The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1855-11-27 00:00:00

FALSE SENTAMENTALISM.

NORTH : Sobriety is the strength of our physical,
moral, and intellectaal life. But how can any man hope
to continue long sober, who calumniates cordial con-
viviality—misnames fun, folly, and mirth, malignity—
turns up the whites of his eyes at humour, because it is
broad, broad as the sea in sunshine—who in his false wis-
dom knows not what real wit is, or, half knowing it,
turns away, abashed and detected, from its corruscations,
that are ever harmless to the truly good, and wither only
the weak or the wicked.

To go on quoting, however, all that we had
marked as indispensable, to do justice to the
volume in bringing its character before our
readers, would far exceed the bounds at our dis-
posal; and to display all those passages which are
worthy of deep study, and will repay in accents
of rich wisdom the labour and the time bestowed
on their perusal, would be nearly to reprint the
book. It is full of sound and healthy criticism
upon men and manners—art and literature and
science are discussed in its pages, and the true

characteristics of each and all of these are traced
upon its golden tablets with a pen of adamant.
The various subjects introduced are arranged with
the skill of the philosopher, and combined with
the taste of the artist. They are treated with
glowing yet merited and well expressed eulogy,
delicate, yet caustic raillery, biting irony, or
plastic and brilliant wit, as the nature of the case
may require ; while the whole is swept on in a
torrent of genial and healthy humour, and borne
on a tide of flowing fancy, enriched by the
gatherings of profound sagacity,
An uncompromising foe to pretence of every
kind, Professor Wilson smote small pretenders
with an iron rod ; but he at all times, and in
every case selected the great sinners as the sub-
jects of his indignant, if not also sometimes
wrathful punishment. The trivial offenders he
either compassionately or contemptuously over-
looked. In this vein of feeling, he severely
handled the productions of Hazlit and Hunt,
whose literary labours he judged false in politics
and dangerous in moral tendency. Regarding
them as the heads of a politico-literary clique,
which he designated the " Cockney School," he
not only exposed the hollowness and evil drift of
its teaching, but further, as he never did things
by halves, but powerfully expressed what he
strongly felt, he flagellated the originators, while
he tore the masks from the meritriciously be-
decked characters of what he believed and knew
to be political and moral masquerade. While
engaged in this laborious and unwelcome, though
ably as well as fearlessly executed task, he was
assailed with much bitterness of feeling and great
vindictiveness of aspersion. Undismayed by
these, he boldly pursued the path of honour which
he had prescribed for himself, and long before
the brilliancy of his sun had become dimmed by
the shades of approaching night, the atmosphere
which he had striven so vigorously to maintain the
purity of, had become cloudless and serene. The
foetid vapours which offended his moral sense had
been dispelled ; and to these his much vilified
exertions we in a great degree owe the exalted
tone of our best and purest literature.
The republication of this great and venerable
man's works has been, to some extent, a signal
for reviving against his memory the charges
which lie successfully and heroically repulsed
during his lifetime, and the fervid denunciations
which he hurled against the evil influences of a
mischievous literature, are once more made the
subjects of malignant sneers and fierce invective.
That he was right in the main features of his
condemnation, and fully justified in the severity
of his reprobation, has been long acknowledged,
and even his personal enemies admit that

- he was kind, or if severe in aught,
The love he bore to virtue was in fault.

Deeply gifted with political sagacity and foresight,
and firmly persuaded that a due administration of
the state included, as its very basis, a fine sense
of public virtue, Wilson watched with extreme
jealousy every political movement, however
covertly made, and in such movements the sharp-
ness of his intellectual vision enabled him at once
to detect the artful insinuations of the demagogue;
with him to descry danger was at once to denounce,
to grapple with, and if possible destroy the evil.

The Dublin University Magazine. Dublin :

James AleGlashan.

