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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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gegggggS ^ g SSSISgi ^^^^ who loved atheismtyrannyplunder , and ^<*<^ e ^_ ^ g ^ rrf , likeiheir R « n ^
, , _ : ffieni . In tte pictures these men were all represented as d ™* M *? t ^^ J « J miscreants got fato power at one time , and , if we remember right , ' : ™ » « ° «* £ * Broad-backed Admmistration . One with shaggy eyebrows and J **** *?**'** hirsute ringleader of the rascals , was , it appears , called CJ «^ «^ * " * , " ** » £ miscreant ? with a blotchedbonntenance , was a certain Shendan ; other imps were SKslmfNorfolk ( Jockey *) , Moira , HenryTetty . As in our childish inno-« nce weusedtolook at these demons , now sprawling and tipsy in their cups , now calihjr heaven , ftom which the angeHc Pitt hurled them down ; now cursing the light ( their atrocious ringleader Fox was represented withiairy cloven ^«^/ * " * ™ J nornsY ; bow Iriasmg BoneyV boot , but inevitably discomfited by Pitt and the other good angels , we hated these vicious wretches , as good children should ; we were on the ride of Virtue and Pitt and Grandpapa . But if our ' - inters wanted to look at the portfolios , the good old grandfather used to hesitate . There were some pnnts among Stem very odd indeed ; some that g irls could not understand ; some that boys , in deed , had best not see . We swiftly turn over those prohibited pages . Howmany of them there were in the wild , coarse , reckless , ribald , generous book of old English humour !
Mr . Thackebat ;( fbr in so clear a case there is no use in being anonymous ) then goes < m- to show , by reference to Mr . Leech and his friend Punch , howcaricature has * become civilised since Geolbat ' s time . The following passage , in which Punchia made to represent modern caricature , is capital , and the concluding reference to " Jeames , "— -considering by whom it is written , is exquisite . It is a happy stratagem of Mr , Thackebat to break the forceof criticisms , against himself by anticipating them . This book is better than plum-cake at Christmas . It is an enduring plum-cake , which you may eat and which youmayslice " and deliver tpyour friends ; and to which , having cut it , you mayT » me again and welcome , from year ' s end , to year ' s end . In the frontispiece you see Mr . Punch examining the pictures in his gaflery- ^ -a portly , well-dressed , middle-aged , respectable gentleman , in a white neckcloth , and a _ polite evening costume—smiling in a very bland and agreeable manner upon one of bis pleasant drawings , taken : out of one of his handsome portfolios . Mr- Punch has very good c ' [ > • ¦
reason to smile at the work and be satisfied with , the artist . -Mr . Leech , his chief contributor , and some kindred humourists , with pencil and pen Have served Mr . Punch admirably . Time was , if we remember Mr . P . ' s history rightly , that he did not wear Bilk stockings nor well-made clothes ( the little dorsal irregularity in his figure is almost an ornament now , so excellent a tailor has he ) . He was of humble beginnings . It is said he kept a ragged little booth , which he put up at corners of streets ; associated with beadles , policemen , his own ugly wife ( whom he treated most scandalously ) , nd persons in a low station of life ; earning a precarious livelihood by the cracking of wild jokes , the singing of ribald songs , and halfpence extorted from passers-by . He is the Satyric genius we spoke of anon : he cracks his jokes still , for satire must live ; but he is combed , washed , neatly clothed , and perfectly presentable . He goes into the very best company ; he keeps a stud at Melton ; he has a moor in Scotland ; he rides in the . Park ; has his Btall at the Opera ; is constantly dining out at clubs and 1 r 1 ; r \ ; » > [
in private society ; and goes every night in the season to balls and parties , whereyou ¦ ee the most beautiful women possible . He is welcomed amongst his new friends the great ; though , like the good old English gentleman of the song , he does not forget the small . He pats the heads of street boys and girls ; relishes the jokes Of Jack the coatermonger and Bob the dustman ; good-naturedly spies out Molly the cook flirting with policeman X , or Mary the nursemaid as she listens to the fascinating guardsman . Housed rather to laugh at guardsmen , " plungers , " and other military men ; and was until later days very contemptuous in his behaviour towards Frenchmen . He has a natural antipathy to pomp , and swagger , and fierce demeanour . But now that the guardsmen are gone to war , and the dandies of " The Bag "—dandies no more—are battling like heroes at Balaklava and Inkermann by the side of their heroic allies , Mr . Punch ' s . laughter is changed to hearty respect and enthusiasm . It is not against courage and honour he wars : but this great moralist—must it be owned ?—has some popular British prejudices , and these led him in peace-time to laugh' at soldiers and Frenchmen . If those hulking footmen . who accompanied the carriages to the opening of Par- !
