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136 THE LEADER. [No. 307, Saturday,
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jpil wftltitt-A. ^LlltlUmiw
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critics are not tlae legislators, but th...
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It is one of the sudden pleasures of sci...
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Some time ago we rectified the universal...
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JMflruth* ;#• * SANDWITH'9 SIEGE OP KAB8...
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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
136 The Leader. [No. 307, Saturday,
136 THE LEADER . [ No . 307 , Saturday ,
Jpil Wftltitt-A. ^Llltlumiw
£ iterated
Critics Are Not Tlae Legislators, But Th...
critics are not tlae legislators , but the judges and police of literature . They do not make lawa-tiiey interpret and try to enforce them . —Edinburgh Review .
It Is One Of The Sudden Pleasures Of Sci...
It is one of the sudden pleasures of science to confirm empirical practice , to prove that the " old woman ' s remedy , " or the " custom of the country , " although founded on no axiomatic basis , and pretending to no better argument than tradition , may nevertheless have been blind wisdom . From time immemorial it has been a precept with careful shepherds not to let the sheep turn out upon the dewy grass , or graze in damp and marshy regions . Why was the dew of morning , so dear to poets , considered dangerous to sheep ? No one could tell ; least of all the Bucolic guardian ; but if lie could not tell you why 5 t was so , he averred that it was so . And now Science comes with a very simple explanation to justify the empirical precept . Siebold , the great comparative anatomist , has given the rationale in his curious treatise on Entozoa , which the Annales des Sciences Naturelles has begun to publish in extenso , for those who have not got Siebold's book , Ueber die Band " und Blasenwurmer , or who do not read German , the Annales des Sciences Nafurelles is doing a service by its translation . The particular point in Siebold ' s book to which we are now referring maybe thus briefly stated : Entozoa , many of them at least , pass the early portion of their predatory existences in the bodies of one species of animal , and tlieir maturity in another . The eggs are deposited in these later domiciles , but not developed there : they have to be expelled ; and the dear little innocents , either as eggs or ^ embryos , are east upon the wide world to shift for themselves . But how ? There they lie on the smoking dung-heap 5 and far away roam the sheep in \ vh , oselvings and liver they alone can develope tkemselvesj and find food ; what chance have they ? This chance . The rain washes them into the earth ; Gt the farmer flings them in manure upon the soil . The tumidity serves to develope them ; they fix themselves against the moist grass ; the sheep nibble the grass , and with it carry these tiny entozoa into their stomachs : once there the business is soon accomplished I Thus it is that the dewy grass is dangerous . Thus it is that damp seasons are so prejudicial to sheep , multiplying the diseases of lungs and liver to which these animals are subject ; whereas in the dry hot seasons such diseases are rare because the entozoa have been desiccated .
Some Time Ago We Rectified The Universal...
