The Express.
London, England, 1849-08-08 00:00:00

at of parliament in the person of Mr. ROLT.
Alderman flaaomoes, who lost Marylebeme oily
'll an accident, might be returned with great advan-
tage to the cause of civil and religious Ilinty.
Whilst Mr WILLIAXWILLTANS,Who was ejected from
Coventry in 1847, would be a valuable representative
for many constituencies, sad an useful member of the
house in the financial discussions of next session.
Other candidate. mi. ht be felted with equal, perhaps
is some cases with superior, claims. But we have
taken those who immediately occur to us as
the best men of all parties out of parliament.
How came it that none of these gentlemen were
ever mentioned in connexion with the Reading con-
test? How is such an anomaly to be accounted for
ergot by the suggestion that the Reading people did
not :rant the beet men, bat only the most wealthy ?
To the liberals of Readieg this election ought to
be a less n of very gnat utility. They ought to
learn from it, that it is essential to success to have
a good candidate and a comm m public rause. To suc-
ceed in any case, liberals must fight their battles on a
principle. In this instance they threw aside prin-
ciple, and fought about a man. It has been a prac-
tice in Reading always to select the members from
those who are interested in the locality. Except in
theca.. of Mr. SPENCE, who was thrown out upon
petitioo, there has not been, until yesterday, an
uistenee of a member sitting foe this town who was
met connected with the district. Dr. LeilitiNoToN,
who f ou,cht the liberal battle in Reading in 1830,
was rti -tied for non-residence. So was Mr. °uvu-
la is 1833. The newly-elected member, Mr. STAN-
FORD, was so aware of the disadvantages resulting
from his non-connexion with the place, that he
pledged himself to settle there if the eoistituency
Wetted him. The object of all this attachment to
locality dues not seem very obvious, but it is capable
of explanation. There are county interests in
Reading. There are breweries there of no
trifling magnitude, sod the magistracy have the
licensing system under their control. There are
ap, ointment., too, in connexion with the gaol, deo.,
of which magistrate. have the sole disposal. The
lib rale, it seems, are quite as much affected by these
iadocements as the tones. They brought out a local
we, who mann to have possessed few other qualifia-
tins than that coenexi fsr which he was selected.
The advanced reformers all refused to vote for him.
Bet they is their turn seem to have committed an error.
Instead of bringieg some one whose paramount claims
wield have driven even Mr. Bowraa from the field,
they wasted their time in complaining. and attacks,
and at le..gth fixed upon a candidate who could not
poeibly have had a chance. The result of these
divisions is the return of Mr. STANFORD, who re-
ceived the support of the conservatives, and who
seems to have been alike liberal throughout the cm-
test with his mosey and his promises.
Who Mr. STANFORD is we are unable to explain,
and we believe the Reading public are no better in-
formed than oarselves. lie dates from "
place." His views when he went down to
loading were certainly not definite, but he
subsequently declared himself a positive protectionist.
The wait object, however, of the gentleman's pro-
tection is, it seems, to be—a wife. He has pled
himself to many from among the fair ones of that
town. He does not fix upon the object of his choice
esti' he takes hie seat, but then he is to hold a draw-
ing room in Reading, and select a mate from amongst
the ladles of the borough. As a modern Paris, he
is to decide on the claims of Reading goddesses,
aid to assign himself as the prize to the " most
fair." The very nature of the offer precludes
so from offering anticipatory congratulations
to the lady of his choice. We fear she
will not get a genius. But if Mr. STANFORD
marry at Reading prior to the next election,
we may at any rate congratulate in anticipation,
whoever may oppose him. Of the hundreds of
the now unmarried in the town, we fancy his oppo-
nent will have an admirable chance of then receiving
the support of all—save ote. The next election will
bs the fall of Troy repeated—the Amos and MI-
NERrAs multiplied enormously.

