The Express.
London, England, 1868-06-08 00:00:00

IS PUBLISHED

EVERY EVENING.

LONDON, MONDA Y, JUNE 8.

THE DUKE OF CAMBRIDGE AND THE

NEWSPAPER PRESS FUND.

Iv is not uncommon to And Royal and Imperial
personages manifesting a very vivid interest in
the newspaper press. But their solicitude gene-
rally takes the form of prosecutions, warnings, and
-..ipressions. It is usually left for exile to develop
more friendly regard. While the EMPEROR
the French was only yet in his mind's eye the
upsnt of the Tuileries, and occupied in material
I t respectable lodgings in Sing-street, fit.
mess-square, his affection for the right of tin-

eased printing was without limit. EMILE
OIRARDIN, PREVOST PARADOL, or Count MONTA-
LEERS= could not be more zealously attached to it.
The " man in black " was a functionary not then
dreamed of. The press was to Prince LOUIS
NAPOLEON as instrument of warfare ; and there
is, from his own point of view, no inconsistency
that he who who used the weapon itself with effect
should spike the gun if it threatens to fall into the
hands of the enemy. More than one of the accom-
plished sons of the Royal House of ORLEANS, and
its youthful head, wield the journalist's pen with
a skill which professional writers cannot look
down on. and to which, with a strange
inversion of the ordinary relations of litera-
ture and royalty, they need not feel ashamed
to give the sanction and protection of their
names. The Due D'EIJKALE and the Comte
de PARIS are fain to seek the friendly pa..
tronege of M. XAvrEn RAYMOND and M. BtrLoz.
In England journalism does not peas from
the arctic regions of Imperial or Royal disfavour
and prosecution to the torrid sone of Imperial and
Royal confraternity. Its relations with the reigning
powers are more constant, if less close. They have
the steadiness of friendship rather than the
feverish affection of a stronger passion, or the
bitterness of that jealousy which is its shadow.
The Emperor NAPOLEON, doubtless, chastens the
pre is because he loves it ; and cannot bear to see it
%rowing itself into the arms of his rivals, or even
ocently coquetting with them.
go have gone through all this in England. The
%spaper press has been in succession, thromr,h
.) centuries and a half, despised, persecuted,
crated, abused, hated, feared, bribed, courted,
....petted; and in this last stage, which it has

THE

- 77
painfully attained, u e trust it wikrearain. Ia
asking the Duke of CAMBRIDOR to preside at the
annual festival of the Newspaper Pans !and in
succession to wen toupee in statesmanship and In
letters, the managers of the hind have exhibited a
catholic regard for every sort. and condition of
eminence. Lord BROUGHAM. in one of his bitter
moods, spoke of a royal member of the House of
Peers as, "by courtesy en Illustrious Duke." The
sneer was ill-natured. It is unbecoming to scoff
at men who by the mere fact that they an‘
born great, are debarred from achieving greatness,
and must submit to having it thrust on them.
Th(iDuke of CAMBRIDGE isnot merelya Royal Duke.
If he is not a WELLINGTON, or a Count MOLTKE,
a great conqueror, or a great organiser of victory.
he fills the post of head of the English army with
zeal, industry, and efficiency. His °Said position
gives his appearance at this festival a value
which will perhaps be better appreciated on
the Continent of Europe than in England itself.
Our French friends will doubtless see much to ad-
mire in the fact of the COMMANDER-IN-CRIKr of the
British army presiding at a newspaper dinner, and
will find in it many sharp and stinging points with
which to barb the shafts which the winged words
of their satire carry over the world. Even in
England many persons will learn with some sur-
prise,but more satisfaction, that Captain SwoßD(to
Use the symbolism of one of LEIGH HUl'T*9
forgotten poems) has so hearty an appreciation of
the services of Captain PEN as that which the
head of the English army avowed on Saturday for
the chief of British newspaper correspondents.
The Duke of CAMBRIDGE expressed, in the name
of the army, the debt which it, in common which
all he world, owed to the gentlemen" who have from
" time to time so impartially and graphically de-
" lineated for us the great events of military and
" naval warfare." His ROYAL Hionsrass referred
in particular to Dr. W. H. Russets., and
" those who have competed with him in the
" diffic.ult and not always agreeable course which
" he has el oxen for himself." It is sometimes sup-
posed that the course of Dr. Ruasstt and his
competitors might on seseral occaaiona have
been leas difficult and more agreeable if the
appreciation of their services which the Duke
of CAMBRIDGE expressed in Wuzia's Rooms were
avowed and acted upon in the camp, on the march,
or in the field of battle. The sentiment which his
Royal Highness expressed to journalists afterdinner
and over their wine, we are slue he will maintain in
conference with military men. Henceforth the life
of a newspaper correspondent with the army
may be something better than that of a suspected
spy from the enemy, or of a partridge hunted on
the mountains.

