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    Untitled Article

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    Untitled Article

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    GENTISM.

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    Untitled Article

    handbill had given rise to this unpleasant ; discussion felt , or imagined himself damaged , and brought an action against the proprietor of the newspaper . ' The trial took place before Lord Chief Justice EbXe , and the verdict was for the defendant . In his summing up the learned judge observed that two principles were laid down on the law of libel : it was necessary , first , to show that the articles to be proved libellous were really defamatory , that is , tending "to bring into ridicule and contempt" the person of whom they were published ; and , next , that they were published through malice—but that the law did not require the proof of any personal malice , but merely the absence of any justifiable cause for the publication . In the case before us , there was no imputation upon the plaintiff that he was himself a dishonest man , but that he followed a business which tended to encourage dishonesty ; in this opinion there

    the judge himself openly and decidedly concurred , after which could be only one course for the jury to adopt . IJe also , with equal propriety , certified that . the case was one for a special jury , and thus added another to the long list of testimo nies daily borne against the common jury system as it exists at present . It is extremely improbable that a common jury would have coincided with the Chief Justice in his opinion on this case , and . had the verdict been otherwise , we should have had an additional difficulty thrown in the way of the journalist in the discharge of his most obvious duty . The plaintiff was illadvised ; he had no valid ground of action , and was very properly punished for his vexatious proceedings . Most , however , of these actions are attorneys' actions ; they are brought , not for the sake of damages / but for that of costs , and it is in general less the plaintiff than the plaintiff ' s solicitor who is to blame for the result .

    It is , however , a matter of little consequence to the public ¦ wh ether , in an ordinary action for libel , the plaintiff or the defendant be proved in the wrong ; but a trial becomes invested with a manifest importance when it involves the question , " Has the editor of a newspaper the right of commenting on the proceedings of a legal tribunal ? " If this ^ question he settled in the negative , then public opinion loses its only means of expression concerning those who administer justice . Any police magistrate , any civic , alderman , any county cburt judge is at liberty , unchecked , ; to . run riot in his office the hasty man , the cruel man , the prejudiced man has no longer aii V thing tojceep him in order , and ; the mischief done -by such a restriction would be ^ infinitely greater than the closing against the public of all our courts of justice . This , however , is happily

    saiy The very occurrence of ¦^ n ^ fn ^ erestmg ~ investigation--beforeit judge or a police magistrate will elicit from the public press the exact knowledge required j the jury will gladly embrace the opportunity , and their verdict will be an enlightened instead of a prejudiced one . It is one thing to comment on facts solemnly sworn to , and another to comment on the character of a man being tried , or about to , be tried , on a charge perhaps affecting his life , before a tribunal of justice . If the question of guilt or innocence be not touched , there can be little doubt that there is a large margin within which the public opinion may be expressed , and guided , not only without harm , but with great advantage . In cases of poisoning , for instance , of which we have unhappily had so many within the last

    few years , it cannot but be a difficult thing for a juryman to decide upon the evidence which is laid before him , and which is treated in so widely different a manner by the counsel for the prosecution and by that for the defence . If when the first depositions before the magistrates were made public , a few dispassionate and judicious newspaper articles had ft httle ventilated the subject , had cleared away some of the mists , had taught the public a little of the pathology of the case , the jurors would go to their task with something like a preparation for their work—they would , in fact , be a special jury ad hoc . The innocent would be less likely to bo condemned , and the guilty less , likely to escape . Comments such as these do from time to time occur ; and just so far as they do , mny justice be depended upon at the hands of a common jury . In

    consequence of such remarks a host of letters by qualified persons make their appearance ; medical men g ive their experience , point out the various actions of poison , and give the history of cases in wliich they"have ; been callediny-and it is not too much , . to . say that a barrister who neglects such means of informing himself does less than half his ( duty to his client . It is quite true that journals have not always been fair , and more than one unhappy man in times past has owed his death to the hounding : on of a ferocious public opinion by newspapers not'a whit in advance of that which they professed to lead . We see occasional exhibitions of the fame spirit , though in a milder guise , even now ; but the tone of our journals is for the most part so moderate , that their conductors may safely be trusted to net with discretion even when the lives as well as the fortunes of men may be affected by their remarks .

    t not to be feared ; we have had several decisions which have established thisk right , and the law of libel isramply sufficient to protect the public from its abuse . But though there can be now no longer a douot as to the right of a journalist not only to report a trial , but to comment on its particulars or on the verdict in which it results , it is not clear what comments are permissible while the ease is in course of investigation . Some must be , of necessity ; and it is probable that were these altogether withheld , the interests of justice would in more ways than one suffer . The staff of a well-conducted newspaper should comprehend individuals versed in medical jurisprudence , in international law , in general and applied science , and trials are continually occurring in which these branches of information are particularly neces-

    Untitled Article

    TN these days of appearances , this era of small things , when . •* - everybody who has , or has notj realised a fortune , claims to be "highly genteel , " it is as well to consider what gentility is . It is a word of wide signification , a kindly gossiping diminutive . One who perhaps dared not boldly avow that he was a gentleman jour sang , yet declared that his family was genteel ; that is to say , free from vulgarity , riot low ; so Addison , who is the smoothfaced and smoothmannered hero of Mr . Thackeray ' s humorists , talks of " genteel comedy , " and rough Josnsox declares genteelness" to be a quality befitting persons of rank . " But Goldsmith , whose genial humour hevev went wrong * saw how susceptible the word was of a mean and little interpretation , and makes his bear ward , whose rank would correspond with that of our costermonger , declare that his " bear never danced but to the genteelest of tunes , water partedor the minuet in Abiadne . "

