The Express.
London, England, 1864-09-05 00:00:00

Eh, erpreWs.

.T 0 . 4:79If.PJBLONDIENTIL

Letertiasseeste Intended toe "iieliii7eTe• London Evening
Paw, mut be as the °See, Id. Bonwerie-etreet, eL MO
cs'it on the dap of publicalks.

PAUMBINS..

THIN 1111111111111, BORN TO dam-LUCE My. D. Runny.
And TER STRIETB OF LONDON. Mews. J. W. Ray, David
Ftsber, D. Murray, J. Nelson, N. Forrester, and H. Mellon ,
Mrs. R. Marston, Minn Barnett and Owjans.

sztuunnA.

Tare Minna. MUTINY AT THE ROHL —l4ngfng by Mr. H.
Clifton and Mr. J. H. Stead . Madman Mom —Mr. O. W. ceder.
—Concluding with TEI DRUNKARIYB CHILDREN.

HIGH WATIL AT taNDON BALM&
TM DAY Mariam 4h. .Aftioseas. 4b. rive.
To-mozzow Morning, itt. Ala ....Allormeda. 59+6

LONDON, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 5.

Tim people of Hereford, in erecting • monu-
ment to Sir GEORGE CORNEWALL LEWIS, have not
merely expressed the universal admiration and re-
spect cherished towards their late member, but have
at the same time rendered an important public ser-
vice. As a people we are not much given to the
erection of monuments to commemorate purely
civic worth and political services, the majority of
the statues in our public ways being dedicatA to
royal personages or successful soldiers. Now and
then, indeed, where a first minister, like Pirr or
Pam, bas not only long guided the helm
of affairs, but directly connected himself
with the interests of indussay and trade
by important financial measures, his services may
be recognised by a statue in the centres of
commerce. But the ordinary looking virtues of
unwearied vigilance, sleepless sagacity, and inflexi-
ble rectitude in the conduct of public affairs, the
solid qualities of good sense, cultivated intelli-
gence, Bound judgment and enlarged public
spirit, rarely receive any public recognition, unless
accompanied in their working with some brilliant
and exoeptional results fitted to strike the popular
imagination. Yet these are the very qualities on
which, in their higher union, the successful con-
duct of public affairs in this country preeminently
depends. It is well, therefore, that these sterling
civic virtues should be appreciated and acknow-
ledged, not only within the sphere of their imme-
diate activity but by the public at large. Few
public men in our time have combined in a higher
degree the more essential but unobtrusive qualities
of an able statesman and wise administrator
than Sir G. C. Lewis. He possemed in admirable
completeness endowments rarely found together,
and which are often deemed incompatible, being
at once a student absorbed in books and a thorough.
going man of business ; a scholar producing works
of exhaustive critical research, and the active bead
of one of the most laborious public departments ;
a political speculator elaborating theories of go-
vernment, and a working legislator of the most
sober and practical kind ; • learned essayist and a
ready debater, a man of singularly open mind,
sound and indepeudent judgment, of settled and
of methodical habits, yet gifted with an extraordi-
nary facility for mastering the details and duties
of every new position, however complicated and
burdensome they might be. These varied facul-
ties and powers, natural and acquired, he dedicated
with singleness of purpose to the publit servire
throughout the whole of his career. Such a man
deserves to live in the memory of his countrymen,
and the people of Hereford, in doing their utmost
to perpetuate his fame in their own locality,
have rendered a service to the nation at large.
It is impossible to read Lord PALMERSTON'S just
and able review of his late colleague's character
and career without feeling afresh bow completely
Sir G. C. LEWIS was in many important respects a
typical representative or ideal of the English
scholar and statesman. Most eminent statesmen
among ourselves have been men of distinguished,
attainments, while the majority of English scholars
and thinkers usually take a more or less active
part in public affairs; but Sir G. C LEWIS con-
tinued up to the very last the two lines
of speculative activity in • higher degree, perhaps,
than any other public man of equal eminence. As
a man of mere learning his reading equalled in
range and minuteness that of the most learned
German professors, while his critical scholarship was
often incomparably more fruitful, sagacious, and
exact. Looking merely to the number and value
of the works which remain to attest his
almost encyclopaedic L.bour and erudition,
it might naturally be supposed that the
whole of his comparatively short life had been
exclusively devoted to literary and learned
pursuits, yet in reality he was actively engaged in
public business almost from the time of his leaving
college, having for upwards of a quarter of a cen-
tury filled important poets connected with the go-
vernment and administration of the country.
During the first ten or twelve years of his public
life be was engaged in various royal commissions,
in laborious inquiries into the working of the Poor
Laws, the state of the Irish Church, and the con-
dition of some of our dependencies. For upward.
of fifteen years before his death he was member of
various liberal governments that succeeded to power
during that interval, gradually rising by bard
work and high merit, from the subordinate
post of Secretary to the Board of Control
to those of Chancellor of the Exchequer and
Secretary of War. It was in these latter and
more responsible posts that his powers as an ad-
ministrator and a statesman were brought fully
out. To the business of the various departments
be presided over he brought not only a capacious
intellect and the calmest judgment, but thorough
business insight, simple but methodical habits, and
insatiable industry. The qualities which he dis-
played in Parliament, and which gradually raised
him to the foremost rank even as a debater, were
those of full and accurate knowledge on every
subject, of unrivalled candour in dealing with
opponents, and of strict impartiality in
weighing evidence that gave to his decisions almost
• judicial character. At times, no doubt, espe-