TOPICS OF THE DAY.
A CHAPTER IN SOCIAL ESTHETICS.
A sumer irregular conversation in the House of Lords, the other night, was a bitter commentary on our system of morals. The disclosures which have been made by the inquiries into the state of the factories led an extension of the inquiry to the employment of i
women and children in other branches of industry, and the Chil- dren's Employment Commission have reported on the mines. The Poor-law Commissioners described, seven years ago, the state of the agricultural population ; and now, when the mind is shocked by- the accounts of morals in the mines, Earl FITZWILLIAM, a mine-owner, diverts attention from that ugly subject, by directing it to what takes place in the hop-grounds during the season of picking. But the women, said Lord LYNDHURST, go from London ! It may be said then, that the section of the people employed in growing the national bread, the section employed in making the national clothing, the section employed in making the national im- plements and providing the national fuel, the section employed in making the national drink, and lastly (it needed not Lord LYND- HURST to tell us) in the centre of the empire, the population of the Metropolis, live in open defiance of decency. Every new range of inquiry opens new scenes of infamy ; while reports from hundreds
of philanthropical societies prove the zeal of the humane in the en- deavour to improve the morals of the people. Does their plan, whatever it is, gain the test of success ? In no part of the country are morals more austerely insisted on than in Scotland—where a certain manorial right last lingered in this island—where the drawn
blinds in every house on Sunday bespeak the moral discipline of its inhabitants—and in whose commercial metropolis, Glasgow, it isat custom with numbers of the industrious classes to spend the Sunday drinking in bed !
Let us turn from this scene to another. In the centre of licen- tious Italy is a province noted for the indulgent rule, political or ecclesiastical, which has for a long time swayed it. Florence is not without its recognized licences. The peasants in the surround- ing country are perhaps, so far as book-learning goes, as ignorant as any race of people on the earth. Their moral preceptors are
the priests ; whose hold over them is maintained by imposing cere- monial, by simple appeals to a ready faith with the premium of ab- solution, and by a simple and ince titicial inculcation of religious and moral sentiments. Living in a luxurious climate, quick in
feeling, the peasantry of the Florentine Val d' Arno need no sterner control to keep them in a very happy and proper way of life. Fami- liar intercourse makes the sojourner among them aware that their homes are happy and decent, and that the people themselves are considerate to each other, hospitable after their frugal fashion, and courteous to a point of admiration.
'Seeing these different results, let us glance at the more obvious means employed to train the two peoples. In this country, the sole means are doctrine and precept, with pecuniary bounties : the natural emotions are checked and mortified ; the impulse to in- dustry is stimulated by the incentives of lucre, and by exhortation, till the day is full of toil, and the very effort is worn out—intense pursuit of labour has supplied the raw material of over-trading, and trade is stagnant now for months because the people have done too much in months past. The day of rest from work is forbidden to every recreation but religious reflection. Pleasure, driven front the village-green, finds its polluted temple in pot-houses screened from police; or more intelligent multitudes, debarred from other excitements, haunt the Chartist meeting.*
In Tuscany, the office of a rural police is inoperative—the sbirri are chiefly employed in killing reputed mad dogs in the hot weather, or looking after supposititious wolves or robbers from the hills in winter : no bastardy-clauses are needed to suppress a vice that does not exist. The customs of the country encourage amusement and recreation : no proffered gain would make the labourer toil after twenty-four o'clock—half an hour past sunset ; the heat of the day justifies his siesta ; holydays are almost the rule rather than the exception, (in Scotland there are two annual holydays, -which ought to be fast-days, but that is too much for human flesh); and the very ceremonial of the religion itself is a pageant. The statued streets, the open galleries, familiarize the peasant, who is a man of leisure, with the fine arts and classical traditions ; and music, in its simplest form of vocal melody, is a popular accom- plishment. Ever with some pleasure in view, the peasant is con- tent with frugal fare : if the more substantial contadino has his mess of soup for breakfast and a bit of meat much disguised at dinner, his poorer neighbour breakfasts off bread rubbed with garlic and dines off salad. Every man, however, has a butt of wine in his cellar; yet drunkenness is unknown among them. Taking it very broadly, the English method of popular morals seems to be, a didactic code enforced under pains and penalties, • In some of the manufacturing-districts, during busy times, families have earned really r e sums weekly—two, three, or possibly four pounds : it was earned by hiciAant and violent labour, and spent in brief and violent de bauchery. Had the motive to toil, to industry, been less at that time—had other motives checked the competition for wages when they were high—less would have been earned, less work would have been done then, and there would be some left to do now. 'What say the political economists to that puzzle.? Some have recommended the people to save—they do not save : others have recommended them to spend freely—they do spend freely, but fruitlessly : has it ever struck any inquirer that they may earn too much f—especially if they do not know what to do with their money; if they have neither knowledge, taste, nor opportunity, to direct their expenditure ? and disregarding if not 'contradicting the natural 'dispositions of' untutored man : the Tuscan method, if method it can be called, is to cultivate the natural tastes, inciting them by attractive objects, directing them by gentle and very generalizing admonition, and diverting instead.of concentrating the energies. The Italian peasant is ignorant, priestridden, politically-slavish, indolent, poor ; he is kind and courteous, deferential to superior knowledge, politically- contented, innocent of over-trading, frugal, happy.
There are circles among the richest classes, in this moral Eng- land, in which the utmost licence is said to prevail: why does that example not spread its influence to all ? The great check upon it is that stronger influence which really controls the rich and power- ful classes of this country—good taste' Good taste is the skill acquired by practice in the tasting of many pleasures to discrimi- nate the best, and to choose the most economical mode of using the best pleasures. It presupposes an abundance of pleasures, in order to that.practice which begets skill in discrimination. The British people are debarred from almost all pleasures suited to their condition or means, and they are therefore incapacitated from acquiring good taste : accordingly, no nation is so remarkable among intelligent peoples for its bad taste in all things—manners building, decorative manufactures, and fine arts of all sorts. The most efficient political agent to control the people, to improve the resources at their command for their own happiness, to check their blind subjection under the mechanical impulses of industry which draw upon- them great gluts, and to mitigate their passions, is wanting in our system of morals.
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