4 CURIOUS CUSTOMS IN PARLIAMENT. During the reign of King John (1199), the king agreed to settle the difficulty with Philip II. of France, respecting the Duchy of Normandy, by single combat. John, the Earl of Ulster, was the English champion; and, as soon as he appeared on the field of combat, his adversary put spurs to his horse, and fled, leaving him master of the field. King John asked the earl what his reward should be. He replied, "Titles and lands I want not; of these I have enough: but, in remembrance of this day, I beg the boon for myself and successors, to remain covered in the presence of your Majesty and all other sovereigns of this realm." The request was granted, and has never been revoked, which accounts for the odd custom in Parliament of members wearing their hats. During the reign of Elizabeth (1558) an act of Parliament was passed forbidding the exportation of wool; and as a memorial of the event, and to impress the people with the national importance of it, as well as to keep constantly in their minds this source of national wealth, sacks of wool were placed in the House of Lords, on which the Judges sat. The Lord Chancellor, who presides over the House of Lords, still sits upon a sack of wool, over which is thrown a red cloth. To be appointed "High Chancellor" of England is even now "to be appointed to the wool-sack." 5. THE TAE-PING REBELLION. During this rebellion in China, which broke out in 1850, women were as active as men in all military duties. In Nankin in 1853 half a million of women from various parts of the country were formed into brigades of thirteen thousand each, under female officers. Of these, ten thousand were picked women, drilled and garrisoned in the city. The rest were compelled to undergo the drudgery of digging moats, making earthworks, erecting batteries, etc. This politico-religious rebellion is the most remarkable of recent events in China. The leader of the rebellion, Hungsewtseuen, having been led by the perusal of some Christian tracts to renounce idolatry, founded a society called "GodWorshippers." In 1850 this society came into collision with the imperial authorities, the state religion of China being the Confucian. Hungsewtseuen persuaded himself and his followers that he had received a divine commission to uproot idolatry, and establish a universal peace. He assumed the title of Tien-wang, or Heavenly Prince. His followers held that Tien-wang was the Son of God, and worshipped him accordingly. Polygamy was a dark feature of their religious system: Tien-wang had thirty wives. With immense armies of converts, men and women, he laid desolate some of the best cultivated provinces of China. The city of Nankin was held by them until 1864, when the rebellion was finally suppressed by the government, assisted by English, French, and American officers. The leader, Hungsewtseuen, perished by his own hands amid the blazing ruins of the palace he had occupied for eleven years. Nankin became again the seat of the Chinese govern ment. The recapture of Pekin in 1860 by the English and French was followed by a treaty which granted important privileges to European merchants, and made it the direct interest of the English, French, and American governments, to re-establish order in China. China in art, literature, politics, was like a precocious child. It developed early, and then that development was arrested; and every thing has gone on without improvement for centuries. [These notes upon "Tent on the Beach" have been kindly approved by the author of the poem.] 6. TENT ON THE BEACH. "When heats as of a tropic clime Burned all our inland valleys through, Three friends, the guests of summer time, Pitched their white tent where sea-winds blew." This poem was written in 1867. WHITTIER. The "three friends" are James T. Fields, Bayard Taylor, and Whittier himself. "They rested there, escaped a while From cares that wear the life away, And drink the poppies of Cathay." The "lotus" is an Egyptian plant very like our water-lily. It is fabled, if eaten, to make one forget his native country, or cease to desire to return to it: by "lotus-eater" is meant one who gives himself up to pleasure-seeking. "In the afternoon they came unto a land, In which it seemèd always afternoon." |