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Leader (1850-1860), 24th May 1851, Edition Town of 2, Page 489, Untitled Article

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      Untitled Article

      If you want to know what Austria Proper has contributed , you will find that it is principally furniture—even that is in great part due to her Italian slaves ; but she seems to offer with a less doubtful title nicknacks , pipes , and linendrapery . At the Exposition , Austria appears decked in the borrowed plumes of Venice , Bohemia , Milan , and her subject states . We doubt whether she can exhibit , as a home manufacture , even the tools of her tyranny . Seeking for her arms , unless we overlooked them , we discovered nothing worth notice . Arms indeed we did find , but we bad passed the border of " Austria" on the one side into " Belgium , " on the other into the « ' Zollverein . "

      Even her living tools of the first class are not indigenous : Radetzky , if we mistake not , is the blot upon a Polish pedigree . " The contest will be short / ' was a prophecy for the moment only : the contest is enduring . An empire thus constituted , with parts greater than the whole , cannot keep together . The greater imprisoned within the less must incessantly struggle until it bursts its prison . The Exposition of Austria is the shame of the nations tied to her chariot wheels ; it is for them an humbling exposure ; but it may suggest the moral : if those ubject Peoples were brought together in council , as they are here in the great sample-house , the

      crowned and official conspiracy at Vienna would no longer be able to hold them down . If Austria had exhibited her true resources , the instruments by which she holds down the subject provinces , it would have been the conscripts of those subject provinces used the one against the other . She should have shown " the machine for holding down Bohemia "—an Italian soldier ; " engine for reducing Hungary "—a combination of recruits from Germany and Italy ; " the Italian screw "—formed of Hungarians and Croats . If the provinces were in council , if they understood in each other ' s interests their own , they would see , collectively , that they are lending their own power to a State lower than themselves in the scale of nations : that to be

      free , in fact , they have but to revoke themselves . That lesson they must sooner or later learn ; but , whenever it comes about , that victory alone can be the end of " the contest . "

      Untitled Article

      POOR IiA"W PROGRESS IN COVENTRY . Coventry must be added to the list of places moving in the right direction , and moving well . The Directors of the Poor have taken steps towards establishing schools for the children . Industrial training is to the young what industrial employment is to the adult , and we look forward to the time when Coventry shall have both halves of sound Poor Law management ; the more so , since there resides in the place the power to enforce the true doctrine with pen and tongue , in the best style . To that fact indeed must we attribute the progress of the ancient city—not yet ended .

      Untitled Article

      A RESTORATION WITHOUT A . REVIVAL . It is done . We read in May , 1851 , the astounding intelligence that the old Germanic Diet is again silting ia Frankfort . Restored , but assuredly not revived , this effete body has stepped over the chasm of three years , and meets again to work the will of the plunderers of Poland , the usurpers of Hungary , and the oppressors of Italy . The rising and gibbering of skeletons is not a resurrection of those who died . Germany cannot accept

      this solution of the Unitarian question . No deeds of a galvanized corpse can efface the facts of ' 48 and ' 49 , nor , in the long run , keep the German People from enjoying the fruits of their suppressed insurrections . So let the Diet sit in peace , and let " Lord Cowley , armed with full powers from England , " hover around it . In its heart is the canker of rottenness , and the iron has entered into its soul . Retribution is but delayed—not averted .

      Untitled Article

      TIIlKnH A SOCIALIST . Who will believe it ? We have been accustomed to read , " Thiers on Socialism ; " but it would be novel to meet with the phrasr , " Thi < rs / or Socialism . And yet we have before u « a circumstantial account of an alleged interview bntwren M . Thiers and the rreridents of tlie Working Men's Associations at Tans . M . Thiers himself solicited the interview , at his own house . Ho was Btruck by their polite behaviour and well in fnctis said to have

      thought out plans . M . Thiera , , told the story to a numerous company of friends , and finally to have expressed himself as follows : — " I am decidedly convinced that , these associations existing , you could never accomplish the destruction of the workmen a societies , nor snatch from them the Republic . " Xhe result of the interview , it is as well to state , was that M Thiers expressed a desire to be present at a meeting of the AHsooiaiiontj , and to take part in the discussion ; and that u special meeting wm to bff arranged for that purpose . Whether he is sincere or not , " Thiera for 6 oci » H « m " would create a panic in " the party of order , "

      Untitled Article

      The Exposition , which empties theatres , lecture rooms , dioramas , and is to force Parliament , they say , to give up its hopeless efforts—the Exposition , which seems to prosper beyond all calculation , and to defeat all calculation in the " ruin" of other speculations , keeps Literature of course unusually dull . Macaulay himself might publish his two next volumes and only find a few famished critics to read him ; Tennyson might pout forth the wail of another sorrow as deep and as persistant as that

      whiqh gave eternal substance to the volume In Memoriam , not a tear would moisten the page unless it were from a reviewer ' s eye . ( Did you ever see the tear of a reviewer ?) The indifferent public gads away to the Exposition , and leaves Genius to fling its clamorous ai ! ai ! upon the air , without pausing even to listen to these woes . Hence our office of Literary Jackal—or Gossip provider to his Leonine Majesty the Public—becomes extremely onerous , and not at all successful

