Letter from J. S. Redfield to Isaac Leeser;March 1852 · Isaac Leeser Digital Repository · Legacy Projects from Judaica DH at Penn Libraries

Title

Letter from J. S. Redfield to Isaac Leeser;March 1852

Author

J. S. Redfield

Contributor

Isaac Leeser

Date Created

March 1852

Location(s)

New York City

Philadelphia

Format

Letter. 5 page(s).

Type

Letter

Language(s)

English

Has Format

https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/items/ark:/81431/p30r9mq4s/manifest.json

Link to Colenda

https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/catalog/81431-p30r9mq4s

Physical Characteristics

Unlined Paper

Manuscript

content

Clinton Hall
New York March 1852
Dear Sir,
I am about publishing a work the design of which is to present biograph==ical instruction respecting living persons who may be interesting to the public in the various departments of active and intellect==ual life.„ It is partly based upon a similar English work and will bear the same title "men of the Time in 1852".„ A specimen page of its general treatment is enclosed.„ As the object is, within the necessary limits, to make this work as perfect as possible, I apply to you personally for such details of dates and facts in your own case as you may think continent and desirable for a book of reference of this kind.„ As the book will go to press immediately, an answer at the earliest moment will oblige
Yours respectfully
J. S. Redfield
To Revd. Isaac Leeser
Philadelphia
over

8
CROLY—DUMAS—DUPONT.

    CROLY, REV. DR. GEORGE, Poet and Clergyman, was born in Ireland, educated at Trinity College, Dublin, and ordained in the Church of England. His verses are more remarkable for correctness than vigour, and are not very popular. He enjoys the rectory of St. Stephen's, Wallbrook, London, and is understood to indulge in "writing for the newspapers." He was formerly connected with the "Britannia," a Tory weekly paper. The interior of the church in which his sermons are delivered is said to be the masterpiece of Sir Christopher Wren. Dr. Croly's best work is a romance, "Sala-thiel, or the Wandering Jew." His chief poems are "Paris in 1815;" "The Angel of the World;" and "Gems from the Aubigené." He has likewise written a Life of Burke, and a work on the Apocalypse of St. John.
    DUMAS, JEAN BAPTISTE, the first Practical Chemist of France, late Minister of Agriculture and Commerce, Professor of Chemistry at the Sorbonne, in the School of Medicine, Member of the Institute, was born at Alais, July 1800. When fourteen, Dumas went to Geneva, to study chemistry, botany, and medicine, and his first pub-lication was an essay in connexion with De Candolle, then a profes-sor in the Swiss city. The attention of scientific men was soon attracted to him by his researches in animal physiology, in which he was associated with M. Prevost. In 1821 he was appointed teacher of chemistry in the Ecole Polytechnique, Paris. In 1821, Dumas published a memoir on the relations existing between the specific weights of solid bodies and their atomic weight; and from that time to the present has been constantly adding to our stock of knowledge on the subjects of gaseous substances, organic salts, the atomic con-stitution of the different kinds of ether, the nature of heavy oil of wine, the sulphate of oxide of ethyle, oxalic acid, the compounds of the chemical properties of chloroform, idoform, and bromoform, stear-optène; the oil of rosemary and valerian, upon organic compounds. Dumas' theory of substitution is one of the most important works of this chemis, and his treatise on chemistry, as applied to the arts, is another valuable offering to practical science. His "Leçons sur la Philosophie Chimique" are popular. As a lecturer, Dumas is one of the most distinguished in Paris. In May 1849, Dumas was elected to the National Assembly; and the President of the Republic called him on the 31st of October, to join the administration, and intrusted him with the post of Minister of Agriculture and Commerce, where his chemical knowledge enabled him to render public service. He originated annual meetings bearing on agriculture, commerce, and manufactures. Dumas was Chairman of the Jury, Class 2, in the Great Exhibition of 1851, in London.
    DUPONT (DE L'EURE), Ex-President of the Council in France, is now in his 83d year, and though there have been many abler and more successful men, still we doubt if there be a sincerer, a more straightforward and an honester deputy in all France. In the year 1808 he was a member of the Council of Five Hundred; in 1811, he was President of the Court of Rouen; in 1813 he was President of the Corps Législatif; in 1815 he proposed the famous Declaration, in which the rights of citizens were reserved; and in 1830 he was

