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Leader (1850-1860), 19th February 1859, Edition 1 of 2, Page 235, Untitled Article

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    • LITERATURE, SCIENCE, ART, &c.
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      Untitled Article

      LITERARY CHRONICLE OF THE WEEK . It will be difficult to deny that Mr . Ayrton ' s bill for removing from the Statute-book a whole host of repressive , but obsolete and inoperative statutes , aifecting the public press , is not a wise one . It is no argument to say , that an obnoxious statute is inoffensive because it is never enforced . It maybe enforced at any time by a Ministry disposed to carry matters with a hig h hand ; and it is no new thing to have a forgotten enactment dug up for the benefit of some special offender . Sonic one said , that whenever the Statute of Habeas Corpus was important to the public liberties , it was sure to be suspended ; and as a converse , to leave those penal statutes against

      the press slumbering upon the code , would be to leave a very dangerous weapon within the reach of those who may one day be prompted to use it . The Association for Promoting the Repeal of the Paper Duty have , prepared the mind of the Solicitor-General for the question , by addressing to him a letter , pointing out that his own publisher , by simply publishing Sir Hugh Cairns's speech on the Government of India , has rendered himself liable to a penalty of 120 / ., such publication being against the provisions of the 60 th

      Gep . III ., c . 9 , which enacts that , " no newspaper , pamphlet , or other paper , under 714 square inches in size , or under sixpence in price , and containing any comment on any matter in Church or State , can be published without security being first given that it shall not contain any blasphemous , seditious , or personal libel . " This is , of . course , one of the' statutes that Mr . Ayrton ' s Bill proposes to repeal ; " and we do not wonder at the Solicitor-General for doming to the conclusion that " the sooner such statutes were removed

      from the book the better . " Ah interesting correspondence , between Messrs . Roiitledge ( fitly called tlic Sosii of the publishing trade ) , and the Commissioners of the Board of Inland Revenue , illustrates , in a very remarkable manner , the obstructive action of the paper duty , in preventing- the invention of new processes and new kinds of raw material . It seems that Messrs . Iloutlcdge have been manufacturing , at their mills at Eynshain , near Oxford , a kind of ¦ paper pulp , ' made from a raw vegetable fibre , of which they assert the supply to be practically unlimited . '

      Their design lias been to sell this in the state known as hiilf-stuU * ( upon which * no duty is payable ) to other makers , and for this pia'posc to send it to the market in the form of rolls or slabs . Anxious to avoid all chance of collision with the Excise , these gentlemen have taken the prudent course of communicating their iute'niion to the board 5 but they receive for answer that the board considers these slabs to be paper , and that the only way of avoiding the dilh ' culty will be for Messrs . h ' outludge to havo them torn info small pieces and so sent for sale , an operation which in the opinion of these gentlemen would

      be detrimental , if not fatal , to the goods . 'The upshot is this ; whilst hex' Majesty ' s Consxils havu received special orders from homo to keep a bright look-out for any new raw material for paper , her Majesty ' s Excise Qlliecrs at hpme receive orders not less stringent to prevent any enterprising firm i ' l ' om doing all that i . s required . Two Ijoo { cs of great importance have nppeured during the week . The iiret id M . Chevalier ' s able troatiHo " On the Probable Full in the Value

      of Gold" ( W . II . Smith ) , translated / by Mr . Cobdun , with a preface by the same ; and the othor , the two volumes of the "Memoirs of the Court of George IV ., " by thoDuko of Buck high am ( Hurst and Blaekett ) . The former of thcBO is a really valuable addition to the financial library , emanating , as it does , from the pen bust calculated to deal with the subject , and liaving the advantage of being revised in translation by so celebrated an economist as , Mr ., Cobdon . Tho other consists of numerous letters and documents , full 01 anecdote , with a thread of narrative , probably contributed b y W . II . Smith , Esq ., who was the ¦ L uke's librarian when his Grace had a library

      to be looked after . It is a book sure to be eagerl y soiight for on account of the revelations it makes ch Court life in George the Fourth ' s time . It seems brimful of high-life scandal . Judging by the publishers' promises , we may soon expect a brisker season in the publishing trade . —Messrs . Longman , taking advantage of the agitation upon " the great dinner question , " announce " The Art of Dining , " by L . F . Simpson ; also a work on " Ceylon , " by Sir J .. Emerson

