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Leader (1850-1860), 9th August 1851, Edition Town of 2, Page 755

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      tion at once . It was for closing all the graveyards of the metropolis , affording houses of reception when the removal of bodies was desired , and , by purchasing up the existing suburban cemeteries , securing facility and decency in the rites of sepulture . Vested interests were to be recognized , but not as impediments . The Government chose to object . It was not convenient to them to set forward in a business which involved so many

      interests . What mattered it that the poor were stricken by fever , or paralyzed by continual miasma ? They were not in the ranks of those to whom Government looked for support . Their supporters were among the men who have vested interests in corruption—who make their money by chopping and burning and desecrating the remains of festering mortality , to whom a charnel-house is a money-box , and bereavement an opportunity for gain and extortion .

      But even the Whig Government scarcely dared leave us to the mercies of another autumn without some show of advance . Accordingly , we have now a sum of £ 177 , 000 voted—for what ? For the purchase of two cemeteries—the award for compensation not yet determined , and probably not to be determined for some time to come . The estimated cost of abolishing intramural interments is about £ 700 , 000 . Even this immense sum would be cheap were the end attained . Between the Board of . Health , which would do everything , and the Government , which will do

      nothing , the public appear little likely to advance in the matter , unless they help themselves . But capitalists are ever ready to procure benefits which the people recognize more than their rulers . The London Necropolis Company , to which we referred some weeks back , announce that they have received sufficient support from the public to enable them to effect the complete registration and incorporation of their company , and to proceed at once to the application of the cemetery to burial purposes . The existing cemeteries are not interfered with by this company , which addresses

      itself mainly tothe providing of burial for the 37 , 000 annual surplus of mortality , for which no provision whatever is now made . As arrangements are also made in carrying out the proposed benefits to prevent a conflict with existing interests , there is little doubt of its taking a firm hold on the confidence of the public . Assuming such a result , what becomes of the system proposed by the Board of Health for 1850 ? or what becomes of their estimate of . £ 700 , 000 ? The new " Necropolis " is of greater area than all the existing cemeteries

      put together . It is becoming a vested interest . Should Government eventually determine upon the partial system recommended , this new cemetery must also be bought up . But at what price ? It is quite evident that in this , as in other cases , the delay of the Government is adding fearfully to the difficulty ; and that each 3 ear carries that which at first would have been easy , nearer to the impossible . With such evidence before us , however , we cannot but welcome any plan which promises to relieve us from » he present indecent and disgusting system of sepulture .

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      THE I'KKNCH ON UK UK . A Guide de Londres , recently published in Paris , contains some serious warning to Frenchmen on the subject of English beer in general , and London stout in particular It describes the grave physical and moral tendencies of these tremendous liquors : —oppression , obliviouaness profound and helpless sleep . After drinking beer or porter lor two or throe days consecutively , you are struck wnu nn incurable nostalgia , or a melancholy longiiur to return to " La belle France . " VVe will do our livel y neighbours the justice to « ay l at we ¦ never experienced any nostalgic or longing to iu ' , wl . V " ?^ " * ' * - to " ch (> P 3 and beer , " from dr ? nk' l t ' Granville n ^ tly called , ' « the most delicious ro notion of their noil ; " the rich and precious vintages 01 Hiir un <] yand Ciironde . Hut may we be allowed tn wi » . i « r the of

      ^ , Btrong prejudice Frenchmen againat !» , i |; : rcl"li ; d "overage of-Barclay and PrrkiiiB may mivi . ' s ' lVr * 8 U 8 P ' cion of 8 ( »» ' « Thames water in the 11 ,,, 7 v WaU'r iB lwt popular about Leicester-square—11 ()« l / iavus water anywhere . , Inn ( l , ,:. ; S 1 . AVW . —We are much perplexed by | r " 7 tho ( irm-k Slave . In what respect in it oul ' " 1 H " man »(; le UI ) O 11 » delicate wrirtt tho m ,. llu ; ail a «< : » lpture poasoBBcuofexproHHinu ; tho sormZl" llll « uiHh <> f slavery ? The fact in , there i « no in 11 , K whatever " » < h « face , which Iuih anything m to wori { i | , ( Jrcck or slavery written on it ; and ' ll ( 'll < l and manacles were lonm .-d nir # h , > rout , nf

      It is ft i ! l f VOul < 1 bo VCrv l > e * ititit \ il M % study of form . ntlhi . m - 1 Kr ' i from ll » o shoulder * down , especially » " the u k ; buttho nrti « t has utterly failed ^ "ff ^ hu Dt l ° cony ° y »» ytl "" g mov ^ -Fraser ' s

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      ^ The Magazines are not very striking tins month . Fraser , as usual , takes the first place . The conclusion of the paper on Wordsworth , the graphic account of Chamois Hunting , the pleawant gossip on tho Exhibition Season , anil tho severe , though well-merited exposure of Soyer and Soyerism , being all excellent articles . Blackwood continues its protection statistics , and Huiavkk ' h novel ; and in a lively paper , called Voltaire at the Crystal > alace , sneers by implication at tho notion *> f

      modern progress . Tait mercilessly flays the j Honourable G . S . Smythe , and continues ita telling article on the Bishops and their Incomes Apropos of this subject , the Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol has sent us a pamphlet in reply to Mr . Hoksman ' s charges—Documents respecting the Estate of Horfield Manor—in which he makes out a good case for himself . But the whole discussion is one to excite feelings of deep disgust . Laymen cannot help recalling the fact that these Bishops are the representatives of twelve Fishetmen who preached the Gospel of the Poor !

