the Tory always looked back a bit wistfully to the time when the Stuarts were kings by sheer right of birth, and he suspected every Whig of being a republican in disguise. The Whig, on the other hand, was devotedly loyal to the new dynasty, and believed, with a good deal of justice, that the Tories were plotting to bring back the hated Stuart tyrants. The Tory's religious prejudices were affected by the political questions of the time, and he counted every political opponent an enemy of the Church. The Whig was a bigoted Protestant, and suspected his opponents of being Roman Catholics. Both parties were led by great rival families who handed down their intense jealousies of one another from generation to generation. The most important difference between them, however, was one of self-interest. The country gentry and the clergy were Tories because their interests were wrapped up in the preservation of the landed estates; the great merchants were Whigs because their prosperity was dependent on the growing commerce of England. The intensity of party feeling it would be hard to describe. When the Tories came into power, a Tory mob burned Whig chapels and religious meeting-houses; later, courtiers and fine ladies aired their personal and political quarrels before the Queen, and even the editors of the Spectator, hard as they had labored to introduce goodnature and kindness into political life, could not escape the spirit of the times. Their long and earnest friendship ended in political differences and personal bitterness. 21. The War. During much of this time, England was waging a brilliant but protracted war against France and Spain. To fill up her navy, ships' crews were kidnapping able-bodied men from the streets; to fill up her armies, the recruiting sergeant was going through the country districts, gathering in the criminals from the jails and coaxing honest men, when drunk, to enlist for a few shillings. These men were led by active young fellows of good family, who had bought their lieutenancies or captaincies for some hundreds of pounds, and over them all was the great but dishonest commander, Marlborough. Brilliant as were some of the English victories, the majority of the people were growing tired of the war. Taxes were heavy, and the corruption among the army officers was becoming more and 'more scandalous. From the start, it had been a Whig war, for it was bound to increase the West Indian commerce of England; but the Tories were now in power and in their eyes the war appeared to be doing little good. It was at this juncture that the greatest of the English allies, the Austrian general, Prince Eugene, visited England to change, if he could, the current of English feeling. At first it seemed as if he might be successful. Even the Tories received him with homage, for they could not forget his military skill and courage, and he never ventured on the streets without being surrounded by eager crowds. With all his courtesy and skill, however, his arguments finally gave offense. Tory society gave him the cold shoulder, and men who made their living by writing Tory pam phlets uttered the sentiments of the English government by abusing him with foul language. 22. Pam The place of the modern editorial writer phleteers. on a daily paper was taken in old times by these bitter, scurrilous pamphleteers. No degree of personal slander was too coarse for them. Afraid, however, of the law, or else of a sound cudgeling at the hands of their victim, they tried to cover up their full meaning under an absurd system of stars and dashes. Most of these pamphlets would seem dull to the average reader of today. Any one with a quick wit, however, can detect what they must have been like from the following good-humored caricature of them which appears in the pages of the Spectator: "If there are four Persons in the Nation who endeavour to bring all things into Confusion and ruin their native Country, I think every honest Engl-shm-n ought to be on his guard. That there are such, every one will agree with me, who hears me name Friend and Favourite * * * nor * * * * * with his first not to mention These People may cry Ch-rch, Ch-rch, as long as they please, but to make use of a homely Proverb, the proof of the P-dd-ng is in the eating. I love to speak out and declare my mind clearly when I am talking for the Good of my Country. I will not make my Court to an ill Man, tho' he were a B-y or a T-t. Nay, I would not stick to call so wretched a Politician, a Traitor, an Enemy to his Country, and a Bl-nd-rb-ss, etc., etc." 23. Journalists. When the Spectator published its first issue, daily papers were a comparatively new thing. The first one ever established in England had begun only nine years before, and then only in very primitive fashion. It was fourteen inches long, eight inches wide, and was printed only on one side of the sheet. The reading matter of the first issue consisted of six short paragraphs translated from the foreign papers. For news people still depended on the coffee-house, on pamphlets, on queer little weeklies, and on what was called the newsletter, a little manuscript journal written out by the editor with his own pen on a sheet of fine paper and then painfully copied on similar sheets by his clerks. Half even of this sheet was left blank that the purchaser might add to it his own private business before he mailed it to his friends in the country. "It was our custom at Sir Roger's," says the Spectator, in one of its issues, "upon the coming in of the Post to sit about a pot of coffee, and hear the old Knight read Dyer's Letter; which he does with his spectacles upon his nose, and in an audible voicesmiling very often at those little strokes of satire which are so frequent in the writings of that author." On account of the heavy restrictions still hampering the freedom of the press, the news of the weeklies was meager, misleading, and always expressed with a great show of mystification. Roughly speaking, until the editors of the Tatler and the Spectator set a better fashion, the ordinary journalist in England was a contemptible and ill-natured gossip. 24. The Spectator Again. It takes the nicest sort of skill to civilize barbarians who already think themselves the most civilized of men; and this is really what the Spectator set out to do. For people whose whole thought had been bent on following the latest affectation in dress, oaths, coquetry, and dueling, it set up simple and wholesome ideals of life and made. them popular. It commented on the little things of daily life, jested with suavity at extravagances, reasoned with fools on their vices and follies, and in general made vanity amusing, ostentation ridiculous, and meanness contemptible. It contained some pleasant raillery for those who thought it religious to wear long faces, and it contained tokens of respect for the clergyman who did his duty in quiet, unostentatious fidelity. It brought different classes of people together, and showed the Whig and the Tory "what a large extent of ground they might occupy in common. Wisdom it brought "out of closets and libraries, schools and colleges to dwell in clubs and assemblies, at tea-tables and coffee-houses.''2 25. Joseph 991 The chief contributor to the Spectator Addison. was Joseph Addison, a scholar, poet, and diplomatist, then just in his prime. His early home life might seem too grave and formal to suit the children of today, but when Addison was young, all courtesy had something grave and formal in it, and the circle that gathered under the Addison roof was at 1 Courthorpe, Addison in the English Men of Letters Series. 2 Spectator, No. 10. |