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568 . .._ THE LEABEE. [No. 377, Sat™™.
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irtbratoit. ¦
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» • . --' Critics are not the legislator...
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The week has been saddened by the death ...
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We have often had occasion to remark on ...
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We have just received the first number o...
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'The Dead Secket' which since the commen...
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A DANISH STORY. tha To bo, or not to bet...
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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Transcript
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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.
568 . .._ The Leabee. [No. 377, Sat™™.
568 . .. _ THE LEABEE . [ No . 377 , Sat ™™ .
Irtbratoit. ¦
ct fmthro .
» • . --' Critics Are Not The Legislator...
» . -- ' Critics are not the legislators , but the judges and police of literature . They do not make laws—they interpret and try to enforce them . — Edinburgh Review .
The Week Has Been Saddened By The Death ...
The week has been saddened by the death of Douglas JERROU > ,- ^ -earried off suddenly by one of those acute attacks to which he had been so often liable . We are bereaved of one of our most popular moralists , and most vigorous writers , at a time , perhaps , when we were most feelingly conscious of the power and vitality of his genius . Jerrold ' s life seems to have been destined to thwart the theories of system-makers . Born in a seaport town ,
with a brave and ardent disposition , it was natural that he should take to the sea ; natural , with his love of liberty , that he should resent the oppressions of naval life ; and the young midshipman was taken from the promised glories , and consigned to the humble labours of the compositor . He had tried a brilliant career and failed , and was to be a working man ! But if ever genius could be repressed , certainly that of Jerrold was not of such mould . While he was still a compositor , he showed something of his temper as an author , and soon after delighted the world with a reminiscence of his sea life wedded to art , in Black-Eyed Susan . The dull workman , who was unfit to be an officer , became a brilliant dramatist ; but the playwright , who was then pronounced to be fit to wait upon T . P . Cooke , soon developed powers of satire that have seldom been equalled . Your satirist is often either a crabbed man , having few sympathies with his kind , or a
closet man : Jerrold was neither ; he was a man of the world ; a man of fine , full heart . His satire , therefore , was used as the weapon on the side of right , and especially on the side of the helpless . His experiences amongst the working men had shown him the darker side of society , and he was a reformer ; his sea-life had given him boldness and animation , and had freed him from many restraints that might have bound a mere landsman ; and thus it was that the boy who was not strong enough to be a middy , the man who was too fanciful to be a compositor , became one of our most downright and popular politicians . Perhaps there were few examples of men who more thorouglily negatived the Laputan notion of the day , that capacity can be found out by ' examination' in school studies . From the necessity of the circumstances his education was irregular , and his temper was of a kind to have rebelled against examination pedantries . Yet who more able to handle facts , and to turn them inside out so as to show their true meaning , than Jerrold ?
The last number of the Revue de Paris contains a striking article on M . Leon de Laborde ' s recently published work , Be V Union des Arts et de VIndustrie . The . author of this work—a member of the French Commission at the Great Exhibition—was appointed to draw up a report on the Fine Arts , and the various branches of industry connected with them , and two elaborate volumes , with the above title , are the result . The first volume * devoted to the past , contains an historical sketch of the progress of the arts , with an account of the particular works and general style of the various nations represented at the Exhibition . In the second volume , entitled ' The Future , ' and occupied with the author ' s plans for the re . organisation of the arts , he details minutely and at length the various
reforms which the present state of the arts , both fine and industrial , imperatively demand in France . Amongst these , at the outset he urges that the people should be trained in art , and the artists educated . Under the former head he insists strongly on the doctrine which our own schools of art in connexion with Marlborough House are established to enforce—that thorough elementary instruction in art should , like reading and writing , form an indispensable part of ordinary education . In discussing the latter point—the general education which artists ought to have—he gives a most startling picture of the ' abyss of ignorance in which they are plunged , ' and in which it seems they contentedly live . According to M . de Laborde , many distinguished French artists can scarcely read or write ; and he attributes the present degradation of French art in great measure to this deplorable ignorance . The Great Exhibition of 1851
proved that in decorative art our neighbours across the water wore superior to ourselves ; and we arc accustomed to think that many branches of art at least arc in a flourishing condition in France . It is instructive therefore to note what a low and almost despairing view both author and critic tako of the existing state of French art . The critic , M . DU Camp , in particular , compluins terribly of the present state of things , and urges the most sweeping reforms . Ho would abolish for instance the French school at Home , which ho says only perpetuates a disastrous stylo of painting , destroys originulity , and stamps with the seal of hopeless mediocrity all its distinguished pupils . In the same way he would at once suppress the Academy of Fine Arts , as not only usolcss but dangerous . Its very existence is a standing excuse for feebleness and negligent execution . " Wo all know by experience , " ho wickedly aays , " that there ia no connexion between the works of a master and those of an
Academician . In order to be strong , Art must bo absolutely free ; and its development will bo arrested when controlled by a body of men , ostimablo enough perhaps in many respects , but who on principle look only towards tho past , rarely see the present , and systematically despise the future Instoad of encouraging original efforts , the Aoademy , by a natural conservative instinct , denounces and represses them . " Dolenda eat Acadomict , therefore , is his motto . He concludes b y a lamont over tho present state of Franco and tho impossibility of realizing M . de Labokde's industrial and oosthctio rofonns while
she continues so characteristically a military nation " Figures" i "" " arc said to have their eloquence , and we conclude with some tW * n explain our whole thought . " The following , according to M de Labor ^ the yearly average of expenditure given by the budgets for the wl * years : — . . c len ARMEE DE TEBRE . ARMEE DE LA PAIX . . ARMEE DP M * . Miiiistere de la Guerre . Lettres et Beaux-Arts . Minister * dekAr S 28 , 558 , 042 fr . 3 , 96 M 43 fr . ^ 119 43 ? 96 lfr me ' After this , who will say that Chateaubriand was not right iu declarimr ti disheartening truth . — 'France is only a soldier ! ' ° " Wie
We Have Often Had Occasion To Remark On ...
