The Express.
London, England, 1849-01-05 00:00:00

gite gut 0.

MAILS.

n. for Mee, Oporto, Lisboa, liladairs. Coils, end Olbra
will Ime mode op on the moralimr of the ith Jon.
lb molls, vie Marosillso, to lb. Metinerranote. Phypt, AdOs.
OrylooStk ,
Ism lissig4C•ag, ke., will be made up on the eventing et
the

Tlit7;alll ler Delta* North Amerien, end the United Staten,
wl a be made up an the mob* of the 191 e Jen.
The Went India Ma* enelottlng beenuda, Nem% Haman,
New Orleans, and Dialeot. awl including dune for
=enc. Jenn-de-Iviennegui, New Grenada, Chili, and Peru, will
be aide up on the moral. al tie 17th Jaw
The mlb bt Ctilwelbet„ *ON OMNI% the lonian Islam& Egypt,
be, Ceylon, Ind* Ress-Kwas, end MN% via dautbenepton„ will
aids up en the warming at the 10th Jim
The mile be New South Webs, Van Cieenen'e land, and Nee
fashin will be wade up on the evening of the Met Jan.
The Bulb he Madeira, the ansils„ and Buena. Ayres, wil be
made up en the evening of the eth Feb.

114111 WATIIII AT LONDON SIIIDOS.
Tau 1).? —Aram IA eels. pm A*...... AI Ain Nat 10.
To IMSolll.4l.naft.s.U.• We 11 MAA•0011. l AA.. pal A

LONDON. FRIDAY, JANUARY 5.
We are at last beginning to ascertain the strength
of our enemies in the Paajaab. The circumscribed
operations of one or two detachments—led on by
Ames with whom expedition does not appear to be
an important consideration—have hitherto left us
very much to conjecture as to the real gravity of the
occasion. No peat Sikh army has sprung up to
dispute each ineh of grand with our battalions, and
our brigades have undertaken small expeditions with
very little molestatiou. Upon the streagth of these
facts, there has, from the first, been a large party at
hose who have beheld, in the intelligence by every
mail only additional evidence that the insurrection
was little better than a riot, and the enemy, both
in organisation and *ambers, among the most harm-
less we have at any time encountered. This error can
now no longer be tadalged in.
The despatches which appear in another part of
our impression aro the most important we have re-
ceived since the date of those which conveyed the
news of the retreat of General. Waxen and the defec-
tion:of the 10,000 men commanded by Same limos.
We are now informed of three events of considerable
moment. In the first place, the garrison at Moult=
do not appear to have been materially weakened by
the detachment of Su ERE S Ira OH'S troop nor by the stag-
nant character of the operations since October. It is now
confessed on all bands that MOOLRAJ is by no means
a despicable antagonist. He contrives both to keep
his men in spirits and to maintain around him a force
so respectable as to be computed at 12,000 men.
These are results which should render us cautious in
accepting with too much confidence such statements
of the desperate condition of the insurgent forces as
have come to us by almost every arrival since the date
of EDWARDER% successes in JUDO. Counting upon the
seal of his followers, MOOLRAI ventured upon a some-
what bold attack in the early part of November. He
threw out an advanced battery, and seconded the fire
of his guns by vigorous °pet mums in the field. This led
to a formal assault by the British on the 7th Nov.,
and to a severe skirmish, in which oar own troops be-
haved with most distinguished gallantry, and suc-
ceeded in driving in all the outlying piequete of the
enemy and in dismantling his batteries. Decided,
however, as wee this success. it was not attained
without considerable periL At the critical moment
of coming up with the enemy, about 1,000 men of
our Sikh allies, who have been from the first ander
the command of Oen. CORTLANDT (a Dutbar officer)
went over to the insurgents ; and at that precise mu
went the gloom of the British camp was increased by
the intelligence oolong drrinded of the expulsion of
Major LAWRENCE from Peshawar.
The defection of the troops, about 5,000 in number,
in Peshawur, is the moat serious part of the contents
of the present mail. It is not en evew which hill
t.erosion any setolni.hmt nt to those who have carefully
followed the fortunes of the war in that duqous vest

of the country, and who have observed the extreme
defectiveness of our arrangements tor increasing the
strength of the British occupation of the Upper Indus.
The third event of importance is the transfer for a
time of the active seat of the war from the southern
corner to the centre of the Punjaub. We have 'seve-
ral times had occasion to refer to the important move-
ment effected by SHEIM SINGH upon the l►ne of the
Chenaub. The Last mail informed us of the audacious
appearance of his skirmishers close upon Lahore, and
of the despatch in pursuit of Brigadier OODBY. It
now appears that the army under SLIEZE Soon has
been ascertained to be of considerable mag-
nitude, and more than ordinary celerity hu been dis-
played in concentrating an army upon the Chenanb
the head of which is Lord Gouca in person.
Divested of all extraneous details, the present posi-
tion of the combatants in the Purjaub may be thus
described.

