The Sun.
London, England, 1847-04-22 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

--
THE EDINBURGH REVIEW. No. CLXXII.
Although there are no less than twelve separate ar-
ticles in the Number just published, we cannot but re-
gard it as deficient in variety, while we are satisfied that
the generality of the contributions are inferior in pint
of composition. With reference to the diversity of the
themes, we may observe that there are four papers upon
political topics worn threadbare by their frequent consi-
deration, both in Parliament and the press: we allude to
the Montpensier marriage, the condition of Canada, the
principles of political economy, and the occupation of
Cracow. There are two relating to the humanitarian
class, namely, gaol discipline and juvenile outcasts.
Two others are devoted to matters religious, that is to
say, to miracles and the Marian exiles, Besides these
there are four dissertations of a less hackneyed charac-
ter, bearing upon the Arabic philosophy, the cultivation
of the fine arts by means of the Government schools of
design, the possible reformation of the statute laws, and
the last fictitious narrative written by Mias llarriet Mar-
tineau. We are scarcely correct, however, in desig-
nating that narrative—a narrative that not long since
came upder our own criticism—as fictitious, seeing that
it was suggested by, if it were not actually delineative
of, the romantic adventures of Lady Grange. " The
Billow and the Rock" me v in some measure be regarded
as a species of biography of that violent but unfortunate
lady, and as such it is considered by the Edinburgh
Reviewer. Incidentally, indeed as a sort of appended
notice, the pamphlet lately issued by the author of
Lucretia is mentioned, and of it the critic remarks—
" We think it right to add, that if the author has been
assailed in the manner he mentions, he has been most
unjustly assailed; and that, in our opinion, his answer
to the assailants is complete." Tallying so entirely with
the sentiments we have continually expressed, we are
gratified in making the above quotation from the Edin-
burgh Review. It is further added therein that " authors,
like Sir Edward Lytton, who are read and admired in
every quarter of the globe, have surely nothing to fear
from the misrepresentations of critics, and little cause to
complain of the tardy justice of contemporaries. Si
nwnumentum requiris circumspice." Truly may this be
uttered of a man whose writings are read and admired
and wept over in the chateaux of France, among the
students and burgomasters of Germany, in the cities of
America and the homesteads of England. Sir Edward
has but little reason indeed to lament the "tardy justice

of contemporaries," and has consequently no cause what•
ever to bewail the misrepresentations of a few undiscern-
ing critics. Of the "Plea for Ragged Schools," con-
tained in this number of the Edinburgh Review, we can-
not speak in that language of unaffected admiration
which some few months since was called from us by a
similar paper in the et uarrerty. leather more effort is
visible in the pathetic adjurations of the pleader, or the
supplications are weakened by their manifestly imita-
tive character. Cordially, however, do we coincide in
thinking, that " though appearances may be against the
present age, we suspect that the reality is in its favour;
and that the general impression to the contrary may be
accounted for rather by the increase of our knowledge and
of our compassion, than by an increase in our viciousness
and distress." We regard alike with the most un-
mitigated contempt those who vaunt the present age as
the ultimatum of human progression, and those who
whine over the utter degeneracy of these times. The
generationin which we are now living, is essentially—more
essentially so than any preceding generation—one of
progress and improvement. So far from having reached
the ultimatum of civilization, we are now but on the con-
fines of a true civilization. We have surmounted Alps
upon Alps of difficulties and obstructions, but Alps upon
Alps still lie before us. As we advance the prospect
spreads, the vista becomes vaster and more interminable,
the horizon enlarges, and enlarges as the circle caused by
a pebble in the water. Whatever knowledge we have
gained only shows us the more the littleness of our
learning, though it affords us at the same time addi-
tional encitement to penetrate the mysteries by which we
are surrounded. When, again, we are deafened by lugu-
brious lamentations upon the degeneracy of our days, we
look more to the superficial analogy between this period and
its predecessors. We do not, generally speaking, con-
template their intrinsic dissimilarity. Because wicked-
ness and want are, now-a-days, rendered more visible
than they were formerly, we come to the preposterous
conclusion that they are necessarily more enormous and
more diffused. As the Edinburgh reviewer very happily
expresses it, "former times did not live in the glass case we
do!" Among the many sentences pregnant with mean-
ing, which might be selected from this " Plea for Ragged
Schools," we may adduce one which says as much as
several volumes of the old political economists ; it is
this—that " England has been raised to the place she
holds among the nations, not by her broad acres, but by
her thousand factories, and her miles of crowded streets."
