The Express.
London, England, 1855-09-07 00:00:00

LONDON, FRIDAY, BBPTBMBER 7.

WHY should Sir JAPES GRAHAM so delight to
gloat over the horrors of war, and to magnify the
perils of the nation ? If oar them were annihilated,
and the enemy at the gates of London, the late First
Lord of the Admiralty amid not be more lugubrious
than be seems to have been the other day, at the
tansies of the first sod of the Silloth Railway. For
the present, at least, we have done with all discus-
sion as to protocols, and Austrian proposals, and
Blasius offers to make peace. The Govern-
ments of France and of England may have
been reasonable or unreasonable in rejecting the
proffered terms. But wherefore this spirit of exag-
geration which pervades the speeches of Sir Isms
GRAHAM and his brother Peelites ? With shame and
painful surprise we heard Mr. GLADSTONE, in the
House of Commons, describe the repulse of the 18th
of Jane as a great military disaster ; though surely
the indignant burst of eager denial which over-
whelmed his half-finished assertion must have con-
vinced that daring orator that the right of misrepre-
sentation has its limits. With not less impatient and
angry surprise do the squires. the manufacturers, the
railway contractors, and the multitude appear to have
listened to Sir James
late brother in

with mock solemnity

he thanked the directors for permitting him, " amid
the din of war—amid the prodigal and fruition ex-
penditure of millions of the public money—amid the
grievances and disasters, the death, the sickness, the
wounds, and the groans of thousands of his fellow-
creatures, to be occupied in a work worthy of 'great
and commercial people." Is this, indeed, the
man who, but a few months ago, with en
indecorum and indiscretion which surprised even
his friends, talked fustian over his cups with the
Admiral of his choice—the most indiscreet that ever
hoisted the British flag—and, like another Pistol, in
his foolish vanity, anticipated, with three times
three, the destruction of the Russian fleet? The
wine-inspired braggadocio of the Reform Club was
as childish u the whining solemnity of Friday last.
The graveAngelo,who,in the midst of his homilies on
the necessity of maintaining the law and punishing
immorality, was plotting against the virtue of the
sainted Isabel, was not a more melancholy spectacle
of audacious inconsistency than this Minister of War
who has become a preacher of peace. The sensible men
he addressed at Drumburgh felt the anomaly, and we
rejoice that there was one present—Mr. Jana—who
was bold enough to express his own feelings, which
by the cheers with which he was greeted were shewn
to be the feelings of the assembly. Sir lames GRA-
HAM knows full well—no man knows better—that
this talk of the horrors of war is a gross imposition.
He who attempts to persuade us to make peace because
of the horrors of war treats us like children or cowards.
If the war be just, and,therefore, necessary, the war
must be waged; and its horrors, as an unavoidable
consequence, must be patiently endured. Are the
people of England to be awed into submis-
sion because they cannot endure wounds and death ?
Are they not, rather, having accepted the responsibi-
lities of a great nation, to make their power felt even
to the ends of the earth? Sir JAMES GRAHAM or
Mr. GLADSTONE may convince as, if they eau, that
the war is unnecessarily prolonged; but let them
not degrade their cause and insult their audience by
womanish argument', which only serve to excite in
it impatience, not unmingled with contempt.

There was, indeed, something singularly humorous
in the way in which the Chairman endeavoured to
extricate the illustrious Baronet from the false po-
sition into which his peace oration had brought him.
Having commanded the inspiriting song of "The
Englishman "—having applied to Sir:JAMES a treat-
ment strangely analogous to that applied by ingenious
borsedealens to their sorriest jades—be called
upon the distinguished guest to give the toast,
"The Glory of our Native Land." From this
he hoped there would be no escape. But the Baronet
as fatally failed to answer the call of patriotic enthu-
siasm as did BALAAM of old. who gave blessing
instead of cursing. Haviog touched lightly upon
the glories of oar arm., he assured the meeting that
the arts of peace have their triumphs as well as the
arts of war, and then passed, by an ingenious
metaphor—by converting the fretful and ever-
moving Solway into a powerful adversary—from
war to peace, and her triumphs—the bridge
across the Menai Straits, and the achievements
of TELFORD and STEPHRNSON; until at length
by some ingenious turns and a touch of solemn pathos
he converted the toast of " The Glory of our Native
Land" into " Success to the Carlisle and Silloth Bay
Railway Dock." The Wixud of the North himself
never achieved so startling a transformation, nor did
Sir John Falstaff ever extricate himself from his
difficulties with more daring ingenuity.
If Sir JAMIE GRAHAM were a younger man we
might expostulate with him. But we have watched
his career too closely. Length of days, confirmed
habits, and, we fear, a certain natural depravity,
have long extinguished any aspiration after a wise
and highliouled statesmanship, which the enthu-
siasm of youth may have fanned into a momentary
life. Now, alas! Sir Lines is impotent of virtue.
He must go to his own place. But when we con-
template this man—his grave and venerable appear-
ance, his place in the House of Commons, his insidi-
ous and practised dexterity, his unscrupulous
ambition, together with the precarious uncer-
tainty of popular feeling—we are not without
misgivings lest the public mind, soddenly over-
whelmed by the perplexities of the time, may
compel the Ministers to stoop from their lofty
enterprise, and to follow the humiliating footsteps of
those three or four disappointed men who, to satisfy
their spleen, would sink the honour of their country.
Let as, therefore, anatomies this bacchanalian
Minister-of-War and navvie.preacher of peace—this
spirit-rapper of the buried Pan, who would fain
persuade us he has had revelations.
Sir JAMES GRAHAM I neither more nor lees than a
political infidel. The apostle of inconsistency, be
wants the only quality which can redeem that creed.
Unlike Cantstni or Pee L—who although moon
cutest were yet great—it is impossible to detect in
the long career of Glitartax that element of real
consistency which chareeterkies a true etatesuma. No
sae oats fail to discern the soils sympathies of Cen-
sus% eve° when he was /allowing the chariot-
wheels of Euxiie, or to recognise Psees principles of
Free Trade in his very measures to secure Protection.
Without the dignity of character or the scope of
Wad to originate a policy, Sir Jamas GRAHAM has
be.. by tarns everything, sseerdiag to the humour
of the thief whom ter the moment he was content to

follow. His is not the mind to be possessed by a
great ides, the wisdom of which, if he weld only eh
it tealised, he would willingly consent that the future
should vindicate. No ; Sir JAMES GRAHAM is a

statesman without a policy, and, like the shallow
stock-jobber in Capel•court, his judgment is
ruled by the rumour of the hour. With a
base passion for power, heightened ►y a singu-
lar talent for administration (tor all men delight to
do that which they do well), %rejoined with a thle-
chievous indiscretion in the exercise of pole Mere
worthy of a schoolboy than a statesman, Will on-
tioually bringing unpopularity on himself and con-
fusion on his colleagues. With a fixed determina-
tion to defend every eat of his administration, and to
crush, if possible, any individual who attempts to
question It, he indulges in a boldness of assertion,
which, though it would be admirable on the stage,
becomes loathsome in the House of Commons. Let
not Sirloin suppose that his assertions as to the
blockade of the Black Sea and the death of Captain
Outlive are yet forgotten.

This is not the statesman whom, at the present
crisis, the people of England will consent to follow.
The people of England have gone forth to vindicate
honesty and to punish unscrupulous ambition, and he
who would Lad them, must be one who can feel a
glow of enthusiasm at the triumph of such a came—
not one who awaits with impatience a millennium of
cotton.