Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1910-04-19
EGGING PUBLIC MEN.
The Recent Outburst of 1t In Old
ENGLAND.

We dare say many people share our
opinion that there has been recently an
unusual, possibly an unexampled,
amount of detractiOn of our public men.
No doubt when political feeling runs
high, and all personal criticism Of lead
ers in the struggle is kind of canvass
ing for votes, it is natural that there
should be more innuendo and more
gossip than at other times. 1t was said
of partisan writer on politics that he
described all the members Of his own
party as handsome and witty, and all
the members of the other side as ugly
and dull. That is n habit Of mind
perfectly sincere, perhaps, up to GER
tain point which is capable Of partic-
ular and dangerous extensions. So
far as mere personal animosity between
politicians who continually meet one
another Is concerned, we may say, of
course, that England is singularly free
from it. A few days ago Herr Won
Bethmann- -Hollweg was complaining
in the Prussian Diet that Germans had
never learned how to conduct political
rivalry without bitterness. And in
France the bitterness, even the viru-
lence is notorious. Very likely it is
discounted by every one who deals in
it, but superficially it is unmistakable.
Metternich, commenting on the fra
ternite of the French, sardonically de-
clared that If he were a Frenchman
and had brother he should say he was
his cousin. The detraction which has
been so noticeable lately is not prac-
tised, then, among those rival politi-
clans who know one another fairly
well, but rather by those who know
little of the subjects Of their criticism.
Are we not all familiar with the cur
rent gossip? X, who recently went
abroad, is said to have gone for the
good of his family, and we are told
that he will soon be divorced from his
wife: Y, who showed a highly COM
mendable independence in voting
against his party on one occasion, is
by mistake because he had had too
much to drink u, who gave a large
sum to a charity, is declared to have
done so in settlement Of some claim
which had very little to do with char
ity, for Z, it is pointed out, is not the
man to pay large sums except as nush
money; and 50 on. Stories not wholly
unlike these go the rounds, gathering
much unearned increment of scandal
as they go; their persistence is remark
able; their popularity is as undOubted
as it is discreditable; their origin de-
fies detection. Very few public men
indeed are free from the attentions of
slander. Society says to each Of its
political leaders as Hamlet says to
Ophelia: BE thou as chaste as ice, as
pure as snow, thou shalt not escape
calumny."
Our own feeling is, as we have said,
that this kind of calumnious gossip has
gone further than ever before. The
Lady Teazles are not confined to a
group of persons in touch with the
heart of affairs who eXalt scandal into
an art and redeem it to some extent by
wit; they are to be found everywhere, |
in Blackheath or Hampstead as well as
in Mayfair, and the calumny is a dull
pedestrian performance, only making
itself ridiculous by its pretence of ac-
curatc information. There Is moth |
ing" said Bacon, makes man sus-
pect much, more than to know little; |
and, therefore, men should REL. dy sus-
picion by procuring to know more, and
not to keep their suspicious in smother.
What would men have? Do they think
those they employ and deal with are
saints?" No; there Is no need to think
that well known public men are saints; |
nor is there any necessity to listen to
every breath Of detraction which would |
make them out debauches or fools. A
safe rule, in default of personal first
hand information about the intimacieS
of a mans life, would be to judge him
solely by his public form 'Suspi-
cions that the mind Of itself gathers are
but buzzes; but suspicious that are
nourished and put into
mems heads by the tales and Whisper
ings of others have stings." We should
think it perfectly safe to say offhand,
and without investigation, that all the
stories now current are untrue.
Men whose occupation in life keeps
them in the public eye certainly deserve
to be protected from such aspersiOns,
which often do not even know them
selves to be malicious. Surely it is not
too much for public men to ask for the
same indulgence as is given to any
by the law. They have a title
to be held innocent till they are proved
guilty. If a man whose responsibilities
are great is false to his trust and is
clearly proved to be false, then by all
means let the discredit into which he
of his detection; but sentence before
trial is an Infamous procedure. AS to
what We have called judgment by pub
lie form Sydney Smith said a very wise
and penetrating thing: You spend a
great deal of ink about the character
Of the present prime minister. Grant
you all that you write; l say, fear he
will ruin Ireland and pursue a line of
policy destructive tn the true interest
of his country; and then you tell me
ne is faithful to Mrs. Perceval, and
kind to the Master Perccvals! These
are, undoubtedly, the first qualifications
to be looked to in time of the most
serious public danger; but somehow or
another (f public and private virtues
must always be incOmpatiblc), | should
prefer that he destroyed the domestic
happiness of Woodlor Cockell. owed
for the veal of the preceding year,
whipped his boys. and saved his cOun-
try"
1t is no duty of the public To play the
private detective. Judge man by his
public FORM" so long as you have no
possible means of judging him justly
by any other. The principle is as sound
as that of bearing with inconvenience