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Leader (1850-1860), 9th September 1854, Edition Town of 2, Page 854, Untitled Article

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      Untitled Article

      onceal . Be was quick in retort , and satirical , but always generous and cheerful . He was rugal , but hot stingy ; vain and obstinate ; unjust in his depreciations of the old masters ; tod arrogant if opposed in controversy . " In the same magazine there is a brief article , called ' Smoke-Clouds , ' standing up for tobacco against its present numerous enemies . We will let the smoker speak for himself , and thank him at least for the facts he accumulates for us in the following passage : — ' The plantS'of God ' e earth are not g iven alone to blight and kill . Every poison is a medicine to some animal or another . Prussic acid heals , and arsenic soothes . Tobacco is a safe aperient , detergent , expectorant , and diuretic . It abates tile cholic , and moderates the agonies of spasmodic asthma . It stimulates the kidneys and diminishes dropsy . The juice cleanses ulcers , and is useful in cutaneous diseases . It is given extensively in epilepsy , and has been used to advantage in cases of lockjaw and hydrophobia . "It is actually the base of one of tlie best of 'ourebstnaiios ^ the Balm of'Columbia—it

      cures the mange in dogs , and kills the blight on . plants . " A benevolent man , wlio proves his wish to save time fcy throwing it away on foolish calculations , fias discovered that , In forty years , asrktiffitaker-deVdtes ^ VTenty-fbur ihotfths to blowing his nose- In the eame time he has also spent , * -we . hav& calculated , eighteen months in putting on his stockings and ,, pulling them off again . He proves that snuff-takers form a large portion of -the inirratesof all lunatic asylurhs , " so-dogre ' engrocets ancl ' c 6 sterfti 6 tiger " s . " The world is full of Mihese coincidences . How did Pliht and < StBel bdeOme ' partners ? Why is Bawl an elocution master , and why are Sexton and Coffin quack doctors ? , " Thehistof-y of smoking : is brief . It was inventecL hy savages , asi / tlie saw and thelyre were . Sir ^ Fraiicis tXrake / Brought the -leaf'to . 'Btfrope'ih 1560 , and'Sir Walter Baleighihtroduced the practice ; of smoking it about 1684 > ^ But long -before tjhis , Jean Nicbt * the French ambassador in 'Portugal ; had carried it to France , and taught llarie de Medicis to fcake ifc in ^ nnfiF . 'Protn DRcotit 'derives its botanical designation , Nicotiana / aril its'alias , tobacco , from , the Indian name of the island TobagoL Q ? bat wonderful / pebple , the Chinese ,

      noweyer seemed , to Mto always snaoked . tobacco : andthe Irish are Known to hsiyeused some'hgrb ^ o 'Ss 6 ssihg ^ iihilsir " i > rppertiesj " aidudheeii being , it is s > id , inserted In tlie helmet M anprd ^ ortument # one of their . e ^ rly K in \ the Towef while the headsman Was grinding his axe . ; King James detested the 'loathsome thing , andso did his luckless son * Cromwell loved his pipe , and dictated his despatches to Milton p ^ er some-bum ^ . 'P 6 r P ' Ps ^ tHeirnoststir $ rtsing : thing -in IitemturVis ^ Mt -116 mention df ¦ tobatefco 5 s foiihd m au ^ hakspere , . alth 6 agh the earlier'Spencer intentions it SseveraPtimes , and the later'Ben Jonson = actually fbunfied plays upon thjepraetieie . . . ; . ; V Tobacco is . a martyr ; it burns itiself to benefit the world . It perishes ,. like Sernele , a Tictim tto'otcr : 16 ve ,. 'Eikerall other gftod'thfiigs , itMs / -Seen -persecuted , Potatoes ' w = ere once r ^ ir . ^? ^ ' ** ' »¦ ' andjjeople threw away tea , because theleaves were tough and bitter , fii tJ

