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AuausT 5, 1854.] THE LEADER. 737
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M. Vil.xem.vin is engaged on the second ...
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After some delay, occasioned by necessar...
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REVIVAL OF THE PRESS IN FRANCE. The most...
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. RECENT PUBLICATIONS ON RUSSIA AND TURK...
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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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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Mb. Alwxaudbh J. Ejxjs , Woll-Known For ...
fortune in the cause of phonetics , has put forth , for consideration , a scheme of a new universal alphabet , called the Latinic Alphabet , the peculiarity of which is that it consists entirely of ordinary Roman letters . The projector says : — " This alphabet is not intended to supersede any other for the orthography of any particular language . It is only meant to be a temporary scientific instrument ( pending the invention of a better and inore convenient one ) for the use of phonologists , etymologists , travellers , writers of pronouncing dictionaries and vocabularies , and all those who have occasion to write the sounds of words without reference to their usual orthography . " The deficiencies of the ordinary Roman , alphabet for the projector ' s purpose are made up "by using some letters inverted , and by calling in the aid of small capitals .
Auaust 5, 1854.] The Leader. 737
AuausT 5 , 1854 . ] THE LEADER . 737
M. Vil.Xem.Vin Is Engaged On The Second ...
M . Vil . xem . vin is engaged on the second volume of his Souvenirs Oonteinporains , to appear at the commencement of the winter season . M . Tuiebs , at present enjoying a medical banishment to the baths of the Pyrenees , for an affection of the throat , is devoting the leisure hours of his interesting exile to a work on Italy and on Art in the Sixteenth Century . The ex-Minister is said to be growing stout on Iris forced relaxation from the fatigues " of the tribune . "
After Some Delay, Occasioned By Necessar...
After some delay , occasioned by necessary preliminaries , the founders of the Guix » op Literature ajtd Art anaounce that the institution is ready to begin operations . There are to be two classes of members—Professional members , consisting of persons following Literature or Art as a profession , ( journalists , we understand , included ) , and honorary members elected by the Council . Professional members , pronounced eligible by the Council , are admitted to the advantages of the institution , on payment of an entrance fee of two guineas . The objects of the Guild are three : —Life imd annuity assurance ; provision for professional members dui'ing sickness ; and the foundation arid endowment of an institution to be called " The
Guild Institution . " ( I . ) Life and Annuity Assurance . The Guild does not itself assure , but undertakes to obtain for its members from the National Provident Institution assurances on lives , assurances securing deferred annuities , and assurances for endowment at all ages , at certain rates , specified in a published table . According to this table , a man of 30 years of age may secure an annuity to himself ' of 10 / . a year , to commence at GO , for the moderate , yet fairly calculated premium , of 11 . 13 s . 7 d .: or of 100 / , a year for little more than 16 / . oT annual premium . The annual premium at the sauic age for securing WOOL at death , will be about 25 / . ( 2 . ) Provision in Sickness . —For this there is to be a separate fund , to which members are to subscribe . ( 3 . ) The Guild Institution . —This is a prospective object , to be thus provided for : —Every six months the
Guild ' s funds—derivable from invested capital , donations , subscriptions , members * fees , bequests , per centages on life policies , to be allowed to the Guild by the National Provident Society , & c . —are to , be divided into two parts . One of these parts is to be employed as a fund out of which to advance temporary loans to members to assist them in paying their premiums , & c . ; the other is to go on accumulating till enough has been obtained to found a limited number of annuities , and erect a limited number of free residences for annuitants , on land to be presented to the G-uild by Sir Buiavek Lytton . Sir Bui / svur Lytton is President of the Guild , Mr . Cuarlks Dickens is Vice-president ; Mr . Cuaklks 1 v > ight is Treasurer : and Professor Da Morgan is Honorary Consulting Actuary . The Council presents a list of names well known in literature and art .
Revival Of The Press In France. The Most...
