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Article TRYING TO CHANGE A SOVEREIGN. ← Page 2 of 10 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Trying To Change A Sovereign.
6 , West Place , West Square , Lambeth . Thereupon Mr . Inspector sends off to Downing Street , and Witless stalks off majestically—left foot forward—halt ¦ —bring up right foot—right foot forward—halt—bring up left foot , a la N . T . Hicks , a great transpontine tragedian of my boyhood's days—stalks off ¦ —casting sublime scowls of defiance at the minions of power—to his dungeon . Not unhappy . By no means . Those were sweet words that fell from Mr . Inspector , " This is a Secretary of State ' s affair . " The ci-devant potboy , the present proud barman out of work , is a Prisoner of State on a charge of
HIGH TREASON ! Two-penny-half-penny traitor that he was , the words had more magic , more meaning in them to the poor boy then , than they would possess to a lad of his age—he was scarcely two months over eig hteen years—now . During forty years this offence has almost come to be relegated to the category of antiquarian crimes—a kind of turpitude to be gazed at in a museum as it w ere—to form the subject of a dry legal disquisition to a class of pupilsbut only very rarelto
, y be brought out into the li ght of clay as a matter of solemn actual practical public enquiry . But in 1840 men ' s minds were more familiar with the terrible theme . The then recent reign of George the Third has alone contributed fifteen volumes to the collection of thirty-three * forming , the wellknown series of State Trials , which , as everybody must be aware is a compilation of law cases , chiefly , of course , involving charges of treason ; or nearly as many
volumes as are required to contain the trials of all the preceding reigns , of which records have been preserved . f To be " hanged , drawn , and quartered " was a very familiar expression in the mouths of the multitude during the first half of this century . Men not well past middle age were personally familiar with the details of the vastnumberof trials ancl executions for treason in GreatBritain ancl Ireland , which had horrified Europe during the last thirty years of Farmer
George ' s golden reign . It is well that we , living inhappier times , should remember this when we recall with a shudder the atrocities of our neighbours under the contemporaneous Convention ancl Reign of Terror . Men who would not in 1840 own to having as yet began to grow old remembered seeing ancl hearing Colonel Despard , as he stood pinioned ancl nightcapped on the top of the new gaol in Southwark , in 1803 . $ Men yet undoubtedly young had beheld
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Trying To Change A Sovereign.
6 , West Place , West Square , Lambeth . Thereupon Mr . Inspector sends off to Downing Street , and Witless stalks off majestically—left foot forward—halt ¦ —bring up right foot—right foot forward—halt—bring up left foot , a la N . T . Hicks , a great transpontine tragedian of my boyhood's days—stalks off ¦ —casting sublime scowls of defiance at the minions of power—to his dungeon . Not unhappy . By no means . Those were sweet words that fell from Mr . Inspector , " This is a Secretary of State ' s affair . " The ci-devant potboy , the present proud barman out of work , is a Prisoner of State on a charge of
HIGH TREASON ! Two-penny-half-penny traitor that he was , the words had more magic , more meaning in them to the poor boy then , than they would possess to a lad of his age—he was scarcely two months over eig hteen years—now . During forty years this offence has almost come to be relegated to the category of antiquarian crimes—a kind of turpitude to be gazed at in a museum as it w ere—to form the subject of a dry legal disquisition to a class of pupilsbut only very rarelto
, y be brought out into the li ght of clay as a matter of solemn actual practical public enquiry . But in 1840 men ' s minds were more familiar with the terrible theme . The then recent reign of George the Third has alone contributed fifteen volumes to the collection of thirty-three * forming , the wellknown series of State Trials , which , as everybody must be aware is a compilation of law cases , chiefly , of course , involving charges of treason ; or nearly as many
volumes as are required to contain the trials of all the preceding reigns , of which records have been preserved . f To be " hanged , drawn , and quartered " was a very familiar expression in the mouths of the multitude during the first half of this century . Men not well past middle age were personally familiar with the details of the vastnumberof trials ancl executions for treason in GreatBritain ancl Ireland , which had horrified Europe during the last thirty years of Farmer
George ' s golden reign . It is well that we , living inhappier times , should remember this when we recall with a shudder the atrocities of our neighbours under the contemporaneous Convention ancl Reign of Terror . Men who would not in 1840 own to having as yet began to grow old remembered seeing ancl hearing Colonel Despard , as he stood pinioned ancl nightcapped on the top of the new gaol in Southwark , in 1803 . $ Men yet undoubtedly young had beheld