The Sun.
London, England, 1864-11-14 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF

JOURNAL S.

THE " SPECTATOR" ON TEE CALCUTTA CYCLONE.
—The English language does not contain a native
word to express the more violent forms of wind. We
have borrowed a great many since we became the
great merchants of the East, but hurricane and
tornado are Spanish, typhoon, we believe, Chinese,
though dictionaries derive it from the Greek, simoom
Arabic, and cyclone pure Greek, with a conventional
meaning imposed upon it by science. Gale means
anything, according to the speaker's idea of the
proper power of wind, blast and squall imply limited
duration, and whirlwind is restricted to the lesser
forms of circular hurricane, the waterspouts of air.
Storm is the only native word of any force, and an
Englishman's idea of a storm does not tempt him to
sympathise greatly with the sufferers from its vio-
lence. Accustomed only to the winds of the north,
which bring catarrh and consumption, but leave
wooden houses standing for years, which seldom last
many hours, and are never destructive except at sea,
his power:of imagining wind is limited, and he roads
a story like that of the catastrophe at Calcutta with
a feeling of pity in which there is just a trace of
something like contempt. People out there must be
very weak or arrangements very bad for a mere
wind to work all that destruction, throw Lloyds'
into a panic, and impede the systolo disaslole of her
Majesty's foreign mails. We question whether even
after read:ng Lloyds' report, and the much more
graphic narrative which appeared in the Telegraph,
the average reader quite understands that an Indian
cyclone is to Indians a catastrophe like an earth-
quake, an irresistible outburst of the destructive
forces of nature before which man and man's works
are as powerless as before the breath of the Almighty,
which can be encountered only by submission, or
that resignation which while it lasts is so undistin-
guishable from paralysis. It has been the lot of the
writer to live through two cyclones, only less violent
than that of October 5, and one considerable earth-
quake, and on the whole he considers the earthquake
the friendlier manifestation of the two. It brings
your house about your ears, and suggests that the
protection of Heaven is suspended, but it gets itself
done with, and the cyclone does not. That, we take it,
is the secret of the horror with which all men
who have lived in Asia regard a genuine cyclone.
The popular theory that such a storm occurs about
once in ten years ie, we believe, a mistake founded
on imperfect knowledge. It occurs every year just
after the tropical rains, but fortunately for civiliza-
tion its force is not spent twice on the same spot,
except after intervals of years, sometimes of quar-
ter-centuries. The park planted by Marquis Wel-
lesley, for example, sixteen miles from Calcutta,
though now destroyed, has survived the cyclones of
seventy years, apparently though not really un-
harmed. It is only when the destruction affects
Europeans that in Asia details are known, and a
storm which destroys everything between the
MilMitius and Africa, or submerges a vast rice dis-
trict, may remain in Europe unreported. Once,
however, in every ten years some city like Calcutta,
which, though tropical in every attribute and cir-
cumstance is still not in the tropics, is included
within the sweep of the broad band of wind which
rushes, twisting itself in a spiral with twists a thou-
sand miles long, from the north-east to the south-
west, meeting fortunately nothing in its course from
Bengal, till seven thousand miles away it brushes
the white cloth off Table Mountain, Once in about
a generation the same place finds itself near the
centre of the current, and civilisation realises for an
instant how utterly feeble it is when nature chooses
that barbarism shall reign. In Bengal there is
always a slight but significant warning of such an
occurrence being at hand. Nature suddenly sinks
to rest, the atmosphere glows with heat, every
settlement seems surrounded with a wall of rose-
coloured haze, the birds stop chirping, and the hum
of insects, which over all Asiatic deltas is as per-
manent a sound as the low roar of London is in
Cheapeide, suddenly arrests itself, leaving on the
ear a sort of pain of silence. A little white cloud
comes up marching:as if self driven in the very teeth
of the breeze' a wall of dust is visible hundreds of
teet high and as even to the eye as a canvass sail,
and then the unlucky watchers know that probably
for twelve hours life and property are in the hands
of God alone. Man and animals simply crouch, con-
scious for once that even courage has become worth-
less. Even in the plains, in stations where there is no
