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Aug. 16, 1851.] Sft* &*£&**? 775 _ I I I...
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THE BLOOMER REVOLT. Dress is the outward...
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JfNUI.ISU KKKMNO ON THK OOVKRNMKNT ITALI...
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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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Progress Of Assurance. Competition Has B...
and thus the new office at once receives a number of lives which would otherwise not have been assured at all . It ought really to be remembered , and the consideration would disarm much animosity , that a new office is not a competitor to steal away business , but a propagator of a great and beneficial principle , carrying blessings home to a circle which another has failed to reach , and really aiding its elder brethren by the force of example . An assured life is valuable in a neighbourhood , for no one can so gracefully urge the adoption of life assurance as he who has assured his own life . It is the knowledge that class interests would work well when appealed to , with the peculiar advantages especially applicable , which led to the formation of
assurance offices for the several professions . " The Law Life , " which is the pet of the legal profession , has enormous funds at its disposal ; and finds an agent in every lawyer in the kingdom . " The Church of England " addresses itself to the clergy , for whom it particularly sets aside a portion of its profits . The medical profession has also an office devoted to its interests . The author , the painter , the sculptor , the musician , men who give nuts to the world and scarcely have the shells for their trouble , have hitherto had no association , with tables adapted to their peculiar professions . And yet to no men is the adoption of assurance more important , nor would any more gladly avail themselves of its benefits were the system rendered possible to them .
Men engaged in literary , scientific , and artistic pursuits are frequently chargeable with improvidence by those who reap both benefit and pleasure from their exertions . But people occupied in the ordinary or mercantile affairs of life can form no estimate of the question . They know nothing of the abstract world in which the author moves , nor the incompatibility of what would be called " business habits , " with the feverish state of his imagination .
The uncertainty of income , even with successful writers , makes " provident habits , " as people term them , a thing of difficulty . The tradesman , or salaried person , or man of ascertained income , may regulate his expenditure , and pass through his hum-drum existence in the favour of commercial minds . But let him try to think of an income oscillating between £ 600 and £ 100 per annum . Let him try to imagine a man disenthralled from
the close and studious labour of months into actual , successful , and triumphant print , and he will have some idea of his own absurdity when he talks of " improvident habits , " and " ill-regulated expenditure . " His merit lies in his account books , an author ' s in the emanations of his genius . Many a writer would leave his study and conduct an office with more acumen than he that was " to the manner born , " but the casting up of ledgers and imaginative pursuits are seldom compatible .
iheATHENiKUM Life Assurance Society , while it commends it itself to the public generally , has been established especially on principles " adapted to the feelings , views , and wants of literary men , artists , and musicians . " It proposes to institute a Provident Fund to be raised by the mutual contributions of the members . The first five hundred assurers who desire to participate in tins benefit , will agree to leave a tenth portion of the sums for which they are assured for the purposes of this fund , which will be thus applied : —
I . To keeping up the policies of members who liuving paid live annual premiums shall be unable to continue them . This aid , which will bo continued for live yearn , is not eleemosynary , but to bo regarded as a loan , to be repaid to the Society at the convenience of the UHHured , or to be deducted from the policy when it becomes due . II . To grunt small loanw , on deposit of the policy , to those nic-mbci'H who may require temporary asaistance . III . To qualified members who really need it , tbe directors will lwive the discretionary power of granting Bucli an amount an will purchase in th « Society an annuity not exceeding £ 100 during the lives of such meiiil )(; rM and their widows .
IV . To divide among the- surviving members at this end of twenty years from the date of the lint ni '_ nij » cIohihI , the whole ol" the remaining and unapplied portion of the fund . A similar fund is also proposed to bo rained by applying a portion of the entire profits of the Society lor such of iho original shareholders aw may Iwc- ouu ) distressed . "' in proved by statistical inquiries that nearly live ]) er c ,, nL () f tM ( , a ( jult I , Op | 1 ] . ltiOI 1 of t | 1 ( , ]< _ < iom arc constantl y incapacitated from following r occupations , and a great portion become permanentl y invalided . Aa u provision against thin
state of things , the "Athenaeum" proposes to grant policies to secure certain sums payable during sickness , or when accident or other casualty shaS prevent the assured obtaining his livelihood . A very important feature is the introduction of a system new to this country * but worthy of general adoption- —the granting of policies payable to the holder . The assignment of a policy , though of frequent occurrence , is attended with expense and vexatious delays . The Athenaeum policies , on the contrary , may be transferred as readily as a banknote , and all delay and publicity in the assignment will be avoided .
