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jwiy 26, 1851.] Cfje $,t alter. 709
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The ('up and tJm I.ip. lly I/mrii Jewry....
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We should do our utmost to encourage the...
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EXTRAORDINARY OCCURRENCE AT A RECENT BAL...
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¦ v A N G E I, O. If you have not seen R...
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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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I Books On Our Table. Tlic Omit Kxliibit...
*• to order . " As a refutation it is characterized by a readiness in the use of metaphysical commonplaces turned against the atheistic positions , but it does not strike home . Our own differences with Mr . Atkinson and Miss Martineau are—as the readers of the Leader know—both numerous and essential ; but it is one thing to differ from thes ' e writers , and another to agree with Dr . Bushnan ! The Law as to the Exemption of Scientific and Literary Societies from Parish and other Local Kates , & c . By George Tayler , Esq ., of the Inner Temple . Crockford , Essex-street .
This small volume is intended as well for the general as for the professional reader ; so that secretaries and managers , or committee-men , of the societies to which it refers , may understand it . Mr . Tayler has adinirably succeeded in his two-fold object of rendering the book useful to the lawyer , and intelligible to the general reader . On the one hand , the former has everything that he can desire , namely , the statutes creating the exemption , 6 and 7 Viet . c . 36 , complete ; a digest of all the cases which have been decided on the construction of that statute , and a verbatim report of the two recent and very important
cases relating to the Royal Manchester Institution and the Manchester Concert Hall ; on the other , the latter will find practical directions to enable societies to claim the exemption from rateability , forms of every kind , together with remarks on the policy of the statute . Many of the societies are deprived of the privilege of exemption in consequence of their letting their hall or theatre for public meetings and other purposes ; but the following remarks by Mr . Tayler on this point , may be well worthy of the attention of the managers and members of such societies : —
"A still more important point ( which has not yet been publicly mooted ) , is whether a Bociety may not occupy , within the statute , a part of its premises , and therefore be entitled to a partial exemption . As the letting is very frequently only of the lecture hall or theatre , this point may , in some cases , be well worth testing . It is clear that such societies are not entitled wholly to exemption ; but the statute does not seem to prevent their claiming and having the exemption as to all the remainder of their premises . Perhaps theCourt will be inclined to hold that the exemption is , as it were , personal to the society , and that , therefore , it must be wholly exempt , or liable , for all the property . The language of the statute does not make such a construction necessary ; and if a partial exemption were allowed , it would benefit to that extent many societies How wholly excluded . " ( P . 27 . )
In a note , p . 44 , the writer says : — " I would suggest to Mechanics' Institutes , and such institutions , not as a lawyer , but as a friend , the importance of a class , or classes , for the study of history . Our working-classes are commonly greatly deficient in this respect , as compared with their other knowledge ; and , indeed , in the education of all classes perhaps too little attention is paid to history . Among the working classes , however , there are large numbers of men who are keen and clever controversialists in morals , politics ,
metaphysics , and theology , if they are not far seeing and profound , and many of them have read extensively on these subjects ; but I fear that it is rarely that an intimate knowledge of history cm be found among them ; and this is the more to be regretted , as it is the element that is most wanting to complete their knowledge and their ability on the subjects I have mentioned ; for to erect a sound education of these , history is an ever requisite measuring-rod , if it is not the great plumb line ; and in political speculation it is the only chart . "
With these remarks we entirely concur ; for , as Cicero has it , " Not to know what has been transacted in former times is to continue always a child . " If no use is made of the labours ot" past ages , the world must remain always in the infancy of knowledge . Tho Expositor , A weekly recorder of inventions , designs , and artmanufacturcH , is a repertory also of art-illustrationa , combining every object of public and present interest in its chosen department . The parts in which it is issued periodically , ur «; elegant and attractive in a high degree . It i » , indeed , an adaptation of Mcicntiiic and manufacturing literature to the drawing-room table .
Jwiy 26, 1851.] Cfje $,T Alter. 709
jwiy 26 , 1851 . ] Cfje $ , t alter . 709
The ('Up And Tjm I.Ip. Lly I/Mrii Jewry....
