The Express.
London, England, 1850-05-13 00:00:00

Wit ffenarefso.

OUTGOING MAI La.
The mails for British Nona America and the Unita
States will be made up cis the eminiag of May 17.
The inns far Lisboa, Spain, god Gibraltar will be made
up es his, 17.
The Won India 11111 s. imeladius Bermuda, Haveaaah,
Now, Unadures, New Orleans, and Mezico,and itialudias
mem for Madeira, Bt. Jamode-Nissempaa, New Granada,
sad Pam will be model* eta the usoraiag of May 17.
The mails Me Gibraltar, Malta, Greece, the balms laleads,
'opt, Ceyies, ladle, sail Chios, Bwathamptoa, will
be made up ea the moraine of May 20.
The sat eid t•the Mediterranean, Egypt,
Pyles, McsarEotig, to., will be made up au the
swamis of May 24.
The Buda for Maderia, the Brasil.. sad Buenas Ayres, will
As made up an the mains of Jam 4.

TO COILIARPONWORP.
tor ^ Tb• lisrbs.- bodes ~Mt Maishr.
bbyriblaybK. by Tv. bbiodi dr day II

won Wallet At LONDON MUMS.
li
D...-kmggs, I. Oa. .." Amin. Ali. Os.
f•-••••nw-Meistai, r.

LONDON, NONDJY, MAY 13.

