The Express.
London, England, 1867-10-08 00:00:00

A member of the Society of Friends, carrying on
business in Carlisle as • miller, having refused to pay cer-
tain tithes due to the dean and chapter of that city, that
body, in order to obtain payment of the same, obtained a
wamuit to seize six Naylor of the Quaker's flour. The
warrant wee put into execution on Wednesday last, and
the floor after being seised was sold by auction at the
Marttet-crces. _ _

THREE KINDS or ENGLISH. —ln the present day
in the English portions of the world—Europmm Asiatic,
African, Australian, and American—all educated people
use three different kind' of English—Bible, or old
Saxon English, when they go to church or road good
poetry; vernacular or colloquial English, not altogether
free from slang and vulgarity, when they talk to one
another in the ordinary intercourse of life ; and literary
English, when they make speeder or sermons, and write
or read articles, reviews, or books. This threefold divi-
sion of the language has always existed, though the great
balk of the people, up to very recent times, may have
only been familiar with the first and its limited range of
Dec.., verbs, and adjectives, chiefly compared of strong
plain monosyllables of Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian
origin and their immediate derivatives. At • very early
period of English literary history many of these excellent
Siren words, whether used by the peasantry or in the
colloquial intercourse of the upper classes in remote coun-
try districts, were not considered proper for the purposes
either of polite conversation, of pulpit oratory, or of the I
poet or pro ,e writer. Puttenham, in his " Arta of Eng-1
loh l'oesie,"published in 1582, eleven years before Shake-
ream had given to the world "the first heir of his in-
motion," his beautiful poem of " Venus and Adonis,"
defines the somewhat narrow topographical limits of the
current literary English of his time, and prescribes to the
neophyte in poetry what language he shall employ.
Our writer, therefore, at these days, shell not follow
Piers Plowmen, nor Gower, nor Lydgate, nor yet Chaucer,
fee their longues" is now out of use with us; neither shall
be take the teruis of Northmen, such as they use in 1
daily talk, whether they may be noblemen, or gentlemen,
',their best clerks (clergy), nor in effect any speech used
beyond the river of Trent ; though no man Can dewy that
theirs is the purest English Saxon at this day. Yet it is
not so courtly nor so current as our Southern English is ;
so more is the far Western man's speech. Ye shall, there- '
fore, tape the usual speech of the Court, and that of
London, and the shires lying about London, within sixty
miles end not much above," All onr greatest writers from
the days of Shakespeare to onr own have, consciously, or
tuntonscionsly, acted upon Puttenham's advice ; and not-
withstanding the boasted increase of education amongst •
us and the flood of newspapers and periodicals poured out '
daily and weekly over the country, it is to be doubted
whether the hulk of the peasantry, except perhaps in
Scotland, understand literary English, or could make
much, if any, sense out of Pope, Addison, or Johnson ;
Thackevay, Grote, or Macaulay ; or the leading articles of
the daily papera —Bfackwoods Magazine for October.
HOOD Et PERSECUTOR& —Foremost among perse-
cutors was Rae Wilson, Esq., an amateur writer, and
warm friend of Irving, who ceaselessly attacked him with
abuse, charging his comic poems with " profaneness and
ribaldry, and for one most innocent allusion to a corn-
mon-place figure—the dove with the olive branch—ac-
tually with blasphemy ! It is necessary to refer thus to
Hood's provocation, for much censure him been cast by re-
ligions people on the " Ode to Rae Wilson," which, al-
though it would be improved by the omission of two or
three passages, is certainly • castigation not • whit too
severe for the libeller to whom it was addressed. Had
Rae Wilson and his clique alone persecuted the luckless
author of the " Comic Annual," the annoyance would have
been great enough ; bus unfortunately the old homely
proverb of the results of giving • bad name followed.
Worthy, but very silly people were told that Theresa
Hood was a scoffer at all religion ; but instead of inquir-
ing if the charge was really true they forthwith took
upon themselves the right to lecture him, Little
ran the reader imagine the persecution poor Hood
--especially when in ill-health--endured from these
self-constituted preachers. We have seen penny
tracts, suitable enough to be thrust into the fist of
eastermongfr, sent to the writer of some of our sweetest
Poetry, and letters filled with coarsest appeals to a " hard-
ened conscience" addressed to the author of " Eugene
Aram's Dream." Sometimes only a single text, but al-
ways miserably ill-chosen, written in large hand, would
be sent, or a imeation as to what comfort the" Comic An-
neal " would afford him on his death-bed ? That sone
of these foolish writers really meant well, we have no rea-
son to doubt ; but it was always a difficulty to us to ac-
count for the virulent feeling of the greeter number. To
Thomas Hem?, not unnaturally, all the writers seemed
linked together in a bond to torment him ; and he would
sometimes turn upon them like the stag at bay. Wo could
scarcely wonder then at the concentrated bitterness of his
sarcasms, or that sometimes the least offending came in for
the heaviest share of punishment. We have gone into this
subject more at length because not only has there been
great misunderstanding on this subject, hut few writers
lin", we think, undergone more unmerited persecution
num
through so many year..—BrilisA Quarterly Barites, new
ber.