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January 6, 1855.] THE LEADEE. ^^ 17
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A correspondent who has visited M. Caban...
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The Art Journal enters on a new series w...
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THE LAWYER IN THE CAMP. A Month in the C...
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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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.
The January Numbar Of The British Quarte...
the morals of this system are pure ; but it is as capable of being perverted to the worst immorality as the most antinomian Gnosticism of former times . Curious and rather out of the way articles in the same number are one on the British Government and Buddhism , " accusing the Government of supporting Buddhist idolatry in Ceylon ; and one of a particularly interesting nature on" Life in Lunatic Asylums . " The following passage from the first article will startle some of our good folks at home : — Perhaps one or two vouchers for sums expended " on her Majesty ' s Service" may possess an interest justifying their insertion here . " The Government of Ceylon Dr . to , Kandy , 1846 . For the cost of the undermentioned articles supplied for performing the ceremony waliyakun , or ' devildance , ' at the perahera festival in this month : — 16 parras of paddy , at Is . 6 d £ 1 4 0 60 cocoa-nuts 0 3 9 60 cakes of jaggary 0 3 9 45 measures of oil 12 6 14 measures of salt 0 3 9 2 lbs . rosin 0 0 9 £ 2 18 , 6 " Received from the Government Agent for the Central Province the sum of 21 . 18 s . 6 d . sterling , being in full as above account of particulars furnished for her Majesty's service , and for which 1 have signed two receipts of the same tenor and date . " Witnesses , ( Signed ) " I do hereby certify , that the within-mentioned charge is correct , for the service specified , to the best of my knowledge and belief . ( Signed ") — : — " Government Agent " " The Government of Ceylon Dr . " 7 b B . Yakadessa and C . Yakadessa . " For our hire as dancers , as allowed by Government , for performing the ceremony of waliyakun , or ' devil dance , ' at the perahera festival in this month , at 5 s . each , 01 . 10 s . Od . " ( Signed as before . ) These are some of the fruits of the connexion between the British Government and idolatry in the island of Ceylon . Tait this month is extremely good . There is a strong and decisive article , in which the Leader naturally takes more than usual interest , advocating the establishment of a " new National Party , " and considering the best constitution and the probable prospects of such a party . There are also various articles of literature and information ; in one of which— - ^ a light , dashing , and suggestive article on American literature—we find the following note referring to Edgar Poe ' s celebrated poem of the " Raven : " - — — It is current jtalk in literary circles , that this production ( which has provoked as many parodies as anything ever written , with the exception of "Wolfe's " Burial of Sir John Moore at Corunna" ) is a paraphrase from the Persian . It was Mr . " Mofussilite" Lang who , hearing it repeated by a literary friend , is said to have looked up from his book with- " Hallo ! that ' s very good Persian ! " instantly quoting the original . Poe was a good Persian scholar . % Bentley ' s Miscellany bears internal evidence of a thorough change . This sounds encouraging , but the subject must be examined . The Magazine had a distinct character—for light reading from writers who were not to be met elsewhere ; Shirley Brooks and Charles Reade , for instance . Now , the Magazine has precisely the same elements which constitute the New Monthly . The New Bentley contains , the first portion-of a story by Harrison AinswoBTH , ~ and"this , coupled with -the fact that AinswortKs-Magazine is this month discontinued , explains the case . The material consigned to the Editor of the New Monthly is considered so valuable , that another Magazine made out of the refuse , is considered worthy of public support . However , we are bound to admit , that there is some variety , and even instruction and amusement to be found in the Magazine under its new management .
January 6, 1855.] The Leadee. ^^ 17
January 6 , 1855 . ] THE LEADEE . ^^ 17
A Correspondent Who Has Visited M. Caban...
A correspondent who has visited M . Cabany in Paris , and seen the alleged MS ' , novel of Sir Walter Scott , the story of which we told last week , sends us the following particulars , which -will doubtless be interesting to our readers : — " I decidedly believe M . Cabany to bo of perfect good faith in the affair . With the most frank and obliging courtesy he enabled me to look over the MSS . of the first vol . of Moredun . The writing is small but easily legible , rapid , and without any decided character . As far as a hasty glance could satisfy me of the style , I could detect nothing grossly improbable . The dialogue hero and there seemed vivid and strong , and a description of scenery from the top of Dunsinnan Hill was much in the manner of Sir Walter : the touches broad and at the same time careful , with , however , a certain something trivial in the general manner . There ia a picturesque and animated conference between the Scotch and English kings more particularly in Sir Walter ' s vein . On the whole , I could not bo convinced , on so cursory a glance , tha it might not be written by a dexterous imitator ( I do not say forger ) of Sir Walter ' s
style , while all I saw of M . Cabany certainly convinces mo that ho is a man of perfect sincerity , I may almost say naivetd , in the affair , and believes in his own story . He is Secretary to the » Society of Archivists . ' I should not omit to mention a chapter describing an inundation at Scono , which for power of word-painting M . Cabany says is liner than anything of the sort ho ever read— ' it is terribly real . .... Ho does not affirm the authenticity of the MS . ; ho merely relates how the MS . came into his poaaession , with its history attached to it—and ho leaves it to tho critics and to the public to julge . M . Cabany Bays that Moredun is so crammed with incident and dramatic interest that Aloxandre Dumas would have made fifty volumes of it , and ho intends himself to put it , after publication , into the hands of a dramaturge . M . Cabany encourages the supposition that it was thrown aside by Sir Walter aa a rough fruinowork of . a story , to bo filled up with hia usual elaboration at somo future' time . At nil events , I think it looka liko tho work of a young hand . Tho hcoiio ia mostly laid in Scotland , in tho neighbourhood of Perth , with episodes on tho Border . " * Our correspondent adds that M . Caijany , so ar from exulting in the possession of the MS ., has found nothing but trouble and inconvenience
from it as yet . He seems also to have no idea of Barnumizing the discovery in England . He has even opened a subscription-list at the Union Bank to pay the expenses of the publication in English , promising the surplus to the Patriotic Fund . " Is there no publisher in the Row , or at least in Broadway bold enough to relieve M . Cabany of his generosity , and to convert it into a speculation ? Authentic or . not , Moredun canscarcely fail to pay . - ¦
The Art Journal Enters On A New Series W...
