Parkes

“ Parkes and Loch were very badly treated for the first ten days; since then, conciliation has been the order of the day, and, I have no doubt, because I stood firm. If I had wavered, they would have been lost; because the Chinese, finding they had a lever with which they could move us, would have used their advantage unsparingly. Parkes and Loch have behaved very well under circumstances of great danger. The narrative of their adventures is very interesting, but I cannot attempt to give it in this letter. They seem to be in good health notwithstanding the hardships they have gone through. ”

“ In this critical moment men turned to Mr. Parkes, and Captain Barbazon expressed the belief of those present in a cool brave man in arduous extremity when he cried out, "I vote Parkes decides what is to be done." ”

“ Much of the success of the occupation and its good permanent results were unquestionably due to the high qualities of Parkes, the British commissioner, who thus modestly refers to the matter in his despatch: "The confidence of the people in a strong and inoppressive Government, added to their own governable character, materially facilitated the task of maintaining order in a vast and most intricate city containing a population of upwards of 1,000,000 inhabitants." ”

“ The year 1842 had seen the publication of Henry Parkes' "Stolen Moments", the first of a number of volumes of verse which that statesman bravely issued, the last being published just before his eightieth year. The career of Parkes is coincident with a long and important period of our history, in which he is the most striking figure. ”

“ Parkes had not the art of managing men, and consequently some of his early work, although devised on sound principles, was badly executed, and brought his system into disrepute. He was intolerant of advice and jealous of opposition, and declined to adopt the improvements introduced by John Bailey Denton and others. ”

“ My last letter from J. Parkes, [Footnote: Probably Joseph Parkes, the well-known agent of the Liberal party. He died August 11th, 1865, but none of the obituary notices mention his wife.] who is married to a Yankee, and in correspondence with many men of note in the North, represents the feeling to be growing for mediation, but mediation on the ground of a re-uniting of the South, which means no mediation at all. But he says that the real feeling of the Americans, both N. and S., is of great respect for England, and pride in their descent from and connexion with us. ”

“ Although Parkes's position was actually subordinate, and he received daily instructions from Hongkong, he thoroughly agreed in Bowring's policy, and doubtless his opinion had considerable weight with his chief; while by the Chinese he alone was credited with the whole initiative. ‘Consul Parkes has opened fire,’ was Yeh's message to the American consulate. A heavy reward was offered for his head; but he held his position in the consulate, with shells flying over it; at the risk of his life he went among the people distributing amnesties and warning them of their danger ”

“ Surely the author must have had Jabez Balfour and the Liberator swindle in his mind when he composed the scathing ballad entitled 'The Devil in Richmond Park.'"—The Christian Age.
"This is a very charming and winning volume. Everything about the book is an incentive to make a prompt acquaintance with its literary merits. Mr. Parkes is a consummate artist in verse, and through all runs the same vein of drollery, of pungency, of real humour difficult to resist, and which makes us wish for more, and much more from so entertaining a pen."—The Carlow Sentinel. ”

“ An excellent appreciation of him is that of Sir Henry Parkes, the Australian statesman (Fifty Years, &c., i. 296) . He was knighted in 1859, became K.C.M.G. in 1869, G.C.M.G. in 1875, and a privy councillor in 1882.
Lord Rosmead, besides being a good man of business and a good speaker, was a sportsman, and a great lover of horses and of horse-racing (Lang, History of New South Wales, i. 422) . ”

“ PARK or PARKES, JAMES (1636–1696) , quaker, was either born or early settled on the borders of Wales, near Wrexham or Welshpool, where he grew up among the ‘ independents.’ Before 1663, however, he joined the quakers. ”

“ Has not my father's wife been kind, never to send me the least thing in the world, and yet she thinks she is entitled to the name of 'mother,' but I think she does not act 'mother-like!'
I have seen the fine park and the Queen's palace and the Queen's carriage, but they are not, all of them, worth a fig to see. The park, crowded with people like a fair, the palace, guarded everywhere with soldiers with their bayonets fixed; I would rather walk in a rural lane than in such places, where you can go so far and no farther, without being stopped by a soldier with a bayonet in his hand. ”

