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Northern Star (1837-1852), 20th November 1852, Edition 2 of 2, Page 1, BEVIEW OF THE WEEK. —9—

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    • BEVIEW OF THE WEEK. —9—
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      ^ No. 15.-Nbw Series.] London, Saturday,...

      ^ No . 15 .-Nbw Series . ] LONDON , SATURDAY , NOVEMBER 20 , 1853 . [ Price Fourpence Halfpenny .

      Beview Of The Week. —9—

      BEVIEW OF THE WEEK . —9—

      F The Great Event Of The Week, That Whic...

      f The Great event of the week , that which absorhs all others , is the f uneral of the Iron Duke . All the week the line of procession has resounded to the sawing of planks and the clattering of hammers hocking-up rough ranges of seats in the windows of the shops turned into peep-shows for the occasion . The shopkeepers have made it a

      thorough matter of business , every house almost bearing the announcement of " seats to let , " the prices varying with the weather the nearness to interesting points , and the number of customers . The streets have been almost impassable from the crowds of sightseers looking at the preparations , and the holes in the pavement made for the erection of barricades . Private business has been put on one side , public business suspended , and everything made to give way to the ceremonial .

      At the moment we write , it is all over . The remains of the Duke have been borne on a sort of half-triumphant , half-funereal car . The streets have been lined with Ciirriages , officials , soldiers , and crowds . Bauds have made the air resound with melancholy music , and gazers Lave peeped forth from pathway and window and housetop at the long and gorgeous array . No one can say that the nation has spared either time , trouble , or . expense , to pay honour to the memory of

      her greatest soldier ; and with the experience of the deaths in the press at Chelsea to see the lying-in-state to guide them , have so managed that we have not heard of any serious accidents . This is the more creditable , as it wae one of the greatest crowds which London has ever witnessed . Some of the railways were running trains all night , and heaps of sturdy countrymen tramped up from the surrounding districts , and took up their places at the barriers long before daylight whether out of sympathy with the memory of the Duke , or the natural love for sight-seeing which prevails in too many minds , we never knew so general an interest manifested .

      "We have no wish to say anything which may be in the slightest degree construed into disrespect to the ashes of the mighty dead , but we must say , that we do feel very much like disappointed heroworshippers . We had been reading all the eulogistic articles in the daily papers , and all the odes from that of Tennyson the poet laureate to that of Mr . Bennett , the watch maker , in Cheapside . The consequence was that our head was fall of " universal sympathy , "

      " general grief , " and the tears of a " whole people . " We have looked very sharply for the manifestations which would correspond with those phrases , but we are compelled to admit that we could not find them . "Wherever this melancholy was , it hid itself in congenial silence , and gave no sign broader than the black edges round the columns of newspapers . The householders in the line of processionnibbed their hands at the thriving new trade of showmen they were driving The busy carpenters reckoned their overtime with

      anyilmig but sorrowful faces . The omnibus proprietors chuckled when the demand for their vehicles enabled them to command full loads at double fares . The cabmen smiled at the premiums they were at and the gazers , exliibited much curiosity , but little grief . , The only persons who seemed at all disturbed were the policemen ; but they were out of temper with increased trouble rather than in that subdued frame of mind which befits an occasion of solemn mourning .

      These remarks be it observed were made upon the eve of the day , and-impressed as we were with the conviction , that hero-ivorship was not yet quite extinct , we thought , " Ah this is all the bustle of getting ready—to-morrow handkerchiefs will be in . request . " Tomorrow ranie , and our anticipations were not verified . —The comfortable folks in the seats paid as much attention to sandwiches and

      » ine , as is usual upon a race-course . There were as many jokes in the street , and of much the same kind , as at a public execution , and altogether it bore the aspect of " coming out for a holiday to see a grand sight . " We went among the police , and considering that they are the guardians of the public mora % , as well as peace , their anathemas were perfect . We strolled amoag the soldiers stowed away injhe open spaces , and the only thing ; we heard approaching to an expression of sentiment , was a strongly expressed desire upon the

      P ^ t of stalwart guardsman , for a drink of beer . % We saw crowas romd men selling medals of Wellington and portraits of Wellington , and singing dismal songs about " our great W We observed a couple of enterprising costermonge rs driving a brisk trade id what * ere labelled as « Wellington nuts , ' and one—at least-sweet-stuff selle blending together " Nelson ' s Balls , " « Bonapartes Eibs , and " Wellington Drops . "_ We saw . crowds ]< of decent-looking . people ,

      F The Great Event Of The Week, That Whic...

