The Sun. — 1868-12-12 (London, England)

POPULAR" LITERATURE.  The Daily News unearths a new specimen of the literature which is now provided for the "lower classes." Those, it says, who have an eye to detect the tricks of tricky art know full well that there are two trite methods of hero manufacture common to entrap litterateurs : one is, to elevate some inordinate social scoundrel into a moral nobleman, and the other, to invest some eccentric type of conventional nobility with a predilection for this or that vulgar villany. True, the aggrandisement of the low, and debasement of the high, are merely the rhetorical forms of all burlesque writing ; yet what is the great bulk of the romantic literature of modern times but human nature sentimentally burlesqued ? We should have believed "the force of prurience could no further go " than the boiling point it had already reached in popular literature, had we not, in our wanderings, lighted upon the first number of a new penny serial, entitled " The Crimes of the Aristocracy," a tale which, according to the allurements of the titlepage, is to consist of a series of " strange events, undiscovered murders, and other crimes, compiled from important documents stolen from among the private papers of his Royal Highness the Prince Consort, upon the night of the 14th of December, 1861, by a footman in her Majesty's service !" "It must be true," the poor half-educated shop-boys and work-girls, for whom such vile trash is intended, will say, "I see it in a book ;" for, of course according to their notion, the scribe who, with such ostentatious honesty, confesses that the documents were stolen, would—like Jack Sheppard in the novel—" never stoop to tell a lie." But the title-page of this extravagant hotchpotch of audacity, indecency, and stupidity, mingled with a very strong dash of bad grammar and bad spelling, is mild as Dutch cheese to the matter of the work itself— the kindly object of which is (as the horror.loving author explains in a high-flown digression) " to display, in all its revolting ghastliness, the inner life of the rich," and " with a fearless hand cast aside the glitter"  (though we are afraid the theatrical gentleman will find this casting aside glitter rather harder labour than he has a mind for) " and tinsel which surrounds (sic) the modern gilded calf called scciety ;'" whilst, a few pages further on, we arc informed, with the same contemptuous disregard of the Queen's English—which is probably regarded as part of the aristocratic institutions of the country—" Vice and Sin, of the most revolting de scription" (they like it revolting, says the writer to himself as he pens the phrase), " is practised openly among our aristocracy" to which, in our ardour, we cannot help exclaiming, "Is they !" The " introduction" to the tale assures us that in Windsor Castle tbere is a" suit (sic) of rooms," formerly occupied by the Prince Consort, " the existence of which is known to none but the uninitiated." Now, in one corner of one of these rooms, according to the prologue to the story, " there is an Indian cabinet," and in " the bustle and confusion atteudcnt (sic) on the death of the Prince " this cabinet, we are informed, was broken open, and several " very valuable documents were abstracted "—documents, indeed, containing secrets and information affecting not only the honour, but the life, of some of Engla,nd'sproudest and most aristocratic nobles!" These " very valuable documents" ultimately came, of course, into the possession of the most learned and punctilious editor, through the instrumentality of one Joseph Laxmor, " Commission Agent," and formerly footman in her "Majesty's service," who is made to confess, in articulo mortis, that he had stolen them. On readbig over these private papers, however, the magnanimous author declares lie found " such a gigantic mass of turpitude laid bare before the gaze " that lie determined—on burning them forthwith, one would probably imagine. But no! the brave and patriotic, soul determined rather to " let the people become aware of the innermost lives of our rulers, and fearlessly expose them  as they are ;" and accordingly the pure and highminded patriot proceeds to sell, weekly, the said " very valuable" and "revolting" documents, for the low charge of one