The Express.
London, England, 1846-12-01 00:00:00

A—ii—etraveroo.

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MAILS.
The Wed India math, minding those for Mexico, HOOdUrAll, and
the Havanna/I, will be made up on the morning of the 2nd December.
Tlri ov,risiel wails Inc Gibraltar, Malta, Greece, theia houtnamPten, lonian Wangs,
Egypt, Aden, Ceylon, India, Mong-Kong, end China, r
will be made up on the morning of the 3rd December.
The mails for British North America, Bermuda, and the United
Btatwi, will be made up on the eVentag of the 3d December.
The mails for the Brazils, the itiver willaMonte Video, Person-
buw, Bahia, Ma tele*, and Buenos Ayres, be dispatched on the
evng of the 4th December.
The overland closed mall'. Ma Marseilles, to the Mediterranean,
Egypt . Aden, Ceylon, India, Hong Kong, tee., will be made up oa the
evening of tho 7th December.
The malls foe Vigo, 0=;, rban, Madeira, Cadiz, and Gibraltar,
will be made up cm the of the 18th December.
The mail' for New Booth ales. Van Diemen's Lend, and New
Zealand will be madcap on the evening of the 31st December.

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------.
RI6R WATER AT LONDON-BIUDOE.
Ins Dar.- Morning, 5 min. peat 0 ; Afternoon, 51 min. poet 0,
Toagoasow.-ffiorning, 57 min. put 0; Afternoon, 20 min. past 1.
--........-..r•-•""m.-.

LONDON, TUESDAY, DEC. 1.
IN a survey of the workings of representative go-
vernment, nothing is more mortifying than to per-
ceive least foresight, steadiness, and judgment in
those very parts and portions of the system, where
such qualities were to be most expected. If one was
asked where the principle of representation would work
best, and produce the truest results, the first answer
would undoubtedly be great towns and cities,
in the chief agglomerations of the wealthy, the indus-
trious, the enlightened. If, from supposition and
from the d priori, we proceed to an examination of
facts, experience will be found to contradict such
judgments most flagrantly and lamentably. There
are no electoral bodies so wavering, so uncertain, so
ill provided, so driven backwards and forwards be-
tween two extremes, and during any length of time
so unsatisfactorily, unfairly, and unfitly represented,
as the great town constituencies of the empire.
That in rural districts the great landlord should,
despite the emancipation of the Reform Bill,
impose his will upon his thousand tenants, and send
zealous Tory squire to parliament, is nothing either
wonderful or unnatural. That in capitals, or dis-
tricts of capitals, where is little manufacturing
industry, and where the population consists of the
two extremes, the very wealthy, and those who live
by the wealthy—that this last numerous class should
divide into either the servile followers or the jealous
and malcontent haters of aristocracy, and. thus make
choice either of the ultra-Tory or the ultra-Radical to
represent them, as either party or opinion waxed
fervid this there is nothing but what might
be expected.
But that in great centres of industry, in head-
quarters of the middle classes, where there are differ-
ences of wealth but not of caste ; where the interests
of all are perfectly identical; where there are so many
means of mutual enlightenment and influence towards
promoting a general unity of opinion; that such
constituencies as those should go wavering between
extremes, and be driven about "by every wind of
political doctrine," is something disgraceful to them,
and unaccountable to the public, which so much
looks to their lead, and draws rules of conduct from
their judgment.
It is in our great towns that we perceive symptoms
of that canker which is eating into the representative
system of the United States, that is, the disgust of
moderate and enlightened men, who shrink from the
hustings even of their native town, leaving the
duties of public life, and the task of representing
their fellow-citizens, eithr to noisy demagogues or to
men of official eminence,e unknown to the locality,
and willing to undergo the ordeal of an election,
from the penalties and personalities of which they
have the good fortune to be absent.
Although these reflections are suggested by the
approaching contest for Manchester, we are far from
pretending that they fully apply. Mr. BRIGHT is no
ultra-demagogue, who tunes his voice to carry away
the applause of the multitude. lie is avowedly a
champion of the middle, not of the lower, class. His
very crotchets are exaggerations of bourgeois preju-
dices. His oratory is of the plain and energetic
school, which befits his opinions. His denunciations
of the aristocracy are not subversive, and are but the
expression of fair, open, civic rivalry. We disagree
with Mr. BRIGHT'S administrative opinions. His
foreign policy, we fear, goes no deeper than a few
phrases. His horror of whiggery. is a mistake, and
amounts more to personal objection, than political
differences. But, on the whole, Mr. BRIG= is the
fairest and fittest candidate at all apparent for
the representation of Manchester. We may conceive
see fitter, perhaps, but where is such to be found ?
And, indeed, the very good motive of the very great
debt of political gratitude, which Manchester owes
to Mr. BRIGHT, might alone deter any other man of
liberal sense and feeling from coming forward.
What shall we say, then, to the preposterous and
insidious idea of proposing Lord LINCOLN as a compe-
titor? Lord LINCOLN is a very respectable official; a
political serjeant, who has obeyed the PEEL word of
command in falling to the right, or to the left, im-
plicitly as that commanding officer called out. He is
an indefatigable, obedient, invaluable servant to a
Premier, but, at the same time, a nobleman so totally
without any idea or will of his own, that his elec-
tion for Manchester would be an eternal slur upon
the independent pride and intellectual pretensions of
that city.
Sir JAMES GRAHAM might as well stand for Lon-
don as Lord LINCOLN for Manchester, and with far
ore claim. But we should like to see the merchant
' enough to put him in nomination. The excuse
his Manchester organ for setting up Lord
is amusing. It is simply the plea of Dog-
respect, viz., " that he has had losses."
l to Parliament by the landed interest, he
it, and therefore he is to be caught up and
the mercantile interest, in order to allow
;. opportunity for making his peace with the
which he belongs, and to which, sooner or
e will most surely rally. One can well
3 Old Sarum to be made a consolation and
for men of any party who, growing too
for that party, have broken with it. One
rejoice at seeing the havens of small con-
cies open to such men. But that Manchester
become a refuge for the political destitute, and
• French call a fiche de consolation for errant
really bringing the second city of the king-

low.
Manchester has a proper feeling of pride, it
take care to have such representatives as could
parties, and profess an independent and
opinion, instead of electing mere joints of a
1 tail. There was one man in the empire to
Manchester, and that man was COBDEN.
,iven pretexts for his refusal in the state of
.lth, in his attachment to Stockport, and in
. considerations. But Mr. COBDEN is possessed
thorough vitality, and of health which, though
venient as an excuse, is quite good enough for
great and noble tasks to which nature destined
II is attachment to Stockport is graceful and
but Mr. COBDEN, if blind to the vanity of
'sl importance, is not blind ht its use and
nor would he have refused he increased

more canto.
bold enough
given in hi
LINCOLN is
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Returned to
betrayed it,
tried by thi
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conceive 01
retrieval fo
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11 should vejoi
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Tories, is re
iom very 11
i If Nlancl
should take
dictate to
honoured o
i 1 ministerial
represent
Ho has „iv
his health.
i 1 I other cons
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convenient
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i \ ' increased
weight, n