The Express.
London, England, 1867-06-18 00:00:00

AME2II)IIENT.

The Times attributes the rejection of Mr. Laing's
amendment last night to the threat that, were it adopted,
the government would be compelled to reconsider their
position with respect to the Reform Bill. Idle as it
was, such language was effectual, aa.d with the weak
brethren of the assembly the present danger out.
weighed any prospective hazard. Mr. Laing's arguments were
unanswerable, but with the majority of the house argument
was a mere superfluity. The support accorded toward' the
close of the evening to the plan of grouping the
Universities of Durham and London showed the temper
of the committee. The cities and boroughs to which
Mr. Laing would give additional members have grown
since 1861, and, moreover, through the extension of
their boundaries they will receive still greater ►ceas-
nooe of population. Who can believe that there is
any stability in a scheme which will leave these
places with their present quota of members! As to the
cumulative voting, the Times will not conceal its opinion
that the acceptance of the government proposal for sub-
dividing counties, instead of conferring upon them addi-
tional members, though made subject to a power of revision
at a subsequent stage, has effectually disposed of the
subject.
The result of Mr. Disraeli's threat, the Daily Neves says,
was a flight of some liberal members from the house, and
• desertion of others to the side of the government, which
more than compensated for the adhesion of rational and
moderate conservatives to the proposals of Mr. Laing.
Mr. Disraeli's conduct can best be accounted for by the
supposition that his management of his colleagues is not
as easy as it is generally successful. The intelligent leader
of • stupid party must now and then sacrifice his intelli-
gence to their stupidity. If his doctrine be true that
multiplicityof members for large cities and boroughs would
not make their representation more efficient, why does he
give a third member to Glasgow and two additional mem-
bers to the Tower Hamlets? According to this theory,
instead of increasing the 16 members for the metropolis
to 20, he ought diminish them to two. In his
inmost heart there can be little doubt that Mr.
Disraeli agrees with Mr. Laing that a measure which gives
seven counties, with less than two millions of inhabitants,
14 additional representatives, while seven large towns, with
a greater aggregate population, and paying twice the
amount of income tax, receive no increase of representa-
tion, is not one which will satisfy the country. He does
not merely sacrifice the claims of the boroughs to those of
the counties; he sacrifices the populous and wealthy
among the counties to those which are comparatively poor
and thinly peopled, just as he upholds the claims of small
against large boroughs.
Whilst admitting the existence of great enormities, the
government, the Post contends, are virtually increas-
ing their number, and, although apparently modelling
their scheme of redistribution on a basis condemnatory of
the present system, they leave its most transparent evils
unredressed. Mr. Disraeli, however, is by this time satis.
fled that it is not necessary to take particular pains about
any plan, which, however inconsistent it may be, is certain
to secure acceptance at the hands of a pliant House of
Commons.

The lirrald describes the threat of the Chancellor of the
Exchequer as having decided the wavering opinion of the
house. Wherever ministers have declared it impossible to
yield they have been supported by a sufficiently decided
majority ; wherever the house bas overruled the original
proposal of the cabinet it has been careful first to ascer-
tain that the cabinet was not 111111a1/114 to acquiesce in its
decision.

The blarulard Aces not anticipate that the remaining
portion of the bill will lead to any party fights, and after
the recent admission of Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Bright,
opposition to the third reading is out of the question.
It is quite evident, remarks the Telegraph, that when
this bill has passed, the first half must furnish the means
of remodelling the other half in a large and worthy way.
According to the Star Mr. Ayrton's speech shows that it
was not only on the ministerial side that shifty conduct
had been indulged in. It is difficult to understand the
ground of Mr. Ayrton's complaint against Mr. Laing, but
even if it had been well founded it could not have justified
him in voting with the government, or the members of
whom he spoke in leaving the house. That the liberal
party is in a most disorganised state is evident enough
from the largest proposal for redistribution emanating
from a private member ; bat it is placed in a ludicrous
aspect when the member fora populous constituency, itself
receiving two members by the tory bill, imagines himself
absolved from fidelity to the principles of his party by petty
refinements and personal criticisms of the most impal-
pable character. Two admissions in the debate to be noted
are one by Lord Cranborne that under the new franchise
the small boroughs will lose all the virtue they formerly had
in conservative eyes, and the other Mr. Disraeli's acknow-
ledgement that whatever inroads were made upon the
small boroughs lessened the county influence in par-
liament