The Express.
London, England, 1858-02-19 00:00:00

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LONDON, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 19.

BY a majority of 318 to 173 the Howe of Com-
mons have declared that they will not be so impolite
as to refuse to discuss the merits of Lord PALM ER-
sroN's Bill for revolutionising the Government of
India. This majority affords no indication of what
may be the result of the debate on the second spad-
ing. Much more weighty arguments than any
that have yet been adduced will be required to per-
suade the House to sanction the principle of the
measure—if principle it can be said to have.

We do not that it is alleged against the
Double, or rather, as we agree with Sir C. Woon it
is better styled, the Mixed Government of the
East India Company and the Board of Control,
that the principle upon which it is founded is de-
fective. If it be, our own vaunted constitution is
also radically bad. The principle of the Mixed Go-
vernment is a principle of equipoise—of counter-
action. It is the principle which all Englishmen
believe to be the very life of their own " glorious
Constitution." What would be thought of the
Statesmen who were to propose to destroy this Con-
stitution because its two-fold, or rather its
three-fold, character is necessarily provocative of
delays ? The absurdity of striking at the vital
principle on account of certain presumed cuticular
defects, must be patent to every man of ordinary
understanding. We hare assuredly no precedent
for it in the history of our national legislation.
The worst feature of this contemplated revolution
is its tendency towards despotism. Whilst in all
matters of domestic, and, indeed, of colonial govern-
ment, we are extending the popular element, we are
here proposing not merely its limitation, but its ab-
solute exclusion from the new Anglo-Indian Con-
stitution. Let us admit for the sake of argu-
ment that the present constituency is bad.
Englishmen are not wont, when they are awakened
to a sense of the defectiveness of their represetitative
system, to declare that they will abolish it alt4ither
and fall back upon a pug despotism. In such a case
they proceed in a wholly opposite direction. They
improve their constituencies by enlarging them.
They do not say that they will have no constituen-
cies—that they will leave it to the Minister of the
day to nominate his own parliament. Bat this
is what we are now called upon to do.
This is what a quasi-Liberal Government is recom-
mending to the country. As Colonel SYKEs
well put the point, how will the country,
now clamorous for the extension of the elective
franchise, stultify itself by consenting to abandon
India to the caprices of a despotic Minister, whose
chief qualification for office, in all probability, will
be that he knows nothing about India, and cares for
it only so far as it affects his ability to keep himself
in office, and to serve his aristocratic friends?

ALL along the Channel coasts of France there are
towns—Boulogne, for example, or Dieppe, or St.
Malo—which are as much frequented by English
visitors and residents as Brighton or Torquay. Some
resort thither in search of health ; others because
the locality attracts them ; others for the education
of their children ; and others for reasons upon which
there is no need for dilating. A number of English
children are sent to the private schools, or municipal
colleges, of Boulogne, Dieppe, and Havre, and pro-
bably of other French coast towns. Many inter-
marriages have taken place between members of
French and English families thus brought into contact.
A natural consequence of this state of affairs is, that
flying visits are interchanged between friends on this
side of the water and their French or English friends
on the opposite side of the Channel, with as much
impromptu and frequency as to Eastbourne, Mar-
gate, or the Isle of Wight. Visitors of this class
have not for many years been required to provide
themselves with passports at the Foreign-
office, and to have them riel at the
French Consulate before they ventured to cross
from Folkestone or Dover to Boulogne or Calais
Their declaration at the Donane on landing that
they did not intend to proceed to the interior has
exempted them from the necessity of producing
passports. But a Foreign-office Notice which ap-
pears in our issue of to-day informs us that
this free and easy intercourse has come to an end.
From this time forward Master JACKIE and Miss
LIZZIE mu-t furnish themselves with passport', and
have them duly rise on going to and returning from
school. Mamma or papa cannot take a run across
to see how " Pet" is getting on without getting their
pamports rise at the French Consulate. Our respected
egg merchant must have his papers en rigle when-
ever he pays a visit to the farmers in the suburbs
of Boulogne or Calais, from whose poultry-yards
he obtains his stock in trade. The Emperor of
the FRENCH has been thrown into such a
state of funk that he trembles lest conspira-
tors should be smuggled into France in the
disguise of boarding-school misses. From a recent
investigation at Bow-street, it would appear that
the French Ambassador is in the habit of re-
ceiving information from railway clerks respecting
the parcels booked for France. Of course any box pur-
porting to contain " cakes and pastry " which is of
suspicious weight will be duly reported to his Ex-
cellency, its departure telegraphed to the French
polioe, and the box opened at the Donane—perhaps
the contents seised, se is sometimes the case with the
Repress. Of the Ades aspect of the recently