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Leader (1850-1860), 6th September 1851, Edition Town of 2, Page 853, Untitled Article

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      Untitled Article

      rpadv if the power were given to him , to find work for everybody . The right to labour The Provisional Government will claim from posterity the glory of these fatidical words , which ratified the fall oi the constitutional monarchy , sanctioned the . Republic , and implicated the Revolution . " But promises are not sufficient : promises must be kept . . ,. , ,, . " On looking closer it was soon discovered that the right to labour was a more ' ticklish matter than had been anticipated . After many debates , the Government , which spent 1 , 500 , 000 , 000 francs yearly in keeping order , was constrained to confess that not a centime remained with which to assist the workmen ;

      that to occupy them , and consequently pay them , new taxes must be laid on , which would be revolving in a vicious circle , since these very taxes must be paid by those whom they were intended to assist ; that , moreover , it was not the duty of the State to compete with private industry , which already wanted help , and solicited openings for itself ; that , finally , the works undertaken under the direction of public authority generally costing so much more than they ¦ were worth , the industrial initiative of the State , whatever it was , could only serve to aggravate the position of the workmen . Consequently , by these and other no less peremptory motives , the Government gave men to understand that there was nothing to be done but to be resigned , to maintain order , and

      to be patient and hopeful ! " The Government , it must be acknowledged , was right up to a certain point . To insure work to all , and consequently exchange , it was necessary , as we shall show , to change the direction , to modify the ceconomy of society : a serious matter , beyond the capacity of the Provisional Government , and upon which it was its duty first to consult the country . As to the plans which were thenceforth propounded , and the semi-official conferences with which the unoccupied time of the workmen was amused , they no more deserve the honours of history than of criticism . They were so many pretexts for the reaction which soon manifested itself , even in the midst of the Republican party .

      ' But where the mistakes of the men in power began , that which exasperated the proletaries , and from a simple question of labour , will , in less than ten years perhaps , bring about the most integral of revolutions , was when the Government , instead of stimulating , like Louis XVI ., the researches of public writers , instead of attracting the attention of every citizen and soliciting the expression of their feelings on the great questions of labour and want , was seen keeping a hostile silence of four months ; when it was seen hesitating to acknowledge the natural rights of men and citizens ; distrusting liberty , especially that of the press , and of popular assemblies ; resisting the solicitations of patriots respecting

      the law of security and the stamp duty ; keeping a watch over the clubs , instead of organizing and directing them ; creating a body of pretorians in the garde mobile , ready for any emergency ; cajoling the clergy ; summoning back iho troops to Paris , with the view of making them fraternize with the People ; giving anew the signal of hatred to Socialism , the new name assumed by the Itevolution ; then either from carelessness or incapacity , either from misfortune , intrigue , or treachery , or from all these causes together , driving the unsalaricd masses to a desperate struggle in Paris and in Kouen ; and finally , alter victory , the having but one thought , one idea , that of stilling per fas at nefas the cry of the workmen , the protest of February . "

      Thus Government , alarmed by the immensity of the spirit which had been evoked , seeing no ( Iefinite issue from the difficulty , and exasperated by the theories of certain Utopians plus bruyants qne redoutables— men who believed that life was to be played like a game of chess , who believed that Society could he modelled , forgetting that all organisms grow—exasperated , we say , by these writers who were supposed to have created the evil , to have evoked this spirit , to have plunged society into the Labour difliculty , Government net itself sternly against the question , gagged all mouths that dared to speak of it , and is now erect upon a volcano of accumulated wrath , disquiet , and , leaning for support upon a Musket , disease .

      Once entered upon the path of reaction—once recurring to Force , for salvation , the proclivity of Government was inevitable ; we have seen how it has become more and more arbitrary . l'Yom the Provisional Government to the Executive Commission , from the Dictatorship of Cavaignac to the Presidency of Louis Napoleon , we have had im ascending series ; and in one sense Proudhon thinks this a good ; for it has helped to define the revolution , as all ideas are defined by their contraries . Above all , as he admirably nays : — " Las sottises das ( htuvemements font la science das r / : volu tionnairas—the follies of Governments teach revolutionistH their science . " Were it not for the reaction the revolution would not know its own

      wants and purposes . " That which I myself imperfectly conceived before the days of June , that which I have since only understood day by day beneath the fire of reaction , I now dare with certitude affirm : the Revolution is defined ; it knows itselfy it exists . " . In our next we shall pursue this analysis .

