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LITERATtTBE, SCIENCE, ART, &c.
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LITERARY CHROMCLE OF THE WEEK
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The proverb tltat expectation always exceeds reality has certainly been falsified by the Bums ' s celebrations w hich were held on Tuesday last throughout all parts of the United Kingdom . We have Sot yet had time to hear of what was done in America and our distant colonies , but as Scotchmen have notoriously a great passion for emigrating , and as neither immensity of distance nor lapse of years can make them lose either their nationality or their accent , we may safely predict that eciual ent husiasm was displayed . Perhaps , in some Southrons , there may be a disposition to regard
this enthusiasm for the bard as somewhat exaggerated . We arc apt to forget that we English are demonstratively egotistical , and that we celebrate ourselves and our heroes at our dinner festivities , not once in a century , but every week of bur lives . When the Times complained of the Bams celebration , and asked if we had nobody to do likewise by , the writer should have remembered that the birthday o £ Shakspeare lias been observed as a festival ( though , it is true , but in a meagre \ vay ) every year for a hundred years , and that the celebrated anniversary held at Stratford-upon-Avon in Garrick ' s time was quite equal in the display of enthusiasm and of relies to anything that was done on Tuesday last . We grant , however , that this
celebration was the glorification of the actor rather than the poet , ' and was the laughing-stock of rill sensible people . A comparison of the various accounts which have appeared leads us to believe that the most successful festival was that held at Glasgow . That at Edinburgh seems to have lost by the absence of Lord Brougham , whose vivacious presence was but poorly compensated for by a didactic letter , aud vrhose place was scarcely fittingly Filled by the eminent Scotch judge chosen . At Glasgow , the great celebration in the City Hall was presidedover by Sir Archibald Alison—hardly , perhaps , the greatest historian the world ever saw , yet undoubtedly a Scotchman of great note . Other names , too , of good report are to be found among the list of guests : ColoneL James Glencairn Burns , the venerable son
of the poet , whose brief but very eloquent and touching speecli found a way to every heart ; Judge Haliburton ( the immortal " Sam Slick" ) , who astonished his audience by giving them a lecture on the colonies , instead of some side-splitting Slickisms ; the venerable Sir David Brewster , who does not include among | iis many accomplishments that of public speaking ; Samuel Lover , the author of " Rory O'More , " whose genial presence and smart , Mppy jokes wore received with all the enthusiasm they deserved . Six hundred ijood and leal Scots dined off the savoury cockalockie and the steaming haggis in that hall , and five hundred of
Scotia ' s fair daughters " rained influence" from their eyes in the galleries . The " immortal memory " was drunk in bumpers of olmmpagne ; but the wine was soon put aside for the national toddy , and spmo from the south were as much surprised as gratified to obsorvo that dew which ( as Mr , Lover happily expressed it ) "is apt to fall so thickly in tho evening , but docs not evaporate quito so rapidly m tho morning , " circulating among tho ladies iathc gallcrioa . And lot it not bo supposod that tho onthusiasm that was exhibited was anything but genuine . The Scotch are a thoroughly hearty Pooplo , and aro proud of their bard , Wo cannot Quito go tho loncrth of ooinDarincr him to Williiun
ohakspoaro , and we rconl to mind tho boast of the Edinburgh pittito on tho first night of Homo ' s " Douglas" — Whar's t / our Watty 8 l « tk «\ wre noo ? Still wo oan approoiutc sincerity of heart in whatever guiso it comes to um , mid wo believe that there was not a hoart in Scotland Mint caiuo I'o do honour j , o llobort Burns that was not thoroughly ni earnest . Perhaps tho most amusing oxaniplo of national egotism displayed in this business is that part oI ' word Brougham's lot tor to Lord Ardmillan in w noli ho assovti-i tho ' purity of tho Scotch dialect , J-no passago is too Rood to bo lost ; , and will boar quotation :- ~ "But It is also At that wo should on this occasion oonwaou in what language Bums ' s poems , at least by far
