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] t > ack to Popery itself . We are so lost in God s past dealings with us that we have well-nigh forgotten our present relations to Him . 3 ut what , it will he asked , must be the bearing pf thes < e principles of faith on all established forms of religious worship r We answer , if they are become corrupt and insignificant , they must be purified and ppiritualjaed . Mr . Newman has np general quarrel with form * of worship , so long as they are real and significant * The use of religious forms is to educate the soul and supply it with spiritual exercises ;
but they neither create , nor can of themselves sustain , the Spirit of religion within us . We pray because we are religious , but are not made religious by our formal prayers . The object of Mr . Newman ' s criticism is to send real worshippers into our churches And chapels . In spite of the generally psychological character of this book , it is essentially a practical pnp ; and , in full confidence in the spiritual power of Christianity , the author looks forward to that great consummation when , in the language of its Founder , " the pure in heart shall see God " without veil or mediator , and approach Him without priest or
( sacrifice . It is painful to us to dismiss such a book as this with a crude and imperfect notice ; but ton times the space allotted us would be insufficient to enable us to do justice to the deep piety , sound learning , and intellectual power it displays . The style of the book is clear , natural , and unconstrained ; and questions of
the profoundest kind are treated with the simplicity of true wisdom , and the sincerity of an earnest mind . No reader will be repelled by learned sophistications , or embarrassed by crude metaphysics . The bounds of reason and faith are strictly defined , and the province of the intellect kept clear of that of the soul ; and a firm basis is laid down for a creed that shall appeal to our complete humanity and realize the ideal of Catholicity .
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A HISTORY FOR YOUNG ENGLAND . A History of England during the Thirty Years' Peace , 1815-Ittl 5 . liy Harriet Martintau . 2 Vols . C . Kniglit . A * a political lesson to our times this work has great significance , for it is the history we ourselves have acted . It records our own follies , and our own progress . It is the newspaper of the day elevated to the dignity of history ; near enough , in point of time , to make us conscious of our own share in it , yet sufficiently removed beyond the heats and agitations of
the hour to be looked at calmly nnd clearly . In t ) u > se who would retrograde , and in those who would stand still—in Tories and in Whigs—these pages must raise painful if not humiliating thoughts ; while to the party of progress they confirm uven its most distant hopes . Unrolled before our eyes here is the panorama of a nation ' s political life , during thirty jviirs of peace , when the only war was the beneficent \ v ; ir of opinion . The struggles of England during the memorable epochs of Catholic Emancipation — lleform Agitation —and Corn-law Repeal are here depicted with a power and uusterity of impartiality
for which we had not given Mi * s Martineau credit . The obstinucy with which all change has been resisted by the " ruling ( lasses , " the patient unconquerable energy with which the reformers have gained the ground , fighting it inch by inch , through obloquy , menace , persecution , and the ruin of many—the broadening of men ' s views as they advance nearer and nearer to the true conception of democratic principles—with the bickerings , heartburnings , mistakes , and follies which have accompanied nnd obstructed the maich of events—these will be thrown away upon no thoughtful reader , and will force even the thoughtless to reflect awhile .
Miss Martineau , however , has never once descended from the heights of history into the arena of political contest : there is nothing of the pamphlet in these pnges . She has convictions and strong feelings ; but her judgment is calm , her style never passionate . She does not like the Whigs , for she is a directminded , plain-spoken woman , with the natural contempt for lialfnej-s and comproini-e . Nor do » s she at
ill like the demagogues , for she is in earnest , and knows how much rascality may be dnnkod by the advocacy of wrongs , — how often patriotism is but : m measy pauperism ! The men who have all hi r symmthics are the men who will do what they believe ; icnee the hi roes in these volumes are (' . nniiu * , Wellington , I * i t-1 , and Durham ; because , iilihough ho dm n not always applaud their opinions , she Jiniis hem on the whole to be men fitted to the gitutoHieo
of Government , inasmuch as they would actually carry out whatever they undertook . Perhaps the same may also be said of the Whigs , only that they can rarely be got to undertake anything—save office ! While warmly praising this work for its suggestiveness and political value , our duty as critics forces us to qualify this praise in speaking of it as a
history . The life of the nation is not pictured there It is no story of England during those thirty years ; but rather a continuous series of review articles , partly narrative , partly reflective . The force of the book lies in its plain statement of political movements , and in the reflections on them . The writing is animated ; the interest seldom if ever flags ; but there is little trace of historic composition . In the
difficult art of compiling Miss Martineau is quite a tyro ; and the difference between the First Book of this history ( written by Charles Knight ) and those which follow is enough to make apparent the deficiency we allude to . Compilation as distinguished from composition is not a difficult art , as many blockheads testify in their books ; but the compilation which is composition requires peculiar mastery .
