The Sun.
London, England, 1866-09-11 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

THE " LONDON REVIEW" ON LADY TIPPLERS.—
Were it possible for Pope again to write his " Rape
of the Lock," and to write it in America, he would
be obliged to invoke the assistance of more sylphs
than he did to shield his fair heroine from harm.
A new enemy has made his appearance with the
advance of civilisation, and one which the com-
bined forces of Zephyretta, Brillante, Momentilla,
Crispissa, and Arid, could not successfully oppose.
Perhaps those guardians are less vigilant than for-
merly ; or it may, indeed, happen that they are
traitors in disguise. However it be, the fault cannot
be laid to the charge of Republicanism, for it prevailed
in Imperial Rome itself. In the present day, it ap-
pears that the belles-of the Western World are not
content to assemble round the tea-table to dissect
the latest fashions and their neighbours' characters,
as their mothers were. Neither have the Germans
been powerful enough to prevail upon them to be-
come Kaffe-Schwestern, although they have natu-
ralized among the weaker male sex their Saur-
kraut, Lager-bier, and omnipresent Bands. The
fashionable female world has resisted these tempta-
tions, but, in plain words, it is said to have " taken,
to drink." No one has as yet presumed
to propose a remedy. Kissing has not been
openly mentioned, although it may have been
thought of. That Roman remedy could hardly
be rejected by a gallant race as distasteful.; but,
as it has not been publicly suggested, although the
fault is freely avowed, we are compelled to suppose
that there is something intrinsically weak in it—
some flaw fatal to its efficacy. And immediately the
old query Arises in our mind, Quis custodet custodes?
It is plain as possible that many of those duly re-
sponsible would fight shy of their duty, or perform
it in a perfunctory manner, in order that there
should be a mutual condonation of a common fault.
If the American gentlemen desire that their wives
and daughters shall be patterns of sobriety and
domestic virtue, they must first show them au ex-
ample. In these days, ladies begin to imagine that
they display a spirit of independence by eagerly imi-
tating their male friends—in America especially
this fancy is pushed to the utmost. They preach,
they teach, and they practise—as physicians. They
lecture as vehement politicians, they masquerade in
various costumes more or less masculine, and Dr.
So-and-So is stated with applause to have discarded
the barbarous and slavish custom of long robes and
side-Isaddles when she goes to visit her patients.
When once they have begun to play "fast and
loose" with old world notions there is nothing to
hinder them from advancing beyond these limits.
Once that' it becomes a fixed idea that the more
women imitate men the more independence of cha-
racter do they show, and the more justice they do
to their " individuality," there is no reason to be-
lieve that they will refrain from drinking strong
liquors because some men think it unwomanly. The
fashion is against being " womanish." There are,
no doubt, among ourselves, persons who may be
termed frail bibbers, and some who regard as the
chief attraction of certain of our places of amuse-
ment the possibility of gratifying their appetite
without comment. Physicians also know of cases
where ladies of a higher station take as medicine
various " strengthening tinctures," less medicinal
than alcoholic. But these keep their shame con-
cealed ; they do not obtrude it on the public view.
None of our most censorious critics have yet ven-
tured to inform us that even " girls of eighteen, the
daughters of our most respectable merchants, have
been seen grossly intoxicated upon our public
streets." An American journal, of good character,
gives us this piece of information; and from private
sources we can, unfortunately, corroborate many of
its statements. Ladies of good position in society
have been noticed in Broadway passing along in all
the majesty of silks, satins, and diamonds, but with
a step lamentably unsteady. The " watering-places"
have become "liquoring-places" for many of them ;
there the young belles of the season first become ini-
tiated in the fashionable vice. They sit out on the
piazzas in the long evenings, and separated from the
usual sights and routine of life, permit themselves
more freedom than usual. They think it amusing,
we are told, to be made " funny" by drinking with
gentlemen. But it unfortunately happens that this
" passing spree " does not pass away altogether
when they return to town. They have created an
appetite which is in no hurry to leave them. Nor
need they give •• it up-for want of opportunities to
gratify their vitiated tastes. They go out shopping,
and the merchants always keep on hand .a bottle of
wine, lest his customers should thirst iu vain. They
visit their modistes, and their establishments, it ap-
pears, are fashionable drinking-houses also. It is
not merely that the proprietor offers her customers
a glass of wine, but she really sells her whatever
drink is most agreeable, and sets it down in the bill
as " small trimmings." " Small trimmings !" it is
the title of an essay, but perhaps the essayist would
prefer that of " extra-luncheons," which is the
synonyme adopted at the watering-place hotels.