Tut debate upon the third reading of the Irish
Franchise Bill, must have struck every one who pe-
rused it, as about' the oddest series of con-
lased confessions and random revelations, recently
delivered either in or out of parliament. That the
occasion was an icviting one for thou who were so
minded, we do not deny. Nevertheless it will hardly
be disputed that a more singular, and to all appearance
more spontaneous, outpourrog of loog pent up opin-
ions upon all manner of questions, seldom has been
known.
Through the dreary dulness c f Sir form WALSH'S
spoken pamphlet against the bill, few of our readers
probably have bad the industry to wade ; and our
innate indisposition to commit any act of cruelty
forbids our dwelling, however briefly, on the imbecile
bigotry of his only genuine supporter, the 'ochry muse
Lord BERNARD. From the feeble and infatuated fa-
naticign of these doleful defenders of the principle
of protestant ascendancy all their shrewd followers
in debate hastened to show themselves tree. Mr.
NAPIER anxiously strove to rear the blun-
der they had committed in avowal that
with a real representation of the Irish people
in parliament the anti-Irish church establishment
could no longer stand. Being somewhat more in the
secrets of the party he knew that the attempt to
throw out the bill vu but a sham—that the tory
peers have neither the pluck nor the power to reject the
measure altogether—and that the real aim and de-
sign of the struggle on Friday night was to make a
case on certain minor details of the bills which might
seem to warrant the House of Lords in attempting
partial mutilations of it. With the tact of a practised
advocate be pleaded in mitigation of punishment for
the convicted
_political offender; but looked with well
affected wonder at the notion that the fate of the
ecclesiastical accomplice not yet brought to trial
could in any way depend upon tne sentenco
about to be pronounced in the present cue. As
counsel for the church in Ireland, he was prepared to
contend that its strength lay in the affections of the
people • and he consequently wished it to be inferred
that the greater the popular power, the safer that
marvellous job would be. To the credit of the House
of Commons be it noted, that they neither laughed at
this as a serious joke, nor applauded the temerity
which cooly thus trifle with a shocking and scan-
dalous truth.
Whether Lord CASTLEREAGH and Sir JOHN YOENO
had made up their minds on the main queo'ion, " Is
it desirable the bill should pass ? " or not, we have
no means whatever of ascertaining. They seem to
have been equally impressed with the conviction that
it would never do for them to vote its rejection ;
while at the same time they saw no harm in doing it
all the injury they could, and thus, as Mr. DISRAELI
bitterly but truly said, throwing the responsibility on
the other house of parliament of acting en their sug-
gestions. But the position of men who, after four
years' buffeting by the waves of faction, still cling to
the sinking raft of Peelism, is one in which it is,
perhaps, unreasonable to expect any other than spas-
modic efforts and the utterance of incoherent cries.
Very different was the tone of Lord Jocurx and
those who slaving quitted the wreck and shipped
themselves anew in the old hull cf toryism, eagerly
seise upon every occasion to show their repentant
seal In the service of their new commander.
And a stranger speech than his on Friday night,
even he, the diviner of Asian and of British mysteries,
seldom has pronounced. Affecting to address himself
to Irish sympathies, he solemnly declared his belief
that what the Celtic heart at present longed for was
—not franchisee, WA/terries . Tenant right be dis-
posed of parentheticatly, but " trout and turbot " was
the real question. Material interests now absorbed
every Hibernian thought and feeling, and the de-
mud for repeal had been forgotten in the desire for
red herrings.
Still more marvellous were the political ethics
enunciated by this sage counsellor of aristocracy.
With imperturbable gravity Mr. DISRAELI asked,
where was the necessity of making such a concession
to Ireland, at a time when not a seditious whisper
was to be heard throughout that long distracted
land. Did the sardonic leader of the tories mean to
convey to them, in ironical shape, a just rebuke for
their put mode of dealing with popular de-
mands--never yielding in times of calm and with the
ambiances of generosity or reason, hut ever stupidly
resisting change, until all power of resistance was
rudely wrenched from their hands ? Or did the spirit
of mockery rise uncontrollably in that dark bosom
and prompt the utterance of so plain an
instigation to violent counsels and to violent
onuses on the part of the people ? It almost
seemed as though the phrase was intended to recall
soother equally remarkable, in which a young aspi-
rant sought some years ago the favour of an Eng-
lish radical constituency, by the assurance that—
'sedition was his forte."
But whatever may have been his purpose in re-
sorting to such language, it was certainly unsuccessful.
Received by his usually docile followers in moody
silence, it served to point one of the best replies
which has lately fallen from Lord fours Russell.,
who when be appealed to the justice, manliness, end
=of parliament, not to wait in this
as they have too often done for the
importunate voice of disturbance and of threats—
ealled a heartier response than has greeted the
ministerial ear for many a long day. In the division
which eared, a majority of 68 in a house of 440
tanned the amemity and policy of the bill; and is
the majority we And the names of every man who
has ever held eminent political station in the country,
with the sole exception of Mr. GemerroNa. With
wary outlook to the future, Mr. Swm
HIRBIRT shrank from participating in the
satrap which his associates had resolved on
else's; to an entire nation. Even Mr. GOULBLIEN
Mete away. But nothing is too strong for the stomach
Of Mr. GLADSTONE. Tne man who but the other day
argued and voted for two democratic chambers in a
melee colony, now grudges a decent number of
scanty electors to one-third of the United Kingdom;
sad he who but the other day. worried parliament
with insidious supplications to Ire extra -legal rode-
elastics' powers to the church in Australia, doss sot
maple to abet the stolid bigotry and intolerance by
which the great mass of the catholic and peesbyterian
inhabitants of Ireland have been reduced to a con-
dition of absolute disfranchisement.

One speech only remains to be noticed; we could
wish that in some respects it had been other than it
ewes. We allude to the rather equivocal account given
by Sir Judas OZAHAX of what he facetiously termed
his mums for supporting the bill. One excellent
and all sufficient reason he certainly did give,—
namely, that es things already stood, and u they
were likely to stand, in this and in surrounding
countries, the attempt to maintain national institu-
tions upon a circumscribed electoral basis was dan-
gerous in the extreme. He added further in signifi-
cant term, his readiness to see the principle of
household suffrage generally adopted u the
groundwork of the repreFentative system. To what
perversity of mood this are we to ascribe the
ostentatious association with such avowals of regret
that joint-tenants should be allowed to vote, and that
the Irish county franchise had been fixed in the
ministerial mews so low as W.. tested by liability
to and actual payment of rates? Barely the time for
doubts and "mixed considerations" u to which side
Sir J. Ottawa mast henoeforth espouse is passed.
Hie sins are too many against toryism to be for-
t=gthe liberal party he is sure of a welcome, if
• the foppery of official indecision, which

