The Sun.
London, England, 1867-05-27 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, MAY 27,_ 1867.

It is interesting to observe the opinions expressed
by Mr. Motley on the progress of the great civil
war, as the despatches now before us were wrirtei,
during its height and close. Europe was filled with
Confederate emissaries, and every means were used
to falsify news, to decry the useless and hopeless
effusion of blood, to misrepresent the objects con-
tended for, and to bolster up a vicious and failing
cause. " The opinions," Mr. Motley says, " held
by the influential minority in Europe with re-
gard to the American War are manufactured for
them by their public preceptors, who make
up what is called the public opinion of Europe.
Now there was a time when this tribunal was re-
garded by us almost with reverence. That day is,
I trust, gone for ever. In regard to American
affairs, the result of a final analysis of that opinion
is simply this—lt is desirable that the great Ameri-
can Democratic Republic should be destroyed, an
energetic and admirably organised domestic insur-
rection is attempting its destruction, therefore that
nsurrection should be encouraged in every possible
way." He adds, "In Europe, to be powerful, is to
be venerated ; to be weak, is to be trampled upon ;
therefore the public opinion of Europe is and ought
to be, of comparative indifference to us." " The
thinkers of Europe, so far as I know, without a
solitary exception, and the labouring classes, wish
success to the American Republic. The dominant
classes, with individual and illustrious exceptions,
together with the idlers who are unwilling or unable,
to form opinions for themselves, desire the success
of those who are attempting its destruction." He
,held that the great unrepresented voiceless mass of
humanity, the toiling millions, whose part in life,
according to the European scheme, is to be go-
verned, and to hew wood and draw water for those
who govern, dimly perceived their own interest in
the struggle of the American people to uphold the
principles of freedom against the slave oligarchy.
Though he writes bitterly of the general opinion of
the upper classes, he pays a generous tribute to the
working men of England. In his despatch, No. 36,
Oct. 5, 1863, he says, "The heroic attitude of the
working classes of England, steadily withstanding
the acts and misrepresentations of demagogues, will
ever be cherished as a manifestation scarcely less
sublime than the heroism with which Ameri-
cans of all classes have been ready to lay
down their lives that their own country might
live ; nor shall we ever forget that the journalists
who have defended our cause atno ng a host
of enemies have been unsurpassed in the whole
history of the periodical press for knowledge,
ability, and nobility of sentiment ; that sonic of the
most eloquent and honoured public men of England
have spoken worth which have echoed in every
American heart, and that the loftiest and most ear-
nest thinkers, both of England and of the Con-
tinent, the true and permanent guides of public
thought, with scarce an exception, have expressed
themselves, in regard to the great revolution now
going on in America, with a wisdom, breadth of
vision, that do honour to the age."
In almost every letter a sentence appears which
shows the strength of his own belief in the future of
his country. In one he says :—" I may be over
sanguine, but a doubt has not yet crossed my mind
that the American Republic, based upon constitu-
tional law, popular self-government, and the rrr:ett
principles of reason and justice, will, suppress an in-
surrection made for the perpetua,tien and extension
of African slavery, and for the abrogation of the
first principles of freedom. I expect as much to see
the sun set at noon-day as to witness the destruc-
tion of our noble commonwealt h and its dismember-
ment into a jarraig, warring Europe, without the
historical excuses of Europe." His opinion that
the Americans had something worth fighting for is
frequently and strongly given. "A contemplation
of European politics leads us to the sincere prayer
that America may never be Europeanised."
Mr. Motley was greatly troubled by the infamous
manner in which telegraphic summaries were con-
cocted of American intelligence. "It is no exagge-
ration to say that since I have been here we have
always been under the influence of some perversive,
exaggerative, or absolute fraud, perpetrated by the
telegraph worl:ing in the interest of our enemies."
He urged on Mr. Seward the necessity of sending a
telegraphic summary twice a week from New York

to London, thence to be telegraphed to the Legations
on the Continent. He notices an admirable objec-
tion made by Mr. Seward that his Government
should beware lest, by sending intelligence which
might be sometimes mischievous, inaccurate, or in-
sufficient, it should lay itself open to the charge of
misleading public opinion in Europe. His answer
was conclusive, the intelligence was not prepared
for, nor would it reach, the foreign public. In
closing his despatch, he added—" A telegram just pub-
lished in the Vienna papers, New York, July 27. A
desperate battle was fought near Atlanta on the 22d;
the result was indecisive. General Sherman took a
position in the fortifications. Hunter has been
beaten, and retreated to Harper's Ferry. A new
invasion of Maryland was expected."
The retirement of a Minister so celebrated, leads
us to glance over his despatches, where we find
matter of such absorbing interest that it is not easy
to relinquish a subject better calculated for the
pages of a quarterly. It is probable we may soon
again revert to this record of Mr. Motley's facts
and opinions during a period which will ever be re-
garded by the great Republic, as its second vital
struggle for liberty embracing a war beyond all
comparison greater than its first, and involving
interests scarcely less in political importance.

