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Leader (1850-1860), 4th August 1855, Edition 2 of 2, Page 18, 7*0 T'ffE ; Ii !E A 3> E m , [No.- 380, ...

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      Last Year's Asian Campaign. A Oamjpaivn ...

      dfaftttul thechief command been bestowed 1 upon General Gtryon , either the en ^ my would Hot have risked , or he would have lost the battle of Kurukdere , so admirably described in these pages ; and although we are not sanguine enough to think that the Turks would have ever reached Ti Hi * , yjt ^ -e believe that they might have saved Bayazid , and confined the enemy to " nMist confess that we do not entertain that alarm at the progress of Russian arms Aw : Armenia and Asia Minor which Mr . Duncan shares with other Asiatic travellers . We are not of opinion that it would have been advisable to divide the Allied forces , for the purpose of sending even one divfeion to Rare . Nor do we think that Russia can conquer Asia Minor , or even obtain results that will compensate for any success we may obtain in the Crimea ; but we are quite ready to concur in the opinion that the operations of General MouraviefT constitute a serious diversion , which . it time and opportunity serve , may be developed into a permanent and substantial enterprise on its own merits . To say tliat the army of MouraviefF is ^ numerically- sufficient to overrun " the Asiatic provinces of the Porte" is , we tjooceivej , to form an incorrect estimate of the chances of that officer , and to speak in accents of exaggerated alarm . While the Allies are in the Crimea , Russia dare not be too prodigal of men and resources upon the plains and in the passes of Armenia . If Mouravieff , before winter sets in , takes Erzeroum , he trill have accomplished more in one campaign , with diminished resources , than Paskiewitch , who had nothing to fear for his rear , and to whom the Black Sea was open , accomplished in 1828 . It is not sufficient to capture a town to make a flank march within sight of its garrison . We can conceive , indeed , that had the Western Powers abandoned Turkey to her fate in 1854 , then Russian legions wo \ Ud have been triumphant from Kara to Mossul , and from Bayazid to Trebizond—perhaps to the Bosphorus . Bu ( f , then * how changed the conditions of success 1 Mouravien % of course , may be a Napoleon , and he is undoubtedly what Miv Duncan ; describes him to be ; an able and enterprising officer ; but we shall not be convinced of his ability to' conquer Asia Miuor until we see the accomplishment of the enterprise . In no way do we desire to depreciate the importance of the campaign in Armenia , begun so spiritedly by the Russian general . " We are perfectly ^ ware how necessary it is to bar the road to Persia through the Armenian passes to Russia . It would have been prudent to have succoured ' the small and ill-disciplined-army at Kurs earlier , and it might have been wiser to send Omar Pasha * to Kars when Eupatoria was made secure ; but we are by no means suee tliat it would have been so . Bupatoria is a position of great importance , and it ; may yet become the starting point of decisive results . If Russians beaten * in the Crimea , she is beaten'in Armenia ; and no army that she' could afford for the invasion of Asia Minor would be able to maintain a position west of Kars under such circumstances . Therefore we regard- the movements of Mouravieff , with anxiety certainly , but without ¦ alarm ..

      7*0 T'Ffe ; Ii !E A 3> E M , [No.- 380, ...

      7 * 0 T'ffE Ii ! E A 3 > E m , [ No .- 380 , Saturday , ...... " - , ' •—¦ .. ' ¦' - ^^^^^^^¦^ HftwwfMM' ^ Mi ^ Mi ^ wiMMMMWMMMMMMBMWMMMMBMMMlMWMWMWMWIiMMMi ^ M ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

      Life And Opinions Of Milton. Ax Account ...

