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fro. 4S7, August 7, 1858.] THE LEADER. 7...
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THE QUARTERLY REVIEW. The Quarterly Revi...
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MEDLEVAIi ARCHITECTURE. The Mediaeval Ar...
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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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Memoir And Letters Of The Late Thomas Se...
gentlemanly mail who ever went to Cairo or Jerusalem . It is not deficient in neatly written passages of interest to the general reader , and a thread of genuine piety runs through it ; but for all it concerns the class to wliom it is especially commended in the preface , it certainly need never have been written .
Fro. 4s7, August 7, 1858.] The Leader. 7...
fro . 4 S 7 , August 7 , 1858 . ] THE LEADER . 770
The Quarterly Review. The Quarterly Revi...
THE QUARTERLY REVIEW . The Quarterly Review . K " o . 207 . John Murray . The present number of the Quarterly opens with an able essay , or rather biographical sketch , founded upon the n « w edition of Mr . Hepworth Dixon ' s Robert Blake , Admiral and General at Sea . After having been engaged as a soldier on the Parliamentary side in some of the hardest fi ghting ; in the treat civil war , Blake was appointed , at the age of fty , to a command at . sea ,, according to the fashion of the age , -which did not keep the two services distinct as they are at present . In his nev command lie fought harder than ever , and with even more signal success ; so much so , that under him the naval supremacy of England was established , and the name of General for ever merged in that of
Admiral Blake . The stout old Puritan was one indeed who , if ever man did , deserved well of his country , and . has earned a right , if any have , to her lasting gratitude ; but lie was not quite tie character we expected to find very favourably mentioned in the pages of the Quarterly JReview . We have , however , been agreeably disappointed . The Reviewer has given a very fair account of this true worthy ' s career , and of the party he espoused , although-we must enter a protest against our contemporary ' s sneer at modern Liberalsand Liberalism . We cannot help believing that were he as well acquainted with them as lie is with the Literals of King Charles ' s age , he would do them like juslics . As it is , his relation to the past seems to resemble that of thespirits in the Inferno to the future : —
Noi reggiam , come quei c * ha mala luce , Le cose , disse , che ne son lontano .... Quaadb s ' appressane , o son , tutto & vano Nostro intelletto . But to the Liberals of former days lie has certainly done full justice , and we must not quarrel "Nvith him . for misstatements about the present , wliich the reader will easily correct for himself . The second article contains a smashing criticism of a work that , a few months ago , bid fair to attain an enormous popularity— The History of Civilizatio ? i in England , by- William Buckle . We cannot help agreeing
with the line the Reviewer has taken in exposing the often insufficient data nnon which Mi . Buckle has so ostentatiously established his conclusions . We could wish , however , that he had a little better understood the bearing of tlie philosophical svstem of which Mr . Buckle is in many of his opinions a representative . - The review , as ngainst the individual author , is , on the whole , conclusive and satisfactory , but not as against a class of opinions backed by names as eminent as those of Hume , Bcntham , Comte , and J . S . Mill , not to mention many others of scarcely less distinction .
The Reviewer must be strangely mistaken if he supposes that a few common-place objections and the wit of a few flippnnt pages can furnish a reductio ad ahsurdum of the doctrine of philosophical necessity . "We think that a very slight acquaintance with the subject would have convinced him that the arguments he so cleverly urges have no real force , and that the question of the punishment of murderers and other criminals does not nt all turn on the degree of moral turpitude wliich society attaches to the individual offenders . We ave , however , not prepared to deny him the merit due to a well-written cssny , thougli wo could ¦ vrish that he had shown himself as anxious to do
justice to the merits as to the faults of the work Before him . Whatever men may think about tlic conclusiycness of Mr . Buckle's arguments , the st y le in wliich his book is written is so good , and his power of composition so remarkable , that , the most adverse critic ought to linve mentioned it with commendation . Tho History of Civilization in Eityt / uid , with all its faults , and they ure many , is yet the work of no common man , ami deserves a better soubriquet than the contemptuous one of "the book of errors , " endorsed , though not originally applied , by our friend of the ( htartcrly lleview . The essay entitled "The Life of ' Wycliu ' o" will be found extremely interesting , written , as it is , yti \ h a genuine appreciation of the greatness of that
History , " . rather as an old contributor to the Quarterly than as a divine of any real merit or distinction . His writings , it is on all hands admitted , are deficient in that fairness and breadth of view without which the controversialist becomes a mere partisan , and fails alike to convince the outside world , or to earn or deserve its respect . In spite of the ready belief we lend to statements of the Professor ' s private virtues , we cannot help feeling that his works reflect no great credit upon their author , or upon the judgment of the party by which they are received with any favour .