GROTE—HUNT—LAWRENCE
9
appointed Minister of Justice. His appointment derived its signifi-cancy from being a personal protest against Marshal Bugeaud. He is, moreover, highly esteemed by the French people. At the elec-tions of 1842, M. Dupont, indignant at seeing the deputies of the Eure servilely voting in favour of the execrated Guizot ministry, contested four colleges of that department simultaneously; he was elected in all four, and chose Evreux. M. Dupont invariably voted against the corrupt and dishonest administration which fell with the late king.
    GROTE, GEORGE, Banker, political Reformer and Author, was born in 1794, at Clay Hill, near Beckenham, Kent. His ancestors came to this country from Germany, and his grandfather founded, in conjunction with Mr. George Prescott, the banking-house in Thread-needle Street, which still bears the name of the original partners. Mr. Grote was educated at the Charter-house school, and entered his father's establishment as a clerk in his sixteenth year. His leisure was for many years afterwards spent in unremitting study. About 1823, he commenced writing a "History of Greece," upon which work he steadily laboured till the Reform movement of 1830-1831, called him forward into public life. He espoused the cause of radical reform, and successfully contested the city of London in December 1832; which he represented in three successive parlia-ments, until his retirement in 1841. His first publication was a pamphlet in reply to Sir James Mackintosh's "Essay on Parilamen-tary Reform," in the "Edinburgh Review;" it was printed anony-mously in 1821. He has since written a small work on the "Essen-tials of Parliamentary Reform," an article on "Mitford," in the "Westminster," and another on Niebuhr's "Heroic Legends of Greece," in the "London and Westminster Review." In Parliament he was considered to have in especial charge the advocacy of the ballot, a question upon which he regularly made an annual motion. He has for some time retired from active participation in politics, and has thus recently been able to give to the world the earlier books of his "History of Greece."
    HUNT, FREDERICK KNIGHT, Journalist, Editor of the "Daily News," born in Buckinghamshire in 1814. In a volume which enumerates the journalists of London, the name of the editor of the "Daily News" must have a place. Mr. Hunt was a member of the editorial staff selected for the "Daily News" when Mr. Charles Dickens established that journal in 1846, and in 1851 became the chief editor of the paper. He had been a writer for the press, and a newspaper editor, for several years before his connexion with the journal he now conducts. He is the author, amongst other things, of "The Fourth Estate: or, Contributions to the History of News-papers, and of the Liberty of the Press," 2 vols. 1850.
    LAWRENCE, ABBOT, Minister of the United States to St. James's, was born in the state of Massachusetts, U. S., Dec. 1792. Having received a liberal education, he went to live at Boston in 1808, and a few years after went into business as an importing mer-chant, in partnership with his brothers. In 1815 he conceived the design of establishing for his country a manufacturing system, by

