The Express.
London, England, 1867-08-19 00:00:00

Efie OVMO•

TO 0011.11103PONDEN1IL
elterttexaeote Inteaded tor "Th. lepreem," London leonine
=moat be at the Olhee, 10, Bouvertewtreet, by Two
on the day et pelthealloa.

HAYMARKET.
THIS EVININO, AN UN UAL MATCH. Morn. Bankston%
Chlppend.4le. Rogers, Ken Clark. Westkersby, de. ; Mes-
dames Sectorlrk. Iltswifilam, —TO PARIS AND BACK FOR
AL Mr. Buckstone —And mica SMIRK.

PILINCEIHIL
Tr= Eymmgo, THE DAY AMA THE WEDDING.—THE
MAN 0' AIALIR. James Harebell, Mr. Herman Vezln ; Mesas.
L Price, Forrester, Gresham, Madam, and Merton ; Misses IL
Stuart, Holly Moore, Ac.—And Alt UNPROTECTED 'SMALL

11111TANNLA.
Tors EVIIIIII4, THE LAST MAN; OR, THE MISER or
ELTHAM GREEN.—The Brothers Hanlon ; Mr. and Mra Cole-
man and Mr. W. Brown ; the Champion Skaters ; Mr. J. Plump-
ton ; Mr. C. Woodman.—And THE LAST ottILLINO.

HIGH WATZI AT LONDON =DOH
Ti! DAT —Monalog, 411. 2044—....A1tiri00a, 4b. Dm.
To4doiaow—Nondag, 4b. tia..--Atternoon, GIL Hat.

LONDON, MONDAY, AUGUST 19.

Axoxa the changes which the Reform Bill
may be expected to produce, perhaps the most
desirable of all is an improvement in the tone of
politics. It is impossible not to perceive that for
some years past the tone of political life has been
rapidly deteriorating, and that the highest states-
manship Las been less appreciated among us. But
there has been a very obvious cause for this
deterioration. The want of any real and
earnest conviction on the subject of Reform
has been a canker at the heart of politics, and
has enfeebled the whole of political life. For a
long while the Liberal party kept Reform in
its programme, but dismissed it from its policy.
At the election of 1805, which created the present
Parliament, there was no particular cry
and no particular excitement, but the
Liberal candidates were everywhere ob' iged
to include among their professions of principle
the belief in the fitness of the working classes for
a share of political power, and in the expediency
of granting the better portion of them such a
share at no very distant day. But no person at
all acquainted with the middle classes of the
large provincial towns could fail to perceive that al
very large section of those who constituted the
strength of the Liberal party were Reformers
rather from necessity than from choice. Feeling
pointed one way and expediency the other. By their
own principles they were obliged to admit Cie
claim of the unenfrarchised classes ; by their
social prejudices they were tempted to distrust
thole) claims. With them that argument of
" swamping " told with immense power ; and
though it did not convince them that it would be
either wise or just to deny the claims of the
working classes, it made them very ready to post-
pone those claims. Reform must come some day,
but the more distant the dry the better
for them. The demand for popular enfranchise-
ment was a just one, and justice ought to be done
though the heavens should fall, but they had some
doubt of the stability of things, and caught at
any argument which put off the hour of trial. It
Wag to this state of mind that Lord PALYZUTON
ministered, and it was in this state of mind that
Mr. GLanrroins found a large section of his party
when he announced that the time had come for
the settlement of the qrest'on. When the Liberal
leader sounded the advance, a large section of his
party were therefore unwilling to move. They
did not see that the time had come when the sub-
ject of Reform could be no longer trifled with ;
but Mr. DISRAELI did see it, and Mr. GLAD-
grroNa's difficulty was Mr. Denueu's oppor-
tunity. The Liberals were demoralized by the
perpetual desire to put off the settlement
to which their principles committed them.
They had so long accustomed themselves to in-
dulge in the luxury of delay—to push the con-
sideration of the subject off to the more con-
venient
season which never comes—that it was im-
possible to convince them that the fit time had at
last arrived. But this obtuseness was the result,
as it was the punishment, of a cherished habit of
delay. Mr. Lows stood alone among Liberals in
entirely disbelieving in Reform, yet those o
cheered him, and those who openly colowed or
secretly accepted his guidance, were not guilty
of conscious insincerity. They were theoretical
Reforirers, but unbelievers in practical Reform.
Opinion could not pass over into action, faith
could not become practice with them, be-
cause they had never thoroughly realised their
prirciples in their practical forms. Hence it
was that even a small measure that was
honest was too great a step, and that a much
larger measure to which they have been half
driven, half betrayed, bat which they only
gradually realised, has proved suocessfuL It is
not true that Liberal professions of desire for
Reform were dishonest, or that Reform was con-
sciously used as a mere popular cry ; but it is true
that the Liberal party were not in earnest ; that a
large section of them were afraid of the results of
their own principles ; that their political theories
were bolder than their practice, and that a conflict
between political principles and social feelings and
prejudices held their action in suspense. "The

