The Express.
London, England, 1849-06-13 00:00:00

41U WATTIA AT LOWDUM MRIIIOII

pre 7.
To llsosaom /I al. put =la. PEA 7.

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 13.

Ma. Connas, in coming forward to propose to the
politic's s ot the day the substitu ion of previously
arras g. .d arbitration IT the old modes in either diplo-
macy or war, re.ernbles the E-igliehman who first
pre eared and handed a cup ot tau to his friend*. Tto
new beverage appeared to hare li tie to recom-
mend it. After the hat itnil epic. d wine and usque-
baugh it appeared streusel, ins pid, feminine in its
weakness, mawkish in its taste, and at bet an
innecent and id:e diluent. And yet this aiml la
b Volago was de-tined to become ti:e received and
habitual one of millions, so solu...Ty mid so plcaaut,
that tit:. mum l is how peop!e ever uid without it.
The House of Commons, however, lee impertinent
than the tory press, cud not set aside last night the
cop of arbitration with died tin. It tasted end tasted,
discussed the quality and the virtues, and one of the
most interesting, instructive, and itapntant debates of
the session sprung out of it. Fur the first time we
believe on rccord, a foreign minister dire:lewd the
Deere. vrinciplea and machinery of his ..ffica, and un-
warily, perhaps, lit in the light of heaved on the mys-
teries of Dosniog-s,reet.
We might, looted, have su-p-mte d before, that all
was not right and just our pri. e'p.. aei policy—
that there was ere, kmlness in them, and hiddim

thing., deceit, rapacity, at.d ambition. But we never
thought to hear Si minis' er cont,as all this by d, ca-
ring that England could Lot by any 11102.1111 l•ubmit
her best and dearest interests to arbitration. We Ike

at once the nob'e Viedunt's rbj c ion ; We tee
plainly th! f .undation of hip, assertom, tint no coun-
try could be brought to submit to arbttratien. It is
that no Euroie.in country in the prime nt state of
things bases i s claims up di ju-tice.
Lord PALMERSTON'S theory ta, Mediatim as oft,n
as y,,n ph-nse, tab tr,ition never. 'Pt e difference be-
tween the two is wide indeed. Mitli.tion proceeds
not upon right, but up di xp-di,ne3. It dtm s rot
pretend to make en honest au atd, but to atr ka
np a pore b e b again. It does not exa-
mine the toundstion of the claim, or the

faircesli of the obj.ction which resists it.
It merely inquires how IWe elm party will t.e con-
tented with, end how mica the, (Vier will concede. It
go. s between the strol; atd the wink, the deter-
mined mei the vee'llat.ng, the bully end the victim, 'mei
vsroilhes over, if it succeids, the humiliation of the
one and the insolence of tie other. Mcdiat:on is
what the Briti-h government hai been tr 3 it.g in so
nosey et:mettles of late, with so little Suet tte and ao
little honour. But med'a.ion never tucc.eede,
when either patty his m 're to hope tom war than
from peace. And in troohlone tine s like these, media-
tion is quite idle, except it he of test kind which
borders on intervention, which muk, s use of threats,

