Current:

Leader (1850-1860), 17th January 1857, Edition 1 of 2, Page 65, Untitled Article

Page 65
Page 17
17 of 24

On this page

  • Departments (1)
    • ' 4PttiH*n'fitri>' ^LUvllUUlw
  • Text (5)
  • 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

      AllE BOSWELL'S LETTERS AUTHENTIC ? Letters of Jamen fioswtll , addressed to tJia Rev W . J . Temple . Now first published from tho original MSS . With an Introduction and Notes . fJentley . Litmixatuke has in modern times been so often perplexed with forgeries , skilful and unskilful , especially in the shape of Memoirs , Letters , and Historical documents , that the public has a right to demand the application of tlie Beverest tests to every new work purporting to be mi historical document , and to see that every guarantee of authenticity bo produced .

      Untitled Article

      to live upon comfortably ; the husband having done nothingWanwhile . They lived for some time in easy circumstances after she gave up business , and then the husband died , bequeathing all his wife ' s earnings to his own illegitimate children . At the age of sixty-two she-was compelled , in order to gain her bread , to return to business . " The citation of cases such as these must powerfully affect the discussion which will shortly take place in Parliament . It is of no use to call such cases " exceptional ; " the law which sanctions such exceptions creates thousands of cases only differing from them "b y fine degrees . In the same number of the Edinburgh there is an amusing , paper on " French Society under the Directory , " -which will " be read because it is amusing , but which nevertheless is no more a true picture of the times than a pound of plums is a Christmas pudding : —in the desire of being piquant the -writer falls into the common error " of piquant writers , the omission of dull but essential details . Here is a specimen : — \

      The pleasure to which France , when she began to seek for pleasure , turned , -was the pleasure of young nations and savage nations , as the most natural manifestation of activity and strength—it -was dancing . This became a rage and a necessity , and all France danced as one possessed . In the winter of 1796 there Tvere in Paris six hundred and forty-four public balls ! Every locale was appropriated by these ardent votaries of Terpsichore , from the palace of royalty , from the hall of justice , up to the cloistered solitudes of religious study and monastic contemplation . Nay , even the home of the dead was not respected : the cemetery of Saiut Sulpice -was transformed intoasallede bal , and whilst those who understood them , might read the words , " Has ultra metas beatam spem expectantes requiescunt , " engraved upon the entrance arch , the crowd saw only " Bal des Zephyrs ? written in letters , of light upon a rosecoloured transparent canvas , and the crowd hurried on and danced , sight after night , upon a flooring of graves !

      The Faubourg St . Germain danced at the so-called lal des victimes , and what was entitled " good company , " though somewhat mixed , danced at the Hotel Longueville at the Pavilion de Hanovre , at the Vauxhall of the Rue de Bondy , and at many other places where the price of admission ( by subscription or not , as the case might be ) was put at the very high rate of five francs . But descending in the scale , and leaving at the top this Alniacks' of the exclusive , -we learn -what was the respective cost of these pleasures to the entire population of Paris . For thirty sous , clerks and shopmen danced with dressmakers and grisettes ; for twenty , apprentices , hair-dressers , upholsterers and tailors'' boys' danced with needlewomen and ladies' maids ; for two sotis , locksmiths and carpenters , journeymen joiners , and cobblers' drudges , danced with fishwives and tavern-scullions . Nor was this the lowest or last step ; there was lower still : there -were the balls of the canaille , the barns , where , by the glimmer of a rushlight stuck into an iron candlestick , and hung by a cord from a rafter , a foulsmelling , noisy , ragged , hideous throng , jump , stamp , swear and scream , tumble , plunge , squeeze each other to suffocation , and dro-wn in the din they make the wretched squeak of the hurdy-gurdy that is supposed to play to what they call their dancing ! . ' . . . ¦ . , .

