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Leader (1850-1860), 2nd January 1858, Edition 2 of 2, Page 15, Ho. 406, jAKTTAirrff, 1858.] TTL E IEA T...

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    • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

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      Ho. 406, Jakttairrff, 1858.] Ttl E Iea T...

      Ho . 406 , jAKTTAirrff , 1858 . ] TTL E IEA Tf E B . 15

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      ICtoto-

      W Critics Are Not Thelegislators, But Th...

      w Critics are not thelegislators , but the judges and police of literature Theydo not make laws—they interpret and try to enforce them . —Edinburgh Revzem .

      Ijobd Macaulay Has Now Replied To Mr. He...

      IjOBD Macaulay has now replied to Mr . Hepwoeth Dixon on the subject of William Pjenn and the Pardon-brokerage at Taunton . An elaborate note to the second volume of the new edition of his History of England sets forth the argument . Only two points are relied upon to confirm ' the Quaker ' s' conviction : —that the names of Penn and other persons were spelt differently at different times , and that the George Pekne in question was not a man with whom a Secretary of State would have corresponded . Now , a pardon was negotiated at Taunton by ' Mr . Penne ; ' a vague letter from Sunderhe

      band is the evidence ; there was at Taunton a Mr . Peitoe ; was a notorious pardon-broker ; his transactions' of this kind remain upon record . 'Is it necessary , then , to surmise—for it is only surmise—that "Wiluawc Penn , the Quaker , conducted the bargain ? The testimony is all on one side ; there is scarcely a possibility in favour of Lord Macaulay ' s hypothesis But is it likely , Lord Macatjlay asks , that a Secretary of State would correspond with such an individual as George Penne ? What answer will satisfy the noble historian ? Secretaries of State did correspond with him y he was thought of such importance , that one of his letters , printed in Mr . Dixon ' s Life / was entered among the minutes of the Privy Council . If Sunderland would not write to him , Sunderland ' s superiors wrote . Lord Macaulay ' s suggestion , therefore , has no force whatever . We are ' sorry to find that he will not be set right , and refuses to modify an inaccurate passage in a history of which the nation , as well as himself , is proud . The point has been proved against him to demonstration , and it would have done him no discredit to recast a paragraph for the sake of historical honesty .

      The New Volume Of Cambridge Essays, Publ...

      The new volume of Cambridge Essays , published a few days since , will probably be less generally popular than either of its predecessors , the papers being fewer , and , as a natural result , longer than in the previous volumes . The Essays show no frilling off , however , in real value and permanent interest , each being a substantial contribution towards the elucidation of the subject discussed . If they prove less attractive than irhe former Essays of the same series , it will not be from any want of interest in the subjects chosen , but simply from the solidity of the treatment . Most of the questions discussed are of immediate and practical interest , such as 'Agriculture in Britain at the present Day / ' Telegraphic Communication with India / and 'Questions Raised by the Mutiny . ' This is a noteworthy feature of the volume , as showing how

      thoroughly the Cambridge men keep abreast of the foremost topics of the time . Another marked feature of Ihc volume is the absence of that purely insular point of view which is too common with English essayists . More than one of the writers in the present volume institute a lengthy comparison between our own state and that of our neighbours across the Channel , evidently the result not only of familiar knowledge , but also of personal interest in the actual social and political condition of the French people . The first and most elaborate essay in the volume , on ' The Characteristics of English Criminal Law , ' by Mr . ITitzjames Stepiijjx , illustrates this . After giving a lucid outline of a most perplexed ; md intricate subject—the composition , principles , and working of our criminal law—he institutes towards the close of his essay a comparison

      botween ihc statistics of criminal justice lately published in England and France . The result of this comparison is , that the punishment for criminal offences is neither so uniform nor so severe in our own country as in l'Vancc . The following extract closes the contrast : — The English system , however , involves o » o great disadvantage . There is no uniform standard of punishment , and thus the penalties of crimes differ according to and

