The Express.
London, England, 1846-09-08 00:00:00

DA? OERS OP METAPHOR.

" Sometimes sophistry dilates itself, and pervades the
whole web of a long and dull theory. More frequently it
compresses, it contracts itself, converts itself into a principle,
and is concealed in a single ward.
" ' God preserve us,' said Paul Louis, ' from the evil spirit
and from metaphors!' And, in reality, it would be difficult
to say which of the two causes the most evil in our planet.
It is the demon, you say ; he puts the spirit of spoliation
into all our hearts, during our whole existence. Yes, but
be leaves untouched the repression of abuses through the re-
sistance of those who suffer from them. It is sophistry
which paml)scs this resistance. The sword which malice
puts into the hands of the assailants would be powerless, if
svehistry did not break the shield on the arm of the as-
sailed, and it is with good reason that Telalebmnche has in-
scribed this sentence upon the frontispiece of his book: Error
is the cause of human misery.
" And see what takes place. Some ambitious hypocrites
may, for example, have a sini,ter interest in sowing tho
seeds of national hatred in the public mind. The fatal germ
may developo itself, bring on a general conflagration, put a
stop to the progress of civilisation, shed torrents of blood,
and bring upon the country the most terrible of scourges, en
invasion. In every case, and beforehand, these hateful
feelings lower us in the opinion of other people, and reduce
Frenchmen who have preserved some love of justice, to
blush for their country. Certainly, these are great evils;
and in order to guarantee the public against the intrigues of
those who would subject it to such risks, it would suffice
that it should have a clear view of them. how do they suc-
ceed in depriving it of that clear view ? By metaphors.
They alter, strain, corrupt the meaning of three or four
words, and all is said."
Such is the word invasion itself. _

A French iron-master says, let us preserve ourselves from
the invasion of English iron. An English landlord exclaims,
let us repel the inrosion of French torn. And they propose
to raise barriers between the two nations. Barriers occasion
non-intercourse; non-intercourse leads to hatred ; hatred to
war ; war to invasion. What matters it ? say the two
sophists ; is it not better to be exposed to an eventual inva-
sion than to agree to a certain invasion? And the people
believe them, and the barriers remain.
And nevertheless what an tlogy is there between an ex-
change and an itirosisn l' What similitude can possibly be
established between • ship of war, which conies to vomit
upon our cities fire, sword, and devastation ; and • merchant-
ship, which COmes sad offers us to barter freely, voluntarily,
foreign productions for ours ?
I shall say the same of the word inundation. This word
is taken ordinarily in a bad sense, because it is the general
characteristic of inundation to lay waste the fields a.d the
crops. If, however, they leave upon the soil a value superior
to that which they take away, like the inundations of the Nile.
we should follow the examp"e of the Egyptians, bless them
and deify them. Well then, before declaiming nbainst the
inundations of foreign products, before placing in their way
troublesome and costly obstacles, do we ask if they are among
those inundations which lay waste or those which fcrtilfs: ?
What should we think of Mehemet Ali, if instead of con-
structing dams at great expense across the Nile, in order to
extend the region of its inundation, he were to expend his
piastres in deepening its bed, in order that Egypt might
not be contaminated by the foreign slime brought down
from the Mountains of the Moon ? We exhibit precisely this
degree of wisdom and of reason, when we wish, by the ex-
penditure of millions, to preserve our country—from what ?
From benefits withwhichuature has endowed other Climates.
Among the metaphors which conceal an altogether fatal
theory, there is none more commonly used than that put
forward in the words tribute, tributary.
These words have become so common, that they are used
as synonyms of purchase, purchaser, and the worth are used
indifferently for the one or the other.
But, nevertheless, there is as great a difference between
tribute and purchase, as between theft sad crchange, and I
would just as soon hear it said that Cartouche has broken
open a strong box and has purchased a thousand crowns, as
I would hear our honourable deputies repeat: We have paid
to Germany • tribute for a thousand horses which she has
sold to ns.
For that which renders Cartouche's action no purchase is,
that he has not put, and with my consent, into my strong
box, a value equivalent to that which he has taken out.
And that which causes the payment of 500,000 francs,
which we have made to Germany, to be no tribute, is because
she has not received it gratuitously, but by giving us in ex-
change a thousand horses, which we ourselves hare judged
to be worth our 600,000 francs.
Must we then seriously animadvert on such abuses of lan-
guage ? Why not, since it is a very serious evil, that they
should be made Ana of in journals, and in books.
And let it not be imagined that they nape from some few
writers, ignorant even of their own language. For one who
abstains from them, I will quote ten who allow themselves
to use them; and even amongst those who are the most con-
sidered—the d'Argoute, the Duping, the S illiles, the peers,
the deputies, the ministers; that in, amongst the men whose
word is law, and whose most hurtful sophisms serve as a
ground-work for the administration of the country.
A celebrated modern philosopher has added to the catego-
ries of Aristotle a sophism which consists in comprising, in
one word, a begging of the question. He quotes various
examples of it. He might have added the word tributary to
his nomenclature. In fact, the question in point is, whether
purchases made abroad are useful or hurtful. They are
hurtful, you say. And why ? Because they render us tri-
butary to the foreigner. Certainly, this is a word which
takes the question for granted.
Row has this improper trope found its way into the rheto-
ric of the monopolists?
Some money leaves the country to satisfy the rapacity of a
victorious enemy. Some more money knees the country also
to pay for merchandise. They. establish the analogy between
the two cases by only taking into account the circumstances
in which they resemble each other, and leaving out of the
question those in which they differ.
However this circumstance, that is to say, the non-reim-
bursement in the first case, and the reimbursement freely
given in the other, establishes such a difference between
them, that it is really impossible to class them under the
same head. To give a hundred trams perforce to one who
has his hand at your throat, or willingly to one who gives
you the object of your wishes, are really cases which can-
not be assimilated. You might as well say that it is a matter
of indifference whether you throw yonrbread into the river
or eat it, because in either case the bread will be destroyed.
The vice of this reasoeneials:that contained in the word
tribute, consists in • • a complete similitude be-
tween two cases by means of their points of resemblance,
and taking no account of their points of difference.
Mr. Porter's notes, as we have said, are in the same
clear and lively spirit. Here is an apt Misers.
Lion of

