The Sun.
London, England, 1867-07-01 00:00:00

THE CONDITION OF IRELAND,

A writer in a contemporary says :
The deep interest which Americans naturally
take in Ireland, which has contributed so largely
to the population and material wealth of the
United States, induces me to offer you a few

observations upon the social conditions of the coun-

try, the more especially as public opinion in
America exercises, apparently, so large an influence
on the mischievous operations of the Fenians.
As an Englishman, independent of all parties,
accustomed to travel over the country for many

months, and mixing freely with all classes, my tes-
timony may be accepted as perfectly unbiassed. I
have no cause to serve but the cause of truth, and

I shall only be too happy if its dissemination, through
the pages of a journal read by Americans, should
contribute to the suppression of a movement which
entails imn_ense injury upon Ireland, and places thi
Government of the United States in a false position.

An impression has been created in America that
this country is misgoverned, and that millions of
Irishmen are anxious to be separated from England

❑ order to establish a republic for themselves. If
the ridiculous failures which have attended the

attempts of the last two years to effect that object
have not dissipated the preposterous idea, let a few
facts be accepted as proofs that it exists only in tha
brains of a few wild adventurers stimulated by
pecuniary prospects.
In the first place, not one person of the slightest
respectability—neither nobleman, gentleman, land-
lord, merchant, professional man, nor tradesman in
Ireland, has been ascertained to have entertained the
slightest sympathy with the rebellious scheme. Not
' one has contributed a penny to its funds, but all
have protested, and do protest, vehemently against
proceedings which have seriously affected the trade
of the country, and cast thousands of the poor into
a state of helpless destitution.
In the second place, it is universally felt that any
change in the Government of the country must be

for the worse.
In the third place, Ireland needs capital for the
development of her agricultural and mineral re-
sources. The money made by the merchants of the
country is not employed by their offspring in ex-
tending and perpetuating commercial adventure.
The sons of prosperous traders hold their father's
trade in contempt, and prefer seeking admission
into the ranks of the aristocracy either as clergy-
men, lawyers, officers of the army or navy, or as
" young men of fortune." Hence a close connec-
tion with wealthy, active, careful England and
Scotland is indispensable to the manufacturing in-
terests and social welfare of Ireland.
In the fourth place, were it quite true that the
majority of Irishmen desire the assistance of
America in casting off the yoke of England, it
would be impossible to attain that object by force
unless the Government of the United States were
openly to put forth all its strength, and send an
immense army and numerous ships of war ; and even
then the conflict would be doubtful. The essence
of all plots is secrecy and confidence, and these seem
to be impossibilities in Ireland. Men habitually
betray each other in all the concerns of life. And
although the informer is held in contempt, we have
seen that money and considerations of personal
safety will procure any amount of timely informa-
tion that may be useful to the Government in its
defensive arrangements.
That Ireland is as well governed as it might be, no
one will venture to maintain, but the fault does not
lie so much with England as the Irish themselves.
The relations of landlord and tenant must indeed be
settled by the British Parliament, but if Irish mem-
bers are not agreed as
to the best method of placing
these relations on a proper and amicable footing
who is to blame? The system of evictions is
unquestionably a serious bar to the improvement of
property by tenants at will, yet it cannot be denied
that what between poverty and dishonesty, the land-
lords often find it a very hard matter to get their
rent. Thus the alleged cruelty of ejectment is tnet by a
protest against the absence of all means of getting rid
of a tenant who e innot or who will not pay. Dis-
raint yields little satisfaction when there is no tau-
ble property to distrain.

Thy New York " Round Ltblt;" on the

American Press.

