The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-06-25

At the same time emigration began to re-
lieve the pressure upon subsistence ana
happily for England. the Irish famine
partially torcstaIed the operation of the
net which established free t"ade," The
situation was still gloomy enough, however
80 far as the working classes were con-
oeined Their welfare had no. been pro-
NOTED by the low duties on spirits or by
the high duties on tea. A pound OF tea IN
ls48 paid more than two shillinSs TO the
! revenue, and a gallon of whisky paid less
than three. Those who could not anord
| tea could afford gin. and the result was a
| deplorable amount of drunkenness among
men who could easily have been tempted into
moderation by wiser tariff. The window
tax darkened the homes Of the poor and the
discovery of petroleum had not yet sup
piled them with the blessing of cheap light.
Elementary education, the light of the minos'
was scandalously deficient. The amount
voted for it by the House OF Commons was
| insignificant, although the business was
! far too large. difficult and important for
, any authority lower or more local than the
State itself to undertake with any hope OF
SUCCESS. With cheap gin and bad educa-
ton went low wages. especially In the
hitherto protected interest of agriculture.
Bad drainag e, or no drainage Mt all, dis
graced the towns and villages Of early
Victorian En- gland. Before tho Health OF
Towns act ns4s) there was practically
no sanitary legislation. and the dead were
freely buried in the middle of the largest
cities. The ravages of typhus and cholera
we're directly due to this scandalous and
fatal neglect.
From more than one point OF view our
author accepts Lord Acton's conception OF
historical compositions. Ono feature OF
that conception is that History embraces
ideas as much as events, and derives It's
best virtue from regions beyond the sphere
Of State" In pursuance Of this concep-
ton, Mr.. Paul recalls that, even in ls46.
England was not entirely absorbed with the
abolition Of the Corn Laws 1T was an
age, as Mr.. Disraeli perhaps alone among
public men discerned, profoundly poetical,
ina ginative and religious. Wordsworth,
who deserves far better than those upon
whom DR.. johnson conferred it the name
OF metaphysical poet. was still Laureate.
The font. indeed. was mute the chan
he was acknowledge d to be without rival,
and, in spite Of the Ecclesiastical sonnets,
ne had taught by precept and example
that things must be spiritually discerned.
The width a. we'll as the depth OF his in
fuence is illustrated by the enthusiastic
and thoroughly appreciative devotion OF
mind so different from his own as John
Stuart Mills" The great poet Of the next
age, Alfred Tennyson, was in 1915 but 81.
A pension from the civil list conferred
by Sir Robert Peel saved him from pro-
fessional drudgery or from the alternative
of colonial exile. 1t was long. in truth,
before Tennyson became popular. and the
stupidity Of some criticisms, even in re-
spectacle periodicals, upon In Memoriam'
ia almost beyond belief In ls4s was cee-
brated The Maria ge Of the Poets, Robert
Browning and Elizabeth Barrett. For
long time it was the fashion to say that the
wife wrote better poetry than the husband,
but posterity has reversed this judgment,
though "Sonnets From the Porting ese have
the ring OF true passion in them. 1t il
we'll known that Browning did not stand
aloof from society, az Tennyson did, but
mixed in it freely and with enjoyment.
Charles Dickens in 1S46 was at the height OF
his fame. In that very year he became the
first editor OF the Daily Neus, but he soon
tired Of journalism and went back to the
business Of writing books. A sentimental
Radical, he would, in the judgment OF our
author, II he had studied economic science,
have become Socialist. He loved to storm
the strongholds of Phistinism yet withal
he was something of Philistine himself.
To the casual observer. in 1916 the power
Of philosophical Radicalism was on the
wane Nor is there any doubt that the
influence of Bentham upon practical politics
had spent itself in the reform of the criminal
law and the removal Of the burdens on
trade. Nevertheless, new force was
beginning to work on the Benthamite side,
John Stuart Mill cannot, indeed, be called
exactly an original thinker. Mr.. Paul
recognizes, however. that, although most
of the younger Mills ideas we're derived
from Bentham from Ricardo and from his
own father, yet "he gave to them freshness,
popularity and persuasive power. The
Unitarian School to which he belonged
seemed dry, hard and unsympathetic
until the younger Mill kindled it with the
fire OF his eloquence and enthusiasm. No
man of his generation had higher spirit,
purer aims or wider sympathy with the
various aspirations of mankind To the
same school OF thought and politics
belonged George Grote, the historian Of
ancient Greece, Grote's parliamentary
career had closed in 1891 and thenceforward
he had devoted himself to the task of his
life, His history, Of which the first two
volumes appeared in lsie, marks an epoch
of Intellectual progress, because it exhibits
aIo o,l lor crala tho occontial
unity Of ancient and modern life. "No
other scholar has been 80 successful in
the illustration Of classical times by tho
light Of modern development and analogy.
He was an Aristotelian as we'll as Utilita-
rian. When he came to deal with Plato,
and entered the spiritual region, he moved
helplessly about in worlds not realized.
Like all historians worth their salt, Groe
has been accused OF partzanship. He
took the side OF Athens and democracy,
as Milford had taken the side Of Sparta