The Express.
London, England, 1868-12-11 00:00:00

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"MINISTRIES" AND "GOVBRNMENTS.'

A FRENCH journal, La Franey, which manages to
combine devotion to Imperialism with decency
and even a curtain liberty of language, and is
usually described as the organ of the semi-
liberal Senators, bestows some comments upon
the change of Ministry in England, which
in themselves are just and sensible enough,
but on the part of a confidant and ad-
mirer of Imperialism strike us as singularly in-
cautious and imprudent. The ease and quietness
with which a redistribution of power takes place
in tLiii country on the resignation of one Ministry
and the accession of another, excites the admira-
tion of our senatorial contemporary. " Look at the
" opposition in England," it exclaims ; they
" turn out a Ministry but they do not overthrow
" the Government." The fallacy employed in the
equivocal use of the word "Government" by the
France is transparent. In a constitutional and
parliamentary country the " Government "
which changes hands is simply a responsible
Cabinet ; the Crown " can do no wrong" be-
cause it bolds en equal balance between con-
tending political parties and consecrates the
choice of the majority. Ent under a personal
government, whose individual responsibility is
only noiniskal, and as only be seasbed by •
swelvhisat .11Ni whims Maim ere wither

jointly nor severally responsible to a trite-
ture consisting almost wholly of noes
the Government, and " freely elected "
in a few large towns where ootnpulsi
impracticable, how can the opposition &OW,
Ministry without changing the " Goeterniasiel"
also, the Government being the solitary will of a
single man P It is not the French opposition that
creates this dilemma ; it is the author and founder
of the constitution of the Empire. We should
recommend the France to be a little more circum-
spect in the choice of its examples. Its attempt
to make political capital for its patrons out of
English institutions is as if, not T.terrus, but some
ebecure flatterer of the CASSAM, had proposed to
illustrate the superiority of Imperialism by an
essay on the manners and customs of the Germans.

THE BAB OF FRANCE AND OF ENGLAND.

Tite presence of a deputation front the English
Bar at the funeral of M. BRISYIR had a
more than merely professional significance.
The generous and graceful invitation to our
Inns of Court to be represented on so
solemn and affecting an occasion was
intended as something more than an acknowledg-
ment of the honours paid to the greatest of French
advocates during his last visit to England. It
was an act of sympathy with the brethren of a
great Order, which in all countries embodies the
sacred principle,' of law and justice as opposed to
force and arbitrary power. It was the fraternal salu-
tation of Liberal France to free England. The lead-
ers of the French bar stood by the tomb of BEE-
RYER. But the French magistracy, with a solitary
exception, was conspicuously absent. Only one
French judge had.the courage to pay his last re-
spects and to bid the last farewell to the noble
champion of every suffering and friendless cause,
and the implacable adversary of enemata
wrong. In one of his last great speeches
in the Legislative Body, . BZRAYIR had
denounced the corruption of the Imperial
tribunals ; that worst sort of corruption, which
is not counted in coin, but which renders services
instead of judgments. The French bar has wel-
comed in its English brethren representatives at
once of an independent order of advocates, and of
an incorruptible magistracy. It is well for the
two nations that the great traditions of right and
liberty should constitute a common heritage, and
the common ground of a moral alliance more in-
dissoluble than that of Crowns or Cabinets.