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 Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow 229.: THE MONTHLY REPOSITORY FOR JANUARY 1834 EXAMINER, 12 JAN., 1834, P. 21 - The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, Volume XXIII - Newspaper Writings August 1831 - October 1834 Part II

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Subject Area: Political Theory
Collection: The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill

229.: THE MONTHLY REPOSITORY FOR JANUARY 1834 EXAMINER, 12 JAN., 1834, P. 21 - John Stuart Mill, The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, Volume XXIII - Newspaper Writings August 1831 - October 1834 Part II [1831]

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The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, Volume XXIII - Newspaper Writings August 1831 - October 1834 Part II, ed. Ann P. Robson and John M. Robson, Introduction by Ann P. Robson and John M. Robson (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1986).

Part of: Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, in 33 vols.

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229.

THE MONTHLY REPOSITORY FOR JANUARY 1834

EXAMINER, 12 JAN., 1834, P. 21

The sixth of Mill’s favourable reviews of the Monthly Repository (see No. 198), this is mentioned, like Nos. 225 and the series on France beginning with No. 226, in his letter to Carlyle of 12 Jan. (EL, CW, Vol. XII, p. 215). Again Mill had nothing in this issue of the Monthly Repository, but his series, “Notes on Some of the More Popular Dialogues of Plato,” began in the next number, and continued until March 1835 (see CW, Vol. XI, pp. 37-174). Also, his “Notes on the Newspapers,” a series on British events not unlike his French series, began in the March number, running until September (see CW, Vol. VI, pp. 149-280). This review, in the “Literary Examiner,” is headed “The Monthly Repository for January [n.s. VIII]. Edited by W.J. Fox”; the page numbers refer to this volume. Described in Mill’s bibliography as “A review of the January number of the Monthly Repository of 12th January 1834” (MacMinn, p. 36), the article is listed in the Somerville College set of the Examiner as “Review of the Monthly Repository for January 1834.”

the present number of this excellent and rising periodical maintains the high character of its immediate predecessor. The work becomes every day more worthy of public support. It stands conspicuous among the periodicals of the day, not less in the comprehensiveness of its objects and views, than in its progressive and rapid improvement in point of literary merit.

The number now published commences with a brief review of the political situation of the country at the opening of 1834;1 in which, while none of the evils and dangers we have yet to struggle with are disguised or extenuated, the tone of the writer is not discouraging but animating, and inspires the reader to arm himself with renewed vigour for the perennial contest, which more or less at all times, but most peculiarly in the present, is the lot of humanity.

The “Case of the Dissenters” is the subject of an article, the spirit of which is all in the following passage:

It is much to be deprecated that Church reform should become, in the Legislature, merely a question between the established sect and the non-established sects. Should that happen, the result will most likely be a stopping short in, and turning aside from, the course which ought to be pursued in order to obtain from change the greatest amount of national good. It is very possible that matters may be compromised between the clergy, who, practically, are the Church, on the one hand; and the leading denominations of dissenters on the other. “Holy Orders,” and “pretended Holy Orders,” may be made to stand (with the exception of the money difference, and of the preference of fashion) on the same step of the social platform; dissenting lovers may be allowed to join hands in the unconsecrated chapel; and the dissenting dead be allowed, with the benediction on their bones of the voice which in life they loved, to rest in the consecrated burial ground. Nay, tithes may be no longer levied, as at present, and church rates be receipted by a pastor’s certificate of membership. All this, and more, may happen, even until insolence and grumbling shall be hushed together, and the “righteousness” of the Church and the “peace” of dissent shall have “embraced each other;” and yet the people remain destitute of advantages to which they have a right, and the prospect of obtaining which, imparts its highest value, its properly national interest, to the subject of Church reform.

All considerations about rival parties, sectarian rights, and ecclesiastical inequalities, shrink into comparative insignificance before the great question—Shall that huge mass of property, which is now unworthily held by the hierarchy, continue to be so perverted, or be applied to its legitimate purpose, the intellectual and moral culture of the entire population?—This is the question which, in proportion as the people understand their rights and interests, they will require of the Legislature to answer. This is the question which every patriotic legislator should moot. This is the question which the press should unceasingly agitate and discuss. It is the “case” of the people, and should swallow up the case of the dissenters.2

The paper headed “The Diffusion of Knowledge amongst the People,” (being the substance of two lectures read at the Mechanics’ Institution by the author of several known works,) is, notwithstanding the title, not at all common-place, and abounds with useful thoughts well expressed.3

The “Autobiography of Pel. Verjuice,” continues and improves every month.4 But the article which will be oftenest reperused, and with greatest pleasure, is a notice of the pictures in the Luxembourg Gallery, evidently by the same hand as the paper in the previous number on the Louvre.5 We think the criticism too favourable to the modern French school, but the descriptions of the pictures have all the poetical beauty which they ascribe to the pictures themselves.

In this number of the Repository there is a new feature, a song with music, being the first of “Songs of the Months,” the remaining eleven will appear in the succeeding numbers.6 The merit both of the poetry and the music is sufficiently vouched for by the fact, that the latter is composed by the accomplished author of the Musical Illustrations of the Waverley Novels.7

We heartily applaud this enlargement of the plan of the Repository, which is perfectly in keeping with its spirit. The work is now more than ever entitled to the character it already deserved, of being the cheapest of the monthly periodicals, for the music alone, if printed separately, could not be purchased for less than the entire price of the work which contains it.

[1 ]W.J. Fox, “Forwards or Backwards?” pp. 1-7.

[2 ]P. 63. The article is possibly by Fox.

[3 ]On pp. 7-19; the article is by John Phillips Potter (1793-1861), clergyman and writer on classical philosophy.

[4 ]On pp. 21-39, by Charles Pemberton (see No. 207, n5).

[5 ]Sarah Flower, “The Luxembourg,” pp. 54-63; for her article on the Louvre, “A National Gallery,” see No. 225.

[6 ]Eliza Flower, “A Chime for the New Year: Songs of the Months, No. I, January,” p. 41 (words by Sarah Flower). For Mill’s review of the songs for the first four months, see No. 248; for his review of the complete work, No. 273.

[7 ]Reviewed by Mill in No. 112.