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No. 446. October 9, 1858.] T H E L E A D...
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THE QUARTERLIES. The British Qvaiitjbrly...
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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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Notes Oft Ceuerbqtjiu*. Xfote* On Cherbo...
carried out , especially on that part of the coast nearest England ; viz ., Lorient , St . Malo , Carentan , Port-li-Bessin , Isigny , Caen , Havre , Fe ' camp , Dieppe , while in the interior her army has increased beyond all precedent , requiring the strongest mind to restrain its warlike outpourings , as evidenced very lately in the ease of the regimental colonels ; even the Emperor himself has adopted an instrument of destruction : the battering in short , a military ardour seems the order of the day , and it only remains to be considered in what direction these costly means of destruction are to be
era-The attentions the English is naturally awakened by the unwonted vigour of their neighbour . Suspicion may well be aroused when that neighbour doubles his fist in the face of an intimate friend and ally , and moreover strengthens that suspicion by deeds quite at variance with the poetical words used at Cherbourg . The reason for the present attitude of Franco towards England it is diificut to conceive . No nation could have proved a more faithful ally or firmer friend , and certainly no friendship can be more essential to the welfare , the happiness , the prosperity , nay , the very safety of the present Government , than that of England . The demonstrations cannot have arisen from fear , for it is well known that the alliance is popular with the English people to a man ; that they have a constitutional dislike to war , and that it is not till well in it that they
" bear themselves so that their adversaries may beware of them ; " therefore , it is absurd to suppose that th « French have any dread of aggression on the part of England . One thing , however , is beyond conjecture , that war will burst upon Europe before lortg , for even if the wish does not exist , no government has the power to keep so mighty an armament as that of France in peaceful cantonments . England may be the last place upon which the ruler of France would choose to let loose his legions , because he of all men is least desirous to be u written down an as 3 ; " but war becomes a stern necessity with certain potentates , and when the day comes to select the field of operations , can that " remarkable man" resist the temptation of attacking the richest country in the world , when he sees it profoundly indifferent and systematically unprepared .
The only means of check-mating this farmidable move , and maintaining the friendship so important to both nations , is to remove the temptation to any aggressive act , by the instant equipment of such a fleet as ¦ will render any warlike attempt utterly hopeless . It is of vital importance to England ^—due to her rank among nations—to be pkep-ared , because the French Emperor is far too sagacious , even with the immense means at his disposal , to make the attack alone , when the cordial co-operation of a great Northern Power could be easily obtained , whose fleets and armies could prevent any friendly powers ( if such there be ) from affording the least assistance . Great Britain has before withstood the world in arms , and can do so again if only true to herself ; but it cannot be denied that never before has the nation been so
entirely without defences , and without defenders . These are warnings that both the nation and the Government , whichever party may be in power , will do well to bear constantly in mind . Let us close with the well-worn piece of ancient wisdom , *• The best way to maintain peace is be prepared for war . "
No. 446. October 9, 1858.] T H E L E A D...
No . 446 . October 9 , 1858 . ] T H E L E A DE K . 1069
The Quarterlies. The British Qvaiitjbrly...
