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STo. 461y January 22,1859.] THE LIAPIil....
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THE VERNEYS. The Verneys; or, Chaos Disp...
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JEAN PAUL- RICHTER. Sketches of arid fro...
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THE PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPEECH. A Ma...
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A GUIDE TO TYPOGRAPHY..•1 Guide to Typog...
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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 Edinburgh Review. Tub Present Valuab...
hardly say tliatthQ"beavy politicals , " under present cVcumstances > have attracted us more than all we have yet mentioned ; and to these , therefore , we shall be excused for direeting our reader ' s especial attention . ' - ¦ ' * - » » In an able article in the Edinburgh of October last , an account from a strictly Edinburgh point of view was given of the negotiations which , in June 1812 , led to the selection of Lord Liverpool as the successor of Mr . Perceval . The same writer now traces the career of the Tory administration from that period to the death of Lord Castlereagh , in 1822 . Their prosecution of the struggle with Napoleon and the determined support of the
, Pr ince of Wales , it seems , were their political capital * The Whigs of the period had been lowered in public esteem by their resistance to a war which the people had at heart , and we may note by the ¦ way that the Aberdeen party of 1854 suffered for the same cause . Lord Liverpool prospered while his war majorities lasted ; but the difficulties of domestic policy being too much for his party , their career as an administration became a stormy one soon after Waterloo . In 1816 , when Napoleon was well in hold at St . Helena , the public demanded the abandonment of the war impost ; but the best terms Mr . Vansittart
was disposed to offer were its reduction by pnehalf , namely to a shilling in the pound . Ministers were beaten by 238 to 201 , and Lord Dudley , writing to the Bishop of Llandaff , makes the following curious comment . Well pleased that the Ministers were beaten because he thought they Wanted beating upon something , he observes : "Their prodigious success which , without at all meaning to deny their merits a ^ id abilities , must be allowed by all reasonable men to have been vastly beyond their merits and beyond their abilities ^ had made their underlings insolent ^ and the House too obedient ; and a- blow of that sort was necessary to remind the servants
of the country that they were riot its masters , and to give back to the constitution that spirit and activity which it was beginning to lose . " This seems something like ' a tale of our own times . The spring , however > recoiled . Trade was restricted ; a prohibitory corn-law was passed in 1815 . Reform of Parliament , -though supported by all the energy of Grey , Lansdbwne , Althorpe , and Tierney , was as bitterly opposed by the Wellesleys and Castlereagh . These defended press-gagging and espial , and scorned pressure from below . The Habeas Corpus Act was suspended , by way of soothing public
discontent . After an undignified war against pamphleteers and libellers , the Manchester massacre ¦ was followed by the " Six Acts . " In 1819 the Duke of Wellington joined the Ministry . In 1820 , after the old King ' s death , its Toryism , despite its unpopularity , seemed to intensify . It g athered strength from the Crown in return for its pliant support of the new monarch ' s roaster-projects with reference to his unhappy wife . In 1821 , after the -death of that poor woman , and Mr . Canning ' s secession , Mr . Peel , then an extreme Tory , who in 1817 had been termed by Mackintosh " the spokesman to the intolerant faction" upon the Catholic
sioh of popular franchise , " he lays before us a fascinating resume of the last twenty ^ five years' legislative progress in proof that the reformed House of Commons has reflected with fidelity the predominant opinions of the great body of the community . He hints slyly that a reactionary Reform Bill may be brought in which may try , by pervertec statistics , to add to the power of landowners , anc thus disturb the existing balance of interests ; and contends that , in fact , there is far less reason for extensive and systematic innovation at present than there was in 1831 .