water, such a wind is bad enough. The trees, as it rises
higher and higher, bend and twist and groan till the
roots yield to the tremendous strain, and they are
not broken but flung out of their sockets as if the
blast were wroth with their resistance, every roof
with a pitch to it goes whirling through the air,the
wooden shutters are blown in with reports like
pistol shots, and exposed to all the fury of the
tempest the Europeans wait, half maddened with
the roar of the typhoon, to ECO if masonry can hold
out. There are few situations on earth, not even
waiting for the certainty of murder which Govern%
ment has forewarned you, equal to the strain such a
wind produces on the mind. It is not the storm,
the continuous volleys of bolts, rapid as the firing
during an engagement which usually accompany a
cyclone, and strike, or seem to strike, within a few
feet of every house, it is the wind, the never ceasing
rushing blast, strong as an avalanche, and, so to
speak, studded every tea minutes with gusts which
strike the walls like solid substances, which so
wear out the nerves. Europeans feel as if they
were battling with spirits, as if the slightest loss
of their own hold over themselves, the slightest
intermission in the strain of mental resistance,—
mental, for there is little to do, would destroy them.

4.11-1 .11.10/J/11.1 /AA. 1.111

—The question raised by the Archbishop of York
in his recent Charge is one which must have free
quently presented itself to the mind of anyone who
has ever examined the popular literature of the
present day. Is the tendency of the reading pro-
vided for the million good or bad ? This is the
question which the Archbishop endeavoured to
answer. Disagreeing, as we do, with the conclu-
sion arrived at by the archi-episcopal censor, we
wish to explain some of the grounds on which we
dissent from it. The subject is too wide a one to be
exhausted in one or even in many articles ; but still
we can show some considerations which incline us
to take a hopeful view of the influence of this class
of literature. Let us admit that his Grace was far
from exaggerating the power of this agency. Pro-
bably it is only those practically acquainted with
literature as a trade who are at all aware of the
magnitude of this popular literature. Every
now and then we see paragraphs in the news-
papers announcing the unprecedented sale of some
successful work like Macaulay's History or Tenny-
eon's " Enoch Arden ;" but all these bookselling
triumphs are trifling, as far as numbers go, com-
pared with those daily achieved by works whose
very names are unknown to circulating libraries.
SOM9 years ago a very clever article was published
in household Words—written, we believe, by Mr
Wilkie Collins—called the " Unknown Public."
This public has authors, classics, publishers, alike
unknown to ordinary readers. Very few, we sus•
spect, of the subscribers to Mudie ever heard of
" Woman and her Master;" yet the author of this
work probably addressed a larger public than any
writer of our generation. There are at the present
day penny serials, never seen in drawing-rooms or
heard of in clubs, which count their subscribers by
hundreds of thousands. Between the public who
read three-volume novels and that which takes its
mental food in penny numbers there is a great gulf.
With the exception of Ctiarles Dickens, no modern
writer has ever succeeded in attracting both sections
of the reading world; and even his success has
been a partial one. In literature, as well as other
matters it is impossible to serve two masters ; and
whenever a writer who, like Miss Braddon, has
made his first success amongst the unknown pub-
lic, begins to rise into the notice of the upper ten
thousand of readers, he is obliged to alter his style
in a manner which alienates from him the affections
of his first love. The experiment of creating a
literature which shall attract the educated and un-
educated alike has been frequently tried and has
universally proved a failure. The Penny Maga-
zine, Good Words, and the British Workman may
be mentioned, amongst other cheap periodicals, as
having most nearly achieved the object in view;
but even the most enthusiastic admirers of these
publications must admit that they have failed in
reaching the unknown public of " Woman and her
Master." It is, we think, hopeless to expect any
sudden change in the popular taste. The million
knows well enough what it wants, and cannot be
cajoled into believing it is amused by works de-
signed to impart instruction. The wisest plan
therefore is to look at facts as they are, and, ad-
mitting the existence of sensational literature as an
unalterable fact, to see whether it is as great an
evil as the Archbishop of York imagines it to be.
