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Leader (1850-1860), 17th July 1858, Edition 2 of 2, Page 16

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      The Social Evil—Its Foreign Element. Who...

      ^ — : proper duties . If tlie police make a nocturnal razzia on the unfortunates by special order , they are assailed on all sides by portions of the press . If magistrates , yielding 1 to repeated complaints from Regent-street tradesmen , attempt to * check an open display of foreign immodesty , a subscription is immediately entered into by the sympathizing frequenters of a night house in Charles-street , and the magistrate finds that a jury lend themselves to screen notorious profligacy , and that although he has done his duty to the public faithfully and conscientiously , he is held , up to obloquy and misrepresentation in the public journals . Our object is not to make the details of vice familiar

      —it is to give facts which sliall tell their own story , and enable the uninitiated public to decide whether the steps that are taking or suggested for the correction ofone part of the existing social evil are such as are likely to accomplish tueir ' object . " We are always averse to authoritative interference , but a police being indispensable , - \ re would require the police to exercise a more direct ; surveillance over the maquereaux of the foreign prostitutes , who not only add to the . number of the idle and depraved of this metropolis , but are the means of bringing over whole shoals of foreign thieves , for whose accommodation various cafes and restaurants , presided over by other foreigners of equally doubtful reputation , are ' "r ising in every direction of the west end of the metropolis .

      688 T H E 1 ±^La P E R ' Igq Ia 84 ' Ju:...

      688 T H E 1 ± ^ LA E R ' igQ iA ' Ju : L * 17 . 1858 .

      Ars Est Celake Artem. Th:E Itine Arts De...

      ARS EST CELAKE ARTEM . Th : e ITine Arts debate to which the vote , for the National Gallery annually gives rise came off on . Wednesday last , and unless good intentions be destined , as is proverbially reported , for a certain pavement only , the public have reason to be gratified with the '¦; announcement made by her Majesty ' s present ' advisers . Attempts were made year after year during the Palmerston dynasty to induce the administration to adopt common sense views upon matters connected with the fine arts , and to induce sorne slight concession to public feeling .. - About

      the JBromptqn Boilers , the Hoyal Academy of Aits , and the National Gallery , there has long been very little diversity of opinion out of doors among such as are entitled to form one or have the courage to express it . According to tliese persons the National Gallery is very ill managed ; its proper site is at Charing-cross , and noichere else ; and Lord Elcho ' s former successful exertions to prevent its removal out of town and out of the public reach are worthy of all praise . The art collections , attractive ana iiscful though tliey would be under the able management of the present staff in any central

      situation , are ,, so long as they oe condemned to isolation at South Kensington , nothing better than a permanent raw . No wholesale expenditure of the receipts in official puffery , no industrious publication of the . amount taken at the doors ( small though this be , and absurdly less than that kept away By the inaccessibility of the show ) , no " novel attractions , " no " conversaziones , " can bring this piece of headstrong , supercilious bungling into favour . The artifices ana waste of money in touting for visitors to these Uroinpton galleries , which

      might be esteemed " smart" or improvident according to the bent of the observer ' s mind , in a Crystal Palace company , an omnibus association , or the owner of a monster circus , are simply derided by the bulk of middle-class Londoners . To speak tue truth , a very important section of Cockneys conceive themselves virtuall y debarred from many a visit to the fine-art collections by the difficulties of transit and the eccentricity of the situation , and no flimsy pretences of " the department" can convince us that Schools of Art instruction can be useful to our humbler fellow citizens of tlie working classes , in proportion to their distance from the seats of their labours or their homes .

      With reference to the Royal Academy , the great public have long ceased to inquire by what right this favoured institution continues to occupy a public gallery , to the exclusion of the public collection of p ictures . Ordinary taxpayers and amateurs of art have lonr * since given up m disgust all inquiry into the possible nature of the secret covenant in virtue of which they arc thus defrauded long after discovery . Ministers pledged themselves to the House in 1834 , and again in 1850 , that the people should be admitted , when a real demand for space should occur , to the enjoyment of their own admirabl y placed Gallery . But through some mysterious influencethough the Vcrnon , and Turner , and other collections have since the latter of those periods been consigned to temporary and sometimes unworthy places of