      j . d ^* , iroperoan VII ., the old Woman , published a buHttxcpmrhunicatiiig all persons who took snttffdtirlngdiyine'service ; and old women h # e beeVfond'ofsntiff eversince . from the mere-spirit i ) f opposition . TheSulfcta ^ & ^ i ^ i * ? Vr . ' -mafe sm 6 ting a cap ital"dffehce . ; and ^ e was right , for it is a very capital offence .: In Russia , a snuff-taker was ingeniously cured or the 'habit byhaving Ms nose cut off , while smoksrs had a pipe-bored through the same useful projection ., ;; . ¦ - ¦ : .. ' ¦? : . " Jh : i 661 , 'the ^ Canton of Berne introduced aii eleventh ' commandnient , 'Thou shalt ntft snioke . _ In 1719 j the wise senate of Strasbiirg . prohibited the cultivation 6 f ¦ tobacco * fearing -1 , ^ toldinterfere with corn . King James wrote . a book against- it , ; as did his drunken broi ^ jT ^ ^ eniriark . In 1682 , a "troop <) f horse' were armed and sent Into the Western counties ; to destroy the tobacco crops , le $ t they should encroach on the American plantations . There is even said to be a law ia existence , imposing a penalty of forty shillings for every rodof ground planted with it . '

      "" But tobaoeo has'hadits bards&rid . its defenders . Crtstor 'Diiranti ^ xo'te verses upon it . ¦ Thonns « ftlled it , " 'Plantabeata , deeusterrarum . ' " A Dutch poet Wrote an ode to it . The great took it up . Dr . Ratelifie recommended snuff'to his brethren . Dr . Johnsph kegfc his snuff in"Ms waistcoat pocket , and . so did Frederick the Great . Hobert Hall sntiokedin his vestiy ; nnd Napoleon , took rappee by ithe handful . Philosophers have drawn their best similes from their pipes . How could they have done so had their jipes'first been drawn from them ? We see the sparks go upwards , we think of life ; we stie' the smoke-wreath fade away : we rememberthe morning cloud . Ourpipe breaks ; we mourn the fragility of carthlyipleasures ; we smoke it . to nn end , and tapping out tlie ashes , remember ' dust we are , and unto dust we shall return . ' If we are in love , we-garhish ' a whole sonnet With images drawn'from smoking ; and first fill our pipe , and then turie it ; that spark kindles like her eye , is ruddy as herlip j this slender clay is white as her hand , and slim as her -waist : —till her raven hair grows grey as those ashes I will love her ; 'this perfume is not sweeter than ' her breath , though sweeter than all else .

      xnis odour ' ascends rno into the brain , liUs it faH of nil fiery detectable shapes , 'which delivered over to the tongue , which is the birbli , become-excellent wit , ' In the smoke olouda I see visions . ¦ " This plant has been watered more often than any other with tho blood of man . The mailed Spaniard andred-plumed Indian have fought round it , 'and gold-seekers have drenched it with the gore of ncgroos . One whole continent has been enriched by it , and to cultivate it anpthicryoHtlrrtirit'has been depopulated . Negroes Tiavo praye ' d to their Fetishes beside it ^ the 'enslaved senmen have . cursed it as they tolled to strip'it of tliQ ltftif . Many a dead Oacimie has smoked it at the war council , and many a gi-ave groy-bearded Spaniard , who had fought at Lepaiito , or bled in tho Low Countries . Old soldiers of Cromwell have smoked it ; while the Indians of Darden bartered thou- gold for English beads ; or the swarthy Buccaneers looked on , handling their drcuded muskets . " We deny the necessary evils of smoking , or of snuff-taldng . If spitting diminishes tho Bahva r < jqu > sito for digestion , m « n need not spit ; if swallowing the essential oil is injurious , men ) nay ^ epjfc . "

