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"M THE LBADBB, P8aotmu.t.
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^Ptfl^r rrtiTI*!*" 3L U** XI4UI£ ?
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Critics are not the legislators, but the...
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The Christmas number of Household Words ...
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It is a fact for these columns, devoted ...
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Fiance has just lost one of her celebrat...
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We have been much interested by an artic...
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A work, entitled Portraits Buxjraphiqucs...
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.
"M The Lbadbb, P8aotmu.T.
"M THE LBADBB , P 8 aotmu . t .
^Ptfl^R Rrtiti*!*" 3l U** Xi4ui£ ?
iiterahn * .
Critics Are Not The Legislators, But The...
Critics are not the legislators , but the jndge 3 and police of literature . They do not make laws—they interpret and try to enforce them . —Edinburgh Review .
The Christmas Number Of Household Words ...
The Christmas number of Household Words is a delightful contribution to the means of a geaial fireside enjoyment of the present season . It ought to be read aloud in alt families on Christmas Eve ; or , as Christmas Eve falls on Sunday , any other eva in Christmas week will do . We like the literary method or form of the number—that of giving to a number of distinct stories a common dramatic setting . This is Chaucer ' s method in the " Canterbury Pilgrimage ; '" Boccacjco also used it ; and , indeed , there is a natural fitness in it which will always make it popular . In the setting of the " Seven Poor Travellers ,- " and in the first story , told by the host of the night , we think we discern Mr . Dick ^ ns ' s own pleasant , and kindly , and poetical vein . The second story , that of the Jew "' Acen Virlar , " is extremely good in a peculiar style the fantastic ; and the fourth , or brokendown attorney ' s story , ig one of the very best and most amusing little stories of plot and incident we have e * ver read .
We must call attention to the merits of Punch ' s Almanack fo r the new year . The text i 3 , as usual , a perfect mass of minute puns and facetiae crushed together in email marginal type round the illustrations ; and the illustrations themselves make the number , perhaps , the best that has been issued . Mr . Leech ' s versatility is here apparent—particularly his equal f acility in the domestic or in-doors form of the comic , and in out-of-doors scenery-with a dash of comic human interest across it . One of the illustrations- ~ -represeating two fellows fishing hopelessly in a heavy rain , in a dreai-y out-of-the-way place , with night coming on , both being miserably wretched , but the one anxious to go home , while the other won ' t hear of it—has been haunting us since we saw it . There is more real genius in that sketch , than in many a much-praised painting .
It Is A Fact For These Columns, Devoted ...
It is a fact for these columns , devoted as they are to the news of the intellectual world , that , on the 8 th of December last , the Pope and his assembled Cardinals and Bishops promulgated , in St . Peter ' s at Rome , the decree of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin—thus adding to the beliefs of the world that new speculative ingredient the wani of which has canseci all our woes , all our wars in the East , all our political convulsions , and the authoritative decree of which can only be compared to the letting loose from the dome of St . Peter ' s and from the hand of the Pope of a . subtle and intense oil of auch virtue that , diffusing itself through the atmosphere of
our planet , it will restore health to the soul of the race and peace to all the relations of peoples . Yes , this proposition , that Mary was conceived immaculately , promulgated on Friday , the 8 th of December last , is to be the universal solvent , the spiritual counteractive to all that is morally and politically wrong . Already the world moves £ 11 sunshine ; and we are all , whether we know it or not , sweeter mea . Curiously enough , as the Catholic Univers informs its readers , the scene which took place at Rome on the 8 th was prophesiefl two centuries ago . It was prophesied that the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception would be settled at a time when there would be a
revolution in China , convulsion in Turkey , and wars among Christian kings —also , that it would be settled in a week without a Friday . The fulfilment of the main part of the prophesy is obvious ; and as in honour of Friday , the 8 th of December , the Pope absolved all Catholics from the usual fast on that day of the week , the rest may be said to have been fulfilled too 1
Fiance Has Just Lost One Of Her Celebrat...
