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Leader (1850-1860), 21st November 1857, Edition 2 of 2, Page 16, " ' ' m ¦ ¦ ¦ - . : ¦ ¦ Critics are not ...

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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.

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      . JfrggL-, — - — - — - _^ - ^ . . _ ' ... _ . TH 3 JL ** EA P i _„ , jNo . 400 , November 21 , 1857 .

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      " ' ' M ¦ ¦ ¦ - . : ¦ ¦ Critics Are Not ...

      " ' ' m ¦ ¦ ¦ - . : ¦ ¦ Critics are not the legislators , but the judges and police of literature . They do -not make laws—they interpret and try to enforce them . —Edinburgh Review . .. . ¦ A . . ¦ -

      Professor Biackie's Opening Address To H...

      Professor Biackie ' s opening address to his class at the commencement of tlie winter session of the Edinburgh University has given rise , in the columns of the leading journal , to an . interesting discussion on the merits and defects of the Scottish University system . In this discussion the intrepid Professor and the cause he champions have been somewhat hardly used . Indeed , the very

      freshness and vivacity which give a charm , to Professor Blackie ' s efforts as a University-reformer , peculiarly expose him to misrepresentation and attack , lake a true reformer , he emphasizes the evils which he wishes to correct , and in his anxiety to expose them to the utmost , tends rather to exaggerate their true proportions . For those on the spot , to whom he specially addresses himself , there can be no great harm in this . They know the system which he criticises intimately , are practically acquainted with its whole -working , and through a natural partiality are perhaps more alive to its excellences than to its defects . But to others at a distance , who know little or nothing of the system save through Professor Blackie ' s lively denunciation

      of its evils , has representations may convey a very false impression . This is evidently the case with the writer of the article in the Times . His "Whole knowledge of the Scotch University system appears to be derivedfrom Professor BiiACkie's adverse criticism . The Professor complains that a large proportion of the students entering the junior classes of a Scotch university are boys . This statement , which is an extreme one , if anything rather beyond the truth , is ingeniously elaborated by t lie Times writer into a view of the Scotch iiniver . sity system which is altogether false . From the fact that a number of boys enter the junior classes of a Scotch university he draws the conclusion that during- the whole course of study the mass of the students are boys , that the

      work which the professors Lave to do is exclusively schoolmasters' work , and that the universities are there fore schools . Any one really acquainted with the working of a Scotch university ¦ will know at once how essentially fallacious this representation is . Take the University of Edinburgh , ¦ '" . for example , of which Professor Blackie chiefly speaks , and which , as the metropolitan seat of learning , it is fair to accept as the standard of university education in the kingdom . What he says as to the number of hoys who enter is true only of the junior classes in the first year . In the classes of the second aud third years of study the number of vouths who can be fairly called boys is a very at

      small proportion indeed—^ not more than about teu per cent , most . The vast majority are young men of the same age as those attending the English universities . Nor is it at all true that the whole work of the professors is schoolmasters' work . With the exception of the junior classes in Greek and Latin , and , perhaps , the first class of mathematics , there is no class in the whole curriculum which requires the professor to abandon his true functions . And to the rash assertion that the kind and degree of education imparted stamps the Scottish universities as schools , it is sufficient to reply that in some branches of knowledge—such , for example , as philosophy aud literature—the northern scats of learning impart a far higher instruction than

      can be obtained at any English university . The writer in the Times prides himself on his strict adherence to fact , as opposed to Professor Blackie ' s characteristic love of ideas and theory ; but in reality he is far more ideal and theoretical , his representations are far wider of the truth than those of the Professor . Having started , in his account of the Scotch Universities , from an hypothetical fact , he proceeds to offer an explanation of this fact equally hypothetical . The Northern universities arc essentially schools . Why ? Because the course of study is so short that they cannot give ' a high or university education , that is , one involving length of time . ' And why cannot students in a Scotch

      university afford the time necessary for a university education ? Because they come from the ranks of the middle classes , and are destined for business . " For the great middle classes who have to get on , " says the Times critic , " and to be quick about it , it is nonsense talking of a high , or in the English sense of the phrase , a university education . A university education requires time , and this is exactly what the demands of active life cannot spare . " Now the whole of this explanation , which seems so plausible , is not only minutely but even curiously untrue . The facts appealed to in support of the critic ' s view of the system are quite fictitious . Take the question of time , for instance , on which he lays so much stress . The regular course of study at Edinburgh is invariably longer than at Oxford or Cambridge . The curriculum

      for all students is four years , while for the majority—those who arc destined to the Church and the Bar—it is nearly double that time . The course of study for all theological students is eight years , and the period duru % which law students remain at the university is rarely much shorter . Or , look at the composition of the classes . According to the Times , the classes arc mainly filled by youths destined for business ; but in reality , the vast proportion of students in the Faculty of Arts are on their way to the special Faculties of Law , Medicine , or Divinity . A few youths from the trading middle classes no doubt come up to the university every year , bat they rarely go through the curriculum . They attend the junior classes for a session or two to ' get' as they term it , a little Latin and Greek before taking their place in the warehouse , or at the counter , but they go no further . This commercial clement may slightly

