The Press.
London, England, 1858-06-05 00:00:00

THE PRESS, JUNE 5, 1858.

an able, and in his own department a blameless
labourer, to the field which for the moment he
appeared to have quitted.
The class for whose benefit the meeting of
last Tuesday in Whitehall-gardens took place is
one which has particular claims to the charitable
sympathies of the wealthier ranks. There is a
close connection of cause and effect, as well as a
painful contrast, between the attraction of those
sylph-like forms that float gracefully through our
ball-rooms, and the haggard pallor of those
hardly worked, ill-fed, scantily clothed, daugh-
ters of patient toil whom Lord SHAFTESBURY so
painfully described as "looking like disinterred
corpses." Even our "hardly-used brother" the
stonebreaker appeals less forcibly, less touchingly
to our hearts than these our suffering sisters.
Regarded from another point of view, the
question of their lot becomes yet more important,
if not more interesting. It must not he forgotten
that their temptations are proportionate to their
hardships. This point was not touched on at
Tuesday's meeting, but it is wall worth the con-
sideration of those who write so fluently on the
statistics of a class yet more unfortunate than our
needlewomen. The tale is a common one ever
since the days of TmilEsez, how hopeless labour
leads to recklessness,• and misery to sin. His
fair Andrian, who at first " pudice vitam, parce
"et duriter Agebat, lana et tela victum quteri-
" tans," and then by a gradual descent " Accepit
" conditionem, dein quantum occipit," is but the
type of thousands who make our streets a sight
yet more deplorable than unseemly. Cold and
weariness are evil prompters, and "Malesuada
Fames" has sate in the porch of Orcus ever since
VIRGIL beheld her in hideous vision. It is much
to raise the fallen, but more to prevent the fall.
We trust this consideration will have its due

weight in the scheme shortly to be propounded
by Lord SHAFTESBURY and his coadjutors. Of
that scheme we may have to speak hereafter,
when its details are before the public. At present
we would only express a hope that aid to
female emigrants may form one of its principal
features. Those who struggle on here as suf-
ferers or victims might among our friends in
Australia be useful and happy—blessing and
blessed. And with this hint we take for the
present our leave of the subject, wishing Lord
SHAFTESBURY God speed in his new voyage
on a sea which he bas navigated so often and
so well.

" I AM NOTHING IF NOT CRITICAL."
IF our own praises are supremely pleasant to
hear, we must also admit that censure of others
is little less pleasant to read. Setting aside those
to whom we are bound by personal affection or
political allegiance (and even these exceptions
are not invariable), there are few for whom our
respect is so entire that we could not enjoy
seeing them occasionally well quizzed, or even
cleverly satirized, when they have disappointed
our hopes, impugned our principles, or, it may
be, shocked our prejudices. If the lash be but
neatly and smartly laid on, we are apt to forget
that the operator is showing his dexterity at the
expense of flesh and blood, that the accompany-
ing jest may be but salt to the wound, and that
Petit Andrit was hated by his victims as cordially
as Trois Eschelles. No doubt this pleasure in
seeing our neighbour "shown up," especially on
political grounds, is a great temptation to the
journalist. Even when earnestly desirous of in-
structing, he can do so only on condition of se-
curing readers by amusing them. He caters for
the public taste, and if dishes "d l'lndienne" are
general favourites, he must be liberal of hot
pickles. Still a good artiste should please by
the variety, and not merely the piquancy, of his
carte; he should apply his cayenne and chili vine-
gar with discrimination, and not devil spring
chickens or emulate Byron's practical joke
of fish-sauce with apple-pie. If all men and all
parties are to suffer the editorial scourge, the
discipline becomes unavailing for warning or for
reformation.. The schoolmaster would never be
more " abroad" than if he whipped his pupils all
round to promote their general culture. In fact,
it is expected of the journalist, for his own sake
as well as that of the public whom he professes
to instruct, that he should have some faith and
some charity—that he should recognize in public

