The Sun.
London, England, 1856-12-08 00:00:00

TEE UNIVERSAL PASSION.

(From the Dispatch.)

,
It is estimated that the application of steam and ma-
chinery to manufactures has practically given to these
islands the productive power, without the cost, of 200
million of workers. The adaptation of these former agen-
cies to navigation, to land transit and transport, to min-
ing and other purposes, has probably contributed quite
se largely to the production of wealth among us. The
facilities which these, the electric telegraph, the gold
discoveries and "yellow fever" have afforded for the pro-
motion of emigration and colonisation have vastly en
larged onr markets, and afforded us access to extensive
additidtas to the supply of the chief raw materials of
manufacture. _ _ _

These agencies have grown upon us almost insensibly.
It is not until we rest upon our staff and look back that
we see the prodigious length of the road we have travel-
led. What Watt, Arkwright, Crompton, Heathcoat,
Jacquard have done for us has been so silent, peaceful,
gradual in its effects, that we scarcely realise to our-
selves the fact that England is at least ten times richer
thanr she was a century ago ; that the population, as a
whole, can command more than ten times the conveni-
ence, comfort, and luxury which their ancestors could
in the year of grace 1756.
Need we call to mind even the least obvious of these
changes ? Thirty gallons of water per head per day
within every house in the metropolis, in place of one
or two gallons of Fleet-ditch or Thames brought in
barrels on men's backs ; a blaze of gas in the obscurest
alley, in place of total darkness even in the Strand ;
halfpenny steam-boats or sixpenny cabs, in place of
half-crown wherries, or two shilling hackney-coaches
or sedan-chairs ; better and infinitely more diver-
sified and agreeable books for a shilling than were for-
merly produced at a guinea and a half ; excursions of
labourers from Edinburgh to the Crystal Palace in less
time and at less cost than the middle class voyages to
Margate in a hoy ; a letter from Penzance to Kirkwall
at ld. in place of 55., and delivered in one-tenth of the
time ; a voyage to America in a fortnight, or to India in
a month, in place of 42 days or six months ; large retail
stocks entirely superseded, and coals cheap in the remote
interior ; the housemaid dressed more handsomely than
the mistress used to be ; the exterior of the holiday me-
chanic undistinguisbable from that of the gentleman ;
hardware and earthenware so cheap, elegant, and useful
as to furnish the poor man's kitchen better than formerly
that of his employer—these are mere hints of our prodi-
gious progress ; suggestions only to set the mind loose
to complete the comparisons of advance. Yet the result
is perfectly magical. It outstrips the heated fancy that
imagined the wonders of Aladdin ; the splendours of the
East are copper tinsel to it ; it realises the visions of the
alchemist, and outstrips the most stupendous conjectures
of science, or the most gorgeous imagery of the poet.
•It was not to be expected that society should remain
stationary during the progress of this transition of its
outward conditions. We are, it is said, the creatures of
circumstances. This material change has bad its moral
parallel. If the world has moved, so also bas the soul.
The change in the architecture of the "tenement of clay"
has altered the spiritual character of its tenant. Teen-
pore mutantur, et nos mutamur in illis. We do not
think history has traced the change in human nature
which has followed the mutation of the influences which
surround it ; psychology has been asleep while its phe-
nomena have been in active development, and its laws
have experienced a violent and extended elimination.
It is beginning to' be remarked that society every day
more and more concentrates the business of life on the
acquisition of property. Crime, daily, rapidly, alarmingly
increasing among all classes of our community, is
prompted chiefly, by the desire to appropriate and accu-
mulate. A cold, cunning, calculating sordidness, with
little violence of passion in it, and much forecast and
callous arithmetic—these characteristics distinguish the
offences of the age from the lawlessness of former times.
Necessity, the wild spirit of adventure, fierce courage,
recklessness—these are superseded by methodical ar-
rangement, painstaking preparation, and ingenious im-
posture. Thieving is a science, and swindling a profes-
sion, but gainfulness prompts and moves all.
Where is Grub-street now ? the Grub-street of Ho-
garth or Goldsmith ; the poor author, with his long
milk score, the famised poet ready to immortalise the
Mecznas of a dinner ; the painter, limning his way out
of a tavern bilr, or dying "in the worst inn's worst
room." Actors, artists, authors, poets, all are " warm
men," and become fastidious in their luxury, and magni-
ficent in their notions, generally in the ratio of the
lowness of their birth, and the penury of their original
circumstances. Fame ! " A fico for the phrase !"
Solid padding, that is the real celebrity. A fine house,
fine furniture, a do wry for the girls, a good income for
the sons, that is the goal of " high art," the one end and
aim of the inspiration of genius.
Where is there a Hippocrates, a Galen, a Celsus
where the physician whose devotion to science, whose
love of knowledge, whose enthusiastic dedication of his
life to the study of anatomy and physiology postpones
every motive and consideration to the promotion of
medical discovery? The greatest physician is simply the
man who gets the greatest number of fees, whose hours

