The Express.
London, England, 1862-10-24 00:00:00

HIGH WAITS. AT LONDON BILIDOI.

TI DAT ....lianiteii.ili.loal.7.2iitAnToon.2b. 30m.
TO4IOIMOW-.4leraba 2b. 60m.. ..Aftecumm. 2b. 10m.

LONDON, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 24.

THE Ministerial match does not seem likely
to fire the train. As far as we can see, the mem-
bers won't kindle. Half-a-dozen conspicuous in-
stances within the last few days attest the fact;
and it is worthy of note that the Parliamentary
indisposition to take fire appears equally great in
Berkshire and Yorkshire, in Greenock and
Stamford. Neither does party or faith seem to
have anything to do with the matter. Tory and
Whig, Presbyterian and Puseyite vie with each
other in aversion to the idea of being drawn upon
any pretence into foreign wars, either civil or na-
tionaL Mr. MorreeroN Miters, and Mr. Serjeant
Proorr are friends of Lord Paimmusrox ; but the
one, while pleading for aid to Lancashire distress,
warns the sufferers against being deceived by
the hope that intervention in America could
possibly do them any good ; while the other
declares that ho would consider it a great
calamity if a new Power were added
to those of Christendom, founded confessedly upon
the right to perpetuate and to extend slavery.
Mr. DUNLOP goes still further, and, true to the
popular principles of which he is an able and fear-
less defender, he avows that his good wishes are
still for the North, and that he only regrets so
many there do injustice to the real sentiments of
this country, and suffer themselves to be mystified
and misled by factious speakers and writers
amongst us. More curious and more significant
still is the language held by the two nominees of
Lord Extras for the borough of Stamford. Lord
ROBERT CECIL made a sort of apology, half in
bitterness and half in banter, for not making a
party speech about domestic or foreign affairs.
For the life of him, even he could not make out
any symptom of liberal progress on the part of the
present Government, and therefore for once he
had nothing practical to object. to. We will
do him the justice to say that, reckoning
from his antecedents, if there had been anything
of the kind, he would have scented it out, and
worried it in thoroughbred style. But his lord-
ship admits there is nothing in Lord PALMERf3TON'S
actual position which any sound Tory ought to
object to. He has buried Reform, and now sits
merrily whistling on its tombstone. What could
his old colleague Siomouni, or his much calum-
niated master of cabinet arts CASTLEREAGH, do
more to please the owners of close boroughs or
their representatives in Parliament ? Lord
Ropes?, as an affectionate eon, may think that that
distinguished and disinterested nobleman, Lord
SALISBURY, ought to be in the Government; and
considering how well he and the PREMIER agree
about dividing between them the representation
of Hertford, and that there are no party questions
any longer to sever them, we do not profess
to say why the thing should not be.
Certain it is, however, that the sole reservation
the noble Member for Stamford makes in his ex-
cessively feeler-like speech, is on the point of sus-
pected willingness to meddle with our neighbours'
affairs. He wishes that some of her MAJESTY'S
Ministers were members of the Anti-meddling-in-
other-people's-business Society. This is plainly
aimed at the Citaxcin.Los of theExutronea, who,
by the way, seems to have a hornet's nest about
his ears ever since his unlucky visit to Newcastle.
Hardly a day passes without our having to print
some perplexing interrogative addressed to him in
consequence of his imprudent speech on the banks
of the Tyne ; and it is certainly some consolation
to think that nationally we have come to a time of
life when not even the explosive power of genius
like Mr. GLADSTONE'S can ignite a brand so ready
for the burning on all occasions as the noble Mem-
ber for Stamford.
Sir STAFFORD NORTHCOTE is another sort of
man. He was once private secretary to Mr.
Girnerowe, and still loves to call him his right
hon. friend. There are still many points on
which they agree ; and in his recent work on
financial policy the minister-that-hopes-to-be deals
tenderly with every subject in the diecussionof which
the name and fame of his old chief are mixed up.
We think all the better of Sir Srerroan for this,
and we advert to the fact bare to show how strong
is the sense of right and truth which impels such a
man, at such a moment, to come forward with
urgent recommendations against wavering from the
rule of non-interference. As a rival candidate for
office, he was bound to say nothing to warn those
who three years ago supplanted him and his
friends on a false pretence of zeal for re-
form. The most chivalrous honour might have
contented itself with silence after the
recent protest of the SECRETARY for Was spinet
the supposition that the Government regarded the
fate of the American war as decided, or that they
were in any sense prepared to admit that JEF-
FERSON Davis had made the South a nation. But
the Tory baronet in this instance casts wide all