The Express.
London, England, 1848-10-25 00:00:00

Idea discuss the merits of their rulers, must distin-
golt such combinations by part names. Pin ties
in firesdates originate in the necessities of
massy, and are formed at first by men who
regard and nee them "sly or principally es means to
auain political objects which either ars or aro be-
lieved to be, Dementia Bat it is the inevitable dein
°epistles as they grow old Os come is be regarded
sae es means than as ends, and to become mere joint-
essik emaciation@ made use of by political traders. The
1,00, that a people takes to discover this motes's,-
=and draw its neck oat of the collar of a IMO
party, is DO bad test of its intelligence. The
of this test to the American and British
=it ;lathe reverse of flattering to oar motional
vanity. The political traders who began beesene is
the United States under the designation et "dims-
esti" when General JACKSON was elected waiawL
will be scattered to the winds if General AMOR 1111
elected; the " whig " firm now undergoing a limner
pumas in this country has carried on a busnesesere
er less lucrative for well nigh two hundred pews
Since the election of Gen. JACKSON, the redden-
dal elections of the United States have been managed
by a place-hunting organisation, the direction of
which has had its habitation at Vashington, and was
framed under the auspices of Amos KINDALL It
has gained voters by professing the principles of tie
American democrats; but it has secured canvaseag
agents by the most unblushing abuse of patronage.
So long as the Washington coterie could find
a man Pke " old Hickory " to play their
game, the electors were gulled, but the elec-
tion of a nonentity a mere puppet, and
tool of the kitchen cabinet—like Mr. PoLe ,
was too much for " Jonathan." The result has
been the spontaneous call which emanated from men
of all parties—democrats, native Americans, and
whigs—upon Gen. TAYLOR, a man who is himself no
political trader, and who is not connected with any
clique of political traders, to offer himself as a candi-
date for the presidency; sod the extent and earnest-
ness of the desire to put down mere political traders is
shown by the favourable progress of Cien. TAYLOR'S
canvass, since he frankly told the native Americans
and democrats that he was a wLig in principle, and
the whigs that he would not celebrate his sect sawn to
the presidential chair by holocausts of efficient and
faithful public servants who differed from him and his
' party in political opinion, nor avail himself of the
power it conferred to overrule the voice of the no-
tional representatives by vetoing every measure that
ran counter to his party prepossessions.
' The election of General TAYLOR will prove beyond
a doubt that associations of mere trading politicians
cannot strike deep or lasting roots in the soil of the
Union. But even though he be defeated, they cannot
survive. The actual state of the canvass shows that
the until recently ascendant combination has received
• lethal blow, and that one more election mast ins-
vi' ably complete its dissolution.
It is carious and instructive to contrast the actual
position of the presidential unease in America with
the vaticinations respecting the Union in which the
Mies, with reference to this subject, has indulged
twice in the course of the present month. The articles
to which we allude can scarcely have failed to extort
smiles of contempt from intelligent readers on the other
side of the Atlantic. When their writer sets out by de-
claring, " It is not easy to take • side in American poli-
tics," the most unreflecting are led to ask what right an
Englishman has, or what useful purpose he could
serve, by " taking a side in American politics ? "
And what mast be the intellectual calibre
of the journalist who confeeses to a wish to
do so? But such reflections are thrown into the back
ground by the parade of schoolboy learning, and dis-
play of practical ignorance which discovers in the
existing social relations and state of opinion in the
United States, "times for a MARICS, a POMPEY, a
SYLLA, Ora CESAR."
The ignorance of the condition of society in
the United States which pervades these articles
might be passed over with silence, did not the
habitual toes of the journal in which they ap-
pear, when treating of foreign affairs, betray a calcu-
lating system of pandering to national vanity
by misrepresenting and undervaluing all other
countries ; and did not the extent of its
circulation justify an apprehension that there is a
large portion of the British public—and that not an
uninfluential one in respect of wealth and status—
that is pleased by this indirect and vulgar flattery.
If this coarse style of appealing to the self-sufficiency
of Englishmen goes down with them, we are in as
bad a plight as the Chinese or the Spaniards. The
Castilian, some centuries ago, wrapped his ragged
cloak about him, and pooh-poohed the Dutch and the
English ; but this did not prevent both nations
shooting far ahead of the Don, nor will our shutting
our eyes stop the march of the Yankees.
To all who ask, with the writer in the limes, "what
security can there be in such a people" as the Ameri-
cans, the simple answer is, Judge them by what
they have already done. Their mercantile em-1
ponums and centres of refined and intelligent luxury
on the seaboard— Boston, New York, Baltimore, New
Orleans—and the indefatigable and triumphant exer-
tions of their pioneers and backwoodsmen to reclaim
the wild, show that they, can make comfortable homes
for themselves. The rivalry which we encounter from
their mercantile flag on every sea, to which com-
merce has extended itself, ought to teach us respect
for their energy and intelligence. They have all but
driven our whalers from the ocean ; they are bidding
fair to engross the carrying trade of the Asiatic Archi-
pelago and China; and no unimportant part of our
own most profitable commerce is that which we
oarry on with the United States. Let us think or say
what we will of the conduct of their government in
its boundary controversies with our own country and
in its Mexican war, we cannot deny that they have
carried their point in both cases. In a letter from
Miramichi—from a judicious and reflecting settler
and true loyalist, which we this day publish—we
are told that those of our fellow-citizens who enjoy
the closest opportunities of scrutinising the state
and prospects of the Union, begin to waver in
their allegiance to Great Britain, and talk of courting
adoption into the republic. And if we judge of
their politicians by results, not by hosting.
orations (as we judge our own reform bill
struggle by its event, not by the non-
sense which was spoken over the length and
breadth of the land while it continued), we recognise
the same rough practical triumphant good sense
which characterises their commercial and industrial
enterprise.
The truth is, that the relations of the English race
diffused, as it is, over the world, and daily spread-
ing further and growing more dense, have already
become in part, and will hereafter become to a still
greater extent, international and not mere national
relations. The two states—the two governments—
already fully developed and established in London
and Washington, are natural and necessary rivals for
pm-eminence among the Anglican populations where-
ever located. Their rivalry must be waged
not by war or conquests, but by that high-spirited
and intelligent development of national resources and
national institutions, which confers true power, and
conciliates respect, love, and submission, from those
who need the aid of stronger states. The older of the
two nations is still far ahead of the other in resources
and influence; but if it wishes to keep the start which
it has got, it must keep a wakeful, and not ungenerous
watch, upon. the progress of its young, but energetic
and enterprising rival.

WE have seen that the eircumstanoes from which
arose whatever is real in the deprt mion of railway
values, are matters of known and visible fact; con-
cerning which, u far as they have already gme, the
parties interested are sufficiently informed for all
practical purposes. We shall presently see that infor-
mation is indeed exam Jingly desirable as to the future
pro•ecntion of many schemes for which powers have
beep obtained, and to the general system of manage-
ment and policy that will be applied to the whole
business hernifter. Let us, however, first advert to
the practical bearing of results already known, upon
the substantial value of railway investment.
These results, u far es they concern the main body
of this stock, may. be briefly summed as follows : All
the great companies have vastly increased their capi-
tals during the last four years ; and the increase has
been appropriated, partly, to extensions or improve-
ments of the main trunks and their stations; partly
to the construction of branches and supplementary
communications; partly to the purchase of lines
started by independent bodies, or in aid of their com-
pletion; and partly to the expenses of procuring par-
liamentary authority for these various arrangements.
This last item, which the extravagant contentions of
the put three years have made every heavy one, must
be e •tr IA so so much of mere dead weight thrown