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    79g The Saturday Analyst and Leader. [Se...

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    CLEANLINESS AND GODLINESS. ry^HE truth o...

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    Merit And Pati*Onag*,K Rphosb Who Brouu ...

    contents , and some of the poor foot passengers , the walking gentlemen of old toryism or family whigg ism are very much of the same opinion ; nevertheless , we go on with ; our pickaxes , theodolites , old road mending , new road surveying :, as the case maybe , here levelling a hill , here taking the cord instead of the arc , and cutting through a vested interest to avoid interminable winding , hoping to receive encouragement-from some of the old travellers , and feeling pretty certain of most of the new ones . It is hard work , heaven knows ; but when a bit of good new road is levelled , there are few triumphs like it , for those ( rarely royal or noble personages ) who have raised the first sod . Let us cease our grumbling ' , and give a hearty cheer Avhen some venerable obstruction , loner held sacredis levered and tumbled over the precipice once and

    , for ever . The present day has seen one of these achievements , and to the eyes of common sense and common honesty the obstacle has long been an eyesore , and a heartsore to the deserving . Its clearance is the one grand work of our day ; yet many of those who have laboured at it seem to iis to fail in self-gratiilation , and in seeing with clear vision the full purport of all they have helped to accomplish . Nothinsr but some remains of distrust can have prevented a general "Io tri ' uraphe . " We refer , in general terms , to the substitution of merit for patronage , as the path to preferment—the aJoption of a grand self-evident principle into actual practice ; such a full recognition of this principle , that no . political party , no power

    of a section , can ever prevail to . overthrow it , and that , for a great deal of the working of our executives , in all departments , we are likely to be as safe from the inefficient cousin of a Manchester manufacturer , as from the foolish scion of some branch of the Peerage . This work is the work of no party ; . it is rather against them all . It is the long interest-ridden and insulted sense of the nation that has insisted on the change , and the better part of the press has freely given voice to this reclamation against tyranny , inefficiency , and absurdity . Individuals , countless in number , have felt the evil as an oppression to themselves , and the nation has felt that this o-ne reform would be the " 'fertile- mother of a thousand

    more . " To this seeking out , honouring , and einpowermg , positive , practical capacity , every other reform is subordinate , exceptthatof the elevation , of moral merit which , too , has , in some measure , its tests here , though not its highest ; in other words , we can teli whether a man i-j orderly , punctual , active , conscientious , by his work , scarcely whether he is noble , generous , and self-sacrificing ; of some , at least , of his working morals we may make pretty sure . Let us not seek for what we cannot attain ; the loftiest attributes of character have other tests and other honours , and scorn alike office and salary . . " Whom these must follow , oh whose head must fall Honours , like manna ; if tliey coine at all , " as Wokdsvvoeth ' s says in his < ¦ ' Happy Warrior . "

    We are far from affirming- that England has disregarded , or that any country could afford to disregaid , practical efficiency ; all the men who have really governed England have been , in some way or other , able . Designedl y or incautiously , the fiercest political opponents have given praise , or let praise escape , of and to each other ; our Parliamentary annals are full of acknowledgements of this kind , forced or free ; it would be useless to cite , every one must remember instances ; but the only real strife of the talents has been in the highest arena , where the combatants were in some measure equalized by kings' s 2 > ecial favour , by aristocratic birth , by aristooratic patronage , by vast money power , by popular notoriety , not always of the purest . Out of these classes have come the combatants ; as a general rule the strife has been confined

    to them , and as a general rule the ablest among" them have won the day , Hbut in nine cases out of ten the use of power has been to gain power or to keep it , and concessions have l ) oen made to win popular support , rather than from motives of patriotism ; and when plebeians or men of no factitious note having ieen called into the fray , they have been raised or titled a * good swordsmen , chiefly to make them worthy to act as seconds to patrician combatants , otherwise they might , as non-noble combatants "were forced to do in the old days of trial of right by battle , have fought with oak quartor-sitafls , in some vestry , or lower field all tb , e Bays of their natural life ; A hundred writers might be quoted who have congratulated England on the institution of an aristocracy , into which the humblest might fight or find his way ; it is true , as compared with continental systems , but the scrambling has been hard Svhere the way ought to have been more open , and accident and favour

    have both t & o often lent tho helping hands -which , have enabled the aspirant to surmount the barrier , and tho nobleman has too often had the claim of gratitude to allow tho occupants of his rotten boroughs ( of which there are still too mauy ) , to allow tho latter to take a thoroughly independent part . It is only in the highest department , and to a certain extent , that the rule ' has been , tho best men for tho best places , " the subordinates have boon pluce-nion strictly , und nothing moro . WaXiPOLB would have scoffed at our demands for official capacity in the lowov departments of tho public servico ; N . gwca 8 T'mc would

    have boon incapable of comproUcnding it ; I ' itt tho elder might hayo admitted it , and Pitt the younger , in his noviciate , when an advocate of political reform , though in his lull power he would have frowned at it , , 'lilvon liritKH miff lit have rQouiycd . it as a dangerous novelty ,, though , but for tho opposite principlo , lie might himself have stood upon the summit , instead of holding a pay-master's place : and the Whigs , generally , have been . as intolerant of simple personal fitness as the Tories ; PAi-aiEjusTON , at first , sneered at jBxamuurtioiis to prove capacity for soi'vjces , but it whs tho most foolish snoor of hfo . poJitienUife , and public ophuQW has forced him to view iho matter gvavolv , Wo have often spoken of these

    Examinations ; we have read most of the arguments against them , containing , generally , ah ounce of truth to a pound of party spirit and prejudice ; to the . cotmtry they will be a benefit , to men of merit , whether in the army or the-civil servide , or destined for either , they will be , we will not say a boon , but a simple act of justice , long denied . The generalisation of the system is the most important political advance of our day .

