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ment in f 1789 to 1848as a text. We cann...
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There is, we believe, not a soul in this...
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We said a fortnight since that M. BEBitT...
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J TJhe last number of the JRevue des Deu...
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The Prospective Beview contains nothing ...
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In these times of war the world of liter...
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THE CHINESE EMPIRE. The Chinese Empire; ...
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.
Ment In F 1789 To 1848as A Text. We Cann...
THE LEADER . [ Saturday , "I ^ ifi ' ' ¦ —i ~~~^—^^^—^—^—^ : . — ——— - ^— - —i ^—— ^ ^ M ¦
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There Is, We Believe, Not A Soul In This...
There is , we believe , not a soul in this country that mil not be pierced with regrei at hearing that the condition of Habbiet Mabtineau is such as to leave no hope that her life can last much longer . The unmediate cause of danger is an enlargement of the heart , and the end xnay c at any moment . There is m > indelicacy in mentioning the fact thus plainly ? because no one is more conscious of it than Miss Maktineau herself ; and of the number that will be concerned there is not one that will learn xt with so much equanimity . She has we understand , busied herself
un-, ostentatiously about several final arrangements ; has exhibited the most thoughtful consideration fo r even the slight inconveniences that others might suffer ; and awaits the event with calmness . The number who regard her with personal attachment is the larger , since her writing has appealed to every class in the country . As the historian of England during the lifetime of most of us , she has addressed all England ; as a polit ical writer she has had influence with influential classes ; and children love her as a second Mabia Edgewobth , with a genius of a larger and
more generous kind . She has taught her readers the beautiful science of bearing infirmity and suffering without losing dignity or regard for the peace of others ; and the necessary result is , that the solicitude on her account partakes , throughout numerous classes , the feeling of personal affection .
We Said A Fortnight Since That M. Bebitt...
We said a fortnight since that M . BEBitTER was to be presented to the Academy of France' on the 25 th of January . This long-expected event had been announced , and the address of the ex-parliamentary chief of the Legitimists was anticipated with lively interest by all who watch those irregular manifestations of public opinion in France , since public opinion has taken refuge in the Academy . The address to be delivered by the new Academician is submitted in due course to the Academy sitting in weekly committee , and particularly to the-Prestdent , whose duty it is to reply . _ . It is just possible that M . Bebryeb ' s address may have contained allusions under
which the prudence ' of the Academy , if not its patriotism , considered , existing circumstances , dangerous : it is possible that M . Guizot , the President , who ; on a recent occasion , declared before the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences , that the propensity to silence exceeded even the necessity , and that the servility surpassed the tyranny , may , in his reply , have transgressed the limits of the liberty accorded even to Academicians , and that between the double impossibility of speech and silence , the Academy may once more have resolved to defer the reception of M . Bekkteb to "better times . " We know not : at all events , the reception has not taken place , and the eager expectations of many are suspended .
J Tjhe Last Number Of The Jrevue Des Deu...
J TJhe last number of the JRevue des Deux Mondes ( February 1 ) is various as usual , but norremarkable . We mayparticularise , how esting and original paper by the Princess Bejlgiojoso , ** La Vie Intime , et La Vie Nomade en Orient , " introducing us to new and intimate aspects of that Oriental life which popular ignorance , imagines it knows all about , af ter skimming a dozen or two flippant impressions ( with alliterative titles ) of our superficial and uncritical " doers" of the East . Let us remark that these fatigued adventurers , who carry Pall Mall about with the soles of their boots , have left at least one half of Eastern life a blank to the inquiring reader , and the other half a mystification . We cannot expect every tourist who does" Syria and Egypt to Orientalise himself or herself so completely as Lady Hestjsb Stanhope ; or as that Lady E , whose Asian mystery M . Edmond About so pungently relates ; or as the fearless and romantic Princess Belgiojoso : but we should be glad to meet a little less smartness , a
little more originality in our countless Eastern " doers , " comic , sentimental , picturesque , cynical , biblical , and the rest . Perhaps we should be still be t ter pleased if two-thirds of tho " doers" in question would spare the public their impressions altogether , and leave tho East a mystery , as thoy pretend to have found it . There are two classes of writing on the East equally intolerable—the obligato omotion , and the nil admirari impudence . To all who are surfeited with travels in tho East , these chapters of the Princess Bklgiojoso will be refreshing . The Princess had opportunities of observing in detail the domestic side of Eastern life , the passion and the ennui of woman ' s existence in tho sanctuary of the harem , hermetically sealed to the profane eyes of men . After a residence in Anatolia , sho pursued her adventures into the- Taurus range , beyond the footsteps of tho herd of European tourists . The result is a series of episodical fragmonts , lifu-liko , romantic , finely observed , freshly and charmingly written .
