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14 w&e ?ira&rt\ [Satuhda*,
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In Hermnnv Iborn i«. onormnii. nnfivifv ...
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CAKLYliE AGAINST DOWNING-STHEKT. r jatln...
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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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French Literature Has Sustained A Great ...
works at once ! It i . even so . Duorow rode eight horses at once , why _should not Alexandre ? Con- sider : couriers , ready to _gallop off to the press with the wet sheets , wait at his door ; express trains _* puff expectant , like generous steeds champing their _bitsj Briareus Dumas has employment for his hundred pens . The booted courier smacks his whip and is off ; the express follows ; printers are satified for the nonce , and half an hour ' s leisure is before Monte _Cristo How to occuuv it ? Half ueiore Monte _ynsto . tlow to , occupy a . nmi an hour—the time to trifle with a _^ e _^ _wer , and to adapt Hamlet for the Iheatre Histonque or to transform one of his own interminable romances into an interminable drame _Mstorique _, That is done ; and you see the result ? Serious literature is almost exclusively political at present . The revolution of 1848 has a new historian every week : now it is Louis Blanc , whose Pages a" Histoire must be taken as a pas- sionate vindication of his share in that revolution which has been so recklessly misrepresented ; another day it is the Histoire de Fevrier > by Alfred DelvAu , Ledru Rollin ' s secretary ; and next week we are to have one on the same subject - _.-. _,-, , . _ __ i by Daniel bTKBN-the pseudonyme of Madame la Comtesse d Agoultj known by her Nelida and by her contributions to the Revue _Indtpendante _, when it _parsed from the hands . of P _,, M , LerOUX into those ot that conceited but pushing Democrat , _Pascal Dui'BAT . Daniel Stern is a George Sand—in duodecimo . Pamphlets and treatises on Socialism « ro and con are exressivelv abundant and sSSk loudlv of the intense Ind _absorbing ana speak { oudiy ot the intense ana absorbing interest of the subject . Ihe report of Ihiers on the Assistance et _Prevoyance pubiigues gives a tolerably accurate picture of the WhigLnsh and terrified state of the reactionary party alarmed at evervthinff bearins- the asnert of a nositive doctrine B _^' mIS _,.: 1 ,: cf _^ _S _' _htT _^ ot _ifJhU sentence : — "Pour ] e qualifier d ' un mot , il est _negatif . Des dispositions positives ( le quelque eiheacite , on les y chercherait en vain . " _Mazzini has come forth with a plain-spoken word , Le Pape au xix siecle . Coubin gives the first _A-olumc of a treatise on Public Instruction in France ; and CiiETiNKAL-JoLY an elaborate Histoire du Son- derbund . Is it necessary to mention the pretended " _i . _oi . _ol _. _itir _. _nu" _« f ni . r _^ _CrTT _«« , i _^^^ ¦ . a _fl _« -. _»!» ..-. > _relations or uienu ana _jjk la iiou » k . ¦ _\ es , to stigmatize the miserable appetite for scandal which disgraces the age . Here are two notorious and convicted scoundrels pouring forth calumnies ( which must have been known from the first to ho ininiif ' _-wrurp-il _irrnnlinir to _orrler liv flip lirst to Di . manufacture a accoi ( Ing to order oy the police ) on men in disgrace , and a ravenous public rushes after the filthy food , and our own newspapers complacently quote the calumnies _tiiatinay discredit a party Do we , then , think Caussiuikre immaculate ? By no means ; but we energetically _rcjirobatc the facility with which the public has credited stories proceeding from such sources as Ciiknu . Why should the words of a scoundrel have any credence accorded them ? Ii ' CiiENU had written a defence » f Caussidieub and the rest , as elaborate as bis calumny , _^ youU ] tbe public hav e tielieved it ? Not . word of it . 1 hoy would point to the character of the cmlog _. st . O wise and generous public ! you will believe any infamy on its mere assertion , but von must have solid nroofs before vou venture to bcl cvo i virtut- « U U
14 W&E ?Ira&Rt\ [Satuhda*,
14 w _& _e ? ira & rt \ [ _Satuhda * ,
In Hermnnv Iborn I«. Onormnii. Nnfivifv ...
