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you that this charming pr int has also been the warm advocate , A Voutrance , of the Holy Inquisition , of the torture , of the auto da f <§ , of the St . Bartholomew massacre , of the dragonnades , and we know not what other agreeable bygones , you will not be surprised to learn that L'Univers is in the van to exalt his Sacred Majesty of Naples as the " best and worthiest and most clementof Christian Kin ^ s" ! But it goes further , and with a temerity which seems almost "judicial" in the midst of habitual prevarications and " reserves , " positively asserts that " there is not a simple fact in either of Mr . Gladstone ' s letters which can bear
examination ; " and this assertion , while recognizing its boldness , L'Univers engages to sustain . It has the further rashness to attempt publicly to throw suspicion on the credibility of Mr . Gladstone ' s statements by declaring that he has recounted mere hearsays , that he was not an eyewitness on any occasion , that he has picked up mere vague rumours and the interested exaggerations of Neapolitan revolutionists . Accordingly I / Univers begins a series of letters to Mr . Gladstone upon the data of its own gratuitous assumptions . Unluckily , it has once more caught a Tartar in its intimate
enemy La Presse , which by way of opposing proof to assertion , translates literally the most striking passages of Mr . Gladstone's letters , where the significant words , " I have seen with my own eyes " ( not " I have heard , ' * and " as I hear , " and " as I was assured , " according to M . Gondon ) so frequently occur . The attitude of the Republican and Constitutional press is worthy of France and
of the cause of humanity to which Mr . Gladstone has so nobly lent the crushing weight of his name —calm , dignified , just in appreciation . But as if L'Univers ( which we fear will be the windingsheet of the pnrti-pretre ) were not enough to " finish " the king of its predilection , an ally or aide-de-camp has entered the lists in the peison of the Patrie , the Elyse ' an optimist , of which the most that can be said is that it is— " Journal du Soir . ' "
English influence was to be pressed into the service of Naples , to counteract the truly English act of Mr . Gladstone . In the first place , we understand , an English opponent has been manufactured . A composition has been got up in the English language , published at Lugano , Capolago , or some other place in Switzerland , and imported into Naples , as i it were the declaration of an English writer against the statements of Mr . Gladstone ; but the writing was manifestly by no English pen . We < lescribe it at second hand , not having had the felicity to see it ; but we have no reason to doubt the correctness of the description .
It was desirable , however , to find a real Englishman to contradict the truthteller . Even the correspondent of the Times , so friendly and lenient towards the Royalist parties of Italy , cannot withhold his voucher from Mr . Gladstone ' s account . However , a champion was at last found in that market where , it is said , everything may be procured—London . We know that a certain individual , not an Italian , belonging to the distinguished family of Les Mouchards , was in London , not long since ; and lie made no secret , among friends , that
he had secured a writer to deny Mr . Gladstone . Mr . Charles Macfarlane has hint put forth a pamphlet professsing to deny Mr . Gladstone and all that he has said . And who , you will suy , is Mr . C . Macfarlane ? ha Patrie informs us that he is " a distinguished publicist ; " but some doubt in thrown upon the fact by La Presse , who calls him a " nomad ( or wandering ) pamphleteer , known only for the absurdity of hi « lucubrations . " W « are not indeed without some past knoivlerlge of the new champion who advances to defend " the best of Kings . " Have you read the The Romance <> f the Reaction which he entitled in that elegant aristocratic
way of his , A Glance at Revolutionized Italy ? It i « written , we were going to say , " in very < oice Italian , " we mean it in— "by authority . " Iluve you read u former " lucubration" on the J » l > jcct of Turkey and the l \ irhs ? It hIioiiM have » een called Turkey seen through the Medium of a I'ragomanj or , a Walk round my Room . In this book y ( m will find a horrible onslaught upon the oppressions of the Turkish Government , which 'Elected the distinguished and liberal publicist even «> aickncHB . Hut we , have heard that the Vizier Ti lr " ? on 8 "ler the damages very heavy ; and t « m , HllW mirvive « > not an unfavourable contrast ,. Wn 1 I ? « 8- There ! could the King of Naples lane ti V ° dono moro for Mr" ChurleH Macfax' , Ulaa m" have done by recounting his pant dii . !! * c J luBh ftn ( 1 hu Y lu « luflt pamphlet in wenoo of 1 ,, h bosom friends the titledjgaolera of
the Neapolitan dungeons . All Mr . Macfarlane ' s bosom friends have handles to their names . He is " one of those gentle ones that will use the devil himself with courtesy , " if only because he is one of the " powers that be . " Such are Mr . Gladstone ' s " deniers . " Between him and them let publicity be the judge ! Let his sacred Majesty of Naples " plate sin with gold . " We at least will never cease to call crime , however royal , crime !
