The Express.
London, England, 1851-12-22 00:00:00

LONDON, MONDAY, DECEMBER 22.

We doubt the possibility of any firm, intimate, or
lasting alliance between Louts Narotzos, even in
the supposition of his utmost present success, and
the great despotic powers of Europe. We are well
aware that the representatives from those powers
have flattered the conqueror, and congratulated him
R pon his triumph over the republic. We are much
afraid that even a whig government will think it
convenient not to stand alone in esion of the
doings of the master of France, and itrangement
from his policy and his alliance. But there will be
as little sincerity in the flattering compliments of
the one as in the bland adhesion of the other.
To judge merely by appearances, and by the
language of court journals, the Austrian and
Prussian cabinets are well pleased that Louts
NAPOLEON has succeeded as future emperor to
the French republic. But the aristocratic parties,
and, we may add, the court parties in both
Vienna and Berlin, arc infinitely more alarmed and
annoyed than pleased at what has happened. At
Berlin, the ultra-party neither conceals its chagrin,
nor dissimulates its hatred, of the French usurper.
The ultra-tory organs of l'russia thunder against
Louts NAPOLEON almost as fiercely as they
might against the victor of Jens, and that
the Austria noblesse would eagerly do the same,
did it possess any organ, or was used to any habits
of publicity, one may oleo be pretty certain. If there
be any courts or parties in Germany really pleased,
they are to be sought in those families which ob-
tained royal rank from the hand of Nsrotrox, and
these states which, included by him in the confeder-
ation of the Rhine, were made to form a kind of
third empire in Germany, apart from those of
Austria and of Prussia, aad destined to counter-
balance them.
What are, and what may be, the sentiments of
those courts and states upon the ramp delat of Paris,
and its future results, cannot yet be known, for their
thoughts lie deep in the bosoms of those interested.
But time will mature and develop them, and will in-
evitably bring about an altogether new division of
power and party in Germany. But France, even
under Lints NAPOLEON, is destined to have other
allies in Germany than the Princes of the old con-
federation of the Rhine. It is a remarkable feet,
that whilst the aristocratic and reactionary
organs of Berlin denounce the hero of the
Itlysi":e, the (JwJnc Goalie, the organ of
the liberal and independent feeling of the
lthenish provinces, looks with favour upon
the nephew of the French emperor. Shutting their
eyes to the treachery nod immorality of the l'itEst-
DM es conduct, these German writers evidently con-
fine their view to one point. They ask themselves,
will this rise of a new military power in France be
favourable to the emancipation of the Rhenish pro-
vinces, now condemned by Prussia to most rigor-
ous tyranny. They answer the question iu the affir-
mative, and clearly show that they prefer Louts
NAPOI.EON's petity to that of l'otsdam, and
M. nr. MOINT'S tendencies to those of M.
'cost MANTEEFFEL. II such be the opinion
of that great and wealthy province which extends
from Mayetice to Arnheim, and we fear the journal
in question but too faithfully represents these opi-
nions, very serious questions and contingencies arise,
atheting Prussia and the future balance of power in
Barer.
We are far, indeed, from thinking that it is the
design of the Elesk to rush into war. With one-
half of the military of France, and all of the
remaining population hostile to him, Louis NA-
Poi.t oN will not be rash enough to seek
hostility with any power. Ile will rather
seek to consolidate his empire by some new
system of domestic government, of which he pus-
WOK N the secret. This is to be a government of
notables—of such notables, at least, as he can get to
join him—who will affect to reverse the old maxim,
and rule .• all for the people but nothing by the
people." if such men as Daot-Yst he. I:11 UTS,
NAROCIIE, 1111.1 WLT, and MONTAI.EMBERT consent
to make such a trial, no doubt it will be made. But
a forlorn hope. like that of replacing a re-
presentative system by a nomination one,
and a constitutional government bi despo-
risme r'clair.,, could scarcely be undertaken in
the nineteenth century. Such a system can be
no other than that of despotism itself, on which it
depends. Now, despotism may be made a very goo
and palatable thing under a Titus or a TRAJAN ; and
DO may a government by a senate be excellent, it
the senate be composed of CICEROs and CATOS. Bat
to set either of these systems working with Louts
NAPOLEON and M. PERSIONT at its head, and with
BAROCHE, BILLAULT, or even Dum'ix as its senators,
and we may foresee the result to be a failure far
more lamentable and ridiculous than that of M.
Lanatt-ItowN himself.

