The Press.
London, England, 1858-09-25 00:00:00

924

THE WEEK.

The Times devoted more than a column on Wednesday to au awkward
explanation of why the editor has published the letter of a correspondent,
under the appropriate signature of " X," whose charitable object is to
trample into dust the memory of the late Mr. ASHETON SMITH. We re-
member that the Times, on the announcement of the death of the late
Duke of WELLINGTON, undertook, in like manner, to dispose of his great
renown, and " had," if we may be permitted the expression, "to come out
of that." Mr. ASHETON SMITH was the fellow-sportsman and a neighbour
of the Duke, for whom he entertained feelings of respectful friendship and
admiration, which were reciprocated. Comparison between two such men
is, of' course, impossible, yet they have some things in common : each was
eminent in his own line ; they were, in fact, men of the same metal, and
the memory of each is traduced in the Times. Is it their eminence, or
was it their metal, that is the cause of offence ? Our contemporary is cer-
tainly somewhat jealous of any distinction, in the creation of which the
Times has not shared, but we suspect it is to the sort of man, rather than
the man individually, that our contemporary objects : he may be consoled
by the improbability of his soon having occasion to write an epitaph for
the like of either of them. Some of our readers may wonder how any
similarity of character could be supposed to exist between England's
greatest general and the great master of hounds. Those who knew Mr.
ASHETON SMITH, and they are still many, know the qualities requisite for
such eminence as his, in the mastership of hounds, and that the man who
can attain it must be respected for other qualities than mere sportsman-
ship : he must command not only his stud and his pack, but his field and
the good will of the country over which he hunts ; he must not only show
sport, but must render fox-hunting a recreation and a means of society fit
for gentlemen, and such as ladies may do well to countenance. The Times
would teach us that men of 40,0001. a year ought not to be masters of hounds,
and that none but very young gentlemen of 2,000/. a year ought to be
allowed to go out hunting, and that it is very doubtful whether they can
mount themselves; but, above all that, the terms on which the various
classes of society meet out hunting are no less degrading than uncomfort-
able. Why does not our contemporary, who spares no expense in obtain-
ing information, mount his staff, which, no doubt, with Mr. RAREY'S assist-
ance, might be effected, and send them for the season to some country
which is hunted by a worthy disciple of Mr. ASHETON SMITH ? If they
possess (which we doubt not) the requisite qualifications for good society,
we hope that they would return with a mitigated horror of red coats, and
a better understanding of the difference between the habits of the country
gentlemen of England and the Ameers of Scinde. We are far from deny-
ing that there is room for improvement in the form which the management
of hounds and hunting in some counties is assuming. We admit that
these imperfections diminish the social value of the noble sport, but these
are departures from, not examples of; Mr. ASHETON SMITH'S system of
mastership. In condemning his memory, our contemporary contributes to
the degradation of the best of English pastimes. lie will not succeed in
destroying the freemasonry which ever exists among true sportsmen : the
only result which we think probable from his article is, that the notices of
appointments sent for publication to the Times may be somewhat dimi-
nished during the ensuing season, which neither Bell's Life nor The
Field would lament.

A new empire has risen up in the civilized world. It is an empire
altogether sui generic; it is not an empire founded, as empires usually are,
in blood, nor is it the fruit of conquest; it is not an empire that has need
of armies, or commanders, or courts of law, or judges, or Parliaments, or
Secretaries of State ; it has no corporate form in statutes, or customs, or
representative officers ; it has no established system of government ; it has
neither Exchequer nor Prime Minister ; nor has it any Sovereign except
itself: this new and singular empire is the Empire of Opinion. The
agencies by which the affairs of this empire are worked and administered
are almost as invisible and as intangible as itself; they are sounds, tele-
grams, electric wires laid under the waters, and passing through the air;
they are letters, going through the small apertures of post-offices, to be
rapidly transmitted, where paper goes in, and thought comes out; they
are imprinted characters upon the thinnest of substances running to and
fro in all directions in books and pamphlets; above all, they are those
modern Sibyl leaves, scattered hither and thither from the public press,
called newspapers; and yet through these silent and almost unseen
agencies (quite unseen in the operation), the dominion of this new empire
is fast extending itself over the whole habitable world. Through this
power the Funds are made to go up or down ; the price of all mercantile
commodities is regulated; public confidence or panics are produced;
Parliaments are confounded, or Parliaments guided; social abuses exposed,
reforms effected ; by this liberty is secured, lawlessness restrained, vice
itself taught decency, authority controlled, religious fanaticism kept within
the bounds of reason, the excesses of prerogative curbed, the peace of
kingdoms disturbed or preserved, Ambassadors despatched ;yr Ambassadors
recalled, Prime Ministers overthrown or confirmed in their power, Sove-
reigns taught respect for their subjects and winning respect in return ; in a
word, Opinion it is that now rules all things, and asserts its imperial
sway over supremacy itself. Even the Pope, infallible though he he, has
been more than once obliged to bow before the majesty of Opinion. It was
very different from this in the days when there was little intercommunica-
tion among mankind. When men within the same kingdom seldom saw
each other, or exchanged intercourse in any way—when each wanted to
think, take measures, act for himself without the lights afforded by other
men's judgments—when there were no newspapers to transmit intelligence
of what was going on in the world, or of what others thought, the public
was very little under the sway of opinion. But opinion now is fast
overthrowing the dark reign of prejudice, and taking the place even of law.

