On this page
- Departments (1)
-
Text (4)
-
1032 THE READER. JZ°lidJl^^ 1&08. '
-
. ITiWn+nri* Xlltinttltt*
-
Critics are not the legislators, but the...
-
THE GREAT REBELLION. Studies and Illustr...
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.
-
-
Transcript
-
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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Consumption In The Army. (To T Iw Editor...
of cleanliness , with dwellings notorious for the prevalence of both : and his conclusions are at Variance with the results of observations made under circumstances very similar to those that exist in barracks . I must add , that Mr . Neison is certainly in error in alleging that the barrack accommodation for the different branches of the service does not contract in the order in which the general mortality , as well as that from consumption , increases . Mr . Neison even says that " it happens to be quite otherwise . " But , in saying this , lie overlooks or forgets the somewhat striking coincidence that the infantry of the line and foot-guards are more subject to consumption than the cavalry , and that the latter have from one-fourth to one-fifth
more air to breathe . I now take leave of Mr . Neison ' s elaborate and ingenious paper , believing that I have assigned some good reasons for doubting the soundness of his inferences , and supplied the not too zealous army authorities , if not with motives to activity on behalf of the soldier , at least with reasons for not allowing their improvements in barracks to be stopped by want of faith in the "hypothesis " the Commission . I am , sir , Your obedient servant , William A .- Guy . 26 , Gordon-street , September 30 , 1 S 58 .
1032 The Reader. Jz°Lidjl^^ 1&08. '
1032 THE READER . JZ ° lidJl ^^ 1 & 08 .
. Itiwn+Nri* Xlltinttltt*
Eiteratmt .
Critics Are Not The Legislators, But The...
Critics are not the legislators , but the judges and police of literature . They do not make laws—they interpret and try to enforce them . —Edinburgh Review . ¦ ?
The Great Rebellion. Studies And Illustr...
THE GREAT REBELLION . Studies and Illustrations of the Great Rebellion . By John L , angton Sanford , of Lincoln ' s Inn , Barrister-at-Law . John \ V . Parker and Son .. For fifteen years and more , it Would appear , Mr , Sanford has pursued an historical investigation of the ' Great Rebellion . with the acumen of a lawyer and the devotion of an antiquary . It . was his original intention to write a life of Oliver Cromwell , but he was to a certain extent anticipated by Mr . Garlyle , who in 1845 published his collection of the Jitters and Speeches of Cromwell , the result of a similar and independent course of inquiry . To that
gentleman Mr . Sanford communicated the existence of many Cromwelliana of interest , which found a place in the second ( 1846 ) edition of the Letters and Speeches . He thus partly took the edge from novelties he might at first have introduced to the public , but continued in good heart to explore the mines of information at the British Museum , the Bodleian Library , and Dublin Castle , in the confident expectation of at length obtaining those public thanks for new -historical discoveries , of which circumstances and , it may be , his own generosity had on the former occasion balked him . But -while immersed in Sir S . D'Ewcs ' s MS .
Journal of the Long Parliament at the British Museum , rewriting the lives of Cromwell , Pym , Hampden , and other Commonwealth statesmen , and gloating over the treasures of the Tanner MSS . nnd the Irish Council Books , , Mr . Sanford omitted to consult the sages of the publishing world , and to calculate that another " Old Mortality" was hard upon his heels , for Mr . John Torster , the able author of the Eminent British Statesmen of the Commonwealth , a biographical scries , comprising a Info of Cromwell , and whom , by the way , Mr . Sanford somewhat harshly charges by inference with having sanctioned a large mass ofcalunniious anecdote as history , was in the field , nnd the Sanford papers were of a bulk that appalled " the trade . *'
My new materials ( says the author ) had so enlarged my original plan , that when , in 1860 , I wont through the usual ordeal with the London publishers , they shrank from incurring any risk in such a speculation , and my MS . was consigned again to the shelves , where it slumbered peacefully for the next five years . I then made another and equally unsuccessful attempt to bring It before tho public in a reduced and modified form . 1 should * perhaps , have accepted this last judgment as final , if tho publication ' of Mr . Former ' s Historical JEtsat / a , in the present year , had not called my attention to the fact that J had already lost the credit of historical discoveries , in which X had anticipated that gentleman by Several years ; and I accordingly considered , that , in justice to myself , I ought no longer to delay placing before the public some portion of my labours .
