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Ja>i. 7, 1800] TlieLeader diitf Saturday...
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THE ' (illEAT EXHIBITION OF 1861. rpiIE ...
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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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Lately Still * Those Incisive And Intens...
and finally slew his hecatomb at the altar of Satire in the Dim-CI GoocL and mild CowrUB followed too much in the wake of You , Ntr to a-ive piquancy to his vei-ses . Sound and admirable ns -they are , smar tly a ? they hit the freethinker , and the debauchee , they are never personal . The satirist lashed only the vices , and his example is now - generally followed . Peter Pindak , PiiUECH-iT ^ i . and Gifford created some amusement . in their day . _ Peter -was . personal enough , but he said rude things , and practised invective rather thanlative . It is not satirical to assert that of Sir Joseph Banks , " that strange to utter , he , when a very little boy at school , ate spiders spread upon his bread and butter ; " it is not satirical to expose the poor old mad king- in his conversations . with Whitbbead , or his questions about the apple dumpling-. All these are within the boundaries of clever sarcasm , and that often ver . vunsci-ur pulous . Peter Pindak Wolcot could do better than this , and lin ^ done be tter , and has humour and satiric power , too , in
abund-Madame BoxiiKUB , with your smiling fnco , do you not punch your children and bully your servants at home ? " So on , ad nauseam , the phrases of social scepticism soon grow stale ; and the satirist , who perpetually grinds over , the same drill' tune , enervates ami debases rather than reforms . But there , is a nobler use for the weapon than this : the true satirist , if he shows vice her own image , ¦ will also contrast it with virtue , that the form of "the latter will be seen also . Like Jacques in the play , he will remember that the point of satire is its truth , and his aim will ever be , by his sharp physic to " Purge , the foul body of ill' infected world . "
The days of strong versified abuse arc , however , gone . Almost every writer is now a satirist ; some are of the very mildest possible description , but literary scalp-hunters are few . Articles savage and daughterly appear occasionally , but their appearance is hailed with disapprobation , and the satirist contents himself with exposing- the club-foot of the limping exquisite , or showing the rouge pot' and wrinkles of the old beau . The " dear wicked satiric creatures , as the ladies call them , are very strong upon ladies' hats and crinoline ; upon poor old women who are weak enough to wish to keep their precious youth ; upon the ugly women who try to look pretty ; upon the vulgar who wish to be fashionable ; or the poor little city gent , who , rising from a lower form of-life * tries to ape the dress and behaviour of his betters . All these are legitimate objects of satire ,
but the wrath expended upon them is not . very God-like . It is easy to crush a butterfly-upon a wheel , but the frivolous occupation will not add to one ' s strength . The mildness , meekness , and perfect propriety under which the writers of Punch . manage to rein their esprit moqueur may be , and are , conducive to calm langivage , but certainly- do not give rise to any vigour of thought . We doubt whether tie whole . nation is not weakened -by-the proceeding ; and it is but lately , when certain incompetent generals lost us whole brigades , and starvedmen--and horses by the troop , that the dead level of English feeling showed itself . IndicjntiUo fac % t versus pps-siblv , but the scorn '" and hatred at such proceedings were not divine enough for poetry , and no indignant rates -branded the fools and ¦ imbeciles ' " to all eternity ; the latter , therefore , escaping the satire , quietly have kept their places , and have even reci-ived
honours ( P ) . .. .. . J .. ,. Strong , sound satire , such as Churchill could have penned would have done us service ; but our nearest approach to CinruoTriix was Jerrqlp / a man of a very capable but limited spirit , whose best sarcasms were so polished and successful that he himself and others thought him a satirist . When he told a friend , who urged that both being litterateurs they rowed " ' in the sjnue boat ; yes , but " not with the same skulls , " he merely vented what rhetoricians call
