The Express.
London, England, 1867-02-06 00:00:00

OUR CONTEMPORARIES.

(THIS DAY.)

THR QUEEN'S SPEECH.-THE FIRST NIGHT OF THE sansum.

If experience did not warn ns against being
deceived by the fair promise of the first day of a session,
the Times could fancy from the tone of lut night's
debate in each house, we were entering on a term of per-
petual peace. Loral Russell's temperament showed
itself in his criticism, and his remarks on the
adoption of the Chondos clause evinced his obstinacy
in error ; hut Mr. Gladstone was particularly happy, and
approached the crucial question of reform with a breadth
of spirit which the Tine, .a trusts will be maintained nn-
straitened. Assuming Lord Derby's remarks to point to
some other method of procedure in solving the question of
reform than the immediate introduction of a bill or bills,
the Tien., does not see any objections to such a course, or
that it will endanger the safeguards against illusory pro-
posals. Parliament, it thinks, may be rightly called upon
to assist in the settlement of a question not distantly
affecting its own honour.

In another article the Ti, u a comities its satisfaction with
the paragraph relating to the differences with America. if
the present government should confer no other benefit on
the nation, yet it will not be forgotten that its accession to
power rendered it possible to extricate ourselves from a
fats,' position in respect of these differences. In our con•
t..iaporary'sopinion the state of American affairs now offers
no material obstacle to an agreement on the basis of arbi-
tration, or—what, perhaps, involves fewer objections—to a
reference of the whole question to a joint commission,
with full powers to make such an award as would he
within the province of an arbitrator.

Having observed that the Queen's popularity is un-
diminished by the millinery criticism of courtiers, the
Daly N. wit proceeds to examine the various portions of
the royal speech, pronouncing it on the whole a creditable
composition and a concepion to liberal principles. It is
skilfully and properly framed, so as to avoid raising any
points of controversy ; and thus the debate on the address
is exchanged for courtesies between the party leaders,
which, however, are but the self-purgation of malice and
of unfair design preliminary to very hard hitting.
The proposal of the Alabama commission is on the
part of Lord Derby simply a retractation of him cele-
brated defence of the Messrs. Laird, and on the part of his
followers it may be considered as an apology for the bois-
terous and indecent cheering with which they received
the member for Birkenhead's defence of his lawlessness in
the House of Commons. The most satisfactory part of the
speech is the sentence in which her Majesty announces
the return to regular and legal methods of
government in Ireland. How rofonn is to be
dealt with we must wait a little while to know.
Her Majesty's ministers ask for forbearance on this matter
from those to whom last session they did not show ortli-
ni.ry fairness ; having exhibited themselves all the reckless
violence of faction, they now protest against the spirit of
party. The Dail !r News is confident that both their
measure and its authors will be treated as it and they may
deserve. Like most evils a tory government has its com-
pensations. It transfers the battle between the progres-
sive and the conservative forces of society to a more ad-
vanced point. The irresistible force of liberal principles
converts even the adversaries of those principles into
instruments of the tendencies which they fear and oppose.
The speech is described by the post as opposed to all
the traditional ideas of conservatism, and would lead one
to ask whether that term has, in truth, any distinctive
meaning. In the matter of reform the government, the
Post says, will not, in the first instance, bring in • bill.
They prefer proceeding by way of resolution, and in the
event of their resolution being endorsed by the House of
Commons they will doubtless introduce • bill founded
upon it.

The Herald calls upon its readers to rejoice at the pro-
gramme which the government has submitted to the
country, hut in the matter of reform, says it is hopeless
to expect any settlement at all if the spirit which escaped
from Lord Russell on the first night of the session is to
animate the whole of the motley array which pays to
him a nominal allegiance. The Herald continues to de-
vote a considerable portion of its space to violent denun-
ciations of Mr. Bright, though from a prospective rather
than in a retrospective point of view.

In listening to Lord Derby's unctuous periods the
Targrop/4 could not help remembering the old proverb
about the fatality which attends an Ethiop's skin and
a leopard's hide. Refoim must be taken up in earnest by
means of a bill ; it must be dealt with before any other
serious legislation is attempted ; and it must be settled at
once, by whatever statesmen may call themselves "her
Majesty's government." If Monday is to reveal that the
ministry mean to act in accordance with these plain and
honest conditions, let the tory Reform Bill be then and
there received upon its merits. If, on the contrary, the
government is juggling with the house, and insulting the
patience of the country, the pitiful plot which they have
hatched in vacation—this political conundrum without an
answer—will not fare so well as the addresa has done ; it
will assuredly not pass!

The events of yesterday, says the Star, are extremely
unimportant and insignificant, except so far as they prove
that when the time comes Mr. Gladstone will not acquiesce
in anything but a really good reform bill. For the present
the case stands simply thus : Mr. Disraeli has propounded
a riddle in the reform paragraph of the Queen's Speech,
and Mr. Gladstone, sceptical as to riddles in general and
very certain there is no fun in this, has calmly given it
up. Mr. Disraeli has taken a day or two longer to compose
the answer, and reformers, better than any other party,
can afford to wait.