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    ¦***¦• ¦ ' fil^Ei Ay jIi" \:^W fr%Awm?>

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    HISTORY'S TELESCOPE. P. rp you ever try ...

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    The Admission To The Bath. It Has Been D...

    ijM ^^ ^^ ' ^ *^^^ e * p ^ sed , tp csmsmm * p # * # <> £ *{«¦* W th _ e * dea , we sappegtj empires withvthe joke ., It ; is . auvte ^ a ^ culi ; to XjpDqipas » any proper recognition t > £ yi ^ niffl & QV & J » ei * a * . 9 * i ^ omeii ; , and , Vit TOpu ^ 6 $ ep & as if . the c ^; un , try . were itself not j ^ gW ta , *^ woxk of r ^<^? iMlJg-naerifewh ©» l i »^ sbpwf it « l ^ ¦ ¦ An & there * , we . believe , 19 , t » e - substantial truthiO ^ tl ^ . Baajfctej . The ^ grand stan (} 4 rd , ini this country is " the higgling of the market . "' Ttetembakm eyes since Ai > am : Smith ' s timei

    tc ^ sjsablish . a maxim . which the Professor , of MpilaliiiMiosQphy- certainly never intended to- ijs ^ j a »? itiJbas been used since , his day . B ^ iofftithai ^ Bai a ^ gjai . became our leading moral atanda ^ i . th § high truth was " possession is sane points of the law , " and the m ^ st subst & ntiai form of possession lay -yeith the landowners . To be wealthy was better than to b @ highiborn . Ctraiis , the great biscuit contractor , who . was , ; the butt of the populace fqr hiejnar ? owiies % was , after all , regarded , as he passejlcby , with awe , for his success and his wealthy Moreover ^ he became" Sir William Cbebtis , " for the state can recognise the

    merit of wholesale biscuit-making . But to be the owner of land- ^ £ j & #£ was the great thing , andcif la man . could obtain a real Lordship of that sort , no matter what Ms birth , the Iteraldsuwould always presume , his birth , and could establish their presumption ex post facto * Wealth , wealth—that is the most we recognise ., Birth itself has " gone to the dogs . ; " and although a man must be noble to be a . Gfc . CJB ., any ^ man can be noble who is rich * enough . The nation has shown its capaeity for estimating wealth , and titles have thus i become nothing more than quotations to test " the higgling of the market . " C (

    As to founding " a fourth class , " & new Order , * ' of what use would it be ? Pill it . with those who attain to Court favour , and you- would only add another to the Orders whifch exist , different in nothing , except in its being inferior . If the nation had a real value for chivalry , the want would be supplied ex facto 1 but . quite ; independently or titles , orders , or other formality . J ) o we not see that the want of the day is the existence of men animated by the qualities that constitute chivalrous men ^ and enable th $ m to unite in

    chivalrous Orders ? The chivalrous communities were originally realities , not forms . To enter them , a man must be courageous , true to his word , and ready to fulfil his vow of aiding a brother Ipiight ; that is , a man must be brave , loyal , independent , fit to be trusted' by others , and capable of trusting others himself . The last quality , we believe , is that which lias most disappeared amongst us ; in jgreat part , no doubt , because our dovotion to pure commercial tests has made even merchants sharp traders , and has withdrawn the very grounds

    of trust . The consequence is , that except through recognised and instituted official connexions , men cannot act together , either socially or , politically . There is no bond of brotherhood ; no loyal determination to stand by each other ; no such influence as did exist in ruder times through the orders of chivalry . "What is the good of oalling a man a knight , when , he is not a knight , nor anything , at all , like . it f Call a biscuit-baker , ** Sir , " as if he were a man of chivalry , and the title of chivalry is reduced to the level of a Oity bisouittbaker . So it happens ; and no statutes can call an Order into existence if

    the people cannot supply the materials for it . Whereas , if they supplied an order of men actuated by chivalrous ideas , like a Roe-# ttok , a GoDmmon , a Newcastle , a De Lao ^ 33 vA 2 sr 8 ,, and capable of aothig tot / ether- ^ -h chivalrous order would exist in fact , a ohivaljrous rdiatinotion would arise out of the faptl

    atid ; the Mife ; would matter ; little , 3 ft : is pepples , that ^ aivafectnrechivalrous . or . dejrs : —j Kings only , baptise them . — and , sometimes kill them in the ceremony of throwing the cold water on them .

    ¦***¦• ¦ ' Fil^Ei Ay Jii" \:^W Fr%Awm?>

    ¦***¦• ¦ ' fil ^ Ei Ay jIi" \ : ^ W fr % Awm ?>

    History's Telescope. P. Rp You Ever Try ...

