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    hearts of their hearers , and the churches also will be crowded . That is , if no attempt be made to drive the people into them . Let grounds be kept free for the public , —let , for example , no Hampstead Heath be built over , by fabricating upon old manorial rights new proprietary rights , and such places will continue to be crowded bj the working class . But it is not to be done by compulsions and prohibitions . Working men will not be driven into church as a pis alter .

    Try the same process with any other class , and see if it will succeed . Let any man even of the upper class walk to church in the morning , walk to a rational museum or intellectual garden in the afternoon ; lounge amongst the beauties of nature in the intervals and afterwards ; and he will discover that the enjoyment of life is hungry work , and thirsty work too . Let him , then , when his after-church walk is over , go to the convenient public-house , and be told that it has

    just closed , or that there remains ten minutes for him to eat his dinner in , —or rather let him be told that he cannot drink anything " on the premises" at all , but that he can . only buy something , and eat it on the next milestone if he likes , if the policeman does not tell him to " move on ;"—let . him be told these things , and he will discover that tbe > new law relating to public-houses is vexatious and intolerable . Let him ask the reason for these restrictions , and be told that it is

    concern for his morals , —that very benevolent persons in authority have resolved that he shall be only rational in his recreations , Sabbath-observing , and sober ; and he will feel , we venture to say , sentiments the most revolutionary towards those authorities , will feel anything but conciliated towards Sabbath-observing or , perhaps , even sobriety . It may be objected that the new law will not be exceptional , would include all classes in its control . Possibly , though we

    will not believe till we see . But , at all events , it refers most especially to the inn accommodation of the humble . Will the genteel class really suffer any restriction from the new regulations ?—will the place of dining , the dinner ^ hour , the amount of champagne , or anything else , be subjected to a new stint . Gentlemen , it may be answered , are not addicted to drunkenness , and therefore there is no necessity to restrain them by preventive laws ; they are better educated , and they can

    vent the energy of their nature in recreation more varied than drinking ; besides , if they do wish to get drunk , —which happens sometimes , it is said , with Parliament men , —they can do it at home , or on any other day except Sunday . So , after all , the new law is intended to force upo n the working class virtues with which the other * classes may capriciously coquette ; yet the virtue of those other classes is entrusted to the keeping of education and good taste , with the policeman to keep in check only

    flagrant excesses . It appears to us that the same influences might suffice also for the working classes : begin with good education ; extend every conceivable opportunity for rational enjoyment ; strengthen the policeman to collar the actual drunkard and prevent brawls within and without the publichouse ; and then leave the worldug classes free to arrange their amusements in their own way . Trust to the benign , iniluences you preach , and to free trade in morals as well as in material goods .

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    HOW TO MAKE THE CRYSTAL PALACE SUCCEED . In spite of the episcopal benediction t % e Crystal Palace is not quite a success . To io $ e one simple fact , which is worth a host of arguments , the shares are already at a slight discount . The speculation never won much favour with the clear-headed men who conduct the business of the world in the city of London , and the event has proved that th . ey were not mistaken in their judgment . Of course , if the directors wish us to believe that

    their object was to establish a school of art , at any cost and without hope of profit , criticism , must hold its peace in the presence of such unexampled patriotism . But as their avowed intention was to make money , while they claim all the credit that belongs to public benefactors , it is worth while to point but the causes of their disappointment , and an absolute duty to define the exact position which they hold .

    What is the actual experience of every one who has paid a visit to the Palace ? No one denies the majestic beauty of the structure , with its gardens , fountains , statues , and courts . It is a wonder of the world No building , in any other country , will bear comparison with it . But , in what sense is ' it a school for the English people ? True enough , thore are splehdidworksotbeauty , ntid it is not an idle boast that you may witness , almost at n glance , the gradual developiiiont of human art . But the English pbonle —and it is to the people that the Palace ia

    inscribed—arc ignorant of art : they ^ nllc through their own Palace in silent adiiiir ' ation : they do not understand a tithb of what they see . How should they P They have never boon taught , and it is quite tfnpoaaiblo to ' educate thorn by a rtiero appfcal to sight aud sonso . If tho Crystal Patycf , la to iuspirp ] tho masses with a laye of art ^ th 6 re must i ) o aomo orgo . niaed moans of instruction . Ontn-loguoa will not servo the purpose . Tljerq jnus , fc bo Jiving guides to in ^ er ^ TtyJfcho splendid mystery . Yvo do not . yfjty ^ fin iirijay of peripatetic } bores , but \ yethiutthata , j 3 hW

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    PUBLIC REWARDS . Oina of our national misfortunes , which the public porceiv © aa plainly ne those -who Serve tho -public experience acutely , is , that we aro without any organisation for rewarding puMjc aervicoa . When a . gro « t character turns up we give him a Blenheim , or a

    Strathfieldsaye , and a grand parliamentary present ; and we can knight Lord Mayors ; and we can get rid of , by sending up to the House of Peers , successful , but exhausted , statesmen . These are the great things we can do ; but we have no machinery for testing our gratitude or our reverence for less conspicuous , but still eminent , men . This is the disadvantage of a monarchy surrounded by republican institutions ; for a monarchy has a small civil list , and a narrow court , and the republican institutions are entirely engrossed in " reforming" themselves—so as to compete with the minor eminent men .

