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Leader (1850-1860), 17th January 1852, Edition Town of 1, Page 65, Untitled Picture

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      Untitled Article

      enough—unhappily heeded no more than sermons commonlyare 1 Something of the mystery ia revealed by the strange mingling of my books , typical of my mingled life . Plato happens to stand between Lafontajne and Lope de Vega , Comte is pressing against Leigh Hunt and Keats , Hegel squeezes Calderon into the corner ^ Mulder ' s Organic Chemistry is next to Macaulay and Theocritus , and Spinoza and Goethe are underneath Scribe and Balzac ! Such a pell-mell of Philosophy , Science ,

      Novels , Plays , —books that alarm all but steadfast students , and books that excite the scorn of the grave—" so frivolous !¦"• I cannot help it—I have a natural turn for frivolity : the specific levity of my disposition will not be without its satisfaction . Voltaire , who had the same twofold tendency , regretted the absence of a like Catholic manysidedness in Newton . " Je voiidrais que Newton eut fait des vaudevilles , " he says ; "je Ten estimerais d * advantage / ' Fancy Newton writing vaudevilles , and getting his Principia accepted by grave ProfessorsT _ » This mention of vaudevilles brings me by an easy transition to the Theatres , where my professional duly calls me . Instead of pacing up and down my study , suffering myself to be bullied by my own conscience , I had better take my opera glass and see what is to be seen . Well , what is there to be seen ? First and foremost in beauty , elegance , and general attractiveness , is the burlesque at THE LYCEUM

      which has the merit of being the most tasteful as well as the most gorgeous of spectacles . If genuine Fairy Land is anywhere , it is there . That " Pleasure Garden of Peerless Pool , " With its exquisite background and groups of children and flowers , is like' the realization of a dream ; and as to the " Golden Pinery , " which concludes the piece , it surpasses ail the last scenes even of . this Theatre . The music is pretty ; the dresses are splendid ; the story is interesting , and the whole enchanting . Madame , as a suivante , has some neat speeches to deliver , and her st ill magnificent contralto is effectively brought in . Julia St . George never

      looked so charming as she does in the piquant little Prince , and only wants a little gaiety of manner for Happy hand . Frank Matthews as the Duke is wonderfully made up ; but I must tell him of a fault in his acting—a fault I think which increases , I allude to a perpetual change of key which mars the effect of many passages : passing from rhythmic elevation to the colloquial level , and suddenly ascending again . Let me not omit a word of praise to the amazing Pell , who , with his Ethiopian Serenaders , makes a pleasant variety in the music . Pell ' s management of the bones is something truly wonderful .

      DREAKYLANE ! O Dreary Lane ! O Dreary Lane J I cannot be seduced into your precincts , because the magniloquent , but not strictly grammatical , Mr . Bunn assures us ( see Play-bills ) that there is no room Ah I those Play-bills—so veracious ! "In consequence of the great success of Macbeth" it iswithdrawn !! what it is to be a Poet as well as Manager , and write your own bills I In one of these poetical , but not grammatical , productions , the public was informed that , " in consequence of the overflow from every part of the house , " something

      or other would be repeated J in the next line something else was announced for repetition , " in consequence of the complete overflow . " You are a Poet , Mr . Bunn , and , like Bayes in the Rehearsal , disdain ' * to creep servilely after sense , " otherwise I should ask you what a complete overflow was ? Empty benches ? An incomplete overflow " is , probably , one of those " hollow hearts " which " wear a mask " in the Bohemian Girl . But in all seriousness , I recommend the attention of the Drurv Lane bills to those who regard the Drama as Literature .

      OLYMPIC . Mrs * Mead , a new aspirant , has appeared here in the character of Portia . I have not yet seen her , and merely record the fact . The Pantomime , which is exceedingly amusing , draws , and will draw , good audiences for some time . Talking of Pantomimes , an occasional deputy of mine reports excellently of doings in the distant regions of MAItYLEBO NE , where Tom Matthews , or "Tommy , " as he is fondly known to the delighted " Gods , " is nightly w the ascendant as Ckwn , and the Harlequin twnoae name the deponent atateth not ) it " all that

      can be desired . " The fun will " amply repay' ? the distance . I speak by " good" report . The same cause obliges me to limit myself to a mention of the .

