The Express.
London, England, 1867-08-05 00:00:00

WHAT WILL. THE CoIVIONS DO?

Assuming that the Reform Bill will bo sent back
to the Commons in its present form, the Times expresses a
hope that the Lower House will before Thursday have so
far recovered its equanimity as to be able to discriminate
between the alterations which have been made. The
change in the lodger qualification is fraught with the seeds
of future disturbance,.and the House is bound to refuse
its concurrence in it. The machinery of voting papers is
aurcLarged with opportunities of abuse, and the multipli-
cation of polling•booths would remove even the pretext for
such a method. The Times trusts—though, remembering the
inconsiderable majority which rejected voting papers when
first proposed, it cannot say it trusts with confidence—
that the House of Commons will reject voting papers
again. The representation of minorities, on the contrary,
may be expected to receive decisive approval from the
House of Commons, freed as it will be from the pressure
put upon the ministerial supporters when the question was
last before it.

The Daily Net,. lays stress upon the fact that the bill
as it was sent up from the Commons was the result of a
compromise and a compact entered into by the govern-
ment, but in the House of Lords ministers have flung
away all pretence of abiding by their word. The peers,
encouraged or permitted by them, have fundamentally
altered the principles of the measure. For this the
ministry is directly responsible. They have allied them.
selves with the Lords, vitally changed the bill, and defied
the Commons. The leading points on which this coalition
hns altered the measure are all vital, and all tend in
one direction, not only of depriving it of value, but
making it positively mischievous. If the Commons pass
this instrument of hostility to liberal principles, the ques-
tion will go out of their hands, and the next Reform Bill
will come from the Manchester Corn Exchange, the Green
at Glasgow, and Hyde-park. If, on the other hand, they
reject the Lords' amendments Lord Derby will be in a
predicament which will probably open his eyes to the
fact that honesty would have been • better policy. A
dissolution on such a matter would be ruinous to him.
Whatever threats, then, are used, members may now vote
without that fear. The plain question for them will be
whether they will consent to be the tools of the Lords, or
make the Lords yield to the country.

The Post observes that if the Lords' amendments are
ratified the agitation will re-commence. What was
formerly a political question will in some sort assume •
personal character, and men will for the first time be
entitled with some plausibility to assert that they have
been betrayed.
The Standard is apparently prepared to give up the
change in the lodger qualification, but strongly adheres to
the representation of minorities and the voting papers,
both of which it believes will be accepted by the Rouse of
Commons.

The Ttlegra ph, on the other hand, emph►tically says that
the measure must be sent back to the Peers no it reached
them at first. The measure as it now is, affords no resting
place for a day.
The Star says it is reported Mr. Disraeli is resolved to
do his beet to frustrate the Lords as to the proposition re-
garding minorities. As the Lords have altered the measure
nothing on earth could make it work for any time, except
the successful operation of that machinery of universal
corruption by means of which the Quarterly Review
frankly declared certain claws in this country were re-
solved to maintain their supremacy.