The Express.
London, England, 1863-02-21 00:00:00

SPORTING INTELLIGENCE.

NEWMARKET STEEPLECHASES.

The sum shone out brilliaollycinriog the steeplechase cot.
testa, but there was a decided ?elite; off io the attendance
of both carriages and horsemen. The fields were amail,
and the result. in most instances did not excite numb
interest. Subjoined are full details of the rustling
A HANDICAP PLATE of 40 son., for 4.yr-olds and up.
wards: wines!' extra. About two miles. (18 subs.)
Mr. Elynfre Antelope, aged, 1014 Sib.. IW. GAMOW I
Mr. T. Dolby's Sunflower, aged, 1016 Gib (Inc Mb extra,
C. Boyce, 1
Mr. B. Land's Diadem, 6 yrs, fist gib 'A Sadletj 3
'l'Hz NEwNABEET GITAND HANDICAP STIMPLXCHatiII of
10 son. each. 5 ft, and only 21t (to the feed) if declared on
the 12th of February, with 70 son. added ; winners extra.
About three miles and a half. (17 man., 7of whom pay
two sees. each.)

Capt. J. O. Mitchel's Molly Aalborg, 6y44. list 11
(A Sadlef 1
Mr. Sir &At% 6M. llst ISIb (W. Griffiths I
A SELLDIG flrmirimcliaas of 2 sovs. rach, with Al added,
for 3-er olds. 1 Ist ; )oar, IStt 71b. ; five .ad upward.,
13st 71b. Maiden allowaboe., add trippers extra. The
winner to be sold for 00/. ; if entered to be mid for 501.
allowed 61be ;if for 301., 12Ibs. About two mile*. (6 subs.)
sr. C. Omens Ortoesta, by ranstva-Ballsgh, acrd
1314 llb . filth. 1
Mr C. Clifford's Finney, seed .06t, am (Mr W. ci,.(erets t
A HANDICAP HTZEPLIICHAisi of 10 move. each, ft, with
50 added by the Earl of Stamford and Captain Little ; for
3.ya olds 'tad upwards. Two miles. (5 subs.)
]tr. Guibr's allidloWer. god, Ilat Sib.... J. Niebtinimir
Xi. C. Orme@ kapsrter. 4 yrs, Su, lratrled Post ;lb
(W. Griditba I

B:SHOP CoLzxno.—A meeting of the Society for
the Promotion of the Gospel is Foreigu Buts was held
yesterday et PaWotan, tinder the presidency of the Arch.
bishop of Cauterbory, wham. after • long discussion. is
which Lord Lyttelton, Mr. Mowbray, M.P., the A relobo.hop
of Yos 11, and other gentlemen joined. • res..;iitioo wee
adopted iimpiog over the name of the Bishop of Natal aa
one of the Vice•Preeideots. A. ameodmeot to favour of
waitim; for the decision of Convocation. before suspends
leg the re-election of the Bishop, we. proposed by the it.,,
Hurry Jones, Incumbent of St. Luke's. Berwickatreet, St.
James, sod secouded by C. T. Busyou, Faq.,aod kat.
CRYSTAL PALACL—ONE SHILLING BAT. —FRI-
DAT. Fos. —Adomioos m pay/mat, 578; ditto by
mom helifea, EMI ; MRAIs 1047.
Tug BRIDESMAID'S WlSE.—Ptaiss AND Lustien
irtooloo norm's for the Karoo. UHL Emblematic Orme
flower. Myrtle. sod Illy of the Valley—three bottles In a ease,
7a. iv Vs. ad. each.—L Soo Boadetreet. W.—{Advertisemeoll

MILITARY CANTEENS for OFFICERS.
.210 each.
comprising Table Knives, Spoons, reeks, de., &a, et
MAPPIN BROTHERS' WO3T.IND ROOM
222 REOF.7 T-BTRF.ET.
Every other size and price up to the sum of MO each, kept
in stock.
MATTI N BROTHERS, SILVERSMITHS and CUTLERS.
212, REGENT STREET, also 87 and OR ICING WILLIAM-
STREET, London Bridge.
Same prices charged at both houses as at their manufactory.
QUOIN'S§ PLATE &Da CITAXIT WOW, 88171111. D.
OBSERVE THE ADDRESS.

