The New York herald., 1844-09-08

1asfe-Am1Scan Taste Dgsaipe-Ihe Press, IL
Duties and interchangeable Vai~ of So~n1
Criticism.
America is young. Endowed with unboundec
natural resources for the production Of almos
every species Of material object of utility or en-
joyment, she requires for their due development
capital and labor 10 much greater extent than
have yet been attracted to her shores. For Ions
series OF years. all her available energies must, as
| matter of inevitable social necessity, be directed
| towards these objects. The accumulated gains ol
her people W be applied to evoke these treasures
| with which her extensive territory abounds. The
spirit of her institutions, and the habits OF her
| people being adverse 10 the accumulation Of pro.
which alone can foster the fine arts, and awaken
/ the genial influences OF Imagination and taste.
From this cause the American people will, pro-
baby continue to ,las theyare now, the victims
of every degree and species OF lmposture and char
nsln in those branches OF the arts, which alone
| can be of red for their enjoyment. Pretenders,
assuming the name OF professors. will continue to
cross tie ocean in swarms. The trumpets Of the
venal press will flourish their praises in advance.
The public will, at least for while believe and be
duped DETECTION may come but, generally, the
charlatan will be enriched by the spoils OF
| the credulous public before that event en-
sues. Taste in the arts is matter OF growth
| With individuals il is sometimes, though not often,
natural gift With nation il is never SO. II is
cultivated, slow OF growth, first false and spu-
rious, and only arrives at that purity and chaste
ness which marks perfection, by passing through
series of phases, the retrospecton of which ne veI
fails TO raise blush when the higher state has
been attained. America Is no exception. She
must submit to the universal law. She is now,
and must long continue to be, in the very earliest
phase OF this state Of successive growth. She Is
also peculiarly unfortunate IN her geographical po-
stlon. Parted by wide ocean from the seat OF
the arts, and the long established region oi taste,
the standard OF opinion Is not easily ascertanable
by her. She is, consequently, in great degree,
left the promptings of her own feelings, or the
erring dictates OF an immature judgment. This,
combined with a temperament peculiarly ardent
and impulsive, has often hurried her, and will
often again, into gaucheries and niaisertes which
her eyes are not opened until alter she has COM
mitted herself, and for which she reddens with
vexatOn when II ia too late.
Ia such case, it is the peculiar duty, as 1t ought
to be the proud privilege, of free, honest, indie
pendent, and enlightened press to guide the public
Judgment, by informing it of the actual state OF
opinion IN those countries OF the old world where,
has attained the highest purity and perfection.
Without putting the public in leading strings, and
injurionsy parayzing the action OF individual feel
ing and opinion, the press ought to supply all the
Information, all the floating facts. which are faml-
liarly known in the old world, and which, in fact,
form the data, aud the only data, by which the in
stincts of taste can be directed. But, alas, how
untitled for such high and useful purposes is the
press Of America The press, which ought to be
its glory, is, with some respectable exceptions, It's
shame MOI that there is any ground for the alb
surd hyperbolisms Of some flying visitors, sent by
rooms OF the publishing market, called books OF
the season." We shall have word or two for
these on a future occasion. But the press Of
this country, instead Of being, as It ought TO be,
the enlightened guide of public opinion, the purifier
OF the public taste, the fountain of useful intelll-
gence, the faithful record Of passing events, the
| daily chronicle OF the human mind and record Of
human interests-is, on the contrary, the misera-
| BILE, unhonored, debasedtool and drudge OF party
the mercenary slave Of small sections Of the com.
munity, banded together under barbarous jalrgon
of political titles Even the lowest of all the func-
tions ofjournalsm is not discharged. The coec.
ton OF intelligence OF passing events generally lett
to the precarious results of chance. There Is no
systematic machinery OF intelligence, still less any
cussional editorialism Journals are for the most
part established, not for the and benefit of the
public, but to promote the objects OF Q
knot OF political asplrants. Office ls the end
| their nostrals The public has become so used to
this state OF the press, that they view, without any
disgust, newspapers printing at the head OF their
columns, the names of those persons whose ends
| they are enlisted to promote. Now, although some
respectable papers occasionally adopt the names OF
political leaders the most convenient exponents
OF the particular political doctrines which they ad-
vocate the majority the other hand regardless
OF principles and utterly debased by the mere per-
sonaity OF their objects. Like the images and pic
lures used in the Roman Catholic Church to excite
devotion, these persons who figure on the journals
generally become the real objects Of worship, and
not the principles they act on, and this Is especially
SO when they happen to have the loaves and fishes
Of Office to dispense Although to all this
pendent exceptions, yet the number is not
| sufficiently great to exonerate the national
press. from that heavy censure in which the
| enlightened citizen hms-f will readily concur
with the liberal and candid foreigner.
Deprived OF the lights which an efficient press
ought to afford in matters connected with the arts,
and more especially in adjusting the standard Of
dramatic and musical criticism, the public is left
at the mercy Of the charlatan. Every shallow pre-
| tender, raw aspran, waning star, which moves
hitherward from the East, fills the mercenary
| columns Of the swarm OF journals with their own
eulogies. No extravaganza of panegyric is con-
| sidered too large fcf the enormous swallow Of
American credulity. Fearessness Of putting is
produced by the unanimitty which springs from the
| thus importuned, left to their own impulses,
| without that salutary guidance which enlightened
journalism ought TO afford. No information, or a.
least no correct information, is impaired to the
actual estimation in which each artist, claiming
| attention here, has been held in Europe. Favor
itism usurps the chair of just criticism The cen
sors OF the press, such as they are, are debauched
by personal importantly. and adulation; they are
| sung, played, or recited into propitous humor
in short, their personal predictions adrotly
enlisted by the candidate for public favor, who thus
under the wing of the press, which will not resis
harshly its own protege. Thiss all wrong Those
who WELD the press be made to feel that there
| IS another party whose interest, whose well being
| and whose advancement is to be looked TO with
more solcitude than the claims Of their favorite-
that party is the American public, that public which
aitel all must be the real support of the press. Lee
justice then be done to the public by fair and un
biassed statement Of the position which each as
pirant for favor has held or holds in that commun
| ~ from which they respectively come. Let the
stranger be generously welt omed and kindly treat
ed let his claims be literally considered, and hi
| pretensions be candidly examined /; but let III,
public, above all, be correctly informed of the fla
which has been passed on these claims elsewhere
| aud thus be in measure aided and enlightened il
forming their own estimate
AN EUROPEAN TRAVELLER.
General Sessions.
Before Recorder Tallmajge and Aldermen Bunting
| Dickinson.
NJ. C. PATERSON, Esq District Attorney.
Skrr. THE Of Peter Walker The trial Of thi
If opultrn