The Express.
London, England, 1855-05-18 00:00:00

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LONDON, FRIDAY, MAY 18.

LATEST FROM ABROAD.

RESIGNATION OF GEN. CANROBERT.

The Morning Post hu received the following by
telegraph this day

" PARIS. FRIDAY, 7 A.M.
•
" General Canrohert, under date of the 16th, re-
quests permission to resign his command-in-chief in
favour of General Peliuier, an able and experienced
officer.

" General Canrobert declares that his broken health
will no longer enable him to maintain the army as
it is now—intact, warlike, and full of confidence;
but he begs to be employed as simply a Chief of
1 Division.

"The Minister at War has replied, accepting, in
the name of the Emperor, the General's resignation,
and regretting that the state of his health should
have rendered it necessary to transfer his command
to General Peliasier."

" The Emperor congratulates you,' adds Marshal
Valliant, upon the sentiment which makes you ask
to remain with the army, where you shall have the
command, not of a division, but of the corps of Gene-
ral Peßasler. Hand over the chief oommand to that
General.'"

THE MOVEMENT.

EAST ANGLIA is the first of the English provinces
to follow the example set by London in the agitation
for Administrative Reform. That peninsula, extend-
ing between the German Ocean and the fen-lands,
has long been distinguished by its devotion to liberal
and enlightened sentiments. It was the country oil
the GRESHAMS, the founders of our English financial
system. It was the country of the &coos ; and those]
who are familiar with the annals of the Common-
wealth know what effective service was rendered
in the development of our constitution by more
than one kinsman of the sage of Verulam. It
was the country of the COKES—of the family
to which we owe the greatest luminary of
oar municipal law, and one of the sternest welters
of the people's liberties. It is from this district Eng-
land received her WALPOLES and WYNDHAM& In
later times, it has given England her greatest naval
warrior, her most influential promoter of agricul-
tural improvement, her GURNEYS, and her Fars.
It
is no mere accident that has rendered the East
Anglian peninsula so fertile in valuable citizens. Its
contiguity to the Netherlands tended to make it one of
the earliest seats of English manufactures. The
oppressions of the Spaniard led to its becoming
a city of refuge for the skilled and indus-
trious Hollanders and Brabanters. The prin-
ciples of the Reformation, and the virtues
which spring from regulated industry, struck
early and abiding root in East Anglia. The great
men whom that province produced towered above,
their fellows, because their characters were formed in
a society in advance of that which was to be found
in most other districts of England. Hemmed in as
it was, before the era of railways, between the sea
and the fen•lands, East Anglia long retained and
still retains much of its pristine character. The men
of Norfolk and Suffolk are not the unreasoning boors
of the merely agricultural districts, and they
are remarkably free from some of the less
pleasing features of our manufacturing popula-
tions of the north. It is of good omen for
the Administrative Reform movement that this
truly English class of Englishmen have so promptly
declared in its favour. The great Norfolk meeting
of Tuesday, and the coming meeting at Yarmouth,
are cheering symptoms.
Attempts are being made in some quarters to deter
Liberals from coining forward to promote Admini-
strative Reform, by representing the movement as
one which may be turned to account by the Tory or
Conservative leaders. It is true that some of these
gentlemen have been trying to coquet with
the Administrative Reformers. It is truly laugh-
able to mark the gingerly fashion in which
they are seeking to grapple with the ques-
tion. They are ready enough to proclaim, in
vague, general terms, the urgent need of Admi-
siatrative Reform ; nay, they even go the
length of talking about the necessity of "putting the
right men in the right places." Bat they are careful
in the extreme not to commit themselves to any
definite or practical plan for attaining the rekran
they profess to desire. They join in the railing noon-
nations that are brought against the more prominent
Administrative Reformers; they deprecate Associa-
tions as " revolutionary," and levelled against the
legitimate influence of the aristocracy. They proton
to desire the end,and yet labour indefatigably to throw
discredit on the means. Their fear of substantial,
effectual Administrative Reform is too great to admit
of their entering sufficiently into the movement to
do it any harm, or to turn it into an instrument far
promoting individnsl and sinister ambitions.
I Let us examine a little more closely the value of the
allegation that the Tories are taking up the question
of Administrative Reform. The movement for the
attainment of this reform—like the movement which
bad in view the repeal of the Corn laws—has bees
began by men who do not aim at a poli-
tical career. The active politicians in this and
ovary country are a comparatively small num-
ber. All men have more or less a leaning to one
or the other side of politics—to the popular or the
absolutist. Bat with most men these leanings are
subordinate to the cares of their special pursuits in
life. They are contested from time to time to throw
their weight into the scale of that party of active
politicians with whose professed principles they have
most sympathy. With the great bulk of society
politics are more a matter of sentiment than of
defi-
nits opinion, and hence the facility with which we
see men on emergencies passing from one
side to the other. On rare occasions, how-
ever, great and pressing emergencies rouse this
generally passive class to act for themselves, and to
assert their principles irrespective of party leaders.
At such moments, the Shibboleths of party warfare,
and the prestige of party leaders, become utterly
valueless. The people hold on their own resistless
way regardless of any of those parties to which they
in general leave the management of public affairs.
At mach times the cause—the principle which the