The Express.
London, England, 1868-04-21 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, TUESDAY

112121
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lity thel of • Sup .4 . .
udes judi . 'we
spectacle an act Co . posing,
• aide wine, of an- ed Or I .
States, because to formally repea itdad. bei;n-
tamonntto confessing that they haven case against,
the British government. The appioaching Presi-
dential election will probably, for some tili
oome, act as a disturbing fact in the foreign policy
of the United States, but in the long run we may
trust to the good sense of the people to apply the
needful curb to the eccentricities of their repre-
sentatives.

Tat facts reported respecting King EDWARD'S
School at Birmingham show how much evil charity
may do. That school is one of the richest and,
best of the free schools in the country. It has a
present and rapidly increasing income of 12,0001.
a year, and it educates 600 boys. Yet its general
effect upon the educational interests of the town
seems to be decidedly unfavourable. The Assistant-
Commissioner reports that the private schools of
the neighbourhood are degraded or extinguished
by the unfair competition to which this great free
school subjects them. Parents will not send their
ichildren to private szlools so lung as they have any
hope of getting them into the free school, and many
boys are allowed to grow up in perfect ignorance
simply because their parents have indulged in
the vain expectation of getting a gratis education
for them. So thoroughly has this dependence
upon charity for the education of their children
demoralised parents in Birmingham, that they will
not even pay for the little preliminary teaching re-
quired for admission to the free school, and a pre-
paratpry school can hardly live in the town. The
Assistant-Commissionersawaboy of 16 years of age,
the son of parents rich enough to keep a carriage,
who had not even the simple qualification in read-
ing and writing necessary for admission. The same
evil is experienced at Christ's Hospital. Parents
who expect ultimately to get their children
educated for nothing, will not spend money en
preparatory teaching, and so valuable years of early
life are lost for educational purposes.

Tim Music-hall " artiste.," as they call them-
selves, though occasionally patronised by royalty,
and petted by the other extreme of society, are
very generally and deservedly abused by the press
for their rampant vulgarity. In numbers they now
exceed the members of the dramatic profession, in
cleverness they often equal their rivals, their songs
and airs form the backbone of nearly every west-
end burlesque and extravaganza, and yet the esti-
mation in which they are -held is very low—and
mainly for one reason. No person with any pre-
tension to taste can look at a Music-hall programme
or advertisement without feeling that the way in
which the names of the performers are put before
the public is susceptible of vast improvement.
A man's name may be WILLIAM DOBBINS, but
why should he be paraded as BILL DOBBINS ? a
woman's name may be LOUISA SPHIGGINS, but why
should she be called Lourr Semoonrs t This
vulgarity is not confined to London or England,
but reaches wherever Music-hall " talent" pene-
trates. An American saloon bill tells us that the
company consists of CHARLEY WHITE, JOSH HAAT,
LEW BRIMMBR, DAN COLLINS, LIZZIE WHELPLBY,
and Larne LA POINT. Did anyone ever meet
with such a list of names except in a thieves'
kitchen or • threepenny lodging-house in St.
Giles's f The stage is not free from this in-
fection, and we could imagine half-a-dozen
Nr.zuzz, Mizzos, and Pow's who would
be much more charming if they were known by
the names that were given to them by their
godfathers and godmother. There are artists
who paint for the Royal Academy, and artists who
paint for the best parlours of the lower middle-
class, but the pictures by one hand are advertised
much in the same way as pictures by the other.
We no more bear of stunning landscapes by
CHARLIE Pzi.errz or Joan SEPIA than we do of
books by CHARLEY BEADE and poems by 808
BROWNING.