The Express.
London, England, 1866-01-27 00:00:00

THE WEEKLY PRESS.

In the course of an article upon the new parlia-
ment, the Saturday Review observes that the doctrines
which attribute great importance to the action of in-
dividual persona, are countenanced by the present state
of political affairs. Mr. Bright, who is equal to
Mr. Gladstone in eloquence and, perhaps, in general
ability, will for the first time find himself the acknow-
ledged leader of a not inconsiderable section. It is yet un-
within whether the radical party have a second or
rival leader in Mr. Mill. No new member would have a
claim to equal authority if the tendency to dogmatism sad
the propensity to crotchets which may be traced in his
writings are suppressed in the House of Commons.
Some time muss elapse before his character and influence
will become an element of political calculation. Lord
Oranborne will possess with his party the authority
which belongs to an established position, ea well as
the influence which follows the exhibition of great
ability, joined to indefatigable industry and untiring
vigour. Mr. Hardy's solidity will perhaps supersede
in conservative estimation, the more antiquated so..
lezdnity of Sir John Pakington. The government
would be perceptibly stronger if it included in
its ranks Mr. Lowe and Mr. Horsman. Lord Stanley's
power •it is impossible to estimate, because the direc-
tion in which it will be applied is uncertain. With
the exception of Mr. Disraeli, who will retain his accus-
tomed rank, the older members of both parties will pro-
bably find that time has weakened their hold on their poli-
tioal supporters. Mr. Gladstone might have rendered
rivalry impossible, if he had declared his intention ti form
and to lead a moderate liberal party. As a reformer, he
may perhaps achieve equally brilliant rooms ; but there
will be far more risk of failure.

In another article the Saturday Review, attributing Mr.
Ooachen's preferment to the agency of the Chancellor of
the Exchequer, compares the relation between Mr.
Gamboa and Mr. Oladstoee to that between Mr. Glad-
stone and the late Sir Robert Peel. It remiss to be seen
whether the future time of Mr. Goechea will fully bear out
the parallel. If it does not, a stroeg additioaal argument
against this active influence of Mr. Gladstone will he
furnished to those who already recognise in its exercise
some of the most baneful interpolations in the staff of more
than oise department. For, however readily a political
party or a civil department may pardon, in a chief so able,
so eloquent, and so full of knowledge as Mr. Gladstone,
other qualities neither so useful nor so admirable, it is any-
thing but matter of rejoicing fora great public office to sot
its own permanent staff disarranged to make way for some
Qladstone-and•water parasite, who, without a fraction of
his great model's eloquence, knowledge, or ingenuity, has
all his crotchets, all hie waywardness, all his obstinacy, all
his love of domination, and who vulgarises Mr. Glsdatone's
subtlety into downright mischievous Jesuitism.
Replying to the Daily News the Spectator declares it si
not asking for less than the ministerial measure of reform,
but for more—for a direct share of power within par-
liament to be conceded to the working man. Our pro-
posal, household suffrage in all towns with more than a
fixed limit of population, will undoubtedly secure them
the power of returning from forty to fifty representatives,
and will as undoubtedly prevent them from awampiog
any other class. The 61. suffrage, on the contrary, will
secure only one of t • result•. It will either simply in.
crease the liberal section of the exist ng constituency,
and thus make the return of the same men
with the same ideas more certain, that is, will be
almost null, or it will enable the workmen to hold the
balance of power in every borough in the three kingdoms.
It will either do nothing, which is Mr. Baines' view, or it
will enable the workmen to carry any special idea—say the
Permissive Bill—in the teeth of the rest of the country,
which seems to be Mr. Bright's. The bill, to carry the
country in the teeth of the tories, the wave,ete, and the
little boroughs must, whatever its other defects, at lent
relieve us from the subject for one generation, and this a
franchise bill, without a r listribution of seats, avowedly
will not do. Is it the Daily News which quails before a
measure it allows to be geed, bemuse if proposed Harwich
and Ripon and Woodstock might master up courage to
resist?

The Economist thinks lithe Stock Exchange committee is
to investigate such matters, the new rules now adopted are
as good as any other. No rules can be good, because the
purpose they axe intended to secure cannot be secured. But
the present rules, perhaps, do es little harm as any others
which could be suggested. Their principal difference
from the antecedent col. is that bargains made
before the allotment of shares ere now to be recog.
nised as well as bargains made after that allotment. The
same spirit of needless benevolence which lead the com-
mittee to retain this singular jurisdiction, led them not
long since to forbid—for their refusal to recognise is equi-
valent to their forbidding—a particularly objectionable
class of bargains, those before "allotment," in which
there is often more fraud than in any other
class. But their refusal has not stopped the
bargains ; it has only made them matters of
" honour." Some of the dealers would have nothing to do
with the pr ibite i bargains, but others male them con-
stantly. The committee are now retracing their steps;
they are giving u- the act of benevolence on which they
lately prided themselves, and fur which they were so much
praised ; and it is much to be wished that they would
confine themselves to t ••• r own besieges, and abandon all
attempts at jadieia', or quasi judicial investigations.
The Press contends that even if too much severity has
been displayed in the sappression of the Jamaica revolt,
the conduct of those who raised au outcry sgaiost an officer
paced in a very difficult position without a tittle of evi-
dence to justify their clamours is altogether unpardonable,
They condemned General Eyre without knowing what
he really hid done, or on what grounds he had
acted. And mhisters, who ought to have supported
a servant of the crown, yielded to popular clamour, sad
actually suspended him, at the same time that they ad-
mitted that they did not know why. Whatever may be
the result so far as General Eyre is concerned, that section
of the public which raised the agitation, and the legislators
who for the sake of courting popularity visited him with
a reprimand, have done wrong. For their conduct, at any
rate, there can be neither palliation nor excuse.
The John Bull does not hesitate to say that on such evi-
dence as wee advanced before the court-martial in Gordon's
ease, no magistrate in this country would have convicted
any prisoner of larceny. If we are told that when a
country is under martial law, it does not do to be
so particular as to the details of evidence. the answer
seems complete, that theca was not the remotest
necessity for trying Gordon by martial law e'even days
after the offence. The John Bull trusts that the conser-
vative party will have the moral courage not to attempt a
justification of what seema an utterly unjustifiable
action, caused, no doubt, to a great extent, by an extra-
ordinary pante. Raving made a mistake, let us have the
honesty to admit it.

LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC MEITINOS FOB THE
=sumo Wm.—Monday, Actuaries, at 7; " Limitation
of Risks," Mr. Sprague. Tuesday, Royal Institution, at
3; " Heat." Professor Tyndall Wednesday, Society of
Arta, at 8; " Dwellings for the People," Mr. Biggs.
Thursday, Royal Institution, at 3; "Hest," Protestor
Tyndall. Chemical, at 8; Utilisation of Tows Sewage,"
Dr. Gilbert. Lioness, at 8 ; " Anatomy of Echidna."
Anthropological, at 8 ; " The Negro," Captain rim.
Antiquaries, at 8; ; " Murrain of Ilth Century," Mr.
Harrod. Royal, at N. Friday, Royal Institution, at 8
" Influence of Arabic Philosophy on Medheral Europe,"
Earl Stanhope. Philological, at 8 ; " French Homonyms,"
Professor CassaL Saturday, Royal Institution, at 3
" Art Education: how Works of Art should be viewed,"
Professor Wastmaciott.—AMOlClNlS.