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Leader (1850-1860), 7th January 1860, Edition 1 of 2, Page 10

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    • SARTOR TRIUMPH ANS.
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      Untitled Article

      npHE Government at last arriving 1 at a decision in regard . to Volun-X teer Uniforms , and the youn . g men of England having- happily long " made up their minds that drilling and rifle-shooting are tho accomplishments just now Va » ted , and that every young follow of spirit should be a volunteer , it follows that we shall have all the " smartest " adolescents amongst ua dressed'alikc . Young John Bull will henceforward bo le ^ jpetif hovyme gris ; knee-caps , spatterdashes , and knickerbockers simply breaking' the terrible sameness of his costume . Now , although this stale of matters may make the fortune of ten thousand tailors , it is somewhat to bo regretted , —the almost absurd uniformity Jand niter equality i : i the dross of all classes being rather to be regretted than otherwise . When a prince is disguised as a begguv , ho will not bo very anxious to act like a prince , for , perhaps unconsciously , our actions correspond with those which the literary gentleman afctuohed to Moses and Sons calls tho

      " external texture of our corporeal habiliments . " When a clergyman dispenses with hitf white tie , and ft young cornet rouma St . James ' s or the Hay market in mufti , neither is disposed to be very careful in his actions ; and no doubt when Al Rasciiid went through hiu capital dressed as a mclon-sollor , with his vizior in tho disguise of a wutor-carricr , thu pair entered dwelling's from which tho Sultan , ' in all hia glory , would have refrained . It may bo asserted , and , although tho assertion may meet with denial , it would be difficult to give proof to the contrary , that tho English is the bowt-drenaQd nation in the world . Wo do not speak of nationul costume ,- —of the quilted white petticoat of the Albanian , of the garb of old Gucl worn by tho Scot , or tho bernous of tho Arab , but of the vestments of the luodbrna . , * A national dress is almost always in good tasto , iwjcl tho simple coga , purple bordered and of flowing white , rendered the Horn an knight iv considerably move imposing-looking gentleman than tho fux-coUavcd , sUeletdn-

