Sybil, Benjamin Disraeli [books to read for self improvement .txt] 📗
- Author: Benjamin Disraeli
Book online «Sybil, Benjamin Disraeli [books to read for self improvement .txt] 📗». Author Benjamin Disraeli
It is nearly fourteen years ago, in the popular frenzy of a mean and selfish revolution which neither emancipated the Crown nor the People, that I first took the occasion to intimate and then to develop to the first assembly of my countrymen that I ever had the honour to address, these convictions. They have been misunderstood as is ever for a season the fate of truth, and they have obtained for their promulgator much misrepresentation as must ever be the lot of those who will not follow the beaten track of a fallacious custom. But time that brings all things has brought also to the mind of England some suspicion that the idols they have so long worshipped and the oracles that have so long deluded them are not the true ones. There is a whisper rising in this country that loyalty is not a phrase, faith not a delusion, and popular liberty something more diffusive and substantial than the profane exercise of the sacred rights of sovereignty by political classes.
That we may live to see England once more possess a free Monarchy and a privileged and prosperous People, is my prayer; that these great consequences can only be brought about by the energy and devotion of our youth is my persuasion. We live in an age when to be young and to be indifferent can be no longer synonymous. We must prepare for the coming hour. The claims of the future are represented by suffering millions; and the youth of a nation are the trustees of posterity.
Endnotes“Tommied to death”: Subjected to the “tommy” or “truck” system of wages. See “tommy” below. —Editor ↩
“Tommy”: The iniquitous system of paying workers with vouchers rather than money. These vouchers were only redeemable at the employer’s own stores, where goods were often of inferior quality and comparatively high in price. The system kept down employer’s actual wages bills but meant that their workers often lived in abject poverty. —Editor ↩
“Butty”: A butty in the mining districts is a middleman: a doggy is his manager. The butty generally keeps a tommy or truck shop and pays the wages of his labourers in goods. When miners and colliers strike they term it, “going to play.” —B. D. ↩
“At play”: on strike. —Editor ↩
“Hachis”: in cooking, an ingredient which is minced or chopped. Here it indicates just “a mess.” —Editor ↩
“Charter”: The People’s Charter of 1838, demanding universal manhood suffrage (the right to vote) and other democratic reforms. —Editor ↩
“Paixhans rockets”: Paixhans was a French general who developed artillery guns which fired explosive shells. The implication here is that the barons cannot stand against modern artillery in the hands of the people. —Editor ↩
“Five Points”: This refers to the demands of the People’s Charter demanding universal manhood suffrage (the right to vote) and other democratic reforms. —Editor ↩
“Congo”: black tea imported from China (despite the name, not from the Congo). —Editor ↩
“Biggin”: a kind of coffee-pot with a strainer, named for its inventor. —Editor ↩
ColophonSybil
was published in 1845 by
Benjamin Disraeli.
This ebook was produced for
Standard Ebooks
by
David Grigg,
and is based on a transcription produced in 2003 by
David G. Johnson and David Widger
for
Project Gutenberg
and on digital scans available from
Google Books.
The cover page is adapted from
When the Day Is Done,
a painting completed in 1870 by
Thomas Faed.
The cover and title pages feature the
League Spartan and Sorts Mill Goudy
typefaces created in 2014 and 2009 by
The League of Moveable Type.
The first edition of this ebook was released on
September 7, 2018, 10:16 p.m.
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