The November number of this periodical sus-
tains the high literary character the magazine has
so long enjoyed. It opens with an able and suc-
cinct history of " The Progress of Russia," in
which the writer rapidly and briefly (races the
rise and progress of that cormorant nation from
a barbarous and predatory tribe, through all the
ebbs and flows of its still onward destiny, till the

[NOVEMBER 97

present time, at which, by the stead,
swerving policy of adding state to star
aut nefas, it has become a vast and
pire, stretching from the Frozen Oc
Sea of Azoff ; from Lithuania to th
shores of Kamschatska, within which Nv
the original " Russia Proper " forms
province. " The Roman Empire,"
tells us, " contained 1,600,000 sqn
when at the zenith of its grandeur;
from the Euphrates to the Weste
included a measurement of 3,000 m
2,000 divided the wall of Antonias
pillars of Hercules. European Russia
prises exactly the same area, whip
separated from Audyskoiostrag, in Asia.
miles, and 1,750 more extend to thy
Peter and Paul in Kamschatska. Tri
monarchy was comprehended under B°cie;
less than thirty-two degrees of hit°
Russian exceeds thirty-five."
miter (4'
This vast extent of empire, the —an e 9
article in question considers to beLn to'
pOSL"" o

mous power of itself in resisting opP- re,
aggressive policy. " From its very hat! f og,
he, " Russia is, of all nations, capable:ooo
sion, and defensive resistance, with ihspitl
alarming advantages. Its enormous 1334(11
is consolidated, not scattered over the "eel
the possessions of Great Britain ; whiles it
ing from the Caspian to the Baltic, tr,,tegy
to Odessa, it leans with preponderatilistoeto
upon the smaller part of Europe." ge 0
ready operation of her aggressive PO- , O ,
ferent causes included in the vast esterlostVv
frontier, which, bordering upon barbar°oo 0
enables her, stealthily, to add fray a
fragment to her already gigantic btriieP:l,
the pagan and infidel ignorance °l"t dr4
by which on the south an east she ,qllclfir;
which admits or rather encourages a '„en to'y
sion of fanatical zeal into their oppo9;.a coo
Latin Christians, by whom alone R 117,11,411(
successfully withstood. After a care
of the advantages and disadvantages p°
Russia, he offers the following
PREMONITION AS TO TILE PUTre'l,o4
Europe can never be too watchful or suspi°l-e , ghe
approaches of the rough and superincurnbeget fi
pants for the possession of the Sound as well as
nelles, and to compress the west with capacioasL49,
progress of such a state may be checked by a t:ocetist
cession of defeats, from this or that gallant 51'r CV
from its position, it cannot be annihilated, 0° iii,.
even maintain their advantage. it will rise 01:4/
like, to renew the self-same attempt, i
pendent nations be not erected and plant'
its frontiers, inspired by patriotism, and
the watchword of its movements to the W

die
takl)
r
iriO,

Nor should the East be neglected ; for.
for the while, the weight will inevitabi
Asia. The strengthening and alliance of
creating with him a free communication
(long an object of Russian covetousness,
in the development of his resources, and,'
vast army, which, by making him conk
the hour of need, will be the truest safeg"`
The counsel thus briefly sage'n
which has long occupied the atte-I
men, and has been trequentli re'
adoption. That no step has been
its realisation, has probably been
the absence of a decent preto,t
out, than to any insensibility °L
An apprehension, too, that anY
realise it would be the signal for a
vulsion, has no doubt operated in
to check its practical
feelingsapplication.
sive no longer exist. T 1
been unequivocally afforded by RI
ways, and sealed by the aggressiv4
centrated by her at Sebastopol ;
European interests has been beg,
day tends more and more to pro'

iS,
come
dy tbe er
ate, lvj The o
::0107, the ()till
the usu
,be f estino.b
vide enter
bat ers of
this ,' ablt
uare
il, 3elft se
sob:rit
,iBatienoahilti,,

(
if hogttle :ow ~
ted, likes'', I otitwe au
ever reao
ite ttiti:lo
world. tile,
if baffled ill „e . _
,bly be turor, , 0:1
the Spat! ?fi, k .
from stfc:ing Nee
ostr,„in, 0 , i o
I tbe tow b.
ort eft 1,
3eo of supp . 1 ~
used on that s otpe
'crested is diet.
ation of 5.--1 I,s, 0
ri!c otnalre
Jae otao.eui ,
r)thrae I
i more o , :ly pc
t for car , ll'ord
its inipoo;io i oils
' endea"67 iitkell (
a Euror ' \‘'4fis •
0 I, Ith'.'
no scuPa 14 0(
• These Pt 11ttve
The pretes Ilta, 4
Russia i 1..: antlt:e
ire ageDelv,ct ~istai
the coll,lll lien
t gun, avd i‘ 010,,
~,. ,r
Ye that the • '

