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Leader (1850-1860), 5th February 1859, Edition 1 of 2, Page 173, Untitled Article

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      Untitled Article

      YRoin x 12 ) . By Jews , Paul means all who were , of the Jewish religion ; but the Evangelist John means natives of Judeaonly . By th « word Hebrews , the writer of the Acts ( chap , vi . 1 ) means those only who spoke Hebrew while he calls the Jews who spoke Greek , Grecians , or Hellenists . On the other hand , the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews means to addfess all of the Jewish faith , but he certainly wrote in Greek ; and though he calls his readers Hebrews ,, he did not write for the use of those whose used the Hebrew language . The reader must ever bear in mind what the author tells him at ' the outset , that his book is neither theological nor devotional . He will , therefore value the notes for themselves alone , and doing this , he will not have cause to regret having made the acquaintance of a commentator who is not prejudiced by any sectarian views .

      Untitled Article

      A FINANCIAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND , A Financial Monetary , and Statistical History of Eng land . By Thomas Doubleday . Effingham Wilson . Ik this sec ond edition of his Financial Historg , Mr . Doubleday continues his story from 1847 , when his first edition was published , down to the present time , and he also adds a .. copious index for the use of those who desire to refer to his work . Mr . Doubleday ' s criticisms on public events proceed in the same strain as before . Fierce invective , bitter personality , and dismal prophecies of national ruin nil his pages from beginning to end . The national debt and funded system are the waking hobgoblins and sleeping nightmares which continually goad on Mr . Doubleday in his" hurried narrative . He says , in his concluding words : —

      There remains , however , one final conclusion to which it is easy enough to come , and this is , that if the rulers of this country persist in their present course , it can lead only to 6 ne end . That they will so persist seems too certain . Looking at our present social position , I see no probable chance of any man , or set of men , being entrusted with the Government , who shall at orice possess the power , wisdom , arid courage requisite to the application of the only remedies that are really applicable to a state so serious . This seems too clear ; and hence thfr realm must drift on in its present course ,

      growing more , and more helpless , and more and more embarrassed , and more and more despised , until some overruling event shall produce the final crisis . Whenever it shall occur it needs not to be a matter for regret with any virtuous man . Further , no foresight can pretend to see . All we know is , ' that the issue is in the hands of Him who out of evil can evolve good ; who will surely award retribution where retribution is due , and " who will have mercy on whom he will have mercy . " ' _ ... ts

      We are not ourselves , by any means , apologis for the system inaugurated at the Revolution , of throwing upon posterity the burden of reckless expenditure in wars . Those who contend that the payment of the interest of the gigantic sums so squandered , being merely a transfer of wealth from one class of the community to another , is therefore harmless , are answered by the obvious absurdity of the conclusions to which their argument tends . If eight hundred millions of debt be harmless , why not have eight thousand millions ? If it be an unimportant thing to have to pay twenty-eight millions a year in interest , the system might be extended till all but the fundholders were required to pay in

      taxation the whole of their incomes . Tho fact is , that although a transfer of wealth docs not impoverish the nation as a whole , it very much impoverishes that portion who are not funtlholdcrs ; and these are , of courso , the bulk of the people . So far as it goes , then , our public debl is a great burden ; but . if it oan be kept from going further , we sec no reason for tho abject despair into which Mr . Doublcdfty would sink us . Tlio interest upon it was oven greater when our population was but half wjiat it is now , nnd our wealth , porhaps , far Jess in proportion . Wo are sorry to find Mr . Doubloduy , m . Ilia hatred of tho system , employing language which might bo used to justify Cobbctt ' s remedy of " a sponge . " Lenders to Government-he

      stigmatises as a sort of unnatural offspring ; he scorns tho idea of " any persons , in a real national oxigonce , when perhaps national existence was at stake , offering t , o lend money to their country at , interest , and ho considers this "just as absurd us would bo a ohild offering to lend ita pocket-money to its father , at in 1 ; orest , when both wore in . danger of wanting a dinnor ! " This sort of argument may just as well bo applied to the JBinningJiam gunsmiths , who unnaturally demand money lor supplying arms to their country in limo of war j but there w , in fact , nothing unnatural or unjust in tho matw » . There is no reason in justioo why oithor tho