      At tlie bal des victimes , the sons , daughters , brothers , sisters of tie guillotined , were all dancing furiously . Once the little short bow of recognition made , which goes by the name of the " salut de Vechafavd" and is meant to simulate the inclination of the head ujon the block , (!) once the several pairs made up , the whole room is in a whirl , and the pages of a contemporary publication relate what went on in the pauses of the dance : — " I saw a handsome young man" ( Polickinelle is the narrator ) , " and he came towards me and said , 'Ah ! Pdlichinelle ! they have killed my father !' ' What ? ' I cried , * they have killed your father !'—and 1 drew my handkerchief from my pocket . I was overcome ; but he , the handsome young man , was deep in a riffodo ? iJ "

      And all this time they who do not dance are starving , for they may literally be said only to abandon pleasure when their physical strength is exhausted by positive want ; and they do not desist , they drop oft" from the Bacchanalian whirl because their head turns , and their feet give way , and they have eaten nothing for weeks , except what they have picked up in the gutter . At tlie very doora of the places of public resort dead bodies were found , stiff and stark ; they are the dancers of yesterday , and their mouths are still full of the unchewed grass , which , torn up from the street pavements , has been their food for the last few days ; and the fat , sleek , luxury-loving parvenus who emerge in groups from one or other of tho countless restaurants that have sprung up like mushrooms from tlie hotbed of the revolutionary soil , aie impeded in their scarcely steady progress by some couchant human form , disputing on all fours the possession of a bone with a lean hungry dog ! In the Psychological Journal there are two articles which the general reader will find of great interest ; one on the insanity of George III ., anecdotical and historical ; the other on the effects of mental labour in

      altering the condition of tlie blood , by Dr . TujEophilus Thompson , who inclines to the supposition that the excessive action of the brain affects the blood by withdrawing from it some special material necessary to its perfect condition as a nutritious fluid . We are more inclined to attribute the influence of over brain-work to a disturbance of the blood-making processes , than to the blood itself ; but tho treatment proposed by Dr . Thompson would be as applicable on the one supposition as tlie other . This question of mental labour , is thrown into sudden prominence by the recent deplorable case of Hugh Miller ; and one of the worst points in this peril , which all brain-workers incur , is the insidiousness of the approach of the disease , the apparent triviality of the symptoms . Bodily excess is obtrusive in warning , mental excess gives no warning , except to the physiologist . Who can l > c expected to pause in the strong race , simply because he observes a fluttering at his heart , or a , singing in his ears ? There is no pain , no incapacity , —how can there be any danger ? So tho victim deludes himself ; he works on heedless of the low-voiced warning , until the time comes when ho can "work no longer !

      assumptions , which every one ' s experience flatly contradicts , are as usual made the grounds of objection to a more equitable adjustment of the law of divorce ; but reformers at least gain an advocate for the alteration of the law now giving the whole earnings of the woman to her husband—a law so iniquitous in principle , and so immoral in its consequences , that the mere presentation of its effects -when seen in individual cases ought , one would think , to rouse every earnest mind into indignant protest . The Edinburgh cites some typical cases ; and one of these we shall quote , adding that the writer having inquired into the circumstances believes the statements are

      These are certain works which are honoured by much notice from the press mainly on account of their intrinsic feebleness , which tempts reviewers to display their strength . One of this kind is the work of M . Floubens on Longevity , which , after being well exposed in various quarters , is again dragged before the judgment bar of the Edinburgh Review and the London Quarterly Review . As tve have already discussed the question of Longevity , we need only refer to these essays . More to our immediate interest is the article in the Edinburgh on the "Eights and Liabilities of Husband and Wife "—a subject of profound social importance , and one which every year presses more urgently on the Legislature . The Edinburgh is temperate in tone and liberal in sentiment—not ,, indeed , going deep into the question , nor advocating it with any novelty or force- —but expressing itself , on the whole , in a way which reformers will notice with satisfaction . Conventional

      strictly true : — " I was married at an early age , being not yet sixteen , having lost both my parents many years before . I became acquainted with my husband IB . T ., who was by trade a journeyman printer . From the first week of my married life . I commenced working at my needle as well as performing all the household duties such as our humble state required . My husband continued to Tvork at his business as a printer during three years after we were married ; but the nature of his occupation was very precarious he not holding a permanent situation , and it being the time of the panic . However ' with our joint efforts , we had , at the expiration of three years , contrived to save 50 / . ' and with that sum took a very small house and shop in —— for my business as ' straw hat manufacturer , for which -we paid rent 251 . per annum .- * ¦