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PROGRESS OF ASSURANCE . We last week referred to the peculiar adaptations of the Life Assurance principle by the Athenaeum Life Assurance Society ; but we are desirous of drawing the attention of literary men and artists and the liberal professions generally , to the great importance of the assurance principle and its peculiar adaptation to their position . It is a great thing for a public company to offer a benefit to a class . We do not question that the tables of the " Athenaeum , " which offer special advantages to the professional man , are so constructed as to bring advantages also to the society ; but it ought to be remembered that the society could have achieved a commercial success without this adjunct .
Unfortunately , the sorrows of authors are too well known , and many persons are too ready in attributing improvidence and want of principle to those whose minds are insufficient to measure those persons they condemn . People really know nothing of the difficulties that man has to contend against who offers his intellectual luxuries , or high spiritual gifts , in exchange for corporal necessities . The late Disraeli has well observed that , " Authors of all classes in the community have been the most honoured and the least remunerated . " Smollett died in penury and among strangers . But
after his death , ornamented columns rose to his memory , and his very grave seemed to multiply the editions of his works . See Goldsmith selling his Vicar of Wakejield for £ 60 , a work which is even now continually being reprinted in this and other countries . Milton ' s Paradise Lost was sold by its author for £ 10 , and yet Dr . Newton received £ 630 for his edition of the work . When Hume published the first edition of his History , it was received with such coldness and indifference , that he would have left his native country disgusted and heart-broken , had not the war prevented
him . De Foe sold Robinson Crusoe for a trifle , and the fortunate publisher made a thousand guineas by it . Burn ' s Justice and Buchah ' s Domestic Medicine , books which now yield steady annual incomes , were obtained from their authors for a mere song . Poor Chatterton , who was compelled by want to bring every production of his genius to a statement of pounds , shillings , and pence , left the following memorandum among his papers . A Political Essay he had penned had been stopped in the publication by the death of the Lord Mayor of London , which rendered it useless . He thus states the account : —•
" Lost by the Mayor ' s death in this Essay £ 1 11 G Gained , however , in Elegies and EssayB thereon 5 5 0 The favourable balance stands recorded thus : — ' I am glad he is dead by . £ 3 13 fi
We have already frequently referred to the necessity of life assurance to all those whose income is dependent on their lives . The adoption of the " Athenaeum " principles is incumbent on all those whose income is dependent on their personal exertions . The great barrier to the adoption of life assurance by literary men and artists is the fear that they may not be able to keep up the premiumH , and that all they had advanced would be lost to them . The nrecarioiiK tenure , of iho liWnnr «» -i «' o ; . w .... « ,. Uie precarious tenure of the literary man ' income
s is recognized by the " Athenaeum " so far , that he does not forfeit his policy if the premiums should not be regularly paid up , or , rather , a fund is provided to enable him . to pay them . Hut there is a feature which we think would insure the adoption of life assurance by all professional persons . The literary man , the barrister , the sailor , and all men in the professions , are liable to fits of prosperity as well H 8 adversity . Mostly they are not of a Having turn—the productive mood is often in * compatible with the saving mood ; and there ih no provision that enabled a man to capitalize the income of a prosperous year . The development of Life Assurance induces us to hope that tables may be formed to meet this condition of thinira
. Suppose the /' Athenaeum" made a provision calculated to this effect : That a man effecting an aH 8 iirai . ce diould be permitted to make payments to any amount in Bpeciffcd auma , say d each
These sums each to represent a proportionate sum at death , larger in proportion to the year it was paid , having no reference to yearly premiums . For instance , a man enters in 1850 pays £ 5 ; in 1851 a bad ' year , he pays nothing ; in 1852 , a ' better year , he pays three sums of £ 5 each ; in 1853 , a a prosperous year , he pays seven sums of £ 5 each ; in 1854 , an indifferent year , he pays two sums of £ 5 ; in 1855 , a bad year , nothing . The
calculation of the table might be made against the assurer . Prosperity puts him in a spending humour , Adversity makes him glad to save his premiums for assurance even at the cost of rather a hard calculation . But the power to deposit every £ 5 whilst he may , would be a real boon ; and the hold on so much capital , which would otherwise float away into space , would be a gain to the Assurance office .
