The Express.
London, England, 1852-04-08 00:00:00

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TO COARIMPONDENTII.

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day of poblleetioa.

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LONDON, THURSDAY, APRIL 8.

To catch the DERBY ministry may be possible, but
to hold them fast is out of the question. Lord
Denev, with an irresistible air of frank sincerity,
tells the Lords Slit there will be a dissolution and a
short session of the new parliament, to decide the
fate of miuietera, "before autumn has passed;" but
as soon as the greater part of the suplies have been
voted. he changes his tone, and with affected indig-
nation denies that one word ever dropped from him
which any new sal was entitled to construe into a
weenie: of an early dissolution. In the Commons,
hlr. Dist: %ELI promises to explain the course 'which
government intends to pursue in regard to public
business, when he moves the adjournment of the
house for the Easter holidays; but when the night
comes for moving the adjournment. the St:currant*
of the *FRV. %stet mores it before the arrival of the
Cu %N.•ELLOR a the Exclielit'Eß. who apologises rat
a later hour for " the nervous anxiety to secure their
holidays which had led his subordinate to cut him I
off" from the opportunity of offering the promised
cep:amnion, bat makes no statement. And by the
aid of these evasions ministers close the first net of
the setsional drama without throwing any light on
the game they intend to play. They have wriggled 1,
out of the hold of parliament like eels, that leave
nothing but dirty slime in the hands which attempt
to grasp them.
Notwithstanding this taciturnity and shuffling of '
ministers, Mr. Apprei.ey gravely affirms that they
hart. declared their policy The noble lord at the
head of the government had openly stated his policy.
He said he would dissolve as soon as the necessary
arrangements of the public business would permit."
The home• did not know exactly whether it ought to
receive this declaration of the hon. member for War-
wickshire, at the time it was made, as an imperti-
nent sneer at themselves, or an ironical stab at
ministers, or a blundering confession of duplicity,—
so they merely laughed and cheered him. They
could not fancy any man in his senses mistaking a
declaration of an intention to dissolve for a state-
ment of the policy upon which the dissolution was to
take place. Leisurely reflection, however, rather
favours the conclusion that Mr. ADDERLET spoke
the simple truth, that beyond nn intention to dis-
soh c ministers really have no policy.
It is now apparent to all that there is only one
man in the ministry who does the thinking part of
the business for all the rest. Ask a question of the
Foreign or Colonial Secretaries, and their only,
stereotyped reply is, they mast hare time to learn
the business of their respective offices. The HOME
SECRET.UtY proposes a resolution one day, and the
next withdraws it in awkward blustering haste.
The SECRETARY of the TREASURY cuts the CHAN-
CELLOR of the EXCHEQUER out of a speech the
latter says he intended to deliver, by making the
motion it was mean t to propose before the orator reaches
the hottse. The Feist: hlreieree makes an explicit
statement one day, but embraces the earliest opportu.
nity to withdraw it, and substitute the more equivocal
statement of his CHANCELLoR of the EXCHEQUER.
In short, it is clear that the far greater part of mi-
nisters do not attempt to think at all, and that those
who try take their inspiration from Mr. DISRAELI.
If therefore, any light is to be thrown on the policy
of government it must be gathered from the thinking
partner of the firm.
Now, in seeking to discover Mr. DISRAELI'S
policy we must examine not his principles or opi-
nions, nor even his professions, bat the mat himself.
He has no conception of political action beyond the
making of %hat he calls " combinations." In this he
resembles his own Fakredeen in "Tancred." The
Emir of Mount Lebanon is, in truth, no mere fancy
sketch. The literal exactness and graphic truth of
every lineament, the intense lore with which every
pencil touch is given that helps to bring out the
likenesv, prove that it is one of those portraits which
painters only achieve after repeated attempts, by
fond and persevering study of their own linea-
ments in a glass.
Fakredeen," says Mr. DISE %ELI, "had no prin-
ciple ; be had not a prejudice; a little superstition,
perhaps, like his postponing a journey because a hare
crossed his path. " He was convinced that all was
a matter of farce or fraud. Fakredeen preferred the
