Current:

Leader (1850-1860), 2nd January 1858, Edition 1 of 2, Page 18, Untitled Article

Page 18
Page 18
18 of 24

On this page

  • Text (5)
  • 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

      ¦ wolf the military ass in a lion ' s skin , the ape-like widow who befools her rfiildren the fortune-hunting fox , the blinking mole who affects to be a critic of art , the cats-paw Oliver ' Twist , the confidential cur in the City who ¦ Dilfers from his master , the puppy menial , the starving mechanic ox renulsed by the liveried dog in the manger , the tortoise capitalist who beats the volatile hare-like dreamer , and the wolf burglar who eheats the crane attorney are admirably ' translated . ' We like Mr . Bennett's humour , although we would hint to him to widen his field , and not take too many crops from , one piece of ground .

      Untitled Article

      KATHERINE . Katherine and the Moment of Fortune . Translated by Lady Wallace . 3 vols . xJentley . Katherine is by the author of Clara , a German novel which lately obtained some reputation in its own and in the English language . This new story is similar in its merits and in its faults ; there is much rapid sketching ; the ¦ characters are originally conceived ; humour and satire glimmer through the romantic tissue , and German fashions and sentiments are cleverly and simply represented . The author , however , completes his narration slowly ; the parts are not kept well together ; the main point is scarcely brought out with sufficient distinctness . It will be noticed that the best chapters in Katherine are those which seem to have been adapted from Clara—we mean the theatrical episodeswhich are really admirable . Most of the personages

      , ¦ who figure in the tale belong to the humbler ranks of life ; the heroine herself , the cherry-lipped , black-eyed , black-haired , oval-faced , graceful Katherine is a flower-seller , and daughter of a washerwoman ; but there is another beauty , Rosa by name , concerning whose relations to the ' moment of fortune' the reader soon learns to be curious . The latter part of the history introduces these persons into a court atmosphere with a Regent as the centre-piece , and barons and ladies revolving about them in vicious , f littering circles . " These episodes and groupings are skilfully contrived , and suggest the idea that the writer is copying from living models . We have found Katherine an uncommon and interesting novel—quite a contrast , in its spirit and simplicity , to the vapid three volumes composed of halfsentences in false French and a riot of hysterical English , which are announced as ' now ready' for ever .

      Untitled Article

      MANY THOUGHTS ON MANY THINGS . Many Thoughts on Many Things . Being a Treasury of Reference consisting of Selections from the Works of Known Great and Great Unknown . Compiled and Analytically arranged by Henry Southgate . Routledge aud Co . Mb . Southgate would have been judicious to have refrained from an Attempt to introduce his Great Unknowns to the admiration of the world . In most instances they are unknown , because they are not great in any sense of the term . Instead of being a ' treasury , ' this massive and plethoric volume is an unwieldy aggregate of extracts , good , bad , and indifferent . Three-fourths of Mr . Southgate ' s opuscula should never have been detached from the magazine articles to which they belonged , and with which they had been comfortably buried . Many beautiful examples of thought and style are to be found , of course , among the selections , a large number of the best authors having been zealously pencilled into paragraphs by the compiler ; but hundreds of his ' beautiful passages' are atomic in their mediocrity . It 13 unnecessary to occupy our space with specimens of these absurdly chosen fragments , swept together without reference to their value , originality , point , truth , or any other quality entitling them to' stand apart from their contexts . Most of that which is worth preserving , has been preserved elsewhere , while of the rest it is impossible to say more than that Mr . Southgate has been very industrious in constructing the anthology of the Family Friend .