But beside these panders, there are the " ladies'
restaurants." In some of these " saloons" there is
nothing to shock the most fastidious eye upon the
bill of fare—none but the initiated understand the
full nieaning of the considerate intimation : " if you
do not see what you want, ask for it." But there
are other restaurants where this affected reticence is
not observed—restaurants where " all sorts of fancy
drinks are as freely ordered by, and supplied to,
women as creams and ices used to be." Fashionable
ladies enter here unattended, we are told, and call
for liquors at all hours of the day. Wine is not
what they want, they can get wine readily enough
at home. Nor do they care greatly for claret
punches, sherry-cobblers, and the like : these they
can sip at evening parties, before gentlemen. But
Kinahan's " Lord Lieutenant" whisky, or imita-
tions, and undiluted brandy, are forbidden frait at
such social reunions. They are obtainable at the
restaurants. For these are the voices of the fashion-
able ladies, " moving in the best circles," heard
calling at all hours of the day. And when such is
the case, who can wonder that the illicit enjoyment
occasionally becomes a topic of public conversation,
from the demeanour of the habitues in the street ?
It is perhaps the most melancholy sight that can be
conceived, that of matrons and maidens afflicted
with this dipsomania. We have suggested one mode
of moderating the evil ; the Americans have found
out another, which is but a palliation in particular
cases. " Some of the most elegant ladies of our
leading cities," says an American journal, " will
pass this summer not at Saratoga or Newport, as
usual, but at an asylum for inebriates." After such
an announcement there is no need of drawing a
moral.

THE " SATURDAY REVIEW" ON THE SCHOOL-
MASTER AT TAVISTOCK. —Earl Russell was quite
right in being early in the field with his testimo-
nials for the office of Shoolmaster Abroad. It is
astonishing what an amount of latent knowlege and
unpractised skill in the pedagogic art the Parlia-
mentary recess bring out ; and in a few weeks the
locallnstitutions and Athenae and Mutual Improve-
inect Clubs will be alive with unusual activity, and
with the presence of peers and M.P.'s who are
ready and willing to relieve themselves of all the
suppressed literature and science which they have
secreted in London. The late Premier has just
published his " Inaugural Address delivered at
Tavistock at the Fifth Annual Meeting of the
Devon Association for the Advancement of Litera-
ture, Science, and Art." Inaugural is a very fine
word, but what in this case is inaugurated we are
totally unable to guess. Every year that the Devon
Association exists, perhaps, it is " inaugurated."
But is Earl Russell the augur ? or is he inaugu-
rated ? If" so, -what does he inaugurate—himself,
or the meeting ? It wants an augur to tell"
us. " Inaugural" we suppose, for the news-
paper sense of the worst' is sufficiently vague,
means superficial. Anyhow,_ it does so in the
present instance. " Literature, science, and art"

—this was the little all which Earl Russell pro-
posed to consider. In eighteen pages of large print
he has traversed the whole field of human inquiry,
and has taken a bird's-eye view of the entire range
of the world's history, and of the progress of man-
kind from the earliest times, with a luininous sy-
noptical prospect of what we are to be some centu-
ries or secles hence. As to art, certainly Lord
Russell is silent, and for the very conclusive reason
that, because Reynolds was born in Devonshire, and
Eastlake, a native of the county, has recently died,
he has nothing to say on the subject. The whole
passage has such a grotesque and ridiculous resem-
blance to a reason, that we quote it :—" The sub-
ject of art I shall not venture to touch. The county
which produced Sir Joshua Reynolds, and which
has had lately to lament the death of Eastlake, is a
native soil for art, and needs not my feeble com-
mentary." What is meant by a feeble commen-
tary on a county we know not, as the earl was not
supposed to be writing a topographical dictionary ;
but why the fact that two considerable artists were
Devonians relieved the inaugurator from discoursing
on art in Devonshire at all, is still more difficult to
understand. A little larger application of this ar-
gument might relieve the earl, and a good many
other noble and senatorial lecturers, from their an-
nual labours. England has produced Milton and.
