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September 16, 1854.1 THE LEADER. 879
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Critics are not the legislators, but the...
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A cincxrcAB, bearing the names of Dr. Hi...
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Ai»ong forthcoming books arc:—Thirty Yea...
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The announcement of Lady Blessingtcm's L...
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Such are some of the latest promises or ...
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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
September 16, 1854.1 The Leader. 879
September 16 , 1854 . 1 THE LEADER . 879
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1 ifetatttt ? -
Critics Are Not The Legislators, But The...
Critics are not the legislators , but the judges and police of literature . They do not make laws — they interpre b and try to enforce them .. —Edinburgh Seview .
A Cincxrcab, Bearing The Names Of Dr. Hi...
A cincxrcAB , bearing the names of Dr . Hitosox , the Chairman , and Mr . Hutchings , the Honorary Secretary , of the Lancashire and Cheshire Union of Mechanics' Institutes and Hiterary Societies , and addressed to the Directors of the Institutes and Societies enrolled in the Union , calls attention to certain features in the Act of Parliament recently passed for " the better regulation of Literary and Mechanics' Institutions , Public Libraries , Museums , Schools of Art aJid Design , & q . " The complaint of the circular is that there is too much of the principle of centralisation in the Act . It seems that while the Act was going through Parliament ,, the Lancashire
Association made earnest ; efforts to get certain clauses in the draffr-bill altered or abandoned - ^ particularly , a clause proposing to take away from , the Directors of Institutions the power of making bye < -laws ; and a clause emppwering any single meiubfer of an Institution to prevent the enforcement of a bye-law , by Stinging the whole matter , and the Insiitution itself , under the control pftfeje ; Ckftrifcv C . omtnissioners , and through thana , under the clutches of Chancery . Tl » sy also pressed the necessity of mating provision ia tfce Bill for the total exemption-of Institutions from local rates ; Their efforts had some eflfect , tui not all tbat was . desired . Th & matter of local
rates was left unsettled m the Bill as it passed ; and the objectionable clauses / were on ^ Is a clause to th ? effect thai ? Directors of Institutions may make hyerlaws , aod may by those ibye-law ? impose fines , but with this proviso , that no fine imposed by such bye * lavr shall be reicoverable in a court of law * unless the bye-law shall have been confirmed by the votes of two ^ fifths of the members of the Institution convened for the purpose . There is a clause , also , to the effect that for aqLj alteration , of the phjects of an Institution or fox any amalgamation of one Institution with ajiQther , it shall be necessary for the managing r bo 4 y , first , to call a meeting of all the members at ten days' notice , then to have their proposition accepted by three-fifths of the members , then at the
interval of a mouth to hold a . sftcDnd'speeial meeting , and to have there also a similar vote of authorisation . Lastly , there is a clause providing that if any members of an Jjjstftutiqo , to tl * e extent of two-fifths of the -whoje number , consider that a proposition carried ia the above manner is calculated to provo injurious to the Institution , they may , within three months , appeal the matter to the Committee of Her Majesty ' s Privy Council for Trade and Foreign Plantations , - wio shall have the power of annulling or arresting the proposed change . Now , the Lancashire Association think that under tJij . s BUI Institutions will feel themselves hamperedand inconvenienced . They do not like the centralising character of the Bill , as it stands , and they still
want the vexed question of the local rates settled . They complain that the Society of Arts , to whose agency they trusted for a good Pill , liave given in too much to the centralising spirit which has been at work in the concoction of the Bill , and that the Council , of this Society " regards with , indifference , if not with hostility , " sjny , inquiry into the rates question ; and they look to Mr . Mil-nek Gibson , Lord Sta . ni . et , and other members of Parliament interested in -the prosperity of our Literary Institutions , for an overhauling of the Bill next session . We have here sirnply reported their opinions . Tho proper adjustment of the limits of centralisation and local authority , is perpetually presenting itself as one of the difficulties of oue time ; and this ia a case of that difficulty .
Ai»Ong Forthcoming Books Arc:—Thirty Yea...
