The Express.
London, England, 1855-06-20 00:00:00

ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM.

TO TIM IDITOR 07 TUB DAILY MIMI

Stit,—lt appears to me that the greatest danger to
the cause of Administrative Reform arises from the
fact that all parties—even the very men most inte-
rested in opposing it—will nominally support it. It
is to be observed that this question differs from that
d parliamentary reform and corn-law repeal in one
very important particular. On those questions it was
possible for a man to bold adverse opinions, and
openly to assert them. A man might be an honest
man, and yet maintain that our representative system
" worked well," and that the corn laws were equally
beneficial to all parties—to landlords, farmers, and
consumers. But on this question of putting the
right man in the right place" there is no room for
any difference of opinion. No man can believe, nor
can he venture openly to maintain, that any class
should have a monopoly of place; that cabinets
should, as flock-masters say, breed in and in ; and
that men should be promoted io the service of the
state upon any other principle than that of merit and
and fitness. Now, the coast quence of this is, that we
find everybody—tories, whigs, and conservatives—
professing to be favourable to the great principle
enunciated by the administrative reformers; and
what I fear is, that this apparent unanimity should
induce the people to relax in their efforts, believing
that, with so conciliatory a disposition os the part of
the oligarchs of every shade, the end desired will be
very easy of attainment. This would be a most
fatal error. We shall be opposed to the death,
but not openly. The game to be played is "to keep
the word of promise to the ear, and break it to the
hope." We shall have flue words in abundance, bat
the parsnips wilt not be buttered. We shall haves vast
deal of talk about competition and examinations—
duet to blind the eyes of the public ; but unless we
are sternly bent on sticking to the point—on placing
no confidence in the worn-out hacks of parliament—
on listening to no sort or kind of soft solder whatso-
ever, we may depend on finding ourselves bam-
boozled 10 years hence as we are bamboozled now.
It is rumoured that Dickens, 'fhackeray, and
Carlyle will attend and speak at the next
meeting of the Association at Drury-lane. I
trust that the rumour will prove correct. The
Association will receive them with all possible honour.
By undermining, as they have done, our national
prejudice in favour of men of rank, they have laid
deep the foundations of the feeling which is now
finding vent for itself in the cry for "the right man
in the right place." By teschiog their countrymen
to applaud merit wherever it may be found, and to
scorn imbecility though sitting in high places, they
have prepared the way for the Morley., the Lind-
says, and the Layards to lead us to victory. Many
people regret that certain well-known names in the
commercial world are not to be found on the rolls of
the Administrative Reform Association; but for my
part, I think the names of three such men as Dickens,
Thaakeray, and Carlyle may well console us for the
absence of the individuals alluded to. It is of vast
importance to have secured three suck men in the
cause. Humbug is the weapon with which adminis-
trative reformers will be opposed, and Administrative
Reformers can have no more powerful allies to aid
them in exposing that humbug than the three most
popular and influential authors of the day.
E. m. B.

Taz ELECTRIC TELEORAPIL—A letter, dated
Twig, Jet.. 14, states that the Chevalier Bonelli proposes a
plan for establishing a submarine telegrailt as far as Con-
stantinople, by taking Cagliari as the point of departure.
Toe chevalier believes be bas disoovered the means of di-
, ininiehing the weight end expense of subaqueous cables.
The wire would run from Cagliari to Malts, thence to
Caudle. Here it would branch off is one direction to
Alesendria in Egypt, end in the other to Gallipoli. The ex-
pense would not amount to three millions of franc*. The plan
has been submitted to the governments. of England and
France. Tb• Moraliser publish'd a ootiee‘ that private tele
graphic despatches are sow received for Langon (Gironde),
and Roan (Loire), and also for the following places in
different furs ign countries :—B chnia, in Austria; Pfo, a-
heini, Grand Duo y of Bede° ; Marabout, and Welke,
buttel, Grand Duchy of Brunswick; Cnlembourg, Deventer,
sod Heppe', Holland; Anklet's and Wolgas', Prussia ; San-
Kemo, B,rdioia; and Mosinee, end Kreguievaes, in Senile.
The telegraph offloes in Sweden, the same ponce declares,
do not transmit any &systems on Sundays and fees day',
azoept those of the g nrernment. The line of telegraph
salting Austria with Russia upon the frontier of Gallicia sod
Poland, wag opened on lest Friday. Despatches may be sent
in German and in French. The telegraphic stations estab-
lished at this moment in Russia, are--Varsevia, Ma'am, Su
Petersburg, Rigs, Lew, Odem., Dunalrourg, Dowsk, Mon-
, wok, Relsingfors, Croustade, GataTUZ:A_ Revel, Naze%
Sokol**, Hromenbebuy, Nioolsiow, and Wyborg.
Mena ANTONIA Iteu.wee.—Trefflo for the week
adios Inns 7,1850' 21114; 1854, 185 L