Franco is the theatre on which all the world is
now looking. And such an attempt at legislation
and government-mongering us we have described
will probably be the comedy that will be now
brought forward. That it will fail and bo hissed off
the stage, especially by the French public, so critical
and fastidious in its judgments and amusements, we
may well believe. And then Louis NAPOLEON will
have nothing to produce but the old military spec-
tark, which is always a favourite, and which will
thus have the merit of being new in subject, as well
as in dreamt and decorations.
It will then be to be determined what country
shall pay for the melodrama. Some are afraid
that England will be the great aim of Im-
perial enmity. But we do not see what
is to be gained from a war with England. We
have no provinces easily torn front us or facilely an-
nexed. Thaw many more attractions does Savoy
afford, or the Bavarian palatinate, than a menace of
any conceivable magnitude to England from the
heights of Boulogne! Ono campaign might
extend the French empire to the Alps. No such
desirable result could possibly bo had at in
small a price from antagonism with England. Frame
can gain neither glory nor aggrandisement in a war
with us; if she has a chance of such, it must be by •
war with one, or with more than one, of those conti-
nental powers which now affect to congratulate the
secession of the nephew and heir of the Emperor
NAPOLEON to absolute power in France.

WILAT is Lord Jowl RUSSELL going to do"?
has been the universal question since the session
closed. "What will he do for reform"? It has
been taken for granted by all that he really meant to
do something, though what that something was to be
nobody could divine. Conservatives have been watch-
ing hi's lordship with alarm, reformers with hope—
" craftily qualified," as poor Cassia says, with mis-
givings. Were his reforms to bo administrative or
Lgislative ? Were they to bear upon the electoral
system? or national taxation or expenditure? No-
body could tell. At last tho murder is out. Lord
Jens has been availing himself of the leisure of the
recess to concentrate all his faculties upon the reform
of Downing-street etiquette. To him "much
musing" it appears that the eat,* to ministerial re-
ceptions has been too indiscriminate, and he has
made up his mind to restrict it within narrower
limits. . .

To a civil note from Mr. MILYLa GIBSON, desiring
to be informed when it would suit his lordship's con-
venience to receive a deputation from the Reform
Conference that met at Manchester not long ago, the
Premier curtly replies that he does not intend to
receive it at all. The ratio decitiendi is subjoined,
and is expressed with Spartan brevity. It appears
to Lord JOHN that there would be "great inconre-i
'clears in receiving deputations from part it aloe dis-
tricts on a subject in which the whole country is
ooncerne4L"
The principle of this carton of etiquette, promul-
gated by the Downiag-street master of ceremonies,
has at least the recommendation of novelty. Depu-
tations were admitted by Lord MELBOCILNE to state
their views on the corn laws, on the union of church

