The Express.
London, England, 1851-10-04 00:00:00

gfte 45)31Vt10.

To CORRESPONDENTS.
A Scene 3 &tines ef " Tee Kama," eertalalas 'he roe erestete
Oseettei" p-bll•bed every Toesday sad Friday aides 4 is ties
be poet.
A.lvearemeute hustled !se " The Zama." tombs Family; paper,
nevl he at the 'She% to, Bosveriesarset. Tire o'clock es the
day a pub.icatita.

lIIOR WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
MI. DA, --Wen rsc 9►. 17n. ifs/Twos, 9L 5759.
19.999190.—M9,9,91. 10n. 410. Afterasec 1 IL 190.,

LONDON, S.ITURDAY, OCTOBER 4.

The rise and eminence of KOS.I.I'II loans one of
the great marvels of the day. The influence which
he acquired, the power which he wielded, have never
been attained in the East, in which we may still in-
elude the east of Europe, save by two methods—
either by fanaticism or military success. Tobe great
in those regions a man must be a prophet or a
conqueror. there was no withstanding those who
united faith.
To acquire pure civilian renown, and command
veneration is ithout the assumption of any religious
mibetity, is what ran only be done in advanced,
enlightened, and civilised countries. In France or
England these things are possible. In Husain or
Turkey they are impassible. We do not know
whether it redounds more to the honour of Hungary
as a country, or of lilriStTll as a man, that he
attained the first rank there with the first eminence
in European estimation by a life of pure forensic and
eicripturial.and civilian struggle ngsanst the despotic
yoke, which Austria and its counsellors sought to
impose upon Hungary.
And yet this penman, this mere parliamentary
orator, when driven to it, and ashen the enemies of
his countey'a fnseloin flung away all considerations
of reason and right, and appealed to arms and brute
farce, sucenshal in organising one of the most sac-
cessful porter resistances ever offered to a military
power. ' are some amongst us who call Kos-
:sent a seconcl-rate character, because he was not a I
general. But he knew his calling. He had na
pretensions to lead an army to victory, but he had
the gift of organising an army and a military
system the the purpose. And he did for Hun-
gary, what rausier did fur France. enabled it,
by giving it the means, to conquer. We need not
remind our mailers that the result of KOSSI:TH's
military organisation was the defeat of Wisiosen-
ll:nen and the expulsion of the Austrian armies
horn Hungary. llad the Hungarians, in their
hour of triumph, imuched on Vienna they would
infallibly have taken it and returned a revolutionary
resistance in Germany that woald have given full
occupation to Russia, and, in all probability, ren-
dered the- Russian campaign of in Hungary
itnpmbible. Kossuth, however, was for the main-
tenance of Hungarian rights, and not for revolu-
tiunhi.ing or democrutising Europe, and so lie held
back hin victorious armies —a great mistake, we
think, on Isis part, whatever honour it dues to his
moderate views and purely Hungarian policy.
The military arrangements of Kossurn failed
under the uverwhel g fume that Russia flung
upon Hungary. But the defeat of 15-49 did not
obliterate the experiment of 1m Is, in which Hungary
showed itself more than a match for Austria, the.
rustic leviesuf the I lungurian Housed' having proved
tiieniselves fully able to repel the scientific attacks
of the Austrian generals, with forces so superior
in discipline, equipment, and artillery, to aught that
the Ilungariau chief could improvise. Victory, how-
ever, remained in 1818 on the side of the armed
Hungarian peasunt.
'the memorable example lives in the minds of the
Magyar, in the knowledge of the Sclavunic races,
and in the historic literature of the Gemini. And
it (mina one of the surest and greatest hopes for the
future rectum and independence of European na-
tions. There are two great means of resisting a
despotic power—the one is by a rising of the country
against it, and against any force that supports despo-
tiain ; the other is insurrection confined to the pipe-
Wien of towns, or of one: town. This last has
been the nusle of resiatanee introduced by the
French, and which has been more or less imitated
all through Europe. We need not tarry here to ex-
amine the different results of the two kinds of re-
instance. ']'hey an- evident to all. Suffice it to re-
mark that our great resistance in the seventeenth
century was a rustic one, carried on by an tinny of
peasants officered by fanneni, or the less wealthy of
handed proprietors. The Hungarian resistance of
Isla and 1811 was precisely the tame. Neither
were wars of barricade or c'eceute, but a series of
stand-up tights in the open field, after
some experience in which the rustic levies
were soon a match fur the most disci-
plined soldiers. Such must be the future resist-
ance of those countries of Europe which have need
of emancipation, and to which their rulers refuse
eveu the first elements of liberty. We allude cape-
rially to the Germans. .an (cocotte in Dresden, or
even a successful revolution at Berlin or Vienna will
not suffice. The liberals, who are determined to win
constitutional rights at the point of the soord, must
henceforth achieve that conquest in the open field,
however formidable the armies that can be
brought against them. The soldier has dis-
covered the art of street fighting. Ile is no
longer appalled by barricades. nor dumb-foun-
dered at a war of pavingstones. So that insur-
iections confined to townspeople have little chance
henceforth of being successful. In order that a
country should for the future successfully resist
tyranny, peasant and townsman must be united in
the same feelings and the same deterniination. This
is much for the best; for it will preclude the recur-
rence of those aimless insurrections, in which the
Parisians, for ex-ample, have indulged, and which
exciting the indifference or antagonism of the country--
people, afferded those who got hold of power, the
eippurtunities and excuses of oppression.
This must strike, and become evident to both Ger-
mans and French, who, if they cannot command and
organise such a resistance as kosserris, bri letter
nut stir at all. to compromise by partial enemas the
stiencl cause of national liberty.
We have said enough to show what a great
example Kossent has left in even military effort
and adaiinistnitiou. But his true fame and great-
ness lie in his civilian character and achievements.
From 1827, when he was one-and-twenty years of
age, till IRS, his life has been one prolonged
struggle in parliament, in the press, and in private
though universal correspondence, to put down or
rather to ward off tyranny by legal means. Of these
twenty-one years several were passed in prison, for
the eery same crime that Auto:ELLIS did.and roast°
dues suffer—the crime of maintaining constitutional
freedom against absolute monarchy.
It is a putt consulatiun and a great example to
Europe to behold these great civilian virtues ap-
preciated by the English public, and especially by
the municipaltica of London and of our great centres
of commerce and enlightenment. Nlr. Gh.rta; de-
serves the greatest credit for his able and just ap-
preciation of Kiessuries merits, and the unanimous
vote of the London corporation
.for even the one or
two dissentients professed thenew;ves admirers of
Kesse iii) marks the tribute of admiration from the
first and meet enlightened capital in the world to
one of the world's most virtuous and most eminent
suns.

