Current:

Leader (1850-1860), 7th January 1854, Edition 1 of 1, Page 15

Page 15
Page 15
15 of 24

On this page

  • Text (3)

      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.

    • Untitled Article

      Untitled Article

    • Untitled Article

      Untitled Article

    • Untitled Article

      Untitled Article

  • 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

      gome idea df the development theory Tjy seeing ¦ flmBlDrdughtintojuxta-position the British population df some unknown « ra long before the age of man iffith the latest workB that human intellect . caniaccuinxilate in one view . The Iguanodon , who glared with reptile ey « s upon a waste of waters and wooded lands , will stand , by his model , in the anidflt of objects to represent all that the world Jias done in art , from the days when mere imagemaking began in Egypt , was nursed in Nineveh , and matured as sculpture and painting in Greece

      can put ideas together without restraint -or reproach ; and that co-operation , we conceive , 'will in tne end prove too strong for the prohibitory regime .

      to the days when science has surveyed not the Bolar Bystem alone , Tjtit the wide waste of independent firmaments— 'has penetrated the crust of the globe and scoured the history of its formation 'back to the days of the Iguanodon and the Megatherium , and has given to common life all the common artB of mechanics , manufactures , navigation , the compass , the railway , the electric telejjraph , printing , physiology , the history of man , and that Positive philosophy wHch grasps all the sciences into one , and teaches man to learn from

      all things the conduct of life tinder the rule of obedience to the Divine Power . A contemporary notes fie contrast af forded by the ceremony an Saturday , when a party o scientific men , « rtists and promoters of the Crystal Palaee , dinedinthe body of the Iguanodon , and * Professor Owen sat not only at the head of the table but in the 'head ( of . the counterfeit monster , as he does at the head of the science which has compassed a knowledge « ofthe monster and of the world in which he laved . What a substitution of brains ! cries the Globe .

      DChe scene , indeed , w - as the type of that . power which ienpeforward must command the world " ; fliat power , of which even those who aid it do not jet thoroughly appreciate either the nature or the iritcrit . If we were to compare , as our contemporary does , iihe Professor with the prae-Adamite—t * he 'Owen with the Iguanodon , we might perhaps recognise the greater amount of i » -

      thvidual 'power m the brute . Compare the two , "bulk for bulk ; length $ br length , jaw for jaw , and probably you would find that the Iguanodon would be a person of greater weight than the Owen . Strip the Owen to his native conditionput him on a level with the Iguanodon , who had no shop of any Moses and Son ' s to deal atand you would find that the learned Professor would , have a less chance of existence in that con < -

      dition on the banks of the antediluvian Thames than the unlearned non-professor . But what is it that distinguishes the Owen from the Iguanodon ? The same thing which distinguishes the Owen from the dog , who Tvill sit down times innumerable in the same plaice in the middle of the street from which he has started at the risk of life on the approach of the iinceasing carriages : i t is the power o £ voluntarily putting two ideas together . It happens sometimes , in regard to animals , on whose " intelligence" our popular writers on natural philosophy expatiate , that two ideas occur to them together ; but it is man alone that

      can seek out two severed ideas , and by his ~ will / bring them into union . It is said that man cannot create , but only apply ; it appears , however , that by that purposed union man can , so to speak , breed ideas , and call into existence a new race , altering the state of the earth wherever civilisation extends its domain , increasing the power of liis own race to an extent totally surpassing the imagination or contemplation of undeveloped man , and almost constituting a new and supplemental Nature . If two ideaB can be brought together , two pairs * nay be combined , and so on ; and the Crystal Palace is in itself a type and assemblage of combined ideas innumerable . ^

      It is that combination of ideas which gives the power of man in our day . People yet alive « an remember when practical wisdom arrogated to itself the power of pronouncing how far improvements could go , and what further invention should be impossible , It is to be hoped that we have outgrown that presumption . The Crystal Palace , "Which marks our progress up to the end of 53 , is the starting point for ' 54 . Old-fashioned Absolutism is based upon another blasphemy , in denying any practicability or freedom to such combination : the distinctive

      operation of Absolutism is to prevent men from putting ideas together beyond the union of royal "power and passive obedience ; decreeing that public intelligence shall stop itself at the ideas of hereditary thrones and standing armieB ; and denying all interchange of ideas to suppressed peoples and severed natious . But , thank God , uWe are frco lands on the earth , whero men

      Untitled Article

      THE NATIONAL [ FREEHOLD LANB SOCIETY . Why was the National Freehold Land Society established ? In order to create working-class forty-shilling freehold votes _ in the metropolitan counties ; and to carry Mr . Hume ' s four-point Reform motion . The National freehold Land Society was in fact established by the National Reform Association . ; and it was founded at the period when Mr . Cobden was preaching his temporary gospel that the fort y-shilling freeholders would revolutionise the House of Commons .

