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Mb ; Grotis , if we are not mistaken , has already advanced a considerable way ' in the composition of the eleventh volume of his History of Greece . This volume , we believe , is to appear by itself , and is to conduct the history of the several Grecian states On to that period at which their separate l iberties were overborne by the Macedonian energies of Philip and Alexander . At the time of the appearance of the ninth and tenth volumes of Mr Grote ' s great work , we noticed , as a circumstance of no small importance , their richness in political lessons adapted to the present time . The volumes were written before the 2 nd of December , and yet so much was said in them of " despotism" " free government , " that it might have
seemed that not a few of the pages were penned with indirect reference to the N apoleonian coup d ' etat . The forthcoming volume , we hear , will b e distinguished by the same apparent " hitting home" to present sentiments and present emergencies . " Apparent , " we say , for the thing is not done out of controversial contention ; but takes its origin in a spirit of grave historical responsibility and reflectiveness . " The militia , " " volunteer corps , " " standing armies , "—such are the phrases in every one ' s mouth at the present time ; and momentous , indeed , are the topics involved in them .
Well , we h ear that , when Mr . Grote ' s next volume comes out , it will contribute all a historian ' s wisdom—all the weight of his knowledge of the life of the most splendid people of antiquity— -to this discussion . He finds , as we are informed ^ that the one circumstance to which the downfall of the finest of the Grecian communities was owing was , that that community , in the plenitude of supposed refinement and civilization , bad lost the art and habit of self-defence . The Athenians of those later days , when Athens was ruined
and despised , differed from the Athenians of the older and more glorious days precisely in this , that they did not know how to fight when the necessity for fighting came . They were , in fact , RofiSevifai— -refined people , devoted to culture and industrialism ; the gymnasium arid the drillingground were forsaken by them ; they derided war , and thought it barbarous ; and so the Macedonians came in and smashed them and their liberties to pieces . And the lesson is , that when any people abandons the habits necessary to maintain the ait of military self-defence , that people— -be its remanent virtues besidef what they may—is on the way to ruin . "A
citizen force "—all the grown men in every country , regularly drilled in military exercises from their fifteenth year , and kept at drill by due weekly meetings till they have sons to take their places—this is the " cheap defence" of nations ; and only when this is the universal custom will the reign of peace begin , and standing armies be abolished . " Division of labour , " cry- our economists—* the mass of the nation to industrial occupations , and a standing army to do the fighting , and be paid for it . " The fools ! As if self-defence were a species of labour to be alienated , to be done by deputy . Why , on the same principle of division of labour , do our friends , the Manchester men , not advocate a limited suffrage ? Voting
and fighting are functions of the citizen as a citizen ; and they who argue for standing armies , on the principle of the division of labour , ought on similar grounds to argue for limited constituencies . Next to doing a good thing , as a means of winning popular estimation , is letting it be known that you would think it a fine thing to do it . So , our literary Chancellor of the Exchequer , when he had a few seats in the House of Commons to allot in order to fill up the magical number of 658 , and when he did not give these seats to the universities and learned societies , tried to get off by saying how excellent a thing it would be to give these seats to universities and learned societies . " In all those suggestions , " he
said , " which would lay down as a principle that the elements of the electoral body should be of a less material character than hitherto , that intellectual and moral qualities should be permitted to exercise an influence in this House without having any necessary connexion with political partyin all those suggestions , there is something so plausible to the reason—I might add , something so plausible to the imagination—that "—that , in short , Mr . Disraeli proposed to do nothing of the kind , but to set up an agricultu ral constituency or so more in the country . Ah ! Mr . Disraeli , it will not do to be a literary man in your speeches only ; and a mere Dcrbyite 111 the measures which your speeches prelude . Your aspiration is to do brilliant things ; and on this very fact , those even who appreciate you least ,
see some reason for hoping that political good will come out of you . But " you are to coruscate merely in your speeches , it is all over with you , Coruscate also in your acts ! And such a coruscation ( a little spark , but a bri ght one ) avouUI have been a bill for apportioning the vacant scats to some of our universities or learned societies . The Scotch universities , as y ° u yourself seem to think , hud a specially good claim . The objection "bout the difficulty of establishing a proper constituent body in these universities is altogether an ideal one . Three of them , we believe , have co nstituencies already for the election of their Lord Rectors ; and half an hour ' s consultation would enable any one to devise , in cuch of them , a good const ituency for the election of members of parliament .
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MTien Moliere was taunted with having plagiarised a scene hero , a situation there , a character , elsewhere , he replied with exquisite wit , Je reprends WOtt 6 ie » o&je le trouve—I recover my property wherever I find it . The w » olo philosoph y of plagiarism lies in that sentence . A man of genius
takes whatever he can organize ; a vulgar plagiarist is a vulgar thief , a liar , and a braggart , calling upon you to admire the peacock splendour of his wretched daw nature . In the high Moliere sense there is no plagiarism , or only such as the plants exercise upon the earth and air , to organize the stolen material into higher forms , and make it suitable for the food of animals . But the " critic who should trouble himself with seriously examining . Dumas ' s system of wholesale unblushing plagiarism , would find it difficult so to excuse the prodigal thief . Dumas , great in everything , is immense in plagiarism . From the cool appropriation of an entire tale to
the avowed reproduction of certain chapters , and the incessant unavowed transference of scenes , incidents , characters , and anecdotes to his own multiform pages , Dumas stands unique among plagiarists . In his last novel , Conscience VInnocent , he takes bodily two chapters from the novel of Conscience , the Flemish novelist , and half a volume from Michelet ' s Peuple . He avows it charmingly . To Michelet he dedicates the book , begging him not to claim all that it contains of his own ; and to Conscience he has paid the compliment of taking his name for that of his hero . On n ' est pas plus poli I
Dumas deserves a monument . The Printers of Europe ought to erect one to his memory , in memory of the work he has given to them . The seventh volume of his Memoires is not yet cut open—lying beside five new volumes— -whenlo ! another work announced : Le Dernier Roi—Histoire de la vie politique et prive ^ e de Louis Philippe . If he be as veridical in recounting the life of Louis Philippe as in narrating his own , we may see an amusing romance . Among the announcements we observe a translation of Miss Burney ' s novel Cecilia , by Madame de Baur , a lady well known in literature , both through her works , and through the celebrity of her first husband , S . Simon .