Ai » ong forthcoming books arc : —Thirty Years of Foreign Policy ; or a History of the Secretaryships of the Earl of Aberdeen and Viscount Palmerston by the truculent author of the " Memoira of Mr . Disraeli ; " Memoirs of James Montgomery . By Messrs . Hoxiand and Everett . The Autobiography and Literary Remains of Henry Fynes Clinton : a History of the Iron Trade . By Mv . Hakhy Scttivi & NER . llcunbles in Ireland . By Mr . Miles . A Manual of (? fvi ( Law for the Una of Schools and of Candidates for the Civil Semiae ; by Dr . HuMriutEva , Ilead-mastor of the Cheltenham Grammar School ; and a translation of a now work by tho Jesuit Abbe Hiro , entitled TAq Chinese Empire , and forming n . continuation of Hue and Grdbot ' s woUknown " Travels in Thibet and Tartary . " All theso arc to come from tho press of Messrs . Longjwa-n . Mr . Nuwbx is to be the publisher , and Mr . R . MaP 3 >» n , ftlnoady known for his " Lifo of Savonarola , " the editor , of Lady
Blessmgton ' s Life ami Correspondence , which is to bo in three largo volumes , and to cost two guineas . Mr . Aj > am B & ack announces a statistical boolc , on England since the Accession of Queen Victoria , by the statistical bookmaker , Dr . Micualson , -who has alvoady " done" Turkey in that lnnupor . Mr . Cash advertises tho successful . AiHi- Corn-Law Leu ^ c Priao Essay , by tho Rev . II . Dunckxhy , entitled Tha Charter « f Ota Nations ; or Free-Trade and its Results—of whi < : h work , we perceive tho Oouncil of the Loaguo have ordered a thousand copies to bo handsomely bound , in order to bo presented to tho Governments of tho following countnes-tho United Stutcs , Mexico , Brazil , Franco , Belgium , Holland , Wonmark , Swodon , Pmaain , Russia , Austrin , . Spain , Portugal , Sardinia , Ureoco , Snxony , Home , Bavnviii , and tho Nonpolitan Stnlea . ( Is Sir Charles Nnpicr to bo charged with tho presentation of tho copies for
There is in existence an association' called th ? Palestine-Archaeological Association , whose objects are the promotion of antiquarian research ia the Holy Land , and the formation of a museum of objects illustrating the archaeology and natural history of that part of the East . The association was formed about a year ago , and held its first annual general meeting on Tuesday last . It comprises 130 members , possesses the nucleus of a museum , and is sanguine of important results .
The Announcement Of Lady Blessingtcm's L...
The announcement of Lady Blessingtcm ' s Life and Correspondence- — -which is expected to include Count D'Oesay ' s journal , so much admired by BYROtf thirty years ago—is reminding greedy readers of good memories that at least three other " Lives and Correspondences" of Recently-deceased celebrities are due . First , what has become of Lord Melboubne ' s papers which were left to Lord Bbovgb & m for publication ? Next , what , has become of the Peel papers , which , were similarly entrusted , wfeh a biographical intent , to Mr . Cardwell ? Lastly , what is Lord Mahon doing with the
great Duke ' s papers , left in Apsley House for his discretionary perusal and use ? People growl afc the thought ibat theseoxaterialsof .-history should be locked up from the sight of the present age , and the instruction they contain reserved for posterity . Lord JJRowaaAM , Mr . Cabdweix , and Lord Mab ojj , however , are probably not to be forced . Seriously , the papers ought to be given to the world as soon as circumstances will permit i and above all , they ought not to be tumbled out *' anyho'jjr , " as is the usual custom , in such cases , but ought to be competently edited ftnd consolidated into readable books .
Since writing the above , we have found in a note 1 to asp aeiiclein the frisk Quarterly Review the following passage ;—•** Why is aot Skeins- biography written f There are many men capable oftbe work" of composition wjjo ijoew him . Intimately 5 and ft * would prove , if fairly andentirelywrj # en , almost anfceresfcipg contribution to Irish biography , and wouki ^ e . » valuable addition to diaMemoirespoiw Ssrvir . We have- heard that Mr . Tojjiwsn M ^ GuLLAoa contemplates such a life of * Shiel . "
Such Are Some Of The Latest Promises Or ...
