The Express.
London, England, 1853-03-29 00:00:00

LONDON, TUESDAY, MARCH 29.

Tor Ministerial meeting at the Mansion-house on
halter Monday may be regarded as marking one of
the red-letter day; in the life of a London Lord
Mayor. There beside him at his b.,ard are the men
ranged in a row who wield the executive power and
tinge the political fortunes of the country. Downing.
street hotenobe with Chespside ; the House of
Lords eats turtle with the House of Aldermen;
Peers and Statesmen take a City dinner, and repay
it lie civil speeches. This time last year we had
Lord Demie talking at the civic banquet—hinting
praises of himself aid colleagues, and exciting hopes
rather than making promises of what they were to
do. One sentence Iu his speech ruse above common-
place, almost to the prophetic. "No Minister," he
said, "can direct the affairs of this country for any
lengthened period unless he enjoys the confidence and
support of his fellow-countrymen." Mr. WALPOLE
also tried his 'peen lice hand at a Ministerial speech, in
which he strove to be complimentary to the City at
the expense of St. Stephen's. Last night the dra-
matis perionre were all changed. We had the Earl
of ADFAIDELN, in the r:ie of Premier, thanking the
LIED MAYOR for his hospitabe treatment of
Ministerial goat.., and tacking to his thanks
a short oration on the benefits of commerce and of
pence; whilst Sir JAMES °BAIRN( explained our
ability and recalled our renown in war.
The Egyptian Hall with its new party of
guests, looked just as well as it did twelve
months ago. The turtle and the lime-punch,
the substantials and the delicacies, were just
as abundant and as excellent as ever. The trum-
pet sounded, the toastmaster was sonorous, tho "lov-
ing cup" went round as fast, and champagne corks
and "hear, heurs," were just as ready--nay, the
latter much readier—to make welcome the Whig-
Peelites as last Easter they were to hail the Dee-
byi:e-Tories. And how will the result differ in this
instance from the last ? At Easter 7,2, Lord DERBT
seemed full of promise, and Mr. Wstrete of hop?.
The one was as high-born as Lord ABM:DEEM, and
the other quite ns ambitious, if not as logical, as Mr.
GLADSTONE. Yet where are the 'furies now?
Why, then, should nut next Easter see the changes
rung once more? Only one thing can prevent it,
But this one vital talisman all the friends of the
present Cabinet must hope will be present to guide
and preserve its members from the disgraces and the
fate of their immediate predecessors. The Derbyites
traded on fable pretences. They got into office under
false colours. TL y set up some halt-fraudulent firm
with " PROTECTION" as the name of the chief partner,
but nobody knew who or what was concealed under
the additional "AND Cu," They were not
straightforward men whose words were their bonds.
They had promised one thing to the farmers of the
coiLties, and another thing to the traders of the
towns, and even over their Easter cups with " My
LORD MATO4," they had speeches, in which offi-
cial reserve was made to look as much like some-
thing else as possible. They did not meet their
acceptances to the agriculturists, and they failed in
satisfying the just demands of the commercialists, ,
and when the inevitable hour arrived for realising by ,
deeds their often-pledged words, the bubble burst, and
amid a howl of national discontent and derision the ,
hybrid combination was declared politically bank-
rept, and was ignominiously ejected from place.
Their pledges ooce thoroughly broaen they were gone.
%VIII the warning he lost? Will their successors,
who, last night, spoke from the same platform ,
to the same audience, in like words of bland com-
pliment and guarded half explanation avoid a
like fate? The same rock of political bank-
ruptcy is still ahead. The same generous yet in-
exorable public creditor still demands his own.
Pledges have again been given—promises been
mask, and a day of reckoning fixed. This time our
political traders are people of far higher quality—
men of more proved integrity—politicians of better
known and loftier character, of more liberal principles.
This time we have a leader of the House of Com-
mons whose name is identified with the growth of
our liberties, and who, however he may halt or
limp at times on his journey of Reform, has ever
kept on the same straight and respectable
road. We may often have quarrelled with
his pace, but never with the direction of his
way. He has never boxed the political compass—
now ultra-Radical, now ultra-Tory, now fiercely de-
nouncing Peet, and now following PEEL'S footsteps.
He has never danced the STANLEY and DISRAELI reel.
He has been consistent and respectable, if slow. But
neither the character of Lord Jowl ItussELL —the
experience of " Athenian " ABERDEEN, the skill of Sir
JAMES GRAILUI, the subtleties of Mr. GLADSTONE,
nor that kayak of the Radical Reform interest repre-
sented by Mr. VILLIERS, Sir W. Mott:swell-pi, and
Mr. BERNAL OSBORNE, will fail to save the Coalition
Cabinet from the fate of their predecessors, if they
fall into that fatal state in which pledges and prince-
plesareforgotten. On Education, on Fiscal Reform, and
—when the appointed day comes—on Parliamentary
Reform, the pledges given on taking office must be
redeemed. 'Die country was asked for time, and
time waLcheerfully conceded. But the day of reek-
aging will come at last, and then it will be confi-
dence justified—or lost. If the first—aes we sin-
mealy trust it ma be---all will go on cheerfully,
pleasantly, and welt There is a grand vista open-
ing upon the world at large, and on England in par-
ticular. At home and abroad, in our provinces and
is ear colonies, there is good work enough ready for
the deist to give say half doses statesmen great repu-
tatioss—nay, lasting fame. All this harvest is wait-
ing the sickle. The reapers are in the field. Will
they do the work—or shall we have a fresh set of
Ministers at the Mansion-hones next Paster Mon-
day enjoying the abundant hospitality of my Loan
MAYOR ?

