The Express.
London, England, 1865-04-29 00:00:00

TEE WEEKLY PEES&

The Saturday Review thinks the principal fault
of the budget is that the estimated surplus is too men. I
Both the Chancellor of the Exolreqser and the Housed Com-
mons rely with natural eonlideace ea the continued growth
of the revesne, which is said to expand at the satisfactory
rate of 1,700,0001. a year ; but part of the probable isereme
bad ban already included in Mr. Gladstese's estimate, and '
" it is imprudent sot to take into wound the pomade coa-
-1 tingency of some public embanammeat or disaster. Above
all, It is desirable, la a moos of unexampled prosperity, to
make some serious effort for the reduction of the debt. is
one part of his multifarious speech, Mr. Gladstone ob-
served with much truth that an avenge reduceios
of 3,000,0001. a year was not to be regarded with
eomplaessey or pride. In the wares of last year he
has had the good fortune of paying off 4,000,0001., but it is
scarcely probable that he will be able to repeat the opera. I
tion. The country would sot submit to say large amount
of taxation for the *sprees purpose of forming a sinking 11
fund ; and indeed it may be plausibly argued that the
money would be more advantageously invested by the tax-
payer than by the goverment, which amid only relieve
itself of a charge of about 31 per asst. Nevertheless,
Finance Minister ought to take care that the proems of re-
duction io never interrupted in time of peace. Half a
million of estimated surplus generally ewers' a balance of
four or five times that amount, which will be applicable to
the payment of debt. A quarter of a million forms an in-
sufficient margin ; and it must sot be forgotten that during
his present tenure of office Mr. Gladstone has twice been
embarrassed by a dellcit."

The Spectator observes that in L 0613011 the press, with
only two exceptions, his expressed the eirengest abhorreeoe
of the asemeination of Mr. Lincoln, the two exceptions being
the Standard sad—strange to say—the Globe. The former
applies to Mr. Lincoln the words need in &Weed to con-
demned criminal', the latter publishes an elaborate exam-
ration of the South. "It in neceseiry to remind the Ameri-
cans that on such points the Globe does not re-
present the feeling of the government. All the greet
cities Intend, we believe, to present addresses of
coodoleuce either to Mrs. Lincoln or the American govern-
ment, and we trust that u the emotion of horror dies
aw►y into cue of regret the intention may be persisted in.
For owe the feeling of all parties in the United Kielce=
is unanimous, and if those who draw up the resolutions will
but exprees them in terms which do not commit the
Southerners to an odicial condeinnstioe of the South, unani-
mous atheism of sympathy may be seat to Weshington
from every city and town in Great &dein. la Ireland
even this degree of caution will, we believe, be moose-

nary."
We read In the London Review :—" After all diorites as
to political principles are at as sod, it will, we believe, be
acknowledged on both sides that there wee something
great in that humble, uncouth, gigantic, halLedocated
raileplitter from Illinois. He socestimes astonished, some-
times annoyed the refilled statesmanship of Europe ; but
in the end he wrung from it respect, which in the
last few weeks was rising into admiration, and which
his bloody death will heighten and crousecrate.
He had the bark of the back woods about him,
and he weld not divest himself of it even in the
saloons of the White House ; he made strange jests when
be should have been decorously reserved; but he never
disgusted any but the vulgar at heart. It was as though
nature had fashioned him punt, and huge, and army, the
better to encounter the grim work to which he had set his
hand. We who live in en age of special earreepeadeata
and of photographs, and who see everything analytically
and as it were under the miarceoops, have perhaps dwelt
somewhat too much on these defect. ; but will posterity
regard them to t►e same extent' Who thinks of the warts
on Cromwell's face now that, having needed so far
from the man's time, we see him in hie totality? Abraham
Lincoln 'mama the chief magistracy at a period of ea*
paralleled difficulty, of overwhelming national disaster ;
and even we who have disagreed with the policy which he
represented meat admit that few met could have borne
such a burden with greater inaate power and constancy,
or could have peeped through each a fiery ordeal with fewer
mistakes of a serious kind. When he might have been
almost 'zoned for despairing, he was calmly hopeful ;
when the hour of manse arrived, be did Dot yield
to the drunkenness of revenge. We are judging
hits, of course, on purely moral pounds, sad from
the point of view *bids he oreceived to be right. Setting
aside, then, all debateable matters of opinion, it most be
admitted that Abraham Lincoln has won for himself, by
consistency, by firmness, and by a certain progressive aad
expanding power, the most conspicuous place next to
Washington in the het of American President.. Neither
his capacity nor his education was great ; but hoesety is in
itself capacity, and that of no mean order—it is in le&
education, and that not of the worst. His death will only
increase his fame. It sets him en a pedestal from which he
cannot be taken down, and crystallises his reputation at the
very moment of his triumph."
The Army and Navy Hardie remind, those who speak of
the sew President as a man of so capacity and worse than
no character, that he was twice, before secession. °oversee
of Tensaw., and Neater from Tennessee in Congress. He
was then thought by the elaveowners of Tennessee to have
capacity enough to be their ruler end their representa-
tive. "We know very little about him ; but his pre-
vious employment in these official pasta must, in
spite of his humble origin and shameful behaviour
on the 4th of March, be taken into account.
Harsh judgments are to be deprecated on say man,
and especially on one with whose career we on this
aide are little acquainted. The chief fear from him is lest
he should be led to call for vengeance; but we may
fairly hope that enough of ➢fr. Lincoln's kindly, nay mag-
nanimous, spirit remains in the councils of Wuhingtos to
prevent what would be a crime greater than the base ea-
susiaation of Abraham Lincoln. There I. little hope for
the Confederatee except ia a civil war in the North ; and
every reader can eerily determine for himself how far
that is likely to occur."
In the Press of to-day we meet with " James," who
thus discourses of the events of the week and their open-
panties importance: —" What a week of sensations has
this been ! The surrender of General Les, the fatal asses-
sination of President Lincoln, the discovery of the Rood tra-
gedy, the attempt in Paris to murder the attache to the Rue-
sian embassy, and the early death of the yonthfulexanswitch.
Of all these incidents the latter is the most mournful, and
the one that tends most to elicit the sympathies at least of the
educated caw: refined classes of society. The accessories of
the event are *a needier', interesting and dramatic. The
youth of the sufferer, the magnificent iotimitanoe of which
he was the destined owner, the promos in his last
moments of his august pares* and, above all, the womanly
and delicate atteedanee of his affianced bride, the fair
daughter of the royal house of Denmark, all unite to invest
with peculiar significance this early removal of the Crown
Prince of Hassia."
Th. Era says : " The Southerners, through their agent
here, affect• belief that the assassination will be used as •
pretext for arbitrary conduct towards the Closferierates,
but at present no ground whatever has bees given for such
en assertios. It would be well that they should boldly
and earnestly condemn the atrocious deed, for though
there are thousands among them who detest such acts se
hastily as we can do, it is notorious that their organs have
been for months menacing the North with private ven-
geance,' and the firing the New York hotels Wee certainly
arranged at Richmond."