ld find his imagination fail him if he tried to realize in his mind
the idea of the British public waiting for its morning {98} newspaper
several hours while the censor was crawling over its columns to find
out whether they contained anything that could bring a blush to the
cheek of a young person. It would be ridiculous to put in force a
censorship for books which had no application to newspapers. But it is
quite easy to maintain a certain form of censorship over the theatres.
The number of plays brought out in a year is comparatively small. The
preparation for each new play after it has been written and has passed
altogether out of its author's hands must necessarily take some time,
and there is hardly any practical inconvenience, therefore, in its
being submitted to the Lord Chamberlain for his approval. But then
comes the question, Is the censorship of any use? Are we any the
better for having it? Should we not get on just as well without it?
The answer, as it seems to us, ought to be that the censorship is on
the whole of some use; that we are better with it than without it. It
would be idle to contend that it is of any great service to public
morality in the higher sense, but is certainly of considerable
advantage as a safeguard to public decency and decorum. The censorship
of the stage in England to-day does not pretend to be a guardian of
public morality. In all that relates to the higher moral law the
public must take care of itself. Let us give one or two illustrations.
Many sincere and not unintelligent persons firmly believe that the
cause of public morality is injured by the representation of any play
in which vice of a certain kind is brought under public notice, even
though the object of the play may be to condemn the vice it exposes;
but no censor of plays now would think of refusing to permit the
performance of "Othello" on that account. To take a lower
illustration: many people believe, and on better ground, that such a
piece as "The Lady of Lyons" is injurious to public morals, because in
that play the man who makes himself a leading actor in an infamous
fraud becomes glorified into a hero and wins fame, fortune, and wife in
the end. But no censor would think of refusing to allow the
performance of "The Lady of Lyons." The {99} censor regards it as his
duty to take care that indecent words are not spoken, and that what
society considers indecent dressing is not exhibited. That is not
much