    , A little later in our social history we find it upon record that an accomplice of a murderer considered the . actual assassin " a genteel man because he kept a gig ; " and at a police court but very recently , one hesitated to call himself a " gentleman , " but he might be considered " genteel , " he said , because he lived on his own means . Now it is rather remarkable that amongst the most commercial people in the world the bare fact of living an idle , and frequently a very useless life , should have been thought an essential part of gentility . "lam a gentleman , and do nothing for my existence , " said some one to Johnson . " Then , sir , " answered the stout old litterateur , " you have no visible means of gaining an honest livelihood ; " and the satire was just . The peculiar class of gentlefolks ( which , by the way , that very conceited compilation ,

    Webster ' s Dictionary , tells us is a word now only used by the vulgar ) to which Johnson ' s opponent belongs , Would never think of helping themselves if they could get any one else to help them , and it is quite amusing for a genuine worker to get amongst them , and to hear them talk / These sort of gentlefolks flock round the easel of the painter or the model of the sculptor and wonder in their little way—and a very ungenteel way , too , sometimes—at the person who is " doing' * anything for them . The " , " they say , is building our carriage , or painting our portrait , or laying down pur telegraphs , writing our books , cutting our canals , or making our railways ^ or it may be fighting pur battles ; and they refer to the workers . as if they were ^ uite a separate institution ^ as indeed they are ; and that they , the genteel people , had only to

    is not perhaps seen in the distance , but which is very hard to get over ; and perhaps the most puzzling fact about it is , that the nearer one gets to it , the further it flies off ; . like the poet's simile of the horizon , which always bounds the view , and is always at the same distance from us . Yet we feel convinced that , like the genteel young barber in Mr . Dickens ' s story , we must " draw a line somewheres . " He , it is known , being a shaver of the chins of only genteel parties , refused , upon a notable occasion , to mow the stubble from a dustman ' s . " Why , " cried the injured individual , his gentility being touched , " I seed you a shavin' a baker t ' other day . " " Ah , " returned the wily young hairdresser , " we must draw % # v ^ T _¦ ' — * - _ ^ L . ^» _*___ . * - - - . » . ¦¦ ¦ _^ V ^ - — . m ^ n — ¦ * ¦ ¦ rXn line somewheres draws it at bakers t shave

    . . ^ ^ — — *^ ^ ^ ^^ ^^ a ; I journeymen ; I can you . " But gentility , if she draws a line somewheres , has yet a very elastic cord . In narrow lanes and courts we have genteel dayschools ; and in streets a little better—genteel finishing academies . When a man has a weakly son , who cannot , he fancies , rough it in the world , or a girl whose talents and appearance arc more than usual , he seeks to place them in a genteel business . Should he succeed in doing so , Heaven help the children ! The boy , who may be an attorney ' s clerk or a law-writer , will find life a dozen times more bitter than in any bustling trade ; and the girl , who may be , we will say , a governess , a teacher of music , or a milliner , will have to pay very hardly for the shred of gentility which those professions still retain;—that the vulgar rich will often insult her , and that no morning will rise without a trial , no evening close without a humiliation ; till , spent in mind and body , she repents with tears her fatal predilection for gentility ; happy will she be if this feeliug goes no further . . . At the present day—and perhaps always , for the cycles of humanity present very little variation—gentility , or those who profess it , are given to worship money and material success , and , indeed , not to exist without it . Who ever . heard of a highly genteel bankrupt , or a genteel inhabitant of debtors' prisons P The superfine quality , like the gloss on cloth , rubs away with hard wear . But we

    do know a prize fighter who , having by betting made a large fortune , was received into the ranks of genteel society , whose park was envied , and whose presence courted . Time , too , whose light finger adds many a gentle nnd genteel touch , has rendered the white head of the old gladiator as silvery end as venerable as that of a bishop , who counts the same years , and who has perhaps passed every one

    walkthrough life ' , and pay away certain moneys which certain other " people earned for them . Thegeneral ingratitude _ towards the common workers around them , the want of appreciation of the —hardships and difficulties" which beset the ; life of such , and the utter want of truly Christian feeling which distinguishesthem , is something astounding . The genteel Christian -lady—and , let us add , the profession of our blessed religion has become eminently , genteel —may feel wondrous sympathy for the benighted heathen > or the starving beggar ; but she never will be brought to regard as her brother and sister the vulgar butcher boy who in redundant health and a blue coat calls for her orders , or the roaudlirigly confidential charwoman , who is called in to assist her servants . Gentility builds perhaps an imperceptible , but still a very strong wall around the - ^ PTCTTrrerAvWn ^ rafttififl-i ^ a sunk fence in a park ,.

    Untitled Article

    590 The Leader andSaturday Analyst . [ Jitne 23 , I 860 .

    Gentism.

    GENTISM .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), June 23, 1860, page 590, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2353/page/10/