The Express.
London, England, 1864-02-23 00:00:00

Vie eniirtoo.

TO CORE PONDERS.

alverlltementa Intended for The I:pram" Loudon Mende(
=slut be at the Mire, 10, Boevetiretreet, be Two
am the de,e of pubilostka.

onvs.w4Azazar.

TVNIIDIO. SUE STOOPS TO. CONQUER. Yews.
W. H. Wela, H. Cowl. G. Pere. mad W. Herrlion Wlesee I
sad A. Hiles.—Coodeeter. Mr. A. Welke—AM the epees(
of IT. GIUSA4 AND Ttli DAAGON.—Commenee at 7.

HATYLA REIT.

CVIIIIIIO, A KIM IN THE DARK.--BHE STOOPS TO
CONQUER. Mr. Suckmase ead Mile Angel —L.LND ME FIVE
SHILLINGS. Mr. Beeketooe.—And LING ARTHUR. Mr.
Compton ; Mesdames L Leek% Wright. Undley, Limner.

P4LINCNOML

TNZPsna, PAUL'S iiiii7EN7 X..n. Nelson,
Mbar, Fonester,llellou, tle,lce, Cathcart Newham Narita%
C. Cams, Powe'.. and Kate Raville.—And HARLEQUIN
LIITLZ TOM TUCKER.

LYCZIYIL.

Tits Rraiinta, TIN LZe3T CHILD. Mr. Wlddleomb and
Was P. ledercq —DLL DILIIONIO, • lone Story. Maus.
Nate. Bronzh.tm, Emery, Charles, and Jordan , Mem
Sate Tani, !Avenue, and Minna', and Mrs. La.

RIUTAIIILL

TIIIII Rvensd. TRH OITTC4ITTS. Mesdames Yarnold and
Mtlea—And HICKORY. HICKORY, DOCK_ Mesdames S.
Lane and W. Crautord—Ftritssta Pantomnalsts—Arthar and
Bertrand—The Flury roantabh

HIGH WAIT.* AT LONDON =DM
170 DAT 'Amnia& Th. Hat .. .Altareass. HA ANA.
Iragaluiow— Hondo& 311. 14ra...••Aftrisel. Sh. 2"Am.

LONDON, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 23.

Tee Commons are getting angry. to one who
has visited those noble specimens of the animal
creation in the Regent's-park half an hour before
feeding time, can forget the sudden stir of the poor
cribbed monarchs of plain and mountain from the
weary torpor of the dull unchanging round of day
and night. That is the moment to see the lions
and the tigers to advantage ; justbefore the keeper
comes with the raw meat on his prong. Without
any disrespectful comparisons, it may fairly be
suggested to straneers visiting London at this dull
time of year that about five of an evening the
House of Commnus is a tolerably excit4-1g scene.
We speak of the first three weeks of the
present session, for any afternoon these four years
past a chance visitor to St. Stephen's, zoologically
disposed, would have found the faithful Commons
stretched in repose, staring, sleeping, satisfied,
roaring no louder than a purr, or licking the
keeper's band as if they had neither teeth nor ap-
petite to make a meal, even of the most provoking
of Under-Secretaries. Government has discovered
a simple process for arousing the fiercer in-
stincts of this too docile collection of Parliamental;
carnivore. A fifth session, it is true, is at West-
minster veli much what three o'clock p.m. is ;"
the Regent's-park. But what do you say to starv-
ing honourable gentlemen at feeding time I
dangling a huge batch of Danish papers before their
noes for three mortal weeks, and tantalizing them
day after day, famished and furious, with polite
little jocose excuses, with regrets and apologies for
the delay required to get 600 pages printed and
revised, and assurances that the greediest
member will be satisfied, so voluminous
are the papers forthcoming i The House of
Commons is naturally hungry for these Danish
papers, and we know that in the humanest of
beings even moderate hunger is apt to be croes-
tempered, and famine is but one remove from
cannibalism. Ministers tempt Providence when,
for the sake of indulging the public with a
" scene," they wilfully torment and stimulate so
tidal a passion; and when an Under-Secretary
offers an " instalment " he might as well thrust
his arm into the lion's cage.
The truth is, the House has met this year in a
restive and unruly temper. Members have come
up from the country charged with the anxious die.
gust and dissatisfaction at the present aspect of'
public affairs which is keenly felt and more than
muttered wherever two or three Englishmen come
together even for private and social converse.
Doubtless there is also the foretaste of their own
approaching dissolution to rouse and irritate the
sluggish consciences of many legislators, who for
five pleasant years have laughed every responsi-
bility away, and bargained with the Tempter for
ease and quiet at the cost of truth and duty.
But apart from the natural " fright" which one
speaker ingenuously confessed lest evening, there
is, it cannot be denied, ample excuse for the
growing irritation and impatience of the House of
Commons, and an admirable field for the ma-
nceuvres and tactics of the leaders of au eager
and not over-scrupulous Opposition. Parliament
has now been sitting three weeks, and up to this
moment it knows uo more of what the Government
has done or is doing, as an unsuccessful mediator,
or, as Mr. Gterwroxr phrases it, a "friendly by-
stander,"between Denmark and Germany, than Mr.
R Err es and the correspondents of foreign newspapers
have taught them. The House of Commons is not an
assembly of beings removed from the passions and
foibles of humanity ; it is a body of Englishmen
moved by the average impulses of honour,
patriotism, pride, curiosity, self-interest. When
there is a vague unquiet consciousness in men's
minds that England is suffering loss of honour and
credit froth the wilful obscurity in which her policy
is shrouded, and from the suspicions that an
obscure and uncertain policy creates, the House of
Commons could exist no longer, except se a bureau
of bills and taxes, if it did not give a voice
to that sullen moral anguish of the nation. That a
Government should deem it enough to hope that
the whole of the papers which are to disperse •
cloud of calumnious accusations, or to commit the
country to irreparable engagements, and perhaps
to inexpiable errors, will be ready next week,
betrays a laxity in the conduct of public affairs,
and the relations between the Ministry and the