Shakspeare, Bacon and Newton, Gibbon and Hal-
lain. It is the native soil for literature and science,
and needs not " my," nor any, feeble commentary.
Before quitting the pure boundless fields of theo-
retical and abstract science the noble lecturer
becomes practical. "We have in this country a
Museum . . . but so cabined, cribbed, confined,
that the examination of our vast collections is im-
possible and their possession useless, while science
pauses in despair beforethe giant of false et onomy
where he stands with uplifted club ready to strike_
back the rash intruder who would penetrate into
the mysteries he conceals. Let us hope another
year will not pass away without an ample grant for
enlarging the British Museum &c." If there is a
giant and a club in the case, it is the first time that
Earl Russell has been classed among the sons of
Anak ; but did it not occur to his lordship that, as
he had been in office for twenty five years, and
Prime Minister three times, he might as well have
not left it to his political enemies to make that
ample grant which has been persistently urged
upon him and his party for as many years as
they have held office ? If, as •is true enough, the
state of the British Museum is a national disgrace,
who is more responsible for it than Earl Russell
himself, and who more interested in its enlargement
than the Bedford family, whose property sur-
rounds it on every side ? In the spacious fields
of literature, its state and " changes during the
last and present century," Earl Russell gives
the rein to his pony, for the noble animal which he
bestrides has not acquired the dignity of even a
hobby-horse. The " muse of poetry and the muse
of history " are canvassed ; and we are told how,
quitting the august themes of princes and warriors,
the poet has, in these latter days, dwelt with delight
on the charms of home. We are bid to listen to
the simple lays of the " Cotter's Saturday Night,"
and the bubbling of Cowper's tea-kettle; and, as
regards history, we are assured that the State
Paper Office is a more trustworthy guide than " the
legends of ancient Rome, which Niebuhr and
" George Lewis taught us to distrust." Then, after
a passing introduction of that detestable bore, the
New Zealander, and the ruins of St. Paul's, we
have some deep reflections on the Europe of the
future. There is much to be said for small States ;
or there was much to be said, as witness Athens
and Florence. But nowadays the tide of events
seems to be runninekn favour of large kingdoms.
There is much to be said for them.; for the little
principalities of modern Italy and Germany are not
encouraging. We must be careful not to absorb
small communities " without political necessity,"
and so on. Then, as regards the religious ten-
dency of the times, everything seems to be against
centralisation. We have relaxed persecuting laws,
let us go on in a spirit of forbearance. "If ye love
me, keep my commandments," is the substance of
the Gospel ; and when we do this we shall under-
stand the Gloria in E xcelsis—and so the lecture
ends. The lecture is what women call a sweet,
pretty lecture. It is all about everything in general
and nothing in particular. We have heard it all
before, and there is not one single word of
originality or novelty in it. Nor a single old
thought dressed up even in the imitation of novelty ;
platitude, common-place, and the most elementary,
sketchy, general sort of knowledge, which is no know-
ledge at all. Now pemmican, the condensed and
consolidated essence of meat, is one thing, dish-w ash-
ings are another. There is no call on Earl Russell to be
an authority in literature ; but there is a call on one
who has a name of a sort, and who has occupied the
very highest position which an Englishman can ob-
tain, not to sink to the -level of a country curate's
penny lecture. It is no disgrace for a statesman to
have nothing to say on the subjects which Earl Rus-
sell handles; but it is a disgrace to say your nothing,
and to say it with such abject nothingness. Men
as little skilled in art and literature and science
have lectured before Earl Russell—Lord Palmerston
for example. But there was always this to be said
for the Romney professor, that he knew he was
fooling, and not fooling admirably. Lord Palmer-
ston was dull, and Earl Russell is dull—dull to the
lowest stage of dulness—but then he does not know
that he is dull. His predecessor did. We are not
saying that a Premier retired from business might
not edify and instruct his friends and neighbours
even in an " inaugural lecture." He might, if he
were a great man, having dealt in great affairs, say
much worth listening to. But Earl Russell's talk
is not worth listening to ; not worth saying, not
worth reading, and, above all, not worth printing.
