The Sun.
London, England, 1855-12-20 00:00:00

MR. BRIGHT AT MARSDEN.

(From, the Times.)
The speeches of Mr. Bright rather forcibly remind ono
of those exhibitions in which the performers are adver-
tised to accomplish the most dangerous feats—to ride
on ever so many horses at once, to dance on their backs,
dash through hoops, jump over carpets, and make the
most daring somersaults, while the horses are galloping
round the ring at full speed. At the Mechanics' Insti-
tution at Marsden Mr. Bright rode on three of his hob.
hies abreast, astounded his audience by standing on his
head, by leaping to the wildest conclusions, and, after
setting every principle of reason, as the adepts of the
circus appear to set every principle of gravitation, at de-
fiance, rejoiced his friends by alighting safely on his feet
to receive their thanks for his extraordinary perform-
ance. His three hobbies were the marvels of a penny
newspaper, the wisdom of the Americans, and the glories
of Russian civilisation ; and he managed these with re-
markable adroitness, making his three horses shift their
places at will, the left going to the right, the right to
the left, and the middle taking by turns the position of
each of its neighbours. There was a skill displayed in
all this of which we can give our readers no adequate
idea ; and fully to understand how he managed to talk
on all three subjects at once the speech itself must be
perused. Still more brilliant, however, were the
" dangerous feats" which were added to this remark-
able performance. We have in our day had the plea
sure of witnessing many dangerous exploits performed
by men of facile eloquence, who amuse us in hall and
Senate as the tumblers amuse us in the streets ; and we
are bound to confess that Mr. Bright has not only out-
done every competitor, but now has outdone himself.
Such daring somersaults as Mr. Bright exhibited to the
gaping mechanics of Marsden *we have never hitherto
seen.

The first had reference to the penny newspapers:
What a wonderful thing is a newspaper—not a nev<B•
paper in the abstract, but a modern one, and the )latest
form of it—a penny one ! In the dark ages there was
a fourpenny stamp on the public journals, and thee. wet•
very poorly conducted, full of mere rumour for news, full
of mere twaddle for opinion. About ten years ago the
stamp was reduced to a penny, and immediately the
character of the journals rose. The information was
more copious and more exact, the criticism was more
profound in thought and more slegant in expression,
the moral tone of the newspaper was raised, and it
ceased to indulge in scandal, and even in more harm-
less personalities. It needed but one thing more to
raise the character of the press to the highest pitch,
and that was the entire abolition of the stamp.
Mr. Bright, and a few other wise men, expressed
their ♦iews and the stamp was abolished. Behold
the result in a penny newspaper ! Every morning you
have it on your table, at least,—Mr. Bright says so,—atl
you cannot help thinking, " What a wonderful thing is
one of those penny newspapers !" A steamer comes in
from the United States, clippers from Australia, mails
from India and China, despatches from the Baltic, de-
spatches from the Black Sea, letters from our own nor-
re4pondent, telegraphic messages from all the great
capitals of Europe—from all the quarters of the globe
tidings are gathered into " that wonderful sheet ;" the
news is as good, the tone is as high, the writing is as
powerful as in any of the old and snore costly papers,
and yet you get it " all for the price of one penny." A.
miracle for cheapness ! Suppose we grant all that Mr.
Bright says. Miraculous, that information which it costs
hundreds and thousands of pounds to collect from all
quarters of the globe should be presented to the public
in a small sheet, price one penny. It is a miracle of
legalised fraud. No wonder that the papers are cheap
it costs only a few pence to get their printed matter ;
they live by the scissors, being made up of cuttings
from the more costly journals which Mr. Bright is
pleased to depreciate. Manchester men have an
inordinate admiration of cheapness. Let us suggest
to the member whom Manchester no longer delights
to honour, that if the London warehousemen could
get carpets and calicoes by merely paying the
carriage from the manufactory they could present Mr.
Bright and his friends with an article a still greater mir-
acle of cheapness than that " wonderful sheet" which
issues from the printing-presses of Lancashire and York-
shire.

Will anybody believe that after performing this clan-
' gerous feat, not of praising the penny newspapers—we
shall not quarrel with him for that, seeing that we fur-
Dish them with the greater part of their contents, which
are really wonderful at the price of a penny—but of
praising them at the expense of their more costly contem-
poraries, upon whom they daily depend—Mr. Bright
lights upon his legs ? He does, and takes another leap
more tremendous than the first. It is in honour of Holy
Russia. Here we have some little perception of his clever-
ness ie shifting the position of his horses. From news-
papers to Russia—an easy transition ! He began with the
subject of books—cheap books; then went on to cheap
newspapers, and thence to Russia and books again.
Books are wonderfully cheapened. Not long ago they
were very scarce indeed. A few rich men bad them for
ostentation rather than use. Now at every railway eta-
tation books may be had for a shilling which, until re-
cently, were sold at half a guinea. Starting in this way,
he went on to Russia, and to prove the advanced state of
her civilisation. It was not the number of books, he had
already said, that made a man powerful ; rich men
still, as of old, have immense libraries for ostentaticn
rather than use ; but, forgetting his own words, he pro-
ceeded to demonstrate the absurdity of all we say against
Russian barbarism by counting the books in the Im-
perial Library at St. Petersburg. It is common for
newspapers to speak of "that Larbaric empire," to de-
scribe the Czar as a savage despot, ruling over savage
hordes, and to tell of the dangers which menace the
civ lisation of the south and west of Europe from the in-
roads of the northern bear. "Is it not a singular thing,"
says Mr. Bright, " that in St. Petersburg, the capital of
this barbarous empire, a city built in modern times, tht re
is a library, a public library, which in size ranks the
third in Europe, and is said to contain 10,000 volumes
more than the British Museum ?" And this is Mr.
Bright's argument to prove the civilisation of Russia !
We shall not dispute the feet which he brings forward,
although it might not be difficult to do so. It is not
easy to term a comparative estimate of the extent of
libraries from the number of volumes, it being customary
in some places to count every pamphlet as a separate
volume, and in others to bind them in sets. That, how-
ever, is nothing to the present point. It is to the
point, however, to recall Mr. Bright's own remark,
that the number of books in our possession is nothing.
It is the use we make of them that is to be valued.
Why does not Mr. Bright tell us the number of indivi-
duals who hate tickets of admission to the Imperial
Library at :it. Petersburg, and compare it with the num-
ber of those who daily frequent the reading-room of the
British Museum ? Or why does he not tell us of the
penny newspapers, or of the newspapers at any price,
which are allowed to circulate in Russia I