Here that home-truth, Gentlemen of the Country Party!
and ask yourselves honestly, in your heart of hearts, if
our native agriculture has the right to demand those
enormous sacrifices in its favour, which its quasi-friends
have been so solicitous to preserve in its possession. If
protection is requisite for any class in the United king-
doms, who ought, by right, to obtain the benefit of that
protection ? The agriculturists ? England does not
owe her eminence among the nations to them ! To
whom then should protection (supposing it to be as
essential as Lord George and his followers still main-
tain) be awarded ? To the artisans in those
thousand factories, to the denizens of those miles
of crowded streets, through whose instrumen-
tality England " has been raised to the place she
holds among the nations." But those artisans and those
denizens repudiate the necessity, and deny the advisa-
bility of protection, and therefore has the principle of
protection been laughed to scorn. Speaking of the
accuracy with which the crime of the land may be
gauged, the reviewer beautifully remarks, "Newgate
has its observatory as well as Greenwich; and crime
can be followed in its course almost as clearly as the
stars." It is from the awful evidence of our criminal
statistics that the upholders of these ragged schools
derive their principal argument. It is from the broad
and undeniable ulceration of the social system, through
wantOn mismanagement and egregious neglect that have
arisen those worthy labourers in the vineyards of bene-
violence, the advocates for the foundation of reformatory
establishments. Of our mismanagement and neglect
what have been the consequences? Listen to these
mournful expressions. " Looking over the tabular
returns of our criminals, we learn the meaning of
Averroes, when he wished Utinam natus essem Senex
Old age we trust, still retains its advantage But in
England the sweet prerogative of youth, its crown of inno-
cence and flowers, if not lost, is sadly faded. The igno-
rance of vice has ceased—the knowledge of virtue has
not replaced it. The mistress of a school of industry
said to a lady lately, There are no children now 1"
So writes the Edinburgh Review for April, 1847.
Several years back Charles Lamb—dear " Elia
spoke almost to the same effect. Listen to the sad
but beautiful words of that great essayist !—" Poor
people," said he, "do not bring up their children, they
drag them up. The little careless darling of the
wealthier nursery, in their hovel, is transformed betimes
into a premature reflecting person. No one has time to
dandle it, no one thinks it worth while to coax it, to soothe
it, to toss it up and down, to humour it. There is none to
kiss away its tears. If it mks it can only be beaten.
It never had a toy, or knew what a coral meant. It
was never sung to—no one ever told to it a tale of the
nursery. It was dragged up to live or die as it hap-
pened. It had no young dreams. It broke at once into
the iron realities of life. The children of the very poor
have no young times. The casual street-talk of the
poor man's child is not of toys, of nursery books, of
summer holydays (fitting that age) ; of the promised
sight or play ; of praised sufficiency at school. It is
of mangling and clear-starching, of the price of coals,
or of potatoes. It has come to be a woman—before it
was a child ! It has learned to go to market ; it chaf-
fers, it haggles, it envies, ;it murmurs ; it is knowing,
acute, sharpened ; it never prattles !" So wrote Charles
Lamb ; and of those poor children of whom he wrote
thus might we say as this Edinburgh Review says of
Ireland—" Alas ! alas I—alas for neglected opportu-
nities I" Had the reviewer transcribed a single one of
those sentences which we have just quoted from the
" Essays of Elia," he would have uttered a more
effectual Plea for Ragged Schools than by the
composition of his entire contribution. He
appeals, however, in one part sensibly enough
to the self-interest of those purblind dolts who
would depreciate the efficacy of the " Ragged
School system," when ho observes to them, " You will
maintain them (meaning the vagabond children) cheaper,
domesticated at your barn door, than when left to help
themselves from your land and fields, as game !" In-
ferior, nevertheless, as this article is to many that have
appeared elsewhere, we are rejoiced to see such an una-
nimous effort for the reclamation of juvenile offenders,
and for the instruction of that spawn of human poverty
from which they originate. 01 a similar description to
the foregoing paper is the Biography of Sarah Martin,
the benevolent milliner of Yarmouth, who did so much
for the amelioration of the condition of the male and
female prisoners of the local gaol. In this contribution
there is the following incidental description of Mrs.
Fry's first entry into the female ward of Newgate :
" Locked up with viragos, amongst whom the turnkeys
had warned her that her purse, her watch, and even her
life would be in danger, she addressed them with
dignity, power, and gentleness, and soon awed them
into compliance with a code of regulations, which there
was a committee of ladies ready to aid her in carrying
into execution." One criticism has afforded us extraor-
dinary pleasure in the perusal. We mean the paper
upon " Arabian Philosophy," suggested by the learned
work of Auguste Schmolders. Our observations have,
however, extended so far already, that we must content
ourselves and our readers with a single extract. It is
a direct, and, we believe, a judicious denial of the intel-
lectual superiority of' the ancient Egyptians :
"As Egypt becomes better known, many ancient preju-
dices vanish. It has been for ages the old wonder-land
whence superstitious ingenuity has derived the invention of
all arts and sciences. To the ancient Greeks it was the
mother of all wonders. No philosopher could raise himself
into prominent distinction, but he must at otlce be supposed
to have learned his wisdom from the Egyptians. Even the
imaginary race of Pigmies (in whose existence men firmly
believed for several centuries) could have no birth-place or
dwelling-place but somewhere near the source of the Nile.
The dark mysterious Egyptians, with their 'wonderful talent
for silence,' were supposed to conceal inexhaustible wisdom
beneath that gravity; but from all that has transpired, we
ssupect their gravity concealed nothing worth exhibiting.
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