      Gentile or the " Jew , " for whom Mr . Doubleday has so . ' illiberal a contempt , should do anything more than contribute his share of taxation . If he does m . Dre—if ,. besides this , he advances large sums , his fellow-citizens are indebted to him , and ought not to abuse him , or seek to deny the justice of his claim . . . . It is doubtful whether bad heart or bad head have contributed the most to the world ' s great record of oppression and injustice . Mr . Doubleday ' s defecwix

      tive reasoning powers are certainly cnargeaDie n much of the mischievous suggestion with which his work abounds . A favourite argument with him against the unfortunate men , women , and children who happen to be interested in our funds is , that " a whole nation cannot possibly be bound to a bargain of their ancestors . " " Taxes , " he says , " im-Eosed without national consent , are a public robery ; yet this is what must be perpetually done , if posterity are to be bound to pay the interest of a debt , and ' consent' is forestalled and mortgaged as

      well as labour . " Mr . Doubleday does not perceive that we are taxed for the payment of interest , not by the votes of the last century , but of the existing Parliament from year to year . How , indeed , could dead men bind living men—how enforce obedience if we refused it , or in any other way dictate to these times ? The fact is , that we continue to pay dividends at the Bank , not because our forefathers commanded it , but because we think it wise and expedient so to do for our own credit ' s sake ; and because it is believed that the misery and confusion of repudiation must be far greater than the gain . Similar objections arise on reading Mr . Doubleday ' s strictures upon the Bank Act of 1 S 44 . Our readers know that we . are steady opponents of that

      measure ; but we cannot compare it to a scorpion surrounded by fire" " stinging 1 itself to death ; " nor do we expect that it will bring , down " the whole fabric that it was intended to protect . " The act is a bad aet , because its regulations are opposed to the great principles of free trade . There is no good reason why the Bank of England should enjoy a monopoly of issuing bank-notes ; there is no good reason why the Legislature should interfere between the man who is willing to give , and the man who is willing to take a promissory note payable on demand . If men are to be protected against such voluntary contracts , there is no other kind of contract which may not be forbidden on the same ffrounds . Even the evils which have occasionally

      resulted from the free issue of private bank-notes in other countries afford no valid argument in favour of interference . That which a whole community , seeking its own interest , will voluntarily continue to do , must , on the whole , and in spite of all evils and all risks , be advantageous . We , therefore , having full faith in the great principle of perfect liberty of commerce , desire to see the peculiar privileges of the Bank of England withdrawn , and all State meddling with its affairs put an end to . The exaggerations and the intemperate zeal , however , of such writers as Mr . Doubleday , do nothing but bring into ridicule and contempt the objects for which wiser men arc earnestly contending .

      Untitled Article

      LOST AND WON . Lost ami "Won . Bv Georgina M . Onik . Smith , Elder , nnd Co . Nothing superior to this , novel has appeared during the present senson . The groundwork of Lost aiia ^ Won is love , a passion so well worn , that talents of no common order arc required to treat it in a new or interesting form , qualifications , however , which Miss Craik beyond question has throughout eminently displayed . Two ' . lave passages arc the

      leading incidents ; one treated with delicacy and quiet beauty , tho other depicted with masterly powerwo may add , grandeur . Ifow living authors that we can call to nund could have oxhibited greater talent in troating theso two dissimilar phases of tho tender passion ; and wo think wo may venture , without bringing our crilioal judgment into question , to prediot that this deli g htful work will not only King additional reputation to tho author , but will have a wide and lasting popularity .

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      SOCIAL INNOVATORS . Social Innovators and their Sc / wnes , By "W . I * . Sargnnt . Smith , Klclor , nnd Co . Tuii ) topics handled in this volume ., relating as thoy do to tho fundamental institution of society , tho relations of iu various classes to one another , tho lnws which are to regulate tho production nnd cllstrU button of wealth , and thoso which deal with tho

      intercourse of the sexes and their position in regard to each other , must be admitted on all hands to be of the deepest importance . The questions involved do not , however , very readily present themselves to us as objects ' for speculation . We have been too long accustomed to regard them from the exclusive point of view suggested by the present condition of society . It is not until we find others vacillating round'them that we learn to regard , them as-admitting of doubt and hesitation : and when we turn to the estimation

      of their difficulties , and learn that the solutions they have heretofore received are ; arbitrary , resting upon no other necessity than that of positive human law , supported by fallible and mutable authority— -even then , though we have made a certain advance , we find those difficulties so tremendous that we are tempted to resume our former ground , and to regard the existing order of society as something which it were better to consider fixed and absolute , whether it be really so or not .

