The Express.
London, England, 1847-08-16 00:00:00

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LONDON, MONDAY, AUG. 16.
ALREADY is heard across the Atlantic, the note at
preparation for the great quadrennial struggle
the election of chief magistrate. To those practical
politicians who, on this side of the ocean, so patheti-
cally lament the obstruction given to the progress of
public business by the periodical renewal of parlia-
ments, this establishment of a new dynasty at the end
of every four years must appear fraught with unutter-
able evils. Our transatlantic cousins do nevertheless
contrive to get on; and looking to the manner in
which they have settled their boundary disputes with
ourselves, and are settling their miscellaneous disputes
with Mexico, their civil organisation seems in no way
to preclude a rather sharp look-out for the interests
of the state.
The truth is that the quadrennial revolution
in the executive department is much more a
matter of appearance than reality. Every four
or eight years, there is a new president, but
the president must act with and through his
cabinet. That cabinet he must select either from
among a few leading statesmen of the party whieh
elected him, or, in the event of his choosing to kick
down the ladder by which he climbed up to greatneim
among a section of them, with the addition of an
equally limited number from the opposite party. The
President of the United States is as much contrast,
in his actions by the difficulty of making &nit
IS the Queen of GREAT BRITAIN. The numbiwof
able ministers in the United States is as Emi
WI in England ; and the consequence is that there,
as here, the most prominent statesmen are in and out
of office by turns, each change being marked by the
carrying of some measure more or less important,
while the broad tendency of traditional national poll
remains unaltered.
To this circumstance, quite as much as to the diffi-
culty of procuring a majority for men of marked cha-
racter, who, by. the mere force of their peculiarities,
create adversaries, is owing that mediocrity which
begins to be the distinguishing mark of American
Presidents. The real statesmen of America feel that
the place in which they are truly powerful and use-
ful is in the legislature or the cabinet ; that by
alternating between the one and the other they
retain a lasting control over the direction taken
by public policy. The office of President, so
difficult of attainment for men of decided political
opinions and uncompromising integrity, is beginning
(in practice, at least) to be reserved for men, who,
like its present occupant, are nobodies in themselves,
mere symbols of the party which is for the time being
in the ascendant; or for some successful general whose
career is flattering to the national pride, while his
sphere of action has kept him remote from the
danger of political enemies; or, at best, for some
patriotic civilian grown grey in the arena of Congress,
who has outlived with his own generation its mint
hitter personal animosities, and is by common consent
placed in the presidential chair, as an expression of
public veneration and sympathy, and a graceful
transition to the retirement and repose of old age.
The congressional elections now in progress will
have more influence on the destinies of the nation
than the presidential election of next year, for which
the keen party men throughout the Union are now
girding their loins. Both, however, will be in ac-
cordance with the sentiments and opinions which
sway the public mind in America for the time, and
on this account possess a deep interest for this ommtry,
which has such manifold reasons to desire that
the prosperity of the United States may be perma-
nent and increasing, tind that our friendly relations
with them may continue.
Each of the two dominant parties in the United
States, with much to command respect, has some
features which prevent its attaining the entire sym-
pathy of Englishmen. The whig party, embracing
perhaps the greater number of accomplished scholars,
with its semi-aristocratic tendencies, approaches
nearer in ',tattooist to loses BELL than its rival. Its
more avowed antagonism to slavery is also in its
favour. But the pertinacity with which it clings to
the obsolete theories of protection for native industry
neutralises this congeniality. We may sympathise less
with the sturdy democrats than with the polished
federalists; but finding the democrats more inclined
to act upon the principle of "live and let live," it is
with them that we feel most confidence in transacting
business.

