The Express.
London, England, 1851-12-05 00:00:00

Elie •xureofc.

TO CORRKSPON DENTS.
goond Salsa ef " [mum; opiftyiNg 'be
ommas; palibeed am ory 11..M.7 is! Trlief 'fight, m
tlr
Ime [l.-
Sileseummesumsmiel ler «7M Lome; imam vista mir.
mei Mat M. Mem. M. Bamemnemanal, yl Two lesink es Me
[Ng mow'

111011 WATER AT 14"
toe DAT ie.
1041•4a0W--111112b11

BRIDGE

1111.7 ft.
1216 Um.

LONDON, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 6.

WE are unfortunate in provoking the ire of abso-
lutist
princes and political police magnates. Put
rigidly gi I Oide.r, in Italy, no column of ours, though '
in a foreign tongue, can bring truth or consolation to '
the Italian liberal. It is hut the other day we '
stated the circumstance of our correspondent having
been forcibly ejected from Vienna, without a shadow
of accusation directed against him. His crime was
merely that of sending a correct account of
what passed before his eyes. or was attested by cre-
dible witnesses. He was seized, however, and
compelled to quit Vienna, without the English am-
bassador,—whom Lord PALMERSTON has lately
appointed,—exerting himself in the least in behalf
et a British subject who was in Vienna on the most
lawful of errands.
After the Austrian police had escorted our corres-
pondent to the Bohemian frontier, he was there sig-
nalised to the Saxon police as a dangerous person—
as one capable of writing down facts, and telling
the English world the universal abhorrence in which
his Saxon Majesty is held by hie subjects. Freed,
however, from the surreillante of the Saxon police,
and entering the so-ealled constitutional monarchy
of Prussia,—whose King once promised the freedom
of the press, with other kinds of freedom, by a solemn
oath,--our correspondent thought he might pursue his
calling without molestation. The Prussian parlia-
ment was. opening. Its debates were interest-
ing. And they will especially be so to the
commercial world, as the discussion of the
tariff-union with Hanover could not fail to be the
first and mast prominent subject. Our correspondent
applied himself with his usual zeal to be well in-
formed, and to send correct information on these
points, when lo! the Prussian police pounce upon
him,—again fur no crime, save the dire one of being
an agent of publicity, and off our correspondent is
packed to Hamburg. We have no doubt, the Prus-
sian police, in this arbitrary and unwarrantable act,
were merely the instruments of Austrian dictation
and vindictiveness. And the meaner and more dis-
graceful is this on the part of the Pruniau authori-
ties. Fur no organ of public opinion has so loudly
and so strenuously supported that came which
Prussia sustained fur a time against the insolent,
and despotic dictation of Austria. We knew,
indeed, before this, by very manifest signs,
that the Austrian cabinet were masters to the
very shores of the Baltic, and that they. were en-
titled to have their orders submitted to in the eabi-
ae of Cbarlottenburg. But anything so barefaced
es the expulsion of a writer, who has really been most
just and favourable to Prussian interests—this expul-
sion taking place at the demand of the Austrian poKee,
—is Lot, perhaps, a very important, but is yet a very
significant proof of how completely M. MANTEUFFEL
and his myrmidons have clothed themselves in Aus-
trian livery, and constituted themselves the political
domestics and shim' of Prince MCII MARTEN Iran.

