FOREIGN OFFICE CLERKS. May 1876. clos et en famille, mais qui ne diminuaient pas d'un millimètre une renommée dont on était fier. Compatriotes et confrères se hâtaient de reprendre M. Gabissol au sérieux, dès qu'un étranger leur en parlait ou qu'un avocat de cour royale faisait mine de le toiser. Translate into French: Most foreign writers who have given any character of the English nation, whatever vice they ascribe to it, allow in general that the people are naturally modest. It proceeds, perhaps, from this our national virtue, that our orators are observed to make use of less gesture or action than those of other countries. Our preachers stand stock still in the pulpit, and will not so much as move a finger to set off the best sermon in the world. We meet with the same speaking statues at our bars and in all public places of debate. Our words flow from us in a smooth continued stream, without those strainings of the voice, motions of the body, and majesty of the hand, which are so much celebrated in the orators of Greece and Rome. We can talk of life and death in cold blood, and keep our temper in a discourse which turns upon everything that is dear to us. Though our zeal breaks out in the finest tropes and figures, it is not able to stir a limb about us. I have heard it observed more than once by those who have seen Italy, that an untravelled Englishman cannot relish all the beauties of Italian pictures, because the postures which are expressed in them are often such as are peculiar to that country. One who has not seen an Italian in the pulpit, will not know what to make of that noble gesture in Raphael's picture of Saint Paul preaching at Athens, where the apostle is represented as lifting up both his arms, and pouring out the thunder of his rhetoric amidst the audience of pagan philosophers. Set, per deos inmortales, quo illa oratio pertinuit? An, uti vos infestos conjurationi faceret? scilicet quem res tanta et tam atrox non permovit, eum oratio adcendet. Non ita est, neque cuiquam mortalium injuriæ suæ parvæ videntur : multi eas gravius æquo habuere. Set alia aliis licentia est, patres conscripti. Qui demisse in obscuro vitam habent, si quid iracundia deliquere, pauci sciunt, fama atque fortuna eorum pares sunt: qui magno inperio præditi in excelso ætatem agunt, eorum facta cuncti mortales novere. Ita in maxuma fortuna minuma licentia est: neque studere, neque odisse, set minume irasci decet : quæ apud alios iracundia dicitur, ea in inperio superbia atque crudelitas adpellatur. Equidem ego sic existumo, patres conscripti, omnis cruciatus minores quam facinora illorum esse: set plerique mortales postrema meminere, et in hominibus inpiis sceleris eorum obliti de pœna disserunt, si ea paulo severior fuit. Forte ibi tum seges farris dicitur fuisse matura messi: quem campi fructum quia religiosum erat consumere, desectam cum stramento segetem magna vis hominum simul immissa corbibus fudere in Tiberim, tenui fluentem aqua, ut mediis solet caloribus; ita in vadis hæsitantis frumenti acervos consedisse illitos limo: insulam inde paullatim, et aliis, quæ fert temere flumen, eodem invectis, factam : postea additas credo moles, manuque adjutum, ut jam eminens area, firma quoque templis ac porticibus sustinendis esset. Direptis bonis regum, damnati proditores, sumptumque supplicium, conspectius eo, quod pœnæ capiendæ ministerium patri de liberis consulatus imposuit, et, qui spectator erat amovendus, eum ipsum fortuna exactorem supplicii dedit. FOREIGN CLERKS. May 1876. Interea classem velis aptare jubebat Et Phrygiam Ascanio chlamyden; nec cedit honori ; Accipe et hæc, manuum tibi quæ monumenta mearum VIRGIL. Translate into Latin: The hostile armies met near Venusia, and every day the Romans drew out before the camp of Hannibal and offered battle. But the odds were too great even for Hannibal, and he kept close within his entrenchments. It happened that between his camp and that of the Consuls there was a hill, which Marcellus thought it desirable to occupy. Accordingly he rode up to the top, accompanied by his colleague and a small detachment of cavalry, unconscious that a large body of Numidian horse were lurking in the woods below. In a moment the Consuls were surrounded. Marcellus was run through by the spear of one of these wild horsemen, and fell dead from his horse; Crispinus escaped mortally wounded to his camp. As soon as Hannibal heard of this great stroke of good luck, he hastened to the scene of conflict, and saw with his own eyes his ablest antagonist lying dead before him. His conduct proved the true nobility of his nature. He showed no triumph; but simply drew the gold ring from the dead man's finger, saying, "There lies a good soldier, but a bad general." He then ordered the corpse to receive a soldier's burial. Like his father Hamilcar, he warred not with the dead, but with the living. Nachdem der Papst die Entsegung des Kaisers Friedrich II ausgesprochen hatte, entstand eine tiefe Stille; dann senkten Innocenz und die Prälaten ihre brennenden Fackeln zur Erde bis sie verloschen: so sei des Kaisers Glanz und Glück auf Erden erloschen! " Als dem Kaiser in zahlreicher Versammlung dieser Ausgang hinterbracht wurde, gerieth er in großen Zorn und rief aus: „Mich hat der Papst und seine Versammlung abgesetzt? mich der Krone beraubt? Bringt mir her meine Kronen, daß ich sehe, ob sie wirklich verloren sind.”