Spirit of the American Press.

" THE GENIAL CRITIC."

We receive occasional remonstrances on what
is considered the severity of our rivews of books
from the friends of what is known as " genial criti-
cism," that is, of praise with just enough faint cen-
sure in it to make it seem that the writer is really
balancing defects against excellences. Under the
shelter of this " genial criticism " there has grown
up a great crop of pretenders in all walks of
literature and science, who deluge the. country
every year with their books, and secure a ready
sale for them, to the great depravation of the
public taste and to the great hindrance of real
scholars, real poets, and real scientific men. We
have endeavoured to the best of our ability to
do something to check this evil by providing
a channel in which men of real culture' may
say what they honestly think about the claims
of the numerous applicants for public atten-
tion who now make their appearance every week.
Without going into the vexed question of the use
of criticism in its highest aspects, there is one
aspect in which its utility will be denied by no-
body, and that is as an aid to book-buyers. The
American public contains more book-buyers than
any public in the world, and the American and
foreign press teems with books. Now, the majority
of book-buyers have neither the time nor the money
to buy or read the one-thousandth part of what is
published. It is of the highest importance to them,
therefore, that they should have some guidance in
deciding what books of the thousands they had
better buy, and read, and digest, and put
away on their book-shelves ; and it is to supply
this guidance, however imperfectly, that what
are called " literary notices " are published in the
newspapers. Without this object in view, two-
thirds of them would be an idle flow of words, and
the time spent in writing them utterly lost to nearly
everybody but the writer and a few of his friends.
But, for the book-buyer, the first essential of these
" notices " is honesty and independence. The writer
of them—certainly of those which appear in the
weekly papers—professes to be a third party, a
judge of books, standing between the bookseller and
the public, without interest or bias on one side or
the other, and occupied solely with the task of giving
the book-buyers a fair idea of the literary value of
the wares which the publisher offers for sale. The
publisher is, of course, interested in selling, and in
nothing else. Caveat emptor is even more empha-
tically the rule of the book market than of the
horse market. Of course no publisher of respecta-
bility selects works for publication which he does
not honestly believe to have merit. But having
once selected a bOok and put his name on it his
whole and sole business is to push its sale, to recorn-
mend it, and induce others to recommend it. The
public is perfectly aware of this, and is consequently
not in the least affected by what the publishers say
of their own honks in thoir advertisements or else-
where. Those funny little sheets, containing ela-
borate notices of the works they have for sale, which
some of the booksellers have lately taken to circu-
lating, and in which so much philosophy, sociology,
" knowledge of human nature," and wide and
various reading are brought to bear upon the corn.
mendation of the last novel or poem, are very enter-
taining, but nobody is deceived by them. Every-
body makes allowance for the motives of the
writers, and, having laughed, lays them down.
When a man not very familiar with books wants to
know what is going on in the book world, and whe-
ther he had better buy the latest novelty, he looks
at the reviews of it, probably at that which has ap-
peared in his weekly paper—most probably, in this
country, in his religious weekly. " Here," he says
to himself, "I shall get the opinion of an honest
man of some literary acumen who has read the book
who has no interest in promoting its sale, and by
his opinion I shall be guided in deciding whether I
had better expend in purchasing it any portion
of the too small sum which I can afford each year
to lay out in this way." Now, if the reviewer
is pecuniarily interested in the sale of the book,
as the publisher is ; if he is not an impartial
judge,
disguised butasviartuerailtlyie, aanndagreenwt,sordf
reviews
eavl
ui
eew
ofs or
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Idbv i
ror eot cke ts
forya are
ef
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co pulling t
ceffia
onn
fgd
tdh hise
e s
buyer,
waresuitny earte,s
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edtheby
di-
rectly publisher
of
vertisements, in the guise of reviews, at thed- e
ut
for the benefit
of the publisher, and intended to induce the reading
public to purchase the book--then, we say, the re-
viewer and all who aid and abet 11. un are guilty of
an odious fraud, which is not rendered one whit
less culpable or less
contemptible by the fact that
most books only cost a dollar and a half each. A
cheat is a cheat, let the amount be what it may.
' And we say, advisedly, that a very large proportion
of the " genial criticism" of our popular periodicals
is of this kind, and it is owing to the wide pre-
, valence of this fraud that the efforts of some
'journals to judge of books on their merits solely
and speak of them as they deserve, are stigmatised
as indications of a malignant and acrid nature.
Let us not be misunderstood. We do not say
that there is any paper of reputation in the coun-
try which does not often contain reviews of real
merit and written with an honest purpose, and
which does not occasionally take pains to procure
such reviews. Nor do we say that the cor-
ruption of the Genial Critic takes the form of
gross bribery ; that the bookseller gives him or
the newspaper publisher a fixed sum to produce
" a first-rate notice" of his last book. It is only
the lowest order of humbugs and deceivers who
can be seduced in this way. The process com-
monly in use is more complicated and a little more
delicate. The bribe is " advertising patronage."
Publishers find that an advertisement in any paper
is doubled in value by the appearance of a favour-
able critique, in the editorial columns or
the book
atuy and
advertised ; therefore they very n
the
'where y get
very excusably advertise most
most favourable notices, and the Genial Critic,
knowing their weakness, offers favourable notices
in return for paying advertisements. Both parties
in this way make money ; Vie author's feelings are
spared ; his "profundity," his "lucidity," his " acute-
ness," his " wonderful grasp," and "rare powers"
are proclaimed to the listening world ; and a few
hundred persons are eased of two dollars apiece,
" which they will never miss," and " where's the
hat m of it all?" say the Genial Critic and the "en-
terprising publisher" of the " widely circulated and
influential journal." The harm is the harm of all
money-getting on false pretences, and the addi-
tional harm of lowering the public taste, hindering
the reward and recognition of real merit, and
tempting scores of people into authorship who
would be much better employed in selling
thread and • needles or raising cranberries. All
this has, of course, been said before many a
time. The reason why we repeat it now is that we
have caught " the Genial Critic" iu the very act of
making his bargain with the book publishers, and
are thus enabled to fortify our judgment with
names, dates, and circumstances—an advantage
which few of those who have assailed his malprac-

