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Leader (1850-1860), 7th January 1860, Edition 2 of 2, Page 18, * Tho Oornhill Mciffasine 1 edited by W....

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      George Rose And His Contemporaries.* Tim...

      to retain them longer , and to have saved his country , from the prd-Jracted religious agitation of the disorganizing and demoralizing effects of which we are still painfully conscious .

      1ft The Leader ^Nd Saturday Analyst. [Ja...

      1 ft The Leader ^ nd Saturday Analyst . [ Jan . 7 , 1860 .

      "The . Cornhill Magazine."* "T1 Veryb6dy...

      " THE . CORNHILL MAGAZINE . " * "T 1 VERYB 6 DY is now familiar witti the GarnUll Magazine . - Its XJ first number has been before the public for more than a fortnie-ht and no one will venture to deny that it is a triumph of trading enterprise and trading skill . Nothing so cheap , has ever been produced in this country in the shape of a pure , high literary , monthly magazine . The monthly issue of " All the Year _ Round gives exactly the same quantity of matter for ninepence that the Cornhill Magazine" does for a shilling , but the latter may be considered to restore the balance , by presenting its readers with certain illustrations and maps . Both are respectively edited , or conducted by our leading literary men ; both will be largely supported by the same readers , and largely written by the same periodical pens . Whatever cliques there may be in the literary world , —whatever literary animosities may rage in the breasts of authors , there is not so much high principle existing as to prevent the chance ot remunerative employment dissolving and sinking them all .

      So far we are willing to give a hearty welcome to the new Magazine , to find no fault with its fiction , its popular accounts of natural history , its records of travel , and even its verses—andI to say that the little '' roundabout paper " by the editor , at the end , is one of the most agreeable essays we have read for many a day . We say all this distinctly , that our sentiments with regard to the new literary venture may not be misinterpreted , especially as we are now going to have a word with Mr . Thackeray about one of his leading When that " letter" ( or prospectus ) " from the editor to a friend about the

      and contributor , " was first launched in the newspapers middle of last November , as a preliminary advertisement , its whole tone arid spirit were directed against those authors and editors who were supposed to set up as social and political regenerators of mankind : "If you were told that the editor / ' ( said Mr . Thackeray ) " known hitherto " only by his published writings , was in reality a great reformer , philosopher , arid wiseacre , about to expound prodigious doctrines and truths until now unrevealed , to guide and direct the peoples , to pull down the existing order of things , to edify new social or pStitical structures , and , in a word , to set the Thames Oil fire ; if you Jieard such designs ascribed to

      himr isum , ienedtis ? ' , , ;„ -, > - x In writing this , the editor of the CornJnll Magazzne appears to have forgotten that he once contested a parliamentary election for Oxford , and that he ; is declaring himself to be that pale , colourless , imperfectly educated being—a man with no political feelmgs or political principles . It is no credit to a writer of Mr . Thackeray s intellect and knowledge of the world , that he should be content to stand idly by , while honest , hard-working , and unrewarded men are sinking under the labour in which he Ought , by his position , to take a share . If his political sentiments are really of that don'tcare-a-rush character , what right had he to occupy the Oxford hustings , and what kind of training has he had for conducting that departrixent of his Magazine , which is now largely occupied by an article on the > ' Chinese and the Outer Barbarians ?"

      danger , falsity , and ultimate design of what he is preaching . Supnose all the ridiculous stories of Chinese pride and self-sufficiency , which Sir John Bowring marshals with such pomp in his introduction , were perfectly true ? Suppose ten thousand , such stones , all well authenticated , were got togethery-what would theyj ) rove ? Are we first of all to present a . pistol . at the head of an ^ unoffending foreigner , while we cry , " your custom or your life ; and ^ then , because he refuses to love us , and bow to us , are we to shoot hun , his wife , and his children through theft heads ? Take all the treatieswhose ted violation is constantly being paraded before

      , repu us as an excuse for civilized atrocities , and is there one that was not wrung from an unwilling , invaded people by force and fraud ? If the French had secured a Canton on the Kentish coast , and Had battered us into concessions at various times , should we smile upon our oppressors , call them deliverers , be scrupulous about observing those treaties , and hesitate , when an opportunity offered , to cut our invaders * throats ? What is patriotism ?—and why is tie world so full of songs and poems in its praise , if a poor pig-tailed Chinese brother is to be spit upon and called a treacherous dog , when he triesin his own rude \ vay , to fight for his home ?

      , Sir John Bowring , in the course of his article , lets out , unconsciously perhaps , the cause o f his violent personal antipathy to the Chinese : —" The consuls" ( he writes ) " of the United States and of France had at first been received becomingly in Canton , by the Viceroy ; but in 1849 , on the arrival of Consul Bowring , very subordinate mandarins were appointed to visit him ; the imperial commissioner altogether refused any interview at any place . " Sir John , so it seems , was a little snubbed ; but because Sir John was snubbed , that is 119 reason why we should hasten to sacrifice a hundred thousand lives . The different treatment of the American

      arid French consuls most probably arose from the fact that they presented themselves without any treaties obtained by a series of brilliant naval arid military operations some seven years before . At the present time these powers are likely to counsel moderation in the great case of Ambassador Bruce versus the Chinese Government ;—although Ijord Palmerston may wish differently ; and although Mr . Thackeray has lent the earliest pages of his new ; Magazine to Consul Bowring , for the purpose of advocating another blobd-tliirsty China war . The coolness with which Sir John speaks of the sacrifice of Chinese life is only equnlled by the innocence

      with which , on more than one occasion , he shows how his dignity was wounded , and- his animosity aroused . " Sir John Bowring" ( he says ) " visited Foochow in 1853 , in a ship of war , and after much resistance from the viceroy , Was finally and officially received by him with every mark of distinction . " " It is true ' ' ( he continues ^ " that on more than one occasion the viceroy of Canton offered to receive the British plenipotentiary , hot in his official yanmn , butin a , ' packhouse' belonging to Howqua ; and there were those who held that Sir John Buwring should have been satisfied with such condescension on . ' the part of the Chinese Commissioner . ' ' of ambassadorsthe labou

