On this page

• Text (3)

  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

  • 

    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

    eve ' rjr stage to the utmoafcoE Jospcwec , and , asit is said , made the best speech of the Many ddiyerted in EarcJiament against it . After his retirement from public iife , M * Choker derated himself almost entirely to Kterature , conixibatahg xegBbeA p to * he Quarterly Review , of which he -was , we believej a proprietor . His literary papers were chiefly remarkable for their bitter attacks upon popular authors and authoresses , especially the latter , Lady Morgan , TVfras IBwKiraY , and Miss MAKronBAU being » the special objects of his wrath . His political papers , though sometimes smart , were striking mainly for their peculiar -fcypoffraphical severity . He printed denunciations against his

    opponents in , every variety of type , thundering at them in sentences of italicSj and paragraphs of small capitals . This forcible feeble style of political writing , like the politician who introduced it , and the party whose opinions i t represented , lias already had its day . Mx . Crokbb ' s li terary papers , many of which are interesting , and some , especially those on French history and literature , valua ble , will no doubt be srepublished . He has also left a curious Diary , full -of literary anecdote and political gossip , which from his various connexion and large circle of literary acquaintance , must be interesting and valuabla . This also , we believe , will be published without delay .

    Untitled Article

    MEMORIALS OF CHARLES JAMES FOX . Memorials and Correspondence of Charles James Fox . Edited by Lord John Russell . Vol . TV . Bentley . Lord John Russeju . is resolved to be a man of letters . Some of his friends might wish Jiim to be nothing else . He was not a successful dramatist ; but in bis . Memoirs of the Affairs of Europe he displayed an uncommon faculty for that most difficult and most dignified branch of literary art ,, historical composition . As an editor , however , he has exhibited little more than levity . and indolence . Undertaking to produce the diaries and correspondence of the poet Moore in a form fit for posterity , he published a shapeless , half-intelligible , loosely-constructed book in several volumes , winch might as well have been supervised by the printer ' s foreman . These Memorials of Charles

    James Fox , also , have been incompetently , because carelessly , edited . They . are .-. without arrangement , unity , or connexion ; the chronology is - defective ^ the explanatory notices could not be more meagre ; in fact , Lord John Russell has ill performed his task , and is now painfully alive to the truth . Me amasses a valuable collection of materials for the biography of Fox , and is then seized with the fear that somebody else may attempt to become the biographer . Twice , therefore , in this fourth and last volume of documents inherited from the late Lord Holland and Mr . Allen , he promises a separate work , being a full , methodical , and artistic Life of Mr . Fox , setting forth -the great events of his times , and . discussing at large his public policy . When or how the labour is to be commenced , we know not . Nor can we

    guess . Thomas Moore ' s ' mild and sensible ' Whig Lord is always either a minister of the Crown , or trying to be one ; then how can he be a biofap her ? When will he put away the one ambition and justif y the other ? ot yet , if we may infer any thing from his elaborate attitudinising in the House of Commons , or from the shadow thrown upon the session of 1858 by < the popular idea that Johnny will again upset the coach unless Lord Palmerston strikes high for Reform . As to the ' consecutive narrative , ' then , it is a vague promise ; what we have is a batch of very inconsecutive Memorials * including a large portion of the correspondence carried on by Fox with the public men of his time . But how comes it that , in reality , we never Jhave the great Life of a great statesman ? We have Prior ' s Life of Burke ; we have Thackeray ' s Life of Chatham ; we have N " ' s Life of Burleigh ; vre have Coxe ' s Life of Sir Robert Walpole ; but all these , though useful , . are mediocre . Tomline on Pitt and Trotter on ! Fox are both dull and

    vapid , Moore ' s Iriography of Sheridan is literary rather than political ; Alison ' s compiled Xoie of . Marlbaraugh is a mere abortion- —worse than Mallet ' s ; Lord Brougham ' Lives are no wore than sketches , although what Gibbon would nave termed their ' copious brevity' is infinitely to be preferred to the gigantic diffusion of Dr . Nare , of whose three quarto volumes it was stud that in bulk and specific gravity they exceeded all other human compositions . The Italian criminal who had to choose between the ( galleys and Guicciardini might have been offered Death or Doctor Nare i Giflprd was not . much more successful than Pitt , wjbile as for Thackeray , he was simply an ignoramus ^ who had read some important state-papers . Mackintosh might have written ^ a stately life of a statesman ; Mucaulay might do so ; t > ut it is not for Alison to be more than a Trotter , and it way not be for Lord , John Uuesell to be more than a writer of prefaces and interpolated half p ^ ges . And yet what a delightful book would be a Biography of Charles James h

