The Sun.
London, England, 1869-09-01 00:00:00

VONDON, WEDESDAY, SEPT. 1, 1869.

An appeal in behalf of oar " Gutter Children"—
a most moving appeal both from pen and pencil__
has just now been issued from the press by GEORGE
CRUIKSHANK. Anything from the hand of this famous
artist would at all times be entitled to consideration.
In the present instance, as in so many previous
instances, it commandsit. Our attention is arrested at
once by the tender humanity, guiding alike the steel
nib and the steel point, when pen and pencil are
held alternately in the kindly grasp of CRUIESTIANK.
It has for a considerable time past been very notice-
able, in regard to the labours of this skilled man of
letters and draughtsman, that, as a ru'e, he works
now, really, with a will, only in the cause of
charity and in the interests of ben evo -
len ce. His favourite clients are the very
lowliest among the outcasts of oar civilization.
Their extrication from their miseries is wLat he
is perpetually striving to see accomplished, and (so
far as in any way may lie within his power) t-I aid
in accomplishing. The Demon l)rink is his bete noire.
Non-tea-totallers call it a craze. No matter to him !
He perseveres unflinchingly. He seizes every po.sible
and impossible opportunity—whether by writing orby
etching, by means of woodcuts, or of graphotype—for
the inculation of the blessings of temperance. Long
before and long after the publication of his two me-
morable serial of " The Bottle" and "The Druukard's
Children," Gronoz CRUISSIIANIC bad undertaken,

systematically, and certainly most earnestly, to deal with
the one perilous vice of his age, as WILLIAM HCGARTH
dealt with all the varied vices of his generation.
" The Bottle" and "The Drunkard's Children" were,
in their tragic power and in the startling moral they
conveyed, worthy of the genius of the HOGARTH of
of our century. But, apart from " The Bottle" and
" The Drunkard's Children," there have been pro-
duced
.by the same master-hand, fitfully and at un-
certain intervals, an extraordinary multitude of little
sketches, woodcuts most of them, all inculcating
the same moral, often with a painful, now and
then svich a pathetic eloquence imposssible to
resist. During upwards of sixty years this
eminent artist has been conspicuously before the
public, as a great and original illustrator—an illus-
trator not merely of books, but of the age in which
he has lived. His reputation links this later half of
the nineteenth century with the earlier days after the
close of the eighteenth. It connects the time of
LEECH and TENNIEL with that of GILRAY and
ROWLANDSON. Associated first of all with the
grotesque and the comic, the artistic genius of
CIWIKSHANK has for a long time past, but more par-
ticularly during these later years, been employed
almost exclusively in the interests of humanity and
of morality—the Droll has disappeared in the Philan-
thropist. His course has been more consistent, in this
matter, we believe, than the majority may probably
conjecture. It may be said, for example, that his
later labours contrast rather strikingly with some of
the earliest works with which his name was first of
all identified, such for instance as the famous serial
produced together by PIERCE EGAN and GEORGE
CaunisHaNK-4hat, namely, of Tom and Jerry, of
Corinthian Tom and Jerry Juniper. Yet, in point of
fact, between Now and Then, there was a distinctly
traceable consistency ! For, as is probably but little
known now, the earliest issue of that very serial
about Tom and Jerry, had inscribed upon it for the
first number or so, " Life in London is Death"—the
two words we have here italicized being struck out
afterwards, as, in their general effect upon the title-
page, a little too sombre and appalling. Anyhow,
for years and years past, GEORGE CRINKSHANK's
artistic labours have been not merely, as they were
for a long while covertly and consistently, but very
openly and quite avowedly those of a pictorial moralist
or philanthropist of the pencil. Squalor, ignorance,
cant, drunkenness—but, above all, drunkenness—have
been the demons he has, with his magic etching
needle, or now with his pen, now with his pencil, been
striving heart and soul to exorcise. His latest effort
in this way, is in many respects not the least notice-
able—his written argument and his pencilled appeal in
behalf of the poor little " Gutter Children !" In
illus-
tration of the humane (!) proposition set forth ori-
ginally by Miss MARIA S. RYE—namely, for the
sending away in ship-loads, from our shores, of the
Arab class littered about in the kennels of our prin-
cipal towns and cities, the class spoken of now
generically as Gutter Children—GEOßGE CRC:IK-
SHANY.S last drawing reveals to us Miss
RYE as a carter-ess, standing whip in hand,
by her mud-cart, while a fine lady and a spectacled
philosopher are sweeping together the little girls in
heaps by the kerb ston e —a plun3p clergyman shovelling
them up, and tossing into the nearly brimmed mud-
cart, scoopful after scoopful of—the Gutter Children!
More eloquent in their persuasiveness, however, than
all the arguments cogently set forth by CRUM-
SHANK himself in his earnestly written appeal are
the cries ho has put into the mouths of some of the
little creatures just tossed into Miss RYE'S mud-cart
—" Mother ! Mother ! I want my mother !" " Oh,
mother ! Mother !" " I want my father !"—before
the miserable cart-load is clattered away for exporta-
tion.