These are a remarkable series of articles, com-
mencing May 13 with a paper on Episcopal
Journalism ; the second of the series is on the
Metropolitan Dailies, and the third on the Country
Press. We are not aware how far the reviewer
intends to carry his criticisms, but the field is still
atupl3 if he follows the subject into more minute
detail. One of the peculiarities of American
journalism is the expansion of the religious press..
The New England States grow religious newspapers
like mushrooms, Massachusetts thus tarnishes a
striking example of the tenacity with which the
English race cling to the traditions of their fathers.
The Pilgrim Fathers stamped their character on
the institutions and tone of thought of the New
England States, and although a great change has
been wroughtby generations following on generations
in a new land, working a change in the outer man
in his pbysicial appearance, yet in 1867 a liquor
law is enforced in Massachusetts as well as in Maine,
which might be supposed to have been passed by
the ghosts of the Puritan settlers of 1620. The
religious press of the New England States is an in-
digenous plant, strangely combining the lust for
Mammon with the fear of God. The Round Table has
not as yet treated this branch of its subject fully,
having hitherto confined its remarks to Episcopal
journalism. The newspapers best known in Europe
are of course the metropolitan dailies, which form
the subject of the second paper. The reviewer
contrasts the leading organs of opinion in New
York with those of the British metropolis. This
comparison is easily made, as the language is the
same, and the kinship and institutions make the
habits somewhat similar. Though the Round Table
acknowledges that the comparison tells so far against
New York that the London journals are in most
respects still in advance, yet it contends that the
distance is rapidly being lessened, and it predicts
that it will shortly disappear, or, if there be any
difference, it will be in favour of the American
organs. Twenty years ago the best New York news-
papers were as far behind the best London, as those
of a minor western town were behind those of New
York. Metaphorically speaking, the London papers
were out of sight ahead ; now the American fleet is
but a short way aStern, and presently they hope to
be abreast of their elder cousins. After frankly
acknowledging this, and putting all in their true
places, the reviewer says "what we want to establish
first is truth." The reasons of the superiority ot.
English journalism are given ;--First, in the greater
proportion of scholarly men of leisure ; second, in
more exactly defined and universally accepted
standards of expression, and in all those things
which make the difference between a country
all past and another all future. These will
be removed as wealth and leisure increase
in the United States. Then, the natural vi-
gour and saliency of youth being', on the Ameri-
can side the scale will probably turn. But there
are other disadvantages. Everything that serves
ta. make up a publication is dearer in New York
than in England. The cost of paper, composition,
press work, &c., is against the Americans, and ac-
counts for the inferior appearance of the newspapers
commonly issued there. The Tribune has taken
the lead in the improvement in this respect so gene-
ral in New Yolk. The Herald has disappointed
its numerous readers in not improving its paper
and its typography to the extent expected when in-
stalled in its new and splendid building. The writer
believes that it would have been a wise move on
Mr. Bennett's part to have raised the price of the
Herald from 4c. to 5c., and expended the difference
on mechanical improvements and better writing.
The Herald is the most successful of American
newspapers. Whether it be creditable to the com-
munity or not, that community has made it, and
maintains it as it is. "It is idlc.to assume that
any individual makes a great newspaper what he
likes.. It is the public that makes it what it likes.
Ajourual is successful just in proportion as the tact
and discernment of its manager enable him to dis-
cover what the public does like, and to meet the
demand." k'or our own part we should be glad to

