POPULAR .ZESTHETICS IN SCOTLAND.
THE local papers report that several injuries have been inflicted on the Scott monument at Edinburgh : the corners of mouldings and pieces of corbel-heads have been chipped off, while letters have been rudely carved into the stone.
"It would be curious to inquire," says the Glasgow Argus, "for what reason the lower orders of people in the great cities of Scotland have so much less re- verence for art than the same classes in England, and throughout the continent of Europe and America. There must be a reason why this fine monument, as well as the statue of the Duke of Wellington in this city, [Glasgow,) have been so rudely and profanely handled by the brutal and ignorant, and why these brutal and ignorant people are so brutal and ignorant."
In England, thousands of the " lower orders" are now admitted to works of art, and any attempt at injury by those classes is ab- solutely unknown. Whence the difference ? Although among English workpeople there may be individuals in advance of the Scotch, because their channels of information are less nar- rowed by sectarianism, yet the superiority in that respect is not very great. And the English middle class, whose own habits formerly tended in an extraordinary degree to exclude them from the influence of the arts, have been notorious for the " Cockney" propensity to deface all they saw, from Windsor Castle to the Pyramids of Egypt, with their own worthless autographs. On
the other hand, you do not in the whole world find a people more ignorant in all matters of information than the Italian peasantry, —all their knowledge is merely traditional; but works of art are to them objects at once of familiarity and reverence. The " Per- seus" of Benvenuto Cellini is as perfect in its grace as the artist left it ; the marble in John of Bologna's " Rape of the Sabina" is unscratched and undefiled. These figures stand on a low para- pet in the Great Square, the very heart of Florence. As much cannot be said for the figures on the margin of the fountain ; but then their legs are actually in the way of every idle boy or strag- gler in the dark as he passes between the fountain and the wall that skirts the platform of the Old Palace. On the other hand, the ancient Bronze Hog in the New Market is crouched upon the very floor, his snout serving as a fountain ; and he is unmarked save by one or two dints evidently of ancient date, and possibly inflicted by chance in one of the many tumults that have dis- turbed Florence. Wilful injury to works of art is a thing that does not enter into the fancy of the unlettered Italian peasant. Perhaps his very familiarity goes for much. It certainly breeds no contempt, which it is vulgarly said to do in ordinary matters ; and there is no doubt that it does constitute a considerable part a his education. Ignorant as he is in matters of information, he has a strong sense of the beautiful, and exhibits many traits of refinement—particularly a kind courtesy of mien—unknown to those of the same lowly rank in Britain. We suspect that in Scotland there has been more than mere neglect under this head. Duty and principle are strenuously cultivated ; and the Scotch are a thrifty, discreet, and upon the whole virtuous people. But the arts have been rather placed under a ban, as " vanities "; so that what the arts produce, taste or refinement, is wanting. Even the virtue will not always stand comparison with that of the South. Nowhere is the Sabbath so sternly enforced, nowhere so ferociously violated. The Glasgow paper from which we quoted cites Some interesting passages on this desecration, and its remedy, from the evidence given by Mr; Sheriff Alison before the Commons Committee on Workmen's Strikes— "I am sure there are eighty thousand people in Glasgow who are just as com- pletely heathens to all intents and purposes as the Hottentots of Africa. Of course., they have all heard that there is a God; but as to any practical operation of the influence of religion upon their minds, they never go to church, or to any place where moral and religious instruction is carried on. I should think there are tea thousand men in Glasgow who get drunk on Saturday night, who are drunk all: Sunday, and are in a state of intoxication, or half-intoxication, all Monday, and. go to work on Tuesday."
We have heard, further, that a habit prevails in Glasgow of lying in bed all the Sunday to drink ! Mr. Alison touches upon remedies- " I think that the increase of places of religious worship in Glasgow would_ have a very material effect; and I think also, that it would be of great import- ance, that along with that there should be open to the labouring classes some species of recreation, independent of drinking; I think it would be of the last importance, if you could get some kind of amusement for the people which would lead them out of public-houses and places still worse: and, in that point of view, I am decidedly of opinion that the overstrained observance of Sunday in Scotland has perhaps a more prejudicial than beneficial effect in manufacturing towns."
The Lord Advocate—" What kind of recreation would you point out? would you recommend public walks?"—" There are very pretty public walks in the neighbourhood of Glasgow; there are also mechanics-institutions in Glasgow,. which are admirably conducted, and which have great numbers of respectable workmen attending them. I believe that in the one in the city there are Six hundred workmen constantly in attendance; and in another in the suburbs there are eight hundred; and I have heard it stated by Mr. Hill, in his late Report on Prisons in Scotland, that he is happy to say that no one workman connected with a mechanics-institution has been connected with any of the strikes. I sin ex- tremely happy to see that stated: but I think that even beyond that, it would be a great benefit if some sources of amusement could be opened up to the people, even on Sunday, which would take them away from perpetual application to drinking and immoral practices. I think that the observance of the Sunday in Catholic countries on the Continent is much more conducive to benefit than the strict observance of it in Scotland."
This is well put by Mr. Alison ; but it is an imperfect view of the subject to regard the use of the arts as mere " amusement" it is a real training of the faculties, evoking not only the intel- lectual perceptions, but also the affections, the sense of excellence, the love of what is beautiful and graceful. The cultivation of all those faculties renders the human being a better man. Precept may urge a man to his duty, but it is some form of art which trains his very desires, and makes him not merely abstain from badness by an effort of self-control, but actually wish what is good. Precept fails to call forth that army of drunkards from their swinish bed ; art would make them loathe it. But art, to win its influence, must be abundant, familiar, present at all sea- sons, especially those of leisure and genial enjoyment.
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