The Express.
London, England, 1849-05-12 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, SATURDAY EVENING, MAY 12, 1849.

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LONDON, SATURDAY, MAY 12.

As a general rale we •prove of the maxim by
which Col. THOMPSON, MEWS. EDWARD ELLICE,
Mowarr, and some other liberal members of the House
of Commons, appear to have been guided in their vote
upon Mr. DRUMMOND'S motion. When it is proposed
to go into committee of the whole house on resolu-
tions, which the forms of the house only allow to be
entertained in that manner, and when the resolutions
raise a comprehensive discussion calculated to promote
an important reform, we would not curiously inquire
who is the mover or what he proposes. Let us have
the debate and make the most of it to ripen public

opinion, and advance practical measures.
On the present occasion, however, we cannot, after
the most searching and dispandenate examination it
hes been in our power to bestow upon the proceedings of
Thursday evening, say that we question the judgment
of the independent liberals who moved and supported
the previous question on Mr. Datratmomp's motion.
The benevolent and ingenious, but flighty mover, did
his best to present the question in the most unprac-
tical form of which It was susceptible, and lead the
hones into a wild-goose chime, by the miscellaneous
and irrelevant topi w which he associated with it. The
motives and objects on both sides—both among those
who were prepared to support, and those who were
prepared to oppose the motion—were so contradictory
that any discussion in committee would, of neces-
sity, have been a mere aggregate of incoherent
monologues. Much time would have be en
consumed, and while any practical result
was obviously impossib:e, there was little or
no chance of Sr y important principle being illustrated
or supported with due weight For once we are
compelled reluctantly to admit that such a motion as
Mr. DRUMMOND'S was fairly and advantageously met
by moving the previous question.
We concur with Mr. CosnEtr, in the opinion he
expressed tt that the honourable member for Surrey
had done some service by introducing the question.
Mr. DRUMMOND gave utterarce in his opening speech
to many bold and valuable truths; nor do we agree
with these who saw, or fenced or alleged
they saw, nom-thing of undue levity in his mode
of treating the subject. The imputed levity of Mr.
DRUMMOND was that bitter irony in which generees
and sensitive minds often find the only adequate ex-
I pression of deep and serious emotion. Such seeming
levity tells more home at times on candid and reflect-
ing minds than solemn efforts at pathos. Not a few
of the reflections thrown out by Mr. DRUMMOND will
take hold on the public mind, and bear their fruits in
due season.
If there was improper levity displayed in any
quarter in the course of the debate, it was by the
CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER, in the trite per-
nfiage by which he intimated his utter hostility to the
motion. And it is no slight triumph for the aivo-
c Ars of a Marching and systematic revision of our
financial system, that Sir CHARLES WOOD, with all
hie obvious desire to pooh-pooh and negative the pro-
posal, was obliged to acquiesce in the previous ques-
tion. In a house of 255 members, 102 support, d the
principle of Mr. DRUMMOND'S motion, and 153 did
not oppose it—the most able and earnest speakers of
the majority avowing their approbation of the prin-
ciple.
It does appear to us that this result renders it in-
cumbent open these members of the House of Com-
mons who aim at a thorough reform of our financial
system not to allow the session to close without again
raising the question in some less objectionable form. It
is their duty, after the vote of Thursday night, to take
the opinion of the house on a well digested and com-
prehensive proposal for reducing expenditure in all de-
partment. of executive government, for making coy-
respondinF reductions in the amount of taxation, and
for initiating a system by which direct taxation shall
u timately come to be substituted altogether, or to •
very great extent, for indirect taxation. They may,
they almost certainly will, be outvoted ; but they
I have good reason to expect such support as will
I show the country that, even with a legislature conceit
tuted like the present, this inestimable reform is not
unattainable. The discussion will &lighten public
opinion, and their proposal will become a rallying
point for financial reform associations throughout the
country. It is most undesirable that the session should
be allowed to close without pre paring such matter for
discussion and agitation during the Neese.

ANOTHER Irish bishopric is vacant, and if we had
the gift of discerning among tory spirits, we should
be enabled to delight some turbulent or intriguing
dance that his hour Wile come, wherein he shoatd be
rewarded according. to his works, and given for the
residue of his days increased power of doing mischief.
After the late nomination to the see of Down,
I
any-
thing is believable, for it is manifest that anything
in that line is bearable by the meek and forgiving
public. The kirk a may have their griefs, but they
are pretty sure of their consolations. Tne wh'gs are not
ready to give them the box-seat just now ; but there is
no objection to their seizing on half tie inside teats.
If there be conflict of claims between personal fitness
and unfitness, there is all the better opportunity for
evincing generosity towards the weak and the un-
worthy ; and thus, as we have seen, the worst tory
going is the most likely man to get a good thing.
But the field is wide, and in the asinine race there
are numerous competitors. There are fanatics and
tellablea beneath the surplice, there are drones and
there ere bigots. Every noble family, moreover, has
its "Hon. and Reverend" connexions to wine
the community ; and the recent multi-
7ic:tion of unearned honours in one lordly
house shows that they who already have
most are the likeliest to get more. Men of talent
don't so much require preferment. They can live or
starve, as the case may be, without it. As for ple-
beians, they never knew what opulence or honour
was. Institutions like the established church in Ire-
land were designed as a means of providing for the
inferior branches of the aristocracy—the dull, the is.'
debted, the despicable ; and it is used accordingly.
For our parts, we don't see why the government
should not look out for another KNOz nitre has ge-
nerally been a couple of that ilk under the episcopal
canopy, as well as a couple of BERESPORDS, and
TOTTENHAM, and TRENCHES. One of • kind
looks exceptional and accidental; but two of
the same stock and of equal unfitness in the same
rank and function, tells its own tale, and makes men
of intellect, learning, eloquence, and worth, udder-
rand distinctly that the honours and emoluments of
their calling are really not intended for them, espe-
cially if they be of ignoble birth or liberal opinions.
For advancement without merit there is nothing
like a tory name and connexions. Even whig peers
are net always so sure of advancing their impotent
or ill-conditioned kinsmen. Many importunate,
were in Ireland when Down and Connor
fell vacant, but to none came the mitre
save to the tory deputy of the absentee prelate
of Limerick,—the brother of the tory Earl of RAN-
triux, the protégé and connexion of the tory Earl
of CLARE. Here was a combination of attractions
that proved. irreistible. 111-natured people whis-
pered it was a fine stroke of administrative dip'o-
snag ; rather a scandalous, but oh ! hovi clever a
bit of finesse i—votes in the upper house we e likely
to be valuab'e; and the division list on the Naviga-
tion Bill would explain all. For ourselves we never
imputed designs so simoniacal to the partite con-
cerned. Our theory of the Irish chutch did not
require any such reficement in the arts of
corruption. We never expeited any change
either appa-ent or real in the political
conduct of these who were to have offices, titles, and
revenues, heaped upon them. And the result has
therefore in no degree disappointed us. In the list
of those who voted for the repeal of the Navigation
Bill neither the same of Lord ItairettLY nor Lord