Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 64, No. 397, November 1848 — John Shaqi
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 64, No. 397, November 1848Various
History
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 64, No. 397, November 1848
Various
England -- Periodicals; Scotland -- Periodicals
to render him theatrically complete; and had Fitzball been in the
carriage, the heart of that amiable dramatist would assuredly have
yearned within him at the sight of this living personification of
his own most romantic conceptions. I had forgotten to state that the
patriot had slung by his side a wallet, of the sort which is familiar
to the students of Retzsch, in which he carried his tobacco.
To my amazement, nobody, not even the gens-d'armes on the platform,
appeared to be the least surprised at this formidable apparition,
who commenced filling his pipe with the calmness of an ordinary
Christian. For my own part, I could not take my eyes off him, but
sate speechlessly staring at this splendid specimen of the Empire.
Nor was it long before he thought fit to favour us with his peculiar
sentiments. Some sort of masonic sign was interchanged between
the new comer and Barabbas, and the former instantly burst forth
into a lecture upon the political prospects of his country. It has
been my fortune to hear various harangues, from the hustings and
elsewhere--and I have even solaced my soul with the outpourings of
civic eloquence--but never was it my fortune to hear such a discourse
upon constitutions as that pronounced by this interesting stranger.
The total demolishment of thrones, the levelling of all ranks, the
abolition of all religions, and the partition of property, were the
themes in which he revelled; and, to my considerable surprise and
infinite disgust, the punchy Viennese assented to one and all of
his propositions. Some remark which I was rash enough to hazard,
impugning the purity of the doctrines professed by the respectable
Louis Blanc, drew upon me the ire of both; and I was courteously
informed, in almost as many words, that freedom, as understood in
Britain, was utterly effete and worn out,--that Germany was fifty
years in advance of the wretched island,--and that, when the German
fleet was fairly launched upon the ocean, satisfaction would be taken
for divers insults which it did not seem convenient to specify.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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