The Society enters upon business with a paid-up capital of £ 100 , 000 , thus giving the security of a proprietary company ; while , proposing to divide ro per cent , of the profits among those assured on the participating scale , they secure all the advantages of a mutual association without incurring any liability . Such are some of the advantages held forth by the "Athenaeum , " and we earnestly recommend them to the consideration of the professions to
which they are particularly offered . There is no class of men who more require perfect freedom of mind . Anxiety and fear for the future have been destructive of the finest efforts of genius . Fettered by forebodings , the brain loses its elasticity and imagination its force . We cannot avert all the evils that flesh is heir to ; but we can , by combined operation , very greatly mitigate their severity . We would that all literary men and artists would at once assure their lives . The sacrifice is but
momentary . The paltry premium will be readily made up by the increased capacity for labour . The ordinary requirements of our existence are but healthy stimulants to exertions ; but the prospect of leaving those we hold most dear to contumely and want , or of seeing them pining around us while we are rendered incapable by sickness , has driven many a noble brain to madness and embittered many a dying hour .
Aug. 16, 1851.] Sft* &*£&**? 775 _ I I I...
Aug . 16 , 1851 . ] Sft * &* £ &**? 775 _ I I I II .... ¦ ¦ - ¦ ¦ . - — . ¦ .,,-., ¦¦ . ¦ ' ' I . I I ' ¦ I ¦ ¦ I ¦ | . 1 I I I I . . I . . —~ » M , | ¦ | | . . ....
The Bloomer Revolt. Dress Is The Outward...
THE BLOOMER REVOLT . Dress is the outward and visible sign of the inward and spiritual man , typified to the sense ; whence we are to conclude that all Englishmen approximate to each other in a remarkable degree , even more than each man does himself at different times . Thus at present there is a general desire in the Englishman to signify that his intellect is a lax-wristed intellect , choked , as it were , with two huge bows that cross its moral gullet and expand over each shoulder . And every Englishwoman wishes you to understand that her genius exactly resembles that of the Honourable Mrs . Grundy . Mrs . John Bull and the Misses J . B . have precisely
the same amount of the unknown quality x which that fashionable lady signifies by the make of her berthe or charming arrangement of her chatelaine . The model at which all Englishmen aim , without quite reaching it , is the waiter : the clergyman ranks next to that Hamlet of modern fashion ; the perfect gentleman is a waiter in all but the ease with which he bears the outvv . ml garb of absolute nullity ; the undertaker cannot be reckoned on the same level with the perfect gentleman ; the Puseyite is ihe meducval perfect gentleman in the costume of the nineteenth century , us it might have existed in olden time—a sort of archaeological journey to the middle ages and back again .
In the United States , however , they laugh at our " Old-World" notions of licence , and . are making minee-nieat of fashions , which are to be retained only for the drawing-room . There Mrs . Bloomer has set Woman on being the Grand Turk , in Oriental costume . So do extremes meet ! The old Grand Turk is met in the new Far West—only it it is a woman—a sort of harem-scare'm version of the Mussulman . And , what is more , the journals are discussing " the dress excitement" with a
heat that pertains to something serious . Is it to be petticoats or Turkisms , Greek jackets , jean " spencers , " and flowing trousers just full enough to conceal " the limb , " but terminating in a boot that defies mud ; or shall it be the petticoat—the self-. saine hallowed garment , floating in drawingroom , or draggling in the mud , or—but we need not recall to the harrowed feelings of our lady readers what things are related to have happened in luVh winds .
