The Express.
London, England, 1856-05-23 00:00:00

frin exineoo.

TO OORIMPONDINTO.
Afiveribmisetstaineedllas "TM anima:ld:adieu imbrisper.
motbs•l to. odise. 114 Ilmorlowinst.lq Two Vise is Ur
fse of paillaMisa.

NIGH RATIN AT LONDON BNIDGI.
rus u.,--41.111.41. Ss. sSis aftemoes. 411. 11..
T"."l"—Waluse. 41‘. /Ss ---Aitarce. N. On.

LONDON, FRIDAY, MAY 23.

The Hones of Lords was occupied last night with
the discussion of cerain Resolutions moved by Lord
COLCHEOTEIt on the subject of the recent renuncia-
tion of Maritime pretensions on the part of Great
Britain in time of war. The claim to capture and
make prize of an enemy's goods found in neutral
ships, thouch waived from t si) to time in favour of
various countries, and renounced by the express
terms of various treaties entered into with them at
different periods and under different circumstances,
has p to the present time been gene-
rally and permanently abandoned. In cue of a
rupture with Spain, or any other State with which we
had not entered into a covenant of forbearance iu this
respect, the bi-netit of the humane stipulation would
have been lost, and we should have relapsed into the
old practice of rapine on the high seas. According
to the morality of Toryism, robbery of the defence-
less and plunder of the unarmed is not cruel,
cowardly, or un-christianlike, provided it be perpe-
trated out of eight of land. A certain depth Of
salt water makes all the difference; so says Lord
COLCHUTEN, the Vic►Preeident of the Board of
Trade under the last Tory administration; and so soy
the numerous peers of the realm who mustered last
night at Lord DERBY'S summons to supp3rt the
Resolutions in question. In the opinion of
these hereditary legislators, we are to read
history backwards. If by going far enough
into the dark ages we can get hold of indisputable
precedents for allowing our naval officers to make
fortunes by licensed buccaneering, then not only are
we warranted in following the practice in our day,
but a Minister who counsels the Crown to abjure
henceforth the right to issue licenses for such a pur-
pose, is wor.hy of the censure of the Peers of Eng-
land. In vain the Minister pleads that the Sove
reign powwow* the inherent power to exercise or to
repudiate the predatory prerogative adverted to. Io
vain be argues that the odium excited by the
very mention of its possible exercise, among
powerful and jealous neighbours, renders its
maintenance impolitic and injurious to the bet
interests of the nation at large. In vain he
pleads that no conceivable amount of sufficing we
can ever dream of being able to inflict on others, or of
profit we can hope to clutch for the private use and
enjoyment of individuals in our own naval service, can
be ant in the balance against the detriment inflicted
on the community at large by keeping up a source
of Moment bickering and perpetual misunderstand-
log, if not of open and costly quarrel, with surround-
ing States. The Opposition persist in arguing that
we have no business to throw away any weepun of
offence, however barbs:ow or brittle it may be. In
their code of national policy and national honour, they
have made no way in military civilisation, and. bc •
ease' their ancestors of Norman blood were thorough.
going pirates, it is honourable sod lawful—indeed,
rather a proof of high breeding, and all that sort of
thing—to en3ourage wholesale larceny on the bosom
of the trackless deep.

Link that k either new or mooing was found
in the statement of the noble lord who introduced
the resolotions of censure on the Government foe
having aulhorieed the resuaciation of the claim

abovementioned. Lord COLCIIISTEIt se•lllBtohaTe
been delivered, after somewhat tedious 'ribose, of a
pony pamphlet. Lord CLAIIII4DON'S defence of the
declaration signed at Paris, after the conclusion of
poser, by himself and Lord Covrtav, as representa-
tives of ()rest Britain in the Conferenees there, was
lucid, unambitious, calm, and—to all who Wen in a
condition to be convinced—cionclusire and convieco
ing. He showed, what his sodium always likes to
bear, that the sound principle, so far from being a
new or untried one, had been acted on repeatedly,
and in a great variety of instances, and that the
only merit or demerit of the present Government in
the matter lay in their having expanded and as-
earei the practice on lasting and liberal founds-
Coos. It was really no bald progeny of mere
justice or reason —on the contrary, it wore
a goodly wig of precedent. ; and all that her Ma-
IESTIII Ministers had done was to comb out and
powder its growing locks, and then tie them up
formally, and impart to them the look of firmness
that is imparted by diplomatic frxature. Hearing
this gravely asserted by a Secretary of State, and
clearly made out in detail, many elderly peers were
comforted, and voted with less hesitation that it could
not be right to do wrong, although, as they said, they
remembered to have heard Laid NILSON say quite the
clutrery, and had long cherished the belief that if
the habit of committing robbery on neutrals by sea
were ever Riven up, they should never hear "Rale
Britannia" played or agog any more in this world.
Lord CAMIAItVON was put up to reply to Lord
CLottenDog; and we readily admit that there are
signs of life and spirit about this new accession to
the Drib, ite ranks of which they may well be glad.
In these deg to days, when the old house seem
to have been stricken with political banana's., it is
refre.hing to find even oue exception who tries to
'peek without lisping, or whining, or mincing the
QUILIN'S English. We are sorry to see Lord CAZZ-
wAavom un the wrong side; but we have seen many
&useful politician begin as a Tory, and gradually
work round, until he ended as an enlightened state.-
man ; and at worst, we had rather see symptoms of
vigour and self-reliance in the ranks of re-aetion than
the stolid paralytic maundering we have of late been
used to. Ths Duke of ARGYLL was rather feeble;
Lord DERBY brilliant, bitter, and inoonclaaimn
Lord Gan. convincing; Lord Cilesnirius discreet.
Common sense and common humanity triumphed,
and COLCIIESTER'S motion WU negatived by a
majority of 64.

Mr. Revert, M. P., intends to move in the Holm of
Comm.*. f.r a warn of the items of all °dicers of the
a•mp olio rcotaiord in the Crimea, without returning home.
Aerie' the mbo!e time that oar army wee In the Crimes.
Oa the 10th ofJoa. Viscount Rayoham ia to neve,
in the iinwe Common., for a inflect committee to inquire
In o tie einditioa and adminieretion of the Metropolitan
Workbows ; and into the arrangement. made and married
out by ehe per .rhiol autherit ea, for Myles relief to the
see le the 'metropolis.

I. O'Beirne Crowe. Eeq., A. 8., Lee been elected to
He vseeat chair of wiener of the Colas lane-wee la the
Qeees'e CoVer,

The Dablin papers aanoettoe the death of Richard
Bourke, 11, sae t f the divieiasel roasirtnter of plh.
for that eftr. Mr. Bourke was a relative of the Earl of
Nap The alto 4 worth 0001. aleer.