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Leader (1850-1860), 15th January 1859, Edition 1 of 2, Page 79, Untitled Article

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      Untitled Article

      and ordinances , and to delegate the power of making the latter sometimes to Ministers , sometimes to local executives , sometimes to municipalities . Ihe payment of members is contended for in a bold and practice strain . The seduction of honest members by false titles to bills is censured ; -and while advocating short or even annual parliaments tlie author demands that the influence given to Ministers over members ¦ bv their power of dissolution should be abolished . He concludes by observing that " any such recurrence of elections as shall force him to give frequent account of his stewardship . will be alarming to none but to the incompetent , the dishonest , or the wayward and selfwilled representative . " A good and elaborate paper / signed S . EL—why not in full , pray ?) on the report inter alia

      of the Army Medical Commission replies , , at length to an excellent paper by Mr . F . G . Neisoii , ¦ which appeared in our columns , and properly advances the necessity of recognising and cultivating military hygiene as a science . The number also comprises a medical paper on " Anaesthetics , " and reviews -of Garlyle ' s Friedrich II ., " . "Spiritual Destitution in England , "" The Religious Policy of Austria , " and " Kecent Cases of Witchcraft . " Thk British Quarterly Review . —This number is rich in articles of interest to " reading men /' The first in order- ^ " Physical and Moral Heritage , " though bearing an uninviting title , treats learnedly , yet p leasingly , of hereditary vices , virtues , and

      qualities , and maladies of body and mind . Ihe passage on the hereditary results of intoxication is a startling one . " Bbiingbrdke " is a political sketch of meritj and the paper oh " Russian Serfdom " arid the enfranchisement movement , which affects fully a third of Russia ' s population , throws more valuable light on a subject that has hitherto been sparingly noticed in this country , though it has more than once been treated in our own columns . A sound critical article upon Professor Masson ' s - " Life of Milton , " of which the first volume follows the poet no farther than his thirty-first year , leads us to imagine that . - ' the complete work will be a valuable contribution as well to historical as- to

      biographical literature . " France and England" comprehends a sketch of the French Bar , with remarks on its leading ornaments and their independence . This is followed by a history of the recent massacre of the French press , a well-written though intemperate diatribe agaiust the Imperial regime , and a review of the Montalembert cuse . Some sound observations On our own colonial and domestic policy conclude the paper . The reviewer advocates reasonlike wiser

      able extension of the franchise , but , men , is puzzled to say what ' extension . He hopes fora razzia upon the rotten or pocket-boroughs which still enciumber the parliamentary roll , and that the country will not a second time be deluded into strengthening territorial power at the expense of the other classes . The number ends with a good review of C arlyle ' s Friedrich II ., " in which that writer is gravely censured for faults in style , philosophy , and Frederick-worship .

      Untitled Article

      RAILWAY LAW . A Handbook of Itailwag Law . By Arthur Moore . W . H . Smith and Sons . Railways , the railway system , and its interests have become of vast importance to the country , both nationally and individually . From the old tramways previously existing for about fifty years , and those only suited for goods , coal , and other mineral traffic , it was so recently as the year 1826 , when the ^ flrst company , incorporated by the Act 7 Gco . IV ., c . xlix . for constructing a railway for general traffic ( the Liverpool and } Vlartchester ) , was established , that the germ of the now gigantic network of iron spread

      over the area of the United Kingdom , and extended to almost every part of the world , was initiated . This line , the first completed one , about thirty-two miles in length , was opened in September , 1830 , the ovent being rendered doubly memorable by its being the first completed railway in the empire , and by its -attendant fatality in the loss of Mr . Huskisson , one of our most distinguished statesmen . In the thirty-eight years from 1821 , when tho-fl ret act of the Stockton and Darlington lino was passed , to 1858 , inclusive , railway legislature may be said to have originated and to have been continuously developed , no loss than 1 G 86 spoeiul railway acts

      having been paased in that period . Oi thoao , 1 * were for railways in England aud Wales , 27 U for Scotland , and 150 for Ireland , Nearly in t he same poriod the extent of railways has ineroaeod from 82 miles to 911 G miloH , and open for traffic alone in the United Kingdom at the end of 1857 , besides nearly one-fourth of the lattur numbur in course of construction or authorised . The amount of capital invested ip those undertakings has Inoroased from 1 , 092 , 000 / . ( tho capital on amalgamation of the present railway from Liverpool to Manchester above noted ) to the vast aggregate of 377 , 767 ^ 07 / ., authorised to bo raised up to 1 st January , 1857 . Of this sum 308 , 775 , 894 / . had been RotUftUy raised at that date , leaving only

