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Leader (1850-1860), 6th February 1858, Edition 2 of 2, Page 20

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      The Founder Of Tuu Bank Of England. Will...

      satisfactory ; but such a question should not be hastily decided . " Mr . Bannister says : —« . That Paterson wrote the book embodying these views will be proved by a chain of evidence seldom found in cases of disputed authorship or anonymous books ; and it is not improbable that some of the links of the chain , quite new , it is thought , to observation , may help the solution of other enigmas still met with in our political literature such , for example , as the authorship of the Letters of Junius . ' From the work itself we quote one remarkable passage : — " Those dissolute people , " he says , " called beggars are a sort of thieves ; for , although they be somewhat more tame and familiar with us , yet are they really but another cut of thieves . By this we mean only such as make begging the whole or any part of their trade or business . For there is no doubt but one man not only may , but hath a right to beg or desire a favour of another , in a strait or difficulty , or upon an emergency ; but that anything of mankind should make this their business , order

      or any part thereof , is not only contrary to justice , but to all good among men . Indeed , it is wonderful to think that ever anything that looks like or pretends to be a government of men , but especially of Christians , who pretend to be the best and wisest of men , should allow such a disorder to human society as a professed trade of begging ; especially since people and their industry not only are the truest and most solid riches of a prince or state , but in respect of tliem all other things are bvt imaginary . Paterson ' s new plan of attack upon Spanish America , his intercourse with the King , his controversy with John Law on paper money , his election as member of Parliament for Dumfries , the disgraceful behaviour to him . of Queen Anne , the decay of his private fortune , his social habits , and his struggle in Parliament for an indemnity , furnish Mr . Bannister ¦ with the materials of a very interesting narrative , much of which will be new to the ordinary reader . The indemnity was at length granted , and he then originated the Sinking Fund . Mr . Bannister thus winds up the story : —

      In early youth he had quitted home under hard persecution , but it sent him forth equal to his struggle of life almost alone . In manhood , every check in his prosperous career seemed to constitute only a starting-point for higher objects . " When impeded , both in the Bank of England and the Orphan Bank , he turned with extraordinary vigour to the Darien enterprise . When that was ruined , he applied with equal vigour to the home improvement of Scotland , and to defeat erroneous views of finance . When the Union , so much his work , proved barren to him of personal benefits , he devoted years to his pen , and with eminent success . It was only now , with declining strength , and with an awful ruin full before his eyes , when the vast majority of his followers were stone-blind , that he sank into his grave , crusbed , with his late recovered fortune , by Treasury mismanagement , and sick at heart at witnessing the triumph of errors he was unable to check . This biography of William Paterson , intrinsically valuable and interesting to all classes , is peculiarly welcome as a book for the instruction and encouragement of the young .

      140 T H E Leader. [No. 411, Febrttary 6,...

      140 T H E LEADER . [ No . 411 , Febrttary 6 , 1858 .

      Mr. Bagehot's Essays. Estimates Of Some ...

      MR . BAGEHOT'S ESSAYS . Estimates of some Englishmen and Scotchmen . A Series of Articles Reprinted by Permission principally from the National Review . By Walter Bagehot . Chapman and Hall . Mb . Bageuot ' s Essays , now reprinted , are nine in number . Their subjects are various . From the first Edinburgh Reviewers they turn to William Cowper , who is followed by Edward Gibbon . Bishop Butler takes precedence of William Shakspeare , considered as an individual . A sketch of Shelley leads in an estimate of Hartley , Coleridge , and Sir Robert Peel and

      Mr . Macaulay bring up the rear of the procession . Examining the book to discover the reasons of its publication , we find them of a peculiar character . Mr . Bagehot is not a master of style . He writesloosely , vaguely , and upon a common level . Nor is he an authority in criticism . A certain flippancy and habit of superficial investigation are his disqualifying attributes ,. But he gossips cheerfully on literary and biographical topics , and is not a fatiguing writer . As a republication , his work calls for no lengthened treatment ; but we notice two or three points illustrative of Mr . J 3 agehot * s manner . He is speaking of the ancients aa a past-away race : —

