The Express.
London, England, 1865-10-18 00:00:00

THE EIVIESS,_ WEDNESDAY E'

ROYALTY in Wurtemberg knows its rights, "and
" knowing dares maintain." An order of the day
just issued at Stuttgart proclaims the pleasure—
and also the displeasure—of King Crikates, oon-
oerning the personal respect due to him and his
family. Some Sovereigns would fancy that this
was delicate ground. We live in an age of severe
competition. There are at the present time po-
tentates ruling territories in the map of which an
area equal to that of Wurtemberg would figure as
little more than a speck, who work every day in
public affairs, and are content to accept such out-
ward demonstrations of respect as they are held
to have earned. This introduction of what may
be called the cutting style of business makes it
the more necessary for the old monarchical firms
to do something to make their ground good.
Instead, however, of descending from his pedestal,
and placing himself on the level of the parvenues,
the King of WURTAMBIRO sets forth the
amount of respect he wants, and levys it like a
tax. This may after all be the most certain
way to get it. His Majesty, of whom little
has been heard for some time, and who, to say the
truth, was in some danger of being overlooked,
has by this very order at once taken a conspicuous
place in the view of Rurope. Let us hope that
he may be equally successful in Wurtemberg ;
that the photographs of the Royal person
ordered to be obtained at the regimental cost
and hung up in all barrack-rooms
will be diligently as well as reverently
studied, and that henceforth no sentry
will meanly pretend not to know his Majesty.
The KING, it must be admitted, meets the diffi-
oulty in a von' handsome way, by ordering • salute
to be delivered to the court carriage whether the
Kum or, indeed, anybody is inside. Now that
• the tribute of homage baa been adjusted by the
• highest authority, there can be no excuse for
• robbing Wurtemberg royalty of that which is its
• daily bread.

TnE borough of Woodstock has held a meeting
for the purpose of deciding on the course to be
taken for its emancipation, and of obtaining the
support of public opinion in pursuing it. It has
resolved to present a petition to the House of
Commons, complaining of the interference of the
Duke of MAsisoaonon in the late election, and
praying for an inquiry. For the prevention of
such conduct hereafter, the petition adopted sug-
gests to the Legislature three alternatives. The
one is to extend the boundaries of the borough
so as to include neighbouring towns free from duosl
domination ; the second is to lower the franchise
tl a 61. occupancy ; the third is to disfranchise the
borough altogether, transferring the member to
some town at present unrepresented. This last is
undoubtedly • strong remedy. But it cannot be
said to be uncalled for, if no other can be found
foe preventing interference by • member of the
House of Peers in the election of • member to
the House of Commons, which the petition justly
designates as "a violation of the letter andspirit of the
" Constitution of the kingdom." One of the first
proceedings of every new Home of Commons is to
declare by resolution "that it is a high infringe-
" went of the liberties and privileges of the Com-
" mous House of Parliament for any lord of Par-
" !jambe; or other peer or prelate, to concern
" himself in the election of members to serve for
" the Commons in Parliament." And if the
House should find its powers insufficient to vindi-
cate this resolution, in any existing constituency,
nothing certainly will remain but to remove from
that constituency the right to elect • member of
the House of Commons, who order such circum-
stances cannot be considered as " serving for the
" Commons in Parliament," seeing that in point
of fact he serves only for his Grace of }huts°.
nouoa.
It is, indeed, highly probable that if the
Woodstock petitioners are persevering enough, the
House will find itself compelled to debate this un-
pleasant confession of its weakness. The instances
of complaint against a peer for interference in an
election are numerous, and there are not wanting
cases in which he has been declared
guilty, but we are aware of only one
occasion on which a lord of Parliament was
punished for such offence. This solitary exception
to • rule of condonation occurred so far back as
1701, in the case of the Bishop of Wow:Berea,
who was charged with using influence to prevent
the election of the then Sir Joan Paw:Gros.
He was found guilty, and, being Almoner to the
QuEes, a petition was presented to her MAJzsrx
preying her to dismiss him—a request with which
she was pleased at once and heartily to comply.
But in the same year the Earl of Parxaeonovon
was accused and found guilty of the same offence,
and nothing was done to him, save the recording
of the opinion of the House. So, in 1780, the
Duke of CHANDos was accused of interfering in
the election for Northumberland, by writing a
letter directing certain electors to vote for the
candidate he preferred ; the petition was re-
ferred to the Committee for Privileges, which re:
ported that the acousation had been substan-
tiated, but nothing followed. As • rule,
however, the charge has been disposed of
without even the formality of inquiry. Thus
in 1841, in the case of Lord CAwoon and the
Carmarthen election, no notice of the petition was
taken by the House. The like result followed in
a former petition from Woodstock against the
Duke of MAntsottouGE, touching the election of
1845. In 1846 there was a petition against Lord
FirznAnmEGE in respect of West Gloucestershire,
which after debate was referred to the Committee
for Privileges, but no notice of any report by the
Committee appears in Hansard. In 1848 Sir W.
PAGE WOOD moved for and obtained • Select Com-
mittee on • petition from Stamford, complaining
of the proceedings of the Marquis of ExrrEE ; but
though the nomination of the committee was re-
ferred to the General Committee on Elections, no
further record is to be found. And in all these
cases the point pressed by the opponents of in-
quiry was that, even if it resulted in substantiating
the charges, it must be unavailing, for the House
had no power to carry it in any way into effect by
punishment of the offender. But from this
dilemma the proposition of the Woodstock petition
will save it now. If the interference is proved,
it can punish the offender by depriving him of
his right to nominate a representative for
Woodstock. It may thus touch him in the ten-
derest point, making the motive for the offence the
means of its own chastisement. If to realise the
full greatness of the House of MARLBOROUGH
demands, in the Duke's opinion, the possession of
an appendant vote in the Rouse of Commons, it
will be • real penalty to curtail the ducal dignity
by removing the representative of Blenheim from
the Lower House.
Woodstock will need, however, all its own
energy and all the help of public opinion to enable
it to prevail in its self-sacrificing struggles. It
will be felt to be an outpost, the ices of which
would be speedily fatal to the citadel of proprie-
tary boroughs. All the influence which is inte-
rested in such boroughs, and all that which is cow
cerned in the maintenance of the preponderance
of wealth and rank in our political system, will
therefore, openly or secretly, be arrayed
against the Woodstock petition. But there
will be something in its favour which has not
perhaps been so strongly experienced in former
day% There is a growing sense of discomfort in