Sir vosnon v . oltis . ' svas the . thorn that rankled in the side of our learned Dryasdust , and to his impatience we are indebted for the publication of the elaborate body of minutias relative to the history of the Grand Rebellion , which he was at the pains to store up , ill the fond belief that he alone had access to the hoard , and could dole it out to the public at his leisure . . - - - The result is a work that will be barely welcomed by the historical student , who is already familiar je
with the last jgw facts promulgated Dy omer ana Carlyle , or who already has definite views shaped in conformity with Hallam or Macaulay , but on the other hand , conceived as it is in a spirit of liberty that harmonises with the present tendencies of men s minds , and embodying also an immense and recent collation of historical data—many of them new oues—ifc should not miss , in our opinion , to become a standard work of reference for future historians .
and compilers . The first of Mr . Sanford ' s ten studies , essays , or chapters , surveys the position among European nations occupied by England during the sixteenth centurv , noticing the growth of the national power under the Plantagenets and the progressive front presented by popular freedom to the power of the Crown . Then tracing the reaction which took place under the stern but subtle rule of the Tudors , he
shows how the sovereigns of that dynasty , the power of the barons having been crushed , would have tightened the yoke of monarchy upon the people , even with the assistance of . amended popular institutions had they only been able to exclude the political fay when they opened the windows of the Reformation to admit religious light . On the dilettante King James I . Mr . Sanford pours fresh phials of contempt in the following spirit : —
He has been called ( he says ) a " learned fool , and his lucubrations on government and royal authority , when ¦ we consider the position in which he was practically placed , certainly entitle him to the- epithet . Royal despotism seem . s to have ^ possessed fo r him all the attractions of forbiddeu fruit , and the mortifications which he was constantly compelled . to undergo from insolent nobles and presuming : preachers appear to have had only the effect of impressing more strongly on his mind a sense of the theoretical irresponsibility of the Crown . To England his eyes were continually turned as to the land of promise in which all these cherished dreams of roval autocracy were to be realised .
The author sketches the position to which England , distracted at home and d & pised abroad , sank under this cowardly , vain , dissembling prince , whose Popish tendencies are to our minds . better accounted for by his yearnings after absolutism than by his passionate desire for the Spanish alliance , and proceeds , in his second essay , to treat of " Puritanism . " lie traces the progress . of that , movement from the period when , under Elizabeth , it was of a religious character only , to that when its stream was swollen by the adhesion of tho social and political reformers , and when it represented , in fact , the advanced liberalism of the age . It may appear to many readers in 185 S that Mr . Sanford takes needless pains in the following vindication of Puritanism : —
very y resulting isolation in oni small circle of associations ; or for the feeling ( sometimes unwarranted ) of being , beyond the boundaries of that circle , a social " pariah . " Nor , again , was there the resulting tendency on the part of the excluded to exaggerate their points of difference from the exclusives , and to assume ari attitude of defiant want of sympathy with society on trifling points of ceremonial observance . Pa . ritanism and " Cavalierism" ( if 1 may coin such a word ) were two rival principles , contending for the regulation of social habits as much as for political ascendancy and in both respects on something like equal terms . Puritanism , therefore , was not in the former respect the enforced attitude of a sullen inferiority , any more than it was in the latter the more reckless desperation of a defeated faction . Such critics as we have alluded to , forgetful that books are not written for them alone , may deem it as superfluous thus to apologise for the Puritans , as to heap up evidence of Charles ' s recognised faithlessness , or—as indeed it is—to prove the pedigree of Oliver and to disconnect him from the brewery business . But it nmst . be ' it- ' metnbered that these were no postulates a few years ago , even in educated circles . Tlie face of educational authorities when we were young wasfor the ¦ . most part set against any estrayal from the good old . belief that King Charles was a blessed niartyr , Oliver Cromwell a base-born charlatan * and the Puritan party a set of villanous fanatics . And it must also be remembered that though . the child of to-day plants his political ladder where the lowcaste politician of 1 S 20 was used to culminate his . radicalism , the likeness of Oliver is still absent from the Parliament-house and his name from the
Statute-book ; that millions of us have not yet understood or reaped the proper fruit of Ihc Kevolutiou for want of proper teaching . When the clerk , the shopman , and the artisan , their appetites sharpened by newspaper allusions to the rights and liberties ' purchased for them by the Puritans , turn to the bookshelves of their gymnasia for informat inn about prerogative , divine right , the doctrine of resistance , ami the msu-tymom of jvmg Charles , they find either colourless imrraturcs or the ponderous tomes of the great party historians from which they -cannot winnow out the truth . Liberal handbooks to various periods of our history arc surely wanted , and we should choose the writer of the following passage to supply one upon the English devolution and Protectorate . —
Incredible indeed as it may appear to some , it is not too much to say that ( if we except a few honourable names among the Koyalists—such , for instance , as the Earl of Derby ) the Puritan gentleman alone would bo appreciated and sympathised with by modern society . Of course it is not meant to affirm that peculiarities of manner and language would not occasionally raise a smile of wondering amusement at his expense ; but the prevalent feeling would bo one of sympathising respect .
