The Express.
London, England, 1867-01-17 00:00:00

ITOLB4 PR N

THIS EVF.NI!,I. MI 111 RN \l.\T. Mr lelmoe; )hues
Nola e FLYING Me,ars. Neville, Bel-
son% BteL.,. Voillire, Ac. Iles.larnes E. Josephs, C. dauuders,
Berme Foote. I les, Leuuox, Rayuauua, dr.

BRITANNIA.

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OIL TILL INIII)o‘ls uF PEARL. 4KILD. ANI)
r• L ,1 M is, .1;,,,1.5.—Fir-t•rate 11l
—And TII!. 'KED:I'ON ult):W.

1111:1 WATER AT GINDON RRIDOL

Ton DAT —11.4 oing, I Ih.
70-21011Kott —M rninz. oh. ton.

~...4ftcmnon. 1 tit S•m.
....Afternoon, r2ay,

LONDON, RSDAY, L": 1 RY 17.

Tits: s ery able speeches delivered the other day
at Bri4litoit by the members for the borough
suggest many topics for reflection and discussion.
Both j to the coining session of Parliament
as likely to witness a grave constitutional strtiale,
on which, before many months have passed, the
country u.:y be called to arbitrate. Mr. Fsweerr
sounded the note of alarm with regard to another
danger. With characteristic boldness and un-
reserve, he stated openly what a good
many people have been secretly whispering,
that intrigue within the ranks of the Liberal party
will again be summoned to the aid of the more
open and candid hostility of the hereditary and
professed oppoi.ents of Reform. The Adullamites
and the disaffected Whigs are not content with
having defeat:l a Reform Bill and thrown out the
Ministry' s hich intrudiiced it. They are anxious
to depose the too liberal leaders of the Libe-
ral party. " I already observe signs," said
Mr. Fvv.• I.IT 1 , "and hear rumours which
" tell no" that there is going to be
" a great effort made—and you will hear of it
" before long—to prevent Mr. GLADSTONE being
" made Prime Minister of England." Mr. FAN"-
°NTT'S waritiug has received confirmation more
speedy and authoritative than even he can have
anticipated. In the number of the Edinburgh
which was issued yesterday there is an
article on the " Positiou and Prospects of
" Parties," of which, without doing any injustice
to its merits, we may say that the moat remarkable
portion is its concluding paragraph. The writer
quotes the words uttered by the gallant Con-
servative Chief in July last, in regard to his own
position and the peculiar difficulties that beset his
case :—" My Lords, if I could for a moment
" Lave seen any other leader who, while keeping
" the Conservative party together, was more likely
" than myself to obtain the adhesion of a portion
" Of the Liberal ranks, I say, without hesitation,
" that 1 would have been rejoiced, and been re-
" hewed t•, have handed over to that leader, who-
" ever he might lie, a poet which he might
" have bean more able to fill." The implied
ennverse. that it is the duty of a Liberal leader to
obtain the adhesion of a portion of the Conserva-
tive party, or even that he is bound to sacrifice
Liberal principles for the sake of securing the
support of politicians who are Liberal only in
name, may be passed over without comment.
.The R•r;e,rer affects no reserve as
to the application of his precedent. He treats
the post of Liberal leader as if it were vacant, and
its future occupant undesignated. But these gene-
ralities do not satisfy him. He addresses an
almost personal appeal to Lord RUSSELL and Mr.
GLA DST. NE to abdicate in favour of somebody or
other not conspicuous enough to be named. These
statesmen are told that " neither the experience
" of age tnr the impetuosity of genius are infal-
" lible guides in a new state of affairs, and. in
" critical times patriotism and loyalty to a
" cause may require that personal pretensions
" should yield to expediency and the general
"good." True, neither genius nor experi-
ence is infallible—it does not require
an R•rieri•er to tell us that ; but at
any rate they are better guides in critical times
than mediocrity and inexperience. Patriotism and
loyalty to a cause should beyond all doubt weigh
snore with statesmen than obstinate regard to per-
sonal importance or dignity. But to sacrifice a
cause to the maintenance of obsolete party tradi-
tions and connexions, and to the formation of
a precarious alliance between men who
have no common principle or purpose, is neither
patriotism nor loyalty. This is the course
which, probably without any perception of its real
character, the movers in the intrigue denounced
by Mr. FAwo•ETT and abetted in the Edinburgh
Benj.., are urging upon the Liberal leaders. The
appeal to Mr. GtareoroNE's generosity is especially
ungenerous. It is not a question for him of per-
sonal claims. He cannot yield to a coterie with-
out deserting his country. The great bulk of the
Liberal party, and all that is most distinguished in it,
not only accept, but have earnestly welcomed and
invited him as their leader ; and he is now asked,
leas to waive his individual pretensions than to
betray their confidence and the cause which they
have committed to him. He is requested to con-
fess to having failed in the leadership of the
Liberal party in the House of Commons ; to cry
pereori ; to descend to a lower place ; and to see
some person, without genius, experience, or
services, and more acceptable to the Clubs
therefore and to " society," set over his
bead. For if Mr. GLADSTONE is unfit to be
Premier, he is unfit to be leader of the House of
Commons, which is the really responsible part of
the Administration. Now, Mr. GLADSTONE'S leader-
ship, we maintain, has been eminently successful
even where it seemed to fail. It will not be
denied that those who desired the passing of the
Reform Bill of Ififirl, or in its default, a larger
measure, have no complaint to make of his con-
duct ; only those who wished the measure to fail
censure him. This may seem a paradox ; but
the motives of both are obvious. They see
that the apparent and momentary defeat is the
jest decisive step that has been made for fifteen
years towards victory ; that it has effaced the

