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Ho, 463, February 5, 1859.] THE IBAPE IL...
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A FINANCIAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND. A Financ...
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LOST AND WON. Lost and Won. Bv Goorgina ...
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SOCIAL INNOVATORS ¦
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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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The Old And New Testaments. Historic Not...
f Rom . x . 12 ) . By Jews , Paul means all -who were of the Jewish religion ; buttne Evangelist John means natives of Judea only . By th « word Hebrews , the writer of the Acts ( chap- vi . 1 ) means those only who spoke Hebrew while he calls the Jews who spoke Greek , Grecians , ' or Hellenists . On the other hand , the writer of the Epistle to the' Hebrews means to address all of the Jewish faith , but he certainly wrote in Greek ; and though he ealls his readers Hebrews , he did not write for the use of those whose used the Hebrew language . The reader must ever bear in mind what the author tells him at the outset , that his book is neither theological nor devotional . He will , therefore , value the notes for themselves alone , and doing this , he will not have cause to regret having made the acqua intance of a c ommentator who is not prejudiced by any sectarian views .
Ho, 463, February 5, 1859.] The Ibape Il...
Ho , 463 , February 5 , 1859 . ] THE IBAPE IL 173
A Financial History Of England. A Financ...
A FINANCIAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND . A Financial , Monetary , and Statistical History of England . By Thomas Doubleday . Effingham Wilson . In this second edition of his Financial History , Mr . Doubleday continues his story from 1847 , when his first edition was published , down to the present time , and he also adds a copious index for the use of those who desire to reler to his / work . Mr . Doubleclay ' s criticisms oil public events proceed in the same strain as before . Fierce invective , bitter personality , and dismal prophecies of national ruin fill his pages from beginning to end . The national debt and funded system are the waking hobgoblins and sleeping nightmares which continually goad on Mr . Doubleday in his , hurried narrative , lie says , in his concluding words : —
There remains , however , one final conclusion to which it is easy enough to corrie , and this is , that if the rulers of this country persist in their present course , it can lead onlv to one end . That they will so persist seems too certain . Looking at our present social position , I see no probable chance of any man , or set of men , being entrusted with the Government , who shall at once possess the power , wisdom , and courage requisite to the application of the only remedies that are really applicable to a state so serious . This seems too clear : and
hence the realm must drift on in its present course , growing more and more helpless , and more and more embarrassed , and more and more despised , until some overruling event shall produce the fiIjal . crisis . Whenever it shall occur it needs not to be a matter for regret with any virtuous man . Further ^ no foresight can pretend to see . AH we know is , that the issue is in the hands of Him who out of evil can evolve good ; who will surely award retributidn where retribution is due , and " who will have mercy on wliom he will have mercy . " . ¦ ...
We are not ourselves , by any means , apologists for the system inaugurated at the Revolution , of throwing upon posterity the burden of reckless expenditure in wars . Those who contend that the payment of the interest of the gigantic sums so squandered , being merely a transfer of wealth from one class of the community to another , is therefore harmless , are answered by the obvious absurdity of the conclusions to which their argument tends . If eight hundred millions of debt be harmless , why not have eight thousand millions P If it be an unimportant thing to have to pay twenty-eight millions a year in interest , the system might , be extended till all but the landholders were required to pay in
Gentile or the " Jew , " for whom Mr . Doubleday has so illiberal a contempt , should do anything more than contribute his share of taxation . If he does nYore ;— -if , besides this , he advances large sums , his fellow-citizens are indebted to him , and ought not to abuse him , or seek to deny the justice of his elaim . ' . It is doubtful whether bad heart or bad head have contributed the most to the world ' s great record of oppression and injustice . Mr . Doubleday ' s defective reasoning powers are certainly chargeable with much of the mischievous suggestion with which his work abounds . A favourite argument with him against the unfortunate men , women , and children who happen to be interested in our funds isj that " a whole nation cannot possibly be bound to a bar-¦
gain of their ancestors . " " Taxes , " he says , " imposed without national consent , are a pu blic robbery ; yet this is what must be perpetually done , if posterity are to be bound to pay the interest of a debt , and ' consent' is forestalled and mortgaged . well as labour . " Mr . Doubleday does not perceive that we are taxed for the payment of interest , not by the votes of the last century , but of the existing Parliament from year to year . How , indeed , could dead men bind living men—how enforce obedience if we refused it , or in any other way dictate to these times ? The fact is , that we continue to pay dividends at the Bank , not because our forefathers commanded it , but because we think it wise and expedient so to do for our own credit ' s sake ; and because it is believed that the misery and confusion of repudiation must be far greater than the gain .
