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-wo !£ Br E BJAB B H. [Na. 33a, S^turdat...
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APATHY FLEAS. It is confessed on all sid...
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A WORD TO AN ITALIAN. The JJnione appeal...
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Thk Latk Kisvmrw at Sfitiikad.—An action...
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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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La Traviata. And The Times. Tiieke Has B...
TEere is one reason , however ^ why authors , composers , and actors faU into these Bubjeots , aid it aW bears upon the moral of tKa question . They do ifc became they are part of the society among which they love ; thev lit © *&* " society , are guided in their tastes hy the things in which they take an interest j and they select this lower class of subjects , because they and the audience are interested in them . It is the habits of life , the turn of the amusements , the train of thoughts in society and in the authors of artworks , that produces these plays , and sends audiences to look at them .
Bub the appeal againBt charity is in many ways curious . Our great contemporary would have us ignore the existence of whole classes in this metropolis , and is indignant at the idea that " pity" may alight upon one of that class . Now , in this matter lies the very point of the moral in all art . There is no broad distinctiontobedrawnbetweenthe vices
represented by Goethe , Aiyfiebi , Shakspjeabe , CoBNEiiiiE , or Caxdebon , and those represented by the Dtjmas and the opera poet . The distinction is not that in the one casev there may be imitation , and in the other repulsion . Tne distinction is not that we are free to pity Jocasta or Mariana , whether of Shakspeaee or of Goethe , and not
free to pity Violetta . The most tragic works of art have represented one struggle , which has been going on ever since mankind has become conscious of conflicting propensities in itself . In all such works the subject is the contest between the bad and the good . The arfcisfc , in the desire to interest his audience , varies the form of that contest ; and Shaksjpeaee himself has varied it as
widely as we see m the cases of Lady M . ac-Tteth , jLngelo , Shyloc 7 cy Hamlet , and , indeed , in half of the chief characters of his plays . AH that is " foul and hideous" is surely not concentrated in Violetta , or in any of the persons that surround her . But some of those characters in our own Shakspeare , though they have nothing to do with the particular depravity , are more foul , more hideous . The inhuman Lady Macbeth , SJiylock worked into a heartless frenzy of avarice , Iago
sacrificing everything that is beautiful to his own gross and heartless scepticism , with the passion of revenge alone to spur him—these are more foul and . more hideous than anything which has been represented to the audience of Her Majesty ' s . The ' march of all these tragedies presents to us invariably the contest between the bad and the goodthe peril to which the good is exposed by the bad agency—and , whatever may be the tragic urination , the real triumph of the good . Because in none of these cases does the
spirit of the devil gain the victory . Iago kills his * wife who haB thwarted him , and works out the death of Othello and Deade-Tnona ; and yet to the very latest , when Othello discovers the total folly and vanity of Iub delusion , —when Desdemona lias yielded up her life to inj ustice and to cruelty , visiting her in the form of her beloved husband , the power of goodness remains unconquerable . The sweetness of Desdeinond * s own nature
sustains her under the infliction , preserves even her lovo . And iu the same way the more generous feelings of Othello come back to- Min , and restore him to dignity and selfrespect at the moment of his death . The class which Violetta la Traviata represents , does exist . It is called into existence by the selfishness and depravity of townmado man : its existence continues unmitigated through the selfish resolvo of society to ignore it . But that class consists of some thousands of women—women born to- thobest ( piaHties of their sex ; nnd these qualities aro Bometimes so inextinguishable that they
remain throughout . If we look gravely into that tragedy , we shall find the same struggle between good and bad , with the same triumph of good . La Traviata shows us one instance . After a life of heartless depravity into which she has been led , a natural passion , a genuine affection takes her from it - , but she is cast back by the suspicions and repulsions of society . It is the old argument of the tragedy in a new shape , arising from the present vices of society . "We may question the taste of the author that selected the more trivial
shapes of vice ; we may affirm the corruption of society in which such incidents arise j but if the representation makes us remember the existence of the class and study the causes that existence , —above all , the performance of PiccoiiOMXNT can make us pity the inextinguishable woman that still survives in the midst of depravity , like IjAudseeb ' s little flower amid the ruins of carnage and conflagration in the scene of war—we certainly have got even out of La Traviata a moral that we apply with some use to society .
" We are not sorry to see our orthodox contemporaries accompanying us in the protest against some present aspects of society ; but we do exhort them not to be content with falling into hysterics at the mere sight of too familiar vices . If they will go a little further , they will perhaps help us to do more good .
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Apathy Fleas. It Is Confessed On All Sid...
