The Express.
London, England, 1859-05-24 00:00:00

40117101 f, TU18D.47, MAY 24.

Consmanumit anxiety boa of late been felt and
exper•red as to the course to be pursued by the
Liberal Party on the opening of Parliament. That
the General Election has, owing to Tory corruption,
Land/turd iutimidation, and Cardinal WI4IMAN„
somewhat diminished the majority which stood
arrayed spinet Minieters in the Wt House of
Commons, it would be necandid to deny. Never-
theless, the present majority against Lord Dzaer
end hi, policy, although it is mailer than the last,

may, it itae ben generally fel% be rendered mare

solid and practicable by mutual coeccesionr, recipro-
cal understandings and heartier co-operat:em.
Such a pmapect will, there is abundant reason to
be:Wry, be realised ; and the hopes of the Tories, th►t
they ay continue to maintain a bad and incapabla
Ministry in power without a 'majority in its favour,
simply because the majority against it does mot
unite to turn it out, will, it may mow be anticipated,
be disappointed.

This prospect of course involves the cordial con-
currence of Lord JOUR EVaiSELL and Lord PaLtlal-
cror on the two alt.impurtant subjects of Parlia-
mentary Reform and Foreign Policy. Pursuing a
perfectly independent course, we do sot profess to be
In the FonflJence of either of those (raiment and distils-
gutshed Mtn. But the public may, we are assert&
place confidence in the statement circulated yester-
dry, that such a general agreement had, on explana-
tion., been arrived at as is calculated to give life,
spirit, and unity to the party of which they are the
leach'''. We make no attempt to gauge the dif-
tercnces which miy have existed on the question of
Its form betwer n Lord PALMERSTON and Lord lona
Rust 0t... If they are now in accord, it mast be on
general outliner, or on a plan such as the Liberal
party will support and the country willsanetien, and
their declared policy must be of a thoroughly liberal
and comprehensive character. On a question 83 im-
ported, retrogression is not in the present temper of
the public, oar, after the discussions that hi,. occurred
in Parliament, is it to be apprehended. Should,
therefore, the new House of Commons declare its
want of confidence in Lord Benno. and his col-
leagues, there is every probability, if the QUEEN
resort to the leaders of the Liberal party for counsel
and advice, of the formation of a Government in
which may be found the best minds of the party,
irrespective of minor shades of difference,
and nut subject to the embarrassments of previous
associations.

it hu pleased GOD to close the mysterious and
afflicting spectacle which the reign of FERDINAND
af NAPLES has so long offered to the world. After
'shinning the virtue of relies innumerable in a lia..
geeing and I. athsoroe disease, that Monarch died on
the afternoon of Sunday, the 22nd inst., having
nig•ed twenty-nine years.
The reign of FERDI NAND may be divided into two
parts—the periid of normal BOURDON absolutism,
and the period of estrange. As for the first, the late
KING himself explained its principle in a letter to
King Louts PHILIPPE, who bed counselled him to
govern with more moderation. " Liberty," he
wrote, " le fetal to the BOURBONS, and I •m deter-
" mined not to incur the fate of Ca.►at.n X. My
" suhjacts do not want to think or reflect. Our
"family does not belong to this century; we are
"ancient, and if we adopted modern notions we
" should be ridiculow." Accordingly, after a few
Money signs of lenity, displayed et the period
of his accession, Faith:thaw commenced en era of
political persecutions, prateriptionr, and executions.
The infamous DE E CA el rrro, ma de chief of the police,
was permitted to attach every department of the Go-
comment to his office, while all the moral kilotons
of t►e State were made over to the Jesuits sod the
priests. between 1832 sad 1847 seven attempts at
insurrection were made. Criminal procedure became
more vigorous and cruel, the we of torture in prison
becrtne frequent,and members of the noblest families
fled into voluntary exile to avoid accusations which
were easily made, but which it was almost impossible
to rate I. lu one day FERDINAND signed the death
warrant of eleven political prisoners. Urged by the
event* of 113-Its to do something for his safety, the
KING proclaimed • enatitution, and sent an
army and fleet to , jvin the Italian cause.
Ito army was recalled just as it reached
the fruutiers of Lombardy, and before it had struck
a blow in the cane of liberation ; the Admiral of

the I..;lnkt, it a uow known, had omen to avoid toy

in "nth the Austrians ; and the constitution
wt. t" rd as • trap to entice men to free speech.
A friinc oto meg pervaded the aet• of FICRUIMAND
dimwit tie ti vnlutinnary period. He might .then be
sten kirwing and I &nog Wipes to the patriots and
staterenen whom he was attest to oxisigo in a few
mouths to the frost horrible of dungeons, and the
eompanioothip of murderer', upon the evidence of
men of koowa inf.my, rubnrr id as aceutere. Mr.
aL %WON. bet described for the world the kind
of M. it mid jodirial administration which followed the
overthrow of rsprtsestatirs government. It was not
men imperfection, corruption, or occasional severity.
bat ineeesaat, systemetk, deliberate violation by the
Yureatir• of every law, hew sad divine. The
Gleverawert, be told se, was "iti bitter and cruel,
w as well as illegal, hostility to whatever in the

s. nation realty lives sad sieves, sad is the sisal-

•
~•priag of prsetical impeovoroost sod pogrom"
The eososisesoo was "a total isoorsios of all rho
" swoop sae axial him." Mon said of rho
Gootrimest, s' This is as mistime of Ow nested

" into a i.ptem." And this Government wine no
other than the personal will of the KING. For nine
years has the deadly feeling of revenge been quick
and lively in the heart of that most cruel of
Monarchs; and while he lay on hie death-bed, be-
seeching the blessing of the POPE, twenty thousand
of his tubjecta lay in prison charged with political
Weimer.

It is fearful enough to think of the vielms
of a monarch pining in prisons while he is
abroad in his strength and pr;de at the head
of his forces perhaps, or announcing his pleasure
to the officers of his Stater but it is worse to think
of lie victims so mattering while be is sinking into
OM MAIN keeping the leeks aril bars of their prison
hat, wing his failing faculties in devising mental
troubles for them, and rousing his energies to evade
the demands of in outraged world, when they can
no luger endure the thoughts of what he has in-
flicted. The cries of bereaved fsmilies, the pangs of
wise and noble men whose lives he has ruined, the
stern whispers of brother despots whose order he has
disgraced, the muttered curses of his own subjects,
the about of e secretion from all free nations—all
these fail to make him penitent, to make him re-
morseful, to make him even human in that hour
when all men are supposed to be alike, and the
power of each to be vanishing, like the sunshine
whets the sun is dieapprariug below the horizon.
Not the most hardened, beso'ted lover of power can,
however, much relish the image of this last atsge of
it. However it may be when the moment arrives, the
anticipation of a dying hour disturbed by malignant
wishes, darkened by curses, and hailed u the close of
an evil period, must be dreadful to the most hardened
despot that the world ever bore.