THE " EXAMINER° ON AN INFANT'S NECES-
SARIES.—The Daily News has some excellent re-
marks upon a decision of an Oxford jury that silk
racing-jackets, caps, and other costly and fantastic
jockey gear are necessaries of an infant, that is to
say, of a young man under age. We can imagine
no station, except indeed of a professed jockey, i❑
which the racing apparel can be a necessary, and
in this instance the infant was not heir to a for-
tune, but young man dependent upon a mother i❑
easy but not effluent circumstances, and destined to
earn his bread bylarming, the businese of which
he was learning when he obtained credit for the
articles in question. The mother resisted the de-
mand, paying into court the prices of clothes which
might be considered necessaries, but disputing the
claim for the racing apparel as extravagant super-
fluities—but she had, unfortunately, to do with the
Oxford jury, and Oxford tradesmen have their
reason for favouring and encouraging all the ex-
travagances of young men at the expense of their
parents. It is a common saying; for a bad character,

" he would rob his own father," but few sorts of
robbery are more common by the medium of a cre-
ditor backed by a jury with fellow feeling that makes
them wondrous kind to claimants. The jury may
be looked upon in the light of the accomplice after

the fact. And for how much have they to answer.
How many a case of ruin bad its commencement in
the habits of extravagance encouraged by credit
recklessly given with a view to the parents' liabi-
lity. In the case before us the mother, who has to
pay for her infant's silk racing-jackets, caps, and
breeches, is described as in easy circumstances—but
how uneasy may her circumstances become before
her hopeful son comes of age, after this edifying
lesson that there is nothing for which he can obtain
credit for which his mother will not be held liable,
as for necessaries. But as tradesmen thus prey
upon parents, they are preyed upon in turn by
sharpers, the biters getting bitten, and small the
pity• A rule for a new trial has been obtained for
the Oxford case, and we hope the Bench will take
the opportunity of drawing the broad distinction
between necessaries and extravagant superfluities,
and of reprehending the spirit of fellowship that
must have prompted a preposterous verdict against
common sense, and the jurors' oath.

THE " LONDON REVIEW" ON THE THEFT OF TILE
FLORIDA.—" Honest" Abes Government has contrived so
to distinguish itself that we have long ceased to be surprised
at any rascality it commits. Therefore, if we are told that
it carries fire and sword into unoffending homesteads, if its
generals and captains plunder women and old men, and
burn their roofs over their heads, if it lays waste fertile

regions for no stragetic purpose, but solely to inflict suffer-
ing, if it commit atrocities which put to shame the compa-
ratively feeble crimes of the late King Bomba of Naples,
we say only that it acts in harmony with its nature, and
pursues to a logical conclusion the vulgar tyranny on which
it is based, and from which it derives its inspiration. When
it stole the Southern Commissioners from the deck of an
unarmed British steamship, it made a manifestation of its
lawlessness. When, in the fear of drawing upon itself the

hostility of England, it gave them up, it made a manifes-
tion of its cowardice. When, while giving them up, it
said that if its interests required it would have violated the
law of nations and kept them, it confessed that it would
bite if it dared. This was the first notable sample of the
morality of " Honest" Abe's Government which imme-
diately concerned us. We have had since then other
samples, and we know for a truth that the Wash-
ington Government is to be ranked amongst the
"dangerous class of the civilised world, not to be judged
by any code of law or honour. That it has stolen the
Florida is, therefore, a fact which not all surprises us. Its
captains have tciled after the Confederate vessel long and in
vainL That it has stolen her while under the protection of a
Power which could be easily defied, is the explanation of
the theft. It would not have been committed if the Florida
had lain under the protection of a British or a French in-
stead of a Brazilian battery. On a large scale, the transac-
tion is similar to one which we sometimes see amongst our
dangerous classes at home. The gentleman in difficulties