The (' up and tJm I . ip . lly I / mrii Jewry . Newby . Itcfurmatory for the Children of tho I ' uitHliiu ^ and DaiifrcroiiH ( JliiKacu , ami for Juvunilt : OiitMidrrH . li y Mury Carpenter . »; . « iilpin . A Worhl-ttinhraciiifr Faith ; or , Kdi (; iotiH Whitipers from the Kxliibition of IiuIiihU y . K . T . Whilliclil . How to Hoe the ' Exhibition in Four Viuitii . 15 y W . lilancliaul Jeriold . llrudbiiry and HvatiH . TIkliouoi ' h FioioiiiNu . —If parents wore really uh
anxious that their children should love ( Jod , ns th . it they should love themselves , they would um ; the Baino ineniiH for exciting thin love ; they would not ho much enforce it us u duty that lie should foe lovod and thanked , an lead the child to do ho of his own accord ; they would endeavour that lie should be UMttociated in their minds with every ideti ot cheerfulnt'flb and enjoyment , and thus lay tho foundation for » pure , rational , and eflicient religiouH principle , tho ?* "y m ) Ulco <> f penuunont huppiuefts . —Education of the Feelings , by Charles Bray .
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We Should Do Our Utmost To Encourage The...
We should do our utmost to encourage the Beautiful , for the Useful encourageB itself . —Gokthe .
Extraordinary Occurrence At A Recent Bal...
EXTRAORDINARY OCCURRENCE AT A RECENT BAL MASQUE . EXTRACT OT A LETTER . FROM AN EMINENT GERMAN
TO A FRIEND AT . London , June 22 , 1851 . You must not publish in the paper of our native town what I am going to relate , as it would ill repay the hospitality which I have received , in consideration less , perhaps , of my own scientific reputation , than of my diplomatic position , and of my father , whom I find to be very popular in England . None of the journals mention the event ;—which I must confess interested me more than anything I have encountered in the world of science assembled here in London .
It would take a more artistic pen than mine to describe to you the brilliancy of those great saloons , or the general splendour of the company . So far as I am a judge , the costume was well revived , —that is to say , the dress ; the moral costume , the manner and spirit , I thought to be less perfectly renewed . The assumption of a costume in such a festival challenges a certain expectation of dramatic harmony which did not result . Although the English have had some good actors on the stage—at least so I have heard my father say , but I am not happy in my epoch , —in private life these English have less sense
of the dramatic than any nation with which I am familiar . They never forget " the realities of life , " by which they mean the bills which they have not paid , or the disappointments which they prefer to cause themselves by teaching to all the little faith they feel ; or they mean the respectability " which they are charged to bear on their heads without rest . All the dresses at this ball looked too new : I do believe there was scarcely one person in Charles the Second ' s own Court who would not have creased his dress more , with laughing , and gesture , and sporting , than the responsible gentlemen of the actual time in England would do in a year .
Still the aspect wa 3 very splendid , and there was some gaiety piercing through the responsible desire of each that he should get through his part properly ; that is , bear out his character without infringing the general constraint . So there was Buckingham made modest , and Rochester on his good behaviour . I could not see Lady Castlemain or Miss Stewart in the whole place ; at least I did not see that any lady put on the outward garb of those celebrated beauties .
If there was some real gaiety , there was , as I could see , some real tragedy . I noticed one young lady to whose eyes I thought that brilliancy and concourse were bitterness and pain ; and elsewhere I saw a little hurried incident of a note given to a lady , which was afterwards explained to me by the discoveries of a jealous husband , of a very extraordinary kind . So that the multitude of policemen outside could not altogether prevent some incidents I of that revolution which is always going on
underneath the smoothest part of society ' s surface , And amidst all the splendour—where there was that flood of living colour and of gold , which the flood of li ght made ten times more gorgeous—that Held of precious stones ever sparkling in the light to a perpetual motion—1 could notice that the conversation often recurred to " business . " " iius ' nesH , business , " truly Hays Puckler Muskiui , is the word ever in an Engishman ' B mouth . It is the Englishman ' s Bottle Imp .
" I am told , wherever I go , ' ' said the Count de Urauunont , a gentleman with an exceedingly solemn and business-like countenance , " th it trado in very bad ; getting worse every day . " " . So 1 . hear , " replied Chilnuoh , with tho true hxeter-hall twang and relish of a calamity . " Hut , perhaps , " interposed ltoehe . st . er , with an air oi unxiety , " thi . s entertainment , ho admirably planned for the purpose , may have a beiu . lieial influence on the market . "
"And yet , I don ' t , know , " rejoined Chiflinch , " how the freak of < i night can redeem for Bethnalgrecn , or for any other of our dangerous districta , the mistake * of a century . A court ball is ' good for trade' undoubtedly ; but I fear it will take something more "— - he p « unod ; I ) e ( J raminont . and Rochester aiiHwered him in wilenee , with faces of . settled de-Bpondency . Before Chillinch could resume hi . s diducticH , their attention , as well an mine , vvuh drawn to the middle
<> f tho vast saloon , on which a nil < neo fell , so dead and sudden , thai , it smote tho oar with a hcii . so oi Homo unusual event . B y » common content we moved towards the upot , through the gay and splendid ihrong , which seemed to foe at , onco drawn by curiosity in the name direction , und yet to shrink back with u shuddering haute ; und by tho time wo J » a < l gamed our places , a wide circle wan formed in llus Huddenl y deserted centre . A strange speotnclo was that ! Around was that
gay and splendid throng , packed like a mob gathered to see the Queen , yet driven back by awe , even as the common people are by dragoons ; only this mob was arrayed m every tint of velvet and silkregal purple , flame colour , blue of the brightest sky , through which rose shoulders bright as angels ; a mob , all over glittering with precious stones , silent , breathless with amazement , and pale ; so silent that you could hear the murmur of the lamp-flames amid the thousand lustres above .
