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    Kittxatnn.

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    engrossed , and for affixing the Great Seal to it . This recommendation was so obviously just , and the existing practice , as detailed and printed in the evidence appended to the" report , so dilatory and vexatious , as well as utterly useless , that the Government at once adopted it . A bill for amending the Law of Patents was introduced by Lord Granville , and passed through the House of Lords , but was thrown out in the Commons ; and the simplifying and abridging of the process of passing such grants has thus been postponed till the next session of Parliament ,

    when it is not to be doubted that it will be effected . In the mean time , an act has been passed "to simplify the forms of appointments to certain offices , and the manner of passing grants under the Great Seal , " which enacts that , in every case , where , under 2 / Hen . VIII ., c . 11 ., or , according to the law or usage subsisting before the passing of this act , any gift , grant , or writing to be passed under the Great Seal would have required a Queen ' s bill or bills from the offices of the Signet and the Privy Seal respectively , it shall be lawful for her Majesty by warrant under her royal sign manual , addressed

    to the Lord Chancellor , or Lord Keeper , or Lords Commissioners of the Great Seal , to command such Lord Chancellpr > or &c , to cause letters patent to be passed under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom according to such warrant > prepared by her Majesty ' s Attorney and [ Solicitor General , or one of them / setting ^ forth the tenor and effect of the Letters Patent thereby authorized to be granted , and being countersigned by one of her Majesty ' s Principal Secretaries of State , and sealed with the

    Privy Seal > for which sealing such royal sign manual , so countersigned as aforesaid , shall be sufficient warrant to the Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal . " This warrant , so countersigned and sealed , is to be a sufficient authority to the Lord Chancellor , or &c , for passing Letters Patent under the Great Seal , according to the tenojr of the same warrant ; no Queen ' s bill , Signet bill , JMvy Seal bill , or other warrant or authority whatsoever being any longer necessary for , or preparatory to , the passing of the Letters Patent . The act also abolishes the

    several offices of Clerks of the Signet and Clerks of the Privy Seal , giving the Lords of the Treasury power to afford compensation to all persons who may suffer loss thereby , as also to determine and regulate the establishment to be henceforth maintained for executing the duties of the Privy Seal . Such powers and duties as have hitherto been exercised or performed by the Clerks of the Signet , and not now superseded , are to be in future exercised and performed in the office and under the direction of the Home Secretary .

    SrsriiB . —A just intermixture of sentences of brief energy , in which the idea is , as it were , darted at the reader , and those in . which it ia more deliberately conveyed , the medium of thought being converted into a separate , independent source of pleasure , forms the most pleasing style . We do not like our music to be all staccato pasuages : the flowing melody must intervene to give these their full value . ' — British Quarterly Review , No . 28 .

    A Dunce . —' Let us pause here for a moment to confess that the lot of poor Duns in this was certainly a hard one , who , whatever may have been his merits as a teacher of Christian truth , was certainly one of the keenest and most aubtle-witted of men . He , the " subtle" Doctor ( Doctor subtilis ) , as his admirers called him , could hardly have anticipated , and as little * as any man deserved , that his name should be turned into a by-word expressive of stupidity and obstinate dulness . — Trench on the Study of Words .

    Mimtaby Costume . —Rumours are current in the purlieus of the Horse Guards , of important changes ( not until much wanted ) in the costume of the army . The heavy cavalry dress will , it is understood , undergo a complete revision at the next issue of clothing . The absurd tailless jacket is to be exchanged for a frock coat , loosely made about the sleeves , and with no other ornament than the row of buttons destined to connect one side of the coat with the other . The brass shoulder scales , as useless asi inconvenient , are to be abolished ; the authorities having , at length , discovered that they press disadvantageouBly

    on the a word arm . The new helmet is to fit the head closely , and to be no larger than it need be . The " swinging horse tail at each valorous back u » to be discontinued , as is also the huge blnck muff , weighing Several pounds , which is at present stuck upon the heada of grenadier lifeguardsmen , and which , during the dog days more especially , makes them the objects of everybody ' s sympathy . It is impossible to conoeive any ooatumo lees picturesque , or more uselessly absurd , than much of our military drew and accoutrements . Jf any reform be introduced , it pught to bo a sweeping

