By Robert Morrison (1825/5-1862), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain. Source
Governor Ye Mingchen, Viceroy of Liangguang, by Robert Morrison.
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Ye Mingchen (1807-1859), Viceroy of Liangguang from 1852 to 1858, and Grand Secretary of the Tiren Library from 1855 to 1857. During the debate in the Commons in February 1857, a ‘blue-book’ of correspondence was placed before the House, supposedly containing overwhelming evidence of China’s insults to the mother of Parliaments. Conjuror-like, Cobden produced a sheaf of letters which had somehow escaped the notice of the Foreign Office, and which cast a completely different light on the whole affair. Ye’s letters were among them. “One of Governor Yeh’s letters” said Cobden “might have been penned by the Duke of Wellington — it is so sententious”, using the adjective in its older sense of ‘pithy and full of wisdom’.
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Governor Ye Mingchen, Viceroy of Liangguang, by Robert Morrison.
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By Robert Morrison (1825/5-1862), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
Ye Mingchen (1807-1859), Viceroy of Liangguang from 1852 to 1858, and Grand Secretary of the Tiren Library from 1855 to 1857. During the debate in the Commons in February 1857, a ‘blue-book’ of correspondence was placed before the House, supposedly containing overwhelming evidence of China’s insults to the mother of Parliaments. Conjuror-like, Cobden produced a sheaf of letters which had somehow escaped the notice of the Foreign Office, and which cast a completely different light on the whole affair. Ye’s letters were among them. “One of Governor Yeh’s letters” said Cobden “might have been penned by the Duke of Wellington — it is so sententious”, using the adjective in its older sense of ‘pithy and full of wisdom’.
They are the very soul of commerce in the East. You find them carrying on their industry in foreign countries with that assiduity and laboriousness which characterise the Scotch and the Swiss.
You find them not as barbarians at home, where they cultivate all the arts and sciences, and where they have carried all, except one, to a point of perfection but little below our own — but that one is war. You have there a people who have carried agriculture to such a state as to become horticulture, and whose great cities rival in population those of the Western world. There must be something in such a people deserving of respect. If, in speaking of them, we stigmatise them as barbarians, and threaten them with force because we say they are inaccessible to reason, it must be because we do not understand them; because their ways are not our ways, nor our ways theirs. Is not so venerable an empire as that deserving of some sympathy — at least of some justice — at the hands of conservative England? To the representatives of the people in this House I commend this question, with full confidence that they will do justice to that people.
ByRichard Cobden1804-1865
Questions for Critics
1. What is the author
aiming to achieve in writing this?
2. Note any words, devices or turns of phrase that
strike you. How do they help the author communicate his
ideas more effectively?
3. What impression does this passage make on you?
How might you put that impression into words?
Based on The English Critic (1939)
by NL Clay, drawing on The New Criticism: A Lecture Delivered at
Columbia University, March 9, 1910, by J. E. Spingarn,
Professor of Comparative Literature in Columbia University,
USA.
Précis
The Chinese, he went on, were as civilised at home as they were abroad, and it was no shame that they lagged behind us only in our fondness for war. To think so little of so mighty a people was surprising in a country that valued its own heritage as much as England, and must come from ignorance or pride.(60 / 60 words)
The Chinese, he went on, were as civilised at home as they were abroad, and it was no shame that they lagged behind us only in our fondness for war. To think so little of so mighty a people was surprising in a country that valued its own heritage as much as England, and must come from ignorance or pride.
Edit | Reset
Variations:
1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 65 words.2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 55 words.3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: about, although, besides, despite, since, until, whether, who.
About the Author
Richard Cobden (1804-1865) was the son of a bankrupt Sussex farmer. By a mixture of talent and audacity, Richard rose from sweeping his uncle’s warehouse floor to become a Manchester mill-owner and then Liberal Party MP for Rochdale in Lancashire. He came to prominence in the late 1830s as a vocal critic of London’s panicky and greedy policies towards Russia and later China. Soon afterwards, he emerged as the leader of the Parliamentary rebellion against economic protectionism, i.e. the policy of using sanctions and trade tariffs to ring-fence the profits of domestic corporations and cripple the economies of foreign countries. The Corn Laws, the flagship protectionist policy that had brought thousands close to starvation, were repealed in 1846. The campaign almost ruined him financially, but he recovered and his final triumph was the Cobden-Chevalier Treaty of 1860, a landmark free-trade agreement between Britain and France which put centuries of mistrust behind us. Richard married Catherine Anne Williams, from Wales, in 1840 and they brought up five daughters together.
For each group of words, compose a sentence that uses all three. You can use any form of the word: for example, cat → cats, go → went, or quick → quickly, though neigh → neighbour is stretching it a bit.
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
1Primary.Thus.Upon.
2Cultivate.Nor.Supple.
3Deal.Its.Logic.
Variations:1.include direct and indirect speech2.include one or more of these words: although, because, despite, either/or, if, unless, until, when, whether, which, who3.use negatives (not, isn’t, neither/nor, never, nobody etc.)
Use each word below in a sentence. Try to include at least one statement, one question and one command among your sentences. Note that some verbs make awkward or meaningless words of command, e.g. need, happen.
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
Variations:1.use a minimum of seven words for each sentence2.include negatives, e.g. isn’t, don’t, never3.use the words ‘must’ to make commands4.compose a short dialogue containing all three kinds of sentence: one statement, one question and one command
For each word below, compose sentences to show that it may be used as an adjective. Adjectives provide extra information about a noun, e.g. a black cat, a round table, the early bird etc..
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
Variations:
1.show whether your adjective can also be used as e.g. a noun, verb or adverb.2.show whether your adjective can be used in comparisons (e.g. good/better/best).3.show whether your adjective can be used in attributive position (e.g. a dangerous corner) and also in predicate position (this corner is dangerous).
Make words (three letters or more) from the seven letters showing below, using any letter once only. Each letter carries a score. What is the highest-scoring word you can make?
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