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Leader (1850-1860), 22nd May 1852, Edition Town of 2, Page 493, Untitled Article

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      Untitled Article

      The Bookselling question , is decided . Since we last wrote , Messrs . Parker and Son have issued a pamphlet of Letters , written by eminent authors of all classes , showing the unanimity of the Authors on this subject j and yiv . John Chapman , who was the first rebel , and prime mover of the agitation , has also published a pamphlet of Letters from Political Economists , equally decisive against the present system } to the authors and political economists we have now to add the judicial decision of the Ump ires , Lord Campbell , Dr . Milman , and Mr . Grote , whose clear and admirable verdict will be found in another part of our paper . The

      old system is no more ;—slam , to say the truth , by the energy and skill of John Chapman , who brings into the trade the feeling of a literary man , the far sight of a philosopher , and the public spirit of a leading reformer . It now remains to organize a new system . We leave to their own reflections those journals which constituted themselves the champions of the Bookselling Association . It is bad enough to be defeated ; but to be so utterly without support from all the quarters that might justify a cause , is more than defeat— -it is humiliation .

      Untitled Article

      On a cognate subject of great interest—that , uamely , of International Copyright- —it is gratifying to see how heartily American authors are taking up the subject . The New York IAterary World is devoting a series of unanswerable arguments to it . The tone is indicated in the following extract : — " Any plea in behalf of a New Copyright Act , which fails to open with a solemn declaration that the Author ' s right is as good , as true , as substantial as the farmer ' s , the mechanic's , the smith ' s , the mason ' s , stumbles at the threshold . Approach the subject as we may , through mazes of logic , through statistical tables , through gatherings of observation— -we must always come upon this great , central , Eddystone Fact , against which we pause and retire again . If it could be shown that

      the supposed Bight is a matter of gift , of statute , or popular favour merely , we doubt whether a new Copyright Act would in reality , and in the lon ^ trial , be of any use to such as ask for it , or permanently , to any others . This is the salt which savours the whole application ; and that it can be relied on , built upon , stood upon , and argued from , appears at once , when you begin to put the question —why is a distinction made between Author ' s property or any body else ' s property ? The author is a man , a free man , not ^ formally disfranchised , supposed equal to all other investitures , and why should he fail in the power to hold his own ? Show : the line which divides him from other men ; the mark upon him by which he is to be unhappily distinguished and segregated from the mass of mankind . It does not exist . It cannot be shown . He stands before you and all the world , as high , as broad , as firm , as capable of the tenure of his own property as any of all

      mankind . It is not for him to show that his property is property ; but for such as doubt to show that it is not property—by some definition or other of property , to throw it out of the pale , whether he shall follow and reclaim it if he can . And why should his right be limited either as to time or place ? Has it a vitality only within bounds , which it loses passing out of them ? Or is it endowed with an evil or injurious potency when it has endured beyond a certain term of years ? Farms arc not held on condition that they shall be thrown into commons on the expiration of the first lease of fourteen , twenty-eight , or forty-two years ; nor is there any known country in the world which the American people would allow to be represented at their Seat of Government , where such aa onter it from abroad shall be rifled by law , and made to give over their whole bulk of property for the benefit of the resident population . "

      Untitled Article

      Among the curiosities of Literature , not the least curious is that little tract , Reflexions sur la misfricorde de Dieu , by the repentant Magdalen , Madlle . de La Valljere , corrected by Bossuet . When we say corrected , we use the conventional term ; we should say " moderated : " the fervent , mystical , and sometimes passionate , style of the original being softened into phrases more suitable to ears episcopal . The original "ppearcd as the La Vallikue wrote it ; but on the margin of the fifth edition , 1688 , Bossuet , wrote his corrections , some of which have been adapted by subsequent editors ; and now M . Damas Hinard publishes an edition according to the text of Bossuet , witlythe var iations in the form of notes . This is really w orth studying . Boss uet , a great stylist ,

      correctin g the style of a passionate nature ! Sometimes the wandering tresses of the Magdalen seem to cross the pages of the penitent , and these the bishop severely pushes aside ; sometimes passion rises into mystic el oquence , as in this phrase : ¦ ' * O God ! enrich the poverty of my love with the magnificence of thine ! " which Bossuet " corrects" into "O God ! enrich the poverty of my heart by the magnificence of your gifts . " Oh ! oh ! ucre j a ft pnraac t ] ie fojghop wiH not suffer to remain : "Omy God ! " continued nets of faith , of hope , and of charity , nccustom my heart to become an Oratory where in all places and in all hours I may j > ray to tlicc . " " « have said onoueh to indicate the stylo of these corrections ; Pope ad vises us

      "To write with forvour , and correct with phlegm ;" jidvice which , though neatly antithetical , would not be productive of the i > 08 t result j conviction is creating anew : shall we create with phlegm ? «* Mclllo . de La Valuere we have the fervour ; in BossuiflTtho phlegm , u « d you boo tho result .

      Untitled Article

      ? ST inton 8 ol y characteristic of the French love of wit was that exclamation : Who would , not be charmed with social convulsions that gave birth to

      such witticisms V * Lies jolis mots paid for all . This amateur plight to have delayed his appearance on our planet till the present time j he would have wanted neither events nor bon mots . Imagine the colossal buffoonery of many acts of the reactionary party , the exquisite absurdity of the Index Ewpurgatorius in its senility of excommunication ! But laugh as we may at the Papal index , Russia has this week surpassed even Papal susceptibility . It has . not only placed Douglas Jerro ; ld ' s story of St . James ' s and St * Giles ' s , under the ban , it has actually carried its fanatical terror as far as Zumpt ' s Latin Grammar . After that , all is said . There is a Silence to every Shallow j in the lowest deep a deeper still ; but unless the Alphabet be placed under the ban , we know not where Paternal Governments are to seek for revolutionary principles .

