The Express.
London, England, 1868-11-10 00:00:00

MISUSE OF SACRED WORDS.

DOE 3 anybody forget SYDNEY Fixrra's bewil-
derment at the advertisement of the " Margate
" Hoy," with the appeal to " those friends of the
" dear Redeemer who are in the habit of visiting
" the Isle of Thanet " ? One of the Christmas
Annuals announces, by an extract from the
" editor's address," that one of its objects is
"to bring peace, and love, and " no,
we pause upon the word—into the " home."
Although the name occurs in the very title
of every Christmas Annual, as it does in the
word Christianity, it jars upon the reader's sensi-
bilities when it arises suddenly in an advertise-
ment, being used in a sense which is not familiar
in connection with commercial enterprise. A
thousand things may be said in justification
of such a use, but a hundred thousand
will not make any considerable number of
Christian readers acquiesce in it. There is a notice-
able tendency in the miscellaneous literature of
the day to depreciate the force of words and phrases
that belong to the high latitudes of ethics and
religion. Such words as " holy" and " sin" have
been deliberately degraded and vulgarised by
writers the majority of whom knew very well what
they were about and why they did it ; the change
of usage commenced with cynical journalists
who were comfortably convinced beforehand that
the words had no real meaning, and thought
it would be a clever thing to lower their force in
the popular mind by making a diffuse application
of them. Without in the least doubting the sin-
cerity and good intent of anyone who expresses in
print, in connection with various commercial mat-
ters, a hope that he may be able to bring "peace,
" and love, and" (as Dr. MACDONALD makes his
Mattis say) SOMEBODY into our homes, we do
venture to submit that the phrasing is open to
question.

NEW MAYOue.—Bradford, Mr. Alderman
Wed. Nottingham, Mr. John Barber (liberal). Liver-
zoltroinanAlderman Thomas Dover (oonservative). Leeds,
Willington George (liberal). Binningluim,
Mr. Holland. Manchester, Mr. Alderman Grays. Sal-
ford, Mr. Alderman Davies. Oxford, Mr. Joseph Castle
(Liberia). Weymouth, Mr. John Tizard (liberal).
Southampton, Mr. Alderman Stabbing (conservative).
Windsor, Mr. Thomas Chamberlain (liberal). Cambridge,
Mr. Charles Edward Brown (conaervative), Newbury,
Mr. Henry Dolton (liberal). Beading, Mr. J. W. Houn-
slow (conservative). Rochester, Mr. Thome Aveling
(liberal). Hyde, Mr. Thomas Dashwood, chairman of the
board of commissioners, the lint mayor. Norwich, Mr. Z.
Harvey. Great Yarmouth, Mr. B. Nightingale. Black-
burn, Mr. John Smith. Folkestone, Mr. Doridant.
INTIMIDATION OF VOTERB.—At the Westburj
Mittel petty regions yesterday, before Miura H. G. .
Ludlow and N. Barton, Mr. Joseph Harrop, cloth manu-
facturer, was summoned for intimidating voters. There
were two summonses. The court was crowded. Mr.
Monta_ga Williams appeared for the prosecution, and
Mr. for the defendant. The proceedings were in-
stituted by the Society for the Protection of Vetere, es-
tablished in Trowbridge. The case forthe prosecution was
that witness was sent for by his employer and asked for
whom he was going to vote. He said for the liberal
candidate, and he was then told that if that
were his determination he must take his body
where his head was, and was forthwith The
magistrates did not collider that it was the in tof
the legislature that a cans of the kind should be preferred
before magistrates, and thought it better to leave it to
the parties to proceed by indictment at assize, or before
the Court of Queen's Bench. There was a similar case
against the name defendant for discharging a man named
Samuel :Grist, and it we. similarly dealt with by the
bench. The crowd in court seemed very dissatisfied with
the decision. Both the sitting magistrates are, it is said,
members of Mr. Phippe's committee, and Mr. Ludlow,
the pliainnan, has been actively mum/wing on his behalf.
The clerk to the magistrates (Mr. Pinniger) is the election
agent of Mr. Philip*.

~~,.,~,

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I§ollllgim

Y E.

A.
OUR CONTEMPORASDII.
(THIS DAY.)

..:QUIT.

The Time* describes Mr. Disraeli as the " Medi-
cine Mut" of the ministry. 'llse speak in which he re-
plied to tb. toed of "Me: Majesty's Ministers" LA
night, was a sdruothe of asouranse. The same with which
he assumed that, as a 'natter of oourae, be would be celled
upon to reply twelve months kenos t• the saes hall to
the same toast was worthy of Frederic Lernaitre in his
best days. geareely less sticessdUl was his hops that
the new Lord Mayor—the favourite liberal eandidate
for Lambeth—would be able to devote his " undi-

Tided attention " during his twelyemoade of cHca
to the duties of the Maasies-house. 'To the amussessat
end gratillostioa of an audience akeady sanded with
good things be proved that bar Majesty's Edmiston pos-
sessed bade virtues. Thu eonolooloa, /soccer's, to be
drawn from Mr. Disraeli's speech is that he has in new
card to play. He aunt sationinli for a moos to advent
fortune, and tryst to the 'trim& of radon smog mos-
kind for a reaction in hie favour when the set whids b
now imminent shall have been aceoesplished. The speed
of last night, with an its audacity and art, reveals the
fact that the speaker is drives to his last stakeb, and knows
that he must bee.

P'rcen— the speech of Lord Calms the Deily Nom ishre
that Mr. Disraeli's policy coma& of three this.: (1) the
maintenance of the Constitutioa, (2) Lad fitankry,
and (3) a Bankruptcy BID. ml is but a bst,
gaily bill of fare. It needed all the Masai MIMS
of Yr. Dimaelle wit and wasp to make it
palatable. Dramatically, he bad last night • great mo-
ms, and the poorness of the part only showed the skill of
the actor. If, however, politically the henquet wee nought
_ _. .. .

except for Ir. Revin4 Johnson's asnOunosineat that
the American difficulties are at an end, socially it was all
that could be desired, a result owing, is no slight degree,
to the good Late and discretion which the Lord Major
exhibited is a difficult and delicate position.