The Express.
London, England, 1851-04-24 00:00:00

the entrefso.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.
A ewcinee
Soma WU= of "TM Larerg.' 4 nufaiar Nmu
bbim Le time
Ur Is pablibed 'boy Imo la, sal Priday tit,
for pd.
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day of pabdiestbas.
-------
HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
ete Day --blormaig, bL. 7111 ....... Aluato lib. Pa.
T
._........—Jbursayi. Ob. 2lbs Altera." IN. bsb.

- _
LONDON, THURSDAY, APRIL 21.

PnoverrioNow is in ecstasies at having won the
representation of a small trading town. its emotion
area the event may be furgiven, for such a thing has
sot happened for a lung time before: and unaceuve
tamed pipe are the moat extiting to weak intellects
of all descriptions. Fur the bed three years the de-
cayed fortunes of monopoly have been with difficulty
kept alive in stagnant agricultural commues
show. Family boruughs have continued to return
the family for and fetbles; while the unchangeable
disitriets of boxhuntingdom have sent their unim-
proved contingent of dumb doggedness% to represent
its inarticulate discontent in parliament. But out
even the loud and exceeding letter rallying cry of
Lord o
liV4TINtli could stimulate protec-
tioniem make a eerious attempt on any
important town previously representell by free-trade
principle-a. Two or three awkward efforts to creep
ra USSWATtI4, under a show of other colours, proved i
signally unsucceesful ; and from that tune the iynig
'ohm ~ of protection has continued to flicker in the
neighbourhoed only ef undrained lands, by the MOSS-
'CMS'S wall of sonic silent and dwindling pocket-
borough.
By a piece of unlooked-for luck, however, the
taxers of food have actually go t hold of a little sea-
part of Lincolnshire, mid utter a nominal enntest,
too. and all the polling uppearances of a real conteet.
Never were howl mach elaillitionts of well-feigned joy'.
What a glorious precedent fur other little towns
wham ear the opportunity comes ! A hundred
Fuesneleove are really for the field. lteaction
clearly has at length set in. 'the whole country
ken eaten itself sick of good wheaten bread, and
Wags Io throw half of every future boil away. 'rile
read old British spirit has once more lawn roused.
Hatred to everything foreign, especially Frenchtiour,
whose very excellents: is the very thing that rendos
it mi very detestable. Nothing is wanting but a
dissolution, and every city and town in the time
kine,oloone will show itself of the same SlUdditil Mind
as Boston. Money, of course, must be pnividtel, and
m 4,41 ; but with such candidates, and the reactionary
enthusiasm in favour of not having in Intim enough
to eat, in order that the nobility and gentry may
(awe more have inure than is good for them at the
people.* ennt --a SIAN Inlijority is already realised
m Carlton dream..
We would respectfully remind our exultant fr
itiendut
s,
however, that env Bong lack they yet, who
which all their money, men, and mystification, will
aseuredly prove unavailing. They must, in every
phew they seriously I 'flake to ss.in, secure
web a liberal cunilidate as Mr. Wt e. The
worthy alderman is just the sort of anta-
gonist a monopoliet should wish to have op-
posed to him. We shall not enumerate his many
eminent qualities for the purple(' of an (wawa.
W. dare say there may lw a good many ambitious
to
and unfit individual's, like Mr. WIRK, who want
lw talked of as aspirants to senatorial honours. But
it can hardly be expected that we should furnish a ,
palitieal and intellectual eiysesienscnt whereby they
might be ut once diseernesi, and thrust into mis-
chievous imminency. One Witte at a time is, at all
events, enough. Let the tories pray for equa\ ly in-
elieible candidates on the liberal side. wherever
they mean to try their prowess again: but let us
nut have the min to answer for aiding and abetting in
the discovery thereof.
The electors of Boston appear to have regularly
milked at the indignity of having no latter suitors
for their confidence titan Mr. FKKSIIFIELD and Al-
dennan Witte ; for more than three hundred of them
absolutely refused to vote at all. At the election of
11119, when the late member, Captain Fume% was
returned, tiw lllllpolled were 73, while the
total numbers at the late contest did n4ot exeeed •il9
—the total constitueney capable of voting during
the present year hong not short of 1010.
We are fur, indeed, from palliating this mani-
fest dereliction of public duty on the part of
thaw who thus resolved to show their spleen at
having nobody better deserving of their suffrages
than the rivals we have named. But on the other
band, it is hardly to be credited that had proper ex-
ertiona been made in time to find a more suitable
champion of popular principles, one might not have
boon found. When the opportunity recurs. Us it soon
may, for repairing this error, it is hut reasonable to
expect that the people of Boston will do so. 'rite
ohl partizans of the liattoonotallt interest would
likewise do well to take warning by the disreputa-
ble result of their overfastivliousnese. If they 'void
nut procure in time a candidate exactly to their
taste, they were bound in public honour to aid in the
return of the only liberal in the field. But it is too
late to regret now. All that can be done is to take
timely measures for the recovery of their true po-
sit inn.
But as for reaction in favour of dear food, the very
idea of the thing is prepostenms. 'The inactivity
avid indifference of the masses on the portended
question arises solely from one very natural and very
obvious cause —their utter incredulity as to the posei-
'many of their wholesome and nourishing three full
melk as day being in danger. Let the rash and
short-sigh landlord clam once awaken the people
to a belief that their enjoyment of cheap and sutti-
eient fivel is really in danger. and the country will
:mower in a tone not to be mistaken.