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Dramatic literature is lucrative in France . The statement of finances laid before the Dramatic Society shows , that during the years 1851—52 , the droits d ' auteur , or sums paid for pieces , amount to 917 , 531 francs ( upwards of 36 , 000 £ . ) It . would-be difficult to show that English Dramatists had received as many hundreds . The sources of these payments are thus indicated :- —Theatres of Paris , 705 , 363 francs ; the provincial theatres , 195 , 450 francs ( or nearly eight thousand pounds , whereas our provinces return about eight hundred pounds a-year !); and suburban theatres , 16 , 717 francs . To these details we may add the general receipts of all the theatres in Paris during the year—viz ; , six millions , seven hundred and seventy-one thousand francs , or 270 , 840 ? .
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SCOTTISH CRIMINAL TRIALS . > Narratives from Criminal Trials in Scotland . By John Hill Burton . In 2 vols . Chapnian and Hall , [ second articxe , ] We have now to speak more precisely of Mr . Burton ' s volumes . Tho trials are grouped into ¦ " Proceedings against the Clan Gregor , " which is a curious chapter of Scotch History ; trials for " Witchcraft" and for " Poisoning "— "Spectral and Pream Testimony "—" Proceedings against the Roman Catholics , Covenanters , and Episcopalians "—besides these there is a most important chapter on the " Darien Company , " illustrated by some newly discovered documents , which have enabled Mr . Burton to lay bare tho whole workings of that company . In the trials for poisoning there is one strange story , recalling , aa Mr . Burton says , the celebrated trial of Madame Laffarge .
" In a secluded mountain region among tho braes of Angus , called Glen Isla , tliero lived a middle-aged gontlenmn , Thomas Ogelvie , the proprietor of a small estate , who suffered much from bad health . Ho formed a matrimonial alliance which created considerable astonishment among the friends of both tho parties . His wife , Catherine Nairn , was young—not quite nineteen years of age . Sho held , as tho daughter of a house of considerable local distinction , a far higher social rank than Ogolvie , whose position , though ho was a landed proprietor , was but that of the yeoman . Sho was gay to volatility , as her subsequent conduct , apart from tho q ' uostion of her criminality , abundantly showed . Such was aho who choso , without compulsion or the pressure of circumstances , to devote herself to tho companionship and care of an invalid well advanced in life , and living in tho solitudes of Glon Isla .
" Tho bride had scarcely taken up her abodo in her new homo , when a brother of her husband , many years younger , a military officer , returned from India , and joined thoir circle- at Kastmiln . Whatever influence this event produced must have worked very rapidly , for tho marriage took plnco in tho month of January , mid the old man was dead on the 6 th of June in tho same year . " Tho young officer and his Hister-in-liW were charged with , arid , whether justly or not , were convicted of a * criminal intrigue with each other . Tho evidence of neutral and fair persons showed a degree of indecent familiarity botweon them , such as people in tho aaino rank , nt tho present day , would deem hicomprohonHiljlc ,
Hinco it is the very last course of conduct which a couple entertaining orhninnl intentions would ho ' flagrantly show . Tho position of tho principal witness , howovor , who bore actual testimony to tho criminality , soonm to show that , among certain circles of tho Scottish country gentry of that day , there- was m much vico m wo know that tliero wiih coarseness and indecency . 11 * This witness , named Anne Clark , whs a relative of the IOastmiln family . Sho was received into tho household alter ; tho marringo as a sort of Inunh ' lo dopondont . But tho acouaod oflerod to provethat sho hud previously resided in n brothel , in Edinburgh , and hud beonZho m ' lHtress of . lOastmiln ' H younger brother .
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« - •«« are not the legislators , but the -judges and police of literature . They do not Or xtics are ^ laws—th ey interpret and try to enforce them . —Edinburgh Eeview .
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May 15 ; 1852 . ] TIIE LEADER . 409
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* Thoro firo pooplo old onouch to romomher a fltrango coarnonosrt of conversation and manners pervading fclio Scottish gonfcry . Tho indulgonoo in Uiis humour in uuxtid society camo in later times to bo a Hovt oE priviloffo of rank and birth—tho eourtosioa and okuMinoios of lii'o roquirod only to bo resorted to by those whoao position was questionable , gomotlung of tho pamo kind Jiau boon noticed in anti-revolutionary . Franco . toy JtV 4 * ' ¦ ¦ ........
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Leader (1850-1860), May 15, 1852, page 469, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1935/page/17/
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