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    590 ttfft ^Ltatft V. [Saturday,

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    Ifrngrtaa nf \\t Ifiwftt.

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    THE WORKMAN AND THE EXHIBITION. The rela...

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  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

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    Oederb For The Platf! " The Vanity Of Hu...

    Wealthy . Quare ergo , inquam , tarn male vestitus es ? Propter hoc ipsumy ait ; Amor ingenii neminem unquam divilem fecit . That has been true of all times , and is likely to continue so ; but if we cannot prevent authors from being poor , cannot we do something towards making them more provident P Such is the thought at the bottom of the scheme for a Guild of Literature and Art ; and although doctors may differ as to the details of the scheme itself , there will , I suppose , be but one sentiment with respect to the original intention and the generosity of its promoters .

    A crowded audience at the Hanover-square Booms , on Wednesday , assembled to see the amateurs in their new play ; unfortunately there were but few who could sit or see comfortably , owing to the cramped space , and the platform not being raised . This may have had something to do with the effect of weariness which attended the performance ; bat the great fault was in the comedy itself . It may seem indelicate to criticize too closely a play written for such an object and under such circumstances ; indeed , were the author less able to afford objection than Sir Edward Lytton , I

    should not whisper it ; but he has been too successful not to perceive himself that the present comedy is too slow in its movement , and too hazy in its plot ; nor will I pay him the bad compliment of saying it is to be reckoned among his successes —except for an occasional touch , and for the spirit which prompted him in writing it . Cur iously enough , too , the amateurs are for the most part less admirable in these characters written for them than in those written two centuries ago ! The reader has not now to be told what excellent actors some of these amateurs are , nor how charming the effect is of a play performed by men of education and refinement , so that even the

    insignificant parts have a certain cachet d y elegance ; but to those who have seen these actors in Not so Bad as We Seem , for the first time , it is but just to say that no adequate idea of their powers can be formed . Frank Stone , indeed , is richer in the Duke of Middlesex than in any part he has yet attempted ; but Dickens , except in the personation of Curl , where he gave a glimpse of his humour , and Lemon , and Forster , and Jerrold , and Costello , and Topham , and Egg , were incomparably better in Every Man in His Humour , or The Merry Wives of Windsor . I do not think a company of actors could be now found to play these pieces with greater charm of ensemble .

    I am told that the farce Mr . Nightingale ' s Diary is a scream , and that therein Dickens and Lemon show what they are capable of ; but I was forced to leave a £ ter the comedy , having " to fry some feesh , " as a German lady of my acquaintance used to say . It is a pleasant sight to see these authors and artists assembled together in such a cause ; and the buzz of friendly curiosity , as each new actor

    comes upon the stage , keeps the audience on the alert . The scene in Will ' s Coffee-house , for example , allowed the public to see their benefactor , Charles Knight , as Tonson , the celebrated bookseller ; and Peter Cunningham bodily present in a scene he inhabits mentally ; and Home as the terrible Colonel ( a capital bit of acting , by the way !) , and Marston , whose Sir Thomas Timid was a bit of nature .

    The stage is extremely pretty , and the scenery , dressed , and general getting up , betray the vigilance and taste of artists . The figures all looked like portraits . Forster seemed as if he had just the instant before jostled Walpole ; Lemon reminded me forcibly of Dr . Johnson ; and Egg looked quite grand as the poor proud author .

    SMALL TALK . You sec from the foregoing articles that my office has been no sinecure this week ; but even they do not represent all my labours . I have said nothing of Wigan ' s Benefit at the Princess ' s , where , to a crammed audience , he played Vernet ' s great part in Le Piire de la lUlmtante ( in English culled " The First Night " ) , and proved himself Unrivalled in his peculiar line . "The Duke ' s Wager" preceded it , and showed him in a very different character .

    Nor have I mentioned the great Concert at Her Majesty ' s , which was a glut of music to satiate the most ravenous . It went off somewhat heavily ; partly because long concerts of this kind are by nature wearisome ; partly , also , because the wingers were for the most part careless . Calzolari sang ' Alma atlorata , " from Marui di Rohan , with better Htylo tlmu anything I have beard him wing ; and in the air from Le Quid , Madaino Ugaldo justified my predictions that uhc would be charming in French

    Oederb For The Platf! " The Vanity Of Hu...

    music . The trio for three tenors , " Vivo Bacco , ' was sung by Gardoni , Sims Reeves , and Calzolari with great spirit . Sdntag was encored in the Swiss air with variations , which she sang charmingly ; but her " Soldier tired " was a terrible infliction . The great attraction was Sivori , who played Pagariini ' s Concerto in E flat and Witches' Dancetrumpery compositions both of them , and played in a tr icky style . Every now and then Sivori showed what he could do in the way of genuine music ; but for the most part his performance raised this feeling in me— " It would be still more wonderful i f played with his feet !"

