The Express.
London, England, 1861-05-25 00:00:00

NIGH *ATLI AT LOMPOC MUM

TO AL Its.
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LONDON, SATURDAY, MAY 25.

Poxrrne and history would be greatly simplified
if the outward form of transactions were • safe
guide to their real character—if, for instance, we
might say of every revolt that it was a movement
favourable to liberty, and that any attempt to
repress it must be tyranny. This age has often
been called to witness the disruption of old states
and the rise of new ones by the process of seces-
sion. Men are alive who can remember the
American war of independence, and in Europe,
since the peace, we have seen the kingdom of
Greece established by the courage of its people
with territory torn from Turkey ; while in
Italy the dismemberment of independent politics
societies has been going on for the last three
years and is still proceeding. It happens that
all these movements have been, happily,
in the interest of liberty and good government.
This time last year it might not have occurred to
us to write of the connexion between liberty and
independence as casual and local. We might have
been excused for taking it as fixed in the laws of
modern progress. But at least it is certain that the
secessions and disruptions of which we have seen so
many, have been until now undertaken in the inte-
rest of freer and better government than that of the
States rent asunder. So close has been the associa-
tion of revolt with liberty, that we had almost
forgotten that it could be otherwise, and that some
of the most odious tyrannies the world has seen
have been commenced by a war of independence.
But it is argued—Revolt is revolt, and rebellion
is rebellion, all the world over. The American colo-
nists; wanted to go free, and Gummi rat THUD
tried to bold them by the sword ; the Southerners'
also want to go, and Mr. LINODLN tries to detain
them by force : if you do not blame Mr. Asaanan
LiecoLs you cannot condemn King Ozoaos. By
the same rule we might say, CALL WILLIAMS,
being unjustly confined, broke out of prison ;
JONATHAN WILD broke out of prima, therefore
JONATHAN was unjustly confined. It is in vain
to attempt • philosophy of the pretended right of
revolution. The only justification of revolt is its
necessity, and that is enough. But in the present
cam, to judge of this necessity, so far as • people
neutral indeed, but not indifferent to the fortune•
and character of 30,000,000 of its brethren, is
called to do, we must ask why the Southwest.*
want to get out of the pale of the freest constitu-
tion the world ever saw, and what they mean to
do. It is more than waste of time---it is mystifi-
cation—to wrangle about the so-called right to
revolt, as if that were not a contradiction in terms.
Those who wish to show that the Seceding States
have any credit to gain by appealing to the prece-
dents of the Revolutionary War, must show that
the objects of the founders of American liberty
and those of the southern leaders are similar, or
at least not contradictory. Of course no such de-
nionetration is forthcoming. When the English
public reads that rasextisr acid PATHOS Haeav
combining their talents fur the assertion of liberty,
and Jarreassus Davis and Mr. Srarraes laying
the foundations of an empire destined to expand
freely to the West and South by the multiplication
of bondsmen, resemble one another in carry ingout the
principles of the Revolution, we cannot but respect
the profound feelings with which Americans must
see the fathers of their country thus dishonoured.
The principles of Hexer and F . IN would
have prevented the CAWS of this secession by anni-
hilating slavery had they not been successfully
strualed against by the party which it is
now pretended reproduces the principles of
the Revolution. Is it not admirable that men
should invoke on behalf of the projectors of a vast
elaveholding State the names of men who have
borne the most solemn testimony in favour of
liberty I Let us hear what Pieraice HISS; who
is brought forward so readily as the prototype of
& Secessionist, said:—" Is it nut immuring that at
" A time when the rights of humanity are defined
" and understood with precision, in a country
" above all others proud of liberty—that in such
" an age and such a country we find men adopt-
" lag • species of violence and tyranny which our
" more rude and boisterous but more honest an-
" meters detested, • principle as repugnant to
" humanity as it is inconsistent with liberty r' The
fatal political consequences to be apprehended from
slavery were always weighing upon the minds of
the authors of their country's independence. They
saw that it would destroy Republicanism. But
the temper of the men who now have place
and power at Montgomery is very dif-
ferent. The Vice-President of the Con-
federation, in a solemn speech, made recently,
after referring to the known aversion of JETTTABON
to Slavery, as politically and socially, as well as
morally, wrong, said :--" Our new Government
"is founded upon exactly the opposite idea. Its
" foundations are laid, its corner-stone rests upon
"thegreat truth that the negro is not equal to the
" white man ; that slavery, subordination to the
" superior race, is his natural and moral condition.
" This our new Government is the first in the
history of the world based upon this great phy-
" skid, philosophical, and moral truth."
Such is the liberality of the nuw state. This is
the cause which we are invited to identify with
the Revolution merely because both WASHINGToN