The Express.
London, England, 1867-02-16 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, SATURDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 16, 1867.

be more unjust or unfair to the Church of Eng-
land in the colonies than, while she is denied the
advantages which she might have derived from her
connexion with the State, to fetter her with the
restrict* which belong to her condition in
England where she is established. " Their lord-
" ships must take care how they gave any autho-
" rity to the mother Church over her daughters."
These truths lie on the surface of the case, but it
seems they need reiteration. We can all sympa-
thise with the Bishop of Loxeom's anxiety that
the colonial church should not separate front the
Church of England ; but the connexion must
be maintained in a spiritual, and nit
in a legal or political manner. No one
can tell what extraordinary features may
be developed in the Church at home from
year to year while innovating parties are more
active and audacious than ever, and all authority
is in abeyance. Nor is it to be expected that the
col 1 churches will consent to be bound to
accept the result of this excitement, whatever
that may be. But, as Lord TAUNTON pointed
out, a striking instance of stability in a volun-
tary church is furnished by the Protestant
Episcopal Church of the United States, which
has not in any material point of dcPctrine
departed from the standards of the Church of
England, from which it sprang. The lesson to
he drawn from all this is, that where no real
authority can be exercised it is best frankly to recog-
nise a freedom which is as salutary as it is inevitable.
The colonial churches of whatever denomination
must and will manage their own affairs. Their
wants will naturally draw them toward/Ith° Church
at home, from which they have so much to gain,
and un the interchange of offices of friendship
will he found a truer and firmer bond of union than
the license of the Crown er the judgments of the
l'rivy Council.

WE hear that the Government, not recog-
nising the required merit in any of the plans
which have been furnished for the National
Gallery, have resolved to set aside all the compe-
titors, and hand over the work to an architect
who has not furnished any plan. It is difficult
to believe that any such injustice is contemplated,
hut even more difficult to set aside the indications
of the intention which roach us. A moment's con-
sideration will show how unfair such a determina-
tion would be to the competing architects. These
gentlemen were invited by the Office of Works
to prepare designs, and have spent upon
them an amount of time and money which
nothing but the prospect of getting the work
as their prize would have induced them to
lay out. Some of them have spent in this way
two and three times as much money as the
office allows for the expense of the drawings.
No reason can be shown for setting all these gen-
tlemen aside, and any injustice done to them
would be done gratuitously. It may very well be
that none of the designs now exhibited are suit-
able. It does not, however, follow that the fault
is entirely that of the architects. But let that be
as it may, it is ono thing to reject the designs,
another to set aside their authors. The Govern-
ment, acting as trustee of the public, is bound
to take care that, in return for its money,
it shall have such a Gallery as it wants. This,
however, can be secured without being guilty of a
breach of faith with the ten gentlemen who have
competed. There is scarcely one of them who is not
thoroughly competent to build such a Gallery as
would meet the public requirements ; and if
one of the number were chosen, and the work
entrusted to him, they would have nothing of
which to complain. But to set them all aside,
to declare them all unfit for such a work, would
be more than injustice, it would be an outrage,
most injurious to them professionally, and by the
sense of wrong which it would inspire would in all
probability prevent men of merit from competing
in future, and leave the construction of our public
buildings to be henceforth awarded by the favour of
departments. For the credit of the country we
trust that if any such intention has been enter-
tained for a moment it will be immediately aban-
doned.

OUR CONTEMPORARIES.
(THIS DAY.)

The Times, though urging the Irish government
to be active and vigilant, says, notwithstanding, it does
not believe that there exist in Ireland the materials for
anything worthy the name of insurrection. There will never
again be an Irish rebellion, nor will the Queen's authority
be for a moment endangered. But local outrage there
may be, and this it is the duty of the government to guard
against.
The blindest partisan of the administration, the Times
rays, cannot but acknowledge now the perilous character
of the mistake perpetrated by Mr. Disraeli in his reticence
on Monday, and if he does not wish to alienate perma-
nently those whose desire to see the reform question set-
tled is strong enough to induce them to support the go-
vernment in a sincere attempt to settle it, be must forth-
with abandon the role of mystery, and state with the ut-
most precision what the administration is prepared to do.
The next week must make or mar the fate of the ministry.
The papers respecting the Tornado, the parliamentary
representation of the landed interest, and the church
policy of the Italian government, are among the subjects
diseased by the MI News. In the ease of the Tornado
the Daily News pronounces the conduct of the British
authorities throughout the transaction to have been
marked with equal propriety and dignity. They have urged
nothing but the right of the owner of the vessel to an
immediate and impartial trial, and of the seamen to be
I set at liberty as soon as their testimony was obtained•
The error of the Foreign-office has only been that of an
excess of patience.
The Ilerald gathers from Mr. Lowe's preface that the
right hon. gentleman has a scheme for solving the ditti•
cult; of safely reducing the borough franchise, and hopes
he will give parliament and the country the opportunity
of examining it.
The Star hopes and expects that the meeting of the
liberal party, which is to take place next Thursday, will
end in a definite declaration against the expediency of
proceeding to discuss the reform resolutions.

