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of my fellows by giving me the franchise ? Giving it to me would not take it from them . But giving it to others and denying it to me , merely because I am unable to pay a certain amount of rent and taxes , is manifestly unjust , because it is giving them the power to oppress me with laws of which I do not approve , and of making me pay for my oppression , while I am denied the privilege of meeting them on the fair ground of the hustings or the polling-booth . It is increasing the privileges of those already privileged by fortune , and leaving in political helplessness those who have the most need of some power to raise them in the social scale . Has not the poor man as great an interest in the prosperity of the country as the rich ? Truly , he has a greater interest . The rich could remove to another land , but with the poor it is
a matter of life or death . A . Gurney tries to establish the truth of this proposition : — " It is absolutely essential for the maintenance of liberty that every man should not possess the suffrage . " His reasoning is this : — " A majority is not infallible . " " The first essential of good government is consequently" — What ? that the minority must rule ? No—* ' A division of power . " Now I must confess I cannot see the sequence . He might as well have said " The first essential of good government is consequently that we have no governall his
ment . " This might suffice ; for reasoning depends on this sequence , and it depends on nothing . But allow me to ask , can he , by any division of power , secure an infallible government ? Is it easier to get three or four infallible majorities than one ? If not , why object to universal suffrage because its majority is not infallible ? But he is not content yet ; for he says , " This division of power is inconsistent with universal suffrage ! " I know not what to say to this . In universal suffrage every one possesses a portion of power ; could there be a greater division of power than this ?
I am sorry that a minister of the Gospel of Him who said " All ye are brethren , " should virtually tell us that a poor man has no right to the suffrage ; for he does not propose to take it from the rich , but only to keep it from those poor " pariahs " who have it not . Does he never reflect that his Lord' « had not where to lay his head" ? and , consequently , if he lived among us now , he would be deprived of the privilege of voting for a patriot who might save his country from ruin . . No man can defend the principle on which the
franchise is now held . Though a man were as as Solomon , as just as Aristides , as eloquent as Demosthenes , and as benevolent as the Saviour of men , he would be denied a voice in the making of those laws which he is bound to obey , if he is found guilty of being poor ; though his poverty may , in the present state of society , be the result of his virtues . But let a man be rich , no matter by what means , and he may vote though he were the opposite of everything great or good . Is not this system one exemplification of the lines" Plate sin with gold , and the strong lance of justice hurtless breaks ; Arm it in rags , a pigmy ' s straw doth pierce it .
I am sorry that A . G . sees in universal suffrage " a vision of senseless , mad misrule . " Let him know the working classes better , and he will change his opinion . But suppose they are as ignorant and besotted as the vision leads him to suppose , what then ? They have become so under things as they are , and as they have been . But my experience among them convinces me that as a class they stand as high in morality and intelligence as any of those who possess the suffrage . Many doubtless are ^ in ignorance and sin , and I see little hope of their improvement while " Laws grind the poor , and rich men rule the laws . " Homo .
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Critics are not the legislators , but tne judges and police of literature . They do not make laws—they interpret and try to enforce them . —Edinburgh . Review .
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Cheap Literature has its evils , as every light its shadows . But if you wish for an example of unquestionable and unmitigated good in the shape of cheap publications , it will be found in that new enterprise announced by Chapman and Hall which is to furnish us with Penny Maps . It is the great expense of maps which has hitherto kept them from thousands and thousands of families ; and when first we heard of the new enterprize we had misgivings lest the Maps should be
indifferently executed , and , therefore , dear at the price ; we have now inspected some of them , and must praise their execution highly : they are as good as may be desired , as large as would be convenient , and very clearly designed . We near that Miss Strickland has signed a very liberal agreement for a series of volumes on the Queens of Scotland as a companion to her former successful work on England , the great advantage of which was that it could be unmisgivingly placed in the hands of young ladies . We
are very far from saymg the same of Un Caprice de Grande Dame , a new novel by the Marquis de Foudras , which , both in Paris and London , just now is widely read and gossipped about . It is frightfully corrupt—which , of course , is not the reason why it is read : nobody , especially in moral England , looks into an immoral book knowing it to be one ! Are we then to suppose that it is read because certain well-known people move slightly masked , through its scenes ? so slightly masked , that Theophile Gautier , the critic , is designated by the name of his own novel , Fortunio —as if Bulweb . were introduced as Pelham . It is
not for us to decide on the attraction . All we decide is that it is a corrupt , an infamous , a shameless book , pretending to be a picture of our times , but no more worthy to be accepted as such than a scene in a bagnio to be accepted as a type of our English life . A more thoroughly immoral bookscenes , descriptions , characters , tone—we do not remember to have read . ' You have read it , then ? " exclaims some listener to this diatribe .
