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Leader (1850-1860), 26th April 1851, Edition Town of 1, Page 393

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      Untitled Article

      tip a band , over which he has no control , and £ 5 16 s . 8 d . to his mess . On the whole of this munificent endowment he has to pay income tax , it not being considered just by a liberal Government that the interest of the money expended on his commissiocs should be deducted from the gross amount of pay before this iniquitously-proportioned tax is levied on him . " The officer seems to be protected by the system of purchase ; we see how he is mulcted by it . But he suffers , as all do , who are controlled by a system essentially irregular and dishonest . The warriors of a national army ¦ would not be treated thus .

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      MORE DISCUSSION OF THE ASSOCIATIVE PBINCIPLE . A new investigator of the principle of Concert appears —the Inquirer—organ of the Unitarians . In the number for Saturday last was an excellent paper on " Christian Socialism , " with strictures conceived in a spirit equally acute and candid ; although , of course , we hold the author to be mistaken in being unable to give up Competition , or in thinking that " it is the main spring or moving power of the whole industrial machinery . " What we want , however , is , not agreement on the instant , like a rake ' s reform on the stage , but discussion ; and we heartily welcome so able and fair an investigator into the field . As to his challenge , to show that it would be possible to establish an Associative system without the nationalisation of land , we would answer , that if it cannot be effected without , we must have the la » d—all in good time ; but that the principle of concert can be applied and developed without any su < h violent measure : and that the ground on which it can be most readily and comprehensively applied is that of the Poor Law—by the perfecting of an existing institution . We invite the Inquirer to consider that point .

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      HOW TO OIVE LEISURE AND LIFE TO HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS . The Early Closing Association has sent us , by its indefatigable secretary , Mr . John Lilwall , an address to the Women of England , earnestly exhorting them , one and all , to adopt the practice of " shopping" in the early part of the day ; a plan which would immediately release a hundred thousand persons from overstrained work in evening and night . The document comes too late for finding room in our overcrowded space ; would that our voice could secure the fulfilment of its prayer . Two

      things delay that fulfilment : first , want of sufficient trust in that principle of concert which might cure so many of our ills , but which has been for the time unduly kept down by the opposite spirit of competition , or self-seeking , self-satisfying individualism ; secondly , want of the habit of acting , in practical daily life , on . high motive , because it is high and exalted and good in itself , though it give not present good for ourselves . Men cast not their bread upon the waters now without good security ; as John Iluskin says , the Lamp of Sacrifice is out , and in the stench and smoke many a life is panting .

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      " WHY SHOULD ROTTBN-ttOW GO INTO KEN 81 NOTONOAKDEN 8 ? Rotten-kow is now nearly useless as a ride ; and the horsemen and horsewomen , driven from their beloved haunt , are agitating for a new one . The whole of Hydepark lay before them " where to choose "; but they coveted Kensington-gardens , and the Times announces that their desire is to be gratified . The ride is a pretty sight , no doubt , and the exercise is both pleasant and healthful . The riders ought to have a ride ; but why should they invade the domains of the walkers ? Why not make a ride in Hyde park , where there is plenty of room , no pleasant privacy to be invaded , and no public injury to be inflicted ? Converting Kensington-gardonB into a public ride will be like establishing a small dog-kennel in Lord Seymour ' s drawingroom , or turning a loose flock of sheep into the flowerbeds of the gurdens of Buckingham Palace . A garden is a garden ; a place where non-equituting ; people may stroll , andchildren frolic in security upon its greensward . A garden in not an hippodrome . Yet this invasion , which will be , not only an inexcusable exhibition of bad taste , but a great injustice to the public , is unavoidable , for the Lord ComrninHioners of Woods and Forests bus willed thut it shall be ! But the decision of his wilfulnesa muwt be met by a contrary decision of the wilfulncsn of the public . The dwellers in Kensington , 13 ayswater , NoUing-hill , — -why not all the went end of London ? -must bentir theninelveB , follpw the successful example of Hornby , defend alike the cause of good taste and public convenience , and will also that Kenuington-ganlenB « hall not be surrendered .

