The Express.
London, England, 1866-12-03 00:00:00

THE REFORM DEMONSTRATION TO-DAY.

The papers to-day treat of the reform demon.
atr►tion from various points of view. The Times restricts
itself to enlarging upon the tremendous responsibilities
which the projectors of the meeting have incurred—
observing that it will be unheard of good fortune if the
experiment terminates without misadventure. It then
proceeds to suggest the danger of a pressure, of a panic,
and other similar causes of disaster, concluding with an
advice to householders to be to-day their own policemen,
as London will be a in great measure deprived of its ap-
pointed protectors.
The Daric New observes that the visit to Wolverhamp-
ton has shown that her Majesty has only to appear in
public to awaken the latent feeling of respect and affection
Tito new life, and it is wen .h remembering that the per-
sons whose enthusiastic loyalty was so displayed are in
great part the very individuals who flocked some months
since to the great reform meeting at Birmingham, which
some of our contemporaries were anxious to see dispersed
as an illegal and seditious assembly, and that they share
the ideas and desires of the men who a-e to gather to-day
in the Beaufort Rifle-grounds, and on whom Mr. Walpole.
with weak tenderness and culpable lixity, declines to try
the effect of a volley of grape-shot. The Wolverhampton
demonstration ought to reassure even the most tiniid as to
the real character of the reform demonstrations of the present
autumn. The display of r umbers to-day is a manifestation of
wide-spread personal interest in an extension of the franchise,
and an appeal to the goo 1 feeling and reason of the actual
depositories of power. The only danger which can con-
nect itself with such events is created by the alarmists
who persist in regarding them as a threat ; and who really
preach physical force by the subtlety of their suspicions
and the ardour of the"• denunciations.
The Pat asks a variety of questions, the greater por-
tion of which will have been answered before we go to
press.
The Herald confines itself to enforcing the consideration

- _
that to-day's proceedings amount exclusively to a mani-
festation of opinion in favour of manhood suffrage, and,
. . .

therefore, will be entirely without effect so far as assist-
ing the introduction of a practical reform bill ; but the '
members of the late government, the Iltralci says, hope by
means of these demonstrations to prepare a perpetual em-
barrassment for the present government, and precipitate its
overthrow. Lord Derby may bring forwanl a reform bill,
but certainly such a demonstration as that of to-day will
not influence its character.

The Telegrapit exhorts the timid householder to dismiss
all fear from his mind, and predicts that the proceedings
will be characterised by all that can make them impres-
sive and efficacious.

The Star says if the trades show their strength effec-
tively to-day, we shall probably hear no more of any tory
tinkering. The question which is to be settled will show
itself far too great for the capacity of a conservative cabi-
net, far too real to be conjured out of existence by some
Sidonian juggle of political compromise.

DR. HUNTER AND THE " PALL-MALL GAZETTE."

It cannot be denied, the Times say., that several pas-
sages quoted from Dr. Hunter's work, whether they in-
volve scientific absurdities or not, are eminently calculated
to mystify the popular mind, and to produce on a critic
the impression of charlatanry. Still, all this falls short
of proving criminal imposture, and it is not impossible, as
Mr. Coleridge suggested, that Harvey and Jenner may
have equally outraged the professional prejudices of their
own day. It is not, however, recorded of those great dis-
coverers that they prefixed to their great works prefaces
written by their own paid assistants, in the assumed cha-
racter of independent judges converted to the new system,
or that they appended thereto notices of the places and hours
at which they might he consulted. It waa probably such cir-
eumstances as these, coupled with the apparent design to
excite needless alarm for the purpose of decoying patients,
which led the jury to a conclusion more satisfact-ry to the
defendant than to Dr. Hunter. A verdict for the plaintiff
with one hulling damages implies a belief on their part
that although the law was violated there was every possible
excuse for its violation. We should fail, the Tine says,
in our duty if we did not express the conviction that such
• verdict entirely meets the justice of the cone, and that
our contemporary is entitled to the thanks of the public
for a courageous attempt to protect their interests.
The Daily News is linable to see, except in a vague and
general way, what the verdict signifies unless it be as ex-
pressing in • *amnion sense way the general and sub-
I 'koala result of • patient and impartial Investigation.
Such is the verdict is, it oonttitutea by the plaintiff's
lown election, and in accordance with the views of his
counsel, and of the explanation of the Lord Chief Justice,