The Express.
London, England, 1852-11-04 00:00:00

Thrice it routed all its tom,
Acd thfice it slew the slain.

We must not be juggled. But that there is a
clear attempt to juggle, is evident by the conduct of
the Ministry to one portion of the country—their
own .upporters. It is quite certain that these
deluded husbandmen hare been led to be-
lieve, that Lord Di.any's and Mr. Dtsitat:tis aban-
donment of Protection in their public speeches
is merely a trick to blind tbo eyes of the Liberals
and Free Traders. Ministerial seducers have patted
eel taiu slow-witted bucolic' on the back, and per-
suaded them that they are the only depositaries of
the great secret that Lord DEBBI says one thing
and means another. 'The consequence has been that
our top-booted friends have turned out some of the
most able men in the old house—such as Mr. PCSILT
and Mr. Lewis —in order to send in members who
will support Lord DEturr whenever he shall think it
advisable to give the lie to his present professions.
We are glad, then, that Manchester—practical
Manchester—should enter its protest against tole-
rating an embodied falsehood at the head of the
government of this country. We insist upon the
necessity of putting au end, at once and for ever, to
a state of things in which the nation is situated with
respect to its government, u the French Republicans
before the 2nd of December with respect to the
PRESIDENT—aIways, namely, on the qni Tire for a
coup !Mat. We want all the assurance that words
can give us that Lord Deane and Mr. DISRAELI are
not going to treat our commercial charter as Louis
NAPOLEON treated the French constitution. Like
Louts NAPOLEON. the two Protectionist leaders
are ominously silent—like Louts NAPOLEON, they
allow their friends to persuade the people that
they have the greatest respect for the prin-
ciples that they hate—like LOUIS NAPOLEON,
they have the courage, at least, to execute
their plans whenever they fancy that the time is
ripe for action. Free Trade must be guaranteed,
and then other work may proceed. Bat that gua-
rantee is the first thing on hand, and mast be dis-
posed
.of "before Christmas." l'cople are. beginning
to be impatient of the delay that has taken place in
the ordinary legislative functions of the house. With
we or two exceptions, legislation for the country is
a coupe of years in arrest. In the year 1851, the
only plans where you were sure to meet enough
members to make a house was the Crystal Palace.
Instead of consulting parliamentary papers, members
were studying the Exhibition catalogue. In 1832
the two aristocratic parties in the State were occu-
pied in • series of contests, in which victory
did little more than show the weakness of the con-
queror. Each combatant fought for • prize, which,
when gained, he found wu too much for him. In
the meantime, the nation was left very much to take
ear. of itself.

Thus arrears the pre t house will have to make I
up, whilst the remarkable position of affairs, both at i
hems and abroad, will tuk all their energies to
enable them to meet the emergencies with firmness '
and mean. The army and navy absorb an ewe-
mom podia of the public menses, sad are in many
respects remarkably inefficient. The agitation coc-
ooning. Church matters—including the question of
the revival of Convocation—is assuming as ingest
aspect. A large portion of the Catholic Myram k
adopted a plan of operations which may be pales-
tive of the greatest embarrassment to the gems.
sent. Abroad, the horizon is still we misses
Louth NAPOLEOYed attitude is too myelmiens sot to
be a subject of anxiety. The ether great seardsental
powers arc one and all wableshingly mimed in
a crusade against liberty in their ars *Masi
and looking ravenously at the lbw remise ef free
institutions still existing in the smaller stales 1111.
giant, which has shown itself so well worthy of the
free eemetitatioa which it has sejeyed aims the rev°.
Intim is threatened by Frames. Piedmoot, with
the rest of Italy, is menaced also. Switzerland is in
danger. The smaller states in Germeny are bow-
ing wader the dictation of the pester • whilst
Twiny is convulsed is the preemies of Ursa, mime,
stelemet stands by ready for the Ant opportunity ef
peehing his empire farther east. These are
al important emotions. Is the penes
"allied to deal with them! The Sense ef=dele
without the Duke of WILIMPOSIO. The How
d Ommaas is without Pin. These two stiisemem
lob loft is when "ger seed is the sorsit• We
belt shoat is vas kr tray Wag Mae peeved talent
immaget des whole Illmhby, wiMit es* bawdy is
it seserted the anal eves morel-
their own
Imprensa. The aid one of govormaist will be
throws apse use mem, fall of talent bet empty of
principle—whe bus sot been Is Ass a year, and
whs. sow he lee wile his way to Abe, bpi= by
hiking dews the Wier upon whisk he semmteL
At tie very time when the Pres-tram at llab
nester were rase dig their el the DUET
ministry Mr. MACAVLATI et i, was
courting tel the we theme. is his reel brilliest
way, to his scestitsents. The hesiserabie gentleman
confesses bimaalf utterly sane to draw say
inference whatever from the @pashas ef the ministate
and their adherents en the edema of Proteedes,
while on that of Rehm be says: as I sat say that
from the present admisitratiou I is. as to that
matter. expert nothing geed. Whet lam to expect
from them preeisely I do not know—whether the
most obahnete apposition to every change, or the
molt insane sad violent slangs For when I look
to their eesdnet, I dad the greatest reasons for op.
prehending that, though they may at one time resist
the most just demands, at smother time, from the
merest caprice, they may propose the wildest inno-
vations."

