On this page

• Text (2)

  Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

  • 

    Untitled Article

  • 

    Untitled Article

• Transcript

  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    Untitled Article

    senses , or in one sense out of many , be a very useful and meritorious work . It would be useful if it brought together the documentary records or the European revolution , or if , systematically referring to those pieces jusUficatives , it presented , in clear generalisation , the series of incidents tromthenrst signs of trouble to the French Coup d'Etat of 1851 . Or if the writer , without authenticating his narrative , had rhetorically and brilliantly told the moving story , or judicially analysed the interests and passions , the accidents ana conspiracies that operated in the insurrectionary year , his work might have received the attention of serious readers . But Mr . Cayley , quoting no authorities , exhibiting- no capacity of criticism , unable to frame a regular plan , habituated to vulgar frivolities of language , imagines that a lengthy , sodden statement , unsupported by the slightest show of respectable testimonies . the of facetious levitywill

    other term , they have been called , indifferently , republics or states . The word " democratic , " as a qualification of republic , signifies that the people are to toe governed as they like , and not aa any body else likes . Now , the meaning of the oath to remain faithful to the democratic republic , if it meant anything at all , was to remain faithful to the state in which the people had their own way . To suppose that the President meant to swear , or the assembly to impose , fidelity to the state in which the rabble was uppermost , is sheer nonsense . The worst of this defence of perjury is that it is not ingenious . But it would be a waste of criticism to follow him closely through this verbose and uninteresting compilation . He talks of the people being " chopped down" at Milan ; attributes the great troubles of the continent to incidents which were only the occasions , not the causes of the Revolution ; speaks of his Holiness ' * being in a violent pucker ; " of the Roman populace as " the greatest scouudrels on earth ; " aud satirises certain theories in this fashion : —

    It is curious to find , after a severe conflict , that one ' s opponent and ones self have been all the while agreed on the thing , but have only differed in the mode of expressing it . The ingenious gentleman who called out his friend , and shot him for declaring that he could not have seen anchovies growing in a garden , and iu walking honae afterwards , mentioned to Ms second— "And sure , wasn't it capers I meant all the while ? " is only an illustration of a too ordinary folly . Only in a book by such a dunce as Mr . Cayley would it be possible to find , among- political illustrations , the following : — It was reported that one orator was heard to expound as follows : —

    Dirty Boy ( in worsted epaulets ) , No queen !—Mob , Hurrah ! Dirt )) Boy , No paurlament !—Mob , Hurrah ! Dirty Boy , No caunstitooshun !—Mob , Hurrah ! Dirty Boy , No bloody nuffink !—Mob , Hurrah ! Dirty Boy , To the pallis 1—Mob , Hurrah ! This refers to England . After discussing on rabbles and scoundrels in every part of Germany , he says " all the rogues and vagabonds of Germany" lived in Frankfort , justifies the execution of Messenliauser and Blum , and , with reference to the Baden insurrection , observes : — -

    The main results of these events were disordered finances , for the republican leaders had appropriated the public money without scruple . This is another specimen of'Ins impudent and ignorant manner . Who told him that the money was appropriated without scruple ? Who appropriated it ? for what was it appropriated ? He mentions the execution of eighty victims with as much levity as he notices the upsetting of a cab in the streets of an Italian city . Affecting , in the treatment of Austrian politics , a magnanimous impartiality , he brings his reasonings on the injustice of the imperial government to this result ; that Austria by her infatuation intervention of

    and Hungary by her folly , necessitated and justified the Russia . German liberalism he dismisses by saying that colonies are not governed by iambics , and that tlie German student considers that " Greek has no affinity to grocery , " or " philosophy to farming . " Mr . Cayley has a right to be smart , if he can , but these clever little apothegms do not show that lie is acquainted with the state of German opinion or with the deep causes of the half-completed Revolution . We have seldom met with so in ? $ ch impertinence in combination with so much vulgarity . Mi . Cayley hunger ^ airer eloquence , ana is oomoascic ; ue Hungers arcerwit , ana is low , sjjurjiess , and feeble . If we add that he maintains the hereditary principle to be represented by Napoleon the Third , as strictly as by Victoria the First , denies that the Coup d'Etat was consummated by a massacre , affirms that the President of the Republic did not break his oath , it will be obvious how far this rabid compilation may be trusted . We make our objections on critical grounds merely . If a writer pretends to give us an historical book , we insist on historical evidence , care , caution , and tlecency . We want authorities ., references , and justifications . We