      O , the heartburnings and the spite , r , expense , and tribulation brought on us by the diplomatic world In the face of India , and all the loss and sorrow it lias brought us , the snubbed pleriipotentiary advocates the partial occupation of China ( we know what that will lead to ); the administration of the Custom-house revenues in Shanghae and Canton ; and calmly hints " that the destruction of hundreds of thousands of Chinese , and the ravaging of their great cities , may fail to accomplish the object we have in view . " These are the sentiments that Mr . Thackeray endorses with his editorial name , and puts forward as a sample of eminently " gentlemanlike" writing in a company where " the ladies and children are always supposed to be present . " We acquit him of malice , simply because we believe him unacquainted with the subject he has passively edited . He has been led away by a high-sounding name , forgetting- tkat its possessor is a placeman and a political pervertall the worse for knowing the right thing , while he stands up to preach the wrong one . '

      Any one who carefully read the paragraph in the prospectus Which we have just quoted , would have come to the conclusion that no political questions would have any pages devoted to their discussion in the Cornhill Magazine . A passage further down , in which the editor says ,, " Itmay be a member of the House of Commons who has the turn to speak / ' is more than nullified by the following sentences . " There are , point ' s on which agreement is impossible , and on these we need not touch . At our social table , we shall suppose the ladies arid children always present ; , we shall not set rival politicians by the ears ; we shall listen to every guest who bus an apt word to say ; and , . 1 hope , induce clergymen of various denominations to any grace in their turn . " ' , > ' . These are very fair sounding words , but how has their promise been kept ? Surely not by'the admission of such an article upon China aa disgraces the first number of the Magazine ; written ( we differ from the editor in so thinking ) by the last man of all the

      empire to speak truly of what he knows . Wo believe wo are only aiding the efforts of both proprietors and editor , when we stato that this article is openly attributed to Sir "John Bowring , The name sounds well i » certain ears , and in certain minds , especially in those accustomed to judge of the quality of writing by measuring the importance of the writers . Sir John , Bowring lot it be—and who is Sir John Bowring P He began life aa an " apostle of progress ;' ¦ lie is reputed to be a great linguist ; he was the favourite pupil of Jeremy Beutham , and Ilia name stands as the editor of Jeremy Ben ^ hnm ' s works . Those ¦ who know the old Westminster philosopher ' s opinion upon the , folly of blood-thirsty crusades for the sake of " conquering prodigious right of trade , " who see the daily increasing influence which his writings ore exerting- in political science ; who feel tlmt Mr , Bright arid Mr . Cobdon are merely the votive , practical children of his fur-seeing mind , will bo surprised to find in his head boy the plenipotentiary-hero of the infumous loroha business , and the writer of this oruoll , dishonest diatribe nguinst the , GlunesQ . The utter absence of all principle hi this QomhUl article is one of its most repulsive .. features , especially as its author knows the

      * Tho Oornhill Mciffasine 1 Edited By W....

      * Tho Oornhill Mciffasine 1 edited by W . M . Tihokbray . | No . I . ( Jan * ' uary , 1800 ) . London j Smith , Elder , and Oo . Oornhill .

      Gleanings From Foreign Books. The Pkover...

      GLEANINGS FROM FOREIGN BOOKS . THE PKOVERB AND KELIGIQN . TX 1 HE proverb honours and loves every religion according to the JL innermost value of the same , whilst it is never sorry to sting and scourge churches and priesthoods ; indeed it seldom allows an opportunity of lashing these . to escape . To the proverb God is exulted above all things , but reputed saints and reputed sanctuaries it subjects to a rig-id examination , and allows nothing- to pass which cannot eternally stand " before God and his righteousness , without change of light or of darkness . Therefore the proverb in its religious relations is . unchangeably of the same worth now , as thousands of years ag-o , It has helped to destroy the temples and the altars of idols and of gods , and was from the beginning a strong * true instrument in the hands of the wise . How many of our church hymns are merely the explanations and developments of proverbs . And for this renspn , if for ho other , how full they are of childlike p iety , of truthfulnosa , of passionate warmth ! On purity nnd oleunhnesa , no loss of tie body than of the soul , the proverb strongly iufliats , though pedantic moralists may quarrel with many an expression which offends their- delicate ears . They ought , however , to reflect that to . the pure all thing's are pure , and that a coarse expression boldly uttered in the ,, firftfc . freshness of a pTJantasy or oriiotion , readily gains a kind of traditional authority with the people , who never see either printed or written the coarse expressions which , proverbially or otherwise , they Use , Beaidos , as in nil human things , passion , selfishness ; and other bad tendencies and habits of the children of

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 7, 1860, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_07011860/page/18/