The Express.
London, England, 1861-08-30 00:00:00

TO OUR READERS.

SPORT) NO INTELLIGENCE.

A !Me ellitiou of the Express is published every
evenkg during the racing season, containing the
results of the dat's races.

A reere, we say, to what gentlemen in Down-
ing•street livery call "domestic faction," while we
sing the praises of PALM rt0.10?4, as he appeared at
Dover on Wednesday in his admirable impersona-
tion of the Champion of England. The season
and the sunshine are propitious. Let us rest for
a moment from the strife of parties and the tur-
moil of opinions, and put to silence every harsh
and inauspicious murmur of contention, and do
willing homage to a fellow-countryman whose name
and fame belong to us all, whether we be Tories,
Whigs, Radicals, Ministerialists, or malcontents.
Members of Parliament are not talking politics all
the year round. Surely political writers may once
in a way, without treason to the cause they
serve, pay the willing tribute of affec•
tionate respect to a man who, be his faults
or failings what they may, has the heart
of a true representative Englishman in his
breast. Better one word of honest recognition
to the living than volumes of unavailing panegyric
to departed worth ! To do honour where honour
is due, without sacrifice of independence, is the pri-
vilege, and the gratefulduty, of a press that respects I
itself and its readers. Assuredly we are not of
those whose business it is to be delighted with
everything that men in power may say or do.
That is a vocation we have never envied or under-
stood. To affect to stand aloof in sullen aliena-
tion of temper from the honest national welcome
that hailed the veteran Minister on the heights of
Dover on Wednesday, would be as far as possible
from a liberal and enlightened patriotism. So,
without false modesty, we beg to congra-
tulate the Cimere Pears on their installa-
tion of a loan WARDRI who will add new
lustre to their annals. Nothing could have
been happier or more telling than the cere-
monial on Bredenstone-hill. If there were any
innovator churlish or narrow-minded enough to
see " no use "in conserving the old traditions of an
office emaciated with many glorious memories, he
must have been converted on the spot. These are
not times in which we can afford to lame sight of
customs which remind us of our ancient heroes of
the narrow mesa. It is a poor and mawkish philo-
sophy that owns no sympathy with the old rights
and privileges of that vanguard of our island
race, those hardy men of Kent, who swept the
enemy's keels from the Ftraits, and set a watch
for freedom on the heights. Our neighbours arse
the water have lately raised a memorial-st.inii to

the honour of Wituan nix NORMAN, not so
much, rrhaps, to make the world believe the
founder of the British aristocracy was • French-
man, as to convey an archreological threat. The his-
torical revival on Bredenstone bill was the Anglo-
Norman response to M. DR CAVIIONT'S compliinen.
tary warning. The day waa one to be remembered
far and wide. The celebration was rich in local
colour, full of the life and character of the sons
of the Rea Kings. The scene itself wee • pic-
ture of historic England : the white cliffs, dazzling
and all astir with arms and banners, with martial
music and joyous crowds, the sea below alive with
passing ships, the gleaming distance of the French
shore ; and in that lively procession, headed by
the statesman to whom all Europe looks as the
living expression of the genius and will of Eng-
land, was the stuff and spirit of such a band of
brothers as our poet pictured in the camp of HINNY
tux Firrn. There was just enough of antiquity
in the look of it all to give • certain solidity and
solemnity to what might otherwise have see.ned
a very modern gala of Mayors and Volunteers.
But no amount of decorations and appointments
could have freshened up the good old custom like
the simple presence of that green old age ; that
heart of oak : that type of all that is
most robust and enduring in the English race ;
the oldest probably, but certainly the youngest
man present—that world-famous LORD WARDEN,
119th Constable of Dover. Never was Fatima-
emir (we cannot help speaking of him with the
familiarity due to the lunnortals)in better humour
or in greater force, or in all respects more entirely
aril delightfully himself. At the banquet which
of course wound up the festivities of the dey, after
the manner of the nineteenth century, the LORD
WARDEN was in his cheeriest and wittiest mood,
and full of sound sense and serious feeling
withal. His definition of patriotism as the love
of home and kindred, expanded to the love of
country, was equally true and iugenious in its
application to the enlarged patriotism of the Oxeye
Poeta, which in old times furnished their quota
of ships for the protection of the coasts,
and now contribute, as loyal taxpayers, to the
creation and maintenance of the splendid Channel
Fleet, and furnish • force of Volunteers. The
advice to the Volunteers and the allusion to
"our cousins in America" were marked with
similar tact and judgment ; and the justification of
national defences, as the best and only security
for peace which a great and powerful people can
hold, was worth all that has been said and written
on the subject, for terseness, moderation, and
dignity of language. It is well that our friends
abroad should understand that the secret of Lord
PALBILRITON'S immense and undeniable influence
and popularity (apart, that is, from our political diffe-
rences) is not only the free and generous spirit sad
the robust heartiness of the man, but the fast
that be knows the national pulse as no other
statesman does, and always touches it with a
master band. There exists, we believe, • certain
class of Liberals in Europe who imagine that the
people of England are ready and anxious to give
up national " prejudices " altogether, and to