    79g The Saturday Analyst And Leader. [Se...

    79 g The Saturday Analyst and Leader . [ Sept . 15 , 1860

    Cleanliness And Godliness. Ry^He Truth O...

    CLEANLINESS AND GODLINESS . ry ^ HE truth of the proverb , that cleanliness is next to godliness I is daily brought home to us in a variety of familiar examples . We all know that cleanliness conduces to a healthy body , and though it does not always follow that the corjms aaniiin begets the nientem sanam , the one , * as a general rule , cannot exist without the other . The familiar examples of which we speak are within the ken of all who reflect and think . Who has not discovered the effects of cleanliness upon the spirits ? Who that is accustomed to live " cleanly and like a gentleman " does not know the exhilirating influence oi a good wash after a . day of travel or of toil ? Who has not been inspired to high thoughts by a clean shirt ! Imagine the calamity which would befal a Avell-regulated family if tlie supply of soap and water were suddenly--to come to an end . ! The children mig-lit bear

    it with resignation for a day or two , but the grown-up portion of the family would be . panic-struck . They could not eat their breakfast comfortably , to begin with . The lady of the house , after a brief contemplation of the situation , would probably faint , and the good man , unshaven and unwashed , would sneak into the city and spend a wretched day in trying to avoid his customers and clients . He would '" have felt far less uncomfortable , and in a much less degree incapacitated for his day's work , if lie had simply been deprived of his breakfast . A person of cleanly habits feels something- like degradation when any circumstance , either of chance or the rex augustib . domi , compels him to live in a state of filth . We cannot conceive anything more painful than the feeling of such a person

    when lie suddenly finds himself , through sonie untoward circumstance ,: attacked by a loathsome disease or infested with vermin ! The first impulse of a man in this situation is to separate himself from bis fellows , and bury himself out of sig-ht . Misfortunes of this kind have suggested suicide to highly sensitive natures . These facts being so well understood by the better classes of society , _ we are somewhat surprised that their . influence has been so little recognised in connection with the social improvement of the poor . Philanthropists have exerted themselves in many ways to make the lower classes godly , but it has occurred to few to proceed upon , the principle of first making them cleanly . The very few who have recognised , this principle are well aware that nearly all the ills which the

    poor arc heir to spring from the uncleanly and uncomfortable state of their homes . This to begin with is the chief cause of the great amount of drunkenness -which prevails in this country , and which we are told by judges and social reformers , is the greatest curse of the lancl . It is a great mistake to suppose that the habit of " frequenting the public-house is engendered by a vicious or inordinate taste for liquor . When teetotal lecturers draw vivid pictures of the drunkard's progress , and exhibit him being led on to misery and ruin by an insatiable thirst ' for liquor , they entirely fail to perceive the sources of the evil . In nine cases out of ten it is not drink

    that draws the working man to the public-liouse ; but the dirty squalid , and uncomfortable condition of his homo tinit drives him into the streets to seek a more pleasant resort . And where is there a moro attractive place for this class than the public-house ? It is n sort of palace ; the bar is really a magnificent place . The decorations of a west-end club are not more glittering or more costly than the appointments of a modern , gin palace . There are flashing mirrors in every panel , a tempting array of "bottles , an attractive display of plate glass , plenty of company of every kind , and above all there are light and warmth . The light aiul warmth , and bright aspect of the place are the chief . charm of the public-house ; and these are the very comforts which the poor aiian cannot have at

    home . No amount of coal and candle that tlio working man can afford will make his dingy lodging-room look bright and pleasant . A thrifty and careful wife may do much to iiiulco the place tidy , but who can scarcely make it ' cheerful . , Insufficiency of accommodation producer evils of another kind , which toll with equal disaster upon society . In large towns , like London , whole , families slO ' ep . together , in ono room ; grown men and women , young boys ami girls , aill together , often promiscuously in the same beds . This itf a ibvtilo nouroo of tho so-called groat " social evil" of tho day . If » iny of our active philanthropists will take the trouble to enquire into tho matter thoy will find that in almost every humble family whore the children of both sexes have , boon in the habit of sleeping tog-ether , after tho ago of puberty , one , if not more , of the girls , have gono wrong , very young , Many instances might bo given , where ovory girl in tho family has turned out badly , And it \» a lamotititbh ' fact / that parents of this cIuhs often rogurtl tho lull of their daughters with an indifference almost umountiiiu ? to approval . Tlu » gh'Jn g » o ou the streotw , but are Mtill rocqivocl by their parents without shame and without reproach .

    With , regard to intemperance , it has almost , become an'accepted fliet tl ( at it hi , moro prevalent in JOnghmcl than in any other country liut wo have only wuntod ncciiriito and reliable Htutintics lo dispel this fallacy . M . Jui / es Simon 'shows us , that in the manufacturing towns of Franco , that hitherto accepted model of a tennjovatx 1 country , the Working clauses who inhabit tho squalid lodging * ot the buoj ; slumis , are an violently addicted to liiiuor as tho moat degraded of tho same class in liTnglaml . Wo can find no nnrulM mi London to tho picture drawn byfifffT Swoa of a Rouen wine

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 15, 1860, page 6, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_15091860/page/6/