Rishi

“ But the unity of the coolie with the manager is not true. Again a great ideal has been given utterance to in the Isha Upanishat. "All that moves in this moving world is enveloped by God. Therefore enjoy by renunciation; never covet others' possessions." I have already referred in terms of condemnation to the greed which has become the dominant motive in the West. Why do we condemn it? The Rishi tells us the reason,—"Do not covet." Why should we not covet? Because truth cannot be obtained through greed. But if I say, "I want my enjoyment rather than truth."— Well, the Rishi also says, "Enjoy." ”

“ Not far from the lake was a hermitage, rich in flowers, and fruits, and birds which uttered varied notes. Therein a Rishi abode, full of gentleness, mercy, and kindness towards living creatures. To this Rishi the hunter was wont to go daily, in the morning, at midday, and in the evening. To him he gave a full account of what had taken place between him and the Nāga Janmachitra. The Rishi said to him, “What need have you of jewels and gold? ”

“ For twelve years the king lived with his fairy bride in the mountain forests, and a regent ruled over the kingdom.
But although the monarch enjoyed great bliss, living the life of a Celestial, the people of the kingdom suffered greatly. For twelve years no rain fell, “not even a drop of dew came from the skies, and no corn was grown”. The people were afflicted with famine; men grew reckless, and deserted their wives and children; the capital became like to a city of the dead.
Then a great Rishi brought Varanasi back to his capital with his Celestial bride. ”

“ Some among the community were of course prominent in the composition of hymns and the performance of great sacrifices, and kings and rich men sent for them on great occasions, and rewarded them handsomely. But even these great composers—these great Rishis of the Rig-Veda—did not form an exclusive caste of their own. They were worldly men, who mixed and married with the people, shared property with the people, fought the wars of the people, and were of the people; nor is there a shadow of evidence to prove that they formed a caste of their own, different from the fighters and cultivators. ”

“ Its opening sentences give us in a phrase the secret of the significance of Rice's story, and dignify his appeal to the public. They show how thoroughly adversity had driven home into this plain man's mind a great civic truth which his fellow-citizens have not yet learned, probably because they have not yet had adversity enough. His solitary and fruitless, although successful, struggle taught him that the citizens of industry can no more maintain their rights acting singly than the citizens of government. ”

“ So hundreds against thousands have borne head!
You are the men that ever conquered:
If multitudes oppress ye that ye die,
Let's sell our lives, and leave them valiantly.
Courage! upon them! till we cannot stand.
JOHN. Richmond is yonder.
QUEEN. Ay, and, son, I think,
The king is not far off.
CHES. Now heaven forfend!
LEI. Why smite ye not, but stand thus cowardly?
RICH. If Richmond hurt good Leicester, let him die.
LEI. Richmond! O, pardon mine offending eye,
That took thee for a foe: welcome, dear friend!
Where is my sovereign Richard? Thou and he
Were both in Austria. ”

“ He had learned that "competition," "supply and demand," "eternal laws of trade," were catchwords as impotent in the markets to give individuals their rights, if unassociated, as the incantations of royalty and loyalty, and law and order, to save people from their king until they made themselves a People. Persons fail; only a People can get and keep freedom. This Rice had begun to learn from his failure to enforce single-handed rights which all the courts declared were his, but which no court could secure. ”

“ The King, although not a genius, is a simple and well-meaning man with sound common sense; he demonstrated his goodwill towards me and was frankly desirous of furthering my task. Although the British Constitution leaves only very limited powers to the Crown, yet the monarch, in virtue of his position, can exercise a considerable influence on opinion both in society and in the Government. The Crown is the apex of the social pyramid; it sets the fashion. Society, which is principally Unionist (Conservative) , has always taken an active interest in politics a habit which the ladies share. ”

“ Richard II.—Richard, the son of the Black Prince, came to the throne when eleven years of age. A council was appointed to help him to rule; and although not on the council, the king’s uncle, John of Gaunt, had great influence. The oppressive poll-tax was again placed on the people, and was made so heavy that great discontent spread among them. Wiclif’s followers, the ‘‘Lollards,” went through the country and helped to make the labourers, villeins, and smaller farmers, more and more restless. ”

“ Richard, with his usual smooth duplicity, once more assured him before the whole Parliament of his entire pardon, and promised him great favour. But Richard had, no doubt, already made up his mind as to what he would do. He had here strong hold on his turbulent and disaffected nobles, and he never let such advantages escape him. The great object, therefore, of obtaining a committee of men devoted to him, in whom were concentrated all the powers of Parliament, was to deal with these two nobles, who were dangerous to the solidity of his throne. ”

“ Rice has pursued a policy at once independent and outspoken, not hesitating to express his convictions on the great national questions of the day, and to place himself upon a national rather than a party platform. ”

“ The 5 Richard II. says that many villeins of great lords and others, as well spiritual as temporal, flee into cities and free towns, and pretend to institute suits against their lords—thus putting the lord in the dilemma of letting the case go unanswered, or by answering acknowledging the freedom of his villein. So now the lord shall not be barred of his right by answering. By 12 Richard II. no servant may go from one hundred to another without a "testimonial" under the King's seal. If he does, he shall be set in the stocks—to which end there shall be stocks in every town. ”

“ The duke was imboldened by this success to take a farther step. He told the Parliament that the [Pg 292] government would never be on a good footing until they themselves appointed a council to manage in the king's name.
When Richard heard of this plan, he declared that he would never submit to it.
"I am the King of England," said he, "and I will govern my realm by means of such officers as I choose to appoint myself. I will not have others to appoint them for me." ”

