The Express.
London, England, 1866-03-21 00:00:00

TO THE REFORM BILL.

Lord Groovenor's amendment, which it is said
Lord Stenll7 Will second, that it is inexpedient to discus
a bill for the reduction of the franchise in England and
Wales until the house has before it the entire scheme con-
templated by the government for the sinendmeet of the
representation of the people, corresponds **exactly with
the opinions which the Times has repeatedly expressed
that it Gels bound to approve of his course. The notice by
as ex-whig official, Sir W. Hatt, that he will propose
that the Franchise Act though passed Anil not take
effect until a bill for the redletribution of seats
has also been carried, shows, if scything were wanting,
how thorough will be the acceptance of Earl Grosvenor's
amendment. No ministry ever enjoyed a better opportu-
nity of dealing with the subject, smiths indifference of the
people but adds an additional reproach is failure. Per-
haps. however, it was unwise to expect anything better
from a ministry so composite. Mr. Gladstone unfolded the
scheme as if he bad as belief in it ; and of the
other members of the cabinet, some are avowedly
indifferent, some lukewarm, none are hearty whether in
approval or dislike of chugs. It is hopeless to expect that
this partial measure can become law ; ►ut the Timm trusts
it is not yet too late to bring formals' a better scheme, and
this the ministry can do by *meeting to, and upon,
the amendment. No question of policy is involved in it,
end it would be no dishonour to conform to the wishes of
the legislature, tad to present a single bill dealing with

the whole question.
In the operations of the avowed conservatives the Daily
News recognises only the accustomed stratageras of party,
but what is legitimate for them bears a different sweet when
attempted by professed liberals. Earl Grosvenor should
remember that his acts cannot be dimmed just se if they
were those of a mare ordinary member of parliament
What he does is judged at in mused= with his position
and privilege,. His house is represented by se fewer than
three members—two brothers and a son—in the House of
Lords, and by the sheer lamer* of its wealth returns as
amy members of the House of Gammons. The
possession- of such power may well make a man
forget his mower eountrymen—ferget even him-
self. But the public does not forget, and we
an much mistaken if even awing dupe who are least en-
thusiastic for a &Lorin Edl.rany not be of opinion
that this child of privilege would have dow better to
414010 ISOM 4We obnoxious to remark—to some me-
tide radial, some retained Australian--the iavidions task
-riselattoe deliberately famed to defeat the
segdratiois ot, his less fortunate countrymen to the
hneddeardegrek of political power. The time is ap-
proaching when every Pemba: mad understand that
there are but two sidle. Those who honestly think
that as a matter of policy it weald have bees better le
hays attempted a redistribution of seats this year will
sow perceive that delay is not abandonment, and that
:•whatever liberal principles may mean is thais own analytic
eyes, they mean to the country support of a reform bill
introduced by a liberal ministry. Whatever impedes, de-
lays, imperils the bill which government have now brought
io, is hostile to reform. Whoever. on the pretext that it
is not something else, votes naiad it, votes against liberal
principle. He may gain the matistaatioe of defeating his
leaders and ousting his rivals. But by that same act he
outs himself irrevocably off from his party.
The Post is greatly mistaken, if Lord Grosvenor's mobs-
tion is not found to prove the death-blow of dos Mialstry.
Its only alternative now is to raise the cry of sows qui
past, or to stand to its guns and be mowed down. The
resolution is admirably worded, end has the advantage of
expressing an abstract proposition which it is all bat ion.
pewit)]e to meet with a negative, and far which politicians
cf every dads mold vote for reasons as different se their
opinions. What course the Ministry will take remains to
be seen. but at any rate the lesson will be learnt by all
parties that it is trapolide and raiddel to tooth with a rash
band questions which neither demand nor require imme-
diate reoossideration.
The Herald remarks that the terms of Lord Grosvenor's
amendment, 'correspond supine:wally with those of the
resolution which was suggested at the meeting at Lord
Salisbury's last week. Sir W. Hutt's ameedmeet, from
which oolylose meaning is to be deduced—an intention
of preventing the bill bwomieg law—is hardly lees
damaging. 'Dismissing with ematemp—ithithreat 0117;
dissolution, the Herald concludes with congratulating the
weservatives that there should be so may liberal mar -
ben for counties and boroughs, who, while good peaty
men, are not content to swath* their conscience to Earl
Russell's revolntiooary proposals.
That Lord Grosvenor and Sir W. Hutt should hays
leagued themselves with the enemy appears to the Tele-
graph as an example of the degree le which the conning ad-
vice of the Tases may take effect with thew who are weak,
simple, or perverted. Wooled into a total misconception
of the actual situstioe, they hays gives) notion of moans
which, U carried, would defeat the objects of the liberal
No one was ever so really realaioeary as the

