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3@ The Leader and Saturday Analyst. [Jan...
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LORD MACATJLAY: THE AUTHOE. T OB.D MACAU...
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ceiviog money had come into fashion amon...
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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Transcript
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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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Disgraceful Economl. No One Accustomed T...
should certainly like to see paid in full , at the next parliamentary dividend meeting , if the state of the slender finances and the rules of the Court will allow it , which we can scarcely hope will be the case .. We allude to Lady Franklin . . . , - .. . The late Arctic expedition ( as everybody knows ) was organised and carried out by the heroic energy and p ersevering determination , of this lady ; and brought to so successful , though so melancholy a termination ( as far as the intelligence it brings us is concerned ) by the judgment and seamanship of Captain McCLlNTOcKi Every penny that has been paid for this expedition ought to come out of our national purse , without delay , . without murmur , and without stint . Without pledging ourselves
by saying that Sir John Franklin ' s expedition was wise or practical , we merely take it up on the broad ground that it was national in its origin and design , and that no individual or individuals , however nearly related to or interested in the lost explorers , should be allowed , for one moment , to step between the country and the performance of its duty . Successful as Captain McCltntock ' s voyage of discovery has been , it has not accomplished all , and while any volunteers are ready to go out again , and while any member of Sir John Fkan klin's expedition , however humble , is missing or unaccounted for , the most bankrupt and penurious nation ought to squeeze out p ublic funds to stimulate further search .
Unfortunately for Lady Franklin and Captain McClintock , their'work is eminently peaceful work , and the Court has little sympathy with that . Their work has no connection with wars and riot , with Inj ustice and bloodshed , with annexation and national trespassing , and the sympathies of the Court are all engaged in these directions . Pensions , decorations , banquets , and promotion , are all reserved for gun-shooters and sword-wielders , while the conductorsof useful and humane enterprises are left to bury their heads imnbticed in sorrow and neglect . If the Hon . Mr . Bruce ( of China ) or any other notoriety of the diplomatic gang , had arrived in London on the same day as Captain McClintock arrived with the " Fox , " his ship ( if he came in a ship ) , would not have been left rain-beaten in an obscure corner of a Thames dockyard ; nor his crew , ( if he had a crew ) have been scattered no-man can tell where . The thousands who have visited this little Arctic vessel
from motives of idle curiosity , have looked upon a monument of private heroism which is also a monument of national disgrace . Whatever may be the state of the national finances ( and we know that we are very poor ) , whatever may be feeling of the financial officers ( and we know how uniformly careful they now are ) , the unobtrusive claims of Lady Franklin , and those who worked with her , should be the first obligations satisfied in the session that is nearly here . Economy , in this instance , should make us hold down our heads in shame ; especially when the long financial list of " Special and Temporary Objects " has exhibited - —of course , in the dark agesa—so many melancholy records of folly , jobbery , and waste . .
3@ The Leader And Saturday Analyst. [Jan...
3 @ The Leader and Saturday Analyst . [ Jan . 14 , I 860 .
Lord Macatjlay: The Authoe. T Ob.D Macau...
LORD MACATJLAY : THE AUTHOE . T OB . D MACAULAY was almost born an author . He was an J- * author before he left college . The use of words was his vocation- He was a great master of language , and spoke and wrote equally well . When not speaking to others , he was generally speaking to himself . His writings have delighted the multitude and instructed the , learned . They are admired wherever our language is understood—abroad , as well as in our colonies and at home . He began his career as a poet ; he then became an essayist , and concluded as an historian . In each walk he was firstrate , j but his essays are superior to his poerns , and his history is superior to his essays . He improved as he went on , but in the nrmnsitfi rlirant . ion' to Burke , whose first work was the least florid
of his writings , while the last was * ' ungracefully gorgeous . " Lord Maoaulay ' s style was less ornate in his history than in his essays . It , gained in conciseness , vigour , simplicity , and ease as he advanced in life ; and the diffuseness we find in his history ia more of matter than of manner . He had ; inquired too closely , he knew too lnuch , and remembered too well . Our briof quotations last week would suffice to remind our roaders of the style of his essays , and one quotation will show them the clear , succinct , business-like style of his history . It will show , too , the defective philosophy with which he is deservedly reproached . The morest tyro in political science now knows that the increase of wealth is the consequence , not the oause , of division of labour j which , in its turnis the consequence of increase of population ; t— .