And these are the men who are ruling this country
ea which—it is no exaggeration to say—the pence
of the world depends. Have we, then, &eked too
Mal ia demerg that, on one vital question at
Leak they shall be forced to speak out and be made
to Mligr an intelligible line of policy ? Free Trade
mot be numb Imre " before Christmas."

Burnam Ye head a voice at last. It speaks
thread& Sir Puss LAVIIIY.. The well-known older-
man wine amiertook to " put down" suicide by the
irseibehod, his now taken up the cudgels for Beth •
Ism t W--as our readers are aware—told what he
• hid to ten to the Court of Aldermen on Tuesday.
Biz PM* LAVlttE,—so severe to starving and
tattered culprits at the Mansion-hoagie, and so
terrible towards al: wretched creatures who d.ire
to seek an end for their troubles in the Thames,—
stands forward u the champion of the institution

whirs Miss Hymn, with other helpless wonicn,werti
"sped" and psi to sleep naked in straw " in the
bamesstat story, and where men are half garotted with
stockings, and brutally beaten by kenptirs. And " the
reason why" the Alderman updertakes this duty is
clear enough when we remember that hs is him-
self the really responsible and acting chief of
the institution. He is " President" of Bethle-
hem, and ruler not only of Mr. Treasurer
Nteitot.L.4, but of the committee, the matron,
the medical officers. the keepers, and, in short, of
the whole place. Nu ordinary governor could ever
suppose that a man of Sir PETER LAURIE'S station
and pretensions could require supervision ; and cer-
tainly no governor of moderate courage would have
ventured to put to him any awkward quo.
tioas. Wo have before explained that the
three hundred governors contribute members
for certain business committees; that the members
ea chosen have only partial authority; that practi-
eally the committees resolve themselves into a very
flew acting men; that these acting men lean in
reality very much on the Tr. &surer ; whilst the
Tlrsosurer is ruled by the President. There is, there.
gm, the very best reason why Sir PETER LAURIE
should speak at last on this occasion ; and since he
hos spoken we may inquire what he can really say
in reply to the many and heavy charges laid against ,
the institution he controls. Ile stands in truth on
his own defence. What does his defence amount to?
In the first place he regrets that no copy of the
evidence was given to the Governors—that Mr.
Secretary WALPOLE. refused its general distribution
amongst the three hundred gentlemen whose
character for humanity is more or less involved in
the Bethlehem inquiry, and whose judgment, in
trusting patients to such officers as Bethlehem
boasts, was clearly impugned. But this is no
defence of Sir PETER or of these officers.
It' ten millions of copies of the evidence
had been authorised for distribution, it would
not have called back poor DIARY ANN lIISON to
life; or have undone the fact that she was in
tolerably good bodily condition when she en-
tered the hospital; that she was put naked tot
sleep in straw in the horrible basement story;
mod that after a fortnight she came out of
dos place—to die. The printed number of " con-
hissitial" reports had nothing more Ico do with these
Sesadful statements than to expose them. If
Sir PETER LAURIE six months ago was so anxious
that all the governors should know the allegations
*wind Bedlam, why did he not send his own copy of
fibs " confidential* report to the newspapers ? But
be did nothing of the kind; and it seems tolerably'
dear that, unless that document had reached our
keel through a totally different channel, it would,
la all Immo probability, never have seen the light.
based, it gore tar towards proving the complete
hihre of Sir PETER LAURIE's defence, when he
didelly fall back upon such wretched excuses as
this. The statements given in the Espies
Isere reprinted from a document issued by the
INCIIETARY of firers; the report ws first
psi before the public was signed by. the Earl
ea' ESBURY; the allegations contained both
is eelisace and report were—that gross cruelties
elle practised in the institution which Sir Parsa
LAURIE presides over—conies of that evidence and
report had been in the hands of Sir PETER LAURIE
for months before the public learned their contents
through our columns. On the 21st of February last
the Under Secretary of State, by command, sent to
Sir PETER LAURIE copies of the report, yet
now—in November—the President postpones and

=tinates, and amongst his own col-
gives the thoroughly unsatisfactory
"explanation" that appeared yesterday in our
pages. Two letters we this day publish throw
bah light on the ease. Mr. HYbON—tho father of
one of the Bethlehem basement patients—gives his
answer to Sir PETER LAURIE'S plea; whilst in the
other communication we have a governor of the

charity explaining the reason why he—at all events
—never took any active steps for the inspection of the
institution. If other governors will now speak out,
we may hope for still mote light on the solVect.
Sir PETER LAtutin says ho never had " official • in-
formation of the investigation into the manage-I
ment of Bethlehem ; hut there seems now strong
likelihood that both he and the public may receive
much knowledge from other sources of great value.
He says that the statements were "coloured" Does
he mean to say that the report signed by Lord
SuArrtsnunv was "coloured" by that nobleman?
Does ho mean to say that the shorthand writers
"esloured" their notes taken for the Lunacy Commis-
sioners ? He can scarcely mean either the one se
the other. In our columns both
vreeranand
b sim
ply reprinted a.
have therefore, in our columns, only the "
tiny inherit from Lord SuarrEaeunt's commis-
sion; and not one ward by way of denial, or
satisfactory reply, has yet appeared. But Sir
Pffteit Launtit is right in one sense, though
Mt in the sense he wishes to convey. The reports arc
bind eelooral. There are stains about them that
mum* be wiped out; that no haze of offended dig-
sky can hide—no aldermanic ermine can conceal.
The stains are those of secrecy--k
—to the most pitiable, the mast
afflicted family of man.

melty—brutality
helpless, of the