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    We have pleasant news to communicate ; news for which all poetic readers will thank us by anticipation . Robert Browning , in his Italian sojourn , has been interesting himself biographically . in Percy Bysshe Shelley—once a name of terror to the proprieties , now a loved and respected name to all but the very bigoted ; and the result of this inquiry we are to have shortly in some unpublished letters of Shelley ' s ( and what exquisite letters he did write !) , with a preface by Browning himself .

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    As for other novelties , our table is crowded with them ; and we can only take a passing glance at the new periodicals which , with all the trembling nervousness of a " first appearance / ' solicit the critical applause of the pit . The British Journal is a magazine similar in form , purpose , and execution to other magazines ,

    the only novelty being the price , which is small enough for any magazinic purse . Frank Fairle gh commences a story in it , Frances Brown contributes a pleasant one , Mrs . Cowden Clarke agreeably discourses on ¦ ' . * sympathy with unknown people , " and Miss Costello carries us to the Alps . What the British Journal wants is originality : at present it is only another magazine .

    The Poetic Review has , at any rate , the merit of distinctive position : it is devoted to Poetry , and to Poetry alone . Critical disquisitions and abundant verse fill its pages . We cannot , however , perceive in it that excellence which would command success . The Biographical Magazine has also a distinctive purpose , and a good one . It may be made a very entertaining as well as a very useful periodical—a work to be bought as well as read . The first number contains memoirs of Louis Napoleon , Jean Paul , Banim , Soult , the late Bishop of Norwich , and Kossuth .

    The Juvenile Penny Magazine is worthy the attention of Parents . It is , perhaps , a little too profuse in its " useful information" j but the information is popularly given , and illustrated with woodcuts . Charles Knight ' s Companion Shakspere is a cheap and elegant Tittle book , but only meant for

    those whose eyes are happily indifferent to small print . Douglas Jerrolo , pitiless toward the defunct Mrs . Caudle , bids the whole world come and read her " Curtain Lectures , " which he gathers up into the Collected Edition of his Writings ; and Gilbert a Beckett , aided and abetted by John Leech , make terrible havoc with the dignity of Roman History .

    Among the periodicals a first place must be ceded to the Art Journal , which commences the new year with an unusually attractive number . The contributions include Mrs . Jameson on the " Nuremberg Madonnas , . Mrs . Merrifield on the " Harmony of Colours in Applications to Ladies * Dresses , * ' Sketches of Rubens and Gerard , Professor Forbes on the " Wood used in Art , ' * and Professor Hunt on the " Metals used in Art . *' The illustrations are very numerous . Altogether it deserves its place on the drawing-room table .

    Kings ley commences his new story in Fraser this month : Hypatia ; or , New Foes with an Old Face .. Touches of his powerful and delicate discrimination there are , passages , too , which an admiring pencil marks ; but on the whole the story excites little interest . The wilful mingling of the quite modern with the ancient colouring—for it

    must be wilful—we cannot help regarding as a mistake . John Leech , for purposes of burlesque , effectively mingles the toga with the Joinville tie , the Roman helmet with the Regent-street imperial ; but Kingsley ' s purpose was far from burlesque : it was , perhaps , to secure a more vivid flense of reality , to bring Alexandria " hone to our buiwew

    and bosoms "; but it has failed to do so . You cannot clothe the Theseus by putting a peajacket on its brawny shoulders . „ Altogether it is ah amusing number of Fraser j and Mr . ICirwan ' s " Letter on the Coup d * Etat " expresses what nineteen-twentietha of the English Nation feel on this subject .

