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Jarity of blood ; and much less vague . It is a popular anatomical error among the Jrrench that an Englishman has six inches more of bowels than they ; and it would be not easy , perhaps , to explain to them that this difference in capacity , for feeding renders two nations much less incapable of uniting under one government than a difference in political education . M . Henri Martin might easily have claimed the Piedmontese as belonging to the same family as the French , and totally distinct from the Italians ; but the barrier of the Alps stops " him . Most singularly , the cham
however , he implies that IPkancis I . was - pion of Protestantism , progress , and civilization , against Charles V . TMs error arises from the exaggerated importance which France even in the sixteenth century possesses in his eyes . Evidently at that time Protestantism and progress—consequently civilization — were fighting their battles elsewhere ; and France never did so little for the general good of the world as during the next hundred years . The fearful Catholic fanaticism of this same Francis I . condemned her to an internal struggle , in which she tore out her own entrails , and was never so near extinction as towards the
close of the century . M . Henri Martin , in one or two phrases of his letter—perhaps merely meant as an ad hominem appeal to a critic whom he sup-Eoses to be a terrible Protestant — entirely disgures the history of his country . The wars of Fraucis I . against Charles V . may have operated as a diversion in favour of Protestantism , but that they were not intended as such the slightest acquaintance with the history of the period is sufficient to show . " We do not accuse M . Henri Martin of i gnorance on this point ; for his account of the persecutions and troubles of Protestantism in France is most admirable ; but we wish to point out that , in his eagerness to defend himself against a very moderate attack , he has fallen into errors which are characteristic of the nation to which he
belongs . Everywhere and on all occasions he exaggerates the importance of that nation , and endeavours to connect its most trivial acts with some special mission which he supposes it sent into this world to perform . Perhaps this strange delusion , which , it deprived of , no Frenchman would sleep liappy , that France is predestined to teach , better , reform , and guide mankind , is the principal reason of many of its recent misadventures . ' Physician , heal thyself , ' is good advice to give it . With reference to Jeanne d'Arc , M . Henri Martin persists in his heresies . Indeed , as the Heviewer gives him all the advantage that a man who i 3 able to sav , * You have misrepresented
me , ' can require , this is scarcely surprising ^ We need not enter into the details of the discussion on the ecstatic state in which was the heroine ^ of Domremy , further than to agree with the historian , who says : " The critic has quoted as my own theory the exposition I make of the theory which I refute . " But M . Henri Martin evidently makes concessi ons to French prejudice and superstition , which , coming from him , can scarcely be thought sincere . We quite join in his respect for the enthusiastic and
devoted young girl who , believing herself to have received a Divine mission to liberate France from the invader , risked and sacrificed her life in that cause . Is it necessary , however , to call her a Messiah ? Without too rigidly interpreting the phrase , it clearly imp li es that her visions , which , philosophicall y speaking , diminish the value of her devotion , distinguish her from a . host of other patriots who have made equal exertions and equal sacrifices ] for a similar cause . Why is not William Tbll also called a Messiah—unless it be that the interests of
France wore not involved in his career P " That I have supposed that Providence , " says M . Henri Martin , " could have interested itself in so unimportant a matter as the salvation of French nationality is my unpardonable crime . " Certainly , if we are to take him to mean that French nationality alono has been thought worthy of such care ; if not , why does lie not speak of many other Messiahs P But the truth is , that M , Henri Martin , in his exclusive , devotion . to-his . qwn-cowntry ^ : , a-dov , otion generally respectable ,, though it always diminishes
the value of an historian—does evidently think that in the fifteenth century the independence and unity of Franco were of special importance in the eyes of Providence ; and he ought to do able to show some marvellously beneficent action of tho France thus consolidated on the moral fortunes of the world . But after the Puccllo we see Louis XI . profiting by her labour ? , and a continued and successful war of despotism against liberty , interrupted only by the terrible reaction , called the Frenoh
