The Express.
London, England, 1848-04-01 00:00:00

paramount claims, to be hailed and raised upon
tee popular shield, as heroes or as liberals. The
Milanese do not forget their Cisalpine republic; the
King of Par SSIA finds little favour with his Fatherland.
The Germans in general are indignant at the
,ovulation, the arrogance, and the naked
ambition of his proclamations. The soldiers
are annoyed at his committing them to mortal
combat with the population, whilst keeping them
en the defensive, and permitting the citizens to
triumph. His " beloved Berliners have converted their
loyalty into irony, end support the.throne just as the
Parisians did LOUIS PHILITPE during so many years,
for the sake of order, yet in distrust of his policy and
dislike of his person. We repeat it—the cause of
monarchy is perishing in Europe for want of any
worthy repreuntative, for the want of any one
once, capable of attracting the admiration, or
commanding the devotion, cf the people.
It is not with joy, but, on the contrary, with fear,
that we perceive the likelihood of every sovereign
power and royal family being swept from the
wide empire of Germany and
.Italy. France
might, perhaps, make the great American experiment
with success ; but we doubt the possibility of nations
just liberated from despotism, and so devoid of expe-
rience, of tradition, and of institutions, doing this.
War, however, is the great political operation, from
which authority springs, and war seems of
MOSt difficult avoidance. Unfortunately, war
gives birth to authority of a kind, that
but ill amalgamates with freedom. And as DANIEL
WEBSTER foresaw the conqueror of Canada contest-
ing with the conqueror of 'Altaic() for the crown of the
United States, so we might expect to see German
heroes and marshals contending, as in the thirteenth
century, for the imperial crown.
There exists, however, a very great sedative in the
prospects of Europe, viz., the total absence of pecuniary
resource& The CZAR of Russia has fortunately been
investing his golden roubles is the fLnds of France,
and in the metallics, alas! so little metallic, of Austria.
And every other government, more or less de-
funct, has bequeathed a deficit, and nothing more,
to the perplexed finances of the liberal or re-
publican party. Thus war if it bike place, must be
defensive war. The Aulic council has neither an
England nor a Itoviisenitio to have recourse to ; sub-
sidies and loans are alike inconceivable. And the
equipping of cavalry, or the completing and furnishing
of parks of artillery, are acts of military administra-
tion quite beyond the reach of actual rulers.
When the l'imes, therefore, goes back to the olden
days, and threatens us with a renewal of the old
Italian campaigns—when it talks of the line of the
Adda, the sapient malicauvres of Austrian marshals,
and the impregnability of Mantua—our worthy con-
temporary is only halt a century out of his reckoning.
The question is not now how many battalions a
general may have, or what may be his stores and his
We of operations. The more important matter is to
know how are the population affected around and
behind him.
The Times is in fact not only half a century behind
in its strategy, but several days behind in its intelli-
gence. Thus it talks in a sapient leading article of
the probability of the Austrian troops taking up the
line of the Adds, with divisions receding on Lodi
and Pizzighettone, whilst the haeeof their army would
rest on .laritua and Cremona. Now if the /Yews had taken
the trouble of marling its eyes yesterday from its own
columns, so utterly barren of news from Italy, to the
Daily .V'irs, which was full of interesting particulars,
the Times would have seen that the " insurrection
was successful at both Lodi and Cremona ; and that
the fortress of Pizzighettone, with seventeen guns,
bad been captured by the Milanese." So much for
the "line of the Adda," and "the bridges of Lodi and
Piacenza," laid such stress upon by the Times! The
military writer in that paper ought to have known,
as we-did, that even by the accounts in the common
journals, the Austrians had abandoned the line of the
Adds and of the Oglio, that the insurrection had
passed these rivers; that Brescia and Desenzano were
to the power of the Milanese, and that the Mincio,
defended by Mantua and Peschiera were then the
apparent lines of defence. This is according to posi-
tive inteliigence. But rumour went much further ;
and the capture of Mantua by the people,
as well as the rising of Verona, Padua, and
Venice, were circulated and believed in Milan.
