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Leader (1850-1860), 6th February 1858, Edition 1 of 2, Page 140

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      140 THE L E ADEB . [ No . 411 , February 6 , 1858 .

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      satisfactory ; but such a question should not be hastily decided . Mr . Bannister says : — . That Paterson wrote the book embodying these views will be proved by . a chain , of evidence seldom found in cases of disputed authorship or anonymous books ; and it is not improbable that some of the links of the chain , quite new , it is thought , to observation , may help the solution of other enigmas still met -with in our political literature —such , for example , as the authorship of the ' Letters of Junius . ' From the work itself we quote one remarkable passage : — " Those dissolute people , " he says , " called beggars are a sort of thieves ; for , although they be somewhat more tame and familiar with us , yet are they really but

      another cut of thieves . By this we mean only such as make begging the whole or any part of their trade or business . For there is no douit but one man not only may , but hath a right to beg or desire a favour of another , in a strait or difficulty , or upon an emergency ; but that anything of mankind should make this their business , or any part thereof , is not only contrary to justice , but to all good order among men . Indeed , it is wonderful to think that ever anything that looks like or pretends to be a government of men , but especially of Christians , who pretend to be the best and wisest of men , should allow such a disorder to human society as a professed trade of begging ; especially since people and their industry not only are the truest and most solid riches of a prince or state , but in respect of them all other things are but

      ima-Paterson ' s new plan of attack upon Spanish America , his intercourse with the King , his controversy with John Law on paper money , his election as member of Parliament for Dumfries , the disgraceful behaviour to him of Queen Anne , the decay of his private fortune , his social habits , and his struggle in Parliament for an indemnity , furnish Mr . Bannister with the materials of a very interesting narrative , much of which will be new to the ordinary reader . The indemnity was at length granted , and he then originated the Sinking Fund . Mr . Bannister thus winds up the story : — In early youth he had quitted home under hard persecution , but it sent him forth equal to his struggle of life almost alone .

      In manhood , every check in his prosperous career seemed to constitute only a starting-point for higher objects . When impeded , both in the Bank of England and the Orphan Bank , he turned with extraordinary vigour to the Darien enterprise . When that was ruined , he applied with equal vigour to the home improvement of Scotland , and to defeat erroneous views of finance . When the Union , so much his work , proved barren to him of personal benefits , he devoted years to his pen , and with eminent success . It was only now , with declining strength , and with an awful ruin full before his eyes , when the vast majority of his followers were stone-blind , that he sank into his grave , crushed , with his late recovered fortune , by Treasury mismanagement , and sick at heart at witnessing the triumph of errors he was unable to check .

      This biography of William Paterson , intrinsically valuable and interesting to all classes , is peculiarly welcome as a book for the instruction and encouragement of the young .

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      MR . BAGEHOT'S ESSAYS . Estimates of some Englishmen and Scotchmen . A Series of Articles Reprinted by Permission principally from the National Review . By Walter Bagehot . Chapman and Hall . Mb . Bagewot ' s Essays , now reprinted , are nine in number . Their subjects are various . From the first Edinburgh Reviewers they turn to William Cowper , who is followed by Edward Gibbon . Bishop Butler takes precedence of William Shakspeare , considered as an individual . A sketch of Shelley leads in an estimate of Hartley , Coleridge , and Sir Robert Peel and Mr . Macaulay bring up the rear of the procession . Examining the book to discover the reasons of its publication , we find them , of a peculiar character . Mr . Bagehot is not a master of style . He writes loosely , vaguely , and upon a common level . Nor is he an authority in criticism . A certain flippancy and habit of superficial investigation are his disqualifying attributes . But he gossips cheerfully on literary and biographical topics , and is not a fatiguing writer . As a republication , his work calls for no lengthened treat ; ment ; but we notice two or three points illustrative of Mr . Bagehot ' s manner . He is speaking of the ancients as a past-away race : —

