On this page
- Departments (2)
-
Text (7)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
THE BUILDERS OP THE MIDDLE AGES.*
-
POLITICAL AND OTHER NOVELS.*
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.
-
-
Transcript
-
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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
sions of the injury which an incautious treaty mi £ ht do to the interests of trade and agriculture , saw the . ad vantage ' -there-would l > e iu a superior Council of Commerce , composed of Intelligenfc and influential negocians , and were only . diverted From . proposing it by the arguments of those who showed that the various ministers constituted a body who would be nb 1 e to furnish all the necessary information and advice to the Chief of the State . All this was conveyed to the Emperor in the Report of M . Troplong * , the . President of the Senate ; and what M . Girardm complains of is , that the actual execution of this decree of 1852 is not in harmony ¦ with the meaning and intentions of those who composed and voted it . Now , if N " apoleon III . were , a constitutional sovereign , and professed to ' govern on constitutional principles , this would be at once a valid and a serious accusabion ; but as it is , since the French people has consented to endow him with supreme and unlimited
power , it seems to us childish and futile to dwell upon the infringement of a decree which , at the time of its behisr passed * could not be supposed to possess much force ; and which . the course of events since then has xmiformly tended to deprive of all authority whatever . It is preposterous to charge an absolute monarch with a breach of the constitution , and judge a despotism by republican principles . But , as Mr . Mill has acutely observed , the French publicists do not reason logically , on the same set of principles ; they set out with one set , and " finish with another diametrically opposite . The constitution of 1852 determined that absolutism was the most desirable form of government ; and this being the case , M . Girardin is inconsistent with that determination in bringing a charge against the Treat y ^ on the ground of its having been made in an absolutist fashion . Despotism is the vocation of Napoleon III ., and " 'tis no sin for a man to labour in his vocation . "
Untitled Article
rpHEOLQGICAL strife has well nigh deprived us of the power of J- lising our senses when We approach those subjects which have even a remote bearing on the religious habits of the Middle Ages . The ceaseless "' jangling of tlie ministers , " -which has now been going on for upwards of three centuries , and as yet shows no sign of abatement , has so stunned its , that we are unable , for the rnost part , to reason on any of that class of objects whicIT , mark the bicth-- time- 'and infancy . of modern Europe without leaving our wits behind us . Men who are able politicians and ripe scholars , who can use their eyes and their heads on all things that concern the nineteenth century , and on many that are very , far remote therefrom , fall victims to the most palpable errors as soon as they enter the- ' charmed period that lies between the fall of the last ^ of the Caesars and the revolt of Teutonic Europe from the rule of his more than imperial successor . :
This ' is perhaps jribt to be wondered at when we call to mind that newly every historical work that has been produced since the chroniclers left off writing has Ijad a distinctly religious bias , has been , in fact , a party pamphlet on a large scale . Protestants , lEofnanists , apd sceptics , all saw that the part played by the Church in Europe , when the kingdoms were gradually cooling " down from a state of fusion , and shaping themselves , each in its own manner , out of the seething mass that had been the Roman world , was no common phenomenon in the history of our race . They perceived the immense advantages that were to be gained for party purposes , could it be proved that throug-h that long period her power over men ' s minds had been wielded as they , by a foregone conclusion , felt sure that it ninst have been , and so their ablest
heads and hearts set to work at the thankless task of making a past time seem to reflect the passions of the present . Each party forged its own n , vros from the materials best adapted to its purpose ; each gave boundless praise tr > those men of the middle ngea , in whom they thought they' saw champions or victims in a cause lilto to that for which they were now fighting . The Romanists lauded Beckeb for his most questionable suits , and reviled our Plantagonet princes in terms which arc only equalled by the Protestant vituperation of that great churchman , and the praises showered . upon his royal enemy . Wo are well enough acquainted with these opposing 1 views , for tho Protestant one pervades . ill our popular literature from liVxro ' s Martyrology to DH worth ' s Spelling . Book , and the Papist ' s case has been dinned into our ears by the unceasing clangour kept up by his brethren within tlie English Church , whose powers in tho way of enricnturing history have surely never been surpassed save by the author of Knickerbocker ' s " History of
place beside the other branches of human knowledge until its whole basis has been widened and its sphere enlarged ^—till our his torians at least endeavour to grasp all the phenomena ,-physical and mental , that have , during the times they treat of , appreciably affected ^ the human family . To do this perfectly , is as impossible as it is to know all the results of the laws of astronomy perfectly ; but it is as necessary to have the ideal of true excellence before us in the one branch as in the other . The value of such minute information has only been discovered of late , and there are yet many to whom such an opinion seems foolish enough . The guardians of most of . our local archives yet as carefully ward off the students from their precincts as the dragon , guardians of the Princess Rosebud did the knights in the fairy tale . Those who have the custody of the ecclesiastical recoi-ds of the archiepiscopal see of York are , however , a noble , exception . The work before us could never hnye been executed if its editor had not had unrestrained use of the documents of which it is an imprint . Considering the prejudices that arc afloat , too great praise cannot be given for this wise liberality . The recent revival of the pointed styles of architecture has given an interest to these papers greater than they would otherwise have possessed ; for they show , as in a journal , how stone after stone of that glorious fabric was piled . We learn where the quarries were , who gave the Chapter the timber , and who sold them the lead , whence they procured the glass for their windows , and the silver and gold for their altar services . AH this , and much more of surpassing value to the antiquary , is to be found in those quaint old Latin account rolls ; but if . there * . 