      the private judgments of all the judges and all the clinirmou of quarter sessions , so many circumstances weigh with them that tho dMl ' urenccs are at times almost incredible . I have heard two dill ' erent boys sentenced for almost identically tho sumo offence ( stealing from tho person ) , to six months' hard labour , and to six years' penal servitude I liavo also heard a woman sentenced to fourteen years' transportation , and a man to four months' imprisonment , for passing forged notes—on tho samo oirouit , but by diflorent judges . A late judge of great eminence adopted a theory , not long before his death , tlmt punishment for first ofl ' encos ought to bo sovore . His brother judge did not share it , and tho consequence was , that at half tho towns on tlio Midland Circuit ., imprisonments ran from eight to eighteen months , whilst at tho others tJuy were more often four , six , or eight . It may not bo very easy to say whether a servant who drinks his master ' s wine should go to prison for four months or for eight , but it is rather odd that tho question should turn upon his being tried at

      Nottingham or Derby . It may be interesting to notice , in conclusion , tho comparative frequency of eomo of tho graver crimes in tho two countries . Thero wore , in France , 107 persons accusqd of political crimes . In Kngluml , there were none . In Franco , lhero were 111 persons tried for mcurlrc ( which would include many of tho worst cases of manslaughter ) , 249 for assassination , 18 for pnrricide , 200 for infanticide , and 40 ( of JEljffi 3 lJU . J £ qjCfL ^ Tlieae numbers ''' elude ^ 'ttonijitfl . In all , 014 persons were acousod of wilfully destroyingi or affonipthig to cl ' ostroy 7 "lifeT Besides " thoso , DO persons were charged with one form of what we most confusedly call manslaughter—viz ., causing death unintentionally by blowa or wouihIh ; and 020 wore tried for oausing death by nogligonco . The negligence in 81 cases consisted of furious driving . In England , 07 persons wero accused of murder , 89 of attompts to murder . Only 11 wore capitally convicted on tho first charge , and 10 on tho second ; and 204 persons wero tried for manslaughter , in crimes of violence not attended tvith fatal oonsequonoos , tho proportions are very dilfercnt . In Franco , there wore M 2 cneuB of wounding , which disabled ( ho wounded person for twenty days or moro ; in England , there wore 200 oohu » of shooting , stabbing , and wounding with intent to do grievous bodily harm . In Franco , thero wore 778 cases of r « po and assault with

      intent ; in England , 234 » In France , the persons so assaulted were , in . no less than 594 cases , under fifteen years of age . In France ; , there were 86 trials for procuring abor tion ; in England , only 5 . On the other hand , there-were but 8 cases of bigamy in France , against 86 in England . The cases of perjury , and subornation of perjury , were 144 in each country-. These last results may probably be attributed ; to a great extent , to the foolish lenity shown to these crimes in England . Four years penal servitude is the greatest punishment which can Be awarded to an offence -wMcn may be made the instrument of the most atrocioas murder ; or to one which , though often venial , occasionally combines the grossest cruelty with the most disgraceful treachery , and has been fairly described as a rape by fraud . The third article of the volume , on ' Telegraphic Communication with India / written in full knowledge of the subject , discusses the rival lines of telegraph proposed , and decides in favour of the Red Sea project . But the most generally readable and attractive article is the fourth , on ' Porson , ' by Mr . H . K . X / ttakd . It abounds with , pleasant gossip , illustrating the character and career of that great but neglected scholar , and is , in fact , the best biographical sketch of him yet published .

      The Beau Ties Of Nature And Art. The Bea...

      THE BEAU TIES OF NATURE AND ART . The Beautiful in Nature , Art , and Life . By A . J . Symington . 2 vols . Longman and Co . In these volumes , there is more evidence of industry than of original thought . The author is a student , who reads for his ideas , and he has produced a discursive criticism , not a little independent in tone , yet rarely presenting any fruition of intellectual inquiry beyond that which is to be found in the works of previous writers . A set of synoptical outlines enclose a light commentary , and Mr . Symington ' s task is concluded . If we search the book for a new elucidation of the principle of beauty , in art , nature , or life , we are disappointed ; strictly , it is not a philosophical treatise , but a series of impressions taken from a large variety of originals , wrought together with taste and ingenuity , and laid open as a view of that which is , or has been , estimated beautiiiil by artists and nations at different periods oj history . Thus , Mr . Symington has aimed at an educational purpose , and ot

