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266 • v^:oTHfeLiA: I)JB^'' fNo. 466; Feb...
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MTEKATURE, SCIENCE, ART, &c.
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LITERAHY CHRONICLE OF THE WEEK. Amosg th...
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MEMOIRS OF THE COURT OF GEORGE IV, Memoi...
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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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266 • V^:Othfelia: I)Jb^'' Fno. 466; Feb...
266 v ^ : oTHfeLiA : I ) JB ^' ' fNo . 466 ; February 26 , 1859 .
Mtekature, Science, Art, &C.
MTEKATURE , SCIENCE , ART , & c .
Literahy Chronicle Of The Week. Amosg Th...
LITERAHY CHRONICLE OF THE WEEK . Amosg the gentlemen who are climbing the steep where Fame ' s " proud temple shines afar ^'—that temple sanctified by the altar of Themis—no slight commotionhas been aroused by the determination , of the Benchers of the various Inns of Court to compel every candidate for admission to the bar to undergo the perils of an examination . This is an old scheme among the big-wigs of Lincoln ' s Inn , and the prevalent mania for competitive examinations has given them an excuse for carrying' it out . The pretence for doing so
is , that the bar is overstocked with men who have not learnt their profession ; but how these : will be cured by establishing the cramming and examination system , it would be difficult to show . One effect this compulsory examination will certainly Lave , will be to drive from the gates of the Inns of Court those country gentlemen and idle men of fortune who haye hitherto regarded the three years of terms at the bar as the least profitless method of sauntering through that space of time , and whose experiences at the Inner Temple have done much to render them sensible men of
Messrs . Fullarton , of Edinburgh , are preparing a commemorative volume of the ' Burns centenary celebrations , to be edited by M ? . James Ballantine . All the speeches delivered at the numerous festivals are to be > eporfeed as fully as possible . We have a few items of miscellaneous literary gossip to record . Mr . Charles Dickens is in treaty with an American agent , who wishes to induce him to give a set of readings in the States . Sometliing about a guarantee' for 3 O , O 00 Z . lias been mentioned . If this is to be carried out , what is to become of the new periodical mentioned in our last , the preparations for which arc really advancing ? There is a ramour in the ] Dress world that Mr . Ingram has parted with the London Journal to Messrs . Bradbury and Evans .
A better piece of business management has been effected by Messrs . Black , of Edinburgh , the publishers of the " Encyclopsedia Britannica , " who gave Lord Maeaulay a large sum to contribute , the article "Pitt , " and the result is , they are now advertising a re-issue of the earlier volumes .
the world , and a little to emancipate them frpni the thraldom of the justice ' s cler . k , to which country magistrates are generally submitted . Mention of the Inns of Court reminds us that a recent pensioner of Gray ' s Inn , a gentleman who has won his literary spur 3 , was called to the position of outer barrister . The gentleman we refer to is Mr . Joseph Thackwell , the eldest son of Lieutenant-General Thackwell , G . C . B ., whose book on " The Second Sikh War" was so
fa-¦ vourably received . Mr . Thackwell has been in the army , and served in India as aide-de-camp to Sir Joseph Thackwell .. Thus he adds another to the choice band of lawyers militant , and , like Mr . Ivenyon Parker , the present Lord Chancellor , and others , laid down the uniform of the soldier to don the wig and gown of the Forum . Messrs . Longman , in their " Notes oh Books , " announce that an association has recently been formed in London called the Alpine Club . The first token of the activity of this new society is to be a volume , entitled " Peaks and Passes of the Alps , " by members of the Alpine Club , which will he nublished in Mav . illustrated with route-VY 1 J 1 KtG JJlLUllpUCU . J . & 1 i . UUy JLJ , 4 U . Obl . abCU VV-JLVA & JLVWl ^ -
. , maps and plates . Mr . William Longman , himselt a very enthusiastic cragsman , and whose alpenstock is known in most of the glaciers of 'Switzerland , is amongst its most energetic members . ' . Messrs . Longman also announce for immediate p ublication , in addition to the works mentioned in otir last- — " A Lady ' s Tour round Monte Rosa ; with visits to the Italian Valleys of Anzasca , Mastaloiie , Camasco , Sesia , Lys , Challant , Aosta , and Cog * ne : in a series of excursions in the years l $ 50 , 1 ' , 1858 , " The " Art of Dining , " by L . li \ Simpson Esq ., is a translation of -B ' riUnt de Saverin ' a celebrated work , tlie " Physiologic du
