The Express.
London, England, 1851-12-29 00:00:00

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LONDON, MONDAY, DECEMBER 29.

Tne election of Louts NerOLLON BONAPARTE, in
whatever degree aided by falsification or intimida-
tion, to be the dictator and legislator of France, is
without doubt one of the moat serious blows that have
ever been dealt to constitutioaal government. We can
account for many votes by the peculiar peasions and
ignorance of the class which gave them. We can un-
derstand the legitimiet voting for any heirless mem-
ber, who would undertake to kill at once every prin-
ciple of freedom, under republic or under monarchy.
We can comprehend M. MONTALEMBERT, who ima-
gines human happiness and virtue to exist in but two
mansions—the barrack and the cloister. We can un-
derstand the socialist,who, in no possible contingency,
could hope to put his own pnnciples in practice,
and who, therefore, is well pleased to be avenged of
society and of all political parties, by stifling them.
We can understand the ignorant peasant, the songs
and traditions of whose family are of the Grande
Amick, and who in truth knows no name save that
of NAPOLEON. And we can also understand the con-
stitutionalist and Orleanist, who despair of seeing a
monarchy of the middle classes revive till the forward
spirit of liberalism has received the dire lesson of
many years iron tyranny and exaction.
All these, however, are mean motives to a mean
set. And we believe that a far more universal and
predominant motive than any was the conviction
utterly hopeless and useless it was to oppose
Louis N.+POLEo s's election, and the inability for
any one to see their way to the substitution
of anything else. The army had decided. For the
people to decide anything contrary, implied resistance
to the military power. The French were no more
prepared fur that than the Germans. And they have
submitted, an they generally bear adverse fortune,—
with a good face.
Of thOSC parties who, adverse to Louts NAPO-
LEON and to tyranny, have still voted for both in the
vague hope that they may turn to its advantage, tho
vulgar socialists arc those least likely to be mistaken.
By vulgar socialists we mean that large body
of the struggling, the needy, and the ignorant, who
are discontented with their lot, and who seek by some
political legerdemain to turn society upside down,
and plant themselves upon the top. Louts Nsro-
Leos has done, or is doing, this for them with quite
as much efficacy as M. PROVDBON. The main prop
of his power is the support of the most ignorant of
the population,—the common soldiery, and the rustic
peasants, and the monastic clergy. These are the
layers of society, well reprenente y MONTALEMBERT
and St. Ar-sisto, whom he is putting uppermost.
The classes of society that he is extinguish-
ing and treading down ate the liticians,
the professors, the men of letters, journalists,
and in fine, the gentlemen. M. Guizor
raved of a g.,vernment of notables and capable&
Louis N.iroLeos puts a gag on the mouth of every-
one that can pretend to either character. It is all
the vulgarity, immorality, and brutality of the
country that is uppermost ; and that stamps its seal
upon every government act. Look at the arrests,
the know de euchre, forced exile, the extinction of
the press, the restoration of the censorship, even
upon books, the firing into first-floor windows—these
all bespeak the ignorance, the coarseness, the de-
fiance of decorum, the bacchanalian triumph of the
lowest class of mind and lowest class of breeding in
the country. It is in fact sans-culottion, as yet
without the guillotine.
It is a serious disaster to have the political educa-
tion of a country stopped. With the journals sup-
pressed, books submitted to the censonship,—the
gagging of the masters of public instruction,—
France must retrograde if it bears its present yoke
long. The counter revolution in Prussia and in
Austria did not• at least, proscribe all the talent of
the country. The bureaucracy of Prussia is able,
though despotic. And even Senweazenueito availed
himself of the BRtettri and the BACHE.% thrown up
by the revolution. But no one with a soul or a ca-
pacity above that of a policeman would serve the
resent French dictator, who will be reduced to
Ind civil tali:Alps as well as military ones by means
of the conscription.
How the liberal and educated mind of France is to
free itself front a yoke so galling and so disgraceful
remains as yet a mystery. The unfortunate schism
between the upper and the lower classes, the propertied
and the earning, has deprived the intellect of the country
of its right arm. And it is by this fearful separation,
to which the upper classes of the French were not
sufficiently alive these three years past, that Louis
Kirot.cox has profited. He is, to some extent, the
people's dictator, and his mission is to sco the
intelligent, the commercial, and the middle classes.
The balance may for a long time tremble between
his prudence and their impatience; but the day of
decision and of retribution will come.
There is one truth that must impress itself on the
mind of every citizen in Europe, and that is, the im-
pmsibility of enjoying the permanent advantages of
liberty as long as rulers can dispose of armies of from
three to five hundred thousand men. This large and
disciplined body is necessarily raised from the most
illiterate of thzuropulation. Brute power can be
based 011 it. the brute part of Europe must
dominate over its intellectual part until means are
found for all and each country dispensing with an
immense military force. There is no use now in any
class, however numerous, or any party, however well
organised, attempting to effect a revolution until they
are prepared to deal with the army, and shake off that
incubus. We allude not, of muse, to such an army
as the British, but to continental armies. The great
question now is, military or non-mill rule ? The
military pried* predominates over svoile, and
we very much rose may crush in a fent weeks sr
months whatever remains of constitathmalkim be
Piedmont, Belgium, or Switzerland. maw rip
dominance is an inundation that must SOWS! every-
thing below its leveL To oppose it, or most dykes
against it, seems for the moment isapsoihic All
ens can do is to be prepared for the ilia, of the
waters, and to labour for the restored= st constitu-
tional, civilian, mile, and seam systems of
government. The task is not an omy one, the aim
not to be attained saw thns#_auasit soaring, and
many years of collating awl Mimes WI that it is
the chief Wag to kr sisat be evident to
any one yaw the present state and
future primped' of fmrspun satiety.