Still , he considers the numerical basis of the representation may be enlarged with advantage , but avoids suggestions or criticisms , lest , perhaps , they might hereafter be found to coincide witli the Government bill . To the moneyed classes he would give a larger share of representation than they enjoy , adding to the roll of large boroughs ; but he would look with jealousy upon the extinction of borough seats . He quotes the proposed purifying schedules of Lord J . Russell ' s Bill of 1854 . Ingeniously he discards the House of L 6 rds from his calculation of the comparative bearing of Jaiided and moneyed influence on the representation , and
feigning a desire to balance the overwhelming influence of land and money , urges his readers to do battle in defence of sixty-two seats , such as Calne , Harwich , and ; Maldon , which that ¦ bill , would 1 have suppressed . With respect to the principle of representing " Intelligence" he considers that a minor involved in the major of property , but he would entertain the claims of inns of court and certain universities . " Locality , " he thinks , should enter into any sound system , of course ; and the benefit of it he would give to certain outlying communities , without ; reference to numbers , property , or intelligence , but as a compensation for the inordinate d t
moral force of large ones , which shoulbe conten to accept their " Moral power" in part payment of their claims to large representation . This manifesto is amusing , interesting , and perhaps important . It is important if the Edinburgh is in trtitk any longer a party organ , For have hot the arguments above a singular ancient smell of poor old dead Toryism ? May we look for the resurrection of that venerable party in a coat of blue and yellow ? There seems , indeed , a chance of it . The Edinburgh and its merry men have watched with but little complacency the leek-eating of Lord Derby ' s Administration . They have seen the Jew Bill go down . They have seen property qualification abolished . They have seen Lord Canning praised , and reformers out of number provided for . But
when men whom this vegetable diet has not disagreed with proceed to bolt the Reform camel , our motley Liberal watchman can endure it no longer . " By the Heavens , you shall eat no more ! " he cries , "if I have to turn Tory myself I" It is certainly a hard thing at the Edinburgh ' s time of lifer—a very hard thing—to turn " right about face , " but as no other step seems very likely to regain the Paradise of Downing-street for the fallen Peris of Reform , it has been decided , we presume , at head-quarters , to take it . This is au admission of Lord Derby ' s strength , and is very noteworthy . In conclusion , if the article we have just noticed bo the pattern of a set , we may soon expect to see our dear old Edinburgh shorn of its Liberal yellow baok , and decked in . ' a full suit of old-faslnoncd Tory true-blue .
question , became Home Secretary . In 1 S 22 , when Oastlqrcagli committed suicide , and Canning was called from his dreams of Indian power and fortune to the Foreign-office and the lead of the House of Commons , the Tories had , with short intervals , been in possession of the reins for nearly fifty years . Since the peace , to quote Lord Dudley , the party had been " abundantly dragged through the dirt , and had fallen into a state of discredit and insigniucance-r-had been a Ministry , not a Government . " But here the reviewer leaves Lord Liverpool still at the helm , promising to resume his digest in a future article , It is no less interesting to observe , in the article on the •« History and Prospects of Parliamentary Reform , " the chamcleonesquo property of party
opinion . This paper professes to furnish Parliament men of Liberal opinions with the standards by which they should try the forthcoming ministerial measure of Reform before certifying its adequacy to those conditions which a Reform Bill of 1859 ought to fulfil . With this view the writer digests the history of Parliamentary Reform from tno tlmq of Lord Chatham , whom ho points to us tuo father of the movement . Then wo have a ploa tor top finality of the measure of 1832 as having placed " a definitive boundary against the onoroaohn » enta of ariatooratio power , and plaped the real ^ presentation of the people on an immovable bnsis . " xlavjng thus narrowed tho cirolo of admissible cnanpfc to " popular progress" and « ' future extcp-
Sto. 461y January 22,1859.] The Liapiil....
STo . 461 y January 22 , 1859 . ] THE LIAPIil . 1 Q 9
The Verneys. The Verneys; Or, Chaos Disp...
THE VERNEYS . The Verneys ; or , Chaos Dispelled . A Tale of Genius and Religion . By Miss Caroline M » ry Smith , Hall , Virtue , and Co , " Sinck chaos' convoys an idea of incongruity of confusion or of obscurity , as the case may be , and there is appended with it the * word 'dispelled , ' forming in total a problem promising verbose solution , it is best to set forth on the threshold that there is in the following story , simply n purpose in its structure of the component parts—first , the natural talent and ability , which aro an inheritance from tho birth ; secondly , tho fair morality , which of itaulf enhances the earlier gifts of
God ; thirdly , tho roligious element , which perfects those earlier elements in tho ohnractor of Gabriel Vernoy . " This extract from the preface will put tho reader into possession of tho .. author ' s " purpose" in writing this tale . Wo honestly confess , without the light afforded to us by the " extract , " wo should , never have divined the lady ' s purpose" from tho pages of tho work . "Wo aro afraid that tho author pitched her flight rather too high—she took wing boldly , but soon afterwards failed , to sustain her elevation , if wo at once discard tho pretensions of tho preface and look at tho talo simply as a work of imagination , wo
feel we shall have a better opportunity of doing justice to the unquestionable ability of the writer . The commencement of the story is good , and . promises novelty . Gabriel Verney ' s early life , his desire for learning , his devotion to Father Paul and his introduction to the Duke and Duchess de Montreulle are matters very well told , full of freshness and full of promise of something out of the beaten track' —• something 1 * , in fact , that will help to carry out the promises of the preface . Put from this point the tale diverges from originality and interest , sinks to the level of ordinary novel incidents , and disappoints expectations which the commencement gave birth
to . Then * again , the rate of mortality among the actors in the various situations is something alarming . There are no less than eight deaths recordecj . from malignant fever , from suicide , and from prosaic causes , that are to be found in the Registrar ' s weekly official statement . A few more such novels would very soon require a cemetery to themselves . There is some good writing in the tale , sufficiently good to satisfy us that Miss Smith can do better . But with reference to the " genius" and its developments , there is little to say in praise ; and with reference to the " religion , " we are afraid there will be found still less .
