The Express.
London, England, 1867-02-01 00:00:00

BRITANNIA_

Tulq EVENIIO, THE PlClV,:t.:4tiii THE PEARL IRLANTi;
OR, THE 'tilitEE KINGI.IOMB or PEARL, GOLD, AND
!SILVER. Vn. Lane and Miss .Jacobs—Firs&rate Pantomimist&
—And THE SKELEIGN CREW.

MGR WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.

TWO DAT —Morning, oh. Um Afternoon, Oh. •'•m.
to-Moiuww—Morning, Oh. Slot Afternoon, tob.

LONDON, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1.

THE progress of Reform is reflected in the lan-
guage of its opponents. Failing argument, they
descend to calumny. If the advocate of mea-
sures distasteful to them is a workman, he is
depicted as a good-for-nothing fellow, who has
tried various trades and failed in each, and who
having been dismissed by master after master, and
from employment after employment, devotes his
energies to the task of stirring up feuds between
artisans and capitalists, and living on the credulity
and contributions of his dupes. Such is the
portrait which several of our contemporaries have
drawn of Mr. GEoftor. PorrEa, and which, having
minutely delineated it, they have been compelled
completely, and with many apologies, to efface.
On the other hand, if the Reformer is a capitalist,
his character is depicted by Tory journalists and
by the herd of minor Tory politicians in the
colours which, according to conventional opinion,
only the more vulgar sort of Socialist charlatans
condescend to employ. He is the oppressor
of his workmen—hated, and, on conve-
nient occasion, hooted by them ; taxing then•
strength by excessive hours of labour, re-
lieving their necessities by the scantiest con-
tributions, or declining to afford them even
the smallest assistance in their utmost tribulation.
Such is the picture which, following the Right Hon.
STEPHEN CAVE, Vice-President of the Board of
Trade, and Mr. GARTH, one of her MAJESTY'S
Counsel, and Member of Parliament for the
borough of Guildford, the smaller Tory jour-
nalists have lately busied themselves in paint-
ing of Mr: Riciour. We are not anxious to
ascertain with absolute precision what is the word
which most accurately describes the language of
men who state as true what they do not know
to be true, what they have no sufficient reason
to think true, and what, as a matter of fact, is
absolutely false. Mr. BRIUHT, calumniated at a
distance, is defended at home. The prophet has,
for once, honour in his own country. He finds
his eulogists among those whose dealings with
him are closest ; in the class whose independence
and intelligence Mr. DISRAELI has especially
eulogized, and in the town in which, according
the same voluntary testimony, those qualities
have been, of all places in England, most conspi-
cuously displayed—among the operatives of Ruch-
dale, the pioneers of the co-operative movement,
in which the future industry of England is so deeply
involved.

The utmost degradation of political controversy
is invoked in the assertions which some of our
contemporaries have been betrayed into making,
and forced into retracting. If their statements
were true in fact, they would still be irrelevant in
argument. CROMWELL'S wart and SYLLA'S blotches
and C.ESAR., baldness might just as reasonably be
urged against the policy of those rulers
as the alleged personal misdeeds of
Mr. liRJI,ILT against the political measures
of which lie is the advocate. Mr. BaiuliT
gives frequent opportunities for legitimate
retaliation. But his language, however severe and
unmeasured, and, it may be, at times unjustifi-
able, is always confined to the political conduct of
individuals and the social demeanour of classes.
He criticises what ought to be criticised, whether
his own judgments be just or ill-founded. The
claims of a party to power, of individuals to poli-
tical leadership, of classes to social ascendancy,
are natural and necessary subjects of discus-
sion ; and the most extravagant errors on these
points, expressed in the moat violent language,
though they may cill for correction and rebuke,
afford no excuse for aspersions on the private
conduct and character of the persons who fall
into them. The traditions of personality,
which some public writers seem anxious
to maintain, sire derived from times which reflect
little honour upon literature. They go back to
the period when men of letters were the parasites
of the great, whose spleen they gratified by their
libels upon opponents, and fur whom they made
mirth by their coarse and unscrupulous lampoons.
The era of licence was the era of servility.
THEODORE Hum: was the legitimate descendant
of WAMBA, the son of WirLesa. Personality is
ordinarily the laughter-making of dependants, who,
like the servants in the comedy of High Life
vainly seek to disguise their flunkeyism
by aping the manners, and stealing the clothes,
and borrowing the titles of their masters, and
speaking with all the airs of My Lord Duke and
tiir If . The vulgarity of abuse in modern
j.mriudisin I.i generally found in close association
with the eqmd vulgarity of the pretensions of gen-