are all equally pregnant with instruction . He tells us that "he frequently wrote at a distance from all books and all . advisers ;" that "he trusted to his memory for facts , dates , and quotations , " and that ' " he sent his manuscripts to the press without reading them over . _ " ^ As his after-dinner discourse was said to be " print , " , they must have been without erasure or amendmeht . Hone of his works have anymarks of defect or any appearance of having been written in haste . Apparently , he never took a pen in his hand till he was quite . sure of every word he ineant to say ; and from the moment of beginning , lie rushed on like a conqueror . His style is clear , because he is always , certain of his thoughts . He never doubts , and is never vague , lie goes straight to his object , and writes as though he were giving the word of command . He is never affected , is untainted by conventional cant , and gives things their proper names . He speaks
It must be noticed that , for such minute description , authorities on both sides are quoted , exemplifying Lord Macaulay ' s . great diligence in examining all the pamphlets arid other writings of the day , on every subject which he thovight worth a place in his history . In such clear and graphic descriptions lies one of the great charms of his writings . Another is avast number of biographical sketches , every one of which is a distinct gem ; and , bound together , they make the most gorgeous ehaplet ever woven by the hand of a literary man . His stylecharms , too , especially the educated , by the fulness of knowledge apparent in every line . His metaphors and illustrations are drawn from innumerable sources , and
even bluntly , and sometimes verges on coarseness . His writing resembles the rush of cavalry , not the ambling of a gentle lady ' s . steed . It is dogmatic , positive , overwhelming . Withal , it is very musical , and never tires . It is always fresh . He was perhaps the best read , the most learned Englishman of the age , after the death of Sir Ja , mes Mackintosh , and he was one of the greatest masters of the English language that ever used it . He died comparatively young , but lib had done a great deal of Work . True , he lived three years longer than Shakespeare , but in quantity the result of his labour is far greater than that of the most illustrious of our poets . He started into public life a thoroughly educated man , and seems to have taken nothing in , hand which did not succeed . Forty years nearly he worked continuously -. and successfully , and , combining quantity with quality , we doubt whether any man ever wrote so much and so well . He was one of the most remarkable men of letters who
have appeared m our country . All the subjects on which he wrote were important , and chiefly political . His ballads were not of love nor of individual adventure , but of the great events and battles of ancient and modern timqs . He delighted in writing of famous men : Milton , Machiavelli , Cromwell , Olive , Hastings , Bacon , are only a very few of those whose characters he elaborately described . His themes were all worthy of his noble language . The modern history of his own country was the one great work to which all
his other writings appear to have been preparatory ; and it was commenced , having probably beeil planned while ho was yet young , on a scale that would require the life of the longest-lived man to complete it . Wo cannot , however , regret its minuteness , though peculiarly adapted for special histories , since it has made us better acquainted than ever with the conduct and , character of our ancestors . It has set an example , too , of how history should be written , which will never again become a more account of misruling " princes .
When we . have asoribod to him an admirable style , ( in excellent ohoico of worthy subjeots , q dear method of treating whatever he undertook , great diligence in his preparation ^ and the acquisition of knowledge beyond , that of other men , wo have
Ceiviog Money Had Come Into Fashion Amon...
ceiviog money had come into fashion amongst the merchants of the capital , A class of agents arose , whose office was to keep the cash of commtercial houses . The new branch of business naturally fell into the hands of the goldsmiths , who were accustomed to traffic largely in the precious metals ,, and who had vaults in which great masses of bullion could be secure from fire and from robbers . It was at the shops of the goldsmiths in Lombardstreet that all the payments in coin were made . Other traders gave and received nothing but paper . This great change did not take place without ; much opposition and clamour . Old-fashioned merchants complained bitterly that a class of men who , thirty years before , had confined themselves to their proper functions , and had made a fair profit by embossing ^ silver bowls and chargers , by setting jewels for fine ladies , and selling pistoles and dollars to gentlemen setting out for the Continent , had become the treasurers and were fast becoming the masters of the whole city . These usurers , it was said , played at hazard with what had been earned by the industry and . hoarded by the thrift of other men . If the dice turned up well , the knave who kept the cash became an alderman : if they turned up ill , the dupe who furnished the cash became a bankrupt . On the other side , the conveniences of the modern practice were set forth in animated language - The new system , it was said , saved both labour and money . Two clerks seated in one counting-house did what under the old . system must have been done by twenty clerks , in twenty different establishments . A goldsmith ' s note might be transferred ten times in a morning ; and thus a hundred guineas locked in his safe , close to the Exchange , did what would formerly have required a thousand guineas dispersed through many tulsj some on Ludeate Hill , some in Austin Friars , and some in Tower Street .
, «• In tUo reign of William , old men wore still living who could remember the days whoa thorp was hot a single banking-houso in the city of London . So lafco as tho time of tlie Hoatoration every trader hud hiB own strong-box in his own house ; and when an acceptance was presented to him , told down the crowns and tho Oivrolusos on hia own oountor . lint tho hwvaaso qf wealth had prpdnood its natural effect , tho eubdivlsion qflctbonv . Before tho end of tho reign of Oharlca tho Sooond a newmodo of paying and re-
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 14, 1860, page 8, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_14011860/page/8/
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