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ScttA*rr. baa lost much of his prestige ...
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A correspondent writes to assure us that...
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Readers of Fraxer for May will have been...
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SIR ROBERT PEEL'S MEMOIRS. Memoirs of th...
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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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.
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Sctta*Rr. Baa Lost Much Of His Prestige ...
ScttA * rr . baa lost much of his prestige in England by Ins inactivity durmg ft * fate ' war ; but he is % till the Prophet of the Caucasus , the -neteenth Century MinoMBT , about whom curiosity is eager , as about one of the most remarkable of living men . In the Revue des Deux Mondes for May 1 , there i 3 a . narrative of the captivity of two Russian Princesses , made prisoners during attack on Kakhetia in 1854 , in which we get a glimpse of Sc ^ mtI as father , husband , and prince . The story is one or breathless interest , Wuite apart from the rank of the actors . Two Russian Processes , he / infaniwhich perishes before her eyes , bothi . »™»** J *
one nursmg , ^^ SeT anTSnale servants , are swept away by the soldier , oi » rough ' horde , who treat them with reckless barbarity . The details of the journejr , as they are hurried to Scuamti / s seraglio , read l . ke those of a romance . In the seraglio we make acquaintance with Schamyis three wives , and see something of the Prophet himself , who shows a very marked Jnlent for making advantageous bargains in the matter of ransom , and who shows also , a regard for the welfare of his prisoners . But the story depends Jor its interest on the accumulation of details , and must be consulted m the
Reotee . Inthe same Revue there is one of M . Babinet ' s pleasant papers on Science , in which he acc 6 mpiishes the tour deforce of writing about transcendental Mathematics , so as to amuse and instruct the reader wholly innocent of Mathematics . At the outset there is a passage characteristically French . Mr . Hatwaed , in the notes t o his translation of Faust , tells a story of some French orator , who , in the full tide of his eloquence , stopped to particularize the form and extent of the work which inspired him ( " en parlant £ e votre <* rand ouvrage en deux volumes" ) ; and Mr . Hatwabd adds that | e never found the Frenchman who laughed * , or the Englishman who did not laugh , at this bathos . Almost as ludicrous is the passage in M . Babixet '} article ,
where , after citing the illvstre savant M . Biot , he adds , " Nous ne partageons pas tout a fait la nianiere de voir de l'eminent physicien , membre de l'J 6 ademie des Sciences et ' de V Academie frangaise , " & c . Is not this the very Me thod of Dominie Sajupson , who , when speaking of the great astronomer , calls him "Sir Isaac Newton , umqwhile Master of her Majesty ' s Mint ? " But M . Babinbt soon chases away the smile and causes -us to follow him with unmixed admiration as he explains what Instruments ^ more powerful than any physical tools , are the mathematical methods . The hammer , chisel , anvil , screw , pulley , what are they compared
with .. the more . impalpable , but more potent logarithms , cosines , tangents , & c .. ? 5 i Both * are instruments ; , both shorten labour and multiply human skill ; but the mathematical instruments , by enabling us to calculate in a morning what would requite three months to calculate in the ordiniry way , and often to calculate what can in no other way be calculated—the distance of the stars for , example , which is better known , more accurately fixed , than . the distance botween two great towns—these , and the endless applications of mathematical formula to scientific and practical purposes , may trul y ¦ ¦ be said to have multip lied human force thousand-fold . What steam
is to coaches , what the electric telegraph is to the speaking tru mpet , that arc mathematical instruments to our physical tools . Logarithm is an uncouth word , yet M . Babinet throws a sudden interest over it , by pointing out a few unsuspected illustrations . What is a logarithm ? If a series of equal causes produces a series of effects always preserving the sanie proportion—as for example in the game of chess , when a grain of wtieat is given for the first square , two grains for the second , four grains for the third , eight for the fourth , and so on always doubling—the i vlntion of effect to the cause is that of the number to its logarithm . The