Gout , " . They also promise a new volume of travels , entitled " Pyrenees from West to East , " by 0 . R . Weld , Esq ., the Secretary of the Royal . Society ; a now work on popular astronomy , entitled ' * Celestial Objects for Common Telescopes , " by ' the Rev . T . W . Webb ; the thrnd volume of •< Japtuiu Brialmont's " Life of the Piike of Wellington ; " nin English edition of Pallavke ' s " Life of Schiller , " translated by Lady Wallace ; a now work on the Dog , by Stonehengo , the nom de plume of J , II . Walsh , Esq ., the present editor of the Field ; a series of rudimentary and advanced
bopks on the Indian languages , edited by Professor Monier Williams ; several excellent school books : a > volume of " Letters by the late Lieut .-Colonel Sir , Augustus Simon Frazer , " edited by Major-¦ Genoral Sabino ; a new work on Horses , by Gapt . Vefrp D . Hunt } two now wox'ks on Muioralpgy » nd Geology , by Mr . H . W , Bristow , F . G . S . ; and a volume entitled ^ The I ' rinciplea of Beauty , " by the late Mary Anno Sohimmelpenniuck , the historian of Pdvt Royal . Mv . W . W . Fyfe , the editor of the Dorset County Chronicla ^ nna in the press a work entitled , " Agricultural Science Applied in Practice . "
Memoirs Of The Court Of George Iv, Memoi...
MEMOIRS OF THE COURT OF GEORGE IV , Memoirs of the Court of George IV . From Original Family Documents . By the Duke of Bucking-, ham and Cliandos . In 2 vols . Hurst and Blackett . These" two Volumes form a sequel to the Duke of Buckingham ' s last publication- ^—the '' Memoirs of the Court of the liegency , " and . bring the . long history of the Georges—as illustrated by the private correspondence of the : Gr . env _ ille family— down to the death of his , most gracious Majesty , the fourth of that nanle . The period comprised is from 1820 to 1830 ^ - ^ a period of great interest to usj to .
whom it has already become historical ; for those days saw the break up of the old Tory power , and the beginning of those reforms which were so long and so insolently resisted . The ' . grim apparition of Jacobinism , so pfien invoked b ~ y the friends of order , and the supjiorters of the " Hpljr Alliance , " had begun to lose its effects . Politicians of the school of Perceval , Sidmouth ,. and Vansittart were clearly on the wane ; even the authority of " Old Bazars " had lost its bloom and freshness , aiid young
Mr . Peel must have felt Toryism , to be not quite so good a game as his predecessors had found it . Out of doors a spirit of discontent had grown , up , which , though it looked as yet to no definite scheme of reform , was the evident forerunner of a great change . Cabinets were uneasy and shortlived , or subject to modifications which left them no trace of their original character . Poor old Lord Liverpool—the * ' faithful Jenkinson " of his late royal master—was bewildered by a sea of troubles which . no one dreamed of as formidable
when the century was younger and " strong governments " in fashion 5 imruly colleagues who looked sideways at the people ; hungry Whigs , who talked loudly of reforms , and intrigued with the King ' s mistress ; Queen ' s men and King ' s men , Radicals and disappointed Tories , for whom a world of places , a bushel pf stars , a league of ribbonds , or a whole black-book of pensions , would not suffice ; while economy and retrenchment wei'e loudly demanded , and " ¦ Orator Hunt , " and obstinate Mr . How , and the famous Sir Francis Burdett , and the terrible Cobbett , talked sedition ; and the Rev . Joseph Harrison told the populace that " King , princes , dukes , Lords , Commons , archbishops , bishops , prelates , rectors , and high
oonstables " were , " all corrupt , " and " the time near at hand when they would be upset . " The actors in those scenes , and the spectators of the world'a doings in those turbulent times , saw those things from many points of view . To his gouty and muoh shaken Majesty—now an " Adonis " of not forty , but nearly sixty—seeking shelter from business and annoyance at" The Cottage , " near VirginiaWater ; to Her Majesty Caroline of Brunswick ( liorsolf both black and white , as suited the beholders eyes ) ; to Grey , the reformer ,, and Eldon , the obati'iictor ; to Sydney Smith , the witty Whig , and Canning , the lively and not too decided Tory ; to . tho great t ) uko , over ready to take tho helm in Toryism ')* evil