533

life men, ay and bodies of men, who deserve his
confidence in general, and his lenient construc-
tion when their course appears questionable. It
is startling as well as perplexing to be told that
both Ministers and their opponents are equally
intolerable; that A who maintains a proposition,
and B who denies it, are both alike mistaken ;
that to stand still is absurd, and to move impos-
sible; that to keep silence is hypocrisy, and to
speak out madness. Given—for example—the
present state of public affairs; an honest man,
wishing to see his way a little, has recourse for en-
lightenment to a weekly journal of high !Preten-
sions, and supported by a peculiar kind of talent.
He is informed at starting that "a futile attempt
"to enforce the responsibility of a delinquent
" Minister has ended in a public acknowledgment
"of Parliamentary incompetence, founded on
" a public admission of Parliamentary ignorance."
Passe pour cela—the House is not too well in-
formed on Indian affairs, and it will do little
harm to say so ; though it is rather hard to
believe (what we are subsequently told on the
same authority) that the entire debate was irre-
levant to the real issue. however, our seeker
for truth goes a little farther; the M.P.'s have
failed him, and he would fain appeal to the sense
of the nation. But this, he is informed in the
next article, would be only the proverbial leap
out of the frying-pan into the fire—an appeal
from incompetency and ignorance to insanity.
" Whom the gods wish to destroy, whether in the
" capacity of Indian rulers or otherwise, they
" first deprive of their senses, and especially of
" common sense; and in the case of the English
" nation the preliminary process seems to have
" been fully accomplished." Worse and worse.
Our "earnest inquirer," having puzzled out the
meaning of the sentence last quoted, is prompted
to exclaim with the victim of friendly arbitration
in TERENCE, " Probe fecistis—ego multo incertior
" sum, quam dudum." Ile does not emerge
from his perplexity when he is further instructed
by very distinct inuendo that the line of the
Conservatives is mere conventionalism ; that the
Whigs bid for majorities by " the basest kind of
" political treating ;" and that the " Independent
Liberals " "have reached the limits of Snobbism in
" an exhibition of imbecility and meanness." But
a ray of hope flashes across his mind—perhaps
the Editor is on intimate terms with "the
coming man," and can indicate the true and only
statesman, the Deus ex machine, on whose
appearance "dark shall be light, and wrong done
to right." Is he to be a Whig, exempt from the
family failings of jobbing and exclusiveness ; or
an Independent Liberal, incapable of Snobbism ;
or a Conservative, bent on doing the nation's
work in earnest ; or, finally, some highminded
Christian, who eschews party, and is only bent on
regenerating political morality by religious in-
fluences ? Even this last hope eludes the too
confiding disciple of the " best possible instructor."
Individuals fare no better than parties. Lord
PALMEIISTON is " like a clown with the rheuma-
" tism, or an Old Bailey advocate who has lost
" his voice." Mr. BRIGHT is like SAMSON, " a
" very strong man who has the peculiarity of
" being totally blind." The CHANCELLOR of the
EXCHEQUER is merely " an actor "—an able one,
but by no means judicious; in fact, " the very
evil genius of the Administration." And Lord
SturrEsatTßY is dismissed with the pregnant
inquiry, " Why is it that the selfsame snifter-
" fuges are the unfailing resource of a cowardly
" child caught in a fib, of a Jew attorney detected
"in a malpractice, and of Virtue and Piety
" struggling with unmerited calumny ?"

Such is the way in which England and English-
men are dealt with in the same pages which are
graced by an doge funebre on a foreign Princess
which for truth and beauty we have rarely seen
surpassed ! What can be our contemporary's
object in bespattering his countrymen thus indis.
criminately ? Does he merely mistake his own
position, forgetful of his own well-applied
metaphor of the Fly on the Wheel Or does
he calculate on making censoriousness pass for
power, and hope to loom larger through the
dust he raises ? Let it strive to level down-
ward as it will, the Saturday Review will remain
but where it was. We are wrong—for though
it will not rise, it will descend. It has adopted
a line unlike that by which it gained its high
position ; a line which is unjust, unpatriotic,
and, if we durst hint at so vulgar a consideration,
one which will not even pay.