Some time ago we rectified the universal error , of French and other writers ., in quoting , or misquoting , the celebrated aphorism of Buffon , on style . By a simple reference to the passage in which the famous phrase occurs ( a passage obviously known to few . of those who quote ) , it appeared that Buffon did not say : Le style e'est I'homme , but said , what is very different , Le style est de Vhomme mime . As the misquotation is universal we cannot ^ greatly blame M . A . Roche for not avoiding it , although in a work expressly devoted to style ; a work which , intended for the "instruction of students of both sexes in the practice of French composition , is one well worth the attention of all literary students . It is a small volume , entitled , JDuStyle et de la Composition Littiraire , published by Longmans . It has the somewhat rare merit of being a work on style written by one whose own style is excellent . Teachers of elocution have generally a brogue or a stutter ; teachers of style ought generally to be pupils : they affect to instruct the public , and do so in language whiclx . lamentably betrays their own pressing need of instruction . M ,. RoeHl 3 is not only an experienced teacher , he is an accomplished , vmterr He knows what good writing is , and in criticising -3 i ^ e \ eTnplqys it . We will give one slight specimen : " M . Victor Hugo se pique egalement d ' etre concis , et il sait encore moins etre precis : il cst avate de mots et prodigue de details surabondaats ; il ecourte l ' expression et il d € laie la pense ' e . Son style est plus serrg que celuide M . de hamartine s mahil est tout aussi diffus , M . de Lamartine a la phrase diffuse ; la dift fusion de M . Victor Hugo consiste a accumuler des phrases concises , qui sonsouvent inutilcs . " M . Roche , or any one else curious in style , should look in the writings of Cha . ri . es I > ickens for unrivalled prodigality of whimsical images and minute observation . In the last number of Little Dorrit how the spirit of fun is seen careering amid the minutest details of observation in the descriptions of the mendicant commissioners !—how well observed is the walk of these people , « a peculiar way of doggedly slinking round the corner aa if they were eternally going to the pawnbrokers ; " —what a glimpse we have of the staircase window which looked in at the back windows of other houses as-uiwholespme as itself , " with poles and lines thrust out of them on which unsightly linen hung : as if the inhabitants were angling for clothes and hM fiome wretched bites > ot , worth attending to ; " -what a lodging-house door-post is that which " seemed as full of boll-handles as a cathedral organ * $ ? ft # y * 3 " whftt a Ascription of Mew-street , and of the younger Barnacle jway ^ ettmg his eye-glass fal l out , and iterating his imbecile , " Why , look Here , The number ia bright with genius .
Jmflruth* ;#• * Sandwith'9 Siege Op Kab8...
JMflruth * ; # * SANDWITH' 9 SIEGE OP KAB 8 . SSSi to & » , T- ¦ 5 F ar * md af , tho 8 { x MontM *&¦ ' ««««« V the T * rhi * h & Ba £ Kft £ 3 x : n » s sssB
^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Whftl travels , the other is a diary written during the siege , or rather extracts fro m a diary . So that the narrative of travel , although not written for that purpose , forms a prelude to the story of the siege . We -wish we could say that the book had not disappointed us . It is well written and interesting ; but we feel that all has not been told , and have a suspicion that the writer might have told us what we want to know ; that he would have done less injustice to himself and his subject had he taken more time to work up that subject in fact , to re-write his notes . But the reader must understand that we are not disappointed with what is presented to us , taken absolutely j we only feel that the author , having produced so good a book , when he was about it might have produced one much better .
Dr . Sandwith is not one of those birds of passage who have recently flown over the Eastern regions and have brought back volumes of travels . His connexion with the East is not of a recent date . He was in the East in 1847 again in 1849 , and from the latter year until Kars was taken , he did not quit the East . Part of his time was spent at Constantinople ; part on the Danube . In the autumn of 1854 he was appointed to the staff of General Williams and with General Williams he remained until the autumn of 1855 . His long residence in Turkey , and his visits to the seat of wars in Europe and Asia , qualify him to speak on these matters . We are promised a full explanation of the circumstances attending the fall
of Karsa and some papers relating to the sombre business are to be produced in Parliament . Let us hope , that if the matter be dealt with at all it will be dealt with fully , that the whole question will be examined , and not a part . The reader who takes up this volume will not find the whole question gone into . But he will find a pretty strong light thrown upon one important element—the influence of the governing classes , or rather persons , of Turkey , in determining the catastrophe . Undoubtedly the answer which I > r . Sandwith ' s volume gives to the question . What caused the loss of Kars ? is—the corruption of the Turkish rulers in the first place , the conduct of Omar Pacha in the second . The latter admits of a question , hut the former is beyond all doubt .