      Untitled Article

      FREDERICK THE GKKAT AND IIIS MERCHANT . Frederick the Great ami his Merchant . Two vols . From the German Translation . By Liuly Wallace * R . Bentley . Tiiis incidents are founded on fact ; we havo verification by numerous foot-notes , which afford us extracts from works of recognised authority . The Berlin banker Gotachosky was a celebrated character in L ' niflsiun history during the Seven Years' War . In the form of a novel , we have placed before us tho loading events of his brilliant career and disastrous ending . Wo loam tho services ho rendered to tho great and powerful , tho substantial benefits he conferred upon Itis country , and the general ingratitude ho eventually reaped . The lovo story woven into tho history we presume is intended , to relievo the dryness of biographical narrative . This novel is quite wortli a place in our circulating libraries .

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      THUS TOWN . The Town : its Memorable Characters and F . ventt . By JLelyh lilunl-. ' Smith , Elder , ami Co . Tma new and ronmrknbly cheap edition of Leigh Hunt ' s delightful gossip about The Town will not fail to meet with tho lurge patronage it deserves . Gifted with a degree of observant power that fulls not to tho lot of every man , impregnated with graceful illustrative lore , aud clear of . antiquarian

      or topographical pedantry , the author takes his reader by the hand at St . Paul ' s , and parts company with him at St . James ' s . Between these parallels lays that portion of the metropolis which ,, in . days gone by , was wont to be designated " The Town " par excellence , and which is yet so esteemed in most circles of wit and taste . He has charmingly focussed his lantern ' s gentle ray upon the most remarkable characters and events associated with the precincts

      of the Cathedral , Fleet-street , the Strand , Lincoln ' s Inn , Covent-garden , the Playhouses , Leicestersquare , Whitehall , and St . James ' s Park . As his magical slides follow one another , we are introduced in turn to the fair , the brave , the witty , and the wise of the past , whose spirits—we almost think as we read—must still delight to haunt the beloved purlieus where the once loud echoes of their mortal footsteps have long been fused into the din of successive generations .

      Turning over at random the leaves before us , we meet the names of Lord Herbert of Chesbury , Ben Jonson * Nell Gwynn , Lord Essex , the Kit-Cat Club , Abraham Cowley , Pepys , the two Villierses , Mrs . Centlivre , Lord Craven , and the Queen of Bohemia . These have all in their day been " people about town . " They have passed from the flesh , it is true , but , thanks to Leigh Hunt , the reader may yet look for many a pleasant quarter of an hour in their company .

      Untitled Article

      MILDRED NORMAN . Mildred Norman . By a Working Man . Longman and Co . We wish we could persuade ourselves that this work was really written by one of the labouring classes , or what-we understand to be a " working man . " We think there is sufficient internal evidence to warrant us in saying tliat , although Xfildred Norman may not be by a professional literary hand , it is certainly the production of some one in a higher grade than that of the artisan class . The first chapters of the work pleased us the best . They led us to expect we should have reliable revelations ; of the inner life of the poor man , his trials , home privations , and worldl y * or rather social , troubles ; but the end disappointed us .

      John Norman * the cobbler , and his tvro daughters , Mildred and Mabel , are well sketched , and true , in the main , to the life . So are some of the scenes and characters in Petticoat-lane , ratlier over-coloured , however , but quite in keeping with the introductory chapters , and with what we at first conjectured was the object of the work . But after the tale departs from its original path , and enters upon the well-explored regions of melodramatic incident , the special interest subsides into one of a . common-place character , and the conclusion brings something very like a disappointment . Mildred has a religious turn . -She talks and . nets Scripture with the unction of a . Methodist preacher . Mabel becomes the victim .

