The Express.
London, England, 1861-04-02 00:00:00

BRITA NNIA.

Tau Ermine. THE 12.7%113;iiiiiIPACT. 3lresri J. Rey•
nekl. nal T. Drunua.n.l. Mom I Claytes aml Mrs. 4. LIM
THE 11116 ow marina) I'AATLY- The Little Wookr.—And
THE LITTLE JOCKEY. Mr 1. Jacobs.

DION_ WATU AT_ LOSDON

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704110Shoir-11onek& n um.....Ablemai. Ma.

LONDON, TUESDAY, APRIL 2.

11r.itoi.. constancy was rewarded yesterday in
the dsahiug little army that mustered on the Brighton
Downs. Whilst disgusted Londoners were soaking
and seething i u a muggy mist, Lord RANZLAOH'S
eagles were soaring in the rays of an unclouded
sun. Wo wish we could equally congratulate the
gallant metropolitans who were not to be seduced '
by martial mimicry beyond the safer precincts of
Wiuibl-don. A patient drizzle and a raw shrewd
wind on a Common may be fitly described, no
doubt, as the concentrated essence of the small
miseries of suburban warfare ; but regarded in
detail, the Wimbledon campaign was too limp
and woe-begone a business to deserve to be
immortalised in Homeric verse, and the midday
bulletin which announced to anxious wives and
mothers that the rain was pouring down in tor-
rents on their bewildered warriors was, we fear, the
nearest approach to a gazette of " killed and
" wounded" which the Muse of History has to re-
cord in the Easter annals of domeaticchivahy. Let it
not be supposed, however, that Easter Monday was
a blank on the mudatained scroll of the militant ,
patriotism of England. For yesterday afternoon at
Sheffield—the classic workshop of "cold steel"—
the doughtiest of non-combatant volunteers—the
ANCIENT PLSTOL of the British Parliament—was
eager to sound the alarm against the absent
enemy, and in the city of sword-blades to cry war
to the knife against unbelievers in the incorrupti-
bility of an Austrian convert. One must go to
Yorkshire for the real old English sports which are
almost forgotten in this flabby age. Drawing •
morose DioosNas from his tub must have been a
poor juke compared with the modern exhibition
of a true British bull-tether on his hind legs de-
fying the l'uiverse. And the spectacle of a bull-
terrier, who in the decline of life has been taught
the graces of a lapdog, and who snarls compla-
cently with blunted teeth over a burglar's bone, is
a warning to animals who have abused their natu-
ral ferocity in early life. The citizens of Sheffield
have been enjoying an exhibition of this funny
and distressing nature, and we sincerely wish them
joy of their local favourite, who shares with the
scizzors of the place a celebrity quite European.
The ROEBUCK superstition has been one of the most
unaccountable eccentricities of English radicalism,
and the present position of English radicalism as a
party may perhaps bo partly explained by a
glance at its Walhalla of superannuated demigods.
It is at Bath that the memory of the radical
Rossera is most green ; and the effect of Hor-
ace& worship at Bath has been to make that re-
treat of faded fashion an insecure anchorage
even for ono wealthy Whig. Trne, the Roesvex
of Bath was a radical and something more ;7but
In those days he was not peculiarly the repre-
sentative of England, or even of Engliah malcon-
tents. The ROEBUCK of Sheffield has struck out
a new and original path in political representation.
The formula he has invented for himself de-
serves our study in these days of poli-
tical stagnation. It is a formula so large,
elastic, and expansive, that it dispenses with the
vulgarand outworn virtues of consistency in opi-
nions, fidelity to constituents, loyalty to party
standards, adherence to professions, promises, or
principles. The recipe is simple. Instead of
calling yourself a Liberal, a Reformer, a Conser-
vative, or a Tory, call yourself an ENOLISHIILN.
Can any title to the suffrages of your countrymen
be more comprehensive or complete than that/
Strut bravely out, and crow stercoroualy ! As a
Radical or as a Tory, your field of action is limited.
As an EiO;LISIIMAN the very prejudices you
presume to impersonate enable you to
be consistently inconsistent. A " Liberal "
or a " Tory " member is necessarily more
or less parochial-minded in his political faith ;
but an ENOLISHNI•N has interests, say,
say, in the Adriatic to look after besides the
mandate of his constituents. He has only to
identify himself with "English interests," and
Austria becomes incidentally his " ancient and
" natural ally." This we believe to bo the fairest
interpretation of Mr. ROEBUCK'S imputed Aus-
trianism, which is nothing but a total self-absorp-
tion in " English interests," without respect of
party prejudices. The Member for Sheffield, in his
admirable character of "the EsouauMas," has
not perhaps what French actors call thephyNiger de
Teen plui. The typical stout peraonani in top-
boots is the gross terrestrial idea of Jolts ;
the Member for Sheffield, with the finger of
scorn and the hiss of insular defiance, is the spiri-
tualized essence of his country's genius, which the
mythology of the future will probably represent in
the form of a Cobra. If we examine Mr. Roe-
acmes " second manner" a little more closely, we
find that he is not only the representative of
EM:LAND, rather than of any borough, but that
the principle he embodies is " incorruptibility."
Now, the Athenians ostracized ARI.ITIDES because
they were tired of hearing him called rue Juin..
If the people of Sheffield ever ostracize Mr. Roa-
st it will be when they are tired of hearing him
call himself "the Incorruptible." Yet Mr.
Rol et- ea deserves sympathy in the some-
what invidious position he has assumed. As
the model Englishman, he naturally excites
jealousy of members of Parliament who
b, winglishmen only in the ordinary sense,
are - " the Incorruptible "he provokes
and as ra of members who have
the bitters...