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that it ts chiefl S3Q THE XfEAPEH. [gO i...
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THE PRESS AND THE PUBLIC SERVICE. The Pr...
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THE REIGN OF JAMES II. History of the Co...
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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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Bacon's Method. The Works Of Francis Bac...
lie thinks the whole phenomena of the universe can be reduced to these few . forma , aid , if we accurately knew them , we could produce ^ all p henomena . Bte sometimes calls the Form a Law ; and he always distinguishes his use of the word from the scholastic use of it . The ITovicm Organum gives the rules for the investigation , of these TTorms . The inductive Method , whi « h he declared to be the only true Method of iarrestigatiori , differed iroin . vulgar induction ( -which wasi / merely an enumeration of cases ) by its ^ principle of exclusion and rejection . To determine the Porm among the aggregate of simple natures , nothing more is requisite than the rejection of all foreign , and unessential elements . We reject every nature which is not present in . every affirmative instance , or-which is present in any negative one , or which manifests itself in a greater degree when the given nature manifests itself in a less ., and vice versa . And this process , when
carried far enough , will of necessity 2 ead ue to the truthi . ; and , meanwhile , every step we take is known to be an approximation to it . When the process of exclusion is performed , only the true nature will remain ; and as in this process no higher faculties than patience and ordinary acuteness are required , the ordinary intellect will discover truth as infallibly as the intellect of mighty men . A fallacy which daily experience exposes . Bacon admits that for just exclusion we must have just notions of the things , to he -excluded . A subsidiary method is needed . To this also he _ gives the name of induction . ; and it is this—the most important of allwhich he has not sketched . The process of establishing axioms he had succeeded in reducing to the semblance of a mechanical certainty ; but the process of the formation of conceptions he left undescribed . lie said a complete change in scientific > comoeptions was necessary ; but how to effect the change he never told us .
This is why no real discovery was . ever made in science by the direct application of Bacon ' s Method , anany as have been , the discoveries certainly made by its ' indirect application . Mr . Ellis seems indisposed to credit the Method with any scientific value whatever ; but it seems to us that this opinion is too absolute . The process was useless in as far as it was essentially incomplete ; but-the spirit of inductive caution was that which Bacon assuredly impipessed upon bis contemporaries and successors . In his day men believed in . the omnipotence of the intellect . He taught them , that toe intellect of man was tainted with an original sin , a . . proclivity to error ¦ which could only be guarded against by the most -watchful vigilance , and lie pointed out what were the sources of error , and how to guard against them . In this consists his originality . Induction was knoyirn to every pTnlosopTker , and practised by every cobbler ; but philosophers did not know , they did aiot suspect , that tine intellect was assailed on all sides by manifold ¦ deceptions , and that the true inductive Method would guard it from them . Mr . JEllis has hinted at this at page 65 .
In many of the subsidiary points IVtr . Ellis's preface , showing as it does -such intimate and accurate knowledge of his author , will be read with profit . He refutes the common notion that Bacon thoiight the onward progress of Jcnowledge "was « to continue throughout all time . On the contrary , the knowledge which man is capable of . might he thought be attained , not certainly-at once , but -within the compass of no very long period . This , indeed , was owing to his very conception of the certainty of his Method and the ease of its application . We conclude our notice of-this edition of Bacon ' s "Works with the expression of our high sense of its rare vftltte ; no eueh edition of an English classic exists .
That It Ts Chiefl S3q The Xfeapeh. [Go I...
S 3 Q THE XfEAPEH . [ gO iJgT ^ SATtTE ^ As ;
The Press And The Public Service. The Pr...
