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Leader (1850-1860), 15th May 1852, Edition Country of 2, Page 17

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      Mat 15,1852,] The I/Eader. 460 ¦ "' I ¦ ...

      Mat 15 , 1852 , ] THE I / EADER . 460 ¦ " ' I ¦ ' ¦ ¦—«—¦ ^ ^ ^^ — — ^ —H | , i . i ¦ I ' . i ' - .... | - ' . ¦ - . . . . ' ¦ . . ¦ " ' ¦ "

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      ¦*.• ** We Not The Legislators, But The ...

      ¦* . ** We not the legislators , but the nudges and police of literature . Theydoiiot C ritics ^ £ e i 3—they interpret and try to enforce them . —Edinburgh Review .

      Mb Grote, If We Are Not Mistaken, Has Al...

      Mb Grote , if we are not mistaken , has already advanced a considerable v in the composition of the eleventh volume of his History of Greece . This volume , we believe , is to appear , by itself , and is to conduct the his-+ v of the several Grecian states on to that period at which their separate libel-ties-were overborne bythe Macedonian energies of Philip and Alexander At the time of the appearance of the ninth and tenth volumes of IVfr * Grote ' s great work , we noticed , as a circumstance of no small impor-? -nnp their richness in political lessons adapted to the present time . The before the 2 nd of December

      olumes were written , and yet so much was aid in them of " despotism" and " free government , " that it might have eemed that not a few of the pages were penned with indirect reference to the Napoleonian coup d ' eitat . The forthcoming volume , we hear , will be distinguished by the same apparent " hitting home" to present sentiments hd present emergencies . " Apparent / ' we say , for the thing is not done out of controversial contention , but takes its origin in a spirit of grave historical responsibility and reflectiveness . " The militia , " " volunteer corps , " « standing armies , "—such are the phrases in everyone ' s mouth at the wesent time ; and momentous , indeed , are the to pics involved in them . wh Grote t lu outit will

      Well , we h ear that , en Mr . ' s nexvome comes , contribute all ahistorian ' s wisdom— -all the weight of his knowledge of the life of the most splendid people of antiquity—to this discussion . He finds , as we are informed , that the one circumstaftce to which the downfall of the finest of the Grecian communities was owing was , that that community , in the plenitude of supposed refinement and civilization , had lost the art and habi t of self-defence . The Athenians of those later days , when Athens was ruined and despised , differed from the Athenians of the older and more glorious days precisely in this , that they did not know how to fight when the necessity for fighting came . They were , in fact , Kofi ^ svirai—refined people , devoted to culture and industrialism ; the gymnasium and the

      drillingground were forsaken by them j they derided war , and thought it barbarous and so the Macedonians came in and smashed them and their liberties to pieces . And the lesson is , that when any people . abandons the habits necessary to maintain the art of military self-defence , that people—be its remanent virtues besides what they may—is on the way to ruin . _ "A citizen force "— -all the grown men in every country , regularly drilled in military exercises from their fifteenth year , and kept at drill by due weekly

      meetings till they have sons to take their places—this is the " cheap defence" of nations ; and only when this is the universal custom will the reign of peace begin , and standing armies be abolished . " Division of labour , " cry our economists—" the mass of the nation to industrial occupations , and a standing army to do the fighting , arid be paid for it . " The fools ! As if self-defence were a species of labour to be alienated , to be done by deputy . Why , on the same principle of division of labour , do our friends , the Manchester men , not advocate a limited suffrage ? Voting

      and fighting are functions of the citizen as a citizen ; and they who argue for standing armies , on the principle of the division of labour , ought on similar grounds to argue for limited constituencies . Next to doing a good thing , as a means of winning popular estimation , is letting it be known that you would think it a fine thing to do it . So , our literary Chancellor of the Exchequer , when he had a few seats in the House of Commons to allot in order to fill up the magical number of 658 , and when he did not give these seats to the universities and learned societies , tried to get off by saying how excellent a thing it would be to give these seats to universities and learned societies . " In all those suggestions , " he

      said , " which would lay down as a principle that the elements of the electoral body should be of a less material character than hitherto , that intellectual and moral qualities should be permitted to exercise an influence in this House without having any necessary connexion with political partyin all those suggestions , there is something so plausible to the reason—I might add , something so plausible to the imagination—that "—that , in short , Mr . Disraeli proposed to do nothing of the kind , but to set up an agricultu ral constituency or so more in the country . Ah ! Mr . Disraeli , it will not do to be a literary man in your speeches only ; and a mere Derby ite *» the measures which your speeches prelude . Your aspiration is to do brilliant things ; and on this very fact , those even who appreciate you least ,

      see some reason for hoping that political good will come out of you . But if you are to coruscate merely in your speeches , it is all over with you . Coruscate also in your acts ! And such a coruscation ( a little spark , but a ght one ) would have been a bill for apportioning the vacant scats to » orne of our universities or learned societies . The Scotch universities , as you yourself seem to think , had a specially good claim . The objection Kbout the difficulty of establishing a proper constituent body in these un iversities is altogether an ideal one . Three of them , we believe , have < onstituenoies alread y for the eloction of their Lord Hectors ; and half an . hour ' s consultation would enable any one to devise , in each of thorn , a good

      When Moliero Was Taunted With Having Pla...

