The Express.
London, England, 1847-01-16 00:00:00

• Adeertfretuel
=YU be at the

the wit to comprehend it. The feed may still rage
between the followers of Lord GEORGE and those of
Sir Roam., but that feud will never go through a
septennial, nor even a triennial period. And the elec-
tors of England must take care, lest, in trustill their
interests for certain purposes to a specious and
ambiguous partisan, they may not forget and pre:lude
all chance of reform and of a general policy, more
vital and important, in the future.

Mall WATER AT LONDON.BRIrKIE.
Tom Der. —Mormon, 11 run. put 1; Afternoon, 243 min. put 1.
Toaloanow—Morning, 59 min. pert 1; Afternoon, 23 min. put 2.

THERE is no official body of which England has
more just reason to be proud than of the judges of
her superior courts. Few circumstances better in-
dicate the improvement in our administration of
justice, than a comparison of the bench and the bar
wider Ettzserrn or CHARLES 11., and the same func-
tionaries under Vic-roma. We cannot even conceive
at this day a BACON accepting a bribe, a JEFFREYS
cracking his obscure jokes and perverting law
and justice from the bench, or a COKE, as
counsel for the crown, browbeating a state
criminal from the bar. Tne grounds of con-
fidence in our judges are as sound, as the feeling
itself is important to the cause of order and justice
amongst us. While so much of the law of England
is judge-made, we have in the occupants of the
bench not only administrators, but fountains of for-
mal justice. They may furnish, besides, the cor-
rection, up to a certain point, of a most com-
plex, antique, and cumbrous legal system. They
may check the petulance, and guard the
dignity of the bar, over which they preside.
Temper, prudence, and acuteness, have enabled them,
on the whole, to fulfil these high duties with credit.
Tho performance of them has, it is true,- been endan-
gered from time to time by petty personal pique, or
inveterate habits of advocacy. We have no wish to
revive either the reality or the recollection of the
scenes between a BROUGHAM and a SUDDEN; or
even the extrajudicial warmth of an ABINOER.
We are the more surprised to find in the Court of
Exchequer a trace of what we hoped had disappeared
with its last Chief Baron. In a cause which came on
for a new trial, Sir FREDERICK POLLOCK stated, in
the presence of the jury who were to try the issue,
that the defendant had no chance of success, and that
it would be " insanity " to call witnesses in his
behalf. Mr. COCKBL'RN, counsel fur the defendant,
after protesting against the use of such ex-
pressions by a judge in the hearing of the jury,
withdrew from the court, leaving his client unrepre-
sented. His witnesses of course were not examined,
and the result was a verdict against him, with
ht avier damages than in the former trial.
In common, we believe, with all who have taken
part in, or watched the proceedings of the court
over which he presides, we have the highest respect
for Sir FREDERICK POLLOCK. But we cannot allow
this feeling to stand in the way of an expression of
regret and astonishment that the Chief Baron should
have so far forgotten himself on this occasion. His
defence that "the remark was made, not upon the
merits of the case, but with reference to all actions
of the same description," is insufficient; there can
be no doubt that to the minds of the jurors
it implied a conviction that the defendant is this par-
ticular action " had not a leg to stand upon." It was
a prejudgment of the case to their apprehensions,
whatever the Chief Baron might have meant by it.
At best, and taking his owe explanation, he prejudged,
not thin case alone, but all of the same character.
Under these circumstances Mr. COCKBURN seems to
us to have acted with propriety in withdrawing from
the conduct of the cause.
The Chief Baron declares that his intention was
to give a piece of personal advice to the bar. Mr.
COCKBURN suggests with propriety "that personal
advice to members of the Bar should be given pri-
vately, and not publicly."
Mr. Baron ALDERSON does not approve of Mr.
COCKBURN'S pointed rebuke of his learned chief. lie
asks the counsel " why he did not good-humouredly
inquire of the learned judge whether he meant to
pronounce any opinion upon the merits of the defend-
ants' case, instead of retiring from the court?"
Now it is all very easy to recommend good humour
under the strongest provocation, but not so easy to
follow the prescription. Here is a counsel charged
with what is tantamount to "insanity." He is repre-
sented to the jury as either one of those desperate
defenders, unscrupulous about the merits of his case,
or us a blind buzzard, who cannot see when it is
hopeless. Ile may take his choice of fool or knave.
Neither imputation is pleasant ; and we cannot see
why counsel are to be blamed, if; instead of " good-
humouredly asking for an explanation," they act as Mr.
COCKBURN acted on this occasion. If they did so
oftener it might impose a check on that " cacoethes
loquendi," which is the besetting sin of more than one
of the judges. We can conceive salutary effects fol-
lowing such a practice, occasionally, in any of the
Vice-Chancellors' courts, and in others besides the
Exchequer. It must be remembered that the affront is
not only personal to the counsel. If it were,dignity us
well as duty would recommend silence, or one of those
stinging retorts which atop further altercation, and no
more. But here the client is assailed as well as the
counsel. The cause is prejudiced before hearing by
the man who sits to hear it. This is something more
than bad taste in the judge. It is dereliction of
duty. It is not the meaning of the Chief Baron, but
the effects of his expressions that Mr. COCK-
BURN acted upon. They produced upon him
an impression of the Chief Baron's opinion which
can hardly fail to have extended to the jury. The
importance of the lesson justifies its pointedness. It
has forced from Sir F. POLLOCK an acknowledgment
of indiscretion ample as it is no doubt sincere. It
would have been in better taste had it omitted the
final fling, that "he was far from thinking any
indiscretion of a judge should bar a party of his
rights, even though that indiscretion appeared to
have been followed by another on the part of that
party's counsel." Mr. COCKBURN'S reply is to the
point. " If, my. lord, I committed an indiscretion, I
can only plead that I was accessory to a principal
It is to be hoped that more than the Chief
will take home the lesson contained in this curious
and not altogether dignified disCussion.

