The Express.
London, England, 1859-03-22 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, TUESDAY EVENING, MARCH 22, 1859.

office name it was conceded, that that great act of '
jostles was at length attained. It was nut by putting
in a sealed envelope the possible principle; on which
a Reform Bill might be based that the Liberal
Ministry of 1880 gained the popularity that pkoed
them in power and which enabled them to carry the
first great Aet of Popular Enfranchisemest. Details
were not asked lof them at starting ; but the late
Earl GREY had, long years before, pledged hbseeli
to thorough going principles of Reform, and Lords
Baoroa•rs, ALTHORPE, and Joan Braun, with
many others of their colleagues, had with his
approval urged, while in Opposition, the justice
and expediency of large and important changes. We
only wish there were something of this plain speak-
ing now. But if there be not, and if the present debate
be suffered to drag on its course as it has begun, and a
division be come to without any explanation of how
much or how little is meant by certain great lords
and gentlemen on the Opposition side of the House,
men will reluctantly be driven to doubt whether
they have really agreed amongst themselves at all
as to what they would do were they to-morrow in
power; and, looking at the antecedents of some of
them, people will not without reason suspect that if
they are agreed it can hardly be about anything that
is worth having, or they would be but too glad to
declare It.

sound of a Congress is intolerably
familiar to the ears of the present as of the
last generation. Is it a welcome and a cheer-
ing sound ? Let Vienna, Verona, Lsybsch, and
Paris answer. In the present instance we are told
that the venue is to be changed ; the repreeentatives
of Europe are getting tired of M. WALawsat's
green table, and even the cheerful climate of London
or the Hague world be preferred to all the gaieties
of the French capital. If a thoroughly neutral
situation be desirable, Geneva or the Hague may
fairly claim a preference. Distance lends enchant-
ment to a British Plenipotentiary, but there is a
reasonable apprehension that if the Congress
should sit in London, our MALIOSISMIT would
reserve his " immortal troths " until the mo-
ment for arresting irreparable mischief had gone
by. On the other hand, we should like the repre-
sentative of England in the European Council to
breathe the free and wholesome air of his native
country while he was assisting at the vivisection of
Italy. The sits of the Congress, however,
is not the only or the chief consideration. How
is it to be composed, and what will it discus,
are the questions which everybody is making.
Pedants may prate, and diplomatists scribble u
they will, but no amount of sophistry, no cant about
the " sacredness of treaties," will ever convince the
English people that it is their " duty" to assist in
perpetuating the brutal and wicked away of Austria
over the fairest portions of Italy. It is bad enough
that English names stand at the foot of the Treaty
by which, in 1815, five millions and a half of
Italians were delivered over helpless to their natural
and hereditary enemy. That act, in derogation of
the rights of the Lombards and Venetians, was ralli-
ciently unfortunate; but happily it was not aggra-
vated by a guarantee. Although it precludes as
from questioning the title which Austria then so-
gutted, it does not pledge us to safeguard Austria
against the chances to which all governments are
liable when they abuse their power and fall under
the hatred and contempt of the world. Nevertheless,
the use which is now made of our participation in
the territorial arrangements of 1815 may well teach
us to demand that the name and honour of this
country shall not be compromised in this Congress
by engagements under which we may one day be
exhibited to Europe as the supporters of Austrian
tyranny in Italy.
The very little good we can do the Italians is a
reason for taking care that we do them no harm,
than which nothing is easier. The we Austria has
made of her territorial position south of the Alps
is to place herself at the head of a ramified con-
spiracy of sovereigns against the people. Some
of thees claim to rule by divine right, while
their chief rules cynically by the stick, but all
are in sworn league against the people cursed
by their presence. We have never maintained that
it is the duty of this country to institute a propaganda
of freedom, and to go up and down the world
destroying tyrants. Liberty can only spring from
the virtues of those who would enjoy the boon.
But when one of the great Powers of Europe employ■
its armies to foster and protect petty tyrants and
shoot down and bayonet aggrieved and restless
people who owe them no allegiance, we have a
right to demand that such intervention shall cease,
for England, too, has the responsibilities of a great
Power. It is plain that unless we can break up
and overthrow this Vienna conspiracy against all
Italy, and give the people south of the Po the chance
of coming to terms with their Governments, our inter-
ference must be both barren and mischievous.

We find from the Ilfositeur that Italy la to be en-
tirely unrepresented at the Congress, and that Sardin
whore exposition of Italian wrongs was so heartily
supported by Fiance and England at the Congress
of Paris in ISM, is to be absent from deliberations I
in which Austria will constitute herself at ones
plaintiff and defendant in her own cause. France,
it is true, will hold the brief of M. DE CAVOUR;
but is it wise on the part of England, justly jealous
of the presence of French Imperial bayonets in
Italy, to resign the defence of Italian liberties to the
care of French Imperial diplomacy ? Is it just that
the Great Powers should sit to experimentalise upon
Italy as is corpore rill ? Nevertheless, Italy, we
believe, cannot be the loser by a Congress, be its
issues what they may. She will have a friendly and
powerful majority among its members. If France
IS her champioo, Russia is certainly not disposed to
befriend her enemies; and Prussia has no interest in
common with the House of HAPSBURO beyond the
Alps ; whilst England, we may presume to hope, is
not the England of CAcrttst►otr. A Congress upon
the Italian question has this special advan-
tage ; it removes the cams from the contact
and contagion of armed Napoleonism, and
per mite the sympathies of England to regard it as
their own by nature and adoption. But we should be
deceiving our readers if we pretended to look to the
Congress for a final, or even a peaceful, solution of the
difficulties which are summed up in the domination,
DOC merely in the predominance, of Austria from
the Ticino to the Tiber, and from the Adriatic to the
Apennines. Until we are wired that the basis
of the deliberations of the Congress is to be Austrian
concession, we dare not say, we cannot feel, that
war adjourned is peace secured.

The South Easkra Gantt4t, refining to the
potable acceptance by Mr. Bamford Mope of the tnvita'ton
to stand for Cambridge Uaiirersity, calla upon the litorril
'Motors of Maidstone to tarts their kgislarive Indeeace.
Be fait se one mat is concerned, it N understood th.t Mr.
Wm. Lee, who represented Maidanme In the last parliament,
will again be brought forward by the in all proba-
bility,' says the Gazette," without opposition, as there can
be small likelihood of euemadelly cootealing Me ,atom."

The adjourned general am ion for the county of
Hest was held yeaterday, at the Courthouse, Maidstone,
when the report of the committee appointed to investigate
the charges against the Cherrnor of the 114dstone Choi was
presented. Aber a Mrsgthesed sitting a resoluties was
passed, dientlesing the rumor se having forfeited the me-
ndena of the court.