The Express.
London, England, 1864-11-08 00:00:00

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Talwr, must be at the °Mee, 10, Bouvene-street, by Two
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HAYMARKET.

Irrirrn. THE WIND.—THE
STRANGER. Memo. Howe, Farrar,. Chlppendele, Compton, and
Mon.!, . Nleuloraea Fleatrlea and [eclat.—ON THE SLT. Ur.
Buckstwoe.—ind OUR MARY ANNE. Mr. Clarke.

PRINCESS 3.

1111q1k7f!!MIG. BORN TO GOOD LUCK Mr. IT Murray.
Rua 11115 STRES.C4 ill, LONDON. Messrs. Vining, J. W. Ray,
D. Fisher, D. Murray, J. Nelson, H. Forrester, and R. Mellon :
Mrs 11. 11.11114):), Mums Barnett and Gwynn..

LYCEUM,

Trill Erarma, NUC,EY CUICk. WKIED. —And Till KINGS
BUr: FLY. Mew,. Fechter, Ryder, Widdicomb, Charlee,
What re, Raymond, Clltford, Collett; kisses C. Leclereq,
M. D. tirade, E. Lavenn, and B. Larch:.

narrAN N Lt.
TIU! EYENDIO, TILE SIOTIIEIYS DYING CTIILD. Mrs. S.
Lane.—Slnglng by M. Albert Steele and Hdlle. Donti.—And
cArrAt N JOHN LUClL—Ccmmence at Cl.

1111311 WATER AT LON'DON.RRIDGE.
T 879 DAT Mnrnulg, FA. Aiternoon, Fh. 51m.
I v-110lit2OW Morning. fib. 31m....Aliernoon, 10h. Sm.

LONDON, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 8.

TUE United Kingdom Alliance may indulge the
confidence that when it again comes before Par-
liament it will be treated with common civility.
Its next bill will not be spat upon by a rampant
demagogue, uor snuffed out by a supercilious
minister. From the language of our more reflective
weekly contemporaries we gather that the reso-
lution recently announced by its leaders is causing
that amount of alarm among our governing classes
without which, as we are so often told, it is un-
reasonable to expect any great legislative change.
The members of the Alliance are going to ask all
candidates at the next election whether they will
support the Permissive Bill, and to vote or not vote
accordingly. it is not imagined that the country
generally will be carried away with enthusiasm for
their measure, or that the body is strong enough to
return representatives by the votes of its own
members. But there are many constituencies in
which a compact and resolute minority, comprising,
let us say, an eighth or a tenth of the electors,
has the decision of • contest in its hands. It is
foreseen that in such cases the determination of
the members of the Alliance to consider nothing in
the bestoa al of their votes but their favourite
dogma may lead either to their entire abstention
from the poll, the result of which their votes
would ba sufficient to decide, or to the acceptance
of the Permissive Bill by one or both of the can-
didates.

The Liberal candidates are those who are espe-
cially lia!,'i• to be affected by the determination
proclaimed by the Alliance; the good old party of
Port and prejudice being in no danger of depart-
ing from the ancient ways. Nothing can be more
ludicrous than the consternation of our lavender-
gloved contemporaries who cultivate an tosthetic
and epicurean liberalism at the eight of a prospect
so dismal. Here is a question which was neither
hatched in a Government office, nor excogitated
in the haunts of fastidious doctrinaires, but
has actually risen, ghost-like, de profinklis,
from the misery of the people. No mere debating
society topic this, no theme to be handed over with
a smile to accomplished Saturday essayists. Ho
who can Thom us how to banish drunkenness from
this land udl do more for Old England than if he
bad sunk the fleet of our proudest rival or paid off
the national debt.

Political Dundrearyism, surprised and an-
noyed, exclaims, "This will never do." Its first
thought—or rather its first impulse, which it in-
dulges whit, it gains time to think—is to declare'
that the iimrstion is not " political," and therefore
not a proper one to be introduced to the notice of
the electors. _1 notable objection, truly, to come
from a piirty which has done its very beat to
emasculate politic; and make it the hollow, un-
principled, rotten thing it nowia—a miserablegame,
from which men are feeling that they must
retire out of sheer self-respect. This question, at
least, has soul in it ; a distressful soul no doubt,
not at all respectable as it lifts its hands and
shows .cud bleeding wounds ; a bewilderedsoul,
to be licarci with pity as it moans and cries, rather
than to be taken into counsel for its wisdom, but
for all that a true human soul. What have
politics, as Whig, Tory, and Radical have shaped
them in tl.is latter half of the nineteenth century,
to do with so indecorous and obtrusive an appari-
tion Truly nothing but to demand the certi-
ficate of its baptism and the testimony of two re-
spect:6.le householders, failing which to declare it
" and hid it go its ways.

But tin: resolution of the Alliance him been
considered .inder another aspect. It is found—
and mind: • inaile of the discovery—that its deter-
in.plies the "coercion "of the candidate.
We ar, .:.r accestomed to trifle with our readers,
and we 4n: them that it has been seriously argued
by jonroa..it-, who would be indignant if their libe-
ralkin were called in question, that the resolution
of electer. to vote only for men who hold their
principles has been stir natised as coercion. The
theory appears to be that the candidate is to ar-
rive on the scene with what opinions and profes•
alone he pleases, and that the benighted herd, who
by some legislative slip have become possessed of
electoral rights which they do not know how
to exercise, are to recognise in him a
superior spirit whom they should be ashamed to
trouble with their questions. Electors who
have any adequate sense of their responsibility
usually give their votes to those whose political