The Express.
London, England, 1866-01-18 00:00:00

MISCELLANEOUS TOPICS.

The Times gives Count Bemarck the full credit in hie
foreign policy of having clearly perceived and boldly acted
on the realities of the political position, of having need the
follies and vanity of his neighbours as a rare means for the
advancement of Prussia, and of having seen at home that the
balance of strength lay with the army avian the perils-
ni3nt. That he should have represented the King at the
opening of the chambers is en assurance of the determina-
tion of Prussia to adhere to her ambitious and encroaching
policy. The people ate told that the government will
persist in violating the constitution, but that it confidently
relies en their unanimous assent to its dealings with the
rights of neighbouring nations just as it has done with their
own. But Prussia, alter all, may be setting an example which
she should be the last to establish. If the little states of
Europe are absorbed by overbearing force, they will infal-
libly bring down with them in their fall that system of
public law in Europe which, since the first dawning of
modern history, has been the refuge of the weak against
the strong, and a perpetual, though not always an effectual,
protest against high-handed rapacity.
The Daily Para attributes the groundless rumours
which reach us from the South of intended negro insur-
rection to the conscience which " makes cowards of us all."
It also objects to the extraordiony rashness of supposing
that, as slavery is announced to be at an end, we may as-
sume the slave tra le to be at last abolished in fact, as it
has been in profession for some generations. As long
as any state works its colonies by any non-natural
supply of labour the danger to the African negro exista.
If the strictness of our watch at sea has been the means of
ruining the Cuban trade in negroes, we must maintain that
strictness till the Spanish and Portuguese governments have
satisfied the world that slavery is really and truly abolished
in their dependencies, or we may be played fast and loose
with for another half century. France, too, amidst loud
professions of giving freedom to the negro, has carried on
• virtual slave trade whenever and wherever it was pos-
sible. As • beneficial trade springs up and expands, we
may hope that our watch will be reduced in extent and
cost; but there is much to be done first, and we
are not likely, after all that we have suffered, to allow
the African slave trade to raise its head again, under any
pretence or disguise, through any over-haste or false con-
fidence on our part.
The Puse thinks the proceedings of the Irish executive
in the treatment of Fenianiem have been judicious, while it
laments the feeling of insecurity which the movement has
produced amongst capitalists.
Rightly or wrongly, the H(rald says, we have cancelled
our obligations to the smaller states of Europe, and King
Leopold has no other claims upon us than moral ones,
There is no charter for Belgium worth • square yard
of parchment. To preserve his position the King must
avoid meeting half-way, or any way, those revolutionary
tendencies which one party within his realm imbibes from
another without, and which if ever they become formid-
able, might induce even good Belgians to consider whether
• conventional national independence may not, after all, be
too dearly purchased.

The Herald laments that eo little hes been dooe is Eric-
land to afford comfort to 13,000 white men in Jamaica,
while heaven and earth have been moved to vinlicate the
mule of the 450,000 indolent blacks.

The Telegraph point, out the example of Aberdeenshire
to the °mien of stock, and advisee them to organise, sasses,
offer oompensation, and then kill without asking many
questious. That is what Aberdeenshire has dots ; and hence,
while of all counties is the kingdom it had most to dread
from the rindsrpest, it is whip' the one that will feel
the effects least. If they do not wish to shirk the duty,