The Express.
London, England, 1868-03-21 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, SATURDAY E'

weighing all the claims which Mr. Muslim gpon
public notice in the character of a valuabla
servant. Little men are wont to complain
about the imperfect recognition their Mr-
vices have received, or to ascribe this to
the fact of their being misunderstood. If
the men of real worth were to imitate their
feebler and more querulous brethren they would
often prefer a lite complaint. But they do not
struggle for applause. Their aim is not self-
exaltation, but self-sacrifice. Besides, if praise be
grateful to them, they have the consciousness that
in due time they will obtain the wished•for reward.
Now, it is obvious that Mr. MILL, whatever be his
shortcomings, has never courted popularity. He
entered parliament after he had passed many years
in the service of the late East India Company.
He might have had a seat at the India Council
board ; but he preferred to spend the remainder
of his days in that studious retirement which is so
much to the tufte of the man of letter. He was
induced to change his mind at the solicitations of 1
those who desired to see him an active member ,
of the House of Commons. He did not seek for
an honour which so many crave. Unlike those
who would cheerfully purchase a seat with half
their fortunes, he refused to stand if his election I
were to entail an expenditure of money on his
part. He declined to exercise undue influence
by canvassing the electors in person. He would
not take a single pledge, or be fettered in the
expression of a single opinion. On these unusual,
but very rational conditions he was returned by a
large majority. Perhaps no other member re-
tains his seat by a like tenure.
When it is said that Mr. MILL is prone to
enunciate revolutionary schemes and to advocate ,
proposals which are considered impracticable, it
should be remembered that be does not thereby
forfeit any title to our confidence as a member of
parliament which he had earned as a philosopher ,
and a political economist. His speeches are but
his doctrines applied to the events of the hour.
All that startles the commonplace critic in his
pamphlet on Ireland has been already published
in another form. What he has spoken in favour
of women's suffrage and personal representation he
had written years ago, and without shocking the
reading public. We know not what the ultimate
verdict will be, but we may safely anticipate that
his public career will tend to convince the most
sceptical of the incapacity of the House of Com-
mons to appreciate truth in a concentrated form.
The failing of Mr. MILL is his unwillingness to
dilute his speeches with commonplace. He does
not stoop to employ the arta by which the weak-
minded and the timorous can be entrapped. It
is impossible for him to tell an English audience
that it is endowed with every virtue under
Heaven. Mr. MrLL cannot, like the late Lord
PaLmmurrox, render his very shortcomings condu-
cive to his popularity. Nevertheless, there is no
living Englishman who could with greater pro-
priety follow the example of England's noblest
philosopher, and console himself under the obloquy
of the envious and the unenlightened, with the
prospect of a bright future for his fame, appealing
from the hasty sentence of this age to the sober
judgment of posterity.