LOW MORALS IN HIGH PLACES.
Timing who most imperatively exact the respect of the public sometimes play with that respect in a manner likely enough to defeat their own wishes. The clergy call upon us for reverence, so do the class of statesmen : we may, in return, request them to be always respectable, or at least not gratuitously to expose them- selves. Some, however, do not scruple to be in that matter their own Helots.
Look at this Wandsworth case. A Vicar wishes to secure the' curacy of his parish for his son, who is under age ; he appoints another clergyman as a seat-warmer, with the understanding that the locum, tenens shall vacate the place as soon as the young gen- tleman has grown up to it. There are, however, gentlemen of the cloth with so little faith in each other, that the Vicar' thinks it necessary to take a promissory note by way of collateral security.' The Curate, it seems, did not hesitate to give this note; but after- wards he conceives some dislike of the arrangement which is to unseat him, and which is no doubt sufficiently irregular. How should he get rid of the note? By a cunning device enough: he charges the Vicar with making him drink drugged wine, and with obtaining his signature to the note while in a state of stupefaction ! The dispute grows warm ; the litigants appeal to their Bishop, who discountenances the whole transaction ; and the Vicar brings an action against his Curate for slander, which is sustained by the verdict of the Jury. Here is a most extraor- dinary series of incriminations. The Vicar will not trust his chosen deputy for "the cure of souls," except under bond and, penalty ; the Curate charges the Vicar with thocussing" ; the Vicar's defence is a charge against the Curate tantamount to swindling. Formerly such disclosures were comparatively rare— charges of the kind were hushed up, to save scandal to the cloth; but at this day, some clergymen seem to be withheld by no scru- ples of that kind. They take no pains to avoid figuring in courts of law under charges of cutting and maiming, profane swearing, habitual profligacy, hocussing, dishonesty, abandoning women whom they have wronged, &c. Statesmen are not quite so bad, but they do not avoid scandal= ous exhibitions. See the great Graham versus Shaw case. Mr. Shaw opposes the Government policy. Ah ! cries Sir James Graham, I know why you do that : we Ministers refused,' four years ago, to give you a retiring pension as Recorder of Dublin ; and moreover, you hope to be Irish Secretary under a PrOtection- ist Government. There is something self-recoiling in such an imputation. To keep such an occurrence in mind for so long and for such a use, is a malignity the more discreditable as being shown towards a small object ; and it betrays something like what is called " littleness " in the assailant. Sir James Graham, as the Scotch say, " keeps a snow-ball in his breast," and hugs that store as ammunition to be used against small fry that no one re- gards. On the other hand, it must be allowed that Mr. Shaw made a very lame defence. Sir James Graham's statement is direct : Mr. Shaw resorts to a suspicious shuffling of objects and motives—public interests and self-interest—love of country and of " number one." But the most remarkable thing is the conduct of all present—accuser, accused, and spectators—in carrying on the fight. One statesman accuses another of asking'him to join in defrauding the public for the benefit of that second: he makes the charge as if he thought it discreditable certainly, but not as imputing anything very unusual or alien from the character of a statesman. In like manner, the accused person repels it with cir- cumstantial explanations, by no means with the utter abhorrence and repudiation of an offence impossible to gentlemen. And all the while, honourable Members around make a ring, cheer, laugh, hoot, and relish the fun exceedingly. They do not disbelieve either side ; they believe as much harm as they can against both; and yet, so great their own "foul disfigurement," that they do not know how they are exposing their whole class to suspicion and contempt !
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