The Express.
London, England, 1852-11-09 00:00:00

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LONDON, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 9.

DtNIEL WEDSTER surpassed all his contempora-
ries among American statesmen in a certain sinewy
knitness of mental constitution. Ile was to the rest
what the gnarled oak of the forest is to the softer
wooded trees that surround it. To use a hackneyed
figure of speech, he was a man of iron. The out-
ward countenance expressed the inner mind. A
capacious forehead, • palo complexion, relieved by
the tinge of a closely shaven blue-black beard, an
inflexible intentness of purpose imparting tensity to
every feature, no interchange of smiles or softer ex-
pression. Quick and indefatigable in acquiring
knowledge, endowed with a tenacious memory, ,
clear-sighted, gifted more with the logio of
the will than the intellect, his eloquence was
commanding rather than winning. There was
a want of elevation and refinement in his
'sentiments, but his burly strength supplied the defi-
ciency.
No man deficient in generosity and geniality of
temperament ever rose to the first honours of a
state. Thus it MIS with DANIEL Welisren. He
adopted, he cherished all the favourite aims and
opinions of the New Englanders; ho brought un-
surpassed information and unequalled vigour and
endurance to champion the policy of tho New Eng-
land States. lie was " the Beaton pet" But even the
New Englanders rated him no higher than a first-
rate advocate; they had unconscious misgivings that
his heart was not in the cause. Having taken his
line, knowing that loyalty and consistency alone
could ensure the prize his ambition aimed at, there
was no fear of Winerliel ratting. His party could
rely upon him. But it relied upon him only be.
cause it believed him to be too shrewd not to see
that honesty was the best policy, not from confidence
in his sentiment of loyalty. He was more trusted
than beloved. His supporters were not animated by
that enthusiasm which alone can enable • party to
carry its man in triumph over every obstacle.
DANIEL WEBSTER came next to the highest office
of the State, but he never reached the highest. And
had he lived to the age of Mernesattx he never
could have reached it. He was doomed to be one of
the first of second rate men. But though incapable
of standing highest, he was a check upon those who
did. lie was the natural organ of a neutral, of a
recusant, or hesitating minority. There was no
getting DANILL WERsTLIS out of the field, and
it was never sato to have him for an
opponent. Though he could not have his own way
he could prevent others from having theirs in every
thing. " I can't rise to your sphere, but I can keep
you down to mine," he more than once said—by
deeds not words—to more buoyant natures.
No doubt when his countrymen were going wrong,
Mr. WEBSTER. at times, and on great occasions,
offered a resolute oratorical resistance. He lifted
up his voice, and warned his fellow-citizens
as to whither General JACIEsON was leading
and directing them. Ho opposed in its origin the
spirit of ambition which annexed Texas, and assailed
Mexico. lie preached peace with England when the
two countries were going to quarrel about " • bit of
bunting." And he lost no opportunity, in 'power or
out, of consolidating the Union. These were great
merits, for which let Mr. WEBSrEa's memory have
all the praise and renown it deserves. But had his
moral attributes been as highly cultivated as his
intellectual capacity, more—far more—would
have been within his power ; and he might
have produced, what he certainly has not, a
powerful impression for good on the national
character of his countrymen. And, am much is re-
quired from those to whom much is given, it is by
the highest standard Mr. WEBSTEIL is to be im-
partially and finally judged.
So far, indeed, from having had any beneficial
effect on public opinion in America, there is not
wanting evidence to suggest that Mr. WEBSTER had
in his latter days yielded to its deteriorating influ-
ences, and was content to encourage that spirit of
braggadocio and aggees 'on which, at an earlier
period, he had failed to arrest. It is, we think, total
found equally in his manner of repelling the con-
duct of our Government on the fisheries question,
and in the encouragement he gave to lawlessness
when it fixed its selfish eyes on the Lobos Islands.
In the one caw, be began by fanning a flame which
might have .pread to • general conflagration had
not the people of England compelled the DLitify
Cabinet to retreat from their original position; in
the other he issued a state paper, unwarrantable in
its facts, unsupportable in its law, and immoral to
the last degree in its purpose. In both affairs he
must have suffered heavy mortification ; and it may
have deproewd his spirits and rendered his frame
more accessible to the inroads of the disease, which
has carried him off.

