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XG The Leader'and Saturdayi Analyst. [Ja...
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SAETOB TRIUMPHANS. T HE Government at la...
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The Last Decade
brilliant discoveries of Livingstone . When the Decade commenced the Enterprise and Investigator proceeded in search of Sir John Fbanbxhsy and its ' close has been marked by the melancholy information obtained through the excellently managed expedition of MqClintock . The friendly zeal shown by the . French , American , and Russian Governments to assist in the ' Franklin' search was an agreeable characteristic of the times ; and the column erected at Greenwich to JJieut . Bellot will remain a monument of international friendship more valuable than any trophies of war . In the applications of science to useful purposes , much has been done in every department , and the Decade will for ever be famous for the development of the electric telegraph . On November 13 th , 1851 , the wire from Dover to Calais was opened ; and since that date , the extension of
the system has been amazing , and it has almost been crowned by the establishment of this philosophical connection between the Old World and the New . In great engineering works the period has also been fruitful ; wide rivers have been and are in process of being bridged over ; viaducts have been stretched over startling spaces , and railways are rapidly penetrating the old empire of the Moguls . Foremost among our monsters of construction comes the Leviathan , orX-Jreat Eastern , as it was uncharacteristically christened by theBoard , whose brobdinag blunders rivalled the bulk of their ship . In literature , a sufficient number of meritorious works will occur to every feader to vindicate the claims of the period to an important , if not a first-rate placewhile in art , the reactionary disease known as Pre-Raphaelism has hada most beneficial effect in breaking through unmeaning
conventionalities , and causing students to look at nature for themselves Social subjects have commanded unusual attention , and although efforts have been in the main fragmentary and unscientific , they have already achieved much practical good , and bid us hope for better tilings . In legislation we can boast of no important advancement ; we make no progress in condensing and simplifying pur prodigious mass of clumsily-made laws , and modern statutes rival their predecessors in unintelligibility and confusion . Among beneficial changes , must however be mentioned the great improvement of Ireland , Consequent upon the Tncumbered Estates Act , the first sale under which took place in 1850 ; and Mr . Gladstone ' s Succession Duty , although small in immediate : result , was large ha principle , and may be regarded as an important step to the abolition of the fiscal favouritism shown to land .
obtained the signatures of many hundreds of the leading men in science , art , and literature to a petition in favour cf their plans , and thelatter controverting them with customary zeal . The admission of the Jews into Parliament is one of the religious triumphs of the Decade ; and the Church-rate abolition question , although unsettled , is virtually , won . The ten years will also . be memorable from the rise of Spurgeonism , and the extent to which the Church of England has arranged special services in unconseci-ated buildings . In civil government , a great change has been effected through the
introduction of the system of competitive examinations . In military affairs , improvement lias been much retarded by the obstinacy with which the purchase system and the favouritism of the Horse Guards have been defended ; but a great impetus has been given to army efficiency by the introduction of systematic instruction in rifleshooting , and the commencement of a national movement to keep up a large volunteer force . To this period .. belong the Whitworth rifle , the Armstrong gun , and the construction of a large force of iron-protected vessels , to which may be added the yet unfinished steam ram , and Captain Norton ' s fire-shells . -
The climate of the Decade has also been remarkable for some of the hottest Summers ever known in these islands ; and whether or not connected with the elevation of temperature , none who beheld the comet of' 58 will forget the splendour with which it blazed from the heavens , without , as in the days of superstition , presaging wrath to man . We must close this brief and imperfect epitome by noticing" a few of the most prominent losses which the world has sustained by death , omitting those ' whose position was the result of . birth or fortune rather than of distinguished merit . Foremost among the illustrious dead come the great thinkers and philosophers who had enlarged the boundaries of knowledge and dignified their race ^ Of these , the list is sadly long , and comprises Humboldt , the man of h
encyclopedic mind ; Carl RiTTER . the founder of scientific geograpy ; Okjen , the eccentric arid whimsical but far-seeing man , whose accidental tumbling against the deer ' s skull in a German forest is said to have led to some of the profoundest theories in transcendental anatomy , and caused a vertebra to be considered the typical bone of the human organization . There also are Oeested , whose magnetic observations led to the electric telegraph ; Robeet Brown , the great botanist j EdwIeb Fobbes , the scientific naturalist ; OEFiiiA , AEAGp , Dagueeee , Majenpie , De u Beche , Geenhougit , Manteix , Hugh Miller , Nicirox , Attdubon , Admiral Beaufoet , to whom hydrography is so . deeply indebted ; Sir W . ' Hamilton--, Augttsie CoatTE , Geoege Combe , and Robert Owen ; of historians and other writers : Hallam , Peescott , Thieeby , and Macaulay , together with Creuzeb , De Tocqtxeville , atid F-. Bastiat . Of poets , men of letters , and writers of fiction : Wobdswortji ,
Charlotte Bronte , Tom Moobe , Dotxgtjas Jerbold , Beeangee , Eugene Sue , Washington Irving , Leigh Htjnt 7 and De Quincey . Of musicians : Spohb , the learned composer j Bosio , the most beautiful expositor of elegant music , and Sir Henrt Bishop , whoso songs and glees will long be qherished in English homes . Statesmen and lawyers : Peel , Moleswoetjt , DenmaN ; Talfourd , Hume , Biccardi ,: and the patriot Manin . Soldiers : Wellington ,,, Som / r , Napiee , Cavaignac , Radetsky , Havelock , Lawrence , Neill , and Nicholson . Of engineers : Beunel and Stephenson . Of artists : Turner , R ippi n gill e , Stone , Leslie ; and of useful men , Waghoen , to whom is due the developement of the overland communication with India , and whose widow was rewarded by a grateful Government with a pension amounting to the wages ofa cook , This incomplete list shows how many gaps we have to fill up , and what genius and energy are wanted , to make the fame of the living compare with that of the dead .
