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Leader (1850-1860), 19th December 1857, Edition 2 of 2, Page 18

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      Essays On The French Revolution. Essays ...

      personal intrigues . Lord Holland , at all events , went too far in his record of aspersions . But ttat , politically , Marie Antoinette was guilty of treason against the French people , when she hurried on the invading armies , whose leaders had threatened not to leave a stone of Paris standing , there is no longer the trace of a , doubt . Mr . Croker ' s views on the subject belong altogether to a past age , and have been set aside by documentary evidence so strongly corroborated as to he unimpeachable . Whatever the amount of her moral innocence , the Queen , as a state character , -was guilty of encouraging foreign armies to march upon the French capital , in order to

      override the existing laws . When the Essayist comes to describe the execution of Xouis XVI ,, he falls into the old error concerning his imperturbable majesty , courage , and dignity , whereas it is iiow proved that he died struggling with his executioners , howling and shouting , and presenting a pitiable spectacle of abasement and fury . But what shall be said of the historical basis of 3 VDr . Croker's sardonic invective , when we find him relating again and again , the false and ghastly anecdote that Mademoiselle de Sombreuil drank a cup of blood as the price of her father ' s pardon ? Never was a popular story more thoroughly dissipated than this . It has been shown—and evert / juure murwugui / uibsipitieu man cuis . it uas ueen snown— -ana every

      witness of the scene has been cited—that the young girl , fainting upon the scaffold , was offered a cup of water by one of the attendants , and that a drop of blood fell into it accidentally . For a critic , Mr . Groker was liable ¦ to mase singular mistakes . Indeed , the obliquity of his temper un 6 tted him for criticism . He possessed more of the qualities of a judge . He might , indeed , have sat ¦ on the bencli with some of the black-browed Terrors in horse-hair wigs , ¦ who shouted down all controversy , but he never wrote mildly , calmfy , or persuasively ; indeed , persuasion was not his object . He was too ready with his club to depend on his tongue , and when he thought a book ww . going to pieces on the wheel , he enjoyed the contemplation of his victim so much that he omitted to notice the ambiguous dances of the When

      public . we say this of John Wilson Croker , we do not deny his talents . Had he not been one-sided and malevolent , he might have been a critic . As it was , he should have been nothing else than an antiquary . The only agreeable fragment in the volume of essays before us is an inquiry into the history ot the guillotine . Of course , it is but a prelude to « n incarnadined ' picture ; of the Revolution in its earlier days , but that ¦ WS 3 to be expected , and had the writer confined himself to a denunciation ^> f butchery «~ inoapable as lie was of comprehending what the butchery implied—his sympathies might have been respected ; but he huddles together A thousand men and represents them as bloody and diabolical dastards ; he would have made , we fancy , a terrible Commissioner , had he been educated a Jacobin , and sent orders to some new M . Guidon for boisde justice His account of the guillotine , as we have said , is curious and very interesting . The popular notion—in this case discarded by Mr . Croker—is to

      che eflect that ¦ the instrument was invented by Dr . Guillotin . Now , Dr . Guillotin ^ orily suggested its use , though he afterwards claimed to have been its inventor j M . Louis , secretary to the College of Surgeons , presided over the construction of the first engine of the kind employed during the Revolution ; but the old Halifax gibbet - was a decapitating apparatus upon the same principle ; and the Edinburgh Maiden was another—that maiden which the young Earl of Argvle said , in 1685 , was the sweetest he ever kissed . Mr . Croker discovered several engravings indicating that the plan of executing criminals by means of a ponderous blade Jailing between grooves was ancient , and in noway originally due to the genius of Dr . Guillotin . The doctor ' s name , indeed , was attached to it through the agency of a burlesque ballad , and he seems to have been proud of his false and accidental reputation . Mr . Croker ' s account of the guillotine would be read extensively if it were better known .

      1218 The Lead Eb. Rgo. 404. Ilmnm.' Io -...

      1218 THE LEAD EB . rgo . 404 . IlMnm . ' io -. q K ?

      Beligion In Common Life. Iz($I»An'i Cont...

