The Express.
London, England, 1866-11-19 00:00:00

FOREIGN AFFAIRS.

Reviewing the brief though chequered career of Dom
Miguel. the Times observes that happily for the Portuguese
the Coburg. have proved a better race than the Bourbons,
and the contrast between Portugal and Spain has been so
striking es to set the hearts of some of the Spanish
patriots against their reigning dynasty, and recall
the dream of a united Melia, intended to bring both king-
doms under the scaptre of the Portuguese monarch. Im-
practicable as the scheme may be, and certain to founder
against the deep-rooted jealousy and antipathy of those
two kindred but long-severed races, it may not the less be
taken as a symptom of tbe wisdom which has for several
years presided over the councile of the smaller kingdom,
no less than of the good character enjoyed by its young
sovereign, and by tho Italian princess who has for the
last four years shared his throne.
Dwelling on the mistake which Mr. Johnson and Mr.
Seward committed in believing that the reaction in opinion
and feeling which they themselves experienced after the
close of the war was universal, the Deify News quotes the late
elections as decisive testimony to the permanence of the
change which the last seven years have made. The Demo-
cratic party is permanently discredited and overthrown.
The political carelessness of the prosperous North is at an
end. The time of political subserviency has been succeeded
by a new era of political independence, activity, and life.
The " higher law," at which the Southern politicians and
their Northern allies so continually scoffed, has won popu-

Fir recognition, and the domestic politics of the Union are
to be brought into harmony with it. The national con-
science has been awakened and will not soon
be sent to sleep again. Mr. Johnson's at-
titude towards Congress when it meets will
make no permanent difference to any but himself ;
at'nostit will only decide whether the new era of recon-
struction shall have a calm beginning, or whether its first
hours shall be obscured by storms. _ .

According to the Herald, every Prussian politician be- I
lieves that sooner or later there must come a war with
France, and our contemporary asks if it is prudent under
the circumstances to so handle Denmark as to make her,
and, perhaps, other powers who sympathise with her, and
who see in her treatment by Prussia a menace to them-
selves, eager to throw themselves ou the aide of the ene-
mies of Prussia?
The Star says that the American government do not pro-
pose the acquisition of any part of the territory of the
Mexican republic; their resolution is to recognise only
the constitutional government ',resle,' over by Juarez,
and General Sherman, who has lately gone on a mission
with Mr. Campbell to Vera Cruz, is authorised to so dis-
pose of the forces of the l-isted States by laud and sea as
to enable them to contribute to the re-establishment
of order, especially on the frontiers, but without
interfering in the internal affairs of the republic. If
these American envoys find the greater part of the
French army ready for embarkation, they will immediately
proceed to the city of Mexico, where they hope to meet
Juarez, for it is generally believed that the Emperor Maxi-
milian will embark with the French army. If, however, it
should be otherwise, they will go to Matamoros, and thence
to Chihuahua or to any other place where the constitu-
tional government may be. General Sherman, however,
will not go far into the interior of the republic.

3IIRCELLANEoI'S TOPICS.

Assuming that objections will be urged against the new
order of the Privy Council which provides that all
cattle henceforth not intended for immediate slaughter
must be landed at certain ports and undergo a quarantine
not in any case to exceed one lunar month ; that it will be
said it emanates from a tory government, and contravenes
the principles of free trade; and that the consumer of
the meat will pay the expense, the Times thinks,
nevertheless, that the measure may be justified
by the principles of far-sighted and enlightened
policy. The question is simply whether the country is
prepared to submit to a periodical re introduction of the
rinderpest, and other contagious cattle diseases, or
whether it will take the only precaution which can effec-
tually obviate the return of the plague. The Times not
only concludes that it is quite right this power of putting
store cattle in quarantine should exist, but hopes also to
see some regulation which shall prevent foreign cattle in-
tended for slaughter from being carried through the
country and infecting railway trucks and statical, and
spreading contagion in our cattle-markets.
The Daily News thinks the House of Commons will be
apt to ask, when it is invited to make a special vote for
the restoration of the railings of Hyde-park, why Lord
John Manners continues the absurd renaissance landscape
gardening of his predecessors. Of late years every-
thing has been done that the most perfect bad
taste could do to concert the noble expanse of
English scenery into a bad likeness of a foreign jardin.
All this in Mr. Cowper's time we had grown to expect, as
the outgrowth of an idiosyncracy on which, for the
Premier's sake, no one wished to be severe. But why
does Lord John Manners walk in these un-English ways!
Another park institution, still extant, is the betting stand
beneath the trees in the centre of Hyde-park. All chime+ of
society, from the middle downwards, are there repre-
sented, and every facility is afforded for losing any amount
of money. There are stands in which the state of betting
in all forthcoming events is duly set down, and the owners
are competitively eager to accommodate the speculative
with any odds, on any combination. The process of
reasoning by which the authorities permit, and the police
protect, a betting crowd, is in somewhat striking contrast
with the declaration that a political crowd is derogatory
to the sanctity of the same spot.
Though not regretting the Attorney-General's decision,
that Mr. Coleridge must refuse the retainer which he had
accepted from the Jamaica committee, the Tikgraphobjects
in the public interest to the Attorney-General giving this
decision without telling us the reason why.
The disastrous floods in the north form the subject of
leading articles in some of our contemporaries.

CABINET COUNClL.—Summonses were issued on
Saturday evening for a Cabinet Council to-morrow, r.t the
First Lord of the Treasury's official residence, in Downing-
street. The council is appointed for half-pest 3 o'clock.

THE LATE LORD DUDLEY STUART.—OILSuturdar,
the 17th inst., being the twelfth anniversary of the (frith
of Lord Dudley Stuart, a meeting of the Polish Historical
Society was held at Sussex-chambers, Duke-street, St.
James's, in commemoration of the sad event, on which
occasion Major. Szulcrewski, who occupied the chair, and
several other gentlemen, paid a tribute to the self-sacrifice
and. ilevosfen of the departed nobleman to the gauss of
rubuid.