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    time and place , the different kinds of unemployed labour in the country would have an approximate proportion to the ordinary distribution of employments : the labour of the able-bodied , fairly applied , never fails to produce more than is needed by the labourer : therefore , were any considerable amount of able-bodied labour applied under the administration of public industry , with proper distribution of employments , it could scarcely fail to support itself . By a consolidation of the workhouse system , the labour of one district would supply the wants of the rest ; for example , in devoting the

    public labour of each district mainly to typical employments , Manchester , Leeds , Nottingham , Northampton , Sheffield , and Aylesbury , might supply each other with cotton shirting , cloth , stockings , shoes , implements , and corn ; perhaps London might supply the tailors and shirt-makers . Each district would supply its own carpenters , masons , &c . Again , there is scarcely a place that would not bebenefitedbylocalimprovements—aggregate drainage , roads and pathways , and the like . Now , the coarsest sort of work is not the most attractive ; of course no applicant could be admitted to public

    work , without submitting to strict controul as to hours , diligence , and regularity . The wages should be sufficient—thoroughly so ; but should be given solely for work done . There can be little doubt that the greater freedom , if not profit , of labour elsewhere would check the labourers in applying for public work . One of the most instructive facts ascertained by the experiment of the Sheffield farm is , that the labourer prefers the farm-work to idling in the town workhouse ; and yet that , as soon as relief presents itself in the shape of work , he becomes more diligent in finding work elsewhere .

    The second check would consist in the function of a local officer to accuse , before the proper tribunal , any one who should commit an act of vagrancy — refusal to work , indiscipline , malicious spoiling of work , fraud upon the poor relief , tramping , &c . Taking all things into account , I am inclined to think that , although farm operations in the agricultural districts , by * the ordinary methods , might not furnish sufficient real labour to employ an indefinite number of paupers so as to pay locally , yet that , by combining the wants and resources of several districts , it would be quite possible to render the system of public work nearly self-supporting , and quite compensatory to society .

    I need not point out to you , my dear G . R ., how nearly such an arrangement would have the effect which the working classes desire when they call for " a minimum of wages ; " while it could not be followed by the disasters attendant on restrictions of trade and attempts at impossibilites . Nor need I show you how it would serve to exterminate the most wretched kinds of employment , such as needlewoman ' s work , without any measure so idle and mischievous as direct prohibition . It would secure to humanity its right to subsistence through labour j and it would powerfully tend to cut off those branches of labour which are most unproductive .

    Believe me , ever yours most sincerely , Thornton Hunt .

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    Is it not enough to make publishers and readers and historians and club gossips appreciate the old myth of Tantalus to tell them , as we now tell them , that Sir Robert Peel has left an autobiography written in his own hand , paged , and ready for the press ; yet , from " scruples of delicacy , " many years must elapse before it can be published ? It is enough to make one doubt the virtue of delicacy ! It is enough to make one wish the Living whom these scruples point at were removed to a better world ! An autobiography of Peel , with the secret history of our own times , would be cheaply purchased by the sacrifice of a few " political characters " ! But there is no help for it : we must learn patience , hoping merely that we shall live to read the book .

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    The sad news of Mrs . Shelley ' s death throws the mind back into that stirring time when her father , Godwin , and her mother , noble Mary Wolstonecraft , were outraging the respectabilities by earnest utterance of audacities in speculation which now seem incapable of alarming even the timid—for the persecuted audacity of one day becomes the commonplace of to-morrow—and

    recals her illustrious husband , the most Christianhearted man of whom that epoch gives us any intimation , Percy Bysshe Shelley ! To the illustration of parentage , Mrs . Shelley added that of being the author of Frankenstein , The Last Man , Lodore , &c . Frankenstein is one of those books that become the parent of whole generations of romances .

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    In the number of the North British Review just out there is a remarkable paper on Literature and the Labour Question , which contains more suggestive thought than anything we have yet seen on this subject . There is also an excellent article on Neander , an interesting account of Arthur Hallam and his Remains ( privately printed ) , a foolish paper on the Social Position of Woman , wherein the writer believes he settles the question by referring to

    the Bible ! and chooses to contemplate the growing tendency of literature and thought towards a more equitable adjustment of woman ' s position " as one of the odd aberrations of the popular intellect which alternate with periods of common sense . " If the writer will study the history of Europe , he will find that , so far from this tendency being an aberration , it is visible as an increasing tendency from the very first—that women have become more and more

    emancipated from the bondage in which their physical inferiority places them among nations who only regard physical power , and that , with enlarg - ing conceptions of freedom generally , have come enlarged conceptions of the relation of the two

    sexes . The British Quarterly is alwnys worth attentive reading . The present number contains biographical articles on Bum and Uukfon , a delightful paper on The Chemistry of the Sunbeam , and some noteworthy matter on the University Commission . The article on Italy , Germany , and Mngland shows grasp of the subject and vigour of thought ,

    animated by strong political feelings . The Papacy question is treated with ability , and is interesting as expressing the Nonconformist view of the matter ; but we wish , on such a subject , the editor had trusted no pen lean worthy than his own . There would have been more hard hitting , and the sido blows would have battered against us ; hut we like hard hitting : thero is nothing like having an antagonist whom you must respect !

