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    with impunity . If the mind have not right notions developed at first , it will certainly have wrong ones . " Hence we may say of knowledge what Sheridan Knowles says of virtue : ' Plant virtue early I Give the flower the chance yon suffer to the weedV The minds of " niost men are congeries of maxims , and notions , and opinions , aud rules , and theories picked li ] j > here and there , now and then , some sound , others unsotmd , each often quite inconsistent with the rest , but which are to them identified with the whole body of truth , and which art the standard by which they try a . 11 things . This fact explains a remark in a recent school report , that it is far easier to make this science intelligible to children than to their parents ; —no doubt , just as it is easier to luild on an unoccupied ground , than on one overspread by

    ruins- And so , not only is it possible to teach this subject to the young ; but it is to the young that we musfc teach it , if we would have this teaching most effective for good . For farther evidence of the general noed for this kind of instruction , it suffices to look around ns , and test some of the opinions prevalent lately or even now . And here there is much of interest that might be said , did time permit , of still prevailing errors regarding strikes , and machinery , and wages , and population , and protection , and taxation , and expenditure , and tompetition , and much more besides . But into this field my limits forbid me even to enter . Let me , however , refer yon to a most admirable series of lessons on The Phenomena of Industrial Life , and the Conditions of Industrial Success , which has recently appeared under the editorship of that zealous educationist , the Dean of Hereford . "

    Dr . Hodgson is not unaware of the prevalence of prejudices against economical science likely to thwart the proposition he makes ; and he boldly grapples with no less a person than Mr . Dickens , as one of the most powerful literary representatives of these prejudices . The following passage will be read with interest : — " Here 1 cannot but express my deep regret that one to whom we all owe , a , nd to whom -we all pay , sa mueh gratitude , and affection ^ and admiration , for all he has written and : done in the cause of good—I mean Mr . Charles Dickens—should have lent his great genius ami name to the discrediting of the subject whose claims I now advocate . Much as I am grieved , however , I am not much surprised , for men of purely literary culture , with keen and _ kindly sympathies which range them on what seems the side of the poor and weak aguinsr-the richivnd strong , and , on the other'hand , with refined tastes , which are shocked by the insolence of success and the ostentation incident to newly-acquired wealth , are ever most apt to fall into the mistaken estimate of this subject which marks most that has yet appeared . of his new tale . Hard Times . Of wilful . misrepresentation we know him to be incapable ; not tHe lessis the misrepresentation to be deplored . We have heard of a young

    lady who compromised between her desire to have a portrait of her lover , and- her fear lest her parents should discover her attachment , by having the portrait painted very unlike . \\ £ hat love did in the . case of this young lady , aversion has done in the case of Mr . Diclcens , who has inade the Portrait so unlike , that the best Meads of the original cannot detect the resenibL ^ Qce . His descriptions are just as like to real Economic Science as •'¦ statistics ' . ¦ are to ' sfcutterings , ' two words which he makes one of his characters hot very naturally confound . He who misrepresents what he ridicules , does , in tratlv not ridicule wbathe misrepresents . Of the ladBitzer , he says , in No . 218 of Household Words : —¦ " Havmg satisfied himself , on his father's death , that his mother had a right of settlement in Goketowp , this excellent young economist had asserted that right for her with such a steadfast adherence to the principle of the case , that she had been shut up in the workhoijse ever since . It must he admitted that he allowed her half a pound of tea . a year , wlich Was weak In him : first , because all gifts have an inevitable tendency to pauperise the recipient ; and , secondly , because his oily reasonable transaction in that commodity

    would have been io > buy _ it for as little as he could possibly give , and to sell it for as much as he _ could possibly get ; it having- been clearly ascertained by philosophers that i& this is comprised the -whole duty of man—not a part of man ' s duty , but the whole . '—( p . 335 . ) . y . \\ Here Economic Science , which so strongly enforces parental duty , is jgiven out as discouraging its moral if not . eccnomic correlative— -Jilial duty . But where do economists represent this mjixina as the whole duty of man ? Their business is to treat of man iii his industrial capacity and relations ; they do not presume to deal with his other capacities and relations , except by showing what must be done in their sphere to enable any duties whatever to be discharged . Thus it shows simply that without the exercise of qualities that neod not be here named again , haan cannot ; support those dependent on him , or even himself . If it do not establish the obligation , it shows how only the obligation can be fulfilled . " Let me once more recur to physiology for an illustration . The duty of preserving one ' s own life and health will not be gainsaid . Physiology enforces this duty by showing how it must be fulfilled . But , if one ' s mother were to fall into the sea , are wo to be told that physiology forbids the son to leap into the waves , and even peril his own health and life in