days ; to the philosophic Benthain , in his quiet retreat at Westminster , digging deep into the foundations of political philosophy , the world was not always the same world , or the struggle of one aspect . To know the history of those times we must try to look at them with many eyes . In the present volumes we see them , from yet another point of view , which may be called the Grenville aspect . How did the earthquakes which , disturbed the political world aflect the
Prosjxjet of the Right Hon . the Marquis of Bu ckinghaiii ? JMid his friends and relatives . This ¦ was the question ever uppermost in , the mind of the diligent , faithful Mr . ~\ V . II . Fremantle , as he chronicled the intrigues of parties in his study in May Fair for the benefit , of " the Marquis in the country , and it is the letters of Mr . Freemantle , of Lord Grenville , and Mr . Thomas Grenville , with a few other correspondents of the Marquis , which , knitted together with a slender thread of comment , form the substance of these
volumes . There were petty troubles enough for the ministers when the old .. 'King lay dead . Even the expense of the coronation was dreaded . " The King , " says old Thomas Grenville , would not like it unless it be expensive , and Van . knows not'how to pay for it if it is . " Nevertheless , the King had his way . "He has been pretty well disposed to part with us all , " says Lord Eldon , " because we would not make additions to his revenue ; " adding , " I could not hrin ^ myself to oppress the country at present by additional taxation for that purpose . "
"I am glad / ' he : writes to the Marquis , "to hear you have good accounts from every part of the Bucks Yeomanry . Every tiling , looks too fearful to allow me the expression of any thing ; but the most heartfelt regret that , On a question which in three weeks may decide upon the fate of the country , there should be a single Grenville found among those whom we may have to fear and ( dreadful to think ) to resist ! I shall return with you to town , for jf there is danger where my brother and you are , there will I be . "
But the chief embarrassment was the determination of the Queen to conic to England , and be present at the coronation . The history of that event is too well known to require illustration from the gossip in these letters . The Queen ' s popularity with the Liberals ; her " coach and six , " in which she used to come up to town from Hammersmith ; her long trial with all its scandals ; the struggles of the stout lady , in a large hat surmounted by a plume of feathers , to get into the Abbey at the coronation ; her declining popularity and sudden death , are known to every one . Inc
dreaded days passed away without oven carrying with them the feeble Lord Liverpool ; and the King breathed again . But the dangers had been ot no imaginary kind . The Right -Hon . Thomas Grenville forgot for a while to gloat over rare volumes , "tall copies , " and cditfones jmncipes , ana stared aghast At the coming ruin ¦ '—. Ministers were , mobbed in the streets , and greeted with groans and hisses , and formidable missiles . Lord Sidmouth never drove out without 11 ciwuot loaded pistpls on the seat of tho carringc a » ° funds fell Attempts wore known to have » CCI } made , with success , to tamper , with the nnny , onu the people openly caljed upon the soldiers to come ot
out wad join them . One of the regiment * guaiw , quartered at Charing Cross , exhibited niich ft decidedly mutinous spirit that the Duke ofWoHington was sent for , who " at once ordered them o » w Portsmouth . " Mr . , Fromanfclo writes word tnoj « there we some alehouses open , where tho 8 ° l' * " »? may go and drink and oat for nothing , proviuco they will drink' Prosperity and health to tho < . i » ° JJJ ' Tho King grows daily more unpopular , aml « Jj »» only individual in the kingdom nwensiUlo to n . And again Mr . Grenvillo says : — "It seems now understood that the , wholei ] # « will bo called out . Manchester * 0 »» " •"' Jjj writes- ) is bad as over . Scotlnad in still onlH" {«* from tho military force thoro , but tho tompw is sum to bo as bad as ever . " „ x . , , „ , „ ft t Nq whit the loss was Mr . FromonUou ulunn m tho wickedness of tho press pf those dnyu—w «
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 26, 1859, page 10, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_26021859/page/10/
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