The Brisbane Courier (Qld. : 1864 - 1933)(about) |
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Tuesday 23 November 1886
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2 corrections, most recently by Marghanita - Show corrections
THE TANTALUS ROUND TABLE.
BRISBANE SCHOOL OF ARTS.
By VBISONIWAI.
Tho "Liottcrs and Tournai of W Stanley Jovons " edited by his wifo, will prove both interesting and saddening to many readers interesting because it is tho record of the life work of one of tho most highly talented and honest of Britain s sons of later yoars, and saddening because it will bring to mind tho loss which bcionco suffered when Stanley Jovons lost hw life by drowning at Buiver hythe, near Hastinga, on tho 12 ch of August, 18S2 Jivons carno of honour able and talented ancestry, his father was of good and able LTuitaiian stock, his mother was the eldest dau"htor of William Roscoo, who will bo known to some as tho author of tho ' Life of Lorenzo do Medici" and of the "Lifoand Pontihcato of LBO X " To some it may be as it was to mc, an enlighten ment to learn that levons spent somo timo in Australia At tho age of I8 he was appointed aasayer to the then new Mint and on the 29th of June 1854 he sailed for Sydney in the Oliver Lang. For nearly two years he re mained in this part of tho world. While in Sydney he lived on Church Hill and afterwards at Annandale Cottage, at Petersham, on the Parramatta Road. His letters from Sydney are very interesting. One of them contains an account of the terribly disastrous wreck of the Dunbar, which occurred while ho was living in Sydney. He went home by way of America, and many a time he, as many anotbci has done when amid tho smoke and mud and murk of London, thought regretfully of the bright skies of Australia '1 ho remainder of tho voluino relates the wonderful work ho did during tho runaindor of his too short life That he has left a permanent, a most abiding mark m tho literary and scientific world, particularly in the domains of Logic and Political Economy, I need spill no luk to prove He died boforo ho had completed his 47 th year-ata pi nod when his fa mo, already great, was grandlv greaten ing , at a timo when his domestic joys wore will rounded and his modest worthfulncas among his fellow mon had como to be highly valued. Alas 1 that death in his discrimination should so ofton ailonoo the voico of tho worthy Groen, Clifford, Jevona-be thoir memory ovor
green
" Lnglish Worthies ' is tho naroo given to a soricB of biographies now a publishing Half a dozen volumes havo, up to date, appeared covering Darwin, Shaftcsbury, Marlborough, Raleigh, Blake and Dick ¡steele Tho books aro small-smaller than those comprising tho ' English Mon of Lettors' sones They aro written by men who know their subjects and aro Bkillod in writing Androw Lang is tho editor and Longmans tho publishers-a com bmation indicative of excellence Grant Allon did ' Darwin -who htter G Saintsbury »roto' Marlborough, and tho Blenheim heio has full j ustico done to his memory ' ShaftcJ bury, tho first earl of tho name, who lived and worked in the timo of OliailesII-the carl, who was complimented by Drydon in ' Absalom and Achitophel, and was father of the Habeas Corpus Act-the life of tina worthy, who, like Marlborough, was not without a largo admixture of uuworthincss is well written by H D Tioill Some readers may îemerabcr Matthew Arnold s use of tho thrco famous Shaftcaburys in illustration of tho Trinity Shiftcsbury tho philanthropist, but lately dead leaving a name familiar as houao hold words Shattosbury tho philosopher, whoso name stands for bold speculation and fino writing and Shaftcsbury tho politician, the man whoso hfo and work havo record in this littlo book He sat for Towkesbury in tho Short Parliament in 1040, when ho was but 19 and died an exile in Holland in 10S.Î A bold, astute, and versatilo politician, but of qu stionable honesty, probably unscrupulous and of deeds discreditable lu his single person Shaftcsbury typifies all tho passion and profligacy, all the reckless turbulence and in satiable ambition of the troubled times in which ho lived It is in Shaftcsbury that wo first mcot with that combination of technical knowledge, practical shrewdness, argumenta tive alertness aptitude in illustration, mastery of pointed expression, and rcadinoss of retort which distinguish the first rato debater of the present day " ' Blake finds an enthusiastic delineator in Dawd Hnnnay " Stoolo is dono by Austin Dobson and dono, with sympathy, fine touch, and bread'h of information There nave been thrco notable earlier lives of Steele, by Macaulay, Forstor, and Thackeray, of which Forsters is best, though least known 1 ins of Dobson s, tho Pall Mall says, " is ossontwlly tho samo as I«orators amphhid and corrocted in detail ' Ho shows that " Steele was neither a habitual drunkard nor a profligate who bocame vir tuously maudlin in his intervals of penitential headache,' that he was "a man of exeop tionally high and cnlightonod ideals, to which his practico without being exceptionally lax did not always conform There was no austerity in his nature, and still less hypo crisy or pnggishncss, but ho was a man among mon, neither a profligate, spend thrift, and