The Press.
London, England, 1858-09-18 00:00:00

900

THE WEEK.

OUR readers will probably have observed in some of our morning
contemporaries an announcement that a material change has taken
place in the management of THE PRESS. That announcement is per-
fectly correct. THE PRESS has been placed under an entirely new
Direction, and we feel it to be our duty to explain to the public
generally, as well as to the especial supporters of the Paper, what
changes in conduct will or will not follow upon the change in manage-
ment. With regard to the treatment of political questions, there will
be no essential departure from its former course. TIER PRESS will
continue to maintain those fundamental principles which it has always
advocated, and will give an independent support to the Government of
Lord DERBY. With regard to other matters, however, there will be a
considerable alteration, and, it is hoped, a considerable improvement.
It is proposed to make the Paper of more interest than it has hitherto
been to general readers, and increased prominence will be given to
subjects connected with Literature, with the Drama, and with the Arts
generally, the treatment of which will be intrusted to the highest talent
which can be commanded.

The address delivered by Sir GEORGE GREY at the annual dinner of
the Northern Union of Literary and Scientific Institutes at Ain% ick, on
Tuesday last, is remarkable rather for the skill with which the Right Hon.
Baronet contrived to include within it every topic belonging to his subject
than for any original observations delivered thereupon. Perhaps, how-
ever, there is nothing very new to be said on such occasions. Now and
then, indeed, at these assemblies the utterance of some deeper thought or
more felicitous illustration than usual marks the presence of a man of
genius. But such instances are rare, and to Sir GEORGE may fairly be
conceded the praise of having treated all the ordinary heads of such
orations in a clever and agreeable style, and one admirably adapted to the
comprehension of his audience. To comment on his speech in detail would
lake an essay; but one or two of his remarks seem capable of some
slit.;' t additions or explanations of a briefer character, which accordingly
we pi. rose to offer. " The tavern and the alehouse," said Sir GEORGE,
" will bt. frequented whatever prohibitory laws you pass, whatever
" restraint., ynu attempt to impose, so long as the tavern and the alehouse
" are the onl) resource which the working man has where he finds social
" relaxation auti intercourse." This remark, though tolerably obvious in
itself, may be ill ',rated and confirmed by the somewhat analogous refor-
mation effected in the higher classes through the agency of modern clubs.
The old-fashioned club, with its ordinary and its card-room, was little
more than a highly exclusi7e tavern. And there is no saying to what ex-
tent the convivial habits of ou- frandfathers were owing to the absence of
any other kind of relaxation. Lven at the present day, where habits of
intoxication still linger among young men of the class of gentlemen, it
is in the frequenters of taverns rather than of clubs that these jovial spirits
are to be found. Books, newspapers, and magazines have proved victo-
rious over the bottle even in the case of men who may, it they choose, be
reading all day long. An easy chair in the library and two or three friends
alongside with whom to exchange criticisms have pretty nearly beaten
punch, port, and claret off the table. And if this result has followed where
the recreation to be obtained had in itself no general novelty about it, how
much more may we expect it to follow where the contrary is the case ?
This is the hopeful side of the mechanics'-institute system—its ability to
wean the lower classes from intemperance and general grossness. But we
must not shut our eyes, like Sir GEORGE, to the other side of the question.
" The time," says he, "is happily gone by, too, I may add, when the fears
"or apprehensions of one class of society can stand in the way or raise a
"barrier against the enlightenment and education of the great body of
" another." That some such prejudices as Sir GEORGE here alludes to were
once, and still are, to be met with in certain circles, we would nat under-
take to deny; but no sensible people ever meant to say that knowledge
was a dangerous thing per se for any class of the community to possess.
The familiar proverb about " a little learning " points to imperfect rather
than to contracted information—as if, for instance, a man should know
that any two mineral substances taken together are a useful medicine, but
did not know that separately they were a deadly poison. That stage of
knowledge would be exactly what is meant by " a little learning." This
illustration is equally applicable to moral or political philosophy. Con-
science without intellect, or intellect without conscience, is each in its
way more injurious than beneficial to human progress. The first may
readily be converted into a recipient of the most grovelling superstition ;
the second is too apt to generate a tone of thought at variance with
man's instincts, and to prejudice mankind against philosophy by severing
it from human sympathies. It is by the union of the two that the real
advancement of mankind is to be sought. And he whose undisciplined
faculties are permitted to drink in the tenets of either school of teachers
exclusively b.-Tomes liable to all those dangers attributed to a "little
learning." Either Cardinal WISEMAN or Mr. BUCKLE, if taken alone, is
equally fatal to a correct appreciation of the facts of man's history. In the
celebrated illustration of Sir J. MACKINTOSH on the subject of superficial
reading, quoted on this occasion by Sir GEORGE GREY, there is a point
wanting in the analogy which just makes all the difference. If all books
were equally good and true, and consequently the whole stream of litera-
ture equally wholesome, the analogy would be perfect. But, unhappily,
this is not the case, and some of the vapours arising from it are as noxious

THE PRESS, SEPTEMBER 18, 1858.

and destructive as others are pure and fertilizing. It is unpleasant to be
compelled to find fault with any of the amiable and philanthropic theories of
the present day ; but the path of knowledge has always been a thorny one,
and few can tread it with real success and safety who are not prepared for
is difficulties by the discipline of early education.