see the Herald much handsomer in print, more dig-
nified in tone, more noble and elevated in purpose,
than in fact it is ; which is not very different from
saying that we should be glad to see the commu-
nity greatly improved in parallel respects. Setting
apart its moral tone, or eccentricities of policy, the
Herald has always been an excellent newspaper,
prompt in supplying the chief requisite of a com-
mercial and restless people—the " Latest Intelli-
gence." The New York Times is the most temperate
and habitually the most self-restrained of the me-
tropolitan dailies. It has been termed a trimmer,
tie charge most frequently levelled at its name-
wake in London. The reviewer defends the New
fork Times, pointing out that thinkers who see
good in more parties than one, and who are not
habitually wedd.s2l to either in particular, invite
such imputations, which are in truth the fruit of
culture, and of a judicial habit of mind. An editor
is apt to suffer severely who insists da ju lging for
himself, as the disgust of former friends and imputed
apostacy is more potent for harm than the luke-
warm adhesion of new friends is effective for good.
The articles are generally of a measured and deli-
berate stamp, often discovering a well-read and
scholarly vein, which is equally removed from the
ad captandum of the Herald, or the rustic dia-
tribes of the Tribune. The musical and dramatic
criticisms have been discriminating and just, in-
clining to the fault common in America of over
much praise. Its London and Paris correspondence
is notably good, and its literary reviews are usually
careful, apparently conscientious, and sometimes
very able.
Satisfactorily to describe the New York Tribune
is, the writer says, almost as difficult as satisfac-
torily to act " Hamlet." Every one has a diffe-
rent idea of it ; no one is ever entirely satisfied with
it, and yet in most things it has more real influence
than any paper published on the continent. It is
uncouth in expression, and wants variety and plas-
ticity of style. Its articles are sometimes provincial
to barbarism, with a schoolboy use of expletives and
vituperation, offensive to good taste and provocative
of ridicule. Its conductors appear to have studied
a rusticity of dictum, an elaborate rejection of the
elegancies of composition, to find favour in its coun-
try circulation. The reviewer hits hard at this,
which he considers to be a fault of American jour-
nalism. " Nothing is more degrading to letters
than this constant writing down to the assumed
average standard of general readers. That it does
not impair circulation but rather improves it may
be true, but great public teachers—and established
metropolitan newspapers should be no less—should
have a higher ideal to attain, a nobler mission to
fulfil, than the mere piling up of their circulations.
The moral, political, or theological attitudes of a jour-
nal are matters for legitimate difference of opinion;
but questions of grammar, solecisms of construction,
the habitual employment of the slang of the vulgar,
admit of no such latitude. The Herald and 7 ribune
both sin in this respect, albeit in diverse ways ; the
latter, not to say it disrespectfully, having an occa-
sional smack of the cow-yard and the former of the
corner grocery. Neither is up to the mark which
the in.telligence, wealth, and numbers of the com-
munity fairly demand. Great newspapers like
these should be models of pointed composition; not
disseminators of stupid verbiage. It is not neces-
sary to be grandiloquent in order to write good
English. It is possible to be simple, explicit, and
direct in unexceptionable terms. Too many of our
writers have apparently contracted the habit of sup-
posing that diction will seem affected unless it is
coarse; and that to touch the popular heart '—a
pestilent thing at best to be perpetually striving to
do—it is needful to write like a child who has, how-
ever, in all things, save literary composition, the
experience of a man."
The strong point of the 2 ribune is its brave, out-
spoken, and honest opinions. The same generous
courage which took Mr. Greeley to Richmond to
become bondsman for Jefferson Davis animates his
whole paper, and gives it its exceptional power.
Words are only. vehicles of th3ught, an 1, although
the writer objects to the style of the Tribune on purely
aesthetic grounds, he applauds its moral and intellec-
lual features. The circulation of the Tribune and the
Times is supposed now to be nearly erpaal after each
paper has passed through varims vicissitudes during
the course of the war. Mr. Greeley's into act in be-
coming security for Jefferson Davis has seriously
affected the circulation of the Tribune. But the
momentary act of spleen which has caused this will
soon be forgotten, and cannot have any permanent
influence on that great New York daily.
The World, originally a failure as a religious
daily, has pissed through a series of vicissitudes,
until it reached its present well-defined position.
It ably and brilliantly advocates the principles of
the old Democratic party. Its leading articles are
characteristically bold, and masterly written by
robust and experienced minds, and will bear com-
parison with similar articles in first-class London
journals, while those of the Herald and Tribune, as
a rule, will not. They are pointed, persuasive, and
lucid, giving full, clear, and exhaustive statements
of Democratic principles and aims. Its fault is too
extreme a partisanship. The writer considers it a
wholesome thing that the political theories so gene-
rally accepted in the past, and still adhered to by so
large a proportion of the best interests of the coun-
try, should possess so capable an advocate.
The Evening Express supports the same prin-
ciples in a more fragmentary and off-hand
way. Though it 3 plan aims at giving the latest
intelligence, and is on the whole attractive to a
large class, its short articles are mingled with ad-
vertisements, telegraphic despatches, City items,
and general paragraphs, so as to give an incongruous
appearance, and an air of sloppiness not altogether
pleasing to behold. It deals in a direct, unm is-
takeable fashion, without obscurities or circumlo-
cution, adhering to its political faith through good
and ill report, and as the tried friend of the work-
ing classes. Although mainly read by the masses,
who look to it for practical guidance and instruc-
tion, its circulation is extending among the more
fastidious of the community as the only Democratic
evening paper.
The Evening Post, according to the reviewer, has
been a paper of great influence, though now in a
bad way. Its two chief editors have, unfortunately,
for some time been absent. Mr. William Leggett,
while gaining for the paper political and literary
reputation, got it into grave financial troubles.
Ilis successors, whatever they may have do"
in the latter respect, have not maintained the posi-
tion secured in the former. There is a leaden dulness,
a laborious rusticity about its columns utterly in-
compatible with the present requirements of a lead-
ing journal. Briefly stated, its shortcomings are
too provincial, too dry, angular, and bitter in its
prejudices, too unsystematic, inelegant, and con-
strained. Its book notices are scrappY
feeble, and
overtingc 1 with partisanship, and its musical and
dramatic criticisms are singularly spiritless and un-
meaning. It has advocated the cause of free trade,
and its articles on national, State, and municipal
affairs are as a rule solidly conceived and pertina-
ciously expressed. It has accumulated in the past
a well-earned measure of credit which supports it in
the present, but it must improve if it is to hold its
position and maintain its influence.
The Evening Gazette is a general and literary
rather than a political newspaper, and is a new candi-
date for public favour. It avoids partisanship, and is
lively and amusing, without pretending to solid or
exhaustive discussion. It aims to exclude from
every department all matter which pure-minded
people, young or old, do not wish to see, and it is
therefore ac.lTtable in the family circle. Every
issue, almost every line, is evidently the work of a
gentleman of culture, and there is about it an at-
mosphere of scholarship and high social surroundings
than are not often characteristic of American news-
papers. Its scrupulous care and delicacy, its light
and entertaining reading, and its cheap price, being
sold at three cents, are rapidly obtaining for it a re-
munerative ciiculation.
2 he Journal of Commerce and Commercial Adver-
tiser, is one of the two mercantile newspapers.
Being comparatively restricted in scope, it does not
demand such extended comment as journals of a
more general character. Firm in its adherence to
Democratic 'principles; curt, though dignified,
thoughtful, and suggestive, it has exercised a solid
and acknowledged influence. Mr. Thurlow Weed,

