The Express.
London, England, 1852-02-07 00:00:00

THE FOURTH ESTATE.

(From the Thus.)
Nature has implanted in the mind of man genuine
and disinterested feelings which refer all action. to an in-
ternal standard utterly independent of success and failu Si
It is in this peresption of right and wrong, of dignity and
worthleesneel, that we differ from all other animals ; and
In its free and manly expresaiou we vindicate oar right to
consider ourselves something better and more permanent
than the beasts that perish. Whea great crimes are com-
mitted, it is according to the nature of things that they
should fur a time remain unpunished, because their per-
petrators seldom ventures on them without the prospect of
immediate impunity. But it is equally according to the
nature of things that those crimes should m. et with im•
mediate and earnest reprobation, and that those dictates of
conscience which have been violated in art should at any
rate assert their dignity and pronounce their sentence. Un-
successful crime is its own punishment, but there is no
theme so worthy the hand of a public writer ae thee:pismire
of successful treachery.
When, in violation of his solemn oath, of the trust which
ho had undertaken, and the assurances which he had re-
peatedly itiven, Louie Neapoloon seized on the supreme
power of Franee, imprisoned her representatives, massacred
her peaceful citizens, gagged her press, and, leaguing him-
self with the dregs of her people, declared war against
learning, genius, eloquence, and valour, we did not atop to
inquire whether there was anything to be gained by paring
over these things in silence, we wrote as we felt, and held
up such violation of all laws, human and divine, to the
ignominy which it deserved. Had the plague been stayed
hero—had the Dictator of France, after trampling
metier his feet her laws, her liberty, and her renown, seri-
ously applied himself to the work of reconstruction, and de-
termined to exercise for the benefit of mankind a power ob-
tained by their slaughter, their oppression, and their degra-
dation, we should hare felt bound, according to our usual
practice, to &Madan useless complaints, and to give full
credit to the new government for whatever good it might
have been able to effect. But, as if urged on by the inex-
piable guilt of the first crime, the ruler of France has pro-
ceeded to till up the period of the two short months which
have elapsed since has accession to power with a series of
offences more than justifying the opinion which we at
first expressed, and covering with shame the few among us
who have advocated his cause. We find that the sours
which we have thus adopted, however in accordance with
honesty and sincerity, has incurred the cement of certain
noble lords whose opinion in a case of less clear
and paramount duty we should receive with every
respect. Can it be said that our strictures have not been
true, or that in seeking out analogies frum the darkest pe-
riods of Pagan history we have at all exaggerated the repul-
sive features of military sway ? Or is it thought that we,
divided by • mere thread of water from a land which groans
under this Pnetorian tyranny, have too little interest in the
matter to make it a theme of earnest and constant discussion ?
We do not apprehend that any of these objections can be
seriously advanced, and the only other ground of exception
to the freedom of our strictures must be unwillingness to
hear new looms truth told of a governing power, and fear
that we are needlessly provoking • potent and unscru-
pulous enemy. For the first of these motives we enter-
, tain little respect. It may be very disagreeable for the
forty-six titled and untitled ladies and gentlemen who
recently partook of the splendid hospitality of the
Tuileries to be told the real character and pretensions of
the person at whose banquet they had the matchless con-
descension to assist. Cradled in the lap of liberty, nour-
ished in a healthy moral atmosphere, and habituated to
freedom of thought, speech, and action, they probably
have the sensibility to feel the dishonour though they had
not the self-respect to resist the allurements of the im-
perial banquet. It can give them little pleasure to be told
that their revel was decked out at the expense of a nation
basely chested of its liberties, and of a royal house through
whose matchless clemency alone their entertainer was en-
abled to celebrate • festival over its ruin. They cannot
like to be told that they lent lustre to a feat inaugurating
an era of spoliation, and that, little as they contributed to
countenance their host, they did as much as possible
to discredit their country. Possibly the two noble
lords who have successively misgoverned our colonies
may not be without sympathy fur a mall who has not only
been able to oppress, but to silence all complaint of his op-
pression, and might willingly behold the press of this island
reduced to the same decorous taciturnity as that of France;
but from Lord John Russell we should have expected other
sympathies, and we may fairly complain of a censor who
turns out his foreign secretary for speaking well of Louis
Napoleon, and quarrels with the peen for speaking ill of
him.

