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duction after the force of the change had spent itself but all men know it was certain , though not S ? apid . But the real causes of West India ^ S ^ are to be found in the utter withholding of Stal to encumbered estates by those who hadfet them from this country , and the entire denial of farther credit to the owners here . The production of the estates as could procure working capital was mcreasing in spite of the fall of price irc-m 49 s . ^ hhd . ln 1840 to 23 s . 5 d . in 1848 ; but when the competition of Brazil and Cuba was let m upon the Planters the system exploded , and the old planting interest , falling with a crash , was gradually superseded by a new one . It eoon appeared that the new men , furnished with money or . credit , especially if resident , could face every difficulty of the c ; winn . Under new energies the Six years
importations of sugar have sprung from fourteen and a half million hundredweight before free trade to eighteen and a half in the period ending last year . And pointing to this , with the just pride of an old labourer in the good cause , our review remarks : — " Clearly sugar could not have gone on steadily and rapidly increasing in amount unless the producers of it found it answer ; * . . labour cannot have been so scarce and so costly , that ' no conceivable opulence of cane crop could cover it , ' or clearly the cane crops would have ceased to be grown . "
The grand pother that has been made about the West India labour question is for the most part fallacious . Capital , owned or borrowed , was ever Heeded to supply labour of slaves , and the same must be spent , only in another way , to suppl y that of free blacks . Any planter of the new regime , even now resident , can get on well with money : and he who can beat into his own head that a black , like a white labourer , is worth his hire—who will compete with the pleasant independence of a vagrant squatting existence * and who will forget , in fact , the old tradition of our islands , that the normal wages , of the black are nothing a day and stripes—may soon make the discovery that his land is nofc exhausted and that the labourer who , in a
state of slavery , can understand nothing but the spade and hoe ^ can , when free , be taught the use of all appliances of improved agriculture . To the verjT able essay above noticed , succeeds a charming one upon that interesting speck in the map of Europe—Montenegro . The writer ' s narrative of his trip , for it is clearly such , and written by one who has had opportunities , will , we fancy , draw many a lounger this autumn to the wondrous Austrian harbour of Cattaro and the patriarchal fastnesses of the Black Mountain arid its tiny
capital . The tales of the late Viaducts prowess , and the recent battle of Grahovo , are spirited , and the paper gives much information of interest and importance to political students . The author ' s plea for the recognition of the little republic by the European powers collectively is well worth notice . While all the sons of Tubal Cain arc hurrying to and fro , lik e ants , from the forge to the patent office , and , vice versa , bent on schemes for facilitating the destruction of men , the article on " Rifled Guns and Modern Tactics , " which bears the impress of an eminent virtuoso in military arts , must also prove attractive . The writer has had
opportunities of seeing further into the Armstrong millstone' than those who have merely road specificcations and ordinary newspaper paragraphs , however clearly drawn up ; and his review of the destructive agencies that will be brought to bonr in the next great contest is , we confess , soinewlmt appalling . Next , Major Hodson ' d life is reviewed in precisely the same spirit as in our columns a while ago : we need hardly , therefore , say we fully endorse the writer ' s opinions . The political article of the number is a masterly rebuke of the Napoleonic pamphlet of February upon Italian affairs , from which we would gladly make lengthy oxtracts did Suction sectionthe
space permit-. by , writer takes to pieces that extremely clever production , and enters with vast political erudition into painful speculations on Italian liberation nationality , of which ho sees no hope , and on events whicb , probable when ho wrote , nro when we write , imminent . His main argumont is , that the honour of Europe demands trio maintenance of Austria in the Lombard territory , which wus forced upon her reluctant ruler by the parties to the Treaty of 1815 , as an enbbtive moans of excluding France from the Puninsulu . Treaties servo not alone , as is often ehallowly and falsoly alleged , for the compression of tlio weak , but also for their support . It was in virtue of such a treaty
wise and prudent government to remove . The writer , who clearly foresaw the points , since made public , for a Congress to consider , and the necessity for a , general disarmament as a preliminary , considers Count Cavour an incendiary ; the French Emperor an inscrutable and cunning despot ; Italian independence for the present a myth ; and her Majesty ' s ministers shameless triflers ( as regards their dissolving tactics ) with the public interests of this kingdom .