      LIFE AND OPINIONS OF MILTON . Ax Account of iha Ufe , Opinions , and Writings of John Milton : urith an Introduction - to JParadwe Lost . By Thomas Keightley . Chapman and Hall . Thjs-volume on , ' Milton has been a labour of love to Mr . Keightley , and , as vnthf all such ' labours" where there is ability as well as love , the result is valuable . Ttfe biographical part is fall without being prolix ; all the accessible materials are well digested , and the evidence for questionable details ¦ carefully , sifted : tnere arc no bookmaking digressions from , the history of Miltoa ' s life tfr the-kistoCY . £ his period , but the reader finds as much illustrative information- , as is necessary . Those who are unacquainted with Miltoa ' prose works may get a very fair idea . of tliem from Mr . Keightley 1 3 analysis and extracts : they may learn what w « re Milton ' s opinions , how ho argtrcdj and io * what style he wrote prose ; and perhaps in these days , when the chief place of sfrody is the railway carriage , the majority of readers will be satisfied with this rapid coupd ' ee ' d , Mr . Keightley does not seem to us to be always felicitous in his criticism of Milton ' poems , but his comments , eapeeiaHy-m the introduction to Paradise Lost , contain much that is highly snggestire . Tne pripcipal phases and incidents of Milton ' life are familiar to us all : the sentence of rustication passed on him at the university ; tho bright , idyllic days at Horton when his early poems were produced ; the jpurnoy to Italy where he . "found , and visited the famous Galileo , grown old , a prisoner ; " the prosaic transition to se'uool-keeping in London . City and inharmonious marriage with Mary Powell ; his Latin secretaryship ; his second and third , ventures in matrimony , and small satisfaction in his daughters ; the-longways of blindness in which the Paradise Lost was poured forth by thirty lines at a time-when a friendly pen happened to by near ; and'the quiet closing years-when he might be seen " to sit in a coar 3 e grey cloth coat atthb door'of hrs house in" Bunhill Fields , in warm , sunny weather , to enjoy the fresh air , and so , as well as in his room , to receive tho visits of peopje of distinguished parts as well as quality . " Lleas familiar , because less generally interesting , are Milton ' s religious opinions , which were not fully known until 1823 , when Mr . Lemon , during his researches in tho Old State Paper-office , happened to lay his hand * on a Latia manuscript which proved to be the Treatise ou Christian Doctrine , known to hare'been written by Milton . In this treatise we have a complete statement of Milton ' s theological and ethical views . That he was an Arian , . a believer in free-will and in the universal efficacy of Christ's death ; had been already apparent to-the understanding reader in the pages of Paradise Lost ; the Calvinists , it was evident , could not claim him as their own . His famous work , too , on tho Doctrine and Discipline oj Dii ) orcey had sufficiently announced his departure from the prevalent opinion on that subject . The more-unexpected points in the treatise on Christian doctrine are the position that polygamy is permitted by the law of Christ ; tho rejection of infant baptism- ; and the materialistic view of tho human soul , that " man is not , according-to the common' opinion , made up and framed of two distinct und different ) natures , aa of soul and body , but thn & the whole man is soul and thSfr'BOttr ' mam" Milton was anti-Puritan in his view of tho Sabbath ,

      concurring with Luther in regardiug the Christian day of rest as a matter of expediency to be regulated by the civil government , not as a matter of divine authority . When Milton wrote his Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce ho was pleading his own cause as well as urging a general argument , just as , two centuries later , Mrs . Norton has recently done , and is doing in her Letter to tTia Queen . 'There is much unreasonable prejudice against this blending of personal interest with a general . protest . If wo waited for the impulse of abstract benevolence or justice , we fear that most reforms would be postponed to tho Greek Kalends , aud in all matters where popular alarms and prejudices do not come into play , personal experience is considered the next qualification for bearing witness to an evil . The Athenians , so far from sharing this xiltra-delicate notion of ours , that a man is not to appear in a cause for the very reason that lie has an interest in it , would allow no man to bring a case of litigation into court unless he had a personal concern in that oase : they distrusted all disinterested ofiieiousness as much as we s hould distrust a man who set up shop purely for tho good of the community . The personal interest may lead to exaggeration , and may be unwisely thrust into prominence , but in itself it is assuredly not a ground for silence but for speech , until we have reached that stage in which the work of this world will be all done vicariously , everybody acting for some one else , and nobody for himself . Milton ' s plea for divorce , of course , drew down on him plenty of Presbyterian vituperation : his book was " a wicked book , " his error " too gross for refutation . " Yet his stylo is singularly calm and dignified . He desires " not that licence : md levity und uneonsented breach of faith should herein be countenanced , but that some conscionable and tender pity might be had of those who have unwarily , in a thing they never practised before , made themselves the bondmen of a luckless and helpless matrimony . " We seem to see a trace of his own experience when he says , " Who knows not that the bashful muteness of a virgin may ofttimes hide all the uuliveline & s and natural sloth which is really unfit for conversation ? " —and when he speaks of a " sober man" discovering that the appearance of modesty in the woman he has chosen hides a nature " to all the more estimable and superior purposes of matrimony useless and almost lifeless . " There is pathos as well as force in the following passage : — And yet there follows upon thi 3 a worse temptation . For if he ( t"he liusband ) bo such as hath spent his youth unblamably , and laid up hLs chiefly earthly comforts iu the enjoyment of a contented marriage , nor did neglect tho furtherance which was to be obtained therein by constant prayers , when he shall find himself bound fast to an uncomplying discord of nature , or , as it oft happens , to an image of earth aud phlegm , with whom he looked to be the copartner of a sweet aud ghuisoine society ; and sees withal that his bondage is now inevitable : though he be almost the strongest Christian , ho will be ready to despair in virtue , and mutiny against Divine Providence . " A picture , alas ! too often realised since the year 1644 , when it was thus powerfully drawn . For want of a more modern pendant to Mrs . Norton ' s plea , it is worth while to take up Milton ' s , and consider what such a miud as his had to urge on the husband ' s side of this painful subject . Before taking leave of Mr . Keightley ' s volume , let us say thnt it is tho best introduction we have seen to the study of Milton , and that we recommend it to our readers as a fund of knowledge at once instructive and delightful .

