DIGNITY.
DIGNITY is a thing much coveted by man, but perhaps nothing takes such various shapes in the aspirations of different men. There are those in America who think that the dignity of the human kind is increased by flattening the forehead with a boar& They are called the Flat-head Indians. Some people on this side of the Atlantic think that national dignity- would be best sup- ported, as it is called, by a bullying tone of diplomacy. In the affair of Tahiti, for instance, some English politicians complain that the Earl of Aberdeen did not support the dignity of this country, because he was not more threatening in his manner to- wards the French diplomatists. It is remarkable that, on the very same subject, French politicians deem the Comte De Jarnac to have been subservient : they call him a "trembler," and laugh at his "fears," and also complain that he betrayed the national dignity- of France. The Englishmen of this class would have been pleased to see Lord Aberdeen bully M. De Jarnac ; the French to see M. De Jarnac bully Lord Aberdeen. Of course there is no desire that the two officials should have fallen to fis- ticuffs; the fighting, if any, was to be done vicariously: but Lord Aberdeen and M. De Jarnac were cowards because they did not vapour in a quarrel to be fought out by others at a safe distance: As the vapouring was to have no practical issue, but must have been mere surplusage, and, as it were, ornamental garnish of the negotiations, it seems that there are sages who account it more decorous to introduce a little foolishness into these grave matters : as Lord Bacon thought truth to work better with a little alloy of falsehood, our friends think wisdom to work better with a little alloy of silliness ; they think it wise to waive the full amount of brains with which man is naturally endowed. They are the moral Flat-heads of the Caucasian race—you may appropriately term them the Flats or Blockheads.
Another idea of dignity has just been developed in the City. On Plough Monday, divers inquest-men crowded the Guildhall to make " presentments " from their Wards : Lord Mayor Gibbs would not let them in, unless they were dressed in gowns—an obsolete regulation revived—the surplice queition of the Poultry. As punishment for their irregularity, the ungowned inquest-men were kept outside the door till the last; and when admitted, they entered in a towering passion, uttering such words as "nonsense," "absurd," and the like. Now what was Mr. Gibbs's motive in all this obstruction ? Nothing else but the "dignity" of the Court; the Court, he said, "would know how to support its dignity." We have now a key to his refusal of abcounts : evidently, he thinks that when a man has spent other people's money, to refuse an account is "dignified." In Abyssinia a grandee sits at table and has his mouth cram- med with raw beef till he chokes, by a lady on each side of him; the overplus being pared off at his lips. Why does he endure that torment? Because the Abyssinian deems it dignity."
Previous page
