The Express.
London, England, 1857-04-23 00:00:00

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MOE WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
Tee DOT—US nisg. Aftermacs. 116 I.
Teammaro—Varwas. 116 Aflame's. ti tn.

LONDON, THURBDAT, APRIL 23.

TO OUR

A DOUBLE NUMBER of the EXPRESS will
be published ON SATURDAYS ea usual, dtuing
the. Peelisuneutary 'Weems.

We shall make no apology to our readers foe draw-
ing their attention to the latest overt act of the
London General Omnibus Company. In the days
of buckram such matters may possibly have been
thanght beneath the dignity of journalism. But the
world is wiser than it was. History, with vest
advantage to itself and its readers, has of late al-
mond,' from its Mild., and it would be aboard in-
deed if we chroniclers of the day did not follow its
wimple. Landinemes menus t aibil Londineen
a toads alierium set. There are some two
million of as within the metropolitan limits. It is
not a city, but a province we inhabit. Our streets
extend over more miles than separate John o'Groat's
from the Land's-end. Except for the porphyropeisiti,
the plutocracy that lolls in landaus, and the respecta-
bility that rejoices in broughams—it has become a
daily problem of considerable importance how best
to inverse this city of inconvenient distances. For
the future, indeed, superb projects are in store. Sir
JOl5lll Parton promises some day or other to carry
us ea the wings of steam far above the roar of Cheap-
side, on aerial railways, under roofs of crystal. Mr.
LIONILL GISBORNE—if Sir 81-WANIN Hsu. and Mr.
Tinrsues approve, and the public will pay—engages
to embank the Thames for us, and sweep as along
from the West to the East, without let or hindrance,
at a dizzy elevation above high-water mark. Other
projectors propose the humbler scheme of street tram-
ways, to be traversed without intermission by inces-
sant relays of monster omnibuses. Mach, no doubt,
ma~said le or against any ce all of these pro-
Meanwhile time Sin badness presses, Lon-
don iscreassa—and we can't wait.

Everybody of course knows all about the great
Leiden Omnibus Association. It was started with
the estensfisie object of supplying the great metro-
politan want. Roomy carriages, civil servants, in-
creased weed, fewer delay., reduced fares, end a
genes' system of cornispowdences, were in a short
time to leave the Londoner no cause to envy the
superior omnibus accommodation of Paris and New
York. We were well disposed to be hopeful, but
not sufficiently juvenile to be sanguine. The
scheme was started by a company, and launched
with a prospectus; and our recent experience d.cons-
panies and prospectuses had been anything but re-
souring. The company, moreover, was a monopoly;
and we certainly did feel that if there was one pro-
position out of the range of the exact sciences more
etrtein than another it was this, that the interests of •
monopoly and of the public can never by any pas i•
bility be identical. It soon became evident that the
London General Omnibus Company was destined
rather to illustrate than refute the correetnese of
this (economical maxim. From that time to this its
history has been a series of unfulfilled promises and
realised diesppointusents. The carriages of the even-
pany are not improved; their pees is met needed;
there is no inereses of civility ar ventilation. The
unprotected female still struggles desgerously
with opesmodle umbrella, in the hopeless Abet
to stop a eseloster with whom all mews of eons-
multiestien are carefully eat off. Paterfamilias,
in the interior, still eddies over the reek of wet
straw, or perishes is the draught of open
windows. Young England, on the knife-board,
maintains without ease a peek's!' which he has not
reached and mania quit without danger. The Com-
paq, ia a ward, mks' things pleasant to its pro-
prietary by making them as unpleasant as possible
to the public; and the patient public, in return for
its frustrated hopes, has the consolation of knowing
. . . . . . . .

_ ...
that it is in the grip of a monopoly, which contrives
to extract from its discomfort a revenue of from
ten to eleven thousand pounds sterling per week,
latterly, a hope of better things has been again

_
presented to ea. A rival is in the field. The Saloon
Omnibus Company (Limited) has got into work.
Without going quite the length of Sir R.
CAIDEN, mid declaring that everybody who
has ever ridden in • Saloon Omnibus will
always be glad to ride in it again," we may aver
without danger of contradiction that the Salo**
Omnibus makes an infinitely nearer approach to the
ideal of a perfect street conveyance for all classes
than any kind of carriage that has yet been con-
trived. In fact, it may well be doubted whether,
considering all the necessary limitations of speed,
space, and weight, any cleverer or more satisfactory
piece of workmanship could have been turned out.
Now, mark how the monopolists treat this laudable
effort for the better accommodation of the public.
The matter came up on Tuesday before the Court of
Aldermen, on a petition presented by the Direc-
tors of the Saloon Omnibus Company, pray-
ing to have stands allotted at the Royal Ex-
change and Flower Pot to certain of their mini-
.. . _