We must he prepared, however, for there things,
and devise means to defeat the result of that universal
exclusion with which the only liberal morning
journal of this metropolis is menaced. The tide
of despotism now rises higher and higher, as
well at nearer and nearer, every day. Last
year it overwhelmed Borne and Berlin. But
now it has inundated the capital of France,
where we already find no organ of the press
tolerated that does not wear the livery of mili-
tary absolutism. He that was. yesterday President
of a civic republic, and who is to-day the self-ap-
pointed tribune of the French army, has appealed to
that army to grunt to hint the right to abolish all the
liberties, political and civil, of Frenchmen, in
order that he may substitute for them, at his
gond pleasure, such a measure and kind of
political freedom as may be consonant with his
interests and wisdom. He also talks of consulting
the country as to their wishes. But when the mili-
tary have first declared their adhesion, what can uni-
versal suffrage itself be—hut a form? The Czar of
ItusstA could have promulgated no kind of govern-
ment more in harmony with theidta of St. l'etersburg
than that which has lamed from the Elyske. And
that palace which has thus become a focus of des-
potism, as intense as St. Petersburg and Vienna, is
no longer within a day's distance of us, but an hour's.
Through the electric telegraph we feel every pulsa-
tion. 'Popular or anti-popular, in Paris.
However alarming the proximity, let us hope that
the old and the new =UM of communication may
subsist, and that the press of either country may
communicate to the other its unbiassed opinions,
sympathies and judgment. But we must own that we
have fear of the tolerance or fairness of a military'
r&iste, and foresee the possibility of Paris becoming
• St. Petersburg or • Berlin, where words dare not
be uttered, and whence even letters thirst not be
addressed. We dread the continental blockade of
otisns against our ideas, as against our other
productions. Prussia, we fear, is but too much in-
clined to proscribe truth; and she will soon have an
Emperor NAPI/LLON in Paris to help her with his
counsel, and, perhaps, with his order., in proscribing
the iuterrsts and the intelligence of Great Britain.

lei the Conference of reformers at Manchester,
Lord lone Itvistu. will find a standard of the
measure of reform that is likely to satisfy • very
numerous and very influential class of Englishmen.
The Conference was composed of men more in
earnest; more addicted to plain speaking, than libe-
rals of that class of society with which the Premier
is most familiar. The reformers represented at Man-
theater may have conventionalities of their own, but
they are conventionalities which mould and modify
the opinions of a much wider circle than is composed
by the aristocratic whigs. On the other hand, the
hlerals represented in the Conference sannot with
any propriety of language be called ultras, if regard
is had to the views generally entertained by those of
their rank in society throughout the kingdom.
The Conference was composed principally of
reformers from Lancashire and the West Riding.
A reference to the list of delegates will show that
there were comparatively few representatives of
towns beyond these limits. Nay more, the resolu-
tions adopted by the meeting appear to have been
canvassed and prepared at a preliminary meeting of
Leeds and Manchester delegates. The predominating
influence at the Conference was, in short, that which
made and kept the anti-corn-law league a "
ekes" movement. Mr. Cosine and Mr. Bum's
have bad as much to say in deciding the tone and
tamper of the resolutions, a they had to may in the
preparation of the manifestoes of anti•coni-law dole-
tiebefore they assumed the designation of "the
7f7nything, the composition of the confirm.. was
more deeWey " eon
tinged by a
democratic spint,—than was that of the conferences
in which the Anti-Corn:la! League originated. In
•

the latter Mr. COBDEN W. as now, the drag-chain
of Mr. EDWAitp Hems wen ; but on the other
hand be held the
ant
of Mr. JOMEPII STUMM
) Mr. Jow4stvss (Olgugow).
swan Ile ban stood aloof altogether
!are ]lldras Oiedlieate ; s the wl=
Dintemsb wee selleMeled forts seam
Obagew. l
etantg lbe Win et the new re-
form alevailn are len pesesanameed mists than
were the leaden of the anti-corn-bar Memenent.
Why de we dwell on these dreaminess? In no
rt at akierallemai sat of no dub • play the
wrist, en swans mellwaljellemlest tat simply
for tbe repose or impembir via lord !Harr
Rums& en reformers ebb elemp, the conviction
that mob a mom or sollimi r Ms found favour in
the gm et tar Nefeketliw eselleseee, is the very
hostaintitiogy Ewe of What la,
or aogrentioso, ipoot d the b.
Lead Ea do
the hook ilow bon
et ^
vioilliono two of a noso Illooovikpoloc, hero
an
wiragessaisi wet. llimliiiiniened Sir
Joan t
woail bow Mod non hp-
=rem of hose plow than they did an