THE PRESS AND THE PUBLIC SERVICE . The Press and the Public Service . By a Distinguished Writer . ( Routledge . ) We hope " . a Distinguished Writer" is not " the Roving Englishmanj" he resembles him , however . But it- would pain us to suppose that he would seek to hide . his identity under a title-page so impertinent . The anonymous , it has been said , confers one privilege—that ' of being arrogant and supercilious vvWh impunity . It may in a book , it may in a pamphlet , but does not in a jonmed . or a review . ( Reviews and journals of the-first class depend for existence and fox power upon character , and their character is rated according to the sense in which they understand and act upon their responsibilities . To deBcribe yourself as " a distinguished writer" is , however , to display an insolence which it is not easy to . forgive ; you introduce yourself as a quack , and unless critics were patient , your book would be set aside among the
works of impostors and incapabi cs . The Press and the Public Service ., however , is . a clever volume , deserving of some attention . Lord Clarendon , the author says ,, has recently asserted his right to question persons in his department respecting their supposed connexion with anonymous publications , and to require from them not only disavowals , but conclusive evidence , clearing them ironi all suspicion . He has insisted upon receiving affidavits from the individual in question , and the editor and publisher of the work referred to . "W e should be glad to see the whole case explained ; it is merely hinted at here as the basis of an argument in defence of tho official right to diecuss public . affairs anonymousl y- This view is not combated in Lord Clarendon ' s department only . Almost any civil servant will tell you that his relations with literature are disliked , while any connexion with the political press is virtually prohibited . Of course the question is one in which
publishers and etutorrs are as much concerned as tho " suspects" themselves ; hut -not even iLord Clarendon can oite a -witnees to appear anywhere except in . a court of daw . " A Distinguished Writer , ' wo are afraid , exaggerates the danger , in or ^ er that he , may expand his appeal ; for , although it may be necessary to . ma & e . a BUndaaiunst the despotism of heads of departments , there is some reanon in the opinionithat civil ecrvanta ought not to betray or malign , . tue-semoe , the aalarios of which they are receiving . It may not be necessary , xw . tne leaned think , to espouse the cause by which you oat and dDink ; ' kut ^ very office hae its secret * , and to expose these is us infamous as im act of treachery u * private life , M the same time , the otticial class ouflbt not to be debarred from the privilege * of tho prees ; though it was , perhaps , unneoeeaary , in behalf © ftlue principle , to andito a voluine to show pompously— r That the liberty of tho Sroeaia tho moat valuable of our constitutional rights ;
that it rests chiefly on the privilege of anonymous writing ; that the virulent personalities is more thaa equalled by the intemperance of recriminations tw Government persecutions of writers are needless , " ^ mischievous , and uniust th »* rt Law is fully' sufficient to . satisfy any one who has reasonable ground of ' comSS ! against the Preas ; that it may be expedient to consider how far , ia the p resent emS state of enlightenment , official secrets are useful to the cause of constitutional lov , ™ ment ; that public servants should enjoy the same rights as the rest of their fell ™ ' subjects ; that petty tyranny should not be allowed to feed fat its ignoble otuaZ , merely by pronouncing the word subordination ; and , finally , that the dismissal of aw person from the public service because he is una"ble to prove that he is not an anonv inoua writer , is an act at once improper , cruel , and unconstitutional
The writer argues that , as Lord Bolingbroke , Lord Chancellor Cowner Judge Blackstone , Lord Mansfield , Archbishop Seeker , and Mr Croker wrote anonymously , so may we , in these latter days ' - ; -but we mi < rht whe ther those individuals did so or . not . To destroy the anonymous is ^ to extin guish journalism , to blight its independence , and not to enhance its resnon " sibihty . " A Distinguished Writer" goes on to urge that secrecy is essential as a protection against exasperated ruffians . Had not De Foe published anonymously his attacks on the ' Mint and the Fxiars , the Mint and Triar wretches would have choked him . " A savage fool , one Blaney , chivied Swift into a ditch ; " John Tutchin was murdered in consequence of cprtain
articles traced to bis pen ; a near relation of Lord Castlerengh openlv ex pressed a wish to shoot Peter Einnerty for his criticisms in the Chroniclein fact , a master-pugilist inight silence the press almost as effectively as the head of the French police . To cap the argument , however , " even the pious Miss Hannah More was an anonymous writer . " Has the practice been assailed as impious ? We think this is another example of the way in which the illustrious gentleman beats the wind . If you are questioned as to the authorship of a particular publication , he proceeds , you may morally and blamelessly deny it , ' although it be your own . Swift systematically disavowed his works , and allowed bis publisher to be imprisoned . Johnson , a great moralist , denied many of his books-Walter Scott praised his own writings , reviewed them , assured John Murray that he had never read . a line of them until they were printed , declared to the Prince Regent "he had no pretensions to the authorship of Waverley- " Sydney Smith would not confess to the Plyniley Letters . As the
