The Express.
London, England, 1848-09-28 00:00:00

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The null. foe sum Nom Letertee, mid the Golfed Mats,
Intl be made up oaths gremilmg et See Nat Sept.
The made AS New dwelt Rata V.. Diateines Land, sad New
geslastd will be .e& up no the evening of tea WM September.
Th. well. fee the Haig Chen of Africa sad Iladelra will be made
up no the evening cline Roth Sept.
The West India Malls Nickeling Ileratuda, Neiman, Havana,
R013.111/111i, New Oriente, and Mexico, and exchullnet them for
gladrin, St Jeamdc.slearagna, New Granada, ChM, end Pere, will
be made up as the monde; of the Ind Oct.
The suds for Madeira, the linottle, sod Deem Ayres, will be
mad,. tit, nu the proems of the 4th Oct.
The malls foe Vigo, Oporto, Linen. Madeira, Caine, end Gibeelha
will he Iti•deall . the 111011110Ig of the th Oct.
TM, over eking mall., oi4 Marseille% to the MfditelTlMlft,
reYet, Aden,. India, no., will be node up cn the
waning of the 7 lief
The overland male for Gibraltar, Malta, Ceeee., the lonian Islands,
Egypt, Aden, (nylon, India, Hong-Kong, and LIMN, cis Southamp-
ton, will be made up MA the morelam at tho 20th Oct.

:.I,•R WA2111421..),1. 3,111.6,
rose Dav—iiandag 32 .s.a. raw 2, Altaimisk 41 Ws. pst 2.
To.stesawr—liont•A. 3 sa.sest 3. w0urred..11.......mt 3.

LONDON. THURSDAY, SEPT. 28.
WE base foreseen and stated several of the difficul-
ties in the way of the general disarirament and peace
agreement which the Brussels Congress had in view.
They are serious, but not so serious as our contempo-
raries would have p ople think. Teo fact is, that the
standing armies of Europe are, for the nest part, a
tremendous humbug, a maintenance of men and an
expense of millions, elleod to be for the purposes of
national strength and defence against foreign foes,
whilst in realty they have been merely kept up and
employed as the means of oppression and despotism
at home. Tho four millions of armed men and the
two bend: ed millions of pounds expenditure, which
have each year hung upon the neck of industrious
Europe for the last quarter of a century have been
merely for purposes of police abroad and at home, and
not for either offence or defence. 11.6311L1 requires
a hundred thousand bayonets for Poland,
England fifty thousand fur Irelaud, Austria
the same for Italy. Both Prussia and France were in
reality military government's, countries in which the
monarch and his councillors relied upon the army.
It tailed them at the critical moment, notwithstanding
the immense pains and anxieties directed to it, and
which shows the baselessness and uncertainty of a
merely military rigiote.
During the present memorable year a series of
insurrections have disturbed almost all the coun-
tries of Europe, insurrections attributed by court
scribes to the spirit of democracy, but in reality I
produced by the imbecility, incapacity, and bad faith
of the governing powers. These insurrections have
given rise to the greatest disorders both of act and in-
n Ilect in the lower or labouring classes. Instead of
meeting them with wisdom, and forbearance, and ra-
tional remedies, the ephemeral governments have uni-
versally
applied military force, whilst the democratic
leaders have preached, uncont;adicted too, the wildest
visionary tales of wealth and comfort to the same poor.
Paris is at this moment a camp, with 50,000 bayonets
menacinz 50,000 communists. In Germany the
same policy is beginning to prevail—that same policy
which our tories preach, viz_, that government can
only repose upon, and that authority can only be en-
forced by, bayonets. Should such doctrines as these
prevail, every second man should be a soldier, armed
and rid in idleness to watch over the evil intentions
of his brother. Thank heaven, such a state of things
is impossible, at least in France and Petunia, wines
the armies are national, and will not long consent to
act as mere policemen.
We have remarked in former articles the undenia-
ble phenomenon of the anti-military spirit of the age.
Nothing is more remarkable than the proofs, now
manifest, of how aPerly the world was mistaken, in
put years, in considering Russia as a military ogre,
anxious to invade awl to devour, and France as a fiery
steed, which if left to itself. and unreined by a
strong and heavy horseman, like Louis PUILIPPE,
would have charged and over-ridden Europe long
since. The events of February have abandoned both
Franco and Russia to their native impulses. They
'have had nothing to do but to sound the trumpet
and march. Bat neither one nor the other hu budged.
And both one and the other, instead of letting loose
their armies upon Europe or Asia, employ them at
home sedulously and anxiously to keep down insur-
rection and intimidate conspiracy.
It is such facts se these that it would be useful to
make known to Europe—facts which go to prove
that armies are not kept up for war or national pride,
for thecountry's defence,oreven aggrandisement. They
are kept up simply under pretence of maintaining
order, for purposes of oppression. With good and
popular government, there is no reed of an army for
domestic purposes—witness the United States. Were
each government a rightful and paternal one, possess-
ing bat its own, and circumscribed by the natural,
limits, which territorial configuration, language, and
tradition give it, there need be no fear of foreign ag-
gression or domestic outbreak.
There are no two countries, that have so little
need of standing armies, as France and
Spain. Yet both are in the hands of mili-
tary governments. And there are some fears,
we trust not serious ones, as far as France is con-
cerned, of both settling down under military govern-
ment.. Our tories are loudly and daily crying out to
the German sovereigns to follow the example, and to
re-establish their powers on military bases too.
Should this advice be followed, and should it succeed,
Europe will retrograde to the condition of South
America, with the mere difference of its being more
wealthy, at least at first; for in the end wealth is
incompatible with military rule.
Such is the price that Europe may be called on to
pay for its military establishments; such the fate
which it can only escape by reducing those establish-
ments, and withdrawing its neck from the yoke. We
are confident that if Spain had had no army, or one
of moderate proportion, it would have long since
settled down under the fair working of corsti-
tutional government, It is a similar dependence
on the military rather than on the citizens
and themselves, that arrests France, as well as
Pr,.s.ia and Austria, in a kindof suspended anarchy,in-
capable of progressing or retrograding, or of tranquilly
biding where it is Confidence in a republic would suffice
to restore peace and order to the French. Confidence
in constitutional monarchy would procure the same
blessing for the Germans. But far from this, the French
and Germans put trust in nothing but force, one
portion in that of the army, another in that of the
people. The results of this are a struggle between
popular anirchy and military rule. And it is diffi-
cult to say, the triumph of which of these is most to be
deplored.

