The Express.
London, England, 1867-11-07 00:00:00

THE MINISTERIAL POLICY.

The Times is puzzled to know why the ministry
ate so gratified with their position and prospects as Sir S.
Northcote at Bristol represented them to be. To the
question as to what high subjects the parliament of the
future is to address itself, no answer is forthcoming save
vague generalities. Perhaps if Sir Stafford really does
not know what the cabinet will propose, his ignorance
may be due to the fact that his principal col-
leagues are themselves waiting upon Providence to
see what it may be safe to suggest. This hypo.
the-ds is consistent with their course in the past ses-
sion, and it explains the others:se ludicrous vanity of
the various ministerial declarations of the recess. It may,
however, be confidently declared that such a method of
conducting the government of a great country cannot be
permanently successful. A ministry without fixed prin-
ciples must, from the nature of the case, be a temporary
accident, and if the present government have any certain
policy they are very shy of declaring it. Their beet friends
roust wish th►t they would break through their reserve ;
that they would at least give seine assuraace that they had
fixed in their own minds upon what they were prepared
to reform and what to defend, and were not waiting with
the single resolution to retain everything they can retain
with impunity, and to give up everything the retention of
which may prove incompatible with the possession of
power.

In an article estimating the project• and speculating
somewhat as to the cost of the Abyssinian expe-
dition, the Time+ comes to the conclusion that a
deficit to be measured by millions will remain,
apart from the charge on the Indian exchequer, to
be defrayed by English taxpayers. This is what parlia-
ment will have to face within • few days, iml we must
expect to hear complaints that it has not been consulted
earlier. Such complaints, however, are hardly reasonable.
The policy of the government was distinctly indicated
before the end of last session, and it was perfectly well
known that action must be taken, if at all, in the autumn.
Should any omissions or errors be pointed out in their
plans it may not be too late to remedy them, but it is too
late to make the government solely responsible for enter-
ing upon an Abyninian expedition.
There is also in the Times a leader treating of the Ala-
i hams claims apropos of some further despatches which
I have been published in America. An organ of Mr. Seward
states that he does not ask that the recognition of the
I rebels as belligerents shall be submitted per sr to the
arbiter for decision. It is only to be considered, in argu-
ment, as one of the acts tending to establish the moral re-
sponsibility of the British government. This is obviously
a very different demand from the one formerly preferred
to our government on the part of Mr. Seward. The
answer to it must greatly depend upon the views of the
English administration with regard to the true intentions
of Mr. Seward. If he only wishes to have the question
upon which he has laid such stress incidentally " argued,"
the express consent of England is not necessary. The
Vines is disposed to believe that theAnieric.in government
is not unwilling at this moment to bring the claims to
some sort of settlement.

The Star says it is very gratifying to observe the rosy
light in which Sir Stafford tiorthcote now sees every-
thing connected with the working man ; but it may
bo as well to explain how this sudden conversion came
about. Last year Sir Stafford was dead against household
suffrage, on the ground that the working men were not fit
for it. What happened sine? The working men held
some great meetings and pulled down the railings of a
park. Very proper things both, the star thinks, under
the circumstances, but for its life it cannot see how either
action could prove that the working men were worthy of
the franchise to those who previously believed them un-
worthy of it. The explanation is that the working men
proved they were united and strung, and the tones
thought it better to serve them than to be kicked out of
office by their means.

The Standard thinks Plat sorely the names of the gen-
tlemen appointed to form the Irish Church commission
will reassure those timid conservatives who have feared
that the government was ready to disendow and dis-
establish the Irish branch of the national church. On
the oontrary, the investigation is directed to the fortifi-
cation of the church whose rights to its property is secured
by an older and clearer title than can be asserted by any
landowner in the throe kingdoms.
The Herald looks to seeing it proved by the commission
that the Irish church is not an Irish grievance, but an
English cry ; not a source of internal discontent so much
as a bond of union ; not • refuge for jobbery, indolence,
and sensuality, but • monument of industry, learning,
piety, and loyalty.