The Express.
London, England, 1858-04-13 00:00:00

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LONDON, TUESDAY, APRIL 13.

Lser night an intimation by the CHANCELLOR
of the EXCHEQUER of the course which Government
intend to pursue with regard to the business of the
&mien gave rise in the House of Commons to a con-
versation respecting the proposed legislation for
India that is pregnant with matter for reflection.
On the one hand it is mortifying to observe how
completely at sea the leaders both of the Ministerial
party and of the Opposition are with respect to that im.
portant subject on which the House of Commons has
rashly pledged itself to legislate without preliminary
inquiry. Though two Bills for re-modelling the
Home Government of India have been introduced,
there was not one member of the House of Commons
who had last night the boldness to affirm
that either of them could with safety be
passed into a law. The CHANCELLOR of the Ex-
COLQCER is willing that Resolutions declaratory of
the principles according to which India is to be
governed shall be propounded, discussed, modified,
and pared in a Committee of the whole House, and
that hie Bill shall afterwards be made conformable to
those Resolutions, whatever they may be. Lord PAL-
measron demurred to this mode of proceeding, but
even he does not appear to have deemed it prudent to
urge upon the House the adoption of his own Bill.
He merely declared that in his opinion it would be
better that matters should be allowed to remain as
they are—that is, to abstain from legislation at
present—than that an objectionable Bill should
be unduly hurried through. Not one of the Ho-
nourable Members who took part in the con.
venation appears to have been one whit more
prepared for immediate action than the authors
of the two Bills which compete for their auf-
frees. The House of Commons has thus tacitly
confessed that it has allowed itself to be hurried into
a pledge to legislate on a subject regarding which it
pensemes very inadequate information, and that
While it is ashamed to recede it is afraid to go on.
This is the darker side of the picture, the humi-
liating view. But the conversation of last night
suggests also matter for consolation. It is evident
that the Hesse of Commons has awakened to a sense
of the reepansibility it has incurred by undertaking
to re-model the Government of India. The Hewes is
obviously pervaded by a sincere, if not as yet a very
enlightened, desire to legislate in a manner that
shall promote the honour of England and the inte-
rest beth of England and India. The emphatic dis-
claimers of party motives and party views which
were beard from all aides betray a conviction that
the Hones is in no mood to be made a subservient
instrument of personal ambition. The House feels that
it has acted precipitately, and is anxious to extricate
itself with credit from the embarrassing position
into which it has floundered. This mood of the
Legislature is an instructive illustration et the
vistae of our English system of free public dismission.
Pension and prejudice may make the majority
deride unpalatable truths when first presented to
them; but if the minority, confident in the recti-
tude of their intentions and the justice of their
views, persevere in urging them upon the public,
Ant ens and then another is induced to pause
and reflect, and the ultimate triumph of truth is cer-
tain. The tide is already turning on the great
question of Indian legislation, and if those who
know India and seek to promote its welfare are but
true to themselves and their cause, there is nothing
to fear.

Nothing can be more striking than the difference
between the demeanour of Lord PALMERSTON

in the Rouse of Commons last night and
the swaggering bluster of his morning organ
in the press. No further back than yesterday
morning this Times frankly declared that Lord
Deanr's India Bill must be thrown out,
and thrown out with the view of upsetting Lord
Deanr's Government "To allow the Government
" of Lord Wear," said oar contemporary," to carry
" out its India Bill would, we admit, be a very great
" evil ; but to throw out that India Bill and retain
" in Aloe the Ministry who proposed it might be a
" greater evil still." And to avert this dreaded evil,
the. Tines, which for months past has been syste-
matically depreciating and sneering at all our con-
stitutional provisions for enabling popular opinion to
cheek and control the wilfulness of men in authority,
utters something very like a threat of an appeal to
the country:—" We throw the whole country into
" confusion for a mouth, and knowingly abandon
" ourselves to a periodical saturnalia, in order that 1
" we may ascertain the sense of the majority; but
" what avails this process if the majority is to hand
" over the power delivered to its charge to the
" keeping of the minority, with the special condition
" that no amount of incompetency sh►ll be allowed
" to interfere for a moment with its tenure of office,
" that tenure depending not at all upon the merits
" or demerits of the minority, but on the progress
" of private negotiations and arrangements arson
" the leaders of the majority ; and if Parlianients7
" government ceases to afford us any guarantee
that our affairs will be directed by men
" possessing our confidence, and by 111118111111111
" which commend themselves to our reason, may
" not the people become inclined, as in America, to
" take the power of appointing the Government into
" their own hands, and to withdraw from Perlis-
" meet a power of appointment which it so grossly
" and flagrantly abuses ?" Such vapouring is all
very well on the part of desperate subordinates, who
see the "private negotiations and arrangements"
which they have been promoting likely to terminate
In their own exclusion ; bat Lord Papaw:on
moves more in the public eye, his to pay more
regard to appearances, and plays for a deeper stake.