and state, and other topics in which assuredly the
" whole country " was concerned quite salmis as in
parliamentary reform, without any questions being
asked as to how many dial:lets these deputations re-
presented. Nay, unless our memory is very much at
fault, there was a time when a deputation.from Bir-
mingham on parliamentary refoun was cordially
welcomed bye whig prime minister to the honours
d a conference in Downing-street.
But in the eyes of the men of the movement, there
is no harm in innovation, provided the change be
a imp for the better. The soundness, however,
of the principle upon which Lord JOHN de-
clines the pleasure of receiving the deputation, ap-
pointed by a conference, at which the reformers of
Cumberland and the south of Scotland, and the me-
tropolis, were represented, as well as those of Man-
chester and the West Riding, is, to say the least, ex-
tremely questionable. The " whole country," we
take it, is made up of "particular districts," and
how is Lord Jouo to get at the sentiments and
opinions of the " whole country," if he prolate in
stopping his ears to "particular districts? There
is a law, unless we are very much mistaken, against
milliated political associations. If Mr. Nlusien Gin-
lON and his colleagues had asked an interview
with the PREMIER as delegates from a convention at
which all the "particular districts" of which the
" whole country" is composed were represented, the
door would have been shut in their faces, as an
illegal body. His lordship will not receive deputa-
tions from "particular districts," and he cannot re-
ceive deputations from the " whole country."
His conduct towards reformers has a very sus-
, picious resemblance to that which a pru-
dent Scotch judge is said to have adopted towards
beggars. lie told every applicant for alms that he
made it a rule never to give anything to those who
begged; and he told an acquaintance who reproached
him with hick of charity, that as nobody ever asked
him for anything it was impossible he could know
who was in want.
Some persons, it is true, who can see farther into
a mill-stone than their neighbours, will have it that
Lord JOHN RUSSELL'S reply to Mr. MILNER Gtosos
is meant as a sly hit at Loid PALMERSTON. For this
surmise there is perhaps some foundation in theme
bickerings of the "united happy family" in Downing-
street, which were only silenced by the Bonapartist
coup (Mat. But even the hypercritic:9 of Lord PAL-
MERSTON rest their objections to the reception of the
Finsbury deputies, on the ground that it was im-
prudent in the FOREIGN SECRETARY to expose him-
self to the hazard of being led to use, or obliged to
listen civilly to, epithets the reverse of complimentary
to powers and potentates with whom the country is
on civil, if not exactly cordial terms. The deputies
from the Manchester conference, however, proposed
to confine themselves to parish business. Neither
Russia nor Austria could find any pretext for taking
umbrage, because the PRIME MINISTER and a num-
ber of English gentlemen had tall,ed over a matter of
business which concerned their own country exclu-
sively in a quiet and friendly fashion.
Turn it villa way we will, therefore, the refusal to
receive the deputation from the Manchester confer-
ence has an ugly look. It does appear as if Lord
Joust Itessr.i.n had rather not hear what English-
men want in the way of reform, lest it should inter-
fere with what lie has made up his mind to tell them
they went. It creates an uneasy impression that he
is about to tell them he knows their minds better
than they do themselves, and on this assumption to
cram his own measure of parliamentary reform down
their throats, however insufficient or unpalatable
they may think it.
Lord Jolts may take oar word for it, that this will
never do. Caution and reserve, in a statesman, are
good things in their way, but they may be overdone.
Be our interpretation of his shrinkiug from
the contact of the north of England re-
formers correct or not, it is that which
nine hundred and ninety-nine reformers out of every
thousand will put upon it. His lordship may have
been influenced simply by the fear that if he listened
to Manchester he would also be expected to listen to
Birmingham, to the 'lower Hamlets, to a large array
of deputations foreshadowed by hie imagination, as
in a glass, darkly, interminable as the issue of Banyno.
It would be a bore, we will not take upon us to deny
that it would, to listen to so much eloquence; it
would have been " inconvenient " to Lord JOHN per-
sonally. But it is a necessity of his position ; a posi-
tion voluntarily taken up by himself when he
declared, last session, his intention to bring in a new
Reform Bill. 'flint announcement, he could not but
be aware, was a challenge to all who are dissatisfied
with the existing electoral system to come forward
and tell him what they complain of in it and
why. This is the aim of such deputations as
that which lie has declined to receive. It is nut to
fish for indications of his intentions, or worry him
into premature revclutioiis, but to male sure of his
knowing the real causes of popular discontent, ,
that the conference have sent their deputies to him. ,
No means more legitimate of accomplishing this
seid—none less liable to suspicion of nuerepresenta- ,
*O, or ropproodu reri, than interviews with political
lenders, appointed at large public meetings, to cuss-
way to his lordship the sentiments of their respective
beatifies. To refuse such deputations admission to
Downing-street, while deputations are daily received
!era any knot of railway proprietors or colonisation
schemers, or amateurs of street-sweeping and soup
kitchens, is to say that jobbers and crotchet mongers
of all shades and complexions are at all times wel-
some to ministers, but that they will listen to no one
who comes to address them on questions that wholly
ssscern the interests of the country at large.
It is out of no hostility to ministers that we regret
and indignantly comment on their shrinking from
the approach of popular opinion as a hydrophobic
patient shrinks from the approach of water. We
speak not in anger but in sorrow, because they thus
wilfully and sillily augment the difficulties of a
position already in itself sufficiently difficult. How
can they know what extent of parliamentary reform
is needed, or wished for, if they shut their ears
against the voice of the people? Do they imagine
that anything but a sham measure will be expected
from men who refuse to receive information on these
points? lb they look for the confidence or support
of those to whose representations they refuse to
listen? 1/4 they flatter themselves that the public
will come to the rescue of men who have inspired it
with distrust of their intentions?
We confess that we entertain not the slightest
hope that such considerations will have the effect of
, inducing Lord JOHN and his colleagues to abate one
'iota of -the supercilious hauteur with which they
shrink from popular contact. It is the vice of their
nature ; the counterpoise to, the abatement of all their
good qualities. Even those among them who most
earnestly and sincerely desire the public good never
for a moment cease to look upon themselves as some-
thing apart from—something wiser and better—than
the mass of the people. ffhey are incessantly
wrapt up in admiration of their own condescension
in caring for those who are so much their inferiors.
They mar their best gifts by making us feel that
they wish to be thought, as COWPER has said some-
where, " Our benefactors—not our brother men."
This cold repudiation of familiar sympathy is less
calculated to do mischief with the English than with
any other people. JOHN BeLL, too, has a pride of
his own : he can love dearly and enthusiastically
leaders of a frank and cordial disposition; but when
seek are not to be had. he is not fool enough to reject
the services of less loveable persona. He is not the
man to look a gift horse in the mouth, or ask who it
comes from. if he cannot get a service done him in
the way of good fellowship, he is quite content to
accept of it in the way of business. Few men hays
more systematically and consistently thrown cold
water upon popular sympathy than the links of
WELLINGTON : but Joule oles the duke's vales in
his own line of business, and respects and admires
him accordingly.
And so it may be with our whig ministers. Joins
will not quarrel with them for keeping on their
gloves, like puppies, when they shako hands with
him, or even for refusing to shake hands with him
at all; provided they can make it clearly apparent
that they are willing and able to servo him. Lord
Joos Resseat.'s exaggerated caution and r&irefire
will not impede the success of his reform measure,
provided it be a real and effective one. But, having
made up his mind to treat the people of England in
his own de hate en bas fashion, he must be prepared
to find them weighing the merits and dements of
i his reform bill in a spirit as proud and uncompro-
mising as his own. All things considered, therefore,
we can scarcely be at the pragmatical airs of
dignity he seems disposed give himself. There is
the less risk of "eetiteionn " carrying the people
away, and making them cry out "the bill, the whole