LONDON, SATURDAY, JAN. 16.
THE position of the practical Tories, as we may
call Sir Holier:Y. PEEL and his friends, is very favour-
able to frankness- and to the enunciation of truth.
It resembles that of Lord Ltscotx before the
electors of Manchester, fully aware that he could
not expect a majority of votes, and, therefore,
addressing himself to making a good speech to
go before the great public of the empire, ra-
ther than one peculiarly adapted for the audience
and the atmosphere in which he appeared.
We arc not sorry for the circumstance of able
and experienced politicians being flung into this
anomalous position, separated from the trammels
of clique-necessities and prejudices, and forced,
in order to compensate for their insignificance
as party men, to appeal to the public, to
instruct it, and keep themselves in its eye. In
some respects the position is not very dignified or dis-
interested. Some might consider effusions of this
general kind as a kind of advertisement from political
servants of all work, anxious to get a place, no
matter in what family, at what wages, or with
how much to do. There is an impatience of idle-
ness, an anxiety to be employed, and an ambi-
tion to show forth qualities and proficiencies, not very
compatible with those old English ideas, which con-
sider statemanship as the incident and corollary of a
gentleman's life, not the trade. It is all fair to come
in with one's party, and follow the tide which occa-
sions the ebb and flow of public questions, the rise and
fall of public men. But the taking a position, and dis-
playing a readiness to be independentof these, to swim
between two currents, and float upon either, as oppor-
tunities may offer, is quite another thing. Such asystem
has frequently been adopted by men of more industry
than superior abilities, by statesmen strong in family
connection rather in aptitude for a political lead.
It is now, however, adopted by men who had held,
and been proved worthy to hold, the first rank; bat
who, from the bigotry and impracticability of their own
party, in the midst of the pressing necessities of the
times, were unable to keep their original positions at
the head of Toryism.
We have now three parties in the state, Tories,
Liberals, and Sir ROBERT PEEL. The objection
which we have to the _Pen party is, that it is far too
convenient, its principles too elastic, its basis too
large, and for these reasons offering a very great
temptation to young men entering political life to
enlist in a band which does not require the taking
any engagements, in which political service
is but annual, or perhaps quarterly, and where
the whole wide future of political opinion is' left open
to the adventurers to grasp at all contingencies, and
be bound by no precedents.
The exigence of such a party on the eve of a
general election is a very remarkable and a very
ominous occurrence. Towards the close of a parlia-
ment, confusion of parties and principles is not of such
importance, and liberal ideas after all gain generally
by a scramble such as has taken place in the last
session of the present parliament. But a regularly
got-up system of throwing dust in the eyes of the
people previous to a general election, such as was
perpetrated at the last election, and which is
now to be practised after another fashion—this
dazzling and perplexing of constituencies with the
prospect of having men who combine the qualities
of being safe and liberal, steady and innovating, with
great influence still over the conservative classes, and,
therefore, able to bring that influence to bear, and so
overcome the prejudices and surrender the undue pri-
vileges of those classes—these are temptations which
must have effect in winning constituencies as well
as proselytes, and might produce a large majority in
parliament, beyond all control of either priuciple or
opinion. The breaking up of the landmarks of party
might thus lead to breaking up the landmarks of the
constitution.
• Lord LlNCOLN'Sppeech, and

