The Sun.
London, England, 1868-05-14 00:00:00

COURT OF ALDERLTIEN.

Yesterday the magistrates of the City of London
held a Court at Guildhall for the transaction of
business—the Lord Mayor presiding. There was
a large attendance of members, and it being an oc-
casion on which a new member of their body was
to be introduced, most of them wore their scarlet
robes, according to custom at such times. Pre-
vious to entering upon the business of the day,
Alderman Sir William Rose called attention to the
circumstance, which was an unusual one, that all
the officers of the Court were absent except the
Town Clerk. It was a circumstance, he said,
which should not be passed over without notice•
The Lord Mayor said he saw the Recorder in
his place a few minutes before, and the Town Clerk
explained that many of the officers were then en-
gaged with the Special Gas Committee of the Cor-
poration. Alderman Sidney said he had reason to
know that the Recorder had been engaged in the
Mayor's Court since SaturJay on a compensation
case, which was still undecided. Alderman Law-
rence, M.P., said this being a special occasion on
which a new member of their court was to be in-
troduced, points of law might arise on this introduc-
tion, as they had done before on such occasions, and
it was inconvenient that not a single legal officer of
the Corporation should be present. Mr. Alderman
Gibbons said the duties of the Recorder in that
Court were only second to those of the Recorder of
London, and the most proper and dignified course
for the Court to pursue was to request the attend-
ance of the right hon. gentleman on an important
occasion like that. Eventually, on the motion of
Mr. Alderman Wilson, the senior member, who re-
marked that noofficer should be absent from his place
without the consent of the Lord Mayor, the Town
Clerk was instructed to writeto each of the absentees
,4 for an explanation, and the matter was allowed to
had devolved
drop. Mr. Orton, attorney of the Lord Mayor's
a
Court, officially reported that Mr. Thos. Scambler
1 rOewprdeesnen,
tcittihze ward of
i 13
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,
haed
in been
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of
t o
32
40
CAldermen,opelaCopeland,
in
deceased.the
aNtV itllhiaem
recently'faylo r
o elected Alderman appeared at the bar, escorted by
og yj‘joef
ttchaei f
ep r
Hi n
oc ippgao
01 ida, a Common Councilman,
h abitan tsn oof
member, and ittrieward,and
Mr.
, upon addressing
hm
ot
fh e Court,
introducings i d theahe: u r
might not be out of place for him to say he
believed the Court of Aldermen was held in the
highest respect by the thinking part of the
community of that great city. The citizens re-
garded with very high esteem the privilege
they had long enjoyed of electing their own
magistrates, and were proud of the way in which
justice as a rule was administered in the city of
London. It had been often a source of satisfac-
tion to many of them to hear judges of the land
hear testimony to the discretion and impartiality
with which the magistrates of the City discharged
the duties devolving oa them, and he had reason
to believe that the inhabitants of the various wards
were fully impressed with the responsibility at-
taching to the privilege of electing members to
represent them in that ancient Court. He had the
honour of introducing to them Mr. Owden, a
gentleman who had been unanimously chosen by
the ward of Bishopsgate, which was one of the most
important in the City, numbering as it did 1,200
electors. His friend had passed alinost the whole

of its life in the ward, had represented it in the
Common Council, and had served all the principal
parochial offices with credit to himself and advan-
tage to the inhabitants. He considered it a great
honour to have been elected a member of that
Court, and he (Mr. Hopgood) had much satisfac-
tion in presenting a man for whom be entertained
such sincere respect. Mr. Owden then took and
subscribed the customary oaths, including the oath
of allegiance, which were administered by the Town
Clerk, and that done he exchanged the robe of Com-
mon Councilman for that of an Alderman, and was
presented to the Lord Mayor and the rest of the
members of the Court, who offered him their con-
gratulations. A communication was lead from Mr.
Weather head, the Governor of the City Prison at
Holloway, pointing out the desirability of a certain
number of the officers employed there residing in
the immediate vicinity of the prison, in order to be
within cr.ll, when off duty, and to their services
being eariily available at any moment in case of
necessity. On the motion of Mr. Alderman
Wilson the subject was referred to a committee for
consideration and report. Several new brokers
were sworn in and enrolled. On the motion of
Alderman Wilson, seconded by Alderman Sir Sydney
Waterlow, Alderman Finnis was unanimously ap-
pointed chairman of Emmanuel Hospital Committee,
in the place of the late Alderman Copeland, and at
the instance of Alderman Finnis Alderman Wilson
was elected a trustee of Sir John Soane's Museum,
Library, and Works of Art, in the room of the
deceased alderman. A report of the Gaol Com-
mittee was unanimously adopted, recommending a
substantial addition to the salary of the Ordinary
of Newgate. The Court afterwards transacted some
business with closed doors, and then adjourned.

