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Critics are not the legislators , but the judges and police of literature . They do not make laws—they interpret and try to enforce them . — Edinburgh Review .
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The dullest weeks may now be said to have passed , and the approaching season casts a few of its " shadows before . " The advertisement columns are still meagre , but Guide Books and Sporting Books do not " possess them merely . " Meanwhile notes of preparation announce that the season , when it fairly sets in , will be brisk : publishers are keeping back several works in order to make a
display when the campaign opens . Among the •* interesting novelties in preparation , " the playbills say , let us mention a collection of Hungarian Tales and Legends , by Theresa Pulszky , a collection gathered some years ago , by her husband , from the living source of national folklore , and now edited and made English by her delicate and dexterous pen .
This is Magazine week , and has , therefore , extra variety . Christopher North is again " under canvas" in Blackwood , discoursing on / the poetic disposition ; the New Yorker continues his graphic sketches of American society in Fraser , and he is the better worth hearing from the peculiarities of his position as a born American educated at an English university , which gives him a more commanding view of American society in itself , and of its relation to English society . Let us also direct attention to an article in this magazine upon
Public Nurseries , detailing one of the most excellent of modern philanthropic schemes . The Quarterly and Westminster Reviews have also appeared ; the former containing an article by Mr . Ford on Ticknor ' s Spanish Literature , and one by Mr . "Ward on the Water Question j both of more than usual interest from the authority of the writers . The Westminster generally contrives to have one good paper to buoy it up ; this time it is an elaborate investigation of the Sabbath as held by various nations , and one which would completely crush the Sabbatarians , if fact or reason could touch bigotry .
We shall quote some passages in our Notes and Extracts . Referring , in one place , to the texts which display eating and rejoicing as elements of the ancient Sabbath , the writer , in a moment of forgetfulness , says : — " Many persons will be slow to believe that holiness was ever connected with eating and drinking , and making merry . " How ! in good , pious England , where the Sunday dinner is a thing sacred , a solemn sacrificial Institution , as punctual in its rituals as morning Church , where ( at least among the middle classes , who monopolize piety and stiilling ) the great event of the day is the fillet of veal with its multitudinous efc ceteras , the
ample indigestion of a twohour meal , followed by a dessert that lingers on tiil tea , ten o ' clock prayers , and an early bed—is it in England that eating can be thought a strange associate with holiness ? We appeal to the experience of every reader ; we appeal to the remembrances of stupified faculties oh those listless , weary days when the newspaper , an occasional visit , and a profusion of dinner were the only permitted outlets for enjoyment . We often , in recalling Sunday experiences , think of this reply of a " naughty" child . Her mama told her that if she were good she would go to Heaven j and on
wishing for a more explicit statement of what heavenly life would be , was told how " every day would there be Sunday" ; whereupon this naive remark issued from some corner of her heart from which " original sin" had not been washed , * ' Lor ! how dull it will be 1 " Very shocking , was it not ? Yet , friends , if you will make Sunday hateful in the hope of making men pious , —if you will forget that God is Love , and has created a world of Beauty and of Gladness , —if you will substitute the scowl of pnritanistti for the natural piety of every unpervcrtcd soul—such will be the thought of children and of men !