In Hermnnv _Iborn i _« . _onormnii _. _nnfivifv in mm hi iictinany _tiicie is enormous activity in pain- _ublcls _nt'wsirniprs -irwi _lmnrlliilla « iii ] _jm _. _rrilv I mcib , iK . Wbp . ipc . is , and lianc bills , still angn y _IH-Mjnfcliwr 11 n 1 _rillc _^ tinnw _ritiuixl liv r < J » ' *> iif _oi'pnlv in _VientK _^^ \\* a byr Wnl < l « ck ' a trial-a library in itself . But literature , _prnpmly h « , _called , is desolate nnd down- : _'ast . 1 _' iVcn in liction thoro is almost silence . Few works lmvo appiMUvd worthy of mention . J
Caklylie Against Downing-Sthekt. R Jatln...
_CAKLYliE AGAINST _DOWNING-STHEKT . _r _jatlnr-Dat / _Pamphfrts . _Viliu-il »»>¦ _Timmas Ci _» rl > li _« . No . III . _iJowiiiiin-iiln'ot . _t'li ; i | miaii anil Mall . _^ . , i _iti , _^ Ani . Yl . _i- ; s _oloiiuonce _shmilil bo ominous for the conn- ry . Is it not a _sijjn of national decay when mm grow ¦ loquiMit with the _RpoctnclooCwron _^ doin « _r cnj _; iMidoro ( l md _nermitU-rt bv public blindness -md _" _infitun _s a _av , u _,- f „ , * ?» « _4-. ns . » 'i' " . i * _t _* ' i ion ? A \ as it not to a falling I roy that Cassandra irophrsiod nnd _Laoi'i » on urged bis warnings ? Was it lot ft falling ( _h-cc-co that made Demosthenes eloquent . ml ( _totalino that inspired the most brilliant outburst ' * . , _,, _, ' ,. ,, , . . l i Lucro ? JVrbaps wu flatter oursclvcH _il wo think hut our rase is not so bud as theirs . ] t looks ugl y t present , with colonies _talking lug in the _diMuni'o nd the rulers f / r- far / a _tulkiii" ' _mn- ' ill in the eenirn ' na tnc nmimu . _jiu fa iaiKin n miuiii in _uu untie , nd tho voice oi Carlyle resounding throughout . It
Caklylie Against Downing-Sthekt. R Jatln...
j is an ugly sign that our _* , present * no appeal : there is no Alexander for a Diogenes to rebuke : —• " Le roi regne et ne gotiverne pas . " By the grace of God , Queen Victoria is not ruler of this land , but only autograph-writer and warrant-signer-amanuensis to Lord John _Kussell in that behalf ; capable of dis- missing Lord John , no doubt , under his own advice , and appOinting by said advice a successor ; who will ftdvi , p h : m _h ° v in turn . the Queen so nassine n adv _, ise nJm baeK in turn , tne Uueen so passing _ljackward 8 and forwards from steward to steward accordi to character given reciprocally . There is nQ _^ _^ Queen Victoria cannot _* . 1 , , , _^ -r > . , , TT tt T , n _, say with her predecessor Richard II .- « I y , ill be _£° ur le . ader _*»* 1 S n ° _^ _J constitutional . rh 1 ere 1 S n ° aPfal *? the f 6 _™}* ' ' t Senate c f n ? nly sPeak and _rfolve ; In either branch of it , u can do more than that now * /' the people s House could once refuse money , it has lost that faculty of withholding : it talks itself to death , and then the money leaks out with the words . The people itself is purposeless . It has grown rather multitudinous for action . It has been educated somewhat ; and what with the conscience oi a little _ . _i _, . / . . _i learning , and the consciousness of a vast remainder ignorance , it is perplexed in its own motives , uncertain in act , doubtful alike of rash , impulsive leaders , and of cold philosophers who preach inaction , or talk of _« financial reform" as the final beatitude for a great nation : while the people is wavering , _v _nc : t ,, f : no . firawino- ivirk unnn U _* oU _ntkpr _* _nmfo _** hesitating , _drawing back upon itself , others protess f ° r U ' Perchance " rise for £ t on a Tenth of A P n 1 ' _^^ _^ down b the res table ' .., tbe _rJmlo itself retreats more and more cial constable , the people _itselt retreats moie and more . Ashamed of what is done m its name , it