The Express.
London, England, 1866-09-27 00:00:00

OUR CONTEMPORARIES.

Tag Metropolitan Sanitary Association must
not lose the vantage ground it has obtained
from the influence exerted on the public mind just
now by the visitation of cholera ; for, judg-
ing by past experience, as the fear of danger is
removed the remembrance of it gradually becomes
extinct, and all the lessons it baa taught are
speedily forgotten.
As we have before pointed out, there are
already signs of this period of relaxation from the
vigilance which has been so successful in its re-
sults hitherto, and if, as we fervently hope, the
worst is really over, in all probability we shall too
soon fall into our normal condition of carelessness
as to the conditions on which alone we can
hope to enjoy public health. If Parlia-
ment had been in session during the last few
weeks, or if we could compel a majority of its
members, with the President of the Poor-law I,
Board at their head, to make a pilgrimage to those
eastern districts of this metropolis about which
they know so little, there to be brought face to
face with the sad realities of the epidemic as they
are written in sudden and painful death, heart.
rending bereavements, and terrible want and
misery, there would be hope of earnest practical
and efficient sanitary legislation. But by next
February it is predicable that, save in the breasts
of a select few, the fire of reforming legislative
energy will burn but feebly.
Great things, it is true, arc foreshadowed. There
is the water supply, as to which Lord SHAFTESBURY
has given notice of his intention to move as soon as
the session opens, and that a strong fight will be
made by the existing companies for the retention
of their monopoly nobody can doubt. Then there is
the great quo .ition of the dwellings of the poorer
classes, a subject so vital in its bearings upon the
physical and moral condition of a majority of the
inhabitants of great towns and cities as to tax the
practical wisdom and sagacity of anybody who
would deal with it as becomes a statesman.
If we say that modern society and modern
civilization have arrived at this point, that
At their opposite extremes there are two
distinct classes, floc one " Luta io
"be rich," and getting the fullest possible
measure of the honours, emoluments, and world'y
comforts obtainable by means of a high develop-
ment of science and art in every ehape—the other
rapidly increasing in numbers without the neces-
sary corresponding progress in educai.:on,
habits of temperance and cleanliness, or of
thrift and independence, we but express the reali-
ties of the situation. The pauper classes and
those in the degree next above pauperism are un-
happily so numerous that partial, intermittent
efforts to help them are unat ailing for permanent
effect, and sooner or later they must be taken in
hand in the light of an imperial interest upon the
satisfaction of whose just claims our safety as a
nation depends.
The Metropolitan Sanitary Association ap-
parently is not in a position to suggest a
remedy for the evils which it knows to exist,
and accordingly confines itself to appointing a de-
putation to wait upon the Government requesting
the nomination of a Royal Commission of inquiry
into the sanitary condition of the metropolis,
although wh: t further need there is of inquiry
we are at a leas to understand. If a commission
were appointed to-morrow and sat for twelve
months we should only learn at the end of that
time what is known perfectly well now, and has
been stated over and over again. The press, and
the researches of previous official inquirers and of
private individuals, have laid bare the dark spots
of our social life, and precious months would be
lost if it were decided to enter anew upon an in-
vestigation of the exact incidence of the thousand
and one causes which have resulted in our present
system m.terly breaking down. Besides, the re-
sponsibility of applying the proper remedy for the
disease would be altiftial from the shoulders of the
Executive and transferred to a kind of corporate
body who at the best can only recommend certain
measures, which the Government may postpone
or ignore altogether if it think fit. We
have Cabinet Ministers enjoying high rank and
all the influence which their position commands ;
these Ministers are charged with the administration
of the different functions of government, and if
they are to delegate every really serious piece of
business to some other body of gentlemen, how-
ever eminent, we may as well abolish the fiction
of a Cabinet, or select governing council, at once.
There have been too many instances of the abor-
tive labours of royal commissioners for us to de-
sire to see a matter which, above all things, de-
mands prompt and speeey action, handed over to
the calm and leisurely consideration of a commis-
sion who might, very possibly, not close their
inquiry much before the end of next session, if so
soon as that. Two branches of the Executive are
specially concerned in the subjects proposed to be
dealt with by the commission—namely, the Privy
Council and the Poor-law Board. The Duke of
BUCKINGHAM has the advantage of the ripe expe-
rience of Mr. SIMON, his medical officer, whose
intimate acquaintance with the hygienic re-
quirements of the metropolis leaves little
need for additional advisers in the sugges-
tion of remedial measures. And Mr. HARDY
long since declared his intention to forego
his customary holiday during the recess that he
might the better get to understand his work and
mature his plans for Poor-law reform. We have a
right, then, to insist that these two officials shall
prove themselves worthy to occupy their positions
by doing themselves the work which belongs to
them in virtue of their appointments, and until
they have admitted their incapacity it is unfair to
take it for granted.
There is one point in particular which the
Metropolitan Sanitary Commission would do well
to remember, which is, that first and foremost the
decision must be come to sa to the mode in which
the future government of the metropolis is to be
conducted. This is the basis upon which all the

