them; and to do it whether the issue be that you die or live, no life worthy the name will ever be possible to you, while, in once forming the resolution that your work is to be well done, life is really won, here and for ever. And to make your children capable of such resolution, is the beginning of all true education, of which I have more to say in a future letter.1

1 [See below, Letter xvi.; and on the ethical basis of education, compare the Preface to Unto this Last (above, p. 21 n.).]

LETTER IV

The Expenses for Art and for War

66

February 19, 1867.

15. IN the Pall Mall Gazette of yesterday, second column of second page, you will find, close to each other, two sentences which bear closely on matters in hand. The first of these is the statement, that in the debate on the grant for the Blacas collection,' " Mr. Bernal Osborne got an assenting cheer, when he said that whenever science and art were mentioned it was a sign to look after the national pockets.' I want you to notice this fact, i.e., (the debate in question being on a total grant of £164,000, of which £48,000 only were truly for art's sake, and the rest for shop's sake,) in illustration of a passage in my Sesame and Lilies, pp. 81 and 82,* to which I shall have again to refer you, with some further comments, in the sequel of these letters. The second passage is to the effect that "The Trades' Union Bill was read a second time, after a claim from Mr. Hadfield, Mr. Osborne, and Mr. Samuelson, to

8

* Appendix I. [p. 465].

[This famous collection of classical and early Christian antiquities, formed by successive Dukes of Blacas, was acquired by the Museum in 1867. It was especially rich in coins and gems. Ruskin, no doubt, was specially interested in the matter through his friend, C. T. Newton (Vol. VIII. p. 239 n.), who, as Keeper of the Department of the Museum principally concerned, had negotiated the purchase.] [Ruskin's references were to the first edition; see now § 33 (Vol. XVIII. p. 87).1 3 [See § 72; below, p. 378.]

2

[This was a Bill for facilitating the proceedings of the Commission appointed (in consequence of repeated outrages in connexion with labour disputes) to inquire respecting trades unions and other associations of employers and workmen." The Bill was read a second time on February 18, and received the royal assent on April 5, 1867 (30 Vic. c. 8).]

admit working men into the commission; to which Mr. Watkin answered that the working men's friend was too conspicuous in the body'; and Mr. Roebuck, that when a butcher was tried for murder it was not necessary to have butchers on the jury.""

16. Note this second passage with respect to what I said in my last letter, as to the impossibility of the laws of work being investigated in the House of Commons. What admixture of elements, think you, would avail to obtain so much as decent hearing (how should we then speak of impartial judgment?) of the cause of working men, in an assembly which permits to one of its principal members this insolent discourtesy of language, in dealing with a preliminary question of the highest importance; and permits it as so far expressive of the whole colour and tone of its own thoughts, that the sentence is quoted by one of the most temperate and accurate of our daily journals, as representing the total answer of the opposite side in the debate? No! be assured you can do nothing yet at Westminster. You must have your own parliament, and if you cannot detect enough honesty among you to constitute a justly minded one, for the present matters must take their course, and that will be, yet awhile, to the worse.

17. I meant to have continued this subject, but I see two other statements in the Pall Mall Gazette of to-day, with which, and a single remark upon them, I think it will be well to close my present letter.

(1) "The total sum asked for in the army estimates, published this morning, is £14,752,200, being an increase of £412,000 over the previous year."

(2) "Yesterday the annual account of the navy receipts and expenditure for the year ending 31st March, 1866, was issued from the Admiralty. The expenditure was £10,268,115, 7s."

Omitting the seven shillings, and even the odd hundredthousands of pounds, the net annual expenditure for army and navy appears to be twenty-four millions.

The "grant in science and art," two-thirds of which was not in reality for either, but for amusement and shop interests in the Paris Exhibition-the grant which the House of Commons feels to be indicative of general danger to the national pockets-is, as above stated, £164,000. Now, I believe the three additional ciphers which turn thousands into millions produce on the intelligent English mind usually the effect of-three ciphers. But calculate the proportion of these two sums, and then imagine to yourself the beautiful state of rationality of any private gentleman, who, having regretfully spent £164 on pictures for his walls, paid willingly £24,000 annually to the policeman who looked after his shutters! You practical English!-will you ever unbar the shutters of your brains, and hang a picture or two in those state-chambers?

LETTER V1

The Corruption of Modern Pleasure.-(Covent Garden Pantomime)

February 25, 1867.2

18. THERE is this great advantage in the writing real letters, that the direct correspondence is a sufficient reason for saying, in or out of order, everything that the chances of the day bring into one's head, in connection with the matter in hand; and as such things very usually go out of one's head again, after they get tired of their lodging, they would otherwise never get said at all. And thus to-day, quite out of order, but in very close connection with another part of

[This letter was also sent to the Pall Mall Gazette, where it appeared with the following covering letter on March 1, 1867 :

AT THE PLAY

To the Editor of the "Pall Mall Gazette”

“SIR,—I am writing a series of private letters on matters of political economy to a working man in Newcastle, without objecting to his printing them, but writing just as I should if they were for his eye only. I necessarily take copies of them for reference, and the one I sent him last Monday seems to me not unlikely to interest some of your readers who care about modern drama. So I send you the copy of it to use if you like. Truly yours, J. RUSKIN.

"DENMARK HILL, Feb. 28, 1867."

This covering letter was reprinted in Arrows of the Chace, 1880, vol. ii. p. 270. Mr. Frederick Greenwood, editor of the Pall Mall Gazette at that time, quoted some passages from the following letter (those referring to the Japanese jugglers), in the course of an article entitled "The Makers of a New World," in The Pilot of March 5, 1904.]

2 [The letter, as sent to Mr. Dixon, began as follows:

"I have yours of the 22nd, and I think all you propose about printing, etc., very right; and I am heartily obliged to you for your kind offer to copy the passages here and there referred to, but it will not be necessary for you to do that work; as you wish to have them, I will get them copied here, and send them with the letters: sometimes there may be bits to be added from other places, or without harm omitted, which I can see to better than I can direct you what to take sentence by sentence. "There is this great advantage. . . "]