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&M H HIB, LilD'E B, [Sajto^a^,
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The aoeouBt'/wtehaTO receivedin a. priva...
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Wehave notyet received the new- number o...
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PampbleiJfcfrom Russian.sourcea, on the ...
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Ai-IHSTORY, O£ ENOLASfn DURING TIIR.RJEI...
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.
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Transcript
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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.
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Doctor Vkbon Contributes Some Singular C...
xnaposriWefor-any readur ,, lioweyeir-pjtejttdiced : ih fkyoutrof success ,, not to , ^ mute lh erifa <& thiri ; ithe ^ men . moved . by no other impulse than the desperation of gamblewhwho had nothajagtoilose and all to gain by a crime wbieh would have paralysed the arm of any man inTrfibse-bre * st-Temamed a spark of honour or-of self-respect . •
&M H Hib, Lild'e B, [Sajto^A^,
& M H HIB , LilD'E B , [ Sajto ^ a ^ ,
The Aoeoubt'/Wtehato Receivedin A. Priva...
The aoeouBt' / wtehaTO receivedin a . private letter ^ 'the * reception M . Bebbseb b y , the French , Academy , - adds little to our * remarks of last ^ week . It says- thafa the affluence of the ? aristocracies of the Faubourg St . Gennain and the Ghawwe ' e dlAjstinwasHimmense ; that it was regarded sa a political demonstration ••; and that the ladies more especially were ready * o seize Uteifaiotesfc allusion against the Bmpirei not * of course , on account < rf : aay- 'sympaihyj'wifch free institutions , but "because they want to go back to powder and & oops . " " This determination , '' on * correspondent says , "to oppose by meaos of historical allusion , threatens a total falsification of l laboured
history forrsome time to come . " M . dh- Salvawdy ' s reppwaa ^ ndrrhetorica ^ and muchf too long . "By-tbe-by , when it was previously submitted to the committee , every one felt its enormous length , butmobody liked ita , telkbi » it so . At length * Mi Sobibb undertook the tasks . 'My dear swi- he ; sjodj . * that ; is ,. af deadid : your address is like a > great city .: there are xaanypaiace & jkndjaany . Bouses ; if ' you , knockr down some of the houses the palftceai " » ll'bjB ' nM > Ba visible . ' , Some wereknocked downy but not enough . M . Bkbrter , excusing his inexperience' in literary composition ^ is-reported to have said , ' I know how-to-speak , rbut lean neither read nor . write- His address savoured % little of oratorical diffuseness and effort ,, but . this modest
and witty mot of the great speaker was not deserved . In the semi-official-Pays there has appeared ' a very angry article against tbw perversion of the Academy to political demonstrations ; and a threat to close the dboroipon " provocations which are as . dangerous in the salon as in the street . ' *'
Wehave Notyet Received The New- Number O...
Wehave notyet received the new- number ofthe Revue des Deux Mondes . ( Marefr-l ^ , but we have heard that it contains a remarkable contribution , extending- 'to-some forty pagesr by M . Guizor , on a subject which to many ^ will appear'singnlar in comiexion withthe name of that austere Minister—Sur VAmour dans le Mariage .
Pampbleijfcfrom Russian.Sourcea, On The ...
PampbleiJfcfrom Russian . sourcea , on the war , are rife in the neutral city x & 'Bvsa & elai . Xhertseo latest we hear of are called respectively Mensonges ^ LJ ^ aUt ^ d ^ lci , guerre 4 'Onient , axi ( iLettresJRitsses ,
Ai-Ihstory, O£ Enolasfn During Tiir.Rjei...
Ai-IHSTORY , O £ ENOLASfn DURING TIIR . RJEIGN ; - © E GEORGE : in . jii Eiotory of England ' , dining ^ the . Reign of > George /// . By William Massey , M . P VoLX—1745 rl 770- " John W . Parker and Son . SjsvuKAt . of our contemporaries'haye sagaciously observed , of this book that Mr . Massey lias but a . slight chance of permanently supplying the want itecentlyi- pointed out by Lord John Russell at the Bedford Mechanics ' Institution—tlto want ' of- a . good history of England : But we have not been the . losa inclined , too welcome the volume : While waiting- for the J ^ tor ^ ( wMcJb ; wlll n # ve ^ Mr . Masaey are highly desirable ,, and , when they come , are to be-regarded ,
njot as ambitious substitutes of foregoing works , but as fragmentary essaysputting old ' materials in a new point of view . We take such works as this . ata-they stand , gratefully : —and as Mr . Massey does not appear to us to deserve' censure merely because his history is notour ideal history ^ so we do , noti c $ uarreli with : him because he does not even precisely fulfil his own 4 esign . In . his . preface ,, in . which , he ; announces , four volumes as . the complement of the plan , he . apeaka of his . aim being to . write a . " social" rather than a political" ^ military histor y of the reign of tho third George ; and we are quite content ; this first volume being- exclusively of anecdotic politics , to wait for'thesocial sketches .
