The Express.
London, England, 1847-08-17 00:00:00

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LONDON, TUESDAY, AUG.I7.

THERE is a feature in the charges of venality and
corruption against French ministers, which haveleen
substantiated in one case, and are still vehemently
urged in others, which we have not seen adverted to.
They are pretty exact counterparts of what may be
read in our own history as late as the era of the
South Sea bubble. The trial of the first Earl of MAC-
CLESFIELD may pair off with the trial of M. TESTE.
It would seem from this that there is a period of
unblushing political profligacy through which all
states must pass in the transition from monarchical
to popular government. In France, at this day, M.
Trxra is, on the whole, more pitied than blamed ; and
so it was with the Earl of MACCLESFIELD in the days
of oar great-grandfathers.MONTESQUlEU was in the
right when he said that virtue was necessary in popu-
lar governments, though the hollow show of it called
honour was good enough for monarchies. In the poli-
tical as in the moral world institutions will generally
be found to be in advance of the spirit that is required
to animate them. Nations, like individuals, generally
acquire virtuous habits by acting a virtuous part:
they acknowledge the beauty of virtue ; they endea-
vour so to frame their outward conduct as to persuade
the world that they are animated by it ; and they end
by losing the habit of vice, and persuading themselves
that they are and always have been virtuous.
WALPOLE, the most magnificent trader in corral,-
' tion on record, was probably the most influential
agent in purifying and elevating the character of our
statesmen. Ilia frank avowal of the means upon
which he principally relied to gain and keep ad-
herents, was too palpable a mark for satire and indig-
nant eloquence to be overlooked by a Swirr or a
BOLINGBROKE. Their party followed in full cry, and
having contrived to render WALPOLE odious in no
small degree by their invectives against his corrup-
tion, they were compelled to affect the possession of
the opposite virtue after his fall; and gave, when
they fell out of their parts, fatal opportunities
to their adversaries. The public at large found
its advantage in honesty becoming a fashion with
public men, and by degrees the affectation became
reality. Venality there is still enough and to spare
among English politicians, but it is confined to ad-
venturers of a lower walk. The statesman who as-
pires to be a minister must with us be, like CESAR'S
wife, above suspicion. France is coming to this.
Already the transition period has begun. Perhaps
M. Guam., who is so deep-read in English consti-
tutional precedents, may live to trace, rila PLCTARCH,
a parallel between the fate of his own administration
and that of WALPOLE.

A Parisian trial, reported in our publication of this
day, may be taken as indicative of a similar advance
about to be made by our neighbours in the ethics of
private life. The tim e has been when Engl iah fitteratesrs
of as high name as those implicated in the EceitiEvm-
LEY-BEAUVALLON affair, might have been found mixed
up with transactions as discreditable. The chums who
cultivate the imaginative departments of literature
are never in advance of the moral tone of their age
and country. Sensitively alive to the seductions of
pleasure, with the scrambling make-shift habits of
all whose professional incomes are precarious, wooed
by those who have wealth and voluptuous inclining.
but no wit of their own to give • rest to their dull
banquets, the poet and wit have almost invariably
become victims of dissipation so long as dissipation re-
mained bon ion. The ascendancy of the morak bour-
geoise which, sooner or later, is the inevitable result of
popular institutions, keeps oar men of letters in check.
The manners and pleasures freely and unblushingly
participated in by French literati of acknowledged
genius are, in this country, confined to a class without
one shadow of intellectual pretensions, vibrating be-
tween the speculators of Capel-court and the inferior
class of blacklegs on the turf.
And so it will be ere long in France. Courage—
mere physical courage, is undoubtedly a valuable
quality. The finest moral sense, the clearest views
of equity and expediency, are often insafficient to
keep the timid man in the path of rectitude. Cow-
ardice is one of the most prolific sources of base crimes.
Hence the natural tendency of society to the exagge-
rated worship of courage, even where no virtues are
engrafted upon it. This is the origin and palliation
of false honour. No wonder this erroneous creed
should so long retain its empire over our brave and
vivacious neighbours, when its influence yet lingers
among oar more sedate, though certainly not less pug-
nacious, race. But a people of such good taste as the
French cannot fail to be revolted by the naked defor-
mity of such duellists as BEsuvALLos and ECQ
ua-
TILLET.

Not in triumph, not in glad vindictiveness, but de-
vout awe, is the spectacle to be contemplated of these
liars and murderers struggling vainly in the toils of
a relentless NEMEBIB. Since the hour that the quarrel,
forced upon their victim, was brought to a fatal termi-
nation by opposing him, ignorant as he was of the use
of any weapon, to the practised and unerring aim
of BEAUVALLON • a pistol to which his hand
was accustomed, they have been struggling in vain to
escape their inevitable doom. They have bees re-
peatedly tantalised by the prospect of escape, only to
nxt moment the breath of the wooer warmer
on their necks. The mad race has been prolonged
for years. At last, sad after they flattered themselves
that all danger was over, one is handed over to in-
famy. by the solemn declaration of a jury that
he is a convicted perjurer; the other is held
in strict confinement till he makes some inadequate
amends to the widowed mother of his murdered
man, by disgorging some of that money, which is,
after all, the dearest object to his sordid soul. And
to complete their punishment, both feel that, as the
hardness and moral cowardice of the duellist having
been fully revealed in their persons, they suffer
without sympathy.
We have indicated that this lesson appears to be
more needed in France than here, but even among
ourselves, there are some upon whom it will not be
thrown away.

EVERYWHERE the necessity for law reforms is mak-
ing itself apparent. The profession itself, in its Law
Amendment Society, has entered on the first combined
action for law reform, that has been known since the
establishment of the Common Pleas at Westminster.
This society is a product of our own times of which
we may well boast; less for what it has &me, than
for the spirit in which it has set to work. There
are few professions capable of reforming them-
selves. How many commanding officers can
conceive discipline without the cato'•nine tails ?
When has the church taken to cutting down its reve-
nues, to deplethorising its fat livings, to fattening its
lean ones, to mortifying itself, or to enlarging the
sphere of its teaching and its tolerance, from pure
inward impulses? It has rather thrown off the re-
forming leaven from out of its bosom, and driven its
GEORGE FOYER and WEBLEYB to schism and 880-
tarisaism.

It is well that
come reformers,
the law. If not
formed. No unprofessional
among its traps, and pipe
explosive elements,
more mischief than
There are two classes
deal with doctrines,
ities : the former

theologians—there is .
know TnomAs Actium

But the law has .
tithes. Its wealth .
fbr work done. The
irately with undue emc
the latter aright, the former will fall with them.
But the indispensable condition, prior to any Tigo-
rotes, sustained, and successful effort on the part of the
rgteeeion itself for the improvement of the law, is a

the profession are disposed to be.
for none but lawyers can ref. •
self-reformed, it mart remain _ m j: . „,
Sprofessional reformer . • r.
and pitfals, and strati. • -Stab
its, without a certainty i .
han good by any attempt •
.. .4 '' :
Nees of church reformers, .T m _
es, and those who handle m 4, , , pg
✓ most be churchmen, • .•%,, , . 40
re is no need that the ft
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71.0) .
Aotptsse from THOXAS A r;. ..-Al.
no fixed revenue, no glebe , • .
th is in fees, and fees are paymen
The law reformer cannot deal sepa.
s emoluments and errors. Attackuig