The Express.
London, England, 1863-07-03 00:00:00

LYCXI7II,

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LONDON, FRIDAY, JULY 3.

THE House of Commons was asked last night to
unction one of the most flagrant and discreditable,
as well as one of the moat gigantic jobs that •
pococurank government in an hour of weakness
was ever induced to countenance. The agents
and instigators of the audacious proposal to saddle
the nation with a vast pile of useless building,
that is simply a hideous incumbrance to the
ground on which it stands, may congratulate them-
selves on their unscrupulous pertinacity, though hap-
pily
not on their success. Undeterred by the loud,
the unanimous, and justly indignant voice of public
opinion, by any latent sense of decency and self-
respect, or by any concern for the public inte-
rmits, they have pushed their scheme to its last
issue, and compelled an unwilling and impatient
Parliament to listen to their terms. Nor,
in order that the cup of national humilia-
tion might be filled to the brim, have
they hesitated to inflict the last indignity
on the Government that in an evil hour had un-
happily consented to become their instrument.
Not content with making Lord PiLmsturroit an
object of ridicule to Parliament and the country,
they determined to sacrifice to their scheme the
character and reputation of his moat distin-
guished colleagues. And, so far as the formal
defence of such • proposal could effect this object,
they have succeeded. The final development of
this deep-laid conspiracy against the public inte-
rest witnessed in the House of Commons last
night was all the more humiliating from the fact
that one of the most gifted, independent, and high-
minded members of the Government was core•
polled to become the chief actor in the scene.
Mr. Giros-rose is to be sincerely pitied for the
position to which he was reduced as the mouth-
piece of an intriguing clique, the advocate of a
shameless job. SAMSON shorn of his strength,
the light of his natural vision extinguished, and
his limbs heavily fettered, grinding in the mill
of the Philistines, fitly represents the Cit•ztcar ins.
of the Exciazquita labouring to prove that a pile
of rubbish is worth a heap of gold ; that in-
curable ugliness and deformity are not incom-
patible with true beauty and proportion ; and that
the fragments of a temporary shed may be easily
converted into noble public buildings, into
national galleries and museums of the most conve-
nient, becoming, and permanent kind. In justice
to Mr. Girt:wows, however, it ought to be added,
that at every point of his laboured address he be-
trayed a depressing and almost painful conscious-
ness of the false position in which, as the represen-
tative of the public interests, he stood, and the
very doubtful kind of work he had reluctantly
undertaken to do—a consciousness very audibly
shared by members on both sides of an unusually
crowded house. People out of doors will naturally
inquire why, in the face of an adverse public
opinion, of unexampled strength and unani-
mity, and in opposition to an overwhelming array
of adverse facts, Mr. GL•neroNE should have con-
sented to move in the matter at all. What in-
fluences, it will be asked, have been at work to
bring about this strange result—to induce the
Government at large to take up such a despe-
rate scheme, and force its leading representatives to
become its apologists and defenders f We do not
pretend to answer this question. The gentlemen
of the South Kensington persuasion are no doubt
powerful, if not in numbers, at least in influence,
in compact organization, and in the unscrupulous
pertinacity they display in pushing forward their
designs. But they are not popular, and it would
be well for them to learn in time not to ride their
hobbies too hard, to show some respect for opinfon,
and to be rather more cautious in future as
to the use they make of their power. Nothing is
so likely to produce a strong reaction in the public
mind against the whole Department of Science and
Art, and turn public feeling against even the very
useful institution that now exists at South Kensing-
ton, as such attempts to carry out useless and extra-
vagant projects at the public expense. The
attempt in the present instance has happily failed,
as it was sure to do. But it ought to serve as a
warning to all who are disposed to carry out
stupendous private or sectional jobs by means of
the public funds.

The arguments urged from the Treasury Bench
in favour of the rejected proposal will not bear a
moment's serious examination. Mr. GLaDerromt's
unequalled power of statement and inexhaustible
ingenuity utterly failed to bestow upon them even
a momentary plausibility. Though the ob-
noxious proposals he had to make were urged with
the utmost caution and dexterity, his strongest
arguments excited only smiles of incredulity
and ironical cheers. He showed at the outset
a keen sense of the difficult and dangerous navi-
gation he was attempting by lightening the ship
as much as possible. The domes and nave, cement
and stucco, brick and stone, and external orna-
mentation of every kind, were thrown overboard
with ominous promptitude. Every stitch of