APATHY FLEAS . It is confessed on all sides that the working classes have attempted little , late years , with the object of improving their political position . " We have made this the subject of serious remark , and there is a desire evinced to break the force of the reflection . Two pleas are put in , to account for the inactivity of which we have complained . First , it is asserted that political organization is too expensive ; secondly , that whenever the working classes have combined , they have been misled by selfish or foolish men who have not belonged to their order . The plea of expense we think untenable . There have never been wanting liberals ready to aid in promoting an or-: ganized movement on the parb of the working classes ; but , even without external assistance , a very slight exercise of self-denial on their part would enable them to do all that is necessary for the inauguration of a general scheme of action . It is by no means essential , at starting , to hold mass meetings in large rooms , to advertise , to employ agents , print elaborate prospectuses , or to set in
motion any costly machinery . The " people might make their power and their convictions felt by other and easier means . We do not think that when the working classes have been really in earnest , they have been deterred from activity by the dread of costs . They are not a niggardly class . On the contrary , they have sometimes been , remarkably profuse in their contributions to political funds .
The second objection , that the working class combinations have usually been directed by foolish or selfish men belonging to other classes , is oven less satisfactory . In the first place , it is not at all necessary or desirable that tho working classes should be led by working men . Working men form excellent auxiliaries , but aro seldom efficient lcadors . They want , in general , tho enlarged
experience and knowledge essential to the conduct of a political movement . They may bo captains , but not generals . In truth , it scorns to us a fallacy to suppose that whon tho working classes havo obtained tho suffrage thoy aro all at once to turn professed politicians . Thoy are not likely to supply more experienced administrators than wo havo at present ; but thoy understand their own interests , and wo think thoy havo capacities
which fit them to be . electors . "We have never thought , or said , that they should put confidence in none but men of their own order . That they have sometimes been misled is no reason why they should remain for ever inactive . They are not recommended to strive for the old objects by the old means ; on the contrary , they are counselled by their best friends—friends who value candour as much as sympathy—to discountenance the stormy rhapsodists of the Chartist period ,
and to put their trust in moderation—which is power—in knowledge , intelligence , and political ability . They ought never to cheer the utterance of noisy nothings , but to encourage at their meetings the men whom they would be willing to send to Parliament if they possessed the electoral franchise . "We have frequently tested our working-class friends on this subject . " " Would you choose Mr . Thbob or Thttndeb as your representative ? " " Oh , no ; but he does well enough for a public meeting !"
That is a mistake . The board-shaking shouters on p latforms come before the public as representatives of the working classes , and the working classes have been damaged by the inevitable inference . " We think this touches more nearly the cause of the apathy that has' existed than either of the pleas that have been set forth . Exhausted by ill-regulated and unsuccessful efforts , the working classes are only now beginning to recover faith , strength , and determination .
A Word To An Italian. The Jjnione Appeal...
A WORD TO AN ITALIAN . The JJnione appeals to the Leader to know whether , a coup d ' etat in Spain have the same results as the coup d ' etat in France , it will not have been the most fortunate event that could have happened in that distracted country . " Would the JJnione say the same of Italy ? If not , the TJnione has no right to say it of Spain . Every man in England who thinks the December Usurpation is " the only government fit for France" deserves to bo
degraded from the possession of his political rights , his liberty of speech and action . That is , if any error less than felony deserves to be punished by so much humiliation . The JJnione may prefer Napoleonic strokes of power ; but , for our part , we prefer to see nations struggling through good and evil towards the attainment of independence and dignity . We would not exchange our House of Commons for a new Btreet , our noisiest Irish members for the liveried Senators of Pans , our much-sinning " system" for the single and the
presiding mind plotting in tho dark , rapidity of the agent who is nover so rapid as when he has to kidnap a victim ior Cayenne . We blunder , but wo do not degrade ourselves ; we have defective institutions , but not the government of illegality -, we do not move through our own streets , silent , ashamed , aud in tho fear of the spy . No . Tho JInione must not oxpoct w « to announce the virtues of a coup d ' etat , bpain is less the proy of misgovernmont than Italy —yet Italy does not pray for a St . Aunaud , or a slaughter of citizens on the Corso .
Thk Latk Kisvmrw At Sfitiikad.—An Action...
Thk Latk Kisvmrw at Sfitiikad . —An action haw boon brought in the Southwark County Court n ^ iist tho South-Eastern Railway Company for tho recovery 01 9 / .. 3 B . paul by tho plaintiff to tho company on an undertaking that ho nnd hm friends should bo convoy ^ i <> Spithoad to eco tho lalo review . Tho vessel on Douru which thoy wore put at Portsmouth wan v < sry inconvenient , and tho accommodation waa of the wor . it ltin < ' added to which , tho proper tiuio wan not obHorvixl , " " * a largo part of tho roviow—including tho passage ol i" * - Queon through tho fleet— wan missed . Judgi »*» ""¦ given for tho plaintiff , with costs . There wore nv . other actions of a similar nature against tho rtt " r ^ company , in which tho judgo also « av « judgment u >* tho plaintiffs , considering that tho defendant * worguilty of gross negligence .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 9, 1856, page 14, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_09081856/page/14/
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