Impressions of England; or, Sketches of English Scenery and SocietyCoxe, A. Cleveland (Arthur Cleveland)
History
Impressions of England; or, Sketches of English Scenery and Society
Coxe, A. Cleveland (Arthur Cleveland)
England -- Description and travel
hast thou that thou didst not receive?_
An incident which created some excitement in fashionable circles,
shortly after the opening of the Crystal Palace, will illustrate one
feature of British civilization which will not be out of place in
connection with these remarks on the aristocracy. Everybody has heard of
the London Police, their admirable drill, and great efficiency. Their
impartial enforcement of the rules of the Great Exhibition was
peculiarly illustrative of these characteristics, and also of the spirit
of law and order, as paramount and inflexible in the Metropolis. No
departure from these rules was allowed to any one; and carriage after
carriage, all blazing with heraldic splendours, and filled with rank and
beauty, was forced to change its route by the simple waving of a
policeman’s finger. It so happened that a dashing young fellow, a scion
of the noble house of S——, driving his own equipage through Hyde Park,
ventured to disobey. On this the policeman seized the horse’s head, and
backed him. The hot-blooded Jehu instantly raised his whip, and struck
the policeman several violent blows over the face and head. The result
was his immediate arrest; and on being carried before the Magistrate,
young S—— found himself committed for ten days imprisonment, which he
accordingly fulfilled with exemplary submission, wearing jail-clothes,
and performing sundry penances, precisely as if he had been the humblest
offender in the land. On the same day that this happened, a cabman whom
I had engaged to take me, in a hurry, to a certain part of the town,
drove me rapidly through St. James’s Park, and was just making his
escape into the street, near Buckingham Palace, when he was stopped, in
the gate, by a policeman, and ordered instantly back, with a threat of
severe punishment should he again trespass where he knew that only
private carriages were admitted. As my time was precious, I ventured to
interpose, and exhausted every art, in vain, to induce the inexorable
policeman to allow the cab to pass on. He little knew my sincere respect
for him, and the real satisfaction I took in thus finding him “a brick
for his principles.” Finally, I offered to alight, and discharge the
cabman there; but this also the policeman respectfully forbade. “It
would never do,” he said, “to allow cabmen to take such liberties; the
cab must go back;” but then he advised me not to pay the fellow a single
penny, as he was not entitled to anything but an arrest, for exemption
from which he might be thankful. I was exceedingly annoyed, in spite of
my admiration for authority, but thought it best to submit without
further parley. Next day I heard of the fate of the Honorable Mr. S——,
and, on the whole, felt glad that I had got off so easily. Thus it seems
that law is law in London, for all classes alike; and if the stranger,
in his cab, is not permitted to violate it, he may at least console
himself with the fact that he would fare no better if he were a
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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