The Express.
London, England, 1863-09-26 00:00:00

8117 A :CT±IA.

TOP BVOIfa. LADY AUDLEYS 8E :RET. THE. GMAT
GHOST ZYPECT. Maed•mee Crautord and Yaroold.—Hr.
Parker. Mine. Plena, and W. Raudall.—Aad GBILEN
LANIS AND BLUE 0 Argus.

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Toacimair —Timis& 1. Ileak.....4lameath it 17a.

LONDON, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBAR 26.

To be born to a great name and estate is not
usually regarded as a moral disability in this
country ; yet it sometimes happens that to be born
to the name and estate of a great man is a burden
of honour and advantage under which small men
sink. We have heard of • " great tragedian" whose
only genius consisted in bearing his father's name,
regretting, with a simple vanity delightful to wit-
ness, the disadvantage under which he laboured
in his profession as the son of an illustrious father;
he felt himself buried alive under the still warm
ashes of that great author of his being and his
reputation, but not of his badness as an actor.
This was very harmless vanity in • distinguished
member of a profession which, above all others,
lives, and breathes, and moves in an atmosphere
of illusions. Nor, indeed, was this "great trage-
" dian," who was, if possible, even more acutely
conscious of his father's genius than of his own,
entirely the victim of self-conceit. For, in truth,
his father's name was at once an impulse to his
career and an obstacle to the recognition of any
individual genius which he might have possessed,
and which, in one man's opinion at all events, he
did posses. His father's name made him and
" undid him quite." The public accepted him on
trust, but the critics made odious comparisons.
Ws should be sorry to offend the dignity of History,
but a recent scene in the Town Hall of Tamworth
has forcibly reminded us of the great actor who,
by the mere memory of his name, made his son's
success, and made it an eternal joke. Only at
Tamworth the father was a great statesman, and
the son is an everlastingly "promising" jamas pre-
mier in the PALYERIITON company, with a rersain
provincial reputation which, like moat provincial
reputations, is nothing more than an uncommonly
large dose of self•esteem. One seat for the borough
of Tamworth is vacant, in the room of that kind-
hearted and impulsive legislator Lord RAY/MAX.
Two candidates are in the field, one, Mr. JOHN
Pam., a manufacturer in the neighbourhood, who
dose not appear to be snytbing but • namesake of
the late Siritosrar Pam, but who, if only a Pen
by accident, declares himself • Peelite iu politics,
and, it is quite refreshing to observe, has more
confidence in the dead than in any living Mi-
nister. There is something perhaps a I
little vague and a little narrow in the
the denomination of Peelite, since all lead-
ing political adherents and disciples of the late
Sir ROBERT Pin., including his two sons, have
joinedthenmsearroe standards. Probably the Mr.
J mar Pea in question, impressed with the conviction
that at some time or other everybody has been
related to everybody, and that noblesse oblige, is
resolved not to take the name of PEEL in vain into
the political market. The present Sir ROBEJIT
vouches for his namesake's honourable character,
though somehow or other—perhaps the case is not
altogether unprecedented or unparalleled—Sir

_ .
Rosen. is not only not the supporter, but the
active opponent of hie namesake as • candidata for
the representation of Tamworth. Sir Rome
having. of course, come over with the Conqueror,
regrets that there is not another Townes:amp
to come forward and take the vacant seat
He has the innocent weakness of men of "long
" line" for "ancestral representatives ;"but ladefault
of an ancestral representative he would have wel-
comed gladly a " stesightforward manly gentle-
" man" of opposite opinions, who came forward
on • former occasion ; indeed, he would have
welcomed almost anybody but a namesake, • Pea,
who is actually nothing but a manufacturer I
Fortunately another candidata has prenatal him-
self to the Tamworth electors, and this gentleman
—"no nominee of mine, for I g,:ve this meeting
" my ward and honour that natal that gentleman
" came forward I had not the advantage of his
" personal acquaintance "—Sir Roars; in his
capacity of "burgess of the constituency" and
" brother elector," cordially welcomes rot only as
" the popular candidate," but es his "honourable
" friend." So quickly do friendships spring up
and ripen between men of the same political
faith—the faith in Pants:anon as "the only
" statesman who can take the helm el affairs cd
" this country at this moment." Tbis popular ,
candidate is the Hon. Mr. Cowrsu, who en-
joys the local advantage of not being a namesake
Of Sir ROIIIBT PEEL, and the advantage, as "an
" independent supporter of Lord PeArsnerow," of
being • namesake of the CHLIF Colausrucares of
Worms. To the best of our belief and knowledge
—if we are wrong no doubt some Tam/rot:it
elector will be good enough to enllghten us--Mr.
Cowin, the "popular candidate" for that Slim-
trims borough, is a politician of extremely cautious
opinions for his years. At 27' even • budding Se-
cretary of State for War is sometimes a Radical.
Mr. Cowrie, if we may judge from the report of
his speech in the Taniworth Town-hall, is very well'
qualified to give a reison for the want of faith that
is in him. He addressed the electors on Wednes-
day evening with coneidersble force, pluck, and
point. He made • palpable hit in asking his
opponent, who had declared himself &supporter of
the policy of the late Sir ROUST Pau, what
phase of that policy he supported ; the policy of
the Protectionist or the Free-trader, the uncom-
promising Protestant, or the repealer of Ca-
tholic disabilities t Touching his own principles,
Mr. COWPZIt is not prepared "to remove to any
" great extent the government from the hands iu
" which it is at present ;" a variation on the
Conventioual Palmerstoniau theme, which for
aught we know may have a world of meaning
in it. He would prefer that the franchise