The Express.
London, England, 1863-07-10 00:00:00

Zite ervrefisi•

TO 002,8118PONDINTS.
Owelfrassefa Weeded for The Ivrea" Loudon Treolag
Paper, meat be ea the office. 10, nonveriewtreek by Two
:look on Qt. day of publication.

HAYMARKET'.
'MN Brogan, AN UNLUCKY MORTAL Mir Harris.
Nieman. .t. Wigan, Nowa, Buckatoon, Gordon,
sad Pa.-ran: llra. A. Wigan. Ilre. Alta L
AnaaL—
SIASY'DHAVLNIG.—And TliN STAR OF ANDALUSIA.

PRINCE:339.
Sum Hymned, Ct7EIRIN TOM —Aod ROMXO AND JVLIZT.
• Sfesma. Waiter Montgomery. Oeorge gelmore, and
31. Mainton ; YdlL. Mona Cold and Mrs. H. lWdon.

LYCEUM.
TUTS ErWINO, A SUDDEN ATTACK. Mears. Shore and
'llllddlennab ; Mies Hand° and firs. Lon—And THE DUKES
MOTTO. Messrs. Feeliter, Shore, Jordan, Bracewell, and
Maywood ; Minas C. Leclerc% K. Terry, and gisnorthy.

BRITANNIA.
THIS EtnalPE, SHE wtsarNo GLEN, introducing THE
-GREAT °HORT lIFFICT, Frogmen Pepper s a/notation of Mr.
Birches Spectral Ilinion.—The Brothers Coons& and Maim
Plemplon sad Woodman —And PAYED WITH GOLD.

iIOH WATKR AT LONDON MUDGE.
TIM DAT Mordam 9 . Allacamm. Colt 49m.
To4lo93olFllondam lvD. 21m. . .Allaramak KM. ave.

LONDON, FRIDAY, JULY 10.

Te stick at no inconsistency and to evade every
argument, to make assertion stand for reasoning,
and, when authority is lacking, to put words into
a dead man's mouth and then quote them as the
dead man's utterance, are the new arts of states-
manship by which majorities in the House of
Commons are made safe. Why not Y Men are
differently constituted, and to be all things to all
men, if by any means he may gain some, is an
apostolic example. So Lord Pauses/no; for
for the moment that he himself is but an
amateur strategist, wins Tory cheers by rating
Mr. COBDEN for presuming to act as an amateur
general and to criticise the Government plans of
national defence. Charged with raising bugbears of
invasion, as the cuttle-fish raises an inky cloud,
the Pamumi retorts that the Duke of WELLINGTON
called invasion possible, omitting only to remember
that we had then neither Volunteers nor Militia,
neither railways nor screw men-of-war. So when
the question is as to forts designed to protect our
arsenals from the English side, the Noble Lord
finds it convenient to retort that at the time of
the Tahiti dispute our fleet was inferior to that of
the French. And so, when denounced as intro-
ducing the new principle that on English soil the
defenders of England now need fortifications, be-
hind which to shelter, the head of the Government
replies, that to refuse the fortifications would be a
libel upon our Volunteers. Such is a specimen
of the flimsy mis-statement which draws down
the cheers of the House overnight and reads so
pitifully next morning.
An invasion, we are told, is to be provided
against. We cannot now depend on our fleet,
steam has "bridged the Channel," there are
special appliances to make a landing expeditious,
and we have no troops sufficient to prevent its
being effected. Such is the case presented in
favour of fortifications on the land side of our
ports and arsenals, to which the question debated
last night was restricted. But if all these general
propositions are to be taken for true, and seven
millions to be voted in that faith, is it too much
to ask for a little more definite opinion as to the
number of the army which could be thrown upon
our shores, the time, and the place at which they
may reasonably be expected ! It happens, how-
ever, that these are questions on which no two of
our panicmongers can be found to agree. NAPOLLON
dared not venture with less than 150,000 men,
and certainly he was a good judge of the
strength needful to give the attempt a chance.
Lord Paransuroit says sometimes 50,000
or 60,000 ; and at other times talks loosely of
" a twenty thousand here and a twenty thousand
" there." The Dnke of Wsunvorort, in his
famous letter, suggested 40,000; General &raw
KENNEDY, whose pamphlet contributed to the die-
cwision which resulted in the appointment of the
Defence Commission, says there cannot be less
than 100,000 ; the Defence Commissioner
frankly decline to specify any number, large or
small. The place is equally indefinite. NAPOLEON
and the Duke of WiLuirGrox agreed, indeed, on
Kent or Sussex, but Lord PALMERSTON says Porta-
mouth, Plymouth, or Pembroke ; and General
SHAW KENNEDY insists that Torbay is the sole
practicable point. Then as to time ; shall it be in
peace or war ? The idea of Lord Faunas:row,
till lately, was that it was going to be in peace ;
his 50,000 men were to appear suddenly as so
many excursionists, and to be landed before we
knew their character ; but now he ex-
pressly abandons this notion, admitting that
while we are at peace our Consuls would
send us notice of the preparations made in the
several French ports for the transport of
DO considerable a body of tourista. How are we
to deal with facts so self-contradictory I Suppose
we take the wildest estimate of all. Let us
imagine that in the midst of peace 50,000 French
soldiers are secretly embarked, secretly cram the
Channel, secretly disembark on our shore. What

. _
have we to meet them 1 Why, according to offi-
cial returns, we have at this moment 80,000

regulars in these islands. Besides these, there are
50,000 volunteers, with arms in their hands, ready
to march, and pronounced fit to take their place
In a line of battle. Besides these there are
95,000 militia who were under their annual train-
ing within the last two months. And we have con-
verging railways, which can conoentrate these at
the rate of 10,000 men an hour all through the
day and night on any spot where the excursionists
may appear. How many of the 50,000 would
survive the march of 20 miles, which after they
have landed at the nearest practicable point to
Portsmouth is needed to bring them within range
of the forts on Portadown Hill f How many even
would form on the beach, when within an hour by

rail of the spot we have in instant readiness this
707 day I',ooo men at Aldershott, 5,000 in
rez;riamouth it a 4. 3,000 at Shorncliffe, and the
garrisons of London, Windsor, and other towns,
pouring down hour by boor to their support
If such is the force we have to meet the utterly