LESSON 37 Colonial loyalty
第三十七课 殖民地的忠诚
Our attachment to the Queen, our own Victoria, is mingled with a tenderness not inconsistent with the sterner sentiment, which softens and embellishes without enervating. Let her legitimate authority as a constitutional monarch, let her reputation as a woman, be assailed, and notwithstanding the lamentation of Burke that the age of chivalry was past, thousands of swords would leap from their scabbards to avenge her. Ay, and they would be drawn as freely and wielded as vigorously and bravely in Canada or in Nova Scotia, as in England. Loyalty! love of British institutions! —they are ingrafted on our very nature; they are part and parcel of ourselves; and I can no more tear them from my heart (even if I would, and lacerate all its fibres) than I could sever a limb from my body.
我们对维多利亚女王的依恋夹杂着一种温柔，这种温柔与严厉的情感并不矛盾，它是温和的、对这种依恋加以修饰而不是削弱。让她作为立宪君主的合法权威，让她作为女人的声誉被攻击，尽管伯克哀叹骑士时代已经过去，成千上万的剑会从他们的鞘中拔出来为她复仇。是的，在加拿大，在新斯科舍，就像在英国一样，那些剑可以自由地、有力地、勇敢地挥舞着。忠诚！对英国体制的热爱！这是与生俱来的，是我们的一部分，我再也不能把它们从我的内心撕下来(即使我愿意，我也不能撕破它的所有纤维)，就像我不能从自己身体上切下一条腿。
And what are those institutions? A distinguished Americane statesman recently answered this question. He said: "The proudest Government that exists upon the face of the Earth is that of Great Britain. And the great Pitt, her proudest statesman, when he would tell of Britain's crowning glory, did not speak, as he might have done, of her wide-spread dominion, upon which the sun never sets. He did not speak of martial achievements, of glorious battle-fields, and of splendid naval conflicts. But he said, with swelling breast and kindling eye, that the poorest man of Great Britain in his cottage might bid defiance to all the force of the Crown. It might be frail, its roof might shake, the wind might blow through it, the storm might enter, the rain might enter; but the King of England could not enter it. In all his forces he dared not cross the threshold of that ruined tenement."
这些体制是什么？最近，一位杰出的美国政治家对此给出了答案，他说：大不列颠是世界上最值得骄傲的政府，还有伟大的皮特，他是大英帝国最令人自豪的政治家。当他讲述英国至高无上的荣耀时，他并没有说起它的辽阔、它不断扩张的领土、它作为日不落帝国的光辉，他本可以这么说。他也没有谈及它的军事成就、光荣的战场和辉煌的海战。而他说到的是，只要拥有宽广的胸怀和雪亮的眼睛，即使住在大英帝国村舍里最贫穷的人也能向王权势力发起挑战。他的房屋可能脆弱，屋顶可能会摇晃，风可能从中穿过，沙暴可能会进入，大雨可能会进入，但是，英国国王无权进入，即使他动用全部力量也不敢踏进那幢破房子的门槛。”
评论
打印