OUR CONTEMPORARIES.
(TRIS DAT.)

THI ALAHAIt• COULIZONDUCL
Returning to the Alabama oorrespondesca, the
Times today, after speaking of Red Romaa proposed
commimion as an offer of very little importance or signi-
ficance, proceeds to declare that each a claim as Mr. Adams
has made, supported on such grounds as he puts forward,
was never before preferred by ate civilised (overawed to
another. Thak a 041111011 became a neutral at the wrote
time, end by so Aping prejudicially effected the interest of
one of the combatants, is a charge so entirely novel
and nnpronedented that the writer cannot help feeling sur-
prised the American minister should have been instructed
to bring it forward. Again; had we reformed our law
we should have been guilty of that very breach of neutra-
lity of which we are accused. Breaches of seatrality by
individual aubjssts of the Queen cannot be admitted to
entail liability os the Qaseo's government, unless they have
taken place with its permission or by its connive/mu Our
government may depend upon the support of the nation in
maintaining the position it has takes up. If the American
government is determined to seek a quarrel with as, as
well this demand as any other. We eaanot have one on
which our right is clearer and our position mote swoop
Vocable.
" Materialist" also, in the correspondence columns of the
Times, replies to Mr. Adams's argument in support of his
complaint of our early recognition of the belligerent rights
of the Coafedermiy. As English vessel was captured and
condemned by the American courts for loading an outward
cargo on the 13th and 14th of May is cao of the hie:lkeda
ports. And yet, says " Ifistoricsa," Mr. Adams
asks as to believe that but for the English declara-
tion of neutrality, which was first announced on the 6th
of May. and finally issued on the 13th of May, no measures
would have been taken in America to enforce the blockade.
The blockade was Is full and active operation in the second
week in May. The sews even of the intention of the Eng-
lish government to recognise the belligerent rights of the
South could not by any poeribility have bees known in
America till the third week in that month. And yet we
are gravely told that "the actual blockade. so far from
being a cause, became actually an inevitable consequence of

