The Express.
London, England, 1852-01-08 00:00:00

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

A•Mold Ultimo tf "TM Tarim; watalntog In' saalo orreolro's
ciesette," M In.blbikod way Tva•day sal Mindy Mitt, um@
tat Ito t.
lidmuwolosia 1•1001101 " Tho Gwrow," lades Ives*, parr,
b• u the )i Two Velma us the
ay of olitealow.

IMIOR WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
D4T—Xvitilag. 34.3%. %%meg es. 31.
Te•mosauw—lllorwes, Si 13 • Artarams,, 1/4. Os.

LONDON, THURSDAY, JANUARY 8.

POLITICAL people seem unanimous in the opinion
that the retirement of Lord PaLmeaarost is but the
beginning of extensive changes in the ministry.
Indeed, rumours of such changes were very current
in town last night, and the names of public. men I
were freely named in reference to the offices it is
believed they hove been asked to fill. To day a coun-
cil
is to be held, and in all probability the public
will Isidore long be enabled to sanction or be culled
upon to condemn- -the decisions of the Prime
Minister on this subject.
There is one period of our history which every one
who may be called upon to take an active and in-
fluential part in the new arrangements ought to
keep stead'dy in view. The short-lived and ignomi-
nious '• chequered and speckled tulministrution
run up by Lord CIILTILLY m Mk; is a beacon in
history to warn future statesmen of the folly of en-
deavouring to unite in one government men of in-
compatible principles. The " idena 81rIdire de re--
pod/done' is the only cement that can consolidate the
different member* of a cabinet into an efficient and
enduoing whole.
This truth cannot be too often or too emphatically
repeated at present. Parties are so nearly balanced
in parliament and the existing conetituencies, that
an administration desirous of prolonging its exist-
ence is strongly tempted not to be over scrupulous in
scanning the tliaracters ut new allies. Again, the
official section of the national lilt ml party has been
so exclusively recruited from among a few aristo-
cratic faniilies, intimately connected by intermar-
riage,, and their dependents, that the ligaments
which connect it with the great 111:001 of the liberals
are few and fragile in the extreme. The indifiCr-
ence with which the popular party has thus been
brought to regard the minister% wlioin it placed and
has kept in office.—and the consequent spirit of dis-
trust and defiance with which mere officials have
learned to regard that party,- hare a tendency to
weaken in both the sense of the all-importance
of zealous unanimity in great leading principles
as the basis of a good and strong government.
The non official liberals have contracted a habit of
saving to themselves,—" if a man will give us good
measures we will not examine too closely into his
speculative opinions;" and the officials or saying to
themselves—" if people arc thus disposed to tolerate
politicians wow avow in part a political creed that
was once unpopular, why should we hesitate to
strengthen ourselves by an alliauce with these our
old adversaries
It a obvious that when such a state of opinion,—or
more properly of sentiment.-- has come to pervade a
community, there is imminent danger of alliances
being patched up between statesmen of the most
di.curdant principles, on an understanding that cer-
tain specific measures. popular for the moment. are to
be supported,—but that thediscussion of all questions of
general principlmon w hichihey are not agreed, is to be
evaded. And it is equally obvious that such ulliauccs
must either be ephemeral—at the mercy of the chap.
ter of' accidents, which may at any moment bring
about a state of affairs calling for a practiced decision II
011 some moot point which it Iris been agreed to
ignore or that if they prove lasting, it must be in
consequence of sacrifices of principle by one or both
parties to the agreement, depriving them—and
justly depriving them—of public respect and con-
tidenee.

Whatever new blood, therefore, may be infused
into the ministry—whatever extension may be made
of the basis on which it tests—and both are urgently
needed -it must he made a sine vies so,,n, that the
sincerity of the adhesion of the new recruits to those
liberal and enlightened principles, hitherto professed
b 7 mini-tors, is liable not even to a shadow of sus-
picion. Ihe old land-marks of party have been
pretty nearly obliterated. The principles and cha-
racter of our public men can no longer belascertained
from their hereditary connexions, or even from the
professions they made at the commencement of their
respectise careers. We have tories who have been
filtered, through the school of C visiNG, into libei els ;
we hose whigs who have been driven back by
their church politics, or their landlord propensities,
into torvism ; we have nondescripts, who have
migrated more than once between the conservative
and progressive camps. The easy tests that a man
has always acted with such or such a party, or that
his tamily connexions are so and so, are uo longer to
be relied upon. The more difficult task of estimaing
a man's character by hisown sayings and doings now
devolves upon ministers in their selection of new
allies, and upon the public in forming its judgment
as to whether these new allies are entitled to its con-
fidence.