New-York tribune., 1868-03-04
popULdR LEcTURnIG IN ENGLAND.

i
of democratic ideas in Great Britain, he has
only to ask himself what would been thought
one hundred years ago Of British aristocrat-
the old Duke Of Newcastle, for instance-going
about giving popular penny readings to the
Door. The Hon. Horace WalpOle would have
grnned and sneered, and what astonishment
would have been created in the immaculate
bosom of Bubb Dodington To be sure, the
most exclusive arstOcrat might be bishop,
and engage, for the sake of q good salary, IN
the work Of saving plebeian souls There has
been q great deal of reading to the
people for which the people seemed to
have but little relish but to find a man
| holding forth to farmers and artisans concern
ing the genius and productions Of Sir Walter
Scott as Mr.. Gladstone has been doing, with
charge of one penny at the door is certainly
odd, but at the same time encouraging though
we fear the BarOnet himself would hardly have
liked it. Upon this side of the sea we have SO
| long acted upon the principle that nothing IN
| literature is too good for the people that our
| great men expect q critical audience, however
popular may be its character and the idea OF
talking down to the level of low comprehen-
sion is the last thing which occurs to them.
! No man, however high his public station, is sup
posed to cOndescend when he gives lecture; ;
| the condesccnsion is upon the other side,
and with the people who, if they are not ln-
stucted, or at least entertained, either go out
| before the conclusion of the address or take
good care not to attend upon the.unfortunate
| performer a second time. The consequence is
| that the art of lecturing has been carried much
nearer to perfection here than in England;
with us great names go for very little; a
| stupid man may be a Member of Congress or
| the Governor of a State, but the lecture COM
mttees will have nothing to do with him. or,
il Inc manages TO impose himselfaupOn them,
| the public Indignation of our towns and villages
| is exceedingly great, and the editor of
the local newspaper cuts him up without
mercy. 1t will be long time, we sus-
pect, before this independence of judgment
will become general in England. The elo-
quence, the learning, the profundity OF noble
man or rich COmmoner are there taken for
granted. and as he mounts the platform he is
regarded with kind Of grateful curiosity, and
| perhaps lauded TO the skies for very me-
diocre performance. Mr. Gladstone, however,
| is a man of real ability, an excellent scholar,
| aud a cear-headcd statesman who knows we'll
enough that there is no safety for England
except i'm the education OF the masses. Ii is
simply question between a refined and culti
waited democracy, and a bnwing brutal, and
| bloody One-between enlightened liberty and
bestial neonse- between population aiming
at the nobler Qualifications of our nature,
and hordes of Sdeprayed and degraded sem
sualists and idlers laborng only for the indul-
| gence Of appetite and hardly rising above the
| level of the dumb animals around them.
| Although it can scarcely be asserted with truth
that popular morality is certain result of pop
ular intelligence, it is well established that the
connection is intimate between ignorance and
crime. A man may love his books, and yet be
a brute; but all human experience shows that
the chances OF his being useful member OF
society are greatly increased by taste for
reading, although he may seek IN it only
temporary pleasure. In England, however,
there are 80 many important social questions
in pending condition which can only
be settled by the popular voice, that
general enlightenment has become
condition of public safety. There never
was, perhaps, a greater error committed i'll
politics than that of confnngieducation mainly
to tho vell-born and the wealthy, because
there is o point beyond which cultivation is
powerless when opposed to the force of igno-
rance sustained by majority of numbers. 1t
was the excessive Ignorance OF the French
populaee which rendered the first Revolution
almost worthless, which blighted all the hopes
of benevolence and made liberty but mock
cry and a snare. II the revolution which is
impending in England promises to be less SAN
culinary, abrupt, and destructive, it is because
such mon as Mr.. Gladstone comprehend the
danger and the means Of avertng it, Even
the cynical Mr.. Carlyle was good enough
once to admit that only emigration and
education could save the Empire;
the transportation OF redundant popula-
ton apd the cultivation of that which remained
at home Now, while Mr.. Carlyle is swapping
and snarling at everybody, and doing his best
TO render all his fellow creatures uncomf0rta-
bic "a he is himself, we find Mr.. Gladstone
undertaking the Office of a public instructor,
and that too in rather an humble way as
"a penny reader.p We can imagine Mr.
Carlye's satirical wrath at tho very idea of
! lecturing about Walter Scott to a room full of
farmers and mechanics; no doubt he could
make the whole business extremely ridiculous,
and so he might provoke people TO laugh at
public schools. free libraries, and other
popular institutions, which would still
remain of priceless value after all
tho laughing was over. Considered from
ono point of view in comparison with what we
cannot attain, all human knowledge is insig-
niGcant but however little the wise man may
know, he infinitely surpasses his fellow who
knows nothing 1t is better to have no more
knowledge of history than one can get from
the plays of Shakespeare and the romances Of
Scott than TO be completely ignorant of the