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March TO, I860.] The Leader and Saturday...
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THE BUILDERS OF THE MIDDLE AGES.* rpHEOL...
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* Tho Fabric Jtolla (\f Torh Mimtwi with...
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POLITICAL AND OTriUU. NOVELS.* AS may bo...
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• ' Tho Man if tho l»wjift<. "' liy ~ \\...
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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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A French- "Chowler.* Had This Pamphlet O...
sions of the iriiury which an incautious treaty might do to the interests of trade and agriculture , saw the advantage there would be in a superior Council of Commerce , composed of intelligent , and influential negocians , and wei e only diverted from proposing it by the arguments of those who showed that the various ministers constituted a body who would be able to furnish all the necessary information and advice to the Chief of the State . All this was conveyed to the Emperor in the Report of ] YL Troplong , the President of the Senate ; and what M . Girardin complains of is , that the actual execution of this decree of 1852 is not in harmony with the meaning- and intentions of those who composed and voted it . Now , if ] STapoleon III . were a constitutional sovereign , and professed to govern on constitutional principles , this would be at once a valid and a serious accusation ; but as it is , since the French people has consented to endow him with supreme and unlimited
power , it seems to us childish and futile to dwell upon the infringement of a decree which , at the time of its being passed , could not be supposed to possess much force ; and which the course of events since then has uniformly tended to deprive of all authority whatever . It is preposterous to charge an absolute monarch with a breach of the constitution , and judg-e a despotism by republican principles . But , as Mr- Mill has acutely observed , the : French publicists do not reason logically , on the same set of principles ; they set out with one set , and' finish with another diametrically opposite . The constitution of 1852 determined that absolutism was the most desirable form , of government ; and this being- the case ,, M . Girardin is inconsistent with that determination in bringing' a charge against the Treaty , on . the ground of its having been made in an absolutist fashion . Despotism is the vocation , of ^ Napoleon III ., and " ' tis np sin for a man to labour in his vocation . "
March To, I860.] The Leader And Saturday...
March TO , I 860 . ] The Leader and Saturday Analyst . 235
The Builders Of The Middle Ages.* Rpheol...
THE BUILDERS OF THE MIDDLE AGES . * rpHEOLOGIGAL strife lias well nigh deprived us of the power of JL using our senses when we approach those subjects which have even a remote bearing on the religious habits of the Middle Ages . The ceaseless " jangling of the ministers ,- ' which lias now been going on for upwards of three centuries , and as yet shows no sign of abatement , has so stunned us , that we are unable , for the most part , to reason on any of that class of objects which mark the birthtime and infancy of modern ' Europe' without leaving our wits behind us . Men who are able politicians and ripe scholars , who can iise their eyes and their heads on all things that concern the 'nineteenth- century , and on many : that are very far remote therefrom , fall victims to the most palpable errors as soon as they enter the charmed period that lies between the fall of the last of the Caesars and the revolt of Teutonic Europe from the rule of his more than imperial successor .
This is perhaps not to be wondered at when we call to mind that nearly every historical work that has been produced since the chroniclers left off writing has had a distinctly religious bias , has been , in fact , a party pamphlet on a large scale . Protestants , Romanists , and sceptics , all saw that the part played by the Church in Europe , when the kingdoms were gradually cooling down from a state of fusion , and shaping themselves , each in its own manner , out of the seething mass that had been the Roman world , was no common phenomenon in the history of our race . Tliey perceived the immense advantages that were to be gained for party purposes , could it be proved that through that long period her power over men ' s minds had been wielded as they , by a foregone conclusionfelt sure that it must have been , and so their ablest
, heads and hearts set to work at the thankless tusk of making a past time seem to reflect the passions of the present . Each party forged its own arms from the materials best adapted to its purpose ; each gave boundless praise to those , men of the middle ages , in whom they thought they saw champions or victims hi a cause like to that for which they were now fighting . The Konianists lauded 13 eckqt for his most questionable nets , and reviled our Plahtagenet princes in terms which ore only equalled by the Protestant vituperation of that great churchman , and the praises showered upon his royal enemy . We are well enough acquainted with these opposing views , for the Protestant one pervades all our popular literature
from Foxo ' s Martyrology to Di'Uvorth ' s Spe . lKng ] $ ook , and the Papist ' s cage hna been dinned into bur ears by the unceasing clangour kept up by his brethren within the English Church , whoso powers in the way of caricaturing history have surely never been surpassed save by the author of Knickerbocker ' s " History of New York . " What wo require i » not views on mediieval history , but a lucid statement of faofcs from \ yhioh we may each of us draw our own conolaaions , and this is just what so fo \ V writers are capable of giving 1 us . Wo have essays on and philosophies of history in abundance , but the books are sadly too few which bring before us the life and manners of the past without tint or shadow from the feelings and controversies of the day .
