The Express.
London, England, 1846-10-24 00:00:00

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

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LONDON, SATURDAY, OCT. 24.

WE cannot go the lengths of our contemporary,the
Spectator, in abetting, or carrying to an extreme, the
kisser alio. system of foreign policy. We should be
delighted, were it possible; we should be enchanted
dispense with fleets and armies, to cashier diplo-
macy, and to scatter treaties to the wind. Even then,
however, we should shrink from making over the
nations and countries of the world to the French,
their King ; inasmuch as the French have proved

worst colonists in history, and the moat incapable

managing or administering, even with common
fairness or sense, a country beyond their European
limits. Philanthropy, as well as patriotism, would
us make object to see any large portion of the
treated after the fashion of Algeria or Tahiti.
Most nations have colonised and conquered from
At may be considered natural motives, and from
popular rather than government impulses. The

English, at first in search of religious freedom, then
pursuit of trade, have founded empires. The
Ipaniards and Portuguese, in search of gold; the
Dutch, in search of the costly objects of another he-
misphere ; have filled vast regions with their race,
their name, and their power. The French alone, of
European countries on the ocean, abandoned to
• government all care and thought of such enter-
and never made what might be called a na-

effort. _ Nor, free as they have been for the

quarter of a century, has the country shown any
impulse of the kind. The government alone, not
genuine motives of colonisation, but from the
e of gratifying vanity and reaping idle renown,
:expended men, ships, and money, the talent,
zeal, the courage and experience of its subjects, on
most futile, scattered, barren, and inane of con-
; in not one of which has it realised one hope
1, one principle of humanity, one atom of
strength, and where it has reaped a far greater har-
of disgrace than of laurels.
its European policy and conquests, we see the
government pursue the same pernicious

as in its colonial policy. There are many ways

A paths for extending the influence and dominion
France, in which the nation would have joined heart
hand, and from which its material and permanent
' would have flowed. But the intimidation of
princesses, and the filching of a crown for a
the house of ORLEANS, is no national con-
It is a gratification of avarice to the
reigning house,—a source of vanity to the
party, and of parliamentary triumph to
ministry. The bulletins of the marriage are
• same tinsel character with those from Algeria
iti ; nothing solid, nothing sterling, nothing for
. .

. nation to take pride in. The entire motive, from be-
ginning to end, is vanity, vanity. One of the great
gratifications of that vanity is the fact of having
outwitted us. There is not one scruple of patriotism
philanthropy in it ; not even the shadow of an
• purpose. _ _

our contemporary anticipates good from conquest
achieved with such motives, setting aside altogether
manner and the means in which and by which
7 ere effected. This destruction of the consti-
' liberties of the Spaniards ; this contempt for
independence ; this gagging of their press; this
and proscription of their chief citizens, for re-
g to illuminate or " express delight " on the
occasion of the French Prince's marriage ;—all these '
outrages on the Spaniards, achieved amidst their 1
are to be viewed with complacent satisfaction; '
C are to rub our hands thereat in glee, because
Court journal of France preaches the doctrines
promises the furtherance of free-trade.
We feel pretty certain, for our part, that this sudden
conversion of the French court to the doctrines and
preaching, but by no means to the practice, of free-
'rade, is but a trick to lure and deceive the British, and
induce them to contemplate tranquilly the extension
he influence of France over all her frontiers.
is the secret of Mr. COBDEN'S gracious recep-
; this the cue of the articles in the Journal des
its; this the bait which the Spectator so readily
swallows; this is the basis of the statesmanship and
• convention, by which France undertakes to annex
countries around her, and by which England is to
- and abet it, on condition that France, at some
day, and in its own profound liberality, may
extend to us the boon of free-trade.
Depend upon it, France will do no such thing.
power which she has exercised at Madrid for the
year, has been actively employed to our commer-
detriment. English goods have been completely
- from the north of Spain, and the difficulties of
contraband and its premiums enormously in-
creased ; whilst every facility has been afforded to the
French. The new Spanish Navigation and Customs
, act prohibitorily to our vessels; whilst French
vessels arc treated on a par with Spanish. Por-
al, under the same influence, has raised
tariff against us. NAPOLEON himself, perfecting
plan of a continental blockade, was never more
iveterate against us than the influence of the House
'ORLEANS has proved in the Peninsula, Our govern-
' aPp011.20.. once to a French minister to be treated
. fairness and equality. His reply was, that to
French and English commerce on the same foot-
; in the Peninsula would not be fair, for that the
English had so many advantages in capital and ma-
chinery which the French had not, that in order to
establish equality, English should pay ten per cent
bore than French. Such arc French Government ideas
free-trade.