      The third annual report of the National I ' reeliold Land Society has just been published ; and not a fi gure is presented in proof that a single vate has been created 1 In fact , the tone of the report is a tone of boasting that the society has been converted chiefly , if npt exclusively ,, into a mere bank of deposit . Did Mr . Cobden revise the xeport ? And if the association , and the whole forty-shilling freehold movement are politically a failure , will Mr . Cobden Bay so ?

      Untitled Article

      THE G . OTEElS'IlSrGr CLASSES . No . XV . LL XOIfcD STANLEY , D . tJX . " Sie , " saia the first Pitt to the first Horace Warpdle , in the course of a debate , '¦ " the atrocious crimeof being a young man , which the honourable gentleman lias with such decency and spirit charged against 1 me , I shall neither attempt to palliate nor denyj -btttf content myself with wishing that 1 may be one tff those whose follies may cease with their youth , and

      not of that number who are ignorant in spite df ex- ' perience . ( Cheers ana laughter . } Whether youth * [ Sir , can be Imputed to any man as a reproach , I wiHL not assume the province of determining . But , surely , age may become justly contemptible if -fhe ^ opportunities which it brings have "passed away without Improvement ^ and vice appears -to prevail ; when the passions have subsided . ' ( Cheers ana , laughter . ) The wretch that , after having seen the

      consequences of a thousand errors , continues still to blunder , and whose age has only added obstinacy to stupidity , is surely either the object of abhorrence : or contempt , and ^ deserves not that bis grey hairs should secure him from insults . Much more , Sir , is he to be abhorred who , as he has advanced in age has receded from virtue , and becomes more wicked with less temptation ; who prostitutes himself for money lie cannot enjoy , and spends the remains of his life in the ruins of his country . "

      that Roman rale which excluded trihemmmliBtdattK But , in fact , nt is a piece of In * to get s young lord ; for until the young lord isTeacfyrfcheisext-ife iimuaahlj filled by an old warming-pan . And . tinsia fiu&er observable—ibat the old wjuaning-rpuu -will ^ jfe . and that the young lord genexa ^<« Q % . iip ^ thirty . If We must be governed by an aristocracy , ( then , let it be by themselves , and siest by iheir stevrada )—by the Stanleys , and not by the : RJgbvB . Beaiies , why a law against young aristocrats when there is no

      law against young democrats : ? ~ 3 n sthis acotmtry , if a green democrat desires £ o £ > e 4 n « srneat , thate » b a free stage for him . tn rfln inli liin innjuswnl wiili ' iliim w and to illustrate the case , I may mentionjflntt < c ^ on Elector , " when only twentyvtwo , orgaxuaed a ¦ national democratic agitation , wHiich ? h ^ ? VMig 1 H ? mi a '' movement , " and found ^? as only <* a spasm—^ for -which reasoni he rather Byjnpa ^ dse 8-with y « miglor 4 iB who break down in the opposite political hemisphere —theioore that * fcv are able 1 » get op again .

      Thexeicm be thedess < objection . 1 xKLoid . Staal ^ he ^ is * young { man without youth : a nd j foyro-tyrn he the Jess olgeoiaontto ^ hettysteni rthat he , returned by it , was enabled to rbeoozne * -House aof tOommons' ' personage befoxedie mas rtwenty ^ &we . JLncl sEhenhift career , brief tbut « g * utcant , > is studxed ^ sUsthe <^ b ) jeo . tions will nvbis-case aiawppeae . 'HJedsjnot onetoftbose who lounged into 4 > he House as into > any other Igfestend club : ; aad wh © stock to ^ vtigumeiit «> aTpriyaeg of his orclec Wecouldourt expeirtithat&e , neirtto * peerage , * nd of-a name-in ranredsrw distingaished ,