      " Very shortly after our removal there , my husband discontinued entirely his trade and we lived / from the proceeds of my business , the nature of the same preventing the possibility of a man being either industriously or actively engaged in it . We there continued some short time . I had been very prosperous in that small way and at that period being arrived at the age of twenty-one , I received a small property left me on my mother ' s side : he , as . the law prevents a married woman receiving money without the husband ' s signature , took possession of it . " We then removed to larger business premises , situated in ; and I can affirm excepting in cases of indisposition , I never quitted my business , and frequently in the b ha ked fr siteet h

      usy season ve wor om xn o eigteen hours incessantly . From that time forward I continued increasing my business until we took fresh premises in - for which we paid 210 / . per annum . I ^ vaa at that time making money very rapidly my husband still continuing out of business , and , as necessarily followed , he had the control of my business . I still continued to increase my business largely , making money fast . My husband became extiemely selfish and dissipated ; having by nature a very weak mind , he f ormed bad associations , and from them commenced all the misery of myself and family . He was also exceedingly whimsical in his selfishness indulging himself in everything thai money could procure ; took lessons in writing music ; had a French master , a riding master , and took lessons in swimming went from bad to

      ' Things on worse , until at last it was no uncommon occurrence for him to absent himself for four or Jive months together , returning only in the daytime to take the proceeds of the business . In the year 18— , my husband was supporting two women in one apartment . I discovered the residence of the relatives of one of them , and finally took her to them , hoping she would be prevented continuing the acquaintance . I also took away at the same tim © an iron chest , containing the title-deeds of the various properties he had acquired by my labours—leases of houses , railway stock , East India stock , &c . Ac . ; and I managed , by the kindness of a friend , to keep it secured from him during six months . But at tho end of that time , iuv husband , finding that ho could not get any more dividends , or rents , or money to squander on his paramours , returned to my house , and , after many protestations that all he desired \ vas to live respectably and rctrieye his character , and live with me and our children , of whom we had seven living , I listened to his talc , and gave him hack all his property , or rather mine without any conditions .

      , 11 ns was on a Friday ; and on the Sunday following , whilst I and my children were at church , my husband absented himsel f , having taken with him his personal property , leaving me with my children perfectly destitute ; and from that day to the present time we have never seen him , Ho then converted nil the property into money and left me pennilesa , having sold the lease of the house in which I had carried on business . Here is another case of legal villainy coolly perpetrated : "A respectable woman , named , having been many years in service , hnd saved a considerable sum of money , when she was sought in marriage by u man of suitable ? f « T 5 pl t ^ l ° "I """ * * , and tllcil > wedding shortly took place . She hud given her ^ i ^^ l ^^ , ^ ^ of the redding he said to her , 'I have not such good health I used to have

      as , and do not £ 3 eju ^ Sg wife ; therefore I think you hud better go bocU to service . ' Tho woman , as St bo supposed , in a state of nulignation replied < \ rery well t W | 7 | ^ ^ Sc ™^ , " ! mediately , but give me hack my bank-book . 'Why , ' replied ho , ' as I don ' t feel able to work just now , 1 require the money , but you can go as soon as you like ' So she turned away too heart-broken to speak , left the vagabond , who lmciL irono tlirouKh the marriage ceremony as the only lu ^ al means of obtaining her money and returning to service , has never seen him since . 1 had all this from her own lips . " ' Nay , so ilagrant is the injustice of the present law , that it permits a man to live in idleness on tho earnings of his wife , and at his death to bequeath her money to his illegitimate children !—"A lady whoso husband hud been unsuccessful in business established herself as a milliner in Manchester . After hoiuo ycura of toil aho reiiliml suilideut for tho fumily

      ' 4pttih*N'Fitri&Gt;' ^Luvlluulw

      JCitetaturt

      Untitled Article

      w Critics are not thelegislators , but the j udges ana police of literature . They do not make laws—they interpret and try to enforce them . —Edinburgh Review . ¦ ¦ . ?

      Untitled Article

      Jastuaby 17 , 1857 . ] THE LEADER . 65

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 17, 1857, page 65, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2176/page/17/