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No. 510. Dec. 31, 1859.] THE LEADER. 142...
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LITEEATURE,
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LITERARY NOTES OF THE WEEK. ^ .
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DEATH OF LORD MACAULAY. England and Euro...
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LITERARY NOTES OF THE WEEK
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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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No. 510. Dec. 31, 1859.] The Leader. 142...
No . 510 . Dec . 31 , 1859 . ] THE LEADER . 1421
Liteeature,
LITEEATURE ,
Literary Notes Of The Week. ^ .
LITERARY NOTES OF THE WEEK . ^ .
Death Of Lord Macaulay. England And Euro...
DEATH OF LORD MACAULAY . England and European literature have sustained an irreparable loss by Xhe sudden death of Lord Macauiay , which took place at his residence in Kensington , at 8 o ' clock on Wednesday evening 1 . Although in 1852 he had a serious and protracted illness , from declared disease of the heart , the attack was subdued , and till within the last three weeks his health was tolerably good . About a fortnight since he had a second attack , from which , however , he rallied , and his medical advisers considered him out of immediate danger . Up to the end of last week he continued to amend , but a relapse took place , and terminated fatally . Lord Macauiay
could be rendered so by the artifice of style ; and by adorning his pages with biographical sketches of the principal actors inr the scenes he treated of , Mr . Macauiay succeeded in producing a book which few can peruse without gratification . In 1848 , Mr . Macauiay was chosen Lord Hector o ( the University of Glasgow , and delivered an inaugural address , memorable for its ability . In 1849 he was nominated Professor of Ancient History in the Royal Academy . In 1852 , when a general election occurred , he was by his friends put in nomination for Edinburgh . Mr . Macauiay , however , stood haughtily aloof firom the stirring contest ; neither issuing an address , nor appearingas a candidate on thehustings . Nevertheless , the electors restored themselves to the good opinion of the world by replacing him in his
former position . and going northward in the autumn , he delivered a speech that did much to clear a way for the Coalition Government , which he subsequently supported in the House of Commons , by two orations deemed not quite worthy of his ancient reputation . In 1853 , Mr . Macaulay ' s various speeches were collected and published . In 1855 , the third and fourth volumes of his " History of England " were hailed with an enthusiasm , which marked them out for a popularity hardly less extensive than that which attended their predecessors . In 1856 , Mr . Macauiay resigned his seat for Edinburgh , and on September 10 , 1857 ., he was raised to the peerage ; but a chronic cough , which of late years prevented his speaking for more than a short time , probably induced him to refrain from ever addressing the Upper HouSe .
In the introduction of his last and greatest work , the author expressed a hope that he might be enabled to bring down the history of his country to a date within the memory of living men ; but unhappily this hope is very far from being realised . For some time it has been currently rumoured that the fifth and sixth volumes of the work were about to appear , but we are enabled to state , on good authority , . that , whatever materials may have been accumulated , no such extensive addition to the history is nearly ready for the . press .
The speeches and writings of the . deceased peer are familiar wherever the English language is spoken . As an orator , an essayist , a poet , and a historian , he has occupied a leading position , and his death at such a moment , when the nation was anxiously looking forward for another instalment of his great history , will be a theme for universal lamentation . We hear that the Birkenhead steam launch having proved a failure , Dr . Livingstone has sent home orders for the construction of another , at an estimated cost of j £ S , OOO . This cost Dr . Livingstone proposes to defray out of his own pocket , from the means set aside for his children out of the profits of his Travels . " " The children must make it up for themselves " was in effect his expression in sending the order for appropriation of the money .
Messrs . Hurst and Blackett have in the press " The Man of the People , " in three volumes , by Mr . W . Howitt , and new novels by the Hon . Mrs . Norton , Mrs . Howitt , Mrs . S . C . Hall , and Mr . James Haunay . Mr . Atkinson , the author of " Oriental and Western Siberia , " has another work in the press , " The Upper and Lower Amoor , a narrative of travel and adventure , " which will be published by Messrs . Hurst and Blackett . Messrs . Longman will publish , in a few days , " Gathered Together . " Poems , by William Wilson , author of" A Little Earnest Bpok upon a Great Old Subject , " & e . & c .