We when it

Trgio

_. says, y tl l the people come to ask for
it, before you grant reform." At the wet of a fair bargain
with the people, the selfish interests of the day may obtain
a further lease of life ;fall they get by delay is that, while
they must finally accord the mime pries or more, they will
be able to secure a less prolonged term of existence.
The Star rye the country will know perfectly well what
these gentlemen mean and will see to the bottom of their
motives. The cabal brought together by a noisome for the
misrepresentation of the people is perfectly usderstood.
The Stay recommends Earl Groeveaor. end those who
share his views, to take openly the tposition of Mr. Lowe
and the Times, and declare that the working clues of
England are only pugs of ignorant, drunken. rapacious
I ruffians, who must, at all wet, be kept from the franchise.
For) those gentlemen may rest mimed that they gegno
credit from the oountry for any other views or purposes.
The English people should watch the growth of the list of
anti-reformers. We must clear our camp of spies and
renegades before we can safely enter into action. But let
them and their services not be forgotten when the battle
is over, and the country hes the distribution of rewards.

TEICI HIIIIILLTION DAY.
Theibiabope, in the opinion of the Timm, have made a
sad bungle about the humiliation day' in Dot putting tbdr
heeds together to find a day neither engaged nor likely to
be wanted by the parliament or the Queen. It hi only by
extreme tact and the happiest concurrence of favour_
able circumstance= t►at an observance like this

can peas usehalleuged. It implies as extraordi-
nary amount of faith, or of that deference to
popular sentiment which does so math of the
every-day work of faith, to acquiesce in en observance
which gives to a church service a special inimeolose effi-
cacy. The great majority of mai, wore they not kept
in order by their own wives and children, not to speak of
lady friends and the clergymee, would boldly avow that
they think no good can come of it—to the poor cattle, at
lest. Perhaps they ought to think and feel otherwise ; but,
as thiege are, their seeptiesm ought not to be gratuitously
and rudely provoked. The spirit and tone of the church
of England is rather to find ourselves at one with the triad
order of meters and Providence than vested with power and
authority to arrange it at will ; and even bishops must
beware lest they overtax its spiritual ambition.
The Telegraph thinks that the idea of begging for any
clangs in the great order of the universe, of imploring that
the troubles which affect us may he abruptly suspended
in their course, simply because they appear too hard for us
to bear, is plainly being abandoned. Such a day as yes-
terday, however, gives an opportunity for a brief lay ser-
mon, which the Telegraph proceeds to deliver, the burden
of its discourse being the misery sad wrong of unoleanli-
nem Since the cholera visited us we have mournfully
warted much of our time, sad it seems little better than s
mockery to cry for heavenly aid while we are not honestly
labouring to get our greet city made wholesome and good.

Till L OP TEN I.OIIDON.

The Times to-day contains a letter from Mr. Higitton,
the brother-in-law of Mr. H. J. Denis, who wu ow of
the passengers last in the London, eonteedieg again that
that vessel, though a ship of the highest preteasions, was
111-eonstruetal, ill-found, id-maimed, sad
ill-navigated. Mr. Highton has received from his brother
in-law the identical massage which was washed
ashore ea the mast of Imam. " Though dated"
be says, " only two hours before the vessel went down,
and when all hope was lost, it h severthaless written fa
ann, deer characters not distinguishable from his ordinary
handwriting, and he eves displays a little peculiarity he
bad of spelling his nano with one ' a.' Hardly. se It
rosy
well be euppeseg, perceiving the dight of time, be also mills
Thursday the 10th last, Janata of, as it really was, the

