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No. 395, October 17,1857.] THE LEADEjy 1...
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LATTER-DAY POETRY. Psyche, and Other Poe...
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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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The Factory Movement. The History Of The...
morning , and if any of the apprentices came in after the bell had rung , followed them with a horsewhip , lashing them all the way to their places-Mr . Sadler , in the House of Commons , when lie spoke on this part of the subject , struck the table with , ' some black , heavy leathern thongs , fixed in a sort of handle , ' and the blow , ' resounded through the House . ' _ Mr . Oastler , at a great public meeting ' struck the front of the platform with a long , heavy strap , ' and told liow he had 6 een factory children of both sexes marked with black , weals from head to foot , and one-beaten naked with a hazel stick until the skin was flayed off . Kor were these charges brought against the manufacturers merely in declamatory speeches ; evidence was accumulated before parliamentary committees , and it was demonstrated , beyond the possibility of doubt , that numbers of factory children , besides being worked £ hrou « -li an unnaturally lengthened da } -, were tortured with sticks , straps , and
whips to stimulate them , when they gave way to absolute physiealexhuustion . But the exhaustion was even worse than the flogging . Give a factory child good food and a fair amount of labour , and then , evea if an irritable overseer makes an improper use of his authority , the result may not be actually brutal . The whipping , however , was intended to keep the children at their work when they should have been at school , in the playground , or , still oftener , in . their beds . Prom five in the morning to nine at night was constantly in particular factories the allotted task of a boy or girl thirteen years of age , while in many from twelve to fourteen hours' labour was exacted . All the testimony collected , not from sciolists , but from physicians and others who < dualt practically with the matter , went to prove that the worst form of American slavery was not more inhuman tlian the sufferings systematically anflictedin Englislifactories . Illustrations are multiplied in the work before us ; -but they are too painful to dwell upon . We prefer to note the agencies by -which the reform was effected . 1 he Earl of Shaftesbury , Lord Ellesmere , Mi . Richard Oastler , Mr . Sadler , Mr . William JJawso-n , and Mr . Hearne were -among the workers in the good cause . Other names possess almost equal claims upon the gratitude of the operative class—Brooke , VVhitacre , Cook , Raud , and Kay , all well known in Lancashire , besides nearly thirty working . men who ' distinguished themselves by their persevering and anxious labours . ' Landor , Southey , " Wordsworth , and James Montgomery wrote in behalf of the factory children ; Mrs . Trollope gave much offence by her Michael Armstrong , but it was an assistance to the reformers ; Charlotte Elizabeth published Helen Fleettcootl in the interest of the movement ; and the press generally adopted , as a basis of argument , Richard Oastler ' s ' fact' that ' infants of seven years of age , in the mills of Bradford , positively work thirteen hours per day , with an intermission of half an hour for dinner . '
In May of the present year Lord Faversham , to whom is due the lasting . gratitude of the industrious classes , wrote : " Of all the measures I supported , whilst a representative of Yorkshire , I look upon the Ten Hours bill as the best , and most fraught with beneficial effects ; it was a measure -of justice , philanthropy , patriotism , and policy . " The ' Fieldens of Todrnorden' also bear witness to the benefits conferred upon the factory -operatives by the act of 1847 . Moreover , as the writer of these volumes observes , it was the working men of Huddersfield who first united with Mr . Oastler in active efforts to instruct and direct public opinion on the factory question ; ' the c History' pays a debt also to Pitkethly , to David WeatherJbead , to John Leech , to Hindley , to Robert JBlincoe , concludin g with a warm promise to all earnest reformers , that ' a small band of men , united together , for a common ( and just ) purpose , and pledging their word that they will succeed , ' will become masters of public opinion , and not only fulfil their work , but witness the gathering of its fruits .
No. 395, October 17,1857.] The Leadejy 1...
No . 395 , October 17 , 1857 . ] THE LEADEjy 1003
Latter-Day Poetry. Psyche, And Other Poe...
