The Express.
London, England, 1860-01-03 00:00:00

THE

made part and parcel of one and the ours aware,
it would bell difficult to avert 1r ibiteituro
el many corrupt and notninatian may, and the
recognition of certain PcPcleAs and independent

places se entitled to diree.'c representation. This
%Mike of pewee from irreeponsible to responsible
hands is what the oliwarchs and bureaucrats depre-
cate far more than Any moderate lowering of the
voting qualification. They cling to the notion that,
in spite of any limited expansion of the oon-
*Want body, they will still be able to
exercise • considerable away over the returns
for places of small extent. What they confessedly
despair of doing is being able to browbeat or to buy
really sound and substantial constituencies. There
Care already too many of these as it is, limited in
fact though their number be; and the greater is
the fear lest they should be multiplied. Better keep
hoary Gloucester and innocent Wakefield, Ponte-
fract the spotless, and Berwick the unbeguiled, to say
nothing of the Ripon*, Thetford', Arundel•, and
Eyes, than hazard the creation of new boroughs, or
the addition of freely elected members in either
amities or towns. And our anti-reform antago-
nists in this struggle wall know that, as things now
stand, without the wave of national feeling caused
by a Franchise Extension Bill the trans-
fer of seats would have no chance of being
carried. Let a Franchise Bill be brought in
separately, and separately passed, and let
another and a distinct Bill be then proposed of Die-
[maritime:sent and Enfranchisement, and it is clear
enough what would come of the latter. In Com-
mittee every item would be fought over with all the
bitterness and inveteracy that characterises contests
in which the combatants take an intense interest,
and the on-lookers but little. In the general result
the public would indeed be deeply concerned ; bat
public attention cannot be kept steadily fixed
day after day, and week after week, con topographical
or statistical comparisons. This is what the plotters
reckon upon ; and in their generation they are wiser
than hamster men.
There is another inducement held oat to Ministers
to adopt this treacherous scheme, which is highly
characteristic of the quarter whew' it emanates. Its
authors coolly argue that to pass cos-half of •
Reform Bill during the present session would be
enough by way of redeeming the pledge given by
the Whigs when they were seeking power ; and that
the necessity of miming the other half in another
session would be a sufficient pretence for retaining
office in spite of hostile votes in the HOUR of Com-
mons. The transparent worthlessness and hollow-
ness of such • plea cannot, however, pass un-
observed. It was a sound and comprehensive
Reform Bill—not the first of • series of broken and
disjointed measures—that the people were promised
at last general election. Of what that compre-
hensive and sound Bill was to consist, they were
distinctly told by Lord JOHN Rieszu before the
dissolution took place; and to his definition of essen-
tials the present PREMIER and many of his colleagues
gave their public adhesion at the memorable con-
ference which took place subsequently at
Rooms. Disfranchisement of from SlTS-
sad-twenty to thirty rotten boroughs, end the
transfer of so much of the representation to
large counties and towns, formed a leading feature
of the plan then agreed to. As for the 101. county
franchise, that has been consented to by all parties
it can no longer, therefore, be regarded in any cease
as a concession now to be made. At Liverpool the
other day Lord DEIST intimated likewise that he
was no louger stiffnecked about the borough frau-
chine, and Messrs. HENLEY and WALPOLE were,'
as we all know, ready months ago to propose a €l.
qualification. It is too late therefore to think of
peddling or paltering about that.
What will test the legislative skill and political
sincerity of the existing Cabinet will be their mode of
dealing with the old and new seats ; but all °masses
in them would be lost if they attempted to sever
that question from the only one that will enable
them to carry it—that of the extended franchise.

ept €.un.

WINDSOR CASTLE, JAN. 2.
The Dude= of Kent and the Prince and Prinon

M Widnes dined with her Majesty yesterday.
Her Majesty's annual distribution of food and clothing to
stoat 660 poor parsons of the Windsor and Clews perishes
wok piece to-day in the riding-booms of the Cade.
At ten o'clock the Down and Prince Consort, mown-
pulled by the Prince of Weiss, PAM Arthur, Prises
Leopold, Princess AWN Princess flekma, Princess Louisa,
I sad Prinoses Bestride, sad sashed by the ladles and gentle.
men `welting, monde' to the tiding-bona to whom the
Mentibadon, which was under the direntioa of the Hoe. mad
Very Rev. the Dean of Windier, the elm of Window end
Clown, sad the district Ashore for the relief of the pew.
The uswebers of the Clods* Club ((seabliehed valor her
Majesty's petreasge) received at the Mall Mae articles of
*Whim atwording to the mount el their centrthedene (se
as Resew ecoriose), whit the Widows presided by her
Maisay.. _ _ _

--/Lfas; the distribotlort, tits Qom, with Primer Allow
Priam, Helena, sad Primus Louisa, walks(' and drove is
Its Her Park, sad visited the Duchess of Kant, at
Presume:

- -
The Priam Conant went oat shooting, accompanied by
the Mace of Welts aad Prism Leiningsa. In samba»
win Cokeel Y. B. Seymour, Myna-Geserel gm Has. B.
Brem, mad Beer-Admbral lhe Hes. IYr H. Koppel.
The Denham s Lin and the Princess al Waleson
Tinted the Qom at the Crate In the attienamt.
Captain Otey letosnameled Linnment-Colond Yapped se
- . .