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Leader (1850-1860), 14th June 1856, Edition 1 of 2, Page 568

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      Untitled Article

      The pleasant author of the papers called " Tangled Talk" in Taifs Magazine from which we often borrow a passage , this month touches on the " Domestic Relations of Literary Men , " a subject often mooted both in print and talk . He says : — I am disposed to think there is much exaggeration current upon the unhappmess of men offers in their domestic relations , and that we should findnear y as . many heard so wueh

      uncomfortable cheesemongers as uncomfortable authors ^ f ^ he cheesemongers ; which we do not , except in cases of wife-beating . If menl of talent contract more unhappy marriages than other men , I suppose it must be attributed partly , to the fact that they are more liable , when young , to mistake the action of the imagination for that of the heart . But surely somethmg-much-must be laid to the account of the wretched education of our women . Also , although women like distinguished men , they do not habitually sympathize with great ambitions ; and ifthey do , the children and the tradespeople do not—the same path that leads to crowning in the Capitol leading away from plenty in the cupboard .

      It is certain we do not hear so much about the cheesemongers , and it is probable that if we did , we should find the " wretched education of the women" to be the main cause of unhappiness amid Cheshixes and Double Gloucester , as it is amid Philosophical Fragments and Essays in the last Quarterly . Well does this writer intimate the secret cause of so much unhappmess ; and he further elucidates it by the sentence , " Although women like distinguished men , they do not habitually sympathize with great ambiim

      bitions ; " and the proof , in spite of their protestations , is that they are - patient of the processes by which great ambitions seek to secure their end . The wife may glory in her husband ' s fame , may be excessively pleased at his success , but is seldom found sympathizing with the labours which earned tnat success . To spend silent hours over " those musty books j" to soil one ' s fingers and clothes with those " nasty , messes , " chemical or anatomical , can only be regarded with sympathy by a mind of a certain degree of culture in that direction , and women must not be blamed if their education has

      been in quite other directions . ! The truth of what has been just said is illustrated in the fact that the happiest marriages are those which unite two artists , two poets , two naturalists , or two actors , in short any two persons having the same pursuits in life , identified by their aims , their interests , their vanities , their occupations . We do not of course mean to assert that all such marriages are happy . Hainan beings are complex , and terribly prone to make each other miserable ,-but we have observed it as a general fact that the happiest marriages have been of this kind .

      Untitled Article

      ; TChe Bqes , which have wandered from the bright furze bushes on the rocks into our study ( where they will find no honey , unless they attack the sea anemones , and make them yield it ) , remind us that Messrs . Longmans have just issued in a portable six shilling volume , the valuable work , Kibby and Spbncb's Introduction to Entomology , which many of our readers will have sighed for in vain , on account of the price , but which now may be in every one ' s hands . This single volume contains every line of the sixth edition > aqd the account of the origin and progress of the work which Mr . Spence wrote ffr * the Life of Kirby . The type though small is very readable . The book has long passed out of all reviewers'jurisdiction , and we content ourselves with announcing the new edition . In the Nineteenth Letter will be found all that was known on the combats

      of the Queen-bees at the time the book was written , to which , we are now enabled to add something , from a letter by M . de Beauvoye to Milne Edwards in the Annales des Sciences Naturelles . Quoting Hdbeb , the Introduction to Entomology says , that when a strange queen-bee attempts to enter the hive , the workfers who are on the watch immediately seize her with their jaws by the legs or wings , and hem her in so etraightly with a clustered circle of guards that it is impossible for her to penetrate within . Ifthey retain her prisoner too long she dies from the want of food or air , but never from their stinga . M . de Bjsauvoyjjs on the contrary asserts that when he placed a queen in a hivo the first watcher seized her , plunged its sting fiercely into her body , and this action attracting the attention of the

      rest , they came in crowds , every one stabbing the trembling intruder , who scarcely defended herself . On another occasion ho placed a queen in a glass hive quite close to the reigning queen , who , however , affected not to be aware of the intruder ' s presence ; her guard , not being so lofty , soized the unhappy stranger and poniarded her . Why this indifference on the part of the reignjng queen ? When M . de Bkauvoye placed two queens alone under a glass globe their first efforts wore to find an issue , and , although iostling against each other , passed on without insult or defiance ; when they

      again met , tho fight began , nnd one speedily fell a victim . The next day ho placed the victorious queen under the globe once more in company with thirty bees , to them he added another queon and her guard of thirty . But net one seemed disposed to fight ; every one was bent on escape . After some time he took but all the beoa except the two queens , hut they left each other in peace . Ho forced them together with a pen , and now they cross their antennae like two bulls preparing for combat . The fight is about to begin . No . One of them lowers her forcpaws , nnd , so to speak , places horaelf imploringly at the feet of the other . And the other ? Sho quietly

      licks the head of her rival and caresses her tenderly , after which she places herself supplicatingly at the other's feet , and receives the same testimonies of friendship . Peace is so obviously being concluded between them that M . de Bbatjvoyjb , on warlike plans intent , separates them , irritates them , and pushes them against each other . In vain . Night comes on and finds them still amicable . The next day he repeats the experiment with the same result . But leaving them together all night he finds one of them dead the next morning .