Oh yes , read it to the end : but we are not a young lady ! and we trust you will imagine a variety of philosophic motives which , alone could induce us to commit such an enormity . We read such novels as our Aunt takes brandy and water before going to bed—medicinally !
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Tom Campbell would chuckle , were he here on earth to chuckle still ; he who made that famous joke about Napoleon having done at least one good action , viz ., shot a bookseller—he would greatly applaud paternal Prussia , did he but witness the effect of the new press-laws . The bookseller has now the agreeable duty of knowing , at his peril , the contents of every book he sells Heavens ! conceive such a fate ! That of Tantalus was a trifle to it , that of Sisyphus a summer ' s recreation . Think of Mr . Hatchard having to read the theology and politics he sells ; think of Mr . Bbntley condemned to read his own
novels ; and not only Mr . Bbntle y , but every unhappy bookseller who may have those novels on his counter ! Such ferocity of law-making could only proceed from some unread author ! But how Campbell would have chuckled had he read in this number of the Leader that Springer , the great bookseller of Berlin , is imprisoned for having sold in the way of business a copy of Die Hohenzollern , a work which , on inspection , turns out to contain treasonable matter—sold , observe , not published the work ! It was published at Cassel ; but as neither author nor publisher could be brought
before a Prussian court they escape , the bookseller is pounced upon . Thus , if in England we were to adopt that just and liberal law , a work published in America or France might contain passages ^ far from complimentary to our Government or institutions , and if so , any bookseller who had not possessed himself of the contents would be open to the danger of being imprisoned for his ignorance . Happy Germany ! Wise Rulers ! One week we chronicle the fact that the very name of a Radical journal is not suffered to be pronounced ; another week that booksellers are liable for the contents of
their books . Germany has lost its venerable Neander , one of the most erudite aad exemplary of the orthodox party j he came from Jewish parents , and devoted
a laborious life to the composition of a variety of works on ecclesiastical history , one of which we reviewed in our opening number .
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THE LION HUNTER . Five rears of a Hunter ' s Life in the Far Interior of South Africa . By B . Gordon Cummin ^ , Esq ., of Altyvc . "With Illustrations . 2 vols . Murray . A moee brutal book has never fallen in . our -way brutal to the extent of entirely withdrawing our sympathy from the hunter and his sport to bestow it on his victims . In several of these encounters we heartily wished the lion success . The odds were terribly against him , for not only had the hunter long experience and the advantages of fire-arms and
cunning to set off against the strength and ferocity of the wild beast , but he was moreover assisted by attendant negroes with their rifles , by his dogs , who fearlessly attacked and drew off the attention of the animal , and by horses , who with astonishing docility suffered themselves to be ridden alongside of the lion that the rider might fire at his ease . With all these odds against him we never wonder to see the lion fall ; but we could not resist a laugh at the naivete of Lieutenant Cumming , who is as indignant at the ferocity of the lion as we are at his less
excusable ferocity ! The lion leaps upon a man with the same virtuous intent as we separate the lean from a mutton chop ; but , when a hungry lion once boldly dashed in among them , and carried off a man whom , he devoured , Mr . Cumming gave the assassin" chase , and coming up with him was filled with feelings quite edifiying to those who have had courage to wade through the sickening details of these volumes . ' On
beholding him , he says , ' ? my blood hoxlcd with rage . I wished I could take him alive and toiituhe him , and setting my teeth I dashed my steed forward , " &c . This suggests a query : If a lion , obeying the impulses of itsown nature , seeks for food and finds it in the flesh , of a man whom he subdues , deserves to be tortured alive , what does the man deserve who , in mere wanton sport , slaughters animals with every circumstance of cruelty , and glories in the deed as if it proved his manliness ?
