The Express.
London, England, 1861-11-02 00:00:00

TO OUR RZADIRR

SPORTING INTELLIGINCE.

A !ate edition of the &p►ras is published every
evening during the racing season, containing the
results of the day's most

Foa • statesman of large grasp commend us to
Sir JOHN PARDIGTON. A PALMEISTON or •
Deasy is content to guide the affairs of Great
Britain, but Sir JOHN'S extensive view takes in
the politics of the whole Anglo-Saxon race. It is
by no means certain whether he thinks that some
British right of tutelage did not survive Owens
I ll.'s recognition of American independence. At
any rate, he feels it Lis duty not to refuse to the
people of the United States the benefit of his
counsel, and, when that fails, the unasked active
interference of his friends, as far as circumstances

will allow. It was not always so. It is only
very lately that American politics have become
attractive to tho Tory party. While the first States-
men of Europe, the Ministers of Kings and Em-
perors, were thinking it no stretch of candour or
magnanimity to acknowledge publicly and repeatedly
the grandeur of the spectacle of American free-
dom and prosperity, Sir JOHN PAK INGTON'S
friends found no opportunity of noticing the great
experiment of which they have suddenly become
students. Sir Jour, however, unfolds the lesson
of the crisis. The subject, he intimates, has been
much confused, and is still greatly misunderstood.
Most people am still in the dark about the causes
of the war and tho questions at issue; but he sees all
clearly and pronounces with confidence. " What,"
ho asks, "is the principle contended for ? It is not
" slavery, thou;li many people fondly think it is."
On this point he seems very anxious. The
difference of North and South in respect of
freedom and slavery is evidently more important
than is agreeable to him. We might ask why Sir
JOHN.K explanation was necessary f How it came
about that common opinion needed to be cor-
rected on this point, and to be corrected by a
PANINOTON I The difficulty with Sir Joins is just
this, that ho cannot wipe out the history of the
last nine years. There is not a man or woman in
England within reach of a newspaper who does not
know that the limitation of the area of
slavery was the ground on which the party that
carried Mr. LINCOLN into power united, and that
a determination not to submit to that policy was
in the fullest sense the cause of Southern secession.
This is not an opinion, the probability of which
might be strengthened or weakened by assent or
dissent of numbers. It is a fact of history which
no denials can obliterate.

Having disposed of this preliminary question by
deciding in the teeth of the facts, Sir Join
PAILIHOTON gives his own explanation of the cause
of the American war :—" It was the struggle of
" democracy. It was his sincere belief that the
" real actuating motive of the present war was the
" shame the American Government felt that the
" sorbd should witness the disruption and the
" fame of that great experiment of democratic
" government embodied in the constitution of the
" United States." In this peones Sir JOHN
PAIINOTOIII has blundered much nearer than would
have been expected to • truth which it was morally
impossible he should discover. As nobody denies
that the Cabieet et Washington is entirely depon-
ent on the people for men and money,
and as it is supplied with both on • scale
never before known in any country of the
world, we may safely substitute " people of the
" Free States" for "American Government" in the
sentence quoted. And thus amended it will represent
the state of the case with tolerable accuracy. There
is a generous shame which noble natures feel when
the progress of their age is Yenned, jest as these
is a malignant delight which the false and petty
feel when others fall short of high aims once pro-
fessed. There are stages in the onward march of
humanity from which it is shameful to recede,
and if the penile of North America proved un-
worthy of their glorions inheritance there is not a
single hope of mankind that would not be dimmed
and diminished. It is not so, however. Half
a million of freemen in arms in the Northern
States of the Union, and unheard-of sacrifices cheer-
fully sustained, attest the strength of that generous
feeling with which Sir Joie is forbidden by every
sentiment of Toryism to sympathise. Those armed
citizens, he perceives, are defending the corunitu•
Lion of the United States, a constitution human,
and therefore capable of amendment, but one
under which more liberty has been enjoyed with
order than under any other form of government in
the world. l',rfectly understanding that they
are defending it against the advances of a rival
constitution based on slavery, he says, " That
" being the cause of the struggle, he could not
" but heartily wish that the war would be speedily
" put an end to ;" and all Toryiam spoke in that
sentence. Others may have calculated the
chances of the war, and in the interest of the Free
States themselves or of humanity wished for its
termination. But Sir JOHN Psavvoroir desires
that it may be stopped because it is waged by the
North for a free constitution; stopped by the voice
of united Europe, itself so orderly, tranquil, and
happy under monarchies great and small, if no
other means avail.
As Sir Jl,kiN PsioNortis does not conceal
that his American politics have been formed for
English use, we cannot be sorry that he has at
length shown his true colours. W.! see that in taro
great contest abroad he rallies to the cause of

slavery. And the moral he draws for his own pulp
at house is firmer union in defence of every political,
social, and religious monopoly. He raises= alarm
of democracy ; but there is something older and
more terrible than democracy in the United States
that disquiets Toryism—society built on the
modern foundations of equal inheritance and equal
laws. There have been signs that Sir JOHN
PAKINGTON.B party would as willingly govern by
an ignorant and brutal democratic majority, as long
if they could safely count on it, as by that other
despotism, an oligarchy. None appeal so readily
to the pentane of • mob, none deride more heartily
the pretensions of a claim to be admitted merely
because it is reasonable. They have, however, •
part to play, • destiny to fulfil, and we cannot but
think its character is vividly illustrated by Sir
Jolts PAIINGTON'S speeches. The American con•
stitution, however, is as far beyond the reach
of his ill-wishes, u American freedom is beyond
his sympathies. However this war may end, that
at least will remain the fundamental law of the
Anglo-Saxon race beyond the Atlantic.