are apportioned by guineas, and who seems to be most
highly rewarded just when he has arrived at the point
tf not sparing one hour from avarice to devote to science.
And to whom do the profession look up as the greatest
p hysiologist and anatomist ? Why, chiefly to the man
who has done least for either, and most for himself ; the
largest income is the index to the greatest doctor.
What divine is there, who, if the Archbishopric of
Canterbury were 1001. a year less than his own living,
would not laugh in your face if you proposed an ex-
change, and cry "Nolo episcopari" with a fervour of
sincerity utterly unknown to Bishops ? , See where the
profound theologian and eloquent ambassador of Heaven
crams his fashionable church, " wins many souls to
Christ," makes "those who came to scoff remain to
pray." Religion revives around him ; he seeks and he
saves thousands aho were lost. What if a wore lucrative
but a Tess useful sphere should open to him—a large
living and a small cure —more tithe and fewer souls ?
Why, he should think himself crazy to hesitate for a,
moment so prefer the larger income ; and hie most de-
voted followers would not so much as think of any other
way of getting him to remain, but that of subscribing to
make up the difference. And thus Bishops, utterly in-
competent for their duties, cannot resign under 6,000/.
a year and a palace ; and statesmen and pietists insist
upon what they call "dignitaries" of the Church coping
with the nobility and gentry, not ip simplicity and godly
sincerity, but in the style of living and worldly splendour;
while evangelical orthodoxy cannot conceive of support-
ing the pomp of the episcopal office, except by a prince's
income and regal display.
Every condition is equally measured by its money
value. No other standard, either of greatness or happi-
ness, is even conceived. It is not possible to imagine, in
a great and free country, so ennobling an office as that
of a Judge. He stands between the Crown and the
people ; between innocence and the power of authority ;
superior to them all, because the law is above all. Or
a Minister, or an Ambassador, the lawgiver, the ruler,
the representative of his country, in whose hand is the
rod of empire—how exalted is such a function ! In
A merica this is felt and understood ; to serve the State
in an honourable capacity is a dis'inction reckoned wor-
thy of any pecuniary sacrifice. But ainonest us, cash is
the measure of value. A lawyer declines to be a judge
because he "makes more at the bar ;" a merchant .‘can.
not afford" to be Chancellor of the Exchequer. Walpole
"was a great fool" to leave the Chancery bar to serve as
a Secretary of State. He has only "a paltry thousand a
year from his Commissionership ; really we must do
something for him."
It Lithe same spirit which inspires every movement.
Whenever any man serves either his friends or his coun-
try in any way, the first thought of gratitude—indeed ,
the only thought—is in the direction of money. A "tes-
thnonial,"a purse, a service of plate, an appointment, a
pension for life, these, in one eternal sound, testify to
the sheer sordid till-and-counter character of the age.
Every clam; conspires to magnify money ; all bow and
cringe to " the almighty dollar." It is stamped
public policy. Itis im
praised, by our.statesm them-
selves, upon all departments of the uponennur
gain and pecuniary profit are the public sersice. Sheer
measure of every office,
from the temporal Judgthe
eto Spiritual Peatiff. The
farce is, that the most surnptuens in their tastes, the
and
most fastidious, luxurious,
pl.d in their styles of
msen
living, who insist upon
position by the
money it brings, are theeasuring theirn
professional classes, or con-
tractors, sprung from the lowest origin,
born
most penurious circurns'ances, not in the lea
t into
d the
entitled to give themselves any such airs, or to eg"
require
such sybarite indulgences. Bishops, doctors, judges,
lawyers, sons of saddlers, shoemaker% country 'he
• • Pia] hucksters—why apo, -
caries, provin. should such ma rnifi
cence be so essential to the ambition of such a care!'
that they should all dwell upon the cash income aer'thaes
indispensable qualification of their position ?
Can we wonder that with such an example, such all
stamped upon the spirit of society
impress its natural
leaders, its State policy, its governors, and chiefs, pc,
Hudson -
verty should be infamous ? that ehi,old be a
king, and fill his house at Albert-gate with countesses
that wealth should be the measure of every man's p„
sition that men should be regarded, net by what
they are, but what they have ? that worth and wisdom
should be of no account without income ? and that as
money is the universal standard of character, fools and
'C'•
knaves should act on the faith of the sentiment
possis vecti, sed rein ? and that other et genus
universal
at
etvargits
nisi cum, re, vilior alga est ?
it surprising t
luxury should !rake men think that they live
cannot .
frugality and simplicity ; that Robsons and Redpaths
and Pauli and Gordons should become delirious with
the universal fever !
Is all this a truism or a troth ? Is it a mere trificalit y
of the wiseacre, or the insight of the moralist ? Let us
est the eignifieancy of it, Difie any one believe that a
Pythagoras, is Solon, or a Lycurgus, by the mere force
of their character and intellect, in their poverty arid mewl
array, could coretnarial the reverence and power in Eng-
land they did in their own age and country ? Would a
Diogenes, With no freehold-but a tub, and iii a ragged
coat, receive that horneee to his influence with the court-
try of a visit from the Duke of Wellington which would
be the parallel of that et Alexander the Great. Socrates,
the son of Sophroniscus, lived in a hovel, was meanly
clad, fared hard, and lived in penury. Yet Plato sought
Alcibiades revered, idoliFied hisn, Athens hung on
his liee, and her greatest bowed to his authority. What
would his "three pair back," and his "clouted shoes,"
his
-hard fare and empty penis!, do for him at Oxford or
on Manchester Exchanges If Paul knocked at the gate
olLambeth Palace, world Canterbury so much as hear
him as Felix did ; and if even the greatest teacher were
to "reason from the Scriptures" at W •
estmirister Abbey
in his carpenter's dress, does any one-doubt how the
hiaailea would deal with him?
This is not the fault solely. of the world, the ignorant,
the vulgar. It is, in fact, the result rather of the mean
atme sod sordid views of life of the Upper Ten Thou-
sand, the men who are regarded
as great. Heroes now
look to a Peerage and a pension as the sole purpose of