The Express.
London, England, 1857-11-27 00:00:00

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LONDON, FRIDAY. Norman st

ME foes of constitutionalism in Italy affect to be
full of joy at the result of the recent elections in
Piedmont. Between fifty and sixty nominees of the
High Church party Dave been returned; while the
ultra-Liberals count fifteen or sixteen representatives
in the new Chamber. Each of the extreme sections
claims a victory over the central party which supporta
the Administration of M. CAVOI:EI, because in some
few instances their candidates have been preferred
to more cautious and undemonstrative compe-
titors. The people are getting tired, it is said, of the
slow and steady pace of progress; and according to
the degree of discontent they feel they vote, some
for political engineers who would take off the break
and go ahead at greater speed—others for
men who would try to put back the train
of events, or who, failing in that hope-
ful experiment, would rake out the fire and
bring all to a standstill. .Ministers have two oppo-
sitions to encounter at the some time ; and though
neither of them alone is numerically formidable,
they may, when combined, prove strong enough to
paralyse, if not to overthrow, the existing system of
rule. Let us add that there are certain half-hearted
adherents of moderation on whom these boaatings
have a certain influence, and who, if they spoke out
their nerveless thoughts, would probably be found
to advocate timid and time-serving counsels.
But there is another side of the picture. Far
boss considering the prospects of constitutional
government darkened, we, who from a distance watch
dispassionately the changes to which it is in Pied.
moat, as everywhere else, exposed, see only in 'nth
fiectuatiosas of the moral atmosphere the natural and
inevitable play of conflicting elements, by whose
freshening influence Representative Rule can alone
*moire real health and vigour. We know by long
experience that this isso. Political institutions that
are not able to stand the viciseitudes, often sudden
and frequently unaccountable, of all kinds of
weather, are worth little ; and it is not until they
►ave been exposed to the fickle and rough blasts
of public feeling that the strength of their
fibre can ~be tested or known. A new and but
imperfectly tried system of government may to
prayed for, fought for, even died for, as history tells,
by many and wipe and gallant men, who, in the
hope that it will eventually triumph, are ready to
sacrifice themselves to the experiment. But the con-
viction in the everyday mind of a whole people that
it has struck root too deeply and firmly to be eradi-
cated by any trick of arbitrary force, or any coup of
treacherous ambition.—the fixed faith in the thing
that practically invests it, above all factitious or legal
sanctions, with authority and power,—this cannot be
any otherwise created than by positive proof that
it is able to withstand the trials to which it is
exposed.

It is the indiepearble discipline through which
every human institutiaa meant to endure must pus
on its way to maturity; and for the want of it there
is no 'obstinate, no compensation. Did the alleged
manifestation of reactionary tendencies in Piedmont
therefore suggest no other considerations, these
would go far, in oar judgment, to qualify any regret
wherewith we might otherwise" be disposed to re-
gard them. The beet and noblest people that ever
lived are incapable of knowing how dear their
newly-bora liberties are to them until they have
been made to feel that the existence of those liberties
la in jeopardy. It is then that a country, like the
lately joyous and thoughtless mother of some
stricken child, clutches her young free-
dom to her breast, and in affectionate fear
for its safety upbraids herself silently with
a thousand little acts of impatience or neglect.
In detail theft faults, and the regrets they cause
when danger threatens, are too common-place,
too eumerous, and, for the most part, too intrinsi-
cally mall to be accurately appreciable. But they
form in the aggregate, neeertheles, the elements of
• regenerative force which is inestimable, and, when
well directed, irresistible.

Count CAVOUR has shown himself in many trying
exigencies a wise and patriotic man ; we are
confident that in the present instance ho will do
so too. His plain policy and duty, as a consti-
tutional !Minister, is frankly to accept the modified
position in which the late returns have placed the
Chamber and the Kern. Above all things, it is im-
portant that the boasted strength of the Retrograde
Opposition should be allowed to develop itself;
that its views and aims, now that once more it
begins to dream of power, should be made plain;
that no technical or arbitrary impediment should be
placed in its way—in a word, that the country
should have full time to see and understand
whither priesteraft and absolutist alliances would
drag or drive it. This patient and defensive
attitude on the part of the existing Government
is all the more easy, because, in point of fact,
they still possess • decided preponderance in the
House of Representatives. Even on the supposition
that fur the party purposes of the hour the radical
friends of M. BROFTERIO should agree to join with
those of the Ch arch headed by M. Dail.% MANG utt r t.
the Minister ought still to be able to defeat the
unr.atural coalition by votes as well as arguments.
Making every allowance for the defection of waverer,
and trimmers, the Ministerial majority cannot be
set down at km than from twenty-five to thirty
In a Chamber which contains two hundred mem-
bers. We are not sure that such a majority
kept well in hand is not a safer and more reliable
instrument of good than one three times as large.
In England we have seen Administrations last for
years and carry many useful measures with majori-

ties much smaller ; while we have beheld what were '
called strong Governments, that is, Governments
counting their Parliamentary preponderance at one
hundred strong, go to wreck in • far shorter time.
The truth is, however, that the philosophy of arith-
metic in matters of this sort is a philosophy falsely
so called. On ordinary occasions, and for ordinary
questions, there is no other rule to go by ; so we
agree to count noses and thereby abide.
But when the spirit of a country is stirred within
it—when the foundations of law and liberty are at
stake—when a community is driven to ask itself
whether it prefers to go forward with the growing
day of civilisation and enlightenment, or to be
forced back to the twilight and cold gloom of igno-
rance and thraldom—the balance is not turned by a
. _ .

few insignificant scruples more or less. Behind the
momentarily baffled representatives of national
opinion, there is the silent might and influence of
the nation, whose faithful representatives the folly
and infatuation of faction would rashly set at nought.
To make this silent influence constitutionally felt is
the great duty of a Minister loyal to liberty, but
truly at the same time a lover of the law. He must
for sake of this eschew all feminine precipitancy
sad passion ; he mast await event% and, when they
sew, he must make then speak.

HOW TO FRED THE POOR AND lIELP
THE UNEMPLOYED.