PALS' SENTINIST.
" We cannot simplify and chespen any article of use or
consumption without adding to the sum of human enjoy-

meat. Even in the case, if any such cats can be found, of
articled the use of which cannot be increased by making them
cheaper, the consumer will, when they shall be cheaper, hays
greater means lets at his disposal [or procuring other objects of
desire, while the capital of the producer will be in part set
frse,'and will be employed for the preparation of the ineranna
quantities of objects so demanded. A machine hi s reseasly
been invented and put to use for cleaning the streets of Law-
don. The employment of one man in leading the horse
by which this machine is drawn, is far more efficacious
than the irksome labour of many men employed In the
ordinary manner, in sweeping together and shovelling into
carts the mud and other filth that, in the winter tints,
accumulates so rapidly in our streets. One would imagine
that So relieve men from such a loathsome occupstion, must
be deemed by every one a great improvement. Not so, how-
ever. Shortly after the introduction of this machine, I was
walking with en amiable person, of the protectionist school,
who stopping to contemplate the efficient manner in which
the mud was, by the simple moving forward of the horse,
conveyed from the roadway to the body of the cart,
addressed me in thew) words, 'lt makes my heart ache to
think what will become of the poor scavengers, if these con-
trivances "hall come into general use,' a remark which for-
cibly called to my mind the very different view taken of the
same case by the late Mr. Deacon Hume, a man whose heart
was ever alive to the finest impulses of our nature, and who
while observing one of these pitied scavengers in the exer-
cise of his calling, remarked to me, that the time would
tome when such degrading offices must be performed by the
aid of ma'-hinery, or that it would be necessary to bribe a
man to the task, by pay equal to that of a babe a
State."
Nor should we omit an example by Mr. Porter,
very proper for quotation in this journal, of the
fallacy tlett when any particular produce abounds,
an is sold at a low price, then the producer gains
less:
" The error into which the author has here allowed him-
self to fall, is beginning to be understood in England, where
large profits are made by means of low prices. It is found
that greater gains are made by cateti tg fur the m allots. than
by providing for the demands of the affluent. Weekly
journals, which if sold at prices until lately general, would
cert anly not pay their expenses, are made to yield handsome
incomes to all connected with them, when sold at prices that
bring them within the reach of the many. For the exten-
sive application of this discovery, which is not now confined
to matters of literature, but is fast being extended to a great
variety of objects in a way that adds most importantly to the
comforts and enjoyments of the labouring classes, we are
under much obligation to the Messrs. Chambers, of Edin-
burgh, and to the able and ingenious publisher of the Penny
Magazine."
It is also mob gratifying to us to observe what is
said by Mr. Porter on the probable results of
M. Bastiat's labours in France itself:
"This very clever little volume comprises by no means all
that M. Bastiat has done and is doing in order to awaken
hi/countrymen to the consideration of questions connected
with the freedom of commerce. He last year translated into
French and published many of the speeches and documents
proceeding from the members of the Anti-Corn-law League,
and he enriched that volume with an admirable preface,
well calculated to fix the attention of his countrymen. By
the course which he has since adopted, M. Bastiat seems
thoroughly impressed with the wisdom of the plans adopted
by the leading members of the English League ; he has on
various occasion* delivered lectures with the view of enlight-
ening the constituencies, and has been mainly instrumental
in forming a free-trade association, having the Duc d'Har-
court for its president. This association seems destined to
meet with V- e same want of approval on the part of the
French government which so long, on the part of our own
government, accompanied the labours of the League in this
country. Individually it is believed that the members of
the French government are not unfriendly to the adoption of
free-trade, but the presumed necessity of deferring to the
protectional constituencies of Franco renders them fearful
of holding nut encouragement to an association, the princi-
ples of which are considered hurtful by those constituencies,
and this conduct will no doubt be persisted in by the minis.
tern until a change shall ha re been wrought in the public
mind upon these questions. Whenever this change shall
be effected, we may feel certain of witnessing a correspond-
ing change in the policy of the French government, and this
desirable result will assuredly be all the more rapidly accom-
plished by reason of the example set by the British legisla-
ture, and the blessings to this country, which cannot fail to
be the result of the recent reforms in our commercial
legislation."
We forbear further extract, as our readers cannot
do better than purchase the work of M. Bastiat,
which has, in addition to its other merits, those of
cheapness and portability.