    Fraser this month in charming—he generally in . London in 1851 i « really worth considering ; J 10 _ thing can be more delightful than the Naturalist ' s Note-Book , or more searching than the critique on Jjord Holland ' s Reminiscences , The Scramble

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    among the Pyrenees is written with gusto ; and there is much truth in the sarcasms of the Age of Veneer . ^ Leigh Hunt ' s Journal keeps up its pleasant character , and it . may be interesting to many if w ^ tell them that the editor is printing in its pages an unpublished play , full of exquisite dramatic writing . Carlyle gives us a glimpse of Two Hundred and Fifty Years Ago ; R . H . Hobne , a beautiful thought in two stanzas ; and Vincent Leigh Hunt ( the editor ' s youngest son ) makes we believe , his debut in print with a touching sonnet on a Deformed Child .

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    NEANDER ' S LIFE OF CHRIST . The Life of Jesus Christ in its Connection and Historicat Dp velopment . By Augustus Neander . Translated from th « Fourth German Edition . By John M'Clintock and CharW v Blumenthal . ( Bonn ' s Standard Library . ) H . G . Bohn German theologians are the terror of "good old English orthodoxy . " Nor is this without reason . The theological instinct is unerring ; call the perfume of corruption by what scented name you will the " theologic Nose" smells it out ; and good comfortable English orthodoxy when it sees German theology nearing our shores cannot have its alarms quieted by any amount of panegyric upon German erudition , deep piety , or philosophic elevation . Orthodoxy knows that erudition and philosophy are dangerous allies . Better leave them alone . Better keep orthodoxy quiet , comfortable , uninquiring . When Dr ., Tholuck was in England it greatly surprised him to find that none of the theologians had read Strauss , and he quite startled Chalmers into the necessity of doing so . In Germany every one had read , many answered him . But these were " German theologians "—that makes all the difference !

    We have said it , and we repeat it , English orthodoxy , if it wish to preserve itself , should keep up its instinctive dread of German theologians . We are quite frank . We may hurt our own cause by the assertion , yet we make it , and will take Neander ' s Life of Christ , as an example . No one will gainsay his piety , truthfulness , enormous erudition . As a champion of the faith he is everywhere regarded with respect . Strauss" himself , with noble candour , avows his admiration for the

    man , and avows that this book has caused him to modify some points in his own . Yet we believe that Neander's very excellence is fatal : his truthfulness , simplicity , and sincerity prevent his employing that theological machinery by means of which a more adroit polemic gains the day . He admits too much . He is by far too candid . From his own hook the philosopher may confute him , even better than from other sources . We shall endeavour to show this anon ; meanwhile we desire to place a few words of introduction indicative of the tone of German theology .

    Rationalism is the word which most comprehensively expresses modern theology ; for rationalism is by no means confined to the rationalists : it haa affected even the most orthodox , as Neander confesses in his own case . Take two samples from the present work : — " It is proper that I should say , however , that I go along with those who oppose ' creed-believera' ( to use Sehultz's term ) so far as this , viz ., that I do not subscribe to any of the existing symbols ( except to the ApoathV Creed , which testifies to those fundamental facts of Christianity that are essential to the existence of the Christian Church ) aa an unconditional expreeflion of my religious convictions . " And again , more decidedly : —

    " It must be regarded uh one of the greatest boons which the purifying process of Protestant theology in Germany has conferred upon faith as well am science , that the old , mechanical view of Inspiration has been so generally abandoned . That doctrine , and the forced harmonies to which it led , demanded a clerk-like accuracy in the evangelical accounts , and could not admit even the slightest contradictions in them ; but we are now no more compelled to have recourse to subtilties against which our sense of truth rebels . In studying the historical connection of our Saviour ' s life and actions by the application of an unfettered criticiHin , wo reach a deeper sense in ninny of his sayings than the bonds of the old dogmatism would have allowed . '

    Hut our theologians clearly see that if you give up direct Inspiration , if you onco renounce the validity of the letter to trust in " criticiHin" and " interpretation , " you ruin the authority of the Bible by bringing it under the same category as other human works , to bo tested by the same methods . At the samo time people who are not theologians clearly nee thut tho letter cannot be maintained , because it is in flat contradiction to

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    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 .

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    128 Sjf JteaJer . [ Saturday ,

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    QOVEKNMKNT PaTKONAGK TO LlTEltAKY MKN . The cheapest encouragement of literature a Government could give , would be to select , if not all commissioners of inquiry , at least all compilers of public reports , from among the literary men of the country , paying them reasonable salaries by the year , or according to the work done . Thus a social literature would be organized and fobtered ; literary men would have a means of support , ; and pure literature would be left in nnerastian freedom to its own development . —North British Jtoview , Mo . 27 . Patukn / vl Govkrnmknt . s , —We protest we are sick of the thought of our national cold-hcartedness in all those great opportunities of action for the good of Europe , which ( jod , these three years past , has been throwing before ua . If there be one reflection which more than another must necessarily present itself to a right mind reviewing the history of continental Europe during the last three years , it is the reflection of the magnanimity , the honesty , the mercy , the enduring heroism of the chiefs of the party of the movement , as contrasted with the poltroonery , the mendacity , the cruelty , the systematic Jesuitism of almost all the . leaders and utmost all the advocates of the cause of tyranny . " We except no country . If the advocates of despotism in this country have not been cowardly , mendacious , cruel , und Jesuitic , in act , they have been cowardly , mendacious , cruel , and Jesuitic with tongue and with pen . la the Times und in the Quarterly Itevitiw assertions have again and again been made regarding the Italian movement in general , and the conduct of the Human republic in particular , the like of which , if hazarded in the alfuirs of daily life , would cause the slanderer to be cut at all the clubs , and excluded from honourable society . — British Quarterly llevitw . ^ .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 8, 1851, page 128, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1869/page/12/