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    November 11, 1854.] THE LEADER. 1069

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    <2l> *t i JLIUrillUrF*

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    Critics are not the legislators, but the...

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    Pebiodicaxs of the month that should hav...

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    The papers, making guesses stand for new...

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    Mormonism. is developing itself more and...

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  • 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.

    November 11, 1854.] The Leader. 1069

    November 11 , 1854 . ] THE LEADER . 1069

    ≪2l≫ *T I Jliurillurf*

    Citato ,

    Critics Are Not The Legislators, But The...

    Critics are not the legislators , but the judges and police of literature : They do not mate laws-they interpret and try to enforce them . —EdinbtirQh Review .

    Pebiodicaxs Of The Month That Should Hav...

    Pebiodicaxs of the month that should have "been noticed last week , liad they reached us in time , are Hogg ' s Instructor , Our Friend , The Masonic Mirror , and The Dublin Journal of Industrial Progress . The most attractive article in Hogg ' s Instructor is a paper on Louis Kossuth , by Mr . Gkobge Gilfillan—the result of Mr . Giltiixan ' s observations of the great Hungarian during his recent visit to Glasgow . Mr . Gii-fiixan , -who had previously seen Mazzini , thus contrasts , as a physiognomist , his impressions of the Hungarian and the Italian : — Kossuth ' s appearance seemed to disappoint all at first , and certainly did us . We expected a high Magyar chief , of military bearing and . majestic stature ; and here was a middle-sized , French-looking person , with a face which expressed rather restless activity than power , and an eye rather crafty than penetrating . We saw in him at once a type of that boundless versatility which distinguishes his genius , but no

    display of those higher qualities of Tvisdom and imagination "which had been attributed ^ to him . We were led irresistibly to contrast his appearance with that of Mazzini , whom we met two years ago in London . He is certainly the noblestlooking man-vre ever beheld . His face and head seem to have stepped out of an ancient Italian picture ; a brow , large and white as marble , rises like an Alp from amid black hair ; and two eyes , like dark stars , roll below—masses of dusky and piercing light—such eyes as burned in the head of the peasant poet of Scotland , but with more depth of expression—altogether , a presence in which you tremble , as though one of the high-minded assassins of Csesar stood beside you . Kossuth has by no means such a Kornan look , nor does he give you the same ' Impression of power , subtlety , and elevation ; his very moustache , compared to Mazzini's , being only a fringe of plantation compared to a forest , and the craft in his < eye not attaining to that dark profundity which lies in Mazzini ' s—

    " Orb -within orb , deeper than sleep or death . " Having seen both the men , we cannot say that the contrast in this delineation strikes us as accurate . Mazzini ' s is a nohle and fceautiful face ; but Kossuth ' s has finer characteristics tMfjjjr Gilfillan attributes to it ; and if Mazzimi ' s face is the true face for scMazzini , Kossuth ' s is the true face for a Kossuth . And what is Mr . ( tim-ii-lAn ' s estimate of Kossuth ' s mind and powers ? Speaking of his oratory , he says : — He has given , in some of his speeches , evidences of rare poetic genius . "We remember , ere the first Juror about him had fully subsided , having had a little conversation on the subject with Edward Miall , the able editor of the Nonconformist . He admired him to enthusiasm , and preferred him to Burke ; a preference in which we did not coincide then , and . far less now , since we have seen and heard the man . Kossuth , - with all his knowledge and insight , is essentially a singer , a Magyar scald ,

    a sublime rhapsodist . Burke was a philosopher , 'who became ever and anon passionate and poetical , but whose habitual sphere was thought . Kossuth ' s speeches abound in . clap-traps and commonplaces , mixed with bursts of rare magnificence . Burke has no platitudes—no appeals to the passions of mobs ; and though amid his flights he often rests , yet he never Jlags . The poetry in Burke is ever interpenetrated with his thought , and attains sometimes to epic grandeur ; that of Kossuth has less weight of matter , and is more lyrical and fluctuating in its movement . Kossuth ' s speeches are "wild melodies wailing out truth ; Burke ' s are high arguments , kindling as they move into music and poetic song . The Magyars notoriously have Asiatic blood in them ; and Kossuth , the model Magyar man , evinces his descent by the lofty orientalism of his figures and language . What would seem bombast in occidentaliats , is called nature in him . As a general principle , the most of Kossuth ' s long sentences are empty though eloquent ; the most of his sliort

