The Express.
London, England, 1868-10-23 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, FRIDAY E'

was Southern in its sympathies, and heariosiad lead
with the secessionists and sleveowners, it should
not be forgotten that Liverpool is by the einem-
stances and conditions of its trade; by the Alai:ea
clianuter of its population, almost as much en
American ns an English city ; and that in the Ame-
rican civil war it was Now York, Baltimore, and
New Orleans all in one. Liverpool traders have
rarer cowed for the reputation of squeamishness
in the choice of their customers, and tho Mersey
being the great entreysA of the staple of the
Southern States it was inevitable that the clamour
of Southern partizanship should seem to propondo-
rate over the calmer voices of a few of the staunchest
and ablest champions of the North. To Liver-
root in fact, loon• than to any other English city,
though to all England more or less, the American
civil war was a family quarrel, in which it was very
difficult not to take aides. Without an excessive
stretch of indulgence, therefore, it may be per-
mitted to Liverpool men, now that the civil war is
over, to shake hands in the presence and under the
auspices of a Minister of the United States, who
has declared himself as strong a hater of
slavery as any abolitionist, and who is at
once a faithful Unionist in his own country
and a generous friend to England. If it requires
some moral courage in this distinguished man to
set the example of forgiving and forgetting,
and to look stodfastly to the lasting interests
of the two countries, it requires no moral
courage at all, but simply common sense in
Englishmen of all parties to second his disinte-
rested efforts. There is a gentle shade of not un-
kindly sarcasm in a sentence of the written reply
of Mr. BEVERLY JOHNSON to the Chamber
of Conanereas—" Accept my thanks . . . for the
" friendly feeling which you entertain for the
" people of the 'United States. That tide
•• latter feeling should be indulged in, now that the
•' unity of my (loocrunient is established beyond the
" hazard of further interruption, is not to
"be tronekrol at." Evidently Mr. JULINSON has
taken the measure of Liverpool morality and
sounded the depths of its disiuterestodness.
In a single sentence he has drawn a per-
fect picture of both. Liverpool has never
sr,:rsbipped the Unknown God. The twin deities
to which all her altars flame were always lucre
and success ; and whether the lucre came
from slaves or from the emancipators of slaves
fruit slavcboldcrs or abolitionists was
not so much as an afterthought. It was in
the order of nature that the Alabama aboutl hail
from a river that had sent out many slave-ships.
But these are bygones. And Mr. Loup has set
with coals of tire on his head at the b:u►yuot at
which the represeutative of the American Union
was hailed with congratulating cheers in the
screen of its ambassador. If Mr. Joimsos's
language was frank and cordial, it is plea=ant
to do justice to the unexceptionable tone
of the FuREIGN SECRETARY'S speech in res-
ponding to the toast of "Her MAJESTY'S
•• Jlinisters.•' There is no denying that if some
members of the Tory (perhaps we ought to
add of the old 'Whig) party have much
to answer for in their conduct and behaviour
during the American civil war, Mr.
DISRAELI and Lord STANLEY have earned by
their discretion during that terrible crisis, the
right to approach the present negotiations
with the Government at Washington, with
the great advantage of having nothing in thoir
own past words or actions to retract or to regret.
No Liberal will grudge Lord STaxiiv the well-
deserved honour of having " settled," as he says,
" those questions which are still pending between
" the two countries, and thereby thrown over the
" last chanco•of difference, and the last pretext for
" a quarrel."

q mania her so. relket)a.enoulei. dot. the
.. mug 1* ON* these alete are lisle_soillPel
" the eta. Now; of course It !would Set %stair to
" lay the blame of all the ditattotiona aadrivalriee
" &ataxia within the field of practkal nativity at
" the door of the Established Church. , (Brew,
" hear.) Part of tho blame must lie against goo-
" tarianism. (Hear, hoar.)" An important point is
gained when preachers are able to take this outside
view.

OUR CONTEMPORARIES.
(THIS DAY.)

Leaving the merely personal question between
Mr. Mill and Mr. Bouverie to the arbitrament of the An-
ton of Kilmarnock, tho Deily New admits without re-

serve that liberal

Live no clearer

duty before them than to avoid in the choice of
the new parliament the errors which they made in
the election of the old. The louse of Commons,
which is now expiring, contained on the liberal benches
a large number of persons who were elected simply as the
supporters of Lord Palmerston, and who, in coulee of
time, assumed the character of independent members.
Their adhesion was given to an individual, and not to a
principle, and as men die, while principles remain, their
party allegiance ended with Lord Pahnarston's life. In
some quarters there appears to be a grange belief that
there is a virtue in the phra.so "independent member,"
that it expresses not merely the fact of neutrality
between conflicting parties, and independence of po-
litical oiganisations, but a moral superiority, a
higher degree of conscientiousness, a greater devo-
tion to principle. The phrase "independent member"
does not, however, properly express a moral quality, any
more than the phrase " independent minister " does. They
both cowry; only the fact of nonconformity, political or
religions. One thing is clear; and that is, that a man has
no bwiness to adopt a party-name, and to mats use of a
;warty-organisation, in order to gain a position in which he
will straightway affect to be independent of party ties.
If the words "party" and "leader" are not to be discarded
from the political vocabulary, the assumed superiority of
" inclejendent " members must be exploded. The idea
proceeds on a verbal juggle; and the fact that it is pos-
sible to conjure with the ambiguity shows how easy it is
to pay fools with the countcrs of words instead of with the
money of thought.