The Express.
London, England, 1853-06-15 00:00:00

ELECTION EXPOSURES.

Yesterday rotas extended evidence was taken to
illustrate the " treating" that obtained at the last election.
The first witness, Downs, deposed that the voters had tickets
of the money value of 4d. distributed a the., and that
they chiefly served as " panes" for the holden to visit the
Within Teruo, whore Wee hest, Mr. Marshall, supplied
then with breed sad beef and beer, and measures aging
to the teas of 671 tickets on the following day. The
keeper of the Via* Tavern, in Pitt.atreet, also deposed to
about 400 " free and ladepeadest," breakfasting freely in
the Tenaireeart there ea the election day, and then being
spirited away on ears to the poll, a distance only of some
160 paces from the breakfut table.

PLYMOUTH.
Yesterday the select committee, whose decision
last month unseated Mr. Mare, reassembled, by order of the
house, to institute further inquiry into the transactions
connected with the last election. At the hear of meeting,
11 o'clock, all the members, viz., Mr. Aglionby (the chair-
man), Mr. George Carr Glyn, Mr. Dunlop, sad Mr. S.
Child, with the inception of the Marv& of Chandes, were
present. In consequence of the ahem. of Lord Madre,
the committee could not legally pressed to bmiesss, and
after waiting an hour for his lordship, • spell meemoger
was despatched to Groeveaor-square, who retuned with the
information that the margins was out of town, and would
not probably return until Thursday. It was suggested that
his lordship might be at the Carlton, or that probably Mr.
Forbes blacken:is would be able to indicate his lord-
ship's whereabouts, which was met with the rejoinder that
Forbes Mackenzie knew nothing about it, and that that
gentleman was in bed in Scotland with the gout. There
being some 30 witnesses In town, and as an unprofitable
prolongation of their stay was calculated to cause consi-
derable expense, it was suggested to telegraph" his
lordship up from Wotten, or from Cornwall, where, it
was thought he had gone on the duchy business.
The committee, after discussing these espcdients, deter-
mined on adjourning until Thursday, but had scarcely
risen from recording their resolution when the noble mar-
quis made his appearance. It was then, however, too late
to go on, as the committee could not revoke their resolution
of adjournment or commit the parliamentary anomaly of
meeting oftener than once a day. It was stated in the
COWS* of conversation incidentally that there were 23 cases
of bribery to be brought forward, and before the chairman
left the quietude of the committee•room was started from its
propriety by a formidable irruption into it of the cloud of
witnesses brought up tram Plymouth in the morning, num-
bering between GO and 70, and one of the foremost turning
mouthpiece fur the many, and addressing the chairman,
said, We wish to knew, Mr. Chairman, as we have'nt a
farthing amongst us, how we're to be maintained till
Thursday ? " (Laughter.) The chairman, with his
usual bon /101116114tc, replied, " Wally, gentlemen,
I bars no power to give you an answer on
that ruhject, but I presume the Reath:men who brought you
up will be kind enough to keep you alive. (Laughter.) I
have no power to make any order, but I have no doubt
the parliamentary agents under the particular clause in the
act, wili see that your wants and wishes are attended." The
deputation then withdrew, apparantly greatly gratified.

Coder Fn lNfitt ST SDI, IN DIED at Vienna on the
9th Inst. of a paralytic affection, brought on by the cam-
Wye anxiety and fatigue which as Minister of tie Home
Department, he unit crwtnt in the year PIS.

gip? ervrtisS.

TO k.uftligBPONoltPlTB.

a ...card Edition et "The Lames, the carne eroded's
" Gatettk„" is published testy Tnestlay and Friday gif,bt, in time
far rug.
irettnernents intended for " Tie Rroress," London T.Tel.tne paper,
oust tv at the Odle; 10, Bouneriasuest. by Two dela* on tie
lay of poldheation.

NIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
Tau ail—Want s& 71.34 •• ..Sternstme. 81. 27m.

VI. i3.:'

9.9 m

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 15.

