The Express.
London, England, 1852-01-27 00:00:00

ghe expresso.

TO CORRIMPONDRNTS.
A bowed Macs of " Tbo Laprook" towitalalno tbo mow ovowtoes
Ow Wows." polibbod ovary Took, Sad Oddly otgbt. Yeaot
pro.
aftwoosnowli Winded Kamm," [awl= Emig pops.
• oust to at the Mo. 10. llsevorlootoost. too Two Veto& w tbo
doo of pablionitos.

EIDE WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE
Eo 1/4?-14211eh6 s 4Se. --Wigwas. N. hi.
Te.wwaw—lisesaag. h. he. -Memo% 61' "a.

LONDON►, TUESDAY, JANUARY 27.

Or late certain people have been pertinaciously
harping on a pet crotchet of theirs—that " the English
are not a military people." By this they must wean
either that Englishmen are effeminate.cowardly, delti-
tate of the spirit of adventure; or, that they are so
flighty, wayward, and ungovernable as to be intent.septible of discipline. Take the assertion in which-
ever of these senses we will it is flatly contradicted.
alike by our daily observation, and by every page of
our history.
It is quite true that JOHN IIrLL cannot be brought
to tolerate a system of conscription, or to enrol him-
self as • national guard. You cannot induce
him to be a soldier for a certain period of his life.
like • Prussian, or to subject himself to a liability to
be called out at any hour of the night, w ith a uniform
on his back, and a musket on his shoulder, like a
Frenchman. Joon does not like playing at soldiers,
or playing at anything: what he does must promise
results, in order to induce him to engage in it ; and
what he does in he gives his whole soul to fur
the time. TOlrusgepeculianty bolls owes his supe-
riority as a manufacturer, a merchant, a sailor, a dis-
coverer of unknown lands, • practical politician and
treeless; and to this too he owes his being, when
there is any geed end to be attained by it, the bass
soldier of this or any age.
The fact is, that the pugnacious propensities of
Englishmen are. if anything. rather in mares that
otherwise. With great affectation of phlegm and
gireferince of argument to fighting. they me biatlM
apt to betake themselves to the logic of Mows They
are not unlike their own bulldogs, whist seithsr
show their teeth nor snarl. but spring at NIPS at the
throat of as adversary, and never relintodsh their
grasp until either it is killed or themselves "choked
et" Joon is impatient, and not a very subtle or
versatile dialectician and • knuck-down blow puts
an end to controversy at once; so, confident in his
own " pleek" and bottom, he rather likes to settle a
dispute in this way. And all the while he persuades
himself that he is the most peaceable fellow alive,
limply because be has no malice in his composition,
sad does not bear a grudge either against these
whom he has beaten or those who have beaten him.
Why, the whole history of our unmilitary nation
is little better than ono unceasing series of wars,
engaged in for frivolous causes, and sometimes
for no cause at all! What was it to Englishmen
whether the holy sepulchre was in the hands of the
Orcek Emperor or the Turks? What was it to
them whether their Kings were also Dukes of Nor-
mandy and masters of great put of France ? Yet a
bebop had only to preach a sermon and hang out
a flag, and the Mile of the nation took the cross and
hastened to Palestine; a King had only to raise his
standard and saylts was going to conquer France
and baron, knight, and yeoman rallied round it and
followed him to the war. The quarrels of CHARLES V.
and FRANCIS L no way concerned Englishmen,
yet H Veal' VIII. and his ministers at no time found
them slack to lend their aid to either party alter-
nately. For the meddling of Englishmen in the
wars of the insurgent Hollanders, and the Huguenots
Or France, and Orr/All:A ADOLPHIVS, there was
some excuse: the cause of English liberty and Euro- ,
pean protmtantism were identical The wars with
France for the ascendancy in America and India
were stimulated, no doubt, by mistaken conceptions
(on both sides) of the true sources of commercial
greatness. But then how easily Witunit
gulled Englishmen into lavishing their blood and
treasure to defend his Dutch patrimony ; and the
two first Gsonoes into a similar expenditure for the
advantage of Hanover. And Englishmen had no
sooner awakened tea sense of their folly in attempt-
ing to hold the balance of power between continental
dynasties, than they set themselves to fight with
their countrymen across the Atlantic on an unmean-
ing point of honour; and when that war was ended,
they soon after engaged in a struggle of long years,
frequently single-handed, against the whole world,
to restore the Bourbons, who when in power had
been alternately the objects of their fears
and their mockery, and who, after the resto-
ration, which they owed to England alone,
treated them with the basest ingratitude. This
catalogue embraces only the great foreign wars is
which Englishmen have engaged ; were we to add
all the minor hostilities and the fighting at home—.
Scotch against English, barons against kings, plot.
tans against cavaliers just to keep their hands is,
--apace would fail us.
And Englishmen have not only fought, but fought
well. It is sufficient to name Agincourt, Blenheim,
Minden, Plumy, Waterloo. Even in the hour of de-
feat, the English soldier has extorted the tribute of
admiration from the victor,—as at Fontenoy. He has
known disastrouseampaigns as well as unsucomsful
battles, but always from the incapacity of leaders, or
the mismanagement and miscalculations of states-
men.