HARMONIUMS.—NEW MODEL
CRAALID., BEALL mid WOOD, Ni. Defora.arwL

ewe erpreoi.

COVENT GARDEN.
Tan Engine, THE AB-YOWLER OF NANTES. Memo
Wig" Bentley. H. Coma, and W. Benison ; Xeres L Pyne and
A. Hllee. And BEAUTY AND THE BEAST. Concludiag with
the lrensformailon Seene.—Conneence at T.

W nUM.IT_..

axis Errirso. OUR nAILIRICAN COUSIN. Menai.
Bothers and Buck/tone MN. L Fitswilliant. - ILASSRLAS
PB.INCS oF ABYSSINIA. Mr. Compton and Mtn L. Keeley.
—And MRS. WRITL Mr. Compton and Rim Hareem.

PRINCESS'S.

TEM niorrso, THE WINNING WIT. Maseru H. Marston.
Teen, and Cathcart Mho Amy Iledgsrlok and Mn. H. Marston.
—And &MUST WITH THE TUIT . or, Harlequin and Mother
Pailptou. Mama Milano, Power, and Salford: Mize Colllnaou.

LYCWX.

THIS MIMI, A ATTACK. Messrs. Shore
and Wl.ldicomb ; MIS Hamada sad lam Lee. —And TIM
DOBBS MOTTO. Ileum Feebler, 6.Vlable, Brougham, and
Raymond , Misses C. Lecleroq, L Terry, and Ilerrortby.

BRITANNIA.
TAN EVERING, ABON HASSAN. lira. & Lane: Mean.
Lords Newham, and Mlle. C. Stephan ; Tom Sams
and his two Mulaa—THE CHICIZT OP GOLD. Mtm Sophie
YLlea—And YAPS IDMONSTONL—Commence at halt-put 6.

NIGH WAN= AT LONDON WOOL
Two DAT —][alas, 4. 962.....A/knori 411. Thi
To-Noitow—Noselag, Y. 4in.....Allisma. Ili Ass.

LONDON, SATURDAY, IFEBRUARY 21.

THE reply of the FOREIGN SECRETARY to the
Earl of Er mnionoccues generous and impassioned
speech on Poland last evening was of course no
adequate expression of the unanimous and pro-
found sympathy and indignation of the people of
England—sympathy for a noble people in agony,
indignation against a barbarous oppressor. A
truly liberal Minister is to be pitied for the silence
which his official responsibilities command at
snch a moment, and upon such an occasion.
Pitied; but not blamed by equitable and discerning
men, who know well how on this Polish question,
above all others, the commonest sense of self-
respect imposes upon English statesmen in Par-
liament the duty of keeping their public declara-
tions within, and more than merely within, the
limits of the policy they are prepared to sustain in
action. In such a case as this, the moral and
political position of England as a Power in
Europe is subordinate to her position on the
map. As the greatest moral and political power
in the world ou the aide of freedom, England
owes to the cause of Poland all the force her
public testimony can bestow ; and, as one of the
Powers that signed the treaty of Vienna, it is her
right and her duty to raise at least a constant pro-
test against a constant wrong. But, as an
insular Power, separated by half a continent from
Warsaw, England cannot touch the destiny
of Poland with a finger's weight, except as
a contingent to a French army, and at the
cost of a war that must shako the
European system to its base. These are
considerations which may well make an English
statesman chary of his words where he cannot see
his way to acts. But there can be no doubt that
Earl Rusexu. in his communications with St.
Petersburg and Berlin will faithfully represent the
British nation. The Governments of Russia and
Prussia will find it unsafe to trifle with the feelings
of France and England, when all honourable
Frenchmen and Englishmen are of one mind. It
remains to be seen whether the Prussian, or even
the Russian, people will comment any longer to be
the vengeful instrument of their own servitude
and degradation.
A question at this moment universally asked
by the thousands who anxiously watch the pro-
gress and the fate of the Polish Insurrection, is
how far both the intelligent and the popular class
among the Russians may be disposed to disap-
prove of the conduct of their own Government, in
first wantonlyprovoking and then ruthlessly crushing
the Poles. Late years have displayed manifest
symptoms that the educated Russians were ashamed
of the savage cruelties by which their ascendancy in
Poland was preserved. The Russian officers
necessarily come from this educated class, whilst
the Russian soldier is the serf in uniform. Of
the revolution which events have worked in the
mind of the Russian serf everyone is aware ; and
no one now denies that the Imperial measure of
emancipation was called for so peremptorily that
delay would infallibly have produced a servile
insurrection.