Similar objections arise on reading Mr . Doubleday ' s strictures upon the Bank Act of 1 S 4-4 . Our readers know that weave steady opponents of that measure ; but we cannot compare it to . " a , scorpion surrounded by fire" " stinging itself to death ; " nor do we expect that it will bring , down " the whole fabric that . it was intended to protect . " The act is a bad act , because its regulations are opposed to the great principles of free trade . There is no good reason why the Bank of England should enjoy a monopoly of issuing bauk-notes ; there is no good reason why the Legislature should interfere between the man who as willing to give , and the man who is willing to take a . promissory note payable on demand . If men are to be protected against such voluntary contracts , there is no other kind of
contract which may not be forbidden on the same grounds . Even the evils which have occasionally resulted from the free issue of private bank-notes in other countr ies afford no valid argument in favour of interference . That which a whole community , seeking its own interest , will voluntarily continue to do , must , on the whole , and in spite of all evils and all risks , be advantageous . We , therefore , having full faith in the . great principle of perfect liberty of commerce , desire to see the peculiar privileges of the Bank of England withdrawn , and all State meddling with its affairs put an end to . The exaggerations and the intemperate zeal , however , of such writers as Mr . Doubleday , do nothing but bring into ridicule and contempt the objects for which wiser men are earnestly contending .
taxation the wholp of their incomes . The mot , is , that although a transfer of wealth docs not impoverish tho " nation as a whole , it very much impoverishes that portion who arc not funuholdcrs ; ami these are , of course , the bulk of tho people . So far as it goes , then , our public debt is n great burden ; but if it oan bo kept from going further , wo see no reason for the abject dospnu 1 into which Mr . Doubleday would s . ink us . Tho interest upon it was even greater when our population wns but half what it is now , and our wealth , perhaps , far less in proportion . Wo arc sorry to find Mr . Doubleday , in liia hatred of the system , employing language which might bo used to justify Cobbctt ' s remedy of " a sponge . " Lenders to Government he stigmatisea us a sort of unnatural offspring ; ho scorns tho idea of " any persons , in a real national cxigonoo , when norhans national existence wna at stake ,
offering to loud money to their country at interest , " « ud Uo considers this "just as absurd as would bo ft child offering to laud its pocket-money to its fatho ' r , at interest , when both were in danger ol wanting a dinner I" § This sorjt , of argument may just as woll bo applied to ' the Birmingham gunsmiths , who unnaturally demand nioncy lor suppl y , jng arms to their country in time of war j but there J » m faot , nothing unnatural or unjust in the mattor . There is no reason in justico why either tho
Lost And Won. Lost And Won. Bv Goorgina ...
LOST AND WON . Lost and Won . Bv Goorgina M . Cruik . Smith , Elder , and Co . Nothing superior to this novel has appeared during the present season . The groundwork of Lost and ^ Won is love , a passion so well worn , that talents of no conunon ordor are required to treat ; it in a now or interesting form , '¦ qualifications , however , which Miss Craik beyond question has throughout cminontly displayed . Two love passages arc the loading incidents ; ono treated with delicacy anil quiet
beauty , the other depicted with masterly powerwe may add , grandeur . Few living authors that we can call to mind could havo oxhibitcd groatcr talent in treating those two dissimilar phases of tho tender passion } and wo think we may venturo , without Imnffing our critical judgment into question , to predict that this deli g htful work will not only bring additional reputation to tho author , but will have a wido and lasting popularity .
