The Shasta courier., 1866-07-07
SHASTA COURIER.
I.HAVE A RIGHT.
BY JEAN INGELOW.


talking about our rights. The expression,
II have a right" is constantly in our
| mouths. This is one reason. among some
| others, why it is fortunate for US that we
speak English, since this favorite phrase in
more than one continental tongue has no
precise equivalent.
Whether the nations phrase grew out of
the nations character, or whether the hap
| Ply possession of such phrase has helped to
mould. that character, it is scarcely now
worth while to inquire. Certain it is that
those generations which make proverbs,
make thereby laws which govern their chill
| dren's children, and thus, perhaps. it comes
to pass that this neat, independent Anglo.
SaxJn phrase helps to get ana keep for us
the very rights it tells Of For, as under
some governments it is true that the dearest
ana most unalienable rights of the race 20
| by the name of privilege, indulgence Or i'm
munity, a concession, and not an inher
| tance; a gift and not a birthright; while
ancient rights, in our sense of this word
merge into mere privileges held at the ruler s
will and having been once called privileges,
may be exchanged by him for other privil-
eyes which may amount to no more than the
sight of a glittering show; so in our case
it is true that privileges have constant ten
grant his peighbors the privilege of walking
through his fields park, or his grounds, and
then see how soon it will be said that they
have right to traverse them and in fact
very soon they aoW have right by the law
of the land for to prove the right they need
only show that they have enjoyed the privi-
lege 8 time out of mind" And then. again,
Right is very unfair to his cousin Privilege,
for by the laws of England sixty years CON
stitute g time out of mind.'
By taking the trouble to investigate, any
person may find many parallel cases, and so
we keep tie path of, liberty. First .we got
the path as a sort OF privilege which was
winked at then made out that we had a
right to it! next we proved that it wanted
widening, and then paved it handsomely,
made kings highway of it, and took pains
to have it constantly in repair.
Now. it being an acknowledged thing, my
dear friends that we have rights, and that
we like to have these facts well known to all
whom it may concern-how glad you will be
if | can point out to you certain rights:
which some of you have scarcely considered
at all. | have met with numbers of worship
ful old gentlemen, industrious young worl.
men, and women of all degrees, who knew
well how to use our favorite phrase in its
common vulgar sense; but | knew a wor-
shipful old baker in an old country town who
used it oftener than any of item. To hear
him hold forth about his rights, did ones
heart good, and made one proud of ones
country. Everybody else's rights appeared
fiat and tame compared with his. and the
best of it. was, that no one was ever heard
to dispute chem.
Dear old man, he is dead now, bat some
of his rights survive him. l was on my
way home to the neighborhood of that little
country town wherein, for so many years, he
might have been seen on a summer evening.
standing in his shop door and exercising the
rights he loved, when it so happened that |
heard some of my countrymen also discours-
ing about their rights, and the more they
talked, the more petty and insignificant
seemed their rights compared with those of
Mr.. Bryce. the baker.
We took our tickets at the London termi.
nus of the Great Northern railway, and en-
tered an empty carriage; in a corner seat
however, a gentleman's great-coat was
lying; presently lady got in, and now the
two vacant seats were, it so happened, as far
as possible asunder.
The next arrivals were another lady with
a little girl about four years old. Without
any hesitation she tonk up the coat, and pla.
cling it in another corner seat, sat the child
in the division near herself
Had she right to do this YOU inquire
Certainly not and she was DON reminded of
that fact, for Just at the last minute calm
and rather supercilous looking young man
entered. glanced coldly at her and said: :"
must trouble you, madam. for that seat |
laid my coat eR it-some time ago. and also
TUNED the cusi ,n really must request
you to leave il, as have right to it."
He laid as strong an emphasis on the must
as if to turn her cut was a stringent duty
Perhaps she thought so. for as she glanced
in rising, at the child, she said, with a smile
at tho youth, who was quite young enough
to be her son, '' Certainly You have an un-
doubted right to this seat - and then added.
, but suppose no one would have disputed
your right to give it up to me, if you had
chosen.'
Her easy self possession, and perhaps her
remark, made him look little awkward.
but, as the lady rose, my brother changed
places with the child and thus they still sat
together ;-and while the youth settled him.
self in the place he had a rghs to, our train
set off with one of those thrice horrible wa
vering and querulous screeches of which the
Great Northern has a n on poly.
While we went through the first tunnel,
rem ing the air all the time with te rife
shrieks. the little giIl held tightly by her
mothers hand, and two large tears rolled
down her rosy face. g We shall soon be at
lIornsey," said her mother; and accord
insly in few minutes we stopped, and
while the lady disappeared from our view.
the owner of the seat ejaculael, Cool 1"
and then looking around the carriage he con-.
tinued. as appealing to those who we're sure
to agree with him When a man has
right to thing. why he has right; but to
have right to wave right. is a dodge that
man wouldn't expect to be told off,.
This most lucid speech he closed with
general smile. aud We set of again with
another shrek, longer and shriller than any
former one.