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Jxjlt 22, 1854.] THE LEADER. &&j
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'3f > t4ivt*r*fi*t i i> ^L'tlvl Utli v K*
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Cn.ti.cs are not the legislators, but th...
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It may be important and welcome news to ...
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The new number of the Quarterly Review i...
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We referred last week to tho absolute st...
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.
Jxjlt 22, 1854.] The Leader. &&J
Jxjlt 22 , 1854 . ] THE LEADER . && j
'3f ≫ T4ivt*R*Fi*T I I≫ ^L'Tlvl Utli V K*
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Cn.Ti.Cs Are Not The Legislators, But Th...
Cn . ti . cs 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 .
It May Be Important And Welcome News To ...
It may be important and welcome news to some of our readers to hear that The GtriM ) or Literature and Art "has Orbtarned the sanction of an Act of Parliament , and that fche long-deferred statement of the objects and rules of the society is at last to be published . The delay in the production of this statement—which has "been viewed in certain quarters in no charitable spirit' —has , we are informed , arisen in the main from two causes . In the first place , the accounts of the amateur company could not be closed until the Theatrical Property was disposed of ; and this property , appealing of necessity to a very narrow circle of purchasers , remained some months on
hand before it could be advantageously disposed of . In the second place , when the scheme of the society was prepared for publication , it was discovered tliat the objects of the guild were of so comprehensive a nature , that the public announcement of them in a printed form would be punishable ¦ with a penalty , in consequence of cei-tain recent enactments , unless the society previously obtained the sanction of a Charter or an Act of Parliament . This second obstacle occasioned of course a second delay , and retarded , up to the present period , the publication of the society ' s scheme . As soon as that scheme reaches tia , we hope to return at greater length to the subject of the Guild of Literature and Art .
The New Number Of The Quarterly Review I...
The new number of the Quarterly Review is more generally interesting than -usual . It opens with an article on the Hotise of Commons ; not very carefully written as to style , but amusing as to matter—being evidently the production of a writer thoroughly 'well acquainted with his subject , and capable of presenting it to the minds of his readers in a graphic and lively way . Sketches of Parliamentary manners and customs , and some clever pen-andink portraits of famous Parliamentary men , mainly occupy the article , which the general reader will be glad to hear keeps commendably free from political disquisition or antiquarian research . Another interesting contribution to this quarter ' s number is a paper on the modern drama in England . The writer of the article manfully steps out of the -wearisome beaten track , and is actually satisfied with our present actors , and sanguine as to the future prospects of the " British Drama ! " We cordially subscribe to what he says on these two points ; and , as to a third , we go a little beyond
him . When the next great tragic actor appears , we most sincerely hope that he "will not come out in Shakspeare ; The inexhaustible delio-ht of reading Shakspeare ' s poetry is too often confounded by managers , actors and critics , with the terminable enjoyment of seeing Shakspeare ' s plays . It is one thing to open the pages of Hamlet over and over again , and another thing to witness the acted story of Hamlet over and over again . " When people have seen that stoi'y performed—as all play-goers have—at least half a dozen times , they must , and do , begin to grow weary of it , though it is Shakspeare ' s . Let us have our ndw man ( when we get him ) , or new woman ( when she comes to enslave us ) , in new plays , -where neither lady nor gentleman need challenge comparison with their respective predecessors , or disadvantageously exhibit themselves as interpreters of a story , which long experience has made the audience thoroughly well acquainted with beforehand .
A third article , which will be read with equal interest and profit , gives thc History of the rise , progress , and present condition of the Electric Telegraph , both at home and abroad . The following account of the first application of thc telegraph to police purposes , on the Great Western Railway , is very curious and remarkable—quite an episode in the social history of our own times : — " Tho following extracts nro from tlio telegraph book kept at the Fuddington station .- — " ' Kton IWontcm day , August 28 , 18-1-1 . —The Commissioners of Police have issued orders that several ollicers of the detective force shall bo stationed at PmUlington to watch the movements of suspicious persons , going by the down-train , and give notice by the oloctriv telegraph to tho Slough btaiion of the number of such suspected persons , and dross , their names if known , also the carriages in which they nro . ' " Now come the messnges following ono nftor tlie other , and influencing tho fate of the marked individuals with all tho celerity , certainty , andealmncss of the Nemesis of ' thoOreek drama :.