M . Guizot , says a Paris letter , who is giving the last touch to the third volume of his memoirs , has lately received a very flattering compliment from his townsmen of tlio City of Nimes . The honorary presidency of the Academy of Nimes having been offered him , the illustrious statesman hastened to reply by a letter in which he accepted the appointment M . Guizot added that , notwithstanding his advanced age , ho hopes to render hi ? presidency effective . M . de I ^ nmrtine ' s paternal ostatc of Monceaux , near Macon , is advertised for snle by auction at the Chamber of Notaries in Paris , on the 7 th of . February next . Tlio upset price is fixed at J . ^ "" francs . The French papers publish , on bonait oi M . do Lamartine , a contradiction of the report , which it scorns , has boon circulated ,. that he propoaos to deliver public lectures . Ho had arrived in Paris from Macon , and ia working at his serial , the Entreticn Zitteraires . *«« t « Not loss than 43 , 000 copies of the P « ranhlot j £ Papo ot lo Congres , " have been sold . Whoever may lose , M . Dontu , the publisher , is not the man . Dr . Justus Lloblg , In the flupplenients Jo the Altaemelnc Zoitumj , has commenced the pub cation of a new series of popular letter on the subject ot agricultural chemistry . They are addressed to Alderman Meohi .
was never married , and the title dies with him . He was born at Rotliley Temple , Leicestershire , in the year 1800 , and was consequently only 59 years of age . But though he has died comparatively young , his life has been one of constant acquisition and unflagging industry . The son of Zachary Macauiay —& man worthy to be named along with Clarkson , Wilberforce , and Stephen , for his exertions and sacrifices to promote the abolition of the slave trade — Mr . Macauiay had doubtless an excellent early training . He entered Trinity College , Cambridge , in 1819 , and was soon distinguished in the University as a youth of singularly large and varied attainments , as well as remarkable mental
powers . He carried off prize after prize , and having , on leaving the University , chosen the bar as his profession , he selected the" Northern Circuit as the sphere of his legal career . About this time his celebrated article on " Milton " appeared in the Edinburgh Review . The publication of that article was a literary event , and it was soon felt that a new luminary was rising in the literary hemisphere . Subsequent articles of equal ability led to Mr . Macaulay ' s being made a Bankruptcy Commissioner , and to his introduction to Parliament , under the auspices of the Marquis of Lansdowne , as member for Calne , and to office as Secretary to the Board of Control . This was in 1830 , and the part played by him during
the exciting Parliamentary discussions on reform led to his being named , along with the late Mr . John Marshall , Jun ., as a Liberal candidate for Leeds , in the event of its being enfranchised . By the free choice of the inhabitants of so influential a borough as Leeds , with which he had no local or personal ties , Mr . Macaulay ' s political position was now made . To the surprise , however , of his constituents , the right honourable gentleman , before two years had passed , accepted an appointment in the Supreme Council of India . At the end of two years and a half Mr . Macauiay
returned to England , having completed his proposed Penal Code , which , however , has never yet become law . To his residence in India we owe his essays on Lord Clive and Warren Hastings , two of his most brilliant productions . Mr . Macaulay ' s subsequent political career in England was somewhat less active than that previous to his departure for the East ; but he still contributed—as M . P . for Edinburgh , Secretary at War , and Paymaster of the Forces—to the stores of our Parliamentary eloquence . The loss of his election for Edinburgh in 1847 . owirnr to his views on the Maynooth question
induced him To retire from public life and to devote his time to literary , pursuits . Under ordinary circumstances , his ejection would have been the subject of lasting regret . But while his admirers were deploring the fact of a man known to fame as a poet , essayist , and orator , being thus displaced by a constituency so important and intelligent , they derived no small consolation from the rumour that ho was to devote his leisure to the grand project of writing a History of England . His peculiar qualifications for the task , his parliamentary career , fds official knowledge , his social experience , his historical information , his familiarity with ancient literature , and the art ho was known to possess of writing what people like to road , as well as dealing skilfullv with the less attractive parts of a subject in Ib 4
raised high expectations ; and when , « , an instalment of two volumes appeared , witli tlio title of " The History of I ^ gland from the accession of Jamoa . the Second , they mot with an enthusiastic reception , ana elicited universal prntse . In the majestic sentences with whioh ho introduced his work . to the public , Mf . Macauiay stated that ho would cheerfully bear the reproach of having descended below what is called the dignity of history , If ho could succeed in placing before the English of the nineteenth century a true