      Untitled Article

      brilliant discoveries of LiviNGSTosrB . When the Decade commenced the Enterprise and investigator proceeded in search of Sir John PftANKiiiw , and its close has been parked , by the melancholy information obtained through the excellently managed expedition of - McGlintook . The friendly zeal shown by the French , American , and Russian Governments to assist in the Franklin search was an agreeable characteristic of the times ; and the column erected at Greenwich to Ineut . Bellot will remain a . monument pf inter - national friendship more valuable than any trophies of war . . In the applications of science to ; useful purposes , much has been done iii every department , and the Decade will for ever be famous for the ^ development of the electric telegraph . On November 13 th , 1851 , the wire fromDoverto Calais was opened ; and since that date , the extension of the system has been amazing , and ii ; has almost been crowned by the establishment of this philosophical cotmectioii between the Old World and the New . In great engineering works the period has also been fruitful j wide rivers have been and are in process of being- bridged over ; viaducts have been stretched over startling spaces , and railways are rapidly penetrating the old empire of the Moguls . Foremost among our monsters of construction comes the Leviathan , or Great Eastern , as it was uncharacteristically christened by theBoard , whose brobdinag blunders rivalled the bulk of their ship . In literature , a sufficien t number of meritorious works will occur to every reader to vindicate the claims of the period to an important , if not a first-rate place ; while in art , the reactionary disease Jmown , as Pre-Raphaelism has had a most beneficial effect in breaking through unmeaning conventionalities , and causing- students to look at nature for themselves-. Social subjects have commanded unusual attention * and although efforts have been in the main fragmentary and unscientific , they have already achieved much practical . good , and bid us hope for better things . In legislation we can boast of no important advancement ; we make no progress in condensing and simplifying our prodigious mass of clumsily-jonade laws , and modern statutes rival their prede-: cessorsin unintelligibility and confusion . Among beneficial changes , must however be mentioned ' the great improvement of Ireland , consequent upon the Incumbered Estates Actj the first sale under which took place in 1850 ; and Mr . Gladstone ' s Succession Duty , although small in immediateresult , was large in principle , and may be ^ re-¦ - .. ¦ ¦ : jgarded as an important step to the abolition of the fiscal favouritism shown to land ; A history of taxation during the Decade would occupy a long article ; but it has , on the whole , been characterized by further efforts to relieve industry ; and among the articles entirely freed or reduced in , burden , we may . mention tea , sugar , coffee ,, . currants , vbutter , cheese , glass , bricks , and stamps , and also the repeal of the objectionable window tax > and of its companion tax upon mental illumination and ventilation ,. the newspaper duty . The g-eneral prosperity of the peoj ) le , as compared with former times , has been evinced by the patience with which they have borne the enormous taxation consequent upon the Russian war , and the necessity for augmented armaments . We have , nevertheless , hadexperience of severe distress , and a commercial jpanie of prolonged severity . Collisions between labour and capital , although milder in character than in former times , have been large and disastrous ; the engineers *' strike , tlie Preston strike , the shoemakers' strike , and the builders ' strike or lock-out ' will- occur to every mind , and as the expense of these , exceeds a million , it is to be regretted that employers take so little pains to spread a knowledge of economical subjects and remove the moral and social barriers that separate them from their men . Pauperism is happily lessenings though not with t-apid strides , and crime , notwithstanding startling examples , diminishes in quantity . Thus , in 1854 , the number of convictions in England and Wales was 23 , 047 , and in 1858 this was reduced to 13 , 246 . Emigration has likewise fallen off , Jbhrough bettor employment at home . In 1852 , our emigrants amounted to 368 , 764 "; and in 1858 , were reduced to 113 , 972 . it is * also cheering to observe that the condition of the agricultural labourer—that opprobrium of English society—* is lens hopeless than it was ; and scientific agriculturists declare their conviction that the success of farming demands a speedy elevation . of his position in thc » s 6 cial scale . Commercial morality does not keep pace with other improvements , and such cases as tho Davidson , Cole , Gordon , afld Sapijeb . frauds , the , forgeries of Robson and Redjpath , the rogueries of Path ,, Stkahan ; and Bates , tho constant parochial defalcations , the failure of the British and other swindling banks , leave much to regret ; while the records , of the Bankruptcy Court show that unscrupulous . " kiteflying " has been resorted . to by houses that ought to have stood far above suoh dishonest tricks , and has received tho countenance of bankers and bill-brokers , who distinctly knew what they wove about . In England , ecclesiastical affair * ha , o boon in commotion during the whole Decade . In 1850 , Lord John Ru . 8 SET . rj wrote his famous Dm ham letter ; then followed tho notation about Ecclesiastical Titles , and tho bill of that name whioh no Government has ventured to put in force . About tho sjimo time , tho Gorjiam controversy was raging ; after which came the quarrtils with tho Pusoyitos of St . Paul ' s and St . Barnabas ; nnil lastly , the affair of . St . Geovgo ' 8 in tho East , and the Rev . Bbyan Kino . Tho resignation of Profeasor Maubicjg belongs also to this period , mul tho publication of various , . works by BAPKN .. PowKLii , MANSMi , i ., and others , onloringprofoundly into tlio inteUtKjtual ' difficulties of received opinions . Tho Sabbatarian controversy has boon a ^ ctivo for several years . In 1854 ' , the 8 uinJayT » 'HdingBiU of JjordRoBKBTGuosvENOB was sunimarily disposed of through tho alarming demonstrations in Hyde-park :. Tho question of opening the British Musoum , National Gallery , and ' similar institutions , has boon agitated between tho National Sunday Xiongnto and tho Lord's Day Observance $ « oiut . v ; tho foi'inor having

