The Express.
London, England, 1866-05-05 00:00:00

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Church. In order that non-pa;
any given time may not act a
aion from participation in • aim!
in order, on the other hand, t 'ormay ;eft
be packed by the creation of qualifications for
the purposes of the moment, it has been sug-
igedati that sew zatepayere should be allowed to
recover all their rights by payment of the three
last rates.

ral
lent

Something like this in its main features must
be any scheme which the Liberal party and the
Nonconformists are likely to adopt. Lees they can-
not accept. It will be a compromise ; but a com-
promise which suits the transitional character of
our ecclesiastical policy. It recognises, on the
one hand, the fact of the Established
Church ; and, on the other, the right&
of the individual conscience ; and concedes the
claims of both without creating the religious dis-
abilities in matters social and political which the
exclusion of Dissenters from parish vestries would
involve. If some such plan as we have hinted at
secure the approbation of Parliament, it will effect
a twofold good. Sectarian dissensions and animo-
-hies will be abated ; in their place we shall
have the reciprocation of good offices and kindly
feeling between the members of different commu-
nions ; and the Church of England, extending the
range of her reliance on purely voluntary effort,
will receive a proportionate increase of strength,
fervour, and usefulness.

yuce—iledowweLdt, insteatj
kitgabeensu f the *Moat bending.
the ten- in the _ to ibe exceedinef
ilinteful, MOW obtain lat nies*diecketkofi
appreciable weight in parliament, a weight of
example,
granter than that of all Irelanor,r while the
dander of government by mere numbers, and num-
bers dwelling in cities only, would be finally averted.
The government have already learnt much by the great
division, and if they will learn but one thing more, that
blank reduction mut, in Ken way IN other, be modified
till we are protected from numerical rule, they may solve
the problem amid universal support. If not, they will
yet discover that the victory of Friday, such as it was,
wee but a barren triumph.
Mr. Gladstone's national debt proposal, the Spectator
thinks, is in itself most wise and moderate, and bopee
that no opposition will be offered to it in parliament.
The Examiner rejoices in the determination of the
government to continue their efforts to pass into a law the
bill for the representation of the people. As long as
Noodle is Noodle he will not be ashamed of the argument
addressed to personal prejudice, but for all the rest
it is swept away, " leap in the dark," " the
piecemeal legislation," . the bit-by-bit reform,"
" the fins edge of the wedge," " the something
behind," " the handle to the hatchet " to hew
down all our venerable institutions, and make a clear
field for the democracy, revolution, anarchy, and all
the calamities predicted upon the occasion of every
beneficial change—Repeal of Test Acts, Catholic Relief,
Repeal of Corn Laws, and Navigation Laws. At all events
in the coming straggle we shall have the relief of some
variation in the pretences which have became wearisomely
trite and monotonous. And in spite of all dissimulation
and deceits, the issues must be distincter as ad-
vances are made towards the heart of the measure,
which cannot but be a gain to a just cause. Ajax's prayer
'fort light will be granted.
The Examiner says there is no use in blinking the serious
nature of the question that will inevitably be raised if
any systematic plan of paying off the National Debt
is insisted on—that question is—Out of whose pocket ought
the means to come? Nobody will pretend, we presume,
that the 799,000,0001. would ever have been borrowed by
the people of this country to carry on wars against liberty
in Europe or America, or to maintain the balance of
power among continental despots. The people are
willing to let bygones be bygones and to share
without retrospective discrimination the burtheu
of liability to pay the interest of this most
unjustifiable debt. But patience has its limits,
and we more than doubt the patience of men hold-
ing out if they are called upon to stint themselves and
their children in the necessaries and comforts of life to
repair the evil perpetrated by a selfish and spendthrift
oligarchy in days gone by.
Mr. Gladstone's plan, the Economist says, is obviously
the easiest mode of operating on the national debt ; the
creation of perpetual annuities is always the easiest mode
of reduction, and this is the easiest case in which termin-
able annuities can be created, because we are sellers as well
as buyers, and need not charge ourselves any extravagant
sum for paying our debts. On the whole, this budget may
be long remembered, not for what it has done, but be-
cause it was the first budget which advertised the duty of
largely reducing our national obligations.
Dilating on " the duty of all parties on the reform
question," the Economist says that all must be
ready to make sacrifices—to abandon secret hopes and
cherished ideas—to submit to what is commonplace
—to support what they can prove to be but second rate
—to tolerate small evils that may keep out great evils—to
give up everything which is not inconsistent with the prin-
cipal and ruling object—the framing a Reform Bill that
shall secure in some rough way the just rights and claims
of all classes, and so adapt to present wants our old consti-
tution that we may live under it in reasonable comfort
and fair happiness during many years.