The Art Journal enters on a new series with the new year . There is no actual change in the form or appearance of the work , and the editor ' s motive in announcing an era is very frankly avowed—he desires to give tardy patrons the benefit of a fresh start , without breaking faith with his old subscribers . No . CXCIU . is therefore , so far as the new subscribers are concerned , " a sleep and a forgetting" of No . CXCII ; and , to all those interesting persons , dawns a bright and hopeful No . I . The journal starts afresh with the commencement of a course of engravings in the possession of the Queen , which engravings are published in a separate form as the i' Royal Gallery of Art . " A recent visit to Nuremberg has furnished
Mr . Fairholt with material for an antiquarian article on Albrecht Durer , to be continued in four successive numbers . The opening paper is cleverly embellished with the author ' s own drawings . Mr . Pyne , the admirable painter of lake and mountain scenery , resumes his contributions on the " Nomenclature of Art . " There is an editorial paper , with illustrative woodcuts , on the " Marlborough House Exposition ; " and there is an editorial " Memoir of Constable , " with five elaborate wood-engravings of his best-known pictures . Among the minor articles and notices we find an interesting geometric analysis of the Portland Vase , by Mr . Weld Tayiob . On the whole , the merits of the number seem to just if y the appeal to an extended class of readers .
Let us say a word about the Newcomes . The story lingers , and loses itself willingly in those bypaths of humour and sentiment which are worth all the beaten tracks of all the most exciting novels in the world . To enjoy Thackeray demands the palate of a degustatew , not the gross appetite of a novel reader , ravenous for plot and incident . To drain a number of the Newcomes at a draught is to drink Lafifcte or Cios-Vougeot in pewter , and to insult your host by swallowing what you are expected to sip , and pouring down your mouth what you should first taste with the breath of you *
nostrils . Thackeray ' s stories , we say , are to be sipped like the finest and rarest wine ; and it is neither to his praise nor to his shame , but simply to his liking , to invite none but the epicures of life ' s various feast of joys and sorrows to his select table . Only those who have shed' their illusions and passed through a premature cynicism into a larger and more complete philosophy of life—less bitter and more compassionate , less trustful and more sympathetic , saddened rather than sad , and smiling genially through unshed tears at human weakness and human vanity—only those can feel the subtle charm of a humourist like Thackeray . We may take this opportunity of noticing Mr . Lever ' s new story , the Martins of Crd Martin ( Chapman and Ham , ) , of which we have the second number . The scene is Ireland , and Mr . Lever ' s favourite part of Ireland—Galway ; the- materials are pretty muchas usual , the only variation-of his former explorations in the same direction being in the circumstance that his hero is a heroine—a Diana . Vernon , of painful , impossible masculinity , who manages a dairy and an election , hunts and moralises , with equal vigour and absurdity . The first number of a new monthly periodical , The TAterary Mail-Coach , claims a line ; it seems to be conducted by young gentlemen , and its merits are—slang .
The Lawyer In The Camp. A Month In The C...
THE LAWYER IN THE CAMP . A Month in the Camp before Sebastopol . By a Non-Combatant . Longman and Co . The Non-Combatanfc is a Templar , who , believing the " seat" of war large enough to afford him a corner , resolved to go thither in vacation time , and see the siege of Sebastopol . He is not the only votary of Themis who has offered parenthetical sacrifices at the shrine of Mars . There be many lawyers who delight in the study of strategy . Only the other day a legal member of the Commons' House instructed that assembly in matters military —there are but few strategists who delight in the study of law . In some
sort , indeed , your lawyer is the soldier of civil life ; he fights your battle for y ou as the soldier does , with this difference , that while ho charges the opposing party to the suit , ten to one but in tho very nature of things he charges the luckless wight who may enlist his services rather more severely . The gentlemen of the coatee and shako are only more expensive than the gentlemen of the long robe and wig , because there are so many of them ; and it certainly would be a nice question for a casuist , whether a nation has gamed more by its soldiers than by its men of law . Seriously ; our Non-Combatant , our Templar on a tour in the Oamp , ia a man of sense and soirit . with a healthy tone of mind , quite devoitUot anywrtn
thing that can bo called croaking . He wont out to the camp , taking him hia own tent , his own horse , his own commissariat , und ot cpurso fau own servant , a Greek of the Ionian Islands . He departed from Malta four days after tho battle of tho Alma , and met tho intelligence of that splendid exploit as tho ship came to an anchor in the Golden Horn m a fog , on the very day when the same great story set nil England ablaze . From Stamboul he made his way to tho Crimea in the Cambria , , touching at Eupatona . steaming thenco at a safe distance past tho big forts of Sebastopol ,. rounding Capo Chorson , and swooping into Balaklava Bay , whore he landed on the 5 th , twelve days after tho arrival of tho Allies in that once-sequestered spot . It is curious that those twolvo days had sufficed to make tho atmosphere
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 6, 1855, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_06011855/page/17/
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