The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-11-25 00:00:00

wo leave altogether out of consideration the polio column
ofeyery day's newspapers. Still, it is very possib!e that there
may be a large class in this community whom the writings

ywy.m. never react), ann
police reports are scarcely intelligible, and convey no
moral lesson, unaccompanied by some explanation or
illustration. It is undoubtedly well that these classes
should come to know something .of the life which tempts
and destroyd so many fel'ow-beings around them. But to
produce a beneficial result without a nrenotulpe.t;nr,

to whom

r who under

-u~aubV V LI,
.akes such a duty must have other

uesise t,u ura,g up "frightful ex,
am pies!' before the eyes of the public. In one special respect
it is very obvious that very great discretion must be used.
Those vices which spring from the relations between man
and woman must be exposed with more caution than other
errors of human nature or misfortunes of social existence.
Without entering into this topic, it can only be. necessary
to say that coarsely-drawn and highly-coloured details of
scenes such as this vice engenders are more likely than
the details of any other social evil to create and per-
petuate the offences at the removal of which they profess
to aim. In this respect the writer of these sketches has
erred to a degree which not even the most praiseworthy
intentions should be allowed to save from censure. No
design of deterring men from vice by the exposure of
what others are seduced into can possibly excuse some of
the pages of this little book. It is surely not necessary for
the purpose of exposing profligacy that all the details of
vice, nay, even precise descriptions of the indecent
gestures and actions of libertines and prostitutes
should be painted to every eye. It is not necessary,
in order to discourage profanity, that every oath
and blasphemy which ring through our streets at
night . should be faithfully recorded and printed.
If, as the writer urges, the open and unveiled
publication of such things must excite such horror as to
deter every one who reads from any ,tampering with the
causes which lead to such results, tvhy not take the effects
of horrifying example a little further ? If one would'have
a bey impressed with a horror of profanity, the best
course to pursue, according to this writer's views, must
undbubtedly be to take him to scenes where nothing hut
the oaths and the blasphemies of ruffianism would din into
his ears. The best lesson in purity of heart would be, to
exhibit to the youthful eyes the wanton allurements, the
obscene gestures of the harlot! It seems an idle waste of
time and space to argue out the obvious truth, that virtue
is not , served by indecency ; that the listening to
blasphemy does not exalt the religious feelings. lint,
extravagant as it may seem, this is precisely the view
which this, writer adoPts, and which clergymen and others
entitled to equal respect have openly endorsed. in his
preface the writer declares that, had he confined himself
to general description and omitted the indecent details,
his labour would have been thrown away I Precisely the
same arguments are continually urged io his own behalf
by a writer whose works are best described in the coarse
but, unhappily, very appropriate expression once applied
to them by one of our ablest British journalists—" the
dunghill or Mr. G. W. M. Reynolds."
But these sketches possess another feature, which is,
if possible, even more reprehensible than their indecency.
The writer professes to teach by examples of what we
are not to imitate. He does not think it sufficient to
accompany his moral lessons 'with deScriptions, and
specimens of conversations, which it is impossible any
mind can receive with advantage. He selects from the
community around us living persons as examples, and
paints their lives, their professions, their associations,
their very features, in such minute style as to make them
easily recognisable by those generally acquainted with
Liverpool, and unmistakeable to any who may come even
into, eha.nee intercourse with them. He takes upon him-
self to decide who, among those around him, are suffi
ciently vicious to be held up as examples of vice, and
these ho stigmatises and brands in a public newspaper
and in a pamphlet periodical. He tells us himself, that
his portraits are the portraits of originals. Over and
over again have persons been pointed out in the streets
to the writer of these remarks, with the observation—
" There's —, who is shown up in Liverpool Life
That such things should be done in some coarse and
malignant lampoon would not be surprising—but that a
writer ptofessing high moral and religious feelings,
should be found in the very name of religion and morality
to adopt such a eourse--that a newspaper of establlshed
position and reputation should be found to sanction it by
publication, are, indeed, facts which might well seem
incredible to' those who have not the writer's own state-
ment, and the corroboration of many others, to make
them certain. We express no surprise at the fact of
lergymen countenancing such a course, because we can.
not believe that the clergymen who approve of these
sketches are at all aware that they possess this novel and
peculiar feature. The question :does not need to bf
arg• I. That an anonymous writer -in a new.-

guec.
shOnld select living men around him to be gtiglatised p
examples of vice,' where_ the men, assailed can tneitl,
know their accuser nor dcfend themselves
sation, is surely a course" which the most tak‘atltic...
approve or excuse. How are we to Isnaw that this man is
qualified—supposing that the thing °call ever, under any
circumstances, be justittable—te decide as to.the prepon-
derance of good or evil in the fellow-men he happens to
meet. ? How are we to know whether he does not judge
with extravagant and audacious rashness ? How are we
to know that he is not influenced by personal malignity ?
At the very best, it is but a system of decimation. Even
this self-elected judge of morality and searcher of the
hotrt cannot possibly expose to
our eyes all those in

trom t

Liverpool who follow viciDus :courses of life—and is it to
bo left to one man to decide on those, who are to become
anathema for the rest ?. 'There. are many great vices
which have nothing whatever. to do with - gambling, or
drinking, or prefilgaby. May we look for a series of
porq.tits selected by the same judgment and drawn by
the same hand, of individuals exemplifying all the
.many
bins
.of which huManity .is ~cajaable?. There are smilers
who never sit in public houses, who have.never seen a dog
tight--even who have never smoked .a pipe,although the
liaritable mind of the writer seems invariably to hold
's
latter pereorruanco- as an overt'act of wickedness.
poor' creatureOw-hein,evil.association from
'lineation or refining
siOn and less of strength
Aunged into a life of down-
`o have his fall precipitated
-,o coarse as, in many
.olormity the sobject of
Aiming a reformation in
usually produce such a
-,iii individual ? Is it
der . may deter
,han a culprit;
scarcely warrants,
.pelf. the _unseen judge-
_aoreover, do the boasted
.tep ? . When a woman. falls
nest invariably. exposed among
`he ordinaryu'result.? And are
the clurses -villich led to
and her shad:o ? Our

Why is the

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sraitd and ruinous tend

a a hand

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