      A Batch Of Books. Land, Labour, And Gold...

      A BATCH OF BOOKS . Land , Labour , and Gold ; or , Two Years in Victoria . By William Ilowitt . ( Longman and Co . )—In the two volumes of which this work consists Mr . Ilowitt has giveu to the public , from the results of his own experience , a view of the present social and political condition of our Australian colonies . The vices of our administrative system have reached the Antipodes ; and it is one of Mr . Howitt ' s principal objects to expose them . His book , in all its more serious aud useful passages , speaks almost perpetually iu tones of warning or complaint . Under existing circumstances , he has little to nay that can encourage persons proposing to emigrate , and scarcely any statements to make in connexion with the Government which are not more or less statements of abuses . His careful , und "VTO doubt not conscientious , picture of Australia has scarcely such a thing- as a bright tint in juiy purt of it . Ami if we turn from what he tells us of the present fco what he suggests of the future , we can still draw but few inferences of the hopeful kind . For the gloom and uncertainty which a' p erusal of the more serious portion of his pages must cist over the reflections of all thinking men , the nature of his subject—tho . exposure of'the doubtful and dangerous condition of n great English colony—is , we are quite willing to admit , mainly answerable . But it strikes us , at the same time , that the tone of the writer is an unfortunate one . He has a hard , ungenial way of stating his gloomy and startling fact . * , which will repel many por . srms from hia volumes , although ( like ourselves ) they miiy have no doubt of the author . - * accuracy and excellent intentions . Thia is the principal defect of a hook which has great claims to public attention , ami which , it must be added , addresses itself to the reader for amusement , a . 4 well as to the render for information . The lighter passages of Mr . Howilfi ' s work are almost uniformly interesting ; many of his anecdotes of Australian life , and little pictures of character at the 'liggmgs , mid In this towns , arc ho admirable , that wo should feel tempted to transfer . some of thorn to our own columns , if we did not consider it fairest to the author to trout his attractions for tho general reader as his own Hole property , which it would bo doing him an injustice to appropriate cvou by way of loan . Accordingly , wo reut satisfied with helping to draw attention , to Iu ' h hook , and leave to our readers the pleasant task of discovering all its best passages fur themselves . A Londoner * * IVrdk to the Land ' s End . By Walter White . ( Chapman and Mall . )— Mr . White han little to sny that has not been already hh >< 1 l > y writers ( and walkers ) about Cornwall . His book is , nevertheless , v ^ ' }' plenttant reading , in virtue principally of tho uimttbctcdly good-humoured tono in * which it in written . Mr . WHite is n traveller of the nest and truest kind : his hearty spir it , his genuine enjoyment of Nature , iimi his keen

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 4, 1855, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_04081855/page/18/