      Aseooad Edition of Mr . Phillip ' s General 'Guide Book to the Crystal Palace has just been published—new plans , maps , & « . having been inserted , and the letter-ipress revised throughout ) and extended'in gome impoi » t « nt particulars . Wo lCai * h , hy tho byo , from tho Times , that tho special liiwulboolca , giving information about the various departments of the Exhibition—though prepared ^ 'toy men of distinguished eminence —hfl-vo had but a slow sale ; the intellectual public , it appenrs , not appreciating pearls of this kind , *« d oven * the more educated and intolligenfc classes" not seeming to troiiblo themselves With any more intimate acquaintance With the contents of tho Palace than they can take by the cheap method of simply throwing iheii' eyes over the objects . Ou tho other hand , 100 , 000 copies df tlio Gonoval 'Shilling Handbook have been sold ; and it is hoped that , as generalities load to particulars , tho demand for tho special Handbook will Increase . At tho same time , it is hinted that something more ehoap and brief and popular oven than tho General Shilling Hnndbook might be found useful for tho " million "

      —some penny or twoponny sheet -within the roach of all understandings and all poolcots , tthis matter of Handbooks imd Catalogues to public Exhibitions , is one which requires n good deal of looking into . Tho principle of tho thing is , Wo believe , that people take interest in Exhibitions only in as far afi'their previous knowledge enables them , to ask questions nbout what fey eco , Xtlfl -x « mouro ( l 4 Uat a " Xifo and Correspondence '' of tho Oountoss of

      BtE 5 siNGTON is soon to be given to the world . Among the " Lives and Correspondencies " which the world is presented with every season , few are likely to interest it more . We hope it will be well edited . Some extended subjects of the biographical kind have been ruined by bad editing—amongst others the Life of Wilberforce by his sons , is a positive literary parricide : *

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      The Musical World attacks its transatlantic namesake , The New York Musical World and Times , ( the editor of Tvhich is the celebrated N " . P . Wiiitis ) , for outraging the properties of journalism—Jirst , in accusing all the other New York , journals of accepting bribes for puffing certain , musical celebrities who have been " starring it" in America ; and secondly , in havin g published an ^ atrocious scandal against a musical artist recently dead . We kno > w nothing of the facts of the controversy , but we suspect the charge against the American newspapers , of accepting bribes is no better founded than the similar charges sometimes recklessly made against the metropolitan press of this country .

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      Among the other serials of the month "which have come under our notice arer ^ -Part VI . of the Land ioe ( Live In , devoted to Jsforth Derbyshire , the hosiery districts , and Hull a , nd its neighbourhood ; a new mathematical nutnber of the 'Circle of the Sciences ; a . " ^ Domestic Cookery " 'dumber of the series of Household iXgndboofcs ; the first number of a work on the Suttevflies of threat Britain , with : " beautiuil coloured illustrations ; the third number of Mr . JBiA ; EiritKb ? g Theory fynd Practice of liandscape-Painlmg in Wdt ^ Cdlours , also finely illustrated ; and the current nutnbers of the Family Friend and Home Companion , allfeom the prpHficpress of Messrs . < 3 bh and Co . ' We 6 "bserve , by-the ^ bye , that , in irnitation or * Household Wbrd $ i the Jlome Companion ^ is to present its readers with a riovely in successive nuritbers ; and we are glad to find that Mr . Hannay , the well-known author 0 $ " Singleton I ' onteroy , " is tolje the author of the novel announced as immediately forthcoming . ,

      The Art-Journal ; for Septenibercoatains ^ liree large engravings—" The Council of War at Tournay , " from Haghe ' s picture ip the " Verhoa Gallery ; " The Autilttiii / Gift , " from a fruit-picture of Lance , in the same gallery ; and an engraving of Pyne ' s picture of Windsor Castle . " '

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      HUNGARIA . N SKETCHES . Hnngariqn STceldhes in Peace and Wai ' . Fitom the Hungarian of Moritz J <) kai . Constable and Co . ATdOTHEit series of ]? oreign Liter ; ature . j ] SFew competitors with the-enterprising publishers who have won fame and fortune by grafting oh the < Englisk tiiind the thoughts of iaen of other lands . Messrs . Constable announce their intention "to present to the British public a series of the most popular " accessions \ Yhich the literature of the globe is constantly receiving . " The series will include woi'lts from oil paris of the world , i'rom the north andl east of Europe , ii'pin . the less 'fertile field , of Asia , and from America , the English reader will be made acquainted with the current literature . "We do not fear that the jmai'ket will be overstocked ; and it is important to announce , in the first instance , that the cost of each volume will be throe shillings and sixpence—a price which sufficiently p oints out the class of readers to whom , this 'fresh appeal is ( nade .

