The Express.
London, England, 1855-08-10 00:00:00

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HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
Tem DAT—M,ruing, Oh. 220 a Afternoom, Oh. 19m.
tramorr—liarriag, IL Afternoon, lb. Cva.

LONDON, FRIDAY, AUGUST 10.

WE are mot ashamed to confess that the result, co:
the postponed Polish Meeting has deeply mortified
us. An opportunity was afforded to the inhabitants
of the metropolis of doing • real service to Poland
and Europe, and nothing has come of it. We are told
by some optimists that the sentiment of the meeting
was unanimous iu favour of Poland : why, the senti-
ment ot England bee all along been unanimous in
favour of Poland ; but what is the used a vague een
timent that, after so many long years, cane x,a
prompt a tangible act? The meeting was os'Aeo
upon solemuly to declare that the r ,taim
of Poland to have its nationality re estab-
lished WAS indefeasible ; and that, as a first
step to the re-establishment of its nationr,lity. the
enrolment of a Polish Legion ought to be n xged upon
Parliament and the Government. A petition to
Parliament, based upon such resolution e, emanating
from a respectable 'metropolitan moetinp,, could not pos-
sibly have remained without effect. It • would have been
the first step towards the re-appears Ace of the White
Eagle in the ranks of European war, as that would
is turn have been towards 'die resuscitation of
Poland. Bet instead of these resolutions the meet-
ing, after a tedious scene of gesticulation, inarticu-
late noise, and anger, voted that nothing should or
could be done until Lord PALMERSTON was turned
oat of office. As if the task of promotiog the resus-
citation of Poland were not in itself sufficiently
arduous, it was resolved that it should be linked with
the teak of bringing about • Ministerial crisis in
England. The advocates of such a policy remind
ooe irresistibly of CHARLES LAMB'S legend ot the
Chinese, who, in the infancy of the culinary art,
►eroed down a hoese whenever they wished to roast
• Pig.

The no-result of the meeting has been attributed to
a conspiracy, and as usual the blame has been laid
upon the Chartists. We have been so long accus-
tomed to the " preternatural suspicion " (as CAR.
ist.E calls it) with which dissentient parties regard
each other in matters political that we have become
slow of belief in conspiracies in such cases. We be-
lieve that in nine cases out of ten what is
believed to be the result of profound design, has in
reality been merely the effect of folly and pragmatical
presumption. At all events, whatever may have
been the cause of the disturbance of Wednesday's
meeting, we cannot see the shadow of a reason for
attributing it to the Chartists. That epithet, indeed,
is applied by many in a manner most indiscriminating,
and calculated to lead to mischievous misapprehen-
sions. We believe, it is true, that the great mass of
the onenfranchised hold the doctrines of " the Char-
ter," but they must not on this account be confounded
with the unwise end turbulent knot of politicians who
Dave seen fit to adopt the name of Chartists as their
distinctive denomination. And even the Chartists

proper, when they have interrupted meetings, as the
meeting of Wednesday was interrupted, have done so
by interposing amendments in favour of " the six
points." But the slogan of the mover and seconder
of the amendment on Wednesday was the impeach-
ment of Lord Permensiost, and that is sufficient to
denote that they are sectaries of the unintelligible
political creed of Mr. URQUHART. Were we as ready
to believe in conspiracies as some people are, we con-
fess that some coincidences would turn our suspicions
in a direction widely apart from that of the Chartists.
Mr. CoLtErr, the mover of the amendment, is
only known to the public as the indefatigable
secretary of an association for the repeal
of the taxes on knowledge, of which Miners.
BRIGHT, COBDEN, and MILNER GIBSON were the
most influential members; and the gentleman who
first moved Lord HAuturctorr out of the chair, and
then got himself moved into it, was Mr. GEORGE
THOMPIION—au itinerant missionary of the principles
of the peace-at-any-price party. Bat we repeat that
we see no proof of any conspiracy, and that we be-
lieve the presumption and conceit of a few pragma-
tical individuals are quite sufficient to account for the
contretemps that we regret.
It would be sheer waste of time to seek to prove
by argument the senselessness and irrelevancy of
the amendment that was carried. The meeting
was composed of men of almost every political leaning,
united, however, in their desire to see a beginning
made to some course of action that might ulti-
mately lead to the re-establishment of Polish na-
tionality. What right then had any section of the
meeting to disturb its unanimity by insisting that
every man in it should pronounce their political
Shibboleth? What had the meeting to do with
Lord Psuititsrox or Lord Anybody ? Its business
was to declare that it was the duty of whoever held
the reins of Government in England to avail himself
of Polish valour in the prosecution of the war in
which we are now engaged. It may indeed be
alleged that the chairman and the seconder of the
first resolution went out of their way to white-
wash Lord Pststextrox. This we freely admit was
ill-judged on their part, but it did not affect the
resolutions or the petition band upon them, which
were neither friendly to Lord PALMERSTON nor
otherwise. Besides, the mover and seconder of the
amendment had not the wit to catch at such a pre-
text for their interference; their speeches, like their
motion, were prepared beforehand ; the one would
have been delivered and the other made, even though
Lord Psusaarron'e name bad been mentioned
by the other party. The most provoking feature of
the whole affair is that tho party which was allowed
to have all its own way was in reality a minority.
Had the chairman and the rational portion of the
meeting stood firm, the supporters of the amendment
must have been beaten. But, as is too often the case
on such occasions, they got disgusted with the squab-
ble, and dropped off one by one, until the minority
became • majority. It is this lukewarmness and
superoilionsness of the earnest and sensible part of
the public that constitutes the power of the distwbers
of public meetings; and unless that portion of the
community whose opinion is best entitled to have
weight learn to be a little less finical, it will soon
become impossible to hold public meetings on any
important question.
Of this hereafter; the consideration that iron*
distil, presses upon us is what ought to be done in
the present emergency. The public recognition of
the indestructible nationality of Poland and the ex-
pediency of enrolliog a Polish legion for service in
the present war, is an object of too great impoitanee
to be ,abandosted because a few presumptuous Jodi-
:ideals have made a public meeting break up
in most admired disorder." We do not,
indeed, recommend that another meeting be
attempted at present ; it is char that the