      certainly we would gladly see his volumes in the hands Vxe younger freemasons of this department of philosophy , since it may aid in guarding against the evils of a too transcendental and metaphysical rendering ot natural , though not exactly demonstrable , laws . Perhaps that which stands in place of a theory is so stretched by the writer that the tissue parts , and exposes at times the bones of a very crude and common doctrine , as when Mr . Symington , after tracing the beautiful through philosophy , nature , and art , applies his standard to human life , and satisfies himself that he has carried the scholar round a circle ; but this , which might have been fatal to him had he come forward as a creative thinker , is not the worst objection to his method , as something between that of a commentator and that of an encyclopaedist He thinks it necessary to classify and characterize enough names to nil a

      biographical dictionary , and so yielding is his judgment to the temptations of his rrenerosity , that not content with having sounded a flourish over every maker of verses known to the narrowest fame , he assures us that a certain poet and composer , in his literary and musical confidence , would assuredly find a willing audience among the admirers of Wordsworth and Beethoven , if only he were to publish his works . Either this is mere personal flattery , or it is addressed to the public , and in the latter case Mr . Symington has mistaken his vocation . The world will not believe in unpublished parallels of the works of Wordsworth and Beethoven on the faith of a writer whose literary partialities are so numerous as to be thoroughly impartial , not to say indiscriminate . A rigid investigation of the science of aesthetics might imvA v ^ liirfi ! the number of laudatory epithets flowing through these two

      , volumes . But Mr . Symington has written that which , appreciated in a proper li «» ht , is indeed very' readable . In the first place , his subject is attractive" and he treats it with attractive ease . All the world worships beauty , as lie says , and all poets dedicate to it their hymns . Iheretore speculative' minds are eager to discover the source of the delight that lives for centuries , and was the fascination of the world ere creative art or poetry were known . Mr . Symington does not tell us what beauty is * or help us to understand it , but he catalogues the theories of ancient and modern times , and constructs a kaleidoscope of fanciful opinions . lh < 3 lained the is

      eye is the true artist , and no one has yet exp why eye gratined more by one form than by another . Winkolnmn ' a definition is a mere figure of speech , and therefore vague ; Schiller ' s is a didactism ; Kant s » a maxim ; Schelling ' s is the vapoury expression of a theory ; Lord Bacon s pleases but does not satisfy ; Addison ' s is a suggestion ; Gerard s a iragment ; Jeffrey denies innate beauty altogether , and Burke , when he tries to define it , tempts us to throw down tho treatise on the Sublime and Beautiful , one of the most popular and the least valuable of his writings . U pin neW ntto , which satislied Coleridge , is a definition that needs to be defined , and has never been yet . Any object , some have said , appears beautiful when an intense light is cast upon it ; but the real purpose or a dissertation on beautv is to fix it as a principle in art , and to discover now

      this principle may bo made to fructify . Wo all know , and even savages by thoir silent gazings confess , that nature is boau . til . ul , that pinjc sunset clouds , pine-trees flaming in the light , flowers , stars , rainbows , orchards in blossom , lakes half hid in shadow and half glancing in the sun , and jeweis , huve their separate and wonderful beauties , but , if the lovo of beauty bo Taste , can it bo converted into a philosophy and become the domain ot flle ^ higifest-minTlsf ^ I ^^ beautiful in nuturo , he quotes freely and choicely ,- and inlays Ins pagos witu exquisite fragments , but though all this gold and jewellery is in tho crucible , tho sun-drop docs not full out ; tho ulehemist has suggested

      Tho treatise on artistic beauty is more promising ; at its commencement , but we soon discover that Mr . Symington writes in fetters . So tar as he goes he is an intelligent guide , but his special dogma being that tine punyt of Grecian art ceased in on © sense before the Venus ot Praxiteles was chiselled , we recognize , at once , n critic with an absorbing prejudice . J , no

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 2, 1858, page 15, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_02011858/page/15/