The Express.
London, England, 1868-05-29 00:00:00

TILE PORE LITERATURE SOCIETY.

A ,oeIF.TY has been fourteen years established
in London to promote the circulation of pure
literature. It is supported by Archbishops
and Bishops, by Dukes and Lords, and is, we un-
derstand, in a highly flourishing condition. The
objects of the society are to supply grants of
lihraries,at half-price, "to distribute desirable
" periodicals and other works," to correspond
" with the managers of publications, either in
" praise or in kindly remonstrance," and to pub-
lish " a catalogue of such periodicals, books,
" prints, diagrams, and other works, as the corn-
" mittee may from time to time deem really
" useful and good." Thia is a benevolent, and we
make no question, in many instances a beneficial
work. It is a good thing to increase the efficiency
of village libraries, a good thing to supply ships
with useful publications. Small story-books with
a conspicuous moral, and religious tracts aro
no doubt appreciated and beneficial. It
is well, too, that our sailors and agricul-
tural labourers should have their literature
selected for them, and so be spared the peril of
promiscuous reading. They, of course, will
be thankful for what is given them, and
ask no questions. If a book, after passing
the ordeal of such a committee, is pronounced
" pure," what more need they desire Y Never-
' theless, we are wicked enough to own that
this very estimable society is not wholly to our
liking. We object, and, we think. may reasonably
lobie(t, to the name under which it appeals to the
'public. Instead of promoting pure literature, it
would be scarcely too broad an insertion to say
that it does nothing for literature whatsoever. It
Idoes encourage, as we have already stated, the
spread of good little books, sod of suck periodicals
as the Nrttriots' Mayo:4l4c, the Mothers Friend,
the Brilish Workman, and Old Jonathan. It also
takes under its protection the Leisure Hour and
the Stoeloy of home, Moreover, in the list of 176
books adopted between May 1, 1866, and May 1,
1867, there may be two, or at the most three,
which deserve a place in English literature, and in
the general catalogue of works approved Ciere are
several of standard merit. But on the whole, the
title of the society is certainly a misnomer. The
highest and purest works in our language are un-
aanctioned by these censors, or unknown to them.
Our greatest poets, with the exception of MILTON,
arc excluded ; the best and purest of our novelists
find no admission ; every one of our first-class
reviews and magazines is ignored. If MALLata,
MattoN, and MACAULAY are received into this
select Society, it must be owned that they look
extremely awkward and out of place in the com-
pany by which they are surrounded. We may
allow, then, that the aim of the society is a good
one ; but we object altogether to the statement
that it encourages "pure literature." It pro-
motes the circulation of tracts, of Sunday story
books, and of infantile periodicals ; and that
is all.

THERE are some things upon which all men are
touchy. People who would listen with a smile to
strictures upon their principles, resent to the utmost
any censure upon their manners. It is so, Mr.
LIDDELL should be aware, with nations. Last night,
after a passage at arms with Mr. Bazaar, in which
the latterabruptly denied the truth of the allegation
that he had over and over again openly avowed his
devoted etiltereatee to American principles, Mr.