The Express.
London, England, 1868-10-23 00:00:00

PUBLISHER AND AUTHOR.

MR. ALDRICH, an American poet, has brought a
complaint against the publisher of the re-issue of
Household Words, which, on account of the answer
it has elicited, is worth a word of comment.
The complaint is that a poem written by Mr.
ALDRICH, and published last year in the Atlantic
Mon lA7y has been placed, without any explanation,
in the midst of articles which have been eighteen
years before the world. Such a grievance to an
honourable man of letters is by no means trivial,
as it might naturally lead to a suspicion that the
writer had been dishonest enough to issue a poem
as new, which he had already given long years
ago to the public. The publisher, in his reply,
states that the piece—" a pretty piece enough "
was used as a mere matter of convenience, since it
was necessary to leave out certain advertisements
which appeared in the original edition of Household
Word*, and to fill up the space. The poem, he
says, was open to any English publisher to repro-
duce, and of this, in the lack of an international
copyright, there can be no question. The
publisher adds :—" The world is too large and
" too full of its own business to take the trouble
"to make against Mr. ALDRICH what he calls a
" very grave charge." This is a curious instance of
that lack of imagination of which Mr. HELPS so
often complains, and which, as he truly says, is
the source of much of the world's injustice. It
may be quite true that comparatively few people
will care whether Mr. ALDRICH'S good faith is sus-
pected or not, and this is true of almost all events
of a private character. But it is also certain that
every man, no matter how obscure, has a world
which he influences and for whose good opinion he
must naturally care. Of course wo all know that
the world, using the term in its broad sense, will
move on just the same whether we do a dirty act
to-morrow, or maintain an honourable reputation,
but in our own world, the difference will be felt at
once and felt keenly. The publisher observes that
the poem was printed in the interest of the public ;
it was certainly not printed in the interest of the
author.

MANY wise things were said at the late meeting
of the Congregational Union at Leeds by its
president, the Rev. Dr. RALEron, an accomplished
and liberal-minded Nonconformist minister of
London. While socking, he said, to overcome
the heathenism in• English society, the Christian
denominations often meet and follow each
other over the same ground, " until the people are
" suffocated with tracts and demoralised with
" Gospel." There may be too much Gospel as
well as too little—not too much of it, of
course, in any human heart or life, but too much
talk about it—too much of the " Lo here and lo
" there" with it. Instead—here wo are quoting
Dr. RALEIOII—of being " precious in these days,"
" the word of the Lord" may bo had in some dis-
tricts in every street and lane, and often something
as a bribe to take it, until the people are wearied
out and sometimes " snuff at it." Raid a woman
at • cottage door in the north of London, on a
Sunday morning, to a lady presenting a tract,
" Away with you ; I have had five religions at me
" this morning already!" (Laughter.) " I have
" great sympathy," said Dr. RALEIGH, " with
" that good woman—(hear, hear)—if she is
" good;—and if she is not, to send' five religions'
" to hor on a filabbath morns riser the way to