and which prevents war by the mediators becoming a
principal in it. The French at Rome say they are
mediating. so, we dare a. y, do the Itussiatm on the
Danube. What Mr. COBDEN wants is to put an end
to such mediation, and have to-hitration, lumded on
principles of justice, in its stead.
tint, rxel.ims L ad PALM EKSTON, arbitration is im-
possible ; no ono will accept it. He would not think
of aciieptng it, even for Englat.d. And rio doubt, if
we are to ineiat epee our old laws of Mali line supre-
meey, whe tr every vessel must lower sail to us, when
we pre toad to search any yes eel on the high seas under
pretext of looking for &sorters or for s Mee, when
we cetabl'sh en imsgn cry blockade, and ete Oars that
neutral powers shall not trade with our foes—such
rights as the se we cannot rubmit to arbitration.
Russia tilt has torn asunder the trervy of Vie naa,
and enslaved Poland, would most c oainly dose her
ears to arbitration. Feat cc, thitt sad the
young Queen of Spain to the mat miserable
of human beings in order b keep up her
influence in one peniusula, end which has just
bomb tried Rome t t regain some it.ale Wein another,
will n,,t he ar tell of arbitration. So rt gueselojt et to a
jetty, and the ruffian to a curt of ju-tate. But are
we not ashamed to re e England in such a category ?
As a very natural cons-quence of the admission
that our deeds and our claims will not bear arbitrage,
comes the doctrine that political science is a mystery
which none but adep's know. Lord PALMERSTON
has a horror of the uninitiated deciding upon grave
political questions. These is a class and a race of
augurs who monopolise poitical divinati-n, who fend
the sacred chickens, and know all the /secrets of policy
and diplomacy. Any other arbiters would be igno-
rant, and these would be dialthenest.
We did not require these proofs to be aware that
the establishmeet of arbitration gen rally as an inter-
national principle for settling dispums does indeed
require other and further reformations, does require the
substitution of honesty for Muchiaveliam, of content-
ment with one's own frr rapacity andambition. A LOUIS
XIV., or a NAPOLEON would never submit to arbi-
trage. Nur would the conquerors of Seinde, or the
re of the Punjaub. But this tells tot against
arhitiat on, but against
. three whoa' entire principles
of coreluct are meoropatiole with publicly and
fairness.
' The noble secretary, having thus proved arbi-
tration impossible, even in theory, proceeded to show
-how utterly it bad failed in practice. With much
ingenuity he laid hold of Mr. COBDEN'S
question of, Why such a men as Hum-
BOLDT might not arbitrate between two empires?
and told in answer the story of the two geographers
who differed about the p ttaticl of latitude which was
to divide Canada from the Mabee. But they were
not arbitrators, and they quarrelled precisely because
they were not arbitrators. Toere was a frt at
Reuse's Poiut, just neon the line, which the Ameri-
cans had fortified. But on examination, according to
the common mode of fixing a parallel of lati-
tude, it was found to be on the British
side. The English geographer said so. But the
American geographer, who was like an advocate
hired to support his cause, soon found some crotchet
to di-pure the unwelcome truth. If both of these
geographers had called in HUMBOLDT as an arbi-
trator, that great geographer would have &clad in
a trice; and, moreover, his decision would have been

- - -
reepetted.
Lard PALMERSTON'S only example against arbitra-
tion i ells thus, on the contrary,strong!y for its necessity.
As to the other plea, that governments would not
accept of arbitrage,—what does it prove, but the neces-
sity of placing not only internatioual but domestic)
policy on that fo3tiog, which would make a people
thenwelvce repudiate any rigbts or any interests too
crocked and dishonest t 3 be submitted to arbitration,
and which would make that people insist on having
a government as honest and as open as itself.

We expressed a sincere cl• sire that the King of
PRUSSIA would succeed in getting his constitution,
however oetroyed or issued of big plenary will, accepted
by the princes and the people of Germany : and we
persist in that desire, althooteh his Prussian MAJESTY
Las by no means taken the fit and requisite steps for
obtaining that general adhes:ons. He seems hitherto
to hare looked merely to courts, and to manoeuvre
solely for princely adhesions, forgetting altogether
that the only'true and efficacious way to make pril ces
accept hie constitution and his lead was to win first
the acceptance of the people, and the support of pub-
lic opinion in Germany.
In order to conciliate this public opinion the King
of PRUCCIA had not only much to eh, bat to undo. Ile
cannot but be cJneciona that having 113 often
broken his word and re-interpret d his pro-
misee about eanotttotions, Germane have on-
lcerned to put trust in him. Wheo, theretve,
FRFDEIIICK WILLIAM came once more forward with
a I.beisl constitution for Germany, he ought to have
surrounded himself by such coune'llors as Germans
could trust. Instead of the BRANDIENBEROS and the
MANTEURPELs, the new Caesar ought to have employed
pthreeteCrAsOPt ilhiskUrOSEyNaiS waolvridustatebelgulNarcK:sateesasofthliroteyakr-