The Press.
London, England, 1856-07-05 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

say of the practice which only exists in the
polh •T- jorrnalist

was a

1. The

chairs, of
Juice slog.
trip op
once,ve6
and whe
to inY
wAte
PresbylteFilit

. liquid
journeys
Philadel-

phis, _ wing —Ls enough writing-
desk on the floor of the ear, I found it, on rtiing-to leave,
in the midst of a pool of, and quite saturated with, the
juice of the weed. Nor can I ever forget a scene in the
hall of the Virginia Hotel, at St. Louis, one wet evening in
the summer of 1853, when the floor was a sea of rain-water
and liquid tobacco, while the spitting rendered it impos-
sible for an uninitiated stranger to walk about or read the
newspapers. In the street, at the bar-rooms, or on the
decks of steamers, however, one can generally, with a
little dexterity, avoid being spit upon, unless, indeed, he
receive an unexpected volley at a corner ; but in a railroad
car there is no way of escape. One man spits on the
floor between your legs, another out of the window, within
an inch of your nose, a third over your shoulder on the
side of the carriage, and a fourth makes a target of the
door by which you wish to make your exit; you let fall
your glove on the floor, it floats in tobacco-juice, and your
wife's gown is ruined by contact with the filthy floor of the

carriage.
Ha! ha ! Mr. Censor, here is the point. A
lady's dress, you see, is not safe from the pol-
lution which, in your amiable innocence, you
had imagined to exist only in the mind of a
Tory journalist. We have seen what is the
practice in steamboats, in railroad carriages,
in hotels, in churches. Captain HAMILTON
(" Men and Manners in America ") informs us
what is the practice in courts of law

The only unpleasant part of the spectacle (for 1 do not
suppose that justice would be administered in any country
with greater substantial parity) was the incessant saliva-
tion going forward in all parts of the court. Judges, coup•
sel, jury, witnesses, officers, and audience, all contributed
to augment the mass of abomination.

Still, the evidence is not complete. What is
the behaviour of the Ame►icans at their own
Court ? How do they behave when received by
the highest personage in their land ? Are
they more polite in the presence of their
President? We summon Mr. CHARLES DICKENS
to reply :
- -

Indeed, all thee* gentlemen were so very energetic and
persevering in this latter particular [spitting], and
bestowed their favours so liberally on the carpet, that
take it for granted the Presidential housemaids have high
wages.
What says Mr. WARBURTON, the accomplished
and truthful author of " Hochelaga "? :
Even now I defy any one to exaggerate the horrors of
chewing and its odious consequences.
Lastly, what say the Americans themselves ?
Mr. MURRAY, in his " Lands of the Slave and
the Free," gives the following passage as written
by a gentleman of one of the wealthiest families
in Kentucky :
Let us spit out courageously before the whole
world. . . . . Let us spit fearlessly and
profusely. Spitting on ordinary occasions may be regarded
by a portion of my countrymen as a luxury ; it becomes a
duty in the presence of an Englishman. Let us spit
around him, above him, beneath him—everywhere but on
him—that he may become perfectly familiar with the habit
in all its phases. I would make it the first law of hospi-
tality to an Englishman that every tobacco•twist should be
called into requisition, and every spittoon be flooded, in
order thoroughly to initiate him into the mysteries of
chewing.
Is our censor now satisfied that we had
some better ground for our suggestion than a
polluted imagination? If any practice can be
called national, surely this practice may be
called so. And are we always to avoid men
tion of noxious and offensive habits from the
miserable prudishness that would affect igno-
rance of them, or the yet more wretched
timidity that fears to give offence by honest
speaking? In what other way than by ridicule
can we hope to suppress such abominable
nuisances?
It seems that our habit of what HORACE calls
speaking the truth laughingly has proved
highly offensive to some squeamish tastes.
Language should go through a purifying
process of circumlocution. A spade must
no longer be called a spade, but an im•
plement of husbandry, employed by the
professors of the agricultural art for de-
veloping the productive powers of the soil.

SATURDAY,

And spitting must not be designated a filthy
pracCee, but a custom brought to the per
fection of en art by gentlemen in the United
States, w ereby 1.49 4!1919ri0, us qualities of the
fragrant ndian—We'erlll4 • conveniently ex'
ral:e fro the mnlini witieleautiful regularity
and 7bei on.
B ' E PRESI is !ppetimea personal.
Wel ,do a‘sylotli 01. j. iPnal deal with ab-
si stra citi tie. pd Qt' 'is personages? In
the st ume bi 11 .. -e's Memoirs," Lot d
JOH tiusiELL silently 'endorses a capital PS.
of littlello3l.6 on some one who had protested
against personality :—" Against fools and
" knaves there is nothing effective except
" personal satire—all the rest is tubbish "
In a journal the public have no right to ex-
pect uniform correctness of judgment. Some
mistakes will inevitably occur. But what they
have a right to expect is—honesty and fear-
lessness; and, let prudes and humbugs cant
as they may, those qualities shall never be
found wanting iu THE PRESS.

