The Express. — 1853-10-01 (London, England)

VDOS, SATURI4II; OCTOBER 1.  Tut rld English notion was that everything English was tight—everything foreign was wrong. There was a fine breadth of prtjudice about this, but at least there was hearty nationality also. Roast beef. old port. and teacoal tires might he called Anelican idols, in whose merits every true JOHN HU LL was septic's& d to have implicit faith. He was understoll to like them, to honour them, to matutain their virtues against all comers. No picture of llotivitros was more tharough:y English thin the one, where a smiiing cook, before the gates of Calais, groans under the weight of some giant ribs of beef; no song has ever been more hearti;y chorused, in all parts of our island, than the " Roast beef of old England." A companion " prejudice," if we are to call it so, ran in lour of the inn-fireside, the " hearty welcome" that weary travellers get from civil Bonifaces ; the cheerful meetings that took place under the roof-tree of 'White Ilarts and Red Lions. But we are now told that all tLette " prejudices" must be rooted out. " May I not take mine case in mine inn ?" asks our old Shakeperian friend. " Certainly not," replies the limes, " yau can take nothing there but discomfort." SitEN,TtPNE, long ago, sighed out what he thought a truth : _  Whoe'er ha% trarelled life's dull round, Wh..,.•er Het elned path hAs been, 31 ,st siteb to thank bow oft be's found Has .ur, wele..me at an inn.  No thing, s.tys Printing House-square, for " welcome" read plunder." To be English is to be wrong—to be foreign is to be right. The Times tells us that there is nothing in our nation equal to "the Foreign Hotel." The grumbling formerly indulged in by Englishmen abroad is now all to be kept for home exercise. We are henceforth to how down to the Foreign Hotel system, to worship Table d'llOtes, and to condemn by wide and general consent every particle of English Hotel arrangement. Instead of everything English being good, we are called on to endorse the assertion that English Hotels are vile, extortionate, dirty. All our caps are to be thrown up for the ho' our of Monsieur E.tusvcaE, of L'Hotel Cour Imperiale; and we aro at once to send howling to perdition the entire generation of the English Bouifaces. Dawn with the Red Lion, the White Hart, and the George. The King's Head is to be abominated, and the Queen's Arms despised. " Mine Host," who, since the days of Cnsunflt and SHAN'TEARE has tern a sort of centre, round whom jollities and enjoyments of various degrees have been held to circulate, is now be ticketed off lecondemned scoundrel, fit company only for the Jew Fagins and the Bill ketes of the " Nev.gate Calendar." We aro told that " landlord" in all parts of the country means tither insolent extortioner or crafty cheat. 'lnc decent inn, ready at all times to instal the travel-tired Euest beside its cheerful fire, and to send up the pleasant contents of its larder for the satisfaction of the hungry, and of its cellar for the solace of those who may be athir4. is to be " put down" by the Times as Sir PETER LATILIE "put down" suicides. Landlords—if the Tikes and its correspondents be believed are brigands ; their wives aro the drawers of fraudulent bills; the waiters impostors, and the chambermaids cheats. From the very signboard to the uttermost corner of the kitchen everything is wrong—false—rotten. " English Hotel" and " den of thieves" are synonymous terms—and nothing is fit for a human being but a German table ell4te or a French restaurant. Down with roast beef, port, and sea coal fires, and virtu without end for fricassi, soups maigre, and charcoal. Down with the old solid mahoganies, the warm carpets, and snug private parlours, and in their stead set up dingy marbles, fly-spotted looking-glasses, drafty miles-a-manger, and porcelain stores. In short, if we agree with the Times, we may vote every English Tavern and Hotel fraudulent or " slow," and every foreign one cheap and admirable. Such is the new faith on Hotel-keeping and Hotelkeepers preached in Printing-house-square.  Of course from this universal condemnation here and there just one pe• inn is to escape; and then the favoured hostelrie is puffed as vigorously as all its compeers are condemned. The class in general are to be libelled that the favoured hotel may be all the more prominently commended. This has been done by the T1104e3 in several instances, bat in some cases with especial offensiveness. Thus, for instance, a particular inn has been selected in the Isle of Wight as • model of cheapness, and ei the rest of the hotels in the island condemned. Does the writer of this mean to say he has tried every other inn in the entire Isle of Wight? If not, how can he venture to libel—and that his charge is a libel there can be no doubt— not only the especial rivals of the inn which he puffs but a whole class throughout an extensive district ? We do not for a moment suppose that the Times is venal in allowing itself to be made the vehicle for puffs which a fifth-rate journal would reject, and of