_Und als man sie herbeibrachte, ergriff er die eine, seßte sie auf's Haupt und fuhr mit erhöhter Stimme fort: Noch habe ich meine Kronen, und kein Papst, keine Kirchen-Versammlung soll sie mir ohne blutigen Kampf rauben. Welch jämmerlicher Stolz, welche freche Anmaaßung mich, dem kein Fürst auf Erden gleich steht, vom Gipfel kaiserlicher Hoheit mit leeren Worten der Willkür hinabstürzen zu wollen! Aber wahrlich, mein Loos ist besser geworden, als es war: denn derjenige, dem ich wo nicht gehorchen, doch Verehrung bezeigen sollte, hat sich als ein ungerechter Richter, als ein so grausamer Feind gezeigt, daß ich nunmehr aller Liebe und Ehrfurcht gegen ihn losgesprochen, daß ich zu Fehde und Haß gegen ihn berechtigt bin." RAUMER. II. Am 17ten August 1786 starb König Friedrich II., bewundert und betrauert selbst von seinen Gegnern, und seines Bruders Sohn Friedrich Wilhelm II. bestieg den Thron. Dem Könige war von seinem großen Vorgänger die Regierung als eine künstlich berechnete, scharf angezogene Maschine hinterlassen, welche ihren Antrieb ausschließlich von oben erhalten sollte, und keine selbständige Bewegung der Glieder zuließ. Große Staatsmänner konnten unter Friedrichs Selbstregierung nicht gebildet werden; die Minister waren nicht Glieder eines gemeinsamen Rathes, mit welchen der. König die großen Geschäfte behandelt hätte, sondern ein Jeder war auf sein Departement beschränkt, in dessen ausschließlicher einseitiger Verwaltung der Blick von den großen Angelegenheiten des Staats abgezogen sich an eine engherzige, leicht selbsüchtige, kleinlich-förmliche Behandlung der Geschäfte gewöhnte. Die Minister handelten daher als Werkzeuge des Königs, so weit es diesem gefiel. In der nähern Umgebung des Königs befand sich Stein's älterer Bruder, welcher den Gesandtschaftsposten in Mainz erhielt und darin für die Befestigung des neugebildeten Bündnisses wirkte. Dieses Verhältniß hatte auf Stein's Stellung keinen unmittelbaren Einfluß; er hegte keinen andern Wunsch für sich, als ernste kräftige Pflichterfüllung in dem ihm liebgewordenen Berufe, und eigene weitere Ausbildung. PERTZ. FOREIGN OFFICE CLERKS. May 1876. Translate into German : During the years which immediately followed the Restoration, a diligence ran between London and Oxford in two days. The passengers slept at Beaconsfield. At length, in the spring of 1669, a great and daring innovation was attempted. It was announced that a vehicle, described as the Flying Coach, would perform the whole journey between sunrise and sunset. The spirited undertaking was solemnly considered and sanctioned by the Heads of the University, and appears to have excited the same sort of interest which is excited in our time by the opening of a new railway. The Vice-Chancellor, by a notice affixed in all public places, prescribed the hour and place of departure. The success of the experiment was complete. At six in the morning the carriage began to move from before the ancient front of All Souls College; and at seven in the evening the adventurous gentlemen who had run the first risk were safely deposited at their inn in London. The emulation of the sister University was moved; and soon a diligence was set up which in one day carried passengers from Cambridge to the capital. At the close of the reign of Charles the Second, flying carriages ran thrice a week from London to the chief towns. The ordinary day's journey of a flying coach was about fifty miles in the summer; but in winter, when the ways were bad and the nights long, little more than thirty. The fare was about twopence halfpenny a mile in summer, and somewhat more in winter. MACAULAY. EXERCISE IN READING GERMAN. Three or four different letters, written in the German character, were placed before the candidates, with the following instructions:"Copy the accompanying letters, or as much as you can in the time allowed (of an hour for each), writing in the English character." FOREIGN May 1876. GEOGRAPHY. Time allowed, 3 hours. 1. Distinguish carefully between Physical and Political Geography, and show to what special sciences each is indebted. 2. Arrange the counties of England, as nearly as possible, under the three heads of Agricultural, Manufacturing, and Pastoral. 3. Give the relative areas of Spain, Denmark, Persia, Madagascar, Jamaica, Borneo, Peru, and Greece, using Great Britain as the unit. 4. Draw a Map of the German Empire, only marking the boundaries, naming the adjacent states, and inserting in their right positions the following rivers and towns: Rhine, Elbe, Oder, Danube, Berlin, Strasburg, Leipsig, Danzig, Hamburg, Breslau, Frankfurt, Munich. 5. Name the ten chief commercial cities of the United States, and describe the nature of their commerce. 6. Describe any one of the recent explorations in Africa or Australia. 7. Discuss the present position and future prospect of the Italian seaports. 8. Give a concise account of the Dutch Colonial Empire. 9. What do you know of the following:-Archangel, Darjeeling, Disco, Innsbruck, Kashgar, Nismes, Penang, Sempach, Tiflis, Titicaca? N.B.-In all your exercises attention should be paid to orthography, handwriting, punctuation, grammar, and correctness of expression. HISTORY OF EUROPE, 1783-1847. Time allowed, 3 hours. 1. Give some account of Mirabeau, Necker, Dumouriez, Lafayette, and Roland. 2. To what causes may the failure of the Allies in the campaigns of 1793 be ascribed? 3. Trace the career of Napeleon from the siege of Toulon to his appointment as First Consul. 4. In what ways did the Peninsular War contribute to the downfall of the power of Napoleon? 5. What part did England take in the Settlement of Vienna in 1815? 6. On what grounds was the countenance of Foreign Powers first denied, and then extended, to the Greek Insurrection? 7. Compare the Government of the Restoration with the government of Louis Philippe. 8. At the end of the contest with Republican and Imperial France what territory had Austria gained and what had she lost? What were the dangers to which her new possessions exposed her? 9. Give a sketch of the diplomatic struggle which ended in the Spanish Marriages. 10. Write a biography of the Emperor Alexander I. of Russia. N.B.-In all your exercises attention should be paid to orthography, handwriting, punctuation, grammar, and correctness of expression. |