It is as the director of the external relations of
America that Europe knows moat of Mr. WEesrza;
and during the two periods when ho conducted
those relations, he certainly performed some services
scarcely lees important to America than to Europe.
Under General Hsaitisost, he successfully removed
all those difficulties which threatened to bring on a
rapture with England; and now that time ham
abated opposition and prejudices on either side the
Atlantic, it must beldmitted on all hands that tho
Slave Trndc, the Boundary, and the Extradition
Conventions were all measures of great and re-
ciprocal usefulness. Mr. Wane-R.Bsecond tenure of
office under President FILLMORE has scarcely been
so highly characterised; but in his conduct
in the affair of Cubs, ho saved his country
from the reproach and shame of a great crime; and
in supporting and carrying out the Compromise Act,
he at least anted in postponing the great question of
internal separation. Perhaps he also opposed as well
as he ooald those skfignsagslnst Mexico, Nicaragua,
and the assiwisi kinds, which seem still stored
for future Aimises eutipsks.

Both ss t Isaias amber of the Whig party, and
as connoted with the elate of Massachuasets, which
has plaid nest by the policy, Des. Weserte

was a supporter of Protection principles. Bat hen,
also, more fortunately, his great abilities were thrown
away. In spite of his oratory, freedom of trade pre.
vaikxl; and in the ill success of the Whig party lance
it became thoroughly protective there is something
like retributive justice. In the approaching elec-
tion of OPROPII PIERCE to the Presidency, the
financial prosperity of the general treasury at Wash-
ington will, in all probability, lead to further reduc-
tions in the tariff ;—all the more easily now that Mr.
WEBSTER will not be in Congress to resist the great
policy which unites nations in the bonds of amity and
concord, and makes them re-act on each other's
prosperity.
It is characteristic of American institutions that
the removal of this robust and inflexible soul will not
even for a mumcnt be felt in the progress of political
events. His place will be filled—more or less ably—
and things will go on u if ho had never been or
had never been removed. This is the consequence of
popular institutions—of self-government—that states-
men arc the agents, not the masters, of popular
opinion and wishes, and that there is always a re-
dundant supply of competent public servants. Hence
steadiness and consisteucy in the policy of popular
governments. Individuals may be tickle and change-
able ; but masses are ever drearily monotonous in
their aims and efforts. As children like to hear the
same talc told over again, so the multitude like to
see their rulers go incessantly through the same rou-
tine. The watchwords of popular party change
slowly.
This reflection places in a strong light the fatuous
fully of those who dream they see in the resuscitation
of the Empire a guarantee to France for the sur-
creme of revolutionary changes. By vesting all
power in the hands of an autocrat, the French ren-
der their national policy liable to shift and change
with all his freaks and whims. Nay, they render that
order and tranquillity fur which they yearn dependent
upon the continuance of his life, certain to be inter-
rupted with the interruption of its frail and preca-
rious tenure. In the democratic republic of America
the survival or extinction of a master mind like
WEesrui does not for a moment shako public tran-
quillity—does not perceptibly affect the steady course
either of domestic or foreign politics. In the French
Empire now in process of inauguration, the death
even of a Louts NAPOLEON would restore anarchy.
Everything would be interrupted till the rival
11 for his inheritance of power had fought it oat. This
is the inevitable consequence of the people leaving
1 the management of their affairs to one or a few in-
stead of keeping it mainly in their own hands.
Popular governments amongst civilised people are
more truly conservative than despotisms or oligarchies.

TIIE despondent Derbyites seek their last conso-
lation in the supposed difficulty of naming their
successors. They feel they aro not strong, and know
they aro not popular; bat still they cling with
tenacity to life, and doubtingly ask, if they are put
out, who are ready to come in ? They seem to forget
how often a similar question has been put by feeble
administrations, and how invariably it has been
answered, to the circumstantial discomfiture of the
questioners, whenever it has been categorically and
seriously put. Successors—half-a-dozen sets of suc-
cessor—might be named in as many sentences,
any of whom would present a more im-
posing ensemble of talent, experience, and
I property.than the present Cabinet affords. In vain
the existing imbeciles hugged the delusion that tho
rival pretensions of prominent men of ability on
the Liberal side cannot easily be adjusted. It may be
so,—but what after all does this forlorn attempt at a
cavil amount to, save that the number of eminent men
on the popular side is so large that we have three or
four spare sets on hands; while they cannot eke out
one. If the coming struggle were only to be ono
between two oligarchic cliques, it would hardly be
worth the trouble of writing a line on the
matter ; and we suspect that the mass of the
nation would care as little as ourselves whether Lord
CLINRICARDE or Lord HARDWICK)! sat in the Post-
master-General's chair, or whether Lord ItsoLsw or
Lord ANGLESF-1 filled the supernumerary post of
Muter-General of the Ordnance. But what is of
_

