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Leader (1850-1860), 1st June 1850, Edition Town of 1, Page 235, Untitled Article

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      such characteristics as conveniently admit of comment . First , we would observe that Mr . Grote is rather a Dissertator than an Historian . This we take to be the clue both to the manifold merits and defects of the work . That imaginative and pictorial power which calls up a nation ' s life , and masses it into grand and striking effects , to remain for ever after in the memories of men ; that dramatic instinct which fastens upon the salient characteristics of human

      nature , typical and yet individual ; and , finally , that magic of style which by magnificence , energy , rapidity , colour , emotion , decision , and intensity , paints a varied panorama to the mind of the reader , and agitates him with something of the feeling which the real events would have excited—all these qualities are but slightly traceable in Mr . Grote . He moves slowly . His march is like that of the army of Xerxes , which was encumbered by women , slaves , chariots , and followers—capable , indeed , of making an array more imposing than had ever terrified the

      shores of Greece , but which only served to weaken the army when in actual conflict . The art of selection is almost unknown to him . If he gathers extraneous material and cannot weave it into the text , he throws it into the notes . This increases the value of the work as an encyclopaedia of Grecian antiquities ; but it very seriously affects it as a history . He has taken eight solid volumes to bring the narrative no further than the close of the Pelopennesian war ; and the curious part of it all is that no reader complains of the voluminousness , because , if the story suffers , the dissertations gain by this expansion .

      We shall forbear further criticism on what we consider the artistic defects of this history : they are obvious enough to any reader . But we must call attention to the great merits of the work , in enabling the modern to entertain something like a more complete and satisfactory conception of Grecian ideas , feelings , and institutions . To erudition at once ample , critical , and minute , Mr . Grote adds the rarer quality of historical divination . His sagacity is not to be hoodwinked by ancient prejudices and

      traditional judgments . He looks at Grecian affairs with the same directness and cautious scepticism , as if he were narrating the history of France . He goes at once to the root of each matter ; controlling traditional statements both by careful examination of the facts , such as they are , and by universal experience of human nature . Thus , with a mind as little inclined to levity as any we could name , his book is fertile in paradoxes : not paradoxes in the vulgar sense of the term , as of ideas thrown out in sport or

      mischief against the real truth ; but in the proper sense of the term , as of ideas contrary to received opinion , but not necessarily contrary to truth : every new idea is a paradox , true or false . We know not where to point to a work which throws so much light upon Greek history , which brings the reader into so good a position wherefrom he may look abroad into Grecian -life and clearly see the principles operating there . Athens never has been so nobly , so luminously , so convincingly defended from the various

      charges aristocratic writers have with endless iteration brought against her democracy . His exposition of the much decried ostracism may be cited as a specimen of cogent vindication ; his chapters on Pericles—and , above all , upon Cleon and the Sophists , are masterly vindications . For the first time Greeks are treated as men , not as abstractions ; as men , actuated by impulses like our own , and by creeds unlike our own , not as draped statues . It is incredible the amount of freshness and vigour given to the history by this mode of viewing it ; all the

      lifelessness of the academical school has departed , and as much animation as can be given to dissertations takes its place . The exposition of the various constitutions of Greece has peculiar interest in these revolutionary and democratic times ; though for our own parts we look with great suspicion on all attempts at imitation : the forms of government which suit one nation and one epoch cannot with safety be applied to another : if a similar form grow naturally out of existing conditions well and good , but all imitation has in it the principle of death .

      We believe the view taken of the character of Cleon to be new . Strange , indeed , would it appear , had we not abundant examples to confirm it , that writers should for so long have parroted the judgment upon this man—a judgment formed mainly upon the evidence of whom ? Of a reckless satirist—Aristophanes—and of an , exasperated

      historian—Thucydides . We all know the pitiable figure of Cleon in the riotous farces of the Grecian wit—farces so overflowing with the buffoonery and exaggeration of animal spirits that it is marvellous any one should for a moment take their testimony—but do we not also know that Socrates was quite as pitilessly ridiculed by him ? If we are to reject the Aristophanic Socrates , why accept the Aristophanic Cleon ? Is it to be on the authority of Thucydides—the grave , philosophic , and profoundly political Thucydides ?

