The Express.
London, England, 1864-07-22 00:00:00

LONDON, FRIDAY, JULY 22.

WHATEVER may be thought of the Ministerial
policy in the affAirs of Denmark, or the recent vote
of the House of Commons, or the policy which
that vote has been popularly supposed to prescribe
to the Government, the intelligence which has con-
verged upon us for the last fortnight from all
parts of the world may make us thankful that we
have not a European war on our hands. We are
only beginning to understand the requirements of
the war in New Zealand. It now appears that at
the vary time when the hopeful PREMIER was
announcing to the House of Commons that that
war might be considered at an end, and that in
consequence an unexpended balance might be
surrendered for the autumnal amusements of the
country gentlemen, the resistance of the
Maories was becoming more formidable
than ever. So far from being able to withdraw
regiments from New Zealand, it is • question
whether it will not be necessary to reinforce
General CAMERON ; or rather it would be a qua-
tion, if public opinion bad not already been une-
quivocally manifested in opposition to the policy
hitherto pursued. For the present, however,
New Zealand finds occupation for a British force
of 10,000 men. The Ashantee war has been
stopped, thanks to the vigilance of the press,
though not until precious lives have fallen a semi- I
See to the natural desire of a Colonial Governor to
magnify his othee. But it has no sooner been ex-
tinguished than we hear rumours of other " little
" wars," both in Africa and the remote East.
We hope that the recent intelligence re-
ceived by Sir Piaui. WODEHOUBE, the Governor
of the Caps Colony, from the frontier will be
confirmed, and that there will be peace with the
Kaffirs. But the precautions taken by the mili-
tary authorities, the regiments moved to the
front, and those retained there, show that the dis-
appointment of these hopes is • contingency to
be provided for. And simultaneously with this
news we hear that Sir RUTHERFORD ALCOCK,
our Minister in Japan, has made use of the
powers entrusted to him, and sent a requisition to
Hong-Kong for the trocrA which were sent out
last year in order to be at his disposal.
These tidings reach us just as the country is
about to lose that constitutional control over
the affairs of the Empire which it exercises
through its representatives. It has been
customary of late years to underrate that
restraint, and pretend that it has been super-
seded by other and better organciations of opinion ;
but after what we have seen during the last two
months, the special, peculiar, and inalienable
power of Parliament to give character to the
policy of the country must be fully acknowledged.
And we cannot but regret that the House of Com-
mons, which has effectively vetoed the employment
of the national forces in Danmark, will not be for
the next six months in a position to watch over
and repel the tendency of certain members of the
Government to encourage war in Asia. The Colo-
nial Office will no doubt take pains to keep the
peace at the Cape, for Mr. CARDWELL must find
in the New Zealand war occupation enough for
his energies. But the expedition to Japan is of a
more dangerous character, having been deliberately
planned at home as a part of Lord PALMER.STON'S
cherished systero of policy in the farther East.
Before it separates, the House of Commons should
insist upon knowing ou what enterprise Ministers
are embarking the country iu Japan--what are its
objects, means, limitations, and ends. It is not at a
time when we are compelled to abandon our Euro-
ropean allies, and acknowledgeourselvescyphers in
Europe, that a Minister shonld be allowed to pledge
the strength of the nation to the prosecution of •
distant military adventnre, of which no one but
himself knows the aim or the cause.

'WHATEVER may be said of the qualifications of the
Earl of DERBY'S party for governing the country,
magnanimity in misfortune is certainly not one of
them. No party ever bore the miachances of political
warfare with so ill a grace ; and those who cannot
preserve an equal temper and an external decorum
under their own reverses are not fit to be en-
trusted with the cure of an empire. Ever since
the memorable morning of the 9th inst., when the
Great Conservative Party in the House of Com-
mons rose from the benches where for awhile
Waist mute and motionless in its ranks, con-
founded to stupor and scarcely hearing the cheers
of the exulting enemy, it has betrayed an amount
of irritability strangely at variance with its high
pretensions. The mysterious Conservative reac-
tion, long the theme of prophecy and parable, is
now open to common ohaervation, and proves to
be a purely intestine movement, a domestic re-
volt not a national conversion, immensely interest-
ing to Mr. Di •itaxi.i, hat of no importance to the
public at large. It is a reaction against Colonel
TAYLOR'S whip. The disorganization of the
party is seen in nothing more clearly than in
the unexampled license of attack and imputation
in which its public writers have indulged
against those Conservatives whom the public has
the least difficulty in respecting, but who were too