The Express.
London, England, 1859-04-20 00:00:00

THE STATE OF THE CASE.

The following letter appears in the Daily News:
8111,1 speak with some degree of certainty when
I say that the present division in the tipper ranks of
the liberal party is not (as seems to be imagined by
Mr. Bernal Osborne in some of his speeches) a
creation of personal rivalry between Lord Palmerston
and Lord John Russell. It is a difference, and •
most substantial difference, of policy. The ques-
tion ia, therefore, one that does not admit (as Mr.
Baena Osborne supposes) of personal accommoda-
tion and arrangement. It can only be settled by the
piablio tithe polling booths.
_ . _ _ _

The state of the ease is this :—Lord Palm/new

an the subject of Parliamentary Reform, hea
peded from 1831, while Lord John Russell hes &d-
-emised from 1831. And the question which the
liberal party have to decide on the hustings is, whe-
ther they will stand still with Lord Palmerston, or
advance randomly but finely with Lord John
Russell.

No one that I know of calls on Lord Palmeeston to
give way in his views on reform to Lord John. But
you constantly hear ex-cabinet ministers insist on
the necessity of Lord John yielding to Lord Palmer-
ston, abandoning his large and comprehensive opt.
Dion., and accepting the slender " notions" of Lewd
Palmerston. Now this course would be one of de-
struction to Lord John, and of no permanent MIS
whatever u an estoppel to the dimension or p
of reform. Far from it; such a concession 4°M
John would throw the advocacy of reform and the
guidance of the question into hands far lees eon-
'ejections and much lees safe.
Lord Palmerston is very differently situated. He
could accept without sacrifice or reproach, nay with
general applause, those moderate terms from which
Lord John canoot recede without d'agram to himself
and injury to reform. And if Lard Palmerston did
so, there would be no personal dillemlties to impede
the re-union of the liberal party.
It is the fashion to say that the old whip adhere
to Lord Palmerston, and have deserted Lord John.
To a certain extent, no doubt, this is the owe; but
to an equal extent it constitutes Lord John's strength
and Lord Palmerston's weakness; for Lord Palmer-
ston's adherents and Lord John's deemtmayire exactly
the people who have hitherto made liberal govern-
ments odious, by amociatiag them with greediness
and selfishness. The desertions are, cone+ quently,•
great relief to Lard John—a serious incambranos to
Lord Palmerston.
Bat this is correct to a limited extent only. 'There
Me few keener-scented whigs than Sir C. Wood; and
he, notwithstanding his connexions with Lord Grey,
shows which way the wind is setting by accepting
at Halifax Lord John's outline of a reform bill. Sir
June Graham, returning to his first love, associates
himself, not with Lord Palmerston, but with Lord
John. Mr. Sidney Herbert, now a confirmed and
assured liberal, turns mote to Lord John than to Lord
Palmerston. Bo also Mr. Cardwell. Lord Lincoln,
the eldest son of the Duke of Newcastle, adheres to
Lord John's project. Mr. Bright, too, in his recent
admirable speeches, has emphatically announced his
wish to co-operate with Lord John; and at the City
meeting last week, whose name was received with a
tithe of the applause that Mr. Bright's received?
Lastly, the Committee of City Liberals, one of the
most important bodies in the kingdom, composed of
all shades of refeneers, have declared Lord John to
be " the acknowledged leader of the liberal party."
If, then, Lord Palmerston and a select ceteras of
aristocratic Liberals, of which Lewd Shaftesbury I
the alpha, and Lord Clanricarde the omega, Amu
to stand still on a subject on which the met of the
world is determined to move, Lord John Rama will
not be without as able coadjutors as the cosatry Oil
afford.