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Ok la vertu va-t-elle se nicher f Where shall we look for Genius next ? In the lowest deep there is a deeper still , and after discovering Genius in every possible variation of mediocrity , so that the word is losing altogether its signification , our times have been happy enough to possess such an effulgence of this divine light that it has penetrated and illuminated even the wording of an apology ! In a recent trial for a libel which appeared in Blackwood ' s Magazine , an apology was offered to the effect that " inquiries having been instituted , the writer believed the statements he had made were
unfounded . As an apology this is explicit and sensible enough ; but it seems by its brilliancy to have excited the literary enthusiasm of Mr . Keene , the council for the plaintiff , to a height from which he declares that the " apology exhibited the talent and genius of the gentleman who was "understood to be the writer of the article . " We have no suspicion who that writer is , and are perfectly aware that men of talent , ay , and of genius , do write in Blackwood j but with the best intentions we have been utterly frustrated in the endeavour to discover wherein the talent and genius of that apology consists !
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Among the enormous scandals of the daywhich is political in its object , though literary in form—we call attention to that amazing example of a free press which France has given us in the case of Victor Hugo ' s sou , condemned to a fine and six months' imprisonment for writing an article against capital punishment , not half so striking or so antagonistic as Dickens ' s famous letter on the execution of the Mannings . The plea was that the article excited disrespect to the Law ! Bufc as Victor Hugo—who defended his son in a
powerful plaidoyer—very justly pointed out : Respect for the Law can only mean respect for the execution of the Law so long as it is not abolished ; if it meant silence and acquiescence in the abstract propriety of the law itself , all reform of legislation would be impossible , since how are legislators to repeal a Law which no one dares to call unjust ? If the Party . of Order wishes to prove how stupid it is ., and how odious it can become , we must say its recent conduct has been very adroit ; but if it really wishes for the support and sympathy of honest men , it is as blind as Demagorgon !
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The trial of Bocarme , the aristocratic poisoner , has been the gossip of the week , which has brought to light the story of Balzac ' s connection with the Bocarmes . Every reader of Balzac knows the fondness of the novelist for aristocratic circles , and the endless list of sounding names honoured by the dedication of his works ; among them was
Madame Bocabme , and one of his novels waa written in the Chateau de Bitremont . While on a visit at the Chateau , Balzac was taken to see a farmer , and , as usual , interested himself so much in the cattle that , alter an hour ' s convernation , he was amused to find that the farmer had taken him , H . dk Balzac , the brilliant Parisian , for a cattle dealer !
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The French arc a strange people . Julkb Janin , the week of his marriage , thinks of nothing more opportune than to write a feuilleton on his Wedding day ; and Kdouaud I ' louviku , a young dramatist who brings out his drame hes Venyeurs at the Ainbigu , by way of additional piquancy to the first night , that very morning marries Mile . Lucik Maihre , the actress who has to play the heroine in his drame ! The critics and friends who go to the theatre that ni tf ht , are all aware that it is a bride who ih thus aetintr for her bridegroom !
Among the announcements we notice the tenth volume of Thikhh ' h Hist air a du Consulat , and a new novel by Dumas—Un Drame de ' 93 ; but nothing likely to bo interesting .
Thackeray ' s fourth lecture was even more crowded than the former were , and fuller also of matter without losing anything in brilliancy of manner . It treated of Prior , Gay , and Pope . There was a pleasant sketch of Prior , the English Horace , who gained the secretaryship to an embassy by writing an indifferent poem , and who sang the old gongs of love and wine to music that will never be old ; still pleasanter the sketch of Gay as a social favourite , whose poetry was aptly said to
be to real poetry what Dresden China is to sculpture , and worth turning over by any " gentleman of lazy literature . " But the staple of the discourse was , as it deserved to be , abo " ut Pope , whom he traced through his literary boyhood , —his sham loves for women , and his pretended passion for Lady Mary Wort-ley Montagu ( not so pretended , we believe , as the lecturer pretended)—his first introduction to Addi son ' s select circle , and
his breaking away from it to set up an empire of his own . There were admirable and" telling remarks on the great literary friendships of that day , and the cordial recognition of each other ' s merit which these wits displayed ; and in speaking of the quarrel between Addison and Pope , after quoting Pope ' s terrible portrait of Atticus , he beautifully compared this dark wound in Addison ' s character to the arrow in the side of St . Sebastian . Great ,
stress was laid upon Pope ' s love for his mother and friends , and Thackeray managed to bring out the humanity of the satirist , though he deprecated the wantonness of the satire . To Pope , he said , we owe the Grub-street tradition ; he ruined the literacy profession by his insi 6 tance on the miserable accidents of poverty and shame which destroyed many of its professors ; he dragged into light , things which decency should have kept concealed ; and the public learned to associate with the name of author , ideas of squalid meanness and unpaid milkscores .
