XLI. 1842. Talfourd had made repeated attempts to obtain for CHAP. authors a further extension of the duration of copyright, and the example of Sir Walter Scott's family, which was immersed in difficulties at a time when his literary works should have yielded a splendid fortune to his descendants, was strongly founded on. The learned Serjeant's efforts, however, which were continued through three successive sessions, were unsuccessful, chiefly through the efforts of Mr Macaulay, who, strange to say, strained every nerve to defeat a measure calculated to give independence to a class of which he himself was so bright an ornament. At length, in this session, the tardy act of justice was done to literary men, and by Lord Mahon's Parl. Deb. bill the copyright was fixed at the entire life of the Ixi. 1397; author, and seven years after; or if these terms did not i. 641. extend to so much, at all events to forty-two years.1 1 lx. 1429, Pol. Dict. 63. on this Act. There can be no doubt that this was a very important step in the right direction, and far more for the inte- Reflections rests of nations than those of literary men the beneficial effects of the change are already apparent, and are becoming more so every day. The extension of the power of reading to the great body of the people, and the great increase which has consequently taken place in the sale of publications, has indeed put an end to the degrading patronage of rank and power to genius which was felt as so painful by the authors in the time of Queen Anne, and appears so strongly in the fulsome flattery of their dedications. The public has become the great patron, and superseded all others. But the change has only enhanced the dangers to which philosophic thought and literary effort are exposed. The public is a jealous mistress, and very little experience is required to show that incessant flattery is the best passport to her favours. The servility of the press to the reigning multitude in democratic communities, is at least equal to all that ever was shown to powerful ministers or charming duchesses;-witness the press of republican France in former CHAP. days, of republican America, and a large part of it in this country in these times. XLI. 1842. 64. of the dan rature. Sir R. Peel, 353. This evil is of the most serious kind, and it is constantly increasing with the extension of education, and Extension the augmentation of the number of readers; for that gers of lite- only multiplies the numbers to whom the flattering unction must be applied. "No man," says Goethe, “ever spoke for half an hour to a mixed audience without flattering them, that he was not thought tedious." This is not less true of writers than speakers. "Democracy," says Guizot," has two grave faults; it aspires passionately to rule without control, and it is constantly governed by the interests and passions of the moment. To judge by the experience of the past, it is of all the social powers the most exacting and unforeseeing-that which is most jealous of limits or division of power, and also that which is most exclusively governed by present 1 Guizot, fancies, without a thought either of the past or the future." The only way in which it is possible to prevent literature from falling in with and aggravating this perilous tendency in numerous and highly-educated communities, is to give authors an interest in the approbation of future times, and thereby emancipate them from the dominion of the present. Unless this is done, the standard literature of the country, like the daily or monthly press, will be entirely devoted to inflaming the passions and aggravating the prejudices of the moment. Truth is always distasteful in the outset of its career to the majority witness the reception of the discovery of the motions of the earth by Galileo, of the circulation of the blood by Harvey, of the system of the heavens by Copernicus and Newton. The Cross itself, which was to save the world, was borne in pain and sorrow by our Saviour: "Crucify him! crucify him!" was the universal cry. So different is the first impulse of the multitude from the ultimate conclusions of reason. No state of things can be conceived more perilous; and if it is of long XLI. 1842. continuance, it may come to give awful meaning to the CHAP. banishment of mankind from paradise in consequence of eating of the fruit of the tree of knowledge. But as certainly as prejudice and passion govern mankind in regard to the present, so reason and truth prevail in the end. "Magna est veritas et prævalebit" is a maxim of universal truth and application; and the only way to prevent it, to rule in the end the thoughts of men, is to give authors a durable interest in the publication of their thoughts, and thereby relieve them from the necessity of flattering only present passions or interests. 