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Leader (1850-1860), 18th July 1857, Edition 1 of 2, Page 690

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      sympathy with honest Dogbbkey ? The evidence for such a supposition is purely internal ; but the zeal with , which they insist , by implication , that they -are not only wise men , hut ' what is more ,, officers , ' who know the law , and wash ' to be correctly written down in the record , seems almost to justify such 3 . suwnisei . Supposing this to be the case , it may ,-perhaps * explain the total absenceofiiumouc they evince . During the Erench Revolution the Girondists were . accused of federalism , the signification of which the judges themselves did not well understand , and one of them , on being asked what it meant , replied , " He was no grammarian ,, but it sounded like a very heinous crime . " So the Saturday [ Reviewers being no humorists * , and not exactly understanding the

      Circumlocution Office , decide , in the jiame Way , that it sounds very like a crime . On the strength of that amusing chapter , entitled « The whole Art of Government , ' they solemnly denounce the author as hostile to the institutions of the country ; ,, and as the great corrupter of youth within the realm . The only parallel we know to suck a solemn farce is lord Donotjghkobe ' s motion in the Peers to . bring the publisher of the Examiner before their Lordships' bar for breach of privilege . We don't know -whether his Lordship belongs to the ' staff of our contemporary , but from the speech he delivered on that occasion we strongly suspect he must .. Surely none but a . Saturday Reviewer woiild have thought a pleasant ironical sketch on "a living peer a fit subject for

      Parliamentary interference . The Saturday Review favours us with a formal statement of its political -creed . After a not very brilliant attempt at wit , the critic relapses into the seriate strain which , is natural to him—and to which , if we might venture a-¦ hint to a gentleman of such parts and education , we should recommend him for the future to . adhere—and . thinks it ' not . immaterial to give a more serious answer to the charge in question . ' Then follows the political confession of faith—a series of truisms > of whichi perhapSj the most striking sentence is the following : " We do not pique ourselves on being the sons of fools , the grandsons of jobbers * and the great-grandsons of slaves . " Whether that can be fairly called a very lively or peculiar faith we leave our readers to determine .

      " We have not space to adduce in detail the decisive evidence the article affords : of our contemporary ' s sectarian spirit , of the narrow andi conventional ground , occupied by the , Saturday Reviewers , and the deep-seated ( so deepseated , apparently , as to be unconscious ) contempt they have for public opinioni . One point may suffice . They continually talk throughout the article of some imaginary elique , of whioh , however , they don't appear to have any very definite idea . What do they really mean by the term ? It seems in their mouths to be used with considerable latitude , and , in fact , to be employed - as a synonym for literary men in general- ^ -a conclusion which a glance at the articles confirms . -For tliat must certainly be a singular and . rather extensive clique that includes Mr . Dickens and his admirers , Mr . Thackeray and his hearers , Mr . Jebjrcxld and his friends , the Times newspaper and ourselves , with the daily and weekly press in general . The term seems to

      embrace the whole reading and writing public except the Saturday Reviewers . The Saturday Reviewers are , in fact , the world , and the whole world beside a clique . This is the kind of inverted vision common to self-absorbed and self-sufficient minds . It is the old story of the tliree tailors of Tooley-street— "We , the people of England , " &c . What idea the Saturday critic really forms of the people of England may be seen from the closing paragraph of his article , in which he states that " the author who is beyond all comparison the most popular and one of the most influential writers of the day , " is at the same time " the most distinguished buffoon of society . " That one sentence sufficiently reveals the respect the author has for publio opinion , and ) the kind of notion he cherishes of the taste and feeling possessed by the vast majority of his countrymen . The Saturday Review pronounces the severest sentence on itself .

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      The last number of the British Quarterly Revieio contains a long and interesting , article on ' Bishop Berkeley ,, his Lifo and Writings . ' It is a vivid biographical sketch of one who combined a subtle intellect with the most active benevolence ,, and wlno , to the meditativo calm of the philosopher , added the missionary zoal of an apostle . The paper is interspersed throughout with keen and genial criticisms of Beekelex ' s philosophical and scientific views . The article on the ' French Romances of the Thirteenth Century , ' is 41 graphic , picturesque rfaurai of the traditions that at the dawn of modern literature filled xnedieoval lEurope with talc and song . The number also contains a valuable papor , entitled ' Contemporary Notices of Shukspcaro/—a more minute and detailed summary of the materials that exist for a worthy biography of the great poet than lms-yct appeared .

      The National Review , as usual , contains a number of superior articles , of which those on ' London Street Architecture , ' ' Critical Theories on the Fourth Gospel , ' 'Lord Brougham , ' and ' The Now Parliament , ' are tho most striking , and elaborate .