cause which produces this doubling of the number of grams is the successive number of squares , and this number is the logarithm , that of the grains heing the corresponding number . Now , if you cover a plant with a glass liel ' l , then over that place another , over that a third , and over the third a fourth , the effect of the sun ' s rays will be doubled at each bell , and with the fourth the p lant will be cooked , the water underneath begin logarithmically to boil ! Again , if , as we know , a ray of light in passing through a certain layer of air or water loses some of its force , that which traverses will lose
an equal portion when it again passes through an equal layer : the number of layers traversed , determining the amount of loss—a logarithmic law . Whence we eoe the sun ' s rays almost powerless at the bottom of the sea , and light logarithmically reduced to a feeble influence in our noble London fogs . It wilt perhaps brighten up those fogs , in the reader ' s mind , if the next time lie hhs occasion to use' the ready services of a link-boy , ho reflects that ^^" d ^ rki ^' fi W , Algorithmic ! Some people feel consoled when they know jthe , > nam « A > f .. their { disease ; and the way in which horrid words in it is ore ilung about by « ailing old ladies gives this suspicion force . . '¦ ' •¦ , ¦••' ¦ ' * v c ¦ ¦*¦ — ' . .
A Correspondent Writes To Assure Us That...
A correspondent writes to assure us that the " smart retort mentioned w ; thKiii : cua » 0 t » ntiftlifHtfticulurs " in . ft recent article on Moobh ( ho refers to the ( Test Rubini , qui nfempeche d entendre monsieur ) may be found in Johnson ' s life of Phiob , attributed to that poot . " Whether ho has the patent
IM ^ M ^—¦«——^————————^—CT ^—^^^^^^^^^^^^^^_^___ ' ¦ rig ht of originality , " adds our correspondent , " I know not . Nothing is so difficult as to trace the paternity of a witty saying . One often meets with a bon mot related as of recent birth which writers long since departed have recorded as uttered by the Seven Sages , and perhaps were traditional in their days . " Very true : the primaeval Joe Midler has not yet been detected in the most ancient of Mythologies ; and yet there he must one day be found parent of jokes , procreative of puns , the Original Wag , whose avatar is always " hard by . " As we have not Johnson ' s Lives at hand we content ourselves with what our correspondent states , and refer the reader to bis authority .
Readers Of Fraxer For May Will Have Been...
Readers of Fraxer for May will have been struck with a slashing' review of the translation of Count Montalembeet ' s book , which was very damaging to the translator in its accusations of ' suppressions' made by him . Mr . Murray has addressed the following letter to the Athenceum , which , in the spirit of literary fairness , we extract : the perusal may perhaps hel p towards that very desirable object of suspending judgment in cases of attack : — " 50 , Albemarle-street , May 10 . "In an article of the May number of Eraser ' s Magazine upon the translation of fclontalembert ' s work on England ( for which I , as publisher , am to a certain extent responsible ) , the writer makes a series of charges of 'fraud , ' ' perfidy , ' ' falsehood , ' & c , upon the ground of certain wilful omissions and suppressions , which he asserts to have been made in the English translation . I feel called upon to state that these charges are utterly false—for this good reason , that the passages alleged to have been suppressed , including ' one whole chapter , ' did not exist in M . Montalembert ' s work
before the third edition , which was not published in Paris until April , whereas the English translation was published by me in London on the 20 th of March last . The English translation was made from the first and second editions of the French as long ago as February last , consequently all the scurrilous insinuations of Eraser ' s as to the political and other motives for the omissions fall to the ground . I have carefully collated the third edition with-that used in the translation , and I assert that there is no omission but one , and that accidental , of an unimportant note at page 178 . It may be supposed that the writer of the article in Eraser may have erred through ignorance ; but what will you say when I tell you that he was aware of the existence of variations in the different editions , as he states in a note at page 582 of one chapter on Hereditary Peerage , ' It is but fair to say it only appeared in the third edition ! May I not justly apply to him one of his own sentences , which I have proved to have no application , as he wrote it , ' anything more dishonest than this is not to be found in literary history ? ' " Jouvn Murray . "
Sir Robert Peel's Memoirs. Memoirs Of Th...
