The Express.
London, England, 1866-02-02 00:00:00

THE VETTING OP PAELLIMMIT.

With a passing allusion to the respect which
Englishmen have for even the formalities of the British
parliament, and which would make them unwilling to
change the antiquated ceremony of yesterday for any
other which might be supposed more in accordance with
modern cireurnstrinces, the Times proceeds to offer its
congratulations to Mr. Denison oo being for the third
time chosen to the honourable and important office of
Speaker, a distinction gre►ter than the original
choice, and one which, according to the testimony
of both sides of the house, he his earned. It
thinks, however, that on such an occasion it would
have been graceful if the Speaker had been proposed
on one side of the house and seconded on the other. The
conservative party would naturally have been glad to pay
• tribute of regard t 3 a gentleman who has acted with
impartiality in pa' ty contests daring • period of nine
years. We may prt slime front Mr. Disraeli's remarks that
the opportunity was not offered them by the government,
and certainly a Sresker whom both parties unanimously
elected might have been moved to the chair between
two more generally accepted exponents of popular
approbation than Mr. Monsen and Earl Grosvenor.
Mr. Bright's eomplsiot of the requireineot that members
who dine with the speaker and ►ttend his levees must
wear uniform or wart dress, the Times regards as purely
a matter of taste. The mac of the world views these
things with iadifference, and adopts the costume which is
usual in the moiety he enters ; hut if there be any who
think these harmless things intolerable, it may be as well
aot to render them indispenasble.

Applying Mr. Gladstone'. remark of yesterday, that a
large amount of parliamentary business is withdrawn from
the observation of the country, to the diploniatising which
goes on behind the Speaker's chair and in the lobbies, the
Daily News observes that this tentative process by which
the opposing forces recognise, by a sort of instinct, which
is stronger, is already being tried aa to the Reform
Bill. A neutral administration, a cross between wbig and
tory, is being talked of on the assumption of • ministerial
defeat —a conjecture deserving notice only that its insig-
nificance may be the more emphatically marked. No
saner hope could be entertained than that Lord Russell
will be terrified by the threat of open opposition, or of
secret coalitions, into bringing forward • sham reform bill.
He has declared that his government will stand by
the measure which it introduces ; and common sense,
not less than common honesty, requires that the bill
shall be one which is worth standing by, and which there
will be no dishonour, should it come to that, in falling
with. At the same time, in deciding between the con-
flicting considerations for and spinet • comprehensive bill
dealing systematically with the whole problem of repre-
sentation, the government is bound to be guided by its
judgment, not solely of what is theoretically best, but of
wbat is most certainly and immediately practicable.
The Herald reminds its reader, that a division on some
question of vital interest to the country will soon show
whether the liberals are justified in claiming that over-
whelming majority which the figures of the election retrros
seemed to award to their party. Lord Russell's high-
handed proceedings in Japan, his indifference to the lives
&Dante), of the Englishmen in Abyssinia, his truckling to
the fanatical party in the Jamaica business, may be the
occasion, any or all of them, of a vote of censure
in which the majority of the house will joie.
The ministers are at inns among themselves on
many questions. In the Jamaica business Mr. Milner
Gibson has pronounced himself on one aids ; Mr. Cardwell
is known to be in favour of the other. On the question of
reform, no two of them are agreed in opinion, and if the
coherence of the ministry is doubtful, the liberal party
outside its pale is certain to agree in nothing. Under the
auspices of Mr. Gladstone there is no alternative for hie
party but that of decisive victory or decisive failure. The
whip must ride rough-shod over their antagonists, or give
way before them, and make place for better men—which
it is to be, the event of a few weeks will prove.
The Telegraph is led by the scene of yesterday to specu-
late open the probabilities of Mr. Gladstone's succor as
a leader, its only misgiving being that the right hon.
gentleman may err on the side of out-speaking, while
Lord Palmenton's supremacy was rather acquired by the
gift of silence which be possessed. If Mr. Gladstone fails,
he will fail from flooding his subject and glutting his audi-
ence. He will hardly gain much assistance from his col-
leagues in the cabinet, neither Sir Geo. Grey nor Sir
Chas. Wood being physically able to discharge efficiently
the urgent duties of a cabinet minister. There is more
hope for the ministerial party in the comparatively untried
powers of Mr. Gosehen than in any other element of sun-
ease which the administration possesses.
The proceedings of yesterday appear to the Star to
peon-ise well for the degree of harmony to be expected
from the house in acquiescing in the Speaker's decisions.
The fins constitutional ring of Mr. Disraeli's remark that
Mr. Gladstone mast be well aware that the leader of the
house might at all moments of difficulty appeal to members
opposed to bins with as much coofideace as to his political
friends, will doubtless on occasion be very well matched by
that of some other and very different expression of feeling ;
knit there is no reason to fear the success of our parliamen-
tary forms in securing the house from disorder in the scenes
which are to come. The Star thinks the subject of the
"astounding" costume exacted by the Speaker's dinners
opportunely mooted by Mr. Bright, end trains that the
hon. gentleman's remonstrance will speedily take full
effect. It would probably gladden the Speaker's heart if
the reform were carried a little further ; but perhaps the
earth would by this time have ceased to revolve if a sug-
gestion had been made that he should be exonerated in
future from the necessity of making up every night like a
comedian for his distinguished part.

THE 31;

IHEIOIII werrnic.

The Times finds a sad want of logic in the speeches at the
meeting on Tuesday of the Manchester reformers. Ac-
cording to the earlier speakers, a mer• reduction of the
franchise would be simply a politic settlement, while the
Inter orators denounced it as a dishonesty. Wh"e laying
stress oo the right of every householder to a
vote, these gentlemen are ready to support a bill
which is expected to eofranchibe nearly every artisan in
the boroughs—that is, most of the artisans in the king-
dom—and leave every agricultural labourer without a
vote. They rest much on indirect taxation as qualify-
ing men to be voters, but would any of the gentlemen who
profess so exalted an estimate of the lowest class of house•
holders take any one of them into a place of trait, or for
any employment above the lowest, without fall inquiries
into his moral and intellectual fitness?

The Post thinks that the romaekab'e unanimity of the
Manchester reformers looks as if they have, after all,
some strong fears for the gaiety of their desired franchisee

TEE MITI:ILL MOVEMENT.

The Poe€ laments that some oh rAymen and lames, by
their fondness for extreme oboe' vances, he's brought about
• statr of thi,gs which it is impossible to settle, raising up
• distrust in the minds of quiet church-going people as
to what may be the end of so new and startling •
system, sad shaking the belief that the church of England
is a true and trustworthy bulwark against the flowing tide
of Romsnism. It would be a serious blow to the church
to have her liberty of worship curtailed. It would be •
positive injury to have her ritual cut down to •
narrow uniform puritan model. Bat it in for those who
make an excessive use of their present liberty to beware
lest they provoke • reaction which will defeat all the good
which we read ly erelit them with the desire to do. The
question may be safely left in the hinds of the bishops for
the present. It will be time to invoke the aid of parlia-
ment when the church's own machinery fails. The Poet
understands that it is not the intention of the Bishop of
London to bring is any bill ou the subject ; but it waits
with some anxiety for the srchbishop's advice.

TOPICS.

The Times relates some of the more glaring fans which
became known at the meeting on Wednesday of the
Joint Stock Discount Dempsey, deducing from the whole
story the moral, that valuable multi cannot be made out
of worthlen materiels. Under the maoipolationa of the