Our contemporaries , in their notices of this book , have touched but gently on it 3 brutal and demoralizing tone , probably from some secret fear of being thought effeminate ! But we arc glad to say , that in society we hear it properly appreciated—and that too by authorities least open to suspicion—military men who have been in the east ; and wo should not be doing our duty if wo allowed such a publication to
pass uncensured . The spirit-stirring recital of perils and wild scenes loses its proper influence here by tho disgust created . Our sense of courage , hardihood , adventure , is lost in that of butchery . Wo turn from it as from the shambles . Tho page reeks with blood ; and tho writer smoars himself all over with it as though blood in itself were ornamental ! Sometimes he narrates without boasting—as if merely insensible ;
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Open to Conviction . —Mr . John Diggs is a man who always carries his will before him , like a crown on a cushion , while his reason follows like a page , holding up the skirts of his great coat . Honest-hearted , and not without generosity , he is much esteemed in spite of his many perversities . He possesses a shrewd observation , and a good understanding , when once you can get at it ; but his energies and animal spirits commonly carry him out of all bounds , so that to bring him back to rational judgment is a work of no small difficulty . He is open to conviction , as he always says , but he is a tip-top specimen of the class who commonly use that expression ; his opon door is guarded by all the bludgeons of obstinacy , behind which site a pig-headed will , with its eyes
half shut . —Dickens ' s Household Worda % No . 12 . Middle-class Apathy . —It is a fact , painfully forced upon the notice of all who are in any wise connected with active enterprises , that , except in moneygetting , the middle classes are utterly dead ; that such a thing as personal exertion cannot to any large extent be found among them . Cash they will give you ; cold sympathy they will give , but action , even of the least onerous kind , self-denial the most meagre , cannot be extorted from them . They have folded themselves in their mantles , and with their eyes within have no care for anything abroad ; they wish to run smoothly on in the sleek routine of a voluptuous , laissez-faire existence , and , rather than be dragged into a rougher , manlier life , will consent—to contribute cash . —Social Aspects , by J . S . Smith .
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In France the only literary activity seems to be in the direction of Socialism , which is warmly debated pro and con . In a pamphlet called Despotisme ou Socialisme , M . Pompery rapidly sketches the alternative which , he says , lies open to those who rise against despotism . There are but two religious doctrines according to him , the one absolutist , represented by De Maistre , and the Catholic schoolwhich islogically enough , desirous of
, , reestablishing the Inquisition ; the other professed by all the illustrious teachers of mankind , by Pythagoras , Jesus , Socrates , Pascal , &c , which , believing in the goodness of the Creator and the perfectibility of man , endeavours to found upon earth the reign of justice , fraternity , and equality . A more important work on Socialism is that of Dr . Guepin , of Nantes , Philosophie du Socialisme s and M . Lecotjturier announces a Science du
Socialisme . As an example of the slowness of French papers to give their readers any account of the novelties issued , we may point to Ledku Rollin ' s book on England , which , reviewed by us nine weeks ago , is this week reviewed in the Debats . Considering the nature of the book , this shows strange indifference on the part of the journalists ! i
In ha Presse this week we actually read , wth full details , as a recent occurrence " the environs of Paris , " a version of the well-known story of the " Miseltoe Bough , " itself borrowed from the " Ginevra" in Rogers ' s Italy ! Perhaps that audacious penny-a-liner will next favour us with the murder of a wife by her husband , which will turn out to be Othello in a police report .
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July 27 , 1850 . ] ©»* ^ LtKtttX * 423
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Leader (1850-1860), July 27, 1850, page 423, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1848/page/15/
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