Literary Extxacts.

Anglo-Maori Warder, Volume 1, Issue 15, 3 August 1848, Page 1

Literary Extxacts.

Reading the Newspaper.—At a soires of the Blandford Institution, at which Lord Portman presided the Hon. and Rev. S. G. Osborne (the active, liberal, and humane S. G. O. of the "Times") in the course of a speech to the company* said: He had been asked the question, " Do you think it right to encourage the middling and lower classes of your neighbourhood in reading newspapers ?—do you think it a profitable employment for the evenings of those who, having been employed in their professions during the day, have but little time to acquire knowledge ?" He (Mr. Osborne) was one of those who considered that a knowledge ot the constitution of England was one of the first and : most valuable species of knowledge which the middling classes could attain* He would have them gain their own information from the same sources as the upper classes, in order that they might acquire their particular abis through the same medium as the upper classes obtained theirs. Hs would not leave the middling classes to chance, but endeavour to form their judg. rnents from the proper sources, not leaving them to depend upon themselves. And, after all, what was the newspaper? It was not only a record of the passing day; it was a comment on man's passing life; and if sometimes they might gather that which might be j turned to evil that man must have a dull disposition ! indeed, who could not gather some useful knowledge from the ftudy of the passing events of each day. He would enable the middling classes to read the papers in ■order that they might be a 6heck upon those above them—that they might be able to separate that which i was false and selfish from that which was true. It will make them feel how they are connected with passing t events, aud will enable them to give praise where it was [ due, and throw into the scale of disgrace their contempt | or those whom they saw betraying their rights.

Female Occupations,—Female authorship is be- ; ginning to flourish tn England. To this empl y.uent uo rational objection can be raided* The want of occupation for femaln hie, in the higher c\asi< , « ha» long 1 brea a subject of complaint, and any bouest change which removes it will be a change for the better. 1 he quantity cftiui© and thread wbicb has been wasted on chaioßtitch and roondstitch and att other mysteries of tbe needle, ia the last three centime*, to bejood all

calculation. If the fair artists bad been workers at tbe loom, tbeymight have clothed half the living population in " fine linen," if not in purple. If they f bad been rqually diligent in brickmaking, they might ' have built ten Babels s or if they had devoted similar ■ energies, on lago's bint, " to suckle fouls, and chronicle small beer/' they might have tripled the popu)a« tion, or anticipated the colossal vats of Messrs. Truman & Co. What myriads of young fates have grown old over worsted parrots and lioseywolsey maps of the terrettial globe! What exquisite fingers have been thinned to the bone in creating carnations to be sat apon« and cowslip beds for the repose of favourite poodles! What bright eyes have been reduced to ' spectacles, in the remorseless fabrication of patchwork quilts and flowery footstools for the feet of gouty gentlemen 1 Nay what thousands and tens of thousands have been flung into the arms of their only bridegroom, Consumption, leaving nothing to record their existence but an accumulation of trifles, which cost them only their health, tbelr tempers, their time*** their charms and their usefulness! But the age of knitting and tambour has passed away. The spinning wheel was its mortal enemy. The most inveterate mantuamaker, the moat painstaking devotee of patchwork when she fouud that Arkwright could make in ' a minute more than with all her diligence she could make in a month, and that old Robert Feel could bring out figured muslins by a twist of a screw, suffi • cieut to give gowns to the whole petticoat population t of England, had only to give in; the apinsterhood were ' forced to feel that their " occupation was o'er." Even * then, however, the female fingers were not suffered to to forget their cunning,'' and the age of purse making began. The land was inundated with purses of every * shape, size, and substance. The Berlin manufacturers I had contrived to bring back the age of worsted wonders, though, by a happy art, they sated the fair ■ artists all the trouble of drawing and design. We are still under a Gothic invasion of trimmings and tapestry, of needlework nondescripts, moonlight minstiela in canvass, playing under cross-bar balconies; in all the s'gna of the zodiac brought down to the level of the ivory fingers of woraan-kind. To this, we must acknowledge, that the incipient taste of the ladi s for historic publications, for diving ioto trunks ani family memorials, and giving us those private correspondences which are to be found only by the desperate determination to find something and everything r <—is a fortunate turn of the wheel.—Blackwood.

Keep tour Daughters at Home.—The French have no scruples on such subjects, and their candour leaves nothing to the imagination. Our female novelists have cot yet arrived to that pitch of explicitnesi, and it is to be hoped will pause before they leap the gulf* We attribute a good deal of this dangerous adoption to the prevalent habit of yearly running to the Continent. The English ear becomes familiarised to language on the other side of the Channel, which would have shocked it here. The < bief topic of foreign life is intrigue—the chief employment of foreign life h that half idle, half infamous intercourse which extinguishes all delicacy even in the spec ators. The young Englishwoman nees the foreign woman leading a lite which, though in England it would stamp her with univ r,ai shame, in France or Germany, and, above all, in Italy, never brings more than a sneer, and seldom the sue er. She sees this wedded or widowed profligate received ia the highest ranks j flourishing without a reproach, if •be has the means of keeping 80 opera-box, or giving suppers, every soul around ber, acquainted with every point of her history, yet none shrinking from her as. sociation, If she has one Cecisbio, or ten, the whole affair is selon let regies. The young Englishwoman who blnshes at this scandalous career, or exhibit* any* reluctance on the subject of the companionship or the crime, is laughed at as a "novice," is charged with a want of the u aavoir vivre," is quietir reproved for " the coldness of her English blood," and is rt-couv mended to abandon as cpeedily cb possible, ideas so unsuitable to ** the glow of the warm South/' She soon finds a dangler, or a dozen danglers, who, having nothing on earth to do, and in their penury re juiced to find any spot where they can kill an hour and get a cup of coffee, are daily at her command. All those fellows, too, are Counts, the title being about as common and as cheap, aB chimney-sweepers among us, though not belonging to so valuable a fraternit*. After a month's training of this kind, the pour fool is fit for nothing else, to the last hour of her being. She is a flirt and a figurante, as long as she lives. Duty and decorum are things too icy for the r> ardor of her soul." The life of .England is utterly barbarian to the refinement of the land of maccaroni. And it is utterly unquestionable that the whole tribe should remain where they are, and roam among the lazzarooi, than return to corrupt the decencies of an Eoglish life. If this sentimentalist has money she is sure to be picked up by some " superb chevalier," some rambling fortune* hunter, or known swindler, banted from the gambling t&ble j probably begiuniog his career as a or a footman, and making rapid progress towards the galleys* If she has none, she returns to England to grumble, for the next fifty years, at the oltmate, the country and tho people S to drawi out her maudlia regrets for olive groves, and pout for the &»y of Naples y to talk of her loves—exhibit a cameo or a crucifix, (the parting pledge of some inamorato, probably siuco hanged,) prate Papistry, and profess liberalism ,* pronouuee the Roman holidays ,f charming things." and' long to see the Carnival and tlrn worship of the Vie* gi» together, imported to relieve the eunui of IjpriTon. The subject is startling; and we recommend anything and everything, in the shape of employment, in preference to the vitiating follies of a lite of touring.-*-Blackwood' The shortest and surest way to lire with honour ij\ > the world, is be taren'ity what we would appeai tobej,' and if we observe, wo shall find that ait human virti.es increase and strengthen themselves by the practice audi experience of th«m.