Show JAMES BENNETT an english Enell bli bly opinion or of the voucher af ol 01 the new york fork herald N new york tork may lie jie congratulated on shaving within a short period lost two of its foremost lore moet citizens fisk was shot a few months ago and it is perhaps from one point of view an encouraging circumstance that there should be buch such general reluctance to baug bang the murderer james gordon bennett has died a natural death but unfortunately his newspaper survives bim him in his own way ho he was as quite a great man we are thinking of the jonathan wild sense as flik fit k but he kept on the safe side of the law aud and lie he was spared the expense of having to share his plunder with the judger his career Is a conspicuous example of prosperous 1 in 1 11 fapay tamy an ame AmO american rican apologist has bugge suggested ed that hib his character might be described its a goldga good aa far as it went but 11 defective ai he was shrewd enterprising Bing sing audacious liberal visit him and sout youl fand aind a quiet and good natured old gentleman who is on excellent terms with himself and with the world but beyond that there was a blank that region of the mind where convict convictions ious the benee sense of truth and honor public spirit and pa have their sphere is in this mall mau mere more vacancy he was in fact an utterly unscrupulous person who had no desire to do evil for its own sake but who made up his mind to push his way in the world and who was ready leady to follow any road that seemed to suit his purpose it was hib bib combination bina tion tiou of rare shrewdness and profligate audacity which abich rendered his example so corrupting and dauge dangerous rous tous when in the course of some quarrel his hib adversary called him a peddler he abonce at once onee adopted the name hollwed ho peddled yie yle be lie said in thoughts and aind feelings ings and aud intellectual tr truths buths ard atad he wab was going anfor jn for a 8 wholes wholesale aie ate bu business in the same line A peddler hasa basa baba a prescriptive E right to call his wares by such nalrie s as he be pleases but the commodities out of which bennett began to make bib hib fortune were in plain ian iari guage obscenity and personal defamation the new york 11 herald erald which lie he invented nud aud ud continued to manage to the last hour of his lire ilfe was at ferat an obscene print sold at a cent printed by stealth on other pee types and published in a cillar theoffice the ube office of the herald is now one of the grandest houses bouses on broadway the paper itself is one of the richest lite Itte literary rury properties in the world and it has cast off the revolting grose of its early yearb sears earb ears but it has always al ivans been conducted on the same principle the principle providing of or anything that seemed likely to pay without regard to the moral texture of the article when buch such men as bennett and fisk are mentioned americans have a stereotyped reply which they never fail fall to dae tise idse no doubt they say these men were scoundrels an ani i found great scope for their but they were riot not received into society fisk it is true yas was jor jon for fon a alme aime master of new york i and nd taxed robbed a and nd PI plundered I 1 aade pleased bud buc respectable people e did ld nod ask nim him to din diu dinner and arld so with 1 1 ba bennett he ha made wade a great fortune and ahia in nin c certain ways exercised od enor onor itibus moua mii Mil influence dende dendo but neither be nor his paper had any social standing gf the herald had a vast circulation but in good milies families la it was hot not taken in it seems to us impossible to doubt that these men meu could not flourish althey as they do unless there was something congenial in the composition and atmosphere of the society iu in which they move bennett D tatt himself was s certainly not an Ameil american eau ean product for he was a scotchman and mhd there re is no reason to suppose thethis athis th that hib hla character would have been in ID any way dimmie diffie different rent from what it was wab wherever he had bad established himself but it may be doubted whether the continued and prosperous existence of such a paper as the berald herald is fully accounted counted for by the accia accidental arrival of an unprincipled scotchman in new york we cm only say that in point of fact no such journal as far as we are aware has ever made its appearance in any other country it I 1 is only shifting we the ground of argument to say that a newspaper newa paper of enormous enoi circulation is lif ile artely artily despised by those who buy it and read it the truth would seem to be that the expression of public opinion in america is to a great extent divorced from actual conviction and is enjoyed merely as a stimulant people there read a newspaper just as they go to athe bar fora for a mint julep or a brandy anis bir alf and anything sharr ehard and strong will answer the purpose it would be unfair to american journalism to bug buk gest that the herald Is or was for we have been speaking chiefly of its past a fair tair representative of the press of that country there are journals of undoubted ability and integrity in the city of pibil and bennett Ben nett neti but the success of what haa bas been called bennett ism is a fact which cannot begot be got pot rid of and which can hardly be regarded as a healthy symptom perhaps indeed there are some hints of the malady among ourselves which should not be overlooked saturday preview ide JRe view |