The Express.
London, England, 1867-04-06 00:00:00

LYCKUM.

Two Earaian, RAMRo6%.Liiia.llr. Moe and Mu Kate
Bialvao. —And Tug DUKE'S MOTTO. Mr. Facider, Stators.
Jontm, Emery, Price. WM.IIOIOIII, Fitzpatrick, Ste. ;
flcnrade, E6wortby, Orattun, and Carlotta Ledercy.

erz►an.

TITI9 EVENTNO, SWEEfli&Aifi AHD WIVE& Mr. Rel.
furd.—E-01EatALDA OS, THIS SIRNSATION GOAT. Ussart
Thrne, James, Robson, aad Thrace ; Maadaasas Swan
Hughes, We.ithersby, &c.—*ad THE FRENCH EICHIBITTat,'

TOLBORN.

Ting Errtnio, MY TURN NRXT. Mr. Delmore: Masse
toot. mod Leonox.—And FLYINO SCUD. Mews. Neville, Bel-
sore, Blake, YeHaire, dm. ; Mesdames F. Josephs. C. &waders,
Bessie toots. Rados. Luso; Rapauod. fa

BRITANNIA.

--...-.
IHri ETEurso. FAUST; OR. MARGUERITE'S MANGLE.
Mn. Lane and Madams Jacobs, Edwin, and Booth. -Conclud-
ing with THE DUSTMAN'S TREASURE; OR, MEW AND
TILE BOFFINS.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON
THIS DAT —Morning, 2h. f4m.......Atternoon. 3h. 1316.
fO-I‘olthOW—Mandag. 3h. Us...... Afternoon. 3h. G2os.

LONDON, SATURDAY, APRIL 6.

treat it so lightly 4 Evidently a political con-
nexion of fifty years has not impressed the House
of ORANGE with a sense of any sacredness attach-
ing to its relationship to the Grand Duchy ; and if
by the force of events a more German prince were
to become master of Luxemburg, it is not the
present GRAND DUKE who would have a right to
complain of the outrage done to his feelings.
What has happened during the last month by no
means shows that the King of HOLLAND ought
not to sell such rights as he has in Luxemburg,
but rather the contrary. We venture to think
that, since all confidence between him and his Ger-
man subjects must be at an end, if he could find
a truly German prince, acceptable to his people,
and ready to buy his interest in Luxemburg, it
would bo wise now to dispose of it, even if he had
to take a somewhat smaller sum than that offered
by the Emperor of the lei:Km:D. It is remark-
able that throughout the European changes of the
last twelve months the people should have shown
themselves so much more conservative than their
rulers.

What distant and impartial observers desire in
cases like these is, that the political arrangements
of Europe should rest, as far as possible, on a
natural basil, because only on that condition can
they conduce to permanent peace. The Emperor
NAPOLEON has frequently proclaimed this doctrine
with all the force of sincere conviction. Luxemburg
is German by its history and character. The
people speak German, look back to the glories of
German history, have fulfilled the duties of
German citizens, and never shown a disposition
to renounce their nationality. It is true
the Confederation of which they were lately
members has fallen to pieces, but Germany was
before the Confederation, was the cause of its
existence, and survives its overthrow. The temper
of the people has not been changed by the pro-
spect which seemed to open to them of becoming
members of the great military and administrative
Empire of France, and partakers in the rights and
liberties of the French people. While such is
their feeling, untutored and undisciplined,
it is plain that Germany cannot abandon,
and least of all could Prussia recommend
her allies to leave, them to their own resources.
There is not a State in the Fatherland which has
sacrificed a measure of its independence for the
sake of the protection of Prussia, that would not
feel in such a case that it had made a serious mis-
calculation, and must seek other guarantees of inde-
pendence than the friendship of a Power persistent
in seeking its own aggrandisement, but owning no
overpowering obligations to Germany. It is sur-
prising that the sagacious Emperor of the Flaxen
should not have foreseen that the tendency of
these nibbling transactions must be to strengthen
the hands of Count BISMARCK and his master,
and to clinch German unity with bolts and rivets
more enduring than hammered steel. It has been
stated by one of our Paris contemporaries
that it was the request for Bavarian terri-
tory preferred by France last August, and
represented at the right moment by Count Big-
MAACK to the South German Governments,
that threw the latter helplessly into the hands
of Prussia, and caused the hasty conclusion of
those treaties the publication of which has lately
caused so much superfluous surprise. We can
only suppose that in making demands of this
character the EMPEROR has yielded against his
better judgment to a pressure which he could not
resist. If so, the result only shows how much
the EMPEROR is wiser than his counsellors, without
increasing our respect for personal government
which in emergencies has neither a will nor a way
of its own.

