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Leader (1850-1860), 18th October 1851, Edition Town of 2, Page 995

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      Untitled Article

      The first indications of an active " season" arrest att ention now , after so long a period of flatness ; whether any great books are in gestation it is for Time to prove ; enough for us , as litterateurs , that there are new books forthcoming . Already our table is becoming inconveniently crowded , and the dear old books which had crept stealthily from the shelves taking advantage of rare leisure , are now huddled back unread , or unreread , till that indefinite " some other time , " ces ann 6 es qu'on ajourne toujours et qui ne viendront jamais ! A new Review is a matter of some interest , and

      a new Review we are to have in December , taking the name of the Westminster and Foreign Quarterly , which it replaces , while continuing . Miserably low had that Review sunk in general estimation , although scarcely a number came out which did not contain at least one first-rate article to keep it from utter extinction . It has now passed into new and energetic hands , with capital to back it , with great talents to animate it , and with high purpose to consecrate it . We may be sure of seeing it a Review which will do honour , as it did of old , to the Liberal Party . Mr . John Chapman , the publisher , to whom Free Thought owes such substantial services , has become the proprietor of the

      Review ; but we rely too much on his sagacity to entertain the fear , not unfrequently expressed , of his making the Review over theological , which would be its ruin . We have already commented on Mr . Chapman ' s efforts to extend his publications into the more extensive departments of general Literature , and we take it the Westminster Review is only a symptom of the same tendency . A passage from the Prospectus will best explain its purpose : —

      " The Editors design the review as an instrument for the development and guidance of earnest thought on politics , social philosophy , religion , and general literature ; and to this end they will seek to render it the organ of the most able and independent minds of the day . " The fundamental principle of the work Avill be the recognition of the Law of Progress . In conformity with the principle , and with the consequent conviction that attempts at reform—though modified by the experience of the past and the conditions of the present—should be directed and animated by an

      advancing ideal , the Editors will maintain a steady comparison of the actual with the post-ible , as the most powerful stimulus to improvement . Nevertheless , in the deliberate advocacy of organic changes , it will ni ; t be forgotten , that the institutions of man , no less than the products of nature , are strong and durable in proportion as they are the results of n gradual development , and that the most salutary and permanent reforms are those , which , while embodying the wisdom of the time , yet sustain such a relation to the moral and intellectual condition of the people , ua to insure their support .

      " In contradistinction to the practical infidelity and essentially destructive policy which would ignore the existence of wide-spread doubts in relation to established creeds and systems , and would htifie all inquiry dangerous to prescriptive claims , the Review will exhibit , that untemporizing expression of opinion , and that fern lessnefH of investigation and criticism which are the results of a consistent faith in the ultimate prevalence of truth .

      "Awari ! that the . same fumliimcntal truths are apprehended under a variety of forms , and that , therefore , opposing nystems may in the end prove complements of each ether , the Kditors will endeavour to institute ; such n radical and comprehensive treatment of those controverted questions which ; ire practically momentous , : is may aid in the * conciliation of divergent views . In furtherance of this object , they have determined to set apart a limited portion of the woik , under the head of ' Independent Contributions , ' —

      lor the reception of article * ab ' 3 wetting I ' oi tli opinions which , thou * . li not discrepant with the general spirit of the Review , may be at variance with the particular ideas or measures it will advocate . The contributioi . H to this ( hpartmeiit will not necessarily be confined to juti ( Ivh in tin ? ordinary form of n-viewt-, but may , at the discretion of the Editor * , consist , of KnHayn , Translni . iotiH , or even LetterH , when of Millit'ient importance ; the piimary object , being to facilitate the expression of opinion by men of high mental l > owcr and culture who , while they ure zcaloua

      on these subjects , to g a form to the chaotic mass of thought now prevalent concerning them , and to ascertain both m what decree the popular efforts after a more perfect social stale are countenanced by the teachings of politicoeconomical science , and how far they may be sustained and promotedby the actual character and culture of the people . "

      ive definite and intelligible friends of freedom and progress , yet differ widely on special points of great practical concern , both from the Editors and from each other . " The Review will give especial attention to tnat wide range of topics which may be included under the term Social Philosophy . It will endeavour to form a dispassionate estimate of the diverse theories

      This is very well ; but there is one essential point Mr . Chapman must not lose sight of—he must give us an amusing Review . Unless it be amusing it has no chance ; all the philosophy in the world will be unavailing : wing your arrows with the light feathers of wit , fiction , biography , and they will carry far , as we see in the Quarterly , the most amusing and popular of Reviews . Very sad , does the reflection make you ? Sad , or the reverse , it is the stern plain truth . How adroit the Quarterly is in this respect !

      and what disreputable politics it makes us overlook ! For one adherent it has twenty opponents among its readers . Look at the last number . Besides its proper modicum of politics and religion , see how it gilds the pill , and lures various classes by an entertaining paper on " Widow burning " ( surely a very estimable practice !); a biography of Bishop Ken ; a first-rate scientific article , on which we expatiate elsewhere ; and a long tirade against Revolutionary Literature , very animated , very foolish , very amusing—written by an unmistakeable hand .

      We are sorry to say the Edinburgh has no such varied entertainment for its readers , although the pleasant picturesque article on the Dukes of Urbino , is of the right kind , and the energetic paper on Neapolitan Justice will make King Bomba and his satellites pale with rage . Certainly a free press is a great tiling . Naples may be the scene of iniquities ; but flagellated by a Gladstone , by the Edinburgh Review , and by the Times , the whole world is called to be spectator of the infamy . Since tyranny commenced , it has had no such punishment as that inflicted on it by the English Press !

