New-York daily tribune., 1858-11-16


CONNIE ncing with the labors Of the Society for the
Diffusion Of Useful knowledge, however much in
the mean time the Government might have
neglected its duty Of educating the children or
howeyer much il might have been thwsrted IN its
efforts by the eaouses and mutual hostities OF re-
I;oious sects. at least the business Of adult educa
ton had. BY means of an immense mass Of Pubhca-
,iou.. at once cheap useful and attractive, been
carried 70 a point never known In any other
80. or nation. Lord Brougham entered into
very interesting history Of the progress OF
tbe.e publications and the obstacles they
had encountered. Upon the Oft quoted maxim of
Pope-"a little learning is a dangerous thing, he
made. thi. comment. at once wise and witty. Grsut
that little learning is dangerous thing, 1t would
not be denied that gross ignorance was SUI more
dangerous, not to mention that the one danger
cured itself, or tended to do so BY further pro-
oress in learning, while the other perpetuated and
propagated itself Here" said Lord bfoughain'
:. ia we'll of precious water and we have got
" little of it in tankard. What signihes say the
collectors, such apaltry supply 1t would nos
- wet the lips of half dozen Of the hundreds who
.. are athirst. True; but 1t ensbles us to wet the
"sucker of the pump instead Of following their
advice to leave it dry; and having hold OF the
handle we can use it to pump up supply suifi-
"cient for all
He went on to remark that there were two
descriptions of persons to whom popular literature
WAS addressed-those who, from natural capacity
spd inclination, as we'll as from possessing or fnd-
ing for themselves some leisure, could so TAR
improve themselves as to become reslly accom-
p!isked scholars, aud the great bulk OF the COM
munty, who could or would read but little. To
the former class, the helps extended BY popular
literature were of incalculable advantage. Their
love of knowledge was both excited and gratiiied
At frat, they were attracted BY some tale, anec-
dote or biography; then they found in the same
paper popular exposition of some topic in htera-
ture or science and their attention was drawn to
that. This might incline them to go further, and
to take up some treatise expounding more at
length the subject in which they were interested.
In illustration of the degree of knowledge which
might thus be reached by men daily employed in
their trades, be referred to treatise on capital and
wages written by working shoemaker, observing
that DO student in any English or Scotch Univer-
sty had produced better reasoned tract, nor one
showing more entire acquaintance with the princi-
pies involved. Although, in consequence of these
aids, absolute sef.educaion had been entirely
pended, yet even education obtained through the
helps now placed within the rea,h of the
great body of the English workingmen, re.
tanned all the advantages of sefinstructon. It
gave tho inestimablc benefit of self.reiance. 1t
unfolded, or, at least, exercised, faculties which
more regular training left undeveoped. 1t drew
forth and stimulated original genius
The benefits which ever the great mass of read
ers--those who made no attempts at extraordinary
prOfcency-derived from this new body Of popular
literature, also very great. The amusement it
afforded was at least harmless and it should be re-
membered that the present cheap literature had
come in place of popular literature to which the
character Of harmlessness could hardly be ascrbed
Not only the irreGgious, immoral and even fraudu-
lent popular publications which formerly existed
hal been suppanted; those other far less hurtful,
but still not cOmmendabe works which studied to
give the mere excitement Of horror by dealing in
accounts of brutalmurders and cruel seductions and
highly romantic incidents and descriptions, spced
now and then with ghost stories, although once
greedily pored over, now found but little accept
ance and had ceased to be in demand. This, we
may remark, however true Of Great Britain, is
point hardly yet reached by our American reading
public fact to which the contents of some OF our
fal hos
but too distinct testimony.
As going in some measure to explain the original
elamor against the publications of the Society for
the Diffusion of Useful knowledge and possibly
not uDconDected with cotemporary attacks on pop
ular literature-Lord Brougham referred to cur
rent idea that the gains of authors were reduced
by it, which he regarded as evidently mistake.
In the course Of some other statistics, he stated
that there were nine British papers, which might
be called Of entertainment, published at penny.
and having weekly circulation Of 200 900, while
of the vast number Of popular works wholly rel-
gious, there were seventeen which together crcu.
lated weekly 100000 copies. The circulation of
temperance publications amounted to 80, 600 weekly
1t WAS impossible to doubt that much good was
done by both descriptions of works, but it might
fairly be questioned whether the Cause of religion
or of temperance gained so much by the publica-
ton Of works confined to those subjects as by the
judicous proceedings of writers avOwedly upn
other topics who make their works, whether of
narrative, Of fiction, or Of discussion, the vehicle
of sound moral and religious doctrines.
In these remarks, he had not referred to the
newspaper press properly so called, sometimes
called the public press, as if all other works pro-
ceeded from private printing Offices. The use of
these journals was incalculsbe. Their importance