On this page
-
Text (3)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
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.
-
-
Transcript
-
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.
Untitled Article
and saying I would return to her , I rushed from the house into the open air . I felt choking with sorrow , indignation , anger , and scorn for the deceiver . At that moment I saw him approaching . I cannot tell you all that passed . To the torrent of my reproaches he answered with a quiet cold sarcasm that goaded me on . He disappeared for a few minutes , and returning , showed me a brace of pistols , and offered me one ; in the storm of my passion I forgot everything of my sister but her wrongs and my revenge . I grasped the weapon eagerly , only replying , ' At once / and we walked rapidly away . We fired , and he fell—dead . That night Edward was bornand two days after I laid my sister in the grave .
, She knew all ere she died , and she forgave me ; yet she shed bitter tears to the memory of one unworthy of her . "Women will love through everything . One request sternly and solemnly she made to me , and I gave her in answer a promise as solemn . ' I commit my child to your care . Let him have a home with you , if you marry , and if you have children , let him be a brother to them ; but , ' she added with sudden energy , ' the union must be no closer ; if it were a curse would fall upon it . Your hand is stained with his father's blood . ' Her tones weTe wild , full of emotion , and have since sounded in my memory as prophetic ; and now , when I am about to leave
to the care of others , the one beloved girl who has grown up with this boy , hand in hand , those words ring in my ears , and I shall not die in peace till I know it cannot be . She must give me her promise , her solemn vow , and then I shall die in peace . I wish you to be present , you and her mother only . He will be much away from Longbrooke , travelling , and at college . It would , I think , be cruel to acquaint him with what he is now happily ignorant of , his birth , and his parents' death . He is amply provided for . His mother ' s fortune , and a portion
of mine , place him far beyond the reach of any pecuniary needs , and his habits , though refined , are not extravagant . That I was the murderer of his father , wretched and evil as that father was , is a fearful truth , and all I do for him is more than due . I have left to him all my landed property , made him , in fact , my son , with full regard at the same time to the claims of my daughter , whose portion is also ample . A new life and new friends will soon dissipate in Edward ' s mind the fervour of past remembrances , and Ethel will remain to him as a sister . "
" Without telling his daughter his reasons for exacting the promise , he makes her promise she will never marry her cousin . He dies . The two fall desperately in love ; but Ethel keeps her promise , and , to enable her to keep it , marries another . Now , we put it to any jury of men and women at all experienced in matters of love whether they think such a promise would have been kept ? Love would have borne down all scruples , invented a thousand sophisms to explain away the promise , or flown riglu in the face of it , and united the two . So entirely are we convinced of that being the true issue out of such a dilemma , that our interest in Ethel altogether ceased , and we could not sympathize with any of the misery which her act brings on .
Cornelia is far more interesting , and the heroine is an enchanting creature . But the story is evidently a minor consideration with this writer ; though every now and then there are passages which betoken a power not sufficiently called into play . As a specimen we will quote the opening of Cornelia : — " One evening in autumn , at Pan , in the Pyrenees , and in one of the houses usually occupied by the English residents there , four persons , composing what we should call , in England , a family group , sat listlessly , watching the twilight deepen into night . A lady , still beautiful , but with lines of premature age on her brow , and soft
hair streaked with grey , leaned her arms upon n little table by the window , and gazed up to the darkening sky , whore the stars were just appearing . Every now and then she suddenly turned , with an air of anxiety , to watch the movements of a little child , a girl , who was creeping on the floor after a ball , laughing to itself , and exploring every corner , under chairs and tables . In one of these corners , apart , sate a boy of perhaps fifteen years old , his hands resting on his knees , his eyes fixed rim on his mother by the window ( with an expression dilucult to describe , for it was something in which pity , admiration , and jxricf were mingled ) , then turned upon
his father , who was sitting over a fire newly kindled , and crouching over it with a starved , uncomfortable look . The gaze which the boy fixed upon him was terrible : all tlie Hol ' tne . ss in his eyes , when he looked on his mother , ihul ; yet there came no flash of anger , but a steady , dull look of hatred mid contempt ; an unutterable scorn ; a defiance , not wild , revengeful , or fiudden , but fixed even to solemnity . The lips were pressed together , the nostrils expanded as with deep drawn breuth , the hands , though apparently resting on the knees , clasped them tightly , with . in action of determination and power . And sill was quite silent , save now and then the crowing laugh of the little child . The lather sat over the iire : as if in
contrast with the demeanour of the son , his attitude was that of careless relaxation ; he gn / . cd vacantly on the kindling flame , and addressed neither look nor word to those around him . He was near fifty years of nge , tall , full in figure , powerful and handsome—so you would say nt the first glance : the forms wore those of beauty , the expression was that , of the mind and heart within , lie hud that day given way to one of ihoso violent fits of passion common with him , and fearful to behold . Traces of the storm that had swept over the surface were visible to familiar eyes ; the " air of weariness , the restless glance , the look of troubled indolence .
