The Express.
London, England, 1851-07-09 00:00:00

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TO CORRESPONDENTS.
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LONDON, WEDNESDAY, JULY 9.

As MITTIRIDATES came at last to be nourished by
poisons, ministers have come to be kept in office by
minorities. It is not easy to reckon up how often they
have been left in a minority this session. Certain it
is that, as the session wears on, the minority nights
fall closer together, and one night begins to be ren-
dered notable by more than one minority.
Lord ions has learned to undergo a minority with
as much placid imperturbability as it was conjec-
tured TALLEY/LAND would have suffered a kicking.
lie no longer even winces under it. On Friday,
when outvoted for the second time on Sir F. THE-
SIGER'S amendments on the Ecclesiastical Titles
Bill, Lord lons coolly remarked that it was no
matter, and the altered bill might go to the Lords
notwithstanding. Last night, after having been de-
feated by 162 to 132 on the Attornics' Certificate
Duty Bill, the Premier allowed himself in simpering
silence to be defeated by 87 to i 0 on the question of
vote by ballot.
This edifying resignation is in more than one
respect sufficiently provoking. In the first place, it
does seem to imply a contempt for representative
government ; a quiet taking fur granted that parlia-
mentary warfare is a mere sham. What is the use
of a House of Commons, if ministers are to hold on
the even tenor of their way however its votes may
turn ?

Again, this imperturbable endurance of defeat de-
prives; one of all data for conjecturing how ministers
may feel or intend to act upon any given question.
For example, does Lord botix's silent submission to
an adverse vote on the ballot betoken a disposition
to give way to the wishes of reformers, or a dogged
determination to resist them notwithstanding? Hoes
it imply that he is mustering courage to bring in a
real reform bill next session, or that he is laughing in
his sleeve at those who are simple enough to expect
anything of the kind
bur fears we confess preponderate. Loid JOHN
possesses " pluck," and prides himself upon it. It is
clear he despises the House of Commons, and
we will nut take upon us to say that be does
so altogether without cause. lie is just the man to
comfort himself in a minority by thinking—" Wait a
bit, my fine fellows ; you will learn in time that I
am not the man to be driven foster than I choose.'
And if, as is nut impossible, he indulge this amiable
spirit of contradiction, he may, ere another year
elapse, render incurable the dissensions in the liberal
Party.

TUE operations of the General Screw Company
have been coninu need just in tinie, to enable us to
note with periodical punctuality the progress of con-
fusion and anarchy in the Cape Colony. Each
monthly arrival of the vessels of that enterprising
company has brought us tidings of a lapee from bad
to worse.
There is no necessary connexion between the
Kaffir war outside of the colonial frontier and the
excitement occasioned by the constitutional contro-
versy within it. Yet the coincidence of these ill-
omened visitations in point oh' time casts a dark and
deepening shadow over the future prospects of South
Africa.

The state of the internal agitation is briefly as
follows:—Sometime afro the home government
sent instructions to Sir HARRY SMITH to manu-
facture a constitution fur the colony. The
governor set to work to obey them, with the
assistance of some of the leading colonists who
enjoyed the confidence of their countrymen. Unfor-
tunately a dispute between Sir uttte and the re-
presentative members of his council prevented their
completing the task in combination. But the seced-
ing councillors have prepared a draft of a constitu-
tion which has received the sanction of public meet-
ings in all parts of the colony. On the other hand,
the governor, with the assistance of his officials, has
prepared a cutitreprojet. The envoys from the
colony have invited the borne government to
mediate in the matter between the colonists and the