    tho effort to save her who gave him birth ? Physiology does not command this , it is true j . this is not its sphere ; but this , at least , it does ,- —it teaches and trams to the fullest development of strength and activity , that so they may be equal lor every exigency—even one so terrible as t ; his ; and so precisely with Economic Science . " Again , we aro told it discourages marriage : — " ' Look at me , ma ' am , ' says Mr . Bitzer . ' I don't want a wife and family . Why should thoy ?' " ¦ ' Because they are improvident , ' said Mrs . Sjmrsit . "' Yes , naa ' ana , that ' s wliero . it is . If they were more provident , and less perverse , nWcim , wha , t jyould , they do ? . They would say , ' While my hat covers my family , ' Awhile my bonnet covers my family , ' as the cuse might bo , ma ' am , ' I have only ono to feed and that ' s the person I most like to feed . '—( p . 83 G . ) ' , " Doesithteijncan that men or women , ought to rush blindly into the position of parents , without ; thinking or caring whother their children can bo supported by thoir industry , or rrmst be . fl . biliideij ,. on . that of society at large ? If not , on what ground is prudont hesitnition , in . assuming the moat solemn of all human responsibilities , a subject for ridicule and . censure ? la the copdition of the people to be improved by greater or by less laxity in this aspect ? " ' .

    We believe that this remonstrance with our distinguished novelist is not wholly undeserved—Mr , Dickens being one of those writers of fiction who arc just a little bit too dogmatic on covtain , points now and then .

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    DANGERS TO ENGLAND , gangers to England of the Alliance xoith the Men oftha Coup d'Etat . By Victor Schoelcuor , '« epro 8 cntativc of the People . Triibner nnd Co . W . js should havp ^ contented ourselves with simply announcing the appearance of this dismal , and , as we think , ill-timed , publication , with a sincere word of sympathy and respect for the writer , did we not feel called xipon to seize the opportunity of a distinct explanation on the part of our journal in reply to the insinuations of certain of our friends among tho proscribed , who appear to have formed a singular conception of the

    MUties of English journalism . Wo are accused—it soems , of the complicity of silonpo , of > tho worship of success , and of that besotting ain of Englishmen , the subordination or great principles to the national selfishness—because vo have ceased to declaim against tho authors and abettors of the coup d ' tftat flf thQ JJflof . December , 185 ) . Wo aro conscious of as dcop a sense oIl responsibility to the cause of human vights and liberties , for every word "we wito , and for every word wo withhold , as any of our injured clients can bo . ¦ N oVer has tho duty of tho English prosa been more sacred than since it has i ) fctpr <} d- the only free voice on this side of tho Atlantic . But journal . ) , Jjowey < jr honest , have thoir conditions of existence as well as other political institutions , They must x * eflect tho common sense , of tho community , or of that section of the community in whoso name thoy profesa to speak . Above

    , they must remember that the science of politics is , as Kossuth admirably said , the science of exigencies . In other words , in politics , as in all human aflairs , there is a time for all things ; a time to be silent and a time to speak . If we are told that the time to be silent about the eternal principles of right and -wrong never comes , we reply that every nation is the best judge of its own rights and its own wrongs . So long as the French nation appeared to be the victim of a surprise we protested , with all the energy of unalterable convictions , against the men who had waded to a wrongful usurpation through blood and broken oaths : the men who had assaulted , gagged , decimated , and defrauded a gallant and generous people . But the time arrived when , in the eyes of impartial witnesses , that whole people became the abettors and accomplices of a crime , if it was a crime , of which a knot of desperate adventurers had been the successful heroes . Call it

    lassitude , indifference , exhaustion , servility , terror , what you will , rightly or wrongly , the French nation has visibly accepted—we do not say applauded —the restoration of the Empire on the ruins of the Republic . We do not forget the violence , the proscription , the tyranny , the venal sabre , and the prostituted franchise : we believe and know that all public spirit , not to say all patriotism , is dead , when a nation ' rights are sold to mercenary traitors . We remember and wo cherish the eloquent . voices that have denounced from the depths of exile the triumphant wrongdoers , and sought to call back a deluded and disheartened people to a sense of dignity and self-respect . But , as Victor Schoelcher himself says , " Pacts are facts ; there they stand : nothing can expunge them . ; " and the facts are , an impotent Assembly of

    factions dispersed amidst a jeering crowd : material interests clamouring for tranquillity and ' order * at any price : statesmen like M . Guizot venting their weak hate in austere historical parodies : ex-ministers like M . Thiers babbling shy treason and mean slander in the salons ' , one half of a great nation vilifying and defaming the other : the inevitable conclusion being , that where all are intriguers , success is the sole right , and defeat a just expiation . Under these circumstances , an English journalist , Joe his sympathies , Ms regrets , his convictions what they may , has no right to judge French politics from the point of view of French refugees . It is the function of the future historian to balance causes ; the contemporary journalist is concerned with visible effects and immediate results . And here we may be allowed to recal what we wrote on a former occasion j —