    ones are true , good , and memorable None of his long and highlywrought perorations can bo named for effect with these simple words— " It was not I Who inspired the people of Hungary—they inspired me ! " Suoh brief electric touches remind us more of the style of Chatham or O'Connell , than of anything in tho present day , They may be called the algebra of oratory , effecting vast results more by swift symbols than by language . Those are the strongest words for popular effect which are the simplest and most direct . Fiat lux was but two words—the result waB tho universe ! Theso words of power we have quoted—and we could hnvo quoted hundreds more—are bare of figure . But ho has scattered through his speeches some most striking metaphors , bold almost as those of Homer or the Bible . " I know , " he says , " that tho light has spread , and that even bayonets think . " " I know that all the Czara of tho world are but moan dust in the hand of God , " " Even tho grass that ioW groio out of my arave will cry out . to heaven and to man , England and

    America ! do not forgot , in your proud security , those that are oppressed . " Akin alike to his oratorical and poetical power , is that unexpectedness which distinguishes much of his speaking . In some parts of his orations , each sentence is n surprise , not rising up from , but leaping out of , the womb of that which preceded it . His periods generally are connected together , not by tho links of logical coimequence , but by tho unity of feeling and of poetic growth . A iire , in climbing a tower or a hill-side of pines , does not ascend by regular stages , and in mensur al , modulated waves , but by hasty rushes , scattered tongues , and sudden alioots of ilame , often returning on nnd relapsing into itself , but always at , last completing itH purpose ; and thus travels to its climax tho mind of pootic , and especially of lyrical genius . Indeed , no mind bo intensely oriental as KosButh ' n < ia : i , calmly or consecutively reason . Tho utniiiinu of argument may bo present , but it i « hid , even as tho trunk of a tree on iiro is hid by the towering names , to tho momentum and terrible richness and glory of -which it nevertheless adds .

    Neither do wo think this appreciation accurate . A . vein of tho keenest , deepest reason pervades all Kossuth ' b oratory ; he is , with all his other merits , a man of profound propositioxml intellect ; and his oratory consists in his ability to send forth his propositions in a state of conlhigmlion . •' Politics is the science of exigencies '—in all Burnt * : there is not a finer or deeper definition tlinn that , nor one expressed with more of occidental terseness And precision . And then his long sentences arc not inferior to his short ones . W « have seen quoted in tho Atheuoivm from KostnuTii ' s printed speeches , nnd "we hnve heard from Kobsuth ' b own lips sentences long enough , -which for power , grandeur , and weird-like effect on tho imagination , seemed comparable to the finest passages in the mastera of imaginative

    In the Dublin Journal of Industrial Progress there is an interesting paper on the possible improvements in - Bread-haking . The result of what is stated is an impression that it is quite within the compass of a little judicious science to give us much nicer bread and more of it out of a given quantity of flour than vre now get , and at less cost . The New York Quarterly Review , for October , is conspicuous for an article on " Aholitionism in America , " in which , -while professing to be -a friend to the gradual emancipation of the negroes all over the United States , the writer attacks the Abolitionist party as disgracing themselves , and violating their duties to the constitution by their mode of procedure .

    literature . We suspect Mr . Gilfiulaw must have judged of Kossuth solely from his Glasgow orations . Our Friend keeps up its character for tasteful selection and fine literary execution—in this respect , meriting more praise than many periodicals of higher pretensions . From a paper of sayings and . aphorisms entitled " Shavings , " vre select the following " theory : "I have a theory , that it is when a poet is thrown into dull cities or an ugly country , that he chiefl y Tesorts to the sky for images and illustrations ; and that the more of the air you find in a poet , the less of the earth . Smith , Bailey , and Tennyson are my chief examples ; Smith and Bailey hi cities , and Tennyson in the fen districts , are unusually rich in their observations of atmospheric changes . This is the counterbalance nature supplies . It is the same in painting : Cuyp ' s skill , and our English painters' success in atmosphere , arise from the same cause . The Masonic Mirror is an excellent periodical—for Masons .

