The Express.
London, England, 1853-07-18 00:00:00

exclusively of the facts of 1832, instead of consulting'
the facts of 18.33 and forming a rational estimate of
the needs of 1b34.

The observation we have transcribed from Messrs.
LIT rLED %Lt.'s circular, and the condition of the Money
Market since the Bank raised the rate: of interest,
show how completely that was unwarranted by the
circumstances of the country, though suitable to the
condition of the Bank, and how little has been
the influence it has exercised. The Bank may lend
money to the Government at 3; per cent., but the
public will not borrow it at present on those terms.
Its advances to the public, which generally mount
up very rapidly for a few weeks before the payment
of the dividends, actually fell off between May 2st
and June 25, 316,1•':/. The Bank is proving
to the whole world that it has become, as wo have
already more than once stated, of little consequence
in the monetary relations of the Empire; and every
day the reasons become strorger and stronger why
that corporation, whose principal client is the Govern-
ment, should no longer be considered as of great
importance in all commercial affairs. It still pretends
to regulate interest, and sometimes, by " putting
on tho screw," tries to cheek enterprise. But
the capital of society is growing too gigantic
to be affected
_by the few millions it possesses,
and commerce is every day becoming more
and more independent of the Bank. At the same
time the privileges with which it is still endowed
are restrictions on the fair and honourable industry
of individuals without apparently being pro-
fitable to itself. On Wednesday one of its joint-
stock rivals, which allows interest on deposits, the
Union Bank, declared a dividend at the rate of 8 per
cent. on its paid-up capital, which is quite equal to
, the rate of interest on Bank of England capital ; and
other joint-stock banks, we believe, will exhibit an
equally- good balance-sheet. The period has been ex-
tremely favourable for judicious money-lenders; and
when joint stock banks which allow interest on de-
posits can make 8 per cent., the Bank of England
can require no privileges to enable it to transact
banking business with advantage. The privileges
which are undoubtedly injurious to others appear to
be also injurious to itself. They lull vigilance to
sleep, become the substitute fer energy and exertion,
and may end in injury or even ruin.

PUBLIC opinion in France has shown itself more
undivided on the subject of Russian aggression in
the East than upon almost any other question of
importance that has occupied the national mind fur a
considerable time. There is, we believe, a hearty
desire among the industrious and intelligent classes
of the community to keep well with England—a de-
sire which is cordially reciprocated by the thriving
and thrifty millions of the United Kingdom. The
mutual persuasion grows, that the commerce,
civilisation, literature, and freedom of the
two great nations of Western Europe are clobely
identified; and consequently that their external
policy ought in the main to be the same. Their
domestic institutions may in many respects differ,
but the professed aim of both at least is the happi-
ness and improvement of the great mass of the com-
munity. The spirit of both systems is avowedly
opposed to the hereditary absolutisms of Eastern
Europe; and the abandonment of friendly and inti-
mate relations between England and France, for the
sake of forming on the part of either an alliance
with Austria or Russia, would be as unpopular on

the other side of the Channel u upon this, and would
as certainly bring odium and discredit upon those

who should attempt it.
There are, however, in both countries certain
cliques and sections who cherish the anti-national
and anti-liberal designs we have alluded to. The
remnants of the Orleanist and Legitimist parties in

France, or, as they now affect to call themselves, the
party of the Fusionists, hardly disguise the confi-
dence and hope with which they look
towards St. Petersburg and Vienna. Like
the votaries of other superstitions, they pray
with their faces turned towards the East,
and like their predecessors of forty years ago, the
adherents of Louts XVIII., " they have learned and
unlearned nothing." The restoration of the BOUR-
BONS was then accomplished, if not by the arms of
Austria and Russia, unmistakeably and undisguisedly
at the personal instance and direct sanction of the
KAISER and the CzAR. Those who now dream of a
second overthrow of the Bonapartist dynasty, and a
second restoration of the BOURBONS, remember this
unfortunately too well, and seek in the same
quarters for support and countenance in their
plots and schemes. But the French people also re-
member these things; and hence it is that, with the
exception of the Journal des Debate, the Assemble
Nalionak, and one or two provincial journals of little
note, the entire press is vehemently opposed at the
present moment to every idea that seems to savour of
compromise or concession to the encroaching demands
of the Northern Autocrat. On nearly every question of
domestic policy the official Pays differs from the Radi-
cal &eels, and the Bonapartian Constitutionnel from

the free thinking Presse : but all concur in repu-
diating the notion that the Emperor NICHOLAS
is to be suffered to set himself above all the rights and
principles et international law, and to lecture the in-
I depends* states of Europe upon the duty of passive
asboduisa and compliance with his plans and pro-
late of tstritorial aggression. Apart from all in-
fluences and emotions of domestic party strife,
there is in Franco a deep and strong
national spirit, which resents keenly whatever it be-
lieves to be intended as a usurpation by any of the
great Powers of the privileges of an international
dictatorship, whether it be exercised directly against
France herself, or indirectly over any of her less
puissant allies.
And there is in England, we are well assured, a
spirit as manful and determined to resist, when-
ever it is necessary, the insolence of foreign
dsepot4sm, whether manifested against ourselves or
against any of those friends arid customers whom we
bays taught to look to us for protection and support.
As empered with many of those nations which are
to be classed in the latter category, our dealings
with the half savage tribes of Muscovy, or the
down-trodden and terror-stricken subjects of
Austria, are of little importance. Serfs and slaves
are worth little as customers to a free com-
mercial people. Piedmont and Holland, the
Hance Towns and Belgium, with their limited
populations and limited territory, are infinitely more
valuable to us than the unwieldy empires, with their
mores of millions of vassals, which are governed from
Peterhoff or Schoenbrann. Bat the comparison is
equally suggested on other grounds. Industry
and liberty, civilised wants and civilised rights,
are generally fosnd together. As a free
people it is impossible for us to be in-
different to the progress and development of
freedom amongst those whom we nationally asso-
ciate with. It is for our safety, it is for our honour,
It is for our profit, that other countries should have free
tariffs, free altars, and equal laws; and wo should
Ilbe unfit to hold our place in the van of civilisation if'
11 for any transient considerations we proved ourselves
to be recreant wit h.this policy and this faith. We
are willing to be at peace with the whole world—
nay we are most anxious to be so, for peace is
an incalculable advantage. We do not meddle
with the internal tyranny, by which the
populations of Austria and Russia are precluded