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Leader (1850-1860), 1st December 1855, Edition 2 of 2, Page 14, There is no learned man. t>u.t "will con...

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    • — /Ih"tt4>1t liTimttTtf Ul-MXl-U \EbjJUUi 11*
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      What Sardinia Has Done And What She May ...

      Td political despotism , to pecuniary exactions , are now added , the worst evil of all religious persecution As for Sardinia , she must feel grateful to Austria for having thus given her a great opportunity of gaining the sympathy of the whole Italian people . When Piedmont shall send her army to the field ( as ere long , we hope , she will do > against the now apparently powerful Austrian domination , she will , to her flag of National Independence and Liberty , add yet another , which shall restore that religious toleration which Austria would now

      destroy-Under all aspects , Sardinia acts the noblest part allotted " to any nation during our eventful century-She has every external advantage , she has carefully prepared herself for the coming struggle , she looks to this country for encouragement , which she will assuredly find , but more than all she depends on the sympathy of the Italian nation . Let no mistaken patriotism frustrate her great attempt . Let Italian patriots remember Balbo ' s sentence : — " When foreign rulers no longer find false Italians in Italy , they , numbering themselves , will find they are but few . "

      11m Ttfe Leadell [No, 297, Saturday,

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      There Is No Learned Man. T>U.T "Will Con...

      There is no learned man . t > u . t "will confess lie hath , much profited by reading controversies , his senses awakened , and his judgment sharpened . If , then , it be profitable for him to read , -why should it not , at least . be tolerable for his adversary to write ?— Milton .

      What Shall We Gain By The Wae ? (To The ...

      WHAT SHALL WE GAIN BY THE WAE ? ( To the Editor of the Leader . ) Sib , —There are few calamities common to the human race which do not carry with them some counter-balancing or incidental advantages . This is especially the case with that most grievous calamity —a war between Christian nations . Let us glance at these small casual benefits , and have done with them before we advance further into the subject . Many people , in talking of benefits resulting from war , seem to relapse into childishness ; they do not reason ,-but merely prattle incoherently . Charles Lamb has a capital story about the discovery of roast pig by the Chinese . Pork , as a dish , was at first unknown , but

      a Chinese citizen accidentally set fire to his house , and in the conflagration a pig chanced to be roasted . The savoury odour enticed the Chinaman first to taste , and then to devour . In a few weeks bis house was again burnt down , and again a pig was roasted in the flames . Very soon the custom spread , and every night there was a house burnt down in one street or another , a pig duly Toasted , and duly devoured . The process was expensive , but it was a long time before the Chinese public discovered that in order to roast a pig it was not absolutely necessary to burn a whole house down to the ground . In like manner it is possible to acquire

      advantages which are popularly ascribed to war , and yet to remain at peace . For instanoe , there is fno doubt that much heroism , much fortitude , much ohivalrous self-saorifice , are exhibited in time of war . Great trials call into action great qualities . Danger and pain ai * e occasions for the exercise of high oourage and steadfast endurance . War does not , however , create these virtues ; it only puts them to the teat , and gives them opportunities of external action . But , remember first , that this exhibition of man s nobler qualities , is in the case of war aocompanied by the display of such as are the worst and most hideous . Hear Shelley : — " The battle became ghaatllor ; in the midst I paused , Mid saw how ugly and itoW foil , O Hato 1 thou art , oven when thy life thou shodd ' st For love . The ground In many a little doll 1 'Was broken , up and down whose stoops boful Alternate victory and defeat , and there Tho combatants with rage meat horrible Strove , and their oyee started with cracking staro , ' And Impotent their tongues they lolled into tho uir , Flaccid and foamy—" This is but one phase of what may bo called the black eido of the picture ; less horrible , indeed , than the saok of a town and tho frantic orgioB of soldiers flushed with long-delayed triumph . Lot xis pass ovox > this subject lightly . Remember , secondly , that tho virtues , as we may call them , stimulated into action by war , may be evoked—may be exeroised—in tho tfmo of profoundest peace . War iH not a neoosnary condition of their existence . People talk of war , oa if there were not trials enough , and griefs enough , and dangers enough , in the oomuion course of human life to put us on our mettle , and prove what wo aro Worth , It is but a small portion of a population which endures the worst horrors of war , imd haa tho privilege of exhibiting heroism and devotion . We

      who are at home too often read the tale as we should a romance fresh from the press ^ To hail waraa a direct means of evoking lofty thoughts and aspirations—to allow the idea to dull and blunt our eager desire for peace—is as insanely presumptuous as if we welcomed the advent of Asiatic cholera with a merry peal of church bells ., and carefully disseminated the contagion , in order to test the fortitude of the poor , and furnish a fine field of self-devotion to parish-doctors and hospital nurses . And so with other results of the war ; most were attainable in time of peace , and would have been attained , only a little more slowly . Army reform we have not yet got ; possibly the war may expedite the matter , but when we hear that have