65. In January 1841, Mr O'Connell said at a meeting of the Repeal Association in Ireland, "I shall for my part The Temvote for the Whigs to keep them in; but I tell them hon- Movement estly and firmly they have lost altogether the hearts of the in Ireland. Irish people, and nothing but the LOUD CRY FOR REPEAL shall henceforth be heard among us. I did not resume the repeal agitation till I saw how utterly unable the Whigs were to effect anything." The first step in this movement was to collect money, the sinews of war, and this was done in a very curious way, highly characteristic of the ascendant which O'Connell and the priesthood had acquired over the entire Catholic population. The sum paid in Ireland for ardent spirits, not less than from £4,000,000 to £5,000,000 annually, presented a fund of vast amount, and perfectly equal to the necessities of the case, if any considerable part of it could be realised. Great as was the influence of the Agitator with his countrymen, however, this was effected to a most surprising degree by supplanting one passion by another the desire for drink by the thirst for independence. To divert the funds hitherto wasted in the public-house into the coffers of the Repeal Association was the great object, and this was done by a movement veiled under the guise of philanthropy, which for a time was attended with surprising success. The temperance movement began. Father Mathew, a monk of ardent XLI. 1842. CHAP. disposition, nervous eloquence, and enthusiastic philanthropy, was the soul of the movement. The benevolent ecclesiastic was the unsuspecting hand by which the Catholic hierarchy carried on their projects of converting the surplus funds of Irish labour to the purposes of repeal agitation. The effect of his heart-stirring eloquence was at first prodigious; it recalled the days when Peter the Hermit roused the dormant energies of Europe in behalf of the Holy Land. Multitudes rushed forward everywhere to take the temperance pledge from the hands of the great apostle of sobriety. Fifty thousand met him here, forty thousand there; his journeys resembled rather the progress of a mighty conqueror than the movements of a humble priest bent only on an errand of mercy. Such was the enthusiasm excited, so general the transports, that the consumption of spirits in Ireland fell off in one year iii. 60; Ann. from 10,000,000 to 3,000,000 gallons, and no small part 248, Chron. of the embarrassment of the English treasury arose from the sudden temperance of the people of Ireland.1 1 Mart. ii. 296, 297; Hall's Ire land, ii. 36, Reg. 1839, 66. and decline of the movement. It has often been remarked, that whenever the people Progress give over fighting at fairs in Ireland, you may be sure that some serious outbreak is in contemplation, and Government will do well to stand on their guard. Never was this truth more clearly demonstrated than on the present occasion. The effect of the taking of the temperance pledge by two millions of men in the first instance was immense. Serious crime rapidly diminished, as it will always do when by any means a check is given, even for a time, to the dreadful passion for ardent spirits. The judges everywhere congratulated the grand juries on the lightness of the calendar; predial outrages declined, and the philanthropic and inexperienced began to indulge the pleasing hope that, by the zeal of a benevolent friar, an antidote had at length been discovered for the most demoralising social corruption of civilised man. It must be confessed that the returns of crime in Ireland for some years seemed to justify the anticipation. Convictions decreased But all these CHAP. XLI. 1842. from 12,000 in 1839 to 8000 in 1844.* movements, originating in sudden conversion, not lasting changes of habit, are merely temporary in their operation, and not unfrequently are followed by a reaction which renders matters worse than they had been before the change commenced. When the political and sacerdotal objects for which the movement had been set on foot had ceased, and the repeal agitation had failed, the temperance movement came to an end, and was succeeded by the darkest era ever known of Irish suffering and crime. The reaction in favour of whisky became as strong as the movement in favour of temperance ever had been. The annual consumption of spirits rose again to 12,000,000 gallons, and with it, aided by the terrible calamities of 1846 and 1847, swelled the rolls of crime to 1840, 624. an unprecedented amount.1 + 1 Mart. ii. 296, 297; Porter, 668; Ann. Reg. 67. ment of the tation. It soon appeared to what purpose the large funds rendered available by the temperance movement, while it Commencelasted, were to be turned by the Irish agitators. No sooner Repeal agidid it appear that the fate of the Whigs was sealed, and that Sir Robert Peel was to succeed to the helm, than his support of the Government ceased, and O'Connell commenced a guerre à mort against England and everything belonging to it. His first move was to endeavour to exclude English manufactures from the country; but that attempt soon failed among a people for the most |