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Jamuaby 22, 1853.] THE LEADER. 89
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Xnttaiutt.
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Oritics are not fche legislators, but th...
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Should newspapers ignore Religion? This ...
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In the Lancet of the 15th inst., Dr. For...
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A new volume, the sixth, of Saintk Bkuvk...
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Whatever may be the political vicissitud...
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ItUTIL Bath. A novel. By tho author of "...
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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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.
Jamuaby 22, 1853.] The Leader. 89
Jamuaby 22 , 1853 . ] THE LEADER . 89
Xnttaiutt.
Xnttaiutt .
Oritics Are Not Fche Legislators, But Th...
Oritics are not fche legislators , but the judges and police of literat-ure . Thev do not make lawn—they interpret and try to enfoicethem . —Edinburgh Review .
Should Newspapers Ignore Religion? This ...
Should newspapers ignore Religion ? This somewhat startling question is forced from us by a courteously reproachful correspondent , who complains that we have " recently taken to the discussion of religion , and such discussions appear unfitted to a newspaper . " Our correspondent is in error in supposing that we have " recently" taken up this office . Our first number began it , and we have continued it on all suitable occasions . "We resolved upon taking the part we have taken , in the most serious
conviction of the duty of doing so . Its perils we foresaw ; indeed , we greatly exaggerated them , as the event has proved , for there is in England so true a feeling in favour of Liberty , that sincerity everywhere forces respect . We have not equivocated , we have not abated the expression of our convictions , and as in uttering our own we have studiously respected the convictions of others , claiming for them the same right we claimed for ourselves , we have met with the approbation and support of men of all creeds . What we have done we shall continue to do .
The question , however , Should a newspaper ignore Religion , and write as if there were no such thing ? is forced upon us by those who object . For it is quite clear that if we were orthodox , like the Standard , or the Guardian , or the Nonconformist , or if we tacitly assented like so many others we could name , there would be no objection , such as that raised by our correspondent . If Religion may be discussed by these papers , why may it not be discussed by others ? We hold opinions very emphatically opposed to those expressed in other journals , —are we to withhold them because they are not orthodox ? It is asking too much to ask it ! Religion cannot be ignored by any serious man . It pervades our life . We meet
it everywhere , in Politics , in Morals , in Art , in Literature ; and everywhere according to its sincerity and truth , it is either an impulse or an obstacle ; and we are told that a newspaper is not the place to discuss it in ! Where then ? What is the Press but an arena for the debate of principles ? What are Men of Letters but . a Priesthood ? If people are afraid to hear any opinions adverse to their own , they will , of course , only take papers which express their opinions ; and if the Church , with all its learning , with all its multiplied machinery , with all its prestige ( and with Truth into the bargain !) , cannot afford to let its adherents witness the occasional skirmishing of the Leader , it must rest on very insecure foundations .
In The Lancet Of The 15th Inst., Dr. For...
In the Lancet of the 15 th inst ., Dr . Forbes Winslow prints his lecture on Medico-Legal Evidence in Cases of Insanity , a lecture all lawyers and medical men will do well to read attentively , for there can be no doubt that the subject is in a pitiable state of confusion . On the one hand , the evidence of insanity wants thorough systematization . On the other , lawyers want a general comprehension of the nature of such evidence , and the value of medical testimony . Considering how often insanity is pleaded , both in criminal and civil cases , the importance of something like clear views on its evidence cannot easily be exaggerated . There is a vulgar prejudice respecting " mad doctors" which an advocate may always turn to account . Yet , although a " mad doctor" is not necessarily a competent person , he is presumptively more competent than another , whose special studies have lain elsewhere . In cases of poisoning , a chemist is listened
to ; no one exclaims " Oh , he is a chemist / ' as if that were against him ; but , let any one who has attempted , by study and practice , to qualify himself as a judge of mental diseases , be brought into the witness-box , to speak on the sanity of a criminal , and the sarcastic accusation " mad doctor " seems sufficient to discredit him ! It is true our psychology is in a hopeless condition . We cannot settle what insanity specifically is . We know a raving madman , and we know a sane citizen . But , when we descend to the niceties of the subject , we find demarcate
it us impossible to accurately " draw the line , " as we find it is to the animal from the vegetable , in the lower forms , however obvious the distinction between a cabbage and a cat . Delusion is no test . Sense of right and wrong is no test . Absence of motive is no test . Absence of power of self-control is no tcst-for , in anger , ( winch IIokack tells us is brief madness , " ) self-control is lost , when the anger has passed a certain limit There « no test hitherto proposed which some cases w . I ^ f ^'} f ^ wonderful ? We have not yet a science of mind in its healthy conditionhow , then , can we expect a science of insanity ?
A New Volume, The Sixth, Of Saintk Bkuvk...
A new volume , the sixth , of Saintk Bkuvk'b charming Consents da W " w 7 ll b very welcome to our readers , and We hasten to announce its p bltto . AhLn . > Carmi ^ Son . ™ Gay-Paul Lo « j . h Couki-k - i £ a ., makc ,. a , h-Duo .. ^ B ^^ -Marshal Makmont-Boh . kau-Et , Knnk--him 1 1 ^ « ^ ™ amonir the tonic * of these cauteries . We never liked Sainik Kiuuvfc m » well £ now He ha » found Inn vein . The ripe expend ** of age has mellowed both rtyle and thoughts . Ho was always , to use the phrase of IWnn , a 1 « 1 of charming Lenity well adapted to the spin of h » age -indium «_ ei tem oHs « us oc ^ ^^ da « £ --1 h , ha . Altrrnri with the alterations ol Ins tune , No longer in rtnuy
upon his ancient idols , a severity , however , which is nearer the mark than his former sweetness . On the whole we can name no such collection of Literary Portraits as these Causeries du Lundi . Another , and a very different work , Les Tables de Proscription de Louis Bonaparte et de ses complices , by the republican exile Pascal Duprat , will have more interest some years hence than it has now , for it will be a curious memoire pour servir to those who may be inquiring into the history of the coup d'etat . It gives the names and professions of the various exiles , with chapters of historical declamation intercalated . Frenchmen may be curious about it ; few Englishmen will care to read two volumes of such details .