      Sir Colin Campbell , the best general we , was politely offered a quiet shelf at Malta , we do not feel very sanguine . But this by the way ; some improvements doubtless have occurred , and more may follow . Let all this be granted . War is a hot-bed which forces on improvements ; but we should have got them time enough without , and perhaps—to carry on the same analogy — better matured and more hardy . Another thing is to be borne in mind—the idea of improvements in military art cuts two ways . We have Captain Disney ' s new stink-pots ; the Emperor of the French has his shell-proof gun-boats . Military inventions , especially in these days of practical science , multiply in time of war , but the benefit is seldom

      monopolised by one nation . The end of it visually is that more soldiers and sailors on each side are destroyed in a shorter time than formerly . After the first start the combatants gradually resume their relative positions . Progress in the art of slaughter and devastation has certainly been made , but it has not been made on one side only . The contending powers have all progressed together ; they have taken bonours in explosive combustibles , and got their degrees in carnage and rapine . But the gain is equally shared by friend and by foe . As respects the profits accruing to certain trades and businesses galvanized into activity by war , and the harvest reaped by army contractors , not to mention the proprietors of daily allude to

      journals , I scarce think it is worth while to tlem . Mr . Porter , in bis " Progress of the Nation " rightly compares the gains of such to the spoils hastily gathered by unscrupulous individuals in tbe general conflagration of a town ; a few are fortunate , but the many suffer . And with respect to the agriculturists , who are certainly pretty well off just now , I am convinced that if they do not put by the bulk of their profits , and prudently provide for the future , they will suffer severely when peace with its reaction of prices ¦ once rnore conies back to us . It was the case after the last great war , and will be the case again , if landowners raise their rents , or let their farms on higher terms , as they are already beginning to do ; and if the farmers live up to their incomes , and leave no margin for the future , as is too much the fashion ¦ with them . In this way the present agricultural prosperity will prove merely a snare , and a prelude to misfortune , and cannot be regarded as a permanent gain to the agricultural interest . The material profits of war bear the same sort of relation to the gains of peace , as dram-drinking does to a good wholesome meal of bread and meat . I find I niusst postpone tho more important aspect of tbe question , namely , what we shall gain by the war in a political point of view , to another letter , and must for the present conoltide . Yours truly , Aothub Hallam Elton . Cleveclon Court , Nov . 26 , 1855 .

      Theory Of Consumption. (To The Editor Of...

      THEORY OF CONSUMPTION . ( To the Editor of the Leader . ) Sir , —I have been amused to-day in reading in your last number a review of Dr . M'Cormaok ' s book on consumption , to find that ho lays claim to tho disoo-¦ VEttY (?) of tho true cause of that ruthless destroyer of tlio human race . Dr . M'Cormnck seems to think that lie is tho first clearly to enunciate the theory of tho insufficient or imperfect performance of tho respiratory function as tho fons malorum . I have not Dr . M'Cormaok ' s book to refer to , for the full details and grcmuds of this theory , if they are presented more at large than in the paragraph you quote . But I think it only due to myself to state that in my work ontitlod " Tho Water Cure in

      Consumption , & c , " published by MoHsre . Lougmazi in June of last ye , ar , and reviewed in tho Leader of July 22 , 1854 , I put forth at conHidornblo length preoinoly the same ¦ theory—comprised in pages 87 to 47 . That theory lias beon aoooptod by evory pompotont ju'ofoHsional judge as tho most feaniblo theory of tho origin of tubercular disease hitherto propounded . But God forbid that I should lay the fluttering unotion to my « oul that avion theory was so confirmed and indisputable aa to entitle its promulgator to claim tho honour of a piaooviiRY . Not ho fu » t . Time onough for that yet . 1 am content to put forth my suggestion as a uimplo theory to be established or invalidated by chemical research , how far the oil and albumon of tho ohyle of tubercular subjects aro dcoxydatcd . l ^ or it ia alone by the chemical analysis of the plastic elements of

      the blood of the Phthisical , that ^ the question of the proodmate causation of tubercle will ever be settled . I am afraid it is hopeless to expect much light on that deficient cell-action by which , the low vitality of the tubercular condition of the blood is manifested . Allow me to conclude with a short extract from my exposition of the theory in question . " Imperfect blood-purification—deficient play of tbe excretory functions , and not directly bad di gestion , or faulty blood-makings—is the primary source of the vitiation of the solids and fluids characteristic of scrofula and consumption . "

