The Express.
London, England, 1866-03-09 00:00:00

-
TRE ILA P.

as the sacred principle they profs*#o represent
left untouched. Of late manyliirreenstanees hire
oonduced to the belief that our metropolitan
parochial bodies must be more effectually consti-
tuted. Some of the admissions of yesterday are
an important testimony in this direction, for
limy go to prove, not that vagrancy has been
stimulated by the Hounslow Poor Act, but
that the neglect of guardians in not appointing
officers capable of the discrimination and classifica-
tion they profess to crave, and in not enforcing
the labour and other testa laid down as necessary
by the Poor-law Board, has impeded the useful-
ness of a measure which, but for the soundness of
the principle it embodies, would have succumbed
long ago to the difficulties with which its working
has been wilfully beset.

OUR CONTEMPORARIES.
(THL3 DAY.)

Washable wiamonating b abeoluir miss, eeepl
MA • dabl...6llllivate himself to the Na good of
eessery, wM places b beton thrash rtuatital
men whose lama are recorded in history."
•

The Timm reviews the state of public feeling of the time
towards the Reform Bills which were brought forward in
1862, 1884,1889, and 1860 to perfect the bill of 1832. Of
these lard Rummell'. bill in 1882 was the crudest and most
worthless that we have seen in oar day. That of the
Aberdeen ministry in 1834 wee vehemently discussed even
in the midst of the Crimean war, and was at last
reluctantly abandoned ; end the hope and dread
diminishing with every succeeding bill, the House of
Commons at last came to the conclusion that it perfectly
represented the country, and that both the parlis-
meat and the cation were indifferent to all
projects of reform. The indifference of the people
gives statesmen, however, a fortunate opportunity ; and
if the government were united and in earnest about a
bill, which should make the distribution of power within
the House of Commons correspond with the distribution
of power outride its walls—which it is impossible
to do by a mare process of enfranchisement—they would
compel the support of mariners, who are now uncertain, if
they have not already passed into hostility. The Times
proceeds to quote the return as to election petitions, which
we gave in yesterday's Rxpreu, to show that the saran.
chisemeet of 81. householders would, so far as it goes, add
to the register in the small coestituencies jest the classes
which coustitute the freemen of the older boroughs, and
liare made their corruption notorious in the land.

The Post insists that the country does not want reform
at all, and that the government are bewildering themselves
in the endeavour to invent a want for it.

HIS TOPIC&

The Timm hes • very amusing amount of the coattail;
of two numbers of the Irish People, which is now pub-
lished without fear et seizure at New York. We used to
be told in our nurseries that • bad officer, heading his men
to a charge, celled out, "Go on;" • good °Meier, "Coen
on." The language of the Irish People is, perhaps una-
voidably, "Go on." Everybody is uraed to throw himself
into Ireland, and no doubt some do, but the great
majority commute, sad pay what may be called ship
money. Most are content with rather visionary projects,
instead of things they might at least try.
Mr. Esguire's natio, last night of a question to the go-
vernment respecting a bill for the amendment of the tenant
law in 'reined, recalls the attention of ministers, the Star
remarks, to the fact that something else must be done for
Ireland besides the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act.
The news which we receive each day from Dublin is now
limited to • list of arrests. Each evening appears
to close upon its fresh batch of captures, until
one wonders whether the Irish government is not
&axioms to give a practical denial to Edmund Burke's de-
claration that a whole people cannot be put into a gaol.
The Star then sketches the Lend Bill, which the deputa-
tion of Irish members who waited the other day on the
°bawdier of the Exchequer propose to bring in. The
fundamental principle of the measure is that where a
lees of 31 years is given there should be no claim for im-
provement, but that if the landlord after • short holding
chooses to get rid of the tenant, he should be liable to pay
oompensation for the unexhansted value of genuine im-
provements.
The Post hopes the new director of the National Gallery
will make the national collection something better than a
museum dant:sleet art only. What is necessary for the
history of art, but fails t 3 please any but antiquarian
artists, should be kept in some separate collection, The
eerie' of paintings to be exhibited to the general public
should be only of theft-d'auore. A chronological anange-
meet may be useful, but this points to study rather then
an exhibition of national tremens. Large ecclesiastical
platens of everlasting Virgins and Holy Families, and very
ugly mints and martyrs, should not fill whole rooms. At
present the gallery is sadly deficient in pictures which
show modern tendencies. We have many names of greet
sculptors, but we have no national collection of specimens
of these masters—we have no gallery of sculpture.
The Herald warmly supporta Mr. Hibbert's bill pro-
viding for the execution of murderers within the prison
walla. The royal commissioners, in addition to the prin-
ciple of private executions, include in their recommenda-
tions& classed subjects very distinct from that which forms
the basis of Mr. Hibbert's bill, and there is no apparent
TOSIOII why the latter should be set aside to make way for
the government scheme. Parliament as well as the country
L evidently prepared to do away with public executions,
and a measure for this purpose need not wait an hour.