r'rance indeed is not without generous spirits,
liberal and philanthropic men, who have undertaken

to fight the battle of Free-trade, not from temporary
or party motives, but from liberal and wise conviction.
We much fear, however, that as long as the French
constituency remains as it is, in which the producers
are all electors, and the consumers are the disfran-
chised, we can have very few hopes of any liberal or
Free-trade vote from the Chamber, however we may
hear fine speeches and well-sounding theories.
We would therefore keep, with respect to France,
an attitude removed indeed from warlike threats or
idle bate, but equally removed from infantine con-
fidence or cowardly apathy. The French people are
by no means masters of their own fate, or their own
government. Their electoral body forms a close
borough, of which his Majesty is the patron. The
Court rules; and the Court is selfish, ambitious, and
tricky. The Spanish Court will now be rendered influen-
tial by the same means, and will be pulled by the
same cord. Sach a joint system in the two coun-
tries is not a thing to laugh at, to smile at, to make
courteous bows to. It is much more politic, as well
as dignified, to show a full sense of our wrongs, our
suspicion, our dissatisfaction, our determination not
not to be trifled with ; all which can be done with-
out squabbles, menaces, ill-temper, or war.
When the Spanish difference first arose, the Spec-
tator took to comment upon it with its usual good
sense, and exclaimed, " How can we resent this,
where is the money to come from ?" A very fair and
natural question ; and a fit one, when addressed to
Englishmen, who understand it. But the French
caught at it instantly, and copied forthwith into their
columns the ejaculation of the English print,
" Where is England to find money ?" Now, this mode
of making old England plead in forma pauperie does
not tend to the country's respectability or strength.
Neither does our ever jocular mode of contemplating
the blows dealt to us, after the fashion of Clown in
the Pantomime, at all lead to the conciliation of our
- rivals. It is much more calculated to provoke their
isbext,, I contempt

ALL that the best teacher can do, is to place his
pupils in the way of teaching themselves. He brings
knowledge and lays it down before them ; he shows
them how he set himself to pick it up ; he makes
them try to do as he has done. Beyond this he can-
not go, unless the scholar, too, play his part. It is
only by self-exertion that knowledge can be acquired.
All who know anything in a manner that deserves
to be called knowledge, will confess that, however
excellent the seminaries in which they have been
trained, and however long a time they may have
spent in them, the moat important education is that
which they have given themselves, after they were
thrown upon the world and their own resources.
This is not said in disparagement of schools and
colleges. He who enters busy life through these
porticoes, starts from a vantage-ground; or, to adopt
an appropriate metaphor, he enters by the gate in-
stead of climbing over the wall. He is at once ab-
sorbed into the society of those who know, and be-
comes assimilated with them by an easy process ;
, instead of making all kinds of irregular and awkward
I attempts, and meeting with unavoidable repulsions, as
the irregulars do. Still, he who should sit down con-
tented with his school or college acquirements, would
find them utterly inadequate to the purposes of active
life. It is, besides, only by continually adding to
them that he is enabled to hold them fast. This is as
true of those who are trained in the realisma of mo-
dern science, as of those who are trained in Greek
and Latin words " after the school of Eton-upon-
Thames."

