The Express.
London, England, 1846-10-12 00:00:00

" It mates him that gives and him that takes "

We see it making a despot of the nominor, and a
puppet of the nominee. The moment the strings
cease to work, or the pliant joints stiffen, away with
the puppet !

LOrCi FITZHARDTNGE, it appears from the letter,
placed Mr. GRANTLEY F. BERKELEY " precisely
on the spot where he now stands." Mr. G. F.
BERKELEY declares "he is so far and no farther, by
Lord FirrznAaniNGE's immediate desire, and with
his personal concurrence." Could any " dummy "
. .

have been more tractable? Yet in spite of this abro-
gation of nominee comp!ains that his brother,
patron and nominor, "leaves him at the spot to which
his (nominee's) obedience to his (nominor's) wishes
led him." Nominee does not ask much. He was
ready to have retrograded or advanced at the word of
command. At least his previous pliability warranted
nominor in inferring so. Nominee ought, as he
very properly remarks, "to have had the option of
taking either step by his (nominor's) will." He (Jaime
this by " every law of courtesy and justice." He
means, "by every precedent of servility and submis-
sion." But he forgets the relation he stands in to his
noble relative. According to ARISTOTLE, there are
no rights or duties as between master and slave.

NOminor and nominee are the political representa-
tives of these relationships respectively. Nominee has
fulfilled non-existent duties, and appeals to non-existent
rights. At the same time it fa hard to be flung aside
like an old glove, after being worn for years, and
found so easy. If nominee's coat was to be turned
inside out, how did nominor know nominee would
not glory in wearing it so He should have "given
him the option."
With all this devotion, nominee has not served him-
self. Quite the reverse. He has "sacrificed himself"
to the real interests of the county. That is, of course,
to the wishes and desires of his excellent relative.
Noble but ill-rewarded self-devotion. Lord Frrr-
HARDINGE is about " to sever the political ties so
honorable to the old castle!" " Ties" is a good phrase.

It represents the real state of the case. The
Western Division of the large county of Glouces-
ter is really, we find, tied to Berkeley
Castle. The leaders that pull its principles this way
and that, run through the front gate of that vener-
able pile up to the study in which Lord FaZHAR-
DINOE sits and works them. We are glad to know
his Lordship so honourably employed.
Are our readers curious to ascertain the price
of a county ? It is lower than might be expected.
It is " payment of the registration expenses of the
district." Of course there are tenants' votes and
tradesmen's too, but the above is the direct payment.
And to give us new delight and self-gratulation, they
are Liberal voices which are thus bought and sold.
We are doubly bound, as Liberals, to make this fact
known.
Altogether the triple group, nominor, nominee,
and county voters, come out very charmingly under
the light of this plaintive letter. Property has its
rights. One of the most valuable is that of buying
opinions : the" golden opinions" SIMKSPEARE speaks
of. And while men are found to sell such wares, of
course property will use its right and buy them. Law
cannot touch the traffic. It is carried on as snugly as
the poacher's trade with his landholder in live game
and eggs. Those who make the law wink at its vio-
lation. This plan affords a valuable schooling of the
public morality. No wonder our representative sys-
tem is the wonder of the world.
Law affords, we have said, no remedy for such a
state of things. if shame can affect it, such letters as
Mr. G. F. BERKELEY'S are most valuable. They furnish,
like the poacher's confession to the country gentle-
man, valuable hints for prevention. A volume of
nominees' letters, a modern .Epistolet obscarorum
Viroruns, would be invaluable to the schoolmasters
of public opinion. They should, however, be written
grammatically.
Mr. GaisrLev F. BERKELEY, in the publication
of his letter, is but carrying out his noble mission
of self-sacrifice on a larger scale. He has long, he
tells West Gloucestershire, sacrificed himself to the
"real interests" of that district. He is now, by this
ample confession, immolating his reputation to the
real interests of the country at large. What greater
violation of private confidence could even the
plebeian Press have committed than this, in which
a gentleman, with his own hand, records his
patient endurance of political slavery in the
regions (to use his own remarkable words) of those
" mischievously ruling or predominant shadows that
unhappily arc already too well known as imperiously
existing in the quarter whence the aspersion comes;"
and in which, we may add, the submission of Mr.
G. F. BERKELEY has been so long abjectly and cheer-
fully tendered
Is this unhappy servility of member and constitu-
ency inherent in oar money-loving English nature?
Legislation, it is certain, is powerless against it.
Would education be equally ineffective ? It is idle to
attribute it to one party more than another. Wood-
stock is a Tory borough, but West Gloucestershire is a
Liberal county. Thereis nothing in the profession of
principles to restrain the rich and noble from buying
votes, or the needy and servile from selling them.
But in the cultivation of self-respect, and the true
conception of political privileges and duties, is a means
of shaming the former class, and elevating the latter ;
perhaps of ennobling both, into an equal scorn of the
offer and its acceptance. To this enlightenment alone
we look with hope : determined, meanwhile, never to
let slip the opportunity of a sermon on such an in-
structive text as Mr. G. F. BERKELEY'S letter.