AT a time like the present, when the scales are
trembling to a decision between war or peace for
Europe, the best possible way of forecasting the
event is toplace ourselves, free from passion or pre-
judice, at the point of view of the person or party
with whom the decision rests. In the present case,
the decision rests with NicuoLss of Russia. Or,
if there be truth in the rumour that he is in the
hands of tho old Russian party who let him mount
the throne on sufferance, the case is, to us, practically
the same. Whether the EMPEROR stands soli-
tary at his point of view, or is sur-
rounded, as ho was on ascending the throne, by a
circle of bayonets, does not immediately matter to us.
As long as he is there, wo had better, fur a moment,
stand there with him, see with his eyes, remember
with his memory, and thereby forecast his decision.
And in order to see with his eyes, we must bear in
mind that Autocrats have a peculiar sense, or senti-
ment, or persuasion of a transmigration of souls,
or a transmission of qualities, whereby all the
ambitions and the aims, all the glories and the
mortithations of their most eminent predecessors
become their own, and accumulate till the brain
of the man, or the patience of the world, sinks
under the burden. This is the process by
which, under the great natural laws that are
their instruments, the gods craze those whom they
are about to destroy. There is a proclamation
extant, addressed by Russia to the Circassian Chiefs
in 1837, which indicates that the process had then
gone pretty far in the mind of the Autocrat.
" Are you not aware," said that proclamation, " that
if the heavens should fall, Russia could prop them
with her bayonets? The English may be good
mechanics and artisans, but power dwells only with
Russia. No country ever waged successful war
against her. Russia is the most powerful of all
nations. If you desire peace, you must be convinced
that there are but two powers in existence--Gon in
heaven, and the EMPEROR upon earth." The Cir.
cassians are not convinced of all this yet ; but there
is every reason why the EMPEROR should believe it
even more now than he did sixteen years ago.
He feels and remembers, as if he had been there
himself, no doubt, the first war with the Porte, in
1678, when Russia, having then no port in Europe
bat Archangel, made some exchanges with the Turks
by which she was left in possession of the Ukraine.
He feels and remembers, as if he had himself been
the negotiator, the acquisition of Azof, by which
Russia first obtained a port on the Black Sea. This
was before the Czar Peru is known to have been
struck by that idea which cannot but affect the des-
tinies of the world for centuries to come—the idea
that the nations of Western Europe were more ad-
vanced than his own, and that there was no reason
why he should not bring up his own people to the
°sell of European civilisation. All his successors

have inherited his ambition, with modifications
suited to their respective characters. One may have
thought more of an ostentation of :luxury, as CATHE-
RINE did; and another might glory, as PAUL did, in
being the head of the Northern Confederacy against
us; and another, as ALEXANDER, in organising a
Holy Alliance; and another, as Nicaous, in
subordinating the Western to the Eastern
principles of government ; but all have sym-
pathised in the Czar PErza's first wistful
gaze westward, as to a promised land. They have
all feasted their retrospective imaginations with the
spectacle in the Finnish marshes, when the waving
bulrush and the flowering reed were ,mown to make
way for the trim metropolitan gardens that Pena
had planned, and when the stagnant lakes began to
dimple and stir and drain off towards the Neva; and
when the huts of the fowlers were palled down to
make way for the granite embankments on which a
new European capital was to stand. And all these
Sovereigns turn, u PET= turned, to the southern
extremity of his empire, and see, as he saw, that
biz growth as an European Power, would be acceler-
ated in a vast proportion by his owning the whole
of the Eastern length of Europe, from sea to sea. He
had Archangel and Azof, and be wanted only Con-
stantinople to extend his empire from the Arctic Sea
to the Mediterranean. By his will he enjoined his