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    THE WESTMINSTER REVIEW . The Westminster Review . No . CXI . January , 1852 . John Chapman . This is the first number issued since the Review passed into Mr . Chapman ' s hands ; and so much expectation has been excited by it , that we must treat it as a literary event , and criticise it as a new work . Certainly the first aspect is very prepossessing : it looks like a gentleman ' s review—has an air of elegant solidity and courtly gravity which will

    arrest the eye . But people do not pay six shillings for such sober ornament , and the more practical question remains—What of its contents ? They are varied and excellent . There is no one article to create a sensation "; but the average excellence of the number surpasses , we tbink , that of all the other reviews . Those persons who have been looking out for this number will note that the two perils besetting Mr . Chapman ' s path , or confidently supposed to beset ifr—viz ., heaviness and exclusiveness—have been skilfully avoided . But we miss the boldness such a Review

    ought to adopt . We miss the positive conviction * of which it should be the organ . That Mr . Chapman will not allow it to fall into vague routiniary orthodoxy Kis position in the publishing world assures us : it will be fatal if he do , for the orthodox have their organs already . So much for generalities . - Let us now glance at the contents . The opening paper on Representative Reform is timely , and contains some valuable matter , both of information and suggestion ; but it is hardly equal to the great subject , and must be accepted rather as a prelude to future articles . After sketching the history of representation , the writer says : —

    " From this glance at the history of representation one inference is inevitable : there is no ancient and complete standard to which appeal can be made . On no page of our annals can the Conservative put his finger and say , there is the delineation of a House of Commons in its perfect state ; there is the model from which every deviation is an abuse ; whatever then existed , and has since been lost , must be restored ; whatever did not then exist is an innovation , and must be rejected ; these are the ancient ways in which we are bound to walk . The most common borough franchise of our day , that of the £ 10 householders , is not yet a quarter of a century

    old . The Septennial Act and the property qualification are modern innovations . The original duration of Parliament was shprter than that which chartism demands . Payment of members was twin-born with the House of Commons . Though not imperative , yet voting by ballot once was legal . It has probably only ceased to be so by accident . The poorest peasant was for centuries admissible into the House of Commons , and the son of a duke was , for a long period , inadmissible . There is scarcely a proposition for change bo great , but it may plead a precedent . And yet the Reformer is aa much at a lots as the Conservative for a complete model or standard . "

    We add this passage on OUil ELECTIONEERING SYSTEM . " It is an extensive agency of demoralization . As a general rule , a seat is expensive . In very few instances does one cost so little as £ 1000 . The aggregate outlay on a general election , is estimated at a million and a half sterling . We need not refer to the St . Alban ' revelations , or to other disclosures in the records of election committees yet more disgusting . All over the country habits of debauchery are stimulated , and consciences are tampered with . The pernicious influence of the election agent is not confined to the election time . It extends over all

    the intervening , periods . He * s a permanent missionary of demoralization , supplied with funds from those whoso ambition i » bent on the purchase of legislative honours . Let not the blame be shifted on the people . They ore corrupt because they are corrupted . Temptation is constant and powerful ; punishment most uncertain and rare . f lo defend this shameful part of our electoral system would be the open advocacy of the grossest vice . On the need of reform , whatever the means , in this respect , there can be no dispute . Notoriety , prescription , common usage , alleged necessity , nbthfng can justify it , or palliate the delay o * vigorous effort for its extinc-¦

    uon . . " That » reform bringing us nearer to a realization of the wpwiwittitiY * p * inwj ? l « > would improve the

    Kittxatnn.

    Kittxatnn .

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    C » itic 3 are not the legislators , but the mdges and police cf literature . They do not make 1 aws—they interpret and tv to enforce them *—Edinburgh Review . '' ... ' ¦

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    jj ^ iofw 6 ^ M $ s ¦[ &s * ti : 9 t * -- - ¦¦ 37

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 10, 1852, page 37, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1917/page/13/