that the Allies were' arrayed in defence of the Ottoman rule , a thing infinitely more at variance with civilisation than the domination of Lombardy by Austria . To what but treaties do Belgium , Switzerland , and Piedmont owe their present existence ? But ^ w hile of these opinions , he yet admits that the violent and frequent cry from Lombardy * ' indicates a failure of policy or a vice Of system on the part of the dominant power , which force cannot cure , and which it becomes a
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THE OXFORD MUSEUM . The Oxford Museum . By Henry W . Acland , MJ ) and John Ruskin , MA . Smith , Elder and Go . The authors of this treatise are distinguished on the title-page as " Honorary Students of Christ Church . " One reason given for this is , that both were fellow-graduates at Christ Church , and sketched together ; after a lapse , too , of twenty years they received on the same day the distinction now acknowledged . These are the ties that bind Artcritic and
together the Ihysician and the - ; the former is solicitous to claim for himself the privilege of recreating himself with Art-subjects ; and on his own part , and in his own defence , declares u that though a man may be seduced from hisduty , to his after misery , by any -. other absorbing interest , I yet believe that frequent intercourse with men . engaged in other intellectual pursuits , is , in my profession at least , almost necessary to form a complete professional mind . I'appeal to history in confirmation . " .
This is wisely stated . Dr . Acland forms a true appreciation of the significance of Art ; and wonders that so . many have to " learn the apparently simple truth , that to an artist his Art is his means of probation in this life . " With such elevated views we may confide in the Doctor ' s , intelligent sympathy with his subject . The inscriptions that he suggests for the building are excellent ; e . g . : — " Several offers have been made to place
inscriptions in carving or in colour on the walls of the corridors , in the libraries , or in the several departments . How curiously instructive some of these might be ! Take two for example , in the Medical : Department— -this , quaint saying and pregnant rebuke recorded by Stobaeus : — - Trophilus the physician being nskert who is a perfect physic / an , gnve answer , 'He who distinguishes between what eim , and what cannot be doue .
" Then the weighty , but half-known words with which Hippocrates solemnly begins his
instructions— " ' Life is Bhort : but Art long 5 Opportunities fleeting '; Kxperienco deceitful ; True Judgment dllneiut . ' . "Or , in yet more lofty strain , the words of Sir Thomas I 3
rown—• Nature is tlio Aut of God . •? And who cannot add , from the best benefuctors of mankind , similar terse greetings for the threshold of every avenue to natural knowledge ?" The contributions of Mr . Kuskin to the volume consist of two letters— . owe on the question whether the Gothic is lit for secular buildings , which ho answers in tho allinnativo . Ho complains , however , that tho priucinlos of Gothic decoration tiro not likel y , to bo carried out , being generally misunderstood . Ornamentation is most valuable and beautiful when founded on the most extended knowledge of natural form s ' , niul continually conveys such knowledge to tho spectator . In his nceoiul letter , ho stutos thnt , in decorating , any effort to introduce classical types of form into these laboratories and museums must have ended in ludicrous
Uiwoonili-. . Tho following paragraph id pregnant with reflections : — "Do you suppose Gothic decoration is an easy thing , or thut it is to bo carried out with a certainty of success at the first trial under now and didlcult conditions ? The system of the Gothic decorations took eight hundred years to mature , gathering its power by undivided Inheritance of
traditional method , and unbroken accession of systematic power , ; from its culminating point in the Sainte Chapelle , it faded through four hundred years . Of splendid decline ; now for two centuries it has lain dead- — and more than so—buried ; and more than so , forgotten , as a dead man out of mind ; do you expect to revive it out of those retorts and furnaces of yours , as the cloud-spirit of the Arabian sea rose . from beneath the seals of Solomon ? Perhaps I have been myself fruitfully answerable for this too eager hope in your mind ( as well as in that of others ) by what I have urged so often respecting the duty of bringing out the power of subordinate workmen in decorative design . But do you think I