    A second hearing of II Prodigo increases one ' s admiration for it . Coming prepared for no grandeur , you do not miss the massiveness which the situations seem to demand j and , accepting it as a spectacle , you can enjoy its sparkling brilliancy without suffering criticism to trouble you . It has been shortened also , which is an important improvement .

    The many demands upon my time have prevented my seeing the new farce at the Olympic , called The Fast Coach ; but I hear it is amusing , and advise you to go and judge for yourself . Surely you are as good a critic and far more indulgent than Vivian .

    590 Ttfft ^Ltatft V. [Saturday,

    590 ttfft ^ Ltatft V . [ Saturday ,

    Ifrngrtaa Nf \\T Ifiwftt.

    Ifrngrtaa nf \\ t Ifiwftt .

    The Workman And The Exhibition. The Rela...

    THE WORKMAN AND THE EXHIBITION . The relation of the workman to the Exhibition , has been incidentally discussed in the article by G . J . H ., entitled " The Birmingham Man at the Crystal Palace ; " it admits , however , of a fuller development . The Exposition illustrates what is done , it does not illustrate all that can be done , by the workman . This is the point discussed by the writer referred to , there remains yet a further question—why is it so r This I will endeavour to answer , and at the same time ask another question . If the blaze of art in Hyde-park , such as it is , excites so much public admiration , have not the admirers some consideration to bestow on the social condition of the artisans who produced it ?

    seum , how few distinguish the grim misery which lies hidden there ! " Who passes from the work to the workman and asks—What of all that glory does he share ?—what of all that joy will light up his home ? — what of hope his dim old age ? Does the fair lady who admires that exquisite piece of cutlery , whose polish rivals her mirror , remember that he who gav e it its lustre-spit blood r As the delicate beauty ' gazeg upon the infinite variety of steel pens , does she sus - pect that women , who had left neglected and crying children at home , sat in the last stage of pregna ncy over the piercing-press , which imparted elasticity to the springing nib ? Would that lord in white

    waistcoat suppose that the article he is so much delighted with , was fashioned by a man pale with consumption , and grim with want ? How chaste is that specimen of needle-work , which rivals the purity of nature !—would any one believe that it was wrought by an occasional prostitute , who was condemned by vice to eke out the living denied to industry ? The hand that filed that casting which attracts the visitors ' notice , was palsied with" age , and as the gray-headed " dresser" struck his chisel with his shaking arm , he knocked the flesh off his hand . The pale-faced craftsman who executed that elegant boot , did not receive as much for his labour as bought his family bread . He who made that brass bedstead , cursed his employer all the day long . The carving of that altarpiece was done by a man who never knew hope or fabrics

    competence . Observe those woven , , on which manufacturers will speculate and merchants grow rich , and in which peeresses in all their pride will walkthe poor weaver who produced them , has since died . His children crawl on a poorhouse floor , and his wife weeps out her days in indignity . Why , without being clairvoyant , you might see the skeletons of those whose fingers wrought these textures , peeping from between their variegated folds , in ghastly contrast with the splendour of their work . Perhaps the reader will say these cases are not the rule . Well , be it so ;—hut let me ask , ought there to be such exceptions , without some serious thought on the part of our statesmen and merchant princes as to how such a state of exceptions shall be altered ? for how nearly such cases amount to the rule is appalling when looked into .