      BELIGION IN COMMON LIFE . iZ ( $ i » an ' i Contribution to the Knowledge and Practice of Iteliyion in Common -Life . Being the Substance of a Course of Conversational Lessons , introductory to the Study of Moral Philosophy . By William Ellis . Smith , Elder , and Co . Coxjwo Mr . Ellis have compressed his lessons within a smaller compass , we should have praised his work as really useful and valuable . But can the author anticipate that the juvesile philosophers for whom his instructive teaching is intended will wade through five hundred pages of ethics ? and if they will not , the results of hia labours are injudiciously circumscribed . " * Religion in Common Life' is not a sermon on religious conduct ; it is an explanation of the duties of life , or rather , tint moral principles of elementary

      human conduct , showing by what means the objects of living , comfort , and happiness are most reasonably attainable . It is an answer to many questions which frequently rise up in the mind of persons desirous to live virtuously xuad religiously , and yet are perplexed what course to take . It is , in a word , the introduction to the ' science of being and of doing good . ' By thus emulating and enforcing the elementary doctrines of Political Economy , ox , aa we should prefer to call it , of Industrial and Social Science , Mr . Ellis has dona valuable service to tho young . ' Trust in Providence and keep your powder dry * should he his motto , or more appropriately , ' Help yourselves and God will help you . The necessity of personal exertion , of forming industrious habits , of acquiring the rule * and principles of judicious

      action , so as to think and do with discretion , h laid down strictly in tho treatise . No greater instance of the diseased morality in which some children are educated cm be adduced than ^ that given by Mr . Ellis . " I h » vo mat with children , ' he aaya , " who have told me > when askwi how they hoped to get their food , clothing , and shelter after they were grown up , that they would pray for then *; " and we cannot imagine a more fatal error than this practical predostinarian view of life being inculcated into the youthful mind , as it too frequently is , either intentionally or unintentionally , by imprudent and inconsiderate religious professors . The superiority * of the civilised over the aavage state is well illustrated . The savage , relates Mr . Ellia to bis juvenile readers , is all Btomach . Tho civilised man ia head and stomach . The cravings , tho gratifications of vrhich . constitute , the happiness of the savage , ore march / animal . Tho cxavings , the gratification of which constitutes the happiness of the civilized

      man , are animal also , and much besides . A We nirf r , f Mo — ^ " present enjoyment is to be satisfied only b yVovfdlriS ^^ fvS , w ? ° ^^ tsiss ^ ^ rsf ^^^^^ Ihe pains oi hunger are compensated to . Win by pleasured Stoker unknown to the savage—there of anticipation . In the course o ?? heSe lectures Mr . Whs attempts to show that uninterrupted abundance of the SSSKu ^ S ?™!^ arc attainable onl ^ bv a certain ^ uW of

      - ^ ^ conduct-that industry alone is not sufficient to procure a ^ uu 3 neTbu that there must be knowledge and skill as well as habits of economy He then explains the various ways in which men work for the purpose of supplying their wants , how a partici pation in wealth or the produce of industry is needed by all , what are the means by which those who possess no wealth prevail upon its possessors to grant them some of it , how tlie efforts ot capitalists are directed to acquire as much profit as possible , and in what cousist the relations between landlords and tenants . Money as a medium of exchange and measure of value , the ethics of buvin ^ and selling

      the morals of credit , the duties of the well-disposed growing out of the illconduct of others , the present state and prospects of socFety as respects the stock of wealth , the duties of capitalists , and the duties of labourers , are subjects handled in an elementary form in the pages of the present volume ; whilst the whole is wound up by considering man as somethin » moi-e than an industrial niacliine , a mere human automaton . °

      The Three Clerks. The Three Clerks. A J^...