meant workmen trained ( or untrained ) in the way that ours have been until lately , and then cast loose on a sudden , into unassisted contention with unknown elements of style ? I meant the precise contrary of this . ; I . meant workmen as Are have yet to create them : men inheriting the instincts of their craft through many generations , rigidly t ra ined in every mechanical art that bears on their materials , and familiarised from infancy with every condition of their beautiful and perfect treatment informed and refined in manhood , by constant observation of all natural fact and form ; then classed , according to their proved capacities , in ordered companies , in which every man shall know liis part , and take it calmlv , and ' 'Without effort or doubt—indisputably and
well—unaccusably accomplished—mailed weaponed cup-d-pie for his place and function . Can you fay your hand on such men ? or do you . think that mere natural good-will and good-feeling can at once supply their place ? Xot so—and the more faithful and earnest the minds . you have to deal with , the more careful you should be not to urge theiii towards fields of effort , in which , too early committed , they can only be put to unserviceable defeat . " It would extend pur notice to too great a length to go fully into all the considerations ' that Mr . Kuskin starts ; but we trust that those who have the' overseersliip of the works now in progress will pay to them not less than thorough attention . His directions against parsimony should be most c ' arefulh' and conscientiously observed . -
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AX . INDIAX WIDOWS STORY . A Lady ' s Escape from Gwulion , and Life in the Fort of Agra . By It . M . Coopland , Widow of the Rev . George William Coopland , M . A . On the 17 th of ^ November , 185 G , Mrs . Coopland reached Calcutta with her husband—an East India Comj ? any ' s chaplain—and soon afterwards they repaired to Gwalior , which was designated as the scene of his future labours . In the April following the first rumours of the intended outbreak disturbed their placid wiry . On the 13 th of May they heard of the massacre at Meerut . On the 14 th of June the chaplain was foully
murdered , with other military residents at Gwalior ; and his widow , with other English women and children , were turned ighominiously out of the station by the Sepoys . After an aillictingJourney , the incidents of which Mrs . Coopland relates with evidently simple fidelity , the fugitives reached the fort of Agra , then iu a state of siege , though not actually besieged . This " fort" occupies an immense extent of ground , and the many buildings within it—some for pomp , some for _ deience—are as various and curious as those encircled by the
walla of the Moscow Kremlin . Its marble halls and towers , and kiosks—rits ten-aces and balconies , and even ' its casemates , wero , under the painful circumstances of tho time , used without distinction ^ for the ' shelter of the English attached to tho station , and of refugees from all parts . A system ot " Blocks , " distinguished by letters , was organised , temporary partitions erected , and here garrison and strangers were pent up in inurnment peril from the Gwalior und J . ih 1 wo mutineers ^ until relieved by a sullicicnt force after tho * ikll . pt Delhi ami Luekiiow . Mrs . Coonlaiid ' s descriptions tma
of the Fort liib are peculiarly mtovaating freshly written . Tho miseries" of the situation were , as may be supposed , chequered by gleams of mirth und plensuntnes * . There were dancing , dressing , ilii'ting , unJ marrying , as well as wownin < r , und we could e . \ tract , had wo room , a groat many amusing ihigmoiKrf / rum our nuthorcsss elmniicle . After the relief she paused to Delhi , and of course » i huly'w observations on sights and people there at tho period are refreshing alter tho numberless , military records we have had occasion to read . Wo must quote the following brief passage about the ex- ( irand Mogul uutl hie better hnft ; who , guarded by a little Ghoorka , and in charge of a young civilian , wero then on show "
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No . 475 , Aritn . 30 , 1859 . 1 THE LEADER 557
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), April 30, 1859, page 557, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2292/page/13/
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