" Suddenly the little child knocked its head , and screamed aloud . He turned angrily , and said in a loud voice , ' Be quiet !' " The mother started up , but the boy was already on his knees beside the child , soothing her in the softest manner . The lady resumed her seat , and her air of abstraction . " * Come with me , ' said the boy to his sister . " ' No , no ; ' and she ran after her ball again . «* He returned to his seat , and all was as quiet as before .
" But soon the unwary child was at fault again ; though some instinctive feeling seemed to keep her from approaching her father , she crept to the other end of the fireplace , and put her hand , to steady herself in rising , upon one of the heated fire-irons . She screamed again , louder than before , but more piercingly rose the mother ' s shriek , as she saw the father ' s powerful arm , with returning passion , seize the child—seize , strike _ it , and dash it down again upon the floor with brutal violence ; —there it lay—it screamed no more—a moment of awful stillness : then the mother , shrieking , * He has killed her ! ' gathered her child to her bosom , and rushed from the room . She was followed by the boy—he had not stirred from his seat , but his eye had flashed , and his hand was clenched . He followed her to her bedroom , where she had laid the child down , and bathed its head with cold water . It was only stunned , and ,
reviving , cried again . ? ' ' Mother ! ' said the boy . " She started , not knowing he had followed her . " « What ? ' •* I curse him for a murderer !' u She shuddered . ' Hush ! hush ! oh , my son ! May God forgive us all ! ' " * Forgive us all ! what have you done—what have I done—what has this baby done ? What do you talk about being forgiven for ? ' " She made no answer . " ' I don ' t understand it , * he said doggedly . ' I have heard that God is good , but I don ' t believe it . ' " Still she replied not , except by a deep sigh , or rather groan , and she sunk on a chair beside the bed . He stood gazing on her . _ _ _ _
" By a strong effort she roused herself , and said calmly , * Don't talk now . Leave me . You know we are going away to-morrow . Let Wilson have all your things to pack . ' " He did not hear her last words . He ran down stairs , out of the house , into the open air , and they did not see him again that night . The mother put on her cloak and bonnet ; again took her child to her bosom , and she , too , left the house . "
Untitled Article
wade ' s junius . Junius : including Loiters from the same Writer under other Signatures . I ' o which arc ridded his Confidential Correspondence with Mr . IFilkes , and his Private Letters to Wood / all . A new and enlarged edition in 2 volumes . J 3 y John Wade , ( liohn ' s Standard Library . ) H . G . Bonn . If you have had any lingering doubt respecting the authorship of Junius , get these volumes and have that doubt set at rest for ever . To read the essay on
the authorship here prefixed , and to doubt Sir Philip Francis to bo Junius , is to possess a faculty for scepticism worthy to bo called unique . For our own parts the question had been irreversibly settled long ago . Mr . Wade ' s laborious enquiry has , therefore , only made us admire his patience and his skill , without adding more to our conviction than the feeling that here at least is a settler for the most obstinate sceptic . He begins first by proving that Junius was
not a lawyer— -then that he was not a clergyman—( the proof here being somewhat lax by the way ! )—thirdly , that he was neither a peer nor an M . P . ; and the effect of these negative propositions is to sweep thirty-six competitoi ' s out of the field ! But his positive direct proof is still more convincing—and the reader will do well to seek it for himself . Another subject well cleared up is the source of all the political knowledge Junius exhibited : —
" Beside the extraordinary talent evinced in the composition of the Letters , one of their most remarkable features was the authentic and prompt intelligence manifestly at the command of the writer . Invisible himself , Junius seemed the central eye to which converged the ravs of light emitted from everything that moved in the political arena . It was this universality of information that especially tended to preserve inviolate his 3 ecresy , and to mislead enquirers into his identity . How could it be imagined that a clerk in the War-office could equal
a cabinet minister , and even Royalty itself , in the promptitude and accuracy of his official communications ? that the monarch , who , by virtue of his prerogative , receives from his secretaries , chancellors , and spiritual vicegerents reports of all transactions in Church nnd State , should be ? outdone by so humble a retainer ? that even the confidential whisperings of the King ' s closet , and the gossip sacred to the privacy of a ministerial dinner could not escape this indefatigable scrutator ? The unravelment of this mystery in the Junius story forms the purpose of the present section .