Jean Paul- Richter. Sketches Of Arid Fro...
JEAN PAUL- RICHTER . Sketches of arid from Jean Paul Richter . A . W . Bennett . To those who are already acquainted with the life and writings of Richter , this little volume will teach nothing new ; but it may serve to give the many-English readers to whom he is at present a stranger some idea of that great and eccentric genius . ^ It is , in fact , an abridgment of the larger biographies , interspersed '¦¦ with selections from the works , and , considering the peculiar difficulties of style which everywhere encumber tile original , the translations appear
to us to be correct . We find among them specimens of R ichter ' s various styles , the sublimity of his powerful imagination , the pathos of his deep , childlikeheart . We confess to missing the . rich , genial humour , which was as characteristic of him as any of " his other qualities , and which entitle him to rank as the Sterne or Cervantes of Germany . On the whole , however ^ this nicely got up little book may be used with advantage as an introduction to a more extensive knowledge of his works ; and that knowledge would certainly lead in this country to a high appreciation of a writer who , more than alThis illustrious contemporaries , retained in the midst of a scepticaland artificial a £ e the better instincts of humanity' and an unshaken faith in God .
The Philosophy Of Voice And Speech. A Ma...
THE PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPEECH . A Manual of the Philosophy of Vote * and Speech . By James Hunt , Ph , D ., M . B . S . L . Lqpgman and Co , Mr . Hunt ' s work ranges over a very wide field . The " philosophy of the voice and speech" is made to include subjects that , at first sight , appear only collaterally connected with the vocal organs . We find the greatest part of the volume , which is of no mean thickness , devoted to such questions as respi ^ ration ; the organs of hearing ; language in general ; the origin of language ; primitive and cognate languages ; origin and development of the English language : origin and progress of writing ; English
orthography ; pasilogy and pasigraphy , I he chapters which relate to the management and perfection of the voice , and the use and perfect application of speech , are few , and somewhat meagre , consisting not so much of Mr . Hunt ' s own experiences as of the experiences and observations of others . A good deal of curious miscellaneous matter lias been brought together , and though it does not strike us that much illu 3 tration is thrown on the " philosophy" of either voice or speech , there is yet a great deal that will be found of a suggestive and interesting character . Some of the passages which havo reference to public speaking and public singing may bo studied with advantage by orators and vocalists .
A Guide To Typography..•1 Guide To Typog...
A GUIDE TO TYPOGRAPHY . . 1 Guide to Typography , Literary and Practical . By Honry Beadnoll . *' . lowering . Tms unpretending manual is evidently the production of an earnest and industrious student of the English tonguo . It einbraoos tho subjects of Ii . ngb . sh orthography , literary miscellanies , tho formation of derivative , inflected , and compound words , ana syllabication . Although , in tho eurly part of his book , Mr . Beadnoll scorns to advance little that is it becomes evident
now , yot , as tho work goes on , that what appeared to bo somewhat trite , is necessary to his design , and forma tho groundwork of much thut follows . On tho subjects of tho proper formation of derivative and compound words , which frequently puzzlo oven well-informed compositors , much light is thrown , and tlio matter placed upon a rational basis , Altogether the work increases m interest as it proceeds , and cannot fail to bo highly useful to tho class for whom it is more especially designed , if they will but digest its contents
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 22, 1859, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_22011859/page/13/
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