&roresur.is ought to be judged by their deeds rather
than their words. Of them. as of all men, the divine
eayint holds good, "by their fruits ye shall know
them. Mouth-patriots like Wain or BURDETT—
one of whom betook himself to patriotism to repair
his fortunes, shattered by dissipation, while the other
was, from the first, known to be incapable of atten-
tion to business—never can be relied upon when
action is required. Men, who baring acquired a re-
putation by one bold and good act, and who having
in consequence obtained place and power, remain
idle, sod yet expect public support on the strength of
former services, are equally unworthy of confidence.
The party which follows implicitly the lead of such
men, or of men who from any other causes are as
inefficient and as untrustworthy as they are, acts
sillily, and betrays its public trust. In this sense,
" measures not men," or as it might perhaps be
more intelligible expressed, "men for their mea-
sures" is a Gonna and prudent maxim.
At all events it Is a consideration that ought to
make men pause in the headlong career of party.
Their leaders may be able and brilliant ; their imago-
ciates may be amiable and well-meaning; and yet
as both are like all men,—liable to the errors and in-
firmities of humanity,—it is at all times dangerous to
run after and along with them, shutting one's eyes,
and not once asking where they are running to.
It will not be amiss to throw some of this cold
water upon the party heat which appears likely to
be generated by the friction of personal collisions
and incompatibilities within the whig party at pre-
sent. Instead of blindly following either those who
cry Up with Lord PALMERSTON, or those who cry
Down with Lord PALMERSTON, the reformers of

the mselveseelkmgress, any
.
The partlsaae of Lord Psurtartow complain, and
not tone show of reason, that attempts are
lig dto pre-Pedge his cause. If the attacks
mos Yu is the Times are official inspirations,—as
Sy bate way mash the appearance of being,—his
liiOWNS have laid themselves open to the
T
r.
4of wo=to lower him in public estimation
they at least have no right to
Wig against lie. It atar_b.e that Lord PALMER-
Siest by iniedidonly meddling in the domestic
sillies of foreign Mil% OM by harsh and haughty
isto fatale this country
position; Cire=lenddone this by
one hekted act; and the general tenor of his
policy has been acquiesced in, and, when im-
zealously defended by the whole
et and their party. Again, Lord PAL-
MinaroN no doubt avowed himself at one time
en advocate of a 3s. duty on imported corn, but
dna was when Lord Joni; RUSSELL was proposing
sea Illa. daty ; and the former's declaration that he
la. ants to see the error ot his former ways is quite
el ore entitled to credence as that of the latter.
Oa the other hand, if the Morning Post is to be taken,
was it has for some time been taken.--to be the
semi-official exponent of Lord PALMERSTON'S views,
his Lordship is quite as busy as his old friends and
new foes, seeking to prepossess the public in his
favour before the real merits of the quarrel can be
known. When parliament meets, both parties will
take care to tell their respective stories, and corrobo-
rate their statements by such evidence as they can
adduce. Then, and not till then, the public will be
in a condition to judge between them.
Even then, however, it may neither be just nor ex-
pedient for the public to take part in this family
quarrel. In all bickerings of the kind it is pretty
certain that one party is in error; but it sonic
times happens that both (see the memorable case
of PEACHEM and Locker) are in the wrong. If
mere personal grudges and jealousies have led to the
schism between Lord PALMERSTON and the rest of
his party, the public have no concern whatever in
the quarrel. The course to be pursued by reformers
in that case will be clear enough—to give their sup-
port to the party or persons who shall appear able
and willing to carry such reforms as are necessary,
without listening to any one's private grievances.
What course Lord I'AULERSTON may see fit to
pursue in his novel circumstances reformers in gene-
ral cannot know till the time comes, when his lord-
ship can or will speak out in person. But if he do
not sacrifice the public good to the indulgence of
personal animosities, it will not be for lack of temp-
tation. The most discordant and irreconcilable par-
ties arc egging him on to assail his former colleagues.
Tory protectionists, sot-disant Peelites, the " neg-
lected talents " of the whig Ftrty —all are professing
a vast deal ot respect and sympathy for him, and la-
bouring to convince the public that he is an ill-used
man. All these professions of sympathy and
respect may be perfectly sincere and genuine,
but if Lord PALMERstON, relying upon them, shall
aim at attaining power and place by the aid of such
heterogeneous supporters, it is clear that he will be
unable to use it in the way honest reformers ought
to wish. The next session (at the least) would be ex-
clusively devoted to struggles fur removing one set
of men from office and installing another. To pre-
treat discord in the ranks of the opposition or assail-
bit party, all questions upon which they differ must
be kept in abeyance. What chance would there be
then of anything being done in the way of legal,
financial, or parliamentary reform ?
Lord PALMERSTON is no doubt a brilliant and
liberal man; but is he a man of such transcendent
ability, is he so trustworthy a reformer, that it is
worth while to postpone every practical measure
of reform in order to make him premier of
England ? Ile has indeed bearded the old
despotisms of the continent ; but the time bee
been when we were charrl with undue sub-
serviency to Russia; the time has been when he
kept up an unprofitable and irritating controversy
with the United States about a boundary question ;
and at this moment the accusation of favouring the
reckless ambition of M. BONAPARTE is not contra-
dicted by his partisans. And although Lord PA!,
MERSTON has been ready enough to fraternise with
pretty far-going liberals abroad, it has not been un-
derstood that he has been very zealous for decided
practical reforms at home. As a member of the
ANNIN_O party (its last surviving member of any
mark) Lord PALMERSTON was considered as rather
yielding to the inevitable necessity of parliamentary
reform than as zealously supporting it. His opinions
and sentiments may have been misapprehended, but
certainly he has hitherto been regarded us one of that
class of politicians whose sympathy with popular
liberties, in the abstract and at a safe distance, is un-

