The Express.
London, England, 1862-07-25 00:00:00

LONDON, FRIDAY, JULY 25.

Fox many a month put, under the name of
Conservative Reaction, a mysterious Veiled Prophet ,
has been enthusiastically proclaimed as the new
leader of the nation's worship. All creeds of pro-
gram, all belief in human improvement, thrown
amide, we have been bidden to bow down before this
dire incarnation of the principle that everything is
already perfect, and that the enjoyment of the pre-
sent hour is the sole lesson the wisdom of this world
teaches. No wonder that to the standard of such
a sect many a recruit should flock ; no wonder
that the high priests of a faith that promises the
gift of supreme ease to all who already have the
means of enjoyment, should gather round them an
eager host pledged to its maintenance and exten-
sion. It had charms, indeed, even to those who
yielded not wholly to its seductions, and
it drew to its side, by the very vagueness
of its doctrines, whoever was wearied with
thinking, and by its glorification of the pre-
sent, whoever was frightened to face the issues
of an uncertain future. But happily for us, the
moment at which the features of the new divi-
nity are disclosed in their true expression
has not, as in the Eastern legend, been deferred
till the banquet of death, when all has been dared
and lost by its votaries, and the knowledge of the
hatefulness of their idol can scarce add a pang to
their despair. Already the assurance of victory
and the intoxication of triumph have persuaded the
withdrawal of the tissue of silver gauze which con-
cealed the form of the Prophet, and we have
caught a glimpse of the object of our rash adora-
tion. Now we know that conservation of our
institutions is only the specious name for the ex-
tension of class privilege. Now we know that the
lull in which our senses have been steeped has
been wrought that we might tamely suffer the spo-
liation of our liberties. Now we see that those
who have arrogated to themselves the title of our
guides and chiefs, under pretence that they alone
could save from revolution and violence all that
we hold dear, are ready to overturn the constitu-
tion if thus they can add but a little to their own
selfish enjoyment& All this we bays learn;,,] nom
tnajoritiea who day after day carry
the Poaching Bill by acclamation through the
House of Commons, and whom from our hearts we
thank that they teach us in good time whither we
have been allowing ourselves to drift.

There is indeed no concealment now. Mr.
HENLEY and Lord STANLEY, an aged leader and
the youthful hope of the party, are groaned and
hooted down, and their arguments, warnings, and
entreaties contemptuously trampled under foot by
the mad violence of their followers. In vain did the
Member for Oxfordshire plead that the funda-
mental principles of the constitution ought not to
be broken through even though the object was
the apprehension of • poacher. In vain did the
heir of the House of DERBY beseech that the gen-
tlemen of England would not, with an autumn of
anxiety and dread before them, with a people
famishing by inches around them, spend their last
moments of deliberation in consulting for their
own personal amusements. The Session is not to
be wholly vain. It has passed and left nothing by
which it will be remembered for good. The indif-
ference of members has not allowed any great
measure of improvement even to be proposed.
But this listlessness vanishes when the recreations
of members are brought in question. Then
it is impossible for them to restrain within the
bounds of decency their furious energy. Even
the discipline of party, by which their victories
have been hitherto secured, is set at nought in
their excitement. If England were conquered by
a fresh Norman invasion, and given over to be
sacked by the invaders, there could not be leas
consideration of aught but personal gratification.
We should look with dismay on the scene, did
we not rest in the full assurance that the sooner
and the more completely thsee riotous and reckless
men of pleasure display their true character and
motives, the sooner they will be reduced to the
true measure of their power.
For this occasion will serve as a touchstone for
not merely the avowed Conservatives. The pro-
fessing Liberals, by whom we have so long sub-
mitted to be led, are discriminated as accurately
by this fortunate test. Sir Ososos GREY has time
after time risen in the House of Commons to urge
that it is unfitting that the police force paid by the
public should be turned into night watchers for
the landlords—that it is contrary to legal principle
to permit any man to be seized without warrant
on the mere suspicion of • policeman—that it is
inhuman to direct the severity of the law against
depredators of property which is purposely left
exposed, and that it is monstrous to ask us to
stretch our constitutional maxims to provide a
remedy for evils which originate in the childish
vanity of a few individuals. But Sir GRoans
GREY has found but thirty or forty supporters in