      When Moliero was taunted with having plagiarised a scone hero , a situntlt > n there , a character olsowhore , ho replied with exquisite wit , Jereprends % 0 » bien o & je le troitve—I recover my property wherever I find it . The whole philosoph y of plagiarism lies in that sentence . A man of genius

      takes whatever he can organize ; a vulgar plagiarist is a vulgar thief , a liar , and a braggart , calling upon you to admire the peacock splendour of his wretched daw nature . Jn the high Moliere sense there is no plagiarism , or only such as the plants exercise upon the earth and air , to organize the stolen material into higher forms , and make it suitable for the food of animals . But the critic who should trouble himself with seriously examining Dumas ' s system of wholesale unblushing plagiarism , would find it difficult so to excuse the prodigal thief . Dumas , great in everything , is immense in plagiarism . From the cool appropriation of an entire tale to

      the avowed reproduction of certain chapters , and the incessant unavowed transference of scenes , incidents , characters , and anecdotes to his own multiform pages , Dumas stands unique among plagiarists . In his last novel , Conscience VInnocent , he takes bodily two chapters from the novel of Conscience :, the Flemish novelist , and half a volume from Michel-bt ' s Peuple . He avows it charmingly . To Michelet he dedicates the book , begging him not to claim all that it contains of his own ; and to Conscience he has paid the compliment of taking his name for that of his Eero . On n ' est pas plus poli !

      Dumas deserves a monument . The Printers of Europe ought to erect one to his memory , in memory of the work he has given to them . The seventh volume of his Mfinoires is not yet cut open—lying beside five new volumes—when lo I another work announced : Le Dernier Hoi—Histoire de la vie politique et prive ' . Louis Philippe . If he be as veridical in rec o unting the life of Louis Philippe as in narrating his own , we may see an amusing romance . Among the announcements we observe a translation of Miss Bukney ' s novel Cecilia , by Madame de Baur , a lady well known in literature , both through her works , and through the celebrity " her first husband , S . Simon . ,

      Dramatic Literature Is Lucrative In Fran...

      Dramatic literature is lucrative in France . The statement of finances laid before the Dramatic Society shows , that during the years 1851—52 , the droits d ' auieur , or sums paid for pie ces , amount to 917 , 531 francs ( upwards of 36 , 000 ? . ) It would be difficult to show that English Dramatists had received as many hundreds . The sources of these payments are thus indicated : —Theatres of Paris , 705 , 363 francs ; the provincial theatres , 195 , 450 francs ( or nearly eight thousand pounds , whereas our provinces return about eight hundred pounds a-year !); and suburban theatres , 16 , 717 francs , To these details we may add the general receipts of all the theatres in Paris during the year—viz ., six millions , seven hundred and seventy-one thousand francs , or 270 , 840 Z .

      Scottish Ceiminal Trials. Narratives Fro...

      SCOTTISH CEIMINAL TRIALS . Narratives from Criminal Trials in Scotland . By John Hill Burton . In 2 vols . Chapman and Hall [ second aeticie . ] We have now to speak more precisely of Mr . Burton ' s volumes . The trials are grouped into " Proceedings against the Clan Gregor , " which is a curious chapter of Scotch History ; trials for " Witchcraft" and for " Poisoning "— " Spectral and Dream Testimony "— " Proceedings against the Roman Catholics , Covenanters , and Episcopalians "—besides these there is a most important chapter on the " Darien Company , " illustrated by some newly discovered documents , which have enabled Mr . Burton to lay bare the whole workings of that company . In the trials for poisoning there is one strange story , recalling , as Mr . Burton says , the celebrated trial of Madame Laffarge .

      "In a secluded mountain region among the braes of Angus , called Glen Isla , there lived a middle-aged gentleman , Thomas Ogelvie , the proprietor of a small estate , who suffered , much from bad health . He formed a matrimonial alliance which created considerable astonishment among the friends of both the parties . His wife , Catherine Nairn , was young—not quite nineteen years of age . She held , ns the daughter of a house of considerable local distinction , a fur Jhighor social rank than Ogelvio , whose position , though ho was a landed proprietor , was but that of the yeoman . She was gay to volatility , as her subsequent conduct , apart from the question of her criminality , abundantly showed . Such was sho who choso , without compulsion or the pressure of circumstances , to devote herself to the companionship and care of an invalid well advanced in life , and living in the solitudes of Glon Ma .

      " Tho bride had scarcely tnkon up her abode in hor now homo , when a brother of her husband , many years younger , a military officer , returned from India , and joined thoir circlo at Eostmiln . Whatever influonco this event produced must have worlccd vory rapidly , for tho marriage took place in tho month of January , and the old man was dead on the Gfcli of Juno in tho same year . " The young officer and hi « sistor-in-law woro charged with , and , whether justly or not , were convicted of a criminal intriguo with each other . The evidoneo of neutral and fair persons showed a degroo of indoconfc familiarity botweon thorn , such as people in tho same rank , at tho present day , would deem incomprehensible , lo

      since it is tho vory lust course of conduct which a coupentertaining criminal intontions would no flagrantly show . Tho position of tho principal witness , however , who boro actual testimony to tho criminality , seems to show that , among certain circles of . tho Scottish country gentry of that day , thoro wan as much vico aa wo know that there was coarseness and indecency . " * This witness , named Anno Clark , was a relative of tho Kastmilii funnily . Sho was received into tho household alter tho marriage' as a sort of huniblo dopondont . But tho accused ottered to prove thai ; sho had previously resided in a brothol in Edinburgh , and had booiwtfio mistress of Eastmiln ' s younger brother . # # # "' * Thoro aropooplo old nnough to romombora strange coarsonoss of conversation and mannorH porvariing tho Soofctmh gentry . Tho indulponoo in this humour in mixec ^ soeiaty oiuno in lafcor timos to bo a sort of privilege of rank ami birth-j-tho courtesies and ologanoioB of life required only to be rosorfcod to by those whxwo position was qubationablo . ( Something olt tho etwao kind has been noticed in anti-revolutionary Brance .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), May 15, 1852, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_15051852/page/17/