Whatever May Be The Political Vicissitud...
Whatever may be the political vicissitudes of Continental Europe , the " nation of shopkeepers" knows how to make its game . We print Victor Hugo ' s burning invective against the coup d ' etat and its author ; and before his ink is dry , we are negotiating with the responsible editor of the Journal de I'Umpire for a quasi-official reply to Victor Hugo , an " eloquent" exculpation of the coup d ' etat , and a " glowing" eulogium of the hero of the Second of December . Meanwhile , we have already arranged with Victor Hugo for the publication of his indignant rejoinder . His
adjectives are ready boiling , only awaiting a few facts and dates . Thus trade works justice . Let us not be supposed to blame this impartial activity of our publishers . We only note the tranquil march of English industry . Birmingham sells muskets to the Kafirs , and supplies friend and foe indifferently with the instruments of deadly warfare ; in our shipyards , foreign , if not hostile , navies are replenished ; why should we hesitate , then , to turn an honest penny by the discords of French patriotism ? M . de la Guerronniere ' s apology for Napoleon III . will scarcely
make readers forget Napoleon le Petit . It is one of the feeblest and trashiest compilations ; a mere stringy rechavffe of stale articles of Le Pays , of Louis Napoleon ' s own speeches and proclamations , with a reprint of the author ' s pen and ink sketch of Louis Napoleon —( of which it was wittily said , II ne lui manque que le nez , " it only wants the nose to be perfect" )—and the official reports of the coup d ' etat . As a reply or a defence , this book is ludicrously inadmissible . It merely re-affirms , on the faith of people whom nobody believes , what has been refuted a thousand times by evidence the most incontestable . It has , however , one rare merit—that of
compendiously setting sidfc by side the Constitution and the Coup d etat ; the oath and the perjury ; the warlike declaration before the Peers , in 1840 , by the prisoner of Boulogne , and the pacific discourse of the Emperor , at Bordeaux , in 1852 . There are many pungent " formulas , " too , in M . de la Guerronniere ' s Apology . For instance , in one place he emphatically pronounces France to be a democracy ; while in another he affirms that the outrage upon the representatives of the people on the second of December avenged the humiliation of Louis XVI . in the Hall of the Jeu de Paume ! Why has not Louis Napoleon employed Granier de Cassagnac to write his Apology ? That reckless condottiere would have done the work far better than a rose-pink enthusiast , destitute even of the courage of mendacity , whose slipshod verbiage and emasculate phrases do not even succeed in provoking our indignation .
Itutil Bath. A Novel. By Tho Author Of "...
ItUTIL Bath . A novel . By tho author of " Mary Bar ton . " 3 vols . Chapman and Hall . Thk author of " Mary BartonJMias wisely done what very few authors see the windom of doing—opencd \ a now mine , instead of working the old one . Her previous success in the reg ions of Manchester life and manufacturing " evils , " would have seduced a less sagacious mind into a repetition of the old work under neWiames . She lms quitted the inky atmosphere of Manchester and its many miseries . Her story is not of tho struggle between employer ^ and employed ; it is the old and everrenewing struggle between Truth and Truth-seeming , virtue and convention , good deeds and bad names , —the trials and sorrows of a beautiful soul ' trying to adjust its life to the necessary imperfections which surround it in ' our semi-civilized condition . Hut It is not a " social" novel , but a moral problem worked out in iiction . A book so full of pathos , of love , and kindliness ; of charity in its highest and broadest meanings ; of deep religious feeling , and of line observation , you will not often meet with . It cannot be read with unwet eyes , nor with hearts uninfluenced . The lessons aro suggested , not preached ; they are not formally " inculcated , " but are carried straight to the soul by tho simple vehicle of the story . A contemporary critic has , indeed , raised a protest against the story and its teachings , lecturing the author , in his accustomed style of priggish pretension , on the " want of art" displayed in ono of the leading incidents ; so that in his ease we are forced to confess tho story has not carried its moaning home . We doubt , however , whether dircoter minds will / eel any such misgiving . At all events the point is worthy a brief discussion . This is tho ease : — ¦ . liuth , while yet a child—at least , in innocence , and scarcely more m years—is seduced by a young man , and by him subHequently abandoned . In her grief nho would have committed suicide , but for the mtorioronco of a DLsscmting minister , with whom she l . as previously formed a slight aemmii . tnnce . This minister , Mr . Benson , has all his active sympathy oxt ' itpd for her ilo calls his sister to aid him in the task ol saving tho vounff creature , not only from suicide , but from the world . They agreo to tako her home with them . Tho HwLor , womanlike , perceives the " eoiiflcquoncflB" of such an act , and her perception is intensified when sho learns that Jtuth is about to be a mother . To do an act of charity , and to shield both Buth and themselves from the harsh and mistaken judgements of conventional morality , she suggests that on going homo , Buth should be passed off as a widow . This is done , though not without vory
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 22, 1853, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_22011853/page/17/
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