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April 27, 1850.] &§t Q.t &*tX* 109
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POWER OF JUSTICES OF THE PEACE. Sik,— I ...
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W. P. complains that in Miss Martineau's...
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Critics are not the legislators, but the...
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The great event of this week is the deat...
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Otherwise the week has been unusually fl...
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German literature presents a deplorable ...
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.
The Oxford Credit System. April 23,1850....
m orrow , the Oxford tradesmen could and would refuse credit . Nobody dares refuse credit in Oxford—except the college authorities . The evils of the credit system , and the giant growth it has attained may , in no small degree , be traced to this base and immoral dependence of the Town-upon the Gown . And this unquestionable fact suggests the remedy—make the tradesmen less dependent upon their customers by greatly modif y ing the University Court , restoring the University to its original state , and throwing it open to all manner of honest men . The credit system is the joint product of the monopoly of the University by the Church , and that intense spirit of competition which has been fostered so much , and which has
increased so much , of late years . Oxford tradesmen would not cling to the credit system if they could help it . They have had astounding proofs that it is not the " way to wealth . " Ponder on this fact , Sir ; Oxford tradesmen seldom get rich and retire upon their savings . The book debts bar the way . It would then be very unjust to make shop-debts irrecoverable by law . The means and character of " Oxford men " , and always will be , often
problematical . How can a tradesman discriminate , especially when he knows the consequences attending upon the word " No " ? The Oxford tradesmen who will not trust the members of the University make up their minds to depend upon their fellow-citizens . Those who have made up their minds to run the risks attendant upon a University trade play a bold game . They rely upon high prices to cover certain loss . If shop-debts were made irrecoverable at law , the daring speculators would supply the University , and the calculating tradesman be driven from the
field . But , though I feel that few things would be a greater boon to Oxford than the mitigation of the credit-system , yet I do think that the remedy proposed would heighten the disease . It would make trade a lottery and a gambling speculation . ^ The process of recovering debts is already sufficiently difficult . A tradesman who sues a debtor in the Westminster Courts gets discommonsed ^ by the University authorities ; and he who sues in the Chancellor ' s Court gets virtually discommonsed by the undergraduates ! Thus Oxford debts are nearly irrecoverable ; the University public opinion being nearly as efficient as a law . Still , in spite of this , desperate has been the getting in debt .
I have confined my remarks to the Oxford creditsystem , because of that , only , can I pretend to know anything . G . H .
April 27, 1850.] &§T Q.T &*Tx* 109
April 27 , 1850 . ] &§ t Q . t &* tX * 109
Power Of Justices Of The Peace. Sik,— I ...
POWER OF JUSTICES OF THE PEACE . Sik , — I wish to draw attention to the extraordinary powers vested in justices of the peace , of requiring persons to find sureties of the peace . The subject was so admirably noticed by Mr . Justice Erie , in his charge to the grand jury at the last assizes for Cornwall , that I cannot do better than quote the very words used by that learned judge . Mr . Justice Erie observed " that there was one matter he wished particularly to direct the attention of the magistrates . He perceived by the calendar that one man was committed to prison , for a breach of the prace , for
two years , or until he should find sureties ; and several were sentenced , under a similar charge of breach of the peace , for twelve months and shorter periods , or until they should find sureties . For a sentence of two years ' imprisonment , the offence should be one of very considerable magnitude indeed . There was no doubt such a sentence was legal , but the case ought to be very extreme in point of guilt . It was advisable to apportion punishment according to the degree of the offence . To commit a man for want of sureties , might be inflicting a long imprisonment upon a friendless man ; and subjecting a man to a long imprisonment for want of friends was not a measure of penal punishment that ought to be
adopted . Now I happen to know that this practice is not confined to the county of Cornwall , but , I believe , is very generally adopted throughout England and Wales . In order to obtain accurate information on the subject , I trust that some Honourable Member , from a desire to protect the liberty of the subject , may be induced to move for a return of the numbers committed to prison for want of sureties to keep the peace during a given period , classified according to the respective periods of imprisonment . Should this return , as I anticipate , show the practice of justices of the peace in these matters to be in accordance with that existing in Cornwall , it is to be hoped that Parliament will speedily provide a remedy for the mischief . S . W .