      The opening volume of the series is well chosen . Its title is an adequate description of its contents . It is what it protends to be , a dozen sketches o £ Hungarian life at one of the most interesting periods of Hungarian history . The author , by name Moritz Jokai , is one of the most . popular among the Hungarian novelists who appeared before the revolution of 1848 . The stories now before us embody descriptions of several of the tlirest scenes of thecivil war which devastated Hungary from 184 S to 1850 . " It is only of late years that -Hungary can be said to have possessed a national literature . Almost up to the year 1825 , the nobles Imd spent their time ia luxurious indolence , supported only b y the labour of tho peasant . Ifor the last quarter of a century a great change has been visible . Noble counts have condescended to employ their leisure in literary pursuits , and the encouragement they aflbi'ded to the latent genius of their countrymen produced the mr ^ ai . ' n df nn lialii n op ! f ndiiTia Tftnf TTiTtihrrtmr l » nrl ha annnni * ricnn '¦ ftvwvi l »/> i * ilif . r > l ^

      **»* VM V *^ W U V *^** M *»* . * f ii . ' * VJ | J VA * VM * . *— ' itU A-A » - * , » . J ( l ^ j ** H , T JttLVVA * * \ f H"VMVJIt AAMV / Kft ** V >»*»* . *» Nrf » . »•* w ^« . lectual sleep , than she oncountorcd fresh obstacles . Tho Court of Vienna could not tolerate this growth of public opinion . Slaves of a foreign yoke , the children of the conquerors of Europe , endured , \ n their turn , the curse-ol conquest . Not only did their rulers exclude from public oflico all who wore distinguished for their assertion of national rights , but nix omnipotent censor-Shin was presently established to crush or weaken tlio attempts to create a national literature . And yet , — -wo quote from a preface by Emoric Szabad" Such whs tho mental nclivity of tho prosflnfc gonoration , that Hungarian litornture , despito tlio numerous obstacles It lind to onoountor , ntiixdo rnpiu progress , and crcututl in tlio minds of tho people a Hpicit of Inquiry nnil n ucsito nftor intollootutu puvflulta 'hitherto unknown . Novor boforo had tho cuftivntfld tonguos of tho VVosfc 1 > con so much dturliod , or so many vuhmblo tninsliitions mado from tho Gorman , French , mid Englinh litoruturcu . Thnt tho inlluoiico of tho iirat was originnlly tlio strongest , and thrtt sovoral of tholeiullnc writors

      in phuoaopliy and history took for th « ur motlol tho Gorman school , will npponr no mutter 01 aurpvi . io . 'I ho rising wrLtors of a more roconfc date , howovor , inscnaibly tufnocl thoir attention to tlio more lively litorutnro df BVnnoo , and wftorwirds to tliat of liritiiln ; and 'while some rond with rapture tlio liotionH of Scott , JUthror and Diokons , poHtloJuna learned to mliniro tho dootrinos of Adum Smith mid Jeroiioy Bentluun . Of poots , none woro mom oxtonaivoly road und moro gonomlly ndiniretl tlmn Uyron ami Mooro . Tliua ilid tho morely literary progi-cna miirch on boldly nni \ combine with tho now politioiU movement to furthorH ohnngo whioli Imd nlrondj inndo itself Cult in ovorjgrndo of soojoty , nnd which vn \» tlio more romnrkublo nnd sulirifiuitory from lu » ving followed a too loncj porioilof stagnivtion . " Amon /* tho young jrlungnrinn vrritots , MoritK Jokai * holds a prominent place . Tie hub aolueved ' roinurtoiUlo sticcoss among his countrymen n . H o-n author of prosQ fictions—a ^ paoi os of national litomturo which can eourooiy date back more than fifteen years , and which possesses a poowHar int&xcst

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      854 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 9, 1854, page 854, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2055/page/14/