The spirit in- which tho'Tworfcis written is to-be inferred * from Dod ' s description , of . Mr .. Masaey , ; , aai the M > P ;— " Liberal * , in . favour , of Free Trade , Extension of the Suffrage , andVoto , hy Ballot ; " that , is- to say , a anan of Whig tradition * , who modifies ' his party formula , by references to the spirit of the , age . So far as we have gone with Mr . Massey , we find his-politic * solKtle-ihteufbrmgwith his history that Ho writes of the England oft 100 yeawnagO' as * impartiall y" a * he- might write of Athens—indi--cating throughout this volume only one prejudice , and that being a literary one , on , the subject of . Jiuiius ,. Hia . atyle . is : excellent , for an . essay—suggestive and rapid . At the present moment , with our institutions on the strain ,. and the realities or' our constitutional " blessings abruptly tested by a generation ruthlessl y" practical ; such a retrospect as Mi * . Massoy—offers upon our
natoonaliposition . in tbemost blessed days ^ of'Whiggery , when the House of Iiaooyec had .. been , made , safev . the House of Commons was in half a dozen men ' s pockets ,, and : our . noblee enjoyod , the , luxury of . a ? war with » which *' representative institutions" did not in . the least interfere—afforda points of immediately useful application to our own day . This volume commencintj with a description of England "entering on a war ( with Franoo and Spain ) after a long and prosperous' peace * i » occupied with a narrative of popular restiveness during the progress of the war . Throughout there are mator » l » for- curious , cowmoati . upoa the : national characteristics , winch- are equaJiynrominontun 1850-410 as they wore in 1750-70 . Considering , that we axe only about a . hundredyears distant from , tha death oPW & tpole , , it ia , for us , a humiliation to find an English . gentleman vindi-¦ cat mgjftWB * character of * that astute man- of the world , on tho ground that * 53 iir *' llJfe * *** e' owin * T ^ 'W then so rbttonj that Sir Robert Walpole wftuUl hMMtibaoQti ^ oime > " tortueahuao-of good government" if ' lto had
declined . to adopt , that system of corruption , which » so infamously ; and so eternally associated , with his name . Usually , English historians announce that Walpole degraded the land and disgraced the age : Mr .. Massey faces the fact that the glorious revolution on behalf of a reformed religion , had still left our ancestors singular mauvais sujeis , in more ways than one . Mr . Massey explains ,. for the benefit of contemporary inribcent younn-Englishmen , that up to the failure of the . ' 45 our statesmen , doubtful if tlie Stuart * were down ^ . were perpetually—oaths of allegiance notwithstandingtrimming between the in , and out royalties , the result being that M . P , ' s , their consciences puzzled , allowed the question of legitimacy against responsible governments to be determined by the previous question —Which paid best ? " A fastidious temper , " says Mr .- Massey , " would have shrunk with
dis <* ust from the sordid traffic : a squeamish morality would have suffered the couunonwealth to perish . rather than : save it by such means ; " and he eulogises Walpole ,, accordingly , by arguments which would fully justify Lord Palmerston , in our day , settling annuities on all members of the House of Commons who hesitate to believe that he is the only man to carry on the war or conclude a peace . " Political purists , ' * adds our historian , " cavil at the means by which the immediate peril was averted , but such politician * I leave to their paper constitutions and their impossible Utopias . " Clearly , we thus see , Mr .. Massey is a practical man . He further describes the political peculiarities of that day , when -what he here and there calls " noble . constitution , " " neither valued nor understood by an ignorant people "— -who perhaps judged , weak creatures , less by theory than by the facts before them—would seem to have been but imperfectly developed : —
la a population of-eight millions there were no more than 160 , 000 electors . The representation , of tbe people vraa . merely a phrase- The people of England had for the most . part . no nipre voice ia . the election of the House-of . Commons than the people of Canada . The counties were in the hands of the great landowners , who mostly settled the-representation by previous concert Upwards of fifty villages and hamlets --were , each entitled to return two members to Parliament . .... Many of the small towns whieh could furnish a few electora-were entirely under the influence of one or two of their great , neighbours ,, who , accordingly named the members ¦ without question . . . . In those places where freedom of election was possible , ; venality in its grossest fora ^ accompanied by brutal"debauchery , were for the most i part exhibited . It is a remarkable instance of the tenacity of- life which belongs to established abuses , however , glaring , and enormous , that such aisystem as this should ihave lasted nearly a century and a half , and have at last only yielded within these ' few years to a national struggle which , before it could succeed , was pushed close upou theverge of revolutionary violence .