'be Braun.
SURREY TREAYRE.—The tragedy of Hamlet was
played at this theatre last night, as the first in a series of
performances that will include those great dramas of Shak-
speaie, with which in the memory of the present generation
the recollection of Mr. Macready will always be associated.
It would be difficult to name any character in which the
peculiar power of this great actor is so forcibly and so dis-
tinctively exhilked. Of some performers the passion is felt
and admired ; others subdue the spectator by tenderness, and,
save when terror or pity is to be excited, the audienoe is un-
moved : but they who witness the acting of Mr.Maeready forget
his mastery over emotion in wonder at the intelligence which
is its n correlative. Such an actor only is Otto play the
part of Hamlet, in which so many grand problems of psycho-
logy are involved—love, ambition, revenge, madness, suicide,
superstition, fatalism. We have not space, nor, the lateness
of the hour considered, time to discuss a themo so controver-
sial as is the idea which the poet intended to develop in this
play. Last night it seemed as if Mr. Macready thought it
identical with that si sublimely treated in those peat dramas
of which the descendants of Pelops and Labdaens are the
heroes ; Destiny, relentless and inexorable, accumulating
horrors on one family, till its own guilt works its own exter-
mination. The passage in the second scene of the fifth
act, beginning with "We defy augury : there is
a special providence in the fall of a sparrow," wax
spoken as though, like the concluding part of the Greek
Chorus, it contained the mystery of the action. This pas-
sage, undoubtedly, is the one which first relieves the mind
of the render or spectator, from the trouble and conflict into
which it has been thrown by the inefficacy of the superna-
tural visitation, and the misfortunes to which it has led.
Of the performance is particular SCRIM it is unnecessary to
speak, as its excellence is well known, and, even in its
minutia, appreciated. The audience, which filled the house
to the roof, though occasionally betrayed into vehement ap-
plause, ill-timed, because interrupting the action, seemed
thoroughly to enjoy, and by no means to misapprehend, the
subtleties that belong to the view which Mr. Macready takes
of the character. They deserved tosee him better supported.
We shall refrain from stating names; but the representation
on the whole appeared to us to be the converse of the old
joke—like the play of Hamlet with everything but the part
of Hamlet left out. Better no Polontus, no Ophelia, no
Horatio, th sn such a Polonius, Ophelia, and Horatio. We
ought, perhaps, to except from this censure Mr. Cooper,
who as" the majesty of buried Denmark," assumed a voice
so cavernous, that had Dr. Johnson beard him, the Ghost
would never have been sneered at as " chatty."