Books and pamphlets , newspapers and reviews , lie around you : in that chaos is your" material .. To extract the material , and place every detail in its due position , what to omit and what to bring into relief , this requires an art which Miss Martineau but slenderly possesses . Frequently her compilation is determined solely by contiguity , i . e ., the material lies to hand and she feels bound to use it . Whereas
in true composition contiguity has no influence ; the selection is determined by intrinsic memorability . Nor is the narrative well proportioned . Much is omitted that would give life and variety to the picture ; much is dragged in merely , it would seem , because the annual register recorded it . But if , as a woik of art , it is open to grave accusations , as an instructive , suggestive , thoughtful book , it is extremely valuable , one of the most valuable that has appeared for some time . We have no other connected view of the last thirty years . It shows powers of mind and elevation of moral sentiment too remarkable to be passed over . It is in all senses of the word an useful hook .
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THE . QUEENS FATHER . The Life of his Royal Highness the Duke of Kent , liy tlic lluvcruiiit E . Neulu . London . Uentley . Had this book appeared thirty years ago , with all its minute details of the ill-usage to which the Duke of Kent was subjected by the rest of the royal family , it would have been a perfect godsend to the Whigs . As a complete exposure of thorough vulgarity of soul and utter heartlessness among many of the highest personages in the kingdom , it might satisfy the taste
of the most extreme Republican ; and , as the only apparent ground for the unceasing hostility displayed towards the Duke of Kent by his stubborn parents was his being more of a Whig than a Tory , such a well-authenticated history of his wrongs as Mr . Neale has furnished would have been invaluable to Henry Brougham , Sir Francis Burdett , Mr . Tierney , or the popular orators . At this late period its political interest is comparatively trifling , but it will still afford material for fashionable gossip , in its revival
of the endless series of petty persecutions by which the father of Queen Victoria was harassed till the end of his life . Indeed it is chiefly in these points that the value of the book consists . For in its exposure of the wretched intrigues of a court , and of the unhappy life which royalty so often leads , through defect of education and the absence of a wholesome responsibility , it may almost compare with the Memoirs of the Margravine of Burckh , ; md her history of the miserable life she spent at the Prussian courts .
fl ^ l . 1 1 P ,. „ i ? 4-1 * « T" \ ¦ * 1 » * ¦* rf- \ i ' I * £ \*\ # not j lli \ f /\ tio /» T * V \ 11 ft l" » The life of the Duke of Kent was not one of much incident . He was born at Buckingham-house , on the 2 nd of November , 17 <> 7 , and , although of an amiable disposition , appears to have always been an object if dislike to his parents . At the ago of eig hteen he went to Luncberg as a ca'let , and at that eatlv period we find the first complaints of the hard
way in which he was treatt d . In one letter he complains bitteily that although he had a stipulated allowance of £ 1 , 000 per annum f >> r his use and benefit , " one < j ; linea and a ) . a If per » ieek , sometimes nielt « d down by military forfeits to 2 ' 2 s ., was all that found its way into his purse for personal expenses of every kind . " For complaining of this as "opi-n robbery , " ho was subjected to a system of espionage .
