The Press.
London, England, 1858-12-25 00:00:00

he could not free himself, but which, under the
open system, he could not be liable.
The "friends of the poor " profess indeed a
most virtuous horror of corrupt influences: we
wish they had a int re correct notion of what cor-
rupt influences really are. We will give a speci-
men of one kind of corrupt influence. When a
man of talent and celebrity addresses a large
meeting of his constituents, and when, in order
to injure, in the minds of his audience, one large
and important class of his 1010w-countrymen, he
makes assertions which are emit' ary to the truths
of history, that man, if believed, exercises quite
as foul and corrupt an influence on that audience,
as if he were to unloose his purse-strings, and to
give each man a guinea for his vote. For in-
stance, if any man were to assert that the great
struggle, which began in 1793 with Revolu-
tionary, and ended in 1815 with Imperial France,
was carried on, not because France attacked
England, not because our safety and national
independence could only be preserved by resist-
ance, but that the struggle was originated and
maintained by the aristocracy, in order to increase
their own power and wealth at the expense of
their poorer fellow-countrymen, it would be
to take advantage of the deficiency in historical
knowledge of his audience, and to try corruptly
to influence and awaken the baser passions of
their hearts. What protection, we ask, could
the ballot-box afford against corrupt influence
of this description ? And what class of men can
those be who are capable of being deceived by
these false assertions ? Could a more powerful
argument be adduced to show the utter unfitness
of such men to have bestowed upon them the
elective franchise, than if they listened to and
believed these statements, to which every line of
history gives the clearest and most unqualified
contradiction ? If we were to judge of all the
working classes by such proofs of their credulity,
we should say that the day is indeed far distant
when they can be safely admitted to political
power. We know, however, that there are
to be found amongst those classes men pos-
sessing such intelligence and information on
both past and passing events, that they would
have hooted from their presence any one who
ventured to insult their understandings by such
accusations. But how mean an opinion must
that man entertain of his hearers—how in his
heart of hearts must he despise them—when he
finds them applauding assertions which he well
knows he would not venture to reiterate before
any assembly in which there would be an oppor-
tunity for exposing their baselessness !
It is recorded of Mr. Witax.s, when, at the
celebrated Middlesex election, he was standing
on the hustings at Brentford, next to his oppo-
nent, Colonel LurrnEL, and the mob were
shouting and huzzaing in his praise, that he was
betrayed by his feelings of contempt for them
into turning round and saving to his opponent,
" What a set of blackguards and fools those men
" are who are bellowing below." " Suppose I
" were to tell them that you said so," rejoined the
Colonel ; " they would tear you to pieces." " Oh,
no," said Mr. WILKES, with the most perfect
indifference ; "I should deny having said so, and
" then they would tear you."
Something akin to those feelings of Mr.
WILKES, we believe, is very generally enter-
tained by those men of superior intellect who
debase themselves to the task of pandering to
popular tastes by unworthy artifices and corrupt
misrepresentations ; and to those men we say,
until you cease to endeavour to influence men
corruptly for your own purposes, you have no
right to pretend to have such a pious dislike to
influences which you only condemn as corrupt
because they may be used against you.

MEDICAL READERS may not be sorry to learn that
Dr. Kraus, principal editor of the Universal Medical
Gazette of Vienna, intends to establish in Paris, at
the beginning of the new year, a periodical callei
Clinique Europienne—Journal International de
Medicine, which is to contain reports of the clinical
lectures delivered in the principal hospitals of Europe
by the most eminent professors, and which will, con-
sequently, be a complete compendium of the latest
progresses and discoveries in the medical art. By
his high standing in the profession, Dr. Kraus has
succeeded in obtaining for his periodical the
patronage and co-operation of Drs. Trousseau,
Nilaton, Skoda, Rokitansky, Velpean, and other
distinguished physicians. The journal is to appear
in French and German, and, at a later period, in