      Untitled Article

      SOCIAL PROBLEMS . TMorie de VEquilibre , JEconomique . Par Jules Le Bastier . Paris ; 1858 . M . Le Bastier is an eloquent antagonist of the laissez faire school of political economy , as well as of socialism . According to him , the disciples of both opinions draw erroneous conclusions from known facts . The calculations of the laissez faire economist have regard only to the individual man , forgetting that the interests of the individual are often opposed to those of society in general , while the socialistic economists run into the opposite extreme by simply looking at mankind in the collective form . This forgetfulness on both sides of a very important fundamental principle is the cause of all the mischief , inflicted upon the world by the practical adherents of either of those schools . However , the doctrines of the laussez faire economists nre far more dangerous to the human family than those of ultra socialistic dreamers : because they are more selfish and unprincipled . It is that school which M . Le Bastier chiefly attacks in the present work . See the fruit Quo exclaims ] of those doctrines , which reduce social progresn to a mere development of industry , trade , and wealth , unmindful of the indissoluble interdependence between production and consumption . . . . . God has said to men : " Be fruitful and multiply , "—they have invontod the ' moral self-constraint . ' Our forefathers considered a numerous population a source of strength and importance to countries , —they have organized emigration . . Former statesmen believed agriculture to be the fundamental basis of a state , — they UavePH this busla at the top of their building . " Xfre ~ mor « £ ti , sts' * o ' f al ! T ; ImeTHaW"tmIgli t ^ 'Created an unmeasured tendency to luxury . Philosophy toaoboa that true happiness consists , not in the possession of gront riches , but in the exorcise of wisdom and goodness , —thoy have fostered n burning ; thirst for wealth , have erected temples to Mammon , and made Laio their high priest . Thoy have sown materialism , —thoy have earned corruption . To remedy this vicious state of society , M . Lo Bastier demands a restoration of what ho wills huilibre tconomique , that is , an organization of human activity under a twofold aspect , first , in regard to men in their collective existence , and secondly in rcspoot to individual interests . To realize the first problem , an exact balance between the natural wealth of a country and the ( m

      I particular wants of its population becomes , he says , absolutely necessary ; and the second object is attained by an equilibrium between the wages of the individual worker and the price of the necessaries of life . Thus the duty of the government is to give the individual such protection as will ensure him the ' equilibrium . ' The thought , it must ba confessed , is ' not altogether new , but was long ago expressed by the old war-cry of ' A fair day ' s wage for a fair day ' s work . ' M . Le Bastier proposes to bring his economical equilibrium into action by the sole means of taxing the community . Taxation in manifold shapes and forms will level the unequal components of society . Taxes become , in consequence of a natural force of things , the chief instrument by the aid of which the government of a community will be able to realize those conditions of protection and of economical equilibrium , for by the very action of the tax itself this equalization can be brought about without direct interference in the reciprocal actions between individual and individual .

      A celebrated socialistic author , whom nobody can deny originality and depth of thought , exclaimed in one of hi 3 open moods : " Give me the right of taxing , and I will make a revolution !" Taking the form and the groundwork of his thought , we say : " Give us the right of taxing , not socialistic taxation , or property tax , nor even progressive contributions , but simply taxation in its actual form , and we will make at our will either a happy and prosperous nation or a people plunged into profound social misery . " Indeed , the inevitable result of taxation , under whatever form it be levied , is to react on the price of all products and things used , and , by the force of this reaction , to regulate and to cheek the rate at which production and consumption are going on . Thus ° it may be made either to strengthen or to weaken the reciprocal equilibrium of two kinds of manufactures , or , in other words , to dry up or to fertilize the sources of well-being and prosperity of a country .

      This may sound well in the ears of Birmingham Conference men , but we wonder what Mr . Toulmin Smith would say to the enemy of both political economists and socialists , which M . Le Bastier professes to be . To us he appears to start from a fundamental blunder . The law should interfere with men as little as possible—not at all , except to counsel the maintenance of national government , to enable those who are willing to act together , to restrain those who would assail others in person , property , and rights . This is ' free trade , ' the fundamental principle of which is applicable to most social and political relations besides commerce .

