The Express.
London, England, 1866-02-07 00:00:00

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BRITANNIA.

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the Crew of the 1.0-

Walker.—several tittrvivon of the Orel; oTt ZeTe-nien,
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HIGH WAVIER AT LONDON-BRIDIIL

Thig DAT—Llionise. Ma. Mamas, 6b. 5011.
11:41101MOW Mania& 71‘ ....Aftirsoes. 3sa

LONDON. WEDNESDAY. FEBRUARY 7.

Hut MAJESTY'S Speech at the opening of Par-
liament was not more remarkable for the variety
and importance of the topics with which it dealt
than for the caution with which they were, one
and all, handled. Ministers evidently felt that
every step they made was through an enemy's
country, and picked their way as among pitfalls
and through lurking ambushes. The skill
with which upon subjects not only debate-
able, but already ardently debated, they
have avoided giving a challenge, renders
the speech a model of circumspect composi-
tion. No doubt there will be fierce controversies
sooner or later upon almost every one of
the topics with which it deals. The Js
mice insurrection, the Fenian conspiracy, the
Alabama correspondence, the new Reform Bill,
form legitimate subjects for criticism ; and some of
them offer suitable opportunity for testing the
strength of rival parties and principles in
the House of Commons ; but they will not be
raised in the shape of an amendment to the Ad-
dress, which, like the Royal Speech which it
echoes, commits the House to nothing, and might
as naturally have been framed by her MAJasnos
Opposition as by her MAJESTY'S Ministers.

With the exception of the speeches of the mover
and seconder of the Address, which in each case
gave promise of parliamentary usefnlness, the
topic which occupied the House last night,
to the exclusion of every other, was
the fearful mortality which, during the last eight
months, has devastated the herds of Great Britain,
and the alleged lathes of the Government in re-
spect to it. Last year it was the fashion in certain
quarters to hold Sir Grottos GREY responsible for
all the murders and burglaries committed in any
part of the country ; and now the desire seems to
prevail on the benches of the Opposition
to bold him accountable for the Cattle
Plague. The priority given to this sub-
ject was characteristic. Members of the
various parties have felt strongly, according to
their temperament and political bias, on the mur-
derous scenes which have occurred in Jamaica.
The slaughter of Europeans and negroes at Morant
Bay has moved them deeply. But the slaughter
of cattle in Great Britain has gone home
more thoroughly to the susceptibilities of
the country party ; and it is upon
this point that they are most eager to impugn
the alleged misdoing., or rather the inaction, of
the Government. Mr. CARDWELL has a tempo-
rary reprieve from assault, a more eligible victim
being ready to hand in the person of Sir Gsonox
GREY.

The chief accusation directed against the Go-
vernment is, that it did not violate the law, by
at once euspenaing all traffic, internal as well as
external, in live cattle ; or summon Parliament to
give it the authority which is assumed to have
been necessary, but which the Government believed
it could do without. Viewing the matter solely
in the interest of the producers, the country
party would have prohibited the circulation of
cattle within the limits of the kingdom ; they
would have slaughtered all tainted animals, and
every animal which had been in contact
with a beast " suspected of being suspect;"
and they would have dealt out the same measure
at the ports of debarkation to all foreign cattle
landed in England, granting to the owners of the
beasts thus made away with compensation out of the
Imperial revenue. No doubt in this way the
disease might have been put an end to by putting
an end at the same time to all the possible re-
cipients of it, and the agricultural interest, being
fully indemnified, would have had no strong objec-
tion possibly to the adoption of this course. But the
Government thought that the consumers ought to
be taken into account. The substitution of a
dead meat traffic for the traffic in living cattle
would have revolutionized the trade ; it would
have been long before it could have found its
way into new channels, and flowed regularly
through them ; and the great towns would
have witnessed alternately a famine of
meat and a glut of it, involving its
waste and decay. The scheme which the
country gentlemen on the Opposition benches are
angry with the Government because it did not
adopt would have rendered the supply of meat to
the great masa of the people extremely precarious,
and would have compelled them as taxpayers to
pay to the stock-farmers the full value of ani-
mals from which as consumers they received no
benefit at all. On these points the replies offered
by Mr. T. G. BARING and Sir Grows GREY
were in all essential particulars conclusive. Mr.
BARING'S speech would, however, have been abler
if it had been shorter, and he would have exhi-
bited better tactic if he had not managed, by
unnecessary disparagement of the Report of the
Commission, to call up Mr. Low; who seemed to
enjoy the opportunity offered him of airing his
rare gift of precise statement and speciously falla-
cious reasoning, and of striking a hard blow at t►e
Government which has declined his services and
rejected his recommendations. Mr. Lows
seized with characteristic eagerness the occa-
sion presented him of covertly vindicating in a
epecifio instance that theory of beneficent despo-
tism which his great reform speech more explicitly
avowed. It is undeniably true, as he stated, that
local affairs should be left to local authorities ;
while matters of general import should be dealt
with by the general government. Bat it does not
follow, as Mr. Lows seems to think, that the
moral government should outatep the limits