We offer these proposals to the notice of the " Athenaeum Life Assurance Society , " as they appear actuated by the most benevolent intentions . They have an actuary fully competent to erect tables with this object , on the safest and most comprehensive data . They should remember that the profession , if it have the character of improvidence , has also the credit of liberality ; and that the extra premiums will be lost sight of in viewing the solid benefits conferred .
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" ORDER" CONDUCIVE TO CRIME . France is growing moral ; England is degenerating . Such appear to be the conclusions on high authority . The arithmetical moralist is perplexing himself just now over statistical tables of criminal justice in divers countries , with strange results . We will not here trouble our readers with figures which the very promulgators disclaim or " explain away . " The criminal statistics of England show
rather a diminution of crime in 1850 ; but perhaps , says the sceptic , because the Juvenile Offenders Act and other improvements , by extending summary jurisdiction , have withdrawn many crimes from the cognizance of Law and Assize Courts . In Ireland crime is diminishing—with the hunger and with the number of people . In Scotlandnever , alas ! says the Edinburgh Courant , very sober or very chaste—the criminal returns attest a considerable increase of " wickedness . " It is in
France that crime is diminished . The establishment of the Republic in 1848 marked a striking diminution of crime ; but in 1849 , the j r ear just reported , there was a slight increase . Scotland was unaffected by the revolutionary storm , France has undergone its full force . Baron Platt notices a disappointment on the score of " education" : —
" It had been found from the annual tables , travelling over a sp . ice of no less than thirteen years , that the ¦ want of education stood as a mark upon crime ; for it had been found invariably during thoce twdve years that the totally illiterate and the partially educated together formed nino out often throughout the whole calendar , showing that ignorance and crime were intimately connected . Bvit be found in this part of the county of Lancaster ( Liverpool ) education had not had a very salutary effect ; for he found here , —whereas , as he had alread y stated , that throughout the country ignorant persons were criminals in the proportion of nine to one , —that in this calendar , consisting of 123 prisoners , there were eighteen who could read and write well , and t-ix of a superior education
, bringing the proportion down to three or four to one , and diminishing , of course , to the same amount , the proportion in favour of education . Thus , they observed , tliat eighteen and six make twentyfour—that was twenty-four educated portions out of 123 . That was very striking . There must be Home causo for it . Was it a lax mode of conducting trude in this great trading portion of the island ? Was it a want of moral feeling in the conduct of trade ? Wns it a want of care which was exhibited as to the morals of the persons who might , reetive some education ? There must be something wrong in this ; or it might be it was n source from which they might , draw a very favourable inference to the conditions of Home very wise men on this subject , that education , unless it bo
IllOrn J 21 II f I l * fl 11 iriniiu *•/ 4 i ¦¦ »•» * lwi » - .. >> .. i ' ., < . l . i ,...,... n « lv ,,.. « . inornl and religious , wiw rather a nuuehievous than ft useful acquirement to mini . " But Scotland in " religious , " also educated ; Lancashire ih educated ; France w revolutionary ! It ih perplexing . The touch at trade is worth confederation . We doubt whether enough ntvct > s is laid in " education , " on the drawing out of the natural faculties : perhaps it in too much an attempt to turn men into dingnmiH ; which failing , we have the recoil— " crime . " In religion , more stress is laid upon inyntic dogmas than upon the instinctive piety which is the bent part of all " persuasions . " Trade , perhaps , has been made too
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Aug . 23 , 1851 . J ff !> * VLtaitt . 801
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 23, 1851, page 801, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1897/page/13/
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