The Express.
London, England, 1855-02-06 00:00:00

LORD JOHN RUSSELL AND THE LATE

IT is now some days since we took upon ourselves
to state that of all the fables invented for the purpose
of damaging Lord Jour Russzzge character for
veracity and honour, not one would survive the
first half hour devoted by him to their examination
and exposure. Among our daily contemporaries we
stood at the time aloes in the confidence we ex-
pressed regarding the frivolousness of some of these
charges and the sheer falsehood of others. We
recur to the fact, now that the event has fully
justified our anticipation, in no self-laudatory spirit.
We should be ashamed, in truth, to make a
boast of what seemed to us but the observance
of a plain rule of public morals, namely,
that of refusing to suspect the integrity of an
old and losg•tried servant of the pablie until he had
been proved guilty. We disbelieved the cowardly in-
sinuation of cowardice against a man who had fought,
in the sunshine and in the shade, for the people's
rights, without wincing, daring a period of five-and-
thirty years; and we felt that in giving the lie
direct to the charge of lying, in the absence of all
proof one way or the other, where a statesman of
hitherto untainted character was concerned, we were
simply discharging an obvious duty. Political life
would not be worth pursuing—public ambition would
present no adequate inducements or rewards—if
habitual probity and fearless rectitude commanded no
forbearance, no consideration, and no faith. It was
under these convictions that we cheerfully staked
our credit upon the assertion that, whenever the
noble member for the City of London should reply
to the attacks made upon him in Parliament and the
press, their injustice and untruth would be made
apparent to all the world.

The reply has been made, and our promise is
amply redeemed. The calm and dignified refutation
of all the slanders heaped upon Lord Jome, during
the last ten days, by those who hate his principles
or his person, will be read with genuine pleasure by
every man who values the character of English
statesmen, whatever their party sentiments may
happen to be: Its delivery was, indeed, cordially
greeted by the occupants of every bench in the
House of Commons, WO that still tenanted by those
whose lingering tenacity of place his secession
seems to rebuke. Upon the Treasury bench fair play
is not, of oourse, an open question, even among the
mutinous and many-coloured members of a Coalition
whose existence is at present a matter of no little
doubt to those who have hitherto composed it. On
one point only, discipline appeared still to be pre-
served amongst them yesterday; they one and all
sat sullen and dumb while the man, whom till this
day fortnight they had followed, vindicated his con-
duct, his words, and his motives. But in the rest of
the house a more just and generous spirit was mani-
fested. Every sentence uttered with deliberation
and equanimity was listened to with grave attention,
the only interruption being the candid cries of
4, hear" which every now and then broke from the
, rarely accordant lips of Tories, Whigs, and Radicals.
We trust we shall never see the day in English poli-
tics when party beats shall wither in the breasts of the
great majority of the House of Commons the instinct
that concedes to every man a fair opportunity of set-
ting himself right when accused wrongfully, and that
breaks out into a manly rebognition of pleasure when
he has succeeded in doing au.

When Lord Jonx had finished his impressive,
though unimpassioned, defence of himself, Mr. GLAD-
STONE prooseded to supply the only thing that was
wanting to render its effect complete. Pardonably anxi.
one to say whatever his maichless ingenuity could de.
vise on behalf of his ducal friend and Aoki client, the
subtle member for Oxford University ventured
with feline wariness togo over all the broken ground
just trodden withs firm and decided step by the re-
presentative of the City of Loam. Nothing oonld