As to the provocation which it is alleged that we are
giving to a powerful enemy, we confess that we are ashamed
to be called on to notice such an accusation. In Francs
crime succeeds crime without the possibility of a voice being
raised or a line written against it. All that shows that a
heart yet beats beneath the prostrate and apparently in-
animate form of the fettered giant is stifled ere it can find
utterance. The moderate and cautious protests which a
sense of intolerable wrong has wrung from the most timid
opponents and the most ardent supporters of the President
would die unheard and unrecorded, were it not for the
echo on this side of the Channel, which catches them up and
reverberates them in notes of distant but still alarming im-
port. Are we to bow to the same censure as that which has
destroyed the press of Paris, or are we merely to printtheee
things and abstain from the comment which they invite ?
Is every action of our own statesmen to remain the subject
of the forest and most unfettered criticism, and are we to
abstain from offering an opinion on the rulers of
foreign countries ? Or ere we to venture remarks on
the conduct of powers weak or remote, but to be
awed into silence when dealing with those nearer
or more powerful ? Are we to fly at small game,
and while censuring the irregularities of Naples or
Portugal to view with tolerant servility the aberrations of
France or Russia ? We apprehend nut. This island is the
last asylum not only for the political exiles, but for the
liberal and constitutional ideas of the rest of Europe. Here
at least the truth may be told in safety. It has never been
the practice of this country to hold her liberties on the sof-
(trines or forbearance of foreign potentates. We cannot a
free nation by the will of Frans% but by our own, ad we
trust the maintenance of oar tresdeni. meta the haserases
of our neighbour, but to oar ewe streogria. That strength
is fully adequate to its preservation. * hobo, and mom-
pctent =matey have neglected preparetions for war, but
we have not fallen so low as to be anvil to fawn tor
the sake of preserving peace, on eislition however suc-
cessful, or fraud, however triumphant. Int those by
whom the administration a our aka andesta repair
without boa of time the Essay wads a long pane has
brought into our establishment% bat Ise then est, out of a
feeling a( panic, created by ark own negligessin require
the pia abLidon that taro of free ends.ei which is
now shwa the only check to the amok at Massie ideas in
Europe. Seek a fares would be es larditis et it is man •
it would show that as spirit et tho seas is sewed by the
real or isseginem arm by which it is surreada. Asian
a cheap of teassinet des ibly proceed from andegisa, it
would le isnaedletely end Justly attributed to tsar and
a kat that should fns dienneign in
Waft the rely leeetb et la nation's sesidiy woad be
:Weateasesegeresst es no hedge invader ha hitherto
Is the del esessiseemen of 011, strength, faring
noshing bet our govennasses re_ ea our own
over Illealdissee, we eon idled to dims spa g and trimly
the an*r at avant eel our powers et verbiage—to
tell Imam truth ka see aluan, sad Nostra le the neat.
We ere not disposed to surrtrear one-belt of
this pd ese it to the lamp
ligence and We
Nagy of ranee to lilt led
is hissaaetasry of Media a wise whits yet dams to
the man upploser. tlenoad in a halo lengags,
and forbidden andesign into their own, our gam speed
to the osessimee smetail say fell go masa be Its m-
ina to the ease we ash( wish it i• /11/8411, bet the I
mil NM MONA vehicle of di may
be eateded, and the mad et ea nation
with the patellas et May and jets-
ties, et en army of spies and a pram of police,
will act milt a thousand channels of metal sad coed-
dential internam* upon the other. We owe it to the
cause of liberty, humanity, and social order to do our
beet to prevent the public opinion of this country from
being denied by the spectacle of succeestal vice, or
intimidated by the vicinity of !swim' power. We owe
it to the lawny of our national character to prove
that wickedness Is never noes odious to us than in
prosperity ; and we owe it to the rest of the mad to keep
this great lesson constantly before the eyes of the English
people, destined to act so mighty a part in its instruction
for good or for mil. We bare endeavoured In fain this
mission, and we cannot believe that the national spirit is
sunk so low as to wish us to desist front it froea a craves
fear of the mighty criminal whom we have endeavored to
drag before the unerring tribunal of public justice.

Tin KArnie WAIL—A large meeting was held et
the Athenaeum, in the city of Exeter, on Thursday evening,
to consider the causes of the present war at the Cape, and
the policy which had been pursued towards the frontier
tribes. J. C. Sercombe, Esq., a magistrate of the city, pre-
sided, and the present war wu unanimously condemned as
inconsistent with the principles of justice and humanity.
Mr. Chamerorsow (from the Aborigines Protection Society)
addressed the meeting at great length. He appealed tothe
meeting to ask the government to return to the concilia-
tory policy of Lord Oleneig in the administration of the
agars at the Cape. A memorial was adopted, praying
government for a commission of inquiry, to Investigate
matters relating to the war at the Cape, with a view to
amicable arrangements with the Kaflin. A petition to par-
liament, founded on the memorial, was also carried.
MAYNOO7II ORANT.—Under the presidency of
Mr. W. F. Hutton a meeting was held in Bolton on Thurs-
day evening, in the large Temperance Hall, when the plat-
form was filled with ministers and gentlemen of ell deno-
minstion, several of whom spoke in support of resolutions
condemnatory of the grant to Nlaynouth. A moat respect-
able and numerous audience listened attentively, and agreed
to a petition to parliament on the subject, which is in course
of .ignature.
1tr.1,01111 MELTING AT NEWCAMTLIL—A public
meeting was held in the Newcastle Guildhall on Thursday,
to consider the propriety of petitioning the legislatare fur
a reform of parliament, based upon the principle of extend-
ing the suffrage to every rate-payer." The mayor (James
Hodgson, Keq.,) having taken the chair, the meeting was
addreaserl by Noun. Crawshay, Walters, Thule, site., in
support of a memorial advocating triennial parliaments,
the ballot, a better distribution of electoral districts, and
the extension of the suffrage on the principle of giving it to
every ratepayer. An amendment was proposed, but the
[ original motion was carried by a huge majority, after
which the meeting broke up.