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Novelty is vital to a newspaper . If you have not news to feed subscribers with , they naturally enough throw you aside : you cease to exhibit vour raison d ' etre , as the philosophers say . And yet when there is no news ? Readers generally put up very well with what is called a " flat season ;" they are in no dearth of books ; and the absence of novelties only enables them to live in more familiar intimacy with the books of a past age . Thus , for example , when the passing day brings with it no gossip , we turn to the pleasant gossip of Pliny ' s Letters , and do not find ourselves the worse . But that which we and the Reader , too , privately find to be an agreeable compensation , in our " public capacity "—as journalists , on the one hand , and subscribers on the other , finds no acceptance at all . If we have no news to communicate , we must " show cause why . " This is one of the hardships of our office . Another , and a worse , is that of being forced to taste food for which we have no appetite , in order to tell an omnivorous public " what to eat , drink , and avoid . " That Pliny , to whom we referred just now , reminds us how at a feast we praise the whole , though tasting but a few of the dishes , not allowing a rebellious stomach to erect its decisions into laws for others : " Nam et in ratione conviviorum quamvis a plerisque cibis singuli temperemus , totam tamen coenam . laudare omnes solemus .: nee ea , quse stomachus noster recusat , adimunt gratiam illis , a quibus capitur ; " all which is polite and philosophical , but touches not the Critic . He must taste all , a : id pronounce accordingly . What is it to him that the sheep nibble the short grass , the cow the long and coarse , the noble horse seeking out the fine and tender , and the honest ass disdaining all for thistle and furze : he must eat for all , and decide for all ; and , having honestly got through his task , must submit to be told that his opinion is " malicious / 3 if not favorable ; for you will observe , that an author cannot be made to understand how it comes to pass that his critic does not admire him , if " impartial . " But a monitor warns us that this plea for journalism in a dull season is not news , and we must see what the week really has furnished in that way . If it have furnished nothing else , it has given us some more poetry by Alexander Smith , in the pages of The Critic , where the reader is advised to seek it , until some publisher shall have practical sense enough to collect the exuberant fragments of this young poet , and make a volume of them . There is much to be said in the way of deduction from the eminent merits of this writer , so prodigal in imagery , and so poor , as yet , in experience , but there is no mistaking the fact—and it is a " great fact" to be recorded of any one—that he is a born Singer , a poet by divine right . Read but the opening lines of this scene from A Life Drama .
" The lark is singing in the blinding sky , Hedges are white with May . The bridegroom sea Is toying with the shore , his wedded bride , And in the fulness of his marriage joy , lie decorates her tawny brow with sJiella , lie tires a space to see how fair she looks , Then ' proud , runs up to kiss her . " Is not the fancy beautifully set foith ? And observe the perfect originality of the imagery . He does not calj .. upon his memory for the echoes of other men ' s verses ; he paints what his imagination distinctly sees—the tawny shore , the fond retiring sea , and the proud rush of fondness and delight to kiss the beautiful brow of his " wedded bride . " That is poetry in its essence . Very different , not in degree but in kind , is the poetry which calls forth the just severity of the Irish Quarterly Review , in an article ( all " malice " of course ) on Rkadu , Bui-wkk , and Mont . In this said number of the Irish Quarterly will he rend with interest , a paper of antiquarian prattle on the Streets of Dublin , and a long but ineffectual attempt to make out that the late Dr . Ma <; inn was a man of genius and a very considerable writer . There is something hearty , though not very wise , in the enthusiastic * admiration of Irishmen for Irishmen ; and that strange national partialit y which makes a marvel of Cathkrink IIaykk , may excuse the writer oi the article on Ma <; inn , for comparing him with Lucian , Rahklais , and FiKijiiNC . But to those in whose veins the rich current of Irish blood flows not , Mao inn must stand as u quite fourth-rato writer . His M'holarship was more showy than solid ; to judges at least , by any evidence he has left . His wit was rather annual spirits than the wine of intellect . "is poetry was of that kind which most literary men can write . His attainments in philosophy and polities were not noticeable ; and his novels were , barely readable . In the " slashing" days of Hlackwood , Frascr , and Ihe John Bull , Macjinn ' . h rollicking , reckless , prejudiced , and amusing Contributions made him of sonic mark ; but nothing that he then wrote Will bear re-reading , and the specimens which his friendly critic adduees | U-e but meagre performances at the best . Tin ; article is curious , however , 111 many respects . In none more ; so than in the picture it presents of the hie oi u " writer about town" in those days : a sad picture , since it pre"t'Hts that deepest of all impieties , an unworthy life—Dell' hnmen / . a hnpiota , lu vita indegna .