, Tolla Feraldiy a chapter of Italian life , by M . Edmond About , is not only delightful as a sketch of Southern society , it deserves a word of recognition for the warmth of colour , and tho easy , { lowing grace of style . Another , paper in this number of tho Revue wo may mention , rather for itfl subject and its signature than any intrinsic merits of thought or stylo , is an article by M . Albert db Buoglib : The State of Public Opinion on the Revolution of 17 B 9 , taking M . db Caknk ' s Studies on Representative
Government in France , from 1789 to 1848 , as a text . We cannot charge M . db Bbogme with any very formidable profundity or vigour in his political disquisitions . We note a certain paleness and fatigue in his manner , and in his matter ; but the paleness is not the paleness of thought , the fatigue is not the fatigue of a fine despair ; we seem to detect the premature sterility of that liberalism which is inconclusive and insincere , because it is without faith and without conviction . Nevertheless M . db Bbogue , whose name at least is significant , ventures to express a hope that France is destined t o possess some day political institutions worthy of confidence and capable of duration . To this broad hope we believe all sects and classes of educated men in France are ready to subscribe . ^ *^^ " ^ " ^^ _• . - ; . - ~ . r . -.. _ t-a-r * -. "W " *> cannot charere M . tob
The Prospective Beview Contains Nothing ...
The Prospective Beview contains nothing very noticeable this month : the papers are rather meagre in quality , but genial in tone . The article on the " Religious Bearings of Physical Science in Education" protests eloquently against mechanical and materialising theories of the Universe . The Rambler , at tlie other pole of religious opinion , has a sensible paper on Catholic Politics and Catholic M . P . ' s , a propos of the visit of Mr . Ltjcas
to Rome , and recommends abstinence from political intrigues . " How did Scotland become Presbyterian ? " is written with a moderation which we generally find in these dexterous arrangements of . history . The " Blind leading the Blind , " is rather a coarse and ineffective onslaught on the Lectures of the Educational Institution , at St . Martin ' Hall , excepting always , need we say ? the two lectures on the Home Education of the Poor , in which " His Eminence" characteristically suggested a careful weeding of our cheap literature , while he protested against the imputation that he was proposing a censorship . .
In These Times Of War The World Of Liter...
In these times of war the world of literature has a hard time of it . It is , therefore , more than ever our duty to call attention to the enterprise of publishers . Nothing daunted , Mr . Bentjley announces a new series of standard and popular modern literature , in monthly volumes , at six shillings . The two volumes we have already received of " The Court of England under the Stuarts fulfil the promise of the prospectus . The form is portable , the typography is clear and agreeable to the eye , the paper is superior , the binding elegant : the price such as to make the series accessible to a very large class of readers . A great deal of trash is published in a cheap form , with little advantage to the reading public ^ and with dubious results to the book trade : but every attempt to democratise ^ sound , liealthful , and invigorating literature , demands the encouragement and commendation of the Leader .
The Chinese Empire. The Chinese Empire; ...
THE CHINESE EMPIRE . The Chinese Empire ; forming a Sequel to the Work entitled' " Recollections of a Journey through Tartary and Thibet . " By M . Hue . Longmans . It seems that we reading English are to continue to receive our most important knowledge about the people of China from foreign ecclesiastics . We do , indeed , boast of having blown their houses about our ears , and we continue to corrupt them by sending over opium in slashing , clippers—" o ^ ut as regards understanding-them or-theirvery curiousjciyilisatiojo , why , jwhatcyer _ we do in that way , we owe to the courage and the intellect of men pitied by Cheapside , and detested by Ebenezer Chapel . Let us frankly acknowledge that to whatever " mummeries" M . Hue may be privately addicted , he has here produced a work so admirably valuable and interesting , that we declare
we do not expect to meet its peer during the present year 1855 . He is the worthy successor of those marvellous Jesuit missionaries who laid the foundation of all accurate knowledge about the romantic Cathay in Europe —long-enduring , high-aspiring men , who ' carried the Cross intothe heart of a population equal to a third of the human race—who established a new religion among the most conservative of all nations , and obtained honour from the most conceited of all potentates—who astonished Chinese literati by their acquaintance with Chinese literature , and corrected the calendar for the astronomers of a people which had learned astronomy almost before our ancestors had learned to cook their food—and who , finally , were always read y to lay down their lives rather than that the humblest Chinese peasant should be ignorant of the teaching of Jesus Christ . M . Hue ' s courage and
sagacity entitle him to rank with these great and brave men ; and his experience of China , in consequence , has beon such , that this book of his is the highest authority on the subject of that great empire now to bo found in Europe . Take it all in all , too , the Empire of China is perhaps the most interesting to a European of all the empires of tho East . As for its extent , population , and outward features—one paragraph may convey a notion of them very satisfactorily—its area is eight times the surface of Franco ; its population 301 , 000 , 000 ; it is everywhere intersected by noble canals , and dotted by towns of immense magnitude ; and every where it is alive with the activity of a careful agriculture , and a trade conducted with passionate energy . But
nothing about it appeals more strongly to the imagination than its antiquity-Fancy that at this inomont the only real hereditary nobility of the country is vested in the persons of the descendants of Confucius , who . have enjoyed this honour since n . c . GOO ! Gibbon , before giving an account of hisown family , observes , complacently , that that of Confucius is tho most illustrious in tho world . Indued , thu Bourbons and such families in Europe arc mere parvenus in comparison—mushrooms in fact—if placed alongside a body of gentlemen wliO 30 family was of respectable antiquity whon Socrates was a little boy . But waving this point or view—tho Chinese have " State Papers" preserved in ^ hc Cfiou-k ing ( or Book of * History ) of Confucius , which soberly record tho doings and sayings of emperors who flourished eight centuries before Christ . And Confucius still helps to govern them ;
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 10, 1855, page 16, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_10021855/page/16/
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