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newman ' s political economy . Lectures on Political Economy . By Francis William Newmani formerly Fellow of Balliol College , Oxford . John Chapman-For a lucid statement of principles in a singularly compact and readable volume we know of nothing comparable to this . Any person familiar with the subject and the writings upon it , will appreciate the union of fulness with brevity which distinguishes it ; but only those who have some experience in lecturing can understand the amount of thought and dexterity required to keep such a subject within such narrow limits , and yet not have a tedious page . It consists of thirteen lectures , each of which is of an hour ' s length , and in that course of thirteen is contained the best manual or
Introduction to the Study of Political Economy with which we are acquainted . The lectures were delivered recently at the Ladies' College in Bedfordsquare ; and it says much for the tuition at that College that such science should be taught in so dignified a style , with no abasement to " popularity" or ammingness . By this criticism on the excellence of the work we are not to be supposed to endorse all its opinions ; on some points we are at open issue with Mr ; Newman : but these have been so often
treated in our columns that it would be needless to reopen the questions . On one point only we would beg leave to make a remark , viz ., on his opposition to Socialism . Like all other writers on his side , Mr . Newman , finding competition in full activity here in this social condition of ours , finding it inseparably inwoven with " existing arrangements" has no great difficulty in proving it to be " necessary" aa well as " beneficial . " But this is something like an ignoratio clenchi , or argument beside the question . Every advocate of Association
knows perfectly well the part Competition plays ; but he also knows that Association is identical with civilization—that the higher the BtageH of civilization the wider the . development of the Associative principle—and that this development visibly increasing in theiso times will finally absorb the greater part , if not all , of that competition which it opposes . Socialism is a tendency , not a nystern . It will take years before it can systematically establish itself in tho convictions and acts of the nation ; but during the transition period we shall see competition dwindling away and " concert" usurping the place of
antagonism . Mr . Newman is a thinker of too se ^ an order not to admit that what is morally wrn cannot be politically right ; and every one . y admits that , concedes the itov < rrvivxt or startin point of Socialism , unless he happen to decla ^" that to overreach one another is a more m 0 M procedure than to assist one another . Mr . New man himself points out the capital distinctio n " tvveen the savage and the civilized man : The savac * state derives all its peculiarities from the isolatio of man . In it each man does everything for him self . Men begin to cease to be savages and take the first step towards civilization , when they devote themselves to different special occupations so as to be in a social sense necessary to one another . Each for himself—is the devise of the savage . Each for
himself and for others—is that of the civilized man Can we desire a more distinct formula for Competition and Association ? And is it no ' ; evident that the greater development of the civilized or social condition must depend less upon the flourishing condition of learning , luxury , or art , than upon the increase in that care for others and concert in all employments which are implied in the principle of Association ? Trace civilization from the Family , the Tribe , the Village , the City , the Nation , till you arrive at that essentially modern conception of the solidarity of Nations in one Human Brotherhood , and you will therein read the . gradual rise and fall of the competitive , and strengthening of the
associative influence . That , we say , is the verdict of history—the forethought of science . It is no argument against such a verdict that the competitive influence is traceable throughout , and that it hitherto seems to have been an instinctive tendency . The question is not whether it is operative , but whether it is morally to be approved , and whether it is capable of being set aside .
We cannot pursue the argument ; enough if we have indicated our point of separation ; and we will now turn to other chapters—that , for example , on Population , which is full of interest . On the Malthusian doctrine Mr . Newman ' s opinion is that when stated as an abstract theory " it is undeniably true ; but that every practical application which either Malthus or his followers have given it , is deplorably and pertinaciously false ; " adding : —
" Mr . Malthus was a benevolent man , of great learning and original thought . His doctrine was one of the phases through which Political Economy inevitably passed , just as Philosophy passed through that of the Selfish System , the upholders of which were not selfish persons . I see not how to deny , that , however true in the abstract is the nucleus of Malthusianism , yet its applications have been blighting to our science . On every point practical Malthusiani 8 m has been undermined , —I do not mean by the often unjust assaults of unscientific repugnance , but by reason and accumulated fact .
" First , it is impossible for any poor man to hope that his individual prudence in the delay or renunciation of marriage will ever be remunerated by a higher rate of wages . He knows that others will swamp his market with their children , if he live childless . If the good alone are Malthusians , the bad families will outbreed them . Next , the progress of Irish population has demonstrated that a total absence of Poor Laws has no tendency to check
population , but rather the contrary . When m live in a half-brutish state of mind and body , you can no more Btop their multiplication than that of rabbits , by enacting laws : the only way is to shoot them down . If men are to bo treated as men and governed by law , there is only one way of checking their increase ( supposing that to be desired ) , viz ., by increasing their comfort and their Belf-reHpect , l > y developing their mental faculties , and lifting them above mere animal instincts . An Irish lad marries at
eighteen , because ho has nothing to lose and something to gain by it . He has no comfort in life to hope for but that of a wife ; and who will succeed ^ m persuading him to renounce that also ? l '()< r Laws are found to be essential as a means of police ; they are nlso ( as I think ) matter of justice to the poor , in all countries where Law keeps masses m land idle ; on which subject I shall afterwards speak . Dot they likewise aid to sustain the p ° ubovo that stale of recklessnuuH in which they mulup l 3 thoughtlessly ivs animuls . , . , whic
" You inutit remember the wild ages throug h " Human Nature has passed . Our forefa thers vr <* t nil mere wivages . In conflict with so many V ° ^ , of destruction , our race could not have sustft "" - itself , had thoro not been in its animal basis ft inl ? j vellous power of self-reparation . A power esscn in times of violence n « eds to bo partially quios ct ) iu times of tranquillity . As tho ferocity ^ } Buvugo is tempered into a noble and mild putriotisi » ho the instinct which joins him to Woman ^ - ° t () refined into a tender sentiment , which , in order listen to virtue and prudence , may feed awhile up the mental response which it receives .
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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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586 © 1 ) 0 aeatret \ [ Saturday ,
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Leader (1850-1860), June 21, 1851, page 586, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1888/page/14/
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