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10O The Leader and Saturday Analyst. [Fe...
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LECTURES AXD INSTITXJTIO^S. npHE " failu...
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A MODJEKN I^UEXCir ¦DllAMA. * WHAT conat...
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« XTn PtVo l*rucltj/nc OouiO.llo on olni...
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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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What Is Ax Auditoil ? So Me Honest Trade...
this and other such refusals he was superseded in his office , ahdis to this date £ 900 out of pocket because he did his best to improve the Queen ' s private revenue ; and although a parliamentary inquiry established the fact that the revenue of the duchy was considerably increasea during : his term of oflBce , yet he was punished as if he had robbed the Queen . But the strangest feature of all was the rule laid doun by the Solicitor-General of the duchy , to the effect that the auditor ought to certify to the correctness of an account by order of the ¦ . Chancellor , even if the auditor knew that such certification covered a fraud . To a stranger the question naturally arises—rif such be . the power of the Chancellor , and if lie uses it , what need is there to rob the Queen of £ 200 per an mini for a sham auditor ? And how does the lawyer reconcile his dictum with the old doctrine that the . law will not recognise a fraud ? Perhaps the fact that the Chancellor of the duchy during a portion of the time was the chief leaseholder , may reconcile all these thing-si However , to us it seems that the affairs of charities ought always to be audited by "' public accountants" of eminence ¦; the auditors of joint stock companies ought to be held responsible for the safety of the investments as valued by themselves up to the date of audit , whilst the auditors of public departments ought to be rendered independent by being made irremovable except by a court of law . ¦ Everybody is familiar with tales about corruption in Government departments , and latterly we have had a sort of extra-national audit in the shape of a royal commission at Weedon , Woolwich , and the Tower , which aftera very long inquiry ended by acquitting everybody . Of the value of the report from such men the treatment of Mr . BeetOlacci furnishes one instance and we will conclude this article with another . During- the Crimean war , and whilst the ladies from John o'GrOats to the Land ' s-end were all busy scraping lint to mate up for the neglect of the Commissariat , a Manchester merchant made an offer to supply a large quantity to the Government . After the usual three weeks of delay his letter was acknowledged , and he was asked tbr a sample , which not having ready he went to another firm which wns already supplying , and begging a sample seiit it tip as his own , and quoted a price 3 d . per lb . less jbhan was chavg-ed by the firm , from whom the sample was obtained . Another delay of three weeks , whilst thousands of wounded soldiers were dying for Want of itiVt , and then a reply to the effect that a medical board had reported the lint as unsuitable . But mark the sequel : in a day or two afterwards the merchant received- a letter from Apothecaries Hall asking if he had not some lint to dispose of ; he replied in the affirmative , and quoted 6 d . per lb . more than he had offered the article , at to the Government . In reply he was told - that they ( the authorities at Apothecaries Hall ) had understood that Ms price Was . 6 d . per lb . less ; nevertheless he might go to work , and send all he could until told to stop . " Doubtless the reader will feel disposed to ask one or two questions , such as , " Who composed ,. the medical board which reported the lint as unsuitable ? How did the people at Apothecaries Hall ] a \ ow that this merchant had lint for sale ? How much of this same lint went to the Government at last , and at what price ?¦ " And for ourselves , we ask , when shall we liave a real national audit ?
10o The Leader And Saturday Analyst. [Fe...
10 O The Leader and Saturday Analyst . [ Feb . 18 , 1 S 60 .
Lectures Axd Institxjtio^S. Nphe " Failu...