      Untitled Article

      All over Europe , Reaction displays its haughty and inveterate imbecility , playing the game of Revolution , by enlisting the , sympathies of even moderate men against its- foolish and wicked tyranny . Pascal , long ngo announced that there was no stability between the two extremes , Tyranny and Freedom , Force and Thought ; and Donoso CouTK . s . as we saw recently , ]> roeluiinn the conviction ho incessantly proclaimed in these columiiH , that the real hattleof the world lies between Catholicism and Socialism—a proposition upon which the whole history of the last , three centuries is a commentary . Look where we will , out of England ,

      , we see systematic prosecution of the Press . La Tribuna del Pueblo , which so recently we welcomed as a comrade in Spain , informs us that four prosecutions already hang over its head ( and it has only reached twenty-four numbers ); and we read in the Times that the editor has been sentenced to a fine of thirty thousand reals . In Germany no man dares " say his soul is own "—indeed , the desire to say so implies a very preposterous ambition ; what should he do with it ? In France , we know where the republican writers are lodged . The most promising symptom is that the Catholic and Absolute party throws off disguise , scorns Jesuitical adroitness , and expresses , with unequivocal directness , what its aims are . The Inquisition is loudly demanded . The Holy Inquisition ! M . Blanc St . Bonnet , the hope of his party , formally demands the suppression of every species of free thought : Books , he says , are Poisons . The simile is ancient , but inexact . Poisons have no respect for persons ; and , as Eugene Pelletan says in the brilliant feuillcton from which we draw this , " How comes it that M . Blanc St . Bonnet ' s writings do not poison me , nor my writings him ?" There is M . Bakjiey d'Auuevilly , too , who has published a work , Les Prophetes du Passe , which , as we learn from Eugene Pelletan , declares that the evil corrupting society is the pest Liberty : —the Church made a fatal error in not burning Luther in lieu of burning his books ; and he concludes that the Inquisition is a " logical necessity" in every well-constituted state . He says this with a grace worthy of notice : — " Luther burned ! Does this startle you ? But I do not absolutely insist upon the auto-da-fe ( mais je ne tiens pas essentiellement au fagot !) provided error be suppressed in the man who professes it , and call it truth . " M . d'Aurevilly is an intrepid logician ; he presses onwards daunted by no conclusion , alarmed at no absurdity ; nay- ; rather caressing it as a pet child : and in this mood he concludes that the only three veritable sovereigns now living- are the Emperor of Russia , ( he Emperor of Austria , and Bomba ; yes , " ce glorieux Bomba au surnom icrit par lafoudre aux Utvres de ses ennemies . ' " What think you , Reader , of a . system which is based upon ( lie negation of liberty , which denies Reason ( considering it , we presume , as a faculty bestowed by ( iod on man to lead him into en or !) , and which ends in proposing Bomba as an ideal ' ( We are fairly warned . The Holy Inquisition is to be reestablished if the Absolutist party g-iin the victory . It is well to know what to expect . If the party « e tient pus essentiellernent au fagot , at any rate it only waives that as a matter oi grace .

      Untitled Article

      n -tirgare not the legislators , but the judges and polic « % p ? ature They do not make laws—they interpret and $ y ? o £ e Lem-Edinburt > h Review .

      Titinim.

      titinim .

      Untitled Article

      The French are inimitable in Memoirs . Where shall we l ) ok for such prodigality of wit , character , anecdote , and subtle observation as in the varied Memoirs they offer us ? In St . Simon we have the whole seventeenth century ; in ( Juimm and Madame d'KriNAV , the eighteenth . Nay , this talent for writing Memoirs has exercised itself in extensive fabrications of Memoirs ; those of Cardinal Dunois , Madame de Maintenon , Pompadour , Creuui , and Duharki , those of Fouche and Roiirsi'ierke , have all been proved

      fabrications , and are not the less read on that account . We now see announced the Causeries et Confidences de Mile . Ma us , the incomparable actress , but with a name attached to them which does 7 iot inspire confidence , Rogkh dk Bkauvoir . But we shall keep an eye upon them , and our readers . shall be duly informed if the Memoirs turn out amusing . Except a new story by Ajmcxandkk Dumah , the younger , Revenants , and a reprint of Major Fkidohn ' s story , I mi Re trait a des Dix-Mille , from the . Rhma des Deux Mondcs , we have nothing to chronicle .

      Untitled Article

      Q at this momentand the most vexatious and Oct . 18 , 1851 . ] ® t » * . tH * tt . . * 95 ^

      Untitled Article

      The Baroness von Beck case Hlill excites much attention . Mr . Bknti . i . y lms issued a pamphlet which proves that , were the Barone s nil impostor or not , his transactions with her were straightforward and generous , ttut no one ever supposed otherwise . On the main question—tha " , namely , of her being a spy—a cloud of obscurity rests , which might , easily he cleared np if people would only say distinctly all . they know . Meanwhile suspicion goes all round ; ever } body suspects -everybody . We are vehemently urged by separate parties to take separate positions ; each party , too , of a kind that commands our highest . respect . Kaeh wishes us to believe its account the true one , and to stigmatize the other . We cannot , do so . We are as anxious as any can be for I lie full and explicit , statement of the trut . li , and ue declare ourselves willing to take all rifles in ( lie publication of it ; lint we must lia \ e pnsithe evidence ; we cannot lake up a causu on KU-picious and half-reserved .- . ( . iteiiH nts . The question is more extensive in il-s reaching * than any uninitiated reader can imagine : it touches high personages , involves rlie rcpiilMt . ion of important people . ' It . is noil Fie trut h we shrink from- it is the t'xparte statement We have not dropped the tiubjecf .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 18, 1851, page 995, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1905/page/15/