Revolution . Meanwhile the nation , no doubt , did great tilings—exclusive of the wars it carried on , and which we cannot count among blessings to humanity ; but it was despite the degrading tyranny which the uni 6 cation of France in the fifteenth century rendered possible . M . Henri Martin indignantly repels the accusation of the Edinburgh Jieviewer that he is an admirer of tyranny ; and certainly all who know his Liberal tendencies will understand this indignation . But is he quite certain that without admiring he does not in some sort serve the cause of tyranny ? We should be the last to say unkind things of patriotism . It is the necessary virtue of a citizen . But should it utterly falsify his views , and exclude
a just appreciation of the doings of the rest of the world ? M . Henri Martin , " in common with all his fellow-countrymen who write in the liberal sense , teaches something more pernicious than admiration of tyranny—we mean , admiration of France , a blind and exclusive admiration , which , not in his words but in the hearts of his readers , takes the form of contempt or indifference for the genius , the heroism , the virtue , the struggles , and the sufferings of other nations . The character of a Frenchman is supposed to have something extenuating in it . The acts of a Frenchman are important , not so much in themselves , but because of his qualitv . Without wishing to lower the
history ot France , we may say that such writers resemble the chronicler of a village , who imagines that the universe revolves around the steeple of his church . In the sixteenth century , for example , the great interest of the human drama ^ was evidently transferred to Germany , and in a less degree to Italy , and even to England . In France an abortive struggle for liberty of conscience went on , as it were , in a corner . No French historian perceives this . Probably the French public would refuse to comprehend it . Yet to this national unconsciousness we may trace most of the errors of
public opinion among our neighbours . They imagine that their risings and their fallings , their prosperity , their misfortunes , are the necessary undulations of the great stream of humanity . Because France was brought to unity by the pressure of despotism , untaught the love of liberty , taught , instead , the love of equality , which is its consolation and its bane—for if equality is the golden age of freedom it is the worst preparation for itbecause such is the lesson of their history , the French think that human experience tells no other tale .
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HIGH ART IN SHORT PETTICOATS . The world , so far as it speaks English , must have remarked a barbarism running riot in the land . It may be of old date , but there have been civilized intervals . At least , we do not remember a period in which children , especially ladies below twelve , have been brought up so sedulously as now in the religion of vanity ? Seven years from this date , it may be prophesied that society will receive an additional coating of selfish affectation . It was formerly a natural sin . It is at present a cultivated art . Every glossy-haired little beauty is taught to consider herself a Cleopatra , so that a juvenile ball has as much stateliness and rivalry
upon a miniature scale as a dinner at the table of a marchioness . The abomination arises , partially , from our habits of dress . Visit Brighton , and inspect the children on tho Marine Parade . In the morning—supposing bathing to be in season—they appear demure enough , being taken down to the machines with exactly that sort of attire on which is most rapidly slipped off , and then they look creditable to their parents or guardians . But afterwards , miss , nine years old , turns forth the silver lining of her wardrobe , and a perfect little Ninon she is . A Watteau hat , plumed and rich , tempts into a toss of precocious coquetry a small head , with hair
faultlessly dressed in the Imperial fashion . Tho mantle is a reduced copy of her mother ' s , the mode beyond suspicion , and the dancing-mistress has drilled her sIlouJdersJntQjuu ^ of superb self-love and general disdain . Samarcana never produced anything more costly than her dress , and beneath this is a pompous little crinoline in which the juvenile Juno feels herself fashionable in every sense of the term . Privileged beyond her seniors , her high-art drapery ceases a little below , tho knee , and the turn of her childish limbs is m ' ado a part of the picture , which would be completed by the fancy Balmorals were it not that a crimson parasol flutters its golden fringe past groups of poor little creatures who wish in their hearts they had one like
it . Well , this might be tolerated , if the effect produced were really fine . But it is not . The child thus buried in frippery loses all the lovely attributes of childhood—its simplicity , its natural grace , its beautiful instinct of dependence . Nature is out raged , and art is not satisfied . The adornments that possibly become a woman certainly disfigure her prototype ten years old , and not four feet high . Accordingly , the parks and parades are crowded with diminutive living satires upon fashion children resembling dancing dervishes whose whirling skirts have been petrified , small mock models of season belles , and fantastic little professors of simpering , who are taught to believe that if
