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June 16, I860.j The Leader and Saturday ...
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AGES OF TRANSITION—AND THE PRESENT IN PA...
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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 Cunabd packet-station , unless the pioneer boats had been esta-WUhpd it Gahvav We are tolerably well assured that up to this S Ireland would not have been able to boast , of _ any line but for threxSrimcnt of Mr . Levek . Ireland now bids fan ; to become the highway of Transatlantic intercourse with Great Britain . It has lomr been her due by geographical right , enhanced by her people s wants The promoters of the Gal way Line wight be pardoned , looking at the grand national results obtained , had they been guilty of a little political stratagem , in this loose age of public morals . They had to steer a difficult course between the Seylla and Charybdis of the Post-office and Admiralty , with the rocks and shoals of the Treasury ahead . Sir S . Cunard was their Polyphemus , and rival interests their Lcestkygones , eager for their shipwreck and destructionBut it is not proved , nor does it appear , after all the
. cry that was raised , to have done anything tricky or underhand in the matter . Mr . Lever ' s return for Gahvay was , to say the least an improbability long after the Government had exhibited a sympathy with the Irish , scheme . The Irish members of Parliament were by no means so patriotic as to shape their votes in consideration of a measure being passed by Ministers , fraught with blessings to Ireland , or the reverse . That is not the practical way to catch the votes of Irish members . Look at the fact in this case . The
Gahvay " -rant was promised by the late Government , which found itself in a minority fatal to its existence . It was understood that the incoming Government was not favourable to the grant . Lord Derby did not gain , nor Lord Palmekstox lose a single Irish supporter on account of this transaction . Lord Dunkellist was an ardent supporter of the line , and how did he vote ? Lord BuRT , then an English member , is a director of the line : and how did he vote ? As for Mr . ltOEirucK , none -will suspect him of voting
against his convictions ; but since he saw fit to withdraw his support from Lord PiLMERSTOX , he therefore withdrew from the direction of the GUI-way line . Whatever then the confusion , blunders , and want of harmony arising from the division of responsibility m . the framing of postal contracts , we have no hesitation in saying that , so far as Lord Derby , Sir John Pakington > and Lord Egliktox are personally concerned , they appear / to have been guided by pure and sincere motives throughout the whole transaction . - ^ or-d Derby's evidence before the Committee is in perfect accord with this view . He thought the establishment of a Mail Packet Station
on the West coast of Ireland of such great political and commercial importance—so clear an act of justice , tliat he aid it irrespective of all minor considerations and official pros and cons . The Admiralty backed his views . The Post-office alone was doubtful , if not hostile . Into the causes of this we shall not pause to inquire . Quv rule in Ireland has been obligingly compared by a French newspaper with the rule of Naples over Sicily . Not . exactly admitting this , we are inclined to call the originators and Directors of the Galway Line , and the persevering achievers of the contract , the social , political , and commercial emancipators of the sister island . Ireland had heretofore been deprived of her fair share of the passenger , postal , and carrying trade of the United Kingdom , and deprived of the advantages of her geographical position . It is not so now , and the " generosity" and fairness of other folks , which so long lay dormant , have been quickened by the determination of the -A ^ lantfc-ltoy r f ^ Iwl-i ^^ project , in spite of all temptations and difficulties . The temptations failed , and the difficulties have been happily conquered . Towards the close of this monthit is expected that the contract
, will be inaugurated by the sailing of the first new steamer of the Company , under the most flattering auspices . The promised visit of the Prince of Wales to America is an event which will mark this year as a mpst felicitous one in . respect of increased , rapid , friendly , and commercial intercourse between Great Britain and the race who speak her'language on . the other side of the Atlantic . In the midst of all this , it is a pity to observe tlie petty jealousy and rancour exhibited by some Irish minds towards those who have incurred the risk , the trouble , and the difficulties of tho whole undertaking . Some of the Irish journals and shareholders seem to be seized with a rabidly economical ( it , and exhibit an antagonistic spirit , which h characterized by equal ingratitude and meanness . If any of the Irish shareholders fancy that the whole management of the lino could be canitd on in Dublin , we do not envy them the hallucination . Wo must say , that the petty accusations , made by such real enemies of the undertaking , are unworthy , as they might
be mischievous , were such views likely to be adopted on a large scale . Everything , at present , bids fair for the Atlantic Company , and it is too bsul tnatafow disappointed persons should inflict pain , and annoyance upon tho real practical benefactors of their country , who have risked eo much , worked so hard , and achieved so great an advantage for Ireland , In conclusion , wo would remark , that tho writer of tho article in the Times on packet contracts , which appeared two or throe days eince , entirely leaves out of view the difference between commercial ; rind postal mail steamers , whenho speaks favourably of tho " offers of ( ¦ old-entabliehed compauioi ? to carry the mails between this country ; and Amoiica for tho price of the letters . Would the T ' nnen bo satisfied with going backwards instead of forwards in our postal arrangements V
The money spent in sulmidising mail steamers is but a trifle compared with the expense of tho navy , and ia paid back ton-fold into the British Exchequer . There is no doubt , on the part of the public , that the establishment of the Galway line is an immense advantage , . not only to Ireland , but to the Empire , both home and colonial .
June 16, I860.J The Leader And Saturday ...
June 16 , I 860 . j The Leader and Saturday Analyst . 569
Ages Of Transition—And The Present In Pa...