successors to obtain Turkey, and to foment such
quarrels among the western nations as would give
time and opportunity for Russian enterprises. This
was the real beginning of the conflict, which has yet
little more than begun, between the principles of
Oriental Despotism and Representative Government
in Europe; the conflict, which must come at one
time or another, and on the ism of which the fats
of Europe hangs. The heirs of this remarkable tes-
tator have accepted his advice and trust with s zeal
which has proved to the world that it should "go
hard with them bat they would better the instruc-
tion." CATHERINE cowed and beat the Turks, ex-
tended her empire to the Dniester, and would proba-
bly have set up her winter palace at Constantinople
but for the fit of apoplexy which consigned her to a
longer winter and a narrower house.
Russian ships had now appeared in the Medi-
terranean, and Turkey was regarded as politically de-
pendent upon Russia. ALEXANDER supposed that
he had nothing to do but to take possession when he
pleased, when, in 1806, he was dismayed and exas-
perated by discovering that NAPOLEON had won the
ear of Sultan Seme, and was outflanking Russia in
that direction. That was, whatever may be mid to
the contrary, the day of the lowest depression of
Turkey—the day when the SULTAN clung to SEBAS-
TIANI and his French promises, and when our Mr.
WELLEsixv POLE forced himself into the royal
presence, in his riding dress, and, whip in hand,
threatened the trembling SULTAN that if he did not
obey the pleasure of Russia, an English fleet should
enter the Dardanelles, and lay Constantinople in
ashes. We must remember that the rage of
ALEXANDER at finding that he had driven Turkey
into the arms of France still vibrates in the
breast of NICHOLAS. All old mortification', as well
as triumphs, are taken into the account by
him in forming his plans; and unless we 'I
take them into our account of his character and mo-
tivee, we shall never understand his plans. We have
good reason to bear the whole transaction in mind,l
for it occasioned the peace of Tilsit. Two hours
spent on that raft in the middle of the Niemen
settled the business for which ALEXANDER sold his
honour to his allies and his character in history.
Perhaps two minutes, if we knew the truth, sufficed.
ALEXANDER said he hated England, and would an-
noy her in any way that NAPOLEON chose; and
NAPOLEON promised in return to desert Turkey,
and thus both were pleased, and the pleasure sur-
vives in NICHOL IS to this day, for the Russian
C.ESAR never dies, nor the smallest of his royal cmo-
tions.

Not one of the incidents of the subsequent warfare
is forgotten by the 11. tn, we will answer for it.

Neither the successes of the Turks, when they drove
the Russians beyond the Danube, and showed what
Turkish troops can do ; nor that the ultimate suc-
cesses of Russia were owing to revolts in various
parts of the Turkish empire—some of which were
caused by the reforms which, fur a while, disorganised
the nation, but may prove to have a different effect at
a future time.

When, in 1829, the Russians swept the banks of
the Danube, and poured down the southern slope ell
the Balkan, Turkey might seem more helpless than
ever before : and the fell of Adrianople without a
shot being fired in defence, and the yielding up of
every post on the Black Sea, might well make the
CZAR suppose that the prey was his at last. And he
did obtain concessions and privileges which con-
stitute the difficulty of the case at this hour.
But a change came over the spirit of the
warfare, in consequence of the very weak-
ness of Turkey, which may be the source o
future strength. When nothing remained to be
taken but Constantinople, and when the sacred flag
failed to raise the faithful in sufficient numbers for
defence, Turkey fuund she could accept Christian aid.
Before, the war had been treated as a religious war.
The introduction of political assistance altered at
once the relations of Turkey to Runic It has not
only sustained Turkey to this hour ; but, when the
truth comes to be known, it may be seen to have im-
proved the resources of the country, and stimulated
the minds of the people, and made a war with
Russia something very different from what the CZAR
himself may anticipate if, in adopting the traditions
of his race, he overlooks the new circumstances of

the age. Placing ourselves at his point of view, we
think it probable that he does overlook this, and a
good deal more, which'it is extremely important for
him to remember.

