The Express.
London, England, 1867-03-06 00:00:00

HOLBORN.

Moon .w. MY TI EN NEXT. Mr. Eelmore: Mires
Foote and Lennox FLYING SCUD. Messrs. Neville, Del-
more, hlake, Yoilalre, kc. ; Meld:ones Y. doeeptu, C. Sounders,
&mkt Foote. Yeldee, Lennox, Eamon& Be.

BRITANNIA.

TAI9 EVENT‘O. a Grand % ir.% I. slot IN TRI Al FNTA t cos.
(-EAT. NteNsrs. 11. 1.14.0. %I'anle. F. Ev:mo. A. %wool. Milattie,
D' A nhalol and sO sters,Mtvolsoo-, LsDffrin....t,,n. Bryan,
1f.,3.1u.41. dc.—Dogwar.-11... Fool. %lane s of Nlesico.

MOD WATKR AT LONDON BRIDGE.
Ting DAy —Morninz. !h. tea.... „Afternoon, 211. 3081.
TO•slol.loW—Morning, 211., 49m Afternoon. 31. 5114.

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, MARCH G.

IT is said, with some truth, that Lord DERBY
has now his first c;utnee of logißlating successfully
MI Parliamentary Reform. It is inure important
for him to remember that his present chance must
be Ins last. The PREMIER began the session by
appealing to his opponents, on the assumption
that his chief difficulty would be found in their
readiness to exhibit impatience of temper and
en uncomplying disposition. If they would only
rise above the spirit of party all would go well,
but this, he hinted, was almost more than he had
reason to expect. The experience of a month has
shown that if he underestimated their forbear-
ance, he also unduly presumed on the wisdom,
union, and constancy of his own followers. At
the very time when he addressed his needlessly
soloun admonitions to Earl Russ Etc he must have
known that he had not been able to produce a
measure of Reform capable of satisfying even his
own colleagues in the Government. The
Administrati which was to succeed where
all its predecessors failed, and conduct the
work of Reform to a satisfactory issue,
was destined to be itself plagued with the disease
it undertook to cure, to be vexed and torn with
divisions just as Parliament had been, and, finally,
to be weakened by open secession before it could
attain to unity, courage, and decision of councils.
The difficulties which are commonly supposed to be
inseparable from the Reform of Parliament, such
as they are, have been well nigh forgotten by the
public in view of those with which the singular
mismanagement of Lerd DERBY has anrroundedthis
question. If the PREMIER could have turned aside
for a moment from pleasing illusions, he might
easily have ascertained in time that he was
not the leader of the united party. How far he
is now from taking a plain, simple, and straight-
forward view of the work which the country is
expecting to be done, and of the causes which are
investing it with importance and urgency, may be
seen from the extraordinary observation which fell
from him last Monday, that his Government " were
" agreed last Novemberas to theprinciples and main
" provisions of the Bill, and that the on/yquestion
" remaining for decision was ask) the extent towhich
" the franchise should be enlarged." Thisisindeedto
take a highly parliamentary view of the question.
The key to the secret which was so admirably kept
before the meeting of l'arliament is here. The
mystification practised by Mr. DISRAELI on the
18th February was a daring expedient to conceal
this want of purpose. Not in the memory of this
generation has Parliament been so played with by
any Government as during the present session.
Nothing that has been said by irresponsible
speakers at popular meetings has been half so
calculated to lower the House of Commons in the
eyes of the world as the conduct of Ministers in
proposing, in deference to three Ministers, a Bill
which they did not care to pass, upon which they
were not agreed, and which, as Lord CARMARVON
tells us, was not acceptable even to the minority
of the Cabinet, in deference to whose views the
original policy of the Government was abandoned.

The resolution of Lord Des.sv to part with his
dissentient colleagues, and try once more to do
something for the nation, is now the only ground
on which he can claim, we do not say the confi-
dence, but the toleration of Parliament and the
country. His long experience and high personal
qualities have not guaranteed us against failures
prejudicial alike to the English character and the
institution of Parliamentary Government. We
have seen what comes of seeking a policy in the
opinion of the House of Commons. Lord DERBY
began the session by announcing through Mr.
DISRAELI that he did not intend to stand or fall
by the Lite of his Reform measure. These tactics
have not saved the Ministryfrom disaolution,while
they have demoralised and disorganized the Conser-
vative party. Responsibility is the appropriate
guardian of public honour. Thewholeconrse of the
Ministry since the sth of February has been
so amusingly odd, while the penalty paid by
its leaders is so heavy, that the public is
indulgently inclined to give them one more
trial, which Ministers themselves must feel
will be the last. Next Monday week Mr.
DISRAELI is to introduce the Ministerial Reform
Bill, and make the third statement of the Minis-
terial policy to which the House of Commons has
listened this session. It will then be just a
month since he foreshadowed the Resolutions which
were subsequently cast aside for a measure which
has in turn bee., discarded. It now appears that
the red use which those resolutions were destined
to serve was not the development of Parliamentary
opinion, nor the conciliation of Parliamentary
opposition, but the expurgation of an obstructive
element from the organization of the Government.
That operation having been ellected. the country,
which has hitherto looked on with marvellous
pati,ncP, will ilrmand that the subject shall now
be tre;l:ed Kith d.;::ision and energy. Ministers