The Express.
London, England, 1867-06-08 00:00:00

THE WEEKLY PRESS.

The Examiner contends that the scorn of the
French populace for assassination is thoroughly con-intent
with their honest anger and vexation at seeing the master
of Mouravieff feted and glorified by thei master : and
feeling vexed and angry, it is but natural that they should
express what they feel by look and voice. We, whose
executive and whose parliament refused to give any satis-
faction to the Austrian, when Hainan was hustled and
chased by Messrs. Barclay's men, cannot at all events
cavil at the want 'of political politeness in our neighbours.
The only difference lies ini this that our draymen having
caught the scourge of Hungary amongst them threatened
to throw it in the mire; and that the lawyers, students,
and workmen of Paris seeing the hand that held the
scourge of Poland offered them to kiss, treated the Her
with manly and generous disdain. Si sic taws;
Fhe Saturday Rerine does not believe that those' who
really care for and value the political life of the nation,
end wish the masses to be interested in poling, will be
much attracted by the scheme of a cumulative vote—a
scheme for causing an enforced stagnation in big towns
and important counties There is something of an Adul-
lamite flavour in the proposal. It smacks of the wish to
mitigate the effects of the Reform Bill, and to get rid of
democracy by ingenious onntrivve•wa. It is an arrange-
ment by which the check .f npicicrx„ the keen-
ness and buoyancy of political strife. the incul-
cation of doctrines by reasoning and persuasion,
are to be quieted and silenced throughout some of the
most important centres of national activity. It would
settle beforehand the political prospects of almost every
large town, and almost every wealthy and populous aunty.
Hitherto the government hes shown a strong leaning against
it, and in favour of increasing the number of constituencies
returning a single member; and Mr. Disraeli has justified
the course he has taken on the express ground that he
wishes to elicit as much as possible a decisive voice from
the constituencies, to guide him and fortify the ministry
for the time being. We can only hope that he may per-
severe, and that the house may go with him.
A government journal having taken credit to Mr. Disraeli
for mameuvring his party into a policy th►t if blankly prof-
fered to them they would have rejected with wrath, the
Spectator concedes to the right hon. gentleman all that is
claimed for him of distinct foresight, but fears this does
more to discredit his trustworthiness than even to glorify
his tact. He had, or professed to have had, strong prin-
ciples, which he shared with his party, end he has had the
credit by a series of feints of inducing them, as be
has induced himself, to strip off those principles and
abandon the policy they indicated. He has persuaded his
party to exchange a policy they honestly believed for one
they utterly despised, though they think, as ho thinks,
that it may be to their advantage. He has invented a
political dispensation or new economy, in order to ac-
custom his followers to views which they once rejected as
base, and prospects which they still think full of danger
—alarming, as well as alluring. He has been the prophet
of a retrograde teaching, a Moses of the wrong kind, bent
on accustoming his people gently to the idea of returning
to the flesh-pots of Egypt, from the sorrowful wilderness
of their thirty years' wandering. If this is credit, he has
achieved it,

The Imperial Review is enabled to state that the
National Conservative Association intend, to give a "mag-
nificent entertainment^ in the City of London to Lord
Derby, Mr. Disraeli, and the other leading members of
the government.

CONKVIRVATIVE WORKING Mme.—The first meet-
ing of the Metropolitan Conservative Working Men's As-
sociation is fixed to take place this (Saturday) evening, at
the Mechanics' Institute, in Southampton Buildings, at 8
o'clock. The offices of this association (the objects of
which are to unite the conservative working men of the
metropolis, and to direct the strength thus acquired to
the support of her Majesty's government and the con-
stitutional party) are at 11, Parliament-stmt, S.W. It
is, we understand, also intended to hold a public meeting
at some suitable place in the course of a few days, to allow
the inhabitants of London generally an opportunity of
protesting against the assumptions of Messrs. Beales and
Co., and smiting their preference for our existing form of
government.—imperial Review.
Mr. Spurgeon is suffering from a severe attack
of gout, snd has consequently been unable to fulfil his
ang.igements during the past week.—South London Press.