who posts himself upon a country road with a view to sti-
mulate the charity of the passers-by, whines before the
able-bodied passenger, but growls and exhibits his bludgeon
to the uprotected female. With similar courage did the
captain of the Federal Wachusetts steal the Florida out of
the harbour of Bahia. The Florida arrived at Bahia on
Oct. 4. She put in for a supply of stores and coals, and to
make some repairs in her machinery. Soon after she an-
chored in the outer harbour a boat came alongside of her and
demanded the name of the vessel. The answer was honestly
given—" The Confederate States' steamer Florida." That
was true. A person in the boat replied, " This boat is from
her Britannic Majesty's steamer Curlew." That was un-
true. Neither the Curlew nor any of the Queen's ships was
at the port at the time. But Federal chicanery had gained
a point. It had at last discovered the Florida. It gained
another great point when the American consul, Mr Wilson,
gave his word of honour to the governor of the province
that the Wachusetts would not violate the laws of neutrality
within the Brazilian waters. The Federal word of honour
hacl, it appears in this instance, two advantages. It assured
th:e governor, and was not binding on the Wachusetts.
Upon this,and after pledging himself that he too would re-
spect the neutrality of the Brazilian waters, Capt, Morris
obtained from the governor permission to move the Florida
from the outer to the inner roads, so as to be out of danger,
and to facilitate coaling operations. By way of emphasising
this permission an admiral of the Brazilian navy, who was
present at the interview between the Governor and Captain
Morris when the latter made this request, said to him, " Oh
yes ; move her in, and come inside of me, and you will be
out of all danger." So the Florida was removed to the berth
appointed her, where there were two Brazilian ships of war
between her and the Federal Wachusetts, close under the
guns of a steamer of war and a Brazilian fort. It was then
found that the repairs to her machinery could not be com-
pleted under four days. Capt. Morris hearing this sent part
of his crew ashore. On the morning of the 6th the Federal
consul, who had pledged his honour to respect the neutra-
lity of the Brazilian waters, sent Capt. Morris a messenger
with an offer to urge the Brazilian Government to complete
the repairs of the Florida, if Captain Mcrris would accept a
challenge to come out and fight the Wachusetts. This chal-
lenge was declined, and in the afternoon the first batch of
liberty men having returned to the Florida, the starboard
watch was released, and Capt. Morris and some of his offi-
cers went ashore at the same time, not doubting the Federal
word of honour. On the following morning, about 3 15 a,m.,
while it was dark, theWachusette left her anchorage, steered
for the Florida, and struck her on the starboard quarter, cut-
ting her rail down to the deck, carrying away her mizenmast,
and at the same time pouring a volley of musketry and a
charge of canister from forecastle pivot gun upon the Flo-
rida's decks. Then she backed off and demanded a sure
render, which was ref used. More firing from the Wachu-
setts, returned by the officers and crew of the Florida ; but
the struggl surrenderedal and vain, and the lieutenant in
command conditionally, When he did so,
many of his crew jumped overboard, and more than half
were shot in the water by men in the forecastle of the Wa-
chusetts, and in her boats. Thus master of the position,
the Wachusetts towed the Florida out of harbour—stole
her as a garotter plunders the man whom he has knocked
on the head or half-strangled, So much for Federal
" honour." We are not in the least surprised. We have
watched the brutal contest waged on the part of the North
by mercenaries against men who aro fighting for the in-
alienable right of freemen, the choice of their own Govern-
ment, and have looked for some redeeming trait, for a token
of that chivalry which soldiers and seamen oven in an unjus
cause will show if only for the honour of their cloth. But
in the abyss of depravity into which the Northern States
have sunk we have looked for such a token in vain. The
spirit of the filibuster and the border ruffian has obiterated
from the armies and navies of the North the
commonest virtues of humanity. 4' Honest" Abe and his
officers, on sea and on land, illustrate the " good old plan."
