The Express.
London, England, 1866-10-04 00:00:00

DRURY LAN R.

THIS arninro, mACBETK. Messrs. B. SaMvan, Swinbonrne,
?dead, E. Phelps, Henri Drayton, dc.: Mesdames Amy Sedg-
WiCk, Bauer, beam, dc.—And THE COMEDY OF EILROBB.
The *others Webb.

PRINCESIN &

Timl LIMO, THE TRIPLh ALLIANCIL—After which THE
HUGHILNOT CAPTAIN. llama Ninths .ud G. 110; Wow
Name, Aussie, Thomson, and Mi. tiVass.—And QUIET
LODGINGS.

HAYMAN/IT.

Tie 'Mark 17MCLZRaLIL Winn. Chlppesdale, Howe,
ex. ; Mesdames atippardals, Wright. ie. —USID UP. Mr. C.
Mathew& —Ballet Divertissement Mines ChilitJas and Agnes
Healey.—A COMICAL COUNTMS.--11Y HUSBAND% GHOST.

NTRAWD.

Tan Ivixusa, THE MARRIED BACHE:LOX—After wide's
WAITING YOE THE UNDILEGBDUND.—The Wait Minos
of KHEILWORTH.—And JACK'S DELIGHT.

BRITANNIA.

TED STRWRie, MARfEliiiii4TONE: OR, THE VICTIM
OF CIRCUMSTANCES.—The Wondrous Brothers Victoria on
the Treble Trapeze ; The Great Vaulting Troupe The Delavanti ;
IL. Wardinl ; The Louisville Minstreta—THZ TALUS Manua.

ETON WATER AT LONDON BITDOZ
Til DAT —Moraine, 10h. 471 s Afternoon, 11h. 800.
TO-1011M11—Yornlag, 11h. Um Aflorooos, Oil. O.

LONDON, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 4.

Tun common-place remark that one half of the
world knows not how the other half lives, receives
daily illustration from the reports which appear in
our police columns. Without these records, which
seem to many persons the most trivial and value-
less.portion of the newspaper, we should form a
very inadequate idea of the number and variety of
ways in which a profit is to be made by cultivating
the vanity, idle curiosity, and credulous weakness
of mankind. A case which came before the ma-
gistrates at Guildhall on Tuesday last reveals the
operation of a system by which a tax is impu-
dently laid upon trade for the benefit of a
private speculator. Mr. JAMES TORRINGTON
SPENCER LIDSTONE was brought before Alderman
STONE and Alderman COTTON, charged with mali-
cioualy publishing a defamatory libel concerning
Masers. B. W. WINFIELD and Co., of Birm;ngham.
The case arose out of a previous libel, for which
the defendant had apologised. But when Messrs.
WINFIELD sent his apology to the newspapers,
the defendant repudiated the same, and in a letter
to the Times declared that it was a forgery. Mr.
LIDSTONE, it appears, is the author of the
" Londoniad," a periodical composed in rhyme,
and described by its author as " the continuation
" of a University great prize poem on the Arts ;
" giving a full description of the principal esta-
" blishmenta in the capital of England, and form-
" ing altogether episodes in a grand national
" poem on the Arts." The volumes are stated
on the title-page to be produced under the aus-
pices of the QUEEN, the Emperor NAPOLEON, and
other eminent personages, and the verses of which
they are made up set forth the merits of those
tradesmen and manufacturers who encourage the
success of what the author styles his " tablature
" of benevolence and public spirit, befriending
" equally trade, gallantry, criticism, and politics."
Mr. LIDSTONE is not only the author of the
" Londoniad ;" he canvasses for it, and publishes
it ; and it happens that while some traders are
highly praised in his stanzas, others are held up to
scorn and loathing. When he has reason to be
satisfied with a house of business, he is visited by
the Muse, and the resulting " episode " is some-
thing like this poem addressed to a soap manufac-
turer :
Here midst irradiate balls, with —'a patent soap,

And crystal colonnades the Muse her solar dome shall owe,
For goodness of quality through a hundred nations known,
Languages of a legion race sing to renown.