----------------"C-L,. reorilligl piege solemnity with the satires
the perpetuation of abuses, a growift I.dannY ..-
we tlefer from tie history of the pest. As Is
the nation to insist on the °radios*" er even
,V, abilitylepot down litinsurinotsoo if they ludic
most venerable 'candela* when 4'g '11" Me." 'Ake it is earl*. there with be the sliglikint doubt.
opposed to justice and the proworsegiioe of tkeirtfTio pod Nous if is a way such „ that woof in ow
country. The Fees and the railway Devi air 7,00,60 d, In which • coloolal
atrialegislatue degilth en the use
an interest in politics into the remotest regions, :to be made of the imperial troops,
and it is now out of the question to hush up any 1 nicer in command should be a mere automaton. General
proved violation of public deosnoy. Before this mom= diotinotl7 ohmic. the colonial government with
;wow:heel.
inflah ends.
troops
influence even Parliament must bow, and borough-
:l witilldri:iingSpiathgegitaitistik intotreorvolt
mongers must give way. We are, it is true, am
of crushing them and oonflasting their property. The
customed to the tacit interference of Peet* but colonial goveroment profess sow to be able to disposes with
then it is a different thing to defend it. And if the assistance of the imperial troops. mud if they will hence-
the cue is put nakedly before us, that the mem- forth suppress Maori revolts with their own militia. we
bus for Woodstock is only the member for the 'hall have no reasons for prying too closely Into the nature
Duke of MARLBOROUGH, elected by means of his id ilia' dialing' with the r wives. But as our troops bare
tenants-at-will, and that the imlepeadent inhabi- not yet left the soles', sad as it le toe much to hope that
their evaporation will not be again required, we certainly
tants of the borough disclaim him as a represents. have a right to know
whether the
serious
_,_____
_.,_____o
live, and desire relief from the odium of being held by Sir Duncan Cameron are or are not without. ..t00717....att0a.
to be his constituents, it will be very hard to re- The dead lock in the political affairs of the colony of
silt the granting of some practical remedy for so Victoria tind its causes a
are
describe
Cesecad
is by
rethecting the dg'-
roNews.
palpable and flagrant an infringement of the con- The action ofthe tlte l j
stitution. ppriation Bill was ill advised. and calculated to try the
temper of the legislature. It is worth asking whether the
_ _ arrengement which /manlier) a colony like that of Victoria

with a mooed chamber is not • mistake. In Beglaed the
Upper Bosse is a great historical institution, to which the
ides" and sentiments of generation lifter generation of
Englishmen have inseesibly adapted themselves. The
Ileum of Lords has a solid fouedation in the °meta-
tution of our social Mete. la a different manner the fleeate
of the United States hae a special basis of existence, sod
could not very well be dispensed with. Bat what is the
use of a mooed Chamber in Violoria, where the organisa-
tion of society is simple to the extreme? No reason for It
can be found is the nature sod work of lew-utakkor. There
Is no mon rows far providisg that a bill shall par through
two eineenbliee before it becomes law than that • man who
4 bee committed molder shall be tried before two juries
1 before be is banged. If it is the tendency of certain
stitutiosse to Doodah alms hatred when they ire powerless
to protect elms privilege, It is worth while to Mortise whet
ere the advantages for the sake of which their evil should
cooties' to be endured.

TUX CLTTLX FLAMM.
The Times compliments the Dutch room tamest upon
the prudent stops which they have taken to meet the
calamity of the cattle plague. The advantages to be gained
from such • systematic marl of fads a they have
mewed are obvious. and it Is
in the highest degree dame-
ditetdo to us that aahing of the sort has bees yet at.
tempted in this croaky. The " ignorant persona who,
seder the same of inspectors, have bean paid •
guinea a day for butchering cattle at pleasure"
have made a pretence of collecting statistics.
A few facts, however, are riskily proved. It may be eon-
dared as established that the disease is the true Raman
riadeepeot, ear steppe mural., Lod that this is highly °m-
asks*, while it ie probable that it may be also conveyed by
atmospheric; infection. The meat of the dammed animals
may be eaten without serious conasquccosa. Unties we mu
detect the disease at a sufficiently early stage to enable us
to separate the animals bakes contagiou has become pa-
late, or unless, as Mr. Card aye has been doss by the
Immovable doctors in Holland. we can discover Dame
spew& spinet ideation, we have nothing left but
to render it is some way impossible for healthy
animals to come into contact with any strange
cattle whatever. This can only be done by at
once stopping the circulation of living airmail throughout
the country. Ne cattle should boa thetamarket, except
to he immediately slaughtered for pose' of food.
They may go to market, bat they should war mute away.
By this mesas the disease might, leased, be brought in a
state of incubation tato a town, but it would nsv,r he dis-
persed thence over the country. It would then be
solely the mama of the individual whether he abuse to
slaughter his cattle at owe or to try the chance of treat•
meat, snd by thus alandoeles all public interference with
the treatment of the animals lee should be relieved tram
the inevitable demand wbkh would otherwise be made for

