National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1873-07-12

Benjamin simpson, assault on his wife; $50 and
fency; SO and costa. Mary Mathews, Carrying
razor; $50. or sixty days In the workhouse.
Tho London Press.
tCorresp ondsnce Of the Courier. Journal
LONDON, June Il, ts5a
Every nation, I suppose, has Its particular
vanity. Even the little rock-bound sprite Of
a republic San Marine, boasts its freedom
and Its antiquity. 30, It would hardly be
fair to speak OF the English as insolcnt, igno-
rant and conccited without some quali0ca-
ton. They Ase incontestibly the most hide
bound people In the world; the wisest In their
own esteem; the most self-rlghtcous; the
least intelligent. That their functions arc
strong, and that their character Is robust and
manly cannot be disputed. They arc brave,
self-seeking. stupid race, who arc already
overmatched, and will ultimately be ovcrrun
by the Germans and the Americana. The
more acute and Travelled Of them have dim
consciousness Of this. But the rank-and-
file, who stay at home, have not outliyed the
day when Britannia ruled the waves, aud
echo santley with the fervidest idiocy when
he sings:
1--WE ne'er see our foes but We wish them to stay,
They never see US but they wish US away;
II they run Why We follow, and run them ashore,
Bat II they won't light, why we cannot do more"
This highfalutin bragadocio finds constant
expression under all sorts Of varying forms
in The press Of London, which Is at once a
representative Of the Conventional British
ass and an example OF the material well-being
enjoyed by the better classes Of Englishmen.
Tell an Englishman he can't ride and he will
laugh at you. Yet he hobs up and down In
his saddle like Jack.in-thc-box. Tell him the
Times Is q wretched old make-bclieve and he
will consider II national insult; but that Is
Just what the Times Is.
! have been reading this stately compound
Of poppy-cock every morning now for three
weeks, having plenty OF time TO wade through
the whole OF IL, and l must say that of al
the Illustrations Of common and presumption
furnished by the fogyism Of England, II Is the
most transparent and absurd. II resembles,
as far as u resembles anything, one Of those
fat, we'll dressed buffers whom you will meet
at any Of the great houses on Park Lane, all
insolence and breeches; but, whereas there Is
fitness In the buffers obesity and swagger,
the rotund deficiency of the Times Is con-
slant affront to good manners. common sense
and ordinary Intelligence. The Times is
printed on faultless paper, In large, clear type;
and to this extent 1t Is worthy Of imitation,
1t has another virtue, also, which Ia still
higher and rarer-it does not belong to
the advertiser, and Is, on the whole,
to be trusted In small matters. Like
the sleek butler In Park Lane, II will neither
lie nor steal for the rabble. It Is only to be
reached and overcome by the remuneratiye
demands Of the nobility. Nor Is there any
occasion to quarrel with It's decency. It's
cleanliness Is undcniable. But when II sets
up for the flrst Journal In tho world, and, BY
tho grace Of this pretensc, divides Its super
ciliOus twaddle into two parts, that which Ia
tediously oracular and that which Is help
lessly silent, one Is disposed to look for some
solid internal evidence Of power. Thus
moved to seek he will fall to find. To-day
Times Is, like Yesterdays Times, meas Of
inadequate gabble about European politics, .
repetition OF last weeks editorial fatulencics,
6 low scraps Of desultory and unimportant
information, line or two from America con.
corning the cotton crop and the Modocs, and
vast and valuable array Of crisp and spark
ling advertising matter. You will not catch
CLEAN Of sunshine or ray Of humor In the
Times during q twclyc-month: It Is habit.
uslly belated with Its news. Written In feeble
and finished English It Is; but that Is all.
With faultless typography, LIS makeup" 4
q bungle Of bad taste and chance-work; with
prodlgious resources, 1t has neither variety
nor enterprise. Why Is II power In the
land Because 1t Is representative Of thai
slow-moylng, ox-cyed, upper and middle class
Bourbonisnl which has for years obstinately
stuCh tts ucuu btuihu iotbhB "otuth
walls Of England, refusing to bulge out OF
sheer perverslty, and hating progress because
II sees and knows that there Ia good In II
The Times, however, Is losing, slowly but
surely, Its influence with Its circulation. II
Is already exceeded In the latter by the Teie'
graph, and viii presently DO equaled by the
Ne,os. That 1t feels this, and chafes under
II, Is shown by the pending controversy It ha,
with tho Telegraph, In the course Of which,
having the Telegraph at disadvantage, Il ha,
giggled and sniggered rather like a FILE d,
chdn'bre than either fat butler or Jupiter
Tonans.
Its competitors, the Telegraph and the
Ee,os, are brighter. But they are miserably
behind the American journals In everything
except their moderation and culture, and q
certain good faith In the matter OF adyertls.
ing, which they have found profitable, and
which every newspaper that adopts 1t will
find equally so. The 1vegrdph 10 certainly
better written than the New York Herald,
but Il Is neither so brilliant nor so enterpris.
Ing as the New York Tribune. | do not hesi-
tate to say that the Chicago Tribune and tho
Cincinnati Commercial are Inferior to the
London Ne,cs only In typography, or rather
In the quality Of the paper on which they arc
printed. The London press Is obliged to
move within q circle OF English common
places. These are little less than prejudices
which have hedged society round with q mar
row strip Of red tape, the overlapping Of
which is social death. There Is no nerve and
would go for naught or prove ruinous.
Punch, which Is still read In England, Is but
dull ass, and II the Americans had not
demonstrated Martin Farqucr Upper to be
the same sort Of m animal, he would be ac-
cepted at this moment In London as q mira
Gle Of wisdom and philosophy. Even the
Pal Mall Gazette, which started out with the
- a. -l.-La - 1.lI L.