The Express.
London, England, 1851-04-30 00:00:00

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LONDON, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 30.

I. the present excitement of the farmers it is not
safe, it seems, to trust them with opportunities of
post-prandial eloquence. That was tried last year,
and several honest gentlemen in top boots treated
the world and the newspapers to specimens of argu-
ment more startling than convincing. There was
Mr. CHOWLE4 for example, of the expressive cogno-
men, who "pitched into" the free traders in a
decidedly pugilistic fashion ; and another worthy,
whose name we forget, followed it up by a still more
blustering appeal to physical force.
This was found to be as detrimental to the con-
servative party as indecorous. Rather open to ridi-
cule before, this bared the side to quatibets intermi-
nable. So that this year only a morning sitting was
assigned to the farmers. Such debates are dull
enough in the House of Commons; but at Drury-lane
the reserve of the magnates, and the empty stomachs
of the isarei, made, notwithstanding the evident zeal
and discipline of the daqueurs, perhaps the most
signal failure that the boards of Drury-lane ever
witnessed.
The fact of the protectionists having no fugleman
' to lead the British farmers save Mr. Burr, the Irish
Q.C., is about the most lamentable confession of im-
potence that can be well conceived. Mr. FREDERICK
YOUNG, having worn out himself and his arguments,
was dispatched into a corner, to talk to
wino supplementary Babel of agriculturists,
where the press could not hear him. In Drury-
lane, indeed, the speakers confined themselves to
one species of argument, that of numbers and deter-
mination. And for such as these we must say
that they were without their first and most fit-
ting orator, Mr. FERRAND. lie was the man to have
given due emphasis to physical force arguments. But
neither Mr. FERIL‘ND nor Mr. CHOWLER were bid-
den to the file.
The only remarkable circumstance of the Drury-
lane holding-forth was the difference between the
lords and the farmers for whilst the Duke of
RICHMOND and Lord WINCHILSEA represented all
classes of trade as well as agriculture in such utter
ruin that the very operatives were about to demand
protection in crowds, a Sussex farmer declared on
the contrary that his class was the only one that suf-
tired, for the tradespeople were well off, the land-
owner had suffered but atrifling diminution of rent,the
titheowner none of his tithe, and that in fact the
farmer was the only victim. We are inclined to
think this pretty much about the truth; but as the
farmers, and not parliament, have the remedy of this
in their own hands, it is difficult to imagine for what
purpose they crowded to Drury-lane. Their be-
taking themselves thither may, however, be ex-
plained by the loud words of a man at the
door of the theatre, who, as the farmers made
their exit, exclaimed, " Who wants railway paws ?"
The farmers had been bribed; there were twenty
farmers of a certain club present, who received two
guineas each for attending; or at least they had their
expenses paid to and from the grand council of pro-
tection.
If the feast of reason before dinner on the
part of the farmers was dull, the after-dinner
eloquence of their would-be patrons was
duller still. It was the mere rump of protection.
The Duke of IticliMoND, Lord WINCIIILSEA.
FREDERICK YOUNG, Colonel Staritoar, and cetrres
pares. There was no DisnsEtt, no STANLEY, at
least to speak, no STAFFORD even. Nothing can be
more certain than that the Duke of RICHMOND, Mr.
YOUNG, and a few other desperados form a forlorn
hope, completely detached from the main body of the
Stanley-its:B, who have rallied to some secret kind of
mitigated protection—in other words, agreed to fling
protection altogether overboard.
No other possible conclusion can be arrived at after
the double failure of yesterday.

AFTER all, we fear Mr. Pmerosi was right when
he proposed to throw the Great Exhibition open to
the public, or very nearly so, and to treat it no
longer us one of those commercial speculations which
was to pay itself. It would have been nobler to
have made it a national undertaking. National, in-
deed, it is; but, unfortunately, it represents the na-
tion as making the most of the contributions of the
rest of the world, not merely to indulge its pride,
but replenish its pocket. Britannia collecting shil-
lings at an exhibition door cuts scarcely a more re
spectablc figure than the same personage, in helmet
and curl paper, sticking a wax candle in the branch
of a chandelier.
Neither the committee, however, nor the Prince,
had a choice. The public were willing to have the
Exhibition, but not to pay for it as public. And
tnere are certainly fifty-four millions of reasons in
the budget for this economy. But the good public did
not perceive all the consequences. Amongst them are
the necessity of charging not only the public, but
the exhibitors, domestic and foreign, the very
makers of the show, and the first subscribers who
'set it on foot, for liberty to enter the remises where
1 their own goods are placed, and which their gene-
rosity has reared. This may be necessary, but it is
not noble.
Then we have a fete. The opening or inaugura-
tion of the building is necessarily one. And when
the managers proposed to have the opening private,
the press and the public very naturally exclaimed,
and remonstrated, and the managers yielded. It is
now, however, apparent that the managers had some
very good grounds for avoiding any solemn inaugu-
ration, and shrinking from the paraphernalia of a
fete. For the numbers of those who have a fair claim to
be present on such an occasion are so enormous that
they would fill the Crystal Palace to choking. There
are the original subscribers, the leaders in committees;
the purchasers of season tickets; the officials, court
and civic; the exhibitors, domestic and foreign. To
have a ceremony, and exclude the latter without a
payment of three guineas, is really monstrous.
Of all obstacles, however, want of space is that
most difficult to overcome. Whether, indeed a large
portion of those entitled to enter might not have
been allowed merely to pass through in procession,
beholding the preparation, and then marshalling out-
side, with facilities afforded for seeing into the inside,
is now too late to moot. But it must be admitted
that domestic exhibitors are hardly, and foreign ex-
hibitors most uncourteously treated, by being denied
all participation in the opening.
What amends can be made to the foreigner, is a mat-
ter for after consideration. If each class of trade and
commerce were to welcome those of its own calling from
over sea, it would be a source of mutual amusement,
instruction, and pleasure—a gracious and generous
thing where there is rivalry, and brotherly where
there is not. The eminent amongst the exhibitors
will, no doubt, find welcome of this kind amongst
their eminent brethren here. Of this we have so
little doubt, that we may spare advice on the sub-
ject. But then, the less eminent amongst the fo-
reign exhibitors run the risk of knowing no more of
lagand and Englishmen than is to be gleaned by
fe~d it' or bussing backwards and forwards between
dr ymarket and Hyde-park.
Anything like a fete is forbidden by the mercantile
law of profit, which the Exhibition has assigned to
itself; and we are sorry to say, that the same prin-
ciple and aim necessarily prevails in the arrange-
ments and admission. And it is on this account that
we cannot but allow that Mr. Pa mot's proposal, made
some months since (on which we observed complete
silence), had considerable foresight and reason
in it. No one, however, would then enter-
tain it ; and there is nothing now left but