W. P. Complains That In Miss Martineau's...
W . P . complains that in Miss Martineau ' s History of England " all mention has been studiously omitted of the efforts of the English Socialists , and of their founder Robert Owen , whose proceedings obtained so large a share of public attention , " " whose meetings were pre-Bided over by royal dukes , and reported at more than ordinary length in the daily papers " : — " Looking , sir , at the many small insignificant matters which Miss Martineau has dragged into her history , it does seem to me strange that the events I have alluded to should be passed entirely over ; unless , indeed , it was predetermined that this class of events should be cushioned altogether . But what , then , becomes o ( Miss Martineau as a truthful and impartial historian ?"
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Critics Are Not The Legislators, But The...
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 Great Event Of This Week Is The Deat...
The great event of this week is the death of William Wordsworth , who , grey in honours as in years , has passed quietly away from us , having to the full accomplished his mission , as a poet . Last week we recorded the death of one who had long outlived his celebrity ; this week we have to record the death of one who has long outlived neglect and misrepresentation . Wordsworth stands alone in our poetry : " his soul was like a star and dwelt apart . " He is the culmination of an epoch , and stands as the representative of a revolution in taste . No one of the great poets who preceded him can be looked on as his model . An original he was in every sense ; but such originality points to his great and omnipresent defect , namely , want of geniality , want of thorough sympathy in human passions and affections . Wordsworth was an astonishing , and we believe a solitary , example of great genius without geniality—of creative power without wide sympathies . Enthusiasm he had , and it was both deep and constant , but it was all for external Nature , which became as it were the mere material for his Art . For Human Nature he cared only in its picturesque aspects . Hence , even amidst the extravagance of admiration amounting often to fanaticism which his partisans express , we see little of love . Wordsworth is oftener read and oftener quoted than any modern poet , but what stranger has a personal regard for him ? Do we not all feel that
this magnificent intellect which holds itself superbly aloof from all the erring , struggling , hoping , loving crowd—which can be excited to tears by a daisy , but has only cold sermons for mankind—which moves in a small circle of emotions sacrificing man to Nature , is on the whole shut out from our hearts , though our gratitude and sympathy make us yearn to place him there ?
We speak in mournful ness , and not in bitterness . To us he was wholly a stranger , and over his tomb , had he been an enemy , we could utter no asperity . If we speak at all , it is because a strong impulse moves us in paying a last tribute to his genius to draw the moral from his own exclusiveness . Let us hasten to add that his influence on men has been both extensive and unmixed good . He has visibly coloured the thoughts of his generation , and nowhere has he left a soil . Whatever there was of positive in his influence has been good ; his defects are not moral errors so much as moral deficiencies . He may be limited , he is not perverted . He has deepened the feelings and widened the souls of many , but none has he misled . The greatest name in the proud band of poets which made an era of this first half century—Wordsworth—has had the greatest prosperity , both of fortune and of fame , even allowing for the ridicule and neglect which greeted his early efforts , and now , having seen his juniors and rivals—Byron , Shelley , Keats , Coleridge , and Southey—one by one disappear , he , too , passei away , leaving Rogers , Moore , Leigh Hunt , and Wilson as the last glories of that race . The Laureateship is vacant , and the Times suggests that it be abolished . We can only agree with that suggestion if some other honour be substituted . Small as it is , the Laureateship is still a prize , and after Southey and Wordsworth cannot be ridiculous as a title . The choice of the Laureate can scarcely be open to hesitation . There is one name which may be said peremptorily to claim it as a due—to claim it in virtue of genius , long suffering , personal attachment to the Queen , and uncontested popularity . We have named Leigh Hunt .
Otherwise The Week Has Been Unusually Fl...