If the size of one library is to be taken as the test of
civilisation, the incautious reader may suppose that the
United States have no chance of a high place in Mr.
Bright's estimation, as their libraries are nothing to
boat of. The incautious reader would be very much
mistaken. Mr. Bright thinks the United States of
America the most favoured land the sun shines on, and,
if we may judge from some of the expressions in which
ho is apt to indulge, fully intends to emigrate there some
rainy day. He draws a very bright picture of that
pleasant land—no taxes, no beggars, no ignorance, no
army, no navy, cheap newspapers. On these he dwells
at considerable length, making only a parenthetical ob-
jection to slavery, and not saying a word as to the
weakness of the executive Government. But the
especial excellence on which Mr. Bright dwells is the
smallness of the army, and the nothingness of the navy.
"Yet nobody thinks of insulting the United States. An
American is as free from violence abroad as an English
man ; and it is by no means certain that be is not more
sure of redress, in case of insult." What does Mr. Bright
mean ? Does he mean that the United Stateshtaevere
are a
pious horror of war, that it is their
principle
eo
not
be of this
injury, and, because they known
peculiarly meek disposition, foreign
that the very con-
stoates show them
unusual respect? Mr. Bright k
tprraerpya
es
dt I
flee r c
war,at ande thata t
ti t u idfe thenioelihn
ti theedy States aree wh ue u-
n-
ever they fancy their rights arewaui
nitni
uvugapduoeund
tifhsoertehpierginnmeoisps
States,
tlaebte
eeesl
ltiticensPeaclet Sisocceierttyainthlyatnotthebyy
but because theythreaten
theyth ereeavuersuee,
caunindpliiteh. is known
n
that what they threaten
will Mr. Bright cease to practise this inglorious tumbling?
We estimate his abilities too highly to believe that he
himself can be deceived by such reasoning, and wish
that he were content with vulgar honesty of statement,
which, if it be bad taste, we have the bad taste to prefer
to all the brilliancy of his sophistical arguments.

A FUTET.RM CAMPAIGN IN THE BALTIC.

The Siecie of yesterday anticipates a future cam-
paign in the Baltic provinces, and after having
enumerated the forces possessed by Russia in these
regions, which it values at 200,000 men, the jour-
nal thus marshals the armies which the Allies, in
conjunction with Sweden and Denmark, could dis-
pose of if necessary :

" Admitting that Sweden were to furnish 70,000 me
and Denmark 30,000, the Western Powers would hay
to furnish 100,000, or 70,000 French and 30,000 English.
France could even increase her contingent if the military
organisation of our neighbour were not to permit them
to complete theirs, for our country possesses a military
e
strength really formidable. Thus it constitiuttt.ecilionit:;
French army :—lnfantry of the line,
328 battalions;
eompa-
light infantry (rifles), 30 ditto—artillery,
nies ; siege train, 20 ditto ; engineers,
and
pere, 11 ditto—cavalry, 373 squadrons 54 ditto ;
gendarmessap-
Panies ; veterans
firemen of Paris, 119 squadronssonrot
question here of an
of all arms, 17 companies.
army was composed of 327 bat-
the 2d December,
the
iiadrons of cavalry, and 240
improvised force. At the advtlinit of the Government of
talions of infantry,
It has thus only been aug.
battalionsci of infantry and 60 squa-
drons" Without any offence we may
of cavalry.
cmoemnpteadniebsy
army has been organised under the
that this great
of artille3rly.s
and had found in Algeria the tra-
ditions 'I
like to hear the roar of cannon
'said Louis Europe does not hear
in Algeria, .
has since heard this African cannon, and
con s constitutional uotfi ex ltorr6f.i m e,
Philippe;. . ,
it.' Europe
friends and enemies know that it fires well. A great ex-
dition to the Baltic is therefore not impossible. Eng-
land will pay her alliance in vessels, and our soldiers will
find at Cronstadt another Malakhoff."

TESTIMONIAL TO A CLERGYMAN.—A most chaste and
elegant design in silver, from Savory's, in Cornhill, with
a private communion service, formed from an ancient
model, has been presented to the Rev. Charles William
Ord, M.A., by
the charge of the parish church of Bottishaw, New•
his congregation, upon his retiring from
market.