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178 &ttt fteafret. [Satphdav,
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tiUxatntt.
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Critics are not the legislators , but th...
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Perhaps of all the new books we hear ser...
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Certainly the spread of Socialist views ...
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A valued correspondent — Mr. J . W. Uiit...
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In German Literature we hear of nothing ...
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D'aRLINCOURT ON ITALY. Vltalie Rouge ; o...
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.
178 &Ttt Fteafret. [Satphdav,
178 & ttt fteafret . [ Satphdav ,
Tiuxatntt.
tiUxatntt .
Critics Are Not The Legislators , But Th...
Critics are not the legislators , but the judges and police of literature . They do not make laws—they interpret and try to enforce them . —Edinburgh Meview .
Perhaps Of All The New Books We Hear Ser...
Perhaps of all the new books we hear seriously discussed just now , the Letters on Man ' s Nature and Development , by Harriet Martineau and H . G . Atkinson , is the most prominent . People seem uneasy—when they are not alarmed—at it ; and this is explicable . The open avowal of Atheism and denial of Immortality are enough " to give us pause . " There are—we are glad to think it—so few persons who share those opinions that the avowal must necessarily create pain among
Harriet Martineau ' s friends and very numerous admirers j but we must think that they are singularly misplacing their sympathy when they express their sorrow for this daring act on account of the " injury it will do to her reputation . " This is the almost universal expression . It was for the first unreflecting moment our own ; a calmer consideration showed us it was unworthy . What has reputation to do with truth ? Who that promulgates a new idea does not hurt his reputation with the upholders of the reigning creed ? Are we to ask of
our " reputations" what it befits us to believe ? Are we to believe and be silent ? No , no . The pain , if pain there be , is to see one honoured fellow-voyager on the shoreless sea suddenly part company with us because she believes that the land lies in a direction totally opposite to the one we make for . Pain such as that we all have known ; we all must know . What is our duty ? Shall we alter our chart to suit hers ? Shall we destroy her because she will not sail by ours ? Or shall we not rather bid her a mournful farewell , and say God speed us all!—" There ' s somewhat in this world amiss Shall be unriddled by and by . " Meanwhile , courage , hopeful endeavour , loving earnestness , and perfect sincerity will surely guide us to a quiet port . The book itself we should have reviewed before this , but for the pressure of other matters . We hope next week to be able to treat it with the gravity it deserves .
Another book also lies reproachfully upon our table , deferred week after week for want of clear space : we allude to Social Statics by Herbert Spencer . We remember no work on ethics since that of Spinoza to be compared with it in the simplicity of its premisses , and the logical rigour with which a complete system of scientific ethics is evolved from them . This is high praise ; but we give it deliberately .
Certainly The Spread Of Socialist Views ...
Certainly the spread of Socialist views has been amazingly rapid since the establishment of the header ; and one of the most agreeable symptoms is the increased attention accorded it by influential journals . The article in the Edinburgh Review is now followed up by a very candid paper in Chambers ' s Journal , wherein the writer sets forth the leading positions of the Edinburgh Reviewer and of our reply . Nothing but good can issue from discussion when conducted in such a spirit .
A Valued Correspondent — Mr. J . W. Uiit...
A valued correspondent — Mr . J . W . Uiitcuhas objected , " in good set . terms , " to our allusion to the Concordat , and refers to Mr . Lainu , whom we have praised highly ( though we never thought of endorsing his opinions ) , as an authority aguiiiNt us . Our position was that the blind horror Protestants have for Catholics prevented any diplomatic arrangements with the Pope . The dread of priestly aggression in not new in Kngland , nor is it peculiar to this or to other Protestant countries . The most zealous Catholics have everywhere protected themselves against this evil , and have done so under more disadvantageous circumstanceH than Protestants . Notwithstanding the Pope has uniformly protested against all treaties in which Church property and privileges were encroached upon , yet
the Catholic Sovereigns never hesitated to sign such , and to avow them as binding on themselves and their subjects ; memorable instances are the treaties of Westphalia , in which the m ilitary orders of St . John and the Teutonic Knights were secularized , and the former made a Protestant order , numerous bishoprics made Protestant , and abbeys suppressed ; the treaty of Luneville , in which the destitution of the clerical electors of the empire , Mayence , Treves , and Cologne , was pronounced , and which was concluded between France and Austria without our participation .
In the treaty of Vienna , which we guaranteed , the equality , civil and religious , of the three confessions , Roman , Lutheran , and Calvinist , is solemnly affirmed , and the lands of the Teutonic Knights were added to the Crown of Austria as part indemnification for the Suabian lordships . On these occasions the Catholic potentates acted in virtue of their sovereignty , by which they declare they have the power to control the church in administrative matters . That this principle has become the law of Europe is evidenced by the suppression of orders , the alienation and appropriation of church lands in Austria , Spain , and
Portugal . When Joseph II ., by an Imperial ordonnance , suppressed more than 1100 religious houses , and alienated their estates , the Pope went in person to Vienna to remonstrate . He celebrated mass at St . Stephen ' s , but carried no other point . The people were with the Sovereign . Of these estates the Emperor Francis II . made what is called the political fund . One-third of the revenue was especially appropriated to roadmaking , one-third to schools and education , and one-third to improve the condition of the parochial clergy .