MENTALITY is the art of making things pleasant all
round. In spite of FRoissAwr's charge that we
English people take even our pleasures sadly,
Geniality has always been with us the most popular
of arts. It is that which made llAnixy such a
popular Minister in the reign of Queen ANNE. It is
that which made PALMERSTON such a popular
Minister in the reign of Queen VicroltrA. It
is that which makes Mr. Citani.zs DICKENS
the most popular of novelists now. In fact,
of all professors of Geniality there is none
so proficient as he. He bas the art to conceal the
art. He is full of bonlammzie, and he is able to make
everyone else pleased with himself, and with all the
world, without knowing why. His speech at the
dinner to the Harvard crew was an admirable speci-
men of his temper and skill. He had to console the
losers in a great contest in the presence of one of
the victors. He could not eulogise the first
beyond a certain point without appearing to
be instigated by national vanity. He could not
depreciate them without thereby depreciating the
losers, nor without the implied reproach that
they had been beaten by men of no prowess. He
hit the happy mean. His praise was discriminating ;
his consolation was delicate. Ile said nothing
more of the Oxonians than all the world knows; and
in commending the Harvardians he told the
world—the English world, at all events—
a great deal that it did not know. Let
us add, too, what perhaps is not known to all the
world, that Harvard is no modern university, but is
quite ancient by the side of our own London Uni-
versity; is older than Wadham, Pembroke, and
Worcester Colleges at Oxford, and dates from the
time when Queen ELIZABETH was ruling England
with a somewhat iron rod, as these old alumni of
Cambridge, the founders of Harvard, had found to
their cost. With an origin thus venerable for
America, Harvard has also had a history full of
honour. Mr. DICKENS told how, a short while
ago, a volume was published in the United
States containing ninety-five biographies of
young men, well born, well nurtured, and
trained to peaceful pursuits, but who, when the war
trumpet sounded, obeyed the call, and died in behalf
of their country. Fortunately for Oxonians, they
have no such trial of their patriotism-and courage to
undergo. If they had, we do not doubt that they
would come well out of the trial, and would shew
that in the serious business of war, as in the light
business of sport, they are worthy competitors of
the men who have crossed 3,000 miles of ocean to
compete in the first, of the men who are fellows
to those who counted not their lives dear when their
country demanded the sacrifice of them.

The; is another point suggested by Mr. DICKENS'S
speech. We mean that it rests mainly with English
writers to bring about that perfect harmony between
the two great nations—or, rather, the two branches
of the same great • nation—which both profess to
desire. The politicians have failed hitherto. They
have done their best, and that best is only the
bringing things to a deadlock. Fortunately, the
ulti;na ratio retjunt is not the last argument of
nations, and as it is the nation which rules on both
sides of the Atlantic, statesmen have not yet taken
up arms because they cannot get on with their pens.
They have learnt to say with the LAUKEATV,

Wait, my faith is large in Time,
And that which shapes it to some perfect end.
They have learnt to believe that time will cure many
an ill which nothing else will cure. They have learnt,
too, that international sorenesses are best healed by
non-intervention on their part, and by letting the
aggrieved parties come to know each other better.
The Harvard men have not won the blue ribbon of
the Thames, but they will take back the olive-branch
of peace.