TRRRE can be few educated persons, we presume,
who are uninformed of the late Mr. ENDERBY'S great
cervices to commercial enterprise and Antarctic dis-
covery. He was the first promoter of, and continued
to be during his life the most extensive participator
in, the Southern whale fishery. In fact, that daring
and once most valuable trade dates, as carried on
from England, from its establishment by him in 1775.
Mr. ENDERBY had previously been extensively en-
gaged in whaling operations carried on through
agents in our revolted colonies. In its successful prose-
cution he opened the Pacific Ocean fishery, in 1788 ;
the Japan fishery, in 1819 ; the Seychelles fishery, in
1823 ; as also the common whale fishery, in the
bays on the eastern coast of Africa ; and whilst his
vessels were thus enlarging the bounds of legitimate
commerce, they were also adding to the maritime dis-
coveries which so honourably distinuish this
country. Wherever, however, Mr. ENDERBY a commer-
cial spirit or scientific courage sent his whalers, they
were quickly followed, and, we believe, gradually
supplanted, by his old American colleagues ; until
now the whale fisheries arc substantially in the
hands of our transatlantic brethren and rivals.
There seems to be' ho deficiency, either in the
quantity of oil obtained in these fisheries, +
or in the number of whales to be taken. The
effect of the fishery has not been to diminish
the supply of whales, bat merely to drive than,
to more distant haunts. There the Americana
follow them as successfully as we Once did at lea
distances from home ; and there, when we do follow
the oetaoecas tribe; we are less successful competitors .
in the noble sport. In this state of things there is
not onlyjoa of profit but loss of national character;
turd several leading firms in the city of London,
feeling the discredit, have resolved to make an ,
effort to reinstate this country in_ the position in
which the late Mr: ENDERBY Steed it. They have
' naturally and pit Perly sought the assistance of that
gentla 'sou, who, from his earliest youth, was
aawda.ed Pith his? father in the trade ; and he, in
the beat spirit of a British merchant, has most wire-
iiervedly Fared forth 'llht •information, experience,'
sad views to them, lan pamphlet which we propose
to oonsider:' Without, wasting a word on the past
statistic& and present plight of the trade, or on the de-
eirahilitt of its we 'r we proceed to its contents.
Mr. Umtata§ 'Ett'nERBY'S• Remedial suggestions
are simply thesed that htaceffirth the trade shall be
carried on through the medium of &chartered company.
Government, in ackraiviedgment of the efforts of the
Mesas. ENDERBY to promote discovery, and in the
opening of new channels of trade, have conferred on
them the exclusive property of the Auckland Islands,

Yet we have praised . - -
do so. It is satisfactory, on almost all the questions
for the moment before the public. But hew Lord
LINCOLN would treat any future question that might
arise,—to that, one has no clue, trecause Lord Li rreerLs
has no party. All that can be gathered of the Mare
spirit of the policy of Lord LINCOLN. and his patrog,
is that it would be what the French call yourernemen-
tal, that is, destined, in all esse4s, to strengthen the
hands, the influence, and the action of government.
In education, in Banitory regulations, in payinithe
Irish clergy, in !very subject upon which :Lord IN-.
coLN touched, his views went towards augmenting
the power and influence .of the government.
admit that in many of those instances the increasing
the power of the government would best effect refOrm,'
further liberal ideas, and provide for liberal vipts.
The action and interference of government should,
however, we think, on moat of these question, be
temporary. The people should be taught and made
to do, in the first instance, what is requisite, but they
should be afterwasds left, if possible, to do it of them-
selves, instead of there being formed a permanent
and universal system of centralisation, which would
never harmonise with our free institutions. ,
We would make use of the practical Tories in aiding
and bringing about reforrns, but we should, be
sorry to trust them with the working of them. The
practical Tories may have been anxious to let down
their old aristocratic followers from positions, which,
however commanding in appearance, were in reality
untenable and dangerous. But their attachment to
this old party is still strong. 'And if they nois_ declare
their determination to follow out liberal ideas in free
• - other questions, it is that they feel that
w has been dealt the landed aristocracy
tree trade, and that to extend it
boon to that party which has not