At Monitan, there is our first enemy, MOOLRAJ,
with 12,000 or 13,000 men, and opposed to him is the
detachment of 8,000 or 10,000 men of all arms and all
services, under Gen. WHIM. Upon the line of the
Cheninb, and hovering upon Lahore, is the army of
Saute SINGH, amounting, there is little doubt, to
between 15,000 and 20,000 men—many of them
veterans and all of them of fierce .ind warlike
habits. In the same vicinity is encamped the very
suspicious brigade despatched by GOOLAB Sthoe from
Cashmere ostensibly to 00-operate with the British—
in reality, to afford the native levies of which it is
composed an opportunity of deserting to the enemy.
Higher up the country, in the Hazareb, is the army
of 8,000 or 10,000 men ander Churtuft finial'. These
are the troops who received so important an accession
of strength from the mutinous regiments at Bunnoo.
And on the other side of the Indus there are the 3,000
men who have just risen upon Major LAWRENCE,
and compelled him to escape with barely his life.
To erase these bill in,urgents in the Hazsreh
and in Peshawar, we have a handful of men in the
fortress of Attock, and the insignificant forces which
follow the fortunes of Captain ABBOTT. The closing
paragraphs from Bombay do not justify the hope
that Attock can be held by its present garrison, and
the probability therefore seems to be that nearly all
the country to the north of Wuzzeerabad must be
temporarily abandoned, and that a winter campaign
must be undertaken among the bleak mountains of
that threshold of the Himalaya, against an enemy
formidable in numbers, and possessing the immense
advantage of defending a difficult country which he
understands, in a season of the year exceedingly un-
favourable to a foreign force.
In the meantime the fate of the capital still be
decided in all likelihood by a pitched battle between
Lord GOUGH and Sneaa SINGH, at some point
between the Raves and the Chenaub. In the aggre-
gate, Lord Gouoa is said to command a force of
20,000. We have seen a sketch of the encampments
of the Lahore army on the 13th November, and on
that day the troops immediately in the pre ence of
the enemy were Lot nearly so numerous. It is pos-
sible, however, that measures of concentration may
have taken place.
We cannot have a moment's fear as to the result of
such a conflict. The Kbalsa soldiers would be again
driven headlong before the valour and discip'ine of
our Sepoy troops, aided by the strong arms and the
cool courage et the European contingent.
A decisive victory over so important a leader as
SIIERE SINGH would do much to restore peace
' throughout the Punjsub, but it coald scarcely exempt
us from the necessity of a tedious and expensive ex-
pedition against those fierce tribes of the north with
reference to whom we ought to have taken decisive
measures in the summer.

When the return of a comparative tranquillity has
given leisure for a calmer judgment there will be an
opportunity of considering several important questions
which have grown out of this unfortunate rebellion.
The House of Commons will scarcely be content with
less than another Blue-book, and by its assistance we
shall probably discover ample justification for the
severe censure which the Indian acd the home autho-
rities are understood to have conveyed to those who
have been responsible for the military movements of
the last six months.

WHAT has styled itself the moderate party in
France, consisting, we must admit, of the most esti-
mable, and experienced politicians, though
n"fortunately with little accordance in their views
and ideas, made, in our opinion, a great mistake in
holding 'AA from the republic, confessing their dis-
like for that !orm of government, and, the greatest
fault of al, in bringing the National Assembly to
sanction the return and, by a mcessary consequence,
the election of Louts NeroLeorr.

We do not say, however, that all the sections of the
moderates, collected in their Rue de Poitiers CI üb, %were
foolish in the same proportion. The bringing in of
LOUIS NAPOLEON, for example, was not a bed move
for the legitimists—ler the men of landed property
and high monarchical tendencies. It was a step to
absolute power, and absolute power is beet founded
on the interests of the selfish lord and the hero wor-
ship of the ignorant peasant.
But there was another, and by fer the greater, part
of the moderates to whom the election of Louts
NAPOLEON was suicidal. And that was the party
and the representatives of the brnirgeoisie or middle
class. A moderate republic, or an ORLEANS monarchy,
the reign of a CAVAIONAC, or a Count de PARIS, was
evidently what would have beet suited their interests,
whilst Loots NAPOLEON and his four millions of
peasant vA.tes in truth represent every other in-
terest, save that of the bourgeoisie. And yet M.
()DILLON BARROT and M. 'FLIERS, the statesmen of
the bourgeoisie, hoped to Rain power and to keep
power by means of LOUIS NAPOLEON. S. remarkable
a blunder does not surprise us in M. BARROT, who to
a great many tslents, joined that of foresight.
But we own we were surprised to hear that M.
THUM had favoured the present President',
elec-
tion.

