The Express.
London, England, 1867-07-19 00:00:00

BILMBR HOSPIT/I.ITT.

The discussion which took place in the House
of Commons yesterday, relative to the deficiencies in
British hospitality towards foreign princes, is made the
subject of comment by several of our contemporaries.
The Time,, assuming that the remissness is due to the fact
that we do not allow the sovereign the resources or the
credits which the French Emperor controls, ventures to
add, after Mr. Disraeli's hints yesterday afternoon, that it
is not desirable we should. The Civil List is sufficiently
ample to meet all ordinary demands, whether of personal
expenditure or of royal hospitality, and a single palace
affords space enough for the entertainment of royal guests.
There is no necessity whatever for an addition to our royal
residences. Our resources are sufficient for our wants.
As Mr. Gladstone observed yesterday, the Emperor of the
French and the King of Italy among existing sovereigns,
and the Emperor of Russia and the King of the French,
have been entertained during the present reign without
complaint and without inconvenience ; and we may hap-
pily rely upon a repetition of such royal hospitalities
whenever the occasion arises for offering them.
The Herald thinks if we compare the Queen's privy
purse with the ordinary income of other sovereigns, her
equals in rank, we shall cease to be surprised at the com-
plaints which are made of the meagre scale of royal hos-
pitalities in England. The amount of the civil list is
fixed at 385,000/. by the act of December 25, 1837. Of
this sum 288,7001. are paid away annually in salaries to the
Royal household, in retiring pensions and royal bounties.
There remains only 60,0001. for the privy purse, and
36,300/. for general purposes of court expenditure.
The Herald is glad to hear that Mr. Disraeli thinks it
desirable that a palace should be built and maintained for
the express purpose of receiving foreign sovereigns in
England, and our contemporary contends that it is the
duty of the nation in future to take upon itself this re-
sponsibility.
The Standard trusts the subject will not be allowed to
drop. It would cost a large sum of money, of coursej to
erect such a palace, but, noblesse 64119 e.
The Star observes that if it is unconstitutional for pri-
vate members to propose grants of public money, it Ps
morally as bad for a minister like Mr. Disraeli to draw the
House of Commons into lavish habits by cunning sugges-
tions having no other object than to surround a particular
administration with meretricious magnificence, while
avoidingithe risks of unpopularity which attend a thrift-
less policy when honestly and manfully avowed.

Pot ITICAL CONSISTENCY.

The unopposed re-election of Mr. Selwyn for the Univer-
sity of Cambridge gives the Times an opportunity for con-
trasting the present indifference of the university to poli-
tical principles with its ordinary professions. Had anybody
ventured even two months ago to 'avert that Lord Derby
and his colleagues were capable of adopting such a policy as
Mr. Disraeli has carried out, and borrowing without ac-
knowledgment, if not without recognition, the programme
of Mr. Bright, what a storm of indignant retorts be would
have encountered! A prediction of what has actu-
ally happened would assuredly have been resented as •
grow insult, and tew of Mr. Selwyn's supporters
would have hesitated to vow that, ooroe what might, they
would desert him if be should vote for household suffrage.
For alleged inconsistencies altogether trifling when com-
pared with those of which the present ministry has been
guilty, Mr. Gladstone was banished from Oxford. But
then Mr. Gladstone changed bis party, and that makes all
the difference. Mr. Selwyn has only changed his princi-
ples, and principles are empty things in the estimation of
his constituents, as of the most ignorant elector, without
the party interests which give them life and substance.
By its sacrifice of personal convictions to public opinion his
party has earned the right to reverse the famous vaunt of
Francis 1., and to boast that it has saved everything, ex-
cept its honour.

The Standard twits that the extension of the lodger
franchise beyond the metropolitan boroughs, the rejection
of voting papers, and the cumulative vote, will be reopened
in the Houma of Lords, for they have never been the sub-
ject of earnest national thought ; nor would the Standard
care if the prohibition of voluntary compounding were also
struck out. At all events these are question, which might
very well be referred to a select committee of the foremost
men of both parties ; and on which, therefore, the recom-
mendation of the House of Lords may fairly carry with it
sufficient weight to counterbalance • hasty vote of the
House of Commons. The necessity of the cumulative vote
is • point on which the opinion of one such man as Lord
Grey is worth more than that of the majority which con-
demned it.

TAX EKOOND WITHAL

The Daily New detcribee a succession of striking inci-
dent• illustrative of the life and maanen of the young
generation who have grown to manhood under the impe-
rial regime. The late episode in the Senate, in which the
insulter of M. de Sainte-Beuve proposed to shoot the in-
sulted, or run him through the body, by way of a reply to
his speech and a refutation of his opinions, is completely
thrown into the shade by the personal affrays which have
diverted the languid attention of the Parisians for
• day or two from the debates in the Corps
Legislatif and the eccentricities of their foreign visitors.
The peculiarity of those cases is that the principais in
both, the Durny brothers and the Cassagnac brothers, are
most intimately associated with the existing government,
and, according to their own emphatic deciffiation, repre-
sent the "good society" of their time—the select society,
of imperial and official drawing-rooms, as distinguished
from the base world of people who are neither functionaries
nor flatterers of the government, After going over the prin-
cipal details the Daily News exclaims:—Such is law, justice,
honour, morality, and order under the second empire, or
rather in the good society and the official circles of the
second empire. It is nut unimportant to the world in
general to learn by these examples of what stuff the bril-
liant civilisation which Imperialism, as inaugurated in
France, is composed. It is unnecessary to point the moral
of an epoch which such episodes adorn.