The Express.
London, England, 1868-04-18 00:00:00

THE CENSORSHIP OF THE DRAMA.

NEARLY two hundred years have passed away
since English literature ceased to be dependent
upon the discrimination or the stupidity of •
licenser. Muroar's noble treatise in favour of
unlicensed printing, although unanswered, had
been disregarded until, by a curious chance, the
blunder of a bigoted man and the unprincipled
conduct a wicked man freed our authors from
the bondage to which they had hitherto been sub-
ject. This was in the reign of WILLIAM and
MART, and there can be no doubt that this abro-
gation of a senseless law has been of essential ser-
vice not to letters only, but to the cause of mo-
rality also. No one now-a-days believes that our
literature would be purer or more elevated in tone
if every manuscript were, as GOLDSMITH said,
" strained through a licenser" before being pre-
sented to the public ; no one doubts that the
books published in the nineteenth century are
more refined than the books produced in the
seventeenth. Yet every man of letters is free to
write what he thinks, and every publisher is at
liberty to publish what he will, subject only to the
force of public opinion and to the existing laws
against blasphemy and immorality.
But while literature is free the censorship of the
Drams continues in full force. Every play has to
be read and to be duly licensed before it is
presented on the stage, and no manager is
allowed to exercise his own judgment as to
what is or is not fitted for the public eye.
It may be said that this " tax upon wit," as
Lord CHZITERFIELD called it, is necessary for the
sake of public morality, but if an examiner of
plays is required upon this ground why not a score
of literary licensers also? What ever argument may
apply in the one ease will apply equally in the
other. Indeed, in the present age, when books
are read by everyone, while the number of theatre-
goers is comparatively limited, the evil influence
of a bad book is greater than the influence
of a bad drama. There was a time when the
theatre was the school of morals, or, as some
may say, of immorality, but that tune is
paced away, and the influence of a popu-
lar novelist is incomparably greater now than
the influence of • popular actor. °solar
Exam, Mr. T•OLLOYE, and Mr. Thews,
have a con.rl :. over many kinds not in every
town only but in every village through the
country. Th?ir away is imperial, their empire is
boundless ; if they were to use their power un-
advisedly and call evil good, or good evil, it is

publishes, after • ,
T detestable American custom, a long report of
a conversation just held with the PRESIDENT by
a "correspondent of the Cincinuatti Commercial."
' We get in this not only Mr. JOHNSON'S remarks,
but those of the writer, about which surely no one
can care. The report is divided into paragraphs
with descriptive headings. Thus, under the word
" Intoxication " we find the PRESIDENT reported as
saying "he was perfectly willing they should in-
" vestigate his condition on his celebrated tour.
" The public had been led to believe that he was
" intoxicated all the way, from the time he left
" Washington till he got back. But let them take
" the trouble to find out, and they would
" discover that that was a great mistake."
" They'll find out, at any rate, that I didn't
" drink half as much as one or two others, about
" whose condition nobody dares to say a word.'"
Here the correspondent breaks in ; " I think I
" can guess the name of one of them,' said f.
" ' Didn't he go from Cleveland to Detroit, and
" wasn't it announced with a great flourish of
" ' trumpets that he had left your party in disgust ?'
" Yes,' replied the PRESIDENT, he went to
" Detroit ; but it wasn't because he was disgusted
" with my politics at all. In fact, he wasn't in
" a condition to know much about politics just
" then.' " And Mr. JOHNSON goes on to com-
plain that " that some men will be abused like
" the devil for drinking a glass of whisky and
" water, while others in equally important
" stations may almost roll in the gutters,
" and not • word is said about it. It
"is so of different men in Congress. Some of
"them are abused as drunkards, it they are seen
" drunk once, and others are drunk all the time,
" and not a word is said about it. Bo it is with me."
As not only the Nem York Times but all the New
York papers publish the narrative, of which tho
foregoing is a specimen, we must suppose the oon-
genius of opinion and taste at that city is in
favour of such compositions. In European
esteem they degrade all concerned, the Head of
the State who allows himself to be turned to such
purposes certainly not the least.

OUR CONTEMPORARIES.
(THIS DAY.)

The London meeting of the defenders of the
Irish church is treated by the Daily News as a signal
failure, and as another proof that the public are satisfied
that the interests of protestantism are not to be served by
the Irish establishment. The Times °entreats the meeting
unfavourably with the one of the evening before, and says
there are morns Dogberrys who are bent upon writing them-
selves down by their proper names. It was Lord Russell
and nobody on Thursday. Yesterday it was nobody with-
out Lord Russell. The Post takes a similar view; while
the Herald confines itself to depreciatory remarks upon
the gathering of Thursday.
The Telegraph calls upon the electors of East Kent to
show, by supporting Mr. Tufton in preference to Mr.
Leigh Pemberton, that the feeling of the county is in
behalf of progressive liberalism as against bigoted toryism.
Will they vote, it asks, for the continuance of a system
which has cursed Ireland with misery, and which exists
purely for the benefit of a few hundred thousands of
people?
The real movers in the prosecution of the vicar of
Frame, the Daily News states, are in this, as in the St.
Alban's case, the Church Association, which has lately
raised an enormous sum of money for this and similar pur-
poses. It does not appear that if the Bishop of London, in
whose diocese the incriminated writings were published,
ware to issue a commission, and that commission were to
report that there were pried facie grounds for further
proceedings, those proceedings would have to be taken in
his diocese. In that case the report would be for-
warded to the Bishop of Bath and Wells, upon whom the
responsibility of determining what ought next to be done
would devolve. The only thing the Court of Queens
Bench had to consider yesterday was whether the Bishop
of London is bound by law to take oogaisanae of the matter
brought before him.
The Times does not wonder, considering the annoyances
and expellee which a prosecution entails, that the Bishop
of London declines exercising such duty, unless legally
compelled. The substantial question involved, which is
that of tr►nsubstantiation, is of the highest importance.
Mr. Bennett does not hesitate to declare his belief in "the
real, actual, and visible presence of Oar Lord upon the
altars of our churches." It is certainly desirable that it
should be definitely ascertained whether a clergyman of
the church of England is justified in using such language.

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