the most celebrated , an'd . the ihost justly celebrated , are written . It is the language , the pure and classical language , of Scotland , which must on no account be regarded as a provincial dialect , any more than French was . so regarded in the reign of Henry V ., or Italian in that of the first Napoleon , or Greek under the Roman Empire . Nor is it to be in any manner of way considered as a corruption of the Saxon ; on the contrary , it contains much of the old and genuine Saxon , with an intermixture from the Northern nations , as Danes and Norse , and some , though a small adoption , from the Celtic ; But in whatever way composed , or from whatever sources arising , it is a national language , used by the whole people in their early yearSj by many learned and gifted persons throughout life , and in which are written the laws ' of the Scotch , their judicial proceedings ,
their ancient history , above all their poetry . Its Saxon origin may be at once proved by the admitted fact that Barbour , Chaucer ' s contemporary , is more easily understood by an English reader at this day than the Saxon of the father of English poetry . The merits of the Scoth language are attested , as regards conciseness , by the bievity of the Scotch statutes compared with the English , and , as regards clearness , by the fact that there has been much more -frequent occasion for judicial interpretation of the latter than of the former . But the peculiar value of the language arises from the great body of national poetry entirely composed in it , both in very remote times and-in those nearer out own day ; and there can be no doubt that the English language , especially its poetical diction , would greatly gain by being enriched with a number both of words and of phrases , or turns of expression , now- peculiar to the Scotch . "
Lord Broughani should remember that his boast is after all but a plagiarism . The Americans are in the habit of declaring that . their mode of speaking English is the purest . Of " all the items of news this week having an interest purely literary , none is more solemnly important than that which acquaints us with the loss of our greatest living historian , Henry HaUam . A great man indeed has departed from us . . Another name in the obituary of the week is that of the Rev . Charles Val Le Grice , the schoolfellow of Lamb and Coleridge . Many a genial anecdote have we . heard ¦ from his lips of the school days and after days of his distinguished companions .
In the absence of hpmc literary intelligence we take the following from our contemporary the Critic : — ¦ . T . T . de St . Germain- —who determines to preserve his incognito , seemingly—the author of the " Legend of a Pin , " which we noticed on its first appearance ; of " The Art of being Happy" ( " Et noluit consolari" ) ; of ' * Mignon" ( Wo have seen the egoism which kills , behold the love which saves !) of " Lady Clare" ( King in the love of truth and right ) , has published ano ( her little book , " La . Feuillo de Coudrier , " simple , pure , and engaging as his others—such ft book as a young lady may be found reading without the crimson mounting to her cheek .
In the Library of Spanish Authors , published in Madrid , appears ( in the Spanish ) the works of Don Gaspnr Molchior de JovellniiQS . No more than justice has boon done . by this publication to the memory of an upright magistrate , a distinguished counsellor , and n clever mnnof letters . Tho nnino « -of Jovellanos is always pronounced with respect by his countrymen . They regard him as one of tUo regenerators of Spanish literature , " In nil tho circumstances of his life , in the midst of crises whioh traversed his country—grave and terrible crises—Jovellftnos displayed tho most brilliant qualities , the most heroic virtue , tho moat voinarkablb tulont . V Those aro tho words of an impartial modern writer . Pon Laandor Fernandez doMoratin , a celebrated author , calls Don Graspar Mclohior du Jovellanos one of tjia most distinguished Spaniards who illustrated tho reigns of Chorles III . and Charles IV ., imd it is plonslng to see
iit him tho man of lottors , tho economist , tho dtstin ^ ninhoil poot , tho eloquent orator , a man tho most amiablo find tolerant . Ilia ideas and his conduct wore in discord with tho corrupt ago in -which ho lived . ' Vot /' says Moratin , " after having boon outraged , proscribed , obliged to flao in spite of hU old ago and in—( lnnitioH , and to oxtract hlmsulf at tho same tiino from the fury of his onomioa as well an t | jo Injustice of hit ) countrymon , tho noblo author of tho ' AgrariAn Law ' uould scarcely 11 nd an asylum to render tho last sigh . " Quintana , in his introduction to tho " Spanish Poo try of tho Seventeenth Century , ' makes him a high oulogium , which has the moro weight as thuiv philosophic tendencies woro diu ' oront . Tho pi'osont edition contains a history of tho life and works of Jovdlnnoa , or Joylno , as hia friend Mcoondcss used to call him . This portion of tho work , aa well aa a commentary , Id by Sonor Noeadni .