    HISTORY'S TELESCOPE . P . rp you ever try to describe a colour to a blind man ? Of course not . Eloquently as S > ba : n > ces Bbqwn speaks of sublime aspects of nature , elaborately as Blaokloce ; rushes into the adjectives of picture , we attempt not to make the blind see , knowing : how impossible it is . But to see is to understand ; to be blind is to be shut out from many traits which explain things otherwise unintelligible . How many a word is uttered in kindness that sounds like reproof if we see not the countenance with whieh it is uttered I How many phrases might be taken as flattering unction to the soul , if the glance of the eye did not po int the sarcasm ! The blind man , it is true , may eke out the fault o f one sense by the nicety of another , and may see meaning in the tones of the voice . Or he may draw the association connected even with the objects of sight through another channel , as the blind man said that the colour of red he took to be like the

    sound of the trumpet , and green " like a pleasing friendship . " But those who are at a distance , whether of space or time , hear as little as they can see ; and who has not longed for the magic mirror of Cagliostbo to conjure up the great departed , or for Prince Ail ' s perspective glass , to bring the beloved Princess to sight , and tell us at the moment how she is . Now what Count Cagliostbo promised to do , and what fiction ascribed to the Peri Banotj , has been

    performed for us by JSTiebce and Daguebbe , Talbot and Clattdet . Since the improvement of the process , the use of the highlysensitive collodion , and the adaptation of printing to photography , we have the means of possessing the impress of things which we desire to see , and of conveying the impress to distant places ; while engraving promises to perpetuate the photograph , and thus we hand down the fac-simile to posterity . Do you desire things as they are in the Crimea ?

    Then by going to Pall Mall East , and paying your shilling , you may see the plateau of Sebastopol , the quay of Balaklava , ; you may see the officers , from Iiord Raglan or General Simpson to the postmaster , from Pelissieb to the vwandiere ; you may see the mode in which the officers have lived , the huts in which they have " pigged , " and the easy manner in which they take their hardships ; and you may see—precious to the eyes of anxious affection-r—exactly how they looked .

    Nor is it only affection that has an interest in these elucidations . You can never understand a man ' s conduct , or calculate his future actions half so well , unless you have that key to his character which is furnished in his countenance and aspect . Show me a man ' s face , and I understand his letter more clearly . Let me see the expression of his countenance , and 1 have further evidence on which to trust him or to distrust him—to know whether he

    will be frank or finessing , firm or faultering . We were severe upon Lord Raglan ; let us see the features ot that amiable , placid old gentleman , with a white cloth over his broadbrimmed hat—as if it were a village clergyman pleasing his grandchildren by pretending to wearhis wife ' sbonnet—and we understand how the once-dashing and soldierly Eitzboy Somebbet had declined into / the vale of years .. We judge the man , then , not by his failures , but by the , firmness which still 1 keeps him placid amidst so . many troubles , and preserves the pure kindness of hia countenance amidst

    so many cares . There is np spectacle more affecting than the countenance of Lord ^ UjGlan , unchanged in its goodliess through all the changing scenes inv ^ Mclf we see it . It not only reconciles us to th , e njan , but to our own past estimation j teaching us that after all there was no mistake : in the respect paid , to the character of Baglan . The mistake lay in permitting a noble ambition to indulge itself , where a gentle force ought to have been used in making the aged man

    accept the repose which his patriotism spurned . We have not yet been astonished by James Simpson " , excellent as the testimonials were when he received his appointment ; and here we have before us an historical elucidation of the unastonishing character of his command , in the shape of his own portrait . A most regular , conscientious , and meritorious officer has he been ; and here he is—a respectable middle-aged Englishman of features so near the average , that you can scarcely

    tell to what class in life he belongs . A slender man , with somewhat compressed jaws and a compressed coat , lank equally in hair and flank , he looks as if he were the meritorious head of all the Chelsea pensioners ; fully deserving of that dignity , and something more . If you want to know why the " James Simpson" of the Gazette cannot write better grammar , or perform more dashing exploits , look at his portrait , and you understand it all .

    So with Pelissieb—a bustling , dashing man , not unmindful of his friends , but harsh and overbearing ^ upon necessity ; and there he is , a thick - waisted Frenchman with something of the buU-beadedness of the English sailor , and the inexorable expression of a British tax-collector . He is just the man to distrain a fortress , and has active mind

    enough to know how to do it . How much light could we throw on history if we had this real illustration ? Portrait painting we may doubt ; the mirror is faithful if we could but fix it ; and here it is , fixed . Holbein , that genius who was a photographic machine by anticipation , gave us in Edwabd VI . the countenance of

    Henbx VIII ., only . tenderer with youth and sickness—an illustration refuting the amiable fancy portrait of Hume ; and then , some time after , out came the recent disclosures of his arbitrary character ; but all portrait-painters were not photographers like Holbein ; whereas all photography is Holbein- —and something more . The illustrations which we desire of the past in va in , we can give posterity . There is not an eminent person in Europe who has not been photographed . The cheapening of printing processes multiplies the fac-similes ; and books themselves will convey the illustrations of history to

    future ages . As a relic indeed , or as a gift , photography has an interest far beyond the painted portrait . The original himself takes a part in the effigy made from the impress of his identity . You can trace every lineament and every hair , but the p icture has been produced by those lineaments and that hair . The art has to a certain extent been rendered

    independent of the painter s craft . Taste and tact can render it a family occup ation , and we may hand down to posterity a family painted by themselves in these perpetuated mirrorings . We have an example hero in the highest family in the land , whoso members are practised and skilful photographers . Prince Albebt executing photographs of his wife and children , tolls posterity how the husband-father in that remarkable family was pleased tp soo them look ; and in the portrait of tho Prince , which the Queen , en rcvanrfte , executed with her own fair hands , posterity will see whoro

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 22, 1855, page 14, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_22091855/page/14/