THE QUARTERLIES . The British Qvaiitjbrly Review . —The Third and Fourth Volumes of Froude ' s History of Englandcoines first under notice . The reviewer adheres tonis original judgment that the history , as far as it goes , " has been / written under a conception essentially just , that its method is excellent , its research profound , and its style admirable , but that it is deficient in some important particulars , that it abounds in genius and imagination rather than in reason and judgment , and that it has run out into extravagant paradoxes . " To this judgment wo have little to demur , and liko the reviewer we have only to repeat our own opinion that the estimation of the character of Henry VIII . by Mr . Froude is contradioted in material particulars by public documents that have recently come to light . " Kalondars and old Almanacs * ' is hardly ns good as it
might have been made , nevertheless there arc some agreeable reading and anecdotes in the article . "Wyoliffb , his Biographers and Critics , " is a very good article indeed . The reviewer does ample justice to this great but somewhat neglected reformer , and points out not without something liko a feeling of shame , that it is to German thinkers the world is mainl y indebted for a true estimate of the value of Wychffe ' s masoulino mind , his immense ) labours , ana the pioneer part ho played in the great rohgious movement . The roviower is particularly severe on Mr . Shirley , who has prepared a volume under the sanotion of the Lords Commissioners of her Majesty ' s Treasury at the suggestion of the
Master of the Rolls . Mr . Shirley ' s volume contains portions of WycliflVs writings , but the reviewer justly , we think , complains that marks of haste and carelessness are visible throughout the compilation . Further , the reviewer soundly rates Mr . Shirley for-giving expression and' factitious influence in this volume printed at' the public expense , to " personal prejudices and party feeling . " The reviewer also comes into collision with the Quarterly Review for its unqualified praise of Mr . Shirley ' s performance . We will not enter into the merits of this difference of opinion—we _ shall content ourselves with repeating that the article is very good throughout , and will assist to place Wy cliff e in that high position among English worthies which he has not yet been permitted properly to occupy . M . Comte ' s " Religion for Atheists" professes to be a criticism on Comte ' s " Catechism of Positive Religion , " but is rather a
piece of scolding than a sober review of the author ' s theory . Comte has numerous admirers andadherents on the Continent and also a small coterie in this country , who will not thank the reviewer for describing the " Catechism" being " so puerile , silly , and drivelling in conception and execution , that no other alternative is left / or M . Comte ' s admirers than the unpleasant one of supposing that just when , in his own estimate , he had put the copestone on the system of Positivism , and annihilated all the ' theologies , ' he went mad , and that this volume of inanities is the sign and consequence thereof . " No doubt there is a good deal of nonsense in M . Comte ' s speculations ; take , for instance , that part wherein lie declares that " his system of Positivism" will , within a century , regenerate the world—and ,
Before the end of the nineteenth century the French Republic will , of its own free will , break up into seventeen independent republics , each comprising five of the existing departments . Ireland will , ere long , separate from England . This will lead to the rupture of the artificial bonds which now unite Scotland and even Wales , with England proper . But then it must be . remembered , in charity to Comte , that our own Bacon is held to be the spring from whence Comte originally drew his rhapsodical theories of Positivism . " Herodotus , " by Rawlinson . and Wilkinson , and a " . Commentary , " by Blakesley , are subjects well handled , and will be
vations at Budrum by one evidently having especial acquaintance with the subject . In " Woman , " the woman ' s right question is considered partly on physiological , partly on psychological grounds . Female education is treated upon as a part of the question , and consequently an unfavourable view of the political claims of women is arrived at . The reviewer , by establishing distinctions between the mental characteristics of man and woman , is led to pay a high tribute to the latter . Under the head of " Russian Literature"
analysis is given of the life and works of Pushkin in a very liberal spirit . By placing Mr . John Forster and Mr . John Langtpn Sanford in opposition in the Parliamentary war , the reviewer takes up a place as marshal of a tournament , in which he shows himself impartial , although he enters the lists with a banner having inscribed "The Great Rebellion . " Mr . Trollope ' s novels receive a favourable notice . A remarkable article in the number is one on the Kabail or Zwave languages and the Tifinagh alphabet . In these days , when philological studies are no longer the monopoly of a few philosophers ,
but have spread to the universities , and form a part of the college course , we have philological articles more than enough , in which the principles of Voltaire ' s joke receive a practical application , vowels count for nothing , and consonants for very little The fashion alone of philology has changed ; in the last century every word was derived from the Hebrew , in this , Sanskrit has become the standard . The article on the Kabail languages is of the more interest under these circumstances , because it exhibits the treatment of a man of wide attainments and tempered judgment . In this article the relations of the Libyan lansruaares to the Semitic
