The Express.
London, England, 1867-08-06 00:00:00

TB! RECON‘TDCRATION OP TB! LORDS.

The unwritten law of parliament required, says
the Times, that the compromise in the lower house agreed
to by the government in the matter of the lodger Iran-
chise should be upheld in theHouseof Lords, and thiealone
should have prevented the acceptance of Lord Cairns's
amendment by Lord Malmesbury, but there were higher
reasons for insisting on its rejection. The object of the
clause was the enfranchisement of the skilled artisans of
London ; and those who know the class are aware that
very few of them could have reached the register had the
15/. limit been maintained. To confer the franchise in
form while withholding it in fact must have served simply
to foster a spirit of exasperation in the class affected.
The Time. cannot understand the perversity which refused
to accept Lord Granville's amendment excluding under-
graduates from the elections for university towns, and
entirely agrees with Lord Cranworth in thinking its only
fault was that it did not go far enough. The admission
of members of the university will serve no purpose but
that of irritating townsmen ; and the Times hopes the
Commons, in revising the clause, will except under-
graduates from the operation of the bill. Our contem-
porary earnestly hopes also that the Louse will refuse to
approve of the machinery of voting papers. The clause,
however, embodying the representation of minorities daily
commends itself to the most enlightened minds.
The reversion last night by the Lords of their vote on the
lodger franchise is characterised by the Daily News as a prac-
tical confession of the levity and recklessness which have
marked the conduct of the Peers. These contradictory deci-
sions within a single week are only to be explained by the
absence of Lord Derby on the first occasion ; and his
lordship's explanation of his reasons for accepting Lord
Russell's amendment involved a rebuke upon his colleagues.
Lord Cairns states that if he had been apprised of the
understanding in the Common, he would riot have made
his proposal. Of course Lord Cairns was ignorant of that
of which be says he was ignorant. But the statement
which comes upon him as a surprise from Lord Derby was
repeatedly made in the debate upon his motion last week.
At all event' the same apology cannot be made for the
members of the cabinet in the House of Peers, whale blun-
ders Lord Derby has been obliged to come down night after
night to undo or to limit. Three other points at issue not
less important, remain—the use of voting papers, the in-
crease of the copyhold and leasehold qualifications from 51.
to 101., and the restricted vote in the three-cornered con-
stituencies. It remains for the House of Commons, and
especially for the liberal party in it, to re-affirm on these
points its original decision.
ICI
The Post thinks the recantation of the Lords will smooth
the way to an adjustment of those points of difference
which still subsist between them and the Commons.
Practically, last night, the Premier ate as much of the
leek as he forced down the throat of his subordinate.
The TekgrapA urges that both three-cornered represen-
tation and voting papers must be swept away if the bill
is to satisfy public opinion, and Mr. Disraeli will add
another leaf to his political laurels by sagacious action on
this point. In that case the bill will be a valuable
measure, enriched with the grand and wise concession of
a suffrage based on the Englishman's home. To win for
it immediate favour from all parties, and to secure for it
a signal place in history, nothing more is needed than the
blotting out of those preposterous clauses which are a
denial of justice and an incentive to fraud.

The Standard is glad of their lordships' determination,
because it will greatly diminish the chances of a successful
resistance to their other amendments.

The Star contends that the Lords by the details of their
scheme have realised to the utmost that magistrates'
drawing-room ideal which was the essence of its original
conception. The notion of outweighing numbers by artifi-
cial advantages lies at the bottom of all such proposals as
the representation of minorities and the voting papers.

THE Mu TING IN HITE-PARK.

Such demonstrations as that of last evening, do not add,
the Times thinks, to the dignity of the class which makes
them, nor do they tend to raise the character of English-
men abroad. They have a large element of puerility and
folly ; they are not without danger to the public peace,
by calling large numbers of the very lowest class from
their hannta, and giving them an opportunity of instruc-
tion in the arts of plundering passengers and assaulting
policemen ; and, not the least, they enoourage the ten-
dency to rant and empty talk with which Democrats have
always been charged, and which men who aspire to politi-
cal life should do their best to avoid.

The truth is, remarks the Daily News, that all the
excitement about public meetings in Hyde-park has been
purely artificial and factitious, due solely and wholly to
her Majesty's ministers. This Hyde-park legislation is
altogether anti-national, inasmuch as it is utterly opposed
to the spirit and genius of English institutions and of the
English people. English order is founded on liberty, and
English legislation, in sofar as it touches upon public rights,
is enabling rather than restrictive. There may be times,
and seasons, and places more or less fitting and opportune
for the exercise of public rights and the enjoyment of
public liberties ; but in England freedom was always its
own best and safest censor and controller. It is only under
arbitrary governments that liberty and authority are
divorced. Let us hope we have heard the last of " Parks
Regulation " bills.

The Post quotes from yesterday's proceedings in the
park to show that even demonstrations are not impervious
to reason, and that they are capable of accepting conces-
sions made to their opinions without necessarily regarding
them as a ground upon which to base fresh demands. The
revulsion which yesterday showed in the manner of viewing
Hyde•psrk demonstrations is not due to any change either
in the character, conduct, or proceedings of the demon-
strations themselves, but solely and entirely to the diffe-
rence of treatment which has been adopted with them ;
and that such a result should have been obtained is of
itself quite sufficient to show that the present course is as
reasonable and proper as the former was absurd and un-
justifiable.

The Standard reads the proceedings in • very different
way. If the radicals, it says, choose to keep up the Beales
imposture they must no longer count upon the use of the
parks for its exhibition. The Reform League itself sup.
plies the strongest argument fer proceeding with the
measure now before the House of Commons. Society
cannot afford the perpetuation of • state of thinxs under
which the fiasco of last night might be a riot to-morrow.
The Te/egraph sees in the order and in the tone and
temper of yesterday so many additional motives for, at
all events, reserving for another time, the discussion of
such ► measure as the Parks Regulation Bill, and the Star
assumes the acceptance of that measure to be now simply
impossible.