The Express.
London, England, 1866-04-05 00:00:00

THS REFORM MENTINGS.

The Times protests, so far as the press is con-
cerned, against the dictum of the speakers st the West
Riding meeting, that no difference of opinion on the Re-
form Bill must be allowed amongst the liberal party. Un-
reasoning faith and implicit obedience are natural and
proper in the ease of men of whom a vote is all that is
wanted, but it is a doctrine of evil import that the
pees is to fall into this parliamentary rank. Their
Ueda with regard to the re-distribution of seats
the Times finds it impossible to understand. It can-
not think on the whole that the most timid and
jealous eonservative need be much alarmed for the imme-
diate
effects of the bill ; but suppose it be carried, surely
the hundred and odd cities and boroughs with excessive
shares in the representation will fight hard for dear life,
and them the country will be put into a mess of exasperated
antagonisms, from which we may not recover in our time,
and which may lead to results far out of any man's know.
ledge. 'lf we are in the frying-pan now, a universal infla-
tion of constiluencke, without the removal of a single in-
equality or grievance, will be nothing less than a very hot
fire. It will be &change of situation certainly ; and we don't
deny it to be a cast of the die—a merit in some eyes. But
we don't like gambling on any board, least of all the poli-
tical ; and we claim the right not to follow leaders into a
position to the uncertainties of which they themselves shut
their eyes. . . .

The Daily New observes that it will be bard for those
who look through a diminishing glass at the reform meet-
ings which have been held in various parts of the country,
to reduce the great gathering of the liberals of the West
Riding to dimensions reconcile ble with their theory of popu-
lar indifference. Twelve thousand persons do not come
together in rain and wind to 'support • cause which excites
in them only • faint interest. When the West Riding has
spoken, we know pretty well how England thinks and will
speak • and the West Riding has adopted the government
bill heartily and unreservedly. The old whig aristocracy—
" the thoughtful and educated liberals," the manufacturing '
capitalists and radicals, end the unenfranehised workmen
were each represented. Government by public meeting is
not • desirable substitute for the ordinary action of
parliamentary institutions ; but there are occa-
sions en which what is undesirable may be neces-
sary ; and the present political crisis is one of them.
The constituencies alone can decide between disputing
authorities what was the question on which in their minds
the last general eleatioa turned. The only—or, at any
rate, the easiest awl most emphatio—way of making known
what they meant when they sent a liberal majority to the
Rouse of Commons is by expressing their sentiments in
public meetings.'
The Telegraph matte in a variety of ways the accusa-
tion that it desires the people should overawe the legisla-
ture intooompliance with the bill, whilst its real argument
is that violence is the only thing which could prevent the
inevitable triumph of the people's cause. In another
article the Telegraph comments upon the enormous dis-
parity in number between the municipal and the parlia-
mentary electors—a disparity so extravagant in some
please that no rational person can suppose it to have been
deliberately intended by the le;islature. In the large
majority of boroughs the principal disqualification of
householders at present is not the ten-pound valuation,
but the rate-paying conditicm. That condition Mr. Glad-
stone now proposes to abolish, and the result will be to
make the electoral roll nearly co-extensive with the
burgess rolL
The Poet rye it is not improbable, if the present bill
paws the second reading, that it may be necessary for
parliament to meet for an autumn session in order to settle
the complementary measure and the fate of the govern-
ment ; but that will be a cheap price to pay it the dis-
turbing and disorganising influence of the reform question
can be thereby finally and satisfactorily determined.
The Star asks why the twins, who have their associations,
secretaries, and treasurers, do not take some deps to
evoke that strong feeling against the bill which, according
to the tory organs, is entertained by the great majority of
the nation?

THE 01

It is remarked by the TOWS that, whatever were Louis
Philippe's defezte, his single lifetime may be said to have
founded a dynasty, and at the present moment the Orleanist
is the most able and implacable opponent of imperialism.
Whateyermay havebeen the faults of LoubsPhilippe'sgovern-
ment it did honestly allow France to be ruled by parlia-
mentary talent, and put a career before every man who
could speak or write on political subjects. Consequently
political ability in France is still Orleanist. It is no little
honour for a family that it should be associated in the
minds of a data of gifted men with the memory of consti-
tutional freedom, and that this should be the case is a
sufHeient reply to those who would unduly censure the
late King of the French. Of those who called Louis
Philippe to the throne and upheld him in the early days of
his reign the most eminent stood by Queen Amelie's grave at
Waybrkke. In a few years they too must be withdrawn
fromthe scene. The time has now arrived when we can eon-
ekles the reign of Louis Philippe without prejudice or
partiality, and do justice to an illustrious couple, remark-
able alike for their high destinies and for the misfortunes
tbatilmeset both the opening and the close of their lives.

TRAFFIC IN TSZi CITY.
The Times gives a few of the men remarkable state-
ments which occur in a report just made by Kr. William
Haywood, engineer and surveyor to the City Commission
of Sewers. Mr. Haywood assures us that the moving or
Tits population in theCityis nearly seven times aegrost
as residential or sleeping population ; that one-half of
the °isle inhabitants of the entire metropolitan area, or,
in other wee*, 730,000 men, enter the City proper every
111 haus. It crams that though the extensions of the
Night= and iketth-Eastent Hallways, and the opening of
flouibwerbaireet and bridge, laws all diverted, tame from
London bridge, the actual traffic on London-bridge is
greater than it ever was. Though the metropolitan rail-