      obtained the signatures of many hundreds of the leading men in science , art , and literature to a petition in favour of their plans , and thelattercohtrovertin ^ hem with customary zeal . The admission of the Jews into . Parliament is one of the re" % ious triumphs of the Defeade ; and the Church-rate abolition question , although unsettled , is virtually won . The ten years will also be memorable from the rise of Spurgeonism , and the extent to which the Church of England has arranged special services in tinconsecrated buildings . In civil government , a great change has been effected through the introduction of the system of competitive examinations . In miUtary affairs , improvement has been much retarded by the obstinacy with which the purchase system and the favouritism of the Horse Guards have been defended ; but a great impetus has been given to army efficiency by the introduction of systematic instruction in rifleshooting-, and the commencement of a national movement to keep up a large volunteer force . To this period belong the Whitworth rifle , the Armstrong : gun , and the construction of a large force of iron-protected vessels , to which may be added the yet unfinished steam ram , and Captain Norton's fire-shells . The climate of the Decade has also been remarkable for some of the hottest Summers ever known in these islands j and whether or not connected with the elevation of temperature , none who beheld the comet of ' 58 will forget the splendour With which it blazed from the heavens , without , as in the days of superstition , presaging wrath to man . . ¦ ¦ . We must close this brief and imperfect epitome by noticing a few of the most prominent losses which the world has sustained by death , Omitting- those whose position was the result of birth or fortune rather than of distinguished merit . Foremost among the illustrious dead come the great thinkers and philosophers who had enlarged the boundaries of knowledge and dignified their race . Of these , the list is sadly long , and comprises Humboldt , the man of encyclopedic mind ; Cabl Rittee , the founder of scientific geography ; Oken , the eccentric and whimsical but far-seeing man , whose accidental tumbling against the deer ' s skull in a German forest is said to have led to some of the profouridest theories in transcendental anatomy , and caused a vertebra to be considered the typical bone of the human organization . There also are Oebsted , whose magnetic observations led to the electric telegraph ¦ . ; Robebt Bbqw ^ the great botanist ; Edwabd Fokbes , the scientific naturalist ; Obfii ^ A jAbagp , Daguebbe , Majendie , De xa Beche , Gbenhoxtgh , Mantei-x , Httgh MiLtEB , Nichql , AnDtrBON , Admiral Beaxjeobt , to whom hydrography is so deeply indebted-Sir W . Hamii , ton , Axjgttste CbMTE , Geobge Combe , and Robebt Owen ; of historians and other writers : Haeeam , Pbescott , THiEBBTi and Macaulay , together With Cbetjzeb , De TocQXTEyiLi . E , and P . Bastiat . Of poets , men of letters , and writers of fiction : Wobdswobth , Chab-J . OTTE BBONTEi TpM MOOBE , DoUGtAS jEBBOtt ) , BeBAN GE ^ , Eugene Site , Washington Tbving , Leigh Hunt , and Db Quincet . Of musicians : Spoiib , the learned composer j Bosio , the most beautiful expositor of elegant music , and SirHKNBT Bishop , whose songs and glees will long be cherished in English homes . Statesmen arid lawyers : Peel , Moeeswobtii , Denman , Talfoubd , Hume , SiCCABPi , and the patriot Manin , Soldiers : Wellington , Sotti ; t » Napikb , Cavaignac , Rapetsky , Havelock , Lawbence , Neill , and Nicholson . .. Of engineers : Bbunel and Stephenson . Of artists : Tubneb , Rippingille , Stone , X < eslie ; and of useful men ^ Waghobn , to whom is duo the developement of tho overland coinmunication with India , and whose widow was rewarded by a grateful Government with a pension amounting to the wages of a cook . This incomplete" list shows how many gaps we have to fill up , and what genius and energy are wanted , to make the fame of the living- compare with that of the dead .

      Untitled Article

      10 The Leader arid Saturday Analyst { Jan . 7 > 1860 .

      Sartor Triumph Ans.

      SARTOil TRIUMPHANS .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 7, 1860, page 10, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2328/page/10/