But when the chief, who was the elect of the pea-
santry, at once chose the man of the liberal bour-
geoisie to be his prime minister, it was easy to see
that the President and his ministry had come toge-
ther by chance indeed, and with good intentions, but
in utter ignorance of what must be the principles and
tendencies of ealb. General CAVAIONAC was the
national representative of the French bourgeoisie. lie
bad vindicated, defented it, and raised it from the
mire into which the lower class had trodden it; just
as the first revolution had raised the middle class
from the mire into which the upper class had trodden
it. Had there been sense or gratitude in French
citizenship, it would have elected CAVAIONAC.
But trade was stagnant and business scarce;
the r< publio was blamed for it ; and the re-
pablic was postponed to the restoration of the NAPO-
LZON dynasty. Still a very large proportion of the
town population voted for CAVAIGNAC. as did all the
seaports, and a fair Dolling of the civic class, even
under their despondent circumstances,wouid have led,
we think, to the pi efenence of CAVAIONAC.
But the peasantry were for the name of NAPO-
LFON. Indeed the great result of 1848 has been to
make the peasantry, their interests, and their ideas,
predominant all through Europe. Throughout all
Auwria and Prussia the peasant has got possession of
the soil. The same class already poristssel it in France,
and in December, 1848, it superadded the power
of nominating the chief of the government over the
heads and interest,, of the middle classes.

Whilst thus asserting that the moderates, and
especially the moderates of the bourgeois class, pur-
sued a coune of suicidal folly in promoting the elec-
tion of Louts NATOLEON, we can find nothing in the
conduct of this personage to censure. His candida-
ture, as far as he was concerned, was honourably con-
ducted. And all his acts since his accession denote
no more than just pride, blended with every fair
desire for conciliation.

In his differences with M. DE MALLEVILLE, it was
the latter who made the gross mistake of supposing
that the President was nobody. The bare idea of
supposing a President without patronage or power
was an absurdity. A king will have both power and
patronage, though neither may be constitutionally as-
sigred him ; but his permanent and hereditary hold
of the crown naturally inclines all to he obsegnious to
him and his. Would the Duke of WELLINGTON or
Lord JOHN RussELL set aside as impertinent a re-
commendation of Queen VICTORIA that a certain fit
person should have a place of 5001. a year in the Fine
Arts Commission P Yet this was the recommenda-
tion from LOUIE NAPOLEON that M. DE MALLEVILLE
blazed up at. Surely if M. I/E MALLEVILLE kept the
nomination of his t,refects, ho might have left the
dilettante portion of his patronage to the prince. Loots
NAPOLEON served that gentleman quite right by kick-
ing him into th.• obscurity from whence he etme. And
what is more, the million of ptatart. vo.cra will

applaud Loma NAPOLEON for such an act of spirit, cc
for any similar act of spirit, which he will no deal,
be tempted to commit, as difficulties arise and cue,
cumstances warrant. The moderates should hues
made up their mind to that. Their favouring the
election of a princely president, implied their se4ins„.
cenoe in being reduced to courtiers.
LOUIS NAPOLEON'S first cabinet was wisely aid
conciliatorily made to contain members of dame,
whets. M. DE MALLEVILLE WaS in the confide's,
of M. Tama, M. Bum in that of the moderate es,
publicans. It was thought that these would
to the new government, and that CAVAIONAC Iv/
be a field marshal. At the first trial, however, Ale"
combination was found impossible. The moderate is.
public sits on the opposition bench, and M. Bixto bie
retired. M. THIERS gives but a semi-sanction is
the new government, in which his enemy, R.
PASS; is enthroned, and M. DE MALLEVILLE
has
withdrawn. M. BARROT and M. FAUCHER, there.
fore, as representatives of the old dynastic leA
conduct the government. They are honest men and
able, and so is PANSY, though he represents no one
save himself. But the basis of such a government "
too narrow. It has neither in the chamber nor in the
country a support calculated either to add strength to
the President, or show strength sufficient to control
any wrong tendencies on hie part. But we must ova
at the same time that we as yet have seen no wrong
tendencies, and no measures worthy of serious die.
approbation. We have our fears indeed, but nothing
will give as more pleasure than to find them un-
founded.

