The Express.
London, England, 1852-05-08 00:00:00

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LONDON, SATURDAY, MAY 8.

WITH gallant pertinacity the liberals in the Homo I
of Commons are contesting, step by step, the mo-
ue.
last night thegovernment of the obnoxious and unnecessary Militia B ill :1
could not, after
:
asnuie hours debate, pass a single clause. The
wish to plate every militiaman under full
surtial law--which means, giving to the autho-
si • the power of military flogging. The
ics
volunteers are to serve under the shadow of the lash
—am asked to join the militia with the full under-
lading that if they intringe the rules of the drill,
ILd of discipline. they arc to be liable to be tied up to
the trian,:le. and must submit to the gentle atten-
tions of the drummer and his cat-o'-nine-tails. This
proposal being strongly objected to, some hours last
nyht ace: nt upon the discussion which ensued.
The hocks of the Ronne of Commons contain yet a
hag het of proposed amendments, each of which
must be considered : and there is room for hope that
the governme lit will not be permitted to force through
an expiring parliament a law in which the whole
country are %Rally interested, and upon which every
eonstitaenev should have an opportunity of ex-
eressinit a 'deliberate opinion.
Nye have at present a larger army, a larger fleet,
and greater and better armaments of every sort and
description than we have at any time possessed since
the close of the List war. At home wo are a con-
tented. a pnispen.us, and a loyal people. We have no
internal disaffection to guard against ; no &math
cyclamens for spies to foster into treason; DO
axial ...re., festering into rebellion in Ireland.
Oar trade in tioutishing; our agricultural Iwo-
daetion is extending ; our wealth is inertias.
ing, our labour is well employed. Interval
causes of fear. apprehension, or panic, we kayo
tone. Bread is unprecedentedly cheap; eeuss
suiprectalentiv high. The face of the Unite-ti:IEIX
dodotsreticulated with railways, whereby a ll
of troops can now do the work of regiments ; we
bare spent millions in putting our chief ports in
order ; lu fortifying the Channel Islands ; and, in
ditko to a great military steam navy, we bays
such a commercial steam marine as no *CUM
country can approach. Yet all of a sudden
oar military policy has to undergo a revolution ;
we arc going to add 80,000 men to our army of
(smite,: to put the bO,OllO under military law,
thcrebv—as we pointed out long ago—enabling the
executive government at any moment to release the
Wein for whatever service it pleases.
In thirty-four out of the last thirty-six years of
profound peace parliament has session alter man
suspended tlw calling out of the militia, until at last
that tome had become a name—a mare recOlection
cf a past system ;—a display to be remembered only
with an effort by the mature, and to be inquiredelsr
be the young. Four years ago, when a whig
set talked of embodying it, the country laughed them
out of the proposition, and made the cabinet redone
its military expenditure. Yet now, when no publie
wad any experience or authority avers that war is
the logical termination of any discussion, disagree-
min or difficulty we now have with any European
state. a tory cabinet proposes to add 80,000 men
to ow military force. The thing seems incredible;
but so it is--the one great fact after those thirty-
ix years of peace.
Is the thirty-sixth year of peace oar farm ser-
vants. oar artisans, our manufacturers, aad.our po-
palation generally, have to be turned into soldiers.
if a bounty fail,, the ballot and compulsion
have to be resorted to, and 80,000 Englishmen
are to be subjected to martial law, which the Duke
of Welimovos says is no law at all. The licensed
victuallers, the beer-sellers, and the livery stable
keepers are especially to hare their business, and occu-
pawn, and profit, interfered with ; the country has to be
disturbed by the march and counter-march of troops;
quiet, peaceable county towns have to be filled with
awkward squads; the military privileges of the tar-
ritorial system have all to be revived; ins
to be disorganised; and a means el salmi
suited to an agricultural country, and la
active, robust race of men, has to be applied Is ariss►
lecturing towns, with a population neither gives alt
suited to violent occupations.
Why this change—this revolution ? There mud
be sonic great cause, some imperative motive, sow
irresistible necessity. It is not the state of our
forreet relations, for they, the SUVLItUtiN has ai-
luparliament, are friendly and peaceable. It
tuna be any occult designs of the President, Louis
NAPULEUN, for Lord l'austancros has approved of
the swans by which he ravished his present power—