LITERARY.

(Front the Anglo-American Times)
THE AMERICAN LECTURE SYSTEM.

Thamas Wentworth Iligginson, of Newport,
Rhode I-land, has written a good article in Mac-
millan's Magazine for May, on the American Lec-
ture System. The Lecture System is a product of
New England, but it has attained to its best orga-
nization and most characteristic form in the West.
In the East it has to compete with other intellec-
tual attractions; nor does it there need the thorough
organization of less densely peopled districts where
the audiences are brought together from great
distances. An effort is being made by Mr. James
K. Medbery, Superintendent of the American Lite-
rary Bureau, to introduce the Western system into
the Eastern States, and during the past winter he
made engagements for thirty lectures in eight diffe-
rent States of the Union. The system originated in
Massachusetts with Horace Mann, some 40 years ago,
whence it spread through the New England States,and
obtained a favourable hold in the Western States,
but not much either in the city of New York or in
the middle States, while in the Southern States it
gained no footing at all. At first the work was done by
the lawyers, physicians, and clergymen of the neigh-
bourhood, but as lecturers became popular, and
more and more devoted to lecturing, it grew into
a profession. Fifteen dollars was then a large fee,
but it crept up to twenty-five and fifty. Now such
men as Henry Ward Beecher can command two
hundred, and prove to the associations engaging
them more profitable far than cheap local lecturers.
As a town grows up in the West a lecture commit-
tee is one of the earliest appointments. They select
the speakers, choose a secretary to invite them, a
treasurer to pay them, a president to introduce
them to the audience. A winter course may vary
from a half• dozen to a score. These local committees
are united into widely-extending organizations, such
as the Western Literary Societies, whose range
extends from Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania, to
II
Laurence in Kansas, and whose agent Mr. G. L. Lor-
i Bert, of Dubuque, lowa, last winter negotiated be-
tween thirty-five lecturers and one hundred and
ten societies, arranging for each society a tolerably
regular course of lectures, and for each orator a
continuous series of engagements. In the fall he
issues his list of speakers, subjects, and prices,
leaving each society to select from the bill of fare.
The lecturer has nothing to do with it except to
receive his printed circular with his dozen or hun-
dred engagements, and to proceed to the different
towns, many of which he may then have heard of
for the first time. On arrival he is met by his
committee man, and the lecturer is coached along
through the proceedings in that locality by him.
All moves as smoothly as clock-work, unless some
railway breaks down or a snow storm interrupts the
programme, when that evening's business is thrown
off the list, for the lost engagement cannot be
picked up, and the lecturer has to hurry on to
the next stage. The introduction of professional
lecturers has tended to change the old system
which ignored politics—now politics threaten to
banish all other subjects. Mr. Iligginson says,
" even party questions can by lecture be handled
down without the trammels of party. The poplar
lecture is the antidote to the Caucus. On its free
platform the statesman speaks for himself alone and
commits nobody, he rises as if in committee of the
whole, and proceeds without reference to a pro-
spective division. Moreover, an outlet is thus
afforded to men who keep aloof from all party ties.
I have seen Wendell Phillips received with admi-
ration and delight by audiences of whom not one
in a hundred would admit the truth of his asser-
tions until twelve months after they were uttered."

