Fors Clavigera (Volume 1 of 8): Letters to the workmen and labourers of Great Britain — John Shaqi
Fors Clavigera (Volume 1 of 8): Letters to the workmen and labourers of Great BritainRuskin, John
General
Fors Clavigera (Volume 1 of 8): Letters to the workmen and labourers of Great Britain
Ruskin, John
Aesthetics; Conduct of life; Great Britain -- Social conditions -- 19th century; Social problems; Working class -- Great Britain
Thus the so-called Monarchic and Republican parties have thrown Europe
into conflagration and shame, merely for want of clear conception of
the things they imagine themselves to fight for. The moment a Republic
was proclaimed in France, Garibaldi came to fight for it as a "Holy
Republic." But Garibaldi could not know,--no mortal creature could
know,--whether it was going to be a Holy or Profane Republic. You
cannot evoke any form of government by beat of drum. The proclamation
of a government implies the considerate acceptance of a code of laws,
and the appointment of means for their execution, neither of which
things can be done in an instant. You may overthrow a government,
and announce yourselves lawless, in the twinkling of an eye, as you
can blow up a ship, or upset and sink one. But you can no more create
a government with a word, than an ironclad.
No; nor can you even define its character in few words; the measure of
sanctity in it depending on degrees of justice in the administration
of law, which are often independent of form altogether. Generally
speaking, the community of thieves in London or Paris have
adopted Republican Institutions, and live at this day without any
acknowledged Captain or Head; but under Robin Hood, brigandage in
England, and under Sir John Hawkwood, brigandage in Italy, became
strictly monarchical. Theft could not, merely by that dignified form
of government, be made a holy manner of life; but it was made both
dexterous and decorous. The pages of the English knights under Sir
John Hawkwood spent nearly all their spare time in burnishing the
knight's armour, and made it always so bright, that they were called
"the White Company." And the Notary of Tortona, Azario, tells us of
them, that these foragers (furatores) "were more expert than any
plunderers in Lombardy. They for the most part sleep by day, and
watch by night, and have such plans and artifices for taking towns,
that never were the like or equal of them witnessed" [1]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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