In the very earliest pages of the volume Dr . Sandwith , in simply desert bing the passengers on board the steamer conveying him to Trebizond , strikes the keynote of the whole . One of them is a Pacha going to his government , and our author spies him enjoying his kef or dolce far niente , " the great occupation of his life since he has been a Pacha ! " Here he is finely painted : — About seven of his attendants stand before him ynth their hands folded . They preserve a grave and serious air , gazing anxiously into that placid face , and they have been standing there for the last two hours . The Pacha varies the monotony of the voyage by smoking , eating raw cucumbers , and firigeiing his beads . A Turk > even a Pacha , is never absolutely unoccupied ; some such , employments as the above are always had recourse to , for I believe he never thinks . His numerous servants watch , every movement of his eye . What can it mean : and whence
the origin of this strange adoration of their master ? We have nothing like it in the "West ; but from time immemorial it seems to have obtained in Eastern manners . It must have been deeply'irnprinted into the mind of the nation , when each Pacha had the power of life and death . ; and when at a nod fche head of an offending servant was rolled into the dust . The Pacha makes a languid remark ; a servant answers , touching his forehead in token of profound respect . The Pacha pushes a stool with , bis foot , and his attendants spring forward to remove it . The Pacha feels fox his snufEbox ; a quick-fingered slave has found it for him ero his fingers closed on it . At last the Pacha is tired of sitting on deck , ao > he makes a move , heaving a sigh at the exertion . Two of his men rush forward to support him on each aide ; two or three go before , pushing tlie profanum vulgus out of the -way , and two or three follow , bearing his pipe , pocket-handkerchief , snuft'box , & c . He is conducted to the cabin , and , a soft cushiony seat being prepared , ho settles himself down again , and his attendants take their places as before .
The reader must be reminded that the thing sketched here is not a type of the Osmanli race , he is the type of the modern Byzantine—the adulterated product of debasement and crime . He is not the true representative of the Turk , and his falseness shows the more conspicuous b eside the " short , brawny figures , with honest and intelligent features" of tbe Anatolian peasants , or the fine graceful stalwart forms of the Circassians . " And yet to things like that above described , was entrusted the defence of the Turkish frontier in Armenia . Having taken a personal illustration , let us take one of another kind . The Turk has always treated road-makjng and road-mending with perfect contempt , The only road in Turkey kept in tolerable repair is that on which the Sultan takes his evening drive . Now , when Russia made a road from Souchum Kale to Erivan , in , order to turn the course of commerce into her own territory , the Turk grew jealous and determined to make a road . In this case the Pacha chosen was the model of a " reformed , liberal-minded , civilised Turk , " with a Parisian education . Well , he was to make a road from Trebizond to Erzeroum , and be arrived at the former city with plenty of men and money : —
X was at that time a sanguine and confident believer in the roform of Turkey and I still have great hopes , but they aro somewhat modified . This road wan quoted as an instance of progress , but a few months passed away and the workmen wsted from their labours . They had accomplished two miles of road which had been ( figuratively speaking ) paved with gold . Were tho workmou overpaid , ox the engineers ? What became of the vast sums expended ? No one chose to answer these inconvenient questions : tho Pacha waa removed to fill a high post under Government , and a road of two miles , already in bad repair , remains as a monument of Turkey ' s indifference and apathy to her own Ibest interoata . Who daro say that the failure of this undertaking was not one of the cuuscs of the fall of Kara ? 6
As it is with her roads * , so it is with her vast mineral resources . The wines , with the exception , of those at Heraclea in English hands , aro worked on the most pnmitWe principles . The farmer of a mine fears to lay out money lest the Government should think he is getting too rich . By a abort-sig hted and dishonest policy , the Government is liable to break contracts in favour v , 5 i * bldder » in ah ° rt » everything is done that discourages production . Xet lurlcey -possesses some of the finest coal , iron , and copper mines in the world ; minea that , under » reasonable system of administration , would be the fruitful source of public wealth . Take an instance of a different kind . W hen AJr . bandwith arrived at a village near Baiburt , he found that Captain Uelliot had been murdered a few hours before . He carried the news to
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 9, 1856, page 16, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_09021856/page/16/
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