I r is not easy to think or write about Mr. Eau-
I/lIAV and his capers with becoming solemnity, fur
the case is really a grace and melancholy one. Mr.
ty, in his onslaught on the Liverpool pre.s,
stands, indeed, in much the same relation to the
Emperor of AUITIZ!‘ or the King of PRUSA.t, that
on the stage Ihmilw,t, Furium doe, to Riehqnl
111. It is scarcely possible to read of Mr. llatistiAv
dealing his tines and sentences of imprisournent all
around with the must terrible impartiality—now
smiting a recusant newspaper editor: now a tailor, !
carried- away by his ently..siastie admiration
of eloquence, and now his own officers—without
being reminded of the hero of the once popular

extravaganza we have named, or even of the still i
more " tremendous Justice Midas." And yet it is
impossible to overlook the fact that Mr. RAMSHATII I
vagaries may seriously compromise sad prejudice
the important experiment fur the trial of which
County Courts were instituted.
The turkey-cock ferocity 4splayed by the iadr
of the Liverpool County Comet when =ailed 6y the
press, would of itself scarcely warrant hisrremoral
from office. Yet who, after such a display, could
have the slightest confidence in a tribunal where such
a man presides? It is true that Mr. RAMSHAY as
yet stands alone in unenviable absurdity amongst
the judges of the County Courts; but it must be
kept in mind that these courts have been a
favourite experiment with our legal reformers of the
first rank, that their establishment is but of yester-
day, and that unusual care would naturally be taken
to man them efficiently at the outset. Even all the
precautions necessarily taken in such circumstances
have not availed to prevent, at this early period of
their history, the appointment of a Mr. Itastsitsv,
simply in virtue of his intimate dependence on power-
ful aristocratic support. What then is to be looked
for when the first gloss of novelty has been worn off,
and County Courts subside into old established com-
mon-places? Mr. EAMSHAY is indeed a mama nris ;
his equal for absurdity will not easily be found,
but a few Justice Overdoes of much less folly
would saffice to damn effectually the character of
I our County Courts. Cheap justice is a good thing,
but such justice as is to be looked for at the hands
of even extremely mitigated RANISIIAY6 would only
be low-priced, not cheap justice, and dear at any
price.
The judges of the County Courts hold, it is true,
their commissions, like all other judges, in ritam out
mdrm. This, however, it is clear, from Mr. RAM-
!WAIN ease, affords but a slender guarantee for the
preservation of judicial decency.in the County Courts.
His recent escape from an investigation into his
conduct as judge shows how large a margin is al-
lowed for judicial eccentricities. And this is in the
nature of things; the recent annals of the Court of
Chancery can tell us that the very rarest and highest
qualities of a judge may be combined with an
impetuosity of extravagance scarcely inferior to Mr.
It sosilse's. Men being aware of this will be re-
luctant to inflict a stigma on a judge's character, or
deprive him of his bread, even for exhibitions that
rnay seriously compromise the tribunal over which
he presides.
'ibis is a consideration of the utmost practical
moment. In all other respects the experiment of
I the County Courts has been most successful. The
amount of business that has flowed in upon them
shows to what an extent the public has benefited by
I them. After all, great and complicated cases are
the exceptions in all courts of law; quarrels about
very simple matters, which admit of an easy solu-
tion on the principles of common sense by unin-
terested parties who can keep their temper, are the
great staple upon which our lawyers depend for their
bread. This is shown by the eagerness of the bar-
risters to get into the County Courts upon any terms.
The greater part of their business has gone thither,
and they must follow it or starve.
There is more in this than an unequivocal testi-
ninny to the utility of the County Courts ; there is an
indication of the means by which their only danger—
the risk of their being consigned to an inferior class
of. judges—is to be
.guarded against. This danger
arias from the disposition men will have, as soon as
these courts cease to be a novelty, of regard-
ing them as institutions of minor import-
ance. It is not easy to convince men that
' a judge with only 1,000/. per annum and jurisdiction
' only in cases not exceeding W. in value, is as im-
, portant a personage as he who receives 4,0001., or
6,0001., or 8,00/. per annum, and can decide in such
cases as that of the Bridgewater inheritance. Un-
less, therefore, some precautions are taken in time,
County Court appointments will sink into that kind
in which unscrupulous ministers may traffic with
little hazard. There is only one way to prevent
this, and that is by making the County Courts 'Amore

