The Express.
London, England, 1866-05-21 00:00:00

MigCELLANEOVS TOPICS.

The Times, in publishing a correspondence between Sir
C. Darling and Mr. Fellows, a member of the Legislative
Council of Victoria, takes occasion to return to the sub-
ject of the dead lock in that colony. The parliamentary
controversies of Charles the Second's reign, it remarks,
are now revived in Australia, but the spirit of compromise
which has prevented a serious collision between the Lords
and Commons has yet to be developed in colonial society.
Constitutional government is not so easy as it looks ; the
smooth and noiseless movements of its machinery are the
result of long use and repeated adjustments. Such •
misunderstanding as now paralyses legislative action at
Melbourne would have been overcome here at the outset,
and must he overcome there, if at all, by friendly confer-
ences between the two chambers and the conciliatory in-
fluence of public opinion.
The Daily News trusts that the leaders of the conserva-
tive party will employ the interval of leisure afforded by
the recess in reconsidering their position in regard to the
government measures of reform. They express their
willingness for a compromise. But they ignore the fact
that the measures now before the House of COllllllOllll
are a compromise, and that their rejection will
remit each party to the position of antagonism
which it occupied before without much prospect
of further accommodation. The bills are more
open to criticism in what they concede to conservatism
than in what they withhold from it. The tory party,
should their tactics bring them into power, will never be
able to carry measures so favourable to themselves, since
the necessity of conciliating liberal support will compel
them to hid high for it.

The Herald censures Mr. Gladstone for what it terms
the slovenly, unsystematic, and awkward manner in which
he conducts the business of the House of Commons, the
result of which is that the house will meet after the
holidays with an accumulation of business on its hands.
If the government reform bills are pressed, they cannot
fail to occupy a month or six weeks entirely to themselves.
The financial plans of the government have not yet been
discussed. There is not only the general question which
Mr. Hubbard proposes to raise to be determined, but Mr.
Gladstone's scheme for the reduction of the debt cannot be
allowed to piss without considerable discussion. Then we
have the Church Hates Abolition Bill, now dr facto a
government measure, the Irish Tenant-right Bill, the mea-
sure for altering the system of Irish education, the Bank-
ruptcy Bill, and a host of other measures.

STUDIES OF ITALIAN ART.—MT. Ha(IWOTI Wheel-
wright gave the private view of his very interesting series
of water-colour paintings, some of which are the size of
the original frescoes and pictures of the Roman, Floren-
tine, and Siennese schools, on Saturday, at No. 2A,
New Burlington-street. The following were amongst the
company who visited the exhibition :--Lord William
Paulet, Mr. F. W. Burton, Mrs. Higford Burr, Mr.
Anthony Trollope, Lady Carington, Mr. Samuel
Roily, Mr. and Lady Anne Lloyd, Colonel J. J. Graham.
Sir Kingston James, Countess Dowager of Morton and
L.uly Agnes Douglas, Hon. Mr. Arthur Dillon, Mr. Uwins,
Mr. Wornum, Mr. Hamilton ('rake, Mr. J. R. Spencer
Stanhope, the Dean of St. Paul's and Mrs. }Liman, Lady
Howard de Walden, Mr. Oscar Browning, Lord Lindsay,
and Lady Lindsay.
DEATH OF FATHER PRorr.—Our Paris COlTO-
spontlent, writing on Saturday night, says :—" It is with
I the deepest personal regret that I fulfil the duty of an-
nouncing, as news of the day, the death of the Rev. Frank
Mahony (Father Front), which sail event occurred last
night at his residence, Rue des Moulins. He had been
long ailing, but until about a month ago continued to act
as Paris correspondent of the Globe, a post which he had
filled for many years. It is not for denizens of Paris to
tell England, Scotland, and Ireland who Father Front
was. His biography must be already written."
A memorial window to Mr. and Mrs. Keble is to
ibe placed in St. Paul's Church, Bournemouth. The sub-
ject of the illustrations on the window will be taken from
the 7'r Drum.

The Salisbury Journal states that oyster culture
is about to be pursued at Poole, in Donetahire. Some
French gentlemen are in that town superintending the
formation of oyster beds on the French plan. The spots
chosen for the beds are off Itranksea island, at the back
of Stone Island, and another much nearer Poole. A guard
boat will be constantly employed for the protection of the
beds after they are laid down.

The traffic on the Netley Abbey Railway in
Hampshire increases almost daily. It has secured the
whole of the traffic of the gigantic military hospital
situated on the banks of Southampton Water. Thousand;
of persons will visit the Abbey daring the summer by
means of the railway, which paws through a beautiful
country adorned with two celebrated ecclesiastical rains.
The railway crosses the famous salmon riverltchen, close to
the site of the ancient Roman town of Clausentum. On
the nights of the great oratorios, which periodically take
place at the Hartley institution in Southampton, a special
train runs on the Netley Abbey Railway for the con-
venience of the employes at the hospital and the inhabi-
tante of the neighbouring villages.