The one great point which he appears to overlook,
because PETER and CATHERINE overlooked it, is
that Russia is separated from Western Europe— as
a Russia* nobleman was himself heard to say—by a
thousand years of civilisation. It is little more than
400 years since Russia was invaded by barbarians ;
whereas it is 1,400 years since Western Europe
underwent that infliction. PETER and CATHERINE,
not measuring the abyss thus existing, thought to
bridge it over in a day. PETER imported saran/ and
artisans; and CATHERINE had villages run up im-
promptu by the road-side; and they supposed this to
be civilisation. Whatever may have been done
since, the chasm has not been bridged over. Rus-
sia stands on the eastern side, rude, hetero-
geneous, ill-compacted, and only outwardly dis-
ciplined in her great strength; despotic, violent,
on the side of physical rule ; dead, or not yet alive
on the side of rational political government. Go-
vernment is, with her, a religious institution, upheld
by arms—the EMPEROR standing before the eyes of
his people as their warrior priest, and in their cate-
chism as a god. In Western Europe, meanwhile,
where government is a purely political institution,
the popular mind has become, amidst many alterna-
tions, more and more infused into it. There can be
no possible ama:gamation between the two systems
—no truce between the two principles, when once
either has made aggression upon the other. If the
EMrEaoR, in pursuit of the an!ique purpose of an-
nexing Turkey to his empire, raises a band against
the Christian allies of Turkey, he should be aware
what he is doing—tiring his cannon over an abyss of
1,000 years, and compelling Europe to wage the
war to which there can be no truce. When the
principles of freedom and the very sense of civilisa-
tion are put on t ;Mr defence, we, who know their
strength, can have no doubt of their
victory. He does not know their value,
nor that they have a traditionary history much
more imposing than his owo. We can stand
at his point of view; but ours is inaccessible to him.
We can sympathise, in a manner, with his ambition
and his hereditary delusions: and it is therefore in
no mood of passion or prejudice that we declare our
conviction that the prospects of Russia, never so
brilliant as he supposed, are affected by lapse of
time; and that, whatever may be the fluctuations of
war about portions of territory, he can newer suc-
and in intruding himself and his medieval policy
into the councils and the sufferance of the peoples
of Europe.

SEVERAL constituencies will be called upon within
the next few days to till up vacancies which have
occurred in their representation. Of these vacancies
some have been occasioned by death; while others
have been caused by decisions of committees ap-
pointed to try the validity of previous elections. The
decease* of Sir lons HOPE leaves a seat for Mid-
lothian to .be disposed of by the landlords of that
popular shire—the rural commonalty having, of
course, no power whatever to meddle in -the matter.
The Doke of BuccLaucu, :as one of the "largest
proprietors," has determined to nominate his eldest
son to be the new member for Mid:
lothiau ; and returned without a contest the
boy Earl of HtLxErrn will accordingly bell
As for fitness of any kind foe the post, nobody thinks
of asking so irrelevant a question, for every one
knows that his Lordship's return in no way depends
upon his intellectual qualifications. It is the free-
hold lands of a county which are represented in
Parliament, not the free hearts and hands that culti-
vate them. So the Presbyterian inhabitants of Mid-
lothian are to look oa and see the Puseyite heir of
the BUCCLEITCII estates appoint himself their member
in the Commons House of Parliament.

Turning our eyes somewhat more to the south-
ward we perceive signs of electoral commotion in the
cathedral city of Durham. Albeit that the place has
been for centuries what the law calls a free and corpo-
rate town, and that its population was in 1932 consi-
dered numerous, wealthy, and intelligent enough
to have the choosing of two fit and suitable burgesses
to serve as representatives in the Commons' House
of Parliament, the said city of Durham, in point of
fact, enjoys no more the power of selecting two such
persons, and sending them as its legislative envoys to
Westminster, than it possesses the right to make its
bishop spend his superfluous revenues on works of
piety or benevolence in the see whence he derives
them. The political rights of the people of Durham
are held as a hereditary trust for them by the Most
Noble the Marquis of LONDONDERRY, in his capacity
of principal owner of landed property in and
around their city; just as in like manner the means
of supplying their spiritual wants have escheated
to the Right Rev. Father-in-God, Dr. MALTBY, Lord
Bishop of Durham. Neither the lordlytrustee nor the
lordly shepherd hold themselves in any respect re-
sponsible to the electors for the manner in which they
think proper to manage the grave affairs they have
undertaken to deal with. Literally, they are two of
the most unaccountable personages in the realm ;

for ask eitber of them what question you will, and
you are certain to get nothing resembling a satisfac-
tory answer. Both the Prelate and the Marquis ap-
pear to have formed the opinion that as the law
now stands they have not only a right to do what
they will with their own, bat absolutely to decide
moreover what they should choose to consider their
own ; and one of the things which the most noble
Lord of Wynyard chooses to deem as his by inde-
feasible right is the nomination of one, if not of
both, members for the city of Durham. On the
last occasion Lord LosDONDERRY took it
into his head that ho would return his
third son. Orders in the usual style were
accordingly issued to all the vassals of the home of