    Lord John Russell , with a healthy anxiety to feel what wretches feel , once passed one night in Pentonville Model Prison , and he rose next morning a slightly wiser man ; but had he wanted to know the whole truth , he should have got transported for fourteen years , or for life , and his first night there , then , would have been far more instructive to him . For to walk through a manufactory is a very different thing from working in it , and that with no rest or reward by the way , and no hope in the end . People without experience know little about it ; but if they could share the life of our manufacturing districts , where everything is dingy—the streets , commerce , and

    morality : the streets with smoke , commerce with cunning—morality for want of use—where a thousand chimneys , like clustered volcanoes , incessantly throw up soot against the skies , darken the air , and begrime the human wretchedness condemned to move in it—where the brightest and showiest productions contrast with the haggard and deformed producerswhere the capitalist spins humanity up in his mills , weaves into his calico the hopes , affections , and aspirations of the poor , and then moves heaven and earth for new markets to sell them in—where no lig ht of

    freedom breaks in on the sad scene , even from religion , whose ministers preach no other Gospel to the poor man than that from the melancholy text , " In whatsoever state it has pleased God to call ye , be ye therewith content . " Let any man look over this scene , let any man taste of this life , and he will agree with me that our Great Exhibition can teach no more useful lesson thnn that of instructing those who gaze upon these wonders of production , to ask how , and by whom , and at what human cost , they wero produced .

    If any shall think that this rude outline of the industrial condition of workmen has strokes in it more dark than truth , I refer him to the emp loyers themselves . Out of the 15 , 000 exhibitors at the Hyde-park Fair , there are 10 , 000 of them , if men of intelligence and humanity ( that is , knowing the truth , and feeling it ) who would not stand up , and tell how they came by the things they show—that is , they would blush to reveal the commercial process by which some of thorn , obtained their goods , and the manufacturing " dodges " by which the best work wiia wrung at tlio lowest prices , from , the

    wretched and dependent workman . If any one should place uli the facts , as to how these works wero produced , on the curds by the Hide of each article exhibited , men would be afraid to look ntthe Exhibition — . Royalty and its retinue , Uelgravia and May Fair , would avoid the plaee on the second < luy . We < iro great *> uifacc ' ailmirera . The public docn riot euro about the reality , provided the appearance is good . This is , doubtless , very convenient ; but the public is u loser by it . Only that object is worthy to uxcito royal and noblo admiration , which can bo admired all through . Let those who fail to see how unreal a thing that Exhibition is , considered as an object of wholesome

    It is a pride to walk the streets of London now , amid the blaze of beauty , curiosity , animation , interest , and nationalities that throng its noble utroets . The tremulous blush of maidenhood , the bounding step of youth , the tottering trend of aye tended by filial affection , from , the rural hamlet , the distant town , and the foreign land , wondering through our streets , constitute a sight ko strange and gladsome to behold , that one feels as though one had Misters , brothers , fathers , and mothera all over the world . No ; it is not the gladness of others that makes the workman sad . It is a happineHS to hoc others happy ; even the transient joy ol others is a ^ 'leum of blissit is only because the happiness of the labourers concerned will bo transient—because the morrow

    may dispel what ought to he permanent , that the workman has one sad word to way . Underneath the magic brilliance which dazzles the wondering beholder in that vast International

    Mueyes . The cry against the Exhibition as an injury to trade will , probably , prove to have been premature . While curiosity was whetting itself , orders were dull , and , exhausted by the unusual task of such sight-Beeing as the banks of the Serpentine now afford , it has been impossible for the visitors to attend theatres or feel any great relish for public amusements . Hut the orders now being received by the manufacturing and merchant exhibitors , are proving the Exhibition to be a Manufactory of Orders . It is

    impossible to look upon so many desirable things day by day , without acquiring a desire to possess them , and desire infinitely stimulated must translate itself into " orders , " and sooner or later the shopkeeper , the manufacturer , and the merchant will reap their expected harvest—which has only been deferred . As this must bring employment to the artisan , the workman will have no serious complaint to make on the score of labour , whatever he may do on the score of wages—which is , however , always left an open question .

    Having lived the life of a workman , I speak as a workman and I think as a workman ; but unless I betray them , let there not be ascribed to me the prejudices of the working-class . I may be even a Kepublican , yet I have no aversion to the Exhibition because it is Prince-patronized . It is a matter of rejoicing to see a Prince so employed . Some object to a Field Marshal who has seen no campaigns ; on the contrary , it is to be desired that we never may have field marshals who have occasion to see campaigns . Of all misnomers a warrior one is the happiest . May the name of soldier be a misnomer for ever more The civil genius of our Prince is a matter of congratulation to the working-man , for it sheds no blood and increases not the taxes . The royal colour of the Exhibition does not , therefore , dim . its lustre in my

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), June 21, 1851, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_21061851/page/18/