St'
!ode
to,'

5e
.eted

011111 C
'Da e
the

:BED, 27, 1855.]

when " hostile and independent nations
•ected and planted like sentries on the
If Russia."

er papers in this first-class Magazine are
gal excellence, embracing a variety of
topics, among which Calcraft's able
•taining series on " The Dramatic
Ireland" holds a conspicuous and an
,e place.

Periodical of Wit and Humour. Lon-
don : The Falstaff-office.
!rial, which appears to have come in
le departed Diogenes, as a rival to Punch,
the first part has been recently issued,
aim at producing effect by the breadth
less of its caricatures, rather than by the
)f its wit or the refinement of its senti-
itio‘4 In it, as in most of the low-priced pub-
sof the day, the democratic element of
;4ial
p olity
me has acquire a new aent
I(c'r a ti at least, willd g
be worked vigo-
,
Nil a ceaseless application of pen and
kts. It seems passing strange, that while such
io4 is everywhere manifested in the dissemi-
Nsbeilf doctrine and practice, inimical to the
N illg of society, so much cold-rife apathy
Ntereontinue undisturbed by any attempt to
41y t the dangerous trash which is sedu-
'4l)l. 'Nat into the hands of young and old.
e% teems with the implements of political
kligi
kllk.,,arle-teiblis disturbance, while scarce an effort
tie through the same means to counteract
,11g Nea
441 eY . b The care of religion seems to be
klety ); left to the clergy, and that of political
thitp4/ have been abandoned altogether to the
‘4%l°' a few parliamentary leaders, while the
both swarm at every street corner.
PA I)RESS OF OUR ANCESTORS.
,
Air, 41-

le;
" bAd lit In dress especially. Could our great
IhtaiDltil'e,ata revisit the world, their astonish-
ed b the cut of our attire would only be ex-
-1111 boo of ours at their own. A volumi-
itt46-4 might be devoted entirely to the task
iNfill the varying fashions of dress genera-
ae'' generation ; and now when the subject
ctingoies attention, we think that a few
cttzte ' gathered from antiquarian and other
' will be found sufficiently interesting to
„
NI a leisure half-hour. From the following,
'444Ze seen thatwhat is now called " Bloomerism '
counterpart nearly two centuries ago.
I N do
8 not propose to revert to the times of
l'Ath,oll forefathers, but 'krill commence with
11;lee whom Shakspere has immortalised,—
Ny °II companion, the " mad rogue," the
~Ikee `` Hal" of old Jack Falstaff—Henry,
`4,11,.0f Wales, subsequently King Henry V.,
of
Speed tells us, once presented himself to
i of r in " a garment of blue satin, wrought
Itfli eyelet holes, and, at every eyelet, the
~v left hanging by the silk it was wrought
ttie This costume, it appears, had reference
° academical dress of Queen's College,
,r)d.
‘, , where the prince had been a student.
littPAassages in Shakspere may be referred to
Nio-I\d-rkg curious glimpses and allusions to the
41,112. of the middle ages. He speaks of
Vsn coats, and caps, and golden ringi,
\‘,i4,,, and cuffs, and farthingales and things :
Itid da. scarfs, and fans, and double' change of bravery.
iiQttve may, gather many hints from such pas-
11,', _ , .I.le will come to her in yellow stock-
4.arteql, 'tis a colour she abhors ; and cross-
aistafittllit fashion she detests." Or where
Kendal •l'e prince he was attacked by "knaves
°1(1.1r; aZei.ll." Green
was for ages a favourite
from Chaucer (who describes the

isp
come Ni
a° the
en
o1:11 ',tiers of
The othe
D the usoi
f eating
[e ' . enter
1t 8 erg of
'Fable
re 1,
" i '4 C a
ear '
rota setr
one 01, t
\nil ul
,ta eti t
119', i‘ br,t° a
loco lieauiune
tit.:l of
vi et' at;.' It