They take what they can get, no matter how they get it,
and they keep it as long as they can, or dare. If the Florida
had lain within British waters, their neutrality would have
been respected, not out of deference to law, but to fear,
She lay in a Brazilian harbour, and the Federals stole her,
because they had nothing to restrain them , not the dread
of the Brazilian Government, which is weak; nor law and
honour, because they respect neither.
THE "SATURDAY REVIEW" ON Mn. CLAY AND THE
CLASSICS.—The defiant recklessness with which a tho.
roughly vulgar person of a certain stamp will avow his vul-
garity and pride himself upon it, is often so amusing as to
compensate for the infliction of his company. His rude
imitation of geniality and good-fellowship, as he pretends
to dispense with social ceremonies which he knows to be
usual, but whose precise details ho also knows himself to be
quite incompetent to carry out, is so exceedingly funny that
his guests may pardon him for the awkwardness and con-
fusion which probably ensues. He tells them, in loud tones,
that they must not come to his house for kickshaws and
fancy wines. Honest fish and joint, with sound port, are
his fare, and if people are not content with that, why they
can stay away. If Thackeray's Philip had had a spark of
humour in him, the Sunday dinners at Mugford's must
have been a source of the keenest enjoyment to him. To be
ill tempered with such people, or to call them names, is
simply ungrateful. Seen in a proper light, the vehemence,
not unmingled with nervousness, with which they declaim
against fine manners, their readiness to catch at any hint
as to the ways of grand houses and the uncomfortable blus-
ter which destroys their meritorious efforts to look jovial and
hospitable, are as exquisitely amusing as an equally good
comedy on the stage. The exhibition of himself which Mr
Clay has recently been making before his constituents at
Hull is an entertainment ef the same kind, though in a
rather different line. Mr Clay does not sneer at the ameni
ties of the !dinner table, but he denounces the study of
Latin and Greek with exactly the sort of uneasy rashness
and nervous defiance displayed by hospitable ruffians like
Mugford. It would be just as foolish, in one case as in the
other, to be seriously angry with our entertainer. Most
members of the House of Commons, when compelled by the
approach of an election to talk at the educational institu-
tions of their borough, choose some pretty safe and easy
subject, which, if not likely to contribute largely to useful
knowledge, is at all events easily crammed from a Cycle-
ofedia or the back numbers of the Quarterlies, and is
not open to much criticism. But Mr Clay scorns such de-
vices, and, like Bottom, ho resolved to " rehearse more ob-
scenely and courageously," His theme was the too exclu-
sive use of the Greek and Latin classics in English educa-
tion. In itself the subject is sufficiently well-worn, but the
member for Hull is not the less amusing on that account,
Mr Clay's nice appreciation of the spirit of the ancient
authors who, as ho thinks, have done so much harm to
modern education, may be inferred from a parallel which
he draws between the greatest orators of ancient and of
modern times. "I confess, ho says, "though lam no fol-
lower of Mr Spurgeon, that there is something about kim,
in the rapid and natural movements of his thoughts, and
the practical fervour of his address, which reminds me of
Demosthenes." There was a spirited drawing in Tends,
during the Exhibition of 1862, representing two squab-
faced "servant-galls," in poor Leech's best style, gazing
with fervent admiration on the tinted Venus, and one of
them exclaiming to her companion, "Ow like our Hem-
mer I" Mr Clay, as he appears when reminded of Demos-
thenes, strikingly reminds us of Mr Leech's picture. It
would be impertinent to wonder how long ago Mr Clay
formed au opinion about the oratorical excellences of Demos •

.I......merssrabremasaliNgeilayommi•be toV
thenes, just as it Wordd doubt about tho qns,lific
for connoisseurshiy of the friend of "Ilemmar.'
bound, in lack of e vidence to the contrary, to suPP°"O,
the easy familiarity' with the Demosthenic style.