extraordinary man . The extracts given from WyelifiVs own writings are extremely interesting . They tell us far more about him than could be told by any mere statement of the facts of his life , or analysis of , his character . We quite sympathise with the hope that Mr . Shirley , upon whose publication the review is based , will give the world some further proof of that ability and thorough historical knowledge which his friends have long known him to possess . We presume that Professor Blunt has found a favourable notice of his work upon " The Right Use of the Early Fathers , " and of that on * Early Churcli
The " light weight" of the number is a clever paper upon "Iron Bridges , " in which it is stated that the process- of converting cast into malleable iroa , eomnnonlv- attributed to Henry Cort , was , in point of fact , invented in the year 1762 by Dr . Jolin Roebuck , founder of the old Carron Works , and grandfather of the present member for Sheffield . This paper also gives us interesting and condensed information about the High-Level ' Bridge at Newcastle , the Victoria over the St . Lawrence , and Mr . Brunei's last great effort at Saltash in Devonshire . It also tells . us ' --that the first successful contriver of
an ir 6 n bridge was an Englishman , Mr . Pritchardj of Shrewsbury , and the second , no other than the notorious Tom Paine , stay maker , privateers-man , usher , exciseman , political economist , aud revolutionary infidel , who in his later days was no mean proficient in philosophical and engineering studies . The "" Condition and -Future of India , " a subject of peculiar importance and difficulty , is ably discussed in the last article . It is pleasing to note the very moderate manner in which the relation of the Government to Christianity is treated of . When we hear the pious trust expressed by so many that the work of conversion , although slow , is steady in its progress , or the more confident assertions
that a great door is now about to be opened , the biblical predictions to be at length fulfilled , and the fulness of the heathen world to be gathered in , we revert to the history of the past , and the small amount of hope which it really warrants . We remember ; , too , that the field of prophecy , however sacred , is a very open one , and receive accordingly such holy aspirations not without respect and attention , but with secret incredulity . . The Quarterly Reviewer , thongh he maintains , with logical constancy , that aGovernment professing Christianity at home ought not to appear ashamed of its religion in the East , is yet decidedly opposed to the opening of the great door , and ' thinks , we believe with justice , that any such attempt would result in our summary and utter expulsion from the country .
