The Express.
London, England, 1864-07-08 00:00:00

EXPRESS.

The EXPRESS of TO-MORROW EVENING
will consist of EIGHT PAGES, and will contain
full Reports of the important Debates in both
Houses of Parliament, and the Dlviaion Lista.
Advertisements to be sent not later than noon.
Office-40, Bouverierstreet.

Taxes were all the indications In the House
last nigkt of one of those supreme party fights
in which no quarter is given or expected, and the
cause is forgotten in the fury of the combatants.
All the suppressed bitterness., and hoarded grudges
of baulked desire and sickening expectation, which
six years of enforced forbearance have nurtured in
the secret souls of office-seekers and place-hunters,
are bunting into a lurid and smoky flame of patriotic
vengeance. As this debate goes on, it becomes
more and more visibly an internal, not an inter-
national question—a contest purely and simply for
power. Downing-street and Whitehall are what
French military writers would call the objectif of
the discussion ; not the Dannewerke, nor Dybbol,
nor the Danish monarchy and kingdom. For
decency's sake some Opposition speakers iterate the
watchwords of their leaders, and talk of the
lowered influence of England, and the sorrows
and sufferings of Denmark. They have turned a
Blue-book of fifteen hundred folio pages into car-
tridge', which they grease with sentiments of
national pride and explode with protestations of
indignant "honour." But so far as the policy of
the Government towards Denmark is concerned,
this is a sham fight of the Opposition ; wait the
exception, perhaps, of General Peen, who is all
for a word and a blow in the conduct of Foreign
Affairs without pausing to adjust the nice
proportions of right and wrong, all the Tory chiefs
and followers are loud and emphatic in their
declarations for peace. They would not for
the world be taken fora war party ; they don't con-
demn Lord Rumen", for not going to war for Den-
mark ; only had they been in office, Denmark
would have been saved by the strength and feli-
city of Lord MALMERBURE'S style, or by Mr.
DISRAELI'B polite dissimulation in neither accept-
ing nor declining a seat at the Emeleoa's Con-
gress, and by Mr. Ssrmona Frnosaann's well-
known energetic sympathy for Poland. They
would have threatened nobody and promised
nothing, but somehow or other these wonderful
men -would have preserved the Treaty of 1852,
restored Poland, preserved the integrity and inde-
pendence of Denmark, and the respect of Germany,
and the friendship of Russia, and the most
intimate French alliance, by simply standing still,
and looking on.
The present UNDER-SECRETARY for FOREIGN
AFFAIRS is not perhaps • profound parliamentary
strategist or tactician. Like many generals of modern
times, he flings himself upon the enemy's front and
plunges into the hottest of the fight with all the
strenuous ardour of a nature that delights in diffi-
culty- and seeks danger and pursues it for
its own sake. There was everything in
the cause he championed lad evening to
stimulate Mr. LAYARD'S high qualities, and,
we may add, the defects which always attend
upon high qualities. Chivalrous devotion to his
Chief, a fervid indignation at reproaches cast upon
a noble name and fame, and it may be • certain
intellectual relish for rash charges and rash replies,
combined to strain the UNDER-SECRETARY'S
energies to the highest pitch, and in • moment he
had abandoned the defensive to open a galling
fire all along the hostile lines. As the Ceas-
cEnnon of the EXCHEQUER to the Mover of the
Resolution was Mr. LATARD to Mr. SEYMOUR
FITZGERALD. Nor did he confine his attention to
the former Under-Secretary exclusively. Sal-
lying out from his official entrenchments,
with a perfect battery of privileged docu-
ments at his elbow, he smote the several
assailants of the Opposition hip and thigh. Before
he had completed his first sentence he had brought
the whole House about his ears, by adopting and
emphasizing a word of Mr. GuogroNz's ;
one of those words which fall with tenfold weight
from • speaker whose vocabulary is so affluent and
yet so choine. In the tumult that arose when Mr.
Garmoroce HARDY characterised Mr. LAYARDB
statement as " calumnious," and Mr. LAYARD
rose to order, and the SPEAKER decided that the
word might peas, and the Pastries rose to order
against the SPEAKER—what, it might be
asked, had become of the honour of England
and the peace of Europe T There was the
delirium and the fever of a great assembly dying
in • passion. There was the Conservative Opposi-
tion, in the force of inarticulate denunciation always
irresistible, but where was Denmark, or the
foreign policy of England ! At a later hour
the ATTORNEY-GENERAL recalled the House to
the terms of the indictment against the Govern-
ment, and in a close and pressing appeal to the
candour and common sense of the Hones vindi-
cated the purpose of Lord RUSSELL'S policy,
and exposed the contradictions of the Op-

