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    Untitled Article

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    THE COBNHILL MAGAZINE."*

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    GLEANINGS FROM FOREIGN BOOKS.

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    Untitled Article

    to retain them longer , and to have saved his country from the , prot ^ eted reli ^ ous agitation of the disorgaxiizmg and demoralmng effects oif which we are still painfully conscious .

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    T ? VERYBOPY is now familiar with the GomfitU magazine , Xi first number has been before the public for more than a tortnfeht and no one will venture to deny that it is a triumph of trading enterprise and trading skill . Nothing so cheap has ever been produced in this country in the shape of a pure , high literary , monthly magazine . The monthly issue of " All the Yeai- Round gives exactly the same quantity of matter for ninepence that the _ Cornhill Magazine" does for a shilling / but the latter may be considered to restore the balance , by presenting its readers with certain illustrations and maps . Both are respectively edited , or conducted bv our leading literary men ; both will be largely supported by the same readers , and largely written by the same periodical pens . Whatever cliques there maybe in the literary world , —whatever literary animosities may rage in the breasts of authors , there is not so much high principle existing as to prevent the chance ot remunerative employment dissolving and sinking them all .

    , So far we are willing to give ahearty welcome to the new Magazine , to find no fault with its fiction , its popular accounts of natural history , its records of travel , and even its verses—and to say that the little " roundabout paper " by the editor , at the end , is one of the most agreeable essays we have read for many a day . We say al this distinctly , that our sentiments with regard to the new liteiary venture may not be misinterpreted , especially as we are now going to have a . word with / Mr . Thackeray about one of his leading articles . ,, ,.. . n . ¦ , When that " letter " ( or prospectus ) " from the editor to a friend and contributor" was first launched in the newspapers about the

    , middle of last November , as a preliminary advertisement , its whole tone and spirit were directed against those authors and editors who were supposed to set up as social and political regenerators ot mankind : " If you were told that the editor , " ( said Mr . Thackeray ) " known hitherto only by his published writings , was in reality a great reformer , philosopher , and wiseacre , about to expound prodigious doctrines and truths until now umevealed , to guide and direct the peoples , to pull down the existing order of things , to edify new social or political structures , and , in a word , to set the Thames on fire ; if you heard such designs ascribed to

    him—Ttsumtenedtis ? " . : In writing- this , the editor of the Cornhill Magazine appears to have forgotten that lie once contested a parliamentary election for Oxford , and that he is declaring himself to be that pale , colourless , imperfectly educated being—a man with no political feelings or political principles . It is no credit to a writer of Mr . Thackeray ' s intellect and knowledge of the world , that he should be content to stand idly by , while honest , hard-working , and unrewarded men are sinking under the labour in which he ought , by his position , to take a share . If his political sentiments are really of that don'tcare-a-rush character , what Tight had he to occupy the Oxford hustings , and what kind of training has he had for conducting that department of his Magazine , which is now largely ^ occupied by an article on the " Chinese and the Outer Barbarians ?''

    Any one who carefully read the paragraph in the prospectus which we have just quoted , would have come to the conclusion that no political questions would have any pages devoted to their discussion in the Cornhill Magazine . A passage further down , in which the editor saye , " It may be a member of the House of Commons who has the turn to speak , " is wore than nullified ' by the following sentences . " There are points on which agreement is impossible , and on those we need not touch . At our social table , we shall suppose the ladies and children ail ways present ; wo shall not set rjkal politicians by the oars ; we shall listen to every guest who has an apt word tp say : ; and , I hope , induce clergymen of various denominationB to say grace in their turn . " These are very fair sounding words , but how has their promise been kept P Surely not by the admission of such an article upon China as disgraces the first ' number of . . ¦ the Magazine 5 written ( wo differ from the editor in so thinking *) . ' by the . last man of all the empire to Speak . truly of what he knows .

