STREET PREACHERS AND ORGAN GRINDERS.

Southland Times, Volume 2, Issue 98, 7 October 1863, Page 5 (Supplement)

STREET PREACHERS AND ORGAN GRINDERS.

3 (From the Wcelcl 9 Bespatch) \ ? Deafness is generally «*>« d«^ a•tune -could be P T SSI Xnr s sa?e of sound, through •reslmg thepassa the sensoriura . .would be almost : worth hi. calculating. wouaotJ be the Qnl maC whereby It «an be possible for hh -idea.. There -,* iTwever, unfortunately, one important class of persons who would by no means appreciate the advantages of an appatSus for producing deafness at will. The majority Of the House of •-Commons innears to be endowed with ears whose length greatly exceeds their senstove- ° The resemblance of hon. memhers'to Midas was apparent in the generr al merriment, or rather perhaps, deri*ioa, which was evoked the other evenin<* by the -complaints of Mr Bass respecting the nuisance of street music. The member for Derby said that on the | mornioir o( that very day he found four bands all at work together in Eaton Square and its neighborhood, _one in front of the residence of Sir Richard I Mayne, and another before that of the \ Home Secretary. The House laughed. He stated that Mr Babbage had told : him that one fourth of his time was j consumed by the hindrances occasioned l>y street bands, and that -in the course; of a few days he was interrupted 182 ttimes. The House laughed anrain. He informed them that the 'late Lord Canning told Sir Richard Mayne that <on one occasion, while writinga despatch -of great importance, a serious error occurred owing to a noise created by a 'band under his window. A lau<>h was 'the comment of the Collective "Wisdom •on this information. A serious error in a despatch occasioned by a street baud is a bit of fun which, however diverting •to the House of Commons, would perOiaps be more suitable for the amusement of an audience in another place — namely, not the House of Lords, but •one of (lie theatres, where, in a pantomime next Christmas, it will perhaps be played off as a fool's trick by Messrs rClowu and Pantaloon — possibly with •the permission of the Lord Chamberlain, Mr Bass expressed the opinion that people gave the street bands money to get rid of them, not because they <3 iked their music — nobody could like it. •At this remark the Third Estate once j more burst out laughing. Had he proceeded to move that any measure be Biaken for the abatement of a nuisance insufferable to almost every intelligent man, he would probably have excited ■Parliamentary laughter so violent that it would have been dangerous ; like that 'which nearly choked Mr Weller, sen. Tho speech of Lord Fermoy, in opposition to Mr Bass, was also hailed with some laughter, but the laughter was •in what any rational creature must con sider the wrong place. He maintained that 'the existing law was sufficiently stringent. The House did not laugh •at that. He alleged that Mr Babbage had put the law, as it exists, in force" on several occasions. No laughter was occasioned by the exposition of this idea of injustice. He urged that no person had a right to interfere with the innocent tastes of his neighbour. By calling a taste which one person indulges to the destruction of another person's comfort, and the interruption of his business, innocqnt, Lord Fermoy failed to create any laughter. So he did when he spoke of street organgrinding as a legitimate occupation. But wheu he observed that huge drays full of beer-barrels were a serious annoyance and inconvenience, even though the name of Bass might be inscribed on them, then, indeed, the legislators laughed again. Mr C. Bentinck, also, by the simple statement of the annoyance inflicted on himself by. street musicians, afforded considerable mirth to the House of Commons. He said that he lived in a thoroughfare infested with bands, ■organs, wandering minstrels, negro melodists, and , every other species of Jnusician. One band sometimes played fifty yards to the right of his door, another at an equal distance to the left, with wandering minstrels performing Jn between. This plain statement of a plague raised a peal of laughter. Street music, he observed, not only prevented people from obtaining rest and quiet, it disturbed them in making calculations, or even when studying their speeches. More laughter; of course redoubled when the honorable member suggested that it would be very disagreeable to Lord Palmerston to be disturbed in Downing-street by a street band playing "Awa', Whigs, awa'.' 1 Not any laughter, however, followed the observation of Mr Bruce, that he did Mot thiDk it desirable that it should be placed in the power of every churlish person, or every man who happened to be busy, to drive music out of the streets. The House perceived nothing ridiculous in the equality of disregard thus represented as alike due to " every churlish person,'' and to "every man 3tfho happened to be busy.'' But it would, no doubt, laugh heartily at being Reminded that street music affords no very great enjoyment to anybody, even to nursemaids and children, whilst it inflicts yery great injury, as -well as irritation, on many men whose living depends on the undisturbed operations of their intellect. • There is a class of public disturbers

i to whom the police is somewhat less indulgent than it is to organ-grinders and 1 cither musical pests. A' band, it seems, may play under Sir Richard 'Maynefs window. Perhaps even the bagpipe itself might <be suffered to sing iHh' nose of the Arch-policeman. But the police, it seems, have orders to bid all street-preaeh^rs to move on, and to take them up if they will not. The Rev. Richard SHibbs — & Church of England clergyman — was pulled up Qn Tuesday, last for preaching the Gospel on the previous Sunday in Witerlooplace. True, the case was ultimately: dismissed ; but the reverend gentleman ; was told by the magistrate, in effect, tliat he could not be permitted to awaken sinners in the streets to the disturb- '. anceofthe neighbours. Inspector Wilson said that he had acted under the written instructions of Sir Richard Maynej which were to request the preachers to go away, and if they persisted in preaching, to take them into custody. Unquestionably street-preaching is a great bore. The inspector stated that the inhabitants of Car lton- terrace and the members of the Athenaeum Club had complained that they were compelled either to close their windows in the hot weather or endure the noise made by half-a-dozen preachers who occupied the ground in succession from 3 o'clock in the afternoon till 10 at -night. It may be conceived that this noise is very dreadful. A witness for the defendant, a Mr Brook, observed in evidence that "As for the Athenaeum Club, it was well tha t they should close their windows, and their blinds too, to hide their profanity, for they read the newspapers on the Sabbath-day, and set a frightful example to others.'' The horror, rage and fury which the spectacle of a member of the Athenaeum reading the Dispatch or tire Saturday Meview with a pot of beer, perhaps, before him, at his club-house window, would excite in the mind of a Sabbatarian preacher, would probably cause him to utter a frightful howling, which would be most offensive to all the neighborhood. Still an open air preacher may discourse reason and religion as well as rant, and unless in league with the swell mob, is at least a more respectable disturber than an Italian organist. The Rev. Mr Hibbs pleaded his mission, the call which he had declared himself to have experienced at his ordination, the examples of the Rev. AVrottesley Russell and the Bishop of London, and his want of a pulpit. He had something to say fer the' disturbance which he created by preaching V<£ mild si non evangelizavero. Let the police remove roisy textgrinders by all means ; but let them also remove noisy organ-grinders. Legislation has silenced the not very dreadful bell of the dustman and the muffinman. The House of Commons may laugh ; but it might just as well silence the truly horrible drone of the grinding organ.