      of a missionary , and attempts , suicide . She is rescued by a family named Morris , who are about to emigrate to Australia , and who on hearing her pitiful history , induce her to accompany them . Mildred , on the sudden death of her father , comes into a large property in low lodging-houses in the neighbourhood of Petticoat-lane , left her by a stranger , her landlady . ' Mildred assumes the lady of fortune with rather too much readiness . She visits her tenants , and , in particular , a low thieves' publicr house ; and here , we arc told , she was so horrified at the language and scenes she witnessed—although the one and the other must have been thoroughly familiar to her all her life— -that she directs her

      agent to refuse a renewal of the lease , and to shut up the house . There are several other parts of the work which want the charm of verisimilitude ; we also think tho religious element is rather too prominently , and certainly , in some cases , inefficiently , introduced . Let tin ' wri t er , if ho be a *• working man , " confine himself in future worksfor it is not likely this will bo the last—to his experience of his own class , or that class which wo are apt to consider as constituting the lowest rank of working lifo , and then wo may promise ourselves and tho public something striking , original , and instructive .

      Untitled Article

      JAPAN AND HER PEOPLE . Japan and her People . By Andrew Stoinmotz . With numoroud Illustrations . Koutledgo and Co . Rkoknt evonts have brought Japan and her social wonder * prominently before the English public . Tho late treaty lms turned commercial attention to this secluded quarter of tho globe , and wo may be sure , wherever tho British merchant succeeds in planting his foot , that mystory and oxelusivonoss will speedily disappear . Mr . Stoinniotr ^ doos not conoouHho faofc that his book is only'a compilation , lio has anticipated tho public appetite for furihor and luller iatonnation rolivtivo to Japan , her pooplo , her institution * , ami her peculiarities ; he has , with much patience and labour , collected tho oldest and the newest works , and lias condensed their spirit into

      Untitled Article

      68 , 992 , 013 / . ' then to be supplied . The total amount ( which has been since increased for additional lines and additional-works ) Is' equal to half our national debt , enough , according to recent calculations , to pay off the entire debt of the French empire , and leave a surplus nearly equal to the combined debts of Austria and Russia , and to the debts of all the European states put together .. More than one hundred and thirty millions of persons travel over these railways in a year , so that head this

      the cost arid outlay of about 3 ? . a on number of passengers , will thus be found to have been necessary to provide them with this accommodation . The railway system , almost endless in its ramifications , may be in some measure comprehended , from the fact that , independently of shareholders and persons employed in the manufacture of ir = ori and other materiel necessary to their construction and working , there are 133 , 000 paid officers and servants attached to the existing companies , including directors and auditors . ' .

      « Before 1840 , " writes Mr . Moor , the author of the work Under notice , " there was no general legislation relative to railways . " " Railways , " he continues * " had been previously established , and to some extent regulated by the special acts authorising their construction ; and in 1838 , provision was made for making such and future railways available for the Post-office service ; " but it was not till 1840 that it was considered " expedient for the safety of the public to provide for the due supervision of railways , " by a general law , so far as that end could then be accomplished by it . " The insufficiency and imperfections of this and others of the earliest statutes passed through the growth of the railway system are sufficiently shown by the extent and nature of subsequent legislation , which affords also at the same time ample evidence of the rapid expansion of the system . "

      The large number of special railway acts to which reference has been made have therefore been increased by the various statutes which , in relation to ' the " -. general law of railways have been necessarily and wisely passed since 1840 . . Having in view the large number of statutes now in existence , the " variety and repeated alterations of railway law , and being practically compelled to deal with the difficulties consequent upon them , the

      author ( who is also Secretary of the'Dublin . and AYieklow , and Kingstown Railways ) has produced the present publication . His modest and well-directed aim is not to discuss the provisions , policy , or operation of the law , but to furnish a convenient means of access to its enactments , rather " as a book of reference , more especially for those immediately and practically connected with Railways , and a guide to their statutory duties , obligations , and responsibilities .

      To the persons interested , and their name is legion the volume is of great utility . The labour and care with which the public statutes have been arranged and annotated , and an elaborate and explanatory Index 'superai'ldcd , fully evince the deep and pr ' acticul interest which the author has taken in the subject . We cordially recommend the volume to the profession and the public . The statistics of railways introduced into the work , and which have been slightly glanced at , read at first sight like marvels . They are not , however , more marvellous than the system , which now , by a simple but cilcctive application of a scientific principle , literally annihilates both time and space , and brings tho ends of the earth together ,

      Untitled Article

      No . 460 , Jakuabt 15 . 1859 . 1 THE LEADER , 79

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 15, 1859, page 79, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2277/page/15/