The Express.
London, England, 1866-04-25 00:00:00

Not that the impatience
be blamed, or the ignorance
corning the topography
empire. But it iaaimi

vernment Lord Roast

Foreign-office—to bear in mind that this was pre-
cisely one of those instances in which a re-
sponsible Irmister must bear the burden of un-
deserved insinuations and reproaches, in order to
fulfil his duty according to his larger knowledge
and experience, and to attain the objecte which
public impatience and indignation honestly but
ignorantly seek, and which premature official dis-
closures and hasty official statements might irre-
parably injure. It presently appeared that
Lord Etrassax had chosen for the difficult
and delicate, perhaps dangerous, mission
to the Abyssinian Emperor the very fittest
person in her MAJESTY'S service—Mr. Ras-
sem, the Resident at Aden, a Nestorian Chal-
dxean by birth, an Englishman by education, and
by habits and training particularly well qualified
to conciliate and appease, without any inconve-
nient or unbecoming sacrifice of dignity, the sus-
ceptibilities of such a potentate as the Em-
peror Theorioaz. Nor was it enough to
order Mr. RASSAM to proceed to the Abyssinian
court ; the time and manner of his journey were
essential conditions to the success of his message.
It was indispensable that the permission of the
EMPEROR should be obtained, and a sufficient gua-
rantee of the Envoy's reception and safety. Inferior
messengers must be sent in advance with letters
to the EMPEROR. Hence considerable delay in
the actual departure of Mr. RAssAM from Egypt.
The Foreign-office prudently entrusted the Envoy
with the entire discretion of his proceedings.
Mr. RASSAM waited for the EMPEROR'S reply,
and immediately on learning that the EMPEROR
would receive him with pleasure and confidence,
he left Egypt for his destination. The EMPEROR
desired him to avoid a region of the
empire then in insurrection, and promised
him a gracious and hearty welcome. It was
clear that the Foreign-office had been well advised
in its deliberate and forbearing course of action,
and especially in holding to the conviction that
the Abyssinian EMPEROR had imprisoned the Consul
rather as a hostage to his offended dignity than as
a victim to his anger. That Consul CAMERON
and his comrades in captivity must have suffered
severely in body and mind is beyond all doubt.
But there is reason to believe that no one was
more satisfied of the prudence of her MAJESTY'S
Government in not precipitating the demand for
his release, in waiting for the Emperor THEODORE
to relent, and in soothing the wounded pride of a
sovereign against whom all threats must be worse
than powerless, than Consul CAMERON himself ;
and the despatch which Lord CLARENDON read to
the Peers on Monday night amply justifies
Consul CAMERON'S hopes, the counsels of Mr. Ras-
SAM, and the confidence of her MAJESTY'S Govern-
ment. It appears that the EMPEROR had given Mr.
RASSAM a reception so magnificent that a regular
embassy could not have been treated with more
honour. Within a few hours after his first inter-
view with his MAJESTY, the release of all the pri-
soners was ordered, and the EMPEROR directed that
they should be placed under the care of Mr. RAs-
SAM. The EMPEROR had sent his 011-11 Chamber-
lain to unfetter the prisoners and to bring them
to meet the British Envoy ; he had writen a most
polite letter to the QUEEN, and was loading Mr.
RASSAM and his suite with handsome presenta. At
the present date (though Lord DERBY seems still
a little sceptical of the result) the mission and the
released captives should be in all probability
embarked at Massowah, and while we cordially join
with those of our contemporaries who express the
hope that the British Consulate at Masaowah will
for the future be limited to that post of commercial
observation, without extending its good advice or
its good offices to the court of Abyssinia—wher-
ever that may be—leaving diplomatic compliments
and the interchange of royal courtesies to special
missions (and even to special missions nothing more
than compliments and courtesies) ; we shall cer-
tainly not take the occasion of this happy release
to call a sovereign a savage, who, while he resents,
like any common Christian, discourtesies, is neither
inaccessible to appeals to clemency, nor incapable
of forgiving and repenting like the most uncommon
Christian.

OUR CONTEMPORARIES.

(THIS DAY.)

may happen if one only or Famed,
leaving the rest to the hazard of time and events. Mr.
Bright can justify this plan, no doubt, by his own view of
what is desirable, but It is precisely because his view
is not that of the great alias of educated Englishmen that
they are found on one aide of this controversy and Mr,
Bright on the other.
The Herald say. that even were the second reading to
per, which every hour renders more doubtful—in fact,
ministers no longer count upon a majority—the Franchise
Bill must be shunted into a siding, until the Distribution
of Seats Bill comes up with it, so that both may go on
together until the final collapse and dissolution
takes place in committee. But this is not the
spirit or the method upon which the House of
Commons has been accustomed to legislate upon
questions of importance to the nation now, bearing upon
the destinies of many ages to come, and it is not with the
paltry object either of forcing through a raw Franchise
Bill, in order to keep a dilapidated ministry erect, that
parliament will hammer this piece of mechanical patch-
work upon the great organism of the British constitution,
which is nothing if not maintained in spirit and substance
as a whole, the repertory of the nation's life, and the
source of all its freedom.
Mr. Disraeli, in an unlucky moment, says.the Telegraph,
uttered a sentiment which he must often have felt, but
which, as Mr. Goschen now reminds us, he has actually
expressed, and that, too, in parliament. In 1859 he said,
"Yon cannot encounter arguments against the reduction
of the franchise by sentimental assertions of the good quali-
ties of the working daises : the greater their good qualities
the greater the danger." These words we foresee will become
notoriousbefore we have done with reform ; but, as they are
toolongfor frequent quotation,we will also give Mr.Gosehen's
excellent paraphrase of them : " Honourable members
opposite are more afraid of the working classes when they
think than when they drink." That, indeed, is the real
conclusion to which tory principles must come, and to
which Mr. Disraeli, in an unguarded moment, admitted
that they lead. Thus the only logical tory in all the
heretegoneous array against reform is Mr. Lowe.
The Star endeavours to show the fallacy of Mr. Wal-
poa's recommendation to obtain the assent of the com-
mittee of the whole house to certain propositions of prin-
ciple, and then to embody them in a bill. The Star would
be sorry indeed if the majority in favour of the second
reading were not large enough to give the government con-
fidence and security. We should regret it chiefly because
of the new agitation, the fresh excitement, the weary,
disturbing, perhaps dangerous interval of public suspense
and anxiety which must follow. But even the defeat of
the government would not be half so great a misfortune as
the safety of the government if bought by any concession
which seemed to involve s compromise of principle.

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