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Leader (1850-1860), 4th August 1855, Edition 1 of 2, Page 747, Xittratttrt

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      Untitled Article

      It is an iwipleaynt reflection , but as true as it is bitter , that in this world a cause does aot owe its success entirely to the justice or the reasonableness of its principles , tmt in great part also to the temper of the audience and to the character of the advocates . The * ' Woman question , " which of late years has been so much agitated , and which now seems gathering increased importance , has never been retarded by any lack of clear cogent argument in its favour . The j ustice of the demand made b y woman for some recognition of her social existence , for some alleviation from oppressive and barbarous laws , has been clear as daylight . Unhappily this cause has been pleaded by unfortunate advocates , and pleaded to an audience prepossessed against it . Partisans have been vehement , juries prejudiced . Thus , amid many difficulties , and hampered as all causes are , by no inconsiderable amount of fo olishness , the cause of Woman has struggled and struggled , each year , however , showing a decided advance . The part we have taken

      in the struggle is well known to our readers , -who will therefore understand the peculiar value we attach to such an auxiliary as the North British Review , which contains an article entitled the " 2 \ Ton-Existence of Women , " creditable to the heart of the writer as it is to his head . With manifest sympathy for woman , and yet with no want of insight into the practical working of laws , bold yet never extravagant , he is an advocate whose gravity and good sense will be more effective than chapters of invective or declamation ; and when we consider the high character of the NorOt British Review , and reflect that it circulates among an influential and thinking class , we cannot but rejoice in such an ally . Hundreds who would not listen to other advocates will listen to this reviewer . Reason and justice have quite another sound when falling from respected lips . Character endorses argument : Let but a lord once own the happy lines ,

      Uow the wit brightens ! how the style refines ! So Pope intimates of a servile race ; and Euriph > es expressed the same belief in the efficacy of position when he made Hecuba entreat Uly * es to intercede for her , " for the arguments which are uttered by men of repute are very different in strength from those uttered by men unknown . ' \ oyo g yap , ck t 'd 8 o £ ovvra > v * ig > v - KCtK TOOV 80 KOVVTO&V , aVTOS OV TOVTOV ( rO f PCl - In the same Review there is an admirable article on " Brewster ' L , ife of

      Newton , " correcting the too eager advocacy of that biographer ; and a critical paper on " Sir Bulwer Lytton ' s Novels . " The article on the *• Purchase System in the Army" comes rather late in the day , but is able ; that on " Ferrier ' s Theory of Being and Knowing" will delight the metaphysicians . There are five other articles , but we have not found time to read them . This , no doubt , is a serious offence of ours , and is felt as such by some of the writers whom we have unread , and who presume a slight is intended when in truth nothing but edacious Time , or our profound ignorance o £ and -want of interest in , the subjects treated , are to blame . Time is limited , the reading faculty is limited , and if when a huge pile of periodicals lies on our table we do not read every article , and decline to give an opinion of what we have not read , all the iudignant advertising in the world will not bring us to a sense of shame .

      Black-wood opens this month with an interesting paper written by a naval officer off Cronstadt , describing that terrible fortress aud the Baltic in 1855 . Another writer—one who has lived many years in Russia—describes the " Internal sufferings of Russia from the War . " He begins with enumerating the losses sustained by the landed proprietors , and takes as the basis of his calculation the single estate on which he resided many years : — Tho estate in question consists of about 40 , 000 acres of land , with about thirteen hundred Herft . Its principal productions aro linseed , corn , and wool , which arc all sold for exportation by way of tho ports of tho Azof and Black Seas . These two seas having been closed for some time , all the raw produce remains rotting on tho hands of the producer , with the single exception of wool , which finds n ready market in Germany , being transported overland through Austria ; still the price diminished

      sensibly last year , on account of the increased cost of transport . 1 will now proceed to stato tho details of tho losses experienced hist year upon this one property . Tho average income amounts to about G 000 / ., out of which 1500 / . has to bo paid as interest of tho mortgage—for this , like most oth « r estates , ia mortgaged to the government . Last year there were about 1500 quarters of linseed , which , sold on the spot , would fetch upon an average l (» a . per quarter . Of this not a bushel hns been sold ; 80 , on this article alone , there is a loss of V 2 O 91 . Tho wheat grown was about tho Mtno quantity . The nverago price of wheat ia 12 s . per quarter , and now only a limited quantity can bo sold at 8 s . ; but , supposing the whole to bo sold at that prico the loss will still amount to 80 ( tf . This , however , is not tho case , and tho loss is not

      less than 5001 . upon wheat . Last year tho price of wool was , upon an average , 16 pof oeot . bolow tho usual price ; in sorao insttmces there was a loss of 20 and 26 per cent . ; tho quantity sold usually fetched about 11 ()<)/ . —ho there was another lo « a of more than 200 / . Upon thin same estate there are kept about 18 , 000 sheep , of which thoro aro gonorally Hold every year 2000 for their tallow and skins , at an avorngo price of 7 s . ahead ; now , on account of tho difficulties of exporting tallow , tho price is only 5 fc , —another 200 / . out of tho pocket of tho proprietor . It -will bo seen by tho foregoing statement , that tho income of tho possessor of tins 0110 estate is diminiahed ^ moro than ono-third , by restrictions laid upon trado by the closing of tho ports of tho Azof Ukd'Bbtek Seaa ; and as this may bo taken m a good criterion of tho whole sonthomt part » f jttuaaia , tho loss is consequently eomothiug enormous ,

