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¦ ¦ •iVi a- THE Ii ' :E : A B E It. l> T...
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MEMOIRS OF CATHERINE II. Memoires de Vlm...
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THE PAPER DUTIES. Th^Tax upon Paper. The...
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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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Sketches Of Algeria. Sketches Of Algeria...
bravery of this French African regiments . He is equally enthusiastic -with respect to the policy pursued by the Trench Government . to prevent its conquests and victories from having only a barren result . We may learn a lesson or two for our guidance in our own Indian hostilities from these pages .
¦ ¦ •Ivi A- The Ii ' :E : A B E It. L> T...
¦ ¦ iVi a- THE Ii ' : E A B E It . l > o- 454 , December 4 , 1858 .
Memoirs Of Catherine Ii. Memoires De Vlm...
MEMOIRS OF CATHERINE II . Memoires de Vlmperatrice Catherine IL , e ' erits par elletneme et precedes d ' une Preface . Par A . Herzen . Triibner and Co . On the death of the Serairamis , or , as some would say , the Theodora , of the North , her son and successor , Paul , found among her papers a mass of autobiographical memoirs in her own hand . Affection or respect could permit little of this to see the light . The bulk ¦ was therefore burnt—so the story runs —by Paul in person ; but ouc portion of peculiar interest , as detailing Catherine ' s early im-Russian Court d the circum 1
pressions of the , an - stances attending her first amorous intrigue ; was preserved . This fragment is now before us , edited bytlie accomplished" Russian , Alexander Herzen . As the importance of the work must mainly depend upon its authenticity , we may be excused for noticing the pedigree of the MS . furnished by the editor . Paul , says he , set so much store by it that he trusted it to no one but his familiar , Alexander Kouralcine , who copied it . Twenty years after Paul ' s death , Kourakine ' s MS . \ vas rccopied for the Tourgeneff and Woronzdff families , and henceforward began to circulate covertly . The late Gear employed the police to stop this * but with only partial success . A copy in the hand of Pouschkhic ,
the poet , and perhaps one other , escaped , and the result is before us . Fashionable and literary circles in Russia have long looked for it , and among these , as in high continental society , it will be read with the more zest that it has obtained publicity in spite of imperial mandate and police machination . How mistaken were these will be admitted by all candid readers . For so general has been the belief that Paul was the fruit of Catherine ' s adultery that her virtualadmission of the fact could add nothing to her ill fame , while full proof of it will not now unsettle the Bomanoff dynasty . But generous minds , on the other hand , wilL find in this unvarnished tale , and in the study of the circumstances w'hich surrounded her young wedded life , a plea in extenuation , at all events , of her first sin .
The memoir commences with the arrival at Moscow , in 1744 , of Catherine , then Sophia Augusta of Anhalt-Zerbst , accompanied by her mother , followed by a shrewd review of the cliques and persons about the Court . The German maiden soon found out that her intended , Peter , \ yas an overgrown baby of sixteen , always playing at soldiers ; and that the Empress Elizabeth was an overbearing , querulous old intriguer who regarded Sophia in no other light than as necessary lor the perpetuation of the imperial race . All the Russian family and their minions plotted the estrangement nf the mother and daughter , and the banishment of OI me roomer aiiuuu . ujrui . ei mm iaiu wuuouiiitui . ui
, the former ; and these iamily bickerings , alternating witli ballets , masquerades , burning wooden palaces , sledging , and general Court and cabinet gossip , are narrated so minutely , yet so artlessly , as to stamp the memoir as genuine . Catherine was in course of time baptized intojthe Russian Church and married . But she pined in thought , no doubt , for though she grew tall , she became , she says , thin as a , skeleton and deadly pale . She wearied qf the Court and its xvays , of the Tchofjlokoffs ( an odious pair imposed upon her as chief spy and grande goi ( vernante \ and of the whole entourage . Slio endeavoured , but vainly , to beguile herself into an idea of happiness by dint of dancing , billiards , marionettes , blindman ' s-buff , and , other romping games , played
with an ardour that horrified the card-playing Russian dowagers , and oven her own grave German waiting-woman . Anxious to outrngo the Court , she refused to wear rouge , or patches , and tried to " introduce simplicity . " For distraction ' s sake sho became a great horsewoman and astonished her tailor by the many riding-skirts she wore out . She even devised a kind of saddle so fashioned that when her mother-in-law ' s back was turned she could ( shift the crutch , lower a second stirrup , and ride wildly " & califonrchon . " Her spouse -was low in his ta 3 tcs , and promiscuous in bis infidelities . Tlio progress of his various amours is traced minutely by the injured bride , as well ns his atrocious conduct towards herself ,. which oven went so far as gross personal brutality . Tho render
