The Sun.
London, England, 1864-05-16 00:00:00

SPIRIT OP THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

THE "SATURDAY REVIEW' ON PROFESSIONAL
SPOUTERS.—At the Primrose-hill meeting there
were comparatively few who looked at all like those
to whom, in business and the affairs of ordinary life
the title " working man" would be applied. Cond.-
deeing its object and nature, the number of boys
who had felt their duty to attend was remarkable.
N considerable fraction, perhaps even a fifth, seemed
to be under the age of 20. This perhaps was owing
to a lurking hope in the breasts of these young
champions of liberty that there was going to be a
row. To the lively imagination of youth, the glazed •
hat of a policeman is as typical of tyranny as that
of Gesler, and the chance of dancing on it in
a melee would naturally prove a strong attrac-
tion. Their enthusiasm, however, cost them
dear, at least sornu of the smaller ones wleo
got embedded in the crowd. It was
touching, when there was any allusion—as there
was frequently—to Denmark crushed to death be-
tween Austen and Plu-sia, or to Poland trampled
under foot by the iron heel of the depost, to hear
these small friends of freedom shrilly crying "'ear,
'ear." They, at any rate, fully sympathised with
Denmark and Poland. Another remarkable feature
ev,s the number of unattached spoutere who, as
their names were not in the programme for the
evening, were arx7ous to get an innings before the'
regulars began. One poor man had been at the
pains to write out his sentiments in a good stout
manuscript-'book, which he endeavoured to read.
But the crowd apparently did not consider it re.
spectfui to eddress them out of a written document,
and treated his arguments with ridicule, putting
questions to him which more frequently referred to
his mother than to the right of public meeting; and
he was lett addressing empty daisies—or what is
the equivalent for benches in the case of an open-
air discussion—the moment the real Simon Pares
appeared on the scene, which they did arm-in-arm.
Why do committee-men proceeding to business
always walk arm in arm? Is it meant to symbolis,
perfect unanimity ? If so, the Committee (or the
Comity, as the persons who cleared the way in-
aisted on calling them) were as unanirnoue a body
as could be &ailed. As we have already said that
real working men were not very plenty, it is only fair
to sta'e that these gentlemen did their best to point
out the distinctive character of the meeting by
putting an instance of severe physical labour in the
van of the procession. 'This .was a member carry-
ing the Italian tricolor. The flagstaff was heavy,
the evening werm, the ascent steep, and he perspired
freely. The sutject of these irregulars and of the re-
gulars who followed them
was the same, and the
style very similar. Any one who had ever listened
for five minutes to a debate in the Discussion
Forum or any similar school of oratory might have
easily recognised the tone of the professional
spouter. Beginning by dilating on his own grie-
vances—the tyrannical ewrduct of his employer, for
his compotators as a " fellow that has the gift of
the gab;" then, trying a higher flight, he seeks the
bubble reputation even in Gager's Hail, and perhaps
gains it to an extent that makes it worth the land-
lord's while to enter into an arrangement with him
relative to refreshment on advantageous terms,
and so by degrees comes to be a confirmed
public deliverer of well, rounded platitudes. It
is easy to conceive gentlemen of this sort
being driven to the verge of desperation by
the grievance-famine wider which they have suf-
fered for a long time. There has been such a total
want of any good subject for jaw that but for. Gari-
baldi they must have burst. We do net for emollient
mean to say that the speakers deputed to address
themeeting on Primrose-hill were necessarily per-
sons who had received their oratorical education in
this way. We wish heartily that it had been so,
because, however pardonable in a potheuse Cicero,
it is painful when as man of education talks blatant
bunkum to a crowd of people less qualified to dise
tinguish between right and wrong than himself.
As to Mr. Washington Wilks, we have nothing to
eay. A man with such a name can hardly help
himself; he may be almost considered as having
been predestined to a career of declamation. But
there was no reason why Mr. Beales should in-
sinuate that there was a desire on any one's part
to inter fere with the privilege of free discussion, or
why he should invite a crowd of uneducated, or at
least slightly educated men to i; allow no profane
hand to be stretched out against this ark of na-
tional liberty." He knew perfectly well that it
was no question of the ark of national liberty—
that nobody wanted to profane it. He knew that
the only question was whether the ark aforesaid
was to he carried about by any self-constituted
David and set down in any
place where he might
think fit to dance before it
i‘ as one of the vain fel-
lows," with more or less indecency and disregard of
the 'public comfort. • Nobody wants to interfere
with the right of Mr. Beales's " people" to hold
open-air meetings;
but, unfortunately, Mr Beales's
people want, or at least he. says they do, to inter-
fere with the rights of the people in general in
the Parks, Unless listening to a speech of Mr
Beales's can be fairly described as public recreation,
the Parks are not kept up
for him to address meet-
ings
r
in. Nor is it a question of law, in the sense
in which Mr. Beales would have it understood, It
de s
conveniencet i o n of order.
of t
he
i rn
It is a question of the co-
ifs a t
a question
public which the Govern-
ment, as trustee for the public, is bound to preserve
by such means as may be necessary. There is no
positive law against bathing at noon-day in the Ser-
pentine, but Mr. Beales and his friends could
hardly complain if Mr. Cowper took steps to
prevent their coming en Incase, and going through
an operation, healthful and invigorating in itself,
and in its proper place highly commendable,
but, under such circumstances, quite out of place.
The comparison is not on extreme one. If Mr.
Beales and his friends.are to hold meetings about
9aribaldi in Hyde-Park, there is, of course, no rea-
son why the admirers of the Pope should not also
lastaselienmb.leTthoe thdisceeutsise is the Celtic the affairs of that other eminent
tempera-
ment—might happen to come off simultaneously,
and, in that caeca we think meet of the quiet fre-
quenters of thee park would much prefer the spec-
tthaceleeeoefte lkmlre.elf3neaalteesre, to and
the treat which his anxiety
a bevy of working men in
in the Cause of public speaking had provided for
them.

THE " SPECTATOR " ON M. THIERIA' GREAT
SPEECIL—His magnificent speech, upon the Budget,
magnificent because, like Mr. Gladstone, he makes
long columns of figures as interesting as a dis.
eourse upon foreign policy or internal reform, is a
mere flash in the pan. He depicts the enormous
expenditure of the empire in colours which might
make an economist shudder but then he has no