bounded, but who rather shrinks from too close a
familiarity with the democracy of his own country.
He is more at home in the salons than in the busy
marts of commerce or in the workshops. Such a
man is not exactly the raw material out of which to
manufacture a highly popular leader.
Sentimental ebullitions of sympathy for distin-
guished men ill treated by old friends, are no doubt
vo pretty and very poetical. But waving alto-
r the consideration that it remains to be proved
Lord PALMERSTON has been ill-treated by old
blends—that we have as yet, either on the one hand
or the other, nothing but anonymous assertions, vague
surmises, and unauthenticated rumours, it behoves
reformers to be just before they are generous. The
rights and interests of the millions have a prior claim
upon their attention and efforts, to the delicate
feelings of any individual, however meritorious or
however amiable. The first duty of reformers is to
look to the advancing of practical, necessary reforms.
When they have done. that they may be as sympa-
thetic and sentimental as they please. It may be
that in existing circumstances, Lord PALMERSTON
may be the bast card for reformers to play ; but
better proof is required of this than has yet been
sitded ' • and it must be confessed that both his own
unnelodsnts, and the known views and wishes of
MIR st his zealous panegyrists are of a nature to
'aspire some distrust. IN ith the Morning Post and
the Morning Herald among his loudest admirers, it
may bo well for reformer to wait for Lord PAL-
ISHISTON'S explanations, at lent, before committing
themselves wholly to his cause.
Lord Joust Russer i. bss offered us a new Reform
Bill. Let us see what it is to be like, before we
try to upset him in Sam of any one wham
opinions on reform are far hes known than them if
present PREMIER. PIIdiSIIIML mast soot mutt
amtledire the op dm media lbws Y stilt
Awls giving a broe3srLtb la dm aairtili aids-
try. Uwe are two ones. 'amt. and then w eol-
leer= of Lord JOHN'S who—cosse fres ae, and
some has ill-health—might be well Aimed to re-
tire to honourable repose. This opens a way by
I which the ministry may be strengthened, and by
which the cause of reform is more likely to be ad-
ranted than by any rearing up of per oral
anta-
gonisms
between whig statesmen in office, and whig
statesmen out of ofilce—however excellent and
accomplished any of them may personally be.

THE QUARTER'S REVENUE.

EMlbad follbg seek and -alP..re.t 17to uk;:',, •
themeless visa sesstomoowhat policy urn"
meet esodasivo to the peed wee; and o ean •
mot olleiently psightts osob.dwasared ;mid policy ?
When these quietens 'ire beed satiority, •
answered. it will be tints enough. to choose between
the ex-Secretary for Foreign Atiirs and his quondam Tre_,!'
colleseses, or say other leaders who may offer
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