REVIVAL OF THE PRESS IN FRANCE . The most completo expression of personal government that the world has ever seen , as a Russian pamphleteer culls the Napoleonic dynasty now flourishing in Franco , is destined , it seems , like other institutions , to submit to the conditions ofits being in the nineteenth century , and in the country of Vor / rAinH . Before the nineteenth century , indeed , we have hoard of despotism tempored by epigrams . ' and , what is more , killed by epigrams . Out of the decomposition of political life and liberty grows the rank corruption of social license ; or , as it has been moro euphemistically expressed , " Liberty driven from the institutions takes refuge in tho manners and morals of the people . " In a city like Paris , where wit literally floods the streets , an irresponsible Government must choose between submersion by sudden overflow , and the slower process of detrition . As to governing in silence , you might as well talk of governing in solitude . After December , ' 51 , tho French press was to all intents and purposes , as an organ of opinion , extinct : what was tho consequence ? A war of allusions , of quotations , of on dita , of rumours , of poisoned arrows anil daggers in tho dark , a thousand
times more fatal than tho freo voieo of an unfettered press , with tlie public conscience for a censorship . From timo to time it waa reported that all tho journals were to bo suppressed with tho oxcopLion of the official Moniteur ; and so lately as tho spring of the present your it - \ viis assorted that the Franch Government had discussed tho feasibility of buying up tho leading journals , and , in fact , suppressing || thom—by indemnity . Wo may believe that , to tho common sense of tho more rational ministers , tlio question of indemnity was found to bo not the only , nor perhaps tho greatest obstacle t 0 Bl "fJ * enterprise . And so wo have found tho Stick ; the Prcssc , and Uio JUIuUa , increasing in BtroiiKtu and in boldness month by month ami day by any . No doubt the necessity of evoking a patriotic ! and national spirit m lavourot tho war has porauudeil Uio Imperial Government to permit moro force ana loryour of oxnrostuon to tho public organs ; tho UusKiau question , which has boon bo dexterouHly employed to strengthen tho position Jind tho policy of tho lMnporor ,. has , m some dogreo also imparted ntsw vigour and oonfldon . ee ! to the press , m . Uo J . cranny , iu tho summary of liiu administration , ndilrossoil to tho iMwporor on resigning office , reckoned it among his titles to approbation , that
he had loosened the restraints upon public opinion , and that the ' warnings' to the journals had steadily decreased during his occupation of the Ministry of the Interior . This , indeed , might indicate not that the ministerial rigours had relaxed , but that few-journals survived to be ' warned , ' and that those few survivors were not worth a ' warning . ' But M . de Persigny went out of his way to inflict a compliment which had almost the point of a sarcasm on the contemporary journalism . He remarked , that never had " public writers written with more real dignity . " This compliment , or sneer , however it was intended , was no niore than the truth . The Siecle , now we believe enjoying the largest circulation in France , has distinguished , itself equally for its vigorous
summaries of news , and for its general articles on moral , social , and religious-, as well as political questions ; in which , with a delicacy and discretion doubly necessitated by the rocks and shallows of a jealous legislation , it has done good service to the great cause of human rights and to freedom of conscience . La Presse , too , under the emphatic direction of Emile de Girardin , has contended manfully for great principles ; and even in these days has reached a circulation of 35 , 000 daily . T lie Journal des Debat e , always cautious and conservative to excess in its political direction—always a model of the highest journalism in refined dignity and moderation of style , has from time to time , in its literary columns , struck deep and deadly blows , with -wit bright and keen as Damascus steel , into the heart of ultramontane sacerdotalism and mediaeval arrogance .
Altogether the independent journals of France have done wonders to revive public spirit under heavy discouragement . Tlie Charivari , with an inexhaustible quiver of Voltairian arrows , and with a dexterous application of Russian targets , has harassed the flanks of all the representatives of corruption , hypocrisy , intolerance , of all the Tartuffes , despots , and doctrinaires . So uncontrollable is what Mr . Disraeli would call the ' genius of the epoch / or what others might call the impulse of the Revolution : —of what we may be permitted to call simply the force of free inquiry . , ' We have been led into these remarks by a fragment of the Paris correspondence in the Independance Beige , noticing the third number of a new satirical journal in Paris , ominously , and not very agreeably , entitled Satan . The name
looks like a defiance to the priestly party , whom it is supposed the Government itself desires to check . We have heard it said in France , Le JDiable s ' en va : and his re-appearance in this Mephistophelic shape would indicate the fact of his disappearance as an * Article of Paith . ' Satan is edited by names well known in the ' epigrammatic world ; ' such as Henry Murger , Roger de Beauvoir , Charles Monselet , Mery . Two other journals of the same family are announced . La Chauve Sozu-is , an evening flying-sheet ; and La Fronde , a daily satirical journal . " The Government , it appears / ' writes the correspondent of the Independance Belgei " displays the greatest tolerance for these literar y journals , as an indispensable relief just now when politics have some disposition to revive . " For the moral of this news , we refer our readers back to the remarks by -which we have prefaced it-
. Recent Publications On Russia And Turk...
