The Express.
London, England, 1855-05-25 00:00:00

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LONDON, FRIDAY, MAY 25.

MR. DISRAELI'S

Howma men may differ regarding the truth or
error of the views propounded last night by Mr.
Disitsm, all most agree in the conviction that
the party whom he leads in the House of Commons
are not prepared to espouse heartily any definite line
of policy with respect to the war. Either they have
no mind of their own on the matter, or, being divided
amongst themselves, their chiefs are compelled to
talk uncertainties and obscurities, to substitute small
sarcasms for great sentiments, and the critical ana-
lysis of past blenders for a plain avowal of sympathy
in the hopes and wishes of the nation. Like their

opponents in office, they are smitten with a para-
lysis of unbelief. No one who heard Lord PAL-

MEILSTON yesterday morning tell his followers
that the Cabinet were united in their re-

solve to prosecute the war with vigour, could
believe that he believed what he said. His whole
demeanour on the occasion alluded to was the old
combination of swaggering and shirking—the most
thoroughly calculated to confirm the impression that
_ .

he felt no real confidence either in the unanimity of
his colleagues, or in the definiteness of a settled aim.
Lord PALMERSTON is now, as he has been all his life,
politically living from hand to mouth, ready to throw
overboard any pledge or principle, and to enter into
combination with any set of men that for the
moment seems serviceable to his personal purpose.
lie has faith in nothing, and his fall, whenever it

shall occur, will assuredly be caused by the gradual
spread of unbelief In him. Mr. Diaasam's position
may, perhaps, account in some degree for the similarity

of the defect, which more than counterbalances many
advantages, personal and incidental. With talents
eminently fitted for attack, and with a ease of incul-
pation such as no leader of Opposition has had since
the days of PITT and PULTENEY-with the choice of
time and ground for the assault upon the ill-manned
lines of power, and with the great people—all but
unanimous in their discontent—ready to support any
party capable of comprehending their indignation

and realising their desires—with all these rare ad-
vantages and incentives to earnestness Mr. DISRAELI
fails because he is not in earnest.

We will not do Mr. DISRAELI the injustice of sup-
posing that he is unconscious of the opportunity thus
thrown away. We cannot acquit him morally and
politically at the expense of his intellect. He well
knows what the occasion is, and what would be
required in order to make use of it. But
he is bound by party ties to men whose
instincts as a class are at variance with their inte-
rests as a parliamentary party ; and he who has
nothing in common with them as hereditary
oligarchs is doomed to suffer all the tantalisation of
hope deferred, and the mortification of great talents
wasted year after year, because those with whom he
is associated are in the main governed rather by
their fears as a cute, than by their hopes as a parlia-
mentary
party. When Lord ELLENBOROUGH called
on the Tory Peers to place themselves at the head of
the people, their Conservative lordships shrugged
their shoulders, and sneered at the enthusiastic Earl :

and had Mr. Disitazu ventured, last night, to pro-
pound inch maxima of foreign policy as the oommu-

nity at large are prepared to respond to, he would'
probably have lost many votes in the division.
The Tory aristocracy, like the Whig aristocracy,
are at bead sick of the war and desirous of nothing
so much u casting on each other the blame of its
abortive continuance. They both well know the un-
popularity that must inevitably attend upoa the con-
clusion of an unsatisfactory peace; and it is no secret
that the Derbyite policy has for some time been one

of ambiguous reserve, in the hope that either Lord
PALMERJ3TON and his colleagues might drift into
shabby terms of accommodation with Russia, which
would be sure to cover them with unpopularity, or,
should they break up as a Government before peace
was concluded, that their successors should come into
office uncommitted to any definite course or any
definite principle. And thus it is that the whole
discussion of last night has been but a mere
squabble of factions, full of rancour and recrimina-
tion, but deplorably and despicably destitute of
national feeling, and all the other high qualities
which ought to characterise a debate on such an
occasion. It is idle to ask why the speech of the
mover was not clear upon this point or upon that.
It was meant to be opaque, and designed to be ob-
' scare. The plebeian leader of Conservative aristo-
crats due not bind himself to any terms which should
imply the humiliation of Ramada or the redaction of
her power. Their rivals on the other side of the
table would have cheered triumphantly had he dons
so, for they would have recognised in such avowals
a new guarantee for their own tenure of office. It
is a maxim amongst actors of the vulgar school that
you must always endeavour to play down to the level
of your audience ; and amongst the competing poli-
ticians who play their parts in our two Hogan at
Westminster, the paramount idea appears to be who
may most thoroughly consult the prejudices of birth
and class by which four-fifths of their hearers are in
the main governed.
The feeling common to the majority on both sides
at present is indicated by the significant phrase con-
stantly heard of late, that " there is a very bad feel-
ing out of doors." By the bad feeling is simply
meant a growing impatience of corrupt imbecility
and the sordid subserviug of national interests to
those of foreign despotism. The people have long
been sulky, and are now growing angry, not without
sufficient reason. They are making up their minds
to call for a rigorous account, and to inflict
exemplary punishment on all who venture to
refuse it. The oligarchy persuade themselves
that their best chance of retaining the pro-
fitable craft by which they live is to put
an end as quickly as possible to the present war.
They are sincerely frightened at the possible ague-
gamete of their own matchless blundering; they
are sincerely uneasy at the daily reiteration of the
murderous consequences of administrative favourit-
ism and jobbing. Could they only get things bank
into the old groove of peace abroad and an un-
formed Parliament at home, they think themselves
strong enough to maintain the established rotten-
ness of things to another generation. We must say
in candid sorrow that they have hitherto had too
much right to build thus impudently on popular
forbearance. But we trust that ere long they will
find themselves mistaken. There begins to be what
we must take leave to call a very good and sound
feeling out of doors—a feeling, not of indolent dis-
gust, but of organised hatred of the system of faction