often and naturall from with society' at large imply the probable absence ^ higher social rank , and of the social influences conneLi with formal membership of the established church cial disabilities of this kind ( fertile sources of infideli ^ to conscience and silly assumption on one side and o rulous , self-sufficient rudeness on the other ) , ' which , the crying evil of our present religious divisions . did not attach necessarily to the Puritan then * and indwS scarcely existed atall . A ponsidetable minority amon the peers and landed gentry were socially as well '» Q « . litlcally » Puritans . " The wealthier merchants J £ generally of that caste ; and a strong body of the bene . ficed clergy , who had their representatives in the national universities , were openly identified with that epithet There was , therefore , little occasion for that gaucherie
Tho English constitution , originating as we nine seen , partly in tho class privileges of t ho -Saxon , partly on the rights and requirements of Noriimu fuuitalwinj had been defined by traditionary charters , or feucw relations . Its malntenunca was secured by the wawiw and independent spirit of the nation , or by tho wenknw and crimes of tho sovereign . Its infringements •» landmurks of tho depression of the people and «» . " $ * rior talents or fortuitous position of the king . * w charters were granted , meeting particular cue * ot 'oppression ns they rose , and incidentally and frequently Without any intention laying down general principJ « which included in their grasp many other pwsw « abuses . As tho Crown or the nation gamed the uppw
He might be judged by some over-strict and scrupulous ; but by them also the complete absence of coarse vulgarity in his manners would not be unappreciated . His " prcclseness" even would bo in many respects less marked and offensive to the world at large than is the case w \ th " strict" people of the present day . It would be , " strictness" in comparison with a much hixer state of general society , nnd would , therefore , in many of its once salient features , harmonise with tho received canons of propriety of a moro advanced age .
hand , these precedents of liberty and oppressioni v « e produced on either eido as warrants for i »» wr P ™ JJ . ings . When society , therefore , began to bo lesi gj verned by temporary force , and more by and permanent law , it became necessary to ^ rro ™ on competent authority tho comparative value oI in conflicting precedents . During tho reigns of * ' £ ^ James , and Charles , a content to secure bucIii « * £ »*« prevailed to a greater or loss extent . Jty ««» " . . opposing claims stood iu mere distinctly ™* 8 ° tt £ ™ attitudes . Tho Crown widened its preteiiHioii » w « include every succcnsful act of wyal encroach men , Commons widened theirs , so as to deduce ^ J h general principles from tho particular precedent * c freedom . There can bo no doubt on whoa » j Wo « right lay ; and wo have just scon in whqjo <<« ° * contest had apparently boon decided . 1 ' ™ " "J ' when Charles I . assented to tho Petition ot lM ^' are relieved , ho far as the Stun { to « J ' «*« f ™" £ or any remote inquiries ns to precedents fii ro }< P ° ^ popular liberties . The Inquiry hua been mouo ,
In referring to these and similar characteristics of the Puritan , it has been generally forgotten , that in the reign of Charles I . tho great majority of the Puritauu were not separatists from tho communion of the Church of England , but formed a party within the national church . Although , therefore , their earnest opinions gave a certain peculiarity to thuir manners , there wax not tho broad social difference which ( fur moro than any religious creed ) severs tho churchman anddinsonter of the present day . Tho Puritan was not , as the modern dUaohter , hardly to be found except in tho middle and lower classes ; and within these , ntill more restricted in his social intercourse by tho special demarcations of his creed . His peculiarities of religious opinion did not
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 2, 1858, page 16, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_02101858/page/16/
-