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      LIFE OF GEORGE STJSJPHENSON . The Li / b qf George / Stephenson , Railway Engineer . By Smnuol Sniilos . Murray . In many respects this is o . valuable , work . To philosophical readers it furnishes striking illustrations of the causes which obstruct great movements , social and , scientific : to rnorit struggling in obscurity against corporate ignorance and vested prejudice , it rends a noble lesson of encouragement and . consolation ; to young men , faltering , it gives lessons whioh should

      supply fresh vigour ; to all men interested in the history and development of our commercial civilization it presents a series of facts of great siimificance ; while to the mere reader for amusement it furnishes a story no ? less romantic and adventurous than that of many an exciting 1 novel . Mr . Smiles has executed this task , wbicli was a difficult one , with great skill , and unobtrusive effect . The earlier chapters , especially , are in the best style of biography ; and if in the latter part he has allowed biography to give place to history—Stephenson to Railways—there were probably private reasons for this ; and at any rate his history of Railways is full of interest . The only objection we should make to the work , assuming that the deficiency of biographical treatment in the latter part is no fault of his , would be to the frequent and often tiresome repetitions . If before printing a second edition

      he would carefully go over the work , and strike out all those passages which occur more than once without justification of the repetition , lie would greatly improve it . ' Further , we should desire an occasional explanation . To persons familiar with collieries there is no need to explain what a Brakesman' is ; but for ourselves , we must confess the most profound ignorance of the function performed by that individual . And the same may be said of several other technical details freely scattered through the work . It would be desirable also to explain the principle and method adopted by Stephenson in effecting his grand paradoxical achievement of a road through . Chat Moss . At present we are left to guess , from an incidental phrase , that Stephenson having conceived the brilliant idea of floating the railway , as goods are floated in a ship , carried out his idea by making a floating road : but koto he made that road is not plain , to non-engineering minds .

      Deep and permanent is the interest excited by this wondrous story of genius . No one can read unmoved the early struggles of this remarkable character—for it was character more than pure intellect which made the greatness of George Stephenson—as they are narrated in this work . The continuous effort , the persistent valour , the daring ingenuity and ever-active intellect of this colliery boy , teaching himself , gradually making bis value felt by all around him , and finally raising himself to one of the noblest positions in life—that of a great benefactor to mankind—these must be studied in the simple pages of this Biography . The moral lessons of his life are as pregnant as were the scientific inventions of his genius . He owed nothing to luck , to patronage , to the advantages of education , but all to valour and virtue . He was essentially a man of noble character : self-denying ,

      farthoughted , steadfast in will . He had to teach himself everything , he had to conquer every inch of the ground whereon be stood ; and his conquests were not facile , for arrayed against him were , first , his own ignorance , which ! had to be subdued by silent , persistent endeavour ; secondly , the Whole body of engineers and men of science , who had to be silenced by success . There is something _ tragic in witnessing the hostility and prejudice which obstructed his efforts . The whole corporate prejudice of the scientific world opposed him , partly because it invariably , and by sheer necessity , opposes all true novelties ; partly because the innovator was an ' interloper ' —he was not ' one of us '—he had never received an engineer ' s educationhe was not even a man of ' liberal education , ' yet he proposed to do what all the engineers of England demonstrated to be impossible ; and what he

      proposed to do , he did . If men could be thoroughly enlightened by examples , the mere example presented by the examination of engineers before Parliament respecting the feasibility of travelling on Railways at a speed of twelve miles an hour ( utterly ridiculous !) , and of making a road over Chat Moss ( demonstrabl e impossible !) , would suffice for ever to smooth the inventor ' s path , and clear it of the impediments thrown there by corporate prejudice . Unhappily , such examples do not ^ enlighten men ; or but very faintly ; and a very striking illustration of this inefficacy ^ is afforded by the conduct of Mr . Robert Stephenson in the recent discussion of the tubular drainage system advocated by Messrs . Chadwick and Ward . George Stephenson had a new idea , which ( having partially carried it out in practice ) he called upon the public to adopt extensively . But he was

      no engineer , and all the scientific engineers jpoo / i-poohed him . lliey would not examine his experiments ; they would not admit his facts . He was a ' wild theorist , ' an interloper . No one can have been more thoroughly impressed with the injustice of this corporate opposition than the son of the man thus opposed ; yet this very son , trained as an engineer , and formingone of that very body which had in its arrogance laughed at and opposed his father , brought all the weight of hid name and influence to sii |)]> ort a , brother engineer against Mr . Ward , who was likewise twitted with being ' an amateur , ' a ' literary man , ' ' a theorist , ' anum ' unversed in engineering , ' and so forth . The vital part of the question not being by any means what was Mr . Ward ' s profession , but what was the value of hia proposition ? When we see the son of George Stephenson employing tho same tactics in

      the cause of professional cxclusiveness , which had so long and with such humiliating results been employed against his father , wo may almost despair of men gathering wisdom-on sueh points from experience And yet wo do not despair . The progress of the race is slow , but it is sure . Each new story , such ns that of George Stephenson , furnishes fresh influence ; ifc suggests , to many minds at least , tho danger of tictivcly thwarting innovators , however ' wild' their schemes may bo ; it suggests to all minds tho inherent vice of corporate bodies , which arc necessarily tho incorporation of inodiocritios nnd tho status quo . Nor do such suggestions keep within tho circle of science . In the pages of Mr . Smiles tho politician will road many an instructive illustration of the follies and vices of governing classes— -the selfishness of their opposition to . Railways being only equalled by the selfishness of their acquiescence In this , as indeed iu all rospocts , the present work is thoroughly democratic ; in this , and in all respects , it is a work of permanent worth .

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      THE POSITION OF WOMEN . The Industrial and Sooiul Position ( f Woman . Chapman nnd Hall . Tub position and prospects ^ of women in connexion with their capapities , intellectual and social , receive ample consideration in this somewhat voluminous addition to tlio arguments in favour of female advancement—a cause repeatedly , and for tlio most part inadequately discussed , alternately by tho

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      6 m THE LEADEB . [ BTo » . 382 y Jtojt 18 , 1857 .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), July 18, 1857, page 690, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2201/page/18/