I took some of his Shaving Cream once to Sir John Col-
borne,
Who thanked me, and ordered more from Ring-street, in
Holborn.
I consigned some to th' nephews of England's much-loved
primate,
They analyzed and found it fit for any climate.
Or this, dedicated to a leather merchant :
My fairy bark, with sails of light, o'er a sea of sunbeams
glides,
With morocco laden, roans, and enamelled hides ;
As a deity of the floods, halcyon-like she floats,
With enamelled seals, Spanish horse-hides, chamois, seals,
and enamelled goats ;
Above heroes of war a place the Muse assigned hers,
Hail French enamelled calf, and hail too striped seal
binders.
But Mr. LIDSTONE is not always complimentary.
When he has not reason to think well of a trader,
there is danger that he may figure in this style :
Avenging Pallas shakes her Gorgon shield
Full in thy face, thou chest, thou perjurer, Field ;
or be shown up in lines like these, which are
superscribed with the name of a well-known
gentleman :

One who, like you, would take advantage of
Time or place to annoy a gentleman,
Like you, must be a coward and a knave.
It seems inconceivable that rubbish such as
the eulogistic verses given above should be thought
worth a farthing, but if there are traders who like
to pay for it, no one else has a right to complain.
Wilful and malicious defamation stands on a dif-
ferent footing. Not only the persons injured, but
the whole public, have an interest in discouraging
slander. Mr. LIDSTONE'S interviews with Messrs.
WINFIELD seem to have been of an unsatisfactory
kind, for he published in his " Londoniad " a num-
ber of disparaging statements of a most damaging
character, which we need not repeat, since he has
himself described their character in an apology
which he has signed, and which is now being pub-
lished under the order of the magistrates, to the fol-
lowing effect :—"As the author of a book entitled
" the Londoniad,' containing a statement in
" reference to your firm which has no foundation
" in fact, and is libellous in its character, I unhesi-
" tatingly acknowledge the injustice I have done
" you by its insertion, and tender you my most
" sincere apology." It was the letter of which this
sentence formed a part that Messrs. WINFIELD
published in the Times, whereupon Mr. Lrnwrows
wrote to the Editor of that journal, denouncing
it as a forgery. But before the magistrates on
Tuesday he acknowledged it, consented to its
republication, and entered into recognizancee
not to repeat the offence. Looking at what is due
to the public, we cannot help expressing an
opinion that this was not a desirable termination
of the case. Messrs. WINFIELD disclaimed, as
was proper, all vindictive feeling in the matter ;
but we venture to think that the public interest
required that an offence so rank and wilful should
have been visited with exemplary punishment. We
do not, however, blame the magistrates. The
original offence—the publication in the " Londo-

" niad "—bad been condoned and *Med ; and
all they could have done was te. commit-the de-
fendant for trial on the second libel, biting
forgery to Messrs. Wurriimo—a course which it
is evident wee not desired by those gen-
tleman. We trust that their leniency was
not due to any notion that by sparing the de-
fendant they were respecting the freedom of the
press, which can have nothing in common with the
principles on which the " Londoniad " is con-
ducted. We do not expect to hear more of that
publication ; but there will be always persons who,
without any recognizable public duty to perform,
are ready to prey upon the susceptibilities of the
weak, and the natural dislike of all men to be
held up to ridicule and be defamed in print. For
the sake of society, no mercy should be shown to
such pests whenever they expose themselves to
the penalties of the law.

