The Express.
London, England, 1867-07-20 00:00:00

THE WEEKLY PRFSS.

The EMltititT discredits altogether the vague
rumour of thwarting' and troubles from the Lords. There
may be long speeches, and even long debates, and a
hundred plausible book-reasons recited why no reform
bill like the present ought to have been brought in. But
there is one answer which renders all others practically
superfluous. After fifteen years of hesitation and incer-
titude, the House of Commons has, without a division,
passed a measure, as necessary in its judgment to the
peace and progress of the country, which would add a
million voters to the constituency of England and Wales.
That vote is irreversible ; and no m►n who desires the
preservation of a privileged order in this country, can wish
to see the peers do themselves the injury and dishonour
of throwing any obstacle in the way of the bill becoming
law.

The Speda for trusts the Lords will show themselves
able to understand the situation, that the battle of aris-
tocracy and democracy will not be fought out as if it were
a question of parochial rating, and that we shall have
no baby play. Throwing out the lodger franchise will
alter nothing except in very great cities, and there it will
' alter it for the worse. Refusing notice to the ratepayers
will not stop the householders from dividing property,
should they ever feel so inclined. Mr. Poulett Scrope's
proposal to exempt the poorest from rates and de-
prive them of votes, will only tempt the poor to live in
bad houses, without depriving the workmen of their nu-
merical supremacy ; and chatter about this and that
borough, the merits of Luton or the demerits of Dartmouth,
will not delay democracy seven days. The public look to
the Lords either to accept the bill with dignity, as a rasa.
sure passed by the representatives of the nation, or to in-
troduce into it some improvement large enough to be
visible in the future history of Great Britain. If they do
neither, if, as some journalists advise, they devote them-
selves to " editing" • new constitution, to punctuating •
charter, to engrossing a revolution, they will deserve the
savage judgment passed on them by the conservative
leader of the Common., who declared in Coningsby that
"nobody wanted • House of Lords except a few disreput-
able old peers."

We all know what we think of the Sultan and the Vice-
roy, but it would be most interesting to the Saturday Re-
riew to know what they really think of tui—in the mo-
ments, that is, when they are not thinking of the Pyra-
mids, and the fine arta, and the love of their subjects, and
the heavenly crowns reserved for them. It is said that the
Sultan has declared himself to be much more pleased with
England than with France ; that he admires Paris,
but is much more deeply impressed by the soli-
dity of London and of England. We may be
reasonably gratified by this, for it either shows that
he really thinks it—and then his opinion is a valuable
one, being that of a complete stranger to both countries,
and having been pronounced in our favour—or else it
shows that the Sultan is sufficiently advanced in the arts
of civilisation to be a courtier, and knows bow to disguise
his thoughts, and say what people will like to hear, as
well as any of us Christian kind of Mahomedans could do.