I'HE PRESS, SEPTEMBER 25,1858.

trh dsutmLgonliz:
Great good on the whole, it must be admitted, has ariseiout of
and sway of opinion. It has proved itself in several things stronger than
law, inasmuch as it has banished or repressed certain sins o
practices which the law, though its voice was girt with majesty
has failed to suppress, such as duelling, fashionable swearing,
inn terror,
drinking at table, and other vices which were formerly thought tog
gentlemanly distinctions. It appears to have the least influence n
be
female world ; for there, though it has succeeded in putting an end tootighlte-
lacing, this bas been followed by crinoline beyond all bodily compass
and acorn-cup bonnets that cover no brains :so that we are compelled
to
conclude that vanity and folly in every form of egregiousness must
be
women's peculiar prerogatives, sacred alike against the invasions of reason
or the control of this popular power. It has been often said that beauty
a matter of opinion : even among the skew-eyed Chinese femanlees_bebaeuytyon is
is
ir
d
still a matter of opinion—witness the crumpled club-footed little feet of the
women—but in England as yet female beauty defies even opinion. M
things in this world have their limits—certi denique fines—beyond
Most
which they cannot pass. Even sovereign power has, in many respects,
to be subject. Opinion alone asserts for itself a power that acknowledges
no limit. It is still making fresh conquests every day. Measure after
measure in Parliament is yielded to the force of opinion ; reform after re-
form is effected ; one time-honoured institution after another is given up,
because public opinion wills it; and very little remains now of what was
once designated with so much satisfaction by those called Tories, the
British Constitution. The question which any reflective mind will be led
to ask at the view of these things will be, Whither will this grow ? What
is likely to be the ultimate issue and effect of this imperial power of
opinion p Will it in time render sovereigns needless, and altogether super-
sede them ? Will it save all expenses of State ? Will it set aside all
occasion for governments ? Will it ultimately unite all the kingdoms of
the earth in one, and will that be an empire of equal justice and of true
liberty ? or will this power of opinion wax at last into a new, unexampled,
and tremendous form of tyranny ? These are questions which it is more
easy to ask than to solve. There can be very little doubt, however,
that thrones themselves have come to rest for their stability upon
opinion. What is it that has raised Louis NAPOLEON to the Im-
perial Throne of France ? It has been the opinion of the French
people. He had no hereditary right to the Crown; he succeeded not
to it by the law of succession; he was raised to it suddenly like a kite in
the air by a gust of popular opinion ; and that which has raised him thus
suddenly can obviously at any moment precipitate him down again or
dethrone him. Even in our own more settled kingdom, where a certain
order of succession is established, it must be evident that the power of our
Queen rests very much upon her popularity, and that whoever succeeds her
will have to rely for the security of his throne mainly upon opinion So
long as the Sovereign makes himself popular (and he can make himself
popular as our beloved Queen has by condescending acts of graceful con-
fiding intercourse with her people), he may be secure; but once let the
tide of opinion turn against him, and we will not answer
for his throne. The jus divinum of kings is a principle hardly
recognized in the present day; by most it is exploded as an antiquated
prejudice; the right to reign turns upon opinion. Sovereignty is looked
upon more as an ornamental appendage to the State than as an integral
part of it, or a social necessity. It has been remarked by one thoughtful
writer, who had not a particle of republicanism in him—he spoke only of
fact—that "the only indispensable thing in a sovereign was a man who
" could say yes, and put the dot on the i " this falls short of the full
truth only in that there are two is to dot in the word opinion. The king
only ratifies the public voice, and communicates to it a character of per-
sonality. Opinion is now lord paramount in all departments of public
action ; it suggests measures ; it moralizes for men, decides for them,
legislates for them, governs them. To attempt to suppress it would be as
useless and as fatuitous as the act of the poor ignorant negro, who, when
sent a second time with a basket of fruits to his master's friend, put his
master's letter under a large stone while he robbed the basket, because,
when he did so the first time the letter told, and therefore he supposed
saw what he had done. So opinion, even if put under a stone, will see,
hear, know, tell, and by communicating influence the whole community.
It is vain, then, to seek to check opinion ; we can only seek to regulate it.
Though it cannot be controlled, it may be guided into safe channels. This
is specially the work of the public press, and in this work we hope our-
selves not to be found wanting. In this way the press may be extensively
useful. Every man in the present day, if he reads nothing else, reads
some newspaper. The public press has become a great thinking machine
to throw off thoughts for those who have no time to think for themselves.
It is most important, therefore, that it should think correctly. It is not
only the barometer of opinion, but it is the atmosphere itself which causes
the mercury to rise or fall. The conductors of the public press are hardly
careful enough how they act, either in generating or in directing opinion.
Some seek only to inflate it—all wise men will seek rather to solidify
into fixed principle. A habit of questioning everything, speculating upon
everything, must end in deciding nothing, establishing nothing. The final
end of the press should be to precipitate, as chemists say, the floating
element of opinion, that it may take solid form of principle, and it can be
thus precipitated only by bringing into contact with it the element of
truth. This resolves all, and throws off what is worthless. While it.flo floats
in vague and undetermined notions it has no power. The empire of
opinion will become a settled, stable, lasting empire, only when opinion
has resolved itself into principle.

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