Tile circumstances which attended SANTA ANNA'S
return to Mexico ;—his apparently good understanding
with the agents of England and of the United States
at the Havanah; the facilities fur landing and the
deference shown him by Commodore CONNOR and the
American blockading squadron ;—all corroborated the
prevalent opinion, that the ex-president returned to
Mexico with the consent and assistance of foreign
lowers; and that his re-installation in the rank of first
officer of the republic, would be the signal of peace and

accommodation. Those ideas and hopes are not,
as yet, directly contradicted. But the delay of SANTA
ANNA in resuming an authority to which there
seems no opponent, naturally gives rise to doubts
as to the sincerity and consistency of his conduct.
SANTA ANNA is a very able man ; a • second Boss-
PARTE he calls himself. We will not answer for the
similitude. He is most unprincipled, certainly ;
he has given proofs of the most daring courage
at one time, and of most inexplicable cowardice at
others ; but, after all, he stands as high above
other Mexicans, as the Popocatapeti above the Table
Land. His address to the Mexicans on his re-
turn is a strange compound ; very able ; containing a
great many truths, a great many lies, and in
passages almost as mystic as a Mormon's manifesto.
There is here and there, however, a naivete about
it which deserves credit. " I once tried," SANTA
ANNA tells the Mexicans, with great frankness, "to
establish a government based on the support of the
upper classes; on the proprietors, the educated, the
professional, the few of property and enlightenment ;
vain attempt ; those classes were divided, were waver-
ing, were corrupt, were incapable of giving a govern-
meat that support on which alone it could live. Upon
these higher classes, much as I should like to favour
them, and protect them, and rule by them, still I have
found it vain to rest; and I shall not try again. Expe-
rience of them has forced me to try the democracy, and
to put faith in the people at large; from whom alone I can
expect some zeal, some patriotism, some disinterested-
ness, and some of that support, requisite for a govern-
ment, Which must not only provide for internal tran-
quillity, but for defence of the national territory
against invasion and conquest."
Such, paraphrased into plain English, is the lan-
guage of SANTA ANNA. It is impossible not to
give it and him some credit for sincerity. Relying
upon the people, continues SANTA ANN.►, " I shall no
longer be obliged, like my predecessors, to sustain the
army in great towns to keep down the population;
but trusting to that population for some tranquillity,
I can employ the army, if necessity require it, against
the country's foes." No language can be more plausi-
ble. No conduct can look more like honesty, or be
better calculated for facing, even with the purpose of il
making peace, the pretensions of that most exorbitant
and merciless foe which now presses upon Mexico.
Unfortunately we have to relate, that, correspond-
ing with this mistrastful and ambiguous attitude of
SANTA ANNA, the Americans have resumed their
projects of aggression. It is not so much the activity
or progress of General TAYLOR which evinces this,
for he seems paralysed at Matamoras, and obliged to
move heaven and earth to make even in eight months
an advance on Monterey. But it would seem that an
expedition is proceeding against Tampico, the second
port of the republic ; and this may be the scene of
more formidable operations than Mateunoras. At any
rate, it gives immediate facilities and advantages to
American trade, which the possession of Nlatamoras
gave but partially.
Our readers perhaps are not aware of, or may
not have paid particular attention to, the pecu-
liar mode of American naval warfare. The Ame-
ricans have been used to make dreadful outcry
against our old principles of blockade. But their
own is something so new and so monstrous,
1 that how our Government has quietly tolerated
and abided by it, is indeed passing strange.
They have declared that all the ports which
they shall seize in Mexico, shall be open to their
own trade in all commodities; and exclusively to
their own trade. They will allow no goods to enter
that have not been nationalised in American ports, and
paid duty to the American customs. Manchester pro-
duce must give way to Lowel. They declare
oar calicoes contraband of war, bless the mark !
Their own are innocent, and may go to clothe
the Mexicans without any remorseful encourage-
ment of a foe that pays in dollars. Such