The Express.
London, England, 1867-01-07 00:00:00

ISCILLANCOUS TOPICS.

It is observed by the Daily News, that the logic of Lord
Duff erin's plea for Irish landlords is of a very Irish sort.
He labours to show that emigration is a blessing to the
country ; and then spends no less pains in proving that
Irish landlords are not responsible, or, as he ought
to say, deserve no credit for it. This incon-
sistency on the part of so able • man appears
to indicate • certain misgiving as to the soundness
of his main position. He overlooks altogether the
question, whether, under a different system of rural econo-
my, the land now under tillage might not support more
people in greater comfort than the reduced population who
now live upon it ; and whether, with proper encourage-
ment,a large quantity of the land now waste might not be
reclaimed! The strength of the empire is undoubtedly
diminished, for military and industrial purposes, by this
drain on the population, and this in two ways—for what
we lose the United States gains. Those who might
be friends at home become enemies abroad.

If national emancipation bee become an absolute impos-
sibility for Poland the rilitet doubts whether it is cruelty
to deprive her of the means of attempting it. It is diffi-
cult to conceive from what quarter the faintest glimmer
of hope can dawn upon the doomed nation ; and with
regard to the imperial decrees which have just abo-
lished all that remained of Poland as a
separate kingdom, we may ask whether peace, at least, if
not love, between the two races may not be established
by such thorough subjugation aa would preclude even the
chance of a hopeless struggle.
The Iltrald again defends Mr. Denby Seymour from the
complaints of Mr. Jacob Bright, whom it accuses of
recklessness, inaolenes, impotence, malice, slyness,
scurrilous language, Ac.
The Past points to the harrowing cases which have
been just laid bare by coroner's inquests to show that our
workhouse system completely fails in the matter of meting
out relief in some of the wont cases.

The Star has a similar article. The vestrymen and the
relieving officer, it says, are not more inclined to cruelty
than the rest of u*. They are simply parts of the machinery
of a system which has no flexibility, which cannot distin•
guish between the sturdy vagabond and the starving
victim, and in perfect good faith endeavours to refresh the
lips of the dying with a lamp of bard bread.
Bad news for prizefighters, exclaims the Telegraph. The
Derbysbire magistrates have just sentenced Jem Mace,
Joe Goal, and three other lees illustrious pugilists, to a
month's imprisonment with hard labour, for taking part
in a prize-fight. The solicitor for the defendants sug-
gested that they might be allowed to go at large upon
their recognisance* to appear for judgment when required.
The bench—dull fellows, apparently, without a spark of
poetry or fancy in their souls—did not properly appre-
ciate thi, excellent suggestion. On the contrary, they
stated that the plan had been tried with gentlemen of the
ring before, and had been found not to answer. And so
some of the most renowned supporters of the system
which is said to be the antidote to the knife will have to
expend their energies during the next thirty days on the
work of producing rotary motion in • big horizontal
wheel.