      hungry , tired and dirty , coming from " the sight , " and indulging in jokes and laughter , aud we noticed a considerable number of drunken men and women with any quantity of short pipes . But we did not see—we really did not—and we grieve to make the announcementone solitary tear . We asked ourselves is public feeling dead ? Is there no sympathy with departed great men ? Are all these

      professions of national sorrow to be classed together as one great sham'i . and then in a soberer frame of mind , we came to the conclusio B _ l the truth must be told , —that while the Duke of ^ Wellington was no doubt regretted sincerely by his own relations , and his own personal friends—yet that , in the masses there is not enough of personal sympathy to counteract the excitement of a " great event , " and the attractions of a " great spectacle . "

      Of course , there has been but little done in parliament , since the last week , except the threatened motion of Mr .-Villiers in favour of Free Trade , which stands for Monday next ; fsomet grumbling amongst a few of the more impracticable Protectionists . All parties seem to have , by common agreement , suspended hostilities till the funeral had passed over . On that subject the Chancellor of the Exchequer made a speech , which excited some attention . It was more than

      usually eloquent and finished , and eclipsed everything which had been said about the Great Duke . Lord John Russel could find nothino * to add to it , and declined to attempt any improvement to -the " eloquent wofds" of Mr . Disraeli . But , alas , that oratorical glory ¦ should . be so evanescent and uncertain . Alas , that theft , ¦ *• as well as . "< murder , will out . " The next evening ' s Globe printed the speech of Disraeli ,

      and some passages from Thiers side by side , and so the result was , that Disraeli was considered as an arrant plagiarist . Word for word , sentence for sentence was shamefully filched from the Frenchman . We do not mean to say that this is any great blot on the escutcheon of of a minister , but it is , in that of a literary man , and in Mr . Disraeli , the two characters are so blended that the one is seriousl y deteriorated by the damaging of the other .

      There have been promises made , in the Upper House , by Lord St . Leonards , of more Law Beforms , and by Mr . Walpole in the Commons , of a digest of our Penal Code . The latter was volunteered almost unasked for—the former was dragged forth somewhat unwillingly . A suspicion has been raised that Mr . Disraeli is not au fait at the details of his department . When he was asked for an

      estimate of the details of the Duke ' s Funeral , he was not prepared to lay it before the House , owing to " the pressure of circumstances . " The Daily News has not failed to lay hold of this little default , and to hold it up as the prestage of greater neglects to come , but , if Disraeli can make a good budget he may do as most Chancellors of the Exchequer have done , get subordinates to look after the details and figures .

      The protection party have held a private conclave , at which they have once for all given up protection , at all events for the present . But this recantation made in the exclusion of the drawing-room , is , ifappears , to stand in the stead of a public recantation . They may submit to confess their sins in the secresy of the confessional , but they will not do penance before the world . How to avoid that was the problem to be solved . It was difficult to abandon a position under attack without seeking to do so . The motion of Mr . Villiers " looming in the future" was an ugly obstacle ; but a course of policy

      was , it is understood , resolved on , which may serve the exigency of the crisis . The motion is to be met by silence . It is not to receive either opposition or encouragement . The members of the ministry will not be dragged out of their holes , and the free-traders are to have it so completely to themselves that they will be embarrassed for want of something to fight against . We cannot justify this as honest conduct , but honesty is not what we look for in the statesmen of the dominant factions , but it is a shrewd stroke of policy well calculated to confound their no less unscrupulous antagonists .

      Convocation is still sitting ; and our prognostications of last week are likely to be fully verified . The error once made of allowing discussion at all , there is no stopping the flood of clerical debate . There is as full a tide of talk , and quite as energetic , as in the lay parliament . The archbishop wanted to prorogue the assembly , but it would not be dissolved . It denied the right of the primate to send them adrift without the consent of the suffragan bishops which was not to be obtained . The law seems to be with the malcontents , if Sir

      Frederick Thesiger may be taken as a sufficient authority , and he also supports their claim for the church to govern itself , except in the matter of framing canons , from which power they are excluded by the act of submission . So convocation has , in spite of all opposition , revived itself , and the only way to get rid of it is by a royal writ of prorogation ; but—and in the but lies the difficulty—but Her Majesty ' s ministers are supposed to be rather favourable than otherwise

      to the Puseyite movement , and it is more than doubtful whether they would advise the Queen to issue the writ . If that be the case , we shall have the church once more rampant , and making itself so dominant , so troublesome , and so obnoxious that its own friends will secede from it and help it to do the work of church reform . It is said that if convocation fails to effect the object the Puseyite party aim at , they mean to secede in a body from the church of England ,

      F The Great Event Of The Week, That Whic...