We have often had occasion to remark on the careful study of our recent Literature displayed in its criticism of English authors by the Revue des Deux Mondes . The last number contains an article on Longfellow ' s Hiawatha re markable for subtle insight into the peculiar character of the poem , and genial criticism of its special merits . The writer , M . Emile Mont ^ gdt shows a thorough , appreciation of the poetic substance and form of Longfellow ' s Indian legend scarcely to be expected in a foreigner , and least of all in a Frenchman . He pronounces Hiawatha to be the most finished poem Loxgeellow has produced . Of the metre he says : "The melody of the verse rapid and monotonous , is like the voice of Nature , which never fatigues us though continually repeating the same sound . Two or three notes compose the whole music of the poem , melodious and limited as the song of a bird . " Describing the general character of Hiaicathu , he says : " The feelin" - for nature that pervades the poem is at once most refined and most familiar . The
poet knows how to give , as a modem , voices to till the inanimate objects of Nature ; he knows the language of the birds , he understands the murmur of the wind amongst the leaves , he interprets the voices of the running streams , aud yet , notwithstanding this poetic subtilty , he never turns aside to minute description , nor attempts to prolong , by reflection , the emotion excited . His poem , made with exquisite art , has thus a double character : it is Homeric from the precision , simplicity , and familiarity of its images , and modem from the vivacity of its impressions , and from the lyrical spirit that breathes in every page . "
We Have Just Received The First Number O...
We have just received the first number ot a new aud most nnportaut series of tracts , entitled Blue Books for the People , edited by Mr . Ed \ vakd " Waij ? O ] U ) , sometime scholar of Balliol College , Oxford . It is on Army education , being , in fact , an abstract of the report of the Commissioners appointed to consider the best mode of reorganising the system of training officers for the Staff " , which was presented to Parliament in February last . This abstract , made with great care and judgment , presents succinctly and compactly the pith and substance of the original report . It is a pocket pamphlet , well printed , the matter well arranged under appropriate headings , and containing sixtv-two pages of instructive and by no means uninteresting reading . tfie
The subject chosen for the first number of the scries is seasonable , Army Education Report being of public interest and importance just now , especially as the Horse Guards shows a decided disposition to shuffle out of the subject , and to shirk the recommendation of the commissioners . Sir De Lacy Evass is to bring the report before Parliament on the 30 th inst ., audit is therefore of the highest importance that the public should be fully informed on the question . Each number of tho new scries will be devoted to a single subject , and contains digest of the blue-books and parliamentary papers connected with it . Hie idea of thus bringing these hitherto inaccessible stores of valuable information within reach of the public is excellent , and the execution ia worthy of the idea .
'The Dead Secket' Which Since The Commen...
'The Dead Secket' which since the commencement of the present year has been the admiration and delight of thousands of readers in Household fiords , and has held half the homes in the country ia eager expectation and suspense , is concluded this week ; and simultaneously with the appearance of the last chapter in Household Words appears the whole story , re vised \ um characteristic and conscientious care , in two elegant and substantial volume beautifully printed by Messrs . Buadbuky and Evans . We shall have something to say in detail on this extremely remarkable work of fiction next wee . rcucl the story u
For the present , we simply recommend all our renders to rcits entire and perfect form ; to possess themselves of these two vouimcs ' an English classic not excelled , we aro bold enough to say , m whole range of fiction , for constructive art , for dear and ingenious nonauu' , for chaste and vigorous stylo , for generous and healthful morality , not su upon its chapters ( as in novels with a ' purpose' ) like a phylactery , or a uck a blind impostor ' s waistcoat , but breathing through tho whole book n mosphoro of purity , of kindness , of piety to God and man . \> o uoi iu tho ' Dead Socrot' will considerably cnlmnco tho high reputation ol tiio nu . not only in England , but in Franco and Germany , whero hia name is nut . 3 held in loving liouour and estooni .
A Danish Story. Tha To Bo, Or Not To Bet...
A DANISH STORY . tha To bo , or not to bet A Novel . By liana Christian Anderson . Trnnslawa ^^ Daolah by Mrs . Busbby . , for tho Tins ia rather a tale for certain sections of human nature uin w general mass of readers . It is a book to bo recommended by sow v ^^ at Exeter Hall during the May meetings ; or by mamw * ox , ig | , t gelical Alliance at the September conclave . 'Xho H «» JOP oi Juoi jt Sifltributo it from Fullium Palace , and tho King of 1 ' russ . a would j
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), June 13, 1857, page 16, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_13061857/page/16/
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