      "A careful analysis of all the phenomena of tubercular disease , and all the best ascertained facts regarding its causation , as well as all sound analogical reasoning , lead to the conclusion that the fons et origo mali is to be located in the defective performance of the grand depurating economy of the body , and principally , if not exclusively ,, in impairment of tbe functions of tbe lungs and skin ; in other words , in the want of adequate supplies of oxygen to combine with tbe carbonaceous -waste of the body , and so to effect its complete expulsion from the system . " I have the honour to be , sir , Your very obedient servant , John Balbibnie , M . A ., M . D . Bridge of Allan , Stirlingshire , Nov . 19 , 1855 .

      The A.Ustrians In Italy. ( To The Editor...

      THE A . USTRIANS IN ITALY . ( To the Editor of the Leader . ) Sin , —Iu your notice of my History of Piedmont ( Nov . 11 th ) you say the author " is strangely tolerant of French insolence and Austrian usurpation , and even professes admiration of English interference . " I have certainly , out of regard to what seems to me truth , praised Radetzky for military skill , and the Austrians for dogged perseverance . But I think no man ever detested , not only Austrian usurpation and French interference , but even all foreign diplomatic or political influence , more sincerely than I do . If aught occurs in my work that may lead to a different conclusion ( and I am not aware of it ) I beg most distinctly to retract it , and to make through your journal a public profession of my true faith and sentiments . I am , Sir , Yonr obedient servant , Kennington Gate , Nov . 15 . A . Gallenga .

      Lord John Russell's Lecture. (To The Edi...

      LORD JOHN RUSSELL'S LECTURE . ( To the Editor of the Leader . ) Sir—I fully agree with you that , in the string of well turned common-places which Lord John Eussell delivered the other day in Exeter-hall , there was an evident desire to humour tbe genius loci and the sentiments which might be supposed to prevail among au association affecting a peculiar or exclusive title to the epithet Christian . Hence no doubt the apparently irrelevant hits levelled more or less indirectly against the Roman Catholic Church ; and , in particular , the old story of Galileo ' s imprisonment .

      Now , Bir , it might promote tbe growth of charity amongst us if we were to consider , in searching out these sore places of history as materials foi- abusing our fellow Christians , how far we are laying the saddle on the right horse ; take , for instance , this case of Galileo ' s : true the Pope and Cardinals imprisoned him , and therefore , of course , Rome ist everlastingly twitted with the offence . But why should Rome as she now exists be responsible for what waB done by Roman tribunals two hundred years ngo ? In fact it is

      much more reasonable to charge tho imprisonment of Galileo as a blot on Protestantism . For tho principle which influenced this persecution was , unquestionably , that idolatrous notion of the verbal inspiration of Scripture , which , out of the sudden abundance of printed Bibles , grew up both in and out of tho Church of Home , and on which Protestantism haa especially been driven to rely in its efforts to depress , the authority of the Church as a guide in matters of fnith . Tho ennie dootrine we have lately seen applied in England to convict geologists of infidelity .

      So tbe other day we had sermons preached on tho three hundredth unnivoraary of tho burning of Ridley and Latiinor , all of courso designed to stir tlio oiuboru of anti-Romish bigotry . Would it not have been ¦ wiser to have said that it was not bo much Homo thnt ¦ wuh guilty of that aot , as the self-namo Hpirit of intoloranco which was now evoked izi honour ol' their memory ' { "Your fathers indcod killed them , and yo build their sepulchres : " both actuated by much tho satne ^ fooling , perhaps , though excited in a dillbront diroctioii . I am , » ir , yours , & c , Anomcancs .

      Tub Anolo Itahan Lkgiion.—Tho Miniator V...

      Tub Anolo Itahan Lkgiion . —Tho Miniator vt Win * at Turin , iu order to favour ourolmonts in tno Anglo-Italian Legion , has docidod that oHIooph of tho Sardinian army , now iu tho receipt of pousi ""^ wn £ outer thut corps , shall not loso either tlioirpounitfu ol * tho rank which tboy hod attained .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 1, 1855, page 14, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_01121855/page/14/