Two important admissions are made by the oppo.
nents of financial reform—that the nation cannot be
satisfied but by retrenchment, and that the branch of
the national expenditure in which retrenchment is
most easily practicable is our defensive establishment
naval and military. No farther gone than Wednesday
last, the Times implored ministers to " see what relief
can be afforded to the tax-payers of the country?'
and vowed that the English people will not believe
" that important redactions cannot be effected in the
administration of the army, navy, and ordnance."
It is, however, but too apparent that these admin.
stone are made with a sinister intention. The whig
and tory mouthpieces mingle in the crowd which is
crying for reduction of expenditure and taxation,
as the swell mob join the hue and cry after a thief, to
favour the escape of the delinquent, not to aid in
arresting him. The game that is being played by the
Times may serve as a sample of the tactics adopted
on the present occasion by that journal and is allies.
Mr. COBDEN'S letter to the Liverpool Financial As-
ambition was first noticed in the Times with compli-
mentary banter, and then with grave rebuke of its
alleged exaggeration and inaccuracy. Mr. Mac.
GREGOR'S budget had next a promirent place given
to it in the columns of the " leading journal," that
gentleman having estima ed the utmost posainle re.
duction in our naval and military expenditure at
about one-halt of what Mr. COBDEN has done. Close
upon the heels of this publication followed a com-
mentary in which even 'he amount cf reduction con.
templated by Mr. Meoongooft was declared to be ex-
cessive, and the impracticable complexity of his
scheme elaborately enforced. Lastly, on Wednesday last
two batteries were opened at once in the columns of
the Tines :—A letter from a correspondent paraded
as ostentivionsly as type and position render possible,
and a leading article. The burden of the correspon-
dent's song is that army, navy, and ordnance must be
maintained on their present foo'irg, but that a great
number of petty savings may be made in the detail'
of management : of the " leader's," that the corre-
spondent may be too sanguine, but that he has
pointed out the true and only way of retrenching, ...I
that a good deal may be &me in the manner he pro-
poses.

This is the old and approved method of thwarting
men earnestly intent upon any object he affecting
sympathy, and gradually " letting down /' their en-
thusiasm. Insidious adversaries who adopt this me-
i thod pretend at first to sympathise with thosa whose
action they seek to check and frustrate ; swagger and
talk big, and are as angry or angrier than they.
Having gained the ear and confidence of their victims,
they next mention, but without appearing to recom-
mend, some measure lees decided than is in contem-
plation. Having thus broken the fall—taken the
precaution to avoid too abrupt and startling a transi-
tion—they some etimo later propose a measure still
lees trenchant. They knJw that nothing cools
enthusiasm or impedes action so effectually as to
set the mind to work upon the comparative merits
of a variety of projects. Having thus hampered the
enemy with perplexity of choice, they enlarge in a
prudential tone upon the risk of losing everything
by attempting too much : they persuade them to try
a scheme which must be practicable because its re-
sults cannot be very great ; and they take care that
this scheme shall consist of such a multiplicity of de-
tails that the parties undertaking it are sure to be
worn out and disgusted with their task long before it
can be possibly accomplished.
Let us set resolutely to work, says one reformer
and at once strike ten millions per annum off the
national expenses. The project is worthy of grave
consideration, says the Times to the applauding by-
standers. Then a little later it adds, by the bye another
reformer has a plan for taking five millions off the
national expenditure. In a short time, taking care
not to remind those whom it addresses of the first
proposal, it enters into a critical comment upon
the second plan, rather throwing cold water
upon it. The next step is to get a confederate to
propose a reduction still smaller, and involving a still
greater multiplicity of small operations, and to say
approvingly, aye, this is worth trying ; let us set
about it.
Now if the public are silly enough to take this
advice, they will soon find themselves involved
in an immense number of petty discussions.
As much cavilling and hargle-bargling will be wasted
upon the proposal to reduce the annual 1,300/ of the
Chelsea board by a couple of hundreds as might
serve to carry a saving of a million. The overhauling
of the dockyard contracts will be a hopeless task ; for
officials versed in the routine, details, and slang of
office will fight for every penny f expenditure
against parties who are necessarily strange at thee
minutia. The Times would persuade us not a far-
thing of the seven millions of direct charge for the
support of soldiers and sailors can be abated, and
advises us to try our hands noon the ten millions and
a half expended on ships, barracks, guns, clothes, and
provisions. The Times knows right well if so many
sailors and soldiers are granted, their ships, lodgings,
sustenance, and accoutrements cannot be refused, and
that the technical erudition of slop-sellers, contractors,
et hoc omens genus will baffle and bewilder all en-
grers. And neither the Times, nor its alter ego,
correspondent, has condescended to specify any
definite probable reduction that may ultimately re-
ward the wrangling of years.

