The Express.
London, England, 1851-12-11 00:00:00

which for a time bore him up and onward. The
national cause was in a great measure incor-
porated in his person and perilled upon his
success. He is ono of those heroes whom Mr. CAR-
LYLE and his school arc FO ready to worship. Mr.
WALKER is, on the other hand, a plain citizen like our-
selves. High though the position be that he holds
in the estimation of his countrymen, it is as a :minis-
tering servant whom they arc disposed to trust, not
as a chief whom thy arc prepared to follow. The
themes upon which these men have descanted to their
English audiences are as different as they themselves
ale. Koss:: t n appealed to ours feelings on behalf of
a generous and gallant people, engaged—fur the
time crushed—in an unequal struggle against des-
potism. Mr. WALKER talked business; reminded us
of the most honest and advantageous policy to be
observed in our dealings with his countrymen. To
both did the English public intently and intelli-
gently listen; thereby showing on the one hand its
judicious estimate of the importance of the day reali-
ties of every day life,—on the other its superiority to
mere prudential pounds, shillings, and pence con-
siderations when the better and higher faculties of
our nature arc called into play.
One word more of ourselves, before we turn our
individual attention to the hero of the day. The
proudest triumphs of Enssent, his most im-
passive receptions were those he experienced in the
manufacturing districts. Mr. Watstat's public
appearances among us may be said to have been con-
fined to the manufacturing districts. In any other
country—the United States always excepted—mere
provincial demonstrations would has e been little
thought of. But in this country the men (of all
classes) of the manufacturing disc lets knew their good
.
opinion and sympathy was of as much consequence
as that of the metropolis. Kossyrn and Mr. WALKER
felt that Lancashire opinion was almest as potent in
English politics as that of the metropolis; and states.
meta Loth English and foreign, watched the expres-
sions of opinion in the English provinces with
as much anxiety —we may say with greater
anxiety—than they would have done that of London.
It is this equal diffusion of intelligence and political
influence throughant the country that constitutes the
strength of Great Britain. There is no danger of
our country succumbing before a domestic usurper
or foreign invader because he chances to have got pos-
seseiou of the capital. England is vital in every
part, and not to be killed by a wound in any one.
There is samething extremely racy and piquant
about Mr. Watt:La's oratory. Its staple is plain and
homely in the last degree. He calls things by their
real names. and shrinks from no minute details
because of their homeliness. 1k has talked to the
men of Liverpool and Manchester—not upon
'Change or in their counting houses, but at their post-
prandial solemnities—with as intimate a knowledge
of the ir pursuits and concerns as itlu a ere about todrive
a bargain with them. But his views arc as comprehen-
sive as they are detailed, and if he spoke with a trader's
precision of " and baize,s ' and " cotton
baggings," it was with a view to illustrate and en-
force the largest and mast liberal views of inter-
national relations. And no opportunity did he let
slip of glancing at the moral lessons taught by the
topics he was enforcing, and urging the observance
of the highest principles and the cultivation of the
purest and must disinterested rules of actin'. All
this, too, in the most unaffected and unassuming
phrase. Always in earnest, he affected no more
swelling diction when heating of the duties of the
patriot and moralist than when expatiating upon
business transactions. Mr. WALKER'S turn of
thought and style of expr scion arc essentially ori-
ginal and his own ; yet it is impossible to listen to
hint 'without having one's mind carried back to the
greatest ornament of his parent state. In intellect
and feeling, Mr. WALKER is a genuine descendant
and worthy rept csentative of BENJAMIN Fie INALIN.
His speeches read as if the first source of his inspi-
ration had been the writings of the author of "I'oor
Itehin--the philosophical printer; alike great ns the
demonstrator of the identity of lightning with the
electric spark, as the quaint inculcator of sound and
prudential domestic morality, and as the undaunted
opponent of I:ng:ish oppression.
It is of good omen fir the United States that a
man of Mr. Warsaw's peculiar temperament and
principles should occupy the high rank be does
among her statesmen. It is of good augury for this
country. which at all times, and more especially at
the present critical crisis of European affairs, has
such a deep interest in the maintenance of cordial
concert and a thoroughly. good understanding with
our kinsmen, the high-spirited and energetic repub-
licans beyond the Atlantic. It is a hopeful
omen for humanity at large now that the baronet
and sabre would appear to rule supreme from Siberia
to the continental shores of the British Channel.