—" ' Pnudtngton , 10 . 20 . a . m . — " Mail trnin just atnvtod . It contains three thicvos , named Sparrow , Uurrcll , and tfpurgcon , in the iirst compartment of tho fourth lirst-class carnage . " "' Slough , 10 . 48 . a . m . —" Mail tva ' w arrived . The officers have cautioned the three thieves . " " ' Piiddington , 10 . 50 , a . m . — " Special train just loft . It contained two thieves : ono namedI Oliver Martin , who in dressed in bhiok , crnpa on his hat ; tho other namod Fiddler Dick , in Muck trousevn and light blouoo . Both in tlio third compartment of tho first soeondclatts carriage , " " ' Slougli , 11 . 1 G . a . ]\ i . — Special tmin arrived . Officers luwo taken tho two thieves into custody , 11 lady having lout hur hug , containing a purra with two sovereigns and some silver
in it ; ono of tho Hnvoruigiis was sworn to hy the lady no having boon lior property . Jt whs ionnd in Fiddler Dick ' s watch-fob . "' « x / " It appears that , on tho arrival of tlio train , a policcmnn opnned tho door of tho ' third compart went <> t the lira I tiecond-chiwH mrring <' , ' aixl aakod tlio piiHsoiiKOJH if they had minncd iinytlring P A sc-aroh in pockets and Im ^ n nccordiiinlj canned , until oihi lady culled out thai Her puiMfl w , m gone . ' Fiddler Dick , you are wanted , ' was tho inimcdiutn dornnnd of tho ]> oiio < M > lllc <> r , beckoning to tlio culprit , vlio c / uno out of thn oarringo thunderstruck , at the uiacovory nud rhvo hiiimolf up , togvtlicr with llxsbooly , with the uir of a completely bonten \> oo ] ' ° ' ° "l ' luro H 0 ul ° v < irly broughL about in thus npoko « of in tho telograph
flnwn ^ i £ ' | J '\ ' *} i . -r ~ " Several of tho suspeoted p « u"Hona who onmo hy tho various onoof tllZ on , i , ? nbout ^ "H ' " ' " ttCTi " K •> " ««* invectives against tho telegraph . Not ono o < tlioso cautioned him vonturodto lu-occodto tho Montem . " '
" Ever after this the light-fingered gentry avoided the railway , and the too intelligent companion that ran beside it , and betook themselves again toT ; he road—a retrograde step , to which On all great public occasions they continue to adhere . " Abotrt six months after the date of these entries , the foulest murder of modern , times was eo-ttttnJtted near Slough , and the telegraph became famous throughout the length and breadth of t & e land , toy securing the arrest of the murderer—Taw * : u ,. Another interesting passage is this short Tiatrative of the akaimer in < tohich the telegraph was first Bet "ap in Switzerland : — " The history of the telegraph in Switzerland is an evidence of what yatriotie feeling is capable of accomplishing . Although by far the best and most extensive for a mountainous country in the world , it was constructed by the spontaneous e'fibrts of the ' people . The peasantry gave their free labour towards erecting the "wires -and poles , tie 'l andlords found the timber and gave the Tight of wdy over their lands , and the communes provided station rooms in the towns . Thus the telegraph was completed , so to speak , for nothipg . The tne
peculiarity or Swiss telegraph is that , like the great wall of Ohina , it "proceeds totally regardless of ttoe mature of ^ he ground . It climbs the pass-of the : Simfflon in proceeding from Geneva to Miian—ifc goes over St . Gothard in its way from Lacerne to Como—it mounts the Splugen , and again it goes from Feldkirch to lunspruck by the A ' rlberg'pasathus astenaing tlie grfcat'chain of the Alps as though it were only a geafle hillside . The wires ¦ co urse along the lakes of Lucerne , Zug , Zurich , and Constance ; sometimes they are nailed . to precipices , sometimes they make short cuts over unfrequented spurs of the tocrantains—going every way , in short , that it is fonnd most'convenient to hatig them . The-completion'of the telegraphic system of this little republic , which stands in tlie same relation to Southern as Belgium does to Northern Europe , was of great consequence , as it forms the key-stone between France , Prussia , Austria , Piedmont , aild Italy . " " Wonderfully as tlie telegraph strides through Switzerland , over mountain and valley alike , the most impressive situation which it has yet seized , ou is at Rome . There , the messenger of modern civilisation has invaded the mightiest ruin that remains to tell us of the barbarism of the old world The electric telegraph crosses the Colosseum !
