The Express.
London, England, 1867-12-07 00:00:00

THE WEEKLY PRESS.

Describing Lord Russell's resolutions as a sad
fiasco, the Spectator says this was partly, perhaps, because
Lord Russell himself did not do them juatioe, partly be-
cause the Duke of Marlborough is about as fit to be at the
head of our educational institutions as an average Sunday-
school teacher, and partly because the Rouse of Lords
seems to be profoundly apathetic on this great question.
In spite of its cordial dislike to Dr. Selsin's church
principles, the Spectator heartily approves of his appoint.
ment to the bishopric of Lichfield. Dr. Selwyn is still a
vigorous man, and will do much good if he will remember
that church theories which delighted Maories are not so
likely to impress Englishmen, and that even • colonial
bishop who has not watched the development of church
controversies of late years in England, would be none the
worse for deferring in some degree to the matured wisdom
of prelates • great deal more learned, and perhaps in some
things wiser than himself.
The Examiner is glad to find that "an official contra-
diction " has been given to the report of the gross mis-
management with respect to the removal of the 40th
Regiment from Portsmouth to Aldershot. It is stated by
no less an authority than the War Minister, that it is
untrue that the troops were kept on board • transport for
three days they were embarked on a Saturday and landed
on the following Tuesday ; but then Sunday is, it appears,
• diet non in the army, and does not count. It is not
true that the men slept on bare boards and without
blankets ; they slept on "an inclined plane," and in their
great coats ! It is not true that they were without food
from the evening of one day to the afternoon of the next,
for they had tea for breakfast, and there was biscuit
among the ship's stores, as was discovered after the
troops landed. Nobody is to blame except those news-
papers which always exaggerate so dreadfully.

- The Saturday Review says Mr. Eastern failed in Abys-
sinia because he seemed to King Theodore such a very poor,
obscure, harmless sort of creature to be the envoy of Eng-
land. Had be been sent unofficially to see how things
were going on, he might have done very well ; and if he
had got into difficulties, he would have done so at his own
petit But as an envoy of England in difficult and ex-
treme circumstances—a man on whose conduct and judg-
ment, and on the impression he might produce, it would
depend whether England was to go into a costly, difficult,
and protracted war—he was eminently not the man. King
Theodore at once treated him as a baby, made him accept
3,0001. against his will, and shut him up in a garden, with
a bower, on the top of a hill. Here, then, again is another
lesson. When we send an envoy ander such circumstances
that if the envoy is maltreated we must go to war, let us
not send a humble though adroit Syrian Christian to carry
our meanders, but some one whose position in England,
whose appointments, and whose accompaniments will make
those whom we address understand the importance we
attach to his answer.

Treating of "England and the European revolution,"
the Saturday Review foresees that the English artisans,
united by • fervent democratic spirit replacing religion by
a love of justice and brotherhood among nations, may
become almost as powerful as were the Puritans of the 17th
century. There is no pith in the governing classes, and
that which is called the government does not know whether
to govern or to be governed. In such a dote of society it
impossible to say that • revolutionary element in
England, an element thinking of Europe more than of this
country, and viewing Ireland through the ham of Euro-
pean ideas, might not some day become very serious. It
is comfortable, but it is silly, to shut our eyes to the
danger, and to repose on platitudes such as that the mass