Fiance has just lost one of her celebrated men , M . Lkon Faucheb , for many years distinguished both as a statesman and a writer . The career of M . Fauciieb is in many respects typical of the manner in which Francediffering so much from our own country—uses the abilities of her eminent journalists , authors , and scholars . We know who are oxir " governing classes" in this country ; they are the niombors of our aristocratic families , and the members of that wonderful class from which those families recruit themselves by marriage—our capitalists of the second and third generation . France has its " governing class , " too ; but its composition is peculiar . There is a dash of the old noblesse in it ; commerce and capital are also represented ; but the real strength of the governing class are those youug men growing up every year all over the provinces , and educating themselves with an express eye to public life in Paris . Lrion Fauchbh , for
example , was born in one of the southern departments , the son of poor parents ; but froni the time he was a pupil at the school of Toulouse , he looked forward to being a minister of state . He came to Paris first in the capacity of tutor in a family , but soon be began to write for the newspapers . After contributing to the Temps , and other liberal journals , ho became principal editor of the Courrier Fran $ ai $ . The publication of his important work on the social condition and political institutions of England ( Etudes sur VAngleterre , 1845 ) , raised him still higher in the ranks of authorship . Ho was immediately elected a member of the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences—in which society ho continued till his death , a vigorous expositor of the Engliah policy of Frootriwlc , and generally of English economics . In 18-17 he w « s elected -Deputy for Rhebau to the Assembly . After tho Revolution of 1848 Rhoims elected
him again , and as his peculiar economical doctrines made him firm against the tide of socialistic reform which came in with the Provisional Government he was one of those who came into power during the Presidency of Louis - Napoleon . He was Minister of the Interior twice during this period ; and in that capacity became very well known over Europe . The coup d ' etat , however , broke his connexion with Louis-Napoleon ; and , indignant at the subversion of Constitutionalism in France , he retired from office . He was one of those who , since Louis-Napoleon ' s accession to the empire , have most boldly used the restricted liberty of speech and writing allowed in
France ; and among his latest writings are some articles on the war resources of Russia , France , and Great Britain , published a few months aqo in the Revue des Deux Months , in which he ventured , in a very independent manner , to review the finance policy of Louis-lSapoloon ' s Government , more particularly its lavish expenditure in the vaunted public works now goinn-on in Paris , at the same time testifying his continued faith in political liberty as the true strength of nations , and his continued respect for Great Britain as the single representative of such liberty in . the Old World . Broken in health , he was on his way to Italy , when an attack of typhus at Marseilles carried him off .
We Have Been Much Interested By An Artic...
We have been much interested by an article in the Siecle of Monday last , bearing the signature of M . Lours Jourdajt , singularly illustrating the fact that the passion for free speech is growing all but ungovernable among the best minds in Franc . On Monday last the annual meeting of the Institute of Moral find Political Sciences took place in Paris . The business of the meeting was not in itself very promising or spirit-stirring .. * M . Guizot , the President , was to read an enumeration of moral , political , and philosophical questions for Essays , for which the Institute have this year proposed prizes ; and M . Mignet , the Secretai-y , was to read an historical sketch of the life and works of M . Dje Gebando . That was all ; but the intellectual world of Paris seemed to think ii attraction enough . Freedom , put down everywhere else , had still a kind of refuge in the Institute ; smd bereft of the normal means of utterance in Parliament and in newspapers , the spirit of liberty might ooze out even through a list of subjects for prize essays and an historical memoir ! The meeting was , therefore , crowded . " Nor were the audience disappointed . When M . Guizot in . a few words went through his part of the "business , " says the Siecle , " the words of the orator , so firm , so well-delivered , so vibrating , recalled the memory of old parliamentary days ; and with what skill was the least allusion seized by the audience , and how freely by their applauses did they detect the speaker ' s hinted thought , and , in a manner , develop it ! " Describing MGihzot ' s speech more particularly , the writer says : " He uttered a fine enlogium upon liberty . Yes , like those lovers who never adore their
mistress so much as when she is absent , the statesman , the minister , who so long defied the Opposition from the tribune , and ended by rousing a revolution which swamped at once tribune and orator , royalty and the throne ^ now , in his pacific guise and under * palm branches , found noble and warm words to speak on behalf of freedom . O , fickle Athenians that wo are ! In all this crowd that hung on the lips of this John Goldenmouth , there was not one who had not in his mind the recollection of the past , who remem"bevec " not the immense unpopularity of this man , his haughtiness , his acts injurious to that very goddess whom he now invokes ; and yet we gave ourselves up to the charm of that thrilling and sonorous voice sta it proclaimed the immortal principle , the imperishable rights of human
liberty and genius . It has in old times been said of M . Guizot that instead of practising his maxims , he made maxims of his practices . He is uo longer the same man , and we prefer much the maxims of the academeeitui to the practices of the statoaman , especially when the former calls on the sciences to raise spirits degraded in the dust , and when ho affirms , ho who knows it in his own experience , that a nation which God has made free and intelligent cannot remain long under the yoke of material force . The memoir rend "by M . Mignkt , it appears , was no less full of the spirit of freedom than that ' M . Guizot . "Under the form , of an historical sketch of M . x > e Gbhanoo , M . Mxcs-nkt , according 1 to tho account in the Sii'de pronounced a eulogy on tho much maligned eighteenth century , reminded
France of how much she owed to tho spirit of inquiry then awakened , rind , when he came to the year 1789 , spokowitb . filial gratitude of the Revolution . The state of things in France , as described in this article in the Sidcfe , is indeed curious . Usually it is tho Conservatives , tho partisans of force and power that venerate the past and cherish tho antiquarian sentiment . In France at present , it is different . It is the lovers of freedom , tho opponents of the existing order of things , that lmvo most of tlio sentiment of the antique . Only in the past can liberty bo found ; hence these longing , lingering looks into tho times gone by ; hence tho odd event that tho eighteenth century , which did all it could to root out reverence for tho past from men ' s minds , is now itself a kind of goldon ago dear to tho memory of the French .
A Work, Entitled Portraits Buxjraphiqucs...
A work , entitled Portraits Buxjraphiqucs r . t Critiques des Jlommes da la Guerre d'Orient , has just been publiahed in France . Tho author id M . Ai-puei > joes EgsAUTS , and from uccounta of the work which we have aeon , it appeava to bo decidedly superior to tho catchpenny publication oi "
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 23, 1854, page 14, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_23121854/page/14/
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