And we are disposed to rely upon the sincerity and
enduring nature of Mr. WALKER'S attachment to his
professed principles by the singular manly delicacy
lie has displayed whenever the current of his ideas
has led him to touch on our own domestic affairs or on
the characters of pis rivals or colleagues in American
polities. Nothing could be more admirable in this
respect than the manner in which he touched at
IManchester upon the great public questions which at
present agitate and divide English society; nothing
more touchingly generous than the tribute he paid at
Liverpool to the high qualities of Mr. ARROT LAW•
REM E.
The principal subject of Mr. WALKER'S discourse
at Manchester—rep oited in our impression of this
day—was free-trade. It was an appropriate theme
in the birth-place of the anti-corn-law league, and
worthily handled by the orator. It was an appro-
priatetheme,too, in the mouth of a man who was one of
the earliest, and has been probably the most efficient
' and successful advocate of free-trade in his own
country. l'rotcction was one of those superstitions
inherited by the United States from their parent
England, which they have been longest in casting off.
As was remarked fry Mr. WALKER at Manchester,
from 1788 down to 1815 no American Secretary
dared to propose an abandonment of protective
duties. But a great commercial revolution was effected
in 1816 by, the tariff of that year. The adoption
of that tariff has effected, as Mr. WALKER said, " a
fundamental change in American commercial policy."
His valuable and authentic statements show how
much his own country and ours have gained by that
measure, and by our simultaneous throwing off of
the fetters of the corn-law. In the commerce be-
tween the two nations (involving as Mr. WALKER
demonstrated an annual interchange of goods to the
I value of not less than 42,000,0001.) ; in the mode of dis-
tribution of the profits of this commerce through all
ranks and classes of society : in the immense number
of families dependent upon its perpetuation and ex-
tension for their maintenance; we have weighty
guarantees that it will not be lightly interrupted or
imperilled.
As a missionary of the opinions which have led
to so great and beneficial a change of national po-
licy, :Mr. W ILKLIt has been welcomed in this coun-
try. As a pledged and trustworthy champion of the
new policy, be will carry back with him to his own
country the sincere esteem and most cordial wishes
of all that is intelligent and liberal among. us. In
conclusion, let us remark that the best way in which
we can convince Mr. WALKER'S countrymen of the
sincerity of the feelings that have heel expressed
toward; him here,—and strengthen his hands for the
accomplishment of the arduous and benevolent task
he has yet to fulfil,—is to act upon his suggestion of
completing the great work of abolishing the last of
those impediments that remain in the way of the per-
fectly tree commercial intercourse between England
and America.

ItErREsENTATION op EAST KENT.—It is ru-
swum!. says the Rue/aster (hurtle, that J. P. Plumptre,
h.sq., M.P., intends retiring from public life at or before
the next general election, and that one of two hon. baronets,
exceedingly popular in their respective neighbourhoods,
, will he incited to come forward—Sir E. C. llering, Dart,
and Sir Brook W. Bridges, Bart
THE NEW Hot'sEa en, PARLlAMENT.—Considera-
ble progress has been mule within the last few weeks in
clearing away the old building materials from the neigh-
! tiourhood of Oh! Palace-lard. The whole of the erections
I which formerly hid the view of the new palace, from the
Court-houses onto the Victoria Tower, hare ken removed,
and the space which has been laid open serves materially to
enhance the imposing appearance of the new houses from
the west. The unsightly timber erections near the entrance
to Westminster-hall will be removed in the course of a few
days, the materials having been disposed of by public
auction on Monday last. Workshops have now been erected
on a temporary wharf, adjoining Westminster-bridge, in
order that the spice in New Palace-yard may, prior to the
opening of parliament, be rendered as clear as possible.
The alterations which have been made during the recess in
the new House of Commons, have not only added to the
beauty of its internal appearance, but have, it is hoped,
contributed in • hirer degree to render the building of a
more coratiataims character.