The Portland daily press., 1868-11-12
The Canvas. in England.

There's some fatality in it. we are ilaru'y
ever fol tunate enough to be representa- "oto"u
by men who really reflect pubIc sehIlnie "ts az
home. There was poor old Garipaiui III looo
l,urlino himself against the ramparts OF Rome
and AGAINST Papal and French bayonets, with
,,ll America, fguratyely speaking on their
knees praying for him, while miserable
sneak of an American consul, acho still holds
his position at Rome, went to Montana with the
Pope's army and leveled his musket with the
/, est at the red-shirts. And when Admiral
Farragut went so gaily up the Mediterranean
this summer . hob-nobbing with the Grand
Turk and all sorts of be-ttled and be-spangied
grandees, wretched crew of Cretans crept on
board the Franklin and presented an address,
supposing of course that they would De recog-
nized in their character of revolutlonlsts by
representative OF the American Republic. The
Admiral is a fine old gentleman, but the me-
cessities of his situation compelled him to re-
ceiye the Cretaus merely as "private indvidu-
ais"
We have the same luck with our Minister to
England. The hilarious aud eupeptic Mr..
johnson is not himself unless he is cheek by
iowl with Mr.. Laird or Mr.. Roebuck or some
other heightened old Tory who has at least fit
ted out one little pirate to burn and plumber
American nero hantmen. Precious little COM
fort do John Bright, Mr. Mill, Gladstone and
Hughes get from the favorite son of "My
Maryland" Not that it is his duty to deliver
philippines against the Irish Church or engage
in physical conflict with Disraeli or Lord Del
by, but there is a moral influence that the de-
cent reserve of frst-cass gentleman with a
frst-class foreign mission will permit him to
exert without doing violence to any of the pro-
prietes of his position. But it is written that
no foreign liberal cause shall receive any aid
from the United States beyond joint resolu-
ton of Congress!
Not that Mr.. Johnson has, by any means,
failed in exerting this moral influence, but ne
sxerts ID on the wrong side. Both gratitude
and principle-yes, and expediency-make us
all Wings on this side of the Atlantic when
there are Tories to fight on the other side. As
a general rule they all sympathize with Amer
lea, they are fighting for the enlargement of
the democratic principle in the English consti-
tuition and they are as sure to win in the cleo
ton that begins next Monday as Gen. Grant
was to be President after the Tammany con-
vention If they do not get hundred major
least be strong enough to send Disraeli's min
istry into retirement, TO disestablish the Irish
Church and to make the spurious household
suffrage, palmed off by the Tories for the genu.
inc thing, reality. But Mr.. johnson will
none of them.
The most interesting incident to the English
election is the tentative movements that are
made all over the island by the women with a
view to determine whether or not they can
vote. In many cases their names are taken off
the registries, but this action is not final. In
one case-that of Miss Becker, of Manchester,
the female Luther of this political reformation
IAN appeal has been taken to the Court OF
Common Pleas and we are informed by the ca.
BILE that the Judges decided unanimously that
under the British constitution no woman has
a right to vote for members of Parliament
But this decision is not final. Women acM
vote in many places and contested election
cases. arising from the innovation, will nrob-
ably bring the matter before Parliament for f.
nal adjudication. However the decision may
be now, 1T is clear that while female suffrage is
"only question of time" in the United States
it is only question of a very short time in
England, and that they will beat us by good
half decade in that Conservative, hide-bound
island, on the grand progressive movement of
the century.
But this is only one of the anomalies of En-
glish politics. To a foreigner it is inexplicable
that while in certain directions progress is as
rapid probably as it can be and still be healthy,
there are other directions in which there is no
progress. There is talk of universal suffrage
but no whisper of crusade against that great
abomination of the century, the House of
Lords. Workingmen have been nominated
for seats in Parliament from several boroughs
but no one proposes to do without that useless
and obsolete fgure-head of the State, the
Queen, who with her royal brats costs En-
gland as much in one year as all the Presi-
dents have cost from Washington to johnson
John Bright in his recent address to his con-
stituents at Birmingham spoke like one of our
most advanced" Radicals, but he made no
proposition looking to setting up that brainless
fop, the Prince of Wales, in his proper position
as waiter in third class hotel. 1t is one of
the most discourag ing things in modern civ
ilzation that it is not among its possibilities to
assign this young man his proper station in
life. But after Liberal triumph and univer-
sal suffrage in England, who knows what may
happen? After Victoria, the deluge