" For the production of any important event , history shows that the conjunction of two elements is indispensable—a qualified instrument and cooperating circumstances . The genius of Napoleon fostered by the times in which he lived , constituted the phenomenon of his existence . Junius , in a less dazzling field of action ,
forms another signal example of the junction of means with ends ; and in Sir Philip Francis we see exactly the man who , from his peculiar position , character , and acquirements was competent to fulfil the conditions of the problem . Apparently open , communicative ; and jocular , he was really a reserved being ; self-dependent , communing much with himself , and subject to passions that might urge him to extreme courses , more or less elevated , according to the nature of the impulse . The Zanga ' of Young , or the ' Falkland' of Godwin , offers the nearest dramatic presentment of his peculiar organization . Early in life , from unusual ability and trustworthiness , he obtained , as already stated , the confidential patronage of Lord Holland , and subsequently of the Earl of Chatham ; and these noblemen , the ablest and
most influential of their time , became the chief sources of the private information of Junius , through the intermediate agency , privity , or cooperation of Earl Temple , and perhaps of the Grenvilles , Mr . Calcraft , and Dr . Francis . These possessed ample opportunities to contribute all the parliamentary , court , and club news that rendered the Letters remarkable . The city intelligence partly passed through the same hands , especially Mr . Calcraft ' s , and was obtained first from Alderman Beckford , and after his death from Alderman Sawbridge . Wilkes also furnished fuel to the Junian furnace , but he seems to have been left to be dealt with by Junius , who received the civic contributions of the agitator through the medium of Mr . Woodfall . Such is the list of the dramatis personce—a body of intelligencers , it must be owned , amply sufficient to produce the Letters . "
On the whole this is an interesting and useful edition , comprising all the writings of Junius—such as appeared in the Public Advertiser ; a collection of letters ascribed to him ; his private notes to Woodfall ; with extracts from the analysis by Sir Harris Nicolas ; illustrations furnished by the new editor , and an ample index . Mr . Bohn ' s Standard Librarycontains few books better worthy of permanent place upon the shelves : it is essentially a library edition .
Untitled Article
ROBERT OWEN S REVOLUTION . The Revolution in the Mind and Practice of the Human Race ; or , the Coming Change from Irrationality to Rationality . By Robert Owen . London : Effingham Wilson ; Watson and Vickers . We are glad to find an edition of this important work issued at a price which will put it within the reach of the class , perhaps of all others , most interested in the realization of the ideas it is intended to promulgate . We say " most interested , " because , though all have evils of their own , which the coming change
will alleviate or remove , the poorer classes feel the privations and positive sufferings of the present time more directly and more acutely , and consequently will hail with greater eagerness any well organized plan for their removal . The present edition contains some additional matter to that given in the larger edition which we noticed in a former number of the Leader ; the principal addition is to be found in the laws relating to Marriage and Divorce applicable to the future state of society , which , from the extreme
delicacv and caution which characterizes them , show the care and discrimination with which Mr . Owen has approached this difficult and sacred subject ; and refute at once the charge brought against him and those who accept his system of social reform , of aiming at the introduction of unbridled license or legalized sensuality . The writer's views on " Rational Religion" are given in the appendix , and a thorough harmony is maintained in them with the remainder of his theories as
developed in this and his other writings . Ihe certainty of the existence of an external or internal cause of all existencies , the inco mprehensible nature of this Power which has yet been universally recognized by men , the law of the formation of character for , and not by , all that have life upon the earth , the consequent inconsistency of praise or blame , and the charitable feelings thus generated in their room , are indicated here , together with the identity of the duty
and interest of man to study the eausea which produce evil and goo d to the human race , with a view to the removal of the former from society , and the creation around it of the latter only . These and other means by which the religion of the future will bo manifested clearly redeem the character of the author from the churge of infidelity or hostility to religious co nviction , and show him on the contrary the earnest and conscientious searcher after truth , and its clear and uncompromising exponent to his
fellow-men . We have no doubt that the working classes of England will avail themselves of the opportunity of making acquaintance with this and other works of the same author , which we perceive from the advertisement will be offered them at a similar reduction of price ,
Untitled Article
450 ® f » £ $ Lt& * [ Btt + Saturday ,
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 3, 1850, page 450, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1849/page/18/
-