make a discussion on them of any use. The ministry most
be asked to explain, enlarge, and define them ; bat this
demand need not be preferred in a hostile spirit or a hos-
tile manner. With regard to the policy of the liberal
Party, the Salurday Review gives an opinion which seems
to conflict with the foregoing, for it says that even if Mr.
Gladstone anticipates an ultimate collision with the
government, he may perhaps find his advantage in post-
poning the struggle. There can be no harm in ascertaining
by experiment how far Mr. Disraeli is willing to define
the vaguer parts of his measure, and to abandon what is
obviously untenable. Unless Mr. Gladstone should per-
petrate some unexpected eccentricity, the liberal party
will best serve the public interest by reposing confidence
in the only possible leader. Any moderate course of
policy which be may propose will almost certainly be
approved by the hulk of the opposition.
The Examiner is opposed to raising any amendment on
the constitutionality or unconstitutionality of proceeding
by resolution ; and to move amendnienta on each successive
resolution, with the view of turning them into definite and
practical propositions, would be simply equivalent to going
into committee on a complicated bill before it had been
read a first or second time. As to cutting short the con-
troversy by declaring that ministers have failed in their
duty by not bringing forward a satisfactory bill, the Er-
amincr does not believe that such a motion would be
carried, and therefore hopes that it will not be proposed.
Its opinion appears to be in favour of allowing the goveru-
went to bring in a measure.
The Sim dolor assumes it ix quite impossible to do any-
thing with misty propositions of this sort, made by a
cddnet which says it will not go out on defeat, and a
minister who has the courage to affirm that up to le: 41
reform was not a party question ; and the liberals have
only two alternatives. They must either reject these resn-
lutionv altogether, turn these men out, and dissolve, in
the hope of a parliament which, with a new constituency
in full sight, dare not refuse their proposals, or make Mr.
Disraeli substitute new resolutions suggested by them-
selves. On the whole, the Speetat"r inclines to believe
the latter will prove the wiser plan. Grant that the ram.'
lutions are rubbish, still to pulverise and recement them
will take less time than collecting new bricklayers
to make new bricks, and it is time which is all in all. We
suppose, from all the indications abroad, that our leaders,
drift is the other way, and if it is, there is nothing for it
except a dissolution.
In the opinion of the Economist the best plan would
probably be to induce the government to abandon the
stratagem of resolutions, and to bring in a bill. This
would save the enormous waste of two discussions, would
enable people to know what they were voting for, would
satisfy the country (as nothing else will) that there was a
real intention of doing something ; but if the govern.
ment will not bring in a bill, they should be made to
snake their resolutions more clear, specific, and decisive ;
they must make them plainly indicate a future bill, if
they will not give us at once a bill.

THE FRENCH EMPEROR'S SPEECH. I

The lAbafs of yesterday says upon the French
Emperor's speech :
The event of the day is the speech delivered by the
Emperor at the opening of the legislative session. We are
happy to have in the first place to point out the pacific
tendency of this document. If a reorganisation of the
army is necessary it is solely because France wishes
to be respected, and must place her military forces
upon a footing equal to that of the other European
power*. The Corps Legialatif will have to weigh these
considerations when the new law respecting the army is
submitted to its deliberations. Our relations, moreover,
are excellent with neighbouring states; and as to the
aggrandisement of Prussia there is no need to be disturbed
by it ; that aggrandisement was in the order of things—
Napoleon I. had foreseen it, and he thought that hence-
forth no other equilibrium would be possible in Europe
except that resulting from the agglomeration and
confederation of nations of the same race. The
Imperial speech consider*, therefore, that no fear need be
felt for the maintenance of European peace. At home the
time has come for giving more development to the public
liberties. The Imperial speech refers to the decree of the
19th January, and we see with pleasure that it does not
present the concessions contained in that decrees. the ex-
treme lto be stopped at, and as the crowning of the
Edifice. The future remains open to fresh hopes, and from
this point of view progress beyond the preamble of th
January decree may be found in this passage of the speech.
Let us revert for an instant to foreign questions to point
out the paragraph which announces that the great powers
are deliberating with a view to bring about in the East a
state of things of a nature to satisfy the legitimate de-
sires of the Christian populations while reserving the Sul-
tan's rights,. This is much what the Queen of England
said at the opening of parliament. As to the Roman
question, we see that were the temporal power menaced
" by demagogic conspiracies," Europe would not allow an
event to be accomplished "which would cause so much
trouble in the catholic world." This declaration was re-
ceived with warm applause, although it is rather vague,
and seems, the case happening, to announce a European
intervention, the character of which is not defined, and
which might lead to serious complications. Such,in a few
words, is an analysis of the Imperial speech, which, by the
way, makes no mention of the Universal Exhibition. The
lateness of the hour prevents us from saying more. We
can only point out the double character of this document,
pacific abroad and liberal at home.
The Liberti says :—" The speech of the 14th
February is a striking confirmation of the letter of
the 19th January. Twenty-five days after having
announced to France that the time appeared to
him to have arrived for modifying our institutions
in a liberal sense the Emperor does not hesitate to
declare anew that the moment has come for giving
fresh guarantees to political liberty. Thus the cir-
cumstances which have occurred since the 19th Jam.,
the hesitation of the ministers, the unfortunate
circular of M. Vandal were only anachronisms,
regrettable, no doubt, but which did not indicate
a modification of the intentions expressed by the
Emperor.
" And now (continues the LibereE) that the Emperor has
strikingly confirmed his promises of the 19th January ;
now that he has promised anew a liberal development of
our institutions, without, however, this time pre-
senting that development as the crowning of the
edifice ; now that the Emperor has clearly shown
his irrevocable resolution, petty warfare ought to cease,
resistance ought to vanish, for if there were a desire to
oppose a powerless barrier to the progress of our liberties,
the Emperor, who wishes the great bodies of the state to
share his initiative, would address himself to the country.
anti retrograde passions would be lost 'in the innuensity
of universal suffrage.'"