The Express.
London, England, 1862-07-05 00:00:00

THE signs of an early and premature close of
the season are already beginning to appear. In
Parliament the benches are ominously thinned, the
business of the session is practically over, and in
the absence of any public duties the members who
still attend spend their time for the most part in
private wrangling and personalities of the most un-
dignified and frivolous kind. Oat of doors the
last fetes and flower-shows are announced, the
theatres have almost ceased to attract, and con-
currently with these familiar symptoms of decay,
the columns of • leading contemporary are as
usual opened to a discussion whose only aim is to
minister, at the expense of public morals, • morbid
excitement to depraved and exhausted sensibilities.
The old machinery of a curiously innocent
and simple-minded correspondent calling in
large type for the redress of • pretended
grievance punctually reappears. This year an in.
genuotui letter-writer with a single initial succeeds
the "Bean Jolais" of last season, an appeal
to " Anonyms " takes the place of the Belgravian
lament, and under the mask of seal for the public
interest an insidious attempt is made to revive the
miserable scandal about " pretty horsebreakers "
in a new, and if possible more odious and in-
sulting form. As during the last three or four
years similar attempts have been periodically made
in the same quarter to force this offensive subject
on public attention, it must now, we suppose, be
regarded as a regular incident of the season, like
the Thames malaria, and submitted to accordingly
as • necessary nuisance. Still, on behalf of that
insignificant portion of the public that exists out-
side the Clubs, that does not look at the world alto-
gether from the Hetene point of view, but has
some motives of action and some objects of pur-
suit besides those usually recognised in the philo-
sophy of the smoking-room, we venture to suggest
that, as this is confessedly an exceptional year, 'we
might perhaps for once be spared the usual inflic-
tion. We have had no Court festivities, no great
measures, no party conflicts this session.
Surely under these exceptional circumstances our
epistolary censors may forego their wonted and
cherished pastime of stirring in public the foetid
depths of our social life. There can be no mas-
sacre of the innocents this year. May we not also
be spared the usual attempt at feteing the
guilty

Vie urge this plea all the more confidently from
the peculiarly inauspicious nature of the effort
just made to revive a useless, offensive, and in-
jurious discussion. Perhaps a more flagrant out-
rage on public decency, or a more utterly false and
calumnious attack on society was never made than
in the letter signed " H." which appeared in the
Times of Thursday. It is hard to say which are
the more outrageous and detestable, the writers
alleged facts, or his cool and complacent inferences.
He deliberately brings against society at large,
against all who walk and all who ride in the more
frequented parts of Hyde-park, the charge of
having in their favourite recreation only one object
—that of imitating and following in every possible
way a notoriously bad woman. The facts on which
this tremendous charge is based are of the very
simplest kind, and so easy of explanation that it
might naturally have been supposed almost impossible
for even the most depraved imagination, the most
determined preoccupation of mind to give them such
an atrocious colouring. The Park is, of course, the
meeting-place of society in fine weather during the
season. Everybody drives, or rides, or walks
there at certain hours, and as one main object is
to see and be seen, to greet and be greeted, those
who go frequent as much as possible the same
spot. Fashion, however, is proverbially mutable,
and the particular locality, the drive and walk,
most frequented changes from time to time. A
few years ago the favourite drive was from Apaley
House to Cumberland-gate ; then a change was
made in favour of the Ladies' Mile by the side of
the Serpentine ; while this year again the drive
from Apaley House to the Kensington-road is most
in request. There is an obvious reason of conve-
nience in this. The mere fact of the Exhibition
sufficiently explains the change, and the motives of
it. A■ during the Exhibition a number of
fashionable people are daily returning from
the building about the time the Park
is fullest, it was of course convenient
for them to meet their friends and acquaintances
on the road, and the drive from Kensington
through the Park was accordingly every afternoon
filled with carriages. The writer in the Times
dares to assert, as of hie own knowledge, that the
change was made simply because a person without
Dame or character, a certain "Anonyms," chose to
drive on this road. How it comes to pass that
wholesale calumnies of this kind should be not only
tolerated but favoured with large type in the columns