      If one could but invent a few facts now ! Or , in default of the requisite invention , if one had the requisite credulity to believe all that is reported Thus Jules Janin , who has fallen in love with our fog and kindliness , announces to all France the joyous news that there will be no Waterloo banquet this June : the flag of France floating over the Crystal Palace suggests to the Duike that the banquet would be a breach of hospitality , because it would recal such " cruel souvenirs ! " Janin

      believes that report ; or at least prints it , which is to give journalistic credence to it . We are sorry to think how " cruelly" France will be disappointed ; and we are amused at the excessive preoccupation of Frenchmen with this said battle of Waterloo . It is the ineradicable belief of every Frenchman that we in England are in a perpetual self swagger about Waterloo . We are prodigal of the word upon omnibus , shop , street , and road , because we wish to humble France at

      every corner . Waterloo - house is an insult Waterloo-bridge a defiance ! Wellington boots an outrage ! Every step you take you trample on the national pride of France , for with " insular arrogance " you walk in bobts named of Wellington or of Blucher ! We are intoxicated with our success at having beaten the French ; never having drubbed them before , from the times of Creesy , Poictiers , and Agincourt , down to the Peninsular Campaign ! This one success of Waterloo —( which , after all ,

      was not a success , as France clearly gained the battle , only she quitted the field in disgust!)—we cannot forget ; we cherish it , we riot in it ; we blazon the name everywhere to flatter our national pride and humiliate the foreigner . And , curious enough , the foreigner is humiliated ! He turns bis head away as be passes Waterloo-house ; he declines crossing Waterloo-bridge , or crosses it in a passion ; and even his national dread of rain cannot induce him to ride in a Waterloo omnibus .

      Of all the many profound misconceptions of English society current in France , none , we venture to Bay , is more completely baseless than the belief in the English feeling about Waterloo . Though it would be impossible to persuade a Frenchman that omnibus proprietors , hotelkeepers , and , builders were guilty of no national swagger in using the offending word " Waterloo . "

      Untitled Article

      It has been a painful reflection that the various Mechanics' Institutions throughout the country should have fallen so low as they have generally fallen , not because they were superfluous , but because they were ill-managed . The main cause of failure has universally been a want of thoroughness . They have been turned into concert-rooms and lounges , instead of preserving the austerer dignity of educational institutions . From the report of the fifth

      annual meetingof the Edinburgh Philosophical Institution , we observe with pleasure that the affairs of this body are unusually prosperous , leaving a balance of more than six hundred pounds , and giving the directors fresh courage for the future . The new arrangement of lectures is calculated to produce a more permanent influence than the old system ; it admits of equal variety in the choice of subjects , yet gives something like coherence to the whole .

      Untitled Article

      On Thursday the great satiric painter of social life—the Fielding of our times—commenced at Willis ' s Rooms the first of those Lectures on the English Humourists of the Eighteenth Century , which many months ago we announced as in preparation . We have never heard a lecture that delighted us more . It was thoughtful and picturesque , with some wonderful traces of pathos and far-reaching sentences . Dwelling upon the moral aspects of Swift ' s position

      and career , rather than attempting a criticism on his works , Thackeray held his audience from first to last . He gave a vivid picture of the early life and loneliness of the great satirist amidst the exasperating servilities and insults endured from Temple ' s household , as also of the turbulent political bravo coming up to London to carve for himself a pathway among lords whom he despised . In this part of the lecture it was felt that , while satirizing that condition of political corruption which made Swift a bravo and used him as such , the censor still touched upon , living foibles—at the

      allusion to the South Sea Bubble , with its Railway parallel , we observed some fair shoulders wince ! Nor were religious cant and formalism untouched in the admirable picture of Swift ' s sacrifice of his life to an hypocrisy . The audience was of the elite—Thomas Carlyle , Macaduy , Mjlman , Milnes , Sir Robert Inglis , the Duke and Duchess of Argylk , the Duchess of Suthehland , Lady Constance Levkson Gower , Lady Lichfield , with many others , not a few lovely women , and several men well known in Literature and Art .

      Untitled Article

      COMPANIONS OF MY SOLITUDE . Companion * of my Solitude . rickorinp . A More thoroughly charming companion for solitude than this volume we cannot readily name . It made the whole day happy when we opened it , read every sentence , marked a great many , and finally closed it with the feeling of regret similar to that accompanying the close of some solemn yet dulcet strain 6 f music . Wherein specially eonHists the charm of this book we cannot say—probably in the mingling of thoughtfulnesH and humour , with , a certain pensiveness tinging the experience of a man of the world—probably , also , in the Htyle—or it may be in the rare qualification of being perfectly free from nonsense , paradox , wilfulnesH , over-aeuteneJsfi , affectation , or good

      downright " stupidity ! ... ^ The book is as peculiar in form as it is m spirit : — *• When in the country I live much alono : And , us I wander over downs and commons fttid through lanes with lofty hedges , many thoughts come into my mind . I find too the « au » o on « s come wgain and again , and are spit itrtd companion * . A « times ( thuy insist upon being with me , nnd are resolutely intrusive . 1 tiunlc

      Untitled Article

      May 24 , 1851 . ] JJfle ILtaXftV . 489

      J Cmratitte.

      j Cmratitte .

      Untitled Article

      Critics « fe not tbe legislators , but the judges and police of literature . They do not make laws—they interpret and trj to enforcethemv—Edinburgh Review .

      Untitled Article

      George Saivj i * seems decidedly to have , turned to the stage . Another drama , signed with her illustrious name , has appeared at the iwaitii . Its title Mdlitre suggest *) a new sphere for her artistic power ; but the piece disappoints that expectation . Instead of an historical ( lraiina we have the ideas and quarrel « of ^ the day under the masks of historical personages j and she has so completely falsified the real position , of Molibrb and the two BkjaktA , that one wonders why she did not tako

      fictitious names for fictitious characters . One sentence in the critique on this play by Hector Berlioz will probably amuse those readers who have heard George San » always libelled as an immoral writer—it is the complaint that all the persons in this piece are so virtuous they become tiresome : " Ils sont tons vertueux et ennnyeux hfaire fr&mir"

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), May 24, 1851, page 489, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1884/page/13/