What effect the pending elections are likely to
have on the relative position of parties it would
be premature to conjecture. Even persons on
the spot, and intimately acquainted with the
electioneering organisations of the Union, con-
fess themselves at fault. Four questions will
exercise a strong influence over the votes of the large
floating balance of electors who are not very thorough-
going partisans—the tariff of 1846, internal improve-
ments, the war with Mexico, and slavery. The two
latter, indeed, are curiously complicated. There is a
growing impression that the Mexican war will
terminate in the permanent annexation of California
and New Mexico to the United State.. This prospect
tends to create dissension in the ranks of the demo-
cratic party, and to keep aloof from them the great
body of moderate anti-slavers, by raising the question
whether slavery is to be permitted in any new states
or territories. Upon the settlement of this question
depends the preservation of the existing balance of
power between the slave-holding and non-slave-hold-
ing states, and it is therefore one regarding which
compromise is not •eerryp probable. The successful
working of the new tariff is in favour of the party at
present in power ; while the impressive demonstra-
tion at Chicago in favour of internal improvements—
el which, as a political engine, they entertain an here-
ditary jealousy—has excited a lively apprehension in
their ranks. Beyond such general grounds of conjec-
ture little has as yet transpired. The whig or
federal party, as the out-of-place assailants, are more
enterprising and less guarded ; yet even they hesi-
tate to close as a party irrevocably on General
TAYLOR as their presidential candidate, or to avow
the Chicago convention as a party movement. The
democrats, on the other hand, are so cautious that
they will not cut off the chance of winning old
"Rough and Ready" for their candidate; and are
careful not to whisper a word about a re-election of
Mr. Poi.x.
Be the result of the contest what it may, we have
confidence in the destinies of the great kindred re-
public. Many questions have been propounded to
public opinion for solution that may shake local insti-
tutions to their foundations. In the war with Mexico
victory may entail as much danger as defeat. But we
believe that the administrative talent which has
hitherto steered the helm of state will not be
found wanting in the hour of trial, and that the family
affection which, with states as with individuals, often
exists so strangely in a latent state amid the most
bitter family quarrels, will avert all serious animosi-
ties between the two nations.

Two of the landed magnates, who claim not only
their own hereditary and constitutional voice in the
House of Lords, but the power of nominating county
members of the House of Commons as well, have just
been signally defeated. Lord GRANVILLE SOMERSET
has been elected for Monmouth in defiance of the
power of his brother the Duke of BEAT :FORT exerted
to the uttermost against him. This is an important
victory over landlordism. But still more important
is the meow of Sir GEORGE GREY in North North-
umberland, where he has been placed at the head
of the poll, notwithstanding the active and
unscrupulous use of all the wealth and power of the
Duke of NoavnumBERLAND. And there is this fur-
Uwe feet worthy to be noted—that the duke's nephew
and heir-presumptive. Lord LOVAINE, is the rejected
candidate. The inefficient and inattentive old mem-

•

~ ~

bee, Lord Ossetnros, has been re-elected; while the
Duke of NORTHUMBERLAND, who supplied all the
sinews of war, has been completely foiled. This is a
signal triumph of industry over feudalism. It
proves that nothing but the will is required to enable
the to 'hake off the incubus of landlord
Bet thee, it row be said that the landed in-
Iheemeettplie nisteill in the cue ode; that Earl GREY
is ea mania emir of land in North Northum-
berland, sod that his weight was thrown into
the risible sale. Be it so ; but what was the
value of that weight in 1841, when the rural
industry of the country had been alarmed by the pro-
phecies and delusions of the protectionists ? Then
mark the difference between the kind of influence
wielded by the Duke of NORTHUMBERLAND and
Furl ORET : the estates of the one are held by nu-
mercies tenants, under yearly agreements, who are in
general poor and dependent, and altogether behind
the agricultural intelligence of the day ; the property
of the other is occupied in large farms, by tenants of
capital and intelligence, who, secured by leases, are
independent of any influence their landlord can exert,
WI nr
except that de: i% ecl from his liberal and opi-
nions. It is the very circumstance, that where
there will be found mole landowners—though a nu-
merical minority—who will give the just influence of
their social and political standing to the popular cause,
which renders it absolutely certain that the exclusive
power sought by the majority of the landowners can
and will be effectually resisted. There is no disposi-
tion on the part of the people to deprive the owners of
land of aught that they are legitimately entitled to.
The position of a landowner, whose estate is his own,
who is not a mere nominal owner of a heavily encum-
bered estate, is one of great advantage ; his °ppm,
tunities of good are numerous ; and the eller,
of his influence, when he is guided by intelli-
gence and a due sense of his obligations to the
society of which he is a member, is wide.
Ile ham leisure and education ; he often has
power, by dealing rationally with his land, to improve
the husbandry, and thereby increase the employment
tad advance the wages of the district; with moderate
acquirements, rightly exerted, he finds ready annual
to the legi,labire, and then his field of terklame a
only limited by his own capacity and industry. No
one is more readily accepted in public life than an
Intelligent landowner, and the popular sentiment
rather seems unduly in favour of the class than the
other way.
It is only because the industrious classes have
I seen that the landowners generally neglect the legi-
timate means they pones. of acquiring political
, influence, and seek to coerce where they might lead
the people—because the landowners, as a class,
I have for age* been found in a glosinggref antogoniem
to popular rights and the national irelfare—because
i bitter experience of the past has shown that con-
cessions which justice and wisdom alike dictate have
only been wrung from the landed aristocracy by
force, or the fear of force, that it has became an axiom
in the politics of industry that the power of " the
I land" must be pat down. Not that the interests of
the owners of land and of industry are adverse : on the
contrary, rightly understood they ere one and
, indivisible. The rest of the one is created,
'increased, and secured by the development
and prosperity of the other. Not a commercial or
manufacturing enterprise is undertaken in the king-
, dom which does not directly or indirectly benefit the
, re of land. Why, then, have we so long men
and and commerce treated as hostile interests ?
Simply because the great body of the landowners,
having possession of the legislature, have sought to
attract to themselves more than a fair share—large as
that share naturally is—of the results of the industry
and enterprise of this great nation.
Hence it is not against landowners as landowners
that the industrious contend when they seek to over-
throw the dominancy of that landed oligarchy by which
the country has been ruled : all that le aimed at is to
compel them to seek their own advantage by identi-
fying themselves with the people. This is what the
political and protectionist landowners cannot, or will
not, understand. They attribute all sorts of motives
to the people. They will not distinguish between the
influence of property when used—fairly used—for
the people, and when used to coerce, or oppress, or
trammel their industry. Here is a case in point:
Mr. LOWTHER, the nominee member of Lord LONS-
DALE for West Cumberland, referred to complaints
which bad been made " as to the interference of the
house of Losernea in the Carlisle election," and said:
...