tices have enjoyed. We have before us a printed
circular issued by the proprietor of the Independent,
a religious weekly paper of this city, and addressed
to "booksellers and publishers," soliciting advertise-
ments, and judiciously marked "private." He an-
nounces at the opening that the _lndependent is
" unsurpassed in circulation and influence by any
religious paper on the globe ;" that "in name
and reputation it has no superior ;" that " in charac-
ter and ability" it has acquired " a fame thoroughly
national ;" that its subscribers are "a reading class, a
book-buying class," " in comfortable or independent
circumstances," including " seven or eight thousand
clergymen of all denominations." Much of this is,
no doubt, true. The Independent has some excellent
qualities, and has certainly a very wide circulation,
but this only increases its responsibility in the
matter of " book notices." But the views of duty
on this subject entertained by the publisher of this
wonderful " organ" may be inferred from the fol-
lowing paragraph :—" Books Sent for Review.—
The managers of the Independent desire to make
their paper in this respect as acceptable to book
publishers as possible. All books sent for review
are considered as candidly and favourably as pos-
sible. We cannot review every book sent us, as
our space for book notices is limited. Yet all books
of worth am reviewed and well treated." We
have great pleasure in giving this notice the benefit
of our circulation. Publishers will observe that
it is only their " books of worth" that are
favourably treated, so they had better send their
poor books elsewhere. The Genial Critic never occu-
pies himself with the chaff. There is one question we
should like to ask him, and we leave him to answer
it at his leisure. He will be the last man in the
world to deny that humbug is the great curse of
our time. What we wish to know is, how he sup-
poses society is ever to be delivered from it if the
press, and especially the religious press, which is
the ex officio exposer of humbug, is to remain one of
its most besotted worshippers ? Has he no bowels
of compassion for the " best families, the people of
intellectual culture and appreciation," even though
they are " in comfortable and independent circum-
stances," and especially the " seven or eight thou-
sand clergymen," who every week have to read his
" candid and favourable reviews ?"—The Nation.

THB APPEAL FROM SOUTH CAROLINA.
Governor Orr, of South Carolina, has sent the
Editor of the New York Herald documentary

evidence whose authenticity he avouches, and which

reveals a condition of destitution and woe posi-
tively startling. The accounts come from a great
many districts, and it should be at once distinctly
understood at once in the North and the West,
where alone the means of relief are to be found,
that the people in these districts are not simply

in need, but that they are absolutely starving. We
call upon the wealthy and benevolent in our great
rich centres to come forward promptly, and out of
their abundance to prevent such terrible calamity.
It would be lamentable enough in a country like
this, over-running as it is with the necessary sup-
plies,:if even a few should be suffered to perish for
want of food ; but when such a catastrophe is
threatening entire communities it were inexpressibly

shocking as well as a national disgrace that it
should not be promptly and generously averted.
Public meetings should be held at once in all the
great towns of thecountry, and the pressshould. unite
in giving extended publication to the sad facts, so that
none who can give aid may be ignorant of its neces-
sity. Governor Orr has done wisely in sending forth
details of the pitiful situation in their naked
simplicity. Appeals to public sympathy have been
of late so numerous that many have habituated
themselves to neglect them on the plea that they
cannot possibly help all, and that they feel unable
or unwilling to discriminate. But in a case like
this there can be no excuse save genuine inability
for refusing to contribute. Such a refusal from
those who can pay their honest debts and still have a
surplus is, in a contingency like this, nothing short
of criminal. We beg our readers to consider the
following accounts, bearing in mind that the
Governor of South Carolina is authority for their
truth :