of • respectable journal, we do not profess to ex-
plain. That such assertions should be not only indulged
in by men of debauched minds, but reputed
pointed and effective in certain circles, is conceiv-
able enough. They may be heard ad nauseate in
the reading-rooms, at the dinner-tables, and in
the smoking-rooms of the Clubs any day in the
week. Such sarcasms and calumnies against
society are repeated with gusto by youthful cynics
and hoary libertines, and it is possible that by
some at least they may be actually believed.
There may be men who live so completely in their
own narrow world of depraved ideas, who act So
habitually from one set of motives, who go into
the Park and everywhere else simply for the pur-
pose referred to in "H.'s" letter, that they at length
unconsciously transfer their own thoughts and
feelings to the world at large, and imagine that
the flower of English society acts habitually from
the same simplicity of depraved motive. Such
men are the rank and noxious product of
wealth and indolence, of enjoyment divorced
from active duty, and social intercourse freed
from all moral restraint. In a highly artificial
state of society like our own they may no doubt be
found in considerable numbers. If they must
talk, let them by all means be restrained, as they
usually are, to their own seta in their own circles.
There is no possible reason why the public ear
should be outraged by being compelled to listen
to their corrupt and corrupting conversation.
Why, above all, we repeat, should they be per-
mitted and encouraged to utter their audacious
slanders in the columns of • journal which lies on
the table of so many English homes t
Unfortunately, the real motive that animates
the writers of these epistles is but too apparent,
and very generally, as in the present case, the
nominal motive but makes it the more apparent.
1" H.," for example, professedly makes his
stimulating revelations, and brings his tre-
mendous charges against society, simply
for the sake of clearing the Kensington-road
drive, which according to him is at present often
blocked up. It is hardly necessary to say • word
about this pretended inconvenience. The Park is
not, in any ordinary sense, a thoroughfare at all.
Those who drive there do so for pleasure and re-
creation, to see their friends and acquaintances ;
and the more crowded the drive is the more com-
pletely the object in view is secured. This plea
of public convenience is too clearly a mere pre-
text for directing public attention to "Anonyms,"
to the description of whose habits and manners,
dress and equipage the whole letter excepting
about a couple of sentences is devoted. With all
his skill and cunning the writer cannot in the
least disguise the fact that his main object in
writing is to get the subject talked about, inquired
about, joked about, and discussed in circles
from which it is usually excluded ; in a
word, to secure for it • kind of semi-official
recognition. The object is now, as it was last year,
to secure if possible the complicity of society in
relation to this most fatal and destructive form
of evil. To speak the plain truth, these letters
are neither more nor less than cowardly attempts
to make the respectable and virtuous portion of the
community in some way responsible for the aban-
doned lives of the vicious. Such attempts are a
conspiracy against all that is moat sacred and
essential in our social state. Society is co-
vertly attacked at its vital centre—equal
wedded love and family life. These letter-writers
empty their vials of sarcasm on love and marriage,
denounce the prudence, forethought, and self-
respect of the virtuous as mercenary instincts in
disguise, if not rank hypocrisy; while they
celebrate, and hold up to imitation, women
of vicious and abandoned lives. In other words,
they are the missionaries of a most vicious and
fatal crusade ; and all who are realty concerned not
only for the purity of our social life but for the
welfare of their kind, are bound by the most
sacred obligations to resist their persistent efforts
to gain a hearing.

PARLIAMENTARY DIVISION.

HOUSE OF 003DIONS.-JOLT 4.

THAMES EMBANICIMT BlLL—(Considered in
Committee.)
(In the Committee )—Clause B:—Amendment proposed, in
pap 7, line 33, to leave out the words "subject to the
limitations hereinafter contained Locke) :
Question put, "That the words proposed to be left out
stand part of the clause." The committee divided; ayes,
109, noes, 149.

AYES.

.
Atherton, Sir W. Gilpin, C. Palmerston, Vlsct.
Ball, E. Gladstone, Capt. Pa-ker. Major
Bathurst, A. A. Gladstone, W. Peacocke, G. M.
Bernard, T. T. Goddard, A. Peel, Mr R.
Bidduiph, Col Gore, J R. Peel, F.
Blackburn, P. Gore, W. R. Philippe, J. H.
Booth, Sir L. 0. Grey, Blr G. /Igo' tt, Merit.
Braroston, T. W. Hammer, W.I. Puller, C. W.
Brand, H. Hartopp, E. B. Quinn, P.
Bridges, Sir B. B. lismard, M. Repton, G.
Brown, J. Headlam, T. E. Rolt, J.
Bruce, Sir H. H. Hope, G. W. Russell, A.
Bruen, 11. Howes, L lieruer, H. K.
Burghley, Lord Hutt. W. Shelley, Sir J. V.
Buxton, C. Kekewicb, 8. T. Smith, M. T.
Cardwell, L Kinglake, A. W. Sonars, J.
Cartwright, Cot Knightley, R. Stanhope, 1. B.
Care, 8. Lennox, C. 8. Starlet., Lieut.-OoL
Cavendish, W. Lewis Sir G, Stull, 11. G.
all, Lord R. Liddell, H. G. Taylor Colonel
Cole H. Lindsay, Gen. Tice, W.
Colebrook°, Sir T. L Lygon, lr. Torten., R.
Cowper, W. F. Malin, R. Trefoils, C. H.
Davey, B. Manners. Lord J. Trollope, Sir J.
Dunbar, Sir W. Martin, J. Vance, J.
Du Pre C. 0. Miller, T. J. Vane, Lord H.
Edwa-ds, Ma* Montgomery, WO. Vanattart, W.
Egerton, Sir P. 0. Morgan, 0. Villiers, C. P.
Egerton, W. More, D.
Louis, J. Naas, Lord IfTiery., L.A.
.k
Ruston, Earl of Newdegate. C. N. Wood, 81r C.
Farquhar, Sir M. Newport, Vied.. Wood, W.
Fergesson, Sir J. Noel, G. J. Wyld, J.
Fortescue, C. 8. (Y/lars, C W.
Gard, R. & Paget. Lord C. MIMS.
Garnett, W. J. Pakenham, Col. Jolllffe, 81r W.
George, J. Pskington, 81r J. Crawford, R. W.
Gibson, T. M. Palmer, Si, E.