      Two very opposite classes of thinkers have dealt with the questions suggested in this volume . First , there are those who—Pope ' s celebrated line notwithstanding—exalt into a maxim that whatever is , is wrong . Of such are the wild social reformers , to whom the entire past is a blank , and the future alone is bright with promise ; who are ready to destroy institutions for which they offer no sufficient substitute , and to remodel society after schemes suggested by their own fertile brains , of course always untried ,

      and always , of . course , impossible . These are the speculators of whom the practical English mind stands in especial dread , and' at the bare mention of whose names and views it recals all the horrors of the first French Revolution . IMametricaHy opposed to these innovators are those who regard as final the received solution of social problems , and now scornfully reject all proposal of change , now timidly prefer to keep the vantage ground they have attained to following the ignis fatims of speculation .

      It is to the latter cla , ss of thinkers that Mr . Sargant evidently belongs . So much so , indeed , that he appears to consider that the mere statement of .. . the views and projects of innovators is of itself a sufficient answer to them , so completely , to his mind , do they carry with them their own refutation . After an introductory notice and a general view of the treatment of the subject by earlier thinkers , be sketches some of . the leading schemes of social and political reform which have been more recently developed among our French neighbours ; and refuting the erroneous principles upon which they have been based ^ he adds some very judicious remarks on the true causes to which we must look for an amelioration of

      the evils resulting from our present social order We will add a few words on each of the three heads into which his work appears to divide itself . The introductory chapter is a . very short and , we must add , a very imperfect performance . The authors named in it do not seem to have been selected upon any principle whatever from the crowd who have treated the same questions . Plato ' s " Republic" is dismissed with a few lines of contemptuous excuse ; but ita imitator , Cicero , and its great critics , Axis- * totle and Polybius , are unnoticed . Had any one work been selected as a specimen of ancient thought ,

      it should surely have been Aristotle ' s " Politics , " which contains not only a scheme for the foundation of a state far more complete than that of Plato , but a series of most valuable criticisms upon the writings of other political theorists , and a sketch of several of the contemporaneous Greek constitutions . We are Borry , too , among more modern names , to miss those of Machiavelli , Hobbes , Spinoza , Bodinus , Rousseau , and Montesquieu . Tho view given us of former writers , is so meagre and inaccurate , convoys eo little information , and throws so . little light upon the examples and discussions which follow it , that it had boon better omitte . l altogether .

      The account given of tho systems of moro modern writers , deserves to bo read with great attention . It is ample , and furnishes the means of forming ft fair estimate of tho various authors whom it notices . We should ourselves havo brought forward Augusts Comto instead of Emile do Girardin . Ilia conclusions are , on many points , similar , but his intellectual superiority is unquestionable . Wo doubt , indeed , whethor tho entiru catalogue of political speculators , ancient and modern ' , would furnish a name o ( greater eminence , or one which has impressed its marK more htWith

      deoply upon { ho ' whole of modern thoug . this one exception , tho list appears to us the best tlu * t could havo been made , though we cannot help rogrotting that Mr . Snrgant should so snoor at eaoh basoloss project and oncli impossible hope as it passes in review before him . Of course , this is tho treatment which souinl innovutors must oxpoefc . It is then * usual fate to bo scorned or dreaded and reprobated by thu reapeotablo portion of society , put when thinking men come to scan their lives and their generally unsolush devotion to tho cause of humanity , surely other feelings than scorn and hostility may arise . It id , indeed , an excusable thing that ) mon who hoped for no rownrd on earth suvo the

      Untitled Article

      Ko . 463 , Febbxtab ^ 5 , 1859 J THE LEAPEB . : 173

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 5, 1859, page 173, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2280/page/13/