The Express.
London, England, 1867-09-09 00:00:00

PEACE AND COMIIII4C6.

After all, the name of the Peace Congress at
Geneva is announced si a misnomer, remarks the Tines.
Men of the stamp of Prim, Garibaldi, earl Louis blanc are
discussing the means of Iltltrng an end to 140.1itar,
monarchies,' sad nothing better suggests itself than "►
return to t' ep;i;ejples o' the Revolution." Gariba'di
Wise. NI Geneva after the failure of his pl in for
the overthrow of the Papacy; Prim re•'aire to the same
spot after the defeat of his insurrectionary attempt
in Spain. These two patriots may be the champions
of freedom and humanity, but it is not the less as red-
handed warriors that they appear on the threshold of the
Temple of Peace. Could arguments exercise any influence
over the European rulers, none ought to be so strong as
the formidable numbers of their own forces. A peace
establishment of 2,800,000 men, capable of being raised
to 5,000,000 in warlike emergencies with 213,837
additional men for sea service ; • military and
naval expenditure of 100 millions yearly, with an oqual
sum lost by the forced abstinence of so many men in the
prime and vigour of life from reproductive labour, ought
to speak as forcibly to the ears of the people of Europe
and of their rulers as any fiery harangue or inspired
strain that may rise from the midst of the orators and
poets assembled at Geneva. Although the crushing evil
of this vast European armament may in a great measure
be ascribed to the ambition and jealousy of great mili-
tary powers, it is also p►rtly owing to the necessity on
the part of those powers of guarding against the incessant
and more or less dangerous attempts of those " men of
action" who are not scantily represented at that Genevese
assemblage.
The peace missionaries who urge the reduction of armies
to a purely defensive basis, and advocate the free play
of social, political, economic, and scientific inquiry, trust-
ing to the working of such forces for the extinction of the
great scourge, have some show of reason; but the en-
thusiastic dreamers at Geneva, who call upon Europe to
march towards pacific unity through the horrors of a vast
revolution, discern, in the opiniortof the Telegrapk, neither
the consequences of their principles nor the laws regulating
the progress of mankind. If war is ever to tease the
exalted end mast be accomplished by far other methods ;
the work must go forward gradually, and not convulsively;
and we must not begin the gigantic labour of inaugurating
universal pesos by setting NA a programme which inevi-
tably leads to universal war.
The Daily News contrasting the great development of
French commerce with the political position of the govern-
ment, which could hardly be worse than it is at the pre-
sent moment, inquires why it is that commercial progress
has not produced its customary fruit? It answers by
obsarving that to produce the usual results, the material
activity of the country must be developed under the
broadest conditions of freedom—political as well as
commercial. These essential conditions of national
prosperity cannot be divorced without serious injury to
the national life; and France at this moment is Waa-
ltotting the evils of attempting to develop commercial
freedom under a system of political repression.
But the deeper moral and social effects of the system are
perhaps even more menacing than the political. It natu-
rally produces habits of profuse and reckless expenditure,
' of luxury and extravagance, which those who are most
intimately acquainted with the tone and manners of the
more wealthy classes in Paris justly regard as most ominous
for the future of the city. These are the " black spots"
on the social horizon of the empire, which endanger the
Emperor's throne f►r more than the failure of hasty and
ill-considered schemes of foreign policy.
The Star, remarking that there is now sufficient bullion
in the Bank of England to pay twenty shillings in the
pound for all its notes in circulation, thinks it worth
while to inquire what good It does U. If the question
be asked in the City, where most ought to be blown
about these problems, the answer will be that it
is a season of distrust and languor in every species
of mercantile and speculative enterprise, and that specie
payments are only a symptom of languor which ought to
be removed.

After a season of strange vicissitudes and doubtful pro.
'peas, the Times is at length enabled to say that the
harvest of 1867 is decidedly a good one. It is impossible,
however, to overlook the fact that the actual price of corn
has failed as yet to respond adequately to the rapid im-
provements in the prospects of the harvest. Wbeat is very
dear. It ranged from 56e. to 70s. a quarter this day last
week, and on Friday last, in Mark-lane, it was rather
rising than falling. A level, however, must soon be
reached in this case, though for a long while there has
been something mysterious in the market price of food.

ICS TOPICS.

The Herald, whilst admitting that the curates have
some real grievance" to complain of, says they must, how-
ever, make up their minds to accept their position as the
paid assistants of the beneficed clergy ; and it is to be
hoped that in • profession the members of which are