is gradually prepared by the tale to learn that , its narrator ceased to be pure in contact with such a heap of corruption as the Russian Court . Ilie young chamberlain , Soltikoff , and his wife , Matrevna Paulovna , now come upon the scene , and an acquaintance between them and Catherine commences at the summer palace of . Peterliof , whithci —so poorly was the Court off-the tables and chairs ; beds and looking-glasses , used to be moved for the season like the ladies and gentlemen _ m ' : * :.... t ,, o < w * l vRmnnth this intimacy so far
ripens that Sergius declares his passion , and is at ; JSt reoulsed with an allusion to h . s young and £ 2 k 2 Xwife . " All is . not . goldUiatghUj . » : he answers , and presses his suit . "Je fis tout au monde , " says Catherine , » pour le faire changer d'idee-je croyais bonncment y reussir—il me faisalt pitie . Par nvalhcur je l ' ecoutais . " Scrg . us was a master of intrigue ; all Catherine stood in need of then was sympathy . It was Ins best weapon under the circumstances , and he used it " He was handsome , " says she , " as the day , and neither in the empress ' s nor in the heir-apparent s court was there any man who could come near him . For a little while she feigned resistance , but at last yielded . A hunting party of pleasure took the pair on to an island on the Keva . Soltikoft rode beside Catherine and poured words of passion into a not unwillin g ear . He made the most of her husband s cruelty , pitied her sorrows , guaranteed secrecy , and triumphed . A storm kept the party for many hours on the islet , and Catherine went home full ot apprehension , " ties maussade , et tres malcontent ede moi-me ' me . " The journal , from this point until after the birth of Paul , offers abundant evidence that Sergnis Soltikoff reigned supreme in the writer ' s heart . But even the Grand-Duchess of Russia could not make sure of a heart for a heart . She writes about politics , Court follies and fashions , her husbpud s debaucheries , her own illnesses , the rejoicings of the Russians at her infant ' s birth aud baptism ; but the name of Sergius chequers every page . But lie , by degrees , grew co lder and colder , on all sorts of pretences , aud at last wore out . his affection by foreign travel , and irritated his mistress ' s pride by connecting himself with other women . Leon Narishkine and Poniatowski , who succeeded to the wreck lie abandoned , are now barely introduced to us , when the story closes abruptly at the period of Catherine ' s contemplated retreat to her German home . Her protest against her husband , her enemies , and her rivals is affecting ; and the long scene between herself , the empress , and her husbaud , in which she pleads for a separation , is powerful and animated . This autobiography—though dedicated by a mother to licr son—is one of the few we have ever seen that carries the air of having been composed without a thought of future eyes . It is not a shamcloss , but a painfully natural , confession , and moves the roader ' s sympathy for one whom it depicts most unaffectedly as a state prisoner in gilded fetters , young in years , Old and withered in heart , and estranged from her savage husband by his own perverse industry , with the connivance of his family . The emprcss-mother , as we have said , took to heart the infertility of the grand-ducal marriage bed . Madame Tchoglokoil' was chosen to break the royal sentiments to her charge , and to make suggestions " pour lo bien dc l'Ktat . " She opened her fire with a lengthy eulogy on her own domestic virtues and an * exposition of the means by which pvery-day pcoplo might attain and keep conjugal felicity . She tjicri suggested the choice of a cavalier between Sergius SoltikoflTand L & m Narichkinc , volunteering to oppose no obstacles . Catherine , as the reader knows , had already made her first choice , but the lesson of tho grande goneernante was not still thrown awny . "La jeuno femme , " says Herzen , "jouo la iriaiso , prend lea deux , plus Poniatowski , ct commence uno car-Here e > otique dans laouello , pencinut quaranto ans , ello no s ' arrutcra plus / ' , At the dawn of this " carrierc eVotique" ( ho Catherine MS . breaks off * in the middle of a sentence , lu the words of the editor , " The leading feature of the book , wherein consists its importance to flic reigning family of Russin , is tho proof it discloses that they have no more claim to the nnmn of Holatoin Gottorp than to that of Romanoff . Catherine ' s avowal is explicit enough—the father of the Emperor Paul was Sorgius Soltikoff ,, and here , therefore , must end all their pretence to ' traditionary rights . '" 1
The Paper Duties. Th^Tax Upon Paper. The...