NOES.
Adair, H. R. Fortescoe, F. D. Onslow, 0.
Adam, W. P. Freeland, H. W. O'Reilly, M. W.
Mooch, T. tiallwey. Sir W. P. Paget, C.
Angentein, W. Gavin, Major Paget, Lord A.
Antrobus, K Olyn, 0. 0. Papillon, P. 0.
Ayrton. A. 8. Ooldanold, Sir F. H. Peso, Sir 8. M.
Bagwell, J.
ft. Greene. J.
Orevills. col.
J.
. K
Pinney, Cot
Baring, Sir F. T. OMAHA. C. D. Ponsonlq, A.
Baring, T. 0. Grosvenor, Lord R. Potts, U.
Barnes, T. Gordon, B. Powell, J. J.
Bectlve, Earl of Hamilton, I. H. Powys, P. L.
Bellew, R. H. Hank's, T. Pritchard, J.
Blake, J. Harrington, Marquis Raynham, MM,
Bonham. Carter, J. Humbentone, P. S. liJeardo, 0.
Bouverle, P. P. Hume, W. W. Atwell, Sir W.
Brady, Dr. Jervolae, Si? J. C. Bt. Aubyo, J.
Brandey.Moore, J. Johnson, Capt. Salomon', Ald.
Briscoe, J. I. Ringlike, J. A. Ewbolelleid, W.
Bruce, Lord it ILinsiscote, Col. f3clater•Elosth, 0.
Buchanan. W. Rinraird, A. F. Scully, V.
Buller, J. W. RustebbnU-Huges- Seymour, Sir Y.
Buller Sir A. W. men, K Smith, Augustus
Butt, f. Knox. Col. Somerville, Sir W.
Card. J. Knox. Major Stanley, Lord
Calculi. F. M.N. Langton, W. H. Stansfeld, J.
Cavendish, Lord 0. Lawson, W. Stuart, CoL
Childers, H. C. Lmard, A. H. Stark Lied..ooL
Cholnseley, Bir X. Lewis, H. Taylor, P. A.
Clay, J. Lowe, R. Tempest, Lord A. V.
Clifford, C. C. 4sky, W. J. Thompson, H. B.
Clifford, Col. 11•Canu, J. Thornhill, W. P.
Cox, W. Mackinnon, W.(Lyns.) Tollemache, F.J.
Crossley, F. Maguire, J. S. Turner, J. A.
Dalgilah, R. Malinvarium T. Turner, C.
Denman, U. Marlotibeabk D. C. Vsnoekur. Col.
Dickson, Col. Martin, P. W. Vivian, H. H.
Dodson, J. 0. Matheson, A. Walpole 8. H.
Dositon, F. Maxwell. Cole Walter, 1.
Dui, H. K Merry. J. Watkins, Col.
Doke, Sir J. II Malay, H.P. Western, 8.
' Dunlop, A. AIL Mltfoed, W. T. Weighers& J. P.
Ronald, Vial. Moffett, 0. Whitbread. S.
Erma, T. W. Monsell, W. White, J.
Ewan, W. Monson. W. J. White, L.
Rwartng,, I. C. Morris,
D. D. Wickham, H. W.
Ewi H. I. W. Williams.
PenEett, N. Morritt, W. J. Weeds, H. W.,
Pensoy. lord Werth, F. MAW
Minx A. B. O'firtss, P. lacks. J.
Poster, W. 0. arcaurn. Capt. D. Partook Sir J.

WHITEHALL, JULY 3,—The Queen has been
pleased to appoint Sir Waliao Moos Craig, Bart., to the
place aad *Moe of clerk of her Majesty's Itsgisies aad
Ras la Soothed.—Oareta.