The Express.
London, England, 1850-08-28 00:00:00

Durant) that Ismer a nee so eminently practical as
our transatlantic kinsmen there is a class of public
wee whose services are more felt and appreciated than
talked about. Mr. FILLMORE belongs to this class.
While others of his standing were, by flash speeohes
or weep trie movements, making themselves the themes
of political gcesip, Mr. FILLMORE was, by judicious,
effective action, silently establishing a high character
for judgment and efficiency in the transaction of pub-
lic hominess. lie was little heard of in Europe, be-
cause in his comparatively brief career he bad seldom
been engaged in any of those ephemeral discus-
sion' to which the mere newsmonger attributes
such a disproportionateimportance. But our Yankee
Meads know how to reward public services appro-
priately. To dashing political partisans they award
the notoriety they hunt after ; upon honourable and
capable men of action they confer offices of high
trust. Thus it comes that Mr. FILLMORE was elected
Vies-President, and has eventually become Pre-
sident, although till the latter honour devolved
upon him the Tina was ignorant of his existence.
Mr. FILLMORE has already proved that the suf-
frages of his fellow-citisens were judiciously be-
stowed when they were conferred upon him. His
message to the senate on the Texas difficulty shows
that in him judgment is combined with courage and
command of temper. These are indispeesable requi-
sites in the head of the executive in a republic where
the executive's efficiency depends so mach on the
personal character of those who wield its delegated
powers. The PRESIDENT'S message is not long, yet
in it he manages to indicate clearly what is the public
law of the republic bearing on the disputed question,
to assert uncompromisingly the authority of the chef
magistrate, and to do all this with the most admir-
able temper. And the letter of the Secretary of State
to Governor BELL, which accompanies the message,
and other steps known to have been taken by the
President, snow that he can act as well as write.
It is of good augury for the future fortunes of the
Union that it should have, at the present crisis of its
destiny, such a chief magistrate as this first act of
Mr. Fitt-moat warrants our believing him to be.
The difficulties arising out of the• acquisition of new
territory, oomplicated as the discussions thence arising
are with the exciting question of slavery are, it is true,
clearing up. As usual the malcontents who spoke
big about dissolving the Union in the event of their
wishes not being complied with are beginning to abate
in the violence of their threats in proportion Si they
see clearly that the contingency which they declared
would compel them to fulfil them is near and inevi-
table. Fur this we were prepared from the beginning.
Experience has long convinced us that the violence
of American publicists in debate is only equalled by
their cool self-control in action. Loyalty to the Union
is with an American what loyalty to the crown is to
an Englishman ; both are apt to speak lightly of the
idol of their allegiance in the heat of discussion, but
both shriek when the time comes from laying rash
hands upon it. The legislature even, without the aid
of the PRESIDENT, are obviously arriving at the only
safe practical solution of the knotty questions
raised with regard to the newly-acquired
dominions of the republic. They have not,
however, yet reached the goal ; and till they
do, the interference of a self-possessed, brave,
and good tempered man at the head of strain, may
at any moment be required. We may add that the
knowledge that inch a man is there, will of itszlf go
far to render Lis interference unnecessary.
The turn that affairs have taken with reference to
the territorial questions arising out of the recent
acquisitions from Mexico, must, one should think, be
highly agreeable to every judicious and patriotic
American. These outlying portions of the republic's
domains are, from their remoteness, and also from
the indomitable, self-willed character of their popula-
tion, the most difficult to manage. The Texans are
pre-eminently so. They cannot forget that they,
single-handed, wrested their country from the
grasp of Mexico, and were received as a full-
grown independent state into the confederacy
of the Union. They feel that they stand in
a somewhat different relation to their confederate
states from those of them which have passed through
the stages of pioneering adventure and territorial go-
vernment on lands recognised as the property of the
republic. The pretensions of Texas, the reluctance of
the slave states to receive California ea its own terms,
were most diequ'eting indications. The posing of
the Californian States Bill, the Texas Boundary Bill,
and the territorial bile for New Mexico and Utah
will go far to remove these apprehensions.
Vie may also be allowed to remark, without any
disposition to assume the invidious chsrecter of judges
or entice on a location purely American, that the terms
on which those arrangements have seen made are,
on the whole, calculated to give satisfaction to the
friends of liberty and humanity everywhere. They
do not go far to settle the vexed question of slavery,
but they concede no inch of ground to the slave-
holder ; on the contrary, they narrow his domains.
In a country where democratic institutions confer so
much power on the will and feelings of individuals,
and where a federal constitution concedes so much
authority to the individual states, this is gaits as much,
as in the present sate of public opinion in America,
could have been expected.