      exhibition or concealment—the irresponsible academicians have been allowed to continue their obnoxious occupancy . The English school of art is nowise indebted to them , for in default of sufficiently assiduous and competent instruction , it devolves mainly upon the students in certain branches of art to teach themselves or one another ; The Parliament owes them no courtesy , for they have refused or neglected to furnish returns long since required of them . They have , fortunately for our argument , never been inspired with th « politic grace to open their doors gratuitously , or even at lialf price , to the less opulent of the

      community . They have received all from the public ; iu return they have given to the public nothing , and to the arts how little 1 and we now hear througli Lord Ulcho of an impertinent proposition , put forward by their president in his other character of National Gallery Keeper , that not less than 3000 / ., which , in fact , means at least 80 O 0 / ., shall be spent upon the enlargement of the public saloons at present open to us ; our amiable gratis lodgers meanwhile continuing to shut up . for eight mouths of the year hiore than all the space we want , and to take a shilling toll at our own street-door during the other four .

      But if the promises of our present Chancellor of the Exchequer are worth more than those of his predecessors , the days of their tenancy are . numbered . If their accumulations are insufficient to erect an edifice of more suitable character for their exhibitions ,-it is certain that their revenue is ample security for adequate advances . On the public they should , at any rate , cease to be an incubus . Failing all oilier homes , they caii

      negotiate lor inuurmshed apartments in the Broirvpton refuge , or treat for some of the eligible building land upon the estate of Her Majesty ' s fine arts commissioners . There they will be completely out of the way of the general public . While accessible "to the nobility and gentry , amateurs , picture buyers , and others , who can travel .. to ¦ see . sights , tliey will be secure from the intrusion of the profane crowd , whose pleasure and convenience they have hitherto so little consulted .

      Poor Otto JVfu ' ndler , the travelling " Expert dc la Galerie Nataonale de Londres , " whose position was secured by a miracle a twelvemonth ago , has been definitively sacrificed as a first victim by the iconoclastic majority , who will no longer be put off with general assurances of amendment , competency , economical arrangement , and so forth . This poor gentleman , whose fauction , unluckily , seems to have beeii to raise the market upon liis employers wherever he set foot , found no ' voucher

      in the assembly . Messrs Cowpcr and Wilson , the defenders of tlie faith in the travelling chief director , could do little more than deprecate the abolition of the travelling ; deputy on the score of liis insignificance . Ignorant as themselves , and , to all appetu-iuice , as every one else , of Hcrr Mundler ' s person , wortli , and qualifications , we take leave to welcome this as an ample reason for his resignation , and for the immediate resumption of his legitimate functions by the present Director of the National Gallery .

      The public can put un with fancy courtiers , sinecure ex-statesmen , and a moderate number of antique , deep-rooted jobs , but a sinecure Court-artist doing well-paid public work by deputy , is a weed of modern growth , and demands the lioe . We have no shadow of an objection to offer to the Director-General ' s fitness for his position . He is known to be an artist—known to be a scholar and a gentleman . And we will answer for itthough his mere presence near an Italian picture manufactory would of course enhance the price of the wares sold there as much as the profuscst distribution of Hcrr Mundlci ' s visitingcards—that he must be as well versed in the tricks of the picture trade as Lord Blcho , Mr . Coningham ,

      or Mr . Barker , of Piccadilly . It is precisely for these varied accomplishments that we have sought and found a valuable public servant , and in consideration of his excellency , honours , and emoluments , wo must insist upon his acceptance and personal performance of duties which there is reason to think he has in error delegated to an incompetent lieutenant . To conclude : the frankness and alacrity with which the Conservative Chancellor of tlie Exchequer admitted the cxistencoof public wrong in theso matters , or some of them , and volunteorcu on the part of his Government to attempt its rectification , must beaocoptablc to all lovers ot art , and , Mr . Disraeli may rest assured , will be placed by a not altogether undiscerning public to his credit . Wo wait anxiously for hia next move in this matter .

      Pablia.Menta.Ry Pemmicanv At The Morning...

