The Express.
London, England, 1847-11-06 00:00:00

the epor4oo.

The overland dosed malls, ma Marseilles, to the Mediterranean.
Egypt, Aden, Ceylon, India, Hoeg Kong, he., will be nude up on the
evening alike Bth Nov.
The malls for Vigo, Gporto, Lisbon, Madeira, Cadiz, and Gibraltar
will be made up on the booming of the Bth November.
Letters for the United States will be forwarded by the Preach mail
steam-packet Union, expected to sail from Ilevre on the 10th inst.
All letters Intended to be forwarded by this conveyance moat be
specially addressed, " By French packet from Havre."
The Wed India Malls, excluding Bermuda, Nemo, Havana,
Hondwrar, New °Tirana, Vera Cruz, Tampico, and Porto Rico, and
including those for !acme!, Carthagena, santa Martha,
Panama, West Cast of South America, and St. Juan-do-Nicaragua,
will be made up on the morning of the 17th inst.
The mails for British North America, Bermuda, and to. Mattel
States, will be made up on the evening of the 18th November.
The overland mails for Gibraltar, Malta, Greece, tat Imam Islands,
rbtAden, Ceylon, India, Hong..Koag, and China, Me Southampton,
e made up on the morning of the 20th November.
The mails for New South Wake, Van Diemen'. Land, and New
Zealand will be made op on the evening of the 30th November.
The mails for the Brazils, the River Plate, Monts Video, Pereira.
/moo, Bahia, Madeira, and Buenos Ayres, will be made op on the
treeing of the 4tb December.

TO CORIESPONDIRTS.
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at W 011oa.10. IlonerWerrt. by T.... ..lu* ma tbs day of pablkatO.a.

NIGH RETIE Er LONDONNIUDOI.
Tau Dav—Noralag. 5.1 ttitii. W t Mamma 14 Ws. Pre I.
7.11 =ln pet I I Rya. 4 AI. peg 1.

LONDON, SATURDAY, NOV. 6.
THOSE two great bullies, France and Austria, who
have been exciting, and provoking, and hallooing the
two Swiss champions, radical and Jesuit, to slash and
slay each other, have grown frightened on the very
eve of the contest, and are anxious to back out and
escape from even acting the part of seconds. Prince
METTERNICH has been for a long time breathing cou-
rage and counsel into the ears of the Lucerne monks,
and now that these monks are seriously threatened,
the Austrian envoy, M. KAISERSOMETUING, demands
his passports, and makes off, declaring that he will
have nothing to do with their civil war, that his
master, the Emperor, has no intention of intervening,
but will let the Swiss fight out the quarrel as they
can. The Lucerners declare that this conduct is very
cowardly and very shabby on the part of the Double
Eagle.

Austria having failed the Jesuit champions at the
pinch,they turn to France and the French court,which
was equally loud and zealous in pressing them to
rebel against the sovereignty of their country, legi-
timately vested in the Diet and the rorort. M.
Guzzor declared that the rebellion was right, and that
he would support it. The Journal des Debate echoed
and trumpeted the declaration and the menace.
And even the London Times condescended to repeat
and echo the panegyrics of the French court journal
on the Swiss Jesuits.

The Swiss liberals, however, were not to be fright-
ened out of asserting the authority of the diet, and
maintaining the course of liberal government by
French and Austrian statesmen, or by their mouth-
pieces. They persevered legally, calmly; obtained
a majority of the deputies of the confederation to
support them ; and proceeded to raise and organise an
army, capable of not only attacking the Jesuit
faction, but even of repelling the intervention of
the ultra-Catholic courts of Vienna and Paris.
We have heard that the debate in the cabinet
council of the Tuileries was curious. His Majesty,
LOUIE PHILIPPE, was for an instant occupation of
Switzerland, a putting down of the radicals by French
bayonets and cannon. M. Guizor was decidedly of
the same opinion, and was at once prepared to order
the garrisons of the eastern frontier to detach
each a portion of their force, in order to form
a new " Army of the Faith," to march to the
relief of the Jesuits of Lucerne. The King and his
chosen counsellors were so hot and so unanimous
that, at first, there was no opposition. But the
Miaister at War begged to make a few ob-
servations. His excellency said, that he had
learned with much surprise and concern, the very
considerable army that the Swiss confederation
had raised. It amounted to 50,000 men, and, on a
spirt, would number even more, as all the population
had arms, and knew the use of them. Now, he, the
French Minister of War, held that the French troops
should not march into Switzerland to fight. It would
be monstrous to slay Swiss peasants for disliking the
Jesuits, when, but a year ego, the French Chambers
had insisted on the banishment of these same
Jesuits from France. An intervention would
be absurd, unless it were to intimidate and pacify.
But a French force of sufficient magnitude for this
purpose could not be mustered or moved so suddenly,
, nor, if at all, without great expense. The mpe&-