    danger ; falsity , and ultimate design of what he is preaching . Sup-Dose ^ ll the ridiculous stories of Chinese pride and self-sufficiency , which Sir John Bowring marshals with such pomp m his introduction , were perfectly true ? Suppose ten thousand such stones , all wellauthenticated , were got together > -what would they . prove ? Are Ave first of all to present a pistol at the head of ^ unoffending ' foreigner , while we cry , " your custom or your life ; and , then , because he refuses to love us , and bow to us , ^ arnwe to shoot him , his wife , and his children through their heads ? Take all the treaties whose reputed violation is constantly being paraded before us as an excuse for civilized atrocities , and is there one that was not wrung from an unwilling , invaded , people by force and fraud ? It the French had secured a Canton on the Kentish coast , and had battered us into concessions at various times , should we smile upon our oppressors , call them deliverers , be scrupulous about observing those treaties , and hesitate , when an opportunity offered , to cut our invaders' throats ? What is patriotism ?—and why is the world so full of songs and poems in its praise , if a poor pig-tailed Chinese brother is to be spit upon and called a treacherous dog , when he tries , in . his own rude way , to fight for his home ? Sir John Bovvring , in the course of his article , lets out , unconsciously , perhaps , the cause of his violent personal antipathy to the Chinese : — " The consuls" ( he writes ) " of the United States and of Fiance had at first been received becomingly in Canton , by the Viceroy ; but in' 1849 , on the arrival of Consul Bowring , very subordinate mandarins were appointed to visit him ; the imperial commissioner altogether refused any interview at any place . " Sir John , so it seems , was a little snubbed ; but because Sir John was snubbed , that is no reason why we should hasten to sacrifice a hundred thousand lives . The different , treatment of the American and French consuls most probably arose from the fact that they presented themselves without any treaties obtained by a series of brilliant naval and military operations some seven years before . At the present time , these powers are likely to counsel moderation in the great case of Ambassador Bruce versus the Chinese Government -although ' Lord Palmerston may wish differently ; and although Mr . Thackeray has lent the earliest pages of his new Magazine to Consul Bowring , for the purpose of advocating another blood-thirsty China war . The coolness with which Sir John . speaks of the sacrifice of Chmese life is only equalled by the innocence with which , on more than one occasion , he . , shows , how his dignity was wounded ,: and his animosity aroused . "Sir John Bowring" ( he -says ) " visited Fpoch . ow in 1853 , in a ship of war , and after much -resistance from the viceroy , was finally and officially receivedby him with every ' mavk of distinction . " '" It is true" ( he continues ) f ' that on more-than one occasion ; the viceroy of Canton offered to receive the British plenipotentiary , not in his official yamun , but in a ' pack--house' ! belonging to liowqua ; and there were those who held that Sir John Bowring should liave been satisfied with such condescension on the part of the Chinese Commissioner . " O , the heartburnings and the spite of ambassadors , the labour , expense , and tribulation brought on us : by the diplomatic world ! In the face of India , and all the loss and sorrow it has brought us , the snubbed plenipotentiary advocates the partial occupation of China ( we know what that will lead to ); the administration of the Custom-house revenues in Shanghae and Canton ; and calmly hints "that the destruction of hundreds of thousands of Chinese , and the ravaging of their great cities , may fail to accomplish the object we have in view . " ¦ . '¦ ¦ . , , These ave the sentiments that Mr . Thackeray endorses with his editorial name , and puts forward as a sample of eminently " gentlemanlike" writing in a company where "the ladies and children { ire always , supposed to be present . " We acquit him of . malice , simply because wo believe him unncquainted with the subject he has passively edited . He has been led away by a high-sounding . name , forgetting that its possessor is a placeman and a political pervertall tho worse for knowing the right : thing , while he stands up to preach the wrong one .

    Wo believe wo are only aiding the efforts of both proprietors and editor , when wo state that this article is openly attributed to Sir John Bowring . The name sounds well in certain oars , and in certain minds , especially in those accustomed to judge of the quality of writing by measuring the importance of the writers . Sir John Bowring let it bo- —and who is Sir John Ifawring P JIo began life as an " apostle of progress ; " ho is reputed to bo a great linguist ; he was the favourite pupil of Jeremy JBontham , and his name stands as the editor of Jeremy Bentham ' s works . Those who know the old Westminster . philosopher ' s opinion upon the folly of blood-thirsty crusades for the sake , of " conquering prodigious right of trade /' who see the daily increasing * influence which his writings are exerting in political science j who feel that Mr . Bright and Mr . Cobdon are merely tho active , practical children of his far-soeinir mind , will be surprised to find in his head boy tho

    plenipotentiary-hero of tho infamous loroha business , and the writer of th { s cruel , dishonest diatribe against the Chinese . The utter absence of all principle in this Cornhill article is one of its most repulsive features , especially as its author knows tho The Oornhm Maqastino .- edited by W . M . TnAOKnhAT . iNo . I . ( January , I 860 ) . Lo « aon ; Smith , Elder , and Op ., OornUiU .

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    THIS FBOVEBB AND BELIGJON . THE proverb honours and loves every religion according to the innermost value of tho same , whilst it is never sorry to sting and scourge churches aind priesthoods ; indeed it seldom allows an opportunity of lashing these to escape , To the proverb God is exulted above all things , but reputed saints and reputed sanctuaries it subjects to a rigid examination , and allows nothing ; to pass which cannot-eternally stand before God and his righteousness , without change of light or of darkness . Therefore the proverb in its religious relations is unchangeably of the same worth now , as thousands of years ago . It has helped to destroy the temples and the altars of idols and of gods , and was from the beginning a strong true instrument jln the hands of the wise . How many of our church hymns are merely tho explanations and developments of ' proverbs . And for this reason , if for no other , how full they are of childlike piety , of truthfulness , of passionate warmth 1 On purity and cleanliness , no less of the body than of tho soul , the proverb strongly insists , though pedantic moralists may quarrel with many an expression which offends their delicate ears , They oughtyhovyrover , to reflect that to tho pure all things are purd , and that a coarse expression : boldly uttered in the first freshness of a phantasy or emotion , readily gains a kind of traditional authority with the people , who never hcq either printed or written the coarse expressions which , proverbially or otherwise , they use . Besides , as in all human things , puHsion , selfishness , and other bad tendencies and habits of the children of

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    j 8 The Leader and Saturday Analyst . - |? fw-. ? > I 860 ,

    The Cobnhill Magazine."*

    THE COKNHILL MAGAZINE . " *

    Gleanings From Foreign Books.

    GLEANINGS FROM FOREIGN BOOKS .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 7, 1860, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2328/page/18/