["Mr. HENRY BLACKBURN, lecturing at the London Institution, Finsbury
Circus, said English people were not an artistic nation, and instead
of getting better, they appeared to be rapidly getting worse. The
author of the present day was losing the sincerity and the
individuality which ought to characterise him.--_Daily Paper._"]
Oh, gaily did we hasten to the London Institution,
Expecting some amusement in our inartistic way,
And little did we reckon on the awful retribution
Which Mr. HENRY BLACKBURN had in store for us that day.
We'd fondly looked towards him for an eulogistic blessing,
But got instead a general and comprehensive curse,
We are, as he informed us, with an emphasis distressing,
By nature inartistic, and are daily getting worse.
Thereafter he directed magisterial attention
Upon the hapless authors who a fleeting fame had got;
He drew no nice distinctions, nor selected some for mention,
But, with superb simplicity, he just condemned the lot.
Every man of them is sinning with an ignorance persistent,
Poet, novelist and critic, or whatever be their sphere,
Their "individuality" is almost non-existent,
And only on occasions, if at all, are they "sincere."
Well, what, then, is the remedy? Will Mr. BLACKBURN fix it?
Must all our fiction travel from the cultured Continent?
Or dares we snap our fingers at this haughty _ipse dixit_,
And read our inartistic books in very great content?
* * * * *
MR. PERKS, M.P., has undertaken to bring in a Bill for "the Abolition of
Registrars at Nonconformist Marriages." If successful, the Ministers will
lose their "Perks."
* * * * *