: A history of taxation during- the Decade would occupy a long article ; but it has , on the whole , been characterized by further efforts to relieve industry ; and among the articles entirely freed or reduced in burden , we may mention tea , sugar , coffee , currants , butter , cheese , glass , bricks , and-stamps , and also the repeal of the ... objectionable window tax , and of its companion tax upon mental illumination and ventilation , the newspaper duty . The general prosperity of the people , as compared with former times , has been evinced by the patience with \ vhieh they have borne the enormous taxation consequent upon the Russian war , and the necessity for augmented armaments . We have , nevertheless , had experience of severe distress , and a commercial paniq of prolonged severity . Collisions between labour and capital , although milder in character than
in former times , have been large and disastrous ; the engineers' strike , the Preston strike , the shoemakers' strike , and the builders ' strike or lock-out will occur to every mind , and as the expense of these exceeds a million , it is to be regretted that employers take so little pains to spread a knowledge of economical subjects and remove the moral and social barriers that separate them from their men . Pauperism is happily lessening , though not with rapid strides , and crime , notwithstanding . startling examples , diminishes , in quantity . Tlius , in 1854 ) , the number of convictions in England and Wales was 23 , 047 , and in 1858 this was reduced to 13 . 24 ( 5 , Emigration lias likewise fallen off , through better employment at home . In 1852 , our emigrants amounted to 368 , 764 ; and in 1858 , were reduced to 113 , 972 . It is also cheering to observe that the condition
of the agricultural labourer- — that opprobrium of English societyis less hopeless than it was ; and scientific agriculturists declare their conviction that the success of farming demands a speedy elevation of his position in the social scale . Commercial morality does not keep pace with other improvements , ' and such cases as the David- * sow , Cole , Gordon , and Sadlier frauds , the forgeries of Robson and Redpath , the . rogueries of Paul , Strahan ^ and Bates , the constant parochial defalcations , the failu . ro . of the JG & rjtish . and other swindling banks , leave much to regret ; while the records of the Bankruptcy Court show that unscrupulous " kiteflying" has been resorted to by houses that ought to have stood far above such dislioncst tricks , and has received the countenance of bankers and lill-brokors , who distinctly knew what they were about .
In England , ecclesiastical affairs ha / e been in commotion during the whole Decade . In 1850 , Lord John Russell wrote his famous Durham letter ; then followed the agitation about Ecclosiastical Titles , and the bill of that name which no Government has ventured to put in force . About the same time , the Gorxiam controversy was raging 1 j after which came the quarrels with the Pusoyitos of St . ^ aul ' B and St . Barnabas ; and lastly , the affair of St . George ' s in the East , and the Rev . Bryan King . The resignation of Professor Maurice belongs also to this period , and the publication of various wovkjH by Baden Powell , Mansjhll , and others , entering profoundly into the intellectual difficulties of received opinions . The Sabbatarian qontrovtoray has boon active , for several yearn , r In 1854 , the SujnclayTrading-BlH of Loi'dRouURTOuosyENOii was summarily disposed of through the alarming demonstrations in Hyde-park . r ^ ho question of opening- the British Museum , National Gallery , a , nd eiinilar institutions , has been agitated between the National Sunday League nnd the Lord's Day Observance Society - the former having
Xg The Leader'and Saturdayi Analyst. [Ja...
XG The Leader ' and Saturdayi Analyst . [ Jan . 7 , 1 S 60 .
Saetob Triumphans. T He Government At La...
SAETOB TRIUMPHANS . T HE Government at last arriving at a decision in regard to Volunteer Uniforms , and the young men of England having happily long made up their minds that drilling and rifle-shooting are the accomplishments just now wanted , and that every young fullow of spirit should bo a volunteer ^ it follows that we shall have all the " ( smartest " adolescents amongst us dressed alike . Young John Bull will horiceforward be le petit Jiomma gris ; knee-caps , spatterdashes , and knickerbockers simply tireaking the terrible sameness of his costume . 3 Sfo * v 7 although this state of mutters may make the fortune of ten thousand tailors , it is somewhat to bo regretted , —tho almost absurd uniformity [ and utter equality i : \ tho dross of all classes being rather to bo regretted than otherwise . When a prince is disguised as a beggar , ho will not be very anxious to act like a prince , for , perhaps tweonsciously , our actions correspond with those which the literary gentlemfin attached to Moses and Sons calls tho " external texture of our corporeal habiliments . " When a clergyman dispenses with his ' white tie , and a young cornet roams St . James's or the Hay market in mufti , neither is disposed to bo very careful in his actions ; and no doubt when Al Rasotud went through his capital dressed as a melon-seller , with his vizier in the disguise of a wator-qumer , the pair entered dwellings from which the Sultan , in all , his glory , would have refrained . It may ho assorted , nnd , although tho assertion may moot with donial , it would bo difficult to g-lyo proof to tho contrary , that tho English is the bost-drc'psed nution in tho world , Wo dp not ; speak , of national costume , —oi' the quilted white petticoat of the Albanian , of the garb of old Gaol worn by the Soot , or tho bernous of tho Arab , but of tho vestments of tho moderns . A national dross is almost always in good taste , and the simple toga , purple bordered and , of flowing whito , rendered tho Roman knight a considerably more imposing-looking" gentleman than tho fur-collared , skoloton-
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 7, 1860, page 10, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_07011860/page/10/
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