The Express.
London, England, 1848-01-24 00:00:00

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The mails for the Illeadla, the River Plate, Maas Video, Femmes
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TO COIitZSPONDWITIL
Ad.r.iorstaa. lata....d for A. Exams.. 1.001011 rm.. pg....,
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WOE WATER AT LONDON SRI ROI.
Two Day —Wants& I •t.. part 4 4.0144•444. 46 mis. plot 4.
.40.14 —Morels& 4W. Awl 6 1 MIMS.% 20 Aga peel

LONDON, MONDAY, JAN. 24.

MR. COBDEN and Sir WILLIAM MOLESWORTH
have both taken the fieid against the Duke of WEL-
LINGTON and Mr. PIGOU; the former in a letter of
adhesion addressed to the peace-makers of Binning-
ham, the latter by accosting the Spectator somewhat
abruptly with the remark of, " Friend, are you, too,
going to war ?" The determined foe of Lord PAL-
MERSTON replies in half-a-dozen columns, part of
which is apologetic to Sir WILLIAM MOLES-
WORTH, the rest abusive of the Foreign Secre-
tary. Abuse of PALMERSTON is evidently a work
of such highly pacific virtue as to warrant,
a politician in voting per contra a million or two le,:
guns and soldiers without the slightest infringement
of its old drab principles.
Mr. COBDEN well said, that the national-defence
panic must have been got up by "some gossiping
idlers at the clubs." The duke's letter was a private
one to that authority of the ordnance department
particularly charged with defences. Nothing more
natural _than that two warriors of the great defen-
sive profession should lay their heads and pens
together to regret that more money and attention were
not spent upon their craft. But to have divulged it,
and fright the isle from its tranquillity. by the publi-
cation—that must have had a motive. Now, the
divulger was Mr. PIGMY, who wrote the letter signed
P—, and as Mr. Ptootr is a very extensive gun-
powder manufacturer, his anxiety was very naturally
to excite a demand for his commodity, as the Duke of
WELLINGTON and Sir JOHN BURGOYNE for their
peculiar science. It is the of :3 story of " there being
nothing like leather." The powder mills of PIGOU and
Ce., the gunnery of Sir JOHN BURGOYNE, and
those "lines" of military defence which form the
glorious hobby of the duke, are the elements of that
panic to which the Times and Spectator both were
dupes: the Times, however, having had the precau-
tion to withdraw from the delusion in time, may take
vengeance for being imposed upon by visiting it with
ridicule. _ . .

A correspondent asks a pertinent question re-
lative to the Duke's letter. He asks how it came
to pass that the duke in his own administration
could do so little, whilst he urges the whiga to do so
mach. In 1836 we had reached the lowest point of
military estimates, the expenses for the three services
being httle above twelve millions. The coolness with
France soon made a difference of a million in the
navy estimates, but the increase in the ordnance was
compensated by a decrease in the expense of the
army. In 1841, the navy estimates took a start of
another million. Hereupon the whigs quitted office,
the Duke of WELLINGTON'S friend, Sir ROBERT,
succeeding to power.
His policy was immediately to employ Lord ABER-
DEEN to fight the French with " soft solder," instead
of gratifying his military friend with large naval and
army estimates. In consequence, Sir ROBERT PEEL was
enabled even to make reductions, notably in the navy
estimates of 1844. Mr. POLK'S threats in 1845 in-
terfered, and Sir ROBERT withdrew the reduction ;
and increased the naval expense about 200,0001. more
than in 1843, and the army estimates 600,0001. more
than in the previous year.

When the whigs succeeded to power, and had the
good fortune to restore amicable relations with
America, one might have expected to see mili-
tary expenses reduced to what the Duke of WEL-
LINGTON had deemed sufficient during his Mend's
administration. Far from this : the estimates of 184 d,
Mr. Pout's year of anger, were—
Nary, 6,809,8271.; Army, 6,741,5891.; Ordnance, 2,109,7071.
Whilst in last year's budget, we find them :
Navy, 7,561,876; Army, 6,840,071/. ; Ordnance, 2,079,1271.

. . .
One would think there was here enough of increase
to have satisfied the Duke himself. Certainly he has
no reason to reproach the whigs ; they have done
more for his grace than the tory Sir ROBERT had the
courage to do. But Lord JOHN RUSSELL is a bold
' man and a conscientious one, and when once per-
suaded, wrongly or rightly, that the country needs any
thing, he daringly proposes and attempts it, without
waiting to consider how much it may injure his party
and disagree with his position, or how much more in-
cumbent it was upon the Tories to haveundertaken these
tasks than he. It was the case with the New Poor-law,
which it was for a Tory government and the landed
interest to have proposed andcarried. The whigs volun-
teered to do the task, and did it, getting in return
obloquy, not thanks. And they will get the same
obloquy and as little thanks, for raising the military
expenditure of the country.
Sir W. MOLESWORTH and Mr. COBDEN take their stand
against this increase of expenditure on the pacific tem-
per of the times, and the improved, enlightened, and
commercial character of the I. rench society and popula-
tion. Is free trade, they ask, to go for nothing? Is the
establishment of liberty and constitutional rights to
be inoperative in neutralising the warlike caprices of
ministers or monarchs? And, moreover, where is the
proof that more hostile feelings exist against as, or
that a few years are more likely to bring back war
than previous years and far fiercer bickenngs ? To this
no reply will be vouchsafed. And the mem-
bers of a cabinet, supplied by the large infor-
mation of diplomacy, may see tendencies and
contingencies —nay probabilities—which render
them anxious, and inclined to take military precautions,
although they display to the public merely the effects,
not the causes, of their fears. For our part, we are
inclined to consider the present, and the purposed mili-
tary expenditure, as simply a diplomatic movement
or demonstration, intended to have its effect on
Europe. It means to say to France, if you pnahto the
extreme your ambitious designs on the
Spanish throne, you may meet us prepared to
run the risk of war rather than acquiesce. Or
it may be addressed to Austria as a resolve
not to suffer the Pope to be reduced again
into an instrument of foreign despotism. No govern-
ment in England, we are confident, meditates war,
but they may practise warlike movements in order to
give ierength and emphasis to diplomacy.
- - •

This, however, renders diplomacy a very expensive
affair. Moreover, at the game of armament and ex-
penditure
M. GUIZOT bath his elbows, and France her
finances, freer than we. And if the war is to be
carried on by the swelling of budgets, the English
ministry will too surely be left behind by their pro-
digal rivals. If, therefore, this be the secret of
military expenditure, it is to be deprecated as idle.
Whilst if the expenditure be a real preparation for war,
a true and sincere mode of obviating and meeting in-
vasion, then we fear that it will prove still more in-
efficient. It would require a standing army of
200,000 to take this attitude ; and the English pocket
will stand no such augmentation.
If there can be shown, even in the remotest future,
any reasonable possibility or dread of invasion, let it
be met, as it alone can be met, by the military organi-
sation of the Country, in such a way as not to tax at
all the resources, and as little as possible the time and
anxieties of the population. Such a plan is worth
consideration and discussion. But to expend more
millions in the shape of regiments, without a very
near and urgent menace of war, is what the country
will not tolerate. And even if it could be surprised,
or carried away for the moment into supporting such
a scheme one year, it would be but to scout and to
undo it the next.

IT is with very great satisfaction that we are able
to state that the -Lords of the Admiralty have made a
communication to the attorney for the plaintiff in the
action of '• Buron v. Denman," announcing that the