Titan; A Monthly Magazine Volume 9 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1852 edition. Excerpt: ...Conservative seemed to divide the world between them; how the going out of a ministry, or the bringing in of a measure, was sufficient to stir up the wit, wisdom, and pugnacity of the land Great ladies quarrelled, gentlemen fought duels, and artisans got extremely drunk on the occasion, for there were gatherings in village tap-room and in London tavern. Now, such events may still agitate the higher regions of the social atmosphere, in which the materials of cahinets move and have their being; the newspapers report them as faithfully as of yore, and more quickly, too, thanks to the electric telegraph; the public read leaders and all, but as a matter of course. The current of popular interest flows in other channels; a scientific discovery of a great work of art, a remarkable book, or a question affecting domestic life, commands wider notioe and far more lasting attention. Whigs go out and Tories come in, but not with the observation of former times. People still mention the news when they meet, and say, ' I always expected that, ' or, 'Who would have thought it?' But Lord John's policy was never discussed with so much earnestness as the Tubular Bridge; and we doubt that the Earl of Derby, even if he tried it, could ever create such a sensation as the Bloomers. It is wonderful to look hack, through one's recollections and old newspapers, on the ferment about the Reform Bill some twenty years ago, and hear how little noise a similar measure, supposed to be somewhere on the political carpet, makes just at present. But mark how the land bestirs itself on questions of trade and taxes. These still come home to the business and bosoms of 'freeborn Englishmen.' An indefinite murmur of corn duties to be, summons all Manchester from factory and warehouse, ...