      MABIONNETTE THEATRE , now flourishing at the Adelaide Gallery , and exciting considerable curiosity in the public . AH who have been in Italy will remember what a " rage " there isibr Marionnettes there , among all classes , and it becomes a matter of speculation whether our public can be roused to a similar enjoyment . I have not yet been there ; but next week I promise to tell you " all about" these wooden actors—not by any means the only actors of that material ; and , as to their being puppets , how few actors are much more ! Vivian .

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      There is no learned man but will confess he hath much profited by reading controversies , his senses awakened , toid hia judgment sharpened . If , then , it be profitable for him to read , why shpuld it not , at l east , be tolerable for his adversary to write . —Milton .

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      POLAND . — . London , January 6 , 1852 . Sib , — -In your number of the 5 th , page 17 , I read with sorrow that your literary critic , apropos of a tale related in a pamphlet entitled New Poland , or the Infant Hero , repeats the old story , which our enemies have so assiduously spread by the bribery of newspapers , historians , and other authors , thus endeavouring , if not to justify , at least to palliate , their crime of robbery ; viz .: — ' That Poland is not altogether guiltless in her suffering and degradation ; for it was her own internal misgovernment , dissensions , and oppressions which rendered her an easy prey to foreign conquest and enslavement . Serfdom was the plaguespot , the festering sore , of ' his' own native land . Had the nobles , the priests , and the crown regulated their royal and seignorial privileges , so as to have secured to their vassals the fruits of their toil , —had they offered to the exiled of Jerusalem a home and a country , instead of pursuing them from , city to city like beasts of prey , &c , —the barbarous cohorts of Russia would have been poured into Poland in vain . " The critic is even '' glad " thaf the authoress of the little book did not overlook that trumped-tip story by the three spoliators , which he is pleased to call a fact . Now , Sir , as your valuable journal has amply convinced me that you are commonly well informed both as to historical facts and current

      events , and that your judgment thereupon has always been sound , and based upon truth and justice , I crave your permission of allowing me to address , through your columns , the few following words ( which my love of truth and wounded national feelings dictate to me ) to your literary critic , I would first beg leave to ask him whether , at the same epoch to which he alludes , misgovernment , dissensions , oppressions , serfdom , were not prevalent throughout Europe ; and that all those truly condemnablo vices , especially oppression , were not far more atrocious in Germany and France than they ever were in Poland ? Was not the oppression of the serfs in France carried to such an extent that in the fourteenth century it provoked the famous jacquerie , and in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries

      in . Germany the sanguinary war of the German peasants ( Bauernkdeg ) ? And now , because Poland became the prey of her rapacious neighbours , she is to bo considered more guilty than the other European countries ! Is Poland alone to be accused of intolerance , although her history reveals no trace of anything like a St . Bartholomew ' s massacre , or the horrors of the thirty years' war , the Holy Inquisition , or the atrocious persecutions , for instance , of the Protestants in England , several hundred *) of whom , men , women , and children , under Mary ' s short reign , were burnt in Smithfield , roeroly because they were Proteatants , not even an Alien Act , 8 co . Sco . i Is Poland to be accused , X repeat , of oppression and , intolerance , only became she was more unfortunate than the other oouatiiw , who , if they <* e * p « d hor

      fate , it . was merely because they had not the misfortune to be like her ( Poland ) surrounded on all sides by three despotic spoliators ? And it is a matter of doubt what would have been the fate of even England herself , if those same despots had surrounded her instead of the sea . That Poland nev . er refused , to the exiled of Jerusalem a home and a country , and that they were never "hunted from city to city like beasts of prey , " is sufficientl y proved by the incontestable fact that no other Christian country has ever had so many of them as Poland ; their number only now , under Russian oppression , begins to

      considerably diminish . To thus insinuate that Poland was intolerant is point blank to repudiate both historical evidence and existing facts , which tell us that even the Socinians , or Unitarians , who were " everywhere , even in Protestant countries , oppressed and violently persecuted , found only in Poland and Transylvania , —where they were allowed to establish communes of their own creed , —admission and security . " It was only when Poland did what England is now in the course of doing , that religious persecution against the Dissenters and the Greeks began , viz ,, when the Polish kings offered ** a home and a country" to the Jesuits . —— - _

