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Leader (1850-1860), 13th December 1851, Edition Town of 2, Page 1188, Untitled Article

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      Untitled Article

      THH OLD STOBTf ! " St . Eloy gave the following advice to his parishioners : — ' Redeem your souls from destruction while you have the means in your power—offer presents and titles to churchmen ; come more frequently to church ; humbly implore the patronage of the saints ; for if you do these things , you may come ¦ with security in the day of retribution to the tribunal of the Eternal Judge , and say , Give to us , O Lord , for we have given to Thee . ' " What a naive translation of ecclesiastic polity ! We could not suppress a smile when we read of the horror created in orthodox minds by the publication of Wiclif ' s translation of the Bible : — THE OLD CRY ! " The excitement which followed the issuing of this edition of the Scriptures was intense . A bill was brought into Parliament to suppress the whole work , under the plea that it would prove ruinous to all religion . The friends of Wiclif argued that , as the translation of the Scriptures into Latin had been followed by no less than sixty different heretical opinions , though none of those heresies had been charged on that translation , there could be no argument against the English Bible , which did not hold against the Latin one . The bill for ^ the suppression was thrown out by a large majority . " Our space is so limited we can only afford room for one more extract : —•

      NOW AND THBN " . " What would not a historian and antiquarian of the present day sacrifice , to know the details of a journey from Lutterworth to London , 500 years ago , or to look upon the picture of the metropolis at that date ! Instead of the well-adjusted towns and quiet homesteads which the traveller now passes on his way to the great city , the route would then be marked by the presence of castles of strength , whilst the few inhabitants were tain to place cottages or other property beneath their gigantic protection . Extensive forests yet stretched themselves across the country , the haunts of the successors of Robin Hood

      and his associates ; and such a man as the reformer would he only safe with a military escort to protect him , not only from such marauders , but from open and avowed enemies . Except castles , nothing more distinguished the period than the churches which were springing up in all the larger towns , marked by the features of a true , though then somewhat modern , style of architecture . Arrived in London , possibly to make his ' hostelrie ' at the Tabard Inn , in Southwark , the traveller from Leicestershire would gaze with unconcealed eagerness upon a metropolis then rarely visited . The old , ugly , but venerable bridge , now supplanted , was then the only one which spanned

      the river , the stream at ebb tide flowing down its arches almost with the force of a cataract . Though on this bridge the church of St . Thomas was conspicuous , yet it was as yet unincumbered with the numerous buildings afterwards attaching themselves to it , like limpets ; and chivalry , then the prevailing fashion , held occasional joustings on its narrow area . The order of the Templars had been recently suppressed ; but that of the Knights of St . John survived , and maintained its splendours in a building adjacent to the ancient gate yet standing . * The pomp and circumstance of glorious war ' was witnessed

      everywhere . Mingling with the crowd in the streets , less dense than that of 1851 , the spectator might discern the mailed baron with his armed retinue of bowmen and lancerB , or the gay lady wearing the embroidered jacket , not much unlike the * polka' of a more modern day , though ( sometimes accompanied by the long strips of linen which dangled from her elbows , or fluttered like pennons in the breeze , whilst her huad was enveloped in an inflated but not ungraceful head-tire , and surmounted by a woollen cap . Kecleeiastics of hiph rank wove then little distinguishable from the military barons ; the man of peace was not to he found umid . st tlio . se mounted and armed

      retainers . Sometime ** , amidst the crowd , who were dressed in Hober , and often wretched habits , might be discerned the men of some of the less strict orders , or the monk with bin bald tonsure , and often jolly form ; and , not unfrequently , the eye might rest upon the bare head , brown coat , and long rosary of th « Fririoiscan friar , or the solemn , black-hooded stateliness of tin ; Dominican . The civic honours of London were then in their infancy , and were guarded by the citizens with a jealousy pertaining to seinibarbaroiiH time ' s ; whilst the people were at all times ripe for eonlliet , or oven for revolt . A peculiar feature of the period wiw , that tin ; city wan then

      beginning to be remarkable for it . n opaque and dense atmosphere , derived from the use of eoalH , then ree . ntly introduced . Tim Hides of the Thames were ; not then , as now , crowded with Iiouhcm of merchandise ; stately palaeen , well fortified , stood mi the Strand side of the river , among which the ; Savoy , the castellated residence of the Diiko of Lancaster , was very conspicuous . A large Dominican friary Hloocl in Hlnckfrims ; another of equal pretensions near to the Temple , belonged to the < Jai meliteH , and was called Whiiefriiirs ; l . lni l'VanciHcans had an edifice in JSlewi'ate-Htrecl ; whilst a fourth , in the vicinity of