(THIS DAY.)

MR. BRIGHT AT MANCITESTTR.
The Times selects for treatment a point in Mr.
Bright's first speech in which he defined a grievance that
is real and dangerous, being the extent of popular igno-
rance resulting from the defects in the system of popular
education. Agreeing with the hon. member as to the ex-
istence of the evil, the Times cannot see with him how a
reformed parliament could make a clean sweep of the
difficulty. The obstacles in the way of national education
originate in ecclesiastical conservatism, but the conser-
',edam is not exclusively that of Mr. Bright's opponents.
Every religious sect in this kingdom is essentially and
rigorously conservative, and the actual possessors of power
are not much to blame for the present state of things. In
fact, the difficulty does not lie with statesmen of any
party ; it originates in convictions with which any legis-
lature, however constituted, would find it equally hard to
deal.
The Post represents the reform demonstrations as exbi-
bitions of physical force, and as intended to intimidate the
legislature. The reform agitation, it says, exists upon
sufferanoe—nourished by the irresolution, and, as will be
suspected, the connivance of the liberal leaders.
The Herald considers the suggestion as to placarding Mr.
Lowe's speeches on factories and workshops as infamous,
and can only express its astonished disgust at the reckless
malice which could base such calumnious charges as those
which Mr. Bright brought against the conservatives upon a
shameless perversion of historical facts. Men of his own
order shrink from him : they may sympathise in his
political views, but they abhor the wicked recklessness of
his tactics. Look at the beggarly following of M.P.s at
Birmingham and Manchester.
The Standard is still more disturbed by Mr. Bright's
language. Whether be dreams of revolution or plans a
riot, our contemporarycannot tell; but be must knowwhat
is the tendency of his advice, and his guilt is none the
less because his malice is nearly impotent.
In the interest of the groat cause at stake, the Tele-
graph regrets that Mr. Bright, by certain passing
expressions in his speech on Tuesday, should have
given his enemies the remotest pretext for the charge
of advocating v *olent measures which they are certain
to bring against him. Should critics, however,
deprecate even the faintest allusion to the vast reserve of
material strength which is behind the present agitation,
there is a simple and obvious reply. Put moral force
the foreground of the movement and there need not be
so much as a whisper that more violent agents may be
called into play. If the great middle-class—those who
are bound down as hostages for the good behav :our of the
general community—choose to go hand in hand w th their
unenfranchised countrymen in the demand for reform,
they will by virtue of their social position, wealth, and
intellixence, cntroi the agitation and define its limita.
Of the three great mead ineetint7,
private representations, and petitions—none must be neg-
lected, while each may support the others.
The Star thinks it would be well if the liberal members
of parliament who hold back from the great meetings
would consider the danger of committing themselves in
the wrong direction. The movement has gone far beyond
the possibility of a Derby measure. Anything which could
satisfy the people would place the tory government in
more violent opposition to their own party than the repeal
of the corn laws. The next liberal government must be so
constituted as to include a much greater proportion of the
popular element than has been usual in whig ministries, to
ensure that a large and liberal bill shall be laid before
parliament. Until then all who wish to serve the cause
have but to throw themselves into the agitation with
hearty zeal and energy.