      Untitled Article

      JULES JANIN IN LONDON . Le Mois de Mai a Londres et VExposition de 1851 . Par Jules Janin . Mitchell . The jovial and witty feuilletonist , Jules Janin , is incomparable when sitting in his own mansarde ( for he lives in one , though it is elegantly furnished ) , surrounded by the friends amidst whose clatter he throws off the twelve columns of most agreeable , though most wordy chat , upon the last new piece or the last new actor . But he should never quit Paris . He is lost in another city . Sitting

      at home , amidst the birds that make a cage of his apartment and fly about in it , taking taking no more heed of Aristarchus than if he were Papageno or Mr . Gould—receiving the visit of some pere de la debutante , or some young author with a piece just " come out /*—and promising , like a real bon enfant , to say something flattering of the debutante and to go and see the new piece—backing up the efforts of the young aspirants , and sharpening his arrows against established favourites—Janin in his fauteuil is the prince of feuilletonists , and deserves his reputation . But his prestige leaves him when he quits the drama . As a tourist he has no one

      quality . He has tried his hand several times and always with admirable nonsuccess . What , then , will he do with London ? was a natural question . Such preliminary qualification as consists in having translated the Vicar of Wakefield , without knowing a word of English—and of having rewritten Clarissa Harlowe upon the same ample stockcoupled with the natural , national , congenital impossibility of a Frenchman ever understanding anything English—Janin undoubtedly had . Beyond this , and abundant enthusiasm , we know not that we ought to look ! Observation it was idle to expect . If England is to learn anything about herself , it will not be from the Gaul .

      As no great expectation will be formed , Janin ' s book is likely to have great success . It is very slight , but very amusing : an omelette soufflSe of literature ! His sparkling style—at once verbose and animated ( paradoxical as the conjunction of those two epithets sounds !)—his unflagging enthusiasm , and the agreeable frivolity of his remarks , hurry you through the volume , which has all the air of an improvisation ; and is one , for the letters here reprinted in an elegant volume were originally sent off , almost before the ink was dry , to the Journal des Debats , where they first appeared . It is a book such as Hamlet read , " Words , words , words . " We doubt whether another man could have

      written anything at once so unsubstantial and so readable . The forest is not simply hidden by the leaves , it is nothing but leaves ! If we endeavour to extricate from the mass of hyperbole what modicum of observation there may be , we shall find it reduces itself pretty nearly to his unbounded admiration for our loyalty— -our belief in and affection for our sovereign , and , above all , our respect for le Policeman ! What a solemn

      and majestic being is le Policeman to French observers ! Ak they regard the Lord Mayor to he the most august and magnificent personage in the three kingdoms , after her Majesty ; with like awe do they contemplate that august Individuality whom ribald costermongers name " Peeler " and " Crusher 1 " To him lie is—the Lord Mayor of the Streets ! Jacques Arago— -the brother of the Astronomer—made a voyage round , the world and studied London avec acharne . me . nt . To him the

      most remarkable characteristic of le Policeman was suavity of language—la politesse du langage . lie assures us that the Policeman is a man delicately shaped , une nature svalttt , with blue eyes , n limpid look , regard limpide , aristocratic hands , white and small ! As for Jules Janin , on his first arrival here , in the early stillness of morning he wanders forth into the sleeping city and is much struck with the fact that " God only and a few Policemen watched over all . " There is no bathos in that sentence to him !

      Du , testa , if Jules Janin has not made much profitable use of his eyes during his month in London , ho has at least had the tuct not to let prejudice or ignorance take the place of observation . He speaks , indeed , in one place , of two sonnets of Shakupeare being Hung after dinner at a public meeting ; but with this exception , he has not treated us to any of

      those delicious blunders , those immense misconceptions , which enliven with Homeric laughter the otherwise worthless writings of his countrymen in general , when treating of England . He was feted and petted here , and being pleased , has nothing bat pleasant things to say of us . The error , if error it be , is on the right side . A portrait is prefixed , which , however , gives a wrong impression of his fat , jovial , bourgeois face : there is less fun and more elegance than in the real physiognomy .