From the Quarterly we must now turn to tlie Edinburgh , and find that we have not changed for the better—principally , perhaps , because we have no relish left for retrospective political articles on the subject of the present war . We are as patriotic as most people , in our own 'way , and as anxious as all critical gentlemen ought to be , to give our readers the fullest and latest literary news . But we really cannot ? read any more about the "Diplomatic History of the Eastern Question" ( which is the first article in the new Edinburgh "}—we are also in much the same predicament in respect to the " Orders in Council on Trade during the War" ( which is the sixth article )—and as for the " Russian War of 1854 " ( which is the last article ) , we know quite enough already about its past history , and are only anxious for information about its future prospects . From these subjects , 'and from
other political topics , which occupy nearly nine-tenths of the apace -in the present Edinburgh , we turn to the . only literary article in < the number , and find it to be a deeply-learned review of Hebmatsst ' s JEschyhis . After looking through this , we finally address ourselves to an essay on a subject of general home interest— " Teetotalisin ; and -Laws-against the Liquor Trade . " Here there are some pages which readers of all kinds will find pleasure in examining . Amazing extracts from teetotal literature are given ; and , in a note , we have a fac-simile of the teetotal afms—a bottle Tampant , with a muscular arm , a hand , and a threatening hammer , opposite : the effect of which device upon us is , that the owner of this muscular arm is in such a hurry to swallow the liquor in the rampant bottle that , instead of waiting to uncork it , he has precipitately made up his mind to knock the neck off " .
We have not done with the Reviews yet . The Nezo Quarterly claims notice , and deserves all praise , as a very complete book of reference for all buyers and borrowers of contemporary literature . In a critical point of view , this useful periodical will increase in value , when tlio contributors write in a less flippant style than that not adopted by the majority of them . The Freemasons' Quarterly Magazine varies the necessarily technical nature of most of its articles very agreeably and usefully , by a travelling story from thc pen of Mr . Dudley Costello , and by some pleasant antiquarian pages dedicated to The Tomb of John Slowe . The Southern Quarterly Review reaches us from America , and imitates the English Reviews closely enough , but has no feeble prejudices , on that account , in favour of England . In an article called " Africans at Home , " the writer accuses thc British of aiming at the destruction of the Caffre race , with the object , as ho subsequently suggests , of teaching them u to use opium ! " Surely the staff of tho SoutJiern Quarterly must include a Chinese gentleman to write the foreign articles ?
We Referred Last Week To Tho Absolute St...
We referred last week to tho absolute stagnation of literary enterprise in Franco . Thc drama in Paris , however , still shows abundant symptoms of vitality . A new play has been produced at tho Tiibatru Fhancais , with Voltaire for n horo . We arc told that it was admirably acted and "justly applauded ; " and wo therefore recommend it to tho attention of Mr . Wig an , who anight mako a " part" of Voltaire . At the Gymna . sk , the last novelty has been a drama oallod Les Cantrs d'Or , written to contradict the theory of the marble-hearted nature ofladieB of easy virtue , ns advanced in Las ladles
da Ilarbre—which tho ' reader muy remember was itself a rebuke ad ministered to the "inoxtingiuslmblo ! sympathies" of thc younger Or ; mas for " courtesans , ' ns expressed in tho Dame aux CainJlias . Tlio rolativo mories of the Cardinal Virtues and tho Easy Virtues scorn likely , al this rate , to fonnd quite a new drama of niorul recrimination . Wo liuvo had already tho proposition , the rejoinder , and tho reply . What is to como next ? Possibly a theatrical sunun ' ing-up by a dramatist with a jti < lic-iul mind , who , in regard both to tho Cardinal Virtues and the Easy Virtues , -will strictly confine hitawelf to taking a middle course ?
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 22, 1854, page 15, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_22071854/page/15/
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