The Express.
London, England, 1866-10-20 00:00:00

THE WEEKLY PRESS.

The Spectator describes the true function of Mr.
Bright to be to act is the battering ram against the inertia
and morbid intellertual hesitations of parliament, and

says that never has he fanned that function more nobly
than in the pathetic and magnificent conclusion of his
Glasgow speech. It is indeed, as be asserts, not too much
to say that if the miseries of the millions were permanent
and irremediable—were not chiefly the growth of our awn
selfishness and sin—it would be impossible to believe in the
God whom Christ revealed. And it is still more certain that

we cannot spread this faith through the misery and the
squalor of the most numerous and poorest class, except by
multiply4ng the moral revelation of His love in works of
mercy for the wretched. No doubt many may recognise
how true this is who do not see in Mr. Bi:ght's great sped-
6c—a wide extension of the suffrage—the natural means
to this end. The late Archbishop Wbately used to say that
he feared democracy chiefly for its warlike disposition,
and one of Mr. Bright's main hopes in reform appearsto be
the final cessation of a warlike policy. But as all parties

agree that some generous representation of the largest class
in the community is at least common justice to them, even
if not a great instrument of regeneration, and many look
upon it, especially having regard to the need of popular
education, as also the latter, it is at least impossible to
appeal to religious feeling on the conservative side, and
natural to appeal to it on the radical.
Considering the suggested impeachment of President
Johnson, the Spectator comes to the conclusion that of all
solutions of the question between Mr. Johnson and the
Congress, the beat would be the voluntary resignation of
the President ; the next best, his enforced resignation
under a constitutional amendment; the next, his submit.

Rion ; and the worst, his removal under a 'entices which
large sections of the people would undoubtedly consider
unjust. The South would then seem to be headed by the
legal chief of the union, the North only by the creature
of the representative bodies.
The Examiner protest+ against the mischiefs of exag•
geration, and hears with equal regret what it terms
the antagonistic absurdities of Mr. Lowe and Mr. Bright,
the latter of whom, it says, would have the world believe
that England is ashamed of her history ; that " until
1832 we had one of the worst governments in
Christendom ;" and that since then parliament has
proved itself to be so corrupt and incapable, that
any 658 men, taken by shame as they passed Temple-
bar, would do the business of the empire better. It is
convinced that on reflection the member for Birmingham
will be led to feel that a rhetoric of overbold, or rather
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extravagant, assertion is unworthy of his great and grow-
ing reputation. He can never seriously hope to bully the
two great aristocratic parties into going further than the
middle classes will support them ; but he may for a time
drive some of the middle class out of alliance with the
people, and give the timid and the selfish an excuse for
further delay.
Discussing the subject of Belgian independence, the
Saturday Reriew lays there could be no more flagrant act
of disorder than the annexation of a single square mile
of • peaoeable, inoffensive, prosperous, and, on the whole,
well-governed country like Belgium. We do not know
how England,could defend herself more effectually than
by resolving, and letting her resolve be understood, that
any designs upon that State would demand our active in-
tervention, as a mere act of police. You must, in certain
capes, help your neighbour to put out his fire, for the sake
of your own house, if for nothing else. lf, as time goes
on, the Belgians should wish their independent existence
to come to an end, and to be annexed to France in part,
and in part to Holland, England would have no business
to interfere. By that time the unjust spirit which is now
so powerful in European counsels will probably have been
exorcised, and the French edifice will have been crowned.
The Saturday Reriew attributes the activity of the
Jamaica committee to the extreme bad taste of Mr. Eyre
himself, and the mischievous declamation of Mr. Kingsley
and his associates. As the prosecution is to proceed, it
may be hoped that the case will be heard before some able
and determined judge. If the indictment is preferred at
the sittings of the Central Criminal Court, the Recorder
would, in the ordinary course, deliver the charge to the
grand jury. As, however, it would be impossible for Mr.
Russell Gurney, as one of the Jamaica commissioners, to
undertake the duty, the presiding judge will expound the
law as it applies to the alleged frets. If the charge is un-
favourable to the prisoner, and if a true bill is found, the
responsibility of the verdict will rest chiefly with the judge.
Unless theJmnaica Commissioners were entirely mistaken,
it would be impossible for Mr. Eyre to prove that Gordon
was legally cons icted and legally executed ; but it will be
for the court to declare whether the irregularity of the
sentence and execution involve the governor in the guilt of
murder. An affirmative decision would Fettle nothing,
because the pardon which must inevitably follow would
amount to • constitutional declaration that the acts of
high functionaries must be judged by • political rather
than a legal standard. An acquittal on the merits might
establish a far more mischievous precedent, as it is not the
business of • judge or jury to declare that the strict pro-
visions of law can in any case be superseded.
In an article devoted to an examination into the sub-
stantial security of railway debentures, the Ikonostist
says that the greatest mischance which has ever befallen
railway securities has just befallen them in the defence of
Sir Morton Peto, who distinctly says he considers it right to
over-issue debentures. Nothing an enemy of railway secu-
rities could say against them would be half as bad as this.
Here is a member of parliament, a man of 37 years' standing,
a man of great repute fur integrity, justifying their over-
issue. If such • man will plan, perpetrate, and defend
illegality, what will meaner men do? Who now can
trust any railway board as implicitly as he used to trust
them ? Who now will not require before lending his
money s state stamp and a government audit ?

The United Horticultural Society has obtained a
grant of the Guildhall for a flower and fruit show, to be
held simultaneously with a bazaar for the Albert Orphan
Asylum, the two societies having for the time amalgamated
in order S 3 help each other, philanthropy being their °an.
mon object. The days fixed for the exhibition are the
13th, 14th, and 15th of November.