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    Aug. Ji, I860.] The Saturday Analyst and...

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    MEMOIRS OF BISHOP HURD* THE editor of tl...

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    * Afemolrs «/ the J.I/,) <,,,<l U'ritimi...

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    The Eighth Gommaj^Ment.* Uthorship In En...

    arose showed the in cna . lli a nee i \ i the most grotesque shapes , and furnished a comedy , with scenes more proper fox- a farce or a melodrama , than for a more regular production . The characters were not at all ' of the drawing-room order , and there was a want of dignity even in the more respectable of the dramatis jiersa / ur , with the one exception , the hero of the light , the champion of international justice . . . Mr . Readc ' s test of the value of the international treaty was in this fashion . He determined to treat with the French authors for the copyright of " Los Pauvrcs dp Paris . " The original piece was legally registered ; a version next produced and legally published , and entered at Stationers' Hall , Mr . Reade having previously advertised in the Times his intention of preparing a version , and that the solicitor of the authors was : instructed to restrain any other version , or imitation , by an injunction of the Court of Chancery . Mr . Reado soon found that ( to tise his own language ) he " had walked into a hornets' nest . " But , first of all , a fair offer was made on the part of the Surrey Theatre by Mr . Creswick , to pay him and the French authors a small sum for permission to play a certain adaptation by Mr . Stirling Coyne , which they conceded . Mr . Payne , of the Strand Theatre , howover , took another view of the matter , and employed Mr . Bon Barnott and J . B . Johnstone to concoct an adaptation , under the title of " The Pride of Poverty ; or , The Real Poor of London . " Hereupon , Mr . llcade hastily inserted an advertisement in the JLt'tu announcing that injunctions in the Court of Chancery would

    bo filed , and notice was subsequently served upon him to the same effect . Mr . Payne pleaded that Ms adaptation was " wide of the French , " and so played it on the following Monday . Furthermore , he assumed the airs of ¦ "• an injured pirate ; " and he and Messrs . Barnett and Johnstoue finally commenced legal proceedings against Mr . Eeade , for having " slandered their title " by his advertisement above-mentioned . The trial at last came oft ' , so far as respected the joint authors of the piracy , who laid their damages at five hundred pounds , but were non-suited , Mr . Reade found it impossible , meanwhile , to appear as plaint iff himself , in behalf of the Frenchauthors , except ata ruinous expense ; and was therefore advised to be content with such solution of the

    question as the nonsuit implied . . ; Let not the reader imagine , however , that the above dry statement resembles the story : as told iivthe book ; Mr . Reade enlivens it . with ¦ per ' sdiial ' and picturesque ' ¦; delineations , and draws out the whole affair in dramatic distinctness ; so that readers , both Engli s h and French , may see ilaejiraciiccil operation of the Swindling Proviso Surreptitiously ihsertedintothe statute . He argues out , at length , the dishonourable nature of the transaction as -regards . England , and its impolitic : nature asregards France . He points out , too , that the Freneli dramatists avjcr men of consideration , and that their good feeling towards England is of itself a great benefit , . which- it is important in us to secure . for the

    Freiichmen , it seems , have to pay a heavy price imaginary protection afforded by the statute ; if they do not , they are entirely helpless . Butif they do , what / . then ? Mr / Reade answers , that ' '' ¦ then- - 'the heartless , lawless law encourages another swindler to aattack them , viz ; . ' the adapter : ' " Me destroys them as ¦ inevitably as the other . The same p irtxie that imnslates ' the ' -unprotected piccits plays Vie adaptation swindle oil the protected' piece * . It eosEsTrnn ^ ttlnlgJ ^^ article with paint . Any stick is g-pod enough to ! beat such , mere dogs as Victor ' - Hugo , Scribe , Moliere , Sliakspeare , Corneille . Mere colourable piracy is punished every day between Englishman and ¦ Englishman ; ( H ) but it becomes an honest lawful act when levelled against ji French dramatic author , af ter lie has- -bought- of us , at a

    heavy ' price , these sacred rights an Englishman gets gratis . Oh ,-shame ! shame ! shame !" That the Swindling Proviso should be . immediatel y repealed is clear . " This disloyal intruder , '' ways Mr . Reade , ' * into a great international equity has been tried nine yearn , and convicted as a pettifogging cheat ; down with it ! It is a blot on a noblo enactment , and on our national escutcheon \ : i out , damned spot !' , It is a double-faced , double-tongued , double dealer . It ; turns oiie cheek to the honest' inventor , and says , ' pay the prico and I'll protect you ; turns the other cheek to the rogue , and says , ' let him pay what he will , I'll show you how to do him ; ' and so it tempts , the honest man to his temporal , and the frail man to his eternal , harm ;' down with it !"

