The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1843-08-08 00:00:00

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SIR CHARLES NAPIER.—The following extract from
"Division Orders" by Major• General Sir Charles J. Na-
pier, the commander of the British forces in Scinde, dated
Sukkur, 21st November, 1812." evinces an eccentricity
of style not without example in men of great military
talents

" Gentlemen, as well as beggars, may, if they like, ride
to the devil when they get on horseback ; bur neither gen-
tlemen nor beggars have a right to send other people there,
which will be the case if furious riding be allowed in camp
or bazaar. The Major-General recalls the attention of all
in camp to the order of Lieut.-Col. Wallace (dated the
18th ultimo), and begs to add that he has placed a detach-
ment of horse at Captain Pope's orders, who will arrest
any oflender, and Captain Pope will inflict such a fine or
other punishment as the bazaar regulations permit.
" This order to be published through the cantonment by
beat of drum for three successive days. Captain Pope is
not empowered to let any one off punishment ; because,
when orders have been repeatedly not obeyed, it is time
to enforce them. Without obedience, an army becomes
a mob, and a cantonment a bear-garden. The enforce-
ment of obedience is like physic—not agreeable, but at
times very necessary."
_ _

The Bombay Times, whence we borrow this morreau, ob-
serves that the passage, that " beggars and gentlemen have
a right to ride to the devil," can be matched by the fa-
mous order of the late Sir Lionel Smith, prohibiting
pariah dogs and galloping cadets from appearing on the
Poonah parade-ground during divine service.—Asiatic
Journal.

ADDISON IN PARLIAMENT.-Addison sat for Maims-
bury in the house of commons which was elected in 1708.
But the house of commons was not the field for him.
The bashfulness of his nature made his wit and eloquence
useless in debate. He once rose, but could not overcome
his diffidence, and ever after remained silent. Nobody
can think it strange that a great writer should fail as a
speaker. But many probably will think it strange, that
Addison's failure as a speaker should have no unfavourable
effect on his success as a politician. In our time, a man
of high rank and great fortune might, though speaking very
ill, hold a considerable post. But it is inconceivable
that a mere adventurer, a man who, when out of office,
must live by his pen, should in a few years become suc-
cessively Under Secretary of State, Chief Secretary for
Ireland, and Secretary of State, without some oratorical
talent. Addison, without high birth, and with little pro-
perty, rose to a post which dukes, the heads of the great
houses of Talbot, Russell, and Bentinck, have thought it
an honour to fill. Without opening his lips in debate, he
rose to a post, the highest that Chatham or Fox ever
reached. And this he did before he had been nine years
in parliament. We must look for the explanation of this
seeming miracle to the peculiar circumstances in which
that generation was placed. During the interval which
elapsed between the time when the censorship of the press
ceased, and the time when parliamentary proceedings
began to be freely reported, literary talents were, to a
public man, of much more importance, and oratorical
talents of much less importance, than in our time. At
present, the best way of giving rapid and wide publicity
to a statement or an argument is to introduce that state-
ment or argument into a speech made in parliament. If
a political tract were to appear superior to the conduct of
the allies, or to the best numbers of the Freeholder, the
circulation of such a tract would be languid indeed when
compared with tne circulation of every remarkable word
uttered in the deliberations of the legislature. A speech
made in the house of commons at four in the morning, is
on thirty thousand tables before ten. A speech made on
the Monday is read on the Wednesday by multitudes in
Antrim and Aberdeenshire. The orator, by the help of
the short-hand writer, has, to a great extent, superseded
the pamphleteer. It was not so in the reign of Anne.
The best speech could then produce no effect except on
those who heard it. It was only by means of the press
that the opinion of the public without doors could be in-
fluenced ; and the opinion of the public without doors
could not but be of the highest importance in a country
governed by parliaments ; and, indeed, at that time
governed by triennial parliaments, The pen was, there-
fore, a more formidable political engine than the tongue.
Mr. Pitt and Mr. Fox contended only in parliament.
But Walpole and Pultney, the Pitt and Fox of an earlier
period, had not done half of what was necessary when
they sat down amidst the acclamations of the house of
commons. They had still to plead their cause before the
country, and this they could do only by means of the press.
Tl.eir works are now forgotten. But it is certain that
there were in Grub-street few more assiduous scribblers
of thoughts, letters, answers, remarks, than these two
great chiefs of parties. Pultney, when leader of the op-
position, and possessed of X 30,000 a year, edited the Crafts-
man. Walpole though not a man of literary habits, was
the author of at least ten pamphlets ; and retouched and
corrected many more. These facts sufficiently show of
bow great importance literary assistance then was to the
contending parties. St. John was certainly in Anne's
reign, the best tory speaker; Cowper was probably the
best whig speaker. But it may well be doubted whether
St. John did so much for the tories as Swift, and whether
Cowper did so much for the whigs as Addison. When
these things are duly considered, it will not be thought
strange that Addison should have climbed higher in the
state than any other Englishman has ever, by means

merely of lite-rary talents-, been able to climb. Swift
would, in all probability, have climbed as high, if he had
not been encumbered by his cossack and his pudding-
sleeves. As far as the homage of the great went, Swift
had as much of it as if he had been Lord Treasurer.—
Edinburgh Review.