      Untitled Article

      MIDDY'S ATJSTEALIAlSr EXPERIENCES . Our Antipodes ; or , Residence and Humbles in the Australasian Colonies ; with a Glitnpse of the Gold Fields . By Iieut .-Col . Godfrey Charles Mundy . 3 vols . Bentley . The agreeable anticipations with which , we opened these volumes by the author of Pen and Pencil Sketches of 'India , have not been disappointed . From the first page to the last , we have travelled along with pleasure and , profit , getting over some thousands of miles without fatigue or discomfort , so well have we been entertained on the way by the conversational powers of our good-humoured , intelligent , and well - bred companion . One of the great charms of the book consists in its style—easy , fluent , lively , often humorous , sometimes witty , always free from pretension of

      any sort . Colonel Mundy announces in his preface that his work "is intended to be a light one . " This is an intention very often strenuously pursued , yet not fulfilled exactly in . the sense in which it is conceived . The colonel has been signall y successful in that respect , though , he has not thought it necessary , h'ke many a writer we could name , to prepare for Ids task by getting himself well up in the slang of the fast cockney or the penny a-liner , in order to adorn his narrative with flash , graces , threadbare rhetorical frippery , and dreary jocular platitudes . He has really shown that good taste and discretion are excellent helps towards the composition of an amusing book—a fact , we would fain nope , which future travellers may take note of . The contents of these volumes are taken from diaries extending over a period of more than five years * the author having sailed in March , 1846 , for Sidney , the place of his official residence as deputy adjutant-general -for Australasia . From thence he made sundry excursions , on duty or during leisure , into the interior of New South Wales , to New Zealand , Van Dieman ' s Land , and Victoria ; and lastly , just before his return

      home , to the newly-discovered gold field of the Bathurst district . Though , he has evidently bestowed due pains in the preparation of his notes for the press , he has not fused them together so as generally to present the result of his observation and experience only in its final matured form , but has rather allowed the reader to mark the growth of his opinions , by recording his impressions as they were successively received . The vivacity thus imparted to the narrative , is occasionally obtained at the cost of some apparent sacrifice of consistency on the author ' s part , since we find him sometimes making very clean work of the demolition of a notion which he had put forth some hundred pages before . But the inconsistencies which

      he thus frankly exposes to view , are no greater than become a sensible man , whose opinions are not hide-bound from their birth , but grow and change with ripening knowledge . For instance , at p . 68 of his second volume , after digesting an immense mass of blue-book by way of preparation for an intended professional tour in New Zealand , he confesses his regret " that up to that day the Maoris ( tho natives ) had nover received what he verily Ibelieves would havo been of infinite service to their particular complaint- —namely , a good , sound thrashing . " He goes over to the island cherishing a pious hope that , ere long , they will put themselves in the way to receivo that salutary discipline , and that ho may be there

      to administer it . By and bye , after he has become acquainted with tho Maoris , the conviction grows upon him that "there will bo no more fighting on a large scale in Now Zealand , " for " tho Maori is shrewd enough to know when he is overmatched . " At last , he evidently 2 >» rticipates in the hope ontertained by Governor Grey , that a fusion will gradually take place between the native and the imported race ; and ho deems the Maori , most eivilizable of savages , well worthy of that honour . But it is not without some Btubborn wrostling with his old soldierly voliconclusion

      tions , that ho finally settles down on this pacific , Every now and then his longing breaks out afresh to improve upon tho tattooing of the native artists by a few touches of British steel ; though it is easy to see that ho is fast coming to liko tho Maoris so well , that his warlike aspirations havo no malice in them ; they are only impulsos of esteem and goodwill , taking a professional turn . Apropos of the Now Zealanders , one famous man among them , Iloni Held , appears to have had tho colonel ' s prescription administered to him , as a clomostio recipe , in too largo a dose .

      " Am I rendering mysolf liublo to prosecution for defamation of character in stating my belief , that tho immediate cuuso of tho death of' tho Lion of tho North' wiw a mound thrashing administered , hy hia wifo ? It is certain that tho daughter of tho great chiof Hongi was very jouIouh of her low-born hut humlsomo husband and hud cuuso to bo ho , up to tho vory day of his decease . 11 ' om ' n intiinato friend and ally , Pone Tani , iu reporting his death to tho Oovornor , 15 . August , 1850 , writes : — ' Thus it whs : Hold was sleeping in tho forenoon , ho was sound asleep . Then came Harriott with n hum ( u stall" or club , ) and struck him on tho ril ) 8 . When aho had beaten him who throw him down on tho bod , uncl whon ho wiw down sho showered Wowh and kicks upon him . That i « «•!!• ' —And

      quite enough , in till conscience I Poor Honi never roao iiguin . Speaking as an impartial observer , who has roamed tho wide world over , and found no land so attractive as the land of his birth , Colonel Mundy accords his proforeneo to Now Zealand ( ooonomioal considerations apart ) in comparison with tho Australian mainland , as a homo for Eagliehmen .. The moieter olwaafco of tho former ho thinks moro congenial

      Untitled Article

      n * iKcs are not the legislators , but the judges and police of literature . They do not O riucs " ke iaws _ tEey interpret and try to enforce them . —Edinburgh Review .

      Untitled Article

      M £ - * S&j ^ 498

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), May 22, 1852, page 493, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1936/page/17/