THE MEETING OP THE CONSERVATIVES
YESTERDAY.

(From the Times.)

We have reason to believe that at the meeting of
the conservative party held yesterday, at the house of the
Marquis of Salisbury io Arlington-street, it was resolved
that no opposition should be offered to the introduction of
the Reform Bill on Monday next, but that during the
interval between its introduction and the seoond reading,
which it was understood would be fixed'for after Easter,
the party would 4:madder what course should be pursued,
and Lord Derby would take another opportunity of
meeting his supporters.

(From the Mo►ning Herald.)

A great gathering of the members of the Hones
of Commons took place yesterday afternoon, between 2
and 3 o'clock, at the readmits of the Marquis of Saliabury.
It wee under's( od that the immediate object of the meet-
lag we. to &ands upon the coons to be adopted
by the opposition in reference to the Parliamentary
Oaths Bill. Lora Derby, after a few preliminary ob-
servations, picot...led at ones to disown the question raised
by Sir George Grey's bill. He explained that in opposing
Mr. Monsell's bill of lest year he had acted on the
principle that it was • bill introduced by a private
member, and appeared part of • great system of attack
on the church. It was not • real remedy for the in-
equalities of the oaths; it provided a new Roman
catholic oath ; but did not provide " uniformity." Lord
Derby pointed out that Roman catholic were now placed
in an invidious position in comparison with other persons
bedooging to different denominations who were much
more hostile to the church, in that they were speoially
called upon to make • declaration as to not using
their position to overthrow the established church. The
bases on which a new oath should be framed were, in
his lordship's opinion, the avoiding of any words that
would offend the consciences of any clays or denomina-
tion ; the neerssity of binding the legislature to maintan
the constitutional monarchy ; the abandonment of mere
obsolete parts of theoath, such as the farts relating to the
Stuarts, to the murder of an excommunicated Sovereign,
end the repudiation of all mental reservation. He thought,
however, a deals, ation or oath of allegiance oolyinaufficient,
and that persons ooght to bind themselves to maintain—
', the Protestant auxeision ; 2. the supremacy of the Sove-
reign. On the who'e, he recommended an assent to the
mooed reading of the bill, with a view to its amendment
oommittee, and sketched out a paragraph upon which he
thought Protestants and Romeo catholic might agree, and
which they might carry in unison.

The Times correspondent at Rome, writing on
the 3d, says :—" I cannot say that Lent ia a very peniten-
tial swot here, for we do everything bat dance. There is
the hunt twice a week, and dinner, daily, and gigantic re-
ceptions nightly, and concerts and tableaux eivonts.
Those of Mr. Fitzgerald on Monday, and of Mr. Cholmeley
last night, filled everyone with admiration. At the latter
entertainment nothing could exceed the beauty with
which were represented the Apotheosis of St. Agues,
Margherita and ifephiatophelea, the Apparition of
the Guardian Angel of St. Cecilia to Valerian, St.
Elisabeth of Hungary, the Studio of Raphael, the Execu-
tion of Lady Jane Grey, Dante and Bestrioa„ Story of
Malys:ad, Beatrice Cenci, Othello sad Deedemona. end
St. Catherine transported by the Angels. So that you may
perceive that a Rumen Lent is very tolerable, and many,
I believe, would desire it to last for ever. Perhaps I have
not said eaoagh of Liest's Stisfonia of Dante, which has
undoubtedly driven a portion of the musical world mad.
There was an amiable draggle between the Abbe and
Sgambati when the latter wished to crown his muter, bat
the matter was compromised by an embrace and a kiss."

A Geneva watch has long been a household
word. Beitancoo, however, promises to rival the city of
Calvin at the world's fair. In 1855 no less then 91,595
gold and 204,418 silver watches were manufactured in this
centre of French protutant.em. Among this immense
number several hundred have bees sold at high prime in
°megrim* of the delicate beauty of their workmanship.