Mr . Massey writes these-sentences wrth perfect composure : he fully believes that the Reform Act put us all right . For he is no visionary . He : ridicules , perhaps not very keenly , but with solemn intention , the theory . of i Pitt and Caniden , thatthe House of Commons could not impose taxes on the unrepresented- —viz ., the North American colonists : and it is , indeed , singuhu * , as showing that even in those days Englishmen thought they had selfgovernment and were free , an d so on , that so comprehensive a mind as Pitt ' possessed was unequal to the observation that , if his theory were carried out iat home , the king , would , have got a remarkably smalt revenue . Mr . iMassey thinks the . right ,, the definition of wJiicbby . Camden has made every iRadical meeting roar applause , can never be" " practically" maintained .
I" The attempt" to square political institutions with exact principles must ¦ ever be attended with failure ; " and he seems rather to congratulate the country , that- nearly * all our " statesmen' * are now of opinion that only a select class of their enlightened , countrymen ought to have the franchiseuniversal suffrage being " incompatible with our mixed constitution' *—and , in Mr ; Massey ' s eyes , the maintenance of the mixture is of the first importance . _ Hfe does '_ not _ appear to perceive , _ thati despiteLhisj ^ ijthinetical . showings of the " packed" condition of the then House of Commons , the masses had ; then , in many respects * a power which they have lost in these days . Those were the days of mobs and pressure from without . There was the Court End . and . the City End ; . and the City made the Court go tolerably right .
Wilkes beat the packed House of Commons by mobs , and Chathnm , strong from his felt popularity among the mercantile classes , and more espeoially those of " vulgar" London , was long able to keep the King and the Whig ariatocnicy down . In . our days a Wilkes couldn't get a mob—he would be ungenteel ; would be ok-oh'd into extinction in the House of Commons ; and we see Palmerston , as strong in popularity as Chatham was , coinj ) ellcd to fight a Wliig aristocracy against his reluctant sovereign . England was , in her oligarchical 1 Parliament , very vicious then ; but there was abroad among the people a , spirit of freemen ; they had heard their fathers talk of revolution , and ; they knew their power . That country was safe , even with such a . House of Commons ,. near . suehtnCheapside , and with n public which couldenjpy and applaud " Junius . " In our day—with a hundred years more of a genteel civilisation—Junius writes still , but < our crack statesmen snnb
him m one of a " ribald press . " In our day , our oligarchical Parliament is-less openly vicious , but can still afford to be oligarchical , and to monopolise government to the aristocracy , because there are now too many people to allow of a , practical mob , and because the Beekfords who used to lead the middle class have fallen . into the fashion of getting baronetcies and peerages and being cpurtly and civil ,. and reading , without , cheering , " Junius . " Mr . MasBey sketches the success of a coalition opposition against Walpolo in a manner which suggests a comparison with the lull of Lord Aberdeen : tho similitude being in the fnct that in both cases aristocratic faction , perhaps with good national results , but still factiously , sacrificed a minister
wJio would serve no class , and who would only think of the country . Ann , aristocracy triumphant , Mr . Maasey shows that danger , to the nation immediately commenced ; and ho attributes the , safety of England ,, then , to the fatuity of tho Pretender and his allies ruther than to the energy or the intellect of the men who , to use his phrase about tlie Pelhauv administration , "jobbed on tho Government . " Frederick , Prince of Wnles , dead—» nd Mr . Massey uuloyajl y suggests that Queen Victoria ' s great-grandfather was even tho greatest villain of 7 mr family— and Mn Pelham following him , in 1753 , the House of Commons was as bewildered . as to tho man to Avhom . give its " lead , " as it would have boon this your if Mi \ Disruoli ,, Mr . Gladstone , and Lord Paltnorston lind been in the samtj Government . The tjirce
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), March 3, 1855, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_03031855/page/18/
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