      Tennant ¦•; a third series of " Essays on the Unity of Worlds and of Nature , " toy the Rev . B . Powell ; " Prairie Farming in America , " by Mr . James Caird ; and a " History of the Application of the Roman Characters to the Languages of India , " by Monier Williams , M . A . —Messrs . Blackie and Son promise , " Notes of a Clerical Furlough spent in the Holy Land , " by the Rev .. R . Buchanan , D . D . —Froni Messrs . Constable , the " Life and . Discourses of the late Dr . Brown ,

      Professor of Exegetical Theology to the Presbyterian United Churchy to be edited by Dr . Cairns . —From Messrs . Fullarton , "A Memorial Volume of all that was said and done all over the World upon the Centenary of Burns , " arranged and edited by Janies Ballantyne . — From Messrs . Bell and Bradfute , a treatise by T . S . Paton , on the Law of Stoppage in . Transitu ; " a treatise on Trusts and Trustees , " by Alexander

      Monerieff and Hill Lancaster , Advocates ; and ; a treatise by George Hunter Thorns , Advocate , on " Judicial Factors , &c . "—Messrs . Smith , Elder , and Co ., are about to publish , " A Lady ' s Escape from Gwalior ; " " Christianity in India , " by Mr . Kaye ; a book on " Hong-Kong and Manilla ;" Mr . Swaihson , the author of the new work on New Zealand , on " Australia ; " and an essay on the « ' Oxford Museum , " by Dr . Acland and . Mr . Rriskin . A few interestincr matters of personal

      oossip may be recorded . Mr . Samuel Warren , Q . C ., Recorder of Hull , author of "A Diary of a Late Physician , " . " Ten Thousand a Year , " " The Lily and the Bee , " has been appointed to the office of " Master in Lunacy , vacated by the precipitate resignation of Mr . Hijrgins . Let us congratulate the lawyer-like and literary gentleman upon his accession to such a very comfortable bed of legal roses . We believe that there is no authority for saying that Mr . Disraeli purposes to visit America , as stated by the American papers . Judging from the following ^ piece of literary gossip , given upon the authority of the Critic , his presence , and his activity will both be wanted in England for some time to come : — ,

      " It is rumoured that in consequence of a disagreement between Mr . Charles Dickens and Messrs . Bradbury ami Evans , a proat eUanpo will bo ¦ made with regard to Household Words . This publication , as is pretty ' generally known , was founded at the suggestion of Mr . Wills , its presont editor , and was intended as a port of rival to Chambers' Journal . Mr , Dickons became a shareholder , and his name is constantly announced as its " conductor , " although his contributions to its pages have boeii few and infrequent . Acting under an impression that it is his name that offers tho sole attraction to the public , Mr . Dickons has determined , it is Baid , to

      withdraw f rom Household Words , and found another periodical upon a ' similar plan , and matters have proceeded , so far that an office for tho now journal is cither taken , or in progress of being taken , in Wellington-street . Messrs . Bradbury and Evans , on their part , havo resolvod to oontinuo Household Words , und ifc is whispered that they havo endeavoured to provail upon Mr . Thackeray to become its conductor . Whether they havo succeeded in persuading tho groat Tifci . nn . rsh to accodo to their prayer wo aro unablo to say ; but it is pertain that they will have

      at their disposal the whole of tho Punch stuiF ; and it it confidently stated that they will invite tho return to Household Words of Mr . George Augustus Sain , whoso witty and suggestive pictures of life and manners formed the chiciest attraction of that publication a few years ago , and the outpourings from whoso pon were so Frequently attributed tp Mr . Charles Dickens , If this be true , wo do not anticipate that this admirable periodical will be much damaged by the change , and it is certain that the public will not lose by a competition for excellence between two such antagonists . "

      ton " -ties . There are a . - mens belonging to periods anterior to the reign of Philip Augustus , and some as old as the seventh and eighth centuries ; volumes belonging to the times of the Carlovingians , with miniatures in the : Byzantine style ; autographs and unpublished MSS . of Galileo , Kep ler , Tasso , and Leibnitz ; chivalric romances , and volumes ot poetry which have never yet appeared ; an apocryphal Bible , in Arabic , hitherto quite unknown ; besides a vast number of other curiosities , the mere enumeration of which would far exceed

