The Express.
London, England, 1852-10-16 00:00:00

16, 1852.

THE COMING BEBSION.

(Rom the Do* NAM)
AFTER to-day, Certainty will doubtless silence
Surmise; and those piquant little paragraphs which
have been floating for the last month through the
columns of newspapers headed MEETING Or PAWS,.
meta will cease to appear. The Ministerial jamas
will no longer state with unauthorised gruffness that
Parliament will positively meet on such a day I
neither will they be contradicted by their Evenisg
opponents, with the delicate vagueness that "
most will meet, we have the best authority for as-
serting, much earlier than has been stated." The
bumble purveyors of such homeopathic doses of news
will have had one source of income excised ; for atter
announcing that at the Privy Council held at Wind-
sor the assembling of the two estates of Parliament
was positively fixed by Royal command, that branch
of their occupation will be gone.
Then, however, will tho labours of scarcely mare
useful sections of the community begin in earnest.
Parliamentary agents will be busy with private rail-
way bills, which they will have to commence with
de novo; new members will practise speechifying,
and ousted members will " go down " to quick( n I
the evidences of bribery and corruption, respecting
which they have petitioned against the return of
their successful rivals. All sorts of interests will
be working, and recruiting, and humouring, and
manoeuvring, to bring up their respective forces iu
as formidable, compact, and disciplined a state as
possible. The East India interest will throng
I.eadenhall-street, to deliberate about its new char-
ter, which is to giro time for doubling its em-
pire and doubling its debt. West India interests
wifl beat up for volunteers to fight their battles for
increase of labourers for themselves, and dear sugar
fur as. Canada interests will be asking fur votes in
favour of Freo Trade with the yankeew Nova Scotian
interests will be suasive in the cars of verdant members
with promises to make a great trunk line of railway
through their entire country,—if the Imperial Parlia-
ment can only be coaxed out of a few hundred thousand
pounds. The Irish interest will aria its own brigade
with a furious artillery of threats should church
equality and tenant-right not bo guaranteed, and
should famine not bo utterly abolished by act of par-
liament—solely at the Saxon's expense. Professional
interests will prepare their assault on the CHANCEL-
Loa of the EXCHEQUER about the inequalities of the
income tax ; while the friends of publicity will prime
and load for their annual fire against the smaller
battery of advertisement duty. The cautious interests
will clamour for increased national defences; while
the advocates of rational economy will sharpen their
pruning-knives, ready to pare away the more glaring
excrescences in our profitless military expenditure.
Yet all that these various interests can at present do,
is to marshal their forces for the coming fight. They
can contrive no tactics, prepare no plan, for theirs is
an enemy whose strongholds are masked, and a foe
who fights in ambush ; who owns to no principles of
action except the principle of siding with the winner.
It was a Protectionist army before Protection was
beaten out of the field ; but now that Free Trade is
triumphant, it seeks to sneak over and to march
under free trade banners, in order to take the oppor-
tunity of another change it hopes for (but utterly in
vain), to wheel sharp round and turn its weapons
upon its new allies. "Of the restoration of Protec-
tion"—we find inscribed on the ministerial Standard
of last evening—" we have no more doubt than we
have of the return of spring and summer, and harvest
time;" but, it adds in effect, "We are not such fools as
to lose our places by being true to the principles
which made us a party, while we know that the
country is against us."
Truly there is no plan of defence or attack to be
devised against such treachery as this. All we want,
says the Protectionist oracle, is time. No doubt
when the petty larcenist desires to concoct his defence
all he wants is time. He wants time to cajole the
prosecutor, to tamper with the witnesses, or to con-
coct means of escape. The Derbyites want time to
boy over supporters, to cajole constituencies, or, fail-
ing that, to escape from Protection by sneaking away
with the projects of their predecessors, that they
may get the credit of having carried measures which
they never planned. Besides; delay means continu-
ance in office. Time, with them, is money.
We fear, therefore, that however early the day
which is named for the opening of parliament but
little will be gained to the country. The Downing-
street Fabian will take care to put on the drags in
addition to the very slow start that every new
parliament necessarily makes. Before the QUEEN'S
Speech can be uttered several days must be consumed
in swearing in new members. A contest for the
Speakership is not anticipated; neither is it doubted
that Mr. Witsors PATrEN will be quietly installed
Chairman of Ways and Means—thanks to the un-
pardonable ingratitude of the borough of Rochester,
which deprived the country of the veteran
services of Mr. BERNAL. Then, when business
really begins, the time of the legislature will be
consumed in discussing and arranging the details of
the funeral of the departed Duke of WELLINGTON.
That due and respectful deliberation should
be given to the preliminaries of the melancholy dot,
which England has imposed upon herself, no one
will deny ; but that it should be—as we suspect it
will be—used u a stalking-horse to enable ministers
to walk over the preliminary session; that ministers
should be allowed, like undertakers, to make a job of
it, with which to swell their time-bill,—ice not only to
be questioned, but to be resisted. The question of
how our great and revered hero shall be consigned
to his last resting-place, is not one that can involve
the Cabinet in a breach of that silence and of that
erastination with which theybave hithertodelndsdW
public. But they must be made to understand that tic
interests we have named, and other great intesenis
which we have not named, cannot wait beyond the
sufficient and proper time necessary for arranghg,
the mearnful ceremony. One of two things meet is
insisted en. We must have during the euau
short session either the future policy of the BERM
Government or its resignation. The fiscal, commer-
cial, social, sanitary interests of the country must no
longer be impeded by uncertainty and doubt. As to
Protection, it is dad, effete, passed away, never gam
to return to vitality. The word itself is
worn out, and has dropped into the uttermost
depths of boredom. As thing can come to
life again, it is of no earthly conaequenos what Lord
DEIST, or Lord DEISIT'S followers, or his farmers,
or Tory orators or Tory newspapers may say or write
about it. Any further advocacy of Protection has at
this time minion influence upon public opinion or
on the operations of commerce than an subme li on
alchemy, on the is atone, or JOHANNA
BOUTHOOTE. e can afford to allow our present
rulers to be as dumb as they please upon that subject ;
but what we ars impatient for is a statement of how
—whilst carrying out Free Trade,—the beneficial pro.
grass of which they can no more impede than they can
stem the tide of the Atlantio—they intend to govern
the country. We want to know whether they con-
template dabbling with the currency; how they in-
tend to deal with the criminal and ignorant masses
of the population ; how they propose to re-distribute
the buithens of taxation; what they contemplate
&beg with the franchise? Considering the time
thy heMe bees in office the country cannot be coma-
dosed mrameseable in demanding immediate in-
humation on these topics at the earliest opportunity
tie mournful duty first in hand will admit of. The
may, we think, reasonably object to the
sad immoveable system of government now
111 knot say *sot to being governed, in short, by a
isms PaNdssi Dummies and ?dates.

