The Express.
London, England, 1861-07-17 00:00:00

TO OUR READERS.

SPORTING INTELLIGENCE.

A late edition of the Express is published every
irvenisg during the racing season, containing the
results of the day's races.

By a general consent of opinion, translation
from the Commons to the Lords is not in itself a
' change upon which a public-spirited statesman is
to be congratulated. Circumstances, which can
turn the mischief of yesterday into the advantage
of to-day, may haply make it commodious and
opportune ; but they must be clear and strong to
affect the sympathy we naturally incline to feel for
an able and earnest man removed from &sphere of
reality and action to a chilly region of passive ob-
servation or sterile restlessness. " But what a place
" to speak in !" wrote the great Whig orator, the
Bari Gary of the Reform Bill, the morning after
his first speech in the Lords—" it was like speak-
" ing in a vault by the light of a sepulchral lamp
"to the dead. It is impossible I should ever do
" anything here worth mentioning. Anything I
" ever experienced before has been a joke to this."
But if we see little reason to congratulate
Lord Jona Rumen'. upon his peerage, certainly
we see no reason to imitate &contemporary who,
having buried most of our living statesmen several
times over, seises the occasion to write his
necrology. The noble lord by retiring from
the House of Commons doubtless surrenders
the share he has so long had in great ini-
tiative enterprises of legislation. No one will
deny that he has well earned the right to do so.
No statesman's name stands so closely connected
with the great series of reforms, organic and prac-
tical, which have made the last thirty years as
era in our national history. No contemporary
statesman has striven with anything like the per-
severance and constancy of Lord Jouw RIIIIIIILL to
realise for every class of his countrymen the en-
joyment of the fullest political and religions
libeety. Others have displayed an admirable courage
and magnanimity in emancipating themselves from
the mom and prejudisea of early sdneetien, and
at a great price have obtained their freedom ; but
he any my, " I was freeborn." From his entrance
into the House of Commons to the present hour
every Englishman knew of a certainty where he
should find Lord Jona Rimini cm any question
affecting the liberty and program of the nation.
la these days of epicurean Liberalism we often
forget the up-hill fight which had to be carried
on wind top-booted Toryism in the time of
Live:Lenox and Casruninsost. A measure of those
difficulties and discouragement& may be found in
the fact that even Lord Joan Russeu. could be
addressed by a cherished friend in the language
of expostulation, mingled with encouragement :

Shalt thou to fah‘beeralik sad tars from the strife,
From the mighty moos, where all that u grand
Lad devoted, nod pare, and adorning in life,
"Ils for high•thoejhted spirits like thise to eoensandi

But the fsint-heartednees existed only for the
poet's eye ; and Reformers, under circumstances
of discouragement, may lawn a lesson from the
fact that the triumph of the Reform Bill followed
close upon the period of depression in which Moons
wrote these lines. Since that time there is not a
great department of legislative reform or of
practical administration on which the noble lord
has not permanently set his mark. The
prudent and practical politicians, the men who
instead of frittering away their energies in pre-
liminary labours, reserve their strength to lead the
shouting at the triumph, and secure a place at the
banquet, are fond of enlarging on Lord JOHN
Rosstu.'s failures. He has failed more than
other mon because he has attempted more than
other men. A more elastic, less consistent
statesman might have avoided some of his
miscarriages, but be would not have carried to
the House of Lords the public confidence, the lofty
reputation which attend Lord Juas Russeu. in
that removal.

When a statesmen who has during a long period
rendered the highest service to his country asks to
exchange his port for one of less exciting duties,
we can only acknowledge the justice of the claim.
Lord Joins Romaxx, perhaps, sees that, for the pre-
sent at least, the House of Commons will not be
occupied with further legislation of that high order
with which his name is inseparably sasociated. The
House, the party, perhaps the constituencies, have
to seurienler, take new bearings and fir on a course,
or at least, resolve about what two courses they
will dispute. While public men hesitate and agree
to ignore in Parliament subjects which mustoocupy,
and at times oppress, their minds, great questions
are maturing, a fearful social gulf is widening,
powers vast and irregular are acquiring system
and consolidation outside the constitution. Lord
Joint RUMELL may live to overhear his mild
prophylactics recalled with regret not umningled
wit► contempt for the indclenoe and obtuseness
which conspired for their rejection. The with-
drawal of the great Whig leader must make the
conduct of the business of his party in the Lower
House more difficult, and increase the entharram-
ments which would arias in circumstances which
it is but natural to expect; but we cannot regret the
event as withdrawing the noble lord from the task
of moving bills of Parliamentary Reform in the
name of a set of Ministers wbo heartily distrust their
countrymen. He has done more than enough for
his own lasting reputation, and may, with a safe
conscience, though it may be not without mis-
giving, leave the course of events to justify his
conduct and counsels. In the administration of

the foreign pokey of the country he will still have
an employment worthy to continue and crown his
career ; and we trust that he may bye long to
encourage other countries to cultivato in a spirit
of order the liberty and progress which he has
dune so much to advance at home.