The Sun.
London, England, 1868-12-12 00:00:00

" POPULAR" LITERATURE.

The Daily News unearths a new specimen of the litera-
ture which is now provided for the "lower classes."
Those, it says, who have an eye to detect the tricks of
tricky art know full well that there are two trite methods
of hero manufacture common to entrap litterateurs : one
is, to elevate some inordinate social scoundrel into a
moral nobleman, and the other, to invest some eccentric
type of conventional nobility with a predilection for this
or that vulgar villany. True, the aggrandisement
of the low, and debasement of the high, are merely
the rhetorical forms of all burlesque writing ; yet
what is the great bulk of the romantic literature of modern
times but human nature sentimentally burlesqued ? We
should have believed "the force of prurience could no
further go " than the boiling point it had already reached
in popular literature, had we not, in our wanderings,
lighted upon the first number of a new penny serial,
entitled " The Crimes of the Aristocracy," a tale
which, according to the allurements of the title-
page, is to consist of a series of " strange
events, undiscovered murders, and other crimes,
compiled from important documents stolen from among
the private papers of his Royal Highness the Prince
Consort, upon the night of the 14th of December, 1861, by
a footman in her Majesty's service !" "It must be true,"
the poor half-educated shop-boys and work-girls, for
whom such vile trash is intended, will say, "I see it in a
book ;" for, of course according to their notion, the
scribe who, with such ostentatious honesty, confesses
that the documents were stolen, would—like Jack
Sheppard in the novel—" never stoop to tell a lie."
But the title-page of this extravagant hotch-
potch of audacity, indecency, and stupidity, mingled with
a very strong dash of bad grammar and bad spelling, is
mild as Dutch cheese to the matter of the work itself—
the kindly object of which is (as the horror.loving author
explains in a high-flown digression) " to display, in all its
revolting ghastliness, the inner life of the rich,"
and " with a fearless hand cast aside the glitter"

(though we are afraid the theatrical gentleman will
find this casting aside glitter rather harder labour than
he has a mind for) " and tinsel which surrounds (sic)
the modern gilded calf called scciety ;'" whilst,
a few pages further on, we arc informed, with the same
contemptuous disregard of the Queen's English—which is
probably regarded as part of the aristocratic institutions
of the country—" Vice and Sin, of the most revolting de-

scription" (they like it revolting, says the writer to him-
self as he pens the phrase), " is practised openly among
our aristocracy" to which, in our ardour, we cannot help
exclaiming, "Is they !" The " introduction" to the tale
assures us that in Windsor Castle tbere is a" suit (sic) of
rooms," formerly occupied by the Prince Consort, " the
existence of which is known to none but the un-
initiated." Now, in one corner of one of these rooms,
according to the prologue to the story, " there is an Indian
cabinet," and in " the bustle and confusion atteudcnt (sic)
on the death of the Prince " this cabinet, we are informed,
was broken open, and several " very valuable documents
were abstracted "—documents, indeed, containing secrets
and information affecting not only the honour, but the life,
of some of Engla,nd'sproudest and most aristocratic nobles!"
These " very valuable documents" ultimately came, of
course, into the possession of the most learned and
punctilious editor, through the instrumentality of one
Joseph Laxmor, " Commission Agent," and formerly
footman in her "Majesty's service," who is made to con-
fess, in articulo mortis, that he had stolen them. On read-
big over these private papers, however, the magnanimous
author declares lie found " such a gigantic mass of
turpitude laid bare before the gaze " that lie
determined—on burning them forthwith, one would pro-
bably imagine. But no! the brave and patriotic, soul
determined rather to " let the people become aware of the
innermost lives of our rulers, and fearlessly expose them

as they are ;" and accordingly the pure and highminded
patriot proceeds to sell, weekly, the said " very valuable"
and "revolting" documents, for the low charge of one