      should refuse « ie oppoottmitgr ^ solioitBag nisrank « nd , « t 4 e * st , we mast mdmdt ^ ttact Tthe first ma the . only advmntage &e torn ^ tatou <** f Mb nirib To deserro 4 hat tpoaision "whdd ^ Use ceaQA hum Aept , -like mo -many -of tRs olsss , ^ ithmit oOesertv fee atjipescs * o haTvse ^ wwrchrtely met vfont Jnnmig liis businesB ma an -heee&ttmry Jegiskrtor . A . 2 > ablie 'School anfl University iBducstioxi iwd , af < oouxsev incapacitated hinv for eompiehaadiag anytldng of current httmaii f ^ ffihiEs : « nd it i » to 3 & Mnradit , 4 fcB £ the moment the mySterio <« B ^ OBtom . ^ fltis cmste » in

      which compels veveral yean * ^ BBldeiUBe vnefof ttwt > dftbe mostvicious towns 4 n the « mpl 3 ie , % Bi been duly comglied * rxth , and that tee discoveredliis ^ lacmin ^ ignorance , he immediately ifaegaa Mb owHtftoltureunlearning as much « s ^ possifele = in * &te flrat $ iace . > T& a young gentlemanof tweaty-twotit waBCabcMcottisto —to proclaim that having" finished" hia ^^ eauartion ^ he was quite amflt for English "Kffe until * e ^ had seaa America , India , and the West Snlfieft , anfi gone through € ie sugar * ml cotton queifions . Mwr ds ^ t < that with all ova experienoe ^ of ^ he < niinei » effects df

      schools upon the ^ mind , ' ^ educatioJi '' is perpetuaBf proffered as -the only ^ proper ^ test of nmtfs "fitness for the possesBion of political ^ nri ^ ftegef ^ Ha& educateH * classes are notationBly « b © most ignorant—politically : no body of working men woulfl commit such errors in political economy ^ md'histo rical deduction as a body of eitner of the 'ETniveTsl ties when they ' nave to deal with a contemporary jpolitical question . The etfocatetl dames toe eternally opposed to TefonnB of all -sorts ; "Htm edncatefl classes supply our statesmen-: and the tsareers -of seE our statesmen are careers rfxotitrwlicftibns und

      inconsistencies . The educated classes ffll our Housfr of CommonB } an £ l our ^ Houae oT Commons cheer * courageously all the current drivels anfl . all the established delusions of exgdocLea . political philosophy —until the manufacturers and the mobs carry their uneducated convictions . We are Arffcea to confer a special franchise , and special representation on our " learned" bodies ; and we are to nope that such confraternities woold , in election times , rush 10-the phflosophera ( on finding their addressed ) as tW members of their choice . Hut what sort of men xlo the learned bodies prefer now ? Is tlie intellect of

      Sir Robert Inglis the oneasure of tfae Advance , df British civilisation ? Is Mr . tSoulbuxn the sage of the day ? An utterly uneducated artisan might vote for Socialism ; but a frightfully instructed master of arts votes for Inglisism . ; and which voter is the most frantic , —which system the most practicable- ? AlltheBe things Lord Stanley would seem to have discovered in time ; and a course of blue books wae prescribed by himself to break up the mental stagnation of bis University degree ., —draughts of Hansard completing a cure , commenced by the committee calomel . He enlarged the grand tour by talcing ia Asia , Africa ,

      This spirited and Johnsonianly-reported protest of the celebrated cornet against the conceit of iFogydom is worthy of prefacing a sketch upon a statesman whose principal-distinction is tliat he is a young statesman . Whatever the vices or the stupidities of our illustrious aristocracy , the most cynical of democrats can have no reason to complain that they are occasionally young : for if it be urged that the Governing Classes commence to govern very young , the repjy is that if our Peopled House is to be half Ulled be

      with Tjords , it is better that they should ^ distinguished from the Peers' House by their youthfulness , —and , further , that a noble is most generous when young , —and that an old Parliamentary noble is less stupid in proportion to "his Pariiameiitary experience . There is , therefore , no objection to "be made to ! Lord Stanley because he entered the House of Commons at the age of twenty-two years . Per-Tiaps it is not enlightened in this country to be governed , in a large degree , by the votes of bqys :

      but it is really creditable to our aristocracy that the young fellows do wait for the legal majority before they take their seats . This is an improvement : before the Reform Bill they never liad such a scruple .-—Fox , for instance , always having boasted that he was a Parliamentary success before "he had dune growing . Were wo sure that , if our independent boroughs rejected lordlings , they would elect clean and middle-aged gentlemen of tlie middle class , with " views" on political economy aad plans about railway ? , ( hen no doubt we should be right to insist on

      Untitled Article

      January % 1854 . ] THE LBAt > E » . ls

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 7, 1854, page 15, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2020/page/15/