The Express.
London, England, 1863-04-28 00:00:00

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BRITANILL
Two Eananint THE WIDOW AND ORPR OM—FAITH,
HOPE. AND CHARITY, with Professor Peppers adaptation at
Mr. Dirchare SPECTRAL ILLUSION.—And AURORA FLOYD.

HIGH WATIR AT WIDOW BROOK
Mil DAT —Mandel. 04 100.....Mbesocs. 10h. 55.
Toawasow—liaress. 10b. ..Attersout. 115. lbs.

LONDON, TUESDAY, APRIL 28.

Tug relief of Lancashire or of Irish Distress is a
more saddening subject of debate in the House of
Commons than the American civil war, but it has
at least the advantage which all sad subjects have
of chastening haughty passions and subduing angry
thoughts. It is • household trouble in which we
all partake—if not in actual suffering, in very near
sympathy—and which we feel as fellow-country-
men, not as manufacturers, agriculturists, repro-
aentatives of this or that class, or party, or inte-
rest ; not as interested critics or malignant sooth-
sayers. Surely after the testimony which the patient
endurance of Lancashire has borne to • policy
of justice and conciliation, to the beneficent
legislation of the last seventeen years, to the
growth of • better knowledge and a more en-
lightened humanity, there can be no subject of
debate in Parliament less exposed to the violence
of fanaticism or of faction than that great blight
which has fallen upon the staple industry of
England. Even the example of the Central Com-
mittee, of manufacturers and landowners presided
over by • Tory nobleman, and working week after
week with perfect harmony and goodwill in the
service of stricken and helpless labour ; nay, the
example of the whole country and of all English
society, might teach the most inveterate agitator
to approach the consideration of Lancashire distress
calmly and tenderly, as something of common
national concern ; in which, while there are many
seeking and many giving aid, there is no place for
aught but charity in word as well as in deed.
We should be most unwilling to put a harsh in-
terpretation upon the manner in which the Mem-
ber for Devonport introduced his motion last even-
ing. We would rather call his extravagance ex-
cess of zeal, and his bitterness defect of temper or
of judgment, than take his words as we find them
and impute to them the meaning they might literally
bear. Anyone who heard Mr. FIIIIUND for the
first time last evening would be apt to say,
" There is a man who, by way of mending the
" lamentable results of the civil war beyond the
" Atlantic, is bent upon creating a civil war at
" home, and who takes advantage of distress
" which none could have prevented, and all are
" striving to relieve, to rake the ashes of burnt
" out wrongs, and to rip open with a poisoned
" knife old wounds long closed. His motion is
" anti-social, since it seeks to set the sufferings of
" labour against the fallen fortunes of capital, as
" if capital and labour were not bound together
"in one venture and one wreck." It is thus that
the old-fashioned Tory Socialism of the member
for Devonport would strike a casual listener to
his dismal declamation. But he is really not
so dangerous as he seems. Years have not
sobered the generous intemperance of his lan-
guage, and his tone is still the tone of a field-
preacher. But the House of Commons, familiar
no doubt with Professor PrSPIM'S spectral exhibi-
tion, treats this assailant of " manufacturers " as
what our neighbours would call a revenant, a
ghostly visitant, long since "departed," and return-
ing to find all living things and people changed.
If Mr. FILILAND had been " deposited " in the House
as the fossilized man was deposited the other day
near Abbeville, as a practical joke upon the science
of the age, he could not be now regarded with
more curiosity. It was the " jaw "of the pri-
vileged man that spoilt the joke ; and so it is, we
fear, with the Member for Devonport. The social
science of them latter days gives him up. Neverthe-
lea., the motion he brought forward last evening
was timely and serviceable; and if his ancient sallies
were welcomed with indulgent laughter, it was not
from any want of feeling in his hearers, but that it
was better to disarm by laughter than to give back
random blows. Mr. FIXILAND recounted the
history of the cotton trade for the last fifty yaws,
read extracts of speeches and pamphlets of thirty
years since, quoted Amemes " History of Europe,"
kicked and trampled on the "manufacturers" with
all the rage of a Protectionist " ruined " by Free
Trade. All this was harmless enough, espe-
cially as he ended by withdrawing his motion; and
it served as a preface to Mr. Poma's prudent and
temperate suggestion (in the form of an amend-
ment) to the effect " that Government should ap-
point a Royal Commission to inquire into the
" state of the manufacturing districts, and to re-
" port of the beet mode of relieving the distress
" existing therein." Mr. Ponca, who was se-
conded by Mr. Comma, signified his readiness to
accept any alteration of the terms of his amend-
ment that might be necessary to render it