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    December 1, 1855.] THE LEADER, 1153

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    Mil. ISAAC IRONSIDE. Some of Mr. Iuonsid...

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    WHAT SARDINIA HAS DONE AND WHAT SHE MAY ...

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    Virtue's Misprisio1f Of Vice. Do Not Let...

    cities . Much of it , indeed , 1 b infamouB trash—^ murder and massacre , Bedlam and blasphemy , lewdnesa and lust . But , whatever the moral and literary characteristics of these publications , the point to be considered is thiB—are they read ? Are they a sufficient inducement for the lower classes to learn reading ? Their sale , reckoned by hundreds of thousands , is the best answer to that inquiry . Regularly as the Saturday comes round the weekly penny is disbursed , and , as one among many proofs of the interest which these works create , it may be mentioned that , on the conclusion of a tale , the sale of the serial in which it appears has been known to fall off by 20 , 000 , rising again with the commencement of a new tale . This is , no doubt , very nasty water for the people to swim in , but still they like it , and learn to swim in it . "

    Our great contemporary supposes that the lower classes prefer those books to Lord Stanley ' s didactics , because they would rather enjoy a pennyworth of reading which they can call their own , and can lay up or take down when they please , than a shilling ' s-worth from a free library . Lord Stanley and his critic act like the whole class of didactic philanthropists — they predetermine -what the people " ought" to do , if they were as

    intelligent as Stanleys or Editors ; and they obstinately refuse to look to that which the people will do . If the 20 , 000 or 100 , 000 are added to the readers of a publication by the appearance of a tale , there must be a reason why the 100 , 000 are thus attracted to that style of literature ; and if we can get at that reason , we should find whereabouts -we must touch the ¦ working classes to move and guide them . . Perhaps it is that the tale appeals to their affections . Fiction enters the understanding

    through channels different from reasoning , yet -when once there , it guides the mind in taste and action . It may be still without appeal to a faculty that is seldom developed in the multitude , whether high or low—the ratiocinative faculty—but it does guide them . For , in truth , the didactics are a very small part of education , and yet our pedagoguish philanthropists can hardly ever think of anything else .

    Numbers of working-women in this great metropolis are doomed to a cheerless existence during the London season . They are in two classes—those who live in the establishments where they work , and whose lives are nearly suspended during the season ; and those who

    . have lodgings out ot —cneap loagmgs the neglected neighbourhoods- ^ the interstices between the " respectable" streets—the leavings in our civil distribution where penury find depravity pig together . Lord IIobart and other philanthropists have discovered this miserable complement to the existence of the workers , and they have established a home for some few of them at No . 2 , Manchester-street , Manchester-square ; a most praiseworthy and pious attempt . But what a scratch will it be into the mischievous existence of these doomed women !

    Before our philnnthi-opists can ever get to the bottom of these difficulties , or thoroughly remodel the existence of the multitude , they must grapple with tougher questions than any that they have hitherto prepared to handle . They must go amongst publicans and sinners ;—not as didactic educators , but as Saviours coming to commune and to inquire . They might rind some strange things , above all , if they could anatomise the motives of the class

    so deeply as to learn the dynamics of their likings and dislikings . There is a way of avoiding this entire extinction of life . "Why should 1 labour the whole day from six o ' clock in the morning till ten tit night , as a bootbinder , " asks the reckless reasoner with rouged checks , " when I can spend my day reading the Mysteries of the Court , ' ' Life on the Road ; ' have plenty to eat or drink ; and at night , for the trouble of a walk , get my piece of gold ? " And why should she ?

    Because , you -will say , her choice is immoral , abominable , deadly ; and so it is . It Is abominable , because it tends to the extinction of life , which is the material test of immorality ; but if so , how are we to estimate the morality of trades that prostitute , not the individual , but the class ? Let us admire the self-denying sacrifice of the girl who would rather spend her whole day from six o ' clock in the morning

    till ten at night making dresses for unseen ladies ; half-starving while she does it , and glad to find an eleemosynary home at No . 2 , Manchester-street , with the use of a library that she is too tired to read . But let us ask whether the extinction of life is not as complete—as wholesale—for the class in the one case as in the other ; the difference being , perhaps , that there is a slighter taste of lifeof its savour as well as of its depravities .

    There is , indeed , a more abominable depravity on the side of the virtuous class than the other . For the most part , those who adopt the philosophy avowed by the rouged reader of " Eliza Grimwood , " take a short cut to mortality of the most complete kind , "No son of theirs succeeding , " and no daughter . Their death is perfect , and their depravity ends with themselves , sharply cut off . But go with the recruiting sergeant to Manchester , and measure the stunted population ; examine the recruits with the regimental surgeon ; let the destined wives

    of those recruits be examined ; and know , that if not unsacceeded by progeny , these half-alive parents transmit with life a half-death to their descendants . Why do they submit to the continued toil which thus stunts and degrades them ? Just now they are asking for short time , and their masters reply that anarchy in the master class , or impending bankruptcy , prevents the adoption of shortened make . Somehow or other we have not yet got hold either of the motives of these classes , or at the means of guiding them and modifying their

    condition so as to save them body or soxil . We go to them with preconceived preachments , and offer them instructive libraries , eleemosynary palaces , and palliatives , for which we expect a faithful pliancy in return . Numbers may try the prescriptions with more or less effect ; still larger numbers of the men will shrug their shoulders and emigrate to easier lands . The women will emigrate too , if they can ; though the Emigration Commissioners have shown rather a preference for women

    from the Irish poor-houses . So , somewhat oppressed in the choice of a career for life , the " girl of spirit" will get hold of the "Mysteries of London , " take a short cut to at least a more bearable state of existence for the hour , and will flaunt in the face of the missionary a philosophy as remarkable for its clear expressions as for its perplexing sophistries—especially perplexing to the missionary , when all society is sophisticating less frankly , but more mortally .