“ He was a man of culture and refinement, quiet and unobtrusive, and political life was not much suited to his tastes. Though he took little further interest in the affairs of the colony, he was made K.C.M.G. in 1877. He was a commissioner for the exhibitions held at Sydney in 1880 and Melbourne in 1881. He died at Richmond on 2 Feb. 1881. Parkes names him as one of the best men who have taken part in the government of New South Wales.
Parker married, in 1843, Emmeline Emily, third daughter of John Macarthur of Camden Park, New South Wales, who survived him. He left no issue. ”

“ He doesn't act as peculiar as he looks, though, laughing as jolly as Mr. Parkes if anything funny happens. And he knows so much about horses, having traveled considerable, that father thinks he is very clever. Father says you can excuse an artist with horse sense better than you can just a plain artist.
Rufe and Cousin Eunice are down in the country too, partly at our house and partly at Rufe's folks'. This makes a nice reunion for 105 them, being as Marcella, Rufe's sister, is home for the first time in three Christmases, having been off studying how to play on the piano. ”

“ I believe that the name of Henry Parkes will yet be dear to the heart of every patriotic son of Federated Australia, and that all concerning him will be very precious in their eyes. The mistakes, the errors, and the failures of the last years of his life will be wiped away as one would brush dust from a beloved dead face. ”

“ The book owes a good deal of its charm to the author's clever and laughable illustrations which are plentifully besprinkled in its pages."—The Weekly Sun.
"There is a good store of pleasant humour in Spook Ballads, by Theodore Parkes, who also has a happy gift with the pencil, as witness the illustrations, the fare he provides certainly deserves a really grateful 'grace after meat.'"—The People.
"In his attractive volume, The Spook Ballads, Mr. Theodore Parkes has shown himself to be not only an author but an artist of considerable talents."—Weekly Budget. ”

“ Yet Sir Henry Parkes knew no country but England up to the time of his early manhood, and since then his career has formed a part of the history of a great English colony.
To my mind, the passing impressions of such an Australian in England are of intrinsic historic value. Being removed from the unconscious partiality even of the cultured Englishman, and free from the unsympathetic superciliousness of the "intelligent foreigner," they are allied to the impartial judgments of posterity. ”

“ The Artist, his own Illustrator, shines here as conspicuously as in the kindred branch of Authorship."—British and Colonial Printer and Stationer.
"Mr. Parkes is clever and polished alike in the expression of humour and pathos. ”

“ SIR HENRY PARKES IN ENGLAND.
If, as I venture to think, an Imperial lesson may be learned from the Colonial public career of Lord Sherbrooke, so too may we perhaps learn something from the "impressions of England" formed during a prolonged visit by the present Prime Minister of New South Wales.
It is always good "to see ourselves as others see us"; but this is especially the case, it seems to me, with the members of so vast and so widely divided an Empire as ours. ”

“ If she is at any time poorly, she fights most stoutly against taking physic, and says to her mother: "Father will beat you." In your next letter be pleased to let me know how all of you are getting on, particularly my father and mother (that I may determine in what way I may best assist them) . It is my intention to remit some money home as soon as possible. It is probable that I shall return to London in three or four years, but I shall be sure not to stay in England, nor do I think I shall settle in Sydney. ”

“ THE SPOOK BALLADS.
THE
SPOOK BALLADS
BY
WM. THEODORE PARKES
Author of "THE BARNEY BRADEY BROCHURES"
ILLUSTRATED BY THE AUTHOR
LONDON:
SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, HAMILTON, KENT & Co., LIMITED.
1895
CONTENTS. BOHEMIANS, HAIL!
The daylight dreams of many a time,
When song, and rhythmic story,
Were tuned, and voiced for Bigot, and in gay Bohemian ears,
Bring welcome wraiths of joyous nights, thro' whirling clouds of glory;
The incense of the social weed, o'er spirit cup that cheers. ”

