The Express.
London, England, 1866-10-06 00:00:00

THE WEEKLY -PRESS.

The Saturday Review anticipates that the Eastern
question, which means the future extension of the vast
Russian empire, counterbalanced, perhaps, by the
aggrandisement of other ambitious powers, will within a
few years or months unsettle still further the peace of
Europe. The continental changes inoe 1856, in
supplying a plausible precedent for political innovation,
have diminished in many respects the security of peace.
Eventually, perhaps, the question—like other uninviting
problems—may receive some comparatively desirable solu-
tion ; for the present it seems to be dependent exclusively
on the force which may be available for purposes of sel-
fish ambition.

Discussing the position of Prussi► the Saturday Review
arrives at the conclusion that the perils which lie in the
path of Prussia render the attempt just now of any aggres-
sions on her part outside of Germany Improbable. In the
Irish problem, it Bays, we must confess that the mistakes
of the English government are almost irreparable save by
the aid of time. The whole system of parliamentary go-
vernment, and the whole tone of the English mind, are
entirely alien from the habits and instincts of the Celts,
who still constitute the great majority of the Irish people.
Pity is it that Cromwell began his process of eradication at
all ; or that, hatlng began it, he aid n. t more fully com-
plete it, and thus leave us to deal with a people more like
ourselves in instincts, In habits of thought, and in religious
sympathy. Pity is it that in the year of graoe 1866 e n
Englishman is obliged to admit that, in critical times, the
beat guarantee for the adhesion of Ireland is to be found in
the intolerant protestantism and narrow loyalty of the
province of Ulster.
Elsewhere the Saturday Review taxes Mr. Bright with
opening the floodgates of sedition, and with uttering
wanton threats of revolution. It allows, nevertheless,
that the events of the recess have strengthened the con-
viction that some reasonable Reform Bill ought to be
passed without further delay. The chances are perhaps in
favour of a change of ministry during the session, and of a
Reform Bill passed by the liberal party. It is unfortuna' e
that contingent sedition will necessarily claim a part of
the credit which may belong to the construction of a suc-
cessful measure. _ _

Observing that additional experience tends to confirm
the misgivings it has frequently expressed with regard to
extradition treaties, the Examiner goes on to contend
that with increased facilities of transit and instantaneous
mode of communication between civilised countries, them
is no longer any need or use for this bad and blundering
desire of extradition. Let the good old principle of our
common law be disentangled of the network thrown over
it by diplomacy. " The courts are open : let them im-
plead one another." Let every facility be given for the
prosecution of fugitive foreigners by their own country-
men or by their governments before our tribunals, Napo-
leon the Great did not disdain to sue for justice apOnst
Peltier at Westminster; and though the practice might
not at first be free from the evils of prejusuce and miscon-
ception, it would soon become a point of honour with
judges. advocates, and juries to prove that justice was aa
scrupulously meted out to the stranger as to the native. IP
Do the ministry, asks the Examiser, feel quite as hope-
ful of being able to tide over their reform difficulty as
some of them did perhaps three months ago! They have
made a terrible mistake, and they will bless Mr. Lowe
many a day. Since they would not, when they might,
have the mildest of infusions of reform possible, when
they next have the spoon thrust between their teeth, they
will find a much stronger dose in it, and swallow that they
must, or wait for what they will like even less. There
will be many more Manchester, is the autumn and winter,
and no doubt the same feeling will be generally
expressed, that a large reform and the ballot should be
carried, and that the present administration cannot be
expected or trusted to cany them. There will be no
quatml about the extent of the reduction in the francl“,e
qualification, so it be a real, considerable, working reduc-
tion. There are plenty of zealous attendants at the great
gatherings in progress who, like ourselves, object to mar-
hood suffrage, and momthan a few (though probably much
fewer) who object even to the time-honoured system of
household suffrage being as yet restored in England, but all
agree in desiring the immediate admission of large numbers
who can give as sound and honest a vote as most of the
electors now upon the roll. All are of one mind with
regard to the disgusting revelations of the dealings of Yar-
mouth and Co., and the only cure of the leprosy. All, too,
agree in desiring to be rid of those who stop the way.
The Spectator protests against rejecting a tory reform
bill merely because tories bring it in. Supposing a to./
bill passed, it must, if a just one, inevitably strengthen
liberal bands, for England, as radicals are never tired of
repeating, is at heart liberal. It is the middle class, not
the nation, which, having secured every object of its de-
sire, except perhaps :such trifles as education, a creed, and
a foreign policy, has grown feeble of temper and cold of
spirit, and is half inclined to doubt whether
practical toryism is not the rich man's natural
rGle. Cleaning cesspools seems such dangerous work
when one never smells them. When one does,
somehow the danger grows less, and the toil, and sooner
or later the task is begun and ended. The nation is
liberal altogether, and all this excessive fear of tory
devices shows a latent distrust in the truth of liberalism
itself, a secret doubt whether, if England were fully repre-
sented, England would horestly be liberal, a doubt for
which there is not a vestige of foundation. The evil of
raising it is that it tempt testes to consider blank resist-
ance the only safe party policy. If their bill is to be
thrown overboard, whatever it is, why make it a good one!
Why introduce one at all, when they may live longer without
it Way not wait and fight till the threatened crisis has
actually arrived! They need not, we believe, be afraid.
Englishmen are too fair to reject sound measures, whoever
may introduce them, to tell any man that from his hands
they will not accept even justice. Only let tories look to
it that their bill is sound, that it really adds a new power
to the existing middle-class forces, for if they deceive the
country this time they will not be trusted again, and the
next bill proposed by whip will brush their party back
into history. It would not be difficult to prepare a bill
under which tory members would be as scarce as red coats
at a Quaker meeting, and resistance by the peers alone is,
as Lord Derby well knows, a policy of the past. If they
want to settle the question, their bill must be broad,
very broad, broad enough to enlist the popular sympathy
and satisfy the popular hunger, and that condition con-
ceded, the guarantees they seek for the minority will not
be summarily refused.

SIR JOHN PARINOTON AND EDrCATION.—The
First Lord of the Admiralty presided lad night at a
dinner, in Dudley, of the Association of Schoolmasters in
the diocese. of South Staffordshire and North Worcester-
shire. Sir John Pakington spoke about forty minutes,
and said hie conviction was deep and profound that if
there was one thing more than another which at the pre-
sent time embarrassed the councils of statesmen, threw a
stain upon the history and impeded the progrese of the
country, it was the unsatisfactory condition in which the
education of the people of the country remained.