    Now for the result of the iniquity thus perpetrated . These are :- — "High prices , low article , intellectual auditor banished , inventor extinguished , adapter half-starved , petty pirate in rags ;" and these are not the results of nature , as dreamers think , but the product of feeble legislation , and unjust , incapable tribunals . France has a national drama , mainly because she is an honest nation , and worthy of one—England has none , because she is at present an author-swindling nation and unworthy of one . When the English Legislature shall rise to the moral and intellectual level of the French judges , then the present artificial oppositioHi jvhiofe isj » i £ AJ ? l ^ Lar t ever ^ ir ovc under , will be removed ' or-lightened ' , ' anil a groafTaMTjlonouin ^ that moment begin to arise- by a law of commerce as inevitable as that whioh now strangles it . " Mr . ltoade has indeed thrown a flood of light on the whole

    question ; and has shown to the public a fact long known to ourselves , that ' * ' certain managers of theatres havo formed a sort of Kidnapping Association . " Mark the operation of it . Madame Celeste purchased , for about one hundred and fifty pounds , the sole right to driunatiBO "A Tale of Two Cities , " and play it in London . Mr . F . A . Davidson , thereupon , advertises a

    M . S . copy of an adaptation , which managers may have for fifteen shillings ; and they will have the right to perform the piece under their contract for the year 1860 , " l ' subscribers to Cumberland ' s list of acting dramatic pieces . " We have seen this adaptation performed , and it is as close a copy of Madame Celeste ' s as possible . Is it properly licensed ? The Lord Chamberlain should surely look to this , and refuse his license to such robberies . " Here , " shouts out Mr . Reade , and well he may , " here is a monster that offers directly a similar article , " with the savie title , to any theatre , for fifteenshillings . What inventor or honest purchaser can compete with this ? In France this blackguard would be not only fined ,

    but probably imprisoned . In England who cares but Mr . lieade ?" In-conclusion , it is our duty to inform the reader that Mr . Reude has written a noble and eloquent book , which will circulate not only here , but in America , where it is already reprinted , and in France . That it will avail to stop the infamous , piratical traffic , by compelling the Legislature and Government to frame a just law , we haveno doubt . Mr . Reade has written'with-wonderful force , and also with a most fertile power of illustration , that makes the volume one of the most amusing and instructive over composed . It is , in fact , an imvwrlul work '; and will , like Milton ' s ¦ ' Treatises on Divorce and Unlicensed Printing , " live as long as the ¦ English , language .

    Mr . Keade proves , by example , that the course we have been pursuing must extinguish literary invention . Englishmen , he rightly remarks , " can all see this where any nation but England is the pirate . . We warned Belgium she would extinguish her literature if she played the same ansero vulpine game in all literature we are playing- indramatic literature . She persisted , and did : extinguish her literature . What is the difference between her and England r None in our favour . The . only vital difference is this-: ' first , she did not shuffle and tamper with " treaties , but did her roguery like a man and we did it like a pettifogging sneak . "

    The time has , we hope , now arrived when our legislators mid statesmen will put aside their jealousy of the author , the " literary man , the 3 f ail Thiukhig . Such jealousy was always absurd enough . It might , however , be winked at in the days of ignorunee . In-these enlightened days it is both a blunder and .-a crime ! Let goveniineiat and parliament hasten to do , justice- 'Let them put Mr . Iteade ' s book , at Oiiee . intothe hands of a competentlawyer , and codify the principles therein contained on the different matters ; , particularly the drama , therein referred to ; and let tlie bill thus Citrefully aud honestly produced be passed into a law without a moment ' s delay or hesitation . ; There should be none in removing- the stain of dishonour from the escutcheon of Eny-laud .

    Aug. Ji, I860.] The Saturday Analyst And...