      I The second number of Albert Smith ' s Month is a loud laugh from beginning to end . There is serious purpose in its humourous exposure of the Hotel system ; the playful hit at Charades will be less generally responded to ; the " advertisements " will produce a loud guffaw . Leech has given some admirable illustrations , and altogether a more amusing railway companion is not to be had for s ixpence .

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      " When I was young ( about fourteen I think ) I first read the German ' s Tale , * ' says Lord Byron in the preface to his dramatic reproduction of that tale , Werner . He has been dead nearly thirty years , and the authoress of that tale which delighted his boyhood , and which " may be said to contain the germ of much that he has written / ' has only ndw passed away from earth ! Harriet Lee was ninety-five when she died last week . The Canterbury Tales have long been shelved , though the I German ' s Tale may be considered as immortalized

      I by Byron—not that his Werner was so great an improvement upon the story ; it was indeed a servile reproduction of the characters , incidents , and even thoughts ; nay , there is something comical in the gravity with which Byron , while fully acknowledging his obligations , makes this claim : — " The character of Ida Stralenheim was added by myself . " The character of Ida ! Not then for anything Byron has added to this tale , but simply because of his splendid reputation , which reflects a lustre upon the obscurest sources whence he drew , materials , will Harriet Lee ' s name travel to posterity .

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      In our last number there was an answer attempted to the question , Is Criticism lawful ? Lawful or not , there are publishers—we name no names—who regard it with somewhat of the same feeling which smugglers entertain towards the Preventive Service ; and we feel bound to make the public aware that there are contraband goods smuggled into the market , which never passed through the Critical Customhouse . — Novels are published and sent direct to the

      Circulating Libraries in the country , without previous advertizing ; above all without previous criticism ! Jones , we will say , has a novel which he knows all the critics will " cut up ";—why should he allow them to " cry stinking-fish" when he can pass it off as fresh ? At the library , all that is asked for is " a new novel . " If it be new , and the fair reader have not been forewarned , she takes it with unmisgiving , delight . There is thus a Literature of which we

      in the metropolis have no cognizance . A Literature which snaps its contemptuous fingers at our magisterial authority ; which can afford to dispense with our praise , and laughs at our severity . Now , the question which continually obtrudes itself upon us is—Can these novels—the owls of literature shunning the light—be worse than many of those birds of gaudy plumage which court the light ? Is it possible there can be works of more unutter - able , shameless mediocrity than some of those which a high and impartial press "hails with delight , " and pronounces to be of " thrilling

      heartstirring interest" ? Every Shallow has , we know , his Silence ; in every deep there i . a deeper still ; and the horizon of the execrable i « indefinitely distant ; still , works confessing themselves worse than Home of the three volumes which assume grand conquering airs , would be curiosities of literature worth looking after . It used to be said , with swelling emphasis , in tmiall circles , Mit the Unacted Drama was immeasurably superior to the Acted ; may not the Unreviewed novels turn out to be in a similar position with respect to tho Reviewed ?

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      When the English undertake anything in the shape of business it must be said they do it thoroughly . Besides the superb Illustrated Catalogue which the publishers have issued as a lasting record of the Exhibition , they have now put forth a German translation of their official catalogue *— Amtlicher Catalog der Austellung — translated by our countryman Edward Moriarty , the German translator of Dickens Are there sufficient Germans in London to

      makthis speculation profitable ? While on the sub ject of the Exhibition , lefc us mention that Mr Berger has published an engraving of the Cryst * Palace as a Winter Garden , which has a very se ductive and enchanting aspect . Lord Campbeli and that " gentleman and scholar / ' Mr . Justic Cresswell , who are so violently opposed to tb continuance of the Crystal Nuisance , will look upo this engraving with no loving tenderness ; but th public , which has to decide whether the buildin shall remain or be removed , may be glad to see ho \ it will look as a Winter Garden .

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      [ In France the tributes to literary celebrities ca : a sarcastic reflection upon our indifference to thos who have charmed our leisure and expanded ou souls . Ilecently the town of Amiens honoure itself by erecting a statue to Gkes . se r , the charn ing- author of Vert- Vert , of whom Voltaik said —•

      " Gressot , done du double privilege J ) ' £ tre au college un bcl esprit momlnin . 2 £ t dans le momle un homnie de college "Guesskt , the author of one of the most agrceab little poems , and of the admirable comedy , fje Mi chant , was not one of Fiance ' s greatest men w suredly , yet Amiens might well be proud of hit who said—¦

      " Lcs bans cceurs ont scids le talent de . me plairc . " The fete of inauguration was magnificent . 1 was a sort of bal masque" in public . An immem procession of cuirassiers , national guards , corpora tions of workmen in the costumes of the lGth an 17 th centuries , groups on horseback reprcsentin the chfvau Myers of Louis XIIK , XIV ., and XV . with banners ( lying , cymbals clanging , trumpet braying , jubilant crowds shouting !

      Less brilliant as n fete was that which in tl commune of Kollot honoured the memory < Antoink Galland , the translator of the Thousan and One Nig / its , by a monument . Public gratitud was certainly due to one , who had translated th work , which , perhaps , of all others hns been th most universally admired . Hut would any KnglisI town have remembered such a debt ?

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      Aug . 9 , 1851 . ] &tft & ** & «*? 755

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      Critics are not the legislators , but the judges and police of literature . They do not make 1 aws—they interpret and try to enforce them —Edinburgh Review .

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      A translation of Tennyson in French awaits a publisher , and we hope will never find one . U no knowledge in better than false knowledge , Tknn vhon were best untranslated , for nothing but fuhc nolioun can be propagated by translation . Wo have often insisted on this point ; agreeing with » Siii ; llky that it were as ¦? ««« to oust a violet into a crucible that you might detect the foimul principle of ita

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 9, 1851, page 755, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1895/page/15/