      swell the junior classes , but it gives no special character to the universities and does not sensibly affect their system of instruction . The explanation afforded bv the Times , therefore , so far from being true , is , exactly the reverse of the truth In the ingenious fiction of the Times the great majority of the students come up young because they are destined for business aud have little time to spare In reality they come up young because they are destined for the various professions and have an unusually long course of study before them . It is worth while to correct these

      misrepresentations of the Times , because any error propounded in . its columns is sure to prevail fox a while with those who know little or nothing of the subject . This has indeed already happened ia the present instance . A number of other journals , in speaking of the Scotch universities , have adopted from the leading journal the cuckoo cry of ' schools . ' The subject , moreover , is a practical one , and the truth ought to be known in justice to Professor Blackie , and those friends of the Northern universities who are making active efforts to raise their character and increase their efficiency . '

      We Learn That Earl Grey Is Preparing For...

      We learn that Earl Grey is preparing for the press a work connected with the progress of Parliamentary lleform . Coming from the son of the Lord Grey of 1832 , it is sufficient to announce the authorship . The book will be issued shortly , and will of course command attention . Mr . Horace St . John has nearly completed his long-announced History of the First Reform BUI , based in great measure upon exclusive materials . It will probably appear next season .

      Iherc Is No Longer An Excuse For Ignoran...

      Iherc is no longer an excuse for ignorance of Indian geography . To the series of general and special maps already published have now been added two Atlases—the price of the one being half-a-erown , and that " of-the other a shilling . Both bear the name and sanction of Messrs . Chapman and Hall . Sharp ' s Atlas of India , half-a-crown , contains six maps , well engraved , ami judiciously coloured . Lowri /' s Atlas of India , in eight coloured maps , is alL that a shilling's worth , could possibly be .

      Beranger's Last Songs. Dernieres Chanson...

      BERANGER'S LAST SONGS . Dernieres Chansons de P . J . de Bemngev , ' -. 1834 a 1851 , aveciine Lcttre et itne Preface de VAuteur . ..: Paris : rerrotin-The report that all the songs left by Beranger are not included in this volume seems to receive some confirmation from the dates on . the title-page If the poet -went on stringing together musical periods arid elaborating pretty thoughts up to 1851 , we can scarcely believe that he never once tried his hand afterwards . The Coup d ' etat , instead of striking Him dumb , was likely to stimulate him , and restore something of his youthful vigour . Even if the event itself suggested no terrible stanzas , there have since been p lenty of follies and ridicules to supply Li in with topics . The report that his silence Was indicative of approval is not received in Paris ; and he

      is said himself to have indignantly tienied tuc charge . We can safely believe that Beranger lived and died a Republican of that school which makes nationality of more importance than freedom , and which with its honest hatred of oppression , and ignorance of all first principles , has been the principal cause of the glories and the misfortunes of France since the end of the last century . The present volume contains ninety-four songs , many of which hare already , before they have become known to the public to which they are addressed , incurred the fate which' will sooner or later overtake more than two-thirds of the works of a man who has somewhat improperly been called the French Horace . Their interest is passed , and their allusions , though not yet unintelligible , but faintly awaken the attention . However ungracious it may seem to say so , amidst this chorus of prepared enthusiasm cious it may seem to say so , amidst this chorus of prepared enthusiasm

      which is rising on both sides of the Channel , they fall almost as flat on the ear as would a newspaper article written ten years ago , and kept in portfolio ever since . Thus they have not even the same chance as songs on the most ephemeral topics , written , circulated , and sung when those topics were filling the public mind . The weapons of wit used in a conflict are remembered when the conflict is over , and sometimes seem as bright anil as admirable in recollection as when they dealt the death-blow of a reputation , or drove a solemn sham into exile . The joy of a triumphant party is reflected on them for ever . But what of weapons that have been forged and never used ? They hold nearly the same rank in importance as repartees that should have been produced over the filberts , and aro confided to the companion who lends a shoulder as the wit after the fact staggers home . and feel little in

      The fortifications are now part and parcel of Paris , we - terest , even as matter of history , in the exaggerated discussions which ushered in their creation—still less in such verses as the following , deformed by French sentimentalism , and terminating with mysterious stars , which who cares to decipher?—Ah ! pour aauvor ia ville aatnle , Fiez-vous au pcuplc d ' en baa ; Quo bicn armt ? , duns son enceinte , 11 veillo ct restc l ' ariuc nu bras . Quel traitre ( levant sea coliortcs , Paris bien ou mal rctrnnclid , Onorait en livror los portes , Fut-il 'f * ? * * ou F * * * 6 ? It was a mistake to write such lines for posthumous publication ; and it is a greater rnistnke to publish them now that so many revolutions and national disasters have occurred to render them infinitesiinally unimportant . But the grout dnrwbnek of tins volume is the constant recurrence of the Bonapartist theme . When BeVanyer penned these ditties ho of course did not foresee that the aspirations they contained were so soon to be realized to his own disgust , and the ruin of the party to which he belonged . "We must not make him too much responsible for his short-sightedness . Ho shared it with men whose duty it was to ibnn the public opinion which ho only

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 21, 1857, page 16, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_21111857/page/16/