THE PAPER DUTIES . Th ^ Tax upon Paper . The Case slated for its immediate Jiej > eaL J-RW gway We agree : in the main with-the objects of tho " Association for obtaining the Repeal of the Paner Duty , " and therefore incur no risk of beino- m « understood in addressing that bod y with a fncndlv warning . The tax upon paper must be removed It is a bad tax , because it fetters the press and hampers the school in aster , restrains the interchange of thought , and gives ' a dangerous premium to popular ignorance . It was in its origin notoriously loss a fiscal regulation than a cunningly devised burden upon intellectual exertion and-Its
, character has not changed to this xlay . "What more need be urged against it ? While the Reformers take their stand upon these great though simple truths they are invincible . But the best cause mar be imperilled by bad arguments ; and this danger appears to us peculiarly io threaten the present movement . There are few arguments in this pamphlet , issued by the Association , which do not violate some established principle , or which are not wholly untenable in sound reasoning . If the friends of'Repeal do not honestly tell them this , they will assuredly hear it from their enemies when the \ varniii «? is too late to he useful .
Throughout the pamphlet the- " poor paper-maker " is represented us bearing' a heavy burden in . the tax , and in the exciseman ' s interference . "It kjsurprising , " says the Association ,- " that in a country which aims at morality , and boasts of its liberty , it is accounted a crime to earn an honest livino- by the exercise of a useful and important manufacture . " If anything , however , has been'settled , it is the principle that taxes , or trade burdens of any kind , do ' not fall on tluvina-nufneturer . bu-t upon / lie ultimate purchaser of his good * . It . is . true that one of the first English paper-maker * was kniglifcd ; but it is not , of course , recommended that all papermakers in these davs . " -liouid receive that honour ,
and it is certain that their industry is not punished as " a crime . " No man is compelled to be a'papermaker , and if any one voluntarily adopts that business , it is , of course , because be is fully compensated both for tax nnd inconvenience . \ Yhat is true of him in this respect is true of tlie distiller , the hop-srower , the : maltster , the stage-coach proprietor . "' Rov is the Custom-house officer much less troublesome than the exciseman . Exactly the
same violation of principle is involved in the committee's assertion that Sir Francis Baring ' s duty , amounting- only to a trilliug fraction per pound , did not warrant an increase in the price of paper , and that the tax is , therefore , paid out of the papermaker ' s pocket . The committee do not appear to have retlected that , on this princi p le , no articlo sold in the wholesale market could ever rise m price , save by a sum capable of division into parts exactly eoiresnondiner with retail quantities ; and
they certainly do not perceive that this is the very fallacy which is employed against themselves wheu it is . contended that the cheap magazine will not be made cheaper when a tax is reunited ot halt-afarthing a copv . The urarumeiit that the paper . maker is oppressed by reason of his having to pay the duty by a certain cluy because " the stationer knows ' tho day as well ns ho does , and compels him to accent his own term ? , " is surely not worth a their opening
comment . The -committee in very sentence declare that "the producers of nn wticc are not always desirous to have it exempted lrom taxation , " nud with singular inconsistency acknpwrlcdffo thai , " paper-makers of eminence decline io be relieved . What , then , would be the position o the commit tec if , after ull this pleading 0 « bolm « of tho oppressed papcr-mukcrs , tlmt trade sliouiu , at the hist moment :, repudiate tho committee * advocacy , and , consistently with their ntliiuttca x » - elinntion , declare themselves rjuitc content wU'i juj tax and tho exciseman ? A false reason w novel a
safe weapon . , ... t ] . n f It is urircd very forcibly by tho Association t « since 1 S 3 S " no less than 13 . 8 mills have « toi > pccJ , and thai , the operation . of the duty has been ij " put labourers out , of work , " and " throw mm on the parish . " Tho first fact , may bo correct , mu that the inferences aro erroneous is cnpft «> ° « , f Jt easiest demonstration . It cannot , bo conlondut iiw * tho quantity of paper manufactured li » B' >»* r any iuoh diminution in that period . On Uiowm trary , it is shown by tables quoted by tho Assoomi lion that it hua enormously increased , i " number of mills , thweforo , 1 ms diminished , it ™» only bo booauso tho inanufaoturo is generally cou
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 4, 1858, page 12, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_04121858/page/12/
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