      what is now the Bank ; was devoted to the Austins or Augustines . The plague , which had recently desolated Europe , had been extremely fatal in London , and had caused considerable improvements in the city . But it was close , ill-ventilated , and inconvenient \ and the inhabitant of Chester can well understand , from certain parts of his own city , what was its general appearance . '' The Church of England under the Stuarts is the

      continuation of a history formerly published in this series , The Church under the Tudors . It narrates the story of what Religious Liberty attempted and suffered under James I ., Charles I ., Cromwell , Charles II ., and James II .: a story which should be kept green in our memory , not simply that it may warn us of danger , but also that we may feel some reverence and gratitude for those who fought the good fight in times gone by .

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      THE WAR IN AFGHANISTAN . History of the War in Afghanistan . From unpublished Letters and Journals of Political and Military Officers employed in Afghanistan , throughout tlie Entire Period of British Connection with that Country . By John William Kaye . In 2 vols . Bentley . The Red Indians have their hunting grounds ; England has its fighting ground : the East . There our soldiers learn the art of warfare , and enlarge their livers . There we rear Wellingtons and

      get rid of younger sons . It is is the market for our bellicose material and unmanageable women . Such are the main answers to those who look askance upon the morally indefensible " conquest of India , " and our incessant aggressions there . These failing to silence the objectors , another battery is opened—the spread of Christianity ! Think of the millions ignorant of Christianity : is it not right we should conquer them , if only to convert them ?

      We will not moot these vexed questions here . Simply to point to our gigantic possessions in India is enough to indicate the large public such a work as this War in Afghanistan must necessarily interest . Had it been written by the dullest of pens , it could not but have arrested the attention of military men , and of those civilians who have relatives in India . Written by one of the adroitest and most agreeable of pens , it turns out captivating even to the " general reader . " We approached the

      two bulky volumes with something of misgiving . Two volumes of some seven hundred pages upon a war , or scries of wars , in India , are formidable to a man who has literally no leisure . But see the effect of style and skilful * arrangement ! Instead of a labour , the reading was a delight ! It kept us from our beds . We Orientalized our minds for the nonce . We lived in India , fought in India , philosophized in India . And now we tell you to go and do likewise .

      The History of the War in Afghanistan commences with an Introduction of one hundred and sixty pages , which details the history of our connection with the Afghans from the commencement of the present century till the year 1837 . Mr . Kaye apologizes , and properly , for the confusion necessarily created in the Kuropean reader by the repetition of incidents greatly resembling each other , of conquest and reconquest , of treachery and countertreachery , of rebellions raised and suppressed , and also by the profusion of Oriental names . But

      amidst the confusion there are broad clear spaces ; and we arc reminded , by incidental touches , of the distant epoch spoken of—a distance measured on the road of Progress rather than of Time— -e . y ., when the 15 i itish envoy succeeds in persuading the Shah to issue a vindictive finnan , in which the governors of provinces arc exhorted " to expel and extirpate the French , and never allow them to obtain a footing in any pluee "; adding , " you are at full liberty to disgrace and slay the intruders "—a liberty they no doubt mercilessly practised . On this Mr . Kaye remarks : —

      " Hut tlioHe were days when , even in India , men ' s minds were unhinged and unsettled , and their ideas of right and wrong confounded by the jnonstrositica of the J'Veneli revolution . Revolutionary Frenchmen were looked upon as animals to bo slain and exterminated with an little ceremony and afl little compunction as venemous reptilett or savage beasts . " LiMle room as we have for extract , we muytquote this picturesque description of TIIK DO U It AN I ' , II KM I'IKK . " The Douianee Krnpire , which has since been nhoi n of some of its fairest provinces , then consisted of AfglnuiiHt . iin , part of Khoras . san , Cashmere , and the Dcnijat . The Sik . li nation had not , then acquired the htn-ngtli which nlVw years later enabled it , under the military directornlnp of Kunjeet ? Sint / b , to curb

      the pretensions and to mutilate trn » *»« ., „""" dominant neighbour . That empire exffin ° / ^ Herat in the west , to Cashmere in the east ? ° northern Balkh to southern Shikarpoor . BounTS on the north and east by immense moun airf Sj and on the south and west by vast tracts of SuSSi sert , it opposed to external hostility natural dpfL of a formidable character . The general asS < the country was wild and forbidding ; in the imari nation of the people haunted with goules and en *? . but not unvaried by spots of gentler beauty in th ' valleys and on the plains , where the fields wXp smiling with cultivation , and the husbandman milll be seen busy at his work . ** " 5 « i " Few and far between as were the towns , the kingdom was thinly populated . The people were I race-or a group of races-of hardy , vigorous mountaineers . The physical character of the country had stamped itself on the moral conformation of its inhabitants . Brave , independent , but of a turbulent vindictive character , their very existence seemed to depend upon a constant succession of internal feurlR