position

bat the

the Member

He had beard

tween the

(Liberal

Belgium) with the Opposition to vole mains! the
Government; and that this "compact, or agree-
" went, erarrangement" had lises=uded under
" very severe pressure" by "*owe very high an-
" thority." He wanted no indignant denial, but
if this rumour were true, he would "sooner than
" be in a majority so composed, vote with the go-
" vernment, were it ten thousand limes blacker
" than his own party." No sooner had this honest
Tory gentleman sat down than an Irish "liberal"
sad independent member roes to give that
very " indignant denial " which Mr. BINTINCL
particularly had not &eked for, and to state
that he intended to vote, with great pain of
mind, against the government, because
they had made England to be neither
loved nor feared ; and because he hoped
to " purify the Liberal party ;" but certainly
not to let in the Tories. This very Irish way
of denying Mr. Birrurcx's rumour, and of keep-
ing out the Tories, is likely, it appears, to be fol-
lowed by a considerable majority of the Catholic
representatives of the sister island, who are all no
doubt equally desirous of denying the rumour of a
compact imposed by authority. As it is probable
enough that this Irish accession to the Opposi-
tion may seriously affect the division list,
it is aa well that the English public
should at once understand that those Irish gentle-
men are voting under no dictation but that of a
deep regard for the honour of England and the
parity of the liberal party, and that, according to
the united voice of all the Catholic newspapers,
the Holy Father and Cardinal WISTLYIJI are quite
as solicitous of the honour of England and the
purity of the Liberal party as those representatives
in Parliament, whose perfect independence nobody
doubts.

TSB EXPRESS, FRIDAY

have placed in requisition all the boats and vessels
on the coast, and as they have besides, of their own,
numerous means of transport, the report is current
that they wish to seise successively on Funen and
Langeland, where they hope to Bad great resources
for their army. The Danes have at the present
moment about 90,000 men in Fallen, and are pre-
paring to oppose a Lading. If the Austro-Prus-
slams carry into 0X61411011 the project attributed to
them, they will then be not far from Zealand, on
which is placed the city of Copenhagen.

(isinst's nuesauts.)
THE WAR IN DEMMARK.
HAMBURG, JOLT 7.

A private letter from Tondern, dated 6th
says :—" Intelligence has just been received here,
stating that during the night the Austrian Rifles
bad taken possession of the Island of Fohr."

COPENHAGEN, JULY 6, 2.27 Lir.

An address to the King has been proposed in the
i Rigsraad, thanking his Majesty for his determina-
tion to cede territory rather than sacrifice the in-
dependence of the country.
The miaowed resignation of General Gerlach,
and the appointment of General Steinmann as his
sucoessor has been confirmed.

'Peahen with Plot ' Plyne LATMT4.ya ': Ll6llClitliC. 1
• ...st et the ' td 1 i
bby that honest Tory of •.-: 1 . - . 4:mia SZATE OF WAR. 1
lbw for West Norfolk, . . M de l'Arerk saygthat the Austrlo
beard s rumour of If • •
trig
'Baking
Endingrigen TheY
le Irish altrantontaneP "Bombe* tritiment between ol and .Fredericia a
after the manse of their brethren il body of troops said to number 245,000 men ; they
. ... .. ... . .