. RECENT PUBLICATIONS ON RUSSIA AND TURKEY . The Histoky of Rvssia . From the earliest I'eriod to the present Time . By Walter K Kelly . In Two Vols . Vol . I . London : Henry G . Bonn . 1854 . Russia asd Turkey . By J . E . M'Cullocb , Esq . Reprinted , with corrections t from the Geographical Dictionary . London : Longmans . 1854 . TuKKiiV Past and Pkissent . By J . B . Morell , London : Routkdge and Co . 1854 . Russia A 2 fi > the Wall By Captain Jesse , ( late Unattached . ) London : Longmans . 1854 . The Serf axu the Cossack . By Francis Marx- London : Triibner and Co . 1854 : The City of-the Surtax . By MUs Pardoe . London : Koutledge and Co . 1854
Still they come ; histories , travels , compilations , romances , pamphlets , statistical , biographical , polemical , descriptive , still they pour hot from tlie press , and thick as shells from the allied fleet on the devoted head of tlie British , reading public , impatient enough just now of any reading but the " Latest Intelligence from the Seat of War . " Some of these recent publications contain , it iiiust be confessed , anything rather than the ' latest intelligence' even of the topics they profess to treat with equal novelty and research . It is scarcely to be wondered at that where there is only one sort of reading public left , and only one subject left to write about , the sudden rush of pens in one direction should cause a little tripping-up of one another . We cannot be so hold as to say that in our present list of books on Turkey and Russia , there is much original matter to be found . One is a
compilation—smother , a reprint—a third , a r 6 chau ( Te—a fourth , a string of extracts , with a claptrap title and a few mottoes , and so on . Perhaps to any one so fortunate and so distinguished as to have read nothing on Russia , Turkey , and the war , any one of these works would be amusing and instructive : to the general public , fatigued , if not sated , with exposures of the Russian system and denunciations of the Czar , the latest publication will appear little better than a new version of the last . The scenery naay be repainted hero and there , tlie dresses and appointments freshened up , but the figures are the same , the properties the same , tho ' business' the same . Such are a few of tho penalties of a dragging and semi-diplomatic war ! Let us not , however , be understood to deprecate ( except in behalf of general literature , and of a languid and exhausted public ) the vigorous skirmishing kept up by tho light division of the litei-ary army . If a disgraceful peace were to be
patched up at Vienna to-morrow , Europe would at least have obtained two results from the Eastern Question : 1 . Tho prestige of Russian ariniot has been destroyed by Turkish valour . 2 . The Russian system has beei : thoroughly unmasked by the Western press . Iu this sense no less than in that of combined armies , there has been that true alliance , invoked by tht excellent Louis Jourdun , of l ? ranco and England which we trust may be perpetual . In our present batch of publications wo have included one which demands a more careful and extended notice : we mention it now simply by way of announcement , as tho first of two volumes , which , when completed , will form , wo believe , the most careful , exhaustive , and complete history ol
Russia yut published in our language . This addition to Mr . Holm ' s rich and well-selected Standard Library has not only tho merit of apropos , it lias tho greater and rarer merit of being executed with singular fidelity , and workmanlike finish and sagacity . It hns all tho air of a work written to Burvivo tho occasion—in short , a standard work . Ah wo propose to return to this History of Russia on itn completion , wo shall only now record out sense of tho patient accuracy , and tho laborious discrimination with which Mr . Walter Kelly has porlimnecl a tusk often , we arc sure , forbidding , always full of dUlioulty . Whoever has attempted to penetrate the desolate recesses of the early Russian annul * , will . bo able to appreciate in some faint degree tho work of selection , of condensation , of order and arrangement
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 5, 1854, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_05081854/page/17/
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