Lord Julia HtsSELL has censured the application to
him by the prep of any hostile imputations—Lord
limn has declared his belief in hiagoodintentions to
all mankind—Lord MAl.llLslit*RY tells as that he is
his friend. If this be not snfilcient, we have been
shown how a successful invasien if
would give him a master, how an am
world be his ruin. And General Even bas donna-
grated. with precision and force, that if he mat a
great army to this country, Perim, Lyons, Strube,
and the other great garrison towns of France,
to his domination, would be in a position to rise and
put an cod to his power.
Nay more ; bad- as the man is, he has shown no
aggressive disposition on his neighbours; he has not
swept away the Belgian frontiers; he has not ad-
vanced to the Rhine ; he has not re-added Savoy to
France; ho has not occupied an inch of Switzerland.
He has been entirely occupied in consolidating his
own ill-gotten power; in knocking down all the con-
stitutional guarantees of Frenchmen; and in domestic
experiments of a socialist tendency. He has been oe-
copied by fraudulent reductions of rental, speculative
land banks, protective sugar duties, agricultural im-
provements, and premiums for fat cattle. lie has sot
even been sanguinary and warlike in Algeria;
he has kept his bayonets and his ehasseurs hr
the hnulcvarda of Tarim. He appears to recog-
nise the great change that thirty-six years
lave worked in the French character also; and to
think more of save et salade for the proletaires, than
great schemes of conquest for his army. Yet we
an told he is going to invade us.
This cannot be, and is not, the real MIR he die
great change iu our military policy. The
militiaafa4l,ooo men,moveable anywhere in theitirhal
Kingdom, and thus seedy to release for extend
and aggressive purples the regular army, is, Nosi•
it, a tory policy. That scheme, at all owale. is
the very opposite of Lord Jolts Ituessu:s. Now. 1r
none trey rulers mesa peace—if they are not see=
Preparing for war, what can they want with
regular and seasoned troops to do what they *wee
it it b. in addition to fio,ooo at home But, war with
Whom? Why, can we, for a moment, suppose that
the English aristocracy, whoa agents are now
k %ion of power, are satisfied, or can ever be .
cab the present state of things in France t GM we
imagine that the existence either of a =ear el
devotism under a BoNAPAM SIMS. th•
be agreeable to the aristocracy of Engisad. who tari
nicely plunged no into war to restore the Doeseme ?
All their sympathies are, and must be, opposed to
Franc' in its present plight--still nay apposed to
tnv forthcoming empire. They sash, mad sad
Wish fora restoration of the NW sr tbs. yesigur
•
sup •.% ; and if the great power. at Ramp=
mite in the cause of one or the other, or
Trance in any shape, England, with 80,000 militia
troops for home purposes, and with 80,000 regular
teepee disposable for foreign purposes, will Wu'
j..in the crusade against France- And that is how
0,1, present French government w ill translate this
change in our military policy; a change unprovoked
h,' say measure of France that can provoke echidna
in the thirty-sixth year of peace. instead arm
wooing a militia to protect as from French invades,
I..san only need it if wo wish to attack Franco.
Hut whether this more than doubling hi pea, oar
si.:iitary establishments dews aim at ultimately inter-
! rang in the internal affairs of France or not, one
°nit is certain—that the likeliest way to provoke a
tnerla war is for one country unneesseani• y and
G,}l 4 to prepare for one. If—as Sir GROWL
DU tett—we had at present any serious dine&

anon going on with France, then to Gall out the general
militia would amount to a declaration of war. And
for us it is we have none. But when armed
Itot a teeth, other countries will become sensitive
and jealous; our own government more exigeant and
exacting ; and thus the dangers of war will become
imminent. Were France to double her fleet, we
should have a good cause of alarm ; and when Eng-
land doubles her army, the fact will not be lost on
France. And, disguise it as we choose, there are men
in England wicked and weak enough to desire " a
good war!" Men high too in position; having
voices in the legislature and influence with govern-
ments. And these men are first and foram* in ad-
vocating a militia 80,000 strong, as the first step
towards war.

When, then, we find no adequate reason on which
any man can fairly place his hand for this revolution
in our military policy—for these 80,000 soldiers to our
army—we may be sure that there is an occult one ;
and that it affects France and a BOURBON restoration
there is too much reason to apprehend. The best
friends of the country, then, are those who so stea-
dily oppose a militia.