The Express.
London, England, 1866-06-13 00:00:00

BRITANNIA.

TIVIETENING, PEERLEM POOL- The Hungarian Dancers.
—BEI.PHEGOR. THE MOUNTEBANK. Miss Clara Bt. Came,
Mrs. S. Lane . Master E. Sanders. Mews. Bigwood, BUN; Leslie,
le.—And DOMINIQUE THE DESERTER.

MGR WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE

THIS DAY —Morning, lb. 4&n Afternoon, fit. Mtn.
To-Mormow—Morning, lb. 40M Afternoon. 3b- 8.

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 13.

ONE of the most mischievous superstitions that
can possibly find its way into the House of
Commons is that of members at once cos-
mopolitan in vanity and parochial in igno-
rance, who imagine that because the House is
omnipotent at home, it is equally omni-
potent abroad, and that the Quer Ego of
half a dozen triflers who shout through the speak-
ing trumpet of England, is sufficient to control the
tempest of continental war. These gentlemen have
the power, undoubtedly, of bringing their oountry
into contempt, and there begins and ends the
influence of their speeches. So long as they
simply repeat what the common opinion of
mankind has pronounced out of doors, their
homilies are harmless enough. When men de-
nounce the disordered ambition of the Prussian

Government they cannot do much harm. They
are wasting precious time, and this is probably their
only real purpose. Unfortunately the uninitiated
European public are not aware that theme lofty
moralists are talking against the clock, for the
sake of stopping the progress of a county franchise
clause for half a week. What are the Duchies
of the Elbe, or the faith of European treaties,
or the rights of Germany, or the independence
of Italy, to men whose sole and whole object in
vituperating Italy and extolling Austria is to prevent
Mr. Hv)rr's amendment from coming to a divi-
sion I They did not succeed on Monday night in
adjourning war in Europe, or arresting the high-
handed measures of the Prussian Government in
Holstein ; but they contrived to carry over the
debate on the County Franchise till Thursday.
And it is evident that nothing less than the

resolve of the Ministry to persevere with -aM
Reform Bill, as Lord PALMERSTON persevered lei*
the Divorce Bill, and to insist on the alternative
of a prolonged Session and an adjournment till
November, will preserve the House from the
demoralisation of conscious hypocrisy, and the
country from the repetition of such con-
versations on foreign affairs as that of
Monday night. And yet, if there be a majority
of all parties in the House in whom the instinct
of self-respect is not yet dead, the discreet and
friendly advice of Mr. Lama and Sir JOHN HAN-
KER will not be disregarded. It is discreditable
to the Parliament of England that it should suffer
itself to descend to the level of a debating club.
It is unworthy of such an Assembly that, having
declared non-intervention as its policy, it should
presume to lecture all the Powers of Europe on
their rights and duties. It is odious
and absurd that it should scold a
people, whose ancestors were the citizens
of a free republic before a Parliament had ever
met at Westminster, because they are not content
to acquiesce in a foreign domination imposed upon
them by a league of monarchs fifty years ago.
It is contemptible that the representatives of the
legislative wisdom of England should be capable of
no better discrimination than in protesting—and
most justly protesting—against the policy of the
Prussian Government in the Duchies, and pretend
to forget that the Austrian Covernment was the
accomplice before it was the dupe of that policy ;
that Austria followed Prussia in the assault upon
Denmark, and joined with Prussia in superseding
tie authority of the Confederation ; that
Austria has never yet respected any treaty
that stood in the way of her ambition ; that only
the implacable and reckless pride of a monarchy
which is nothing but a court and a camp, an'
agglomeration of nationalities divided against one
another by a barbarous system of mutual repres-
sion—a monarchy seduced into liberal pretences by
want of money to pay its enormous armies—that
only the pride of Austria made war sooner or later
inevitable, by refusing to sacrifice with honour
a discontented province to the interests of
peace and civilization. Had Austria listened
to her truest friends any time these last
seven years, she would be more deserving
of the sympathy of liberal Europe, now when
she is only lees responsiMe than Prussia for
the miseries of the coming war, as Bertrand
in the drama is less responsible than Macaire.
We have always readily done justice to any
liberal and generous movements of the Cabinet of
Vienna. But when we hear Austria celebrated in
the House of Commons as the defender of the
faith of treaties and of liberal principles, as inno-
cent of ambition, as the representative of public
law and of international justice, it becomes our
duty to remember that if that Power were really
chargeable with all the virtues now so fancifioly
attributed to it by conservative admirers who put
the history of the last fifty years out of sight, a
BISMARCK would be impossible in 1866.

OUR CONTEMPORARIES.
(THIS DAY.)

THE EUROPEAN CRISIS.

RUPTUEZ OF DIPLOMATIC MATIONS BETWILEN AUSTRIA

AND PRUMWIA.
'Arm OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON.

Though a diplomatic rupture is not necessarily
followed by war, the Timer considers that Austria and
Prussia have defied each other too fiercely, and have made
preparations too formidable, for them to be content with
an armed peace. Austria particularly has every reason to
cherish the desire of vengeance. From this time forth the
Duchies may be considered as forming part of
the Prussian monarchy, and to effect this the Aus-
trians have really been driven out of the country.
Some act of retribution musgeonaequently be looked for.
The Emperor, who has shown himself so little inclined to
bear any slight, is not likely to hear with patience that his
troop. have been hurried from their positions by an invad-
ing enemy. Should war not be averted, the day of trial
for the minor German sovereigns will have come, and Ger-
many will be effectually reformed for good or evil. The
Times regards the arrival of General Garibaldi at Como
as an event of the first importance. The plan
of his campaign, it has been said, is twofold—a
mountain warfare in Southern Tyrol and a mari-
time expedition up the Ailtiatic. The Times looks
for a coup de main on some point or points of the coast
between Trieste and Venice, where ample field is open for
the daring testa of irregular warfare. By landing now at
one spot, now at another, and cutting up the roads and
railroad that run along the shore, all intercourse between
Venice and Trieste, and consequently Vienna, might be
interrupted, and by reaching the mountains from which
spring the Piave and others of those rivers, the maritime
volunteers could easily place themselves in concert with
those of the Cacciatori dello Stelvio and Cacciatori del
Tensile who might succeed in forcing their way from the
Trentine valleys into those of Baasano and Belluno.
The Post thinks it not improbable that the Austrian
government will give immediate orders to General Benedek
to commence the campaign. Our contemporary regards
the Emperor Napoleon's letter as furnishing another proof
of the sincerity with which his Majesty desires peace.
The Telegraph says the Emperor's declaration amounts
to this, that should Prussia or Italy gain fresh territory,
France will demand an equivalent addition to her boun-
daries. In this intimation there is nothing so novel as to
startle Europe, which had rightly interpreted Napoleon's
intentions before he had given them frank expression ; but
none the leas important is the imperial missive for the
light it casts on the changes that will ere long come over
the continent. As to Germany, the Telegraph notices
that the approximation of the minor states to Austrian
going on uninterruptedly, and thinks that the Austrian
Emperor is not without good grounds for relying on the
support of united Germany.
Speculating far in advance of events, the Star thinks it
not at all unlikely that the close of the war may adjust
matters very much on the principle which Louis Napoleon
would have suggested. It sees nothing more probable
than that Austria may lose Venetia and recover Silesia,
while Prussia finds consolation in the retention of the
Duchies for which she has dared so much, and which
already are hers by the practical title of possession.