Any branch of knowledge a man may have been
initiated into at school, that bears upon or is useful in
the details of his practical avocations, he is pretty
sure to retain and augment. Practical acquaintance
with its objects, communicates greater vividness and
precision to his ideas. The alternate struggles of
action, and reflections of repose, develope and
strengthen his mind, rendering it more capable of
effective study. But the minute subdivision of em-
ployments in our artificial state of society, renders
all knowledge thus acquired extremely incomplete;
limited in range, and monotonous in character. Such
practical acquirements generate an unhealthy state
of mind, in which a few of the faculties are
developed with unnatural strength, while the rest
are left to wither and die out Hence the importance
of all institutions which contribute to the self-education
of adults, in the numerous and diversified departmen-
tal pursuits of knowledge and taste. They supply, in
some measure, to those whose education has been neg-
lected, the advantages withheld from their youth.
They are, to the more favoured, intellectual gymnasia,
in which, by exercise, they continue to invigorate and
expand their intellects.
These are the views which teach us to hear with
pleasure of the prosperity of all instructive insti-
tutions, whatever aim they hold out to themselves,
whatever their form and organisation, by what-
ever name they may be known, Mechanics' Insti-
tution, Literary or Scientific Society, Association,
Academy, or Debating Society. All are useful.
There will of necessity be much of trivial and
common-place, in the proceedings of all of them.
All have their periods of growth and decay ; their in-
tervals of torpor. But as one grows feeble and
lethargic, another rises to take its place; and sometimes
an infusion of new blood has been known to awaken
up a society in a state of suspended animation, and
enable it to surpass its former efforts. The mere
taking of an active interest in ono or more of such
combinations, in itself keeps alive the sacred flame of
intellect; exertions which lend eclat to any of them,
by widening the circle of those who sympathise with
its labours, heighten the intellectspl life of society.
It is in some sort the duty of those who can appre-
ciate the infinitely greater indirect than direct influ-
ence of such institutions in cultivating the public
mind, without bigotry for any favourite form,
to promote that which, for the time being,
is most acceptable to the public. When Me-
chanics' Institutions are most in fashion, let us
work by their instrumentality ; when Scientific Sock-
ties bear away the palm, let us be active members.
- .

Of all the cliversi;ded forms of organization assuried
by intellectual cir des, there is none of greater pro-
mise than that of the Manchester Athenwurd. It
combines earnr.st instruction with literary ind-Ogence
and even attwation to mere bodily comfort. It holds
out attractions to an immense variety of tar.tes, and it
imparts mare or less of a literary tone to all whom it
attracts. By one, it is frequented merely as a place
where ne may spend the evening pleasantly, or dine
comfortably and cheaply. To anoth':r, its lectures
are the chief attractions. To a third the library, in
which he may quietly follow out his own peculiar
studies ; or the newspaper table, where he may look
at the busy world through the coloured glasses of
so many keen partisans. But the predominance
of the intellectual fare imparts a peculiar tone to the
conversation of the place, and thereby to the charac-
tere of all its habitual frequenters. The annual soirees,
by bringing the members at their high festivals into
contact with the first intellects and notabilities of the
age, cannot but have an awakening effect on well-con-
stituted minds. The members of an institution, too,
which can attract such visitors as have graced and dis-

tingnished these annual meetings, are more respected
on that account by their fellow-citizens. The pro-
phets have honour in their own land.
Lord MORPETII was right when he attributed in
no small degree to the silent influence of the
Athentenw, the many kindred processes which are
actively at work for good in lAnchester—the public
parks ; the public baths and wash-houses ; the founda-
tion of industrial schools ; the weekly half-holiday of
the warehouses ; the early closing of shops. It may
be confessed that Mr. MARK Pinups spoke the
simple truth in his candid confession at the breakfast
—that he "did not expect to be complimented by
strangers upon the state of the streets, or the beauties
of their principal edifices, or the sewerage or sanatory
regulations of-the town." But through the instru-
mentality of the Athena um—not forgetting kindred