LANCASTER COURT-lIOUSE.—We have the

and live hundred blacks, who must perish without
help. Some have already starved to death.
WATEROO, COLDETON DISTRICT.--I know of
more than twenty families within a radius of less
than four miles who are utterly destitute. I beg
earnestly that help may be sent to us at once.
" BARNWELL DISTRICT.—There are from two to
three thousand persons, black and white, in Barn-
well, who must perish unless aid be afforded them.
Our planters are drawing all their subsistence from
factors in Charleston, Savannah, and Augusta, and
are unable to afford relief to the suffering. Most
of these destitute persons are old women and
children and diseased persons.

ci MIDWAY, BARNWELL DISTRICT.—W. Gilmore
Simms writes as follows far as I can see, there
is no possible escape from general famine, in which
all will suffer, many perish. In a precinct of fifty
miles in this district, there is not more than one
planter in fifty who has corn enough to last him a
single month ; not more than one in two hundred
who has enough for two months ; none that have
any that can last three months ; and of these there
is hardly more than five in the hundred who will be
able to supply themselves with provisions of any
sort, unless by borrowing money on mortgage, not
only of the growing crop, butof thelands, and at such
a rate of interest that no crop they can make can
possibly save them from ruin. A great many will
almost or quite starve, unless they.can get help from
some other resources than their own. Briefly, the
famine which now threatens the land is all over the
land, and no one region can help the other. The mules
when owned by the negroes,
and horses, especially
and upon which the hope for next year's crop must
greatly depend, are dying of work without food.
They literally drop down in the harness, and much
the same sort of picture may be drawn of the
humans, white and black. Life is prolonged solely
by spasmodic efforts and all sorts of expedients,
day by day, the parties not regarding any sacrifice
which will yield the means of daily subsistence to
their families. Unless the charities of the outer
world are more prompt and more bountiful, I do
not see what is to avert the fate of thousands to
whom the peck or bushel of corn, which suffices for
a week, must simply prolong the agony of a death
by inches.
" NEAR MACOY'S BLUFF, BEAUFORT DISTRICT.
—Some raised in wealth and pride have managed
to conceal their sufferings, which have now become
unbearable. Widows and orphans have lived on
charity thus far, but "that is being withheld from
sheer necessity. Something must be done to avert
the miserable fate of starvation.
" SUMTERVILLE.—We have been requested by a
meeting of the citizens of our district, held some
days ago, to address your Excellency on the subject
of the destitution which prevails in our district to
an alarming extent, and the consequent suffering
among a large class of our people. Already we are
informed that two females have died in the upper
edge of this district from starvation, and many
others of both sexes, white as well as coloured,
must share the same fate unless they are pro-
vided with food. Many employers have been
compelled to dismiss their hands for want of
food with which to feed them, and these people
when discharged wander about iu a starving condi-
tion, and many of the labourers who have contracted
to feed themselves and families are now utterly
unable t ) provide food."
These dreadful statements are but six out of a
hundred equally piteous, and all are as eloquent re-
specting the perils of delay. In a matter like this.
actions are emphatically louder than words, and he
more than gives twice who gives quickly. We
trust that every individual in the community who
can contribute even a single dollar to save the un-
happy people of South Carolina from the horrors
which threaten them will do so without an hour's
delay.—Pound Table.

The grant of the Legislature of New York for a
Franco-American Telegraph cable has been ap-
proved by Governor Fenton, and we learn that a
certified copy will be immediately dispatched to
France, where the Imperial Government is ready to
promote, is the most substantial way, the new en-

terprise, directly between Brest and the City of
New York. The bill grants to Mr. William Orton
and his associates, successors and assigns, the ex-
clusive right, for 20 years, to lay telegraphic cables
from this State to the Empire of France, and to
work the same ; on the condition that the grantees,
within the period of two years, shall have telegraphic
communication established and in successful opera-

tion, with the reservation that the State of New York
may at any time have reasonable precedence in the
use of the cable, and the power to assign this right,
from time to time, to the Government of the United
States. We feel compelled to say that the shameful
mismanagement of the existing cable has to a very
great extent alienated public sympathy and favour,
and will insure for this new enterprise the best
wishes of the whole community. The management
of the present line is narrow, illiberal, petty, and
annoying. Its charges are excessive, and are ren-
dered still more burdensome by a systematic resort
to very small excuses for swelling them beyond the
rates announced. It is doubtless true of this, as of
every other business enterprise, that there is no gua-
ranty for the rights and convenience of the public
except in competition—and that we hope the new
project will give us.—New York Times.