The Express.
London, England, 1860-06-07 00:00:00

in= Emperor of the Fersce, as a good neigh-
takes a lively interest in the prosperity of
Ee:gium. We cannot, therefore, be surprised to
lean► that his Prefect of Police has received in-
structions to undertake an officious inquiry into the
state of King Licirote's dominions. The Prefect
of Polioe is obviously in a situation to pro-
secute a friendly and disinterested investiga-
tion in the most liberal spirit, and with the
happiest results. To the diplomatic representa-
tives of the Empire it belongs, of course, to per-
form strictly diplomatic duties ; but between
countries separated by no natural frontiers, and saw-
elated by so many acknowledged mutual interests,
there are relations which can only be niainteined
through an agency more intimate, and, so to speak,
less en evidence than an embassy. An epoch of
commercial treaties suggests a favourable opportu-
nity for a general revision of tariffs, wherever
purely artificial barriers obstruct the aspirations
of international fraternity. For this purpose, and
for no other, it is that a select corps of those
accomplished and unprejudiced gentlemen who
wear the insignia of " Public Safety" on their
braces, have, we understand, been detached to the
principal towns of Belgium to study the wants
and wishes of a population still labouring under
the disadvantages of Parliamentary government
These picked cosmopolitan brokers of Napoleonic
Ideas, who hail from the Rue de Jirusalem, are
living in excellent style just now, and delighting
general society at Brussels and in the Belgian pro-
vinces with their manners and information. Their
!linden is eminently peaceful, and their doctrines
distinguished by humanitarian largeness and elas-
ticity. And that they find apt pupils and ready
sympathisers the petition of the beet-root sugar
manufacturers lately addressed to the Knee most
significantly declares. Whether because or in
4ixte of its proximity to France, Belgium is
atllicted with a singularly bold, patriotic, and able
press, which presumes to cherish above all coon-
derstions the liberties of speech, of cunscienos, and
of thought, and other fantastic and unsubstantial
guarantees of human dignity and self-respect
which the crowned democracy over the border hes
left so far behind. These airy and sentintentel
hbet•tws are far from satisfying the beet-root ens-
aidaeturers, who have grasped the saving trut►
that where beet-root auger Las the best market,
ibi Atria. Beet-root sugar is essentially a
loyal manufacture ; it is no revolutionist; It
adores " a prudent and strong policy "—such as,
for instance, the policy of a neighbouring• Impire ;
but it is terribly afraid that the mass of the people
who consume beet-root sugar) may compare the
institutions of a free country, where beet-root
a. gee is heavily taxed, with the institutioss of sa
Empire which protects and encourages best-root
sugar, and may be tempted to prefer a sugared
despotism to unsweetened liberty.
These loyal beet-root men, however, are--to
du them justice—highminded, and superior to
that gross and grovelling materialism which would
exclaim, " Perish Belgium, so that beet-root sugar
" einuiah I " Personally, they despise bass lucre,
and ale incapable of subordinating patricians
profits. Not for themselves, but for their poor
and ignorant fellow-countrymen, do they fear the
contagion of that admirable regard for beet-root
sugar which is one of the proudest traditions of
the Napoleonic Empire. It is all very well for
enlightened manufacturers to care for such ab-
stractions as public liberty and national in-
dependence. But " the satisfaction given
"to material interests in a neighbour-
ing country " is a dangerous example.
" Nobody in our country, Sire"—thus these
Belgians approach their King—" is ignorant that
" the French sugar manufacture has just been
";.!acrd in a condition of vitality and strength
" which will permit it not only to role the home
" market in conjunction with French colonial
" cigar, but to double the amount of its opera-
" eons by placing sugar within the reach of every
" consumer. This satisfaction given to material
" interests by a neighbouring Government has
" been appreciated in Belgium as it ought to
" be. • • • • Your Maniere is not igno-
" rant that in a country like ours material quer
" tions are vital with respect to the Government
"as well as to the nation. The political mind of
" the mass of the population is not formed, end
" with their aepiratione towards liberty are some-
" times thiniahts of an inferior order, which
" frequently prerail ore, the rceseoheilde opinions
"of mar en'i9hteneci citizen. When those
" thoughts occupy a body—when the faults of
" the Government are perceived by the labourer
" in his daily life—the (inaction of industry or
" commerce becomes a political question the most
" dangerous as the Government is the more deter-
" mined not to retract its errors. Qiiestions an
" the r.,,"y asked which the previous day would
" /me- prortoted g, mind indignation, aid to pet ea
t- of uneasiness which it mould hese
t, pre rent cm irremediable evil is
"