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Leader (1850-1860), 13th April 1850, Edition 1 of 1, Page 62

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      place of intellectual discipline . But to the ignorant discipline is ever repulsive . None seek schools or mechanics' institutions but the awakened , the thinking ; none but those sufficiently far advanced to feel the importance and desire the habit of knowledge . The newspaper , the periodical , the pamphlet , the book , and the lecturer , must go first , and go everywhere ; costless * omnipresent , and sleepless ; teaching suggesting , imploring , in every tone of earnestness and in every well-considered degree of adaptation , " compelling them to come in unto the feast . " Those who have lived with the people , sharing their fortunes and their sorrows , knowing their confidences , their distrusts , their difficulties , and their aspirations , will acknowledge the truth of these representations , will know that the blessings of

      general education can only come speedily in this way . In the name , therefore , of the mechanic in his sooty shop , of the weaver in the stifling mill , of the scholar in his garret , and the Teacher at his desk , in ths name of all who hope for the poor or work for them , I ask the Legislature to cancel the imposts which circumscribe knowledge , thus raising the low to the level of the high , increasing indefinitely the happiness of the poor and the security of the rich . Geoiige Jacob Holyoake .

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      EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS . We are compelled to confine ourselves to extracts from a mass of correspondence received principally in answer to the letters in our previous numbers . Eben . Jones replies to W . Thomas : — " That every man has a right to earn a subsistence out of the soil , because , no man having any claim to do so which is not equally possessed by every other man , to grant to some men the right and to deny it to others is injustice , —injustice being simply and only unequal awards to equal claims or prejudicial preference without reason . Mr . Tnomas , however , denies the universal right to earn a subsistence out of the soil , * because / says he , ' land

      is a species of property . Land was not in its origin absolute property , is not now so by law . ' * * In one of last week ' s Morning Posts there appeared a very able article on Property , in which it was distinctly stated that the soil of England is allowed by the British Constitution to be monopolized by the British aristocracy , not fur any claim over other men that the said arictocracy have to surh a possession , but because it is considered that the effect of such monopoly is upon the whole beneficial to the community . Now this is to say at once , and without any circumlocution , that land is not like other possessions that are the result of toil , or skill , or

      adventure , and which are absolute property to be held good against all coiners , but is rather a trust , and like all other trusts , subject to regulation or even to recall . * * Why , sir , what blasphemy , what practical blasphemy , is this denial to any man of a right to earn a subsistence out of the soil ! If any man has not this right then has God dealt more hardly with men than with any other of his creatuies . Where God sends even caterpillars he sends fit leaves for them to get their living out . of , and we do not find that some caterpillars prevent other caterpillars from using the common source of food so long as there is enough for all of them . "

      George Smith , of Salford , says , "No human being that was ever born , or that ever will be born , has any legal , rational , or moral right to one inch more land than he himself can cultivate , or than the requirements of himself and family may demand ; and all human beings now living-, or that may hereafter live , have that inalienable right . That being the true and legitimate extent of the right of property in land , the title to any beyond that quantity rests entirely upon the conventional right of Might , and that , too , the might of the cannon and the bayonet . "

      One in reply to Alexander Somcrville writes— " I viaited Rapps Community , and Bemeleru Community , in Ohio , a Shaker Community in Kentucky , and another in Massachusetts . All of these had lisen from comparative poverty to the acquisition of great wealth , because they had always taken care to produce bytheirown labour more than they consumed ; and 1 visited seveial other Communities , which , like the Socialists at Harmony-hall , failed utid broke up , because they did not produce so much as they consumed . The Whistler sajs , ' There i . s , to shallow minds , an ideal beauty about equality of rights and community of property which leads them to a briiof in ihc possibility ot attaining to such a condition . '

      Now , in all the communities I have vit > itcd , though some of their most experienced members were appointed by themselves to direct and manage their general aiiairs , and to appoint the labour each had to perform , und whose orders were punctually und cheerfully obeyed by all , still there w . t . s equality in their condition , clothing , ami mode of living , equality of rights , and their properly was all hold in common . What is actually tlono Uy men and women , in .-t great number of instances , for twenty , thirty , and even seventy years together , as in the cise of sifiue of the Shaker Communities , must , thorelore , he possib / v . " — i ) sv . aviio has Yikitkj ) jianvCdm-Mii miiks : Liverpool , Anvil . "> , 1 K ;> O .