His letters to the King were intercepted , and he was represented as indulging in reckless extravagance . Two years later—he was then in his twenty first year—we find him at Geneva , but it does not appear that his income had become more liberal . His biographer waxes warm at the way in which " a Prince of the Blood " was treated at this time : — a . prince's pocket-money . " His circumstances were painfully circumscribed . To the eldest son of many an unpretending country gentleman was meted out for more liberal allowMjce ___ _ . * t TT ^ _ _ _ - _ . _ . _ a . Cm 4 * /\«* n / MA ^ nH r \ ••>• 11 T- » « .
than to a prince of the blood . Although the sum paid to the baron to maintain his royal pupil s establishment was now £ 6 , 000 per annum , the allowance for pocketmoney to the party most deeply interested remained unaltered . It was still doled out after the rate of one guinea and half per week ; and it is no exaggeration to say that surrounded as the youthful soldier must have been , by associates far inferior to him in rank , but infinitely superior to him in point of command of money , his straitened allowance could not have been other than the source of daily and hourly mortifications .
" Incredible as the fact may seem , it nevertheless admits of proof , that till the prince came to reside at Geneva he had not been master of any equipage , or even the possessor of a horse ! " The results of this niggardly and wretched policy are clearly stated in the detail of His Royal Highness s case , published but a short time before his death by his express authority . " From not having any of those indulgences allowed him which other young : Englishmen . of his own age , with whom he was living , enjoyed , and who were the sons of private gentlemen , the duke incurred debts by borrowing monev to procure them .
" Those debts were a burden to him during the remainder of his life . " For the credit of his own section of the family , however , it is right to mention that these and all other debts that the Duke of Kent left behind him at his death , were faithfully discharged by his wife and daughter . By her husband ' s will , the Duchess of Kent was entitled to a large amount of personal property in this country and on the Continent ; the whole of which she handed over to the creditors of
her husband . It is pleasant to have an opportunity of recording such an act of rigid honesty in high places , and of adding that Queen Victoria followed up this creditable conduct on the part of her mother by devoting a part of her income for several years , to the same purpose . In 1791 the Duke of Kent was sent out to Gibraltar ; he remained there a short time , and was afterwards removed , in a somewhat capricious
manner—for there seems to have been a deliberate purpose to annoy him—to Quebec , thence to Nova Scotia . In 1798 he returned to England for surgical assistance ; having received a serious injury by a fall from a horse ; and in the year following he was ordered to return to America as Commander-in-Chief of the British forces there . In 1800 he returned to England , where he remained until 1802 ; he was then appointed Governor of Gibraltar , and was recalled in 1803 . From that time ho does not appear in any prominent capacity till , about 1812 , when the illness of his father left him at liberty to give his aid and influence to the British and Foreign School Society , the Auti-Sidyery Society , the Bible Society , and
various other philanthropic associations to which Toryism and the Church were bitterly opposed in those days . In 1818 the Duke of Kent manied the Princess of Xicincngcn , and in 1819 , the following year , "On the 24 th of May , a little Princess made her appearance at Kensington Palace . " On the 29 th of December , that year , the Duke , in writing to a . friend , makes a singular remark about the young Victoria .
" My little girl thrives under thn influence of a Devonshire climate , and is , I am delighted to say , strong and healthy ; too healthy , I fear , in the opinion of some members of my family , by whom she is regarded as an intruder ; how largely she contributes to my own happiness at this moment , it is needless for me to say to you , who are in such full possession of my feelings upon this subject . "
It was only a few weeks after this that the young Princess became an orphan : her father died on the morning of January the 23 rd , 1320 , after a short illness , caught from sitting in wot boots . He was much and deservedly lamented by the Liberal party throughout the- country , as one who had suffered pi rsecution on account of the part he had taken in public affairs , and by his friends who were warmly attached to him for his goodness of heart .
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40 ® be % emt * [ Satdrday , ^ _ ..- ^ . — - ¦ ¦ ¦ ..-. ——— — - ¦ - -- * — ' "" —— - - - —— . — t
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Leader (1850-1860), April 6, 1850, page 40, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1839/page/16/
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