising , of the liberal in politics and the working-men . To the personal exertions of Mr . W . J . Linton it was primarily owing that the 230 Refugees , who some time ago arrived in Liverpool , were provided for Mr . James Spurr of that town has discharged the laborious office of Secretary to the Committee established there . In the provinces the efforts of these gentlemen met with cordial responses ; in Newcastle-on-Tyne , by Mr . Joseph Cowen , Jun . —in Sheffield , Manchester , London , and other places by other persons , as has been reported . It being known that Refugees are supported in different districts , imitations of them are not unfrequent—and as every successful imposition will diminish public confidence and sympathy for real cases , some mode of identifying them should be understood . I lately

      found a man at Newcastle-on-Tyne , who represented himself as a " Cousin of Garibaldi . " Nobody knew whether it was true , and nobody wished to disbelieve the story without evidence . If this man was a cousin of the famous Guerilla general , and had taken no part in the recent struggles , he has no right to figure as an exile among us , because he has no occasion to be one . Had he been a relative and a patriot , he could not have been ignorant where the friends of his celebrated kinsman were to be found in England . Had he been ignorant of that fact , he could not be ignorant that

      they were to be found in this country , or why did he come here ? All he had to do on landing was to claim help , such as he needed , from the first friendly Britons he might discover—give in his name , saying" I am not so fortunate as to know where my countrymen , likely to respect me for my name and my services , reside ; but there is my name , in such a cohort I fought , from such a place have I come , and for the purpose of protection from my own and my country's enemies . You know where my friends are to be found . Correspond with them for me , and a post or two will brine an identification down to you ,

      justifying your kindness to me . " Any intelligent exile could contrive to communicate as much as this , through the means of the first interpreter at hand , and any honest exile would be aware that this was his proper course to pursue , and in a short time his identity could be honourably established . This man came to Newcaatle-on-Tyne , from Edinburgh . If a genuine refugee , he ought , long before he reached that place , to have put himself in communication ( through others ) with responsible parties in London . A gentleman from Preston lately called upon me , alleging that un assumed refugee , in that town , had leviud contributions , on the representation of being

      known to myself and some others . The representation was untrue , and the name he assumed was the name belonging to an opposite party to that whoso struggles had entitled them to English sympathy . The course to take , where doubt exists aa to the genuineness of any one personating a Polish refugee is , to write to W . J . Linton , Mite . side , Ravenglass , Cumberland , or to Jumes Spurr , Temperance Hotel , 10 , Williamson-square , Liverpool ; where lists nre kept of the 2 ; iO refugees ( which include all the latest known ) , and if the personator docs not prove to be

      one of them , ho should furnish a particular account of himself . Accounts are kept of the nnmes and addresses of tht'Hu 230 , and it is known where they are , and nil transmissions of them from to wn to town nro registered . If un unknown Italian claims support , let ft letter , with the grounds on which he does » o , be sent to David Masson , Secretary of the Society of the * rtoads of Italy , 10 , Southampton-btreet , Strand , London , who will be ablo to supply the reouircd information . The republicans who fought for Hungary wero the Poles , bo that of Republican Hungarian exiles it is

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      Ava : 30 , 1851 . ] 8 | l % * & % * t * 829

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      () T E L L () . Once during the season ia not enough for an opera l ike Otello , above all when we have such a tenor an Tamberlik . Hut somehow or another our public ia indifferent to that bright and stirring music which the careless genius of Rossini threw oil ' > n the flume year as bis immortal llarhidre . Our

      English taste is outraged by this parody of our greatest drama . We forget that Rossini in his twentieth year had probably never heard of Shakspeare—certainl y had no idea of writing a Shak-¦ poarian piece . The libretto wuh treated by him just aa any other libretto would have been treated ~~ -it afforded him a pretext for his improvisation . ¦ I here was a tenor , a soprano , and two basse * to content . He contented them . He contented the Public . He wrote a work , which if not a

      dhefcfoeuvre , ranks as one in comparison with anything Halevy , Verdi , Pacini , or Vaccai ever wrote . Shakspearian it is not , except that it is very dramatic ; but enough for us that it is Rossinian Giulia Grisi can hardly be said to satisfy our ideas of De 8 demona , though formerly it was one of her great parts ; she is top old for it now , and it does not , except inthetbird act , bringouthergreatpowera . By the way , why will she spoil that lovely prayer , Deh J calma o del by those tawdry ornaments ? Tamberlik is great in Otello . As an acting part it is his finest effort : terrible and tender ! The aria

      d ' entrata ia a showy , unmeaning thing , in which he is inferior to Rubini ; but in the finale to the first act , in the garden scene with Iago , and throughout the third act , he was magnificent . Encored in the duet with Ronconi he threw out his his famous C sharp from the chest , which so roused the audience that it was with difficulty Costa could prevent a second encore . The exquisite phrase which is given to the gondolier passing under JDfesdemona ' s window in the third act ( the famous phrase in Francesca of Rimini ' s confession , Nessun maggior dolore che ricordarsi del tempo felice netla miseria ) was sung by Tamberlik with delicious

      sweetness . Ronconi as Iago proved what a consummate actor he is ; for the part is insignificant , and in Tamburini's hands always remained so ; but the intense dramatic feeling of Ronconi raised it into one of the effective and admirable points of the evening . The cold , cat-like stealthiness of his demeanour—his scorn of the duped Otello—the intellectual superiority and perfect self-possessionall fixed attention on him . Throughout the duet with Otello his singing was masterly and significant . Altogether it was a delightful evening—one of the pleasantest of the season ; and the management will do well to repeat the opera during the cheap nights .

      THE BATEMANS . Want of space prevents my saying more this week than that the American children Barnum exhibits at the St . James ' s Theatre , are really prodigies—that their acting both in tragedy and comedy is as amusing as it is surprising—and more genuine applause greets their efforts than we often hear now-a-days . Ellen , the younger of the two , has a most expressive face , and extraordinary energy ; she rants with the explosiveness of a " leading tragedian ; " and her look , when she half raises herself from the ground after the fatal combat with Richmond , is positively intense . So much for the amusement to be derived from these performances ; the other questions which they suggest I must touch upon next week . Vivian .

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      (Drgrtnijates Nf Tyt Ifimyli, Political And Social.

      ( Drgrtnijates nf tyt Ifimyli , POLITICAL AND SOCIAL .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 30, 1851, page 829, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1898/page/17/