an antanaclasis , and unscliolastic people n pun with a sarcastic tiirn . He was often offensively bitter , and he earned for himself that which he did not deserve—the reputation of an unkindly man . I his he was not , but he was so continually employed in making up sharp sayings that he could not stay to pick and choose the persons upon whom to vent them . His be ^ t sayings are in ^ his comedies ^ His books of satire , read even at this short distance ott . , are excessively ponderous and heavy . It is one thing to attack a man with a tomahawk , another to prick him with a lancet . Jehuot . p and his school thought that a man could not be touched unless his brains were knocked out . His intention was always evident , whereas satire should bo like summer lightning , visible to all , but fatal only to the vermin
and noxious insects . ... The Magnus Apollo in satire at present , every one will say ., is Mr . Thagkeiwa '; indeed , his most roccnt writing ,. Loocl , the Widower , seems to promise but a collocation of sly thing * whispered into the car of society by its satiric monitor . But it seomsto us that his power in this way is much inferior to thnt ot-his' master , Fikibinu , —or cvon to that of Dickens . When the hitter tolls us of a certain German barori , who being visited with conscientious qu « lms of a nuu-der , seized upon certain wood and stone belongingto u weaker Baron , and built a chapel with them , thereby hoping to propitiate Hodvon , the satire is so true and pungent that wo all fool touched by it . 0 ew offerings also avo too ' often polluted , and
by the pictuvo wo gain a deeper knowledge pf ourselves . When Mr . PunoJi in his earlier days used , as a pendant to the descriptions of fushionnblo parties , to describe the supper of Mr . Brown tlio swoop mid Hogg-ins the cosfcormongor , upon whoso table bread and chcoso , and onions and other delicacies of the season were ob-Horvcd , tho satire wus bo two and Icoon , although gentle , that , the Murnuuf Post and Court Journal wove considerably amended thoruby ' juul tfrow loss eloquent upon tho suppers of soino modern Lucuuvus in his Apollo chamber . ¦ , such touches
But tho nuthor of Vcwili ; . Fair owiw no gontlo . Siilyr-liko , hu "takort hS « crook I ' ov tlio purpose of lifting up tho HldvtH of society , and exhibiting her clay foot ; ho writes , nnd has wi'itton , chnplc ' v alter chaptor on tho p ilfering- liinduulion , swngigorwiK ciiptiuiis , clownish burouorn , and dubious tiristocrncy , ; wo loci that our miitjhbburs aro hit withoi' thnit oursulvos , and wo fcj'O on our wny ivjoiciiiir . This kind of on tiro- ( loos no good , it innkos us veguvd ' -ivU around u * with a eyniu wieor . and perpetually cry out , " Ah 1 it in rtllvory woll , saintly Miss Dash and good Mr . Blank , but you have a skeleton in your oupbonvcl as well as tho rest ; and you .
Ja>I. 7, 1800] Tlieleader Diitf Saturday...
Ja > i . 7 , 1800 ] TlieLeader diitf Saturday ' A iiahjsi . 13
The ' (Illeat Exhibition Of 1861. Rpiie ...
THE ' ( illEAT EXHIBITION OF 1861 . rpiIE question whether or not we are to have a repetition of the J- great experiment of 1851 in the coming year , which concludes the decade that will have elapsed since the May morning when our Sovereign welcomed nil the nations of the earth beneath the crystal span of Paxtori ' s Palace , was practically answered in the affirmative when the Society of Arts pledged itself to the success of the . undertaking .- It is . to that Society the credit belongs of having originated and conducted to such a prosperous termination the magnificent idea of a Great International Exhibition of the Industrial Arts . So far back as the time of the First Consul . France had recognised
the advantage of national exhibitions , as affording an opportunity for ascertaining the progress and status of arts and manufactures , arid at the same time supplying the incentive to advance . winch emulation and competition are sure to supply . These-exhibitions-, however ( which were repeated at quinquennial and decennial periods in nn almost unbroken line down to the present time ) were exclusively confined to native talent , and , groat jis nmst have been the benefits of such opportunities for extending experience and guaging results , ihev are riot ¦ lor a . inoment to be compared with that greater idea which included a competition between nations ; instead of men . Whether it will be desiraViie to repeat Unit vast experiment after 1