It is very likely that our conservative contempo—
raries may waste a great quantity of very indifferent
wit about the rather sheep debate that took plate id
the Conference between Mr. TtiOttreos and
JOSHUA W.CLMSLET on the one hand, and Mr.
BRIGHT, with his numerate supporters, on the other.
Nay, it would in no way surprise to were " cones
vative reformers," as the phrase is, to indulge
.in
grave and dull arguments and groundless in-
ferences on the subject. This bickering need not
in truth disconcert the friends of reform. On
the contrary, the show of temper on one
or both sides, affords a guarantee that both were in
earairat ; while the cordiality that was afterwards
maniheted, gave evidence that the ebullition was
transient ; that the out-voted party was inclined to
acquiesce in the resolutions of the majority; that
these resolutions, though scarcely so strong or de-
cided as many reformers (even of the middle class)
could have wished, may command general assent and
support, if men can only be convinced that there is a
chance of hoeing them carried into effect.
Of the scope and tendency of the resolutions we
are disposed to approve. We cannot, indeed, in
conscience say that they are very felicitously worded.
They are elaborately and even tediously inmate in
their details without being very clear. This was per-
haps unavoidable. In literary composition, as in
matters gastronomic, too many cooks spoil the
broth." When a sentence must be added to please
one gentleman, and a parenthetical phrase thrown
in to please another, verbiage and circumlocution is
the inevitable result. And when these additions and
interpolations are made, not to render a definition
more explicit, or the expression of a principle more
lucid, but to reconcile a timid critic to one phrase, or
an impetuous critic to another,—nothing can well come
of such tinkering but lumbering obscurity. Doubt-
less the resolutions as they emanated from Mr.
Bawler were much more terse and clear than after
they had undergone the diluting process of Mr.
BAINES'S revision. If the resolutions mean anything,
they mean that the reform bill contemplated by
Lord Jonx ought to embrace triennial parliaments, a
rate-paying suffrage, a re-distribution of the electoral
distncts, vote by ballot, and no property qualifica-
tions for members. This was Mr. COBDEN'S exposi-
tion of the somewhat prolix and obscure text, and
we confess we prefer his abridgment to the tedious
prolixity of the original.
Without saying that the resolutions of the Confe-
rence', as explained by Mr. COBDEN, embrace all
that we could desire, or that the are the very least
we should regard as acceptable, we may freely
state that they constitute a measure of reform we
should be right glad to see carried. On the neces-
sity of doing away with small constituencies,—adopt-
ing some method by which the voter will be disco-
abled to show how he hasvoted,—and rendering gene-
ral elections more frequent,—we have repeatedly had
occasion to express our opinions. As to the exten-
sion of the franchise, there are various considera-
tions to be token into account. The extension ought
to be a real, not a mere nominal one. The qualification
ought to be such as will facilitate registration,
and render it less expensive. A rateable qualifica-
tion might be made to possess both of these requi-
sites. In the first place, if every payer of a direct
tax, general or local, were entitled to vote, the con-
' stituency would receive numerous additions ; and, in
the second place, while the tax-gatherers would take
care that no person liable to pay rates escaped en-
rolment in the rate-book, few would wish to see their

names recorded there merely for the sake of obtain-
ing a vote. The rate-book would be a self-adjusting
register of voters. But we see no necessity for
making the payment of rates a condition of the
exercise of the franchise ; nor do we sco that
the arguments at Manchester quite settled the
question of how long a residence should be necessary
to qualify.
On the whole we think reformers might go further
and fare worse than by taking up with the pro-
gramme of the Manchester Conference; and still
more decidedly are we of opinion that no measure of
reform short of that which politicians like Mr.
BAINEP, of Leeds, and the bulk of the manufac-

tare's of Manchester, are prepared to demand, has
the slightest chance of meeting with that unanimous
and enthusiastic support requisite to carry through
parliament a reform bill,—even though introduced
by a Minister.