The Express.
London, England, 1859-10-06 00:00:00

/Elbe erprego•

TO 001

olootheneete —4.' far "The a.=:=
&wig ivm, Rut be at the Mak 10,
bY Tbee .eic se the le el pato:am

COVUIOMIDZN.
Tn c. (Tunic DIXOSAU. Slam H. 0.. T. Pt. Lir
Minima ; Idiom PlilioLll4ll.so. rd 1..60 hr.-4 •
DICILITI6IIIIIIIIII T. Nam. Prquilktionces...4 Una.
VaKttiL—Ounroaas at&

MATIUSIZT.
Tots Vistas, TIM LAM CH&j& Mara Boon

PIVOTS
Tun Finset ITT ll* .814 OMr..
loin mom; red Ulm Odor 14100•••- MA T.

ff.
JArvw
Ter Rearm. TUN WIDOIII WM& l NNW7•
DeMar/ C. Trme; Ilerarres. MA agdm
C T 114111410111. er. The TA& et s Toed
igatibm. Calk Cane. Asaa.—Orsisme

siIIiTAIIPIA.
Too WIMPS. Till POOll CUIPIITUI, LID IBM WAXILY.
—A LOCAL IaNTIUMII/111111111. W. J. U.
NUM [Alibi CZILDIIia. ILYA We rd Will. C. 114
...Abel MOW DIA T CRAWL U1r.1.104 WM L1.Z...

110 II WATER AT LONDON DAIDED.
=L I=
.1716.

SONDON. Tlit-RSDAY, OCT. 6.

Tits English press a seldom deliberately unjust in
its criticism of distinguished public servants; and
if betrayed into a hush judgment, founded on a
misconception of facts, it rarely attempts to
justify its blunder by abusing the victim of its
toj•stios. But • leading contemporary has daring
the last two days made aid repeated a violent and
uncalled-for attack on one of the most experienced
and meritorious officers in the public service—an
attack, we venture to say, which the public,
that has profited so largely by his labour', will
not easily forget or keens. Then is hardly
a single family is the conntry that is net directly
indebted to Mr. HowlAno WWI pensuriag end
laborious exertions in the national work ofpostal re-
form. He has been seined for twenty you is devis-
ing and carrying cute system of cheap and expedition
communication, and during that time has effected a
revolution in the department over which he presides
such as is rarely accomplished io the lifetime of an
individual. Yet the Times, on the very slightest pro-
rotation, thinks it becoming to speak of this public
servant as a conspirator against our national rights
and liberties. On the faith of representation that
are not only erroneous but false, it ranks him with
Austrian informers and French spies. His poet
improvements to the machinery of the Post-anew*
stigmatised as tyrannical " caprices." We have
letter-boxes attached to our hall doors; therefore the
Englishman's house is no longer his castle. London
is divided into postal districts which involve
" the possession of immense local knowledge, and of
" acquaintance with arbitrary geography," in order
to direct letters aright : therefore the liberty
of the subject is destroyed. Finally, there is •
right and a wrong way of directing newspapers, end
Mr. HOWLAND HILL having recommended the
former, is represented as an official despot, inning
his " ukase" from St. Martin's-Le-Orend. When be
writes to explain the actual facts of the misrepre-
sented cur, our contemporary treats him as a
presumptuous upstart which it is its business not to
reason with or even to listen to, but to put down.

Now, even supposing the facts really were u
represented by our contemporary, this is hardly the
tone to adopt towards • most meritorious public
servant. All servants of the Crown are of
course amenable to criticism, and mast ex-
pect to be criticised. But some consideration is
due to those who through a long course of
arduous duty have proved themselves not simply
servants of the Crown, but benefactors of the public.
Distinguished merit may at least claim to be treated
with common courtesy. The zeal, energy, and
public spirit which have been tested for twenty
years, which have carried blessings to every home
throughout the country, and won the gratitude of
the nation, constitute, indeed, no immunity from
censure. But these qualities uniformly manifested
through such a term of ISTVISIN are a lair plea in
favour of inquiry and examination before a sweep-
ing verdict of condemnation is pronounced. In the

present case, however, there is really no ground for
such a verdict at all. The charge brought against
the l'o-rx tNTILIVOLWZRAI. is simply !atm. An in-
quisitorial It is alleged, was issued to the
employ,* at the Liverpool Pat-office, by the
authority of the POINTMASTIM.GCSERAL. Th;e is
untrue. No circular was seat to the clerks of the
Liverpool office. A confidential note containing the
questions referred to, was addressed by the local
Postmaster to a few of them for a special purpose.
Whether the Dote be wise or foolish, innocently
or so criminally inquisitorial that it is the duty
of the pries, in the select language of our con-
temporary, "to drag it before the bar of public
opinion and brand it as intolerable,' it was
written sod sent without the knowledge of the
P.,,tißiteu-Gtxtaat. He knew nothing what-
ever 01 the pretended circular. It is something
more than ?spearing on the part of the Times,
therefore, to speak of it as an "outrage on the right
of private life perpetrated by the Post-office lie-
.. partinent t" and to repeat in various phrase that
Mr. RowLANI. HILL has no ri4ht to torture the
*eremite under his control." He has not done any-
thing of the kind. The Liverpool Postmaster acted
on hi. own responsibility, and he has been called
upon by his superior for an explanation of his con-
duct. If Mr. Howl-inn HILL has not yet publicly
pronounced soy verdict on the ac', it is fair to sur
poor it ill betimes it is still under investigation.
11 by, under these circumstances, hasten to con-
demn a public seresat, and persist in reiterating an
odious charge, when the facts on which it emu have
been explicitly denied? If our contemporary has
forgotten Mr. Hoe LAND Hit CO great and memo-
rahle service*, the country has not. There will be
no sympathy with this hasty and groundlese outcry
agaiust the man whose splendid administrative re.
forms in one of the most important and (w-
-reathing departments of the public service
have won the gratitude and admiration not
only of England but of the whole civilised
world. The characterises these reforms
as " caprices," tyrannical caprices to which we have
rabasitted is the past, bat can really sabmit
no longer. It bee enumerated those by which
we *enure the prompt and rapid delivery of our
letters. but it has omitted some of the more =pee.
taut item& of hie tyrannical administration. There
is tl.e •• caprice" by which he has increased the
facility for traasmittiog smell sums of money from
one part of the kingdom to another, so that the num-
ber ul mousy orders lammed has increased within a