LECTURES AXD INSTITXJTIO ^ S . npHE " failure of the Lecture system" is a common source of corn-X plaint among those who hoped that literary and scientific institutions would prove valuable instruments in national education . It was hot unreasonably expected that a steady band of members would attend the lecture-rooms of these establishments from year to year , ¦ ready and anxious to obtain the best and latest expositions of that wide round of subjects , scientific , literary , and artistic , which fornj , so to speak , the basis of civilized life . In the main , however , this anticipation has been disappointed , and the number of institutions which try to arrange a good and 'useful programme is exceedingly small . As a rule , no lectures are popular but those of unero amusement , which arp , in fact , cheap substitutes for the light comedy of the theatre , or the musical delectations of the concert-room or the opera . If svo take up at random a dozen lists of lecture . } for the season , wo shall' notice an absurd jumble of subjects , thrown together in most admired disorder , " and scarcely over find sufficient ypaco given to aiiy one topic to enable ifc to be treated ia a satisfactory way . Working n » on will congregate in considerable numbers to hear long- courses of instruction on a variety of subjects lit the School of Aria aud Mima in Jermyn Street but no mechanics' institution dtivo venture upon similar plans , and the . . Royal Institution stands nlono in London I ' ov fidelity to its original design , and t \> v siipphj-ng from swisqn to season a . succession of discourses which offer the readiest ' means of beinn " well up " ' in the science of the day . What other body would put forward as *' arrangements before JCastcr , " wix lectures on the Various Forces of Mutter ( adapted to a juvenile miditorv ) by Michael Fakaim y ; twelve lectures on Fossil Uirds iuul lieptiles by Hiohaiio Owen j twelve on JLiyhfc , including its liiyhor Phenomena , by Jount Tyndajli ,, and loa on tho Jlohvtioas of the Annual Kingdom to the Industry of man by 12 mvitf LANXKS'i ' Eit P Wo know that tho Koynl Ins . titut . ion . oijoya tho patronage of the better educate ^ portion of the a , n'isK 6 (! i « uy , and of tl » 0 upper section of tho middle class ; but is it true that these ave the only uovfcions of tho community who venjly want to bo''informed on tho aubjecta ulludod loP Wy cannot boliavo this to be the cusp , aiui fear that by bud nuumg-oiriont audjotujua have b , uun spoilt , and led to look un ' y where rather thun to tho iecturoa'ooin for aids to study or thought , . If an uudieuco is not woll kept up , looturora soon go down to its level $ und wo recQntly hnd « curious inatanoo of thia in the
handsome and commodious building which adorns Finsbury Circus , and whose proprietary roll in wealth . The occasion A \ -as a soiree , in w-bich . oneof the most conspicuous objects . Was a venerable cabbage-stallc of extraordinary length- ; and Professor Owen was to lecture on " extinct animals . " The audience certainly had not that lively , intelligent , well-di-essed look which is so characteristic of the Friday evenings at the . " lloyal , " but still their lugubrious aspect scai'cely justified the learned Professor in treating them like charity school children , to whom he would ljenevolently twaddle for an hour , telling them frankly at the beginiiing that he ha ^ l nothnjg particular to say to them , had prepared no lecture , and wished they could gossip .. with him to make the thing go more pleasantly I About the same date the same Professor was all earnestness , learning , and animation at scientific societies , or at the theatre in Albemarle Street . We suppose he thought that the London Institution had got into a fossil state , and he tried to enliven its old stones with jokes calculated to make a megatherium grin . To go back to Albem . nrle Street : we mvist notice two of the most remarkable of the Friday lectures of the present season—one on the 20 th January by Professor TyNbali ., on t fie " Action of Magnetism on the Electric Discharge ; " and one last Friday byProfessor HuxiEt , on Mr . Daeavin ' s views of the " Origin of Species . " The first was a remarkably able condensation of . a very difficult subject , so as to admit of its illustration by a series of adihirably selected and brilliantly performed experiments , assisted by very little talking . The most novel feature was the exhibition . of > n important discovery by Mr . GassioTjthat the stratiiied discharge invacuo , hitherto obt . nined only frpni