an interval so cpiv-ip-uralivelybrief as ^ ten ycaiv , is . a question-- 'which has occupied niar . y mititls . -Aye have considered the subject in most , if not all its bearings , and freely admit that there is much to be said on both sides ; thovigh , in ; pur opinion , the balance of advantage is decidedly in favour of the scheme . Some of our own manufacturers ( whosei concurrence is so vitally importahtto the working'out of the matter ) have objected that they do _ not see how they are benefited by such exhibition ' s to an . extent at all proportionate with the expense and trouble they incur . This is an objection worthy of consideration , not only because it comes from a body whose aid is of so much importance , but also because it is one . of those practical criticisms which go to the root of the . business . Of . course . these manufacturers are entTtled to the credit of understanding therr own affairs , and when they tell us that they have received no pecuniary benefit to trouble incurred in 151
compensate them for the expense and they S , it is impossible for us to contradict them ; but we may perhaps be permitted to ask whethtvr it is not possible that they may have been indirectly bcnctitod in a manner not exactly tangible to Cocker , and yet none the less surely beneficial aid profitable ? Has Spitalfields or Macclesfield gained nothing by being brought into , iuxta-po & ition with Lyons ? Did Glasgow learn nothing from Switzerland , nor Belfast from Courtrai ? Were the hardwares of Lie « -e and Solingen exhibited to Birmingham in vain ? Did lJuralem examine the delicate porcelains of Limoges and gain no knowledge r Will ' the manufacturers of North Lancashire lay their hands upon their hearts , and seriously toll us that the lessons brought to them from Houon , Toiircoign , and thp Hunt Rhin , have not prouted them ? Tf sothen the Great Exhibition of 1851 was entirely
, thrown nway ; but that it was not so—that , on the contrary , a yam improvement hns taken place in the taste exhibited m our man » facturcs , i . s a fact too obvious to bo ignored . That the foreigners havo , in their turn , also gained something is not less clear . In return for their inventive ingenuity , their artistic fancy , we have perchance returned complpter and cheiipqr methods of . manufacture , mid machinery more perfect and durable . This , h owever , is nothing but that fair principle of give-and-take which the projectors of the scheme contemplated , and wo fully b ^ lieve that in most cases the English manufacturers got , in this way at loa & % their pennyworth for their P And this brings us to another class of objectors—those wluxboUove that these exhibitions tend to unveil tho secrets of their trade , lo ihfisft we romv that there aro ronlly no such things as trade peorets .
If a secret bo worth finding- out it is buvq to he discovered , llie patent laws prevent tho use of certain processes for a doluuto ponoi , within the jurisdiction of the English luw 5 but no power on enrth can prevent a foroign manul ' notuvflr from discovi-ring any modus omrciHdi worth timo and monoy . Kvcrywhoro in tho uimw / jictunnff distriotH there aro French and Gorman youlhs \ yh <> huvo huon sent to complete their educHtion an men of business in tlio iiictori .-s unit workshops of England . Iu it to bo wpposp . thnt any V yocq * h hovrovov occultly Inept , e : in (\ mw ., o the jiotmo of tlioso pmyouH f At the aiuno timo , wo know pei-f . 'ol'y woll thut many ninuuinc ( , uror « d <» vainly iiuuK ino tluiL they cut . succ ^ Hfully yuunl Ihnsu proc ^ flca upmi which they prido tlujmn .-lvoi ? nnd wo oursolvoM , on npnlyinu' (< uurlnu . srtion at out ) or tho i . u ^ ii cclohnitod fnotorii- « of text ! 0 l : ibru .-H iu Yorkshire * wcro curtly toKI thnt nouo but lmlies and ckwviuou (" w ' omim and purso »« " wua iho oxuot phr « H 0 omploy ^ od ) woru qwi iidmHlea-thort ,-bohitf « nppoHod In bo 1 Kb noritoiiq iiioht iiiihIbio , m at any ruto must unlikely , to uvnil thomnofvos ol' any hiuiu tiny '" tiddSS &^ JootorsUiorn avo « . " po " t « I ., mmyr oU . or
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 7, 1860, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_07011860/page/13/
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