The Express.
London, England, 1861-10-16 00:00:00

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LONDON, WEDNESDAY, OCT. 16.

TO OUR RIADIRR.

- *-
SPORTING DiTELLIODICE.

A !ate edition of the &press is published every
evennig during the racing season, containing the
ranks ol the derv's meIR

Wr. have had more than once to remark sa a
sign of a telexed and unhealthy state of the public
Hanel iii the Free States of the American Union,
the eagerness with which every expression of Eng-
lish opinion is caught up and analysed there. The
work to be done is so great, and it is so certain
that it must he accomplished by Americans unaided,
that their well-wishers here cannot but desire for
them a firm moral independence, as a pledge of
the energy with which they have devoted them-
selves to their task. They do not want our ma-
terial help, and we cannot advise them. Neither
can we sign drifts for sympathy in blank. Remo.
lotion and energy concentrated upon a good cause
have no need to canvass the world for applause,
and if our friends across the Atlantic had shown
more decisions:el promptitude we should have heard
less about the failure of support from this aide. It is
not by any means of small importance what our
public speakers and writers say of the American
cause in this terrible crisis. It matters very much
what sympathies are disclosed and what principles
avowed ; but it matters chiefly to 'IX. Our repu-
tation in the eyes of the world, and what is of
infinitely more consequence, our character for sin-
cerity and true liberality is in question. It is the
fashion to speak of institutions as Dow on their
trial. It would be well to remember that the
trial of a defendant is at the same time the trial of
the judge and the jury. The morality of English-
men is being put to the test. As a nation we may
be proud of the result, as the Americans, when
calmer and better informed, will confess. We
have confounded their calumnious prophets of the
South, who hastened this wicked conspiracy by per-
suading their credulous followers that our hatred of
Slavery was so much hypocrisy that would disap-
pear with the first advance of a farthing a pound
in cotton. hut on the other hand we have had
melancholy revelations of unsuspected baseness.
The nation has been publicly counselled to shut its
eyes to the right and wrong of the case, and in
violation of public law to break the blockade for
cotton. More and worse than this, we have mien,
end that not in Tory journals, but in newspapers
dedicated to a noisy popular liberality, Slavery
broadly advocated, and the institution of a great
Slave Confederacy bailed by men who could see
a triumph of liberty in an enlargement of the
brutal license of the oppressor. These are things
to make men pause amidst the universal exchange
of congratulations upon our unexampled moral and
intellectual progress, and ask themselves what
hidden leaven is working so to corrupt our society.
Earl ItusAet.i. has spoken of American affairs at
Newcastle with a freedom which has marked his
whole career as a Foreign Minister. The noble lord
tells us why be feels at liberty to express his opinions
with so little reserve. It is that, independently of
the correctness of those particular opinions, the
course of the Government is plainly marked out.
Neutrality is so clearly our duty, the action of the
Government is so plainly forbidden, that a Mi-
nister may speak without risk of giving occasion
to false inference... Earl GRANVII.J.E and Mr.Gtze-
eyrie e had spoken to the same effect at Liverpool,
and Earl or Gem- at Ripon. We suffer, and cannot
but suffer, by the troubles in America—they have
imposed ou us duties which are attended
with great sacrifices. But we shall not seek
to escape them by resorting to illegitimate
means. Such is the uniform tenor of these
Ministerial speeches. We have said that this
union of frank speaking with an open and
avowed policy is a peculiarity of Earl Ituassix's
administratiou of the foreign affairs of the country.
To this hour the puzzle-pated admirers of the
Earl of Mai lIESSVIIy have never been able to
understand the neutrality and non-intervention of
the noble lord in Italy, never been able to see that
a determination to leave other Governments and
peoples to settle their own affairs does not in the
least imply, on our part, the surrender of a right
to hold and pronounce judgment on their public
acts. And yet it must be obvious that for Eng-
land the rule of non-intervention is only applicable
as Earl RURACLI. has understood it.
We cannot, then, find fault with the Noble Lord
for expressing his concern for the interests of free-
dom in America as they are affected by this war.
No candid American will find in his speech anything
but the most kindly feeling and the best wishes
for his country. The anxieties which he confesses,
have been felt more or less by all friends of
Am'rican freedom. Our only regret is that the
Noble Lord having said so much did not carry his
thoughts farther. We do not object to see this
war described as one for empire on the one hand,
and for independence on the other, it being under-
stood that, as everybody knows, empire in this
case carries with it the full enjoyment of the
freest constitutions in the world, and that
independence is identified with the dark, heavy
rule of slavery. England has done some service
in the cause of the independence of nations, and
she hopes to do more ; because independence,
although distinct in its nature from the desire of
moral and social progress, has, within the pale of
European civilization at least, been associated
with that progress as its condition and means.
It is so wherever men are ingenuous and
uncorrupted. Thus we have applauded the
efforts of Italy to emancipate herself. be-
lieving that her people only needed liberty
to work out their regeneration. If, however,