liament the other day , would form a plush brigade , wear only gunpowder in their hair , and , strike with their great canes on the enemy , Mr . Punch would leave off laughing ; a £ Jeames , who meanwhile remains among us , to all outward appearance regardless of ; satire , and calmly consuming his five meals per diem . Against lawyers , beadles , bishops and clergy , and authorities , Mr . Punch is still rather bitter . At the time of the Papal aggression he was prodigiously angry ; and one of the chief misfortunes which happened to him at that period was that ,, through the violent opinions which he expressed regarding the Roman Catholic hierarchy , he lost the invaluable services , the graceful pencil , the harmless wit , the charming fancy of Mr . Doyle . Another member of Mr . Punch's cabinet , the biographer of Jeames , the author of the Snob Papers , resigned his functions on account-of Mr . Punch's assaults upon the present Emperor of the French nation , whose anger Jeames thought it was unpatriotic % o arouse . Mr . Punch parted with these contributors : he filled their places with others as good . The boys at the railroad stations cried Punch just as cheerily , and sold just as many numbers , after these events as before .
To a clever bnt inefficient paper on Sir Benjamin Bbodib ' s " Psycological Inquiries , " there succeeds an article on " Clerical Economics , " in which the household w * y « ami accommodations of clergymen both in England and 8 ootland are treated in the light easy style peculiar to this species of papers wthe Quarterly . Then there is an article on "The Open Fire Place , " in JWfift i ^^ tory of improvements in grates ; chimneys , fife-places , and stoves IP . qMMR , from * the rough old times to the last invention of Dr . Abnott ; the «* Hjh * Mng pages of the article are devoted to an exposition of Dr . Abnott ' . WW 6 r * te "~^ already , as all know , making a sensation in London , and promising to cure all the ills that grates have hitherto been prone to , and to
We believe that there will be greater need than ever for vigilance and firmness . w 7 ta ££ ito > Splomacy of Russia more than her arms . We are apprehensive that Sr submission fa adevice for detaching Austria from the alliance , and for paralysing our pwSrations for the next campaign . Hostilities , it is affirmed , ar ? not to be Snooted - but we are alarmed lest the Government should repeat their former to ^ rovide armaments against the spring . Any . such suspension in our efibrjs ^ wouH beSeheight of folly and false economy . The mere pecuniary cost of prepanng for waris vastly less than that of war itself , and should Russia reaUy yield to our SiaTJm onlbe because we holdourselves in . readiness to exact what j he that will asked
effect an incalculable saving of k money besides . The writer of the article anticipates that Dr . Abmott ' s grates will become universal . Besides an article on " Provident Institutions , " and one giving an account of the reeent history and present state of " . Corsica , " * there are two articles relating to the war and its conduct-the one historical in its Torm , and entitled " Campaign in the Crimea ; " the other more critical and political , and entitled' * The Conduct of the War . " This last article : is a direct counterblast to the similar article in the Edinburgh , being an attack upon ministers , and a denunciation of their incompetency . From a postscript alluding to the Czab ' s offer to negotiate , we quote the following :--
-y , 3 ZT £ Snor ^ n ^ erf ^ e guarantees be of her , and theamountof the indemnitv which will be required for the expenditure we . haw incurred , we can give no opinion upon the conditions of peace proposed by our Ministers . ^ We teusted Semto provide lor the contingencies of war , and found ourselves ** " **¦ - £ taking advantage of the secrecy with which the negotiations must be tf ***** * *** should againiusappoint the reasonable expectations of the public and assent tomd * .-adequateterms , they ^ will not , we venture to predict , be able towithstand the atorm of ircprobatioTwbich is justly due to men who , through weakness and incapacity ,
have betrayed their country . The Quarterly , it will be observed , is more spirited and popular in its style of thought about the war than the Edinburgh . Both , however , agree in thinking that the war should be made to go on exclusively to the interest ofthe " balance of power" among the great states , and that all talk about " the nationalities , ' * &c , ought to be kept down .