RuHMivOErii- ' s coil , could be produced by a powerful Geove ' s bjittery without any coil '¦ ¦ a t all . . The investigations in which Mr . Gassiot has recently been engaged lead to new views of the nature of the electric current , to which we shall endeavbur to return , and pass now to -Professor Huxley ' s exposition of the Darwinian theor \ . ' What the " Vestiges of Creation" did \\\ the way of creating a sensation in the ordinary world of intelligent readers , Mr . Dakwxn ' s receiit work has accomplished in scientific circles ; and as Professor Huxley was known to be one of the earliest converts , hi * appearance , in the character of an apostle of the new faith , was regarded with no ordinary interest , and accordingly his lecture wasattended by a very numerous and critical audience , comprehending many of the chief notables in the scientific world .- Mr . Huxley i ead a carefully prepared paper with an earnestness and emotion that showed how deeply he felt the responsibility of the task he had undertaken , and of the position in wliich he stood ; He deprecated the way in which his . friend ' s hypotJiesis had been treated ; upon grounds totally distinct froin those . of science , and , eloquently defended the right ami the duty .:. 6 . f the students of nature to exercise ] unfettered liberty iri investigating and interpreting the great volume exposed to their view . He then passed to the inquiry < i ) f what is a species ?—and selecting a horse as an illustration , briefly described its structural or morpholugical characteristics , tracing their connection with those of the rhinoceros , the tapir , and the hyrax . But structural peculiarities , such as the development of the one middle fing-er or toe in the horse , and the rudimentary condition of the adjacent fingers or toes , were not all that characterised the equine species ; there was also the physiological property of producing prolilic offspring—a property which might be broadly affirmed'to exist only among animals whose species was . identical . Mr . IIuxley then traced the easy gradations by which the horse of the present day was connected with the horses of the Tertiary period and with the pnleotherimn , which in many respects resembled the modern . tapir ; but he did not venture to affirm that tho horse was the descendant of those earlier beasts . Passing to pigeons he pointed out the amazing structural dift ' exences between the supposed primitive form of the specie ? , the rock pigeon , and tho pouter , tho carrier 1 , tho j ' nntuil , and tho tumbler ; and ho showed that in the case of the pouter tho difference extended to the addition of vertebra ) , and in the fantail to the multiplication of tho tail I ' euLh-or . s , Thcso illustrations curtaiuiy tended to shako faith in nice morphological grounds for distinguishing species , but hu confessed that tho now theory throw no liglit upoxi tho physiological problem , which is after all the most import-nut ; In conclusion , tho Professor intimated his readiness to accept all tho consoqucncoH which aro likely-to flow from ' the--- neyy hypothesis , and declared tlicro was leas difference between man and the highest form of monkey , than between the monkeys thuinsulvcs ! Our task now is not to investigulo Mr . Darwin ' s , views , but simply to notice what is occurring in the louturo world ; and whether Professor Huxlky succeeds in making- converts , or is himself rpconvertod , ho deserves credit for . courage and integrity , and it js honourable to the lloyal Institution that it should have taken -so eavly an opportunity of bringing boforo its membors » i subject that will for Homo tinio to conio be foremost in tho minds of thinking won . Ifc is , howover , to bo reinarkoil that Profcsspr IIuxx . ry scarcely touched upon tho doctrino of natural Beleofcion , which is tho most important that Mr . Daiuvin han brought forward , and which wo should like to hear him trout on another occasion .
A Modjekn I^Uexcir ¦Dllama. * What Conat...
A MODJEKN I ^ UEXCir ¦ DllAMA . * WHAT conatituteu a play or a novel immoral P Our neighbours on tho other aide of tho Channel hold n very diflbvont opinion on this Rubjoct from that whi ( ih i ^ jw '""™" - amongafc-ourtjolvos ; so
« Xtn Ptvo L*Rucltj/Nc Oouio.Llo On Olni...
« XTn PtVo l * rucltj / nc OouiO . llo on olnii , AotoB . Par Akbxanpub Dumas Flirt . Tax-Is . 1359 .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 18, 1860, page 12, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_18021860/page/12/
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