intellectual parasite, nor a mero softhearted, lazy, irresponsible, ovor grown schoolboy , ' and " Rsloigh," one of England's very worthfullest worthies, is skil fully sketched by Edmund Gosse Of a truth, this may bo said to bo a Bmall book containing tho big facts of a big hfo packed closely in it Mr Gosse says his attempt has been "to por tray Raleigh s personal career, disengaged from the general history of tho time ' I think this was a mistako, for tho lifo of this grand man formed so largo a part in "the general history of the time that it is almost impossible to separate them without doing violence to one or both The acccptanco of such a method docs moreover rob the reader of many a fine piece of writing which, but for this self imposed restraint, ho mewtably would havo had from such a man as Mr Gosae Reader, figure out the men who in that resplendent ago of England's history shone out with surpassing brilliancy, and I shall be in error if, taking him all round, you name a brighter name than that of this man of courage and versatility, this
man of spirit of adventure beyond taming, this man of patriotism, ardent, if sometimes un- scrupulous , this man who, " by his eager in- terest in literature, his quick imagination, his rich and melodious eloquence, this seaman, . soldier, courtier, plantet of colonies, skilful
administrator, poet, politician, historian, and what not elso For what theso volumes pur port to be-a compact statement of the life and doings of each subject, I, without hesitation, Bay they aro admirable, and mont large sale
and wide reading
| "The Bronte Tamily, with spocial reference
to Patrick Branwoil Bronte," by F A. Ley land, in two volumes, 13 an endeavour to do a good turn for tho character of tho brother of the famous Bronte girls, and as such will pro- bably find readers among the many admirers of I the three talented sisters Poor Patrick ' he
has been much abused, perhaps absurdly so, but, I fear, Mr Layland has not succeeded in his attempt at showing cause for tho absolute I reversal of public opinion about bim. The
perusal of theso two well mtcntionod volumes will leave their unfortunate subject near about ! where they found him
j "How to Form a Library," by H B. . Wheatley, F S A, is one of a acnes called
"The Book Lover's Library," published by 1 Elliot Stock. Tho author's aim is to fur ' mah "a handy guide to the formation
of libraries, a handbook whioh shall answer satisfactonlv the question 'How [ to form a library '' " and m about 240
pages ho manages to stow away a mass of in- formation and advice. Ho spoaks of bow men have formed libraries, odviaes how to buy ; dilates on public and on privato libraries ; on general and on special bibliographies ; on ? publishing societies, on a child's library , and
in the last (the ninth) chapter, on a picked 100 books, as givon by Sir John Lubbock and i tho Pall Mall Gazette, while in the fourth he
gives Oomte's selection of a Poaitivist library for the 10th century-150 volumea, and a list of 100 good novels Such as count a book a fnond, and a library a pi eciouspo session, may tako this book in hand. Nono other need bother himself about it
I " The ' Now Chum ' in Australia, or, the
Scenery, Lifo and Manners of Australians in Town and Country," by Percy Clarke, LL B , r R O I , is another of tho now not few descriptions of ua and our land, by men or women who »camper througli our country and I spend a few days or weeks at most with those
who pooplo it I know j nat nothing about this Mi Clarke, but of this book I may safely say it is written in an entertaining style, and is, so far as & hasty taste of its pages fits mo to sneak, fairly accurate Victoria, Now South Wales, Queensland, and Tasmania, were visited I by our author, and ho speaks, with some crisp
noas of style, of town and country life in each I colony, scattering about hia pages many a I yarn Ivullnotsiy tho book is not wanting
in proofs that its writer is a very "now
chum "
About twenty four years ago, being m London, I mado u sort of pilgrimago of I roverenco to Bunhill Fields, that I might stand
upon tho resting place of Bunyan and Susanna Wesley I soom to seo their monuments as I write those words I shall say nothing hero of Bunyan, of whom a latest and boat Lifo has just recently boon published, but of the other famous sleopor m tho fomod City road " City of tho Silent,' jual- a word or two, for hero is a volume of the "Eminent Womon Series' - "Susanna Wesley," by Eliza Clarke Susanna Wesley, daughter of the Rov. Dr Samuel Annesley, wifo of the Rev Samuol Wosloy, mother of John and Charles Wcaloy, and of sovonteon othor children, was no ordinary woman-you may safely accopt my word for that If you have the ghost of tho shadow of a doubt about it read this book, and I warrant you that by the time you close the book, having worked your way through it, you will say she was a woman of genuine grit This book 13, as noted abovo, written by Eliza Clarke, who, judging from tho following words in tho preface, belongs in some way to tho Wesley stock -" I was delighted with tho opportunity of writing her momoir, and havo done so with tho sympathetic admiration natural to one m whose veins runs some of her blood, however much diluted " Mrs Clarke starts