IT is gratifying to behold any effort made to afford
provision in old age, and suggest economy in youth,
to that part of the working classes, the literary
labourer. It is still more gratifying to find such an
effort made by literary men themselves; by those.
indeed, who *have escaped the perils of I; litenoy
voyage through life, but who, having had a nearer
view of its besetting difficulties, dungen+, and cures,
feel best and know best how to apply a remedy. Our
readers have already learned front these columns the
scheme of the Guild of Literature. to establish which
Sir Enwent) Betwea has composed a drama, to be
aetedby that band of distinguished amateur theatrical
performers, who have grouped around Mr. Coxitt.es
theKENs. The Duke of DEvoxsonte has lent his
house and influence; the CleeeN has promised her
presence. 'f he play, already fashionable, will be
popular, and nu doubt profitable, as it deserves. 'Co
a nobler object it could not be applied. And the
press cannot fail to lend its aid to an undertaking so
philanthropic and so noble. For all that, the voice
of criticism need not be hushed, for frank advice will
Me English felonry in Van Diemen's Land has mature, not check plans of the kind.
;smuttiest an imposing attitude. It aspires to &mina. A great many will object in /inane to the word
time. It resolves to invert the order of things that yeal. which savours of monopoly and exclusiveneas,
prevails in all well ordered communities, and make and which recalls the tenets of those commercial
homsa men hold their lives and properties at the Puseyites amongst us who would improve the eon-
mercy of the rogues. A '• Prisoners Protection dition of the artiLan by restoring guilds and old coy-
" has been organised by the " Emancipiets." porations. Such an idea was no doubt remote from
that is, by the marble whose term of punishment the numb. of any of the projectors of the present
has expired and by the descendants of convicts; and scheme, whose sole privilege is mutual charity. and
this body has taken the field with a view to pack who, far from seeking monopoly or exclustveness,
the Legislative Council with "friends of the mi. demand but to open their doors and arms to all
soirees. They have established a newspaper. or the charitable men of the world and all the thrifty
newspapers. to promote their views: and have secured men of letters. But the title Guild appears to
the literary *crew...s of some of those reckl ss men us, and for a variety of reasons, an objectionable
who assumed before their time the designation of mediwvalism.
- felons" in Ireland. Neither does the mode of insurance strike us as
rile AVOW...* of the felon interest in the press in that beet calculated for the literary mall. The
Van Diemen's Land are by no means mealy-mouthed system of life insurance best fitted l'or the literary
in the expression of their ulterior aims. One of ; earner, is that which he call secure by high
them thus throws down the gauntlet to all " suntan I payment during a few years say seven or
moralists" who are so illiberal as to make a irtinc- I ten —being the probable period of his success
non between honest men and criminals:--" We do ;as a writer. Bonuses are all very well fur men of
not wish that any distinction between caste, class, or' business, who know how to apply them with advan-
party may be made; but if these puritan moralists ttge. But bonuses are about the worst returns to a'
will have it, why let them have it. say I, by all literary man. What he requires is the deferred an-
means. and we shall see, in the course of time. which nuke for his family and for himself. and that not im-
party can best afford to keep it up." He' taunts the '• possible to be secured in the few years of an author's
honest men with having come to a country where; amine. Then. again. why limit the member of the
they knew they would find convicts and expire*, ; Guild to one insurance office" The Guild does not
and little else. He declares that he bears surely, intend to deal in or to make money of
inextinguishable hatred towards these horn- insurances. If not. ought not the fact of a literary
tiers into the land where he would establish an I man making provision for his family in any insurance
aristocracy of rogues : " For my own part. I hate office he sufficient to entitle him to the advantages
them cordially as they do me and my class. and; of the Guild? Are those who may have already
sh dl never desire that the feud may be less region- s effected insurances to be excluded from the benefits
tiled than it is." And he exhorts his class to "kick •of the institution?
them out—kick them out ; starve them into salmis- We must confess, also, that a kind of Smost.,rium,
sion. or at least civility ; give then defiance for their endowed with a collegiate character, would be the
defiance, hate for hate, and exclude from the pockets more dignified and decorous retreat tor the
ulna
leave those who desire exclusion any protits that may ; literature. The alms house system of erecting a
have found their way into them from our class. row of pigeon houses. with ull Hie dearness and disad-
Tlwse are not mere empty words and braggadocio. vantages of smullundseparatedwellings,is a medileval-
In 1848 there were 9,000 emancipated male convicts • ism which might be improved. A large edifice, divided
in the colony, 5,000 male holders of tickets-of-leave.linto separate apartments, with a common kitchen,
and 16.000 convicts in private service and employed buttery, library, drawing-roan, and gardens, in a