stock are treated of , and the labours of F . W . Newman , Hodgson , Pulszky , and Hannoteau carefully discussed . The reviewer refers briefly to the relations between the North African Semitic languages and the Houssa negro language . He also takes up subsidiarily the inquiry , whether Africa or Asia ought to be regarded as the country Out of which the Hebraeo-African family developed itself , and considers the popular assumption that everything human has come out of Asia as invalid , " except on the very superficial hypothesis that human nations all sprung from the three men and three women left some four thousand years ago : an hypothesis
opacceptable to scholarly minds . The article on " Political Party since the . Revolution" is hardly correct or complete . But we are quite with the writer in lamenting the disunion of Liberals , and the obstacles which this disunion is creating to the " Cause of Progress . " The writer thus winds up—Whatever be the character of the measures of the present Government , each successive day of their existence adds to the adherents of Toryism in the church and magistracy , on the judicial and episcopal benches , and delivers some stronghold of the Whigs into their hands . It is foolish to think of strengthening the army by
surposed to every known fact of extreme antiquit y and to all the evidence of language . " If the Hebrseo-African family be considered as an offshoot from Persia , then the Syro-ArabiansWould be " the rear of the emigration left behind after its peculiarities had fixed themselves unchangeably in the race ; but those to whom a manifold local origin of human races appears more reasonable , and who believe creative power to have , displayed itself independently in the man of China , the man of Persia , and
rendering the camp . The leaders may support liberal measures , but so long as they continue to harass each other ' s flanks , and refuse to gfce effect to their principles by the-adoption of any concerted line of action , they as virtually abandon the cause as if they went over to the enemy . How long will the country allow its liberal instincts to be neutralized by chronic dissension ? How long will country gentlemen register ; artisans and mechanics leave their looms and anvils for the polling-booth , and busy townspeople perspire in
the man of Africa , will perhaps , of necessity , regard the Syro-Arabians as an early efflux from Africa . " The reviewer does not , however , follow the subject further , but leaves the question of the number of primitive centres of population , and of a j ingle centre , without other discussion . The Tifinagh alphabet is examined and compared with the modern Hebrew . It is an alphabet very remarkable , consisting partly of letters from the Western alphabet , and partly of a peculiar system of dots and lines . Thus , ctleph is represented Tby . —vau by : —nun by __//»*)! . »•/ Kir I I __»/ Y *» i >/» A Viw fZ \—n /* Vtv ~ 1 f——Irnnh nv ¦ ¦
close committee-rooms , to return a Liberal majority to Parliament , which virtually annihilates itself as ! soon as it gets into Westminster ? If these divisions continue , the country a * the next general election , which cannot bo far distant , will not only have to secure a majority of Liberal members , but to take upon itself the functions of those members , in organising a party , prescribing a policy , and naming a leadership . The public interests suffer when tho weak rule by the dissensions of the strong .
Vtfft * fc * W KfJ _ V *» ## » V */ r » * JTT \^ f X tJ J Im •» W | W «« ' ¦ * , / . . . —~ he by ... . —and other letters by characters winch we cannot so readily represent . The reviewer considers tho jod , teth , beth , and daleth as belonging to the Egypto-Phceni cian alphabet , or , as he says , indirectly originating from the Punic . We take a stronger view with regard to the four letters referred to , and would add to them the mim and the resh , and believe on further stud y the list will be extended . The Tifinagh is likely to prove a very interesting contribution to that extraordinary chapter in primitive history , the alphabet . The beth wo have no doubt
The National Review begins with an articlo on Carlyle ' s History of Frederick the Great , or , as he calls him , on some strange philological crotchet , Friedrich , and in which Carlyle ' s affectation , extravagances , and exaggerations are b y no means spared . The merits of tho work arc acknowledged , but it is carefully dissected . The " Relations of Franco and England" is tho heading of an artiole in which the antagonism . and alliances of the two countries arc historically treated , and with a result the value of which our rcadors , as they oithor do not know France or do know it , will judge of by the following statement ,: — As to the mass of the population [ of France ] , the time is now long past when the name of England oxoitcd their passionate hostility . " Tho " Soulpturos from Halicarnossus " is an , archaeological discussion on the
excaabout , It takes nearl y the form of 6 , but is thereby much nearer to tho hieroglyphic for " house" than the modern Hebrew is . There are several forms of daleth , one of them is A . Teth is represented bytwo forms of m , and there is a peculiarity not pointed out by the reviewer that many ot tho letters have a perpendicular form and an liorfaqntnj form , or tlio same typo placed perpendicularly or honjontolly . whioh is another feature of antiquity . The m we are inclined to consider of tho mm type , and the resh wo think , in its two forms of a square and circle , may have originated in tho hieroglyphic or Puma .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 9, 1858, page 21, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_09101858/page/21/
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