THE EXPRESS, SATURDAY EVENING, JANUARY 16, 1847.

south of New Zealand. Mr. C. ENDERBY offers to
place them at the disposal of any whalery that may
be formed on a proper basis, as a whaling station,
and the site of a colony of whalers. These are
certainly practical and practicable suggestions. No
doubt it would be better to carry on the trade from
Farts near the whaling ground in vessels of the size
just required, than from a country 6,000 miles
off, and in ships large enough to contain
four years' outfit and a store for the oil ob-
tained during that period; though we cannot
overlook the consideration that, as the greater part of
the stores required must be carried somehow from
Europe or America to the scene of action, and that
the difference of cost in sending them in whalers or
in freight ships cannot be very considerable. No
doubt a chartered company, by diminishing individual
responsibility, possesses some advantages over private
enterprise for reviving, or attempting to revive, the
prosperity of the whale fishery ; though American
experience testifies that it is not indispensable. There
' are as few doubts that the Auckland Islands are a
good situation whence to carry on the trade ; though
not, as American experience again proves, abso-
lutely necessary to its profitable conduct. Still,
granting Mr. CHARLES ENDERBY the high value of
these suggestions, they do not in themselves alone
appear to us to have the elements of reviving '
our superiority in the fishery. The great secret
of our inferiority. is in our protective system ;1
it lies concealed in our navigation laws. The
fishery is an open field in which protection avails not :
how can the protected hope to compete with those
whom, in other trades, they are protected against?
Either the navigation laws are not required any-
' where, or we cannot, do what we will, compete with
' the Americans in the Southern whale fishery. Our
navigation laws, by giving to British shipping a
monopoly, have encouraged inefficient seamanship
and expensive management; our ships are over-
manned, and badly commanded. The navigation
laws have, especially, given us a race of most incom-
petent master manners; and it is to their incompe-
tency, and to the cost involved in our protective sys-
tem generally, that the decline of the Southern fishery
is immediately attributable. Until these causes of its
adversity are removed, we despair of the revival of
this trade.