      T hey are dead . * So am not I , said the foolish fat scullion . ' . We are the English of the present day . We havo cows and calves , corn and cotton ; we . hate the Russians ; we know where the Crimea is ; we believe in Manchester the great . A large expanse is around us ; a fertile land of corn and orchards , and pleasant hedgerows , and rising trees , and noble prospects , and large black woods , and old church towers . The din of great cities comes mellowed from afar . The green fields , the half-hidden hamlets , the gentle leaves , soothe us with ' a sweet inland murmur . ' We have before us a vast seat of interest , and toil , and beauty , and power , and this our own . Here is our homo . An essay in this style is more easily -written than read . If Gibbon , as an autobiographer , forgot the difference between himself and the ltoman Empire , Mr . Bugehot sometimes forgets the difference between humour and mere trifling . Quoting Macaulay , who says— - With the dead there is no rivalry . In the dead there is no change . Plato is never sullen . Cervantes is never petulant . Domosthenes never comes unseasonably . Dante never stays too long . No difference of political opinion can alienate Cicoro . No heresy can excite the horror of Boseuet—Mr . Bagehot appends : —

      But Bossuet is dead ; and Cicoro was a Roman ; and Plato wrote in Greek . Years and manners separate us from the great . After dinner , Demosthenes may come unseasonably ; Dante might stay too long . We are alienated from the politician , and have a horror of the theologian . Dreadful idea , having Demosthenes for an intimate friend 1 He hud pebbles in his mouth ; ho was always urging action ; he spoke such —r ^ gOQd . GreoHr ;~ w . 9 ~ 9 ^ nQtjiw , eJ ^ | ^__ Wo are sorry to meet with a passage like this . When applying a biographical microscope to tho incidents of Shakspeare ' s life , Mr . Bagehot announces as a discovery , after quoting the poet ' s description of a hunt , ' knew that ho hail been after a . hare ? Then , Shakspearo was * au out-ofdoor man ; ' a worldly man , ' because ho succeeded in tho world ; ' ho ' had an enormous specific acquaintance with tho common people / In ' spiritedness , ' his stylo is * very like to that of Shakspoaro . ' One passago wo will quote at largo to show what manner of Essayist wo havo hero : — How are you to know people without talking to thorn , but how arc you to talk to thorn -without tiring yourself ? A common man is exhausted in half an hour ; Scott or Shakespeare could have gono on for a whole day . This is , perhaps , peculiarly

      necessary for a painter of English life . The basis of our national character seems to be a certain energetic humour , which may be found in full vigour in old Chaucer ' s time , and in great perfection in at least one of the popular writers of this age , ani which is , perhaps , most easily described by the name of our greatest painter—Hogartl . It is amusing to see how entirely the efforts of critics and artists fail to naturalize in England any other sort of painting . Their efforts are fruitless ; for the people painted are not English people : they may be Italians , or Greeks , or Jews , but it is quite certain that they are foreigners . We should not fancy that modern art ought to resemble the mediaeval . So long as artists attempt the same class of paintings as Raphael , they will not only be inferior to Raphael , but they will never please , as they might please , the English people . What we want is what Hogarth gave us—a representation of ourselves . It may be that we are wrong , that we ought to prefer

      something of the old world , some scene in Rome or Athens , some tale from Carmel or Jerusalem ; but , after all , we do not . These places are , we think , abroad , and had their greatness in former times ; we wish a copy of what now exists , and of what we have seen . London we know , and Manchester we know , but where are all these ? It is the same with literature , Milton excepted , and even Milton can hardly be callei a popular writer : all great English writers describe English people , and in describing them , they give , as they must give , a large comic element ; and , speaking generally , this is scarcely possible ^ e xcept in the case of cheerful and easy-living men . There is , no doubt , a biting satire , like that of Swift , which has for its essence misanthropy . There is the mockery of Voltaire , Which is based on intellectual contempt ; but this is not our English humour—it is nol that of Shakespeare and Falstaff ; ours is the humour of a man who laughs wh « n he speaks , of flowing enjoyment , of an

      experiencing nature . There is pleasant reading in this volume , but the Essays are not so solid or so brilliant as to have deserved reproduction in a permanent form .

      Royal Princesses. The Royal Princesses O...