      Ihe wisest among them would probably have shaken their heads in negation of the adage—* Happy the country whose annals are a blank . ' They knew no happiness in anything but strife . It was their delight to live in a state of chronic warfare . Among such a people civil war has a natural tendency to perpetuate itself . Blood is always crying aloud for blood . Revenge was a -virtue among them ; the heritage of retribution passed from father to son ; and murder became a solemn duty . Living under a dry , clear , bracing climate , but one subject to considerable

      alternations of heat and cold , the people were strong and active ; and as navigable rivers were wanting , and the precipitous nature of the country forbade the use of wheeled carriages , they were for the most part good horsemen , and lived much in the saddle . Early trained to the use of arms , compelled constantly to wear and often to use them in the ordinary intercourse of life , every man was more or less a soldier or a bandit . Their very shepherds were men of strife . The pastoral and the predatory character were strangely blended ; and the tented cantonments of the sheep-drivers often bristled into camps of war .

      " But there was a brighter side to the picture . Of a cheerful , lively disposition , seemingly but little in accordance with the outward gravity ef their long beards and sober garments , they might be seen in their villages , at evening tide , playing or dancing like children in their village squares ; or , assembling in the Fakir's gardens , to smoke and talk , retailing the news gathered in the shops , reciting stories , and singing their simple Afghan ballads , often expressive of that tender passion which , among them alone of all Oriental nations , is worthy of the name of love .

      Hospitable and generous , they entertain the stranger without stint , and even his deadliest enemy was sae beneath the Afghan ' s roof . There was a simple courtesv in their manner , which contrasted favourably wi ' th the polished insincerity of the Persians on one side , and the arrogant ferocity of the llohillas on the other . Judged by the strict standard of a Christian people , they were not truthful in word or honest in deecl ; but , side by side with other Asiatic nations , their truthfulness and honesty were conspicuous . l < ll ^ ll tlliblllU 141 V'tJ U m ^» ..- ^« . — -. nil

      ^ Kindly and considerate to their immediate dependants , the higher classes were followed with loyal zeal and served with devoted fidelity by the lower and , perhaps , in no eastern country was less of Jy ™ ^ exercised over either the slaves of the household or the inmates of the zenana . Unlettered were they but not incurious ; and althoug h their more ¦ P ° ™* £ brethren of Persia looked upon them as the 1 lecoti . n of Central Asia , their Spartan simplicity and man ness more than compensated for the absence , oi the Attic wit and eloquence of their western neig hbour *

      » Soldiers , husbandmen , and shep herds , they jve described as the very antithesis of a nation olslioi keepers . The vocation of the tradesman ^ d spised . To Tuujiks . Hindoos , and other , Ik . aj , w the business of Helling entrusted exeep upon i large .- scale which entitled the dealer to bo « fe as a merchant , and generally entailed « P ^ % necessities of a wandering and adventurous me . principal commerce of the country was will " ^ t lian and Russian states . In tho ^ aars oMJj C . indahur , and ( Jaubul tho manufactures of *» P , Yezd , and Cashan , the spices ot In < iu . and t - cloths of Russia , brought by Astrakan and > ^ found a ready market . Occasionally , wje t () settled Htate of the country gave encourage a nettled Htate ot the country K' ^ " " ° . r ( jhaiit turous

      , commercial enterprise , an adven " » j | m ) , would make bis way , throug h Dora lroin _ | i ( J with u caiila of British goods , lor the »< ;^^ ) lt , of Knglund were in enpecuil ( lemana w - . ^ j . persons of the body servants oi the * " \ , ' i , « - genous products of the country w « ^ - j tlll 5 portant for the rich shawls of Cashmc r ^ . « gaudy chintzes of Mooltan , exported in " ^ iy liw ! , titles ; were in good repute all over j tic ci d world . At Herat « ome velvets and f » ^ aH a b ^ quality were manufactured , but only 1 < r « ^ t , , sumption : whil » l the aHSiilujtula oi tl a 1 " j ; lt ZSof Cuulahar and the in < . go oij h - 1 > , „; d follu < l a nuuket m the I ' ers . un citi * , « * ig Uiruits of the country wero ni reagent in ui

      Untitled Article

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  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 13, 1851, page 1188, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1913/page/16/