The Express.
London, England, 1848-07-17 00:00:00

THE -EXPRESS, MONDAY

few, exclusive beisefits and boons at the cost of the
whole community. Repeal to the catholic clergy
means ecclesiastical equality. The Orangemen of
Ulster know and understand this well ; and hence,
when they hear it openly proclaimed that repeal is to
be carried, if need be, by force of arms,—nay more, when
by dint of loud and loose assertion the revolutionary
party strive to make the world believe that the
Orangemen are actually become their allies and par-
tisans—it is but too natural that tLe latter should
at length be provoked into a resumption of their
ancient array and the reorganisation of their ancient

discipline.
Other influence., however, seem actively at work
to stimulate the dormant spirit of religious faction.
The aristocratic chiefs who, for a season, hoped to
attain, through the instrumentality of plausible con-
servatism, all those objects of class ambition or per-
sonal aggrandisement which they had formerly
sought by means of Orangeism—the ENNISKILLENS,
DOWNSIIIRES, VERNERS, and the rest, have lately
begun to display symptoms of an altered tone of
policy, and a disposition to return to the folly of their
ancestors. On every occasion they are ready to urge
on government to measures of severity, which, if
adopted, must infallibly tend to render a liberal
lexecutive unpopular. and thus contribute potently to I
the dislocation and distinction of a liberal party, and I
which if refused will give these worthies a pretext
for declaring, in the approved phrase, that it is neces-
cary for them " to defend themselves."
We have read with regret a letter recently
addressed to the Orange lodges of the county of Down,
by the Earl of Annex. The personal estimation in
which he is held, and his exemption from all suspicion
of the baser motives that actuate mere party men,
I render ill advice, when given by his lordship, all the
more mischievous, and fill the minds of those who
wish for peace and tranquillity in Ireland with the
greater despondency. net madmen or bad men
should desire the perpetuation of invidious distinc-
tions and he permanent severance of sects, we can,
understand and account for. But Lord Rouen is,
neither a madman nor a bad man; and when, there-
fore, we find him deliberately and zealously advocat-
ing such a system, we must fairly own that we consi-
der it in every way most deplorable. Still more
do we think such a course calculated to prove per-
nicious, when we find—conjoined with regrets for ca-
tholic emancipation, and incentives to undying
severance of protestants from the great bulk of
their fellow-countrymen—laudations of Lord CLA-
RENDON, and protestations of unbounded confidence
in his administration ; as if the QUEEN'S represents-i
hive in Ireland could be aided is the discharge of his
perilous and perplexing duties by the ruinous praise
that is offered, intertwined with vows of social enmity
and religious feud !
Lord Rotten expresses his personal regret that the
Orange lodges of Down should not have found it con-
venient U assemble on the 12th July in his de-
mesne, in order that he might have the opportu-
nity of inspecting them. The 12th July is the
anniversary of the sanguinary conflict of the Boyne;
and its commemoration is in itself a hateful and
hated act of paltry triumph, by men nineteen-twen-
tieths of whom have not even the pretext of descent
I from the soldiery of SCHOM BERG, for their insulting
parade in honour of a battle won one hundred and
sixty years ago. As an hereditary symbol of civil
strife, and a memorial of brethren by brothers slain,
it is odious and immoral thus to keep the day. But,
looking to the future settlement and progress of the
country, it is an act of strange infatuation and con-
summate folly. In vain can any substantial change
be wrought in the moral or material condition of the
community, while the minority are insane enough to
parade ostentatiously their numerical strength—or
weakness—in armed array.
Unfortunately, Lord ItoneN does not leave as in
any doubt as to his foresight and forethought in the
matter. He weighs the consequences and counts the
cost. Ile ascribes whatever strength Oran geism still
preserves to the exclusive favour which the state
once manifested towards its adherents, and to the ex-
clusive principles and feelings which characterised
their conduct. Ile congratulates them upon having
kept themselves apart and aloo from all intermixture
with those around them who profess another faith,
and admonishes them by their hope for the continu-
ance of the special protection of GOD, to preserve
their race as a " distinct people!"
Comment on such doctrines would from us be idle;
as idle would be the expression of regret if we be-
lieved that any large portion of the protestants of
Ireland could be led away by them. We hope better
things, and we know that our hope is not unfounded,
or in vain. But surely it no other voice can startle
the equally fanatic propagandist+ of revolution in
Ireland, this sad response, or rather bitter mockery of
their call upon the Orangemen to fraternise with
them, ought to disenchant and undeceive them.