      Let us forget awhile the sententious writer , to consider the man . Thucydides , though a great writer , was but an indifferent soldier , and did , indeed , suffer a most important place to be carried off owing to his unpardonable negligence , when he might easily have defended it . He was probably meditating some splendid oration ; and while he meditated Brasidas acted . The fault was flagrant . He was tried according to the laws of his country , and justly punished . But he never forgave his judges ; and to accept his

      testimony to their motives and actions is as idle as to accept the testimony of a Royalist to the character of Cromwell . It is not quite so glaring a case as that of Catiline , who has descended to posterity with the character given him by a vehement pamphleteer ( Sallust ) , no more worthy of credence than Henry of Exeter , or the Paris correspondent of the ' Timesand by an impassioned orator , whose business it was to blacken Catiline , because the greater monster he proved him to be , the greater gratitude Home owed to the man who had frustrated the monster ' s schemes .

      Yet , although Thucydides and Aristophanes may not have exaggerated so much as Sallust and Cicero , it is quite clear that Cleon and Catiline are judged of only from the accounts furnished by their enemies . Mr . Grote has also vindicated the Sophists , and vindicated the Athenians from the accusation of having unjustly condemned Socrates . In the long discussion devoted to the Sophists Mr . Grote has brought his vast erudition to bear upon the paradox first promulgated by Mr . G . H . Lewes in his " Biographical History of Philosophy , " viz ., that the

      Sophists have been totally misunderstood and consequently calumniated , they neither corrupted the Grecian youth , nor were they guilty of any greater immorality than can now-a-days be laid to the charge of men who relinquish or despise metaphysics as vain disputation , and betake themselves wholly to politics . That which in Mr . Lewes ' s work stood merely as a novel appreciation , reposing rather upon general historical evidence than upon special facts , becomes under the copious and erudite treatment of Mr . Grote , a position of overwhelming force .

      The chapter on Socrates is the finest m the whole work , and it is not too much to call it the finest delineation of that remarkable person yet given by a modern . It is a study in itself . All Mr . Grote ' s qualities are here brought out : his erudition , his criticism , his mastery of philosophical thought , and his power of grouping facts . The result is a clearer and fuller comprehension of this the greatest of Greek thinkers . But apropos of this chapter , and of the work generally , we have a serious objection to make :

      it is , that Mr . Grote seems to consider any German , however obscure , an authority worth citing or criticising , whereas French and English writers are by him strangely ignored . Even when his obligations to them are unequivocal he is silent as to their existence . This is neither politic , nor is it strictly honest . But it belongs to the pedantry of our day to load the footnotes with references to German writers , no

      matter how contemptible . Assuredly no person competent to speak on the subject will ior an instant deny the superiority of German scholarship , and their wealth in all that relates to antiquity ; to them the student must look for valuable material ; but they have no monopoly of the subject , and if many of their writers are mines of erudition , many also are mines of stupidity and perversity .

      In conclusion we would observe of this " History of Greece , " that if as a work of art it is open to serious objection , it nevertheless deserves to rank as the finest example of pJtilosophical history which has yet been produced on Greece ; and for opening the subject clearly to the modern mind no work can compete with it *

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      BOOKS ON OUR TABLE . The Fourth Ihtale : Contributions towards a History of Newspapers , and of the Liberty of the Press , liy !•' . Knight Hunt . In 2 void . JJavid liogue . The Shoe and Canoe ; or . Pictures of Travel in the Canada s , illustrative of their Scenery , and oj' Colonial Life ; with Facts and Opinions of Emigration . Stale . Policy , and other Points

      of Public Interest . With numerous Plates and Maps . By John J . Bigsby , M . O . 2 vols . Chapman and Hall . The Tarantas ; Travelling Impressions of Young Russia . By Count Sollogub . With Eight Illustrations . Chapman and Hall .

