The Express.
London, England, 1863-11-07 00:00:00

RAYKARKILT.

.
Tin Moon OUR MARY ANNE-A BULL IN A CHINA
SHOP. Mr. Charles Mathews : Mew Y. Wright sad Mn. B. Ms-
wallam.-THE °OLDEN MHOS Mr. aad Mn. Maass
Mathews.-Aad MY HUSBAND'S GHOST. Mr. Clark.

LYCLUY.

Tuts Evvoia.), CYCLE BABY. Mr. Wlddicomb and
Wei C. Leclerc,' —En 1 EM0:410. a Lon Story. Mom
Pechter. Brougham, I mere, Chutes, and lards& ; lams
Teem taveatte, mkt llieworthp, aa4 Mrs. Low

11=ANIRA._

TOM IT S. TEI °RIO —GHOST EFFECT. Mama
Reynolds nod Cooks: Mao. Cranford and Yarsold. —ERZ
DAYS OF LOUIS XV. Mn. S. Lase. of by Mr. Asada
and Moss. Aron—And GUY FAWKES. Diq of of Fireworks.

NION WAD= AT LONDON
MO DAT —Naeske INA ne. .Aneressa. Ilk. 27s
roams,' 111 . Mkaases, Ok. Oa.

LONDON, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 7.

FOR the last four and-twenty hours afl Europe
has been trying to find out the puzzle of the
French EMPEROR'S Speech. His MAJESTY has
discovered in mystery a new secret of power. A
knowledge of his intentions, even if they are so
dire as some suppose, would probably cause leas
disquiet than the uncertainty in which he has in-
volved them. In France the first effect of the
Speech was to send the funds down. At Vienna
yesterday it was held that the Reruns's words
were calculated to cause uneasiness. The Paris

journals profess to discover in it the premonition of
war. Here, on the other hand, it has generally been
considered as of a decidedly pacific tendency.
We think that the English opinion is the one that
will ultimately prove correct. The speech is cer-
tainly that of a potentate who has come to occupy
an uncomfortable position, and it is a percapoon
of this fact which makes our French contemporaries
conclude that a violent solution of the embarrassing
difficulties may bepending. We in England have
no faith in the EMPEROR'S bourgeois prudence.
" The Polish question," La France observes, "is
" now merged in the European question." That,
no doubt, is the intention of the EitrEitoß, but
public opinion does not recognise the
existence of a " European question," as
stated by his 2dA.msrv. The Imperial an-

nouncement that the treaties of 1815 are at an
end and need remodelling, is one that might be in-
sidiously aooepted by Russia. It may reply—
" Since the meeting you propose does not exclu-
" sively refer to Poland, but to a general recoosi-
" deration of the state and partition of Europe as
" it was settled in 1815, Russia can have no objec-
" tion. Let us by all means meet and talk it over."
Well might Rossi* say this, for her statesmen
know that a Congress which met under such
circumstances and with such proposal', could never
assume a united or unbroken front against her.
There is one Power, and that is Great Britain,
which would most seriously object to any such re-
vision. The objects of this country are peace and
the balance of power. And that both would be
menaced, if not overthrown, by such a Congress
could not but be the fear of every prudent states-
man. When a great Sovereign calls a Congress with
the declaration preceding it, like the sound of a
trumpet, that the arrangements of 1816 are no
more, it is surely a signal for the return of poli-
tical chaos. A Congress held upon such an invi-
tation would be a kind of talk, in which it would
be impossible to distinguish friend from foe.
Such a Congress at the present time would
call out the ambition and cupidity of Power after
Power. Nearly all are anxious and expectant
of aggrandisement, either under pretext of
indemnity, or nationality, or self-preservation.
Russia wants East Prussia as well as Poland.
Von BISMARCK would consent if he got Ha-
nover and Saxony as a compensation. Austria
wants • Lombardy this side of the Alps. France
looks to the Rhine. Bring all these hungry and
ambitious Powers with their unstable governments
together, and the probability is that wolfish ten-
denies would outweigh all feelings of regard for
the rights and welfare of peoples. Congresses are
like wars ; States never quit them with the lame
alliances with which they entered them. The
Monarch who at the present moment asks for a
Congress, can do so merely with the object of
opening a large political gambling table, around
which the Powers are to sit and play, choosing
new partners, and following new combinations,
as events start up or prospects open. It cannot be
too well understood that we shall not join in the
pate.