The Express.
London, England, 1866-11-21 00:00:00

OUR CONTEMPORARIES.

(THIS DIY.)

THE REFORM DENONSTRATICHIS.
It is very hard, observes the Daily News, to
accommodate the enemies of reform pith a reform agita-
tion precisely to their mind. Either it is too abstract or
too practical ; either it is defective because appealing only
to principles, or it is perilous because it suggests amend-
ments of our institutions ; either it is the weak dream of
philosophers, or it is the data active violence of the mob.
It is not therefore surprising that strenuous objections
should be urged to its being taken in hand by the Trades'
Unions, and to having thrust upon our recognition so very
emphatic an answer to the taunt that working men
only want work and wages, sad don't want votes. As
the London day approaches, accordingly, we shall be told
with more and more urgency of deprecation that such de-
monstrations are a warning of the danger of yielding one
single step in the admission to political power of a class so
strong, so united, so disciplined, and so reckless. Frankly
admitting that a trades' union ought in its nature to be
non-political, it must be allowed by every man of fairness
that the deviation in the present instance is due to those
who taunted the working classes with being indifferent to
the possession of political rights, and drove them to
reply by showing at once their strength and
their determination through the machinery which lay at
their hand. The cause which has evoked such a spectacle
of vigoer is the only one that does or can hereafter do
so. These men meet and march because they have all one
common plain grievance—that they are placed outside the
duller and responsibilities of the constitution. If this bond
of common 'offering under a common injustice were once
removed—if they were admitted to equality with those of
other ranks, the sole element of cohesion would disappear
for ever. Questions of political or social economy would
still as now be a source of Jib ision and dispute.
The TiIIICS is sensible of a great disappointment in
examining the proceedings of the Manchester conference.
This miscellaneous body, it says, pretend union when they
utterly disagree ; affect fairness and candour when they
have bound themselves to sweeping and unmitigated hos-
tility; and make believe they have a parliamentary object
when they confine themselves to social agitation. They
commit themselves to nothing ; they venture on no posi-
tive demands, they confess to no limitations, and then,
with hands thus open and:empty, and with nothing staked
on their aide, they are for trying a game of conclusions
with people who do stake everything—that is, who have the
courage, and the candour, and the honesty to say exactly
what they propose.
The Tel Dotes that several well-known forces are
united in the popular demand for reform. We have first
the great manufacturing and commercial interest which
was the very life of the Anti Corn-law League—the
Reform League, representing a large section of the
working men—the trades' unions, as the easiest ma-
chinery of organisation by which the artisans can
express their political opinions—and lastly, tbst great
parliamentary party of which Mr. Gladstone is the recog-
nised leader, and which, alone, fought almost to a trium-
phant issue the battle of reform last session. A combina-
tion so vast, so resolute, and representing so faithfully the
whole community, is unexampled even in the popular
demonstrations which resulted incatholicemancipationand
free trade.
The Star fully agrees with the reform conference, that
there is not the slightest probability of a decent reform hill
being offered by the present mir,stif ; that the introduc-
tion int, the cabinet of any such measure would simply
mean the instant break-up of the government, and that
anything put before the House of Commons in the shape
of a reform bill by Mr. Disraeli is sure to be either an open
insult to the nation or a specious and dangerous sham.

)1 R. T. HUGHEA,

Mr. T. Hughes's speech to his constituents is one of the
subjects this morning with three or four of our contem-
poraries. Tho Tinos compliments him for his candour in
entering into particular statements respecting the defects
of the present parliament and the benefits to be expected
from an amended representation. His arguments 'n
favour of compulsory education and in favour of
laws to prevent the practice of adulteration and
the use of false weights and measures are cases
in point, but the Times is surprised that a man of
Mr. Hughes's experience could have overlooked the irre-
sistible power which the working classes have in their
hands already to establish guarantees on these points.
Why cannot these trades' urions which follow a man into
the very sanctum/ of his household and the smallest
transactions of his daily "fe, do something for what Mr.
Hughes considers the great needs of the working classes?
Why cannot they look after day scholars as well as ap-
prentices? Why nut watch over the honesty of trades-
people as well as the demeanour of foremen? Way not
look after short weights as well as shoe t time? As things
now stand, whatever is done for the goad of working men
in these matters has been done, not by their own class,
but by the classes above them.
The Rat thinks if Mr. Hughes will take up the question
of the adulteration of food with anything like the zeal he
has displayed in the cause of the reconstruction of pour
dwellings, be v.. 11 probably find a great many things to
say about it which " nobody else would say," and he
will also render a most essential service to the class with
which he displays so generous, and sometimes so um
reelecting, a sympathy.