If the necessities of talking at Tavistock were so
pressing as that this poor flimsy lecture was forced
out of the late Premier, it was at any rate within his
own choice to. let it dip as fast as its frail organiza-
tion had any strength to die. Earl Russell has
preferred to add another leaf to his literary works,
and his last work certainly does not promise to enjoy
greater fame than this little novel, his little tragedy,
or his little history.

THE REVISION OF THE NEUTRALITY LANs.—
The Times reiterates the opinion it has before ex-
pressed that the English Government have rightly
declined to submit to the demands of the American
Government for a reference to arbitration of the
questions arising out of the depredations on Ame-
rican commerce by the Alabama, a ship built and
equipped without the knowledge and against the
will of our Government. But the recent proceed-
ings of the United States Congress, much as they
are to be regretted, from the tone and object with
which they are introduced, point out to us another
course by which, without the least surrender of
national dignity, we may attain a final, and satisfac-
tory arrangement of questions which must recur
again and again, and always with increasing bitter-
ness and increasing risk of forcing us to exchange
what is rapidly becoming our normal position as
neutrals for that of an unwilling because really un-
interested and unconscious belligerent. There is
really no divergence between the interests of Eng-
land and the interests of the rest of the world in this
matter, and it is quite possible to do all that is de-
sired without losing anything by the concession.
Congress proposes to repeal many of the existing
provisions of the American law avowedly for the
purpose of assimilating the law of America to the
law of England, but really with the view of multi-
plying causes of offence and trouble in future years.
Should we not meet the threat in a manner at once
wise and dignified if we were to employ the present
recess in considering, not how we may multiply
causes of offence, bat how we may remove those
that unfortunately exist? Let us reconsider our
municipal law as to the interference of British sub-
jects in the wars of other nations, and see whether
it may not be possible to extend the stringency of
our law so as to prevent the recurrence of future
offence. The opportunity is favourable. We are,
happily, at peace, and without, as far as we can see,
any prospect of a rupture. In time of war these
changes cannot be made without the appearance,
perhaps the reality, of favouritism to one side or the
other. We have a- new Government, which may
fairly reconsider the whole question of our neutrality
laws, with the double advantage that it has no past
error to defend and no consistency to justify, and
that it has the experience gathered from four years
of maritime neutrality to guide it.
A FORMIDABLE ALLIANCE.—The Daily News
holds that the real attraction which has drawn
the United States and Russia together is not
any resemblance in the spirit or form of their
domestic institutions. The truth is that the
United States and Russia feel that they occupy,
an analogOus, though not an identical, position to-
wards the older nations and civilisation of Western
Europe. They stand without the charmed circle,
and receive from it scant and doubtful recogni-
tion. Their less perfect culture encounters a
supercilious criticism which rankles in the
minds of its objects. Their growing power
and increasing territory excite alarm. It is obscurely
felt that the future of the world lies in its yet un-
occupied spaces and in the younger communities
which are destined to colonise them. Russia holds
in her hands the keys of the• East ; it is the mani-
fest destiny of the United States to control the West.
Lying thus, as it were, on the verge of the older
civilisation of the world, conscious of a great future,
removed by geographical distance from the chances
of collision and rivalry, and sensitive to the same re-
fined contempt, Russia and America are drawn
together by an indefinable but real sympathy. And
then certain parallel passages in the recent domestic
history of the two countries have done much to draw
them together.- While the Americans were engaged
in the struggle which was to bring about the aboli-

tion of slavery, the Emperor of Russia was occupied
in framing measures for the emancipation of three-
and-twenty millions of serfs. Both have bad
encounter and overcome the resistance of a powerful
territorial aristocracy, using different weaPost
for substantially the same object. grey
problem of the consoldation of the victory which
has been gained, by the organisation of free lobe"'
and by the creation of a middle class between the
emancipated peasants and their former lords, awaits
solution in both countries. Russian sym lv"' pathy
the American war was reciprocated by American
sympathy with Russia as against the Polish ins":
gents. These things, however; are superficial inel;
dents in an international movement which had and
has deeper and more permanent causes--causes
which will operate for good and for evil on the
future of the Republic and of the Empire, and of
the world in which they are destined to play an In-
creasingly important and decisive part.