      THE THREE CLERKS . The Three Clerks . A J ^ oveL By Anthony Trollope , Author of' Barcliester Towers . ' ( Bentley . )—Mr . Anthony Trollope has had three genuine successes as a novelist . The third , we think , is the most remarkable . In this new work the scene of action is wider , the interest is more variedj die characters are drawn from more general classes . The three clerks , whose histories are narrated , belong to two government offices , and in a quiet family at Hampton Court they find their counterparts--tb . r . ee graceful girls , of whom one is proud in her passion , another capricious , another wild . Perhaps the dififerences of their natures are more strongly marked than Mr . Trollope intended . However , he now presents himself with .-a romance of modern love , and subtly and delicately has he developed it , but without hanging before bis groups a gauze of theatrical unreality , pallidly glimmering with

      moonshine . The spirit of the book is healthy , natural , vigorous * Mr . Trollope has studied the world , and without being wholly artist or philosopher , or poet , infuses philosophy into his art and imagination into his philosophy , so as to render the novel what a novel should be . Neither The Warden nov BarcJiester Towen had prepared us for . so much that is tragic and touching as we find in The Three Clerics ; contrasted with many variations of humour , satire , and social criticism . All the incidents belong to the present day ; the terrors are those of Milbank , not of Otranto ; the agony of separation is that of a young wife whose husband is about to start for the Old Bailey in a cab , and surrender upon recognizances to take his trial

      for a breach of trust . All this part of the novel is strangely true to life , and very mueH do we admire Mr . Trollope ' s treatment of these conspicuous aspects of our times . Without disclosing too much of the plot , we will add that the conclusion of the story is adroit and satisfactory , the ' everlasting fitness of things' being held in view , without the introduction of any repulsive catastrophe . Yet by many readers the principal charm of these volumes will be attributed to their rapid and sparkling now of ironical portraiture—toned down , as the finest irony invariably is , by interludes of wise and wholesome seriousness . The Civil Service , we should say , will allow little rest to the circulating librarians until its clerks of nil grades have glanced into the mirror set in a paper frame by Mr . Anthony Trollope . The Three Clerks is a novel of uncommon and pecuLiar merit .

      Novellettes. The Exiles Of Kali/. By C. ...

      NOVELLETTES . The Exiles of Kali / . By C . G . II ., Author of * The Curate of Liuwood . ' ( Edinburgh : Constable and Co . )—This tale , based on historical materials , has a political design ; it is intended to deepen tho sympathies of England with the present sufferings of the Italian race , and the elaborate relation reaches its close among the orange-blossoms of last summer , "in all cases where circumstances permitted , the real names have been given of the personages introduced ; and ( Avith one single exception , tho incident of Bassi in the ltobbers' Cave ) the account of their lives , actions , and sullerings , and of tho deaths of those among them whose names huvo been added to the list of their country ' s martyrs , is simply true . " We have traced certain lines of biography through the volume and have found nothing to suggest that the writer has dealt extravagantly with those events which , in Italy , have made so many martyrs and exiles ; au Italian spirit " warms the style , it is true , but it is one attraction of the book that it oilers a view oi" modern Italian life drawn by an Italian pencil . Tho more extensively the story is circulated the better will tho public in England understand why the most beautiful countries of the world arc the most unhappy , the most discontented , and tho least disposed to obey when wisdom whispers , " Pence , be still !" The Year Nine : a Talc of the Tyrol . By tho Author of ' Mary Powell . ' ( Arthur Hall and Co . )—Tho Year Nino is the ninth year of the present century . Tho Btory is that of Iiofer , patriot of the Tyrol , shot by tho Austrians at Mantua . The authoress writes with her usual care , producing a series of iinished sketches of life , character , and maun era among the mountains , and gathering around her central group an interest of the modern heroic kind . Wo xaavk no literar y progress in ' Mary Powell ; ' but it is high praise to say that there is no falling-on" from the original accuracy and vigour of her etyle * her faculty for descriptivo narrative , or the sympathy with human nature which has so oftou given , her power over tlic emotions of her readers .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 19, 1857, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_19121857/page/18/