Mn. BAXTER has intimated to his constituents
that further reductions in the official staff of the
Admiralty are contemplated. We understand that
similar reductions in the War Office are under con-
terniplation. This will be sorry news to the gentle-
men who, when they first set foot within tlp gates

of Whitehall and Pall Mall, thought that they
were provided with an easy profession and a
modest income for life. Unfortunately, the men
who are destined to fall victims to economy
are just the men who will experience
most difficulty in getting other posts. The
majority of them are not fond of hard work,
and some of them are incapable of work requiring
much intellectual effort. They took service under
the Crown because the service conferred social posi-
tion, did not make any severe tax upon their brains,
did not engross too much of their time.
and secured an addition to their private in-
comes. The result has been that the Govern-
ment offices have been filled by gentlemen
thrice as numerous as would be needed if
a different principle governed those establishments.
The blame is not all on one side. It is not wholly the
fault of the officials if their object is to do as little
work as they can for their money. It is partly the
fault of the system, which gives scarcely any scope
to men who really wish to be industrious. A
few well-paid posts there are, but they arc,
or at all events have been in times past,
given under the pressure of political influence
rather than as the reward of merit. If merit were
properly rewarded, there is no reason to doubt but
that there would be merit to reward. If it were
known that industry and ability bore fruit in the
Civil Service, as in other professions, a higher class of
men would be obtained, greatly to the public benefit.
As it is, what happens ? Industry excites the disap-
probation of colleagues and wins no commendation
from superiors. Zeal is discountenanced as
the one thing to be avoided. Some years ago a
Government clerk, fresh from Oxford, with plenty
of brains in his head, investigated the business
done in his office, found out that a large number of
gentlemen were paid salaries, small—enough indeed
for gentlemen, but large foi the work—in order to
write " I have the honour to be." He drew up an
elaborate scheme, in which he offered to contract for
the whole work of the department at £1,500 a year.
It was a bold thing to do ; none but a
very young and inexperienced man would have
ventured upon it. He soon found that he had
made a terrible mistake. The wrath of the chiefs
was excited. They saw their rights of patronage
attacked; they saw that the Government service was
in danger of becoming a service of hard work. So
they discharged the vials of their indignation in the
form of a letter, calling upon the young reformer to
apologise for his "insubordination" or to resign his
post. His pride would not permit him to apologise
for a fault which he had not committed, and he
chose resignation. Years passed by, and the
reformer was left out in the cold. At last, after a
long interval, his political friends returned to power,
and, as he had a cousin in a ducal Cabinet Minister,
he was put into a comfortable post of about ten
times the value of his clerkship, and in which he
never fails to remember TALLEYRAND'S advice,
surtout point de zele.
While such is the guiding principle of the
Government offices, it is needless to say that they
will not be efficiently and economically worked.
The present Government are determined to insist
upon the latter quality. But they must do something
more than turn adrift clerks if they would have the
former. They must let it be understood that pro-
motion will be entirely by merit, or they will gain
nothing by their reforms. Perhaps the competitive
systeni has been carried far enough in one direction:
but there is no reason why it should not be applied in
another. Hitherto we have been demanding from civil
servants a knowledge of science, literature, and lan-
guages enough to stock a schoolmaster. We cannot in
crease our demand for this kind of knowledge, and it is
doubtful if a more abundant supply of it would be
of any advantage to the country. But we can test a
man's proficiency in his work. We can say to one
who is anxious to rise to a higher post that has fallen
vacant, " Prove your fitness for it ; shew that you
are more fit for it than your colleagues, and you
shall have it." Let our statesmen look to this. Let
them not content themselves with the lower praise
of having cut down expenses: Let them seek also
the more excellent way of inducing the QUEEN'S
servants to put their heart into their work.