“ The soldiers, less informed, gazed idly on, and Richard now regained Edward’s side.
“Reflect,” he said, as he drew him apart, “that, when on this spot landed Henry of Bolingbroke, he gave not out that he was marching to the throne of Richard II. He professed but to claim his duchy,—and men were influenced by justice, till they became agents of ambition. This be your policy; with two thousand men you are but Duke of York; with ten thousand men you are King of England! ”

“ Lord Russell replied, “he kept the honour of England very high; and I think that a great thing. [338] ”
‘The Imperialist sentiment was one of the deepest in his nature, and few things exasperated him more than the school which was advocating the surrender of India and the Colonies. “When I was young,” he once said to me, “it was thought the work of a wise statesman that he had turned a small kingdom into a great empire. In my old age it seems to be thought the object of a statesman to turn a great empire into a small kingdom.” ”

“ Richard, in his regal capacity, was an excellent king, and for the short time of his reign enacted many wise and wholesome laws. I doubt even whether one of the best proofs of his usurpation was not the goodness of his government, according to a common remark, that princes of doubtful titles make the best masters, as it is more necessary for them to conciliate the favour of the people: the natural corollary from which observation need not be drawn. ”

“ The flagitious livers will be chased away, or reformed; or at least will think it their duty, or their interest, which is a stronger tie with such, to appear reformed; and not a man will seek for the favour or countenance of his prince, but by laudable pretences, or by worthy actions.
In the reign of King Richard III, as I have read, deformity of body was the fashion, and the nobility and gentry of the court thought it an indispensable requisite of a graceful form to pad for themselves a round shoulder, because the king was crooked. ”

“ They conclude their address to their fellow-subjects in Great Britain in the following words:
"We believe there is yet much virtue, much justice, and much public spirit in the English nation. To that justice we now appeal. You have been told that we are seditious, impatient of government, and desirous of independence. Be assured that these are not facts, but calumnies. Permit us to be as free as yourselves, and we shall ever esteem a union with you to be our greatest glory and our greatest happiness; and we shall ever be ready to contribute all in our power to the welfare of the empire. ”

“ No other constitution of civil government has yet appeared in the world so admirably adapted to these great purposes as that of Great Britain. Every British subject in America is of common right, by Act of Parliament, and by the laws of God and nature, entitled to all the essential privileges of Britons. By particular Charters, there are peculiar privileges granted, as in justice they might and ought, in consideration of the arduous undertaking to begin so glorious an empire as British America is rising to. ”

“ Ungrateful people of America! When I had the honour to serve the Crown, while you yourselves were loaded with an enormous debt of one hundred and forty millions sterling, and paid a revenue of ten millions sterling, you have given bounties on their timber, on their iron, their hemp, and many other articles. You have restored in their favour the Act of Navigation, that palladium of British commerce. I offered to do everything in my power to advance the trade of America. I discouraged no trade but what was prohibited by Act of Parliament. ”

“ When the evening evened, the king sat private in his sitting-chamber and bade fetch the Wazir. When he presented himself before him, he said to him, “Tell me the tale of the Richard.” The Minister replied, “I will. Hear, O puissant king,
THE TALE OF THE RICHARD WHO MARRIED HIS BEAUTIFUL DAUGHTER TO THE POOR OLD MAN.” A certain rich merchant had a beautiful daughter, who was as the full moon, and when she attained the age of fifteen, her father betook himself to an old man and spreading him a carpet in his sitting-chamber, gave him to eat and conversed and caroused with him. ”

“ Rice's business habits and industry enabled him to attend faithfully to the general interests of his constituents, and to many details of public affairs which are often delegated to unofficial persons or are altogether neglected. ”

“ England got no benefit from Richard's great daring and expensive picnics in Palestine; but of course he advertised Great Britain, and frightened foreign powers considerably. The taxation necessary to maintain an army in the Holy Land, where board was high, kept England poor; but every one was proud of Richard, because he feared not the face of clay.
John, the disagreeable brother, succeeded Richard, and reigned seventeen years, though his nephew, Arthur, the son of Geoffrey, was the rightful heir. ”

“ While the barons and knights were thus amusing themselves at the beginning of Richard's reign with fighting for castles and provinces, either for the pleasure of fighting, or for [Pg 223] the sake of the renown or the plunder which they acquired when they were fortunate enough to gain the victory, the great mass of the people of England were taxed and oppressed by their haughty masters to an extent almost incredible. The higher nobles were absolutely above all law. ”

“ King Richard being thus disquieted in mind, and doubtfull for the suertie of his owne estate, called to remembrance that confederations, honest bands and pacts of amitie, concluded and had betwixt princes and gouernours, are the efficient cause that realmes and common wealths are strengthened with double power, that is, with aid of fréends abroad, and their owne forces at home. ”

“ In the midst of the general ferment how necessary had a strong and resolute hand become! But Richard's government had shown itself somewhat weak; by many it was suspected of having meant to turn the disturbances to its own advantage. The commons, who mainly represented the lower gentry and the upper citizens, abandoned him, and attached themselves to the nobles, just as these revived their old jealousy against the crown. For the almost inevitable result of success in suppressing a popular agitation is to heighten the self-confidence of an aristocracy. ”

“ After colonies have drawn the sword, there is but one step more they can take. That step is now pressed upon us by the measures adopted, as if they were afraid we would not take it. There is not in the British Empire a man who more cordially loves union with Great Britain than I do; but by the God that made me, I will cease to exist before I yield to a connection on such terms as the British Parliament propose; and in this I speak the sentiments of America."—Ib., p. ”