into whose experienced hands it has lately fallen,
has given it a greater vitality. Its old rival, the
Courier and Inquirer, has been merged in the World,

and since then this journal has been the leading
authority in commercial circles. It advocates pro-

ective principles, and the reviewer regrets that

;here is not in the commercial metropolis of Amc-

rica a counteracting influence to balance, in the
cause of free trade. Its articles, since the advent of
Mr. Weed, have attracted considerable attention,
and in its special departments it is entirely to be

depended upon.
The Sun is the cheapest of the New York dailies,
and therefore the smallest, though a well-managed
and useful sheet, supplying good reading and the latest
news for thousands, to whom the extra pennies de-

manded by the larger journals are an object. It has
been much improved and considerably enlarged of

ate, and is not, if we are correctly informed, the
least profitable among the dailies.
"The influence of the metropolitan dailies upon

the thought and progress of the country is great,
and with each year it may be expected to ;row
greater. For the standards of education are slowly
but surely rising, and the disposition will propor-
tionally increase to turn for intellectual food as well
as for intelligence to the centre to which these deside-
rata naturally gravitate. Whatever marvellous
development may be in store for the heart of the
continent or the golden cities of the Pacific Slope,
New York is and must remain the capital of the
nation; a nation which bids fair to outstrip in nutn-

bers and power, as it already surpasses in extent of
territory, all the great empires of modern times.
The responsibility of the metropolitan press,which is
to witness, record, and stimulate this growth is an
important and solemn one. The intellectual future
of the people lies in a great measure in its hands.
Surveying its past history and measuring it in

relation to national development, it is impos-
sible to doubt its influence, and impossible not

to regret that that influence has not in all re
pects, as it has in most, been exerted for noble
and salutary ends. The mighty future, how-
ever, remains open before it. The press, with the
country it represents, will grow and expand and
strengthen until it will be to its former self as the
giant is to the stripling. Opportunities to do good—
to arouse mental activity, to elevate esthetic stand-
ards, to inspire a lofty national policy, to encourage
the magnificent social and political renovations to-
wards which, with many a jar, check, and hind-
rance, the fabric of the world is slowly moving—
these and other glorious opportunities will be in the
hands of the journalists of the future. Let us hope
they will be appreciated in a catholic spirit and em-
ployed to every chivalrous, progressive, and patri-
otic end."
We do not know whether the reviewer intends to
return to the Metropolitan newspapers, as he has
left a large field still untouched. He launches in
his third article into the country papers, and into
the provinces we propose hereafter to follow him.
One of the most interesting of the New York
papers is the weekly Review, in which the writer
gives expression to his criticisms. The rise and
progress of the Round Table is more suggestive of
the history of journalism in New York than perhaps
any newspaper there published. The Round Table
does not call itself a newspaper, being purely a re-
view of literature, society, and art ; yet, we pre-
sume, it is legally included in the category. With
all the literary merit of the London Saturday Re-
view, it is free from the defects of that paper. It
does not seek, by giving the reins to a sarcastic and
bitter spirit to increase the circulation, pandering
to some of the most hateful feelings of our nature.
It is eminently fair and truthful ; broad in its views,
fearless in enunciating them ; free from all party
bias, taking and maintaining its stand on the most
solid platform, and each week writing so forcibly as
to increase an influence destined, we feel sure, to
have a most beneficial effect. Not only does it
handle political subjects with a powerful grasp, un-
ravelling the most intricate questions, but it exposes
social delinquencies, so as to touch the sinners to the
quick, and force men and women to mend their
manners. No journal has done so much to elevate
the tone of the American press, and considering its
youth, whatever may be its success commercially, of
which we know nothing, the power it has attained
sakes it a prodigy among publications.