The Express.
London, England, 1866-10-31 00:00:00

OUR CONTEMPORARIES.

(THLS DAY.)

TEL ALABAMA CLAIMS.
Having urgently remonstrated against the
license given to the Lairds and Bullocks during the heat
of the American war, and endeavoured to show the wisdom
of an impartial sad high-minded treatment of the Alabama
claims last year, the Daily News is not likely to object
now to any proposal which would tend to replace the
political and diplomatical relations of the two countries
upon a sound basis, but it points out the disadvantages
which attend the discussion under present circumstances
and the vanity of supposing that we can now at will take
up the points in dispute just where we left them. The
course which we pursued with respect to those piratical
I vessels had the sanction of the highest lege; sad political
authorities in the country, and wit sustained by the sen-
timent of the great body of the upper-middle class. Any.
thing was thought permissible against a people who were
engaged, according to a dignitary of the English church, in
the most cruel and unprincipled war in the history of the
world. The protests made against these opinions were as
voices crying in the wilderness, scattered, unsup-
ported, and utterly without power to stem
the torrent of passion which swept all before it.
The reasons given by the Times for reopening the case
are not founded on ideas of international duty, but on con-
siderations of self-interest. But though it is better to
confess the truth at the eleventh hour than not at all, it is
preposterous to represent our present demeanour as digni-
fied; and when we are reminded that we have the advan-
tage of possessing a new foreign minister who is
not bound by his predecessor's views, it must
be remembered that Lord Stanley is only one
member of a government which numbers the bitterest and
most notorious enemies of the United States among its
supporters, and, indeed, among its members. Even the
Premier, the Earl of Derby, only two months before the
fall of Richmond, with this Alabama case before him, de-
clared that our neutrality had been such as to entitle us
to the gratitude and goodwill of the United States, and
denounced Mr. Lincoln's government as wanting in a
proper sense of its obligations to us. If, notwithstanding
all these difficulties, proceeding not only from his oppo-
nents, but from the antecedents of his cis n party, Lord
Stanley can settle this dangerous question, we do not say
with dignity, but quietly, and on a basis of justice, he
will deserve the thanks of the county.

TIM MILITARY ORGANISATION OF FRANCE.
The Times assumes that the commission which has just
been appointed in France relative to the mod;fications of
the military system is called upon to examine a scheme
suggested by the Emperor himself, and inclines to be-
lieve that the object is the inauguration of such
a reform as might indeed increase the real strength of the
rational armament, but would also better adapt the means
to the end ; • scheme which would enable the state to
keep up the largest possible army at the least possible
cart. For this purpose the Times proceeds to argue that
hardly anything better can be suggested than an adapta-
tion of the Russian system with modifications. The
absolute equality of the Prussian law and the liability to
service for nearly a lifetime would clash with the habits
of the French people ; still the princ ple that only half
or one-third of the army need be under arms, and
the rest may be kept at home as a ream ye, may
be found easily compatible even with the present French
period of service ; all that is required being simply a re-
duction of the period to one-half or one-third of its present
duration, and a dismissal under contrition of a possible
recall for the remaqider of the term. Instead of 100 con-
scripts, all bound to nine years' full service, for instance,
let the draught be of 300, with the obligation of only three
years' active sers:ce, sod with six more years' liability to
be called upon. The rimy does not believe the Emperor
contemplates any addition to the already terriflo rate of
expenditure or mustering • larger army, but he may hope
to find • more efficient means of insuring the defence of
the territory and maintaining the political influence of
France by an armed nation, and when that task is accom-
plished the occasions for and the incentives to aggressive
wars will be found to diminish, together with the num-
bers of the standing armies.