The Express.
London, England, 1853-01-15 00:00:00

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Tim Government have directed that the Cunard
Mail steamer—advertised to sail this day—shall be
delayed a: Liverpool till to-morrow, in order that
she may bear across the Atlantic despatches from
the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Lord
JOHN 111 %SELL. There is every reason to hope and
believe that these despatches arc of a character likely
to promote objects in which the public have lung
taken deep iuter est.
We may expect to ace the present Government
play two winning mode in America—the one by
the settlement of the Clergy Reserves Question in
Canada; the other by arranging Free Trade be-
tween our American dependencies and the United
Sta es. The late government, it is understood, had
entered into negotiations with the Americans on I
the footing of opening up the fisheries and
the St. awrence—within certain restrictions
obtainicg in return free intercommunication
as to native products between the United States and
the British dependencies. The present Free Trade
Oovernment cannot do other than follow up in a
hearty and cordial spirit any propositions on this
subject made by their predecessors. linked it is
far more natural to expect a sincere advocacy of
Commercial Fn:cdom abroad from a Cabinet of \Vhigs
and Pechter, leavened by a wholesome spice of
radicalism, than from any administration led by the
prottetioeiet Elul of hati;v. The task of carry ing
out such advocacy in the present case will, of
course, be facilitated by the accession of Mr. PIERCE,
democrat and free trader, to the Presidency of the
United States.
Everything that tends to cement the union
between England acd oar Transatlantic brethren
must be regarded as highly desirable. In America
we ought to find oar very best friends, our surest
allies, our most valuable customers. We want Ame-
rican corn and American cotton, whilst America needs
vast supplies of manufactured goods which we can
send her better and cheaper than any one else. She
needs capital, for which she can offer good security
and pay good interest ; whilst are have an abundance
of money. seeking good investment. All this invites the
most intimate national union. To cement our Canadian
dependencies to their Yankee neighbours and cousins,
is to rid us of one source of colonial difficulty. The
interchange of the native products of the two
countries will relieve both from vexatious Custom-
house regulations, and both from the demoralising
effect of a system of smuggling. which now
exists, and which no possible vigilance could
subdue along so vast an extent of river and lake
frontier. To give the Canadian Parliament the
power of dealing with the whole question of the
Clergy Reserves, to accordance with the constitutional
decision of a majority in their Legislature, will be to
remove the greatest existing source of local discontent,
whilst to arrange the free interchange of commodi-
ties will bo stimulating an abundant local prosperity.
To shut the rivers and canals of Canada against
American shipping damages Canada, whilst in-
juring and imtating her neighbour. If wo were
to establish custom-houses on each bank of the
Thames from the Nore to Oxford—and if London in
Middlesex were to refuse the men of London in
Soutl:wark leave to navigate the river except on
difficult conditions, we should realise something like
the state of things still upheld in Canada. On both
sides of the St. Lawrence, as on both sides of the
Thames, the people are related one to the other—their
habits, views, literature, are alike. Yet on one side
they have sugar, cotton, and hardware to change for
the corn, timber, and fan of the other. Both are
ready to deal with mutual advantage, but the ens•
tom-Louse nuisance interferes, trade is checked, and
the demoralisation of smuggling induced. To tax
the admission of sugar and other Yankee goods into
Canada is to levy an extra impost on the Canadians,
and if nothing else called for a change of the present
plan the welfare of that rising and im rtant possession
should in itself be regarded as s cient reason for
establishing, at the first possible moment, free inter-
communication between the two banks of the_ St.

Lawrence and the two shores of the great lakes.
That secured, and a free passage given to the
American shipping on the St. Lawrence, and—upon fair
rates of toll—along the Welland Canal, and we have
another guarantee for good Peeling and hearty co-
operation not only between Canadians and Yankees
but between the Anglo-Saxons on each side of the
Atlantic.
To such a consummation no objection can arise
unless by fishermen and coasters who fear United
States' competition, should the fisheries dispute be
settled at the same time on a free trade basis. But
the wholesome influences of competition under which
our shipping, for instance, has thriven on our own
shores, may be extended with advantage to the fish-
ermen and coasters of the English dependencies in
America. If the ~egislature, the Senate, and the
PREbIDINT of the United States and the Parliament
of England acknowledge the wisdom, justice, and
benefit of extending commercial freedom along the
vast river line of the St. Lawrence and its gigantic
tributary lakes, the mistaken views of a few scattered
colonists, fearful of change, can never be permitted to
check the ratification of an act of great, wise, and just
policy.

IN the speeches of the Ministerial candidates for
re-election, the subject of Electoral Reform, if not ab-
solutely avoided, is always very curtly and gingerly
handled. It is clearly the tender point of the Minis-
terial
programme, and can only bear to be softly
touched. One of the last of our new Ministers who
has alluded to it, is the new Scotch Treasury Lord, I
Mr. CHARTERIS, who told his constituents at Hadding-
too, that he and his colleagues " will temperately
revise the Reform Bill and the electoral system.
But when?—and how? The words of the Hon.
Scotch Lord of the Treasury are sufficiently vague;
and the only additional light thrown upon them by
the context of his speech is a triumphal announce-
ment, that from Lord DERBY " the deals of office
have not been transferred to any democrat."
Ministeis should understand that electoral reform is
the sheet anchor by which alone they have any
chance to ride out the coming storms that threaten
to drive them from their snug moorings in office. We
believe there never was a Ministry that entered upon
office with such a sincere and prevalent disposition in
all quarters to expect good at its hands. But after
the II th of February this disposition can only be
kept alive by deeds on the part of Ministers. Men
cannot, though they would, think well of a Ministry
who, atter the opportunity for action has come,
remain inert or do positive wrong. And of
all the measures promised by Lord Anna-
Dews, he may rest assured that electoral
reform will be most uncompromisingly exacted.
The realisation of electoral reform will be taken as
the proof that the Whig and Liberal members of the
Ministry have not conceded too much to their Con-
servative colleagues in coalescing with them. No
other measure can servo as a substitute. Adminis-
trative reforms, however urgent and however unex-
ceptionable, merely prove a desire in individual Minis-
ters to do handsome things once and away. But by
electoral reform Ministers put it out of the power of
themselves and all their successors to act otherwise
than in accordance with the public sense of what
is for the public good. This, therefore, is
the only infallible test of the sincerity of
the professions of the Coalition Ministry. If elec-
toral rAorm is indefinitely postponed,—or if an unreal
time:fly measure is brought forward,—nothing will be
able to convince the relormers throughout the king-
dom that the reforming members of the Coalition
Ministry have sacrificed principle to their eagerness
to obtain place.
Follows the question, what weight in the scale of
out-of-doers support is to be attributed to the class
of electoral reformers ? One thing is certain, that
towards the close of Sir Ronerir PEEL'S life, he was
by far the strongest of living statesmen
in public opinion. When a corn law was
to be repealed, or any similar concession