ae 
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KIDD’S OWN JOURNAL. 

WORKS OF ART AND FUBLIC MORALS. 
MOST SiNCERELY DO WE REJOICE in giving 
utterance to the expressed thoughts of 
our confrére, the Editor of the “ Liverpool 
Mercury,” on the subject of what is known 
as mock-modesty. : 
The amiable Milton has said :— 
“ Goodness thinks no ill where no ill seems.” 
But WE refined, double-refined (ad 
nauseam!) creatures; foul in thought,—im- 
pure in heart,-—filthy im imagination, turn all 
we see of Nature’s beauty into wickedness ! 
We batten on what is unclean, and politely 
hand Satana chair to sit down in. If he 
be neutral, we then drag him into his seat. 
And these are the people who would be 
thought moral—religious—upright ! Heaven 
looks on, patiently ; but—. Here, without 
further comment, let usappend our fellow 
laborer’s noble remarks. ‘They appeared in 
the “ Liverpool Mercury,” Nov. 11th :— 
There are “some people” who get through a 
great deal of work in the course of the day, and 
find time fora little relaxation also. They are 
very clever people; and, if their work is well 
done, very industrious and praiseworthy people. 
One of these, a lady who is the mother of a large 
family, finds time, after a due discharge of her 
maternal duties, to write to a London con- 
temporary—a religious (!) journal—on the vice and 
temptation engendered by the exhibition of works 
of art—“‘ Greek slaves,” and such like statues ! 
The newspaper, honored with this com- 
munication (also most remarkable for its house- 
wifely industry), takes occasion, in expressing 
fervent approbation of the iconoclastic letter, to 
preach a short homily on “low dresses,” and, 
with its ordinary contempt for worldly verity, 
asserts that this shocking fashion comes through 
our frequent intercourse with the Continent ! 
Now, we are not careful to answer in such 
matters; though we cannot help thinking of 
the little milliner behind the screen, when such 
Surface-like prudery intrudes itself. But we do 
desire to remark, that there are in existence 
undeniable forms of immorality and indecency, 
which appear to be forgotten in these coteries. 
It seems to be utterly unnoticed, that vice is 
walking abroad without drapery ; that ignorance 
appears,—not in the unadorned beauty of the 
“Greek Slave,” but in its own coarse nudity ; 
and that misery has no covering. 
It appears not to be remembered, that in every 
great town (and in rural cottages also), poverty 
prevents decency; and that all distinction of sex 
is impossible. While people are publishing prurient 
Puritanism, there is that looking in at their 
windows, and knocking at their doors, which 
should indeed make virtue blush. On the straw 
bed, and on the cold but cleaner pavement, there 
is that which they may well be ashamed to look at. 
While they are discoursing on what they can- 
not understand—for the beautiful is far above 
their conception—there is that, which even dul- 
ness can read, appealing in mute eloquence to 
their frigid feelings. But, it may be, tliis delicacy, | popular ‘here, has broken out in full force 

which sits simpering in drawing-rooms, does not 
know of these things. For the sake of woman- 
hood, we hope it is so. Ladies of this class have 
“so much to do” that it is possible they are 
ignorant. [Isit!] But if they do know,—theu 
are they without excuse. 
So far from “ Art” tending to immorality, it is 
the mother of sublime thought; and the creator 
of bright and chaste ideas. If we had more gal- 
leries of sculpture and painting cpen to the people, 
we should have more rational refinement. Even 
in the classes which are called ‘t educated,” the 
heart and the imagination are too often untaught. 
And, what is worse, their natural qualities are 
not permitted to develop themselves. We have 
been called a nation of shopkeepers, and we are 
regarded as proud and austere. Ifthere be any 
truth in the taunt, it is owing very much to 
the uncultivated charities of life ;—and more 
especially in the sex whose influence is, or ought 
to be, the sunshine of the English home. 
If art and poetry were more cherished among 
us, we should be altogether a wiser and a better 
people ; and the religion whose pseudo-professors 
are opposing this, and all other education, could 
then rejoice that Christianity and civilisation 
were coming forward together. 
We repeat it,—we rejoice to see yet 
another honest champion siding with our- 
self, “ WALTER,” “Argus,” “ ARCHER,” and 
Co.—to stem the torrent of folly and madness 
that seems to whirl society forward to their 
impending destruction. 
LIFE—AT HOME AND ABROAD. 
“FACTS ” FROM AUSTRALIA. 
‘Tt is not all coup that glitters.”’ 


OuR READERS HAVE, long since, been put 
in possession of our private thoughts upon 
fortune-hunters—people who, wiilst doing 
comparatively well here, yet persisted m 
trying to do “better” abroad. The thirst 
for “gold” we have proved to carry with it 
its own punishment. Its worshippers have 
fallen by the thousand—-fallen, to rise no 
more in this world. 
The subjoined “illustrations” of what is 
now the game in Australia, are entitled to a 
place in Our JourNAL. They may be 
“useful,” as well as interesting. They were 
penned a few months since, and addressed 
by an emigrant to his friend in England,— 
dated “from my tent and home on the sandy 
beach of Port Phillip.” 
The writer is an out-and-outer of his class. 
Steeped in trouble, and with a dreary pros- 
pect, yetis he jovial withal. It willbe seen, 
that he is now trying to make ugly faces, 
with a view to qualify himself for being a 
“comic singer.” His comicalities are to 
produce him six pounds per week. Pending 
this, he hints at a future touch at Electro- 
Biology. [t seems this humbug— once so 