    ' * France has visibly accepted the Imperial regime . This acquiescence may be the result of apathy and indiffei-eace , or of that lassitude which succeeds to the loss of illusions , and that prostration which is not repose . With many , no doubt , tlie impotent hatred of the power that degrades while it protects is only equalled by the fear of flying to the unknown for a change . The single fact we are concerned "with at present is the acceptance of the existing Government by the French nation . Where is there any evidence to the contrary ? If there be any public spirit left in France , it points to distant camps as the field of its expansion . In the capital as in the departments there is quiet if not confidence , and cold respect , if not enthusiasm , for the Emperor . Acknowledging this state of feeling and opinion as a fact , it is not our business to snarl at the elected Cliicf of the French nation . It is not our business to propagate the industry of on dits and inuendoes , with which discarded statesmen and impossible factions seek to avenge the material comfort arid tranquillity of subjugation . We have little sympathy for that opposition which is incapable even of the dignity of defeat . " .

    We adhere to all that this journal has said from first to last on the origin and constitution of the present ruling powers in France . Wo do not love liberty and justice less , or- less abhor perjury and violence , in 1854 than in 1851 . But to _ declaim incessantly on principles which we all know to be as eternal in their essence as they are variable in their accidental application —which we all know to be set aside by every new and virtuous Government that takes power by assault in a struggle of contending factions—would be to beat the air . It is natural enough that the defeated should feel , and where the laws of their adoption permit , should pour out their undying and irrepressible indignation upon their persecutors ; but arc English journalists to throw themselves into the attitude of proscribed and vanquished victims , and to watch foreign events with eyes blurred and distorted by injuries not their own ? We presume to think not . Our path lies amonest actualities

    our duty as regards foreign politics is that of critical observers , but our point of view , JVI . Victor Sehoelcher must permit us to insist , is national . Anxious above all to preserve and to strengthen the alliance of the two great nations , we accept with deference , if not with sympathy , the Government accepted by the French nation , and which at present has done more to establish and to ratify that alliance than any French Government hitherto permitted to arrive at years of discretion . If we arc indignantly warned against puttingour faith in national oath-breakers , we reply that we put our faith in political fatalities and in the foi'cc of interests—not in any sentimental clap-trap of the passing hour . We welcome this magnificent alliance of France and England with our whole hearts , and we find it impossible to forget that certain of pur dispassionate Ciissandras arc the men who , throughout ^ the re ign of Louis Philippe as throughout the Kostorationwere

    inces-, santly vilifying England , denouncing her goodwill , stirring up the most hostile passions , and fanning tho ilamc of the most fatal animosities . Perhaps wo do little injustice to some of tho refugees in expressing our sad belief that they would be ready to denounce perfidious Albion' again as soon as her hospitality was no longer a refuge . There aro among the most steadfast loveia of liberal institutions many who accept the coup cV / Hal of tho 2 nd of December aa a political necessity , while thoy detest the act and tho agency itself . Thoro arc others who say that , however loudly it may now suit thu purpose and tho role of the men who allowed their country to be sold to declaim about * eternal principles , tho history of every Government ii \ Franco for sixty years past hns been a

    succession of coups d'etat , m which tho vanquished party have always been called by the victors ' anarchists , ' and by themselves , defenders of ' eternal principles . ' Danton said bitterly , that tho vices and tho follios of his countrymen would demand a king again . Impartial eyc-Avitnessoslmvo lately assuredus of tho satisfaction with which tho splendid equipages and gorgeous trappings of the Court of Parvenus are regarded by that airy and versatile crowd . So dominant aro tho histrionic anu upholstering tendencies 1 Thoro aro without doubt marked exceptions to this genoral prononcss to servitude ; there arc tribunes of Spartan virtue roiuly to UBsmno tho drapery of Romans at a moment ' s notico : there aro tho popular performers of tho favourite parts ol' Danton and Oamillc Dcsmoulins ; thoro nro tho Doctrinaires , a melancholy species of Parliamentary posturo-mastera ; there aro tho amiablo chimconsta of a hundred sects , who would sot all citizens to dine at a common

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    712 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), July 29, 1854, page 712, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2049/page/16/