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VARIETIES . TWO OB THBBB OHn . DBBN'S BOOKS . " Give me the making of a nation ' s ballads , and let who will make the laws . We would almost say the same of books for children , and of the literature of maturer age . We know no art more delicate , more serious * more responsible than the art of writing " children's books . " There is no art , we -must add , more desecrated by the pedantry of bunglers and the cant of killjoys . What is childhood intellectuall y considered ? Is it not the simplicity , the intuition of genius , without its sorrow and its bitterness ? What is genius in after-life but the simplicity , without the ignorance , of childhood blossoming amidst the brambles of the iworld ? To write for childhood , then , is to address an audience of untainted senses , unclouded souls , uncorrupted hearts , ears pure as living streams , eyes ffresh as the earliest flowers . The first quality in writers for children should be reverence ; the second , simplicity ; with these let humour , invention , fancy , spring from the pen as from an enchanter ' s wand ; the child ' s imagination will nil up . the barest outline with visions of wonder and terror , of beauty and strength , and glory unknown even to the brains of men . Ifo doubt we cordially disagree with the excellent Mr . George Cruiksbank when he converts Jack the Giant-killer into & member of the Peace Society and a Temperance Apostle r that isnot the way .-we" believe , towin the sympathies \ of little readers for whom the bottle" has been something maternal and \ persuasive , not something remorseful and destructive , and who , never having suffered the ill effects , do not need the warnings of venerable converts . Nor do we condemn the warlike exploits of the Giant-killer , as of a pernicious tendency , and likely to instil a barbarous ferocity into the tender breasts of eventual Great Britons : on the contrary , we rejoice in the due and seasonable cultivation of that combative instinct which , however of the earth , earthy , seems to be part and parcel of our poor human nature , and therefore respectable , and even sacred , and which make 3 a nation of soldiers , not , let us remind Mr . Cruikshank , a nation of peace principles and standing armies . Still , with all our affectionate gratitude to , Jack the Giant-killer and Co . ( a tolerably long-lived firm , it appears , and likel y to do a great stroke of business for many years to come ) , we do not consider them the ne plus ultra of excellence in the literature of childhood ; and we have no difficulty in conceiving a better . If we had not believed in the possibility of superseding the Iliads and the Epics- that stirred the infant souls of the heroes of the Alma and of Inkerman by stories scarcely less exciting , equally undidactic , and infinitel y more pure , more simple , more inspiring , we should be rebuked by this beautiful little gem of a "Child ' s Story , " The Three Boys , written and illustrated by Jane Eleanor Hay . ( Bosworth . ) We have only met this book by mere chance . Hnd it come to us in the ordinary course , we should not have been silent so long on its rare and peculiar merits . But if we mistake not , it will survive many a Christmas . This story is , we do not hesitate to say , the model of what stories for children should be . To write it was not only a happy inspiration , it was a good action , and it bears at every lino the sweet impress of the hand and the heart of a loving mother , the touch of a sincere artist , the tone of a true poet . We shall not commit the cruelty of robbing these thirty-two pages of their gentle secret . Only thirty-two pages , and enough of beauty to be a joy for ever to the child that listens to the story ! We can imagine the little reader or the little listener asking for The Three Boys again and again , pondering on it in secret , getting it by heart , putting the precious volume under an innocent pillow , as a talisman of lovely dreams—the dreams of childhood ! No child- taking to heart this story can fail to grow in grace and in strength . For what is its teaching—Perseverance , Faith , and Purity . These immortal precepts are not made harsh and hateful by wo know not what theological terrors and condemning texts : there is no thought of frightening the child into love of God , but as a guide and com-
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 20, 1855, page 64, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2074/page/16/
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