FRANKFORT, Dac. 31..

The more light is thrown upon the relations of the
central power to Austria, the more the conviction
gains ground that Gagern hati allowed himself to be
misled by the diplomacy of Prussia, which has been
making every effort since the revolution of March to
throw Austria oat of Germany. The triumph of the
Sclavonian sabre has only afforded Prussia an oppor-
tunity to unmask the batteries which it had long had
ready, and to begin firing. The new Austrian ministry
have refused to pay the quota of a million and a half of
florins to the German fleet ; adding that the Austrian
fleet will always be at the service of the commerce
and maritime interests of Germany. It is believed
that had not Austria needed every dollar it an raise,
its contribution to the fleet would have been paid.
Another ground taken op by the Gagern ministry lathe
refusal of Austria to correspond with the central
power, except through the minister for foreign affairs.
There is more of appearance than reality in this; for
in point of fact it is only restoring the ante-revolu-
lionary arrangement, wider which the relations be-
tween Germany and Austria devolved upon the
foreign bureau. The crowning offence of the
Austrian government is its refusal to ac-
cept, without previous examination, the German
constitution, as it has been voted by the National
Assembly. Doubtless, all these indications show the
ill-will that the new Austrian ministry bears to the
central power and the National Assembly. But this
ill-will is not entertained by Austria alone. All the
old powers of Germany are animated by it also:
Prussia has, for some months, withheld the military
homage claimed by the central power : the Branden-
burg ministry exists, as if in contempt of a formal
vote of the National Assembly and a proclamation of
the• Vicar of the Empire and his cabinet ; H mover
and Saxony have refused even to give publicity to

*reasoned articles passed eight days ago by the
&Moil Assembly; and Bavaria apes Austria, and
declares that in Mare all its oxreepoedeice with the
antral power in Frankfort shall pees terough the
peeigsoffice. All this provee that the central power
amil have hard work of it before it can introduce
laity of action into the idea, and habits of the old
jaal governments of Germany; but all this roves
ems that if every refractory government ie ,o be de-
dead to be ao 'ergot a. part of Germany. Germany
wine is few days, conetst only of the church of St.
ea, esd the bureaux of the mistral power.
It to palpable thatM. von Gagers hoe mate other
mai ir "the rigour with which he treat* Austria
tbem im minim to the Central Power ; and it re-
m ardeoas search to discover that this other
ewes io *be ambition and intrigue of Prussia. From
lip very Misusing Prussian diplomacy proposed to
you ra agree* Germany into one state, excluding
Aspria. This has been emote:mining] the object
du* labours of Radowitx, Camphausen, us
and Val Arnim. They have published and caused
to be published pamphlets by the doses, all to the
Mme tune—a united Germany with Austria left out.
it elm in this mom that M. Hanemann was the first
a, propose a " double orgesimatir "—as incorpo-
rated German empire under the pitsidency of Prussia,
aid a more lax connexion with Austria—all for the
mho of ridding the king of a rival claimant of the
imperial crown. The game becomes more apparent
army day ; it i. to be hoped not too late for the
Fraokfort Assembly to open its eye* and see where
Prussia is leading it. It is carious to remark the skill
with which it has persuaded the Frankfcm Assembly
to manuficture a constitution in which there is
as place for Austria; and how bogy it now is to
prevent the door shim in Austria's face from being
opened again. The second and third sections of
the German constitution partition the Austrian ter-
ritories; and there paragraphs were carried by the
'Moot the friends of Prussian ascendancy. Possibly
good mom may some day regain the upper hand, but
it will be with difficulty. At present intrigura are
being carried on more busily than ever. Whoever is
open ton bribe is bribed, and many votes will ere
long be called for in vain by the parties which count
upon them. Austria appears to be beginning to see
how the game goes, and is rallying its partisans.
"The left," which alone retains its original position,
wit: lose some of its Prussian votes, but the Austrians
and the Roman catholica will vote with it. This is
celled a coalition, but the term is calculated to mis-
lead. There is no co-operation except for the purpose
of retaining Anemia as an integral part of Germany,
and niisting Prussian domination. Neither " the
t," nor its occasional allies, remit their antagonism
m other points. This is no coalition. The cry of
coalition m a mere trick to divert attention from the
tricks of Prussia. The co-operation of the ultra-con-
sercrives and the radicals will end as soon as they
have prevented *he partition of Germany—and I be-
lieve they will be able to prevent it.