co'
merely assumed, and Lo admit that our own renliulia
of the Greek orator rain tbe quite erroneous. •All eti,l
Spurgeon is really like Demosthenes, we can naere,,,#
sympathise with Mr Clay's objections oneassic
being set up in the public schools for gal isl,l,cv
Lord Brougham, in his well_known letter to b",oio
Macaulay on the best training for Xracaulay'ss°ll; el;11;'
the constant study of the Greek orators. The 'llutfacia
torian, it is to be feared, did not take this ad ices a
el
to heart, or else he might perhaps have
aired,
higher reputation than that which he really acqens or;
even rivalled the fame and glory of the Demosth
Elephant and Castle. The t:
TIIE "LAW TIMES" ON M. BERRYEIt.""- Ci v
7 fAr
England, in the cordial reception it has given tO
ryer, has welcomed the Bar of France, of Which
most distinguished member. It was not the statestSco.
Legitimist, the politician, whom we met in tbe, festil
the Middle Temple to honour, but the eloquent ane 'too
advocate—the man who has mantained for Inerb
years, through difficulties and evE, n dangers whie,„' ofo,
country we cannot conceive, amid revolutions nn
~,,y
us, defiant alike of the power of kings and emperors,
cri.
more terrible despotism of democracy, the right i;
speech, which is the advocate's privilege, iigotiY.'
liberty can never quite perish,without which it esni"o
It has been the proud fortune of M. Berryer fe
exercise this right on behalf of men of all parties .*
opinions ; himself maintaining the while unsiverlhoc;;:
gianco to a fallen dynasty, to whose fortunes 11°
op,
the more closely the more hopeless they have -,efet
But his personal sympathies or antipathies %Were; le,'
a moment permitted to affect his duties as an advhlsi
e
great legal knowledge, his unrivalled eloquence+ d 4^,P
berant zeal for the cause of his client, were exert
for Montalembert, his ally, and for Louis Narleen'P:4/
It is for this that the old hall rang again an a eflOr
Tuesday, with the cheers of the British Bar, e3Prti ;al/
our rough but cordial British fashion, our' adulire"-°tti
bre
forensic career of the greatest man among our
bar of France. Listening to his speeches, delivered
to!?
circumstances not favourable to an orator, We ,e,„.°101
catch a glimpse of the power that has captivated ris
and controlled senates. Of necessity, room orat°110•
and subdued ; so was M. Berryer ; but manifestly' he to
trolling his emotions, and repressing an inclinsti°
the impulses of excited feeling. We could infagi%
torrent of words, what utterance, what action he c°11.103
did occasion call for them. As it was, his sPer-or
marked by the characteristics that have made h'llfid
His voice is full, and clear, and finely toned, '''4o
every feeling. His language is the very choiees4 04,
makes most excellent use of those delicate sbsde'Boi
expression of thought, in which his native tengilecilie,'
out a rival. He has measured precisely the c31)301'
the perfect, though not powerful, instrument be
°t
and he puts it to the best uses in the utteranu-
polished and telling turns of thought that imPerftio'
vellous grace and spirit into the conversation sll%-ct)
positions of our accomplished neighbours. ilienfar
singularly subdued, assimilating much to our °: eto
this respect unlike that of his countrymen, wh°',llllbo,,
the platform, in the Senate, in the pulpit, or st "-„°
dulge in gesticulations which, to our severer fssliet'
extravagant. But such action as he emplo34 ler
that we are accustomed to see among the sPe5-,ehr ss,
own country, with whom it is the rarest of All 60° e'
plishments of the orator. M. Berryer has not 111-10
like most of us, He uses both his arms, wheres,,eiro
lishman rarely employs more than one ; and t;ltllc'',
resents are various, and always graceful. wherelf°
English orators are, with rare exceptions, 1.111-1,01
graceful, and angular. In person M. 13erlervsi'
somewhat stout, with a projecting brow, and (131,,
sive eye, and with nothing in his aspect that in
Pept)
Frenchman. In features ho bears a striking re°
to the late Baron Platt.