ITALY.
M. DE MONTALEMBERT°B recent publication on
the affairs of Italy is one among many
evidences of the disposition with which the
best informed and most intelligent conti-

nental politicians regard the foreign policy of
England. That a Frenchman should have it
in his power to say that no other country has

so boldly reversed the noble maxim of `'matt,
has so systematically trampled on the weak
and truckled to the powerful, is a sufficiently
melancholy consideration ; but that this
should have been the work of a Minister

whose boast it is to be the representative of
the old Roman policy, may well excite not
only hatred but ridicule. The conduct of Lord
PALMERSTON towards Greece and towards
America furnishes a contrast which we would
earnestly recommend to the consideration of
the Italian Liberals before they embark in any
enterprise through reliance on the aid, or even
the sympathy, of the Government of this
country.
What is it which has recently roused those
hopes and feelings in Italy which threaten to
explode in insurrectionary movement?
Chiefly the language of Lord CLARENDON at
the Conferences of Paris. Now, even if we
grant that the professions of interest in the
cause of Italian freedom to which our Pleni-
potentiary then gave utterance were perfectly
sincere, and in no way affected by the pressure
of popular opinion at home, yet surely the
prompt manner in which he was at once called
to order by Count Beet. for venturing upon
this forbidden ground, might have opened the
eyes of the Italians to the true state of the case.
Admitting, however, that allowance must be
made for the-sanguine spirit in which they
would naturally peruse the protocol in question,
and confessing the possibility that, whatever
Lot d CLARENDON might have thought in his own
mind, he did really intend to excite the hopes
of the patriots, we would enjoin upon these
latter the propriety of interpreting people's
words by their actions rather than their
actions by their words Let them look at
what has actually been done in consequence
of the Paris Conference, and not at any vague
expressions of interest, which may be the
symptoms merely of a political stratagem.
What, in point of fact, has been the result
of the Tripartite Treaty of the 15th of April?
Nothing but increased vigour of action in all
the absolutist powers. On the ltith of May ap-
peared the famous circular of Count Boot. to
the Austrian diplomatic representatives, with
the declaration that " Austria would employ
" all her power to repel any unjust invasion of
" her rights, from whatever quarter it might
" come." And that in turn has been followed
up by an immediate ronewal of political pro-
secutions by the King of NAPLES. It may be
said these are not the actions of Lord CLAREN-
DON. But can it be said that they are in de-
fiance of the English Government? Naples
is, of all European powers, moat exposed to
the maritime force of this country. And it
cannot be believed that her Sovereign would

polluted mind of a Tory journalist :
A stranger voyaging in a Mississippian steamboat
bt I
well arrive at the con us'an that expectoration 1
necessity of existence wi natives of that region,
deck, paddle•boxeeraili , cabins, stoves, and cha
*
eillitz
the wisp* are die 'so eared with brown juice
you iket, acre
0 *tour. 1 made a trip •
Ohio w voun en *
.p 1 'I never saw but once
at meal 'anon 'quill lea in his cheek, ant
XII.
sqnirte4 *ith reolerkable gularity, according t
watch,even finite' ntne, or 5,010 times in
hours. lhoblier pe h 4; tat beside me in a Presbi
church at Cincinnati, ket Itp an incessant fire of
tobacco during the servici I WI on one 9f my first joi
on American railroads, 'between New York And Ph
phis, having been incautious enough to lay my w
• ._

JULY 5, 1856.

have ventured on the course he has done had
he had any reason to suspect that he would
have to encounter the hostility of Lord PAL-
MERSTON'S Government.
Were any other confirmation of this view
required, we think it may be found in Lord
CLARENDON'S reply to Lord LYNDHURST 011
Monday last. When pressed to afford to
their Lordships some information of what
was going on between the British and Neapo-
litan Governments, Lord CLARENDON said :
"Your Lordships must be aware that to create
" the state of things which would render the
" withdrawal of those foreign armies safe,
" must be a work of time." Here, let all
Italy be assured, our Foreign Minister was
speaking the exact sentiments of the triple
alliance. They have determined that any
changes in Italy shall be " a work of time
they have—England, France, and Austria
equally—pledged themselves to the mainte-
nance of the existing Italian Governotents.
Of this there can he no manner of doubt;
and we most sincerely hope that the better
class of Italian Liberals, of whom we believe
there are many of undoubted honesty, cou-
rage, and true patriotism, will at length recou•
nice the truth, and see that the same men who
talk loudest at home about " oppressed
nationalities," and "the glorious traditions of
" enslaved Italy," are not less resolved than
their more candid continental coadjutors to
keep down by force of arms, if need be, any
attempt at an Italian revolution.
If, however, no considerations for their own
safety will prevent their plunging into the
ruinous career of insurrection, let them pause
for a moment while they observe the almost
certain calamities they will thereby entail on
the beat friend of constitutional liberty which
Italy possesses. In case of a general insur-
rection throughout the Italian peninsula, what
would be the position of Sardinia? She could
not ally herself with Naples and Austria
against those very principles for which she
once fought so bravely, and with which she
still so warmly sympathises. Yet it would be
madness in her to link herself with the demo-
crats against the combined force that would
be brought against them, and could but be
doubly detrimental to the cause of liberty by
involving herself in one common ruin with all
the opponents of foreign domination. Yet, if
she adopted the third course and remained
entirely neutral, it would expose her to the
jealousy and hatred of both sides alike, to
which sentiments the absolutists would not
find it difficult to give effect, when fortified
by the additional power which Governments
never fail to derive from unsuccessful re-
bellions.

The Liberal party in Italy should consider
well the political career of Lord PALMERSTON
and the hypocritical policy of the school of
politicians to which he naturally belongs.
Let them couple with these reflections the
latest language of Lord CLARENDON, the threats
of Count BnoL, the resuscitated vigour of the
most unstable Throne in Europe. Let them
recollect the imminent peril into which a
rebellion must bring the only power which has
hitherto stood in the gap between themselves
and foreign domination ; and if these united
considerations do not induce them to hold
their hands and to submit to the necessities

of their condition, we can only suppose they
are suffering from that mental aberration
which, according to the proverb, comes upon
those whom PRuVIDENCE wishes to destroy.