New-York tribune., 1885-01-29
RTrJUFR'S LETT{RS.

An illuncilOu udS D'fu EIdillSu dsil''ot vi" P"'
hcation of Bulwer's lcttcrs The proceeding comes
too late to prevent scandal but it could be wished
that there had been no need for such resort and
If ~ still more to be desired that literary executors
IN these DAYS should be endowed with higher
sense of discrimination and wiser judg-
ment as to what is tit TO be put before
| the world I'm the corrcsp 1nde ace OF the dead.
or la te IT has seemed almost if there were an
Organized determination, We VIII not say 10 leaVe
Us no ule sant illusions. bat rather To subject the
careers and characters of all eminent men and
| women to an analysis 50 microscopic, research so
| thorough. an exposure 50 pi.lloss. as would DO
| fatal injustice to the highest type of humanity
| the world has ever known. Nor San it be ques-
toned that the public are largely To blame for the
growth of this tendency. Realism, whether IN ART
or literature Is IN part a res onse to public de-
mapds. The so-calcd society journals of
England testify by their success TO the
prevalence Of AN unwholesoiOe appetite
for scandaous gossip This vcious
taste crows by what il feeds until ut length the
do tth Of nuv promInent member of society isasgnal
for Tausacking all his past with ghoulIsh eagerncSs
and avdty. and for publishing with gross hardl-
hood wha ever details of his history may serve tn
blacken his memory, and to degrade him IN the
popul ar esteem When lcnnyson wrote of the Duke
Of Wellington
"whatayor record leap 20 Light,
lie never shall he shaned -
| bc did not know the malefcent potency of the
| modern biographical methods. Depend upon it, n
bographer Of The period could shame the Iron Duke
if only he was given free to
his papers for the never lived
| IN whose life there was not something from
which slander could infer discredt. and II is most
| particularly to the exploitation of such matters
that the modern blographer addresses himself
The truth is that these cruel administrators have
, introduced practice from which tho purest and
| best might well shrink aghast. For there is no
| man so steadfast and consistent that sometimes he
will not commit folles in corrospondcnce. that he
will not in the freedom of friendly intercourse say
| things which not only arc never meant for the
world. but which the world is only capable OF
| understanding.
TO Judge men by their letters is, in the very ma
turc of things to mlsjudgc them. And why should
authors. of all men, be subjected to this postum
nous defamationi They themsclves-certalnly
| tho fttest judges-haye decided what Of their
intellectual productions shall be submitted to the
world They have elected what they will he
| gauged by They havo given their best
| 70 the public aud have covered the
| ,.st with that veil of privacy which
| il simply the decent aud proper concealment OF
tbe petty occurrences of even the highest career
To drag forth these private and purely personal
| matters; to bazon them brutally, without
selection, suppression. distinction or intelligent
| exclamation. is nothing short of outrageous. And
# the present generation cannot perceive the
| sb,mefnlness of the deed. much the worse for
# Posterity will 1t and will marvel at it, and
| i,ouire what manner of literary resurreclonsts
dour,shed in the latter part of the Victorian age,
| and what had bcfacn the ethics aud the crit
neal faculty of the time, that it should have MS
taken public dissection under the electric light for
now and improved method OF ascertaining the
| ,rue characters OF its great men.