TORYISM has gained a triumph, a victory after
its own heart, and cannot suppress its exultation.
The discoaragements of the party have been multi-
plied of late, but the sky has brightened, and they
are permitted to rejoice over a crowning mercy.
They have won a seat at Brecon, Mr. Howem. Gvrrx
having been returned by a majority of 26 votes.
The Hcra/d tries to preserve a calm demeanour ;
it foresaw the result a week ago, and told the
Liberals that their efforts would be thrown away :
the Conservative feeling was so strong in the
borough that nothing would hold it. And so it
has happened ; that terrible Radical, Lord ALFRED I
CHURCHILL, has suffered a "severe defeat," and the
constituency have elected a gentleman who willprove
a staunch supporter of Lord DERBY. UH101;11-
nately we cannot dispute our contemporary's facts.
It is as he says, and the result will make a differ-
ence of two when the divisions on Reform take
place in the next Parliament. Inthe House of Com-
mons one vote is as good as another ; to a " whip "
it makes no difference whether it is that of the re-
presentative of a great constituency or the nominee
of a landholder sitting for some pocket borough.
As a matter of curiosity, however, we may show,
for the enlightenment of people who have no votes,
what Mr. Howsra, GWYN represents in the House
Commons. We find, then, that if all the
persons entitled to vote at Brecon had been
unanimously of opinion that Mr. GWYN
was the most fitting person to represent
them he would have had just 281 supporters. As
it was, 102 being of a different opinion, voted for
Lord ALFRED CHURCHILL, and Mr. HOWELL
GWYN received just 128 votes. That is the figure
which represents the value of his return as an ex-
pression of public opinion ; that is the foun-
dation of the Tory triumph. If a member were
assigned to every 281 borough electors throughout
the kingdom, we should have Aylesbury returulng
4, Bradford 18, and Birmingham 53 members.
rat, speculation apart, we must admit that this
Brecon election is a great Tory victory. Lord
DERBY can hardly do less than acknowledge the
obligation by greatly enlarging the constituency.

OUR CONTEMPORARIES.
(THIS DAY.)

THE CONFEDERATE CRUISERS AND THE AMERICAN
PROPOSAL OT ARBITRATION.

With some confidence, encouraged by his late
speech at Liverpool, the Times ins:tee Lord Stanley's
attention, as well as that of the public, to the question of
the Alabama claims. It is vain to indulge the belief that
our supposed infractions of neutrality have been con-
doned ; the American people still cherish a sense of
injury, which, with the exigencies of party war-
fare, may at any moment imperil the diplomatic
entente connate. No one attempts to malntain
that either our own or the American Foreign Enlist-
merit Act is in all respects satisfactory, and the
Times ventures to submit that it would be at once the
most rilgnified and politic course to reconsider dispassion-
ately the questions arising out of the case of the Con-
federate cruisers, and it sees no insuperable obstacle to a
solution which has something in common with Mr. Adams'
proposal, and something with that of Lord Russell. Let a
joint commission be appointed, not to adjudicate upon the
claims preferred against Great Britain by American ship-
owners, or to review the transactions connected with the
equipment of the Alabama and her consorts, but to delibe-
rate on the rights and duties of neutrals in time of war
as hitherto determined by international law or usage, and
to devise, if possible, a set of rules which all maritime
nations should be invited to adopt, and to carry out by
legislative measures. A commission of this kind should
not be exclusively composed of British and American sub-
jects, but should include eminent continental jurists, and
should be invested with the amplest possible liberty of
recommendation. If upon a perusal of their report
her Majesty's government shall be of opinion that,
under the circumstances, some reparation is due, either
in international law or international equity, to the
United States in respect of the ravages of the Alabama,
it will not be too late to make it, and no false
pride should prevent our doing so with a good grace.
That Lord Russell was w ..ong in his exposition of the law
has yet to be shown ; but on the other hand, as everyone
knows, the Alabama would never have got to sea but for
the most inopportune illness of the Queen's Advocate, and
this consideration, though it may clear the government
from the charge of neglect, does in some devisee affect the
moral aspect of the case. The loss sustained by American
commerce in consequence may be dam num tine injurid,
and therefore no ground of a legal action ; and yet it may
be a wise act of courtesy to waive the benefit of this plea.
The Star marks the absence from Lord Derby's letter to
the chairman of the Liverpool banquet of all words of
hearty greeting to the United States. It is one of the
penalties we must pay for allowing to a tory premier even
• short lease of power, to find him on critical occasions
failing to represent the national feelings. During the war,
not a day passed that the foulest libels were not spoken
and printed of the American people, at a time when
they were exhibiting the most wonderful devotion
to the most sacred cause. And when Mr. John Laird
uttered from the tory benches the pious wish that he
might be the builder of a dozen Alabama', the tories ex-
pressed their detestation of the principles of freedom, and
their desire that slavery might be triumphant, by the same
ringing cheers with which they greeted Mr. Lowe's libel on
the marmot his fellow-citizens. These manifestations of
hostility were not unresented in America. The treatment
they then experienced still rankles in the minds of the
freemen of the North, and no greater aer% ice can be ren-
dered by any statesman to the cause of humanity than the
modifying or removing of that feeling.