The Express.
London, England, 1860-07-14 00:00:00

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IIAnIAWT.

Tins Kr Imo. THE OVZRLAND RoCTE Mews. ClOPPea-
dnik lAttaidon, BucUtast, and C. Mathews; Nn. P Mathews
N&S IacELLINCY. Mr. and Mrs. C Mathew• —And THE
.111011LADINli OCBOOL. Nimarn.Clark Boners. Mrs. litsyrdliam.

PR I Ser.t.4ls,

TWO HAtILET aleama. Pttetpa anal Nteaalnwa Mkt
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klalleusula, H. Mater, and Cathcart: Mlas 1,, Leclrrcoa, Has H.
Lrettn..4, aunt Him Weston—Commend at 7.

DRITANNIA.

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—7M irsat MACIENNI' ire give bb resowned ENTEKTS I N•
■►JQT.—VARLET, TUE VULVAS/L.—And DIMMER bkCIN
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LONDON, SATURDAY, JULY 14.

Tea country having been allowed to drift into
a third Chinese war without one serious or practi-
cal effort having been made by any political party
in Parliament to avert that calamity, we are now
called upon to provide the first instalment of the
huge amount of tremnire about to be squandered
Oil purposes which nobody ventures to define.
Three millions and a half is the prospective charge
which the SECRETARY of WAR names, "not as an
" estimate but as a guess at what will be wanted
" for the present campaign." Precision in such
matters being out of the question, either as to
what we are going for or what will be the cost,
il:nvemment asked this trifle of three millions and
a half to carry on with just for the present ; and
If r. C Liowroits frankly owns that looking at the
position in which we stand with regard to our
quarrel with the Chinese, it is impossible to bold
out any expectations with respect to the limits or
the reluirements of the struggle.
'fhts is what comes of allowing our rulers to
oommit us to wars for the extension of trade—the
most foolish and wicked pretext for the wholesale
destruction of human life that was ever set up by a
country calling itself Christian and enlightened. It
was on this plea that we waged our first sanguinary
quarrel with China in 1840. It was mainly on
this pretence that the conflict was renewed after
the lapse of several years—the affront offered to
our flag having arisen out of the ill-advised provo-
cative policy, which had for its object, real or alleged,
the further expansion of trade with one of the
mast commercial and profit-loving nations upon
earth ; and who, in spite of all our luckless
blundering and suicidal squabbling, actually go on
trading with us to a greater extent than they do
with any other foreign people, just as if nothing
bad Inippened. And this absurdity about forcing
an extension of trade is once more set up
as an excuse for forcing on the Mandarins of Pekin
the adoption of diplomatic usages which, etript of
their moral significance and mutual sincerity, are
little better than the tomfoolery of pantomime.
The practical result to the taxpayers of England
is, that we are "at a guess" to fling three mil-
lions and a half into the Cult of Elgin, with a
horrible suspicion that we shall be called upon
next year to throw as much or twice as much more
after it.

This being the state of things financially, our
Conservative House of Commons, which seems
to conserve nothing but its privilege of irrespon-
sible talk, falls to wrangling about the manner of
taking the account, and spends a whole night in
discussing whether it might or might not have
been better to have had the money spent as for-
merly, by the Indian Government first, and then,
when the merits of the affair bad been forgotten,
to hare it recouped out of the Home Exchequer ;
or whether it had better be paid beforehand, by a
good rattling " gums" at • time, out of
Westminster Ways and Means. By all means
we say—the latter. If ever a check is
to be put on the unhallowed and impolitic system
of waging wars for the expansion of trade and the
diffusion of diplomatic usages according to Euro-
pean custom, it is indispensable that we should have
placed before us betimes something like the amount
of our pecuniary liability. Inasmuch however
as the Act for the annexation of India was passed
sonic two years ago, this question might have been
suffered to rest in its historic tomb, whence it is
not likely in our time to be evoked for any useful
purpose. But as neither the Ins nor the Outs in
Parliament have the slightest intention of trying
to limit the prodigal expenditure on this miserable
war, and as they are anxious nevertheless to do
one another all the discredit they can in respect of
it, the false Moue is raised of unsatisfactory esti-
mates, confused reckonings, and mis-stated ac-
counts, in ord...T to raise a cloud of dust through
which popular dissatisfaction can discern nothing
clearly.

Meanwhile advantage is sought to be taken of
the confusion to widen the scope of the disastrous
undertaking. An endless vista of promotion and
patronage, jobbing and spoil, is opened by the
utter ablenze of all vigilant or economic con-
trol on the part of the House of Commons. It

. --
is openly proclaimed by the organs Vof the
Wan- mi a Crawl e..,e Party, that the demo-
lition of the Take forts and the extortion of
an apology would he 110 sufficient humiliation of
the Court of Pekin, and that when our Ambas-
sador gets there he is likely to find the reins of
rule held so loosely by • set of effete klandarins,
that it may be desirable to take the game out of
their hands, and, in short, play the game of
domestic interference, usurpation, and civilisation
by force in China, that we have pursued for a
hundred years in India. It is difficult to i rag-
perste the folly of such a suggestion, considering
that we are undertaking to force our way to Pekin
in r,c • .unction with the most jealous arid 0011(cp-
td i‘ :,f allies; and that our progress will be