•
Ile was not aware of any peculiar " interference ;" hut
he would my that to thought the position end property of
his family in the two counties entitled them to use their
Influence quite as much as the Earl of Carlisle war entitled
to "interfere" with the eastern division, and rather more
than the mem' ers for Cockennouth, one of whom had no
connexion with Carlisle, though very busy in election time,
and the other of whom was a Scotchman, with no pretension
whatever. Yet seltok volumes were poured out (shout " Low-
ther influence," and net one complaint raised on the other
side.
It is plain this young gentleman cannot perceive
' that " family influence," used to oppose an enlightened
course of legislation, and to compel the voters to be-
come parties to their own enthralment, is quite a dif-
ferent thing from the " influence" of a wealthy land-
owner, whose eon places himself in the van of ad-
vancing civilisation, and has justly become a respected
leader of the people. This is the reason why no
" complaint is raised on the other side ;" there is no
cause for complaint, but the contrary.
Now one certain consequence of the liberals making
steady and constant efforts to wrest the representa-
tion of the counties from the landocracy wilt
be to bring over to the aide of progress
many landowners who now support the obstruo-
tive and anti-social policy of the protectionists
from habit and association rather than reflection.
That the issue of the comparatively few county elec-
tions which have been contested by the liberals at
the present general election is sufficiently encou-
raging must be admitted ; and we have no doubt
that the exertions by which county seats have now
been gained by the promoters of industry form but a
prelude to a more general attack on landlordism,
whenever the next opportunity shall occur. And
this is a lesson which whig as well as tory landlords
will to lay to heart. If—as is surmised by some—
Lord FITZWILLIAN is anxious to see Lord MILTON
one day the representative of the Wert Riding, he
mistakes strangely the way in which this is to be
brought about, when he makes friends with land-
lordism, as personified in Mr. DENDION, against
industry, as represented by RICHARD COBDEN.

We shall be rather curious to see whether the
Times will continue to combine with its proper func-
tions as a great metropolitan journal the humbler
office of recording the parochial politics of a corner of
Berkshire, and giving expression to the private anti-
pathies of the owner of Bearwood. Careless news-
paper readers may often have been puzzled in the
I attempt to explain the friendships and enmities of the
Times—they have sought in vain for some common
category in which Sir J. HounousE, Sir I. GRAHAM;
and Sir J. HOOO might be placed, all of whom the
Times has denounftd, irrespective of politics, while
it has, with equal impartiality, formed a close and
intimate alliance with Mr. FERNAND. The not
Vnigme was Nottingham. Those who had thwarted
Mn MrAvimm's personal views were never for-
given, while the influence of the communes
inimicitia identified the Times with the per- •
mentors of his opponents. Whether the new
member for Nottingham will exercise a similar
control over the powerful journal with which he is
connected, time must show. We regret to see that he
has already pledged himself to all the personal anti-
pathies and to some of the political perversities of
the late Mr. WALTER. In the address which he
delivered to his new constituents, after a proces-
sion which the Times reports with all the solemn
minuteness of the " Little Pedlington Gazette," he
condescended to repeat the foolish charge of con-
spiracy against his father on the part of the late
government, and the late chairman of the board of
directors, with which the Times and Mr. FERRARI)
have so long attempted to disturb the indifferent
incredulity of the public. Much allowance may
be made for filial partiality; bat Mr. WALTER
would have done more honour to his father's memory
by tacitly dropping his prejudice. than in reproducing
them in his own person. We at least hope, for the
credit of the press, that the Times will no longer be
the organ of the private dislikes of one of its pro-
prietors, even though he may have appropriated the
peculiar genius of our contemporary for self-glorifica-
tion eo far as to announce that the " position in which
he stands is the proudest and moat exalted which any
British subject ever occupied?
There are, probably, few persons who will be in-
clined to diecuse the question, whether the position of
member for Nottingham, hared, as it iv, by