the Empress Eugenie wears five flounces , to wear four is to be vulgar . Well , has this no moral effect ? The dwarf copy of a Duchess promenades in Kensington-gardens and shuns anything and anybody not manifestly genteel . A few weeks ago a Westend congregation was disturbed by a little girl , not ten years of age , who insisted upon leaving her pew with her governess because certain strangers had been allowed to enter it . The budding pupil of pride was so sincere in her convictions that she appealed to the curate at the communion table ; and the congregation saw what it was to be a young lady , not yet in her teens , who had been grandly brought" up , and accustomed never to associate
with ' people . ' That child was a fashion-book in herself . Bonnet , mantle , dress , boots , parasol , violet velvet-bound Bible , hair swept back , after the fashion of the Princess Royal , were practical comments on the inculcations of the nursery ; and the little creature never for an instant imagined that a whipping would have been far more wholesome for her than an afternoon airing in the parks . Most persons , probably , have remarked the barbaric extravagance of children ' s dress—of ladies * we say nothing ; Mr . Ruskin has already been cruel enough
on that subject . If they live to walk in crinoline , to rustle under mountains of silk , to flit through society like sun-birds , and if in this they find felicity , why , they belong to themselves ; but children stand in another category . They are disgraced by the vulgarity which converts them into lay figures , and which , after all , produces an effect the reverse of grace or picturesqueness . London-born boys accustomed to stride in Highland scarfs and ' tracery , ' and little girls rendered vain in their infancy by the glitter of their dress , may be expected to develop into foppery and giddiness—as if Englishmen ever were fops , or English girls giddy !
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64 T H B -LEAD EB . [ No . 408 , January 16 , 1858 .
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Middle-Class Education and Oxford Examinations . —The half-yearly meeting of the members of the College of Preceptors was held last Saturday , at tho college rooms , 42 , Queen-square , Bloomsbury . The chair , in the absence of Dr . Humphries , of Cheltenham , the President , was occupied by Mr . J . C . Clennell . The Secretary ( Mr . Parker ) read the report of the council for the half-year ending at Christinas . It stated there had been more candidates for examination at their recent meeting than at any former Christmas session . There had been granted 49 first-class , 90 second-class , and 169 third-class certificates , making together 808 ; of these , 14 first-class , 38 second-class , and 32 third-cluss were granted to pupils examined in the coJlege rooms ; and the remaining 226—viz ., 35 first-class , 52 second-class , and 139 third-class—were awarded to pupils of schools in the provinces in connexion with the college , situate at Morden , Twickenham , Baling , Eltham , Maidenhead , Christ Church , Northampton , Devizes , New Brighton , Devon port , and Halifax . The report congratulated the members of the college on the progress of the pup il examinations . The examination of teachers , however , had not been so satisfactory this half-year as could have been wished . Only fourteen gentlemen and one lady had presented themselves during that time . Tho report further stated , that amongst the events of tho year the council had to announce the remarkable undertaking of tho University of Oxford to regulate and govern tho school education of the middle classes . Some discussion ensued , and Dr . White moved that that part of tho report expressing danger to bo apprehended from tho schomo to tho middle-olasB schoolmaster bo expunged . This w » 9 an amendment on the motion that the report bo received and adopted . Dr . Pinches also moved , as another amendment , that the whole of tho paragraph bo cxpungocl ftom tfie report ^ TBIs was carried'by ainrge mrijbrltyr- ~ r « , report as amended was then agreed to . A by-law , abolishing members' entrance foe , was also adopted ; and , some other business having been transacted , the mooting separated . . Pitoncsaon Roaicns , Mio well-known author of t « w Eclipse of Faith , ' haa become principal of Lancashire Independent College , a post vacant by tho resignation or Dr . Vaughan . . Tub Crystal Palace Pouwby Show . — From i «« Saturday to Wednesday , tho Crystal Palace numboroa among Its othor attractions a fine show of poultry .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 16, 1858, page 64, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2226/page/16/
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