    will not receive , as compensations , the fritterings of ribaldry , ignoran . ce , and rancour . Had a sensible man undertaken Mr . Cayley ' s task , and written as unambiguously as he against the princi p les of the revolution of 1848 , and in behalf of the Imperial Coup d'Etat m France , his historical argument might have been well worth perusal , and not easy to refute . But , judging this narrative from the author's point of view , it is not even a creditable failure . Mr . Cayley , in utter contempt of his reader ' s judgment , flings before him a compilation without one quality of style to make it readable , or one liistorical authentication in proof of its candour or accuracy .

    abounding in the grossest errors , and in garbage , be adopted as a manual of the history of 1848 . Being , from its monotony , scarcely readable—from its incompleteness , scarcely intelligible —from its exaggeration , utterly unreliable—this credulous recapitulation should have been left in the writer ' s desk . He says it was not originally intended for publication . Having been inspired by the uproar of 1848 with political curiosity , Mr . Cayley determined to learn a little politics , and , having earned a little , thought himself qualified , inevitably , to teach . He had " collected most of the historical works bearing on the subject , as well as all the printed political articles and pamphlets that eould be procured , both foreign and English . " The " most" and the all , " here indicated , were , we suspect , a few haphazard selections . Otherwise , Mr . Cayley would not have shrunk from quoting " all " or any of their titles and authors . Moreover , he " gathered such oral information as was available to him , " which , being- interpreted ,

    means gossip believed at random . However , it is of no consequence where Mr . Cayley found his materials , as he has not told us what they were . We can only judge of the manner in which he has used them , premising that , to all appearance , they were inadequate , since Mr . Cayley lias been forced to throw in a mass of ponderous irrelevancy on the English Currency Laws , and the Bank Chartei Act , and on " The English Revolution ( that was to be ) . " The chapters , for the most part , contain , besides irregular sections of the narrative , separate essays on the political elements . Mr . Cayley , venturing into historical literature , has been delighted by the crisp conciseness of certain axioms and epigrams which he imitates with a strong confidence in the general effect . Starting with the French Revolution of 1848 , which he carefully misunderstands , he attributes its success , partly to the laxity of ital

    morals in the capital , partly to the number of convicts at large in the cap . An amusing imbecility is displayed in his illustration of this theory of the connexion between immorality and revolution . He refers to J ^ amartine ' s account of Emma Hamilton , considering it a proof of national depravity that M . Lamai-tine did not treat tlmt unhappy woman with less sympathy than she has received from numerous English writers . This reminds me of the godly captain who said the French were beaten at Waterloo because they played with immorally-painted cards , and charged in columns . However , Mr . Cayley goes on to say that the chiefs of the secret societies embezzled most of the fluids collected for political purposes ^ which is a scandalous and puerile s . . . « . ... : * . *_ r > -i _ — l-. - x . 1 :. ! ..,. *?_« . * v . _ _ i _ i-.- * - . „ p-.. ii . - 'i : i—IUaSSCrnOll j SlUCe ± ixi ,- \ , tny i % ; y uas HO IIUuwu ^ tut tuc atai . ciiicuL , ut hji buu uuui ue writes against some of the most respectable men in France . Nor does he know what were the numbers , or the principles of the associations lie alludes to . In describing the three clays of February he asserts that tlie majority of

    the National Guard supported the king , that the populace began by murdering the troops , that helpless persons were assassinated , and that the Palais Royal and the Tuileries were sacked for the sake of booty . All this is notoriously and gratuitously false . What follows concerning tlie provisional Government is a wordy imitation of Burke ' s eloquent rhapsody on the Revolution . Thence to the election of the President , Mr . Cayley ' s narrative is a tame and commonplace recapitulation of events too well-known , to be success fully misrepresented . It is a proof of his perfect incapacity to deal with historical subjects that lie describes Louis Napoleon as representing , in France , ' the principle of legitimacy , " the " hereditary principle , " which " appears so strongly implanted in man ' s nature , that it cannot have been put there but for good purpose . " . Declining a philosophical discussion with such a writer , we , na ' ust remind him that there is a dynasty called the Bourbon , and that he ought , when lie began his political studies , to have read buck a little in the history of Prance .