•ro:y n •minal distinctions of party, and substi-
t.it f-r them that truer division according to
rea: opinim, on which Lord DEASY insisted, and
which, in his overtures to Mr. Lowe through the
lat.. Loot L N and in his negotiations
with Lonl G EN OR and the Adullamites,
he endeavoured to bring about. The op-
menti of Reform in the Liberal ranks
believe that they can resist it more effectually by
abettin.; a Conservative policy under a nominally
Liberal Administration than by going over in
a body t.. the party which, on this question, has
their sympathies, and allowing the lines of politi-
cal divilion to be drawn sharply and clearly. Mr.
LADNioN E is Hot likely to fall into the trap
which has been set for him, cunningly as it has
been baited with an appeal to his personal gene-
rosity, in order that his resistance may be the
more plausibly attributed to self-seeking and
ainbiti.ci. His degradation, though it would
be keenly relished by the noble faction
which makes more account of blood than
of brains in a political leader, is yet desired chiefly
as a means of injuring the cause of Parliamentary
Reform with which he has associated himself.
lint here personal feeling operates also. That
jealousy of merely intellectual superiority, which
has sometimes on questionable grounds been im-
puted as their characteristic vice to democracies,
has always marked the Whigs who have been
Whigs and nothing more. It is essentially the
temper of the present House of Commons. Mr.
DI.RA ELI Inns felt it no leas than Mr. GLAD-
STONE ; Mr. Lowe had to contend against it
until he became its unscrupulous flatterer, and
sought vainly to direct it against the reputation
and influence of Mr. MILL. In all this the House
of Commons is out of harmony with the mind of
the people. If the statesman who has the con-
fidence of the vast majority of his fellow-country-
men is distrusted and disliked by the assembly
which claims to represent them, it is clear that
Parliament is not the mirror of the national sen-
timent ; and the necessity of Reform is proved by
a new argument.

No true Liberal can object to seeing the experi-
ment of the party tried, though no true Liberal
can possibly join in it. If the nation wants a
Premier who will achieve nothing and offend
nobody, by all means let it choose its King Log,
surround him with appropriate counsellors, and
submit to his rule. But the place of Mr. GLAD-
STONE, while such an administration is in office,
will not be on the Treasury bench, but below the
gangway, among the independent members who
accept his parliamentary leadership, and not
among those who have spared no pains to
embarrass and degrade him. A man who
is too great for the first place is, a fortiori, too
great for the second. But the experiment will
fail. The business of statesmanship is to govern
the nation, and not to humour political cliques
and coteries ; and the men who are best fitted for
the higher task will seldom succeed in the lower.
Mr. GLADsroxies power and influence will be
enormously strengthened by the intrigue against
him, which will be injurious only to the intriguers
themselves.

OUR CONTEMPORARIES.
(THIS DAY.)