      ROYAL PRINCESSES . The Royal Princesses of England , from the Reign of George the First . By Mis . Matthew Hall . Routledge . These presents are biographical sketches of fifteen English princesses , from Sophia Dorothea , daughter of George I ., and Queen of Prussia , to Victoria Louisa . The last should have been omitted . It contains literally nothing but digression and platitude . The following are the incidents : — The Princess is born on the 21 st of November , 1840 , christened on the lOth of February , 1841 , taken to Deal in 1842 , and to Balmoral in 1844 , has been educated , visited Belgium in 1852 , was at the opening of the Great Exhibition , saw the Duke of Wellington ' s funeral , has been to Paris , and to the Hanover-square Rooms , has been confirmed—when is not statedand is now married ! All this should have been noticed in ten lines . Of the other princesses , the accounts are more full and interesting . That of

      Sophia Dorothea , whom Wraxall describes as more beautiful than Sterne ' s Eliza , is precisely the sort of narrative to be popular . Anne of Hanover , who was resolved to marry -the Prince of Orange even if he were a monkey ; the Princess Amelia , who shut up Richmond Park , and was herself shut in by Mr . Bird ; the Princess Caroline , who secretly supported half the poor prisoners in London ; the Princess Caroline Matilda , who , to believe her contemporaries , was made of honey , coral , and alabaster , and others , form the subjects of lively and well-written notices . There are too many , however , of the Court Newsman ' s elaborations . The marriage of Charlotte Augusta Matilda with the Prince of Wurtemberg furnishes several pages of newspaper frivolity . After the peach-coloured suit of the bridegroom , the white and gold suit of the bride , and the * dark-brown suit , richly embroidered' of his Majesty have been described , we are informed as follows : —

      The Queen then entered , attended by tho officers of her household . Her Majesty was dressed in white , with a profusion of diamonds . The Prince of Wales was next in the procession , attended by the officers of hia establishment . The dress of his ftoyal Highness was a sky-blue , richly embroidered down the seams , and decorated with a diamond star and epaulette . The Princess of Wales , in a silver tissue train , with purple , lilac , and green trimmings , followed her Royal husband , conducted by the Earl of Cholinondeley . Tho Duke of York , in a full-dress suit of regimentals , and his Royal Duchess in an elegant dress—the body and train of lilac silver tissue , and -the petticoat magnificently embroidered—next appeared , and were followed by the Princesses , in white , according to their seniority . The Duke , of Gloucester and Prince William were in full uniform , and tho Princess Sophia displayed a neat and elegant dress . Nevertheless , the volume is creditable and timely .

      The Students Manual Of Geology. The /Stu...

      THE STUDENTS MANUAL OF GEOLOGY . The / Student ' s Manual of Geology . By J . Bceto Jukes , M . A ., F . R . S ., & c . Edinburgh : Adam and Charles Black . It is now four or five years since Mr . Jukes published his useful work entitled Popular Physical Geology . In tlio meantime he has not beon idle . In conjunction , he tells us , with tho lute Professor Edward Forbes , ho was requested to prepare the article on Geology for the Encyclopedia Britannicu , but thnt distinguished Professor dying before the plan had been skotohod out , the whole exposition of this interesting science was entrusted to Mr . Jukes . It was the chief merit of his last work that the subjects were we'll arranged , distinctly specified , and popularly illustrated . Although p flbring nothing new as fur us discovery or experiment went , tho book still evidenced

      originality in its form and munncr of troatinont . In the volume now under notice , tho Student ' s Manual , Mr . Jukes has been careful to make it us complete us the limits lie nssigned to himself would permit ; but , "TnrftfftTnretel yritf ^^^^^ necessary lists , and tho prominence that has boon given to collateral sciences . The scheme of tho book , it is truo , is comprehensive . Mr . Jukes intends it to be preliminary to tho study of tho Principles of ( holofjlh by Sir Churles Lynll ; nor docs ho wish it to supplant tho labours of Willlipps , Do hi Beche , Anated , Portloek , and Page , nor oven of those great works of Murehison and others who have treutcdof more special portions ot geology . Tho student , by carefully btudying tho present manual , will 0 ° able to understand the preceding writers on Geology ; it forms , in fact , n key by which he may unlock their eubinets of seientillo treasure , or , moi'O properly still , it is a guide by which ho will bo able to arrange in l » fl

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 6, 1858, page 20, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_06021858/page/20/