Presidential election , Abolition , Nullification , Cuba invasion , Mormonism , ure obscured before the fire of this last discusuion . Mrs . Bloomer is accused of having borrowed the idea from one of that class whom in England we only name with the utmost ytrctch of licence , by excessively circuitous
allusions to Magdalen hospitals . But , right or wrong , Mussulman or Christian , the Bloomer " costume is now quite the rage—in discussion ; and is getting into real use in several parts of the Union . It has been excessively difficult to change a costume , on critical grounds . Charles the Second failed to introduce the pleasing Hungarian type j the red-heeledL experiment was a failure in
England . Paul of Bussia ' s attempt to suppress round hats was among the proximate causes of his death . Beards , or no beards , defy dictation . But our transatlantic cousins , with their trenchant ! notions , are proposing to make a universal change from the one costume to every costume . How absurd , says the Home Journal , to have any one ^ f ashion to be worn by all ; why this servility , this voluntary suicide on the Procrustes'bed of Fashion ? Look at Broadway , with its bob-tail coats : —
" The commonest law of beauty , for a male figure , demands broad shoulders and narrow hips—yet here , is a universal fashion , which so clips the skirts that the edges stand out with the curve at the waist , and make a man ' s hips look as progenitively big as a woman ' s . There is the same uninquiring servility as to every male fashion that comes up—beards and hats , cravat-ties and waistcoats , trousers and shirtbosoms . Lately , even ( and we never kuew anything droller in the whole history of fashion ' s caprices ) , there could scarcely be found a young man in New York , the edges of whose hair were not turned under from ear to ear , like the roller of a curtain , with the barber ' s curling-tongs !
"Against the slavery of fashion our Republican country is properly the place for the first revolt . Of all the weeds of monarchy and aristocracy , such servile imitation of the exterior of others is the most rank and unprofitable . It extends to other apings of our superiors , quite as easily . ' Every one of Alexander ' s followers , ' says Montaigne , ' carried their heads on one side as he did ; and the flatterers of Dionysius ran against each other in his presence , and stumbled at , and overturned whatever was under foot , to seem as purblind as he . Deafness has been affected for the same reason ; and because the Emperor hated his his wife , Plutarch records that the courtiers repudiated theirs whom they loved : and , which , is yet more , uncleanness and all manner of dissoluteness has been
in fashion . "We repeat , that we see signs which look to ua as if the present excitement as to one fashion were turning into a universal inquiry as to the sense or propriety of any fashion at all . " Is not this anarchy frightful ? Next we shall see Englishmen wearing garbs that best suit their aspect and avocations : shopmen democratically giving up the attempt to be mistaken for Lords and Baronets ; even Lords probabty , such is the depravity of human nature , giving up the attempt to look like waiters ; working-men content to look
like working-men , and not like seedy gentlemen employing the most inept of tailors ; girls content to look lovely , and various as the tints of their hair ; and the world in general content to become picturesque . No ; that cannot be : to be pietuivsque is what no Englishman would ever submit to be thought—vulgar . Beauty is for the theatre , the painter ' s studio , and other haunts of vice . Respectability is always ugly : if it for an instant ceases to be so , it begins to doubt itself . In the
United States they are not tormented by these considerations , because they are Republicans , an « l Republicans are never respectable . Handsome ia that handsome does : if English wives were to become handsome , away with conjugal fidelity , with our institutions , our Monarchy , < Ste . You cannot remove one inch of the social fabric without pulling down the whole—so firmly is it built ! Knglisrmien , then , will continue to dress themselves like bricks—all alike .
Jfnui.Isu Kkkmno On Thk Oovkrnmknt Itali...
JfNUI . ISU KKKMNO ON THK OOVKRNMKNT ITALIAN OUTRANKS IN ITALY . Spirit iu not extinct in Kngland . The subjoined pasn & Hea arc extruded from u letter by a man whose name , if we had pprminsion to write it , would add a Kuropenn reputation to the magnanimity of the things said : —• " Gladstone ' s letters , I trust , will often the eyes of those who ure . somnolent at the Bide of Humanity . The mime order of thiu ^ H cxistK at Rome an at Naples . Is it impossible- to engagu an American ship and crew ,
reduce in a tangle hour the island forties * in which the Neapolitan patriotu ure imprisoned ? Oi » the first of October , 1 hIiuII bo ready with my twenty |» oimd * toward * this Hcrviee . It may be unluwjul to offer a reward for the tjcizuro of certain men who / ire lawless . U » t abroad have I avowed my opinion , and I repeat it , that lie who in above the law , la out o / the law ; thut ho who forcibhr taken that station , m-. y and ought t o he forcibly tjected from it . • • Until Borne dreadful W »«» P » W awakened from their lethargy tho n » Uon « of tb « Con . tincnt , and ehattcrtd the throne * their perfldiom mlei »
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 16, 1851, page 11, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_16081851/page/11/
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