Year: 1868

i
of democratic ideas in Great Britain, he has
only to ask himself what would been thought


one hundred years ago Of British aristocrat-
the old Duke Of Newcastle, for instance-going


about giving popular penny readings to the


Door. The Hon. Horace WalpOle would have


grnned and sneered, and what astonishment


would have been created in the immaculate


bosom of Bubb Dodington To be sure, the


most exclusive arstOcrat might be bishop,


and engage, for the sake of q good salary, IN
the work Of saving plebeian souls There has
been q great deal of reading to the


people for which the people seemed to
have but little relish but to find a man
| holding forth to farmers and artisans concern
ing the genius and productions Of Sir Walter


Scott as Mr.. Gladstone has been doing, with


charge of one penny at the door is certainly
odd, but at the same time encouraging though


we fear the BarOnet himself would hardly have


liked it. Upon this side of the sea we have SO
| long acted upon the principle that nothing IN
| literature is too good for the people that our
| great men expect q critical audience, however
popular may be its character and the idea OF


talking down to the level of low comprehen-


sion is the last thing which occurs to them.
! No man, however high his public station, is sup
posed to cOndescend when he gives lecture; ;
| the condesccnsion is upon the other side,


and with the people who, if they are not ln-
stucted, or at least entertained, either go out
| before the conclusion of the address or take


good care not to attend upon the.unfortunate
| performer a second time. The consequence is
| that the art of lecturing has been carried much


nearer to perfection here than in England;
with us great names go for very little; a
| stupid man may be a Member of Congress or
| the Governor of a State, but the lecture COM


mttees will have nothing to do with him. or,


il Inc manages TO impose himselfaupOn them,
| the public Indignation of our towns and villages
| is exceedingly great, and the editor of
the local newspaper cuts him up without
mercy. 1t will be long time, we sus-


pect, before this independence of judgment


will become general in England. The elo-
quence, the learning, the profundity OF noble


man or rich COmmoner are there taken for


granted. and as he mounts the platform he is


regarded with kind Of grateful curiosity, and
| perhaps lauded TO the skies for very me-


diocre performance. Mr. Gladstone, however,
| is a man of real ability, an excellent scholar,
| aud a cear-headcd statesman who knows we'll
enough that there is no safety for England
except i'm the education OF the masses. Ii is
simply question between a refined and culti


waited democracy, and a bnwing brutal, and
| bloody One-between enlightened liberty and
bestial neonse- between population aiming


at the nobler Qualifications of our nature,


and hordes of Sdeprayed and degraded sem


sualists and idlers laborng only for the indul-
| gence Of appetite and hardly rising above the
| level of the dumb animals around them.
| Although it can scarcely be asserted with truth
that popular morality is certain result of pop
ular intelligence, it is well established that the
connection is intimate between ignorance and
crime. A man may love his books, and yet be


a brute; but all human experience shows that


the chances OF his being useful member OF


society are greatly increased by taste for


reading, although he may seek IN it only


temporary pleasure. In England, however,


there are 80 many important social questions
in pending condition which can only


be settled by the popular voice, that


general enlightenment has become


condition of public safety. There never


was, perhaps, a greater error committed i'll


politics than that of confnngieducation mainly


to tho vell-born and the wealthy, because


there is o point beyond which cultivation is


powerless when opposed to the force of igno-


rance sustained by majority of numbers. 1t


was the excessive Ignorance OF the French


populaee which rendered the first Revolution


almost worthless, which blighted all the hopes
of benevolence and made liberty but mock
cry and a snare. II the revolution which is
impending in England promises to be less SAN
culinary, abrupt, and destructive, it is because


such mon as Mr.. Gladstone comprehend the
danger and the means Of avertng it, Even


the cynical Mr.. Carlyle was good enough


once to admit that only emigration and


education could save the Empire;


the transportation OF redundant popula-


ton apd the cultivation of that which remained


at home Now, while Mr.. Carlyle is swapping


and snarling at everybody, and doing his best


TO render all his fellow creatures uncomf0rta-


bic "a he is himself, we find Mr.. Gladstone


undertaking the Office of a public instructor,


and that too in rather an humble way as


"a penny reader.p We can imagine Mr.


Carlye's satirical wrath at tho very idea of
! lecturing about Walter Scott to a room full of


farmers and mechanics; no doubt he could


make the whole business extremely ridiculous,


and so he might provoke people TO laugh at


public schools. free libraries, and other


popular institutions, which would still


remain of priceless value after all


tho laughing was over. Considered from


ono point of view in comparison with what we


cannot attain, all human knowledge is insig-


niGcant but however little the wise man may


know, he infinitely surpasses his fellow who


knows nothing 1t is better to have no more


knowledge of history than one can get from
the plays of Shakespeare and the romances Of
Scott than TO be completely ignorant of the