Ws think with those who trace many of the evils
which socially afflict Ireland to the monopoly of
landed property in the hands of impoverished and
unimproving few. We are opposed on principle to
all monopolies, and therefore we should be disposed
to argue ri priori against that of land. But there is
no need of &hatred raw oning. on tbo matter. The
plain language of experience is more eloq,uent and
easier of comprehension than the most ingenious
ratiocination ; and where obvious and undeniable
tact. may be appealed to, reference to theory or
abstraction were a waste of time.
Other monopolies have wrought more or lees of
evil to society, in proportion as a greater or lesser
portion of the industry. of the community was fit-
vered or impeded by their restrictions. Society to a
certain extent suffered ; capital and labour were
driven to seek other employments than such as they
would naturally have followed; there was hindrance
and waste of power, diminished production
and enhanced cost. Still, wherever alternative
occupations for labour existed, the labourer
was not wholly at a loss ; and wherever the
article monopolised was not the sole staple of
industry, enterprise and energy were not left without
resource. In Ireland it is not so. Land, in four-
fifths of that countt7, is the only meats of life. To
use the apt expression of the peasantry, " They have
no other manufacture." Where thelandlordadischarge

aright the duty of cmployers, the gross praises is large,
the quay of that which is roused is good, and
the condition of the hands whose labour contributes to
its production is comparatively oomitetable. Oa the
other hand, where the duties of employers are not
performed by. the proprietary of the soil much leas is
made of it ; improvement does not take place, and
the plight of the many who have no other way of
living is wretened in the extreme.
To do their duty Irish landlords must either give
employment themselves, or enable •it to be given by
others. The first complaint of the,.peoplc is that,
they da neither., they have in-
Dern= Tait triads of land libloli they are utterly wa-
.