Tins is no time to raise a panic at the aggrani.-
ments of Russia. That power is, after all, a principle,
the principle of despotism. By means of that it ex-
te ids and holds together its vast empire, and the
more it succeeds in extending that empire, the weaker
an 1 more insufficient does the despotic principle be-
come to content by good government so many, so re-
mote, and such various races ; and the more inevitable
does it appear, that with the relaxation of despotism
tt a future day, the empire Welt' must crumble.
Moreover, until of very late years, the balance of
European power has been kept up by certain territorial
divisions, and by the ponderation of the quantities of
possessions and revenues between different families.
I The balance of power in the pn sent epoch is not so
mach to be measured by the prevalence of certain
&mites as by that of certain principles. From 1816
to 1836, *lie might say, that Russia and England were
struggling for influence. It is now evidently more
true to say that the despotic and constitutional prin-
ciples have been struggling, and that the latter has
defeated the former,and driven it back across the whole
breadth of Europe from the western limit of the conti-
nent to well nigh the eastern. Russia may have
actually gained in that time in territory, population and
wealth. But how much has the principle contrary to
her empire been augmented ? Six months ago we
were struggling to ke:p alive constitutional govern-
ment and prospects in Spain. It was in that corner
of Europe that the battle of political principle was
fought. Now we all turn away from Spain with
indifference and concentrate attention and interest on
the Adige, the Danube, and the Spree.
There is no need therefore of alarm, because
Russia is sending her legions across the Pruth. Long
since have the Danubian provinces been virtually
transferred from Turkish to Russian suzerainty, the
treaty of Bucharest, and the conventions of Ackerman
giving Russia but too clear a right to interfere. And
in:countries so little developed, who can say that this
very interference is not often salutary, to protect the
people from the oppression of the bovards, and the
mal-administration of the Prince ? Who will deny
that the expulsion of Prince GIIIKA by Russia was
not a gain to the Wallachians ? At the present
moment, who has any hopes in a Molda-
vian republic, or would desire to see the
events of Vienna and Prague repeated at
Jassy and Bucharest? Not that we regret the
revolutions of either Vienna or Berlin. They were
more than called for, completely inevitable. The ter-
rible abuses and stupid systems, which thevput an end
to, were not to be destroyed by any effort less violent,
or any cost less great. There exists, moreover, the
guarantee of intelligence, wealth, and other conserva-
tive elements to redeem those states from paralysis,withs
out recurring to the leaden tyranny which produced it.
But the Sclavonians are not in a position, nor do
they enjoy a development, capable of allow-
ing them to imitate, with the hope of good
results, the great revolution of the Germans.
The establishment of freedom in central Europe, of
constitutional government, and national unity in
Germany and Italy, are achievements sufficient for
the middle of the nineteenth century. To effect these
in peace, or with as speedy peace as possible, and to
avoid any intermingling of them with Sclavonian
questions, we believe to be the best policy.
Were it even demonstrated that a war must take
place between the German and Russian empires,
and it is not demonstrated—we should say, defer
it to the farthest possible period. For, how-
ever war in Germany might call out public spirit,
aid in producing national unity, and very poke* be
attended with success, still it would give such predo-
minance to the militaryspirit, and to the powers which
possess a military organisation, that the old despotic
infLence, which it is the common object to shake off,
would thus be powerfully reinforced. And the pur-
chase of even Polish independence by the sacrifice of
the nascent liberties of Germany would fatally re
card the regeneration of central Europe.
It is impossible for the most enthusiastic Psaalatist,