The Express.
London, England, 1858-03-02 00:00:00

The weakest and worst part

speech, however, was that in which,
redeem the outstanding pledge
of hia three predetemors had giv* on the .
Elective Reform. Even Lod! Pal

the farces of pretending that he was

in • Bell Arc Basta. The new , says
y that ahs 11111 not even consider the
this Sension. Next autumn, perhaps, if
&".....ard other Whim permit, he will look into
thil Ratter, and see whether anything tan really be
ism to improve the existing system. For his own
part, he tells the disfranchised millions, who have
waited so long and so patiently upon this question,
that he woaid be perfectly satisfied to let things re-
main se they are. Well, they know now what they
have to expect ; and if they are satisfied to remain
passive is their motet coalition of outlawry and
alienate, they are pretty =din to remain so. Lord
Dimly declares that the shades of distinction
between misuses& pasties are now so numerous
and so interblended that a large portion of the Upper
House could tot Sell, If they were asked the
question suddenly, to which particalar section
of petty they belonged. He might ham said the

sum of ne ineomfderalike portion of the peasant
Home of Commons. But the diatoms between
the two is this, that the CLANExposs and Mammas.
mums are beyond Ike people's roach, while the
noloothes elements d the Lower Home cm be made
to meanie a virtue If they have it mot, by the consti-
national pressured their eenstitaents. It was by this
maws, and by this dose, that the vote of aware
was passed on the pat torenron end CLAIIINDON
foreign policy, and it is by this mesas alone that any
good Si to be ILoped in other matters in the present
Home of Commons.

Winn Sir Fennov HILLY is aiming East
Sifolk with vinous of a Reform Bill that shall
give voles to every Englishman of independence and
intelligence, it may be worth while to glance at the
present realities of Conservative politics u they are
exhasited osty a hundred miles west of Ipswich.
The "sesame for the extension of the elective
" hanehiss" which the new Attorney-Oeueral places
haeoris the eyes of his late constituents, and perhaps ,
also before his awn, Ito be the reconciliation of
Derbyism with the advancing requirements of the
age. It is surely then proper that we should look
aroma ne to dimover what kind of change is neces-
sary to secure that independence on which Sir
Frvinov HILLY lays stress.
We shall go no further back than to the county
election which gave Lord DERBY'S party its
latest reinforcement in the House of Coln-

moos. The ream of Colonel CARTWRIGHT
for the southern diviikm of Northamptonshire,

has jut been made the seceder kw an aatbeatic and
most timely exposition of the dectline of the weal I
suffrage, se held by the great Conservative landlords
of that constituency. Not that any verbal statement
on this subject was necessary. It is by deeds that
men are accustomed to form judgments that in the
long run prove tolerably correct. Still there is •
*Wain mental satisfaction in ascertaining the theory
which explains facts, and comparing the rale with
the practice. It was at a public dinner, to selebrate
Colonel CA•TWRIGHT'S success, that the tenant
farmers of Northamptonshire heard an authoritative

statement of the owiditiona under which it would be
safe for them to me the elective franchise. The
Ashman and (NO orator of the day was Sir
HINRY DRYDEN, Baronet, of Canons Ashby, the
prepense of the triumphant candidate, and it is to
hie langesge that we would now invite attention.
" Outainly," said Sir HENRY DRYDEN, " no man
" has a right to me his landlord's land to vote
" against him." A clear and broad proposition ; bet
not too broad for the structure about to be reared
upon it. " Where there is difference of opinion,"
continued the speaker, " the tenant should not
, " vote." We proceed from principles to illon•
trades.. " Sometimes," said Sir linear, " a ease
" would occur, where, from the death of a landlord,
" the new landlord would be of different principles
" to the old one and to the tenants. In this cam he
" thought the tenants should remain neutral. He
" would give an instance of a ease of this kind. The
" last Hake of MARLBOROUGH was a great Radical,

" use his landlord's land to vote against hits,"
herein= fatal to the new franchin, saline Ern
DRYDEN would have been spared the trouble of
defining the rights of landlords over the votes of
tenants.

How long will the independent popular constitu-
encies of Englund consent to see their due and legal,
authority in Parliament outweighed by the impu-
dent esurpation of men who will not reet satisfied
with the legitimate influence of character and sta-
tion P There is only one remedy for the evil which
we have illustrated in one county, but which is com-
a= to all. To secure that the legitimate purpose of
voting shall not be frustrated, and that the benefits
of an extended raffrage shall not be annolled and
perverted, Vote by Ballot is indispensable. Without
it we shall never have a legislature commanding the
confidence of the people, nee get rid of that
oligarchical taint which is eating into the Govern-
ment The thentry ham tolerated Ire-and-twenty
years too long the &reagent pretensions of the clam
of which Sir REMIT MITSUI' is a speeimen; and
therefore, while Bir Frrenox BILLY' talks about a
new Reform Bill, let us demand that particolar
reform—protection to the voter—for want of which
we have not yet been able to reap half the &dun-
r tages promised in the old.

The following remarks, of which the tet#7
English sentiment is matched by the truly English
style are as appropriate in 1868 as they were
in 1802 :

" The terror which BuonapartE has struck seems
to have produced a total forgetfulness of the great
maxims of our government and jurisprudence. For-
merly, when • man was threatened he immediately
appealed to the law. He did not ask what was the
situation of this country with Tearer to any other
r *gantry : his first and only question wan, ' What
rya the law of England.' Now, unhappily, our
inquiries, if Buonapartft MP the prosecutor, are of a
very different nature. Mr. Addington, in reply to
Dr. Limner respecting the shame of passing over
the Frond' libels on his Majesty, is reported to have
said, with his usual solemnity, that he wished he
could show to the learned and honourable gentle-
man the satisfactory explanations which had taken
place on that heed. Bat that gentleman must, we
think, be much lea learned and infinitely lies
honourable than the world takes him to
be if thine explanations would be satisfactory to
him. No, no; while oar government is making a
public matter of a jest on Baconaparte and his wife;
while Mr. Peltier is to be brought into the Court of
King's Bench, and to be arraigned as a criminal ;
while the party offended is, in this ease, to receive
such ample and open justice; in the other case,
when the British nation is libelled, when her minis-
ters are publicly, and in the Mositesr, the official
grate of Francs, styled the employers, and their
royal master, the rewarder, of smearing, in this case,
the matter is to be settled by an ' explanation,' and
that explanation so secret, too, as not to admit of
being communicated to parliament ! But why waste
our tines in exposures of this gort ? There is no such
thing as exposing the conduct of such people: it is
so openly, so fiacruntly, so barefecedly mean and
puallammons."—lrssk4 Register, vole 2 (1802).

TEE EXPRESS, TUESDAY 1111!ENING, MARCH
.
°Melt DELlOrpwboaftoi Alec • tof
of .."0,,
i. ti : R-BLECTIONB4.
ich hoiefuied * co in
• RTH WILTS. 41, .
rb)4lAa me of B of Q
. who has cdf
•on the subj 'cessions._ .. • .
sir
rod Put 0 ' estate. aa&skt of me B.a, hoe
,
LUdialtWer lop dedatates whi ld e wifi take piece *A dad
iv., opposition snowed
was ready to bring the voles. of the smaller freehold I fain"— "TO Tall uncross 07 NORTE T/11.11.
aw Pant= says intimation then that "no man would hive • right to " Oentlemen—l have to address you on We occasion 1
• I__ .1.- II ..... Is;• lanetlnvra lavul en enta •craindif I,i'm " %mean 1001611800"bia 1.1"11"4144"1400404 40.000103.40.0