The Express.
London, England, 1867-02-14 00:00:00

THE REFORM REROI.UTIONS.

The Times depicts in gloomy colours the eon-
sequeneks of a vote on the part of the house declaring
point blank that it will not discuss a single resolution.
Speaking freely of the mismanagement of the ministers
and the absurdity of their proposals, the Times neverthe-
les.+ believes that they point as s whole to a complete mea-
sure. Only a small fraction of the house, it believes,
would hesitate to accept the resolution directed
against class predominance, and, postponing the second,
the fifth might be reached without any serious difficulty.
The latter, however, which puts forward the principle
of plurality of voting, must be summarily thrown
aside and a substitute found for it. The second
could then be taken up, and the values of the
qualifying tenements in counties and boroughs
inserted. The object of all well-wishers of their
country should be to settle the reform question, and to
settle it now. Nothing can be less desirable than that
constitutional changes should be discussed in the midst of
a tumult, nothing can be more unpatriotic than to post-
pone legislation until an exasperated populace demands
instant action.

The Daily Nera remarks that Mr. Disraeli did not refer
ie any way in his speech to the topic of plurality of voting
and the modificitions with which it is mentioned in the
resolutions probably means that U the suggestion is re-
jected the government has no intention to insist ou its
own ideas. The proposal itself, as applied to the election
of members, is against the spirit of our constitution, which
from its first days has refused to recognise degrees of
qualification amongst those who were admitted as quali-
fied, cud most of all that such degrees should turn on the
amount of wealth. In application the new theory could
not fail to be offensive and perilous. Are human beings
who each are alike concerned in such questions as those
between master and servant, the education of the people,
the security of the person, &c., to be counted as simply so
many fractions of a man, while those only are computed as
men who have a thousand a year, or a professional educa-
tion? When England was divided into two sharply dis-
criminated camps, which side would win ? Does •
thousand • year put n.oro strength in the right arm, or
does a university degree make a Samson? An act of
parliament is very powerful, but when it defies human
nature it is but a rope of straw.
The Post is now quite in opposition on the subject of
the reform resolutions. The mode of procedure it says is
such as compels • delay which will throw reform over for
another year. Anything more vague and shadowy, not
to say trivial, than the resolutions, it is difficult to
conceive. They look rather like the random suggestions
'of political pupils beginning to feel their way to the
A B C of their business 'than the serious proposals of
practised statesmen for a settlement of the greatest .wes-
tion of the day. They offer no guarantee whatever that
a satisfactory result would be evar approached by their
adoption.
The Herald regards the various manifestations of hos-
tility on the part of the radicals with perfect equanimity,
as it sees every reason to hope that the government pro-
posals will command the adherence of the moderate
men of all parties. However, while the conservative
party are ready to make concessions and sacrifices to solve
for many years to come the problem which has thwarted
the usefulness of the legislature since 1852, there is a
well-defined point at which submission will be equivalent
to degradation, and then they will not shrink from telling
the House of Commons that it must find other instruments
to do its work.

The opposition of the Telegraph increases daily in em-
phasis. The procedure is an utter violation of the decent
order of English parliamentary action, and a ruinous pre-
cedent for evading ministerial responsibility, while it
would retard rather than accelerate the settlement of the
reform question.
The Star accuses Mr. Disraeli of concocting a scheme
which, while pretending to grant a free extension of
popular rights, provides a system for increasing the power
of those who at present usurp political privileges. The
country will not fail to hold its author responsible for the
excitement, confusion, and bitterness which are destined
to be the result.