LATTER-DAY POETRY . Psyche , and Other Poems . By James Cruice . ( Bryce . )—Here is a little volume of verse , ushered in . by a prose ' Proem , ' commencing , " Go forth , O my Book ! if there be any merit in thee , " & c , and ending with an assur-¦ ance that the author will bo content " if but an occasional beauty , or now -and then a stroke of nature , attract the eye or find its way to the heart . ' Why he should be content with such parsimonious success , which would leave to the reader all the trouble of digging out the ' occasional beauties ' from the constant desert , it would be hard to say ; and there is always
something suggestive of after foolishness in such exclamations as " Go forth , O my Book ! " But , undeterred by his Proem , we bravely swam out into Mr . Cruice ' s verses . Of course we imagined that the Psyche who forms the subject of the first poem was the Psyche of the declining , but still beautiful , Greek mythology ; and we were therefore somewhat surprised at finding her described as having ' her plumed hat beside her laid . ' Fancy the lovely winged impersonation of the human soul in an ' all-round hat !' But Mr . Cruice's Psyche turns out to be an Italian maiden of high lineage , while her Cupid is a doughty knight . Young ladies still in the flush of
• sweet seventeen , and gentle youths whose affections are yet divided between blue eyes and mild cigars , may like the story of their loves : to us , it is un-• endurably namby-pamby . Another book of poems about Psyche—the true Psyche this time—is entitled Psi / cMs Interludes . By C . li . Cnyley , of the Translators ( sic ) of Dante ' s Comedy' ( Longman ) . Such is the bingulur title of a singular volume . For those ' Interludes' are written in so furiously metaphysical and ultra mystical a strain that , to apeak honestly , we are at a loss tor their
¦ meaning . We might possibly draw some golden wisdom from their obscurity if wo could isolate ourselves for a year , and concentrate our faculties ¦ entirel y on Mr . Cay ley . But life has other duties besides the guessin-r of riddles- and although the race of Sphynxes has greatly increased of late + ? ? v r ° docs " "Ppwir to have been a com * ponding development of the ( Minuses . We greatly regret Mr . Cnyley ' s tendency to the enigma , teal , beoiuse * e iuncy We detect through the mist some hints of beauty andI suggestiveneaa Mr . Cayley may be a prophet of truth , ami his reader S 5 . IZ f M »«» PB . ot >« ., 1 B ate mutter ; but , as thi mountain canmountaTiu Ulllxom ^ lt » a pity that Mahomet does not go to the Vol . IV . has readied us of The Modern Scottish Mimtrel j or , the Soms of
Scotland of the Past Half Century .- With Memoirs of the Poets , and Sketches and Specimens in English Verse of the Most Celebrated Modern Gaelic Bards . By Charles [ Rogers , LLJD ., F . S . A ., Scot . ( Edinburgh : A . and C . Black . ) This is a comprehensive collection of Caledonian minstrelsy , and to those whose tastes lie in that direction it must be a perfect treasure . Our own tastes , as the reader knows ,. do not lie in that direction ; but this is a weakness arising from our ' Southron exclusiveness . We have two volumes of American poems before us—literal Poems , by Thomas Buchanan Read ( London : Longman ) ; aud Poems , by William W . Story ( Boston : Little , Brown and Co . ) . The first of these is occasionallydiffuse and morbid , being overspread with that melancholy hue which is often found in Transatlantic literature ; but it contains some delicate painting of natural seenerj ' , and some tender versification . Here is an . Autumn scene , admirably ' felt , ' as the painters say : — Within his sober realm of leafless trees The russet year inhaled the dreamy air , LLke some tanned reaper in his hour of ease , When all the field 6 are lying brown and bare . The grey barns , looking from their hazy kills O ' er the dim waters widening in the val * s , Sent down the air a greeting to the mills , On the dull thunder of alternate flails . All sights were mellowed and nil sounds subdued ; The hills seemed farther , and the streams sang low : As in a dream the distant woodman hewed . His winter log , with many a muffled bknv . On slumbrou 3 wings the vulture held his flight ; The dove scarce heard his sig-liing mate ' s complaint ; And , like a star slow drowning in the light , The village church-vane seemed to pale and faint . The sentinel-cock upon the hill-side crew—Crew tbrice , and all was stiller than before , — Silent , till some replying warder blew His alien horn , and then was heard no more . Where erst the jay , within the elm's tall crest , Made garrulous trouble rouiul her unfledged young , And where the oriole hung her swaying nest By every light wind like a censor swung ; Where sang : the noisy masons of the eaves , , The busy swallows , circling ever near , Foreboding , as the rustic mind believes , An early harvest and a plenteous year ; Where every bird which charmed the vernal feast Shook the sweet slumber from its wings at morn , To warn the reaper of the rosy east , All now -was songless , empty , and forlorn . Alone from out the stubble piped the quail , And croaked the crow through all the dreamy glooin ; Alone the pheasant drumming £ 11 the vale Made echo to the distant cottage loom . Filled to overflowing with the spirit of ever-youthful antiquity , and with the love-languors of celestial passion , are these verses on Endyniion : — What time the stars first flocked into the blue , Behind young Hesper , shepherd of the eve , Sleep bathed the fair boy ' s lids with magic dew , 'Mid flowers that all day blossomed to receive Endymion . Lo ! where he lay encircled in Ms dream , The moss -was glad to pillow his soft liair , And toward him leaned the lily from the stream , The hanging vine waved wooing in the . air Endymion . The brook , that whilom won its easy way O ' errun with meadow grasses long and cool , N " ow reeled into a fuller tide , and lay Caressing , in its clear enamoured pool , Endymion . And all the sweet , delicious airs , that fan Enchanted gardens in their hour of bloom , Blown through the soft invisible pipes of Tan , Breathed , ' mid their mingled music and perfume , Endymion . The silvery leaves , that rustled in the light , Sent their winged shadows o ' er his cheek entranced ; The constellations wandered down the night , And whispered to the dew-drops where they danced , Endymion . Lo ! there lie slept , and all his flock at will Went star-like down the meadow ' s azure mist : What wonder that pale Dian , Avitli a . thrill , lirenthed on his lips her sudden love , and kissed Endyiuiou ? Mr . Story has more strength and more substance ; but he so closely copies the manner of Jlobcrt Browning that he hardly does justice to the largo fund of original power which lie basin him . Like our own poet , he has ° a singular mixture of vivacity and reflection ; and he has the same rich facility of versification , the same power of subtly-inwoven rhyming , the same tendenc } ' to dramatic monologues , the same love of 1 talian scenery and characters , the same abrupt and rather perplexing method of dashing at once into this very midst of a subject , the same colloquial familiarity in the mariner combined with abstrusenoss in the matter , and the same exquisite sensitiveness to whatever is typical of internal emotion in external sights and sounds . ' Castle Palo' is a striking story , though a little overwrought , and a little too closely resembling in Btyle Browning ' s Flight of the JJuchess , as the ensuing lines will show : — * ' 'Tis a bleak , wild place , for a . legend fit , " I thought , as I spelt out over the guto I'lio JLatin iuecriptiou , with name and dat « ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 17, 1857, page 19, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_17101857/page/19/
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