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    Untitled Article

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    Untitled Article

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    • SATIRE.

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    Untitled Article

    After all , when we come to consider it seriously , the position of Enirland lias iipfc been so anomalous as it once Appeared . If 1 rotestantism was the difficulty with England , it turns out that the Papacy has been the difficulty with the continental Powers . What * hsill be done with the Romagua ? Authority , suggests the celebrated pamphlet , gives it to his Holiness , but conscience withholds it . The two difficulties ai ; e but opposite poles of one and the same jjrand danger . The great question asked , indeed , is , whether the liberty of Italy— -nay ( riot to shirk any portion of the matter , ) the liberty of Europe , be consistent with the temporal power of the Papacy ? The solution proposed by the Imperial pamphlet suggests to us a line in one of Dryden ' s tragedies , with the corresponding one supplied by the pet critic . They may be thus parodied as

    a propos of the Papacy : — " Itspower is great , beciuse its realm is emair ; That would be greater were this none at all . * And the couplet , so modified , expresses the indisputable truth . The spiritual supremacy of the Pontiff would be better preserved by separation from all temporal admixture . The Head of a religion is onlv powerful within religious limits . Step from the church into the" world , and the spiritual man is out of place . These are hard sayings for the Pope of Rome . The Emperor of France has at last uttered them . Why were they not uttered long ago P It would have been imprudent , perilous . Even now the danger is not passed ^ and the prudence will appear doubtful to many . _

    It must , nevertheless , be conceded that , in making this declaration , Napoleon III . has been more prudent than in that concerning Italian freedom . He has stopped short—far short of the possible ultimate issue . He has not said that the question is , after all , a struggle between Protestantism and Papalism , and that Protestantism , like truth , is great and strong , and must finally prevail ; He has riot said it—though he might have said it with , sincerity , and it might have proved itself , at no distant period , and may prove Uself soon , to be an accomplished fact . Neither has England said it * with

    though she might have said it more appropriately , even yet more sincerity , and a sti-onger desire that it might rcbeive embodiment in early experience ; England : does not consider it prudent yet to make such an announcement . She will not rashly forejudge " the conflict , neither its manner nor its season . The Italians will have to deal with the question in their own way . Already they have patronisei an order of EvaiigeKsts , whom they prefer to their priests , and Evaugelism maj : have with them a better sound than Protestantism ; arid , perhaps , they may not exactly mean the same thing ; But time will show . _ » . >

    liie Jaat phase of the matter is , that the Pope , unaer l > hese circumstances , objects to being represented- in congress , with so feitr'fiil an Imperial manifesto against hjiri . Truly , lie might appeal to ' . Austria—but Austria has exhausted her resources . It is perhaps more than she can do to take care of herself . She cannot at any rate help the Pontiff ; France may , to a certain extent , and for a certain period—but only by restraining him witliin limits . He depends , at this present , on her support . She would get rid of the responsibility and that she may do so , she would render the Pope insignificant . No longer dreaded , he may be no lQnger opposed ; and the soldiers of France may safely leave him to his own guards . This , perhaps , is the utmost that Roman Cathplic States may must be content with this

    attempt . At any rate , for a while they . We in England should recollect that Catholicism and the Papacy are not identified . The distinction is made and preserved among the Italiuris . There are many good Catholics in Borne who are not Papalists , and to whom the chair of St . Peter is but as the see of Canterbury is to Protestants . These , of course , look for " a good tinic corning , " when such papal assuniptipns ais infallibility and the immaculate conception of the Virgin shall be discarded . They would rationalize the Church , and dee Pro Nono merely the Biahop of Rome . But the history of their success is yet to be written . Sooner or later all such influences will have worked out their results . They will operate to the' full extent of their tether . That is the law with all nrinciules . But when they shall have done their all , there

    will still be work to do . AH this stops short of that spiritual freedom which Protestantism demands . « nd will at last . realize . To England then is reserved the final victory . This comes to her by logical necessity , and by political position . It >»» therefore , not without reason in the nature of things—that rational principle which works at the heart of the universe , and guides ai ) d shapes the conduct of man and the structure of society—that England has maintained the calm , patient , thinking rather than active attitude , during the conflict of which the passing- year has boon a witness . We think we enn interpret it well enough . The time for activity will come . Meanwhile , England reposes , meditative , until the hour shall strike when deeds shall be demanded . Until then our energies are nursed and strengthened ; that , when called forth by necessity , they may bo irresistible in action .

    Untitled Article

    EXS ixJUioJtl literature may oe presumed co nave rencnea map indicated by the Roman poet , when he said " that it whs difficult not to writa B « t « iV" for literature is , after all , but a reHojcofsooioty , and surely society' dbnitfhds a purge , and requires ) an occasional satire , as sharp and pungent a » it can bo made . Wo have , however , passed , Jong ago , that" curly stugo of satiric fronius which produced euch vudo and r « w exponents of the art us Donnk and Uldham , who may , in literature , stand an . parallel examples to the Age and 4 , rmts , the Censor and the Satirist , in the nowsjiunor preBs } or , more