picture of the life of tholr ancestors , wo raauo w « sacrifice , ana accomplished his object . By a judlcious selection and arrangement of materials » by retaining only what was interesting of itflelr , or
Literary Notes Of The Week
THE PECULIUM . By Thomas Hancock . QUAKERISM , 1 » AST AND PRE 5 EST . By John Stevenson Browntree , —Smith , Elder and Co . These * two volumes are supposed , by their respective prefaces , to be in one . They are on a subject which previous publications have already made familiar to our readers . They are , in fact , prize essays promoted by the Society of Friends , and rewarded with the respective prizes of one hundred guineas and fifty guineas , in orJer to enable it to arrive at a satisfactory conclusion why the Body continually lessens in number instead of increasing . The confession of this mishap and the effort thus made to retrieve the misfortunes so
candidly acknowledged are both noble . We know of no other community that would challenge such enquiry , or would tolerate the answer . The Friends have done this in the face of the world , freely , bravely , and , we believe , with results by which their cause will be much benefited . Mr . Hancock ' s work has a long explanatory title in addition to that which we have given . He styles it " An endeavour to throw light on some of the causes of the decline of the Society of Friends ,
especially in regard to its original claim of being the peculiar people of Grod . " His main argument we have ourselves anticipated in a late article , in -which we pointed out that a religious dispensation , even the most sacred , was necessarily limited to a term ; that the close of ah age comes to each and all , and that no church ever existed that had other than a provisional character . Mr . Hancock , indeed , takes high philosophic ground . Social death is the law of all societies . They were born , and , like individuals , they must die . " The old Ethnic age died a natural death ; the Renaissance could not revive it—it only galvanised an imitation of it . The Mediaeval age could not keep itself alive ; and all the earnest and romantic men in Qhristendom , striving unitedly , would never revive it . Egypt , Greece . Rome , the Gothic kingdoms died , as our friends have done—as we our * selves shall do—because they must . So far as Quakerism is a society made up of men and women , we must expect to see it obey the universal law of social death . It would appear strange and disorderly it it alone continued fresh , lively and bearing fruit .
"Nor does the comprehension of a diviner purpose and of spiritual strength exempt any society from this imperturbable law * . The State and the Church have been served and thwarted by society after society , -which begun in the spirit and ended in the flesh . Old philosophical schools , Hindoo and C hinese brotherhoods , early anchorites and monks , the Benedictines , the Franciscans and Dominicans , the first Protestants the Puritans , the Methodists , banded them selves together to know wisdom * to do the will of God , to fulfil all righteousness , to become the most utter and unresisting organs and instruments of the Srraix , to save the world , to reform the Church , to live an eternal life into
entirely spiritual life , to taste the which death cannot enter ; yet these awful intuitions , these sublime purposes , could not preserve them ; they are all either dying , or dead . The morbid and unspiritual societies which Quakerism arose to witness ngainsfc , had assumed at their birth that very position toward older societies which Quafcerism was assuming toward them . They believed and proclaimed the same things against prior societies which Quakerism was proclaiming against them . We should naturally expect that Quakerism would follow them , and that it is oven now marching with more or lees ' haste , overtaken by some but omtnkino- others , in that valley of the shadow of death
where the old spiritual societies of the world oreeither lying dead or dying . It would bo wonderful indeed , if , like the Prophet Ezekiel in the valley of dead bones , Quakerism alone were seen living and vigorous in that most solemn of all the pathways ol history and society , the way of perpetual decay and death . " According to Mr . Ha icock , thcro is only one society immortal , and that is invisible , and , though eternal and catholio in essence , always changing its temporal form—the Church of the Moot . Quakerism could only bo one of these temporal forms , at best . One error of its foundation , as of other churches , was that it assumed to be mow than this-tuat it claimed to be Ma Churoh . Quakerism , therefore , was , from the first , most -uncompromising and most intolerant , and has over snoo paid the penalty of the error , hke other churcW Modern Jfaends have , mueea , been content to admit that Quakerism n a part of the Church . " But tins admission , as Mr . Hancock has shown , is total . If Quakerism be only " ft part , it can only have a particular ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 31, 1859, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_31121859/page/17/
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