some national compensation.
The Te&graph, which lakes a precisely opposite view se
to the curability of the dime" thinks it is not going beyond
its eminent is Mafia, that the tendeoey of the s,tdeocs
hitherao takes by the Castle Please Commission is Is show
the imperative necomity of the policy which would literally
out oft the march of the disease by destroying the beasts that
ere infected. In Belgium oo sooner did disease appear on •
farm than all chancel of its propagation were at once shut
out, and the authorities eau declare in posit terms that
there le now no cattle photo i ive n
Belgium. Nor
has the loss bees great ; while the niceness
of farther dsstructios of stock are certainly very trifilog.
The same policy has boon adopted in Frame, where, Busk.
to ready money, quick °limitation, and the knife, it has
bees Impossible for the cattle plague to gain a bold. It is
deeply to be &Owed that Ptolemy Gainges'a &fiat* and
effectual spates wee sot adopted at firet, sod is not yet
followed out. Every one is sick and tired of those who
ventilate idle nostrums and hocutexpathic noticas. It Is to
be expected that the forthcomieg report of the royal went
mission will moiled oo dubious nut., and that firm end
reeohite action, with general confidence in stringent mea-
, sweet, may follow lb. period of satiety sad iniamanage-
neat.

English policy."
The Daily Naas points out a way stlll open to both
governments. Let it be wanted that the British rovers.
went have finally declined to refer the question to any
arbitration. The cease of the British government is the
cause of all minket nations. The cause of the
American government is the cease of all belli-
gerent nations who possess a mercantile marls*. Both
hemispheres supply plenty of neutrals and plenty
of belligerents. Let the cue of the American go-
vernment be mbatitted by themselves to the most eminent
statesmen mid jurists in France. Italy, Germany, Russia,
and the other countries. Let the wisest and ablest men in
Europe and America be asked their opinion upon the awe
made by Lord Atwell en the part of the Britieh gavels-
meat, and by Nr. Adams on the part of tire Americo°
psalmist. It is sot assumed that either geverstsest
will agree beforehand to be bound by the preponderating
opinion • nevertheless, it can scarcely be supposed that the
people Of America, or the people of England, smell per-
mit their ministers to enforce claims thus condemned by
the reams' wawa of the leading statesmen sod jurists of
the civilised world. Noe is this proposal altogether with-
oat precedent. WIMPS the dispute between the Sardinian
and the Neapolitan governments arose as to the Cagliari.
the Sardinian ministers not only appointed a commission of
Italians to report upon the law, bat consulted the most die-
tinguished jurists In Eagles& and, we believe. France. The
result was that even the British governmeat were sem-
paled to abandon the ground taken by the law officers of
the wows, and to eel upon the °piston bold by the Italian
'--Aners, eadoned by that of other jariste.

A lengthy oommunicatioa from • special correspondent
at the oil die:rids leads the Times to comment ora Petrolia,
where, when a world want had arisen. the earth bar sud-
denly opened her treasure house and made us rich.
The Poet spectating apes the dint of the withdrawal of
the French troops from Rome, upon Neapolitan brigandage,
expreesieg • fear that, Intl the Italian army can operate
on every part of Italian soil, we shall not nue to bear of
atrocities.
The Herald urges the =serration to prepare for a good
fight in the registration courts, thinking It probable
that a battle of parties will be fought with the lists which
the Deli year's revision will settle. The mining warm
will very likely be • quiet on, bat the political en
hardly last mach longer, and that • peat political crisis
must take pleas, in which, if the conservatives are only
true to their mum, they cannot fad to stature power for •
long time.
The proper regulation of public vehicles in the metropolis
and the beat node of warding a and dealing with
cholera are the subjects of other articles In the Herald.
The Telegraph dees with Prussian duplicity in the
treatment of Denmark and the Duke of Augusteaburg ;
with the altered position of Digerati Lee, in whose regard
it draws largely on the language of praise ; sod with •
meeting which was held the other day to consider the
immorality of Cumberland and Westmoreland. s _
The Star pate people on their guard against the reported
conversation respecting Mexico of General Grant, aad says
there is • strange want of care in the manner in which all
sorts of vague and baseless rumours are sometimes poured in
upon as by Mr. Reuter's agents.
The Star else finds fool for mirth in the etiquette ordi-
nates of the King of Wiedemann, which we published In
yesterday's Nxpress.