The Times therefore may draw its 'sponge or
its pen over its strategic article of youtertlay
morning, which is some 48 hones behind the course
of events, just, indeed as is its tardy announcemeut of
the ratification of peace between the United States and
Mexico by the Senate of Washington, or its solemn
article the other day on the King of PausstA's royal
patent, at the very time when news had arrived of
the said royal patent having been torn and set aside,
and the crown humbled in the barricades.

Loan Jots Russet'. deserves credit for the high
spirit 'With which he, last night, throwing party con-
siderations to the wind, acquiesced in the proposal
that a committee should be appointed to inquire fur-
ther into the alleged bribery at Horsham, before the
new writ for that borough was opened. The respect
for purity of election thus evinced by Lord JOIIN, if
courageously acted upon, opens to Lim a noble field
of exertion.
A minister who values purity of election, is earnest
for the improvement of national education, and wishes
to give retrenchment a fair chance, might do much
towards the attainment of all these three objects by
giving up the system of treasury jobbing in small
berths, and making them the rewards of successful
examinations. This would promote economy by
taking away the strong party motive for keeping up
large establishments of clerkships, tide-waiterships,
and all the rest of the small fry of places, by a judi-
cious distribution of which a government makes itself
strong in the constituencies. We give Lord Jolts
RI,ELL credit for sincerity in his often-expressed de-
sire to abate electoral corruption—repeated with
such unequivocal proof of its sincerity last night,
in reference to the Horsham case • and he de-
rives so much of his reputation from legislation'
on this subject, that even selfish motives would
prompt him to be particularly careful against any-
thing that could derogate from his consistency, or
cast a doubt upon his sincerity as the friend of purity
of election. Is there then any essential difference be-
tween the purchase of a vote by money, and the
purchase of it by a place given to the voter or his
relative? Is not Lord Joule RUSSELL now ad-
ministering a system place-distribution through
members of parliament, in the way of reward
for past, and inducement to future, support
at elections? Is there not an officer of the
government maintained at a large salary, and assisted
by various clerks and secretaries liberally salaried
also, for the express purpose of carrying on a system
of government which consists in the gratification of
parliamentary supporters by the distribution of
places among voters? Of two secretaries of the
Treasury, each paid 2,300(. a year, one is spe-
cially appointed to be the Prime Minister's organ
toe the management of the party—the conduit-pipe
for applications for places. Lord Jolts Russetl is only
doing what all his predecessors have done: but
will Lord Jolts Russell. now lead public opinion—
now strike out of the beaten paths of parliamentary
trecosserie and party conventionalism? Sir ROBERT
PEEL signalised his administration by various appoint-
ments to higher office, on the ground of merit, in dis-
regard of partisanship ; among other instances, he re-
teguise d the pre-cmitient claims of Mr. Justice
ERLF, a Whig, which the whigs had overlooked, to
judicial honours. The whigs have so far imitated Sir
RO:tERT, and in their recent appointments of Masters
in Chntecry appear to have acted on the principle of
selecting the best man. Will Lord Join RUSSELL
be ala ays content merely to follow Sir ROBERT PEEL ?
Is it to be left to Sir Roust is next administration to
cleanse the inferior regions of parliamentary jobbing,
end to extinguish the degrading system of which an
exemplification has recently come before the public,
in the statement made on high authority in the HOUR'
Of COMMOts of the number of places given by the go-
vernment to the voters at Harwich?
Parliamentary reformers of the last century thought
that they had disarmed corruption when they took
Sway the votes of revenue officers. The ministry that
earned that measure of disfranchisement were
sincere in their desire to petrify the constituencies.
'Seecan read Lord RocelNGHast's speech in de-
fence of the measure, in which he recounts seventy
boroughs where the election depended chiefly on re-
venue officers, and 'spoke with horror of no less than
11,50.) voters in the country holding offices
in the customs and excise, and appealed to
92e lords whom he addressed as to whether
it would not be folly to expect and cruelty to oblige
,these 11.604) men to vote against those who gave them
1 '"etr places, without being convinced of the sincerity