Social Innovators ¦
tercourse of the sexes and their position in regard to each other , must be admitted on all hands to be of the deepest importance . The questions involved do not , however , very readily present themselves to us as objects for speculation . We have been too long accustomed to regard them from the exclusive point of view suggested by the present condition of society . It is not until we find ^ others vacillating round thern that we ' learn to regard them as admitting of doubt
and hesitation ; and when we turn to the estimation of their difficulties , and learn that the solutions they have heretofore received are arbitrary , resting upon no other necessity than that of positive human law , supported by fallible and mutable authority- —even then , though we have made a certain advance , we find those difficulties so tremendous that we are tempted to resume our former ground , and to regard the existing order of society as something which it were better to consider fixed and absolute , whether
it be really so or not . Two very opposite classes , of thinkers have dealt with the questions suggested in this volume . First , there are those who—Pope's celebrated line notwithstanding—exalt into a maxim that whatever is , is wrong . Of such are the wild social reformers , to whom the entire past is a blank , and the future alone is bright with promise ; who are ready to destroy institutions for which they offer no sufficient substitute , and to remodel society after schemes suggested
by their own fertile brains , of course always untried , and always , of course , impossible . These are the speculators of whom the practical English mind stands in especial dread , and at the bare . mention of whose names and views it recals all the horrors of the first French Revolution . Diametrically opposed to these innovators are those who regard as final the received solution of social problems , and now scornfully reject all proposal of change , now timidly prefer to keep the vantage ground they have attained to following the ignis fatuus of speculation .
It is to the latter class of thinkers that Mr . Sargant evidently belongs . So much so , indeed , that he appears to consider that the . mere statement of the views and projects of innovators is of itself a sufficient answer to them , so completely , to his mind , do they carry -with them their own refutation . After an introductory notice and a general view of the treatment of the subject by earlier thinkers , he sketches some of the leading schemes of social and political reform which . ' . have beexi more recently , developed among our French neighbours ; and refuting the erroneous principles upon which they have been based , he adds some very judicious remarks on the true causes to which we must look for an amelioration of the evils resulting- from pur present social order . We will add a few words on each of the three heads
into which his work appears to divide itself . The introductory chapter is a very short and , we must add , a very imperfect performance . The authors named in it do not seem to have been selected upon any princip le whatever from the crowd who have treated the same questions . Plato's . " Republic" is dismissed with a few lines of contemptuous excuse ; but its imitator , Cicero , and its great critics , Aristotle and Polybius , are unnoticed . Had any one work been selected as a specimen of ancient thought , it should surely have been Aristotle's " Politics , "
which contains not only a scheme for the foundation of a state far more complete than that of Plato , but a series of most valuable criticisms upon the writings of other political theorists , and a sketch of several of the contemporaneous Greek constitutions . We are sorry , too , among more modern names , to miss those of Machiuvelli , Hobbes , Spinoza , Bodinus , Rousseau , and Montesquieu . The view given us of former writers is so meagre and inaccurate , convoys so little information , and throws so little light upon the examples-and discussions which follow it , that it had been better omittc . l altogether .
The account given of the systems of more modern writers doserves to bo read with great attention . It is ample , and furnishes the means of forming a fair estimate of the various authors whom it notices . We should ourselves have brought forward Auguste Comto instead of Emilede Girnrtlin . JIi 3 conclusions are , on many points , similar , but his intellectual superiority is unquestionable . Wo doubt , indeed , whether the entire catalogue of political speculators , ancient and modern , would furnish a name of greater eminence , or ono which lias impressed its mark more
deeply upon the whole of modern thought . With , this ono exception , tho list appeal's to us the best that could havo been . made , though wo cannot help rogretting that Mr . Sargant should so sneor at each busoloss project and ouch impossible hope as it passes in review but'oru him . Of course , this is the treatment which social innovators must expect . It is their usual fate to bo acornod or dreaded uiul reprobutod by tho respectable portion of society . I 3 ut when thinking meu come to scan their lives and their generally unselfish devotion to tho cause of humanity , surely other feelings than soorn and hostility may arise . It is , imlo « d , an ex , ousablu thing that men who hoped for no reward on earth save tuo
SOCIAL INNOVATORS . Social Innovators and their Sohomaa , By W . L . Sargant . Smith , Elder , ana Co . This topics handled in this volume , relating as they do to tho fundamental institution of society , the relations of its various classes to one another , the laws which are to regulate tho production and distribution of wealth , and thoso which deal with tho in-
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 5, 1859, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_05021859/page/13/
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