lu'anoc is at present occupied with the first results < jf tho new press law , obliging writers to allix their signatures , a law which , as John Lkmoinnk , in the Dvbafs , justly says , is a law against the press . We shall ' see how it will work . The inconveniences arc manifold , as every one intimate with tho structure of a newspaper must feel ; while the advantages , such as they arc , lie mostly on the side of the journalist , against the journal . So keenly does the Times feel this that it writes in a passion at the bare mention of such a thing . Imagine the cftcct of such a law upon the
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Times I It is , to use the definition given of it by one of its most distinguished writers , " a gigantic power wielded by pigmies" : the effect of each article arises not so much from the intrinsic merit of the writing as from the accumulated reputation of the journal . If its articles were signed , several writers would be celebrated — for there is no disputing their ability—but the prestige of the Times would be amazingly lessened ; and if some contributions would bring reputation to men now little known , there can be no doubt that many of
its articles would bring infamy upon the writersif they dared be written ! One thing seems to have been overlooked by those most desirous of seeing their names in print , viz ., that , even allowing them to be admirable writers , the public would soon become excessively weary at the iteration of their names . Moreover , the opinions expressed by a journal are very often not so much the opinions of the individual writer as the consensus of several persons ; in this case any one signature would be
out of place ; but where the opinions are those of the writer , if the publication of his name can add interest or authority , then it may well be given . Our own opinion , after a long consideration of the matter , is that , for the interests of journalism , journalists , and the public , the anonymous should be the general rule , but that in all exceptional cases , where personal responsibility gives dignity , sincerity , and authority to an article , the signature should be affixed . In other words , that names
should be used sparingly , and for other purposes than those of an ambitious publicity . On our table lies a new novel by Alexandre Dumas , and in only two volumes ! Should this Tulipe Noire prove worthy of his name , you shall hear more of it in a week or so ; but we are always suspicious of this dauntless charlatan , who manufactures novels , histories , voyages , plays ,
with a fecundity that sets all previous writers at defiance , and with an impudence so colossal , that it amounts to genius . Only last week he had the audacity to produce at his own theatre what purported to be a new play ; it turned out to be a comedy which four years ago he gave to the Theatre Francais , having previously taken it from one of his own novels . Thus he writes Le Chevalier
D'Harmental j a comedy is wanted , and by a little scenic arrangement the Chevalier is thrown into five acts of La Fille du Regents the success is mediocre , but now , being in want of a play for the Theatre Historique , he adds two acts to La Fille du Regent , christens it Le Capitaine Lajonquiere , and Cric , crac ! Voila le Drame / Alexandre must be a staunch upholder of that physiological theory named the transmutation of species ; give
him an anecdote and he makes ten volumes of it ; if it succeed , another ten volumes of continuation are ready ; if these exhaust it in the feuilleton , there is the stage , and his feuilleton can be cut into pieces of one hour , two hours , three hours , four hours , five hours—two nights' length , if need be ! Meanwhile he sups with " my friends the princes , " assists as second in duels , scours Europe , and astonishes Morocco : his whole life is a feuilleton !
Side by sidewith- La TulipeNoireis a small volume by Lamartine , Nouvelles Confidences . The rapidity with which new volumes appear of romance , poetry , politics , and autobiography , all signed with this name , once so chary of itself , leads one to suspect an immense need of money , or a feverish desire to keep before the public ; perhaps both causes are at work ; at any rate the sign is not hopeful .
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hundred thousand acres of waste have been reclaimed and found to pay—why not extend this operation ? Why not set our paupers to work , and carry out on a large scale the Sheffield experiment , recorded in last week's Leader ? " The reports of the various parishes in which the allotment system has been adopted establish the fact that land is rendered far more valuable and profitable in the hands of a labourer who cultivates it himself than in those of a farmer who has to pay wages for everything he does , and is robbed by eye-servants . A man works at the door of his own cottage , on his own holding , to
SIDNEY SMITH'S MOTHER COUNTRY . The Mother Country ; or , the Spade , the JFastey and the Eldest Son . sJn Examination uf the Condition of England . Hy Sidney Smith . John Kendrick . This is an outspoken , vigorous , thoroughly radical book , by one who has spared no pains to acquaint himself with , tho true state of affairs , and contains n mass of statistical facts marshalled in effective array in . support of its conclusions . Compressed into a small compass here are the results of considerable research ; and tho whole book is written with a trenchant power well adapted to its object .
