The Express.
London, England, 1862-08-08 00:00:00

91011 W4lllll AT_ IMIDOII_ 114,0011.

THIS on. 4..51
To-mosikar—llorsilig, lb 106.. AtbasiaU. Eft.

LONDON, FRIDAY, AUGUST 8.

Tin SPIECH from the foot of the Throne with
which Ministers have obtained permission to close
the legislative year of 1862, reads like an inge-
nious attempt to give historic substance to the
shadow of a Session. DULCAMARA and PANOLO&S
are delighted with the retrospect; for, according
to the newest doctrine, the perfection of a Parlia-
ment is • Parliament that sits six months and does
nothing. What if nothing has been done to
modify the gross and glaring inequalities of
the income tax T Lord PaLetsiorrox re-
joices that an Act has been passed under
which two Irish pints will henceforth and for
ever be equal to one Imperial quart. All the
main features of the scheme of Educational Re-
form with which the country was agitated through-
out the whole of last recess have been abandoned
in deference to the Minister's Tory supporters;
but then his Liberal adherents are amused with the
tune on the old drum about the general advan-1
tages of promoting an object of so much national
importance. Reform of county expenditure and
county rates has not even been broached during
the Session ; but there has been a nibble at
the great network of abuse connected with the
neglect to repair highways, in consequence of
which twenty millions of people are gravely
assured that they will be certain to see more
of one another ere long. The great
staple of manufacturing industry has for many
months been paralysed ; tens of thousands of in-
dustrious citizens have been brought to the verge
of want ; and hundreds of thousands may, ere an-
other Session comes, be reduced to urgent need,
through the indirect' effect of what cannot be
truly described as leas than a national calamity.
Yet until within the last ten days our easy-going
Government and Legislature could not find time
to think of so vulgar a matter; and when they did
pretend to provide for the sorest and most im-
perative need of a too forbearing people, they
could hit upon nothing better, in their haste to be
off to the moors, than to give the localities con-
tiguous in distress the miserable alternative of
taxing each other mutually, or of mortgaging their
heavily burdened resources, each one for its own
necessities. Of • truth it may be said of
Mr. Arnmass's Bill, in the words of Arch-
biihop WHAM; that it was to " offer a hungry
" dog a piece of his own tail." No question
touching religious liberty in any shape has been
stirred since February. The redundant wrong
of the Church establishment in Ireland, which
Lord Pautzasron and most of his colleagues
have again and again declared to be insufferable,
has remained untouched ; and Church-rates on this
side of the Channel continue to be levied in cer-
tain parishes, and successfully resisted in others,
to the infinite scandal of religion, and no small
injury to social peace.

But the Carlton Club rejoices that its will is
paramount in the Cabinet ; and lest there should
be any doubt among the uninitiated as to what
influences uppermost in the Administration, Mr.
DIBIUALT has taken a recent opportunity of congra-
tulating the party of reaction that the principle,
of Church ascendancy has once more been acknow-
ledged by a majority in Parliament. In the
Ministerial parade of measures two are carefully
forgotten—the Corrupt Practices Act and the
Night Poaching Bill. Session after session we
were told that a new and comprehensive measure
would be introduced to cut down the overgrowth
of venality and violence at elections, and year
after year the pompous promise was evaded
on one flimsy pretence or another. At last
the skeleton of a remedial law was laid upon the
table, and there it was suffered to lie week after
week without the semblance of an attempt to
supply the absence of any real self-moving or self-
sustaining principle of action, by the substitution of
some mechanical process. There it lay till the eve
of prorogation drew nigh--a seat-purchasing House
of Commons desiring nothing better than to see it
treated with lazy neglect by those who had loosely
put it together. Their honest instincts told
them that from it no obstruction to the repe-
tition of mal-practices at elections could prac-
tically come, and that it would furnish a con-
venient excuse for not adopting something better
next year. So without modification or discussion
this egregious sham has been added to the Statute-
book of 1862. Of the Poaching Bill It is only news-
saryto remark, that it could never lavaboes carried
had not the Parise MiNtrrns preferred to !gratify
his staunch supporters in opposition, rather than
to listen to the rem:mere:nee of his &bombed 00l-

leagues and despised adherents on the Government
ad% and that when charged with having defaulted,
he • replied only by laughing in the Noe of his
supporta% and asking whether he should not have
been • fool for his pains had be stayed out of
his bed to do his duty.

The Arnica takeia wide survey of oar imaign
r.elations, and has • word to say about ova/ moo
awl tribe that happens to be in commotlialk front
Ike dwellers by the waters of the WisearipAr:
diem at SI labial of the Yang-tee Along, A
smAio• paragraph admit. the agreement of the
Uhlted Males is • treaty which yields
as all that we ever WM* ph.
down the slave trade, and hopes it may

be of some use ; as if we had nevirpreued titre
point as the one thing needful
.11 tall fistaksucftril
of our national policy, or declaimed eacktedly
about the concession having been too long de-
layed. Adherence to strict neutrality between
North and South in the civil war is, however,
again solemnly reiterated, and in the face of such
a declaration we presume the hardiest intriguer on
behalf of the proposed Slave Republic will scarcely
venture to resume his importunities for recogni-
tion or intervention. We are, it appears, at war
with one-half the people of China, and in alliance
offensive and defensive with the other. Throughout
the Session the fact of our having a fourth Chins
war upon our hands was always gravely denied by
Lord Patocaturrow. But it would seem that when-
ever an air of gravity is put on by the merry
Primus, it is only to give a more pungent con-
treat to the fun that is sure to follow ; and accord-
ingly the Session is not allowed to close without a
loud laugh at the credulityof those poor hard-driven
hacks whoo up to the day before yesterday, did
think beet to believe that all the exploits of our
soldiers and sailors in China were acts of peace,
and non-interference. The broadest joke of all is
the sentence in which, after thanking the Com-
mons for their lavish grants of money for " indis-
" pensable works of national defence" against
powerful continental allies, the representatives of
the affrighted nation are coolly told thpt our Go-
vernment is on the best terms with every other in
Christendom, and that there does not appear the
slightest reason to apprehend that the general
peace will be disturbed.