But the evil is that the more sober topics are
banished—" the scholar recedes from sight, and
the impassioned orator takes his place. There is
no time for Longfellow to analyze " Dante," nor
for Lowell to 'explain Hamlet, while Sumner
thunders the terrors of the Lord against a delin-
quent President, or Anna Dickinson pleads for the
enfranchisement of one-half the human race. Acras-
siz is now the only popular " lecturer on science
who can be said to have a hearing; and Emerson
is the only prominent literary man who now keeps
the field. Holmes has almost ceased lecturing by
his own choice, since his great success as a maga-
zinist ; and George Curtis seems to have withdrawn
himself from all permanent literary work since win-
ning such easy fame on the platform." it furnishes
a good test, however, of public men who must thus
face the people, and it helps to train the speaker—
"it saves the philosopher from becoming a pedant,
the student from being an intellectual voluptuary"
—placing all in broad healthy contrast with their
fellow-citizens. The finer points will, as a rule,
fail ; the cheaper effects tell ; the subtile and evanes-
cent, the profound, find no room ; but broad com-
mon sense, hearty sympathy, manly courage, will
be appreciated. " You have to do with people
who do not ask to be flattered, and will not
bear to be patronised ;. who insist on hearing
something to interest them, and are ready and
eager to be taught. The author goes on thus to
describe the leaders in this field :—Among the most
popular lecturers are Henry Ward Beecher, John
B. Gough, and Anna Dickenson. Gough was an
importation from the platform of the temperance
agitation, and at once found the new field equally
favourable and far more profitable. A sort of
evangelical comedian, he is the idol of many
worthy people who never saw good acting on
any other stage ; and he is a favourite with
many others who can tolerate his contortions
for the sake of his drollery. He does not offer
much to the intellect, true, but he often touches
the heart; and something is du; to a man who
makes laughter au ally of good morals. Miss
Dickenson deals rather in tears than in smiles. She
owed her first celebrity perhaps to the unwonted
combination of twenty years of womanhood with a
remarkably clear head for political questions. She
has good looks, perfect self-possession, an effective
voice, readiness of illustration, fidelity to principle,
and great magnetic power; and yet with all these she
seems to me a far less attractive speaker than her chef
pre lecsor, Lucy Stone, who never called forth one-
half as much enthusiasm. Her present theme is
the enfranchisement of her sex. This she treats
under the piquant title of " Idiots and Women,"
borrowiilg the sarcastic juxtaposition from the
statute-books. Next in popularity comes -Wendell
Phillips, and next to him probably George William
Curtis. Wendell Phillips has won public fa-
vour while always keeping in advance of public
opinion—the highest test of power. Recognised by
all as :the _foremost of 'American ()raters, he has

never by it paused one moment to enjoy the fruits
of past successes, and will die in the harness as
a Radical. Curtis cannot be compared with
Phillips either in intellectual power, nor in extent
of service ; he, perhaps, gives his hearers as
much thought as they demand, but that is not
much, whereas Phillips gives them more—forces it
upon them. Nor is Curtis so prophetic in insight,
nor so free from party ties. But he has all the
qualities for a popular favourite, combined with
singular rectitude of the moral nature ; nothing can
be more charming than his rhetoric, more agreeable
than his voice, more graceful than his elocution ;
and he has before him a distinguished and use-
ful career, though widely unlike that literary life
for which he at first seemed destined. A more
recent favourite is Theodore Tilton, editor of
the New York independent. He shows in the lecture
room the same ability which has built up the Inde-
pendent, while he is so free from bigotry as to be
constantly charged with latitu linarianistn. He has,
moreover, a very sympathetic nature and ready wit,
and that sunny disposition which is such a priceless
gift to a reformer. The only other speakers who
habitually venture to exceed the hundred dollar
limit for even their Western lectures are Sumuer
and Agassiz. Henry Vincent., the English visitor,
has received one hundred and fifty dollars for
each of his sixty Western lectures, and is
said to have won popularity. There still
remain a few acknowledged leaders who should
especially be mentioned. Emerson, for instance,
still retains his hold upon his countrymen, after
some thirty years of lecturing, and is heard with
respect and attention. Edwin Whipple aids Emer-
son in keeping a place upon the lecture-platform
for the literary class. Bayard Taylor represents
the indefatigable travellers. The Rev. Dr. Chaplin,
of New York, is almost the only clergyman, save
Beecher, who stands high as a lecturer also,
and the effects he produces are due rather to a
natural heartiness and vigour than to any depth of
thought or culture. He has the trait, which
Emerson thinks essential to the orator, " of giving
out vast quantities of animal heat." Frederick
Douglas represents the coloured race with a natural
eloquence that twenty years of public speaking have
only matured. His glow and fervour are extraor-
dinary, and so is his dramatic power ; there is, too,
a sort of massiveness about him, which is contri-
buted partly by his grand physique, and he sur-
passes in his perception of the finer felicities of the
language all other " self-made men." Mr. Mg-
ginson sees no reason why Gough should not
annually earn thirty thousand dollars in this
profession, so long as his strength and popu-
larity hold out. The remuneration is out of all
proportion to that paid even for first-class literary
work, and Hawthorne could hardly have earned
from a magazine by a month's labour what a lead-
ing lecturer may harvest every night. It may be
said in summing up, that the American Jecture-
system is constantly expanding and becoming better
organized as to its methods, as well as more liberal
in its rewards ; but that as to themes and treatment
it has not yet taken its final form. Public affairs
now engross all attention, but this will not always
be so, and there will come a time of peace when
literature and art, the children of peace; will resume
their sway.