importance,—and what is alone of importance,—is
whether the Administration shall be in accordance
with the calm and steadfast spirit of progress which
is bound up in the heart of the nation, or whether it
shall consist of men whose only celebrity is derived
from their unprincipled resistance to every measure
the people desire,—whether of finance, foreign policy,
or reform ? It is the very impertinence of imposture
to ask whether the present lory Ministers may not
earn the popular confidence by acquiescing at the
eleventh hour in tho stability of Free Trade. Of
course they will acquiesce—and no thanks to them—
in what they have done their best for six years to
disturb, and found at last to be impregnable. We
must be a nation of idiots if we could be persuaded
that a moment's gratitude was due for each an
exploit of expediency. Gratitude has, indeed, been
said to bo a vivid anticipation of favours to come.
Are Ministers and their advocates prepared to claim
that of the community:lo grounds of this kind? Are
they prepared to outbid Lord Jolts Re SMELL in electoral
reform or Sir lung GRAHAM in official retrenchment?
Will they carry out the principle of the Sugar Bill
of 1848, or that of University Reform of 1851 ?
Will they perfect the policy of religious freedom by
emancipating the Jews? Will they maintain the
foreign policy founded in 1830 by the late Lord
OILY, and undeviatingly adhered to ever since by
his successors of the Liberal party ? Tho weakness
of the present government is not mainly or chiefly
the weakness of the men who compose it--although
in that they are stifficietgly conspicuous; their weak-
nese lies in their principles and their want of prin-
ciples, in the repugnance of the nation to all they
have ever advocated, and the attachment of
the nation to those things they have most
vehemently opposed. And the strength of
the Liberal chiefs lies not in their individual dex-
terity in debate or pre-eminent skill as administra-
tors, but rather in the coincidence of their opinions
and professions with the hopes and wishes of the
people. Mr. COBDEN and his friends are pledged to
seek the attainment of the Ballot by every legitimate
means; Lord Joan RusseLL and his colleagues
of the late Cabinet are pledged to a large extension
of the franchise; and Sir Jules ChlUital and those
who think with him are pledged to an efficient
transfer of representative power from small nomina-
tion boroughs to populous districts. All are alike
committed to Free Trade and the fullest and
speediest development of fiscal and financial reform
—to the principle that the voice of the laitgjdiould
be paramount in matters of education—OM that
equality, rather than ascendancy, should be the aim,
in all legislation regarding creed. These are not
vague or impractical theories, irreducible to form, or
unattempted in detail. 'fhey constitute the life-
giving purpose of the Liberal party, in and out of
parliament, and whoever may be the individual
called upon to form • future Liberal Ministry, its
policy may be regarded as already defined, and the
conditions of its being may be looked upon as already
laid down. Which question should be dealt with
first, and which shall be allowed to wait for its turn,
must of course depend non various circumstances.
But the principle of a liberal ministry must essen-
tially be Pr3gress;—not a puffin.: down of the lofty,
but en upraising of the humble and tho toiling
many.

Thus it is for the sake of further good to be
achieved by bold and fearless administration, that
the Liberal majority in parliament are bound to evict
the present wrongful possessors from office, and to
place in their stead not this or that knot of peculiar
politicians, but an effective and suitable selection of
men from the foremost rank of each section—Whig,
Radical, and l'eelite. Of clique and exclusiveness in tie
composition of cabinets we bevelled more t han enough.
No administration is worth supporting that does not
command support, and this it cannot do unless public
opinion be convinced it is composed of earnest and
able men—capable of a purpose, and incapehle of
abandoning it. A Government that succeeds to
power in a l'arliament called by its opponents can
rarely reckon with the same confidence on possessing
a decisive majority; but, with the power of dissolu-
tion in its hands, and appealing by its measures to
the feelings and the interests of the nation at
large, it may nevertheless be strong enough
for all practical ends. The party whom it has
ousted from office rarely has the courage to drive it
speedily to extremities, and the threat of an appeal
to the hustings is seldom in vain, when coming from
those who manfully put to the people questions in
which the best interests of the nation are really
involved.

We repeat, what we have akiady mid ea morel
than one °cession, that we will not consent to buy
Free Irade over again, either by compensation to
landlords or by toleration of the present incapable
and illiberal Cabinet in power. We have reduced
Frye Trade into possession.—lt is ours—the Derby-
item must endorse it—and then we shall know what
next to do. When the people are in earnest there is
no lack of Ministers to do their work.