And in the midst of that circle was a pile so huddled , dim , and unwonted , that the eye could not at first disentangle it . At last you could see that it was a group of human beings . On the ground , half kneeling , crouched a woman , pale and emaciated , who , from her naked bosom , was suckling that which might be taken for a bundle of rags . The man , short and yet slender , stood by her ; in clothes so faded that you could scarcely define what they were : that which once was waistcoat had paled to the unnamed dusty tint to which his linen had darkened . Half behind and half between them , leaning on the
mother ' s shoulder , on the father ' s hand and arm , were two children , of various ages ; one more sat behind its mother , and leaned against her , overcome in a headache of feeble sleep . Hungry they all looked , and squalid ; not eager , but rather slow and helpless ; hopeless , submissive , almost indifferent . Not a word escaped them . The woman ' s eyes were bent down , or raised at intervals towards the bystanders , with an alien look . The man looked constantly onwards . The children alone moved an eye of confessed suffering to the world around ; but cold , without expectation or appeal . Scarcely would you have thought that group human .
Why are they suffered to remain ? Who will stir to drive them forth ? Whence come they ? How got in ? How suffered in that atmosphere of luxury and splendour , of brilliancy and perfume ? What ghostly jest , what hideous masking is this ? Alas ! it is no masking . Pah ! What is that hideous consciousness which spreads abroad—that acrid , heavy , loathsome , appalling stench ? It isdo-you not know it?—it is the stench which squalid humanity drags forth with itself from its squalid home ? Suddenly , but with a slow suddenness , the woman rises ; the group gathers itself up for its journey , and passes on . They have gone ! A sigh of relief bursts from the bystanders .
" How did it come there ? " murmured an indignant gentleman , looking around , but not pursuing the phantom to its unknown whither . " I had no idea it was so close till you warned | me , " whispered a lovely lad } -, beautiful and splendid , bright and pale . She shuddered . " It touched me I " "It touched you ! " exclaimed Chiffinch , and he chuckled inwardly but harshly : "How do you know that it did not make that very brocade you are wearing ?" * * * * * * Next day the windows of another great house , but not so great , were veiled with the blinds . Lady Julia was dead : some said of fright , some of cholera .
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¦ V A N G E I, O. If You Have Not Seen R...
¦ v A N G E I , O . If you have not seen Rachel ' s La Tisbe , you have yet to divine the full scope of her incomparable powers , in one of the most supple and sensitive of her creations . You have yet to learn the broad and various range of art , over which she flings , with the disdain of a sorceress , the magic and the mastery of a genius , perhaps the most intense and delicate , sparkling and subtle , profound
and passionate , the theatre has ever known . You have seen her clothe with light and warmth thu coldcraml austerer grandeurs of the classical tragedy , and you have been disposed to forego that M . Kugene Scribe was De VAcademic Francaise when the dexterous mediocrities of that most skilful and a propos of playwrights assumed a colour and a feeling , and a fancy at the touch of the Enchanter ' s wand . Hut from ML Eugene Scribe to Victor Hugo , believe me , tho ascent is steep and perilous : from thu flaccid and pert prose , the petty artifices , the bourgeois sentimentalities , tho jack-in-the-box situations and small surprises of the clever and ingenious fniscur to the Titan of the romantic drama , inflexible of will , implacable of purpose , reckless of phrase , vast in conception , rough-hewn in vigour of design , sculptural in embodiment . Mark the difference I that here the artist must rise to tho height of the groat , argument ; there the meagre , the sketchy , the trivial must be filled up , recreated , informed , unstained by tho actor ' s art . All the efforts that tho imagination of the genius thnfc creates haw imposed upon Art that interprets , in one caeo by tho exigency of strength
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 26, 1851, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_26071851/page/17/
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