WE trust that no new telegram may arrive to
disturb the tranquillising effect of the announce-
ment that the King of HOLLAND has abandoned
the intention of selling Luxemburg to France.
The intelligence that negotiations have taken place
for effecting the cession has created a painful im-
pression in Europe, rather on account of the prin-
ciples of political action which it brought into
prominence and seemed to sanction than for any
great importance attaching to the territory at
stake. As we all know, the semi-official French
journals maintain that no peculiar principle is
involved in the transfer. France, they remind a
too unbelieving and unforgetting world, has
no ambition, no greed of territorial acquisitions, no
warlike tendencies, but she has a profound sense
of what is equitable, and seeing a neighbour
tearing up treaties and making conquests, she
feels she ought to derive some advantage from the
disturbance which she has not arrested, and from
the work of reconstruction that must follow. Let
ns say that if impartial spectators cannot take pre-
cisely this view of the case, it is simply because
France has taught us to judge according
to other rules and maxims. It is France
that has taught Europe to recognise in community
of blood and language a bond cf nationality, inde-
pendent of and prior and superior to those pre-
carious combinations which diplomacy forms and the
instinct of the People soon destroys ; it is France
that has taught us that there is a oneness of na-
tional existence which is capable of supplying the
place of formal political union until its forces are
capable of attaining to organic expression ; of
surviving the artificial systems through which it,
from time to time, becomes operative, and of
finally forbidding all and any combinations op-
posed to its own principle. We are 'there-
fore only apulying the doctrines of modern and
Imperial France when we say that the consolidation
of some German States in the Prussian monarchy,
and the gathering of others together in a con-
federation under the leadership of the same Power,
are events differing in their essential nature from
the lately contemplated transfer of Luxemburg
to France. The occurrences which have had
the effect of making Prussia stronger have
taken place within the circle of German
nationality, whereas the proposed annexation of
Luxemburg would have been the rending of a
country from a body with which it is organically
connected, and the formation of an arbitrary, an
unnatural, and therefore a precarious union. The
triumphs of the Second Empire have been achieved
in the name of principhes by which such arrange-
ments are condemned as at once impolitic and
immoral. It is satisfactory to be assured that the
Expo has not been committed by his irrespon-
sible advisers to the extreme prosecution of an
enterprise out of harmony with the beat passages
of his own European policy. If it be true that the
first advances in this affair came from the King of
HOLLAND, and that the French Government has
simply taken up a negotiation which, under the
circumstances, it could hardly decline, it will be
the easier to forget any unpleasant incidents to
which it has given rise.
The King of HOLLAND will be fortunate if
his conduct in this transaction is soon forgotten by
those whom it most concerns. With what sort of
loyalty can his subjects of the Grand Duchy of
Luxemburg regard him now that it appears
that he was prepared to sell them at a price'? Is
not the connexion which subsists between Hol-
land, or rather between the King of HOLLAND,
and Luxemburg condemned by the very fact that
the Sovereign who might have been expected to be
peculiarly sensitive to the honour of his charge could

THE GOVERNMENT REFORM BILL.

THE EXPRESS, SATURDAY EVENING, APRIL 6, 1867.

OIIR CONTEMPORARIES.
(THIS DAY.)

by the old conservative party, led by the old protectionist
leader, is a political immorality that must undermine the
faith of the whole n►tion in the strength and honesty of
our parliamentary system.
In an article on the Luxemburg question, it is remarked
by the Spectator that the re-arming of France goes for-
ward at a constantly accelerating speed, while Prussia is
urging the South to reorganise itself on the Prussian
scheme till the Bavarian Premier tells his parliament that
if it chatters so much over his army bills he must perforce
resign. When of two countries with conterminous fron-
tiers one is full of suspicion, the other of mortified pride,
a very little incident may produce the explosion which
both expect, and almost desire. Ordered out of Mexico,
defeated at Nikolsburg, defied in Schleswig, resisted in
Luxemburg, abased in Auxerre, with no liberties to offer
to France, and new sacrifices to demand from his people,
the Emperor, to keep his 'eat, must accomplish sonic great
thing. His claim to reign is Success, and in Mexico and
Germany, at home and abroad, he has of late been un-
successful.

The Chronicle says the more hearty the liberal party in
the House of Commons shows itself in the acceptance of
Mr. Coleridge's resolution, the more probable is it that
the government will ultimately acquiesce. If it does not
acquiesce, the duty of the opposition will be manifest,
and their power as certain as their obligation to use it.
If any considerable section of them are callous to that ob.
ligation, the opportunity may indeed be lost ; but at least
the party will have vindicated its political intelligence,
and effectually, if tardily, redeemed its honour.