In another sense the presidency of the Duke of
CAIIERIDGE was remarkable. It is possible to
imaginethe PrinceNseoLson (Jnnoire), who is also
a soldier, and who too saw service in the Crimea.
dining with a society of French journalists. But
be would do so as a leader of the family Opposi-
tion, and the head of the democratic Bonapart-
ists. The rivalry, real or simulated, between
the Tuileries and the Palais Royal, has hap-
pily had no counterpart in the domestic politics of
Royalty since the late Prince of WALES intrigued
with Fox and SHERIDAN. The spectacle of the
grandson of GEORGE 111. presiding over a dinner
of the Newspaper Press Fund is enough to stir the
bones of that monarch and of Join WILKES in their
graves, and to flutter the leaves of the North
Britoa No. 45, in the British Museuui. The
change marks improvement on both sides. Even
since the time when Coßarrr was prosecuted for
calling Lord HARDWICKE " a very eminent sheep-
" feeder from Cambridge, with a wooden head,"
and Lord BEDESDALE "an able and strong-
" built Chancery pleader from Lincoln's-inn,"
there has been some progress in sense and manners
on both sides. Unhappily, in avoiding coarse
abuse there has been, perhaps, on the
part of greet people, a tendency to flat-
tery a little too indiscriminate. We doubt
whether any reporter could be gratified by being
told that he is the " historian of politico,
" the historian of jurisprudence, the histo-
" rian of art, the historian of literature,"
or ill other words that he is Habbui, Savioxy,
Isaac DISRAELI. and VARAZI rolled into
one. This is what Lord HOI7ONTON said. On
the same principle it might be contended that
to take shorthand notes of Mr. GLAD-
STONE'S speeches and of Mr. Disaanu's is
to possess their powers of oratory. Mr. WIND-
HAM'S slander half a century ago was better than
this flattery. Reporters, qud reporters, are
as little historians as they are " bank-
- flirts, lottery-office keepers, footmen, and
" decayed tradesmen." They are for the greater
part gentlemen of education and character, dis-
charging skilfully a most useful office. They, more
than anyone else, have a right to feel insulted by the
suspicion that they could take pleasure in gross
and ridiculous adulation.

CHIEF JUSTICE COCKBURN ON EX-
GOVERNOR EYRE.

TUE LORD Curse Jusricz of England has this
day done that for which it would be difficult to
find a precedent, but for which it is not necessary
to make any apology. He has formally repudiated
the most important of the legal statements
made by Mr. Justice BLACKBURN, when
charging the Grand Jury concerning ex-
Governor EYRE. It was then said that martial
law might be legally proclaimed in Jamaica,
because certain local statutes empowered the
Governor to do this. If this were so then the case
of the Jamaica Committee would be weakened. We
now have it on the authority of the Lord Curie
JUSTICE, that this is so doubtful as to be a fair sub-
ject for legal argument. Moreover, it has been
reiterated by him that the removal of Goa-
Dols and the prolongation of the executions
after the suppression of the outbreak were, in the
opinion of the majority of the judges of the Court
of Queen's Bench, " legally unjustifiable." He
expressed regret that the question was not left in
such a way as to make it clear to the grand jury that
a trial ought to take place. If that had occurred,
it would have been in the power of the jury to
consider whether there were extenuating circum-
stances, or whether the claims of " justice and
" humanity " were openly violated. The
result is that whatever gratification the
friends of Ex-Governor EYRE have derived from
the exposition of the law of Mr. Justice BLACKBURN
must now be converted into annoyance. They
now find the legal opinions of that judge re-
pudiated by authorities fur greater than he. It
will henceforth be impossible to allege that the
law of England, as hitherto expounded, sanctions
acts to which the appellation of " saving
" Jamaica" has been applied. Lord Chief Justice
COCKBURN expressed a hope that the question
of the illegality of martial law might
never again come before en English court of
justice. He untieiputcs that the proceedings in the
present wise may be fraught with a salutary lesson,
even though t 113 nut i..ned in the punishment
of the is nig/..s M..reiner, he thought that the
opinion expressed by him on behalf of the majority
of the court would be a valuable precedent here-

EXPRESS MO'iDAY
after, should it unhappily be needful to motel
pleotsienta in a shah, ease. Tt, Is' anti*.
nate that theinisunderstanding ihould,have aria*.
and that a judge whose ishilitilw are great
and whose reputation is weliiiinsimk skald Atsant in
differ from his brethren on an impo t point of
Lett. Yet it is Nell that the LORD CARP Juane*
should have bad thecourage to step ontof the path
of routine. and in the interest of a great Constittt-
tional principle vindicate the supremacy of the law
of Englund over a figment to which the nano of
martial law has been applied.