On the death of the Princess Henrietta , consort of the late Archduke Charles , a Protestant lady of the house of Nassau , the Capuchin friars who have the charge of the Imperial vault at Vienna refused to admit her coffin . The Emperor sent word that if the monks did not take it in he would send a detachment of his guards to put the coffin in its place , remarking that " she had spent her life amongst the family and should stay amongst them niter death . "
King Louis of Bavaria suspended his Court chaplain for preaching against Protestantism and Protestants in an unseemly manner . The Archbishop of Munich must celebrate the royal nuptials , although the Queen of Bavaria is invariably a Protestant . Catholic countries in such cases are in the awkward position of arbitrarily destroying the political power arrogated by the Papal see for itself and clergy , and thus protesting de facto against the Pope ' s claim to infallibility .
Protestant countries are better situated . Where diplomatic servants worthy of the name have been appointed an arrangement has not been refused by the Pope , by which , where he cannot command , he is content to accept , and to agree to be bound by certain stipulations . Such an arrangement is called a Concordat . Prussia , Holland , and Bavaria have such . In each the mode of electing bishops where the Pope only has a veto , but where the Government has a veto also , in fixed by treaty .
The number of sees is fixed , and to add to them , except by afresh , treaty , would be a breach of the Concordat . Thus in Holland the Bishop of Utrecht , in Prussia the , Rhenish Westphalian and Sihsian bishops are the pastoral heads of the Catholic population , while , the Protestant provinces are territorially freed from their jurisdiction . A Concordat is thus an agreement for fair play , not only between rival powers , but between differing creeds .
Why , wo are entitled to ask , did not those English Ministers who guaranteed for all those countries equality of religious righta , not settle our relations to Romfi in thin nimplo and effectual manner ? Is a Concordat too fair a measure for Englishmen ? W | iy there ( and in there still ) a
lurking fear of the titles of confiscated land * being inquired into ? But the church property has every where been confiscated , and nobody dreams of restoring it . How did the Swiss answer the demand of Austria the other day ? What has Austria herself done in this way ? On precedent , Woburn and Westminster lands are equally secure * There surely can be no good policy in having so large a mass of our countrymen as the Catholics without religious organization . The Emancipation Bill answers that question .
Why is it , then , that we are in a scrape with this new cardinal ? Simply because our Government is a string of expedients , in which all appeal to principles ia strictly ignored or knowingly evaded . Our diplomatists are bunglers , our foreign Ministers jobbers in political speculation .
In German Literature We Hear Of Nothing ...
In German Literature we hear of nothing new . In French but little . Paul Fkval has given us a new romance , La Fee des Chreves—t he best we think he has yet written , because while abounding in incidents" and romantic perils , it is free from the atrocities of character and crime which usually serve him as the spices for his dish . Jules Sandeau , the charming novelist , has been following in the old track and turning his novel of Mademoiselle de la Seigliere into a comedy . Oh 1 this manufactory , this crambe recocta , this reeooking of
cabbage , what a sarcasm it is on the literature of the age ! Invention is too costly . Who invents now ? or , having invented , who contents himself with setting it forth once , and then patiently trying to invent something new ? As scientific inventors take out patents forbidding any one to use their discoveries for a term of years , so do our litterateurs use up their inventions ( not being particular * though , as to whether the inventions are theirs !) in every shape and under every name they can invent ; yes , therein now lies the " invention "—to find newnames , new shapes , new clothes !
D'Arlincourt On Italy. Vltalie Rouge ; O...
D ' aRLINCOURT ON ITALY . Vltalie Rouge ; ou L'Hittoire des Revolutions de Rome , Naples , 1 ' alerme , $ c . Par le Vicomte D'Arlincourt . W . Jelfs . To the two books , in which Messrs . Macfarlane and Cochrane treated the late Italian revolutions so contemptuously , we may now add a third—L'ltalie Rouge , by the Vicomte d'Arlincourt . Doubtless , the object of all three writers was the same—to paint in odious colours the efforts which Italy has made of late to reconquer her freedom , and drive away the foreigner . But the two Englishmen endeavoured to show that they wrote according to their own convictions , whereas the French writer does not blush to exhibit himself as the instrument of the most terrible enemy Italy had then , —of the cruellest oppressor she has now .
It was at Naples , in the King ' s palace , that the Vicomte d'Arlincourt went to seek his inspiration ! Not only is the spirit of L'ltalie Rouge different , its plan also is different from those of Messrs . Macfarlane and Cachrane . The two Englishmen only wrote the history of those parts of Italy which they visited , either during the revolution itself , or soon after ; whereas the Vicomte d'Arlincourt , who only resided for a short time in 1850 , in some few Italian cities , pretends to write the history of the entire Peninsula , from June , 1846 , to April , 1850 .
What with his haste , his habit of novel writing , his worship of the King of Naples and his principles ( by the side of which those of Messrs . Macfarlane and Cochrane would be as ultra as Chartism ) , the old worn-out novelist has composed a revolting satirical romance upon those noble revolutions of a great People , whom many events in 184 ft and 1840 have proved to be worthy of the glory of their ancestors . He thus traces the origin of the revolutions : —
" All ( ho < l < : moi ) H of anarchy hastened to the pandemonium , of Switzerland ; mid" towards the year 18 < 'fl , those powers of iniquity who nought to aboliHh the rich and could not abolinh the poor , who laboured to destroy the family , home , the rights of property , and religion , in order to replace them by innlatiou , ruin , Hcepticisra , and nothiiiKiiuHH ; those burburoua regoneratorH who said to God himnelf : — ' Away with yort ' '—chose Mazzini a * their urrand-maBter .
41 Thai future Triumvir of Rome , dritvn out of France in consequence of three murrierH , took up his abode In Helvetia . At Inn mnnmonu the Carbonari changed their form and nwne ; they called tjieniHclvcs ' Young Italy . '
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 22, 1851, page 14, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_22021851/page/14/
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