orphan). ' Ship
Bay of LtiUce.y, Thursday, 13 o'c. noon." Bessoi!fp
over-weighted with cargo, sad too slight • house over
engine-room en walked away from deck. Bed poop windows.
Water broken in.—God bless my little orphan— . .
Storm, but not too (violent ?) for • well-ordered ship.'"
The Times reviews the various points raised by Sir John
Pakington and Mr. Richton, and while allowing that the
report of the Board of Trade was nosatisfactosy owing to
the fact that two distinct processes of inquiry and trial
distinguish such inquisitions adheres to its original oon-
viotion that the shlp was swamped: by • sea which ought to
have passed over her harmlessly, bat which proved too
much for the insecure and insufficient covering of the
engine-room, and afterwards pooped by another sea, which
dose in the stern-ports. The obvious moral is that
drawn by Mr. Traill, that stern-ports should be specially
protected, and that " all the hatchways of the ship ought
to be made as strong as her deck, and, when occasion re-
quires it, secure from the intrusion of the sea."
The Post thinks the case established by Sir John Peking-
toe as to the defects of these offloial inquiries was sub-
stantially so conclusive as to admit of no reply. When
the catastrophe is to be attributed to a faulty construc-
tion of the vessel, or to the extent to which a ship is
lades, saw regulations should be made with the view of
diminishing risk from similar causes in future. But this
end, it is obvious, can alone be attained by sub-
mitting those who are interested in representing facts in
the most favourable light to the closest cross-examination.
This confessedly was not done on the occasion of the recent
inquiry, and on this score the public had substantial
grounds for complaint.
The Herald loonies the Board of Trade in this instance
of a deliberate attempt to suppress the truth, and says that
the offkial inspection of the vessel was a fallacy. In point
of fast, with ships as with railways, there is • tendency on
the part of surveyors to make their stirrers mere matters
of form. The witnesses whose testimony were essential
were screened from cross-examination. Indeed, the investi-
gation in such oases from the first Is generally regulated so
as to be one of • whitewashing nature.
The Advertiser Is still of opinion that the ship was un-
dermanned and overladen, and believes that until It Is com-
petent to the relatives of any person lost in • shipwreck to
bring an action for damages against the owners, there will
not be that security for life at sea which such a privilege
would ensure, and which there ought to be.

ICS TOPICS.

It appears by the pans at the Metropolitan Cattle-
market on Monday that, notwithstanding the regulations
oohed the conveyance of cattle by railway, the beet beef
is at t►is moment cheaper than it was at the same time
last year, and is at the same price as in 1864. Prime beet
was quoted yesterday at ss. the stone, against se. 2d. last
year, and 51. in 1864. The supply of live cattle was
•early as large as before the prohibition, as though about
two-thirds of the usual sources have been suddenly
closed, the remaining third, the foreign supply,
has been so much developed as almost to moldy
the deficiency; so that we have just as mach a
live cattle market ea before. The Times observes that
such a result exhibits a power of adaptation is the trade
beyond anything that could have been imagined, and if it
Amid be continued it relieves us for ever from any spree-
heasions of a meat famine. Bat if the large open space of
liedthibld were turned into a dead meet market, all the
market might be of the same character, and the foreign cattle
be slaughtered at the port of disembarkation. The railway
logo of charges also ought to be lowc red. It needs but
common sense and common energy to deliver us for ever
from the nuisance to which we have hitherto submitted.
The .Daily News explains the nature of the Oxford
Tests Abolition Bill, the second reading of which is
moved to-day by Mr. Coleridge. The question is whether
it W sot for the interest of the country that the full
benefit of the education at the national universities
should be extended beyond the church to the nation
at large—a result which cannot be obtained while whole
demos are subjected to vexatious and humiliating re-
strictions aid distinctions. The Doily Item reminds mem-
bers that the (noel Oxford petition against the measure
does not proceed from the segregation which is the resi-
dent and really academical body at Oxford, but from the
Cloogregetise at large.
The Times is rebuked by the Daily News far undertaking
in a pharimaioll spirit to read Austria and Prussia a more/
lemon, apportioning blame equally between the two, end
studiously ignoring the tenth that the responsibility of the
quarrel rests in the first inatenos with one of the corn-
Went.. Interference in a quarrel without a previous ac-
quaint's*, with the merits of it as only create
though to laveatigate too closely the real merits may
possibly affect one with inconvenient responsibilities,
while to abase both sides alike urns only tezrove to the
world bow meek wiser we we Uwe either at them.
The Post has moon to believe that the telegraphic
news published yesterday to the effect that, since Sunday,
deolaratioes of a re-searing character have been received
from Berlin by the Austrian government, and that the
apprehensions of war between the great German powers
have base thereby removed, is totally incorrect. The
relations between the two powers tontine*, on the con-
trary, to be very critical.
The Herold condemns the French opposition for per-
sisting in an agitation for more liberty, while they are
unable toMeny that the imperial system has been extremely
favourable to the material progress of the country. What
is of real consequence to • country is the business, and
where there is much political life, that generally is like
Fabtan's halfpeanyworth of bread to the large dispropor-
tion of wine.