Bet the meet important feature of the military
Witham el lashed is the readiness with which eol-
Amu have at all dims brio eilemparined oat of civi-
lians, and the emespaosed halite el died/bliss of
whkh the &elan'si sameptible. Camiww.,
Janos. mid the ether great puritan generals, were
oaf-tart soldiers. CLIVE, who laid the founda-
tions we metal empire, was a self-taught moldier.
Thane fight be regwded as exceptional cases, effort
dram mid trawassodent genius t but turn to t'ae
pages et Kartiot's " Peninsular War," and read
what that pest military authority says of the foe.
lity. with whisk drab hem volunteer and 'ABMs
regiments. sad ems defieehmeats of sew r emits,
acquired the habits of aid mid= is Ilpsim
Whatever there has %ea real amid of fighting.
WrikMethane have turned their bask to it, and
easeem. It was • body of erder,ehanta that
argeolood sad effected the emil_eset el lathe, They
reraseatrunett. Seven do AMlrdwatcs, end the
Of wishes berms he the make who lots.
Wished the ladepealeass et An erica—men Ma
from tit gosh. awl append to mane «Men.
The
NA dr. yeomen who made
Catietwitzertglibiseseldref Wen AO alk at the
is sew. And may of as yet •Or-
VIVO who ismaler the dikes el what was jeeringly
WWI N the warieWheste la Imbed, when every
Mina Era was a atilt, militia-man, or volunteer
—meleateers who blight at Ciadad-Rodrigo, at
Vitteris, and lialemmask with the cool self-posses-
sion of veterans—vehmteers who at any alarm of
invades mated to the wet with a promptitude and
discipline that as atimilmg army could have sue-
The spirit of the old them is yet alive amongst us.
True we have of late pere. been mainly engrossed
with other and more pleasing and profitable avoca-
tions than soldiering. Englishmen--as has been
observed above—do ova thing at a time. When a
reform bill has to be carried, nobody speaks or thinks
of anything else; when railways have to be made,
the whole English world goes mad about railway..
We have been busy of late years founding schools,
emigrating, manufacturing; we bare for the time
hung our muskets over our mantelpiece., and locked
up oar regimentals. But even during " the thirty
years peace." the spirit of adventure and the pugna-
Mose prepeosities of the nation have flashed out at
hitervala The innumerable expeditions of discovery
al Arede sad varies! regions have called into play
all the qualities that male the soldier. Sheer love
of fighting has carried the young and adventuress
areal us to Greece, to Spain and Portugal, to !oath
America. Once e the English nation that
there is real n of fighting—that there is some;
thing substantial to be gained by it—and soldiers
wills rise up on every hand. The days will
return when the universal manhood of England
was regimented ; when the one thing. hear-
kened after was of battles lost or won in the
Peninsula; when the able-bodied quarrelled for
precedence in being drafted off to the armies abroad ;
and when mail coaches, with flags flying to telegraph
news of victories, were stopped in the streets of
every town and village by the crowds who
thronged them with frantic eagernem to ask for
tidings.
Bee what the mere rumour of a possible invasion