We have commented upon the large and prominent
acts of the past legislative session, but have not dwelt
upon the mass of minor measures, w bleb after all formed
the tree and more important business of parliament ;
of these it is remarkable how many were furthered or
completed in morning sittings. Indeed one of the
characteristics of the session ku been the unprece-
dented degree of industry exhibited by the House
of Commons during its Wednesday sittings. Scaroely
twice throughout the seven months' session did the
popular representatives fail to sit until the latest
moment allowed them by the standing orders. The
attendance of members was generally nume-
roue, and the debating even mere lively and
business-like than in those evening sittings
when the legislative minutes were not counted. As
a natural result, not only were many of the most
useful bills of the session carried through successive
stages upon these off days, is they were heretofore
considered; but many questions that have not sue-
coeded in taking root in the statute book have ripened
'under discussion to a maturity which promises well
for their ultimate vigour. Mr. EWART'II excellent
Libraries and Museums Act may be placed among the
Ent; while the extra-mural interments, education,
and the repeal of the burdens on literature, may rank
among the important topics which have made only
an advance, though a satisfactory one, towards future
settlement.

This increased respect for the Wednesday business'
is, however, an omen of better things to come in
another session. By common consent the discussions
of that middleday in each week have been appropriated
to what we may call the amendments in our social
code of legislation. Government generally monopo-
lised the nights. Or if a private member succeeded
on some lucky Tuesday in getting a motion favourably
placed upon the notice paper, the debate was pretty
sure to turn on some party question, involving prin-
ciples, very probably, of vast abstract importance, but
bearing little or no practical application. In the de-
bate which thus kept the house attent until the
small hours of the mornings, Mr. HENRY DRUMMOND
might sermonise upon the wrongs of the labourer,
and Lord J. Rosana. was eloquent concerning the
beauties of the British constitution, and upon the
division that closed the proceedings the existence of
the cabinet might be staked. But after all there was
nothing mid or done for which one sensible man in
the country really cared. One good Drainage
Bill, or Savings' Banks Bill, or Partnership Bill
would have been worth more than all the laborious
wielding of flails above the heaps of chaff
strewn for the occasion upon the parliamen-
tary threshing-floor. The legislature; it appears
gradually becomes alive to this truth. But every-
thing must have a beginning. We may hops that in
another session more than one day in five will be de-
voted to the subjects on which the health, wealth,
pesos, and godliness of the people may depend.
In the celebrated "return of the titles of bills," pre-
sented to parliament just before the moan upon the
motion of Sir B. Hata.. we find the RUM of several
acts that have received the royal assent, designed to
remedy social and slam evils, whether arising from
the overgrowth of a densely packed population or the
incompetence of oar governmental machinery. Be-
sides the Libraries and Museums Bill already men-
tioned, there are the General Board of Health Bill,
and the Metropolitan Interments Bill, the Peer Relief
Bill, the Mercantile Marine Bill, the Drainage and
Improvement of Land Advances Bill, and the Ohara.
able Trusts Bill. The Brick and Stamp Duties Bills
will produce also sacrmouu social consequences, though
they %loot toe elms which is regulated rather by