The Express.
London, England, 1861-07-13 00:00:00

SPORTING INTELLIGENCE.

A late edition of the Erpnuis hp published every
main (luring the racing season, containing the
remits of the dad's races.

'far privileged circle of society from which
those who administer the affairs of this country
are exclusively taken is just now divided between
expressions of regret at the cause of Lord
BERBERT'i retirement from office, and eager sur-
mises regarding his successor and the changes
which the new appointment may entail. It
is certainly a curious fate that within a
month the Paierievros Cabinet should be de-
praved of two of its most distinguished members ;
perhaps it is not lees strange, how little their
loss appears likely to influence the course of pub-
lic events, or even the fortune of political parties.
Suddenly, and in the vigour of a green old
age, the Keeper of the Great Seal is sum-
'Boned to quit for ever the council-chamber of
state ; and to-day one of the most youthful and
energetic of his colleagues is beckoned away from
the scene of his high ambition by an unseen mes-
senrr, whose warnings ho dare not hesitate to
obey. For two years Lord HERBERT has filled
the important post of Secretary of State for the
Department of War. We have often had to dis-
cuss the merits of his acts in that capacity ;
and now that his political account may
be considered closed, we recall with plea-
sure that often as we have felt it a duty to
criticise with severity the deeds of the retiring
Minister, we have never had to call in question
the high and honourable character of his mo-
tives. As one of an exclusive caste it would
have been unreasonable to expect from him
evidences of sympathy for popular rights or per-
sonal claim% which he had been accustomed to look
upon as innovations said encroachments. Lord
HSIBIRT was at all times a man to stand by his
order and stick to his particular set, but he did
so with the gay and genial courage of a well-bred
man of the world ; and even where the exigencies
et his position or his own instinctive impulses led
him into what was wrong, he seldom, if ever, made
a personal enemy or inflicted a rankling wound.
There was much in common between him and the
veteran chief under whom he served, and this is
perhaps the foundation of the ill-told story which
ascribes to Lord PALBREBToN a poignant expression
of his regret at parting with a colleague whom he
might naturally have looked upon as, after himself,
the person most calculated to lead a Liberal-Con-
operative party. The public at large will, we fear,
form a different estimate of the Ministerial loss,
and, in spite of themselves, will be forced to re-
member that in no such interval of peace in
the history of this country has the expenditure of
the War Department been so lavish or so large
as that during which it was presided over by Lord
HIIIRIRT. In the mind of the public the pars-
mount idea at the present moment is, what chance,
if any, have we that s new Secretary of War
would prove a more frugal administrator? As for
special fitness for the office, we almost despair of
seeing any regard whatever paid to that, in the
choice about to be made. At the end of a few

days of struggle and intrigue the winner will be
_ _

duly declared ; and it signifies little or nothing
which faded tint, of Whiggery or Peelism, he wears
upon his sleeve. If rumour is to be believed, the
betting has been from the first on one or other of
two Earls, and two near relatives of Peers, all of
them either in the Government already, or closely
identified with it. As Mr. FAIIIIIN used to say,
in Um'', Fw.le—" What does it matter, my

" dear f" The Administration has cut down its
masts, torn up its flag, and flung its priuciples
overboard, and all that remains for it now is to
hug the unfriendly shore that frowns more and
more darkly on its comae. Into deep water neither
captain nor crew have any thought of venturing
again ; and troth to say, they could not easily do
so now, even if they would. All that remains
possible is to keep the pumps going as long as may
be, and so to escape being swamped in a shoaling
era. The War Department has been suffered to
grow to such a size, and tho system of patronage
seerzised by it in common with the Home Guards
is so ingeniously fashioned to elude responsibility,
that we can have very little hope of witnessing any
appreciable reform of either under the exist-
ing regime. If long official experience and phleg-
matic indifference to small motives constitute any
sufficient recommendation, Sir GEORGE LEWTR may
perhaps be deemed as unobjectionable as any of
the candidates who aspire to the vacant office. We
used be at no loss to account for the reason why
he should wish to withdraw from the Home De-
partment at the end of the present session.
Which of the eleventh-rate men, as a witty and
wicked-tongued ex-Chancellor loves to call the
majority of Lord PALREREITON'R colleagues, is
to be removed or raised a step gives us little
concern. To produce a sensation either painful
or pleasurable to the public at large, the PRUE=
must repeat the Palmerian operation. He
must oak Lord Dsaav to lend him a Secretary of
• State, or a Secretary for Ireland, just as he was
glad to borrow the other day a Solicitor-GeneraL
When the body becomes so torpid, and thu circa-

luting stream of life is so languid in the reins, it is
sometimes found useful to apply a blister, and, if
the first fails, to produce any healthful symptoms