    Fox , written in a just spirit , althougby a loving hand . A sectarian could not do It ; still less a narrow Whig ; from , a Tory pen it would be a libel ; but frown a * right-minded person' may fate deliver us 1 3 KTo right-minded . person * could compose a biography of < Pox without being essentially wrong in iiis estimate *> f tlrot singular statesman , who , for a quarter of a century stood-at the head of English oratora , and eclipsed aneari y all the men of his own , and the opposite party . He was a paradox ^ Walpole and Gibbon hav-e . told us Uow J » e was addicted to gambling j from Mackintosh ^ we have a . tfcrvid enumeration of bis virtues . Burke declared him a man made to beloved , but 'be traa pointed at by moralists as a desperado abandoned to inexcusable vioeis . But one thing is not and , cannot do denied : he was the type of a patriotic politician , u genuine liberal , the prince of debaters , an enemy of nepotism and corruption . This fourth volume , containing the . correspondence from 1804 to 1806 , besides that with Gilbert Wakefiold—embodying the celebrated character of Porson- —the Duko of Portland , and Mr . TPrfitter , abounds in illustrations of Fox ' a genial , generous , hijgh-spirited nature . Ae Lord John Russell observes , Ma most powerful upeeches , both in routb . i » nd middle age , were made in favour of peace—not cringing peace to l > e pwrcli * edd by dishonour , butpaaocest * bliahed upon magnanimous

    prin--oipletu—When France attempted to destroy the independence of Holland , in 1787 , Mr . Fox applauded the vigour with which Mr . Pitt resisted the design . When Napoleon , flushed with , the victory of Austerlitz , burst all ' the bounds of moderation , Mr . Fox preferred the continuance of the war to dishonourable concession . Still , the favourite predilection of Ha heart was love of peace . Neither the pride which carried the nation forward "in the assertion of dominion over America , nor the passion which sought to punish . the crimes of the French people by the invasion and desolation of France , led him away from the great aim of honourable peace . ' This disposition left him in a small minority in the House of Commons at the beginning of the American war , in a still smaller minority at the commencement and during the course of the French wan The loss of all prospect of power , the invectives of vulgar politicians , he was content to bear- the loss of friends , dearly loved , and of the national confidence , honourably ' . ^ ' ^ ' . . ^ a ^ . ^ ' ^^ ' *^^^ v ^ . ' * * ~* - ^ » -

    acquired , were sacrifices more painful to his heart . But he never faltered , and never swerved from his purpose . The nation , inflamed by animosity , lifted up by arrogance , and deluded by the eloquence of men in power , assailed him as an enemy to his country , because he opposed measures injurious to her interests , and inconsisten t with the great laws which regulate the relations between man and man . In this deluge of folly and of fury , he sought in a return to literary pursuits an occupation and an amusement . Other times may see the renewal of wars as unjust and as imprudent as those which Mr . Fox opposed ; but while the many will be carried away by the prevailing hurricane , those who can keep their feet will recur to his example as that of a great man who preferred the welfare of his country , and of mankind , to the power and popularity which were acquired by the wanton sacrifice of human life , and the disregard of justice , charity , and mercy . By such his memory will be revered to all future

    generations . Lord John Russell ' s opinion is borne out by the letters as well as by the orations of Fox , who , with his pacific inclinations united a large degree of confidence in the geographical insulation of England . When Napoleon ' s project of invasion—the story of which has nowhere been so well described as in the interesting tract Both Sides of the Question on Both Sides of t / ie Channel—was the topic of universal conversation , Fox relied i * pon the difficulty , of escaping the English fleet , and declared the probabilities to be ten to one against Bonaparte ' s succeeding even so far as to effect a landing . "I am bold , very bold , so long as they are on the other side of the water , or made the calcula