THE EXPRESS, MONDA'

Mr. FEARGUB O'CONNOR, is or is not
summit which can be reached by human am..
lion: but there is one passage
in Mr. Wsurza's
speech, which contains a statement so often
repeated by the Times and by other opponents of the
Poor-law, that .it may be worth noticing. He con-
gratulates himself and his hearers on the destruction
of that Poor-law Commission which his father had so
keg purened with unrelenting hostility. We are sot
quite certain whether the opponents of the poor law
are sincere in their present expressions of triumph.
It is not impossible that they may be glad to melee
the most of an apparent success with the into:edemas
retiring with credit from a hopeless ceded.: hie
statesman has yet declared his adhesies is thittilW:
poor-law clamour ;no innovation on lb
at the act of 1834 has eves been
parliament. The workhouses remain, the boardsl
of guardians are in full operation ; the central
authority will still superintend their labours. Only
the persons of the commissioners are changed. If
this was the main object of the Times and its fol-
lowers' it was concealed with consummate lIIIL
Week after week, and year after year, we were held
that the poor were robbed of their rights by the
guardians, and the guardians by the commissaries&
If an oppressive master of a workhouse was dismissed
by the"bashaws" of Somerset-house, their interference
with local independence was denounced; if a board
of guardians made their " slay " too thin, the com-
missioners were attacked for remissness in not in.
terfering. The principles of the poor law, the exemp-
tions which it recognised, the exertions of its others
to carry it out, their alleged deviations from the letter
of the code, all customs, all circumstances, all persons
in any way connected Kith the administration of
relief, were for thirteen years subjected to the in-
discriminate attacks of the Times.
As we have already said, the law remains the same,
and except that parliamentary ministers are to be
substituted fir the existing commission, a measure
which has never been urged by the anti-poor-law sgi.
Wore, we are not aware of any triumph which they
can claim. We may doubt whether abler or more
zealous functionaries will be found to take the place
of Mr. NICHOLLS and Mr. CHADWICK, Sir EDMUND
HEAD and Mr. LEWIS. It is, at any rate, certain that
their duties will be the same, and that their ordinary
practice cannot greatly vary from the former adminis-
tration of Somerset-house. It is not unlikely that in
the next parliament an attack will be made on the
whole system of excise taxation. If so, those who
conduct it will hardly be satisfied if their agitation
results in a decision that the chairman of the board
shall henceforth be required to sit in parliament.
If, however, the poor-law agitators are satisfied
with the trivial concession which they have obtained,
we are willing to let them enjoy their triumph. The
administration of relief to the poor is so difficult and
often so invidious a duty, that it is desirable to avoid
any addition to the unavoidable unpopularity which
attends it. Those who dispense the public charity of
the community are trustees at the same time for those
who furnish and for those who receive relief. By laxity
or indiscriminate bounty they may defraud the
deserving poor, they may reduce the needy rate-payer
to pauperism, they may demoralise those whom they
seem to benefit, and perpetuate their misery by
diminishing their exertions to escape from it. Never-
theless, they will seldom obtain full credit for the pru-
dent and conscientious discharge of their duties. In-
dividual suffering acts more strongly on the feelings
than contingent public evil, and the true friend of the
poor who has studied the principles of public economy
and who has courage to act upon them may airiest
always be held up successfully to odium by the nay
and effeminate or dishonest philanthropist.
We hope that the advantages which are anticipated
from the presence in parliament of two of the poor-
law fanctionaries, may compensate for the limitation
width the new act imposes on the choice of the govern-
ment. If popular constituencies, like the electors of
Lambeth, continue to exclude their representatives
ftom office, it will be necessary to look either to the
House of Lords, or to the few remaining family
hesoughs, for the heads of the new commission. There
, me, however, in the new House of Commons many
liable members who would probably not be disinclined
as long as their constituencies allow them to serve the
public in official capacities. We are not aware
whether Mr. Vitireas or Mr.MACGREGOR have been
thought of as candidates for the vacant presidentship.
Among the younger supporters of the government it
would not be difficult to find an able and active secre-
tary. Mr. CHRISTIE, a singularly industrious and
acute member of parliament, might possibly be un-
acceptable to government for this particular office
from his active hostility to the members of the ex-
piring commission. Mr. SUNBURY, the new member
for Bury, is, we believe, one of the most accomplished
of the new aspirants to parliamentary honours,
and would bring to the public service habit' of aa.
tained application which would probably midis
him a useful and efficient functionary. Them we
no doubt many other members of parilimest
il well qualified for the vacant offices, and we hope that
in m ' the appointment the government will find
not only t men but accommodating constite.sisa
The grea danger to the poor law system is likely to
arise from popular clamour. Hitherto the memory
of the evils of the old system, and the practical
benefits of the new law, with all its defects, have
secured it from material change ; and it is in the
highest degree important that the prejudices of parti-
cular bodies of electors should not he brought to bear
against a system which has on the whole worked
better than any other which could have been sub-
stituted for it. So far, at least, there is no ground for
the boasts of those who have opposed it. It will be
a heavy misfortune to the country if it ever renews
the experience which originally made it necessary.

