The Express.
London, England, 1856-05-14 00:00:00

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lay el palmier

HIGH NAVIN AT LONDON NILLIN3I.
T. Dar—Wmaing, 100. lOsi-11fteres00.1811. 43
To4oooori—Zersu/s, 110. ........11ftwaesk 1110 4,m.

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, MAY 14.

ALL the world knows the story :of Sir Walter
Raleigh : how, finding himself unable to get at
the rights of a row beneath his prison window, he
began to moralise on the presumption of men's pre-
tending to write the history of distant ages. The
moral of this anecdote is, that every one ought to
exert himself to let the exact truth be known re-
garding important incidents in contemporary history.
Under this impression we beg to offer a contribution
to the veritable history of the great controversy about
the Sunday bands in the Parke. Lord Shaftesbury,
with more regard to esthetics' propriety than exact
truthfulness, has attributed to the Archbishop of
Canterbury the honour of converting Lord Pal-
merston from the error of hie ways. Now, in the
eyes of Lord Shaftesbury and his friends, this ap-
pears, no doubt, to redound exclusively to the honour
and glory of the Archbishop. Bet when society is
nearly equally divided in opinion, such apotheoses
have their inconveniences. Malcontents are mutter-
ing satirical scuffs at the penitent prostration of
Henry IX. before the successor of Thomas& Bec-
kett. Now, Lord Palmenton's reply some time
ago to the Presbytery of Edinburgh shows that he is
not the man to submit tamely to clerical dictation ;
and all who know the Archbishop of Canterbury
are aware that he is not likely to presume over-much
upon his sacerdotal authority. It may somewhat
spoil the romance of the story, but truth compels us
to state that the mild and gentlemanly ap-
peal to the Premier which importunities extorted
from the Primate had comparatively little to do
with the ultimate decision of the former respecting
the bands. A much more powerful engine was
brought into play. It is matter of notoriety that in
the present nearly balanced state of panics in the
Roue of Commons, the votes of the friendly Scotch
members are indispensable to Lord Palmerston.
And it so happens that in the beginning of the week
an irruption of the aggregate Scotch representation
into the presence of the badgered and baited Pre-
mier, was headed by that most solemn of the Free
Birk leaders, the Lord Advocate. From the
solemnity of these legislative sages it woe obvious
that, for the moment, the souls of Knox and Came-
ron were burning within them that they were a
resuscitated " Westminster assembly of divines."
Lord Palmerston, it ammo, was bluntly told that un-
less he immediately commanded Sir Benjamin Hall
to silence his bands, he could no longer count en a
single Scotch vote. The Premier might have defied
the Archbishop as he did the Presbytery, bet to
be left in a minority in the House of Commons
was a mach more swimss matter than clerical
censures, and he yielded with as good a grace as
he could. We pet this feet epos record simply
from an abstract love of truth. We doubt whether
Londoners will be reconciled to the loss of their mask
by learning that it has been suppressed at the digi-
tate of a class of theologians who will not tolerate an
organ in their *bombes either on Sunday or on week
days. In fact, the movement against the bands begins
to wear the appearance of a crusade against the art
of music. In the dreary lay sermon which has been
pat forth by Mr. Edward Baines, the arguments
against musical performance, for the delectation of
numerous assemblies, if they ars of any weight at all,
tail as coselusively against the practice on any day of
the week as on Sundays.

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