THERE are some spirits whose presence, like that
of the gsblin page in the " Lay of the Last Mins'rel,"
cannot be concealed. Wherever they creep, an un-
easy sense of the approach of something unearthly
chila the company: first one and then another feels
himself the victim of some impish trick; and at last
an explosion of wild laughter, ruing above quarrel-
some imputations and counter-charges, reveals the
source of the annoyance, and adds to the dismay.
LOLA MONTLS would appear to be the incarnation
of one of these spirits. From Paris to Warsaw, and
from Warsaw to Munich, her course has been indi-
cated by duels, horsewhipping of guardsmen, and
similar gentillesses. At Munich she was the genius
that "rode in the whirlwind and directed the storm"
of a ministerial crisis closely bordering on a revolu-
tion. And no sooner is she landed in England, than
she explodes in a domestic circle, shattering its ar-
rangements as thoroughly as she did the government
of Steens.
Tne stir/ of LOLA 3.IONTES reads like a wayward
romance, in which the author has introduced some
ereattireof old °mean, or Asiatic, or middle-aged ro-
mance—some Lamia or fairy of the Rhine, or at lead
some RnonoPx or ROXALANA—among the dull com-
mon-place routine and domestic decencies of the
nineteenth century. She is a legitimate sister (if the
team can be imaioned applicable to such a si-terhood)
of the GABRIELLES std CLRVELANDS of other ages.
A monarch abdicates his throne for her, student. of
princely rank enrol themstives as her body-guard,
sew/piper editors (if not poets) own hi r fascinations,
warriors quake at her horsewhip, and priests grow
pale at her approach. Tne spirit of chivalry may he
extinct, but the spirit of romance (and folly) assuredly
is not.
Yet fertile though the theme be in burlesque and
painful associations, we should have passed it un-
noticed like any other cause eglAre of our police
courts, bat for the illustrations it affords of defects in
our I.gul institutions.
With all our deference for the fascinating lioane
we lay very little straws on her assertion, that Lord
Baounnax has got an act of parliament to divorce
her from her first husband. The noble and learned'
lord's inesistible propensity to dabble in divorce
cues, does, indeed, lend an appearance of possibility,
if cot of probability, to the statement ; bat had It
been corner, his lordship . could have resisted
the temptation of such an opp inanity for public
di-playas w mid have been afforded by his appear-
ance as witness, and legal adviser of his fair client in
• pities court. The invention, however, as, in the
almoner of cwroborative testimony, we must for
the present hold it to be, was very feiciti ms ;
the selection of Lord BROUGHAV as the author of a
divorce bill, shews a delicate instinctive tact for the
graiseinhtssle in a romance.

But s-tting aside this story it is obvious that
nothing is more likely than that a foreigner divorced
a Inensq et Own), (as the slang of Doctors' Commons
bath it) might sincerely believe that she was divorced
to a I intents and purposes. In every other civilised
country where divorces can be obt tined. they are
awn& dby a court of justice. The absuri and com-
plicated procedure of England, is unknown else-
where. Foreigners know that people are not ull-
- divorced in England. But bow are
forever' to know that the marriage tie can
ot:ly ba finally and utterly dissolved by a
th eefold process pursued in three distinct
trihnuals? that the divorcing power in Eng-
land ie • triple-headed Cerberus, each rf whose
heads must be propitiated by its own peculiar honey
cake? In England the injured party must retain and
Pay three sets of lawyers, and pay the fees of three
courts, before ho can obtain a divorce. One court
Will declare the frail partner guilty and unworthy to
associate with the other. A second court will award
to the injured piety dtmages against the intruder on
his domestic happ4iess. A third court is required to
dirsive the bond which unites the innocent to the
guilty. The law legislative courts of England divide
the labours of judicial office among them much in the
same minty send vexationsf +shim) that Indian domestics
divide the menial duties of a household among them.
We have nothing to do at present with the ab•urd-
i
ty•nd injustice of all this. Oar object just now is to
insist upon the impossibility of foreigners beteg
aware of the existence of such complicated and
irravonal arrangements. Nothing is more natural
than that foreigners for or against whom Doctors'
Commons his pronounced one of its sham sentences of
divorce should believe themselves at liberty to marry
again. Our triple process of divorce is neither more
nor Ices than a trap set to catch unwary foreigners in
the act of bigamy. Assuming, for the sake of ergs-
meat, all that has been said on the pert of the prose-
eator against the Counties of LANDOYELDT to be