The Express.
London, England, 1868-10-14 00:00:00

THE XXPRESS, WEDNESDAY

-_-.,,.

it. Men of letters have no right to be grumblers,
and no sane man would wish arbitrarily to altt•M
to their principle the terms upow which the lite-
rary producer now stands with regard to the
public ; but it looks like unfeeling insolence for
the successful and the strong to affirm, as they
pass by their fallen or falling comrades, that
" in the end" the public will be sure to award
" precise" distributive justice to all. If it were
so, literature would, indeed, ho a wonderful profes-
sion, and men of letters the most blessed of the
eons of ADAM. The race is not always to the
swift, nor the battle always to the strong, but the
prizes of literature are always distributed " pre-
" cisely" in accordance with the deserts—and in
particular (for that is more than half the joke) --
according to the " rectitude" of literary shop-
keepers ! " Oh, too happy they. if their good
fortune they knew !"

*
Oa rosin was so cleric ► mat " thil they woad
"Da make him ArchhiShop khat account." TM
Irish Church was a bishop's :prisline, and the
wcrkimg oiergy were a vary oinslient body of SIM
with very small parishes and still was Thor inoomos:
But the bishops—" what should ho say of them?
" They were • sort of veiled prophets—objects of
" great awe to the starving clergy and of
" great curiosity to the inquiring laity." This is
all very amusing if it is not polities.

Tiu English newspapers which, when the Ame-
rican Confederacy disappeared, took up with the
political party nearest the South, and which have
repeatedly assured us of late that the country was
about to repudiate the Republicans-are again
left to regret their broken predictions. The State
elections are one by one going the other way. All
the four states with elections appointed this month,
have been carried by the Republicans. Thirty-four
states vote in November, but those which have
already spoken are the " pivotal " ones. People
who know anything of American affairs
have no manner of doubt that an overwhelming
majority in the Union will declare for General
GRANT and the Republican rule. The violence
and persecution in some of the Southern States
towards the freed men and towards all Northerners,
are ill calculated to improve the chances of the
Democratic party.

OUR CONTEMPORARIES.
(THIS DAY.)

I.IIIT.E.AL TERROR TORT

LWOW.

The Times augurs the best results from the fact
that at Warrington Mr. Glad■tone spoke four columns on
the subject of British naval and military administration.
Our contemporary admits that the right hon. gentleman
has the hest of the argument over his opponents, and as-
serts that the tones have always been foremost in proposing
schemes involving increased expenditure ; but the newts
double whether the statesmen of any party have really
much to boast of in the matter of public economy.
It is true that the late ministers did reduce the expenditure
somewhat from the enormous amount it had reached in
lafie, but they made no real reform of the system, and
they afford the present goveniment plausible reasons for
asserting that its own expenditure has been made aeon.
vary by the plans sanctioned by its predecessor. But the
world eares little for by-goner, and if Mr. Gladstone be,
as his speech indiestee, really in earnest in the work of
economical reform, he has a splendid opportunity, and the
Times welcomes him as the moat powerful of allies.
When the accusations of liberal extravagance and the
I ACM:ft of conservative economy are sifted, the evidence is,
says the Daily Knrs, found to prove comparative liberal
economy and real conservative extravagance. The authors
of the misrepresentations that have been made can
shield themselves from the odium of deliberate
fabrication only by the plea, which may be valid
enough, of crass ignorance. But the statesmen and
politicians who are pro;iting by these artifices have
not the i•amo excuse. They know the real state of
the matter. A little candour would be graceful in them.
Since the present ministers came into Ake they have
courted popularity by yielding to every demand upon the
public puree. They have pursued what Mr. Gladstone
calls the system of making things pleasant all round : and
the nation has three millions extra to pay.