AGES OF TRANSITION—AND THE PRESENT IN PARTICULAll . " fTVHlS is an age of transition ! " How frequently do we find - * - these words recur-in the leaders and mis-leaders of the press , daily , weekly , monthly . They are complacently repeated , as containing an adequate apology for the painful condition of present I affairs . As such apology , moreover , they are put forth as of especial application . Let us inquire if these particulars and predicates are not too readily conceded . ! May we hot reasonably ask , for instance , is not every age an age ! of transition ? Certainly . Then surely every age is entitled to the j same apology ? Again , we must answer , certainly . Away at once , then , go the speciality of its application to any age . Nevertheless , i what is lost in this direction may be gained in another . What is
denominated " transition , " at any time , is an example of a universal principle which it may be worth while to investigate . ; Is it , then , a law that all times are states of transition ? It is ; i and further , that all things , too , are the same . For every object of our perception is in a state of growth , and becoming older every ; minute . We , likewise , are in the same state and age even while we look upon the face of nature . Our very perception itself is but an act of transition ; a passage over from some relations of nn object
; to others about to be presented , by connecting which we may constitute a total , or that approximation to an absolute aggregate , which we are willing to accept for an image of the whole . Man . himself is , as it were , but a bridge of transition between a natural and a spiritual world . His various powers and faculties are but , so to speak , the steps of Jacob ' s ladder , on which the messengers of Deity ascend and descend . That passage from the past eternity into temporal life which we call Birth is but a transition ; so hke' of the future
; wise is that which conveys man into the eternity . i Death is but the last change in a series of mutations ; aud the end ! is at all points correspondent to the beginning . As soon as we were born we began to die ; in the day wherein we first partook of the fruit of temporal knowledge , we most assuredly justih ' ed the threatening ; from that moment we were mortal , and mutability held dominion over the human being both in mind and body . The i former is in perpetual flow ; thought succeeds thought ; experience enlarges ; opinion supplants opinion ; and the aims and purposes of the individual mind alter with the amount of its information and The latter muehthat the
the conditions of its _ interesti- changes so . man has not a particle of the matter that composed the body of the child By a series of minute transitions the tiny creature that could scarcely toddle from chair to chair has become a Titan who . would pile Pelion on Ossa to attain the object of his ambition ; and 1 indeed can , by the force of limb and sinew , contend with jome of ¦ the mightiest agencies and subdue the wildest of opponents . < < So transitive is Nature in all her operations that the ancients resorted to a fable to account for the fact , and endeavoured to explain i the mvstery by a mythological fiction . They feigned that Neptune ' had an old herdsman , named Photeus ( whose appellation properly signifies " primary , oldest , or first" ) , who was a great divmer and ¦ interpreter of secrets , and who equally understood the past , the present , and the future . But they who wish to consult him had to bind him fast , when he , in his endeavours to escape , would assume ^^ U ^ hapes ^ fi ( j ^ JImd ^ iid ^ nluial— returnin g ; at length to ^ lns ^ own ^ Lord B vcox , in his famous explanation of these old mythologies , assures us that Proteus means the matter of the universe , that ever thus changes its form , and that his lierd . br flock signify the ! several kinds of animalsplantsand minerals , in ; winch matter
, , ' ¦¦ appears to diffuse and spread itself . " . The custom ascribed to ' FiiOTFUS of telling over his herd of sea-calves at noon , and . then ! goin » -to sleep , is also similarly explained , viz ., that Rafter having formed -the several species of things , and as it werefinished its task , ' matter seems to sleep and repose , without otherwise attempting to I produce new ones . " The " universe , " according to the same ! authority , " with the common structures and fabrics of the creai tures , is the face of matter , not under constraint , or as the iloclc < wrought upon , and tortured , by human means . But if any skiltul i minister of Nature shall apply force to matter , and , by design , torture and vex it in order to its annihilation , it , on the contrary ,. Doing brou-ht under this necessity , changes and transforms ltselt into a strange variety of shapes and appearances ; but nothing but-tlio power of the Creator can annihilate or truly destroy it ; so that at length , running through the whole circle of transformations and completing its period , it in some degree restores itself it the force
¦ Not only our poetical philosopher , but our poets also havo taken note of tho perpetual stuto of change and transition in which oil things are . Sivhnskh regards Change as a Titnnesa , who Bought to obtain dominion even over the deities themselves . 1 icturcs , accordingly , recur to his fancy of tho moon nnd tho vesper star , which mutability subjects to a temporary eclipse ; whuroupon complaint is inado to Jovk , and subsequently tho whole anno . il relorroil to Nature . Tho facts aro stated . Even tho Earth , that only seems unmoved mid pormunoot , "iaohangod both . m . part mul . m general ; Whilo her tenants , man aud beast still vary ther estate ' < from good to bad , from bad to worst of all . " As to . the \\ ator , that is still Visibly in ebb and flow , and tho croaturoa m it range at random and vary their places of ubodo . Next , tho A . r ; that is still uncertainchanged ovory hour , now fair now foul -now
more , hot , now cold—now stormy , now e ; ihn . Aud , lust , tlio l < uo , " Which , though it live for over . Nor can bo quenched qukto ; yet , every day , Wo see his parts , so boom as tlioy do sovor , To lose their heat , and aliortly to decay ;
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), June 16, 1860, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_16061860/page/13/
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