The Express.
London, England, 1867-08-24 00:00:00

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LONDON, SATURDAY, AUGUST 24.

Tarr speeches which members of Parliament
address to their constituents during the dull
season of the political year usually command at-
tentron which is scarcely proportionate to their
worth. The public are so used to listen to the
favoured few who, through Parliament, have the
ear of the nation, that whet the arena is itser
closed, and the war of words is suspended, they
follow tl em to the more domestic scenes where,
in the confidence of political friendsb'p, they tell
their constituents of the great events of the by-
gone session. It very rarely happens, of course,
that anything of great importance is said on these
occasions—for it is rot every man who, like Sir
Jons Pasuvorox, can tell his conet:.oents how
lorg it took a Cabinet to prepare a Reform Bill—
but it is at least interesting to have an
inside view of great portical occurrences, and
to learn how the events of the parliamentary
seseon are regarded by those who have been the
actors in them. During the present recess the
interest of these extra-parliamentary speed es
will, ho-never, be much greater than usual. There
are my:rat classes of members to whom the ever t•
of the :fission must have been of the most painful
or surprising, or at least confusing character, bu:,
who have never allowed us to hear their vo'ces in
the debates. Yet it will be extremely interesting
to know what have been the feelings of the mem-
bers for the boroughs from which one member ii
taken and the other left, especially of those who
came in second on the poll at the last election.
How will they console their bereaved con-
stituencies, or bow will they comfort them-
selves t More irteresting still will be the
confessions of those Conservative representatives
who came to London in the winter with such a
mission to resist constitutional change as gave
almost the sacredness of religion to their political
faith, and who now return with a ire-, creed upon
their lips to confess their participation in ono of
the greatest changes this century has seen. How
will they describe their conversion 1' How will
they justify their change of policy ? Will they
take their cue from Mr. Disazstr, and contend
that Reform was the natural business of the Tory
party, snatched from their hands by obtrusive
Whiggery in 1832 ; or from Lord Dram; and
declare that as Reform must be, and the spoils of
office were only to be had by carrying out the
people's wish, the Conservative party preferred to
do it themselves lest the mischievous Liberals
should take a new lease of power t One great
peculiarity will, at least, be prominent
in all such declarations. The party of resistance
will, we may be sure, be universally repudiated.
Mr. Lows and Lord CILANBOHNE have no need to
consult their constituencies. It will be all the
same to them whether the voters approve or not,
and everybody knows and respects the motive of
their resistance. But as every man will speak to
his constituents in ease, and to that yet larger
number who are only his constituents in posse, we
may be Lure that nearly every member will take
credit to h;nuief with the newly enfranchised
classes for having offered no resistance to their en-
franchisement, or even for having actively assisted
in it. The curious thing is that, with more or less
semblance of consistency, all will be able to
do this. Having allowed themselves to be
driven into the detested ways of Reform by
stress of circumstances and clever manage-
ment, even the most violent Conservatives
will, of course, take credit for having gone
into those ways of their own free will. The
Liberals, too, will have various stories to unfold.
They can at least tell of vigorous opposition to
Mr. Dusaksm's elaborately contrived system of
checks, though they may have to confess that the
disorganization of the party somewhat paralysed
their efforts to mould the Act completely to their
liking. But they, at any rate, can congratulate
their friends on the triumph of their principles,
and point the moral " All's well that ends well."
We have already had a few of these
extra parliamentary utterances, and curiously