The Express.
London, England, 1866-04-28 00:00:00

MR. LOWE'S SPEECH.

(Frew the pod!, ..Vcoz.)
THE friends of Reform owe warm thanks to Mr. I
LOWE for having on Thursday placed in so strong
a light those constitutional doctrines which they
must ever steadfastly oppose. The obligation'
would have been even greater if it had suited the
right honourable speaker to deliver that masterly
exposition six weeks ago. His March speech
against a reduction of the franchise did great good
by showing how the great body of the people were
regarded by the ablest of the opponents of Reform,
but the public wanted to attain to a fuller and
clearer apprehension of his latest ideas of the
foundations of government. Henceforth there
will be nothing to complain of on this score : his
latest discourse was constructed on a scale large
enough to embrace all the dogmas, all the interests,
and all the passions of his political school. It was
full of spirit and grace, admirably delivered, and
altogether in sympathy with the audience to which
it was addressed ; but it might have been all these,
and yet not have been the great and important
speech which it unquestionably was. We
do not know where else to find so complete,
exact, and convenient a summary of the princi-
ples which in modern times lead those governments
that adopt them to nun. If we admit with the
Times that the march of Mr. LowE's logic was
irresistible, we must add that the same logic has in
our days conducted nations to barricades and kings
to exile. Mr. LOWE swept all before him : so
did M. Goizos—into the abyss. Mr. LowE's was
the most revolutionary speech that has been heard
in the House of Commons for many years, and
the rapturous cheers which sustained the orator
eloquently show how urgent is the necessity for a
reform in the House of Commons. Mr. Lows
piques himself on not being as other men are, who
can talk of " our own flesh and blood," as if the
sentiment which binds us all together in a com-
mon national life could have anything to do with
the wisdom of extending the suffrage : he is a
politician. Well, the ablest politician who in our
days has tried to carry out Mr. LOWE'S theories

lost his master a crown. " Look," cries the
right hon. gentleman, "and see what happened
"in France when there was a limited
"constituency in the time of Lur:s PHILIPPE,
" and parliamentary government until the Revo-
" lution of 1848." Yes, by all means : look, and
look, and look again. But wherefore look if you
have not eyes to read the obvious lesson I We
see in the history of the later years of Loris
PHILIPPE what comes of arbitrarily " limiting your
"constituency," to exclude powers because they are
toopowerful, and which just because they are powers
ought to be recognised and brought into the con-
stitution, and harmonised with it. We lately
quoted from an essay by that devoted friend of
the House of ORLEANS, M. VICTOR COUSEN, an
account of the policy of distrust which led to the
downfall of his King. That policy is identical
with that of Mr. Lowr. Happily, there is this
difference between the circumstances of the two
countries, that in England the Sovereign has often
recommended an extension of the suffrage from the
throne, while the fears and suspicions which re-
duced all Loris PHILIPPE'S political accomplish-
ments and vast experience to worthlessness, and
turned his wisdom into folly, are with us repre-
sented by a discontented member of the Opposition.
Like all Mr. LOWE'S speeches, this last was
an elaborate impeachment of representative govern-
ment, and to that extent an attack on the British
Constitution. Finding the political arrangements
of 1832 in operation, he nominally approves of
them, but he continually lays &ten maxims as
to the fitness of voters which could not be applied
without leading to wholesale disfranchisement. As
he is never tired of telling us, there is nothing to
be said in favour of associating the largest number
of citizens in the control of their country's affairs
and in the work of making the laws they are ex-
pected to obey. Those who fancy there is are
victims of puerile fallacies, and out ~f the pale of
political argument. The sound doctrine, according
to Mr. Lowx, is that the franchise is a mere poli-
tical expedient, a means of securing good govern-
ment ; and the better to drive the argument home,
he represents a member of the administration as
maintaining that it is better we should be governed
by large representative bodies, and governed
badly, than governed by small representative
bodies, and governed well. We need nut say that
nobody has maintained a proposition so absurd.
But we suppose that no one is unaware that the
necessity which exists under representative govern-
ment of convincing large numbers of persons of
different classes, associations, and prejudices, of
the desirableness of any particular law before that
law can be made, does impede useful legislation.
Mr. CARLYLE thinks this is a conclusive argument
against parliaments, but his school is not a large
one. In these columns we every year plead for
the enactment of laws which would very soon pass
if we had only to do with gentlemen who can see
the bearings of administrative reforms as well as
Mr. LOWE, instead of having to reckon with Mr.
HENLEY and Mr. NEWDEGATE. But we do not on
that account desire to he governed by clever nomi-
nees of enlightened Whig noblemen ; we prefer
to deal with the intelligence—or, if it be necessary,
with the unintelligence—of our fellow-countrymen
—" our own flesh and blood "—rather than to
have good measures passed without regard to
what they think and feel. The loss by delay
is only temporary ; the gain, when once secured, is
permanent, and we have all the infinite satisfac-
tion which the best laws passed by the wisest
bureaucracy could not give us, that our affairs have
been finally settled by mutual accommodation with
a view to the general advantage. The country is
prepared to honour and reward those who will
devote eminent talents to the work of leading it in
this spirit, the spirit of the constitution, but it
will not recognise the pretensions of an oligarchy,
not even of an oligarchy founded on intellect.
Governments such as Mr. Lowe despises stand ;
governments such as he commends fall. That is
the fact of the nineteenth century—the fact
which Mr. LowE's admirers have to consider.

LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC 'MEETINGS TOR THE
ENSUING WEE[.—Monday„ Actuaries, at 7, " Construction
of Tables of Mortality," Mr. Woolhouse. Tuesday, Royal
Institution at 2, annual meeting. Horticultural, at 3,
general meeting and lecture. Anthropological, at 8,
" Hindu Neologi," MaViria3wen ; " Living Microcephale,"
Dr. J. Shortt ; " Sacti ," Mr. Salon ; " Fecundity of
Negro Women," Mr. Waler. Engineers, at 8, "Flow of
Water off the Ground," " Water Supply of Paris," Mr.
Burnell. Wednesday, Society of Arts, at 8, " National
Standards for Gas, Mr. Glover. Literature, at 8).
Thursday, Royal Institute, at 3, "Ethnology," Professor
Huxley. _ Chemical, at 8, " Pyrophospho-4liamic Acid,"
Dr. Gladstone ; " Tricalcic Phosphate, sc., " Mr. IL. War-
ington. Linnean, at 8, " Cranial and Dental Characters
of H ," Mr. Busk ; " Recent British Ostracoda," Mr.
Brady ; " Otolites of Fish, their Value in verifying
Species," Mr. Higgins. Antiquaries, at 86. Royal, at
Si. Friday, Archmological Institute, at 4. Royal Insti-
tution, at 8, " Substitutes for Gunpowder," Professor
Abel. Society of Arts, at " Artificial Aromatic Sub-
s'ances" (Cantor Lecture), Dr. Craw Calvert. Philolo-
gical, at 8. Saturday, Royal Institution, at 3, " Eth-
nology," Professor Huxley.—Allunream.
CRYSTAL PALACE.—At the Saturday concert to-
day (the last of the present series) Maden.c P.,repa,
LTbrich, and Herr Leopold Auer will the a.--ists. Beet-
hoven's Pastoral Symphony, and the overtwea to Oberon
and William Tell, are incladed in the p,fgno..rne. The
promenade will take place 2.11 lisval after tie concert.