'ha d not been other information , of wider range , if not of deeper interest , we should hardly have noticed them here . As it seems to us , the special value of these documents consists in the light they throw not on architecture as an art * but oh those principles and actions from which architecture and all other notable works among men take their rise . From various eh-cumstances , among which not the least potent was the independent spirit of the Northern nobility , the archbishops and hio-lier dignitaries of York were usually appointed from , among - " the most eminent of the clergy . Unlike the _ minor bishoprics , York was never disgraced by a king ' s bastard or a court favourite being promoted to its mitre . The result was that \ yhile it too often happened elsewhere thafc the Bishops were the chief spoilers of their own cathedrals ., at York we find them atnong its noblest benefactors . To Thoresby , Neville , " Arundel , and the murdered Scrope ¦ much is due ; , for by their princely munificence was raised one of the most ? exalted types of beauty that the world has se en—a structure of which the very memory will be a worthy inherit ' ance when the stones and the timber shall have passed away for ever . But let us never forget that we owe our churches and our abbeys to the free spirit of the people , not to the will of one man , however noble From the people arose the great architects who planned them no less t-lmit the workmen who built and the populace who worshipped and rejoiced themselves within their walla . Of Thomas Haxey , " sometime treasurer of York , " an ecclesiastic , an architect , and a member of Parliament , some remembrance should be had , for he was one of those brave free souls who loved beauty with a womanly fondness , and yet dared to speak his mind before kin « "s even when that freedom was punishable with death . In the Parliament of 1397 he had a seat as representative of the clergy , and in that assembly he lifted up his voice , as we are given to understand , in no measured terms against the luxury and extravagance of the court . The king caused Haxey to be condemned to death for treason by an ex post facto law . But the bishops loved and valued the brave speaker , " et prieront a roy humbfement q lui plerroit de sa grace avoir pity et mercic del di _ t Thomas , et luy ottroier et dtaiir sa vie . " Tlie king dared not disobey the bishops , so Haxey was not murdered . When he died he was buried in tho minster he loved so well and a chantry and altar were raised in his memory . Both are now gone , but in the north aisle of the nave , is a monumental stone that marks where his ashes rest . ,,. , . , , Tho Suvtoes Society is the oldest of our popular publishing clubs . Established more tfian a quarter of a century ago , i n honour of tho memory of the historian of Durham , it has done much towards the elucidation of those parts of our national history that are connected with the north country . Few of its works- nro more valuable , and certainly none more carefully edited , than that which it has devoted to the xwblest of our English minsters . " Ut roan floB florum . sic oBt domus ista donaorura . "
New York . " What wo require is not views on mediaeval history , but a lucid statement of facts from which wo may e » ch of us . draw our own conclusions , and this is juat what so few writers are capable of giving , us . Wo liave essays on and philosophies of history in abundance , but tho books are sadl y too few which bring before ns M » o Jifo art'd manners of tho past without tint or shadow from the fool ' jJgrs and controversies of the day . While students have been disputing 1 about tho theological significance of almost every act in the groat druma of the Davis Ages , they have been careless in garnering all those facts which did not seem to boar on tho questions in debate . 11 ms , much that is relutivoly of little value lms been preserved , while , during these lntter centuries , tliero , has perished ajmnsa of knowledge concerning 1 the inner life of tho past , which , if ib had como down to our time , would have gono fur towards fixing 1 the data out of which the future soienco of history will have to bo built , fov it is evident that history can never take its
Untitled Article
AS may be inferred from the title , We Man oj me w a thoroughly political novel ; ib is , in tiiet , founded upon the miserable state of the country iu 1815-10 , when the people had boon hampered and oppressed with numerous imposts , in , or < Ior to meet tho expenses of the groat , Continental war , which then agitated tho whole . of Europe , and in which our Government had occupied so prominent a position . This , tojrothcr wiih tho bnnoiul lnfluonoo of the -Opm laws , throw thu whole working population of Wland into tho niortt evident nnd alarming digress , a distress which in tho majority of . oases amounted to actual . starvation , afact , J owovor , to which the ministerial cabinet was cither wilmWy or strangely-
Untitled Article
March 10 , I 860 . ] The Leader and Saturday Analyst . 23 «
Untitled Article
* Who IPahriQ Molls qf Xorh Mimtor f with anAppondhv qf illuntrativo Doaumonta . Edited by the Rev . Jamks Haink , for tuq Surfceoa Society .
Untitled Article
" * Tho Minof tho l > ooj > lc By Wimjam Howitt . 'X'hroo voIb . Hur « t an Br 5 ! Sf ° fLM ; a T « l « nf oU North , nn ^ hh ,. By G , J . W « i «
The Builders Op The Middle Ages.*
THE BUILDERS OF THE MIDDLE AGES . *
Political And Other Novels.*
POLITICAL AND OTHER NOVELS . *
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), March 10, 1860, page 235, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2337/page/15/
-