The Express.
London, England, 1853-05-09 00:00:00

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LONDON, MONDAY, MAY O.

Tut Authoress of " Uncle Tom's Cabin" was, oa
Saturday, welcomed to Stafford-house by the Dscheas
of SUTHERLAND. where, in the midst of an asseet•
Wage of ladies of rank and influence, and no
muster of public men, she received the loss-talked
of address. The scene was one of much interest;
sod as Mrs. BEECHER Bruws,--slim sun-oom.
plexioned, active, intelligent, simply dressed, ant
perfectly self-possessed was seen petted and
lionised by a whole bevy of Duchesses and Coen-
tesees, who had been charmed by her marvellous
book; there was afforded a gratifying proof of
the incense that truth and humanity may gain from
all ranks—and proof, moreover, of the admiration
which the genius of the New World may win
from even the most select coterie of the Old.
When the first Anti-Slavery meeting at Stafford
House took place, we said as little as possible about
it ; because it was a fair occasion for criticism, and
we could not blame those who did criticise it; while
the anti-slavery. cause appears to us sufficiently
strong and sufficiently venerable to cover some sins
of judgment in its supporters. We thought that,
on the whole, the meeting was to be regretted.
because those who managed the banana were in-
sufficiently informed of the facts of the case--about
the relation, we mean, of the women of America to
the institution delivery. Of all the foes of American
slavery none live in such anguish of hostility to the
institution as the women of the Southern States, for
reasons which are obvious enough, when the morals
that coexist with slavery are considered. And we
certainly must dissent emphatically from the decla-
ration in the Address, that we—we of the existing
generation of Englishmen and Englishwomen, ought
to humble ourselves in shame and grief, on 66-
count of England's share in the guilt of American
slavery. To this coaxing statement we absolutely
object. Bat the sacredness of the cause si-
lenced us when it would have been easy to ridicule
and blame ; and it was never a part of our objection
that the movement was one conducted by women.
Slavery is it subject on which women may and
should speak and act as freely as men, and if men
do not speak and act as freely as they ought, women
are quite right to choose their own method of
expressing their own protest, individual or collec-
tive. All ridicule aimed at the meeting, as a woman's
meeting, was below notice, and always will be on a
similar occasion. The time has now come for ridicule
to cease, in regard to anti-slavery business going for-
ward at Stafford House, and all the more so that the
authoress of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" has taken part in
the proceedings.
Mrs. STOWE is no fine lady, come to play off fine
sentiments amidst the flutter of fans and the homage
of adoring listeners. She is no Corinne, crowned for
intellectual triumphs. She is no wonderful new
novelist, whose pictures of the sufferings of the heart
provoke and tempt an inquisition into the personal
experience of the idol of the season. She has
plenty of ability, a sound head, a keen sagacity, accu-
rate intuitions if not an always sober judgment, and
charmingand inexhaustible humour, such as is usually
found in connexion with that united sensibility and
power of expression which constitute pathos in writ-
ing. She has plenty of ability; but that is compa-
ratively a small matter. The singularity of the case
is that she has been made, unintentionally and even
unconsciously, the apostle of the greatest came now
existing in the world. Two years ago, she was in
her home in Ohio, the daughter and the wife of
clergymen, living in the humble way which in
America is justly thought the most honourable for
that profession, busy in her nursery, and carrying
about en anxious hart, always and increasingly
burdened by a growing knowledge of the sins and
sufferings attendant upon the institution of slavery.
When she could bear it no longer, she spoke ;
and the manner in which she spoke indicates
the quality of the woman, and explains the
power of her speech. She did not bewail her own
pain, or put forth her own opinions, or in any way
make known her own presence in the scene. She
told, in the most straightforward way, what happens
every day in the slave states of America. She did
not even give high artistical qualities to her work.
"Uncle Tom's Cabin" has grave artistical faults
which would have been talked about abundantly on
all hands, if one order of readers had not been over-
whelmed by their umpathies and another by their
rage. The power of the book was in its truth, set
forth in its full strength by the objective character
of the work—by the absentia of all self-reference
on the part of one of whom the world could have
afforded to hear a great hail. In natural and
maple* eeeordases with this Wilma tear d Weds
the sow is the very first way lbw lobe essillbe
her marvellous fame to the ripsaw of es midi be
the eablect on which she spelei, se ohs Nye. abe-
am, she could not help it :'' and bet steely pair
tunes in this view in the midst at sash an into:dott-
ing whirl of success of every kind as would have
turned almost any other head, marks her as a greater
woman than all the genius of all the women who
ever lived could have made her, without her honest
simplicity. We beg to call the attention of ob-
servers and critics tgthis. Some are trying to make
out that she is Nancy, and selfish, and affected, be.
came, in their practised judgment, she must be
so, attar her year of unequalled feminine fame.
Some say that if she is not exiijeante now,
she soon will be,—for the Nine excellent reason.
Some look upon her passage through our country as
on. of the amusements of the season, and get up an
enthusiasm and a criticism, as they would upon
any peat artist of the day. This is all wrong—all
a mistake; and thous who perpetrate it have no
real understanding of the cause, or of this its
involuntarily preacher. She has sought no suffrages,
and nobody can point to any personal aim that she
has ever proposed. She is eager to interest all she
meets in the cause, to hasten the day of the abo-
lition of slavery; but all sympathy that she
meets here must be embittered by the shame that she.
with her patriot heart. must endure, that all seek
ympathy is like reproach to her republican consul.
These are feelings in the presence of whist; el
petty gossip, all narrow criticism, all thoughtless
levity should be silent, and, if possible, be turned
into respect and humility. It was not to say this
that we have spoken at such length of Mrs. Srowz.
It can matter little to her or her kindly and symw
thieing entertainers, or anybody elm), how lightmiuded
people talk. Nor is it for Mrs. STOWES sake or
that of her friends that we have spoken of her at all.
It is because her fame and her presence are a portent
of a serious kind. Her fame is a protest on the
part of the world against slavery in a democratic a.
public and her welcome hero is a brand
hint, if her countrymen would but take it, that
that institution is doomed, and that they would be
wise to see bow they could beet release themselves
from it. They know, as well as we do, that any in-
stitution which is condemned by the most advanced
nations of Europe (the condemnation being on moral
and economical, as well as political, grounds) cannot
be long sustained in a free, generous, growing, and
wealthy nation. Whether it is a book, or awoman, or a
Great Exhibition, or a Hungarian revolt, or anything
else that elicits the truth, and conveys the warning,
matters little; it becomes a solemnity throughits use.
And thus it is that Mrs.Srowt's reception in the Bri-
tish islands is, in the eyes of thoughtful persons, no
trivial matter, to be treated with transferable sym-
pathy, or stared at for amusement. She is the em-
bodied rebuke of the lovers of freedom and the advo-
cates of popular government, addressed to the
brethren from whom they have hoped, and still hope,
so much ; and addressed, surely, in the mildest form
that remonstrance ever assumed—that of grateful
hospitality to the most successful of living American
authors.

THE LONInARI) EMIGRANTS.—The national theatre
of Turin has been put up to lottery for the benefit of the
Lombard emigrants. The drawing is to take place on the
9th of May. There are 300,000 tickets at sf, each, snakiest
in all 1,500.000 f. The value of the prizes being only
64,000 f., the rest will bo for the emigrants.