tion would be decidedly unpopular with the French
army, and would not be less so when the French
came to mingle with the Swiss liberals. The
war minister therefore begged M. GUIZOT to
pause, ere he sent the French army to under-
take a crusade against 50,000 liberal Swiss,
and on behalf of a score of Jesuits. M.
OUIZOT, we understand, remained completely dumb-
foundered, and, instead of a general at die head
of:an army marching into Switzerland, a despatch
went to M. lots i.e COMTE to endeavour to hush up
the quarrel, or at least adjourn the strife.
The self-same power of public opinion which thus so
mainly contributed to arrest the arm of France has also
deterred Austria. A military intervention of that go-
vernment to uphold the Jesuits and ultra-catholic
party in Switzerland would, in fact, have been a
breach of that great and tacit neutrality, that
truce between protestant and catholic, on which
the peace of Germany depends. However silent the
protestant states of Germany may have been, they
have not observed a league between Austria and
Franco for the maintenance of the Jesuits, with any
degree of equanimity. Publicly, Prussia has said
nothing, but the court of Berlin cannot but view the
occupation of Lucerne by Austrian troops forauch a pur-
pose as that proclaimed, to be an encroachment quite as
serious in poetical and religious respects, as the occu-
pation of Bologna by the same power.
Austria has thought it better to hold back, and to
leave the dirty and illiberal task to Louis PHILIPPS:,
who, it seems, is also afraid and ashamed to execute
it. Thus, whilst the liberal Swiss march on, strong
in frankness and honesty, their foes are stopped in
their earthings, and various windings, by obstacles
which their own crookedness and bigotry have raised.
We do sincerely hope that the liberals will complete
their moral triumph without having recourse to the
follies and the horrors of war.

THERE was a meeting of Irish representatives held
on Tuesday last in Dublin, "to take council to-
gether on the gloomy prospects of the country ;" and
,if they rather ambitiously styled themselves a ' Cons-
eil of National Distress and National Safety," it is to
be remembered that " ambition is a noble fault."
They assembled to the number of 33 in the Pillar-
room of the ltotundo, an appropriate place of meet-
ing for pillars of state; and it is impossible to cavil
at the order of proceeding adopted, which was to de-
liberate in the first place, and to resolve in the
second. This wise course was proposed by the
O'GORMAN MAHON, and seconded by Mr. JOIIN
O'CONNELL, who trusted the Irish public would
not consider it a " discourteous or disrespectful" course
for their representatives to take ! It is satisfactory
to find that the Irish public (ns far as the Freeman's
Journal speaks its sentiments) concurs in the pro-
priety of putting the horse before the cart ; but it is
certainly amusing to see the principle announced
almost with the pomp of a new discovery, and the
pillars of the Irish state extolled to the stars for not
talking first and thinking afterwards. The Freeman
observes:

The first act of the National Council has been one of wis-
dom, and gills promise that its future acts will be such as to
justify the hopes entertained by the country. It will be seen
by our report of the very short public proceedings of the
National Council, that the representatives of the several
counties and boroughs who yesterday assembled, after having
briefly consulted, and hastily interchanged opinions, became
so impressed with the sense of the fearful condition of the
country, and the responsibility that devolves upon its elected
guardians, that they at once resolved that time, deliberation,
and anxious study, were necessary as preliminaries to the de-
velopment of any plan of present relief or future improve-
ment affording the slightest chance of success. They ac-
cordingly determined not hastily to commit themselves or
the country to any course, but deliberately and calmly to
discuss the several projects for relief that suggested them-
selves, and having agreed upon those most likely to effect
the desired end, to embody them in the form of resolutions,
and bring them before the public for approval.
They not only resolved that time and delibera-
tion were necessary preliminaries to the deve-
lopment of wise plans, but we are told that they so
resolved "at once," without hesitation, as became
clear-headed and determined men. They were also,
be it remarked, unanimous—there was no amendment
moved, although there were hot-headed Young
Irelanders in council. As the names of the majority
of Irish members present upon this occasion are new
to us, it is extremely gratifying to have this early
proof of their discretion and. fitness for affairs. We
now know that the BLACKIIALLS, GREENS, SCELLYS,
KEATINGES, and O'FLAIIERTIES, are not persons to
turn the order of business topsy-turvy. A great deal
is to be expected from men who have commenced en
very prudently.
The Freeman's Journal is in raptures with the pre-
mier pas in the Pillar-Room. It appears that the
Freeman has long "endeavoured to impress upon the
newly elected Irish representatives the simple bat
unheeded truth that the act of election, though it con-
fers pincer, does not confer legislative capacity ;" and
theinitial step at the Rotundo is proudly referred to
as evidence of the union of capacity with power in
the persons of at least thirty-three of the Irish mem-
bers. The truth enounced by the Irish journal is un-
questionably " simple," bat we cannot allow that it is
also an " unheeded " one. To us, at least, it was
perfectly familiar. There may have been some
grounds for suspecting that election in many cases
evoutlusy tdoo war wet-
bestowed incapacity, but that it had the opposite effect
war-
rant us
have
inrarelyhadan facts
concluding. Most before
devoutly
wish for the sake of Ireland that mental qualification
was even as necessary as property qualification to a
member of parliament. No country ever stood in
greater need of men of capacity, or was ever so
damaged by men of another stamp. It is certainly a
fair omen for the future to see so many Irish repre-
sentatives agreed upon the expediency of deliberating
in private before they propound in public. All things
have a beginning: hire is the first lesson in states-
manship mastered.
The privacy of the deliberations is in itself mach
to be commended. We wish the Irish confederation
and other bodies in existence (bodies without minds,
most of them) would follow the example of the Coun-
cil of Distress and Safety, and hold their meetings
with closed doors. It is the publication of violence
and nonsense that makes mischief, and causes disgust.
In crypts and closets, men may be as mad and silly as
they please.
But we do not equally relish all the circumstances
of the Rotundo meeting. The object is stated to be
" to impress upon the government the imperative ne-
cessity of taking into immediate consideration the
affairs of Ireland." As if the government wanted to
have its attention called to the subject ! As if the
affairs of Ireland were so habitually slighted and
overlooked by the administration on either side of the
water, as to require a remonstrance from the Pillar-
room to awaken ministers to a sense of their duty! We
cannot but see in this a repetition of the stale trick of
holding up the government to the Irish public as in-
attentive to their wants and feelings. This, we say,
is a stale trick, which ought not to have been at-
tempted, for it cannot fail of being exposed and de-
feated, in the presence of a government which
labours so indefatigably as that of Lord CLARENDON,
sad not more indefatigably than wisely and efficiently,
for the good of the country at this most difficult and
painful crisis. We frankly confess (with no disposi-
tion whatever to discourage Irish deliberations, in the
very novelty of which there is a charm) that we have
more confidence in the Castle than in the Rotundo at
the present moment. However, it is perfectly certain
that the best government may receive valuable aid
from the suggestions of a body of prudent men, re-
commending wise measures with the authority of
members of parliament. " They should be prepared,"
says the 11.eeman's Journal, "to lay before the
senate a series of bills embodying the several remedies
needed for the present calamity, in case the minister
does not bring forward measures such as seem to
them suited to the exigencies of our condition." This,
at least, may fairly be expected from them; and, as
we see that the meeting was attended, amongst
others, by the gentlemen who were preferred to each
T men as Mr. HOMAS WYSE and Mr. ALEXANDER
M'CARTHY, what ought we not to anticipate from
the councils of such an assembly ? We shall watch
with the greatest interest the parts taken by Messrs.
MEAGHER, FAGAN, KEATINGE, and one or two more
individuals, who must, of course, have been recom-
mended to popular favour by transcendent qualifica-
tions for public life. There is, however, a still
stronger reason for fixing oar eyes intently upon the
proceedings of the men assembled to rehearse the
parts they are shortly to play in parliament. The
Ilveman's Journal stakes the question of the fitness
of Ireland for self-gove n the lime of the
councils in the I'U/it- f.
But there is yet a big are , g feeling that
should stimulate th • 'Jr.-*thing more
than memorial the ' r9f We are now
4,4**l` "•"-.
engaged in a struggle. • •
ence and now
for the first time do •• .• • ' • of the Irish
people assemble in . • T.:J[l esialiberate on the
state of their ooun • • 17 . r the evil* that
weigh her down. pre occasion will
'et \Wit• • +.)
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