      In conclusion , may I be allowed to quote a few paragraphs corroboratory of my assertions from M . Michelet ' s pamphlet , Pologne et Russia ; Legend * de Kosciusz&Oy PartS i 1852 i" The eighteenth century , which witnessed her ( Poland ' s ) downfal , was an epoch of Poland ' s gentleness of manners . The foreigners who then visited that country tell us that there neither police nor gensd ' armes were to be seen : a traveller could cross the enormous forests , his pockets laden with gold , in the utmost security . There were scarcely any criminals . The register * of several tribunals testify that , duringr thirty years , no one was brought before their bar but Gipsies and Jews ; , not one Pole , not one nobleman , not one peasant , accused of murder or theft . .

      * ¦*¦« The Poles had serfs , ' they , say . And the Russians , had they none ? And the Gerrnans , had they no serfs ? The German serfdom was very oppressive , even in our century . A friend of mine once saw , in a German state , a young female serf chained up in a dog ' s kennel ! We Frenchmen ourselves , who delight in speaking so much of our beautiful laws , have still negroes , not to speak of the white negroes , or of the industrial slavery , which very often is worse than serfdom itself . " The Polish serf is now taxed ten times more than he was under the Polish Republic . Add to this , that he was exempt from that most terrible tax , military service : itThere

      the nobility alone was obliged to perform ; was not then to be seen long rows of young peasants , the Chain round their necks , dragged by the Cossacks to serve the enemy of Poland in the Caucasus , in Siberia , up to the frontiers of China , the half of which die on their way ; the levying of others is carried on uninterruptedly , all Of whom are for ever lost to their country , as they never return . " In the sixteenth century Poland was the most tolerant country in the world , the asylum of religious liberty ; all Freethinkers took refuge thither . At length the Jesuits came , and the Polish clergy , following their impulse , became persecuting . "—( Pp . 21—23 . ) Respectfully yours , A Poi . b .

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      NEW DAILY PAPER . 20 , Great Coram-street , January 7 . 1852 . " If to do were as easy as to know what to do , chapels had been churches , and poor men ' s cottages . princes ' palaces . " Sin , —On returning to town last Friday night , my attention was drawn to two letters in your " Open Council" proposing the establishment of an unstamped daily paper , as the best means to get rid of the stamp law . Doubtless it would be so ; but to establish a daily paper in earnest , and to Write a letter about it in the Leader , are totally distinct achievements . I propose in this letter to discuss the following questions :- —lBt . Can a daily unstamped paper be established ? 2 nd . If that is impossible , what can be established in that direction ? And , first , the daily , paper must sell , or it will do no good ; if it does not rival the existing daily press in quantity , quality , and circulation , it will be of little use in itself , and of no use in the way of getting rid of the law . There are weekly papers now which are newspapers according to the doctrine laid down at the Stamp-office , and no doubt Baron Parkc would cull them newspapers , though perhaps Bsiron Pollock would not , because ** nobody thought of prosecuting them . " Among thest ; the Racing Times and the . Legal Obaervipr , both weekly papers , are flagrant cases ; but as . they como in nobody's way ,

      •• npbody thinks of prosecuting them . " In the same Way , a daily paper , if an insignificant ono , would be let alone , and nothing gained by the transaction . Mr . Stevens ' e daily paper must therefore , as ht proposes , be a good ono ; ho proposes threepence aa the price . The Daily News , at threepence , sold annually 3 , 500 , 000 copies , hut nt a 1 <» bk ; h «<* the pro prietois been ublo to |> ut into thoir pockets the £ 14 , 000 which thty paid for stamp duty , . they might perhaps have made a profit . But to carry on such a pnpor a very largo capital ta indispensable , say £ 20 , 000 , though I believe £ 100 , 000 would be nearer the mark . Now , it is an unfortunate peculiarity of moneyed men that they do not like to

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      [ IN THI 3 DEPARTMENT , A 8 ALL OPINIONS , HOWBVStt SXTfcBMB , ARE ALLOWED AN EXPRESSION , THE EDITOR NECESSARILY HOLDS HIM 8 ELF RESPONSIBLE FOR NONE . ] .

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  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 17, 1852, page 65, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1918/page/21/