    Aug . Ji , I 860 . ] The Saturday Analyst and Leader . 719

    Memoirs Of Bishop Hurd* The Editor Of Tl...

    MEMOIRS OF BISHOP HURD * THE editor of tlfir . ^' Xitcrai'y-. ' . Ileniain'S of liishop Warburton " has . •¦ undertaken those of liishop Hurd , and " presentedus with some acceptable memoirs and collections of unpublished papers and . correspondence . The work is appropriately dedicated to Dr . Pepys , the present Lord Bishop of Worcester , and to the Right lion . Edwiird Johii Baron Hatherton , as the descendant of Sir Edward Littleton , Bart ., the life-long friend of Bishop liurd ; both of whoni have contributed materials towards it . Bishop ilurd was ' Vb . ne ' - of those sober thinkers of the eighteenth Century , to whom the form of our literatiire owes so mneh , nnrl the substance so little . The bishop , indeed , never

    " With regard to systems of logic , which you inquire aftnr , it ; will perhaps surprise you to henv that , wo can ; hardly bo mid to uso nny at all . Tho study of logic is almoHt . ontiroly laid aside in Huh imivorMi ' ly , and that ' of tho ' mathematics taken up in ils room . Jl ; _ is loiikiul iijioji as a ' m axim hero , tliafc a justness aiid noeuracy in thinking uiid in'uhuviing ' uro better leaniod by a liubit than by ruK's ; and it ia an observation foundod upon long oxponcmre , that no men urguo more cloatily and ncutoly than they who are well versed in nmthoniaticul loarning , oven 'though thoy aro ignorant of tho rules delivered by tho grvat mnstora in that other science . " " With regard to systems of logic , which you inquire after , it ; will

    aimed at originality , but only elegance ! , Mr . Jvilvert ~ lIas ~ tTtlnrn for his model Slason ' s ¦ '' Life of Gray " and rightly , if only for the similarity between the genius of Hurd and the poet of the " Churchyard . " ' 'Richard Hurd was the second son of a respectable farmer at Congrevc , in . Staffordshire , of . wliom fc > ir E , Littleton spoko well , as possessing virtue und good isense , which in tliciir sons had proved to be hereditary as family qualities ; His early education was at the Graminar-school , at Brewood ; but , in 173 : i , hu wus admitted a sizar at Knimanuel College , Cambridge , and took tho degree of A . B . in 17 : $ S-i ) . He was early reeoguiHod as a rising scholar . While at Cambridge he thus wrote to a friend : —

    In Juno , 1742 , Hurd was ordained deacon of St . Paul ' s , London , by l ) r . Joseph Rutter , Bishop of Bristol , und in July took the degreo of M . A . ; iu May , 17 'M ., ho was ordained x n'it- 's t . , ' Uo is found thus oarly to havo practised tho habit of oxtruoting from and commenting upon tho booka ho read , as well as of registoriug his own thoughts and reflections on Hubjects as they proHontcd themselves ; a habit which ho retained throughout lilo , und to whiohrthis volu-mtria indebted-fop-niu < m- <> xoolloHt . iuiitoriidi _ lij . Hi first litorary work appears to have been " Jtc » . uu-kn on n la t" Honk , entitled , An Enquiry into tho Rejection of Christ inn Minurlc * , » . y the Iloathen , by William Wonton , JU > ., 174 ( 5 , ' ;—< hw ^ i \ which wus in part ironical ; ami , on tho . pwiuu «» t' . Aix-lsi-ClitipHk ' , in 171 H , ho contributed some utauzuri towards tho Vuuihnatfu m > ngratulatipUB on that occasion ,

    * Afemolrs «/ The J.I/,) <,,,<L U'Ritimi...

    * Afemolrs «/ the J . I / , ) < ,,, < l U ' ritimi * of th « it Ml /•'<• " . / ' »•/ " »¦; ' '' /''/ ¦ ^/ ' : ' ; . ' liinhon of Wonvttcr ; with u Holocl . lmi fi ' oin lilt Cim \< n \>« n < W > y " , n il otliu i . iiiiuih lluhuil l ' upow . Hy tlio Uuv , I <' HAN « Ji » Kii . vi : nr , . M . A . Mvimiul Jiinli" > .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 11, 1860, page 7, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_11081860/page/7/