“ There are many pieces reciters will be glad to lay hold of, while the Ballads and Illustrations are full of the pleasing humour which characterises all Mr. Parkes' work, and which will serve to cheer and to amuse many readers."—The Sun.
"As the combined production of a clever pencil and a clever pen, this volume may be said to be unique. These poems are pure fun of the most entirely frolicsome kind, hung upon the peg of a quaint idea. 'The German Band' rises to a really tragic pathos. The illustrations are either quaint, droll, or dainty, or partake of broad caricature."—The Citizen. ”

“ The man's mind too, distorted as it has often shown itself by the born politician's insatiable love of power and popularity, is in many respects large and even catholic in its aims and predilections. I have only to add that Sir Henry Parkes has been three times Prime Minister of New South Wales, and that now, in his seventy-fourth year, he again grasps in his capable hands the helm of public affairs in that great dependency. ”

“ There is what is called a Federal Council, which Sir Henry Parkes describes in the spirit of Brown, the tragedian, gazing with undisguised contempt upon Smith's Hamlet, as "a phantom that pops up now and again at Hobart." So far the history of Australia presents a series of disintegrations, and the only successful attempt in the opposite direction has been effected in New Zealand, where the original provincial governments have been supplanted by a centralised authority, not, however, without the active opposition of a most influential section of politicians. ”

“ Parkes has a wonderful way of introducing odd expressions, quaint conceits, and grotesque imagery. Many a hearty laugh will be got out of the Spook Ballads."—The Aberdeen Journal.
"The illustrations by the Author copiously strewn throughout the work are exceedingly clever, and are in themselves enough to commend the book, and will appeal to readers endowed with a particle of humour. Altogether the book is the kind to cheer the winter fireside or make the summer holiday slide joyously into autumn."—Kirkudbrightshire Advertiser. ”

“ Parkes's pencil is a lively companion for his pen; the two of them rollick and frolic down page after page in a state of hilarity that would dissipate and dispose of the worst attack of 'blues.' The sun does not shine every day, and when the hour is dark and dreary there will be found enlivement and joviality and wholesome entertainment within the covers of this volume."—Free Lance in the Weekly Irish Times.
"If any of our readers wish to enjoy a long and pleasant life let them ask for Spook Ballads! ”

“ Can they for a moment realise what it all means? Take the case of Australia, with a kindred population, contiguous territories, and interests in common: it has, so far, been found quite beyond the skill of their most influential statesmen to federate any two of the colonies. Almost ten years ago Sir Henry Parkes proposed to establish what he called an "Australian nation," merely by federating New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia—thus simplifying the problem by entirely eliminating Queensland and Western Australia ”

“ Indescribably funny is his story of the deluge as told by 'Antediluvian Pat O'Toole,' and a note of grim tragedy is struck in the tale of 'John McKune.' Rollicking lays, many of them admirably adapted for recitation, go to make a delightful book, which has the uncommon merit of being well illustrated by Mr. Parkes, who is as skilful an artist as he is an author."—Photographic Journal.
"Spook Ballads possess an amount of boisterous humour and variety of quaint versification which make them excellent and refreshing reading. ”

“ Every man in London might find occasion every day and every hour of the day, to write like this "Australian," if he gave way to the impulses of his better nature. The next day's Times brings an answer from one who knows the lower depths of London better than he, and whose charity is not colder nor narrower. ”

“ If Mason and Slidell are saved from the devouring sea, they will have a cold reception in England. The Times has taken the lead, in a terrible strain of denunciation, in warning the people to shun their presence. ”

“ The lines from Glasgow, down both banks of the Clyde, are everywhere beautiful As you travel on one side you see the train on the other, now darting in behind some severed spur of the hills, and now bursting out upon the more even shore, and ever filling its wreath of white steam behind it, as if waving an adieu to the vessels on the old historical river. ”

“ In every city and town of England to-day the ordinary pursuits of life have been suspended. But it is not by closed shutters and doors, by habiliments of mourning, by the tolling of Church bells, and by drooping flags wreathed with crape, that the national sorrow is most touchingly expressed. You see it everywhere in the grief-burdened faces of the people. ”