latter, because it was more ingenious." "Though it
was his profession and his pride to dissemble, he had
a native ingenuousness which was extremely awk-
ward and very surprising, for the moment he was
intimate with you he told you everything. Monet
he intended to make a person his tool and often sue-
ceeded, such was his susceptibility and so strong
were his ',empathetic eualities. that he wee per-
petually, without being unaware of it, showing his
cards. The victim thought himself safe, but the
teeming resources of Fakredeen were never wanting,
and some fresh and brilliant combination, u he styled
it, often secured the prey which so heedlessly he
had nearly forfeited." Again : " What shoidd I
be without my debts?" he would sometimes ex-
claim; "dear companions of my life that never
desert me What expedient in negotiation is un-
known to me? What degree of endurance have I
not calculated ? What play of the countenance
have I not observed? Yes, among my creditors I
have disciplined that diplomatic ability, that shall
some day confound and control cabinets!" Yet
again : " Ile was too good a statesman ever to con-
fiscate ; he confined himself to taxation. Confisca-
tion is a blunder that destroys public credit ; taxa-
tion, on the contrary, improves it ; and both come to
the same thing." And yet again : " Ho became ha-
bituated to the idea that every thing could be
acquired by dexterity, and that there was no test
of conduct except success. To dissemble and simu-
late ; to conduct confidential negotiations with
contending powers at the same time ; to be
ready to adopt any opinion and possess none ;
to fall into the public humour of the moment and to
evade the impending catastrophe; to look upon
every man as a tool, and never to do anything that
had not a definite though circuitous purpose—these
were his political accomplishments; and while he
recognised them as the best means of success, he
found in their exercise excitement and delight." One
finishing touch : " With all his audacity, which was
nearly equal to his craft, he had no moral courage ;
and if affairs went wrong, and from some accident,
exhaustion of the nervous system, the weather, or
some of those slight causes which sometimes paralyse
the creative mind, lie felt without a combination, he
would begin to cry as a child, and was capable of any
action, however base and humiliating, to extricate
himself from the impending disaster."
The career attributed to the Syrian Pakredeen is
simply the career of the English Fakredeen
able-
gonally shadowed out in Syrian incidents. As the
Syrian intrigued or formed "combinations" with
every hostile party and principle in snecrasion, so
the Englishman. The Syrian I. akredeen, as it suited
his purpose, called himself Mussulman, Jew, Chris-
tian ; the English Fakredeen has called himself in
succession radical, tory, free-trader, protectionist. As
the Syrian Fakredeen intrigued at the same time
with DUIZOT and Anrantex, the English Fakredeen
made overtures to COBDEN and Lord GEORGE BEN.
TINCK at the same time. As the Syrian Fakredeen
cut without hesitation a friend or principle no longer
of use, the English Fakredeen has thrown overboard
protection now that it has served his purpose. Even
the power of mimicry with which PEEL, wee peeve.
rated and the squirearchy enchanted is made a trait
of the tsyrian akredetn's character: " Fakredeen
sketched a character in a sentence, and you knew in-
stantly the individual whom he described without any
personal knowledge. Unlike the Orientals in general,
his gestures were as vivid as his words. He acted
the interviews, he achieved the adventures before
you. His voice could take every tone, and his coon-
tensile, every form. In the midst of all his bursts
of plaintive melancholy, sonietimes the anguish of a
sensibility too exquisite alternating with a devilish
mockery and a fatal absence of all self-respect."
It is to the character of Fakredeen that the
public must look if they would learn what is the
policy of the Fakredeen ministry. That policy is
simply to gain time and " make combinations," which

common-place mortals call " intrigue." To gain time
any promises required will be made; to gain accom-
plices in " combinations" any principles or intentions
will be professed ; and when the time comes, dopes
will be sent adrift and promises denied with mil
effrontery. "All leaders of all pardthwisecretly\lift:
the tiered that Fakmleen was thand4
tool. There was not one of fop t
some of them were in yearsfeom esii n-
-1 nocent and ingenious k'sk bencisa. a
nose of was." At least, so akredsen flatters him-
self.