governor ; to take both drafts of a constitution into
~, consideration, combine what is best in both, and have
v the result passed into a law by parliament, and send
it out to the colony. By complyingwith this request
government would at once put a stop to the un-
pleasant, and, it may soon be, dangerous agitation
that pervades the colony. The boon of a parliamen-
tary constitution would be thankfully.accepted by the
colonists, and the flame of the irritating controversy
that now heats and unsettles men's minds at the
('ape would die out for lack of fuel. But govern-
ment, instead of seeking to extinguish, stirs up the
flame. One of the greatest difficulties in the way of
framing a satisfactory constitution for the Cape
arises out of the irreconeilinble views of a strong
party in Cape Town, and an equally strong party in
the districts adjoining the Eastern frontier.
And yet it appears that Earl GREY has se-
lected the present disturbed and perilous time
to recommend a transfer of the seat of govern-
ment from Cape Town to some more easterly locality.
It is extremely doubtful at this moment whether
there is a legal government at the Cape of Good
Hope. Lawyers of high rank in their profession
have deliberately given it as their opinion, that Sir
HARRY Ssirrit,having broken up his council, and
continuing to act without its assistance, is acting
illegally. The colonists cannot get a constitutional
local government, and they have good reason to be-
lieve that they hare no legal government of any
kind. And Earl GREY invites the governor, in these
delicate and doubtful circumstances, not to confer
upon them a government in which they have confi-
dence, but to irritate the inhabitants of the district
which has hitherto been the sent of government, by
removing from it the shadowy substitute for a go-
vernment that exists there. This is to hazard the
permanence of civil order.
Again the governor has involved the colony in a
war with the natives of British Kaffirland. Hosti-
lities have been in progress for upwards of half-a-
year, with as slender a prospect of their termination
now as at the first. The Kaffirs, taught by expe-
rience, shrink limn meeting our soldiers in the open
field, but their hostility is not one jot abated. Now,
as in the beginning, the governor is "waiting for
reinforcements" at King William's Town. He sends
out desultory and occasional bands of troops to
strike a blow at the enemy, or steal his cows. The
soldiers, it may be, kill on one occasion two or three
hundred Katfirs, and drive off two or three hundred
cows; on another they kill the men, without get-
ting the cows ; on a third, they capture the cows
but the men get clear off. Not one Kaffir, however,
has as yet laid down his arms; the theatre of war
is widening and extending to the north of the
Orange Itiver ; and our hitherto loyal Hottentots
are mutinying within the colonial frontier. Whether
Sir HARRY SMITE! is competent to put a triumphant
end to the war he provoked by his antics, even if
he possessed the means, may reasonably be doubted;
but he has not been furnished with the means in
time. When ministers were first questioned about
this unlucky affair in parliament, their reply was
that the Mike of WELLINGTON having expressed an
opinion that two additional regiments were required
immediately in South Africa, they had sent off one.
They are now sending more than two after the
proper time has been allowed to pass.
The affairs of South Africa have been managed in
such a manner that internal dissensions have been
aggravated and external wars rendered more
dangerous. The public mind within the colony is
clearly growing more unsettled. The circle of war I
is wning, and threatens to drag within its vortex
the emigrant Boers as well as the fierce native war-

rims. Three parties are in eminent danger of being I
involved in an aimless strife, and all South Arnow
, converted into a scene of interminable bloodshed.
I Parliament, it is true, is in session, but its mem-
bers appear, for the most part, to know little about
the matter, and care less.