    The Papers, Making Guesses Stand For New...

    The papers , making guesses stand for news , have been announcing that Mr . Alexander Smith is engaged on a new poem , to appear this season . We have reason for believing that this is not the case , and that , though Mr . Smith is engaged in occupations which will tend to the cultivation of his genius and fit it for new appearances , he is at present allowing his Muse to rest . By-the-by , what an absurd story is that which has been going about of Mr . Smith ' s appointment to the office of assistant to the Astronomer Royal for Scotland , as " a mark of the Queen ' s approbation of his astronomical descriptions ! '' The statement appeared first in the Edinburgh Guardian , by way of a jocular twitting of Mr . Smith for bis known affection for " the stars" in his verses ; and now the Edinburgh Guardian , aghast at the results of its joke—for Mr . Smith's appointment to the office has been published as an article of news in almost all the English , papers—vows never more to joke on that subject .

    Mormonism. Is Developing Itself More And...

    Mormonism . is developing itself more and more . " We have before us the first three parts of a publication , in large quarto , entitled Route from Liverpool to ilie Great Salt Lake Valley , illustrated in a series of Splendid Steel Engravings end Woodcuts , from Sketches made on the Spot and from Life , ¦ with a Map of the Overland portion of the- Journey . The editor of this publication , the writers , and the illustrators , appear all to be Mormonites ; and the work—which is published in Liverpool—appears to be designed to serve the purposes of Morntionite propagandism in tins country . So much we gather , at least , from the style of the work and from the announcement on the cover , which states that the work will furnish * ' incidental instructions to emigrants , '' and that " the statistical information will be drawn from the

    most authentic sources , " and that " the portion of it which relates to tho Latter-day Saints will bo particularly valuable , owing to the difficulty hitherto experienced by all classes in obtaining anything accurate from the conflicting statements which have appeared from time to time in a great portion of the public presa . " At the same time , the publisher solicits " that extensive patronage -which can alone justify tho publication' *—so that the work may be so far a speculation . It is to be completed in fourteen parts , at one shilling each . The parts already issued suggest , at all events , that the undertaking is one requiring capital—the paper and letter-press being superior , and the Engravings large nnd genuine . The letter-press , so far as ^ we have examined it , consists of a history of the Morrnonite

    emigration from Great Britain from 1840 to the present time , with documents and statistics interspersed . It seems Unit iu 1840 , a company of 200 British converts to Mormonism suiled from Liverpool for America under the care of Theodore Turju : y , a returning missionary ; and that in the same year another company sailed from Bristol . In the following year the "Apostles" of the Church of the Latter-day Saints n-ppointed an accredited agent in Groat Britain to superintend the emigration of converts ; and from that time there has Leon a regular succession of such agents . ( Wo observe that tho agent for 1851-2 was a Franklin 1 ) . Uioimouds , and that the iimno of the Liverpool publisher of the present work is V . D . RicuAitns—whioh

    confirms our notion that tho work is not pure bookseller ' s speculation , but part of tho agency of the sect . ) The number of emigrants shipped to fclio Mormonite colonies by these agents to the present time i » , according to an exact register of tho dlflorent vessels , their times of sailing , & c , 15 , ( il 2 . In addition to these , there have been M ) emigrant from Germany , and IO 03 from tho Scandinavian countries ; snaking tho entire European emigration during the last fourteen years 17 , 195 . A classification is given of the British emigrants according to their trades and professions , from which it appears that thero is hardly a trade in tho Directory that has not furnished its contribution , The annual expenses of tho emigrant agon oy in Great Britain are stated to bo 50 , 000 / .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 11, 1854, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_11111854/page/13/