    Mr . Csiyley , who talks of principles implanted in man's nature for good purposes , quotes the oaths and the speeches of Louis Napoleon , on bcin «> elected President : — Citizon Representatives—It in impossible that I can Iteep silouce after tho calumnies of which I luivo been thoobjoot . I must express frankly , and at tho earliest moment of my taking my soat amongst you , tho rual sentiments which animate , aud which have over awimatorl mo . Aftor thirty-throe years of proscription and oxilo , lam at last , entitled to resume my rights as a citizen . Th « Republic has Oostowod on mo happiness : to tho RopublUj I tender may oath of gratitude , my oath oi devotion ; and my gonorous countrymen who have rotumocl me to this bo

    plp , oo umy assured that £ will endeavour to justify tlioir choico by exerting niysQlf with you to maintain tranquillity , tho first necessity of tho country , and tho development of democratic institutions , which the people have tho right to do-Haand . . For a , long tirno I have boon unable to oonseorato to Franco anything t > ut the meditations of exile and captivity . At hist tho career which you pursuo isi open to mo . lloooivo mo , thon , my dear oolloaguos , into your ranks , vyitn tho Biuno aenao of affectionate confidence which 1 bring there . My conduct —always inspired by duty , always animated by rospoot for ( he luw—my ooucluot Via prove tho falsehood of those who have attempted to blnokou mo tor tho purpose ot Btill keeping mo proscribed , and will demonstrate that no one is more tlrmly resolved than myself to establish and defend tho Republic .

    The oath was identical . After the Coup d'ECut—rend Mr . Cayley ' s burof cnsuiwtry : — J J Ho had Hwurn to maintain tho democratic republic , aud to fulfil tho duties ml > OBOd on him by tho constitution : any attempt to prorogue tlxo assembly wa Wed with the puiiuj of high troutwn . But what did tho oatli really mean ? Wh « t if . a democrat . lo ropuLho V What a republic is , w « all know : it Jb another word ipi a stuto . All state . * are popublio , properly uo culk » d . Some wtaten are kiugdonw , » noio aro empires some aro neither one nor tlie other , aaid for tho lupkof auy

    Untitled Article

    CHURCH HISTORY OP THE NINETEETSTTH CENTURY . KircTienqcscltichte dcr ncuesten Zeit , von 18 M bis attf die Gegcnwart . { History oftli 3 Church from 1814 to the Present Tine . ) By Dr . Gk'sol ^ r . Edited by Dr Kcilepuiu . ilng . London : Williams and Norgate . The history of the Church , as of every other department of human affairs , is the history of revolutionary movements and of reactions : the tide of opinion and sentiment is never really stationary , though to the unobservant eye it seerns to sleep lazily at ebb , and to sustain for a long while the force with which it rushes ngainst the barriers at high water . The reaction towards positive religion and pietism , which followed the revolutionary movement of the eighteenth century , did not beyin in 181-4 , but it reached that point at which its onward movement became palpable . The War of Liberation in Germany had exalted the religious and imaginative tendencies of tho nation j

    enthusiasm was the order of the day ; the " Kaltes Vorstand "—the cold understanding was shuddered at as an evil principle , nnd through the haze of fervid emotion , Gott , Kb ' ttig , and Vaterlandwevo blended together , and shone aa a Trinity in Unity . This religious and political reaction was strengthened by itB alliance with the Romantic movement in literature and art which began with the nineteenth century , The main feature of this movement was the exaltation of the M « Uiu : val above the Classic , of art animated by Christian spiritualism above tho art animated by Greek humanism . And as mediieval art was developed in the closest union with Catholicism tho Uomaiitic school naturally had little sympathy with tho ltoformntion , which had gone on tho principle , so highly lauded by Andrew Fairscrvice , of "combing off" from the churches the |) roiluetions of media ! val a * t , aa unhealthy adjuncts to reli gious worship . Hence , some of the chief Romanticists , notably Frederic Stolberg and Frederic iSchlcgel , became converts to Rome , and of oourao those large fish wore not

    Untitled Article

    Armi . 5 , 1856 . 1 THE LEADER 331

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), April 5, 1856, page 331, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2135/page/19/