The Express.
London, England, 1858-07-06 00:00:00

SPORTING lIIITKLUCIENCE.

A SPECIAL ZDII7OII et the EXPRESS,"
eostaining the results of the day's Races, is pub-
limbed every evening during the Sporting Season, at
eix o'clock.

ANOTHER effort of the independent Parliamentary
Liberals to organise themselves with a view to com-
bined action—and another failure. Again they
have met in Committee-Rooms, and again they have
separated without agreeing upon any course of
combined action. The failure ia not, how-
ever, so good a plea for despondency as the
repeated effort is for hope. When the patient
becomes so well aware of his dangerous condition as
to look anxiously round him for relief, the first step
towards a cure has been made. The independent Li-
berals in the House of Commons are now fully awake
to the helpless, effete, discreditable condition into
which their party has been allowed to lapse. Nay, ,
more, their movement shows that they are also
swore of its cause. Their attempts to combine on ,
the teals of a programme shows that they have dis-
covered the hopelessness of following implicitly the
lead of a few aristocratic leaders whose only recom-
mendation is a vague and unmeaning profession
of " liberal sentiments." A sense of past Isis-
tam, combined with an earnest desire to avoid
repeating them, must at last lead to the adoption of
a wiser policy. That the first, second, or third effort
should be multiage ia io the nature of things—the
Leviathan was not launched in a day.
If ws might presume to throw out a hint to the
gentlemen who are so laudably employed in attempts
to redeem the character of our Parliamentary
Liberals, it would be somewhat to this purpose :—lt
is bad policy to attempt too much at first. Pat-
tie, do not spring into life fully formed, as
MINFRvA from the head of Jove. They rather
grow up by degrees, and assume form in grow-
ing. The failure of repeated attempts to form
an alliance for the support of general or abstract
principles, by a solemn compact, is a lesson to set to
work some other way. The power and influence of
a party depends less upon its numbers than upon
their agreement as regard. specific measures,
and the principles on which they are bored, and
upon habits of concerted action. Habits of concerted
action can only be acquired by practice ; the mea-
sures and principles upon which men are agreed can
only be discovered by frank and reiterated discus-
sions respecting them. If but some half a dozen
members of the House of Commons would sincerely
and earnestly agree to oaoperate as far as they
could, and to communicate their views on essay

quatios that emerged unreservedly to each other,
they might sot eddy become the nucleus of a piety,
but they would be already • power in
themselves. They might deal thus with
the first question that emerged in the
House. Make it the subject of a close sad
vigorous analysis. Agree among themselves
whether it ought to be en the whole supported et
opposed. Agree epos the reasons they were to
assign in Parliament for supporting or opposing it,
or for proposing any modifications of it, and take an
active part in the discussioes on its various stages.
Let them adopt a similar course with the next mea-
sure of importance that wss submitted to the House.
Let them examine whether it involved soy of the
principles which they asserted or impugned in
the debates on the previous measure, and take ea
active part in supporting or opposing it, taking can
to make it apparent that their object use to main-
tain the same principles that they had done on the
former coessioo. By acting in this manner with
reference to a number of successive measares, they
would learn how far they were agreed epos general
peitecipies, and their application to specific measures.
They would gradually shape out for themselves a
policy foreign and domestic. They would acquire the
habit of acting in concert—cf taking their parts(
in debate so as reeiprocally to strengthen sad'
support each other—and of shaping motions and
amendments so as to conciliate the rapport or evade
the opposition of others. They would find them-
selves acting in oonciert, now with one, and sow
with another member who was not of their fra-
ternity ; and each occasional alliances would in
some cases ripen into permanent co-operation. The
men among them most espable of leading would
assume the office by common consent. By a steady,
persevering display of energy and intelligence, and
by making men feel that while they abstained from
any pedantic assertion of abstract principles they
were guided in all their public actions by a
comprehensive system of principles, they would se-
quire a weight in the deliberations of the House of
Commons far greater than mere numbers could give
them.

This may appear to men in a hurry to obtain no-
toriety or place a tedious proem/ ; but it is the °wily
way in which parties possessed of legislative in-
fitieoC4l ever have been or ever can be
formed. Now, more than at any time, tim
country can see through the hollowness of
them public men who hops by exaggerated
profession. of libertliwn, or by • few tweedegly

_ ...
llDComprormaiogly independent votes, to make it
worth the while of party leaders to secure their en,
vim'. The men who aspire to organise a real Party
et Progress must be guided by principles which
they have adopted after deliberate inquiry, and they
mast be, as well as seem, honest. We an not so
absurd as to expect that they are to be utterly
inerrilikies of self. The man who is desirous to
riesei the Public good necessarily aspires to the
attirnsat at power, partly for the gratification of

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