      11 . W . writing of the "bugbear , Communism , " asserts thut it is " at our very doors , yet we will not hear it , though we throw away millions through its medium , " in philanthropic endeavours , mutual assurances , poor i . i \ v and trades' unions , and " missionary eemeteiies , " iVic . iMc . " It meets us at every Mop , yet we will not aekuowledge it . Wo have it anywhere , everywhere , — s ive where it is most needed—at the roots of sneiety , the distribution of labour , which is the distribution of wealth . "

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      Critics are not the legislators , but the judges and police of literature . They do not make laws—they interpret ana try to enforce them . —Edinburgh Review .

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      If the office of literature be , as Cicero says , to charm our solitude and alleviate our sorrows , there can be no dispute as to the literary success of The Household Words j and we believe the success in a business view will be ample enough and durable enough to answer those misgivings which were liberally uttered before its publication , and which doubted whether genius could ally itself with " practical" wisdom . The two numbers now

      issued give universal satisfaction , and with Carlyle ' s Latter-Day Pamphlets form the gossip of every reunion . The story of " Lizzie Leigh " excites the greatest interest , and its authorship is much debated . If we may venture to guess , we should say that in it Mrs . Gaskell ' s hand is distinctly legible ; all the readers of Mary Barton will acknowledge the family resemblance . There is a decided advantage in not affixing the names of the contributors ; mystery is in itself a

      source of interest * and readers are cautious in condemning mediocre papers lest they should turn out to be by " distinguished writers . " On the whole , the season is very flat . The only cheering intelligence we have to communicate is the prospect of a new work from the " Oxford Graduate , " the title of which , The Stones of Venice , speaks of a place and subject worthy of his brilliant style . Mr . Ruskin has , we are told , taken exact measurements of some 150 palaces and public

      buildings in Venice , faithful to his old plan of uniting accurate investigation of the facts to aesthetic appreciations of principles and results . The appearance of his Modern Painters was an event . It not only placed him high as a critic , but furnished another example of the old truth , that empiricism is as idle and pernicious in in Art as in Philosophy , and that only by the recurrence to those eternal principles from which Art itself issues can criticism hope to utter a sane word . * Nothing can be more incorrect than the

      assertion that Mr . Ruskin ' s success was owing to his daring paradoxes . Let any man try to ' succeed by paradoxes , and not in spite of them ! No ; his success was great , the effect produced was great , because , amidst rash assertions , incomplete views , and an air of cavalier dogmatism very startling to " grave authorities , " there was a keen , delicate , and impassioned appreciation of Beauty , a minute and comprehensive knowledge of the actual appearance of Nature , a genuine enthusiasm for Art , and

      a recognition of the spiritual influences which mould the emotions into forms of Art . Sweeping out of the tiaditional humdrum path , he carried his reader with him to " fresh fields and pastures new . " He gave an impulse to criticism in the right direction . Those who reject his partialities and dislikes , who bow not with him before Turner nor before Pushy , who still hold firm to their faith in Claude andCuvp , must nevertheless acknowledge that his writings are almost a national benefit in their influence .

      A " national benefit" is seldom acknowledged by the nation unless it takes some physical shape ; the moral influences which less obviously but more potently determine the national greatness and prosperity of * n people , escape recognition and reward . We can shout jubilates , and vote titles and fortunes to the captains of our valiant armies who carry the English standard into the heart of India ; but those other captains , who lead the whole nation in its magnificent inarch of civilizing conquest , are left to battle with booksellers and * niygardly

      Government . Peerages and splendid pensions await the one ; the other in his declining years may deem himself fortunate indeed if , after much solicitation on the part of friends , and some mild " agitation" on the part of the press , Government consents to place him on the list swelled by nobodies —( but nobodies who have " interest ! " )—and allots him a pension of a hundred or two per annum . There is Thomas I ) is Quinokv , for

      example , a man whose nc <] iiirements and powers rue Sf ) remarkable as to puzzle us what rank to assign to him , lest we fall short of his due , or s ;* ein extravji ^ unt in ourpraise ; and of whom this much at least is incontestable , that to learning , both various and profound , be unites a generosity of spirit and a subtlety of acumen almost nmounlinjj to genius , while , as a master of English composition , he is quite unrivalled among living men ; yet he who

