National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1874-06-26

Mr.. JOHN RUsKIS, who Is In most things q
cynic, sends, every once and awhile, q home
shot (the metaphor is not very good, but It will
do) from bis CULVER. Being invited 10 lecture
recently, he sent a letter of declination, which
contains bit Of criticism which hits American
as well as English audiences. The letter
reads: Va
81 haYe your obliging letter, but sm COM
PEELED, ~ increass Of work, TO cease lecturing,
except u oxford-and practically there, also
for, indeed, hnd the desire Of audiences to be
audiences only becoming an entirely pestilent
character Of the age. Everybody wants to
hear-nohody to read, nobody 10 think; to be
excited for an hour-6nd, II possible, amused;
to get the knowledge it has cost man half his
life to gather, first sweetened up to make 1t
palatable, and then needed into the smallest
possible pills, and to swallow 1t homeopathic
cally and be Wise-this Is the passionate desire
and hope Of the multitude Of the day. It Is
not to be done. A living comment quietly
given to class on q book they are earnestly
reading-this kind of lecture Is eternally neces-
sary and wholesome; your modern fre-work-
ing, smooth downy curry and strawberry-ice-
and NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. lecture Is an en-
tirely pestilent and abominable vanity; and
the miserable death Of poor Dickens, when he
might have been writing blessed books till he
was eighty but for the pestiferous demand of
the mob, is very solemn warning to us ALL If
we would take 1t. God willing, will 10 on
writing and as well as can. There are three
volumes published of my Oxford lectures, in
which every sentence is set down as carefully
as may be. II people want to learn from me,
let them read them or my monthly letter
Fors Cldvigsra. IT they don't care for these, |
don't care to talk to them"
Tx REVIEW Of Judge Worden's life of Mr..
Chase, Mach, /" the editor of the st. Louis
Globs, called attention to the fact that in 1854
the friends Of the late Chief Justice bribed
some of the newspaper correspondents to de-
fame Mr.. Lincoln in the interest of Mr.. Chase.
To this the Cincinnati Commercial responds !:
" 1t is quite true that Mr.. Chase did not esti-
mate President Lincoln as highly as it has be-
come the fashion to place him, and was sensi-
BILE of the weakness of his administration.
Beyond that, Mack has mistaken his dreams
for testimony, or his informants have been de-
fcient in truth and judgment. Still, Mr.. John
Russell Young might as well say there is no
such document as is referred to in the above
extract"
The Globe answers GAN right. Perhaps
Mr.. Halstead can get from Mr.. Young an as
sertion that the document is not in his possess
sion, and that he has never seen It. That is an
important point in the history of Mr.. Lincoln's
administration; and as Colonel John Hay is
writing book on the subject of Lincoln's ad-
ministration, we trust he will search for the
facts, and that the irrelevant circumstance
that Mr.. Whitelaw Reed is editor of the TIT
os"s will not deter him from printing them"
The Globe is right, and the Commercial wrong
as to the List Of correspondents. The list is in
existence, and the exact amount paid. to each.
THE Inter Ocean complains of the misrepre-
sentatiou Of the New York Tpsss. The un-
natursiized editor of the Times, who has almost