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    ^rngras ijre ^wqrit.

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    wealthy . Quare ergo , inquam , tarn male vestitus es ? Propter hoc ipsum , ait ; Amor ingenii neminem unquam divilem fecit . That has been true of all times , and is iikely to continue so ; but if we cannot prevent authors from being poor , cannot we do something towards making them more provident ? - Such is the thoug ht 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 THooms , 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 ; but 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 . Curiously enough , too , the amateurs are for the most part less admirable in these characters written fortnerh

    than m 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'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 . Erank 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 after 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 , dresses , and general getting up , betray the vigilance and taste of artists . The figures all looked like portraits . l < % orster 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 see from the foregoing articles that my oflice has been no sinecure this week ; hut even they do not represent all my lahourn . 1 have said nothing of Witfan ' n llcncfit at the Princess ' s , where , to a crammed audience , he played Vernet's great part in he Vere de la IMbutante ( in ttngli . sh culled " The First Night" ) , ami proved himself unrivalled in his peeuliur 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 singers were for the most part careless . Calzolari Hang " Alma adorata , " from Maria di Rohan , with better style thun anything 1 have heard him sing ; and in the air from he Ca'id , Madame Ugalrie justified my predictions that nlu » , would be charming in l'Vench

    inusic . The trio for three tenors , " Vivo Bacco /' was sung by Gardoni , Sims Reeves , and Calzolari with great spirit . Sontag 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 Paganini's Concerto in E flat and Witches' Dancetrumpery compositions both of them , and played in a tricky 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 if 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 ; 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 .

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    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 ran be done , b y the workman . This is the point discussed hy the writer referred to , there remains yet a further question—why is it so ? 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 ?

    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 emplo } r ed . 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

    eyes . 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 sightseeing 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 .

    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 streets . The tremulous blush of maidenhood , the bounding step of youth , the tottering trend of age tended by filial affection , from the rural hamlet , the distant town , and the foreign land , wondering through our streets , constitute a wiglifc ho strange and { gladsome * to

    behold , that one feels as though one had sisters , brothers , fa thorn , and mothers all over the world . No ; it i « not . the gladness of others that makes the workman sad . It i . s a happiness to neo othern happy ; even the transient joy ot others ia a gleam of blissit is only because the happiness of the labourer concerned will bo transient -- because tho morrow may dispel what ought to be permanent , that tho workman has one sad word to say . Underneath the magic brilliarioe ) which dazzled the wondering In holder in that vast International

    Museum , how few distinguish , the gritn misery which li *» hidden there ! Who passes from the work to th workman and asks—What of all that glory doea h share ?—what of all that joy will light up his ho me > what of hope his dim old age ? Does the fair la ( j 3 who admires that exquisite piece of cutlery , whose polish rivals her mirror , remember that he who gav it its lustre-spit blood ? 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 pregnancy 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 deli ghted

    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 han d 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 fa mily 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 competence . Observe those woven fabrics , on whic h 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 ;—but let me ask , ought there to be such ex ~ ceptions , 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 tha 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 ill 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 than that of instructing those who gaze upon these wonders of production , to ask how , and by whom , and at what human cost , they were produced . If any shall think that this rude outline of tho industrial condition of workmen has strokes in * t more dark than truth , I refer him to tho emp loyers themselves . Out of tho 15 , 000 exhibitors at the Hyde-park Fair , there are 10 , 000 of them , if men of intelligence ahd humanity ( that is , knowing tho truth , and feeling it ) who would not stand up , tell how they came by the things they show—that is , they would blush to reveal the commercial process and

    by which some of them obtained their goods , the manufacturing " dodges" by which the best work was wrung at the lowest prices , from tlio wretched and dependent workman . If any one should place all the facts , us to how these works were produced , on tho cards by the wide of each article exhibited , men would be afraid to look at the Exhibition — Royalty imd ^ its retinue , Belgravia and May Fair , would avoid tho place on the second day . We aro great suilace admirers . The public does not euro about tho reality , provided tho uppearanco is g o ()( . This is , doubtless , very convenient ; but tho public is a loser by it . Only that object is worthy to exdW royal and noblo admiration , which can bo admire

    all through . _ . Let those who fail to seo how unreal a tiling that Exhibition in , considered its an object of whole « otfi «

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    590 © fte ^ L tatf t V . [ Saturday ,

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), June 21, 1851, page 590, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1888/page/18/