mesas ustaceountably to eliag to• him, he remerhimes
only what he cam was, and what he might
and resumes that post in the popular minks
ought never to have quitted. L
SHALL Germany ferrs.sse *tit Or shall it b.
divided into two, or into thew parte and powers?
These are the vertices, independent of the liberty
end development of each poetise of the German ou
ting, which have been for the last two years the @ab-
ject of ezzotiat and diecussioa.
The simple, straightforward Osman
patriots said, e will all firs ewe :we are brethren
—we ars a people ; and we will men* the several
princes join, and submit to a general legislators,
which shall decide and direst all thins affecting the

comma fatherland.
The Germans are bemocked for' having failed ia
this gigantic aim. With hundreds of princes, their
relatives, functioneriee, court and retainers, opposed
to them, and with armies of linaurtda of thousands of
soldiersorith such facilities of concentration on a given
point as never before existed, how could the GAMMA
succeed at once P Neither the English nor the French
middle classes would have secured their liberties when
they did so, had they such obstructions to overcome.
The task of the German liberal is infinitely more
tedious and more difficult. It requires time and
prudence, and unswerving determination. For
the preset the people have failed. Bat
they retain all their original etrength. Foe
without the support
.and adhesion of the German
people, no one single aim that German potentates may
propose to themselves, can be attained. Whether
the aim of these monarchs be to exist, to aggrandize,
to overcome rivalry and defeat domestic ambition—
whether the necessity be to mist French
demodocracy
and its military aggression on the one n hue-
sian dictation and intrigue on the other, the German
princes have but one permanent force to rely on, the
attachment of the people. This, however,
must in these days be won. Loyalty is no longer
a wild and Reties growth, springing up spon-
taneously in men's minds. It nue: be won,
and cherished and deserved. Whatever prince does
so win the attachment of the Germans will succeed.
If no prince does so, farewell monarchic Germany.
The king of Pavesta is making the essay ;
if he fail, which can only be through his own
walusem, then every German constitutionalist will
fall back upon democracy, democracy again upon
socialism, and wo shall have the people on both sides
of the Rhine fraternising, and ehall probably see the
red flag floating on every battlement from Bayonne to
Dantzrc.
For the moment the fate of Germany is in the
hands of its princes. The people have " sent in their
resignation, and so weary and fearful are the middle
classes of prolonged convulsion, that a fair and
moderate satisfaction given to their twin desires of
constitutional liberty and national unity and indee
pendenoe would satisfy them. Unfortunately then
are deeper dissensions between these princes, wider
incompatibility of interests, greater selfishness of aims,
and perhaps more mar incapacity for political
combinstion,them were to be found even amongst the
popular parties assembled at Frankfort.
Your parties amongst these princes may be clearly
distinguished, that of Austria, that of Prussia, that of
the four minor kings, and that of the inferior princes.
Amongst them the moment, the forward, the
active power is Prussia. Its aim has been to take
advantage of all that wee sofa and sane in the revo-
lutionary movement, and by gratifying so much of
the popular aspiration for liberty, form a League, in
which Prussia meet be the head.
The aim of Austria is lees anything definite and
fixed than a desire to counteract Prussia. The events
of the last century have in reality ejected Austria, not
only from the lead in Germany, but from any great or
permanent interest in its organisation or welfare.
When France destroyed the catholiqclectorates,elevated
the greater princes to the rank of kinge, and gave
them full power over the old inarneduite noblesse,
it literally flung Austria out of Germany. And the
restoration of its old supremacy in the diet was
merely subjecting the country to a foreign and a mili-
tary despotism, which might indeed defend Germany
with its own troops, but which could not make use of
the force of German feeling and German soldiers in
a European war. The federation of 1813 was in