      They are dead . ' So am not I , said the foolish fat scullion . We are the English of the present day . We have cows and calves , cora and cotton ; we hate the Russians ; we know where the Crimea is ; we believe in Manchester the great . A large expanse is around us ; a fertile land of corn and orchards , and pleasant hedgerows , and rising trees , and noble prospects , and largo black woods , and old church towers . The din of great cities comes mellowed from afar . The green fields , the half-hidden hamlets , the gentle leaves , soothe us with ' a sweet inland murmur . ' We have before us a vast seat of interest , and toil , and beauty , and power , and this our own . Here is our home . An essay in this style is more easily written than read . If Gibbon , as an autobiogiapher , forgot the difference between himself and the Roman Empire , Mr . Bagehot sometimes forgets the difference between humour and mere trifling . Quoting Macaulny , who says—With the dead there is no rivalry . In the dead there is no change . Plato is never

      sullen . Cervantes is never petulant . Demosthenes never comes unseasonably . Dante never stays too long . No difference of political opinion , can alienate Cicero . No heresy can excite the horror of Bossuet—Mr . Bagehot appends : — But Bossuet is dead ; nnd Cicero was a Roman ; and Plato wrote in Greek . Years and manners separate us from the great . After dinner , l > omosthcnes may come unseasonably ; Dante might stay too long . We are alienated from the politician , and have a horror of the theologian . Drcudful idea , having Demosthenes for an intimuto friend ! He had pebbles in his mouth ; ho was always urging action ; ho spoke such good Greek ; wo cannot dwell on it—it is too much . We are to meet with a like this . When applying a

      biosorry passage graphical microscope to the incidents of Shttkspeare s life , Mr . Bagehot announces as a discovery , after quoting the poet ' s description of a hunt , we knew that he had boon after a lrare ? Then , Slutkapoaro was * an out-ofdoor man ; ' a worldly man , \ because ho succeeded in the world ; ' ho ' had an enormous specific acquaintance with the common people . ' In ' spiritedness , ' his stylo is very like to that of Shakspeare / Ono passage we will quote at large to show what manner of Essayist wo bavo hero ;—How aro you to know pooplo without talking to thorn , but how aro you to talk to thorn without tiring youraolf ? A common man la exhausted in half an hour ; Scott or Shakespeare could havo gone on for a wholo day . This ia , perhaps , peculiarly

      necessary for a painter of English life . The basis of our national character seems to be a certain energetic humour , which may be found in full vigour in old Chaucer ' s time , and in great perfection in at least one of the popular writers of this age , and which is , perhaps , most easily described by the name of our greatest painter—Hogarth . It is amusing tosce how entirely the efforts of critics and artists fail to naturalize in England any other sort of painting . Their efforts are fruitless ; for the people painted are not English people : they may be Italians , or Greeks , or Jews , but it is quite certain that they are foreigners . We should not fancy that modern art ought to resemble the mediaeval . So long as artists attempt the same class of paintings as Raphael , they will not only be inferior to Raphael , but they will never please , as they might please , the English people . What we want is what Hogarth gave us—a representation of ourselves . It may be that we are wrong , that we ought to prefer

      something of the old world , some scene in Rome or Athens , some tale from Carmel or Jerusalem ; but , after all , we do not . These places are , we think , abroad , and had their greatness in former times ; we wish a copy of what now exists , and of what we have seen . London we know , and Manchester we know , but where are all these ? It is the same with literature , Milton excepted , and even Milton can hardly be called a popular writer : all great English writers describe English people , and in describing them , they give , as they must give , a large comic element ; and , speaking generally , this is scarcely possible , except in the case of cheerful and easy-living men . There is , no doubt , a biting satire , like that of Swift , which has for its essence misanthropy . There is the mockery of Voltaire , which is based on intellectual contempt ; but this is not our English humour—it is not that of Shakespeare and Falstaff ; ours is the humour of a man who laughs when he speaks , of flowing enjoyment , of an

      experiencing nature . There is pleasant reading in this volume , but the Essays are not so solid or so brilliant as to have deserved reproduction in a permanent form .