WEST RIDING PARLIAMENTARY REVISION.—Tho
revision of the lists of voters foe this important division of
the county of York, for the present /ear was completed no I
Thursday last. The lists for the !Ripka polling districts
were the last revised. The revising hamsters by whom
the lists have been revised are Messrs. Boothby, Temple,
and Iliarikard. The secretary of the eentral committee.
Mr. Themes Plint, makes up a tabular statement, which
Mein a meyelear idea of the nal gain or lees of the parties. It
AMPS the number of new claims made, struck off, and
mmigiesd ; also the number of names on the old list ex-
Meng rot revering ng barrister tore in
ing . thillunnader-mted uneLtironteht
loss ha seek I i sVe i indicated.and
account
aiel,__eranl ordiunplair.
cane, either in the number of new claims, or of names ex-
punged bees the lid list; the Mall or loss, therefore, is so
Wifindleidand oats*. The returns from many of the
digitises lave not yet reached the secretary, and
there ore his table is not complete ; but, as far as it goes, it
shows a gain for the liberal party. The net liken[ gain in
the following districts is :—Aberford, 1; Barnsley, 43;
Bintal, 83; Bradford. 41; Halifax, 119; Knareaborough,
30; Pontefract, 3; Sheffield, 88; Snaith 17—total, 418
votes. The tories have gained in the following districts :
Hebtlen-bridge, 2; Leeds, 6; New Dolph, 30; Ripon, 4
total, 42 votes. The returns for the other digt4ti will be
forthcoming in s few days.