The Express.
London, England, 1855-07-20 00:00:00

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LONDON, FRIDAY, JULY 90.

Tam morning the previous question, moved by
General Plum se as amendment on Mr. ROILBLICK'S
motion, was carried by a majority of 289 to 182. Ia
other words, a majorfty of the House of COSMO=
has declared that the modest of Minieters cannot be
defended, but that it is not expedient to pram too
hard upon thew

The renamed debate will be found to possess
more of perninal interest than that of Tues-
day night, as • larger share of the controversy
was sustained by the eminent offenders placed
upon their trial, and those distinguished rivals for
power whose political views and aspirations may
in various ways be supposed to influence their votes
and words on the measion. As was to be expected,
we have a defeseseonsisting microscopic criticisms
of the testimony given before the Sebastopol Com-
mittee, elaborately interwoven with astute insinua-
tions of blame attributable to others, or only in part
chargeable against the accused. All that Oxonian
subtlety could devise, and familiarity with details
but imperfectly known to people in general who have
not been admitted behind the veil of official mystery
suggest—all this, prepared with consummate skill
and polished ad unguent in the retirement of un-
offisial leisure, was to be anticipated, and those who
bike delight in the display of rhetorical jugglery of the
highest order will not be disappointed. Mr. Han-
BERT'S speech to evidence, is about as clever in its
way as any that the circumstances of the case
would admit of. Contrasted with the speeches of
his Whig partners in the late defaulting firm,
carrying on the business of war-makers under the
style of ABERDIEN, Ruessu, and Company, it may
be even said to have been highly successful ; if a speech
can be admitted to deserve that appellation which
leaves untouched and =removed the substance of
that whose reality it promises to disprove. Dis-
traction for the moment, however, and a certain
admiration for the dexterity with which the actual
thing under examination is made to disappear, as in
every performance of legerdemain, leaves no perma-
nent impression contrary to the plain conviction of
our minds. If Mr. GLADSTONE, and Sir Isms
GRAHAM believed in the apprehensions they expressed
of our unpreparedness for 'keeps= war, then
their manifest duty was to quit office while
yet there was time, and with the voice and
authority of disinterested men to have warned the
nation of the danger towards which they were drift-
ing ; but they had no right, and they have now no
justification, for remaining, with their professed
opinions, members of the Cabinet that, to escape un-
popularity, insousiderately and ignorantly flung a
British army of five-and-twenty thousand men at the
strongest forte= in the world, without the mesas of
taking it by surprise—without the means of reducing
it by Investment—without a deliberate notion or
conception by what means, if any, it could be cap-
tured at all. And if, upon the other hand, their
fears and misgivings were affected, not sincere, they
are amenable to the double censure—first of under-
valuing their country's power, and then of not pro-
perly applying it.
For the rest the debate was more than usually
diversified in its character. The ArroiNzr-Gleccuta.
and Mr. WHITS/IDS seemed alike eager to deal with
the matter as though it were an Woe at Nsei Pries,
is which they could only be supposed to speak from
their respective briefs. The attack made by the
former on Mr. Ronucx was rebuked during its
delivery by the silent stare of men on all sides, and
subsequently by the sharp and somewhat mental
censure of Lord lona Rueszu. It must be owned, I
however, that the prevalent feeling was one of sue.
pries and regret that the noble lord should have
volunteered his aid on the occasion for the common de-
fence. All thinp =addend he had, we think, better
have abstained. All who are included in the sweep-
ing reprehend= suggested by the member for Shef-
field could not be heard personally in their own
behalf; and Lord Joint has long since deprived
himself of the right to set up a separate and
distinct plea, by reentering the Cabinet of exclusives
and incapables, within a moath after he bad by his
first excursion overturned it. Mr. BRIGHT'S sudden
change of tone and manner towards him is too sig-
nificant to be overlooked. But the sympathy of the
public, like that of the House, will far more readily
go with the boo. member for Manchester in hie just
and vigorous denunciation of Lord PALM:EATON'S
disreputable ebullition of Monday bat. The contrast
drawn between the demeanour and bearing of the
present leader of the Commons and his three prede-
cessors was particularly telling on those who beard
it, and will be sufficiently damaging wherever it is
read. For it is, indeed, most tree, to use the words
of Mr. Beam, that " the Qum may make a MD
a Prime Minister, but Lord PLIJIZZETON shows that
'he cannot maks a man a statesman."

Upon the whole the debate will be regarded as sad
and nnestinfactary, and as owe of the saddest and
most =amide/dory episodes in our Parliamentary
history. Fall of irrelevancy and ill-temper, feebleness
and faction, it exhibits the Hoses of Commons
as now constituted, in a lose reputable point of view
then any which it has previously occupied. Mr.
Ross 17M, by the admission even of Mr. Swim
Hzersizr, did bat his duty is Wiggles under the
judicial cognisance of the House the report of its
own Committee. But hues the outset there was
manifestly an in disposition to meet the question
candidly or coaregeselly. The member for Sheffield
was not supported as he ought to have been by those
whom seal was burning for inquiry, and whose pa-
triotism was load so long as nothing definite was to
be done; bat who on the mead= when, if ever,
popular pledges ought to have been redeemed, were
content to leave the brunt of the battle to be borne
by two or three of the Tory opposition and by the
hon. and learned member for Sheffield. This is not
the way to make a Parliamentary party.

The Fint Lord of the Admiralty held his seventh
levee this mess at the Aetairolty, Whitehall, yesterday,
when the ietheeths althea were present :—Boar Admiral
Death; cerium Thum Miller, Jobs B. B. WHardy,
Itlebolso J. C. Daus, "noes Lions% and Edward B.
valise; Comae--, Ruhard Doom, William T. Bate,
William Welke (A), Gawp T. M. Panto (B), end Ira
nelps ; Ihrsemosto Coln C. A. Imo, Jolla ,01/4111,
001 lamemeat-Colonol Chula William None (Xs.
vue), Modes T. W. G. Cyst, ead William Liming
Niue him Ina& ; Ulan latuoter of Henn& Irma
raw 1 Orissa Robert Ooradok.
The ..,ben of the Star ChM have fiJen &venni
with ue us e: ibo mimics mad boautird gremlds et St.
igargues% blunt* lawn On biome to give a glum*
!AM, ea Wedaesday, the Bth el &snit.