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DIARY OF LADY MORGAN . Passages from Jilt / Autobiography . By Sydney Lady Morgan . Bentley . The age of Lady Morgan is a theme upon which she has forbidden the world to speak in a lively poetical remonstrance , recently addressed to a contemporary critic ; but forbidden themes are proverbially tempting , and this particular one has been , we arc afraid , too long the food of gossips to be given up even in favour of the claims of gallantry and politeness . It is said that her old enemy , the late Mr . Groker , under whose merciless attacks her reputation throve so wonderfully , once searched the registers in Dublin to settle this important pointy and secure a new weapon of offence . How far back into the pre-Fitzgeraldite and pre-Emmettifce days of the history of Dublin city niust we go for this fact , wliich bids fair to become an historical secret , and load future " Notes and Queries" with , interminable columns of debate ? Mr , Croker appears to have given up the search without success ; nor did he find the advertisement in the Dublin paper announcing the appearance of the infant Miss Sydney Owenson , daughter of the manager of a certain theatre there , to sing a song before the footlights , though there are ^ some who have seen itr and who , although they cannot now find the e ^ aet date , are ready to depose to the fact upon their honour . " Born in May , 17 S 3 , " say the " Men [ and Women of the time ; " but then we know too well what various breaths blow the thousand noisy trumpets of that useful book of reference to put entire faitli therein . We happen ourselves to have a copy of the little pamphlet of her poems published in Dublin with . the date of 1797 . But we are growing scandalous , and will drop this interdicted . subj ' ect . Old or young—eighty-Rve , or if the still charming authoress insists upon it , only eighty—who can take up this " odd ¦ volume" of ner c < Autobiography" without the kindliest . welcome ? Wonderful Lady Morgan I who so bravely , light-heartedly , waged war in the forlorn hope of liberalism , in times that are even now historical , and who is still among us , witty , lively , full of life , and loving life , and holding to the worlds good word of praise as much as ever , never happy , we suspect , if her name ceases for amoment to nil the public mouth ! It was but the " other day that we learnt from the papers , with deep regret , that she was ill beyond hope Qf recovery , and now , cheerful and well again , she ^ starts upon ^ a new literary journey , and writes witty verses in . defence of herself to the public journals . Was this but the favourite jpr imci donna ' s ruse- —the " positively last appearance , " which has no other meaning or objeot but to stimulate the momentarily nagging attention of the public ? We saw with , regret the straw-covered street , the muffled knocker , the numerous carriages of inquirers who left , as the newspapers told us , two hundred cards a day at her door . Have we all been deceived ? Well , let us ask no more questions , but go on with the lady ' s " Autobiograpny , " the real business of the moment . ' Lady Morgan ' s " odd volume" consists of a diary k ' ept by herself in the year 1 S 18-19 , and the correspondence of herself and her husband with their numerous . friends in England and on the Continent , llov work'on France had already made her famous , and its sucocss suggested u journey ip Italy , and another book of travels . Her diury opens with tho following entry on this scheme : — Kildaro-stroot , Dublin , August , 1818 . Well ! until this blessed day wo havo remained uucertnin aud uncomfortable about our wisliod-for journey to Italy . Tho indecision arises from fueling ' , prudence , and precaution . 1 Uo not HUo to loavo n » y dear sister in her pvosont dulioatu situation . Tlio qxponso will bo enormouti , and tho povuniary return is unccrtflin , till nt least wo lumr from Collnim , to whom wo have notified our intention , Tho dooreo nirnlnst my works by tho French Governmont BtlU liauuii in tcrvorem ovov me-, and the attacks of Torv ilctr : u'tor « i In England *—at the hand of whom stands ' tho ' ( Junrtt-rlv "—are not encouraging . They oil turn Moli . paiinv c / ititivo , into political onpitol in tho fund of Illiberal * . However , we aro both , inclined ( oiu husband and ouvsolf ) to proceed on our mission of doing good by U'lliutf truth neoorulnu to our Impivsuions . I , in Hiv little way , and my doar husband , in his mora
Literatttbe, Science, Art, &C.
LITERATtTBE , SCIENCE , ART , &c .
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j ^ o . 462 , Jaspaby 29 , 1859 . J THE IDABiB . 13 &
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 29, 1859, page 139, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2279/page/11/
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