The Express.
London, England, 1862-08-02 00:00:00

HIGH WATIR AT LONDOir BUDA'.

THIS DAT —Morning, sh. Mtn__ Afternoon, 61t. S'Ont.
To-1108ItOw—Mtenin, Oh Wm.— . Afternoon, 7b.. atn.

LONDON, SATURDAY, AUGUST 2.

WHENEVER an eminent criminal is hanged we
are sure to be informed that he slept well over-
night and made a hearty breakfast at a very early
hour in the morning. There is something horribly
fantsatic in thattriffing circumstance of the breakfast
of a man whose grave is already made, and whose
coffin is waiting to receive him before the sun is
high in the heavens. The customary paragraph in
last Thursday's papers, which informed the public
that her Ku FSIT'S Ministers had " proceeded" down
the river the evening before in a gaily decorated
steamer to dine together at Greenwich, bore an
ominous resemblance to the matutinal refreshment of
the condemned convict who "proceeds" from his cup
of coffee and his bread and butter to the gallows. If
we may be allowed to borrow and adapt Macbeth's
reply to the announcement of his remorseful wife's
decease, we would say of the recent Ministerial
whitebait feast : " They should have dined here-
" after." They might have digested that un-
comfortable refection in peace, and enjoyed with•
out misgiving the Pasmint's sparkling pleasantries
over the wine at the Trafalgar. But, thanks to
the latest legislative blunder of one of the
departmental chiefs, it was fated that this year
the PALMERSTON Cabinet should hold the banquet
on Wednesday, and be sentenced to the extreme
penalty, and left for execution on Friday night.
Mr. COBDEN'S "Observations on the administra-
" tion of the noble lord the Member for Tivc--
" ton in relation to the legislation and state of
" parties in this House," were, in spite of the
perfect suavity of manner and kindly tem-
perance of language a sentence of death to the
Petmeitsros regime. All the resources of clap-
trap and bravado will not *suffice to save a
swaggering and mountebank imposture from the
judgment pronounced upon it lust night. Not
even Mr. DISRAELI'S elaborate and pompous Tory
manifesto will make the treachery of Liberal
Chiefs respectable, nor will all his contemptuous
and compassionate rhetoric persuade what re-
mains of a Liberal party for vanity's sake to patch
up its rags and hide its running sores. It was no
fault of Mr. COBDEN'S that he delivered
the party into the enemy's hands, and fur-
nished the Leader of the Opposition with
a quiver full of poisoned and unerring darts.
For other than political or Parliamentary reasons it
had been tacitly agreed on both sides of the Ponta
that no question of confidence in Ministers should
be raised during the present Session. This mutual
promise has been loyally and faithfully kept.
Accordingly, the Member for Rochdale contented
himself last night with holding up his lantern to
the Ministerial bench in search of that which the
cynic at Athens failed to find. He made no
motion, offered no resolution, but simply " ob-
" served ;" and the result of his observations was
one of the moat damaging disclosures of political
rottenness which has ever been presented to the
conscience of a party or the self-respect of a peo-
ple. Nothing could be more calculated to barb
the arrow and inflame the wound than the reso-
lute and imperturbable good humour with which Mr.
COBDEN sent home to the convictions of his hearers
facts which no flippant banter could pervert,
and reasonings which no frothy insolence could
gainsay. He proved exhaustively that the PAL.
musrow regime was a shameless falsification of
all the principles upon which a Liberal party was
based and the Liberal Government created.
It was enormous military and naval expendi-
ture without efficiency or security ; it was compli-
city, without alliance, in foreign interventions and
adventures ; it was a systematic depravation of
public opinion ; it was a constant appeal to the
prejudices and passions of a past ago ; it was a
studied contempt for the pledges and professions
on which a so-called Liberal Government had
floated into power ; it was political infidelity
mouthing the religion of national honour.
All this, and much more, was the substance of
Mr. COBDEN'S clear, calm, and convincing gate-
monk Undeterred by the timorous embarrass-
ment of many " Liberals" around him, unmoved
by the derisive approbation of many on the other
side, his cold and merciless truthspeaking cut into
the conscience of the House like an ice-tempered
sword. In short, he fairly liberated his soul and
cleansed his bosom of that perilous stuff which has
so long clogged the conscience of the " so-called
" Liberal party." He tore away the mask from

the betrayer of what was once a cause, and
from the party that had accepted its betrayal with

contented pusillanimity. He held up to the scorn
of all honest men an Administration holding office
by the grace of the Opposition, and a Pawn= ex-
celling in that sort of tact which in bad company is
called corruption, and in that cheaper sort of
courage which evil tongues call bullying. There
was one part of Mr. COBDRA argument, however,
in which he forbore to press the advantage of his