Dickens's England (43 page)

Anthony Trollope,
Australia and New Zealand
(1873)

PROGRESS

I: ABORIGINES

It has been only natural, only human, that efforts should be made by the invading race, to ameliorate the condition of these people, and – to use the word most common to our mouths – to civilise them. We have taken away their land, have destroyed their food, have made them subject to our laws which are antagonistic to their habits and traditions, have endeavoured to make them subject to our tastes, which they hate, have massacred them when they defended themselves and their possessions after their own fashion, and have taught them by hard warfare to acknowledge us to be their masters. We have done the work with perhaps as little cruelty as was compatible with such a job. No one I think will say that the English should have abstained from taking possession of Australia because such possession could not be secured without injury to the blacks. Had the English abstained, the Dutch or French would have come, and certainly would not have come with lighter hands. There has been rough work – and how could rough work have been avoided when the cause for quarrel was so deep? The race was a savage race, hating tasks, ignoring property, and one which would not fall into our ways. Gradually we have seen them disappearing before us – sinking into the earth, as it were, as they made way for us. . . . Fragments of them only remain, and the fragments of them are growing still smaller and smaller. Within the haunts of white men, and under the tutelage of white men, they have learned to wear clothes, and to drink, and to be covetous of tobacco and money – and sometimes to do a little work. But with their rags, and their pipes, and their broken English, they are less noble, less sensitive of duty, less capable of protracting life than they were in their savage but unsubdued condition. . . .

We can teach them to sing psalms – and can do so with less labour than is generally necessary for white pupils, and in better time. If we take the children early enough, we can teach them to read and write – and as I saw at Rama Yuck [missionary centre], can teach them to do so in a manner that would be thought very excellent among white children of the same age. . . . The success which is achieved is achieved chiefly with children – and they, as they grow up, are apt to go back into the bush and to take to savage life, even though they have not been born to it. To me it seems that the game is not worth the candle. . . . The race is doomed . . .

II: ADVANCE, AUSTRALIA PERT

In describing Victorians of the upper classes, and of the two sexes, I would say that both in their defects and their excellences they approach nearer to the American than to the British type. . . . This is visible, I think, quite as much in the women as in the men. I am speaking now especially of those women whom on account of their education and positions we should class as ladies; but the remark is equally true to all ranks of society. The maidservant in Victoria has the pertness, the independence, the mode of asserting by her manner that though she brings you up your hot water, she is just as good as you – and a good deal better if she be younger – which is common to the American ‘helps'. But in Victoria, as in the States, the offensiveness of this – for to us who are old-fashioned it is in a certain degree offensive – is compensated by a certain intelligence and instinctive good sense which convinces the observer that however much he may suffer, however heavily the young woman may tread upon his toes, she herself has a good time in the world. She is not degraded in her own estimation by her own employment, and has no idea of being humble because she brings you hot water. And when we consider that the young woman serves us for her own purposes, and not for ours, we cannot rationally condemn her. The spirit which has made this so common in the United States . . . has grown in Victoria and permeated all classes.

Anthony Trollope,
Australia and New Zealand
(1873)

PAX BRITANNICA

I: BY JINGO

[When Russia threatened Constantinople, Britain feared for the Suez Canal route to India.]

The ‘Dogs of War' are loose and the rugged Russian Bear,

Full bent on blood and robbery, has crawled out of his lair,

It seems a thrashing now and then will never help to tame

The brute, and so he's bent upon the ‘same old game'.

The Lion did his best, to find him some excuse

To crawl back to his den again, all efforts were no use,

He hungered for his victim, he's pleased when blood is shed,

But let us hope his crimes may all recoil on his own head.

Chorus:
We don't want to fight, but by jingo if we do,

We've got the ships, we've got the men, we've got the money too.

We've fought the Bear before, and while we're Britons true,

The Russians shall not have Constantinople.

G.W. Hunt, music-hall song (1877–8)

II: I AIN'T A BRITON TRUE

Newspapers talk of Russian hate,

Of its ambition tell,

Of course they want a war because

It makes the papers sell.

Let all the politicians

Who desire to help the Turk,

Put on the uniform themselves,

And go and do the work.

I don't want to fight,

I'll be slaughtered if I do,

I'll change my togs, I'll sell my kit,

I'll pop my rifle too.       [pawn]

I don't like the war, I ain't a Briton true,

And I'll let the Russians have Constantinople.

Henry Pettit, music-hall song (1878)

Good night to the season – Another

Will come, with its trifles and toys,

And hurry away, like its brother,

In sunshine, and odour, and noise.

Will it come with a rose or a briar?

Will it come with a blessing or curse?

Will its bonnets be higher or lower?

Will its morals be better or worse?

Will it find me grown thinner or fatter,

Or fonder of wrong or of right,

Or married – or buried? – no matter:

Good night to the Season – good night!

W.M. Praed,
Poems
(1864)

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