      Untitled Article

      CHRISTMAS SPORTS . The Sporting World . By Harry Hieover , Author of ' Table Talk and Stable Talk , ' Hints to Horsemen , ' ' Sporting Facts and Fancies , ' &c . &c . Newby . Habbt Hieover begins his work by alluding to the prevalent false estimate entertained by the citizens of this metropolis respecting the character and pursuits of sportsmen . Knowing little of rural amusements , and with ideas based upon the delineations of Squire Westerns in novels of a past age , many of them , he remarks , and the fair sex-especially , place a foxhunter in the same category with an ourang-outang or New Zealand savage . Addressing her female coterie , the lady blesses Providence that spared her the calamity of having a fox-hunter for a husband : she is trul y thankful Mr . has no taste that way . A pretty life for her and her family ; obliged to rise the saints only know what hour , to get him hot water to shave , and for breakfast . Then off" he goes to join his brother sportsmen , as he styles them , whooping and hallooing all over the country , breaking down farmers' fences , riding over and destroy ing ' tLeir wheat . At night the gentleman comes home , entertains his wife with an account of the run , as he calls it , if he has had good sport ; if not , he is cross , and walks off" to bed , or goes fast asleep in his chair , either of which is vastly agreeable to his wile . Perhaps , indeed , he brings some companion home with him , and then they arc noisy enough , telling how such a one rode , or speaking of another who got a fall , which any one with proper feeling would shudder to hear of ; they laugh , and term it a ' purler , ' or some such detestable low term . This they carry on all the evening , instead of making up a nice little rubber , &c . Faugh ! sportsmen—Mercy defend her from all such . ' But , if our lady-cits thus superciliously regard the followers of St . Hubert , their own peculiar caste is not over-indulgent to each other ' s chosen pursuits . Thus , the stag-hunter , whose quarry is the antlered monarch of the waste , maintains , at the best , but a sort -of patronizing air towards him of the fox cover . He , in turn , estimates a gallop with harriers , when a gallop can be obtained , as very slow work indeed . Nor is the master of a pack of harriers lees prompt to retort good-humoured raillery at the expense of his assailants . Perhaps he singles out a neighbour , known to be present at his meet only because the fox-hounds do not hunt on that day . Allusive to a particular run , blazoned abroad aa something exceedingly fast , he observes , " I suppose you had some fine riding over so choice a country ?" " Oh , yes . Gihnour took the lead , and kept it for a time , in spite of us all . Forrester went as straight us a bird . Strathmore knocked up his lir . st horse , nnd nearly brought his second to a standstill . _ Stubbs—{ sotto oocii ) Ginger Stubbs—went remarkably well . Wilson , on his brown horse , navigutod the brook beautifully , skimming it like a swallow . Will , the whip , got in , took a cold bath , but , getting his horse out , wont at a pace that shortly warmed him and himself again . Standish went " " Bless 1110 , " interrupts the Squire , " you must have had a hundred eyes to have seen whnt the hounds were doing and watch the exploits of so many riders so closely . I am an old * fashioned fellow , and have the antediluvian idea that , when we go hunting , the hounds have some little claim on our attention . Yoi I Joker and JjtfVittUJljt . 'diylMi seuing both hounds feathering about an extremely likely p lace iov a ' hare tolusTor tolia ' ve roccntly ™ bl )" eliiTir 6 vial- ^ ttve-on <) -of liis- ' ( leop ^ bass assurances of a find , and Joker , putting in his treble , corroborated the fact . " Hark , Jovial and Joker 1 " cried thp Squire . u Goo , hark toyethor ! hoik ! " responded the huntsman . A crack from the whips , and " Loo on " " Loo on" sent the stragglers up to the leading hounds . The vexed question respecting the right the landlord possesses in game reared and fed upon his estate is thus impartially canvassed . The proprietor feeds the game , or rather , they feed themselves from the land , and are , therefore , his Dy custom . More than this , they are his by the law of equity . When ho rears poultry by his own or servant ' s hand { no one disputes his right

      Untitled Article

      ' fi ' THE LEADER . [ No . 408 , January 2 , 1858 .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 2, 1858, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2224/page/18/