    lately still , those incisive and intense articles , which , from the pen of Mr . Douglas Jeekold ; threw such a lurid light upon the first and middle pages of Lloyd ' s Weekly Newspaper . Doubtless there is a public which . sjtiill appreciates the mental food , as there is another public which demands something hot and stinging- in what it eatBr and something ardent and acrid in its drink . But the better class have grown into better tastes , and we wonder at the state of society which could have produced fools enough to patronize Mr . Baknjlbi > Geegoey , the facile princeps of the Satirist , and have found amusement in the scaudakms paragraph which acquainted the world with the fact of the ' < Duke of A—— being , seen riding with a chambermaid in his chariot , " or the " Earl of C——enticing the wife of one of Ins subalterns into the barrack mess-room . " Still more d . o we wonder at the greasy satisfaction with which the " Editor " penned the words , " Oub eye is on the delinquents , " and at the cowardice of those delinquents in subsidising the " Editor" in order to keep their names out of the paper . The success of these enterprises produced imitations in the inferior walks of life . Even in lowest depths there were found deeper still . The Town and Paul Pry and Fenny Satirist did for greengrocers and butchers , what the Age and Satirist performed for baronets and earls . " Joe S ' ¦ , or little black-whiskered Jack , " were advised not to talk so much to the barmaid ; or "to give over paying visits to the tommyshop , " " or Paul" would again be at them ; so that what with the " eye " of the Satirist , and the muddy umbrella of Paul Pry , society , high and low , must have been kept in a state of chronic ferment . We may be sure that some of this mud stuck . Indeed , the satirists themselves were but bad imitation * of the Son Ton and Town and Country magazines ; and searchersjin contemporary history will find it difficult to distinguish between the false and true , in reading some of the tHerh'teies of the latter , such as those between the Rev . W . WHiTFiELD- ^ and t he subtle sinner , and Jemmy Twitcher ( Earl of Sandwich ) and Miss R ( eay ) . . ' ' ' ,., . Satire now-a-days does not walk so much in the mud , nor did it ever do so with the masters of the art . If Deyden be abusive and foul in his Mackflecknoe , one cannot but acknow ledge that he is wise and beneficent in his Absolom and Achitpphel . The characters there are drawn with a pen wlueh never faltered in its delineations , and they , stand out as real and as true iu-their way as the Raphael chalk portraits in theirs . Viixied 8 and Shaftesbuky will never escape , fronT the pen of DeySen , any more than John "Dennis will from that of Pope . But the satirist , as all satirists do , harmed hirnself as much as he did the objects of his anger , and himself was gibbeted wiien caught . The Recording Angel which reaches the Heaven of posterity , drops a tear upon men's failings which effectually erases them , altliongh their vices are proof against such a"detergeut ; and follies , not vices , are the true-objects of satire : In saying this we are not excusing either ; indeed / we doubt whether , for actual amount of evil done , tlie fool does not surpass the rogue ; certain it is that folly has done more harm to socie than vice . We suspect a rogue , but we cannot guard against a fool ; we may shield ourselves frop the pistol of an enemy , -but we are lost if our own weapon breaks in pur hand . A race of gentler satirists than Deyden and Pope soon perceived this , just as the former had seen that the ridicule of Abistophaneb was ever so much keener , and more useful as . a weapon than the tremendous invective of Juvenax or Pkbsitts . Indeed , the latter can scarcely be called satirists in the true sense . It is not satirical to phptograph a pest-house , or to give a line ^ for-Hne drawing of a horrible deformity . H ogabth was not satirical when he drew " Gin Lane , " but he was so in his " Election , " and his " March to Finchley , " and in many other works . The last picture of his " Harlot ' s Progress " or of his " Rake " may boast one or two satiric touches ; but the Painter rises far above satire , and wails , like another Jeremiah , over the sins and sorrows of the city . So again with Swift . That \ vriter had far too high a genius to be commonly understood . Hence many people abuse him instead of loving him ; hence tlie words , beast , man-hater , foul-tongued fellow , applied tp him . But Swift understood himself ; IiVh ' is " Tale of a Tub " and " Gulliver" he penned as fine satires as the world ever saw ; but in his verses "On a Lady ' s Bedchamber , " and others of the sort , ho sppko dirt , and meant to speak dirt , and was too earnest to bo satirical . Ho claims credit fur it in more places than one , and of his satire he says , in his letter to Sir Charles Hpgnn , " I had a design to laugh the follies out of existence , and to whip the vices out of practice ; " but he add ? that that design and that satiric genius had been his great bar through life . So it was , and is : try to improve tho world , and it will hate you , if it suspects tho ' design . The poets knowing this , as wo Imvo said , a milder kind of satire grew prevalent . Dr . Young has shown , in his " Universal Pas « ion , " that he know too well what ho was about to hit vory hard . His remarks wore general , and he left particulars to themselves . Great sinners , ho thought , should be dealt with by the law . He would attack the vice , and not the vicious . A judge might just as well have sentenced Murder , and tot go Gbbenaobb or Daniel Good . But the astute Doctor thrived , ana nobody said of him , a » they did of Popjp , that ho was a nasty , spiteful little devil . " Dr . Youwo never had tho courage of Pope ; tho latter writes : — " There we-i-I scarce can think it , but am told ,.. * " There arc to whom my satire poems too bold . Scarce to wise —— complaisant enough , And something ouid . of Olmrtrca much too rdugh . " But , in spite of this , he still sp ' oko of Chabthes , and still hit at Lord Fannt ( Hbbvby)— " That bug with gilded winga , That pnintod child of dirt , who otinks nnd atlngs , "

    Untitled Article

    2 The Leader and Saturday Analyst . [ iTan . 1 , 1860 .

    • Satire.

    • SATIRE .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 7, 1860, page 12, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2328/page/12/