    December 1, 1855.] The Leader, 1153

    December 1 , 1855 . ] THE LEADER , 1153

    Mil. Isaac Ironside. Some Of Mr. Iuonsid...

    Mil . ISAAC IRONSIDE . Some of Mr . Iuonsidk ' s friends arc \ inncccssarily angry . We made no charge of venality against that gentleman . On the contrary , we ridiculed the notion "that Mr . UitQUiiAirr's ravings wore paid for ; and certainly , no man who knows Mr , Ikonsidk , can believe that he is anything but sincere . We said , and say , that the expletives he flung at the Earl of

    Clakkndon were gross and weak . We said , and say , that no Journal not entirely in the liaridw of the LJrquharUtes at Sheffield , would print il ' . s outpourings of that Hallucination . If Mr . Ir .. \> NniDK is sole possessor of the Free Press , we can understand why that journal should circulate his stormy speeches , and Mr . Ukquhaut ' s " , old story . " We never said that any one would pay Mr . Ironside for

    calling Lord Clarendon " a liar , a traitor , and a villain . " This is the advocacy that ruins a bad cause , and degrades a good one .

    What Sardinia Has Done And What She May ...

    WHAT SARDINIA HAS DONE AND WHAT SHE MAY DO . ( From the Correspondent . ) The family of Nations , as well as the human family , fossesses few individualities and many generalities , n the social body , the power of initiation possessed by a few individuals , causes them to be regarded as geniuses , the rest form but a flock that follows a leader , or the established rules of society . The case is precisely the same among every people . There are few leaders and many imitators . Russia , gifted with the genius of despotism , has Austria , Prussia , Germany , anil Naples bound to her , even as satellites to a planet ; France , with the power to initiate revolutions , has been , and long will continue to be , the rallying-point for nil who either expect or desire a revolution ^ while England , by a happy fusion of compensating powers , has become the only nation where the system of progressive freedom is realised without the risk of lessening her power . To this system the King of Sardinia and his people have given in their adhesion . This was an example much needed on the Continent , not so much for the purpose of showing the excellency of our institutions , as for the sake of humanity ; for , that humanity will be greatly benefited in Italy by the enlightened policy of Sardinia , is a point on which no reasonable doubt can be entertained .

    The only problem which to some minds may seem difficult to solve is , what means are practicable to accomplish this great end . The character of the man , and of the people whom he governs , will doubtless , have some influence , but the great results will be chiefly determined by the expansive power of the principle lie represents . Sardinia , as she happily exists in our day , may justly excite our wonder . Placed between two despotic powers tenfold stronger than herself , she is struggling for civil , religious , and political liberty , while they are aiming at the restoration of civil , religious , and political despotism . Hated and menaced on all sides , she , with one hand , represses the conspiracies of priests , monks , and nuns , who are seeking to regain their lost privileges , and with the other arrests the thunderbolts of Rome , and resists the natural combinations o f the Republican party . By her liberal propaganda she disturbs the dreams of the Emperor of Austria , and by the free expressions of her Press , troubles the French Emperor engaged in the unholy task of enchaining a great people . She despises the threats of Russia , coolly disregards her neighbour ' s exhorbitant demands , inspires the confidence of England by the compact union of king , parliament , anil people , cheerfully bears the heavy taxes which war , hard times , and a state of transition necessarily impose upon her , while , by her valour on the battle-field , she claims our admiration and our respect . What state in Europe , though tenfold larger in extent anil population than Sardinia , has in the course of seven years done so much to advance human pro-S iess ? , ••!•«• * The rest of Italy cannot long remain indifferent to the glorious results of these seven years of freedom . That Italy has roused herself already is shown by the changes which have taken place in her political parties since the revolution of 1848 . Although ruin would liavc been the inevitable consequence of a defeat , yet , when factions began to see some chance of renewing the struggle for national independence , Piedmont became the rallying point , not only for every patriotic monarchical party , hut also for the more enlightened section of the Republicans ; and thus , despite nil obstacles , lias

    increased her prestige . Many will ask , " Will Piedmont , when called upon to perform her hard duties against her powerful antagonist , be able to fulfil so many nones Y We can scarcely doubt this when we bcliold tlio proud and despotic house of IIai » l * iirft I » trying to prop itself on the frailest authority of our nue . is not this anxiety of Austria to avail hern-U ™ " > ° infamous aid of clerical corruption ami f »™» r tion alone a confession of wc » knc »» / Austria wil " 1 mover , be unable quietly . bus to accomplish her deTotk measures , foi- Piedmont has only anticipa e ? tl c dominant spirit of the neighbouring nonulltion . The squalid , demoralised , and im-SS Austrian provinces arc irritated beyond ffi bo is by the shameful Concordat with Rome .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 1, 1855, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_01121855/page/13/