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RAMBLES IN NORTH AND SOUTH AMERICA . Rambles and Scrambles -in . North and South America . By Edward Sullivan , Esq . Bentley . The unassuming narrative of what an English gentleman saw and suffered in North and South America , is not a book to be slighted , althoug h , one cannot lay much stress upon it . Mr . Sullivan is essentially English in all his thoughts and tendencies . He went away strongly biassed in . favour of our government and institutions ; he returned confirmed in his bias . The fact is , cursory observation , such as he could give , must only tend to strengthen prejudices , or to suggest false generalizations ; and if his mind had been one degree more philosophical than it is , he would , with wise moderation , have abstained from any conclusion whatever . Let us hasten to add , that Mr . Sullivan troubles the reader with very little
political or social speculation . He has his eyes open , and notes down what he sees with a certain English straightforwardness and matter-offactness very agreeable to read . He indulges in no flights of frivolous rhetoric , wearies us with no tabular ostentation of second-hand statistics , irritates us with no " profundities" or " prophecies , " but quietly , without emphasis , without affectation , tells us what he saw and thought . An occasional feeble attempt at jocosity serves to prove it not habitual to him ; and he quietl y relapses into his unaffected manner . Travelling for pleasure , yet , like his countrymen , understanding by pleasure all activity , however dangerous , he does not saunter from town to town , but " lives fast , " whether in town or on the prairie . It is , however , on the prairie he is most at home . His English manliness has full play there , —his English prejudices are in abeyance . How like an Englishman , strong in his love of the " dear old establishment , " is this : —¦
" There being no established church in America ,, dissent and unbelief flourish in their rankest growth , and Boston takes the lead in the manufacture of new religions . Owing to the influence Dr . Channing exercised at Boston , the Unitarians compose a large majority ; but as in arithmetic unity is next to nothing , so in religion the belief of a Unitarian is very close to no belief at all . A new sect of Unitarians , calling themselves Transcendentalists , and embracing a majority of Unitarians , arc nothing more nor less than Free-thinkers . They find it very easy , after reasoning themselves with a great deal of labour into a disbelief in the existence of Two Persons of the Trinity , to extend the doubt to the Third Person . The ease with which the Abbe Sieyes promulgated fresh constitutions , is a joke to the celerity with which the popular preachers of Boston propound fresh religions . They are quite above following in the old paths of Christianity , and unless they have some new idea for their audience every Sunday , their popularity would soon be on-ihe wans .
" The Roman-catholic is the next most powerful sect—then Baptists , &c , the Episcopalian coming fifth or sixth . In America , the Baptist , Unitarian , and Episcopalian congregations , appear to be composed equally of all classes of the community , and the preponderance of any one class is not remarked . I am quite convinced from what I have seen in America , that an established church is the only certainly the best means , of ensuring the proper amount of order and decency in the conduct of Divine service . " He does not like SARATOGA .
" Saratoga , the Cheltenham of America—though from the vulgarisms one sees perpetrated there it reminded one more of Ramsgate in August—is the paradise of snobs , and is , without exception , the most odious place I ever spent twenty-four hours in . It is famous for some mineral springs , and crowded during three or four months of the year with New York and Boston shop-keepers , and snobs , dressed within an inch of their lives ; women in excess of Parisian fashion , with short sleeves ; men in extra Newmarket and bad Parisian style , crammed to the number of three and four thousand in five or six large hotels , breakfasting together , dining together at two o ' clock , smirking and flirting the whole time . The men smoke all
day , swinging in rocking chairs , and squirting tobacco juice between their feet , or over their neighbour ' s shoulders . The ladies promenade before them , talking loud , and making eyes—altogether it is the most forced and least nai tiral . state of society I ever saw . It is the quintessence of snobbism , beating Ramsgate or Margate in August . In the latter places the cockneys have no pretence whatever , but eat . shrimps out of strawberry pottles , and bury themselves in the sand , because they really enjoy it , and don't care sixpence what other people think of ( hem ; whereas at Saratoga , if a lady were to go to dinner in a morning dress , or a gentleman walk about in a . shooting jacket , public , opinion would be so strong against them , that their friends , if they had any , would have to cut them . "
. ISut we will quit tho thick air of cities to follow him on the prairie , juul catch a , glimpse of our old f ' riemlH the Indians : — " Crossing the Chippeway River , we at length reached ' Lacqui-Purle , ' and found a camp of nearly two hundred ' lodges , ' about two thousand Indians in all , collected from the Rocky Mountains and every part , of the Sioux territory , waiting for McLeod ' s arrival with flu . 'ammunition , and also under the impression that then ) was : i treaty pending Avith the American government respecting the purchase ol some of their land'bordering on the Mississippi . The lirst glimpse of the encampments , the . setting sun shining on two hundred cow-skin lodges , us white as snow ( thii Indians kill the crows in summer for their lodges and for their own dresses , as the skins are not warm enough for the traders to buy ) , with hundreds of horses tethered about , wan altogether a highly picturesque and wild sivno . There , were about two hundred young men , stripped to the waist , in their war-paint and
plumes , performing the scalp-dance to the monotonous chant of about two hundred squaws , who were . squatted round forty poles , from which were miNp led the scalps of some wretched Pawnee men , women , and children , which had been brought in l > y a war-party a few days before . They bad conic suddenly on the Pawnee encampment , whilst , the warriors were on a hunt , and bad mn < l
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fritics are not the legislators , but the judges and police of literature . They do not make laws—they interpret and try to enforcethem . —Edinburgh Review .
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September 18 , 1852 . ] THE LEADER . 903
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 18, 1852, page 903, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1952/page/19/
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