feigns more emphatically than ever to show that ic is doing nothing , in order that what is _dojie may not be _recorded as Us d « d . To th ? co P , _. hcr _. _for _^ , , herc is no appeal . _Uesides , Cailyle does not speak mucli to the people : to them he talks of the " beneficent whip , " which can scarcely be called popular ; and he speaks of « governing , " de haut en has , in a manner not very intelligible to those who see the power of Pro- vidence on earth personiiied in a John llussell . Carlvle therefore vaticinates in vain He speaks to _, lU * d ' ndrv but to nobodv in _particular lie sneaks sunai j , DUt to noDoay _mparticular , nc _speaics tothat incorporate power—Heaven knows what it is— whicll buys his paniphlcts , price one shilling . To J . x . L . v _x , , , n . _i-io-n that pamphlet-buying public doth the Cicero ot _ISoO P roclaim the forlortl condition of this . great empire , whose King reigns but does not govern ; whose administer but do not _"overn whose pconle 1 _VLinisters _auminibicr , ouiuo hoi & ovlih , wnosepcopie , » tho only legitimate source of all political power / ' emphatically abstains from asserting the demands for power put forth in its name . Carly le declares that the state of the public busi- ness moves him to denounce " the inelKcaey of what are nicknamed our red-tape establishments , our Government offices—Colonial-office , Foreign-office , an ( j the others in Downing-street and the neigh- bourhood . Of these thin" _-s to him , individually little is k ' nown . and the _pamphlet-buying public , ' pilmporcd as it is with blue-books , and political tra ( . t d informntilin stjvtistical or arithmetical , disappointed if it pi oposes to buv a complete _^ ais . ipnoiniLU h it pi oposes to ouy a compieie _anatomy , analysis , and out-turning of those corporate autocrats in the official cul de sac . Nay , John Bull may exclaim , with his fat friend Sancho Panza _, that the lean knight tells him no more than he knew , , , ., , , , _~ , ¦ , already when he describes the length of the stick J _chouldors CiiIvIg tolls us tlHIL IS Id Hi uCl (» SS Ills SIiOillUClS _. l _^ tlH \ i . e ILU 1 . S US how we arc most _shanieiully , _contumelLsly , and dismally misgoverned by these _oiliucs that we tole- rate in _Downinfr-strcet : which we knew before . What his pamphlet can do , if it can do anything , is to make us so supereminently conscious , so sting- , i , _. i i i i _. i ing ] Vf so noWly fthve to what wo know already , that we , really incredible and far too lute as it may seem , may at least rise up imd , as ho says , " r / _osnmo- thino- " _tnni _f , . « . _'j _« o all men it . is evident that _theRorial interests of one hundred nnd fifty millions of us depend on the _mystorions industry there cariied on ; and likewise that the dissatis- faction with it is great , universal , and continually in- creasing in intensity , —in fact , mounting , we might say , 1 o t . i ,, » 1 ) iu . j , « f _« culod despair . " Every colony , every agent for a matter colonial , has llis tr _^ ic t (> f (> 11 v < m of llis satl oxperienoes in tlie Colonial- of _^ ce ; . wh _? j . b . liml _"ustructionH _, fatal indolences , pe _. lan- tries , stupidities , on the ri _^ ht and on the left , he had to , lo battle with ; what , a _wmid-wi _. le _jungle of red tape , in . habited by doleful creatures , deaf or nearly so to human reason or entreaty , he had entered on ; and how lie l > a ust >( 1 in » n » : i / .-inrnt _nlmost in despair ; passionately Ui » i > e _» n . lod now to this doleful creature , now to that , and to the dead red-tape jungle , nnd to the living universe
Caklylie Against Downing-Sthekt. R Jatln...