every sense, what it afterwards proved, organised
weakness.
But the' great dissolvent in Germany Is not so
much Austria as the minor kings. These potentates,
to whom NAPOLEON gave crowns, in order to un-
Germanise them, thereby acquired all the pretensions
of sovereign princes without either the power or the
attributes. The armies of these kings are worse than
nothing. Without national spirit, tradition, or glory,
they are nothing but as Germans, and this these;
monarchs forbid them to be. The constitution mid
civil government in these monarchies are equally
null. With the military expenses fixed by
the Diet, with the civil list equally fixed im-
Wpedim parliamentary enta control, there was nothing
e a representative chamber to debate or for a
piety le draggle about.
A eemslitution in each kingdom is a mockery.
Then kings are universally at variance with their
obinsisset held in aversion by their subjects, and in-
avails it being aught but 111arplots either in their
OM ihmdelons or in the confederation. They even
eruse of the duties nor ends of kingship ; nor
e believe that it would be in the power of the
mhitrlotic and liberal amongst them to make
either revered or beloved. The crown is to
them a ruin and a cane.
It is different with the dukes and princes. They
have not those overweening pretensions that make
them reject all idea of confederation except in the
shape of sovereign alliance; their dignity is of the
old German creation, which harmonises both with a
German representative system and with a head of the
empire. Hence, in the general effort to reconstitute
Germany after the putting down of democracy, all
the minor dukes and princes joined Prussia in
her proposal to erect a Breed based on a
representative assembly elected throughout Germany,
whilst all the kings held apart, and formed an alli-
ance and a scheme of their own. Th's scheme was
nothing lees than a repartition of Germany, its divi-
sion into seven or eight sovereign powers, and the
absorption of the minor primes into so many king-
doms. The four kings' scheme, as propounded by M.
VON DE PrOIDTEN. the Bavarian minister, and
sanctioned by Austria, was, in truth, a dissolution
not merely of the confederation but of
Germany. As, however, it was outrageously
=vs of the minor princes, and still more
of rights, their scheme was no
seem pmmriateduthan it was abandoned, and that
at a molimslia at the old diet Formed in its place.
We pbYsb Ia smother column an important demi-
wide dhows that Prussia and the Princes of
lawt roiled and repudiate this attempt at
suilefte Gems aboolatism.
A ussliestims et the old diet now would be
WI mewled anarchy. It had the appearance
of a tion and a government, when Austria
sad Prussia, united in triumph, were not hos-
tile in purpose and inflamed by open
rivalry. Now the diet would be but a scene
of straggle between them, the other princely
members obliged to side with one or the other. It
would nt not two Germany*, but three to any
natiaaal foe. For the princes, harmed and abased
by the rival pretensioos and ambition of the two
eagle*, would recur, as thry did in 1806, to Ramis,
or to France, or to some other power for protection.
And all German aims and interests would- be lost in
the struggle of dynesties,whose mutual enmity would
only hasten the hour of their joint annihilation, under
the first prevalence of Eopular power.
We repeat it, if the Osman princes will have no-
thing beyond a princely alliance or confederation,
they split and are lost. There is bat one cement of
German unity and power, and that is the popular and
representative element. It is by embracing ancu
holding this principle that Prussia, if it remain
stanch to it, must prevail. And no effort of Austria,
unless aocompanied by a similariKerPeo.Pular appeal,
can succeed at Frankfort or elsew The days
' are gone by when the attempt could be made to nor-
' glints. a great and civilised country without takieg
the people into account, consulting their inclinations,
and fulfilling, at lomat, the most prominent and urgent
of their desires.

THE EuzopA, C,aptain Lott, sailed from Liverpool
as Batsrday, far Hslifiz sad New Yoe*.

METROPOLITAN WATER SUPPLY.-1110 parlia-
mentary committee bare decided that the standing orders
ought not to be dispensed wits in the ease of this company
&Wag leave to deposit a petition fora bill Ws ostsios.