the Court.

WINDSOR CASTLE, KARoa 20.

The Queen, accompanied by Princess Beatrice,
drove oat is s carriage and four yesterday af ternoos, and
went oat is the grounds this morning with Prisons
&fairies. . .

Primo., Louise went out driving.
Mr. Bird, chemist, had the honour of exhibiting experi-
ments at Windsor Castle before Prince Leopold, Prinosee
Beatrice, and the young Prince and Prince's of Hohedehs

The -Prince and Princess of Wales and Prince Alfred.
with the Hoe. Mrs. Stonor, Lientenent•Colonel Keppel,
sad Hon. E. Yorke, in waiting, attended divine service in
the forenoon yesterday.
The Prince of Wales west to the House of Lords in the
afternoon.
The Princess of Wales took a carriage drive.
A deputation from the Co-operative Society for the
Manufacture of Smell Arms at Birmiogbam, consisting of
Mr. Westwood, Mr. Canine; Mr. Wan, and Mr. Huh,
had an interview with the Marquis of Hartingtoo, et the
War-ofilice, yesterday. The deputation-was introduced by
ScholeSeld, M.P. ; Mr. Nowdegate, M P. ; Mr. Bright,
M.P. ; and Mr. Bromley, M.P.
At the levee held by the Prince of Wales at St. James's
Paler" on Monday last. Kr. John Hall Moose Boyce* was
presents& by Captain William Morris, B.N.

INSTALLATION OP PRINCE ALFRED AS )(ASTER
OP THE TRINITY SOM.—(TEPS Dar.)—Thie monies his
Royal Highness Prince Alfred, who has been elected to the
liestseship of the Trinity House, readers& recant by the
death at Lord Piameroton, attended at the house on Tower-
hill for the purpose of being sworn in and taking peon-
, aim et his new office.

Tan Paulen Or WALES AND THE BEIGHTON
REVINW.-02 Monday afternoon the Mayor of Brighton
received an official communication intimating that his
Royal Righnem the Prince of Wales bad decided on at-
tending the forthcoming Pester Monday review. The
Mayor has received his royal highness's commands to attend
at Marlborough-hoses today, when the Prince's wishes will I
be probably made known, and of mune consdered in all
detail& His royal highness will lunch privately with the
Mayor at the Pavflion, Brighton, before going to the
review ground. The townepeople are much gratified at
the preepeet of a visit from the Print*, and esenestly hope
the Princess may graciously condescend to scoompay him.
Meanwhile the review arrangements are being pushed
forward, On Beturday Colonel Erskine, impactor-gate&
of volunteers, visited Brighton, and settied several pnli•
miliaria& He also approved the review ground.

The Comte,' Russell's evening party in Downing-
street, appointed for this evening, is postponed ustil the
11th of April, I. eoeseqesase of her ladyship's
We are requested to state that the Conniese of
Derby's party on Saturday next, the 24th, Is unavoidably
postponed on want of hoe ladyship's serious indisposition•

.• .
THE lii, 'II .4 PiE/
. 110
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