A glass of clear water is one thing to an ordinary
mortal, who rejoices in its refreshing qualities, and
another to an experimental philosopher with an ozy-
hydrogen microscope. You may have drunk draughts
of the said liquid for the last fifty years, and fancy
you have a right to expatiate on your own tempe-
rance, and the wholesome qualities of your beverage,
but your philosophic friend will be able to stop your
eulogies, and turn your stomach by showing you a
magnified representation of a single drop of
water. You then sicken and shudder at the
thought that although you really are tolerably
strong and healthy and never paid a guinea to a
physician in your life, you have been swallowing
alive, day after day, for years, an incalculable
number of "horrid looking creatures," the like of
which had never been seen or dreamed of until
the oxy-hydrogen microscope came into existence.
You ineonunently make "war to the knife" against
the unoffeoding beverage :
.you boil it, you filter it,
you adulterate it with spirituous fluids, and the
chance is that you end at last by looking upon
water with such a holy horror as Falstaff himself
seems to have entertained of it. The oxy:hydrogen
microscope has made a monster of a minute drop
of water that would not have sufficed to wet the
wings of a fly.
What the oxy-hydrogen microscope does for the
material world, the limes does for the moral and
political world, Some wiseacre stumbles upon what
he considers a grievance, the details of which he
would find a difficulty in getting half-a-dosen sensi-
ble people to listen to. Fully aware of the real in-
significance of his story, he submits it to the enor-
mous microscopic power of the Times, and multiplies
it immediately by a million. The Times, which has
Tut wisdom of the Howe of Commons in their made the monster, then sets to work valiantly to kill
late resolution that a new writ should be issued for it, and congratulates the nation upon the correction
Blookburn—eegardlesi of the imputationsaffecting the of a great public nuisance. The last example of this
constituency of the borough—has already been tested kind is the " °rest Biffin" case. " The Ban " is a
and illustrated in a very remarkable manner. It voyager who has no sympathies with inns. He evi-
will be recollected by most of our readers that upon dently thinks small of Shenstone's lines:
the petition of the defeated candidate at the last ge- Whos'er has travelled life's dull nand,
meal election, the sitting member Mr. Ei rtes was Whence his stages may have been,
unseated for bribery and treating. lint the personal May sigh to think he still bestowed
question bein4 once disposed of, the investigation in the warmest welcome at an inn.
the Committee room came of course to an end. There He can't " take his ease in his inn," for thinking
was in point of fact no means then and there avail- of the difference of the price of a chop in the waiters
able for carrying the inquiry further, and it con- bill and in the weekly house-book of the wife of his
sequently devolved on the House of Commons to bosom. He is only at ease at the abomination of
decide what further steps, if any, should be taken for modern railway travelling—a counter. Had he made
sifting the case thoroughly and completely, for the the pilgrimage with Chaucer, instead of putting up
sake of public justice, public decency, and public In Sonthwerk, at the gentil hostels*
honour. More than a prima facie case of prcva'ent That highs the Tabard tuts by the Bell,
sal-practices at the late election having been esta- he would have dived into some alley in search of
blished, and the member so returned having been ' a cookshop. lie arrives from France, sick and
deprived of his seat, it seemed but reasonable and at Folkestone, and as there is no counter, he pros
just, that until a Commission should have impartially ito the hotel at the station. He has tea, and would
investigated all the facts of the cue on the spat, no have had bread and butter had not the latter article
new election should have been held to fill up the i disagreed with him, so he ate his bread dry. For
vacant seat. So thought all the sincere and earnest this he tells ua ho is charged two shillings and
friends of purity of election in the House. sixpence. Fired with indignation at the exorbitant
Rut their counsels were overborne, and their i charge, he "writes to the limes." The proprietor of
remonstrances were set at naught—an over- ! the inn denies the truth of the statement, appealing
whelming majority of Tories, Whigs, and to his printed tariff of charges, in which the price for
Coalitionists insisted that the new writ for •a " full tea" is one shilling and sixpence, with six-
Blackburn should issue without delay. Mr. Dot- pence for attendance. "The Bifiln," nothing daunted,
mmHg did not hesitate to tell them at the time, that sends a copy of the bill to the Times, in which
the country would not believe that they really desired the prices agree with those named by him
ti suppress the scandal and crime of corruption, at first. The national mind being thoroughly
while they thus wantonly defeated its exposure and roused, in comes "A Pippin " with a corroboration of
invited it. repetitiou. But he was answered bye" The Biffires " statement. Up to this point little
plausible assurances that there was no reason to sup- can be said upon the subject but that it is a curious
pose the evil to be grner lat Blackburn, ani that it case of discordant testimony. Had "The Biffin "
was highly prolml,lc the new election would be a' forwarded the original bill to Mr. Breach, the pro-
model of propriety. order, and law. prietor of the hotel, instead of sending a copy of it to
• Well, a new election for Blackburn has been held, the editor of the Times, it is more than probable that
and a model it has certainly proved in its way. The the affair would never have come before the public.
cosl-prectieerol last July have assuredly not b.en imi- But fate and "The Biffin " decided otherwise. The
tested in any timid or servile spirit by the mci: of this I case, minute as it was, was supposed to be a fit one
d stinguisLed borough. They have been fairly tutdene for the tremendous powers of the Times. The moral
and eaAt into the shade by the procecdin, L. ' oxy-l:ydrogeu microscope was brought into play.