      Tracts on Christian Socialism . II . and III . George Bell . "We noticed the first of these bold and powerful tracts in our second number . There have since been two more published : one a History of the Working Tailors * Association , 34 , Great Castle-street : the other an Address to the Clergy by a Clergyman . The first-named is exceedingly interesting , first as showing how much may be done by a little resolute endeavour on the part of men to act up to their convictions ; secondly , as showing how advantageous is the principle of cooperation not only to the workmen but to the public . We have reason to

      know that the Working Tailors' Association is in flourishing circumstances , and that , too , notwithstandingthe high wages received by the workmen and the low prices charged for the goods ( namely , £ 3 18 s . for the best quality frock coat ; £ 3 12 s . for the best dress coat ; £ 1 12 s . for the best cloth trousers , and so on ) . Every one is in high spirits . Every one hopes that the experiment may be the parent of numerous others . All the " Working Tailors' Association" now needs is to be made generally known . If any of our readers are passing by 34 , Castle-street , Oxford-street , we counsel their giving a look in to see the operation of this cooperative system .

      Community Justified . Green . This is a small pamphlet by the Leeds Redemption Society , in which some popular objections of the newspaper press are met in a familiar tone of address . It must have a useful effect . It is in the form of a dialogue between " Communist' and " Comment , " who are not imaginary but practical characters . The Burden of the Bell , and other Lyrics . By T . Westwood , Author of " Beads from a Itosary , " and Miscellaneous Poems . E . Lumley .

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      THE LYRIC DRAMA . On Saturday , at her Majesty's Theatre , Madame Frezzolini appeared in a new character , which af » forded a strong contrast to that last assumed by her . From " Lucrezia Borgia" to " Adina , " in the Elisir d * Amore , is a step from the sublime to the familiar , and Madame Frtzzolini , indeed , seemed somewhat bewildered by the transition . Her dramatic power

      is not flexible enough to enable her to shine with equal brilliancy in tragedy and comedy . Whilst her version of " Adina " is elegant—and vocally satisfactory—there is a pervading want of truth in it as a dramatic assumption . She is no more like a peasant than the old china mantelpiece shepherdess was like the flesh-and-blood being it represented . A comic lady , we think , she would succeed in . Why not try " Rosina , " in the Barbiere ?

      Konconi made his first appearance this season on Thursday at the Royal Italian Opera . "We are sorry to .-ay that he thought fit to appear in " young Verdi s " trashy opera , Nabucco ; and we are also sorry to say that this unfortunate production was subjected to still further disguising—and that people who had become accustomed to recognize Nabucco under its London name of Nino , were now called upon to attend another christening , and to see that the bantling was lawfully named Anato . That we English are the most moral nation on the face of the earth is proved , not so much by the small amount of murder , robbery , arson , forgery , &c . &c , in the

      community , as by our rigid abhorrence of scriptural subjects on the stage . Mrs . Grundy would expect a " judgment" on her if she were to attend any such exhibition . Wo spoke on this subject when we noticed the production of Zora , and our admiration of English ** respectability" and the Lord Chamber * lain goes on increasing . Ronconi is known by opera-goers to be one of the first artists on the lyric stage , and his " Anato " will do much to deepen still further the impression . His acting and singing were , from beginning to end , sushall not chronicle the

      perb . We encores , callings on , &c , because we have a great contempt for these now merely-mechanical modes of showing approbation : we shall only say that the audience thoroughly appreciated the excellence of Ronconi's performance . That charming artist , Madame Castellan , is improving so rapidly that we are always prepared to find her , in every new part , surpassing her former achievements . Her ' Abigail , " however , was good , beyond our expectations . It was received with continual applause . The exertions of the magnificent orchestra and chorus were thrown away upon Verdi's meagre , noisy score .

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      June 1 , 1850 . ] &i ) V & ££ & £ ?« . 235

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      Maltsters . —According to a return lately published the number of maltsters in England , from 1846 to 1850 , ranged from 8290 , the number in 1847 , to 7300 , that in I 860 ; and the number of prosecutions against maltsters has been from 25 , the number in 1860 , to 118 , that in 1847 . Iu Scotland the greatest number of maltsters in any year during the quinquennial period was 1118 , in 1846 , and the smallest 919 , in 1850 ; the greatest number of prosecutions being 27 in the first-mentioned year , and the smallest 2 , the number in the last two years . In Ireland the number of maltsters ha * been from 178 ( in 1848 ) to 194 ( in 1816 ); and the number of prosecutions from 1 to 15 . The number of prosecutions against unlicensed persons for breaches of the malt-laws , from 1846 to 1850 , has ranged from 125 ( 1848 . ) to 185 ( 1850 ) iu the whole United Kingdom .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), June 1, 1850, page 235, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1841/page/17/