The Wars of the Railways will be as memorable as the Wars of the
Roses. Both, also, in different modes have occasioned the rise and fall of
reputations, the collapse of fortunes, and the extinction of dynasties. in
both has the process been incessantly renewed whose result was pro-
verbially recorded as " reducing nobles to ninepence." But as the low,
struggle between York and Lancaster terminated in a marriage, so we have
sonic ground to hope the deadly feud between competing railway com-
panies may be healed by arbitration. A Conference of railway delegates,
comprising the immediate representatives of eighteen companies, and
expressing, as it, is understood, the " sentiments " of many more, has recently
held its sittings in London with this special object in view. Some notable
progress has already been effected, quite sufficient to afford ample
encouragement to the members of the Peace Society in their efforts to
compose animosities among another class of potentates. At the last
meeting of this Conference, held a few days since, the following resolutions
were affirmed :

1. That the rates and fares on the several railways of the kingdom should he so fixed
as to realize the largest amount of net profits, due regard being had to the interests of the
public,
2. That where any two or more companies interested in any particular traffic fail to
agree among themselves as to the rates and fares to he charged, the points in dispute
shall be referred to arbitration.

3. That where two or more routes exist between any two points, the rates, fares, sad
charges between such points shall be equal.
4. That this meeting strongly recommends the settlement of all differences between
railway companies by arbitration, instead of by recourse to law, or to excessi a sea
ruinous competition, and that powers be sought fir from Parliament, in the eluting
session, to enable any two or inure railway companies to settle all disputes by
arbitration.

To substitute arbitration for costly lawsuits, or the still more destructife
weapon of " competition "—as sharpened and wielded between railway
companies—will be, no doubt, a great boon to everyone connected with
railway interests. This, be it remembered, comprises no small section of
the general public. From a return lately issued it appears that the gross
amount of capital called up and invested in railway shares in the United
Kingdom was 315 millions on the 31st of last December, and might at the
option of the various Boards be increased to 388 millions, including about
96 millions advanced upon loan notes and debenture bonds. But the
great drawback to all these attempts at settling differences past,
present, or to come by any scheme of arbitration is the voluntary and there-
fore temporary character of such arrangements. The Conference, as their
fourth resolution shows, on their own part only venture to " recommend"
arbitration; and even in the bill which they intend to prepare for presen-
tation next session they go no farther than to ask permissive powers, under
which two or more companies may be " enabled " to settle their
disputes by reference to some selected arbiter. Much more
than this is evidently required. Arbitration, to be of any
real use, must be made compulsory, binding, and permanent. Other-
wise the most judicious arrangements may be overset by some trifling
accident. An ambitious secretary, a chairman with new fangled-notions,
or some personal pique among the members of different Boards, may
effectually disturb the peace of the railway world, and commit the leading
companies to an internecine war, in which, if no one is killed, many hundreds
may be effectually ruined. In the interests of a body of subjects whose
number and importance may be computed from the fact that in the
aggregate they own property valued at nearly 400 millions, the Legislature
is required to interpose its protection, and shield them from the disasters
which the truculence or even the zeal of self-constituted Boards of
Directors threaten to inflict. At any rate, it behoves the Government to
give fixity and permanence to the wise resolves now arrived at by the
representatives of railway interests. The members of the Conference,
for example, represent a constituency whose investments exceed 150 millions.
As they have decided in recommending a system of arbitration, Parliament
is entitled to fix them to that conclusion ; and, by providing some tribunal
of arbitrement sufficiently endowed with intelligence and impartialty,.to
insist that the disputes henceforth arising between any railway companies
or boards should be referred to that Court, and finally settled by its
decisions. The result, we are convinced, would be profitable to the share-
holding public, while it would insure manifold advantages to that still
wider public who have occasion to travel by railway, and whose co:
venience is at present scandalously neglected whenever it pleases their
high mightinesses, the directors of contiguous lines, to get up some
quarrel among themselves.

A ludicrous story has lately been going the round of the papers in
relation to an " illustrious" companion of Cardinal WisuatAs. The
Monsignor, it seems, having promised an early mass to the inmates of a
nunnery at Ballinasloe, presented himself at the gate of the establishment
before the fair inmates were afoot, and made such a disturbance with the
.knocker that a policeman or street-keeper considered it necessary to
interfere. With a humour rather British than Hibernian, he desired the
impatient ecclesiastic, whose true character was concealed beneath a large
cloak, to "go home to his wife, and tell her to take care of him." To dus
very police-like piece of advice his Reverence replied that he was " weddeu,
here," indicating by a jerk of the head the ladies of the religious establish'
m, ent. Horrified at this shameless avowal of the principles of Mr. Josh' 11
SMITH, exaggerated by blasphemy, the moral and devout uffi.er
of. the night at once laid violent hands upon the offender, and, dragging
him along the streets, thrust hint head foremost into the
station. Po
. llcre however, fortunately for Monsignor, it fell out that
a faithful daughter of the Church was engaged in the humble
honest occupation of scouring the floor. Shocked at witnessing Monsignor.