While students have been disputing * about the theological sig-nificanco'tof almost every not in tho groait drama of the Dark Agos , they have boon carolosa in garnering all thoao facts which did not seem to boor on the questions in debate . Tims , much that is rolativoly of little value has boon preserved , while , during these latter centuries , thoro has perished a mass of knowledge concerning 1 tho Inner life of tho past , which , if it had comq dovyn to our time , would have , gone far towards fixing tho . data out of which the future science of hintory will have to bo built , for . it ia evident that history can never tako its
place beside the other branches of human knovvledge until its whole basis has been widened and its sphere enlarged— -till our historians at least endeavour to grasp all the ¦ phenomena , physical and mental , that have , durmy the times they treat of , appreciably affectedthe human family . ' To do this-perfectly , is as impossible as it is to know all the results of the . laws of astronomy perfectly ; but it is as necessai-y to have the ideal of : true excellence befoi'e us in the one branch as in the other . The value of such minute' information has only been discovered of
late , and there are yet many to whom such an opinion seems foolish enough . TIkv guardian ' s of most of our local archives yet as carefully ward off the students from their precincts as the dratron g-nardians , of the Princess Rosebud (\' tin ; knights in the fairy tale . Those who have the custody of the ecclesiastical reeords of the archiepiscopal see of York arc , however , a noble exception . The work before us could never have been executed if its editor had not had unrestrained use of the documents of which it is an imprint . Considering the prejudices that arc afloat , too great praise cannot be given for this wise liberality . ture has
The recent revival of the pointed styles of architec givmi an interest tor-these papers greater than they would otherwise have possessed ; for they show , as in a journal , how stone after stone of that glorious fabric was piled . We learn where the quarries were , who gave the Chapter the timber , mid who sold them the lead , whence they procured the glass for thesir windows , and the silver and gold for their altar services . All this , and much -more of surpassing value to the antiquary , is to be found in those quaint old Latin account rolls | but if there" -had not been other information , of wider range , if not of deeper interest , we should hardly have noticed them here . As it seems tons , the special value of these documents consists hi ' , the light they throw not on architecture as an art , but on those principles ami actions from which architecture and all other notable works among-men'take their rise .
From various circumstances , amon ^ which leas t potent was the independent spirit of the'Northern nobility , the archbishops and higher dignitaries of York were usually appointed from among the most . 'eminent of . the clergy . Unlike the ' minor bishoprics , York was never disgraced by a king ' s bastard or a court favourite bein £ promoted to its mitre . The result . was that while it too often happened elsewhere that tire bishops were the chief spoilers of their own cathedrals , at York we find them among its noblest benefactors . To Thovesby , Neville , Arundel , and the murdered Scrope much is'due-. ; for by their princely munificence was raised one of the most exalted types of beauty that the world has
seen __ a structure of which . the very memnry will be a worthy inheri t ' ance when the stoncrand the timber shall have passed away for ever . But let us never forget that we owe our churches and our abbeys to the free spirit of the people , not to the will of one man , however noble . Krom the people arose the great architects who planned them no less than the workmen who' built and the populace who worshipped ami rejoiced themselves within their walla . Of Thomas Haxey , " sometime treasurer of York , " an ecclesiastic , an architect , and a member of Parliament , some remembrance should be had , for he was one of those brave free souls who loved beauty wit . h a woinanlv fondness , and yet dared to speak his niind before
kinds ' , ' , even when that freedom was . punishable with death-. In the Parliament of 1397 he had a seat as representative of tlie clergy , and in that assembly he lifted up his . voice * as we are given to understand , in no measured terms against the luxury and extravagance of the court . The king caused Has ay to be condemned to death for treason by an ex post facto law . JSut the bishops loved and valued the brave speaker , " et prioront a roy humbleinent q lui plorroit de sa grace avoir pity et mercio del ( lit Thomas , et luy ottroier et donir bii v " " The king dared not diaoboy tho bishops , so Hmtoy was not murdered . When he died he was huriod hi the minster lie loved so welland a chantry n «» d -altar were raised in his memory ' . Both are
, now ' gone , but in tho north aisle of the nave is a monumental stone that marks where his ashes rest . . ,. , . , , The Surteos Society is the oldest of our popular publishing clubs . Established more than a qu . nrtur of a century ago , in honour ot the ineniorv of tho historian of Durham , it has done much towards the elucidation of those parts of our national history that are connected with the north country . Few of , its works arc more valuable , and c'cftainly none more carefully edited , than that which it has devoted to the noblest of our English minsters . " Ut roan flos florum , sic est domus iata domoram . "
* Tho Fabric Jtolla (\F Torh Mimtwi With...
* Tho Fabric Jtolla (\ f Torh Mimtwi with , an Append I if of HUtatratioa DocuntoitCa . Edited by tho Ztor . Jaimks Kaink , for tho Surteca Soclpty .
Political And Otriuu. Novels.* As May Bo...
POLITICAL AND OTriUU . NOVELS . * AS may bo inferred from tho title , Tho Man ({ f t / to 2 coj > lo id a thoroughly political novel ; it is , in fact , founded upon the miserable state of the country in 1815-1 ( 5 , whou tho people had been hampered and oppro . ssoil with numorous imposts , in order to meet tho expenses of tiio groat , Oontiumitul war , winch then agitated the whole of ttuj-opo , nnd in whiuh onr Oovurnmoiit had oooupiod so prominent a position . This , togothor will , the bmioiul'irilluonoo ot tho Corn laws , tlirow tho wliolo working population ot England into tho most oviflont mid ulurrniiitf cjldtiww . n distress winch m tlio mniority of cases amoiintod , to nviLuul wlarvatum j a fact , Jiowovor , to whioh the ininiHt ' oriul Piihinct wns uithor wilfully , or Htrangoly-
• ' Tho Man If Tho L»Wjift<. "' Liy ~ \\...
• ' Tho Man if tho l » wjift < . "' ~ \\ uMMi IIowjtt . Thro . o volo . IIur « t and Blriokctt . t > . n t Wnvra Jlolmtn / Homo ; a 'Mo , o f old Nurthamptmuihlrc . By 0- J- « ' IYTH ^•^ r ™; ;;^;^^)^^ : ''"; . r . 2 ; s an . * , . « 0 r , « naoo .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), March 10, 1860, page 15, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_10031860/page/15/
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