SIR ROBERT PEEL'S MEMOIRS . Memoirs of the Right Hon . Sir Robert Peel . Published by the Trustees of his Papers : Lord Mahon ( now Earl Stanhope ) , and the Right Hon . Edward Car dwell , M . P . Part 1 . —Roman Catholic Emancipation . Murray . Twenty years after his initiation in parliamentary life , Sir Robert Peel prepared the draft of a measure for removing the disabilities of the Roman Catholics . During those twenty years he had invariably and vigorously opposed the idea of concession . This Memoir is a plea in justification of Ins change of policy . Its effect is , to raise and brighten the fame of the statesman , and to disparage the motives no less than the intellect of his party .
Sir Robert Peel , though a Conservative , was not long a Tory . There was none of the plethoric obstinacy of Toryism in his character . Trained in the school of Pitt , taught to consider Perceval rather than Canning , the model of a political leader , habituated to a jealous suspicion of popular power , imbued by academic culture and by ' hereditary inspiration witli a superstitious reverence of ancient forms , he was , nevertheless , too clear-sighted to ignore the progress of knowledge or the reform of manners , too liberal to cfeny the weig ht of well-supported opinions , too wise , as well as too humane , to challenge a civil war for the sake of a Tory tradition . The influences of school , college , family , friendship , parliamentary habits , cabinet connexions , official allegiances , long bound him to the Tory idea ; but , while Eldon , like an ancestral voice , was prophesying ruin in the House ot his lite lor
Peers , while the Bishop of Limerick was offering to lay down the Protestant ascendancy , while Oxford fumed , and the King vowed Ins consistency , —Peel saw that " consistency" was impossible , and that , in spite of Eldon , the Bishop of Limerick , Oxford , and the King , Emancipation must be conceded . The only question was , should the Catholic claims be conceded after a miserable civil contest , or should they be yielded in time to save the peace and dignity of the realm ? Ho chose the policy oi conciliation ; and became from " that moment a statesman , instead of a lory . It was obvious to him that Great Britain , divided irregularly among classes , sects , and interests , growing and varying under influences not calculable two centuries ago , could not be governed upon the principle , inamtuineu unaltered , of a legislative system two centuries old . This was the key o his political conduct , not in the case of Emancipation only , but in the case oi
the Reform Bill and of the Corn Laws . When the Duke of Wellington was culled upon , in January , i w <>^ . ™ form an administration , he applied to Peel for advice and co-operation . 1 eel h attitude had , even then , been modified by the events that hud occurred m Parliament and in Ireland . It was hopeless to form a Cabinet on the principle of united existence to the Catholic claims . The Catholic claims n . w the assent of the leading minds in tho legislature , and of the largest constituencies . Ultra-Tories , of courso , were dissatisfied ; but Peel wrote x 6
not care , " and satirized the notion of a government of full-blooded Jor ) ' » . backed " by very warm friends , no doubt , but those very warm friends du „ prosperous county gentlemen , fox-hunters , & c , most excellent men , w will attend one night , but who will not leave their favourite pursuits to * ¦ up till two or three o ' clock fighting questions of detail . " This , howey , was a raisou da plus . Ho had " other grounds" for refusing to nlontily i »»» self any longer with a decided opposition to tho Catholic chums . ! " ' ho foresaw that it would be impossible to protract , indefinitely , th « resifitai > of Parliament to an agitation which kept the great Irish vice-royalty ftll" ° - in a state of aimje . When it had boon decided that to repress tho « S ; ' ' was impracticable , it aeomod to follow that to yield to it w iih necessary . ¦ , death of George III ., tho conversion of Canning and Oaatloreagh , the i" »
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), May 24, 1856, page 16, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_24051856/page/16/
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