essayist quotes on one point reasonings that are superfluous , so lie addueeson another precedents that are inconclusive . The question is not whether Sydney Smith did it , but whether to do it is justifiable . To proceed : — - Lord Hillsborough , who complained of the personalities of Junius , called him " a wretched scribbler , " " , & worthless fellow , " " a vile incendiury , " " a false (!) liar " " snarler , " " contemptible thing , " " abandoned tool , " " diabolical miscreant , " " impudent , scurrilous wretch , " " rascal , " " scoundrel , " " barking cur , " " barking animal , " —arguments on a level with , their politeness . Sir William Draper , - who was a fair type of his class—a stupid , ¦ well-meaning , imprudent man—called Junius " riper , " " monster , " " ruffian , " " assassin , " " base man . " His writings were " florid impotence ' . "
Times have not materially . changed . The channels of journalism are choked with , purulent invective , with dull indecencies of satire , and coagulations of bilious personality . The truth is , that genuine satirists are rare , and that as certain people have been said to mimic the distortions of a Pythoness without her inspiration ,, others affect the brutality of Aristophanes without possessing a trace of his capacity . Tooke said of Porson that he could drink ink rather than not drink at all . It would be well if much ink were consumed in that manner , instead of " being employed to exemplify what Curran called " ¦ the unburied and unrotted impudence , " mistaken by weak eyes for the lash of . satire . "A Distinguished Writer" evidently feels , or afFects , an intense irritation with , respect to Lord Clarendon ' s "dim espial . "
Ihe object of punishment is to prevent and expose crime ; but how is this new crime to be defined ? Why is honesty punishable ? Is it proved [ to be guilt by dismissal and starvation ? If not , what argument do these terrible inflictions serve to illustrate ? The best way to try their justice , is to ask any minister whether lie would dare exert illegal authority to have a man imprisoned a single night on a charge of anonymous truth .-telling . If not , is the permanent loss of bread and diameter , the rendering a man useless and infamous for life , inflicted by dismissal , a less evil than aeingle night ' s imprisonment ? After the age of thirty all the liberal professions , all honourable new means of obtaining a respectable livelihood , are virtually closed to a man . Therefore , dismissal
from the public service may reduce him to absolute beggary . The most bigoted friend . of aily abuse would hardly now like to hear of its exposure being puuislicd with chains and whips . It is surely , however , no milder gratilication of intolerance to punish it with a debtor's jail . Newgate , under circumstances not disgraceful , woulS be bettor than that . The love of a man for his profession is a feeling too valuable to society to be discouraged . It is that which among the greater portion of mankind distinguishes the labourer from the idler , tho honest man from the dishonest . Tho sentence , therefore , which deprives a man of his colling , when he can no longer turn with rational hope to other studies , is one which , in all human probability , renders him nothing but a burden ta his country , sind consigns him to ruin , uselcssnesa , and vexation for the rest of his days .
The case on which ho rests his appeal being : an enigma , some of the argument is also unintelligible , or at least ineffectual VVc arc uskod to suppose a strong case , and to Jeel strongly about it . A clearer statement nvigjit have justified the animosity and passion of the book ; which is worth reading , but too vague to elicit . that response from public opinion which the author professes to desire .
The Reign Of James Ii. History Of The Co...
THE REIGN OF JAMES II . History of the Counter-Revolution in Unylandfor the lie-establishment of Popery wider Charles II . and James II . By Arinnnd Carrel . —History of the llrirjii " f Jamci II . IJy tho Itight Hon . Cimrloa . Tamos 1 'ox . —Memoir of the Jicij / i of James II . By J < jhn Lord Viaoount Lonsdale . JJolin . Mji . Bohn has added to his Standard . Library a volume of woll-seloctol bistorical fragments—Arinand Carrol ' s admirable nurmtivo of tlio ( Jounter-Rovolution ; the imperfect sketuh which proves that Fox would have been a great writer had he not been a great statesman ; and the curious Memoir Iry Sir John Lowthur , afterwards Viscount Lonsdulu , written in 1688 , and published in 1808 , in quarto . This work ia extremely rare . A . copy of it t AJlr . JUobm observes , would be diilioult to purchase at live guinctiB . He ^ > M
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), April 4, 1857, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_04041857/page/18/
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