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      BiBimi'B . — Binhopn , the reprcHentativeH of Christ , live in pnluerH . How odd it noundi * ! Christ ' s representative inapuluce ; mid in 18 / 50 ycurs , onnnot nettle what the effect in of n few drops of water ttprinkled on a child ' n face ! How wonderful the phenomena of credulity and priesthood I—Atkinson and Martinoau ' s Letters on Man .

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      The custom of holding anniversary festivals seems to be going- out of fashion , like many other old ways . Few , however , can have forgotten that one of the days of the past week—Wednesday , the 23 rd of April—was a day to be held in peculiar honour in England , as the anniversary of the ( reputed ) birthday of Shakespeare . Curious that that day should also be St . George ' s Day ! The Society of Antiquaries met to elect their office-bearers for the ensuing year ; and , we dare say , the fact that it

      was Shakespeare ' s birthday was not forgotten among the toasts at their dinner . At other meetings , also , in many parts of the country , the circumstance must have been remembered , as well as that , on the same day last year , Wordsworth died . Cant mingles with all things—and most dreadfully of all with dinner-speeches ; but we like the fashion of keeping anniversaries . We must do something on days of special mark to show our sense of their being such ; and the invention of

      the world has not as yet hit upon any other modes of celebrating such days than these two—feasting and fasting . " This is a sacred day , so I will eat no dinner : this is a sacred day , so I will eat a very good dinner ; " such is the summary of the art of commemoration , as that art has been hitherto elaborated in England . Perhaps there may be improvements in reserve . M . Comte , the apostle of the Positive Philosophy , has , among his other imitations or reproductions of forms

      of Mediaeval Catholicism , proposed a new calendar , wherein the year shall be divided in anew mannereach month being consecrated to one of the great names that represent the intellectual and social progress of humanity . He specializes the names of Moses , Homer , Aristotle , Archimedes , Caesar , St . Paul , Charlemagne , Dante , Descartes , Guttenberg , Columbus , and Frederic the Great ( not an Englishman among them , it will be observed ) as most appropriate for the designation of the twelve months ;

      recommending , however , particular fetes for minor heroes in the months under which they might best be grouped—fetes for St . Augustin , Hildebrand , Saint Bernard , and Bossuet , in St . Paul's month ; for King Alfred and St . Louis , in Charlemagne's month ; for Richelieu and CromwelL in the month of Frederic the Great ; and so on . Moreover , supplying a defect of Catholicism in this respect ,

      lie proposes what he calls " fetes of reprobation " for the greatest scoundrels of history , i . e ., for such retrogressive men as Julian the Apostate , Philip II . of Spain , and Bonaparte ( the classification is his own ; we would put in a word for Bonaparte)—to be spent , we suppose , in solemn groans and hisses , or in taking quassia . According to this new calendar , a follower of Comtk , writing a letter in March , would have to date it as written on such

      and such a day of Aristotle . We fear the proposal won't do in Kngland , but this , at least , may be said for it , that it is as good as the Puseyite practice of dating by saints' days , besides being novel , and Parisian , and scientific . Sydney Smith used , in jest of the Puseyite practice , to date his letters "Washing Day—Eve of Ironing Day j" we advise some of our irreverent readers to put Comtk ' h plan , which in better , in competition with that of our PuHcyitu friends .

      By-the-by , talking of birthdays , does anything in the character and genius of a man depend on the month in which he was born ? Ih there any significance in the fact that SuakkhimcaricVs first infant gaze on the world and on Warwickshire happened in the " sweet and showery " spring month ? We don't know ; hut it would be difficult inductively to make anything out on the point . Burns was horn in January ; Milton in December ; Goethe and Napoleoa in August ; Wellington in May ; Cromwell—a very different kind of person from Shakespeare—almost on th « suine day in April uh Shakespeare ; in fact , nil sorts of men have been

      born in all sorts of months . Yet a deep fellow mi ff ht make something of the subject ; and we advise some deep fellow to do so .