      at least hundred speci Of course we cannot vouch for the truth of this All that we can say is , that from what we have heard on . the subject , it has an air of vraisem-The important sale of M . Libri ' s MSS , is fixed to take place in London by the end of March , and is looked forward to with great eagerness by the virtuosi . The catalogue consists of 300 pages , with thirty-six pages of facsimile . The number of lots is nearly 1 , 200 , eomprisin" - manuscripts in many ancient and modern

      the boundaries of this article . . The budget of novelties . from the French press is a full one . First in importance are the Memoirs of the Duchesse d'Orleans , by an anonymous editress . Some of our literary contemporaries have blundered not a little as to the identity of this personage ; but the fact has oozed out through the columns ^ of the generally well-informed Independance Bel < re , that the real individual is Madame D'llautpoul , widow of one of Louis Pliilippe ? s ministers , a lady whose opportunities for giving any information as to the inner life of the citizen-king and his

      family , must have been numerous . Mentioning the Orleans fltmily , it is a curious fact , arid not altoo-ether without significance , that the sons of Louis Philippe are beginning to make themselves heard in the French press—and are Unopposed . The forthcoming number of the Revue des Deux Mondes contains an article on Steam Navigation , from the warlike pen of the bold Joiiivillc—the o-entleman who some years ago volunteered , to invade England with a French fleet ; but he has since that time been contented to invade her m a more peaceful manner , and take up bis abode on tree-clad Richmond Hill . ' ¦ '

      .. . To return , however , to French novelties . T \ c may chronicle an interesting work by M . Alexander Ro" -er , the Memoirs of lteverdil , Coxuicillor ot btate to Christian VII ., of Denmark ( 1760-72 ) . The inner life of that northern court is here portrayed with extraordinary minuteness . Tho intrigues , the back-stairs p lots , the amours of Strucnsee , the kin" - ' 8 physician , a favourite of the young Queen Matilda , all these are embodied forth ns in the life . Another welcome appearance is the second volume

      of the Napoleon Correspondence , giving the , correspondence from September , 1790 , to April , 179 / . M . Granier de Cussugnae , the political pamphleteer , has published a piira romance of the Mylho school , under the name " La Heine des Pmirics . This , it is presumed , is in order to be in clinrncter with his nowly assumed role of upholder of puro morality in letters . The French critics speak well of LHistoire do la Iitunionde la Lorraine a la France , hv tho . Count d'Haussonville , of which the fourth nntl

      last volume , comprising the period between ihti death of Charles V . of Lorraine and thai of Siimislaiw , has but just appeared . M . J ^' oii l-Vu ^ m- Jims produced an' ngreeuble volume of Cant'ct ' eras _ ft Portraits Litteraircs rtu XVT- Si&vU-, . .. niuimnmuch that h intcrestinpf nnd new to •''« ' prwioroi reader concerning Maiiluiyne , Ha-belm . * , Aynpnu d'Aubigne , and Amyol . Mun <> l M . 'icncu in Franco « re delighted with a tniiwlntmn by M . Arimuul Pommier of two tfuologiwil works ot great importance by M . do Filippi , tho director ot the Geological Miweum nt Turin—one on iNoahs Deluge , and tho other a Series of Letters on the Creation of tho World .

      Untitled Article

      We may horo notice , with tho sincorost regret-, tho death of Mr . Charles Mitchell , who , as tho editor and originator of tho Newspaper Press Directory , and as •« . liberal and enlightened advertising iigont , had established a communication with tho country

      Literature, Science, Art, &C.

      LITERATURE , SCIENCE , ART , &c .

      Untitled Article

      tj » 4 fi 5 . February 19 , 1859 . 1 THE LEADER . 235 J _^ V ^« ^ -x-r- — 7 * _ . ¦ -j — ..: — — ¦ . ¦ ' ¦¦ - u "! . /^ - !! mi , I . i MU M - —]— - I- - i- ¦ " mi '' irri ™ ' ¦¦ ' ¦ "'" ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦' T' —* " * " »~ '' ¦ " ¦ ' ¦* 1 " ¦™ gawtf ?«* MtJ » w *™ 'w iifinrwgaiiBttia « Mapam—

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 19, 1859, page 235, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2282/page/11/