    For instance , Thomas Hood , who gave the tone and the im petus to the modern philanthropy of the rich , who are being startled by the horrors of competitive civilisation , died , according to Monckton Milnes ,, in such dire poverty , that that gentleman , a poet too , was under the necessity of seeking in the private munificence of Sir B . Peel the means of deterring bailiffs from clutching afc the bedclothes of the expiring humourist . Still , he

    dies : and some years elapsed before a hero-worshipper , seeking the heroics in Kensall-green Cemetery , observes , hastening to communicate his discovery to the public , not yet tired of singing the " Song of the Shirt , " that the Yorick of our time lay in a grave destitute of the slightest memento . The appeal of this discoverer was fortunately responded to , for private enterprise exceptionally undertook to immortalise a great poet- —the State , of course , though it arbitrates in the controversies

    between rival printing machines , not seeing the necessity of doing any honour to him who had given so much employment , with so much benefit to the world , to so many such machines . Hood is one of a large class of minor great men who obey their intellectual instincts and

    who forego such claims upon the world as may arise from winning a " Waterloo , which in a few years is resultless , or from making a fortune -which blesses mankind only by a politicoeconomical accident . Doubtless great writers are not the less morally great because the y never demand Strathfieldsayes or large pensions : but when they are dead—would a Pantheon cost much ?

    Take another instance . Two young officers of our army go forth upon the news of war just as young Englishmen used to do in the last century—chivalrously to complete their education by " a campaign in Flanders . " They seek adventures , not by insulting Turkish ladies within the frontiers of the allies' encampment at Gallipoli , Schumla , or

    Varna , hut they ride straight on to the foremost posts of tho Turkish army . They are shut up in Silistrin , and by the * influence of the physical superiority and trained intellect of Europeans , thoy become , if not the accredited generals , the real leaders in the Turkish defence . By their example , and prudent daring , and disciplined skill , they represent within the Turkish fortress the morale of the

    British army at their back , and therefore induco a defence which is not only in itself conspicuously splendid , but which in political results is so important that Lieutenants Nasmy th and Butler , whose actions inevitably remiud us of Don Juan and Johnson at the siege of Ismail , may bo said to havo turned the course of political aflaira in a European struggle . Lieutenant Butler dies from the

    © fleets of tho wounds received in . his gallant chieftainship . Omar Pasha commands a monument to him . But in England what is it in our power to do unless we appeal to chance private enterprise—in which cubo tlioro would oc far smaller prospect } than for an Albert stfttue ^ -mijo honour th , o . momory pf our young countryman ? Butlor ' 8 companion in arma survives : ¦ cq ^ ual in bravery , au $ in m ^ rit , ho now roproaenta a double sot of ,. chums .

    But his laurels have not been gathered in routine service , and what promotion is he likely to obtain ? He will not even be so fortunate as Captain Edwardes , who also suffered from the misfortune of being young , but who did win a battle with the authority of some sort of orders , and -who accordingly got his majority—which amounted , perhaps , to a hundred pounds a year extra pay .

    There are still other instances arising out of a week ' s news . The other day there arrived in London two men who had done great service to England—Mr . Hargreaves , the . discoverer of the Australian gold , and . Mr . La Trobe , who had governed with zeal and loyalty , if not with popularity , a colony disorganised and demoralised by that discovery .

    Hargreaves had been refused by the colonists a paltry 10 , 000 ? ., which in the first instance it was proposed to vote to him as an award for his felicitous discovery : a discovery creating a new world to commerce , enriching the colony and benefiting every countinghouse in every part of Great Britain . Mr . La Trobe had taken a cold farewell of his

    subjects , and as ex-pro-consul does not find on reaching London that the English people have even engaged apartments for him at an hotel . Hargreaves may find some compensation for colonial ingratitude in a soiree at the Geographical Society , when Sir E . Murchison will confidentially tell him that he ( Sir Koderick ) was the real discoverer of the" gold : and Mr . La Trobe will get a knighthood , and then probably sink into whist circles at Bath . Are these the evidences of a civilised , selfgoverned community ? ¦ .. ""; * .

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    July 22 , 1854 . ] THE LEADER . 6 g

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), July 22, 1854, page 685, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2048/page/13/