" flighty purpose never is o'ertool unless the deed
"go with it." Aristocratic and middle-class Libe-
ralism had a flighty purpose of popular en-
franchisement, but their reluctance to transmute
it into actual deed produced legislative feebleness
and party decay.
It is a clear gain to the politica of the future
that this question of the franchise is at length oat
of the way. It was the only question in which
it was possible to represent the carrying out of the
Liberal programme as a perscnal sacrifice of power
on the part of the middle clam, and therefore the
only one on which such hesitancy is likely to be
exhibited again. When other subjects rise, the
divisions of opinion will be more decidedly marked,
and the hiatus between faith and practice will not
be likely to occur. The completion of the present
measure by a liberal and just redistribui.ion of
soli; will probably take an early place among the
objects which the Liberal party of the future will
propose to iLself, but on that subject there will
probably be a sharp division of opinion and a de-
finite policy suggested on one side and on the
other. But it is everything to remember that in
the regeneration of the Liberal party the nation
will take part. The present Parliament is elected
by classes—the new Parliament may in much
greater degree represent the nation. The weak-
ness and decay of present parties has arisen from
the internal conflict between their clams feelings
and their political principles. But this conflict,
so far as the Liberal party is concerned, is now
over. It is no longer a question of sharing power I
with others, but of the use to be made of power
now that it has been shared with them. It is
no more a strife between the feeling of exclusive-
ness and the principle of inclusion, but
between the claims of antagonistic poli-
cies for popular allegiance and power.
And if there is one thing in which
more than in any other the nation is greeter
and wiser than any class, it is its entire
freedom from those secondary considerations which
always weigh with classes. A parliament which
represents any class will of course see all questions
in their bearing on the interests of that class—a
parliament which represents a nation will see them
in their bearing on national interests. But that
which has hitherto weakened and vitiated politics
is the tendency to look at matters in their class
bearing, to judge them by class interests, and to'
consider something else besides the interest of
national right and justice. It was perfectly natural
that the Reform question should be viewed in this
way, but now that the most difficult part
of it is settled, a wider and juster
view will, we hope, prevail. No class
can judge national questions aright, while it is
anxiously considering how their settlement will
affect its own interest. Such a double minded
policy is unstable in all its ways. But a wider
view will bring, not only a truer judgment, but a
firmer conviction and a surer policy. The time
of weak governments is probably near its close,
but the time for half-measures, for feeble com-
promises, for professions which there is not the
courage to carry into practice, is certainly at an
end. An infusion of the popular element will in-
vigorate the tone of politics as a breath of free
air invigorates the jaded system, and it will be
the fault of the Liberal party if that invigoration
does not speedily restore it to the strength and
efficiency of its beet days.

OUR CONTEMPORARIES.

(THIS DAY.)