      Untitled Article

      BOOKS ON OUR TABLE . General History of the Christian Religion and Church . From the German of Dr . Augustus Neander . By Joseph Torrey . New edition , carefully revised . Vol . IV . ( Bonn ' s Standard Library . ) H . G . Bohn . This fourth volume is less interesting than the three preceding volumes , being occupied with the various heresies and differences in the interpretation of separate doctrines ; the most interesting being those of Arius , Athanasius , and the Nestorians . An excellent index to the third and fourth volumes is affixed . It is one of the great merits of Mr . Bonn ' s series that he is careful to accompany important works with indices . Ernest Maltravers ; or , the Eleusinia . Part First . 3 y Sir Edward Bulwer , Bart . Chapman and Hall . A cheap edition of Bui wer ' s favourite work , corrected with that fastidiousness which he always exhibits respecting the verbal finish of his works , and some of the passages actually rewritten . Alice will form another volume . Outlines of the History of Ireland , for Families and Schools By the Beverend O . Cockayne , M . A . J . W . Parker One of the excellent series of school books issued by Parker , at a shilling each . It is a brief and impartial narrative of the leading incidents from early times down to 1851 . Exercises in Composition , on an improved plan . Seventh Edition , with extensive Additions . By Henry Hopkins , A . M . Exercises in Orthography . Twentieth Edition . Ibid . Teacher ' s Manual of Exercises in Mental Arithmetic . Pupil ' s Manual of ditto . Third edition . Ibid .

      Rolfe and Fletcher . Success has consecrated these little works ; all we can say in addition is , that the juvenile Leaders had already learned from them before the books came to our judicial court . Official , Descriptive , and Illustrated Catalogue of the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations . Part III . Spicer , Brothers . We are more and more impressed with the surpassing value and interest of this Illustrated Catalogue , both as a work for the present time and as a magnificent record for the future . It is really like bringing the Crystal Palace home to our study , with all the

      advantages of a lucid explanation from some competent authority standing at our elbow . To have once seen the Palace and enjoyed its coup d ' ceil , is enough to make this catalogue a living thing . In admirable engravings all the interesting novelties are reproduced , while an accompanying text answers succinctly all that curiosity should ask about them . Part the Third , now on our table , contains sections 3 and 4—manufactures and line arts ; together with a section , of those miscellaneous objects in main avenues which are not specially classified . When we add that there are some nine hundred pages of double columns , it will be seen that the catalogue is on a scale coramen-Htirate with that of the Great Kxhibition it records .

      Untitled Article

      PnooiiE 88 ani > its Conditions . —Progress ha 8 come to mean the aspiration of the young and the good , and the effort of the wise . Its interpretation and conditions , therefore , need to be carefully discussed . The clouds of vagueness , with which , as ane « v truth , it has been surrounded , require to be cleared away . While our forefathers were reared in a state of placid contentment with their lot , and taught to regard all as their natural enemies who sought to improve it , no wonder that they formed mysterious notions of progress ; and when at last the spell was broken , no wonder that they became as impatient as before they were apathetic—and now apt to overlook the slowly formed conditions necessary to effect progress , and that creatures of the past , as we all are , it is only a step in advance at a time that we are able to make , lint

      though progress hath a tortoise-pace , we should be astonished at the distance we nhould travel in a lifetime did we not , like the headstrong hare , seek to accomplish with a bound that which nature hn » prescribed to us to accomplish only by measured degrees . We do not mean by this language to sanction the dilatorincHS of those reformers who move ho gradually that no man can see them stir . We want not our words interpreted after the fashion of that refined

      man whose sense of honour had become- ho that lie np « nt his time in absolute idleness lost no should take advantage of time . To pervent provoking mistakes of this HpecieH , we may as well specify that by measured degrees" we mean political advancement a » far . and a ? promptly as the convictions of the majority now by reason will go with us . We distinguish legi-lat orial from private advancement , for private pro | rea . Is only to be ™ *»»™* *> 7 ™ "dividual standard of right . - /^'" '* «<*>»««> .

      Untitled Article

      Sept . 6 , 1851 . ] gft * & $ & * tt . 853

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 6, 1851, page 853, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1899/page/17/