Piccadilly: A Fragment of Contemporary BiographyOliphant, Laurence
General
Piccadilly: A Fragment of Contemporary Biography
Oliphant, Laurence
Piccadilly (London, England) -- Fiction
We all went to hear Broadhem's speech next day, and whatever might have
been our private opinion upon the matter, we all, with the exception of
Grandon and Lady Ursula, warmly congratulated him upon it afterwards.
John Chundango and Joseph Caribbee Islands both made most effective
speeches, but we did not feel the least called upon to congratulate
them: they each alluded with great affection to the heathen and to Lord
Broadhem. Chundango drew a facetious contrast between his lordship and
an effeminate young Eastern prince, which was highly applauded by the
audience that crowded the town-hall of Gullaby; and Joseph made a sort
of grim joke about the probable effect of the "Court of Final Appeal"
upon the theological tenets of the Caribbee Islanders, that made Lady
Broadhem cough disapprobation, and everybody else on the platform feel
uncomfortable. I confess I have rather a weakness for Joseph. He has a
blunt off-hand way of treating the most sacred topics, that you only
find among those who are professionally familiar with the subject. There
is something refreshingly muscular in the way he lounges down to the
smoking-room in an old grey shooting-coat, and lights the short black
meerschaum, which he tells you kept off fever in the Caribbee Islands,
while the smoke loses itself in the depths of his thick beard, which he
is obliged to wear because of his delicate throat. There is a force and
an ease in his mode of dealing with inspiration at such a moment which
you feel must give him an immense ascendancy over the native mind.
He possesses what may be termed a dry ecclesiastical humour, differing
entirely from Chundango's, whose theological fun takes rather the form
of Scriptural riddles, picked up while he was a catechist. Neither he
nor Broadhem smoke, so we had Wog and the Bishop to ourselves for half
an hour before going to bed. "You must come and breakfast with me some
morning in Piccadilly to meet my interesting friend Brother Chrysostom,
my lord," said I.
I always like to give a bishop his title, particularly a missionary
bishop; it is a point of ecclesiastical etiquette about which I have
heard that the propagators of Christianity were very particular.
"If you will allow me, sir, I will join the party," said Mr Wog, before
the Bishop could reply; "and as I don't know where Piccadilly is, I'll
just ask the Bishop to bring me along. There is a good deal of law going
on between your bishops just now," our American friend went on, "and I
should like to know the rights of it. We in our country consider that
your Ecclesiastical Court is a most remarkable institution for a
Christian land. Why sir, law is strictly prohibited in a certain place;
and it seems to me that you might as well talk of a good devil as a
religious court. If it is wrong for a layman to go to law, it must be
wrong for a bishop. What's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander;
that proverb holds good in your country as well as mine, don't it?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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