      " —ItoWiia i'iiwk m wimw—» nH " m ' " ¦ '" ' ¦ — and to join the episcopal church of Scotland . We say " peace , " though peace is an especially unlikely companion for such folks" peace go with them . " In Ireland the paragraph of the Queen ' s Speech , which attributes turbulence and insubordination to the people of that country , has excited no little indignation . They turbulent!—they insnbordinate indeed !—they are a pattern of peace , quietness of order , and an example to the civilized world—never was there a moie infamous calumny . None of the districts have been proclaimed under the Arras Act—no burking murderers hide in ditches for their victims—and the priests

      preach nothing but quietness . All those who know anything of history of Ireland , past and present , and its probable future , can appreciate , the truthfulness of these asseverations . The people of Ireland , as well as the people of this country , are discontented , and have good reason for discontent ; but we shrink with horror from agrarion outrage , and have not the slightest sympathy for the priestly agitators who , with the cry for liberty upon their lips , hide in their hearts the desire to establish that worst of despotisms a spiritual tyranny . The way io treat the Irish priests would be | when they—as it is said they do denounce—men from the altar , any ^ outrage is offered to the individual so pointed out , to make the priest an accomplice in the

      crime . The American mail puts us in posession of the certainty that Pierce , the democratic candidate , has been elected by an overwhelming majority . The Whigs have - suffered such a defeat as promises almost to annihilate the party . It also tells us of a funny way of protecting the Colonist in the Fisheries . The Captain of the steamsloop Devastation had seized about ° 100 sail of , riot American , but

      Nova Scotian fishing' boats , under the pretence that they are Yankees in disguise . The Colony is in a ferment at this novel kind of help , and it is possible that serious mischief may come of it . The Captain seized , among the rest , one American vessel , the skipper of which demurred . The Captain threatened a broadside to produce submission , but Jonathan in reply hoisted thf stars and stripes , and daring the Queen ' s officer set sail , and got away without molestation .

      We may condense the Indian and Cape news into one paragraph . The Burmese expedition to Prome has gone , with the Old General Godwin at its head , and it is supposed that the war will be put an end to , and Pegu annexed . These anticipations may , however , be baulked by the breaking out of sickness among the troops . This same sickness , and not the fighting , was the great difficulty in the last Burmese war , and may now give us more trouble than the enemy . At . the Cape , the struggle does at last seem nearly over . That natural fortress , the Waterkloof , is in possession of our men , marauders are less frequently to be seen or heard of , and the rebel Hottentots are dying from what they have to dread more than illaimed bullets—to wit—starvation .

      France is tranquil—too tranquil for its rulers . —It is the tranquility not of content but indifference . Eight million votes are required to manifest , the call of the people for the Empire ; and spite of -ihb combined exertions of prefects aud priests , it is feared that the voters have not sufficient interest . Enthusiasm is out of the question—in the result , to take the trouble to vote a few thousands more or less willfnot much matter . They could be made up without any fuss by the creatures of the president , who are to examine the balloting urns ; but if it is notorious that more than half the voters do not deposit the tickets , the trick would be dangerous , from its transparency so tickets are to be delivered to the voters at their houses ,

      and even "tsuspected " ' persons are to be allowed the opportunity of making peace , by voting the right way . As a further stimulant , the authorities who are prosecuting provincial journals for printing the addresses of the Count de Chambord , have themselves inserted that address , and the manifestoes purporting to be ssued by the exiled Democrats and Socialists . This is meant to serve two objects—the first , the degradation of the descendant of the Bourbons , by classing him with the prescripts—and , secondly , to awakon the fears of the Bourgeoisie who love any order in which trade flourishes and money can be made . It is said , however , that one of the democratic addresses , the more violent one , signed by

      Victor Hugo , had been forged , and the name of Ledru Kollin appended I to the other , has been suppressed . We have no doubt that the de- ¦ gradation of France will be accomplished ; but as corruption is the } precursor of new combination , so when the lowest depth of hurmlia- - tion is reached , we may expect to find at the bottom the elements of f regeneration . In Italy the prevailing feature after the chronic discontent of the e population , is a wide-spread system of brigandage . The brigands are e both numerous and organised , fig ht and often beat the Papal troops > s which are sent out against them . Tuscany is forced to contract a a loan which it is said is to be applied to the purpose of repairing andd

      improving the port of Leghorn , but more probably it is wanted to ; o replenish a bankrupt exchequer . It is one of the most fearful con-isiderations for despots that tyranny is not self-supporting . * . If they' could only get money , they might reckon on a a long lease of power ; but the means by which they maintain thera-nselves—the armies , are draining the resources of the stake ; and thehc day must come when some sovereigns will find themselves with emptytj pockets in the midst of mercenary soldiery whose only bond of ^ obeoedience is their pay—that withheld they will be as ready to J ur ^ theitei swords against those , who employ , them as they have been , t 6 ; -slaughtete : the martyrs to the cause of Liberty . .. * 'i j ' . : * » ¦ ¦ rr

  • Citation
    • Northern Star (1837-1852), Nov. 20, 1852, page 1, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/ns/issues/ns2_20111852/page/1/