      PABLIA . MENTA . RY PEMMICANV At the morning sitting , on Friday , Mr . Cox , the mem ber for * msbury , moved a resolution declaring that th * cost of purifying the Thames should be defrayed bv th * consolidated fund and the metropolitan ratepayers in equal proportions . The proposal encountere d a vWorou * opposition , and , notwithstanding Tom DmleoinbeWmT mentum ad homines , that as our countrv visitors and members of the Legislature help to make " the stink thev ought to help to pay for its removal , was ultimately ne gatived . Now , we subscribe to the doctrine that Lon don ought to pay for its own improvements as everv other town in the kingdom does . That should be the rule ; "but the case in question suggests tJie old remark that there is no rule without an exception . A nuisance exists in London ; then London is bound to remove it Granted ; but if the nuisance was not only not created by London , but created against its will ? "Why then not . Now , the foul state of the Thames is the work of the Legislature . Some years ago , during the cholera panic , Mr . Poor-law Chad wick persuaded the Government that it was necessary to turn the contents of the London privies and water-closets into the Thames by opening communications between them and the sewers . The evil to be avoided by this proceeding was problematical —persons who are entitled to speak with authority on the subject say chimerical . The evil which it has caused is undeniable— the evidence is under our noses . The owners of house property iu London complained of the enormous pecuniary cost to -which Mr . Chadwick ' s whim , would subject them ; but their representations were disregarded , and an act of Parliament was passed to carry the project into effect .

      Since , then , the whole kingdom has , by thp act of its representatives , corrupted the Thames , it is not unreasonable to expect that it should contribute towards the expense of its purification . II ' , however , it should be determined that London shall purify the Thames at its own cost , as -we believe wilL be the case , to London should be left unfettered discretion as to the way in which the object should be accomplished * At the evening sitting the motion of adjournment to Monday introduced a long list of subjects wholly unconnected with each other , but all mixed up together . As some persons may be puzzled to account for the discursive character which the proceedings of the Commons assume at the end of every week , we beg 1 to explain that

      it results from the rule which prevents & member from speaking twice on the same subject . Hence , when a memier has put a question to a minister—say the Chancellor of the Exchequer—the latter does not immediately rise to answer it ; because ha knows that , if he did so , some half-dozen other members , who want td put questions to him , must go unanswered . Iu the meantime other ministers are put to the question ( the process sometimes almost amounts to mental torture ) , and when the Chancellor of tlie Exchequer , at the end of two hour- . * , or so , riric 3 to answer the first question , the House

      has tfoi ' gotten all about it . Some waggish reporter of the Times , of Saturday , gave to this part of the Commons' proceedings the heading De omnibus rebus , the aptness of which will bo apparent from a recapitulation of the ingredients composing the parliamentary hotchpotch , which were as follows : —Destruction of Timber in the Gulf of Bosnia— -Minister of Justice—Norman Chapel in the White Tower —Sitting of Parliament in , the Autumn—Compensation to Indigo-Planters in India —Public-houses in Scotland—Clothing of the Troops in India—Case of the Cormacks—Church lt . itos—Papers about the Indian Mutiny—Forged Trade Marks .

      As regards church rates , the Chancellor of the ftxchequer made the important announcement that " Ministers would take the earliest opportunity after the reassembling of Parliament , to ask the opinion of the Legislature upon a bill which they would introduce , in the hope and belief that it would be accepted as a satisfactory solution of a long-controverted subject . " The House having , at length , got into n Coinmittco of Supply , the Education estimates gave riso to some talk about the National System of Education in Ireland .

      Hitherto this system has been attacked o \ ily by politicians of the Spoonor and Newdegato school ; but now it was assailed from two opposite quarters—namely , Mr . Buxton and Mr . Maguire . The latter gentleman chiefly complained of a Protestant lady having been allowed to roa « l from a book somo passages of a very objeetionuble nature when addressed to Catholic children , though it turned out that , in fact , she did not read them . The lady , however , ought not to have Loon pormitted to introduce a book containing ; such passages into any national school .

      Mr . Buxton'a complaint was of a different clinrnctnr — namely , that tho Church schools , in which it ia a rule that some portion of tho Scriptures sluill bo rotid by the scholars , during school hours , were , on that account , oxcluded from tho advantages of tho Parliamentary m'ant and educational system . Considering Mr . Huston ' s peculiar connexion , whoso opinion ho may be suppe d to have expressed , the circumstance may have an important bearing on tho futuro of , the question . At prosent , statesmen do not like to meddle with a subject with respect to which anything they may do is »^ ° t ° shock prejudices on ono aido or tho other , and , porhapa , on both Hides . After the House resumed , Lord Palraeraton moved that

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), July 17, 1858, page 16, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_17071858/page/16/