The Express.
London, England, 1866-05-25 00:00:00

POLITICAL PAICTIII9.

The Daily News, which has been accustomed to feel a
certain degree of respect for Sir J. Pakington, who has
advocated a liberal policy on the education question
and shown an enlightened interest in social questions,
needs the recollection of his better qualities to plead in
his favour against the vulgar and intemperate harangue,
outraging in almost every sentence the limits of good
taste and of legitimate political discussion, which
he delivered the other day at Tewkesbury. The speech
from beginning to end was rather personal than political,
bearing the impress of a perfectly honest, but somewhat
dull and narrow mind constitutionally incapable of throw-
ing itself into the views of others, and profoundly con-
vinced that to dissent from Lord Derby is wilfully to sin
against the light. It seems honestly impossible to Sir
John Pakington, and to men of his calibre, to abstain from
evil thinking and speaking. But happily his opponents
are not bound to think as ill of him, as he, by intellectual and
moral limitations for which he is not responsible, is forced
to think of them. On one point Sir John may reckon on
the hearty concurrence of the great majority of his country-
men, namely, in his preferring to be in opposition with
Lord Derby than to be in office for life with Mr. Gladstone.
It would be a heavy price to pay even for the services of
Mr. Gladstone, to have to take Sir John Pakington with
him for the term of that estimable baronet's natural life.
To the Herald the speech of Sir J. Pakington appears
calm and judicious, expressing the language of a clear-
sighted and sagacious politician. The Herald anticipates
that the conservatives will be joined by many of the libe-
ral party in their opposition to the Reform Bill. Not a
single voice of recantation, it lam has yet been heard from
the cave of Adullsm. The great opportunity for punishing
the ministers is still to come, and has, it seems, been
expressly reserved.
The Pan thinks that there ham been more than enough
criticism bestowed upon the measures of the government,
and that it might not be unreasonable to desire to know in
what direction the alternative course would take us. It is
rather late in the day to profess simply a willingness to
calmly reconsider the representative system.
The truth is, according to the Telegraph, that Sir. J

P•kington is • man of thin and departmental brain, which
has neither strength of grasp nor rapidity of insight.
Although sitting on the same bench with Mr. Disraeli,
his mental constitution is that of "an old whig ;"
it is eminently " respectable," and deplorably limited
His sincerity can never be called in question ; the purity
of his motives is beyond • doubt ; and there is every
reason to believe that he would be cleverer if he could.
Unfortunately, he cannot.
The Star is content to know that after a fortnight's
consideration one of the heaviest chieftains of the tory
party can find nothing to say against the Reform Bill but
that he liked Mr. Lowe's speech, and that the present go-
vernment have no right to reduce in 1866 the representa-
tion of • borough which his own government and himself
proposed to reduce in 1859.