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      The first representation of Sir E . B . Lytton's new comedy , written in furtherance of the scheme to endow a society or guild for the benefit of Literary men and Artists , is to take place , in presence of the Queen and Prince Albert , at Devonshire-house , Piccadilly , on Wednesday evening , the 30 th of April . The comedy , which is in five acts , is entitled " Not so Bad as we Seem ; or Many Sides to a Character . " The scene of the

      play is London , in the reign of George I . ; the characters are numerous—from sixteen to twenty in all ; and are to be borne by Messrs . Frank Stone , Dudley Costello , Charles Dickens , Douglas Jerrold , John Forster , Mark Lemon , F . W . Topham , Peter Cunningham , Westland Marston , JR . H . Hobne , Charles Knight , Wilkie Collins , John Tenniel , Robert Bell , Augustus Egg , &c . A new moveable theatre has been erected for

      the purpose at Devonshire-house . The comedy will afterwards be performed in public ; and the promoters of the scheme are sanguine of its success . Mr . Maclise has offered to paint a picture ( the subject to be connected with the performance of the comedy ) , and to place it at the disposal of the guild , for the augmentation of its funds . The nature of the scheme itself is explained in another part of to-day ' s paper ; the comedy is said to be well cast .

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      In connection with the delay in the publication of Mr . Roebuck ' s History of the Whigs , which was advertised as about to appear more than a month ago , a rumour is current to the effect that , among Mr . Roebuck ' s materials were some important private letters of the late Earl Grey , placed at his disposal by a noble legal lord to whom they had been addressed , and that , at the last hour , an impediment was thrown in the way of the publication of the book by a peremptory objection made to the use of these letters by another noble lord , who , as the representative of the late Earl , possesses a copyright over them . Whether the report is strictlyauthentic , we cannot say ; another cause assigned for the delay of the appearance of the book bein # Mr . Roicbuck ' s ill health . Meanwhile public curiosity has been excited by the announcement of such a book ; and it will doubtless be eagerly read and criticised .

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      The Charivari has been again seized in Paris by order of the Procureur of the Republic . The cause of offence is a lithographic print entitled Actnalitt ' s le Prix de VAdresse aux Champs IClysies , in which Louis Napoleon is watching the candidates for Ministerial posts , as they shoot arrows at a figure representing the Constitution , a porfolio being held up as the reward for the best bitter . The publisher of the Charivari and the author of the caricature are to be tried for libel . Why doen not Lord John Riihskll prosecute Punch ? There is no boldness in our Government ?

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      Among the forewarnin ^ . s <> f « speedy openingof the Greut Inhibition , besides the increa . se of outlandish physiognomies and head-gear in our streets , is tho announcement thai : the Ollicial Catalogues— - in English , French , and Gorman—are almost ready for wild . From the advertisements in the newspapers , we see that it will multiply hand-books of all kinds , during the Inhibition—one effect , at hast , on Literature . MM . lii . ANum and Miciikl CiiKVAMicit an ! to be sent as deputies to the Exhibitiou from the Academy of Moral «< nd Political Sciences in Paris , to report on nny'hing it may present of a kind to interest Political Economists .

      Tittvahtt.

      tittvahtt .

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      Critics are not the legislators , but the judges and police of literature . They do not make laws—they interpret and tary to enforce them . —Edinburgh Review .

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      April 26 , 1851 . ] ® f ) t & tatter . 393

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      Professor Kink el . ' s course of twelve lectures on the history of the modern theatre , commences on Monday . The celebrity of the lecturer , whose recent extraordinajy escape from prison in Prussia must he fresh in the minds of our readers , ought to ensure a full audience . Kink el is one important man the more , added to the list of our London refugees .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), April 26, 1851, page 393, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1880/page/13/