the highest

Our Paris correspondence of Saturday contains no
intelligence of general interest. The Grand Concours
and distribution of prizes in all the colleges took
place in Paris on Thursday and Friday, and the de-
tails of these proceedings engross the Paris journals
almost exclusively.
The King and royal family will return from Eu
before the Ist of September.
M. Duchatel, Minister of the Interior, has returned
to Paris, and M. Guizot will immediately leave for
his country seat.
The Journal dee Debate continues to assail the pro-
ceedings directed to effect a reform in the electoral
and representative system. It finds in them an
arriere pensJe of jacobinism, republicanism, the over-
throw of the dynasty of July, and the return of the
10th of August and tad September. It seems that
the day appointed for the reform banquet at Mona
happens to be the 10th of August. The Debate thinks
or says that this day was selected to indicate the cha-
racter and real objects of the party by the event of
which it is the anniversary.
The disorders which took place in the Faubourg
St. Antoine on the last three days were brought to a
termination, and tranquillity is restored. They were
leas serious than has been represented, and do not
appear to have had any political character.

A letter from Rome, dated 3rd instant, quoted In
the Augsburg Gazette, affirms that a new plot has
ifjst been discovered at Rome. The or,
orandi, was informed that on the Bun preceding
disorders were to have broken out on the occasion of
procession in the quarter of the Transtaverias. Ile
went there, accompanied by Cardinal Ferretti. It is
certain that the famous bandit Gennaro, who com-
mitted several murders under the former government,
has been arrested for uttering offensive language
against the Pope.

MADRID, Ann. 9.
The apocryphal proclamation sent by the King to
the home minister, upon the 6th, has afforded excellent fuel
to kindle a fresh blase in the fires of party contentioe, which
were beginning to grow starved and languid. There are u
many theories &stalkers upon the *object. The elder Pro-
gresistas see in the manifesto the instrument of a moderado
plot for exciting the army to revolt, to dethrone the Queen,
upset the constitution, and make Don Francisco de Aseis ab-
solute monarch of Spain. The champions of moderation, in
anything but moderate language, ascribe the forgery to the
treacherous malice of the friends of progrrs, for the pur-
poseof rousing a storm of popular fury, and wieldieg the
passions of the deluded multitude for the ruin of the -Ring
and the oppression of the moderados. There is
not wanting a third party who attribute the docu-
ment to persons in the ministry, with the design
of sounding the prince's inclination to aeeept the
dangerous part assigned to him as head of the revolutionary
movement. Without pretending to decide which is the
most or least probable of these explanations, I may be per-
mitted to ray that the distinct menace held out by the Irmo
very lately, 'bile labouring under a more then usually
violent 1R- et rage—that the party it represented, if they
could sot dislodge the Pacheco ministry by any other means
would hay. recourse to revolutionary 111(11/11ITTS—has natu-
rally exposed them to the suspicion of not
_being quite

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16, 1347.