10
M'CULLOCH—SPOHR.

which the cotton of the southern states might be wrought up for the supply of the home market. With this view he relinquished the importing trade, and invested large sums in calico-factories at Lowell. His design has so far succeeded. Lowell now numbers more than forty thousand inhabitants, with four hundred factories, and will probably long continue to be one of the most rapidly increasing cities of the Union. In November, 1839, Mr. Lawrence was elected to congress, and four years afterwards was appointed one of the commissioners for the settlement of the north-east bound-ary question. In October, 1849, he arrived in England (which he had several times visited in a commercial capacity) as Minister of the United States. Mr. Lawrence possesses great wealth, which he employs in a manner both judicious and liberal. One of his many acts of munificence is a donation of fifty thousand dollars to Harvard University.
    M'CULLOCK, J. R., Writer on Political Economy, and kindred subjects, was born in Scotland about 1790. His first prominent literary position was as editor of "The Scotsman," Edinburgh news-paper. He is the author of "Discourses on Political Economy;" "Dictionary of Commerce;" "Policy and probable Consequences of a Repeal of the Corn Laws;" "Influence of the East India Com-pany's Monopoly on Tea;" "Historical Sketch of the Bank;" "Statis-tical Account of the British Empire;" "Geographical Dictionary;" "Observations on Duties on Sea-borne Coals;" " Circumstances which determine the Rate of Wages;" "Operation of Duties on Paper;" "Treatise on Taxation and the Funding System;" the "Literature of Political Economy." Mr. M'Culloch is a member of the Institute of France, occupies a post in the Government Stationery Office, and also enjoys a pension of £200 a-year.
    SPOHR, LOUIS, Musical Composer, was born at Gandersheim, in the Duchy of Brunswick, about 1783, the son of a physician. He was instructed by the German violinist, Maurer, in the art of play-ing that master's favourite instrument, and early developed great capabilities for music. He was taken notice of by the duke, who appointed him a maintenance out of the civil list and afterwards allowed him a stipend for the purpose of studying under the violin-ist Eck, whom he accompanied on a journey to Russia. In 1804 he made a professional excursion in Germany, and was appointed con-ductor of concerts to the Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Here he com-posed a number of concert pieces for the violin and clarionette, quar-tetts, quintetts, duos for violins, variations, sonatas, potpourris with harp accompaniment, and some overtures. He also composed a col-lection of songs, with pianoforte accompaniment; the oratorio called "Das jügste Gericht;" and the opera "Der Zweikampf der Gelieb-ten." In 1813 he proceeded to the Vienna theatre, with the nomi-nal appointment of chapel-master, and attracted great notice during the session of the European Congress. In 1814 he composed, at Vienna, his genial "Faust," his first great symphony, and the cantata "Germany freed." In 1817, having visited Italy, he accepted the post of music-director of the Frankfort theatre, which he gave up in 1817 to come to London, where he wrote his two great

STANFIELD—SUE
11
symphonies. After his return to Germany he resided for some time in Dresden, until called to be chapel-master at Cassel. During his abode in the former city he had composed, not only many of his best instrumental pieces, but had applied himself with zeal to the production of dramatic music. His opera "Zemire and Azor" is full of deep and moving expression, and his "Jessonda" developed. His operas "Peter von Abano," "Abruna," and "Der Alchemist," are less esteemed. His oratorios, "Die letzten Dinge" and "Die letzten Stunden des Erlosers," prove him a master in church music. His fourth symphony is one of his most popular works. His composi-tions are all more or less characterised by a feeling of tender melan-choly, such as in poetry is called elegiac.
    STANFIELD, CLARKSON, Painter, born about 1790. Stanfield and Roberts, but especially the former, who has executed more, and more various, works in the scenic department than his brilliant coadjutor, have had the means of doing more towards advancing the taste of the English public for landscape art than any other living painters. Mr. Stanfield for many years taught the public from the stage—taught the pit and the gallery to admire landscape art, and the boxes to become connoisseurs; and decorated the theatre with works so beautiful, that one regrets the frail material of which they were constructed, and the necessity for "new and gorgeous effects," and "magnificent novelties," which caused the artist's works to be carried away. Mr. Stanfield has created, and after-wards painted out with his own brush, more scenic masterpieces than any man. Clown and Pantaloon in his time tumbled over and belaboured one another, and bawled out their jokes, before the most beautiful and dazzling pictures which ever were presented to the eye of the theatre-goer. How a man could do so much and so well as Mr. Stanfield did, during the time when he was the chief of the Drury Lane scene-room, was a wonder to everybody; and it was not the public only which he delighted, and awakened and educated into admiration, but the members of his own profession were as enthusiastic as the rest of the world to recognise and applaud his magnificent imagination and skill. All through this painter's life his industry and his genius have been alike remarkable, and it is curious to note, in his performances of the present time, how the carefulness of the artist seems to increase with his skill: as if this conscientious man were bent each day upon improving, on elaborat-ing, and polishing his works, on approaching more nearly to nature.
    SUE, EUGENE, a popular French Novelist, of more talent than morality, was born in Paris. He is popularly known in this country as the author of "The Mysteries of Paris," and "The Wandering Jew." Sue is a Socialist, and in that character obtained, in 1849, a seat in the French National Assembly. His election by universal suffrage was, it is understood, the clinching argument used by the promoters of the law for limiting the suffrage in France. When Sue took his seat, the party of order were greatly irritated. The "Ordre," a Legitimist journal, under the head of "The Sensualist Candidate of the Socialists," said:—"What is it that has procured Citizen Eugene Sue the applause of the Conclave?'

Identifier

LSDCBx1FF9_15