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      ROYAL PRINCESSES . The lioyal Princesses of England , from the Reign of George the First . By Mrs . Matthew Hall . Eoutledge . These presents are biographical sketches of fifteen English princesses , from Sophia Dorothea , daughter of George I ., and Queen of Prussia , to Victoria Louisa . The last should have been omitted . It contains literally nothing but digression and platitude . The following are the incidents : — The Princess is born on the 21 st of November , 1840 , christened on the 10 th of February , 1841 , taken to Deal in 1 * , and to Balmoral in 1844 , has been educated , visited Belgium in 1852 , was at the opening of the Great Exhibition , saw the Duke of Wellington ' s funeral , has been to Paris , and to the Hanover-square Rooms , has been confirmed—when ^ is not statedand is now married ! All this should have been noticed in ten lines . Of the other princesses , the accounts are more full and interesting . That of

      Sophia Dorothea , whom Wraxall describes as more beautiful than Sterne s Eliza , is precisely the sort of narrative to be popular . Anne of Hanover , who was resolved to marry the Prince of Orange even if lie were a monkey ; the Princess Amelia , who shut up Richmond Park , and was herself shut in by Mr . Bird ; the Princess Caroline , who secretly supported half the poor prisoners in London ; the Princess Caroline Matilda , who , to believe her contemporaries , was made of honey , coral , and alabaster , and others , form the subjects of lively and well-written notices . There are too many , however , of the Court Newsman ' s elaborations . The marriage of Charlotte Augusta Matilda with the Prince of Wurtemberg furnishes several pages of ° newspaper frivolity . After the peach-coloured suit of the bridegroom , the white and gold suit of the bride , and the ' dark-brown suit , richly embroidered' of his Majesty have been described , we are informed as follows : —

      The Queen then entered , attended by the officers of hor household . Her Majesty was dressed in white , with a profusion of diamonds . The Prince of Wales was next in the procession , attended by the officers of his establishment . The dress of his Royal Highness was a sky-blue , richly embroidered down the seams , and decorated with a diamond star and epaulette . The Princess of Wales , in a silver tissue train , with purple , lilac , and green . trimmings , followed her Koyal husband , conducted by the Earl of Cholmouileley . The Duke of York , in a full-dress suit of regimentals , and his Royal Duchess in an elegant dress—the body and train of lilac silver tissue , and the petticoat magnificently embroidered —next appeared , and were followed by tho Princesses , in white , according to their seniority . The Duko of Gloucester and Prince William were in full uniform , and the Princess Sophia displa } ed a neat and elegant dress . Nevertheless , the volume is creditable and timely .

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      THE STUDENT'S MANUAL OF GEOLOGY . The Student ' s Manual of Geology . By J . Beete Jukes , M . A ., F . R . S ., &e . Edinburgh ; Adam and Charles Black . It is now four or five years since Mr . Jukes published his useful work entitled Popular Physical Geology . In the meantime he has not been idle . In conjunction , he tells us , with the Into Professor Edward Forbes , ho was requested to prepare the article on Geology for the Encyclopedia Jlritaii'nica , but that distinguished Professor dying before tho plan hud been sketched out , tho wholo exposition of this interesting science was entrusted to Mr . Jukes . It was the chief merit of hia last work that the subjects wero well arranged , distinctly specified , and popularly illustrated . Although pjleruig nothing now as lav as discovery or experiment went , tho book btill evidenced originality in its form and manner of treatment . In tliu volume now under notice , tho Hi ' udeul ' s Manual , Mr . Jukes has been careful to muk 0 it ns complete as the limits ho nssignod to himself would jiurnut ; but , unfortunately , it has boon rendered too bulky by tho introduction of vnnecoBsiiry' riBWTTffil ~ th ^~ pT 6 T ^^ sciences . The scheme of tho book , it is true , is comprehensive . -M- ' - Jukes intends it to be preliminary to tho study of tho Principles of ( j '? ° { ° ffl > by Sir Charles JLyall ; nor does ho wish it to supplant tho labours ol l » ulipps , Do la Beone , Ansted , Portlook , and Page , nor oven of those great works of . Murchiaon and" others who Imve treated of more special portions oi geology . Tho student , by carefully studying the present iminuiil , will » ° able to understand tho preceding writers on Geology ; it forum , in *' > ° key by which lie may unlock their cabinets of scientiHc treasure , or , more properly etUl , it is ft guide by which he will bo able to urruiigo in his

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 6, 1858, page 140, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2229/page/20/