    on the seas . " Napoleon , as Lord John Russell says , same - tion on one side as Fox did on the other , and arrived at similar conclusions . In the letters now published we find a strong apology for the coalition , a defence of political combinations in general , frequent bursts of vituperation against the Addington cabinet , and a furious attack tipon Pitt as ' a contemptible minister . ' The ' Doctor' Fox styles a liar , a fool , and a vile fellow , whom he took pleasure ' in hunting down , ' and to whom he longed to give ' his death blow . ' He was very free in his criticisms upon the acts of public men , and with as much truth as candour spoke of Nelson ' s conduct at Naples as ' atrocious . '

    Memorials are not to be read in fragments , but in detail . They are vivid illustrations of English history , public and private , and while we wait for Lord John Russell ' s Biography of Charles Jaines JFox , we may study in these four volumes the characteristics of a nature from the rareness and nobility of which little detraction must be made even on the score of the fact that Fox borrowed money from Jews to pay his gambling debts , and was not above ( or below ) enjoying a draught from the vintage of the Rhine , the Douro . or the Blue Moselle .

    Untitled Article

    HETCFREY'S COURSE OF BOTANY . An Elementary Course of Botany , Structural , Physiological , and Systematic . By Arthur Henfrey , F . R . S ., L . S ., &c . Van Voorst . It is very important that elementary works should be written by masters , not by compilers And tyros . This reads like a truism , yet the state of our elementary literature proves that , if a truism , it is constantly slighted . There is abundant Ignorance pretending to enlighten Ignorance , especially in Botany ; and although there are several solid excellent works , these are as units to hundreds compared with the so-called popular treatises . We

    have < mueh pleasure , therefore , in receiving the JWementai'v Course just published by Professor Henfrey . Among the scientific botanists of the day he holds a distinguished place ; . and the hand of a master is visible in every page of this dear , calm , pregnant exposition , although the power is implied rather than displayed , " A compendious manual of a science makes peculiar demands upon the powers of' an author , " he justly remarks . " Originality of matter has little place . The exercise of judgment , and conscientiousness in examination of original sources , are everywhere demanded ; and these are of course most beneficially employed' when they rest upon an extensive basis of practical experience . " Thorough mastery of his subject , both with , reference to what others have done , and with reference also to

    original investigation , Professor Henfrey may fairly claim ; and this mastery is accompanied by the rarer faculty ^ of brief lucid exposition , which carries the student without fatigue and without equivoque into the very heart of the subject . The first part is devoted to an exposition of the Morphology—or Comparative Anatomy—of Plants ; in which , all the organs and their multitudinous modifications are described . The second port sets forth the principles of Systematic Botany , with the Classifications , natural and artificial , of Plants . The third part treats of th © Physiology of Plants , including their Physiological Anatomy , which is distinguished from the Comparative Anatomy treated of in the first part by having special reference to the funotions assigned to the organs , instead of reference to their form only . This , which embraces Cell-life—Absorption—Diffusion of Fluid—Food—Elaboration of Food—Development and Secretion—Reproduction—Luminosity- —Heat—Motions of Plants , &c ., will bo studied with great interest . The last partdevoted to Geographical and Geological Botwny—is also of fascinating interest .

    "Wo have said that ; tho exposition . is quifce remarkable for its lucidity ; but the moat lucid language will remain dark to the student unless aided by diagrams and figures . The present volume , produced with the elegance whiuh distinguishes all Mr . Van Voorst ' s , publications , contains no loss than five hundred and forty-six illustrations , which is very nearly one to every page of letterpress . As a text book for etudent 8 we know of no work at one © so excellent , convenient , and cheap .

    Untitled Article

    7 g £ THE Ii ! EAI ^ E-EL [ No . 386 , August 15 , 1857 . **^^^^ " ^*^^^^^^^ .. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^¦^^ . ¦^^^^ B ^^^^ BMi ^^^ MMM ^ B ^^ MMBB ^^^^ MMB ^ M ^^^ BHUHPW ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ W ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^ ¦ ¦ ¦

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 15, 1857, page 786, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2205/page/18/