On the subject of home colonization he pertinently remarks that , before sending out vast bodies of many to foreign countries * , it would be well if we reclaimed the land of England . There are iifteon millions of ucies at present lying waste , yet capable of improvement . It is idly said that waste lands would not pay lor their cultivation ; but tho best agricultural authorities—and the authority of extensive fact — emphatically deny this i besides , during the first thirty-live years of this century , three millions five
far greater profit than when he toils for another , trudging miles to and from his work . He labours early and late . The industry of his family is no longer lost to the community . The youngest picks up weeds , etches , and carries . The wife with the infant in her arms can even do something . All are made active and busy . A hundred peasants on 1000 acres ( ten to each ) mean 100 litters of pigs , 100 or 200 milch cows , with butter , cheese , milk , veal , manure . ( Mr . Blacker shows that a cow soiled may be well maintained on three quarters of an acre . ) They involve 100 broods of chickens , with no end of eggs ( our chief supplies of eggs and poultry are from Ireland and France . ) They imply that not one
blade of road or hedge-side grass , not one square inch o soil , not one withered leaf , will be lost . They mean 100 gardens with potatoes and vegetables , yielding each a surplus for market . They signify a smaller chance of a lost crop in any season , for , in addition to a soil better trenched and pulverized by the spade , and better manured , there are hands on the spot to substitute a new crop for that which has not succeeded . They involve no risk or loss of capital , because no wages are paid . No establishment of horses and implements has to be kept up , and although , for the time , there maybe little surplus to sell , the holder can make shift to live by his cow and eggs , and his garden , and wait for better seasons . Look at rent
the proof . The Dutch bear as high a , and are as heavily taxed as we are . Their climate is far worse than ours , because hard frosts compel them to maintain their cattle for four months of every year on winter food ; yet on their small farms they raise butter and cheese , pay a duty at our Custom-house of 20 s . and 10 s . per cwt . respectively , and undersell our farmers in Our own market Look at the Swiss with their little farms—how independent , how comfortable , how intelligent , how moral !" The facts brought forward by Sidney Smith in support of the allotment system and spade husbandry are overwhelming , and should be read in conjunction with Mr . Kay ' s admirable chapters on the same
subject : — « ' The parish of Cholesbury , in Buckinghamshire , was entirely occupied by two large farmers . Fertile , populous , within forty miles of the metropolis , its cultivators , notwithstanding , fell behind . There were 339 inhabitants in the parish , but only two had an inch of the soil . Was not this civilization run mad ? Was it not a glaring and staring evidence of the monstrous abuse of the principle of private property that only one man out of sixty-nine tillers of the ground should have exclusive occupation of the earth which God made common to all , and the appropriation of which can only be palliated upon the clearest proof of public advantage ? What
was the consequence of this beau ideal of politico-economical arrangement ? Simply this—out of the 139 inhabitants 119 were paupers . The land monopolists became bankrupt , the parson got no tithes , the landlord ' s acres were in rapid course of being eaten up with rates , and the whole property of the parish being unable to feed the inhabitants , a rate in aid had to be levied on the neighbouring parishes , which were rapidly degenerating into the same state . The Labourer ' Friend Society came to the rescue . They leased the land at a fair rent . They parcelled it out among the very worst class of persons upon whose habits to hazard the result
of such an experiment . Some got five , some ten acres , according to the size of their families ; and what was the effect ? At the end of four years the number of paupers had diminished from 119 to /> , and these were persons disabled from old age or disease—these paupers afforded to pay a rate in aid to the neighbouring parishes—and . it was found that every one of them was in a state of independence and comfort , each had a cow , many two or three , to which some added a horse , others some oxen , re < dy for the market , and all had pigs and poultry in abundance . "
And now hearken to this : — " If the anti-agrarian economists can show us where or how our teeming population can be more profitably employed than in subduing the wilderness , and making the desert and solitary places glad , let them . We have three millions and a half of unwilling idlers among us . Trade cannot employ them—manufacturers will notcommerce is over-done . There are 405 , 000 new candidates for work , wages , and food pressing upon us every year . Eight millions worth of hard-earned ratrs are squandered upon the local unprofitable jjoor . £ 784 , 178 of annual charity have to be added to this sum , besides , probably , not less than at least £ 1 , 300 , 000 more in
eleemosynary almsgiving . All this is not enough . At one fell swoop , what with Queen ' s letters , Irish and Scotch funds , contributions from every part of the world , from the Grand Turk to tho Autocrat of Russia , from the Pacha of Eorypt to the Hudson ' s Bay Company , from Indus to the- Pole , to the amount of £ G 03 , o 3 o Ss . 2 d . have been voluntarily subscribed , and the state has advanced £ 8 , 000 , 000 , all to feed those whom we had not found out the way of helping to feed themselves . ' In the month of July ( 1848 ; , ' observes the Report of the British ltolief Association , upwards of 3 , 000 , 000 of persons were daily supplied with food from the charitable fund . ' Nearly £ 19 , 000 , 000 of money given away to
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Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 5, 1850, page 662, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1855/page/14/
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