Such are some of the latest promises or issues of the British press * Mr . BBirri , ET , however—who , by the by ^ . comes into the market with a oheap edition of Prescott ' s Conquest of Miexico-r-makes an announcement of an Ameriean repubKeation likely to be of more "thrilUng interest . " JEJe advertises as immediately forthcoming , in fancy boards , at . half'arjcrowflj a book entitled Revelations of the Slave * Trade ; or , Twenty Ymrs Adventures of Captain Canot . ! Por some time past , there have been pre-trumpetings of this work in America , as a work likely to have u run equal to that of Uncle Toni ' s Cabin , and in a number of the ZVey > York Tribune , brought over b y the last mail , we find a long ; notice of it prepared in anticipation of ttie day of publication—the editor having been favoured with an advance copy by the pubUshers . The title-page of the American issue runs thus r ,- * Caplain Canot ; or Twenty Years of an African Slaver ; written out and edited from the Captain ' s Journals , Memoranda and Conversations by Brantz Maieb . Mr . Brantz Mayer is a gentleman of Baltimore— " a man not quite unknown to fame , " says the New York . Tribune- ^ known to us as the author of a
tolerably interesting hook on Mexico and its antiquities . But who » s Captain Canot ? If he is not a myth , we suppose we must take him for what the book gives him out to be—a -wild dare-devil character born in Florence , of a French father and an Italian mother ; who took to a sea-faring life in the year 1819 , as an apprentice in an American ship , bound for Boston , and so , after adventures innumerable , in the midst of which his erratic genius wasalways performing miracles of heroic achievement , ended ia being an African slave-trader . The New York Tribune , says : "Captain Canot is a model of transparent sincerity . He does not attempt to draw a veil over the secrets of his infamous profession , lie makes no bones of recitals which any one but a slave trader would wish to bury in oblivion . Ho is equally candid in
regard to the horrors of his * dreadful trade , ' and the scenes of liconse and debauch , of which ho was participant in African society . Native manners and customs the most extraordinary are painted without disguise , —no blush crimsoning his chcekB at the recollections in which he so joyously revels . " This passage indicates tho two sources of interest on which the book depends for its sale—its professed chax'actor as a book of revelations respecting the slave-trade , and the warmth of its episodical improprieties . From tho extracts given in the Tribune , wo infer that there is a good deal of the latter element of interest in it . Hero , for examplo , ia one of them : Mr . Canot has been dining Avith Mr . Ormond , alias Mongo John , an African slave-dealer ; he loaves his host drunk and asleep , and strolls out .
• ' I fltrollod to tho veranda to fiot a breath of froah air from the river , but * soon d-nehod off in the darkness to tho sacred prooinota of tlie ftarcm I 1 w « a not detected till I reached nearly tho contra of tho minotuuvy whore Ormond onnlincd Iris motley group of black , mulatto , and quurtoioon wivoa . Tho iirsfc d * ino who porcoivod mo was h bright mulatto , with rosy chooKH , uloo-Uko evua , cocjuQttiith turban , ami most voluptuous inoutli , whom 1 uiWwurds discovered to bo second in tho chiof 'anfluctionH . In an iuaWl the court lvuoundod with a chattering cull to her coinnnnioiiH , bo tluiL bof ' oro I « onld turn , tfio whole bund of gabhliiiK mu-Kots hemmed mo in witli n dolucw of talk . Fuino had procodod mo ! My buuIo
nui'Ho \ v « a a servant of tho harem , nnd her viait to tho nohooner , with tlio tulo of tlio trnccuy , uupplioil aneodotoa for a lifetime , EvorylioJy whs on tlio qui vive to sot ) tho ' whlto "K" ^ " ' Everybody was ciu / . y to fool tho ' whlto skin * who hud honied . Thon , nitli n Buddon , ehildiaU fronk of eapiico , tluiy ran off from mo « a if nfrwid , and at aiuio ruhhod buck again lllco a Hock of gliu-tonguod » nd playful inonkoys . I . cotdd not comproliond a word they said-, but tho bovv eqiie / ilfd with quito aa much pjoiwuro sis if I did , nn « l peered into my oyoa lor answers , with iinpiHl ! dovilrv « t my wondoring ignornnoo . At hwt my nublo fiknda Boomod not only Anxious to ainuau tbomaolvos but to do aoiuotliing i ' or my entertauunpnt aluo . A chatter in a cornur settled what it should be . Two or tlirco brought sticks , while two or throo brpv ^ i cottla . A tiro was quickly luiidlod iu tho centre of tho court ; and ns lt « flamea lit up the
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 16, 1854, page 15, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_16091854/page/15/
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