      He then considers the conscriptions sadcjhe : exarttiaBSiwhich , under the euphonious name of -voluntary tJcmtrHnrtrons / press on # ie people . The article on " ModernXight Literature—Science ;* ' is -a somewhat whimsical review of several popular works , in which ike writer discharges his anger upon imaginary offienees and ^ Senders . He would hav e science made popular—and yet is wrath with teachers . Fraser also takes up the woman question as relates to the " Law of Marriage and Divorce ; " but although the tone is commendable , the article is

      timidly brief—it touches , but does not open the question . Dr . Dobak is severely criticised for his recent work on the Queens of England , and shown to want knowledge , accuracy , and historical conscientiousness- The writer is one who , having an unusual amoun ^ of knowledge on the subject , is able to expose the slender qualifications of Dr . Doras . The " Adulteration of Food" is a survey of the results of that terrible inquiry first instituted by the Lancet , which does not redound to the credit of Christian shopkeepers . When Pope characterised the class in that

      line—The third a tradesman , meek and much a liar , he aimed at men who were innocent compared with their successors . To have quoted Pope twice in one article would seem to imply a fondness for a school of poetry the niost diametrically opposed to that of our century ; but no : we quote the most quotable of poets because the verses happen to rise unbidden , and although " we yield to none" ( as the elegant writers say ) in our admiration of Pope , we are quite as ready to admire whatever the Muse of this day may send . Browning , we hear , has two volumes of new poems in the press . How gladly shall -we welcome them ! Anything more unlike Pope will not easily be produced ( worth reading ) , yet if they be worthy of Browning we shall not welcome them the less because they bear the impress of " our wondrous Mother-Age . "

      Untitled Article

      MAUD AJSTD OTHER POEMS . Maud and -other Poems . By Alfred Tennyson , D . C . L ., Poet Laureate . Moxon Even amidst the excitement of the war , this volume has been anxiously expected all through the season—Delaying , as the tender ash delays To clothe herself , when all the woods are green . And it is worthy of the general expectation . If it does not develope any positively new gift in Tennyson , it shows his gifts in new combination , and so enlarges the circle of our pleasure and his fame . Maud is a tragic love-story , told by the lover in twenty-six melodies ( we cannot call them cantos ) of the utmost variety both of thought and metre ,

      and running through the whole compass of Tennyson , from the " Miller s Daughter" to " JLocksIey Hall" and " Simon Stylites , " and from the idyllic narrative to the quintessence of song . This narrative of thought , feeling , and passion , carried out through a series of lyric pieces is an original idea , and admirably devised to bring out all the powers of the poet , while it confesses those powers to be peculiar and limited in their nature . In adopting it Tennyson proves himself to be essentially a lyric poet , and a lyric poet rather of the tender and passionate than the sublime kind ; but he gives to lyric poetry an extension similar to that which is given to music through the oratorio and the opera . And evidently there is some tendency in the age which calls ft > T lyric poetry as for the lyric drama , and is satisfied with it , be

      that tendency our necessity , our virtue , or our vice . The story of Maud is to the poem scarcely more than the plot to an opera . J ± melancholy Misanthrope of twenty-five is living by himself in an old house buried in the woods , to which his family has been reduced on the loss of their former mansion , the neighbouring Hall , owing to the failure of the Misanthrope ' s father in a great speculation , which drove him to suicide . The hall has become the property of a Millionnaixe who dropped off gorged from the same bubble-scheme which ruined Misanthrope senior , so that a sort of doom hangs over the relation between the families . Maud is the daughter of the Millionnaire . The Misanthrope falls in love with her in spite of himself , wooes and wins her . But besides the " grey wolf , " her fathershe has a brothera despotic dandy of six feet two , nicknamed the

      , , Sultan , who favours the Misanthrope ' s rival , another millionnaire and a parvenu peer with a bran-new castle . The Sultan gives a great political dinner . The lovers , who are secretly engaged , take the opportunity to steal a meeting in Maud ' s rose-garden . They are there surprised by the brother and the rival . Hot words pass ; then blows . There is a duel , and Maud ' s brother is killed . The despairing lover and homicide flies to France ; then returns to England and learns that Maud is dead . He falls into madness , from which he is delivered by the approach of the war with Russia , and the prospect which it affords of dying in a just and noble cause . le artificiallconstructed

      Such is the tale , neither very compx nor very y , and in itself , as well as from the manner in which it is told , excluding any dramatic interest . But it is obviously well adapted to combine the whole diapason of passion ,, melancholy , spleen , love in all its stages , from its first awakening to its last ecstasy , fear , hope , jealousy , suspicion , hate , contempt , remorse , desperation , madness , and at last a burst of war fever . Here is for love : — I have led her home , my love , my only friend . There ia none like her , none . And never yet ao warmly ran my blood And swootly , on and on 1 Calming itself to the long-wiah'd-for end , Full to tho hanks , closo on the promised good .

      None like her , nono . . .. Just now tho dry-tongucd laurels' pnttonnff mik Scom ' u h « r light foot along tho garden wnI * ' . And shook my heart to think she comes once more , Hat oven then I hoard her close the door , Tho gutca of Heaven aro closed , and aho ia gone .

      Untitled Article

      Critics are not the legislators , but the judges and police of literature . They do not mak e laws —the / interpret aad try to enforce them . —Edinburgh Review .

      Untitled Article

      '¦ ' ' ¦ , ' r '¦¦ ' ' p . . ¦ ¦ ' ¦ ¦¦ ¦ ' .. - '¦ . ¦' / . '' .

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  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 4, 1855, page 747, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2101/page/15/