[134] Same
[135] Ibid., V. ii, p. 567
Needless to say, the whole tone of the magazine was not of this light and popular kind. Much that it published was heavy, some of it dry. All the preceding gives in general the atmosphere of what ensured the success of the budding “Maga”. It continued in this manner, but ever mingling the steady, the serious, the grave, with the lively and the scandalous. For instance in the number for April 1818 we find an article “On the Poor Laws of England; and Answers to Queries Transmitted by a Member of Parliament, with a View to Ascertaining the Scottish System”[136],—some four pages or more of serious discussion. In the same number appears “Letters on the Present State of Germany, Letter I”[137], earnestly setting forth the causes of discontent in Germany, acknowledging into the bargain, that “the triumph of human intellect over the sway of despotism was never made more manifest than it has been within the last fifty years among the Germans”[138], and concluding with a paragraph from our modern point of view more than interesting: “If the Germans have a Revolution, it will, I hope and trust, be calm and rational, when compared with that of the French. Its precursors have not been, as in France, ridicule, raillery, derision, impiety; but sober reflection, Christian confidence, and manly resolutions, gathered and confirmed by the experience of many sorrowful years. The sentiment is so universally diffused—so seriously established—so irresistible in its unity,—that I confess I should be greatly delighted, but not very much astonished, to hear of the mighty work being accomplished almost without resistance, and entirely without outrage.”[139] This number likewise includes an article discussing the “Effect of Farm Overseers on the Morals of Farm Servants”[140], another called “Dialogues on Natural Religion”[141], and a “Hospital Scene in Portugal. (Extracted from the Journal of a British Officer, in a series of Letters to a Friend)”[142], a graphic description which spares no horrible detail or opportunity for the pathetic.
[136] Ibid., V. iii, p. 9
[137] Ibid., V. iii, p. 24
[138] Ibid., V. iii, p. 25
[139] Ibid., V. iii, p. 29
[140] Ibid., V. iii, p. 83
[141] Ibid., V. iii, p. 90
[142] Ibid., V. iii, p. 87