IN comparing two documents which have been
published in England about the same time, there is
some difficulty in deciding whether Prince METTER-
Nimes despatches on the annexation of Cracow, or
Mr. POLK'S message on the seizure of New Mexico,
display, in the greatest perfection, the quality of un-
blushing assurance. On consideration, however, we
are decidedly of opinion, that in coolness, the Presi-
dent excels the Minister. The Cracow despatches
belong to a class of state papers which has long been
understood as a conventional fiction— a tribute, or
rather, quit-rent, paid by violence and selfishness to
honesty. It is usual for the perpetrator of any great
offence against public justice and international law to
accompany the avowal of the act by such statements,
in the form of reasons and excuses, as may enable
other powers to wink at the transaction, if they
think proper, without too flagrant a dereliction of
duty. The more plausible the arguments, the
more ingenious the sophistry used, the greater is
the compliment paid to those who arc addressed.
It is not intended that they should be convinced, bat
that facilities should be given them for pretending to
be convinced. Prince IdErrEftsiteu has, it must be
confessed, in his instructions to M. de Tarim, reduced
the form of apologising for breaches of treaties to a
minimum. He scarcely "gives colour," as an analo-
gous fiction is called in legal phrase: he barely ad-
mits that his conduct ie guided by any law but the
will of the stronger. His arguments, from the events
of 1830 and 1845, could hardly give any government
an excuse for pretending to be diverted by them from
the real point at issue. Still the Austrian minister
does not in language insult those whom he addresses.
By addressing to each several pages of words, he ad-
mits that England and France have some claim to be I
addressed. The best excuse for the irrelevancy of his
excuses, is, that he had no better to give. The case
was indefensible, and it would not have been civil to
say so in express terms.
The superiority which we attribute to Mr. POLK
in brssenneas of face is founded on the nature of the
document, which we have compared to the Cracow
despatches. A communication by the executive
government of a free country to the sovereign legisla-
ture, even though it may relate to foreign trans-
actions, is hardly entitled to the immunities of a
diplomatic despatch. If Prince Merninxicies
statement had been a confidential report to his own
government, instead of a communication to the
French ministry, and if Cracow had been occupied in
direct violation of the law of Austria, as well as of
international rights, the comparison would have been
more exact.
The permanent annexation of Mexican provinces,
in which the American invaders have met with
no resistance, would be a flagrant injustice, and
a gross abuse of superior force. For this, however,
Mr. Polar has not as yet to answer, though the tone
of his message leaves little doubt of his willingness
to accomplish it. What ho was forced to state to
Congress was the view which he took of the conduct
of General KEARNEY and Commodore STOCKTON in
effecting the annexation on their own responsibility.
Among the documents, says the president, accompany-
ing the report of the Secretary at War, wiU be found
" a form of government established and organised" by the
military commander who conquered and occupied New
Mexico. This document was received at the war dewt-
ment in the latter part of the last month, and, as will be
perceived by the report of the Secretary at War, was not,
for the reasons stated by that officer, brought to my notice
until after my annual message of the Bth inst. was communi-
cated to congress.
It is declared on its face to be a " temporary government
of said territory," but there are portions of it which purport
to " establish and organise" a permanent territorial govern-
ment of the Milted States over the territory, and to impart
to its inhabitants politicel rights which, under the consti-
I tution of the United States, can beenjoyed permanently only
by the citizens of the United States. These have not been
approved and recognised by me.
The President omits to state that his " approbation
and recognition" would have been, for all legal par-
czazither more nor less valuable than the original
'on of the brigadier and the commodore, Mr.
POLE having no more power than any officer in the
army, or any private individual, to extend the terri-
tories of the Union without the authority of Congress.
His apology, however, for the trifling excess of power
assumed by his subordinates is not unamusing.
It will be apparent, from the reports of the officers who
have been required by the success that has crowned
their arm., to exercise the power of temporary goverment
I over the conquered territories, that if any excess of power
has been exercised, the departure has been the offspring of
a patriotic desire to give to the inhabitants the privileges
and immunities so cherished by the people of our own.coun..
try, and which they (who ?) believed calculated to improve
their condition, and promote their prosperity.
Any such excess has resulted in no practical injury, but
can and will be early corrected is a manner to alienate as
little as possible the good feelings of the inhabitants of the
I conquered territories.
Let our readers, by way of estimating the excess of
llpower thus delicately alluded to, auppose—we wW
not say that some brigadier at the head of two or
' three regiments, or commodore with a squadron of
sloops and frigates—bat that a great commander at
the head of a veteran army, which he had led
to victory, ventured similarly to compromise the
honour and policy of England. Suppose that
Lord CASTLEREAGH, in 1814, had informed parlia-
ment that the Duke of WELLINGTON had attached
the department of the Basses Pyrenees to England,
and given the inhabitants the rights ofEnglish
subjects, with the pririlege perhaps of
half a dozen members to parliament.
CASTLEREAGH was neither timid nor bashful; but
even on so wild a supposition we cannot further
imagine an English minister excusing the dismember-
ment of a hos6k state, and the exercise by a general
of the right to confer the franchise of his own country
on foreigners, by " his patriotic desire to give to the
inhabitants the privileges and immunities so elm.
riahed" by their conquerors. Prince WORONZOW is,
no doubt, equally anxious to give to the Circassian'
the " privilege" of being governed at the will of the
Czar.
A paragraph in the New York Courier and Is-
quirer throws an edifying light oa the working of
the constitution so benevolently conferred on the con-
quered provinces:
We have the account of an election held at Monterey,
California, according to the American forms, and wWi
resulted in the choice of the Rev. Mr. Colton, chaplain of
the United States ship Congress (the flag-ship of Commodore
Stockton), as alcaMe or chief magistrate of that town.
We wonder what forms the American constitution
prescribes for the election of an akaide, an officer, we
ehoold have supposed, scarcely contemplated in at
.-sst its earlier provisions—that they are at any rate
effective in locums a free and judicious elect= is

to-de and in other
tne worst blow ha
in the matter of
would be a