The Express.
London, England, 1857-04-28 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, TUESDAY EVENING, APRIL 28, 1857.

It is a scheme most dexterously sontrived to rivet on
a nation the fetters of a bureaucracy. It bears on
every lineament the stamp of its permitage—mme
inveterately bureaucratic mind.
It would be easy to multiply etimples of the
crotchets that the mere prospeet of a new Reform

Bill is conjuring up in the seething bruins of those
bewildered and bewildering men who imagine that
every road, however tortuous and crooked, is a shorter
path to what is right and just than the straight road.
There is en instinctive diteetness in the unperverted
human mind that renders it easy to rescue men
from the fallacies of these crotchetmongers by
simply placing their crotchets in the true light. To
act the public on their guard against all the insidious
representations of such sophists, it is only necessary
to remind it that sincerity and directness of purpose

. .
arc the only sure guides to happiness and virtue. The
man who seeks to gain his end by indirect means
has always some cnd in view which he is ashamed
te acknowledge. Whatever else may be the chase-
!Maks of any Reform Bill that shall receive the
mama unction, the nation ought at least to insF.A
upon its being simple, intelligible, and free tram
unneemary niceties and complications. The truly
useful, like the truly greet, is always Mann: ed with
the impress of simplicity.

ITALY.

_.—
(//tor ♦ SPZCIAL co

TURIN, Ary.ll. 21.

Yon are aware that the heads of your government
gave their unqualified approval to the rkply made by
Count Cavour to the not very prudent note of Count
Buol, and it would have been stmo•ge indeed if they
had not done so, since the whole of Europe, upon
that occasion, has declared in favour of sardinfa.
But you are also aware that., in the opinion of your
government, it seems imp* xible to live in peace and
quietness without peeper (fog good and friendly re-
lations with Austria. These fond hallucinations,
remembrances of old' and betrayed affections, do cer-
tainly appear to us , at the present moment, singular
and
inopportune
but the ministers of Queen Vie-
•
Sark mirl'lY kn ow better than I can know what are
the real into meta at England, and therefore I have
no mom tr, my about it. Lord Clarendon, then, im-
pelled f the argent exhortations, and it may be also
by fly' skilful and astute insinuations of Austria, in-
vits d France a short time since to unite with England
order that, in a polite and friendly manner, they
might give Sardinia to understand that it would be
an extremely acceptable measure on her part if she
would make an official and public declaration that
she had no ides of infringing or setting aside the
compacts and treaties by which she is bound with
regard to Austria—in virtue of which declaration
the chancery at Vienna would have no difficulty in
immediately despatching to Piedmont a regular
envoy, to renew all the relations and mutual obli-
gations between the states, as good neighbours to
each other. Our Italian proverb says, " that
if you make the reckoning without your hod,
you will have to make the reckoning twice."
Napoleon 111. did not relish this proposal ; indeed
he flatly refused to have anything to do with it,
sines it appeared to him that to demand of the
ministers of Victor Emanuel that they should make
such a declaration would be to imply an injurious
doubt of their integrity, and to concede to Austria
the victory in the cause which now stands for dis-
cussion before the diplomacy of Europe. You may
rely with the most perfect certainty upon all that I
tell you. I have learnt it from a good source of
information, and I will guarantee its accuracy.
l'robably you will not like this last trait of the
foreign policy of Lord Clarendon; you will think
his spirit of conciliation has gone a little too far ;
but it is fair also to consider how difficult it has be-

come to the present English government to keep
in a resolute and straightforward course of conduct,
not diverging to the right hand or to the left.
Unless I am much deceived, public opinion and the
votes of your parliament have given but slow and
faint support and encouragement to Lord Palmerston
in his foreign policy. The Manchester school has fre-
quently been blamed, but its practical maxims may be
said to have been followed by everybody ; inasmuch
as everybody protean.' to exert an influence in
Europe, and to assist the oppressed nations, without
thereby altering one jot of the status quo, and with-
out affecting in the least degree the prosperity of
commerce, or ever running any risk of a direct
quarrel with any one of the great powers. It is a very
remote possibility that any such risk should actually
be incurred, because the firm, profound, and general
will of the English people would at this moment
prevail with such authority in Europe, not taking
into account the sense of justice and every generous
and magnanimous sentiment, that I can hardly con-
ceive any power would venture for a length of time
to act itself inflexibly in opposition to it. But it
does so happen that the popular feeling remains, as
it were, latent, and the language of the newspapers
is the same from day to day. To come to our own
affairs, it is most certain that if in your new par-
liament any speaker should rise up and repeat with
vigour and eloquence such words as were lately
pronounced by Lord John Russell in favour of Sar-
dinia, and if these words obtained an echo through-
out a good portion of the members of the House of
Commons and the press, Lord Palmerston and his
colleagues would suddenly feel themselves inabled
to protect with greater frankness, and in a more un-
reserved manner, the people of Piedmont and their
free institutions. I have nothing more to odd, ex-
cept that Austria would not, on account of such a
proceeding, become the enemy of England, because
the fear which Austria entertains is very great and
very well founded of being left alone in the world,
exposed to the hatred and contempt of all. But I
will have the discretion to abstain from descanting
upon your political affairs, remembering as I do
another of our Italian proverbs, which says that a
fool can do more at home than a wise man in this
house of his neighbour.