Otherwise the week has been unusually flat . 1 he only gossip has been originated by the strange advertisement in the Times : at the head of that mysterious column wherein Julia is implored to explain all to disconsolate Frederick , and The Door Mat ( we are assured ) will not be visible to-day — are these words assaulting the reader ' s eye , "A Bit op my Mind , April 26 . The appearance of Punch solves the mystery . A new series is this week commenced , in which Amelia Mouser , bursting with irrepressible confidence—the goading oestrus of female eloquenceintends to give weekly " bits of her mind . " The first number promises . The peculiar style of
and ability which of late has characterized the Public Press . It has indeed become the Fourth Estate , and has found an admirable historian in Mr . Knight Hunt , whose work on the subject excites attention not only for its amusing piquancy but for the views it opens . Mr . Hunt is himself a practised journalist , and has all the professional knowledge necessary to give such a work a definite purpose , while at the same time he has the large and liberal views and abundant information without
Douglas Jerrold in its happiest moments reveals the authorship ; and we may hope for another Mrs . Caudle . People were beginning to grumble so loudly at Punch of late that this new series and the series of " Prosings" commenced last week by the matchless Titmarsh , have come most ti mely to the rescue ; may all such grumblings ever receive such responses ! We last week spoke of the great elevation in tone
which such a work would necessarily be a mere sketch . These are the only topics we have heard discussed this week . Of course people continue reading , but they do not seem to be greatly impressed with what they read , for it does not follow them from the library into the busy world , there reappearing in fragmentary conversation . A German moving amidst our
drawing-rooms , and observing how little Literature occupies the conversation even of culti vated men , and how much more they talk of the Great Exhition of Industry of 1851 , might imagine we really were a nation of shopkeepers ; which assuredly we are not . Apropos of this exhibi tion , there is an American speculation worth noticing , as indicative of the vast results believed to be wombed within
that assemblage of man ' s ingenuity and labour : the speculation is nothing less than the purchase of the whole Exhibition , after England has seen ^ it , and the transportation of the articles to America , there to form a sort of Museum of Industry . Several American gentlemen of wealth and energy have already been mentioned to us as concerned i n this speculation . Almost the only hopeful announcement we have
seen is that of a new book by Francis Newman . It is to be confessions of psychological experiencethe biography of a believing , struggling , advancing mind . Phases of Faith , or the History of my own Creed is a title in itself full of promise . Any earnest man recording the various phases of his religious convictions would be welcome ; but a man of Mr . Newman ' s sincerity , piety , and elevated intellect confers a benefit on the world in narrating his experience .
German Literature Presents A Deplorable ...
German literature presents a deplorable aspect of poverty and unhealthiness . Politics—and what politics ! — invade the fair domain of Literature and Art ; and if a non-political work appear it is mostly of some despicable character . There is at this moment a novel rejoicing in the success of a " scandal , " which , pretending to be philosophical , is simply prurient and infamous . We will not name the work ; that would be only to set hundreds in quest of it . For it is a serious imputation will sell
upon our tastes and morals that no praise an edition so rapidly as the stigma of immorality . Call a book dangerous , prurient , revolting , and you sell it . An impudent French publisher once acted on this well-known fact , and placarded the walls with the title of a new work , adding , in the emphasis of elephant letters , " Roman immoral . ' " —immoral romance . And when some years ago a Quarterly Reviewer , in an ever-infamous article , flung the dirt of his own imagination upon all French l iterature , and represented it as the hotbed
of iniquity , he produced such a demand for French plays and novels that booksellers have from that time been eagerly expecting , as a harvest , another attack . We will npt , therefore , name the work to which we allude , but content ourselves with saying that such a work exists , and has admirers . A tendency downwards has been very visible of late in German literature j the philosophers have been reasoning themselves into a nebulous sort of Atheism ; the novelists have been seeking stimulus in dirt , scandal , and personality . On our table lie scattered a number of comic
periodicals ; they are as wearisome as the rest . Really that old joke of the German leaping over tables and saying that he thus learnt to be lively forces itself upon us whenever we see the clumsy heavy movements of Teutonic facetiousness . Reader , did you ever meet a lustige kerl—or as we should say a wag ? If not go and see the Rhinoceros gamboling in the mud at the Zoological Gardens , and you will have an approximate idea of the grace and lightness with which his German
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), April 27, 1850, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_27041850/page/13/
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