SIR PETER LAURIE. like Colonel SIBTUORP, does
speak to the purpose sometimes. One of these times
was when he denounced the galloping of the " fast
women" of Rotten-row. Sir PETER'S prognostica-
tions of what was likely to be the upshot of the
reckless careering of these unfeminine females have
been verified in a melancholy way. A poor old
' woman has been ridden over and killed by one of
them. The daughter of the deceased declared at the
inquest that her mother could easily have got out of
the way, had not the lady, whose bridle was hanging
loose so that she had no purchase on it, whipped her
horse at the moment. Mr. HOARE stated that the
female who did the mischief and her male companion,
came back, looked coolly on the mischief she had
done, and then as coolly rode off. Mr. HOARE was
so struck with the unfeeling conduct of the eques-
trians, that he has repaired to the park daily since,
in the hope of recognising them, but in vain. After
the hint of the coroner, that the female equestrian,
if discovered, might be held liable in another court,
Mr. HOARL'S chances of meeting her again arc less
than ever. She will be as difficult to find as our
egg-throwing Hussars. The park is rid of her—for
a season at least; that is one consolation.
But she has left plenty like herselt behind her; as
any one can testify who has witnessed the careless
and precipitate manner in which very indifferent
equestrians. male and female, are accustomed to dash
along Rotten-row, and over the adjacent turf. For
they have long overflowed from the gravelled path
on to the turf where the Crystal Palace now stands,
and to the west of the building, and also on to the
turf between Rotten-row and the Serpentine. Their
habitual disregard of the comfort and safety of pe-
destrians is shocking. On the day the Industrial
Exhibition was opened, though the turf between the
Crystal Palace and the Serpentine was almost as
densely crowded as a lady's drawing-room (or stair-
case) at a rout, some of the genus " fast" (male and
female) were seen, with their horses curvetting and
kicking close to groups of women and children, be-
neath riders who had them in very imperfect
control.

And yet when the voice of remonstrance was
raised against the admission of equestrians into
Kensington Gardens—an encroachment which, of
course, admitted the "fast riders" along with the
more considerate and respectable frequenters of
Rotten-row the idea of danger to the chil-
dren and nursemaids who repair to the gardens
was scouted by our aristocracy and their toadies
with the same vociferous unanimity, as the plea that',
the seclusion of the gardens constituted their great
charm to the citizens of the metropolis. The affocta-
, tion of disbelieving these allegations was as hollow
as the pretext that the invasion of horses into the
gardens was only to he for a time. Lord SEYMOUR
and his colleagues now decline to specify any time
when the nuisance is to be withdrawn.

And a nuisance of no ordinary magnitude it is.
Instead of confining their equitation, as was pro-
,' mised in their name, to a defined pathway, extend-
ing from the corner of the gardens nearest the Crys-
tal Palace to the Bayswater-road, the " fasts" of both
sexes have kept cantering over a broad expanse of
turf to the eastward, till it is as dry and brown as
rho Downs after a three months' drought in summer.
And they have also beaten a cross-path with their
buries' hoofs from the southern extremity of the
broad walk in front of the palace, to the eastern
boundary of the garden, trampling down the grass,
till every trace of greenness has deserted it. Nor
does the annoyance stop here. In former years
a military band used to perform on stated
days in the south-east angle of the gar-
dens. Pedestrians of all ranks and ages clus-
tered around the musicians within the inclosure,
while the " fasts " stretched their long cars from the
backs of their horses outside. But if the band have
performed this season, the human auditors must
have been jostled and elbowed by the good steeds,
with the cognate animals on their backs, within the
inclosure.
Were SWIFT alive ho would swear that the
rahutis of fashion, at least, had at last become aware of
the superior qualities of the llouyhithms ; for they in-
sist upon the noble animals being admitted wherever
themselves arc allowed to go. They have smuggled
them into one of the royal gardens; they talk of
a ride within the Crystal Palace; pray Heaven that
that be the only palace into which they are bold enough
to dream of obtruding their steeds ! They may
next insist upon riding into the levees and drawing-
rooms at St. James's, as the Mormions and Dr/lodges
were wont of old to ride up Westminster Hall to the
royal table on coronation days.
The discontent excited by the admission of homes
into Kensington Gardens, though it has been
silenced, has not been abated. Does it not occur to
those who took the lead in giving it voice at first,
that the intolerable character of the nuisance has
become sufficiently obvious to invite to another fling
at it? If our gay gallopers cannot keep from pranc-
ing over aged and infirm females in the exuberance
of their spirits, assuredly the garden gates ought to
be shut in their faces. And as for admitting the
cavalry of fashion into the Crystal Palace, in the
event of the building being kept up, have any of our
readers ever attended a riding school? If not, let
them visit a ustitteye some fine summer day, and their
noses will be armed with arguments against turning
the Palace into a ride.