The Express.
London, England, 1867-08-21 00:00:00

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1121TANNUL
Tan EVENING, THE LIST ]IAN; OR, THE MISER OT
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ITION WATIN AT LONDON BRIDGE.
UM DAT —Morally. Ns. bb.
AL(OZAON—YorafeB, Ib lass__ _Afternoon, GO. 372,

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 21.

A TEDIOUS, tiresome, anxious Session has come
to a close, a session which may be looked back
upon hereafter as one of the great turning points
in our national history. Nobody will grudge our
legislators their well-earned holiday, and we shall
all sympathise with the delight they feel in for-
getting the strifes and anxieties of the session
in country sport or travel. In their several counties
they may tell their constituents of the events of
the session, and in some senses, perhaps, give an
account of their stewardship. Getting away from the
atmosphere of the clubs and the publicopinion of the
West-end, they will arrive at some notion of what is
the tone of political feeling and the general
direction of political opinion among those whom
they represent in Parliament. Perhaps it would
be a little curious, and certainly not a little inte-
resting, to follow some of Mr. Dissam's most
ardent supporters to their several counties, and to
hear the account they give of the events of the
session to those circles of county society they
represent in London and adorn in the country.
Having fought a valiant battle against " rash
" reforms " last year, they went back to their
admiring friends with all the blushing honours of
successful resistance to democracy fresh upon
them. But they go back this year with another
story. Not only have last year's laurels faded,
but they have changed their banners, and have
assisted at the triumph of that very democracy
they were commissioned to resist. What account
will they give to their county friends of this mar-
vellous change? Will it bo enough to plead ne-
cessity, or will they throw the blame on a Pro-
vidence that disposes where man can only pur-
pose? Or will they take a less serious tone, and
boldly claim that they have " settled" the
Radicals and " dished the Whigs" f Per-
haps the "country party" are sufficiently pos-
sessed with party feeling to appreciate such a boast
as this, but they must feel something of the contrast
between the heroic attitude of resistance to revo-
lution which they took • year ago and the atti-
tude of uneasy triumph which is all that becomes
them now. They have been the instruments of
innovations to which Mr. Girnirrotrx's "little
" bill "is nothing. They have carried measures

for which none but extreme Radicals have ever
dared to ask. In resisting democracy they have
aided its triumph. They have saved the country
from the Whig King Log to put it under the
Radical King Stork. This may, indeed, restore
the Tory party to its natural function in the go-
vernment of the country, but the country party in
the counties will hardly agree in the new view of
what that function is. They have long had to
resist the forty-shillingfreeholders in their counties,
and the ten pounders in the county towns; now
they will have to perform the same important
function with the freeholders reinforced by the
shopkeepers and all the respectable inhabitants of
the villages, and the ten pounders reinforced
by all the householders in the towns. The
country party in the House may affect to
regard this as a triumph, but in presence
of their friends who trusted them and believed in
them as the natural enemies of democracy, they
will have to substitute words of apology and ex-
tenuation for their professions of triumph. They
may " keep up" before the nation, but they will
have a heavy time of it among themselves ; and on
the whole we do not see reason to envy them their
triumph, nor to begrudge them their holiday.
They may rest, and their political opponents may
be thankful.

But if the " country party," who have so
faithfully supported Mr. DISRAELI, have nothing
to be very proud of in the review of the session,
they are, after all, only in the same case as the
rest of us. They have played the game of " fol-
" low my leader" admirably, whatever they may
think of the result ; but among their opponents
leadership seems to be in suspense. It is a most
curious result of the changes and confusions of the
session that there comes out of it a measure which
satisfies the people more than it satisfies any party
in the House, but of which no party has any reason
to be proud. If each aide has its victories to rejoice
over, each has its defeatsto mourn. Eventhe House
of Lords has its own small share of the mingled
humiliation and triumph which have characterised
the session. Mr. Duna= is jubilant, of course ;
it is as much as his position is worth to be in the
least depressed ; but though the measure is his in
form, it is that of his opponents in substance. He
has mule a compromise which sacrifices both sides
without saving anything for either. He has given
a shell to the Whigs and a shell to the Tories, and
allowed the Radicals to get the oyster. Yet the
great Radical gain in the borough franchise has a
set-off in the insufficiency of the redistribution
scheme and in the introduction of the startling
novelty of the representation of minorities. As
Mr. DISRAELI professed to desire, he has passed a
measure which is not the work of any party, but
is the production of the House of Commons itself
—a House, moreover, which scarcely knew its
mind, and which was more desirous to pass a