The Express.
London, England, 1866-11-20 00:00:00

because there was really very little to be said except
that trouble seemed to be brewing. The affair has
now, however, reached a crisis, and may be said to
have resulted in a complete triumph for the radicals.
Governor Swami was elected last year by the
.Unien men of _Maryland, the secessionists and seces-
sionist sympathiser being excluded from the polls
by a rigid registry law. When the Johnson
party sprang up, GoiernOr Swann coat in his lot
with them, and has ever since acted with the pro-
Southerners or " conservatives," as it is now the
fashion to call them. The only way of serving
theca effectually, however, was to get the control
of the polls, or rather the administration of the
election laws, into the hands of persons of his
own yay of thinking, and the only road to this was
through the removal of the police commissioner,
whtoire of the radical persuaaion. So suddenly a
fdaysToß before the election he summoned the police

commissioners before kim to answer a long string

of charges preferred by " oonservatives," moat of
them relating to the manner of conducting the

election, such as partiality in the appointment of
inspectors and in accepting or rejecting votes. I
ought to mention in explanation that under the
law considerable discretion is left to the inspectors
in deciding on the qualification of voters, even
when their names appear on the registry list. To
secure the right men as police commissioners was
therefore for either party to secure everything.
The governor accordingly summoned the commis-
sioners before him to answer. They disputed his

jurisdiction and refused to appear, and he in his
turn proceeded to try them in their absence for
misconduct in office. He made the most indecent
haste in order to get the matter settled before
election day, and everybody, of course, knew
what his decision would be. On Monday
he found them guilty, and removed them,
appointing others in their place; and they on
their side made preparations for an armed re-
sistance, and were promised support from other
States. He went to Washington and applied for
support to the President, who very likely but not
certainly promised it, and had he rendered it would
have made himself liable to impeachment, inas-
much as the constitution provides that the Federal
government shall only interfere by force in the
domestic troubles of States when applied to by the
legislature, or by the governor when the legislature
cannot be convened. There is, however, no diffi-
culty in the way of convening the Maryland legis-
lature, and the application of the governor for
Federal aid would have been clearly illegal, and had
Mr. Johnson rendered it he would have furnished
the radicals with that overt act of misconduct
which is all they now need for an impeachment.
As good luck would have it, however, there
I has been no occasion to call on him. The
i new commissioners were appointed, demanded
I possession from the old ones, were refused, and
then began to appoint police of their own. Where-
upon the State attorney, who is a radical, applied
for a warrant against them for preparing a breach of
the peace, obtained it, had the new commissioners
arrested and locked up. A writ of habeas corpus
was sued out and served on the gaoler, but he had
three days to make a return in ; the last day will
I be Thursday, and the election takes place on Wed-
nesday. The old commissioners still retain their
authority ; the radicals will carry the election ;
and the new legislature will be radical, and will
elect a radical senator ; so the conservative game
is lost, and all fears of bloodshed have passed
away.
Throughout the contest the radicals have shown
twice the readiness, pluck, firmness, and fertility of
resource of their opponents—a fact of some signi-
Seance as regards the future of the border States.
Their success during the war, and the habit
of power which they acquired during its
continuance, and which they never had before,
has given them an audacity and Buff -confidence,
i a sense of superiority to their opponents, which
before the war were the peculiarities of the pro-
I slavery party. The thoroughness and complete-
ness with which the North has thrown off the old
• yoke was never more completely exemplified than
in this Baltimore case. And the same spirit is to
be perceived in Tennessee, Kentucky, and Mis-
souri. In every one of these States it is evident
that it now matters comparatively little whether
the radicals have the support of the general go-
vernment or not. Their fear is not lest it should
not back them up, but lest it should take part
with the strong hand against them. They have
possession of the machinery of government, have
• got stringent registry laws, and control the State
militia, and have things very much their own way.
To all arguments in favour of a policy of oblivion,
and of the removal of restrictions on the share of
the secessionist population in the government,
they reply by showing that the retention of
power is with them not a matter of more
or less enjoyment, or influence, or consideration,
I but of life and death ; that they cannot forget, until
the confederates and their friends forget, and that
the loss of power, or the division of it with their
late enemies, would mean neither more nor less
I than death or banishment or the loss of their pro-
perty—and that they must retain it, as a means of
self-preservation, until the passions roused by the
war have subsided, and the South has been restored
to its right mind.
The elections are going on to-day in twelve States,
of which this is one, but at the moment of writ-
ing—that is within half-an-hour of the departure
of the mail—of course nothing is known of the
result. The excitement in this city is intense, and
the vote unusually heavy. Of the general issue in
this or in any of the other States there is, of course,
little erne doubt. But the contest will, perhaps,
be closer here than anywhere else, as there is a great
deal at stake besides the endorsement or disap-
proval of President Johnson's policy. The question,
amongst others, whether a convention shall be held
next year to revise the State constitution is to be
decided, and a decision in the affirmative would lead
in all probability to a totalchange in the mode of
governing this city, thus putting an end to the
most outrageous corruption to which any civilised
community was ever subjected.

Tee Ter.zoitarif nr Anent/Jas.—At the end of
last year there were 2,517 miles of telegraph open in Vic-
toria, 835 miles in South Australia, 2,545 miles in New
South Wales, and 1,131 miles in Queensland.
Nrower,Queeror or. 19.—The Inman steamer
City of Paris, from New York on the 9th inst., arrived here
at 7 p.m. to-day, with 275 passengers, and 273,190 dots.
in specie. She landed 56 pesessgers, and prooeedied for
Liverpool at 7.15 p.m.