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      In France the talk is still of M . Ponsard and his Charlotte Cor day j the impartiality of which , as might have been foreseen , has displeased every one . Jules Janin , in one of his brilliant feuilletons , protests vehemently against the propriety of treating such a subject at all , while Gustave Planciie , in his pedantic , but direct and trenchant style , declares the subject a good one , though ill managed by the poet ; and Theoi » i-iile Gautier , with the true solicitude of a Romanticist for the importance of language , is most struck by the " concessions" made by the poet to the new school .

      The new volume of Chateaubriand ' s Memoirs contains an ample account of that lovely and lovable woman , Madame Recamier , not more celebrated for her beauty than for the deep and lasting friendships she formed and inspired . We are accustomed in England to consider' the French as incapable of friendship ; whereas , to any one who knows France sufficiently to form an opinion on the snbject , nothing is clearer than that the French are immensely our superiors in that respect . The only

      example we have to rival the well-known attachments which bind public men together in France is in certain Parliamentary friendships . Our " natural enemies " have greater and profounder capacities for friendship than we have ; they are more friendly and have more life-attachments . One very charming illustration is afforded by these Memoires of Chateaubriand who loved Joubert , Fontanes , Ballanche , and Madame Recamier , as men seldom love in England—especially celebrated men .

      Dk la Hodde is again in the field with a Histoire des Socivtts Secretes et du Parti Republican , which professes to unfold a panorama of conspiracy from 1 S 30 to 1848 . Of its perfect veracity none of our readers will entertain a question ; everything from such a source has the inestimable advantage of being prepared by a candid , impartial , and generous police totally above tampering with the truth !

      Lrannu Rollin is about to present to us the picture of our own miseries . In his Decadence de rAiiyteterre which we see announced , there will doubtless be many points worthy of our serious attention , for things strike a foreigner with a distinctness our familiarity forbids . On the other hand , Frenchmen are rarely remarkable for looking at countries with any discrimination ; they either look at England with predetermined conceptions of our perfect social and political arrangements , or with the stupid prejudices of a hadaud to whom the boulevard is the universe . It is in vain to expect a week in which Dumas will not appear in one of his multiform shapes ;

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      with his pen has fought the terrible battle of Want , who has never had the leisure to compose finished works , forced as he has been to squander his riches on the periodicals of the day , he is now old , infirm , and in poverty ; but friends clamour in vain at the Treasury door for a pittance to give his declining years repose . Truly is the literary man no worse off than the operative : both toil for the day ' s wages without a prospect of ultimate release , without a prospect of meeting old age and sickness otherwise than as beggars . He who labours with

      his head , and he who labours with his hand , both are salaried operatives ; but he who labours with the sword , who , instead of producing , destroys , who , instead of bringing light and solace , and expansion of the soul ^ and the blessed amenities of intellect , brings desolation and destruction , arid rears for himself a monument df sculls , a name resonant with the sorrowing cries of the slaughtered , he is more than a salaried operative , for him there is half-pay at the worst , peerages

      and pensions in reserve . Yes , this is the justice of society . When the charger becomes unfit for service we remember the battles he has borne us in , and turn him into a paddock to graze henceforth in indolent security ; but the horse who never champed bit to the blaring thunder of the march , who has only carried us daily to and from our Homes , and served us in the vulgar offices of life , when he grows old the paddock that awaits him is , first the costeririonger ' s cart , and next the knacker ' s shambles !

      By the side of this dark reality of literature let us place a bright rumour , though , as we have not seen the cheque , we cannot vouch for its absolute accuracy , namely , that Mr . Colburn has paid Mr . Eliot Warburton a thousand pounds for the new novel , Reginald Hastings—a price which some years ago was not uncommon , but which now has quite a fabulous aspect .

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      i 62 &bt fLtUtftt , [ Saturday

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), April 13, 1850, page 62, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1840/page/14/