with tho principio that so marvellous a man as John Wesley muat havo como of a stock in whoso records " there aro suro to bo foroahadowinga of tho coming prophet, priest, or seer," and as "boys usually reproduce vividly tho charac tonstics of thoir mothers, so m Susanna Wesley wo should seek tho hidden springs of the bound- less energy and grasp of mind that made her son stand out so prominently as a man of mark among his follows"-in Susanna Wesley's life and character theso springs aro sought-and found. Susanna was tho twenty fifth and youngest child of lier father, Dr. Samuol Annesley, a libei al, large minded man , and was herself, as I have intimated above, the mother of nmo toon children-a bumper quiver full ' So far as worldly wisdom went, and tho faculty of tho management of men and of money, Susanna Wesley was a better man than Samuel Wesley, her husbsnd , while in tho matter of general mtolligencs and i-ound sense, she was his quite w orthy mate Her life was as full of troublo and unmistakable hardship as her homo waa full of children , but she as bravely boro the former as she wisely and woll-tramed the latter-bolievo mo, she waa "a brick1' She was a woman of strong roligious feoling and principio, although, by tho way, she did not accept tcototahsm (that will bo a puzzlo to somo of my friends who look upon the latter as a necessary consequence, if not tho pre requisite, of tho former), as may bo seen from her letter to her oldest- gon, "Sammy," thon at Westminster School, p 59 She had strong political feeling She ovor acknowledged the Divine right of "the King over the water," in other words, remained a Jacobite, and did not accopt William She was a good mother, and had an educational system which, as recorded in chapter hvo of this Life, might bo advan- tageously contemplated by many a mother nowadays In fact, this clear capital story of Susanna Wcaloy'a hfo confirms the idea I have long hold, that she was ono of the most re- markable womon of tho last, or any, century, I was somewhat surprised, and more than a little pleased, to learn that Charles Vojboy, who has shown pluck and brain enough to bo a first claas heretic, is a descendant of Susanna (Sukoj), tho second daughter of Mrs Wesloy, the steel is not gono out of the sturdy stock y ot As a clew, compact, mattorful book, this "Susanna Wcaloy" is quito worthy of tho excellent series of which it is a member
" Tho Truo Story of Mazeppa," " The Son of Peter tho Groat," and " A Change of Reign" aro the threo pieces which together make up this book of near -iOO pagos, by Viscount E Melchior do Vogue, translated from the French by James Millington Tho first purports to bo a reduction to sev ero and sober fact of tho story of Mazeppa-a story hitherto, so far as wo British aro concornod, thanks to Lord Byron, largely legendary Byron road a dozen lines or so in ono of Voltairo's volumes, and his intenso imagination clothed the character spoken of in those lines with tho form and colour by which sinco his day the British folk have known lum Victor Hugo, by his " Oriental," occomphshed tho same thing for the Trench Our present author Drofesses to divoat the character of all that is mere fiction, and placo it before his readers as mero his torical fact Tho second picco is tho story of the treason and the tragic fate of the Taaro vitch Alexis, son of Peter tho Groat, and tho third tho succession of Paul I to Catherine Ii , tho story of which is in no way wanting in tho wild weirdneaa which is so frcquontly to bo found in matters royal in the Russian Empire.
The usual monthly meeting of the Brisbano Branch of tho Australian Natives' Association was hold in the Oddfellows' Hall, Charlotte Btreet, on Wednesday ovemng, Mr, W Pearso, vice president, m tho chair. The attendance was considerably below tho average. Four gentlemen were nominated for membership - threo benefit and one honorary memhor The report of the An niversary Committee was received, and showed that tho excursion had resulted in a small proht to the society. It was decided to send a lottcr of thanks to Mr. Wassoll for his kindness in placing the Reformatory buildings at the disposal of the association, and to forward a couplo of cases of fruit to the boys at the Reformatory. The adjourned dobato on " Protection v. Free trado" was then proceeded with, and quite a number of members took part. By far tho greater number, however, took their stand for protection, and on a divi- sion being taken a substantial majority voted that protootion, or rathor that a protective policy, is better than than that of free trade. Songs, readings, and recitations will form tho programmo for next meeting.
There was an exciting contest at Ludlow last month between tho two celebrated Heroford bulls Goodboy, belonging to Lord Coventry, and Maidstone, belonging to Mr. H. W. Taylor The contest was for a sweopstako for " thobeBt stock bull of any breed " There wero ten entries, but tho issue lay between theso two show animals The judges wero unable te de- cide, and asked for a referee The committee feeling that the contest was ono of unusual impor tance requostcd three Hereford breeders Messrs Fenn, G Pitt, and T. Myddleton-to adjudicate, and theso gentlemen awarded tho prizo to Goodboy,