The Express.
London, England, 1862-02-22 00:00:00

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L9IVDON, SATURDAY, PEB. 22.

IT may he doubted whether those who have ad-
mired and honoured the genius and courage of
Count e tvori: will love his memory less when
they discover in his private letters an almost
boyish ardour, and a trustfulness that in a states-
man may be called romantic. It was not weer-

to i,e tintil after his death that he had been habi-

Nally di.weniingthrough a confidential almoner

large and secret charities, and doing good by stealth,
even to his ecclesiastical enemies, who were calum-
niating inceseently their unknown benefactor as
only ecclesiastical enemies can calumniate. This
obscure yet prodigal benevolence was another of
the romantic characteristics of CAvoim, which it
may be well to reca] when we find him at the
Congress of Paris in the summer of 1856,

taking his place among the repressntatires of
hostile or neutral States, diplomatists trained in
the art of indifference, and accustomed to treat
international questions as moves on • chessboard,
and in that cold and forbidding Council denouncing
the wrongs of Italy and challenging attention to
her claims ; intent in season and out of season, at
all times and in all places, to win new friends and
powerful allics fur his country, and to prepare the
ground fur the settlement of Southern Europe
on a Ltes of lilerty and justice. What wonder
if the man we now know CAVI.UR to have been,
sickened and discouraged as he must have often
felt during those three summer months by contact
with the frivolous mediocrity of the pigmies whol
peraonitied great empires, among whom the pleni- I
potentiary of little Piedmont towered in intellect
and an dam; like a giant—what wonder, we say,
if be would sometimes solace his thirsting spirit!
with a mirnp of fancied promises and visionary
Lopes, and whiiper to his friends at Turin the
generous dreams that haunted and beckoned him
on ! It is the way with sanguine natures to for-
tify themselves against despair by taking for granted
all they desire.
Such, we believe, is the simple explanation of
those passages ii. Count Cocottes private letters
lately published, which frightened Lord Cr.s-
xarru from his propriety, and brought the
retired Plenipotentiary of 1836 up to town in a
hurry, to vindicate his official and diplomatic re-
putation. Count C•voca had credited the noble
lord with all that " reserve" of character which on
the C intinent is usually described as "quite
Britannic ;" yet he had attributed to the British
statesman casual utterances which, if uncorrected,
would crown him for ever with an aureole of
ressen,e, but strip him without mercy of that
mantle of " reserve" to which as • Plenipotentiary
be might be warranted to cling. Lord C REN I,ON,
we must say, acquitted himself last Monday
evening of a peculiarly delicate charge with equal
tact and felicity ; neither failing for a moment in
respect to • great memory, nor shrinking from his
own personal responsibility. It was already known
to all the world that the British Plenipotentiary
ui 11438 had earnestly and ardently supported
Count Corot WS appeal in behalf of Italy, in spite of
the remonstrances of the representative of Aus-
tria. Lord CLAIIiNDON, therefore, might well
feel the less hesitation in avowing that he bad
more than once, in private, assured Count CAVOVII
of the sympathy of the British nation and govern-
ment for Italy, and had on one occasion gone ae
far as to sli;gest, that should Austria attack Pied-
mont the Parliament of England would give rut-
tiest proof of its disapprobation. Moreover, Lord
O. RF. N lot oN had repeatedly takenpart—at least the
part of a not unwilling listener—in those strong
appeals to the sympathy and support of the

Western Powers which formed the staple of Count
Csvoi.e's conversation during his idle hours in
Paris. Is it not the commonest every-day ex-
perience
in private life that unwilling listeners are
credited with all the malignant scandals poured
into their ears, as willing listeners are always sup-
posed to give a silent assent to opinions and
principles not their own 1 So it was between
Lord CLARENDoN and Count CANOVA in
Paris. Csvoua talked incessantly about Italy,
and Lord Ci.snesuux listened with indefa-
tigable patience and unfeigned sympathy. On
all this friendly and familiar converse, agreeing
as it did, at least in tone and tendency, with the
British Minister's official language, CAVOCR cha-
racteristically enough raised the airy and imposing
fabric of something like an offensive and defen-
sive alliance between England and Italy. It may
be that when the Italian statesman conceived the
masterly policy of sending a Sardinian contingent
to the Crimea, the dream of British and Sardinian
standards waving together on the plains of Italy
flitted across his brain. For in the political, as
In the moral world. the imagination and the
heart are present in all great thoughts and reso-
lutions. Assuredly, Lord CLARENDON had no need
to assure Parliament that he had never pro-
miaed a British contingent to Italy.
knother point remains, however, into which
we cannot now enter at length. Indeed, it is a
question which can only be answered at Turin.
By whose authority, or at whose instigation, or for'
what object, or to profit whom, were these inti-
mate letters of Cavoca thrown with reckless and
unblushing haste before the public?
It is impossible not to sympathise with the dig-
nified and touching protest of the Countess Aurae
—that beloved niece of the lamented Minister—
whose melancholy privilege it was 10 soothe his
last hours with the tender solicitude of affection,
to smooth the pillow for the fevered brain, and