_| _^ _^& _^^ _S _^^ _r _^ M _^ equal tQ the fabulous ones by oid knights-errant against dragons and wizards in enchanted wildernesses and waste howling solitudes ; not achievable except by nearly superh _eXd n favou _^ 8 of f the s _^ echd " _blessing oMaeav _?* H _^ adventure achieved or found unachievable , he h _^ s returned with experiences new to him in the affairs of men . What this Colonial-office , inhabiting the head of Downing-street , really was , and had to do , or try doing , in God . g practical earth he could not by any . means preciseiy get to know ; believes that it does not itself in the least precisely know . Believes that nobody knows _;_ tha t it is a mystery , a kind of heathen rnyth ; -and stranger than any piece of the old mythological Pantheon ; for _4 / _ticallypresides over the destinies of many mill lionS UWng men . » Such is his report of the Colonial-office , and so of _^ rest _ Home _ office and Foreign-office ; of which _^ e hear les 8 j Carlyle thinkSj because the colonies \ excile more attention just now . The more probable \ reason ig > that the Home-office is really , oil the \ whol j ess absuraiy administered , and that , if the I ius of the Foreign . office is mischievous , it is less } | oolish than that perverse sprite which abides at the \ y . _« ft _™* i r > f _Downing _ trf » pr _XevertriPlpss _tViA very DOtiom oi jL » owiiiii _£ j- snct : _i < . a . _TicvciiiitsicDt > , me Fo / eigri _ office is the mischievous mystery that he _., ,, J ? . . ~ 7 , ... ., _«„ _, _„ , „„ _nfKno OfTn ? T , _nnoct-n _j _^ _&^^ _o _^^^ _jKK _^ appearances of Britain in the character of Hercules-Harlequin , waving , with big bully voice , her huge sword of sharpness over field-mice , and m the air making horrid circles ( horHd catherine-wheelsand death discs of : metallic terror from said huge sword ) , to see how they : will like it do fr o rn time t 0 time , astonish the world , ! in a not pleasant manner . Hercules-Harlequin ; the i _Attorneyiiumphant the World ' s Busybody : ttohe bf i theSe are parts this nation has a turn for ; she , if you \ consulted her , would rather not play these parts , but another ! Seizures of Sapienza _^ _correspondences with t _^^^™^? _^^ _^* Portugal ; and , in short , the whole , or , at present , very nearly the whole , of that industry of _protocoling , _diplomatising , _remonstrating , _admonishing , and < haying the _^ Tw _fi-ure 7 * _" P estimation t 0 a " For , in fact , it . is reasonably asked , what vital interest has England in any cause now deciding itself in foreign P arts ? Once there was a Papistry and Protestantism , " u n P ortant as l } fe eternal and death eternal ; more lately there was an interest of civil order and horrors of the French Revolution , important at least as rent-roll and preservation of the game : hut now what is there ? No cause in which any god or man of this British nation can be thought to he concerned . Sham kingship , now recognised , and even self-recognised everywhere to be sham , wrestles and struggles with mere ballot-box anarchy ; not a pleasant spectacle to British minds . " J 13 ¦ _* J , _-, _, i _^ , .. Great Britain , says the writer , would bo better without a » protocollmg establishment -le _..-s dragged into harm and expense , which is true . But " if this 1 S the fact ' wh > ' not treat xt as such ? A _3 ' e _» that 1 S J ust tlle question ; but the " admitting it to be 8 O" is _Precisely the thing that is not done , and not _« U _^? uld seem likcly _» to be done- Carlyle _tallcs _of _Sir Robert Peel as the man to enter the great Augean stable of Downing-street corruption and abuse _» _™ ho must " _S et down at once to the actual Pcivement" of that national structure , and " ascertain what the thing is and was before dung accumulated in it ; " which is true : but , if we have resort than Peel it is _honpless n « tniP for " ° _° tn 1 CS _° 7 . tnan _^ . cU » J . c 1 S " ° _peless as true , lor rec 1 ' lfc 1 S Sald ' has rctired from business . Political reform without this reform of Downing-street is " a naught and a mere mockery ' But who shall undertake it 5 It is reallv « an _horoip wnrk _aTirl _ntt-nnnt , , _, c ,. rcany an neroic worK , ana cannot be done by _histrios and dexterous talkers having , , , . ° tho honour to be : it is a heavy and appalling work , a _" d at the _Parting of it especially will require " erculcan men . 13 ut where a re your Herculean m _^ " r " The state itself , not in Downinar-street alone , but in every department of it , has altered much from what it was in past times ; and it will again have to alter very much , to alter , I think , from top to bottom , if it means to continue existing in the times that are now coming and C 01 U m .: " The state , left tn shape itself by dim pedantries and traditions , without distinctness of conviction or purpose , beyond that of helping itself over the difficulty of the hour , has become , instead of a luminous vitality , permeating with its light all provinces of our affairs , a most monstrous agglomerate of inanities , as little adapted for the actual wants of a modem community as the worst citizen need wish . The thing it is doing is by no means the thing we want to have done . What we want 1 Let the dullest British man endeavour to raise in his mind this question , and ask himself , in sincerity , what the British nation wants at this time . Is it to have , with endless jargoning , debating , motioning , and couTitermotioning , a settlement effected between the Honourable Mr . This and the Honourable Mr . That , as to their respective pretensions to ride the high horse ? lleally it is unimportant which of them ride it . Going upon m
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), March 30, 1850, page 14, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/ldr_30031850/page/14/
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