The Express.
London, England, 1867-05-16 00:00:00

TELEGRAPHIC INTELLIGENCE.

OIECTRIN TUAGRAXS.)
THE LONDON CONFERENCE.
PARK MAT 15.

The Moniker dr Soir, in its bulletin, says:—" The
result of the London Conference has been well re-
ceived both in France and abroad. It is permitted
to hope that nothing will interfere with the Ex-
hibition, the success of which is increasing, and
which attracts an extraordinary number of crowned
heads to Paris. The fortunate issue of the Ci .n-
-ference has strengthened the position of the English
ministry. All acknowledge the great ability of
Lord Stanley, who presided at the delibe-
rations of the 'plenipotentiaries. His enlightened
and impartial attitude was in keeping with
the dignity and interests of England.
A real solidarity unites the subjects of the
Emperor with those of Queen Victoria. Since the
treaty of commerce in 1860 no nation profits more
than England by a guarantee which strengthens the
peace of the Continent."
In to-day's sitting of the Legislative Body M.
Picard requested leave to address an interpellation
to - the government respecting the order fixing
3,000 francs as the sum required to procure exemp-
tion from military service. M. Picard asks whe-
ther a reduction in this amount will not take place,
considering the new circumstances which have
arisen. It is stated that the Shah of Persia will
visit Paris in July.

BELGIUM.
BBUSIMILS, N.tv 15.

In to-day's sitting of the Senate the Minister for
Foreign Affairs announced to the members that the
treaty drawn up at the London Conference was
concluded, and he added that this treaty increased
the security of Belgium.

AMERICA.

(41011 OUR SPICIAL CORRISPONDWT.)
NEW YORK, MAY 1.

I saw recently in the Pull Mull Casette a com-
ment on Mr. Covode's vulgar joke levelled against
the President, as the " chief tailor of the nation,"
in the debate in Oongress on the court costume of
American ministers, based apparently on the
account given of the debate by the Times' cor-
respondent, and in which the writer adopts the
correspondent's assertion that Mr. Johnson was
selected for the vice-presidency because his origin
was low. Thereupon follow some sharp animad-
versions on the " snobbism " and meanness of
Americana in reviling and ridiculing a man for the
very thing which had led thorn to put him in high
office. A more absurd generalisation about
America I do not remember to have seen, though I
have seen a groat many absurd ones during the
last six years. One easily sees, however,
how the Times' correspondent came to make
it. A man's birth and position in early life are in
England of a good deal of importance, and if he
rises to eminence are never forgotten, but constantly
referred to as something very remarkable. This
is true of all walks in life, but it is particularly
true of political life, the high positiOns in which have
been reserved, with rare exceptions, for men of
good family. It is, as all the world knows, no
easy matter for s man not connected with the great
houses to get into high office, or, if he gets in, to
stay there comfortably. A man of positively "low
origin," and no early education, has, as far as I
remember, with ono exception, never got there
at all. When a man has worked his way
up from a mean calling to even a good social
position, nobody, not even his friends, ever tall of
his career without mentioning his beginning as
something very remarkable, and his enemies take
great delight in recalling it, and commenting on it.
It is, in short, a most important circumstance, and
makes a deep impression on the popular imagi-
nation.

Accordingly, when an Englishman comes over
here, and sees a tailor or a rail splitter, badly
dressed and with indifferent manners, filling one of
the highest offices in the State, he naturally begins
to speculate as to the cause of what is to him so
extraordinary a phenomenon. He thinks it impos-
sible that people can have overlooked the low origin
of their candidate. They must have thought of it,
and cannot possibly have thought of it without

considering it a circumstance of considerable im-
portance. Evidently, however, they did not con-
sider it a disqualification, or they would never have
elected him ; and others must, he concludes, have
considered it a high qualification ; it must, in short,
have been the very thing which led them to elect
him. Lincoln must have been nominated because
he was a rail splitter, and Johnson because he was
a tailor. Such is democracy.
Now the truth is, wonderful as it may seem to
many Englishmen, that to the great body of Ame-
ricans a man's trade or calling, provided it be an
honest one, is a matter which exercises absolutely
no influence on his political fortunes. So far from
its affecting his chances of office favourably or un-
favourably, it does not affect them at all. Anybody
who has even a limited acquaintance with American
feeling or tone of thought knows perfectly well
that the business in which a man was engaged in
early life is not a thing of which they ever think
of speaking seriously as a fact of importance in
judging of his qualifications for office. Education
and manners, as well as pursuits, of course do in-
fluence a mates marriage, for a young man engaged
in tailoring, or hod-carrying, is pretty sure to fail,
if he tries to marry a woman of fortune, or
position, or of refinement. But he has only to
get out of his tailoring and hod-carrying to find,
if he is a man of ability and has acquired a good
ordinary education, that his having been engaged in
them will be no bar whatever to his filling any corn-
mereialorpolitical position he aspires to. There are,
in fact, very few bank or railroad directors, presi-
dents of insurance companies, or wealthy mer-
chants in New York, who have not at some period
or other in their career got their living in a way
which in England would have left a kind of stigma
on them all their days. I might fill one of your
columns with the names of men now in the fore-
most positions in politics and commerce who have
stood behind counters in their youth—a fact which
an Englishman would carefully conceal as far as he
could, and the mention of which by his friends
would be considered unkind or offensive. The
American, on the other hand, neither conceals
nor avows it, he simply refers to it whenever
necessary with the same unconcern with which he
talks of his having once been young, or of
having once had black or brown hair. If you were