temps.: the dying eyes. Tb. Imbileation of l
these letters is worse thin an ellfbri
and. as the Countess Arms/ remarks, it
could not be intended as a homage to the de-
ceased, but rather to serve some party manceuvre.
If it was for no more sufficient or less absurd pur-
pose than to prove that CORM Cavot•a had confi-
dence in Signor RATAZZI, the latter gentleman
owes little enough to the obsequious friends who
have done him se ill a service. In them, at all
events, it is clear that Count CAVOUIL'I4 confidence
would have been sadly misplaced. Without dis-
respect to Signor RATAZZI, we cannot affect to be-
lieve that for the sake of famishing him with fresh
credentials it was requisite to perpetrate such an
outrage upon good manners and good feeling as this,
nor can we imagine that he would have sanctioned
it even with a tacit acquiescence. Better that he
had rested content with a " permit " from the
Tuileries, and with the disinterested compliments
of that " French party " which represents Impe-
rial, but not Liberal France.

THE Qum( has signified her wishes respecting
the National Memorial of his Royal Highness
the PRINCE CONSORT. Her MAJESTY, after
acknowledging in cordial and gracious words the
sentiment which the universality and spontaneous-
ness of the movement reveals, declares that a
Memorial more directly personal to its object than
an institution bearing the PRINCE'S name would be
moat in accordance with her own feelings.
This intimation of her hiknarrv's prefer-
ence will not only put an end to con-
troversy on the subject ; it will, we are con-
vinced, be accepted with gratitude by the country.
The lofty usefulness of the PRINCE'S life will be
more honoured by simple commemoration than by
a weak endeavour to eke it out. The form of
the Memorial approved by the QUEEN is an obelisk,
with figures of statuary at its base, and its site,
that of the Great Exhibition of 1851. Beyond
this the QUEEN intimates no decision. Her Ma-
Jr..sry has, however, called to her assistance
a small committee to assist her in the selection
of artists to design the Memorial and execute its
details. The Committee will doubtles feel that
the choice of an obelisk rather than a statue
as the central object in the monument increases
the importance of the statuary at the base, and
makes it more necessary that the groups should
satisfactorily represent the various aspects of the
PRINCE'S beneficent life. Provided the obelisk be
massive and grand, and the statuary expressive
and characteristic, we shall have a monument
worthy to endure.

THE Church Rate Abolition Committee have
published resolutions endorsing the policy of Sir
John Trelawny in deferring the presentation of his
Bill for the second reading until time has been
allowed the supporters of Church-rates in parlia-
ment to bring forward a measure of their own. It
has been long and strenuously maintained that the
decisions of the House of Commons in favour of
abolition formed the obstacle to a settlement
of the question upon a sounder basis than
that of simple abolition, and the Speaker
acted on an assumption of that kind last
session when he gave his casting vote against
Sir John Trelawny's Bill. The supporters
of Church-rates therefore lie under the responsibi-
lity of success. They must either produce a bill
such as they can recommend to Parliament and
the country, or confess that they are unable to de-
vise such a measure. Any attempt to evade this
obligation, whatever the form it may take, will
show the hollowness and unreality of the profes-
sions that have hitherto been made. The friends
of Church-rates must now either show the way in
legislation, or confess that they have no
policy,
but mere obstruction. From the lan-
guage of an address put forth by the
body known as the Committee of Lyman, in
which Members of Parliament are called to unite
in rejecting the Abolition Bill, "and thus devolve
on Ministers of the Crown the duty of upholding
the rights and revenues of the National Establish-
ment," it would appear that it is only on a negative
policy that the supporters of the rate are able to
agree. A few weeks, however, may enable them to
take up a worthier position. It is for this purpose
that the second reading of the Abolition Bill is
delayed. It will not be right, however, to put it
off fur long ; and if Sir John Trelawny should
wait till Easter the public will probably think he
has afforded ample opportunity to the statesmanship
of his opponents.