One event which was influential in inspiring
the Russian serf with new ideas and new require-
ments was undoubtedly the Crimean war. On
those bleak shores and fatal hills the Russian sol-
dier came in contact with European civilization.
Superficial observers may suppose that he merely
saw formidable enemies, from whom he learnt
that the CZAR was neither all-wise nor invincible.
But he learnt much more than this. He saw
soldiers treated by the governments which em-
ployed them like men. The French or English
soldier might be a peasant like himself, but he
was not subject to the rod ; his food was not
that of a draught-horse, and his pay and pro-
spects were no illusion. Soldiers, he learnt,
might rise to be officers, and come into the field, not
as an holocaust to be offered to a Czar, but
as men who willingly incurred the risks of war for
the glory, the promotion which belong to the
profession of arms.
Such was the startling lesson which the Russian
soldier learnt in the Crimea, and which he failed
not to communicate largely, on his return, to his
own peasant class throughout the land. We have
heard from persons who have resided in Russia
that tho Crimean war was not more influential in
destroying the military prestige of the Russian
Government in Europe than it was in opening the
eyes of the Russian soldiers, and, through the
Russian soldiers, of the Russian people.
We have heard this affirmed long before there
was a Polish insurrection ; and the question im-
mediately suggested itself—whether the Russian
serf-soldier would be as well inclined as in years
past to keep down his Polish brethren by the
bayonet 1 The Polish peasant has long been, to
be sure, an emancipated serf. But what he has
gained in social advance makes him feel more keenly

his political degradation. The Russian Govem-
rnent had probably no ides of meeting anywhere
with resistance from the peasants. It would fain

become the peculiar patron of the peasant in
Poland, u in Russia. The proprietors of the

land were obliged to exert themsidves in time to
avert the fate of their Galician brethren. Even
the Russian conscription was to leave the Polish
peasant undisturbed until the intelligent and
patriotic populations of the towns were weeded
out. The clergy, however, have taught both
clams their affinity; and the town refugee, instead
of being repudiated by the rustic as a revolutionist,
is welcomed by him as a suffering and persecuted
brother.

Whenever Russian troops in numbers were
marshalled forth to quell the turbulence of a town
population, such as Warsaw, there, no doubt, the
troops could not but act according to command.
But in the kind of war which has broken out,
so completely contrary to all the previsions
of the Russian Government, it is no longer in
towns that troops have to act. Russian
detachments have to pursue bands of Poles
through wilds and forests : a subaltern has here full
opportunity of following the secret impulse of
his heart. Soldiers may display little zeal with-
out being brought to account for it. Some may
join the insurgents : some may be lukewarm ;
allow themselves to be disarmed and sent scrota the
frontier. For a soldier cannot show himself mer-
ciless to a peasant population in the midst of
which he serves, without inevitably drawing down
summary vengeance upon himself sooner or later.
He may survive battles, but not the persistent
rage of a people.
One great difficulty which military despotic
government', if they endure, will find, is the
danger and impossibility of extinguishing a
flame of discontent in a widely scattered
rustic population. Troops have been obliged
to act against the people in towns, and
though worsted on one or two occasions,
have finally established their superiority.
Popular resistance must henceforth take another
form than that of barricades. Nor is there any
chance of throwing off • yoke, save by its be-
coming general and intense throughout the culti-
vators and dwellers in the fields. When the
troops and the peasants are of the same race
and condition, the very extinguisher takes fire.
Besides, the largest and bravest armies may be
beaten, and their generals discomfited, by the
enormous space in which they move. It is space
that has beaten and baffled the armies of North
America. They are lost in it, swallowed up by it,
and strategy is a thing impossible amidst the
vastness of a continent.

Poland, we know, is not America. But a people
united in purpose, yet dispersed upon a thousand
points of resistance, and avoiding either collisions
in towns or drawn battles with artillery, may
succeed in wearing out, if not in destroying, any
army that the Russians could collect. And,
fertile as Poland is, Russia may find it hardly
worth the terrible expenditure of an interminable
siege and an incessant war to the knife.