      Untitled Article

      LORD COCKBURN'S MEMORIALS . Memorials of His Time . By Henry Cockburn . Edinburgh : A . and C . Black . Hebe is a volume of anecdotes and portrait ' s , by an advocate , by a judge , by a man of letters , the pupil of Dugald Stewart , the High School contemporary of Francis Horner and Henry Brougham , the biographer of Jeffrey , himself an Edinburgh Reviewer , the friend of Scott , and Erskine , and one of the successors of Eskgrove and Braxfield on the Scottish Bench . The Memorials illustrate profusely the several phases of his career . They contain sketches , humorous and broad , of old Scotch society , of the unreformed Courts of Criminal Law , of Attic dinners ; full-length portraits of Dugald Stewart , Adam , Finlayson , Ferguson , Robertson , Henry , and a generation of Northern worthies , of eccentric judges and lawyers , of political and literary leaders : and they contribute some passages to general history . The book ,

      therefore , is" a book for all readers—light , colloquial ^ varied , abounding in the suggestions of an acute and well-trained mind . To the social annals of the Scotch capital it adds a graphic chapter ; for where else than among these reminiscences of his own time by Lord Cockburn do we find such pleasant and surprisingdescriptions of ball-rooms ; of an ancient race of ladies , the lingering dynasty of the Sedan ; of authors , booksellers , and counsel , railing ' and laughing over the strong ambrosia of the Highland still ; of dinner parties regulated by a formalism as austere as martial law . Henry Cockburn himself , though he belonged , properly , to the epoch of quieter manners , mixed largely and freely in these scenes . He played , moreover , a special part in some transactions , remarkable in their day , and even now memorable . He was counsel for several of the prisoners at the notorious

      sedition trials of 1817 . When " the prosecutor struck , " he records , with agreeable simplicity , how , after the prison and castle gates had been opened for the release of the accused , he walked home " with a light step and in an ao-itation of triumph . " He also defended Helen Macdougal , " the wife , though not regularly married , " of Burke , the resurrectionist . At the trial of B ° urke and Helen for the West-Port murders—sixteen in number—Cockburn uttered an earnest plea in favour of his client . The quarterly Review afterwards reported that he was , at the same time , persuaded of her guilt , and whispered to a counsel , " infernal hag ! the gudgeons swallow it " This , " says the Memorial , "is utterly untrue . I was , and am , honestly convinced that there was not sufficient legal evidence to warrant a conviction of Helen Macdougal . " So the judges thought , and the jury

      were guided to an acquittal . Lord Cockburn adds , " Except that he murdeml , Burke was a sensible , and what might be called a respectable man . This is one of his eccentricities . Another was , his opinion that even Erskine's way of spitting was eloquent . . , The characteristic that renders this book so enticing , is the freedom ot the writer , always governed , however , by his habit of appropriate expression . He tells us that , from the date of hia marriage , he never spent more than one night a month at home , and in the sole society of his wife . It was always some scene of conviviality , some Roman banquet , a supper which is cheaper than dinner ; shorter , less ceremonious , and more poetical ; but which the dwindling hospitality of Edinburgh is reducing " to paltry wine and water . " And now , for the reader ' s sake , we must " pick out" a notice with some of Lord Cockburn ' s sayings and recollections . This is Mrs . Rochoadthe lady of Inverleith : —

      , She would sail , like a ship from Tarshish , gorgeous in velvet or rustling in silk , and done uo in all the accompaniments of fan , ear rings and finger rings , falling sleeves , scent bottle , embroidered bag , Loop and train—all superb , yet all in purest tasto ; and managing all this seemingly heavy rigging , with as much ease as a lull-blown swan does its plumage , she would take possession of the centre of a largo sola , anu at the same moment , without the slightest visible exertion , would cover the whole of it with her bravery , the graceful folds seeming to lay themselves over it ma summer waves . i ( Passing the full-length portrait of Lord Braxfiold , who looked like a formidable blacksmith , " and who apologized to a lady whom he had damned at the card-table , by saying he thought she was his wife ; Lord hslcgrove , who hung criminals with a jest ; Hcrmand , who refused to be tied down uy any mere law ; Sir Walter Scott , tilting at a turnip ; Creech , the booJcselior the founders of the Edinburgh and Blac / ctoood—vfo oneu at a clumicteribUt

      miniature of Newton " the Mighty" : — In court hia head genorally rested either on hia heaving chest , or on his hai T * crossed on tho bench , while , after getting a grip of the caao , hia eyes were lo ckea genuine Bleep . Yet , from practice and a remarkably quick ear and intellect , iiouo j could Bay anything worth heuring without his instantly raising Ins huge oyeim , «" keeping it open , and directing Iiis powerful knowing eye , like a mortar , at the spea . till ho got what was necessary ; after which , when tho babbling began , down mm tho eyelid again , till lighted up by tho next ahot . Lord Cockburn had an exaggerated admiration of tho Nodes , derived , m part , from an exaggerated estimate of tho Scotch language . It is a im > singular and delightful production , he says , vaulting thence to a nniv generality : — . I am really Sorry for the poor ono-tongued Englishman , by whom , bocaufic ^ Kttrick Shephord uses tho awcetoat and moat expressive of living lunguat »¦» homely humour , the Honaibility , tho dosoriptlvo power , tho oloquonce , and tuo

      joyoua hilarity of that animated rustic can never bo folt . Lord Palmerston , in his " Trial of an Honourable Member for calling Lord Ponsonby an Old Woman , " introduced a Scotch witness «» us - " Being a foreigner , he couldn't speak English . " Lord Cockburn siiyfl tnaj being English , wo can't read Scotch . Instead of defending the ono-tongu Englishman , however , lot us listen to a judge describing a High Court : At Edinburgh , tho old judges had a practice at which ovon thoir barbaric ng « "

      3ptfih*Rtftt1*Iv ; 3mvrutuvv» ?

      tMvftm .

      Untitled Article

      Untitled Article

      56 g THE LEAD 1 U . [ No . 325 , Satttbday ,

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), June 14, 1856, page 568, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2145/page/16/