He gives an admirable view of the land revenue system , from the times of our occupation , to the present , Avhich will be valuable aid to such as even yet arc not well up in the mysteries of Zeinhularec and Ryotwarcc . Here such a reader will learn Low abhorrence of British rule was engendered and has been brought to fatal fruit , by our disregard of the passion for possession of th , e soil , which has deeper roots in Hindostan tUan in any other part of the world . Ho will see how , under the "Perpetual Settlement ; Act" of Cornwallis , the cultivator was sacrificed to the desire for the time being to create a territorial aristocracy ; and how , under Lord Dalhousie , the wanton length to which the doctrine of annexation was carried , the inequitable
administration of the land revenue courts , and the flagitious foreclosure of estates for the trumpery balances of defaulting zemindars , did slowly and surely forge the bolt that descended on us in 1857 . We aro , of course , not bound to coincide with the inference , natural in a Quarterly Reviewer though it be , that Lord ISllenhorough was the saviour of our Indian Empire , because it cannot be disputcd'tlmt under Lord Dulhousie it was brought to the "verge of ruin . Nor arc we disposed to concede that the happiness of the Hindoo and the well administering of India need by any means follow the transference of the government from the London to the White Hall , because misery rmd mischief have obtained
under the former dynasty . From a Quarterly point of view such is , however , the case ; and as the mediatization of the East India Company is a fait accompli , we can only hope that view may prove correct . It is satisfactory , in the midst of the outcry for vengeance , and for the indiscriminating- massacre of the revolters , to find our duties towards the people of India , as distinct from the Sepoy , wisely and firmly insisted upon . The Quarterly expresses the wishes and feelings of a large and influential party , and takes a judicious stand on the side of justice
against revenge—of a government administered , if at all , for the benefit of the subject races , not in the exclusive interest of the conquerors . "We have scarcely any direct interest in India , " says the Reviewer , most truly , except the well-being ofitsyaried population . If we cannot effect this end , it is a question of the most momentous consideration how far we are justified , either by prudence or bj right , in remaining thereat all . " The moral dutiesof England and her real interests can never beopposed ; and in-the present case we feel sure that it would prove a most short-sighted , policy to deviate from the rule of even-handed justice tor any supposed expediency .
Medlevaii Architecture. The Mediaeval Ar...
MEDLEVAIi ARCHITECTURE . The Mediaeval Architect-life of Chester . J . EL and J . Parker-The archseological knowledge which now generally pervades the better educated : classes of this countryis acting beneficially , by inducing many " wise and prudent men" to publish manuals of local information which must eventually prove of the greatest service to the general history ot this country . What is local is often national . Moreover , it has created an enlightened spirit of conservatism to protect from the destroyinghand of ruthless ignorance or callous
indifference such records and monuments of past history as are , by their inherent qualitiesj liable to decay from the corroding effect of time alone ; this is a growth that cannot be too strongly nurtured or too tenderly looked ,. after . " Antiquities , " says Lord Bacon , may h % considered the . planks of a wreck which wise and prudent men gather and preserve from the deluge of time . " What Messrs . L . W . Dillwyn and G . G . Francis , together with the ! Reys . J . M . Treherne andBL Longueville Jones have done for various portions of Wales , has been no less admirably carried out by Mr . J . H . Parker and the Rev . Francis Gros * venor with regard to that most ancient and interesting border city , Chester- ^ ancient , because
portions of the walls are RomaB , and other remains of tliat period ^ have and are being found from time to time ; most interesting , from its occupying a conspicuous place in the long struggle for the subjugation of Wales throughout the twelfth and thirteenth centuries ; and furthermore , the circumstance of its having two cathedrals is unique in . England and almost so in Europe . Ihe present series of papers are reprinted from the Gentleman's Magazine , and owe their origin to the meeting of the Archaeological Institute at Chester , in July , 1856 .
The peculiar advantages attendant upon this class of publication are , that the author can , with benefit to the general reader , compress into a small space a large quantity of general history , because lie is of necessity circumscribed to a specific point . Mr . Grosvenor Fias proved this : learned , without being pedantic ; brief , without being brusque ; terse ,, though not turgid ; broad , without ramification ; full , without being discursive—thus , in thirteen and a , half pages , he has given a succinct and clear history of the habits of the people and their ecclesiastical buildings from the sixth to the sixteenth century ; and as the information is great and the labour of acquirement not , we earnestly recommend it to the
careful perusal and attentive consideration of our readers . Mr . Parker is no less deserving of commendation , for he is imbued with . the best qualifications for the elucidation of the recondite principles that constitute the architectural distinctions during the first-named and the last-quoted century , adding thereto a considerable literary ability ; his demonstrations arc rendered the more clear by bring-ing ta bear a force that his learned and revcrond collaborutcur could not avail himself of , viz . pictorial representation ; nnd as justice is best when tempered with mercy , so is history more luminous when illustrated with pictorial art . , Altogether this book lias our sinccrcst wishes units success , not solely on . account of any benefit that
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 7, 1858, page 19, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_07081858/page/19/
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