buseiTwhich had jest acenmeuced running between
Deleon and the City. It appeared that, "having
no recognised time appointed for them," these Saloon
Ornnibtems had been treated as intruders by the time-
keepers of the monopolist Company, and had been,
like " Joe of Tom•Aloee's," kept moving on, so as
to interfere with the possibility of their taking up
pareengers. The discussion of the petition brought
op Sir It. W. CARDEN, Alderman of London and
M.P. for Oloucenter. Ilia statement we copy nr-
Intim from our report :—" I think it right to men-
tion that as soon as the Saloon Omnibuses were
started the London Omnibus Company gave

instructions to their servants tai MOW One
tales immediately before and aflame hamedii
behind each Saloon Omnibus:* So strictly has

direction been earned out, that when the other day
it was necessary for one of the Saloon Omnibuses to
be taken to Drury-lane, for the purpose of having
kaitedies repaired, k was preceded end followed on
its way Ilmee by asasibusse belonging to the Leedom
Company, which actually remained in front of and
behind it during the question of repairing the
spring. Upon being remonstrated with, the servants
at the London Omnibus Company said they bad no
alternative but to obey their orders, which were
' one behind and one before wherever you go.'"
_ .

What do the London public think of that Mat
improvement introduced by the London General
Omnibus Company? Most frequenters of our,
streets must have witnessed the pleasing speetaele of
• race between opposition omnibuses—some probably

may have experienced the pleasure of attempting to
affect an entrance into the foremost of the two
vehicles, under the agreeable conditions of being ran
down by the pole of the pursuer, and thrust bodily
into the penethdia of the pursued, making wild havoc
of the tempers and toes of fellow-sufferers in
blind efforts to find a resting place. (heat, however,
are the inventive powers of capital. The monopolist
Company has improved on the old practice, by the
simple and beautiful precept, " one behind and one
before wherever you go." It is not enough to pursue
and pole, the new practice is, besides this, to obstruct
and fold. What is the remedy ? The legal means
of stopping the nuisenee most be left to the authori-
ties; but there is another soda more effectual remedy
is the halide of the public, sad that is, never to get
into a London General, whether "before or behind,"
when they can find room in a Saloon Omnibus.

CTIONB.-IRISH COUNTY FRAN-
CHISE.-THZ BALLOT.

A letter on the resoilta and teachings of Irish
elections, from the pen of the veteran reformer,
Mr. W. Sharman Crawford, appears in the Daily
News. Mr. Crawford describes the nature of the
county franchise in Ireland, and the various
eircumstances which render freedom of election
almost impoosible. This is not the only evil
of the present unprotected conditioa of the electors.
" The desire," observes Mr. Crawford, " of the landed
aristocracy to sustain their political dominion
induces them to withhold their assent from any law
te give security to the Maud for labour or capital
expended ; and alai from mating any kind of
tenure, which would give the tenant even a temporary
independence. The tenants have been converted
into serfs. As such they are the instruments in the
hands of their landlords to raise themselves to poli-
tical power through the medium of the political
franchise held by the tenant, but wed by the land-
lord for the objects of his own ambition or profit.
"These are the lessons which the lower orders re-
ceive from those who aught to be their instructors
in the higher chimes. By sash proceedings as I
have referred to, virtue, morality, religioc, honour,
and patriotism are set at nought ; the principles of
the whole community are tainted, and the conduct of
man towards man in all the relations of society
corrupted and vitiated. Under such circumstances as
these, the franchise is a curse instead of a privilege
to thaws who hold it. _ _ _

"It is understood and expected that a new Reform
Bill will be celled for by the English people. Let
them take wanting by the effects of the Irish occu-
pation franchise as it now exists. The extension of
the suffrage in Ireland has been a deep misfortune
to the voters on whom it has been conferred ; and
instead of inereming the fair power of the popular
voice has tended immensely to increase the lordly
dominion above the democratic principle of the
eoustitutiou. _ _ _

Thew
"Are
things so to remain? The futility of
Lad John Russell's Anti-Corruption Act has been
demonstrated, if not in England, at least fully in
leetsnd. Will the legislature refuse to Ireland the
only practicable remtdy which has ever yet been
Cr:4— 'the ballot' ? Will the people of Eng-
h the example of Ireland before their eyes,
accept a Reform Act giving an extension of the suf-
frage without the ballot ?
" I venture to maintain that 'if a Reform Act be
pasecdextentling tho suffrage, 'unaccompanied by a
provision for taking the votes of the electors by
secret ballot, it will be a worthless delusion, convert-
ing the people into the instruments of their own
subjection to the landed and monied aristocracy,
thus dividing the whole community simply into two
classes of tyrants and slaves.
" The peotuirw, however, may depend upon this, that
without a le such as they had for the old Re-
form Aet they will not get the ballot. There will be
plenty of aristocrats willing to court popularity by
an extension of the suffrage, well knowing from the
example of Ireland its effect in securing their own
tyrannic power ; but the ballot never will be yielded
by that party till the movement by the people in
its support becomes of that nature that it will be
more dangerous to the legitimate rights of the aris-
tocracy to withhold than to yield it."