The.mcans of doing this aro at once obvious and
safe. The difficulty of any law problem does not
depend upon the amount of money that is at stake.
A legal question respecting the right to 51. may
be as puzzling as one respecting the right to 500,0001.
And it is of more importance to society that there
should be just and equitable decisions in litigations
for 51. than in litigations for 500,0001., for the former
arc of daily and hourly occurrence, while the latter
are rarely if ever heard of. Tho lawyer who is a
reliable judge in a question respecting 51. will be
equally reliable in one respecting 500,000/., and it
is for the interest of society that the same talent and
knowledge should be brought to bear upon both.
The simple, expeditious and cheap procedure of the
County Courts is as applicable in eases where great
interests are at stake as where only small ones are
involved. The rich litigant for great amounts has
as good a right to have justice brought home to his
own door as the poor. Every reason that tells in
favour of the establishment of local courts for small
controversies tells equally in favour of the extension
of their jurisdiction to all cases. And it is only such
an extension of their jurisdiction that can confer
such importance on theirjudges as will ensure due
care being taken to appoint competent men to pre-
side in them.

The increase of population in England and the in-
creased and increasing complicity of social relations
and transactions imperatively call for the introduc-
tion of courts with unlimited jurisdiction elsewhere
as well as in Westminster. In Scotland, the

Sheriff Courts have unlimited jurisdiction in all
cases respecting moveables e., chattels), and the
system is found to work well. The Court of Ses-
sion is seldom resorted to in such cases, except as a
court of appeal.
The eagerness with which the barristers have
asserted a claim to be admitted to practise in the
local courts shows that it will be easy to obtain
local bars of high character and qualifications. Such
burs, with competent judges, are all that is required
to make law coats safe, useful, and honoured.
Among other advantages that would result from the
establishment of these courts, would be the entire
abolition of that conventional rule by which every
litigant who engages tho services of a barrister must
engage those of a solicitor also. This arrangement
has been objected to principally on account of its
expense; it appears to us liable to a much more
serious objection. If the barrister were allowed to
take his instructions from the client, he would learn
the real facts and merits of the case, and would refuse
as a gentleman and man of honour to state absolute
falsehoods. But when he is obliged to take an
attorney's version of the ease without inquiry, he has
n, scruple to utter any statements that arc put in his
mouth. The necessary intervention of an attorney
between the client andliis counsel is the quieting
draught which the whole CounvorstEn school of
barristers use to quiet their conscience.
The extended jurisdiction of County Courts, with
their simplified forms of rooms, would in time lead
to other innovations upon those conventionalities of
the existing courts which are the main props of
every legal abuse and obstructions to all rational
law reform. Such a revolution is indispensably ne-
cessary to shake and weaken the strongholds of the
devotees of old legal superstitions.

We are not a military nation, and seldom trouble
ourselves with that portion which constitutes the
army anti navy. unless some sudden call for more
money to carry on an endless Cape war, or some
engagement beyond the Indus, disturb our pockets
and national pride. But sometimes the military
authorities cause our attention to be drawn to little
acts of despotism, which. as civilians, we cannot
, tolerate. It was by way of preventing any such
; attempts that our House of Commons orders, every
spring. that a certain book called the Mutiny Act
I and Articles of War should be printed, which book
it considers equally binding on the general and the
private soldier. gut does it answer this prpose?
Far from it. For the general says, " You, my info-
, rims, must strictly obey every item of that book, but
as to myself it is another matter, for if I do not
please to do so, who is to enforce it. Or rather, who
will dare report me?.. An illustration of this has
lately occurred at Weedon. Owing to some disagtees
mettle between the colonel of the regiment stationed
Kure and his officers, he placed several of them
under arrest. and reported the circumstances to
the H,rse-Guards. A eourt-martial was at
once marred to assemble, but in the mean-
time two more officers were placed in ar-
rsst. The court was held, the first batch were
tiled. Whether front circumstances which arose
during the trial, or that the evidence was not comas