The Express.
London, England, 1867-07-22 00:00:00

OUR CONTEMPORARIES.

(THIS DAY.)

THE VACANT BEATA.

During the present week five elections will take
place for so many English constituencies—Birmingham,
Coventry, Andover, West Gloucestershire, and the Univer-
sity of Cambridge. Four of the seats have been vacated
by conservatives, three of the four through the legal pro-
motions and appointments consequent on the death of
Lord Justice Turner, and one by the death of its own re-
presentative. Sir J. Kanlahe's election, the Daily News
says, is sure. Andover is alarmingly near the 5,000 popu-
lation limit, and naturally clings for safety to the tortes.
Mr. Selwyn is not leas certain of re-election—the uni-
versities generally sending to parliament representatives
of the same class and opinions as small boroughs. In
West Gloucestershire, where Mr. Berkeley, the son of
Lord Fitsharcling, is in the field against Colonel Somerset,
it is in the power of the electors to give a liberal colleague
to their present liberal representative. The result at
Coventry may be doubtful, but it would be an insult to
the people of Birmingham to suppose that it can become
untrue to its liberal traditions and convictions at the very
moment of their triumph. If Mr. Disraeli has hamboosled
the people of Birmingham, the head-quarters of the most
sturdy radical opinion in the kingdom, the deception must
be complete indeed. No man of ordinary intelligence there
or anywhere else can really suppose that household suf-
frage is the gift of Lord Derby and the tortes. All tint
they have done is, by resisting reform for fifteen years, to
intensify a demand to which they are at last obliged to
yield. Their present atti nide is not • triumph, but •
capitulation. Assuming Birmingham to be true to itself
the issue of the present election cannot unfavourably
affect the position of the liberal and conser►ative parties
in parliament.

WHIT WILL THE LORDS DO?

Farther reflection only confirms the judgment of the
Times on the impolicy of Lord Grey's proposals, and its
persuasion that the Reform Bill will pass the House of Lords
untouched in its main outlines. There are incidents of re-
gistration and conditions of ratepaying which may fairly
be revised, especially as the House of Commons wavered
and changed its opinion about them in the short space of a
fortnight ; but the action of the Upper House will extend
no further. The lodger franchise is obviously essential in
the metropolitan and other large boroughs, but in the small
towns it would afford great opportunities of fraud and
abuse, and the Times believes if the Lords restricted it to
constituencies above a given rise this amendment of the
bill would he accepted by the House of Commons. The
redistribution scheme accepted by the Commons must
necessarily be approved as it is. As to the cumulative
vote the Times is content to walk For the present the
question is settled. The outlines of the bill are graven in
in effaceable characters, and though peers may be eloquent
and dignified, the measure that has been agreed open will
remain practically unchanged.
To the Pori it's impossible to entertain a doubt that
Earl Grey's proposed amendment will be withdrawn with-
out a formal challenge of the opinion of the House of Lords
upon its merits. The Upper House has in fact simply the
alternative of rejecting the bill on the second reading, or
committing it and introducing only such trifling modifica-
tions as may not excite the opposition of the House of
Commons.

The Standard expresses much respect and admiration
for Earl Grey, but is not able to understand the course he
recommends to the House of Lords. In passing such an
opinion on the bill as his amendment contains, the
Peers would censure the Howse of Commons at the same
time that they submit to it ; would condemn the govern-
ment while suffering it to dictate to them ; would pro-
claim th►t they yielded to sheer compulsion and did what
they believed to be wrong because they h►ve no longer
the courage, or the power, or the privilege, to act on their
own sense of right. The result of Earl Derby's interview
with his followers has crushed the vain hopes of the
intriguers, and rendered certain the defeat of Lord Grey's
amendment. All that is now possible is that the bill may
receive in committee amendments not incompatible with
its essential principles.

. -
Stop the great stream of popular necessity, observes the
Telegraph, with • temporary dyke like Lord Grey's
amendment, and some of us will hardly know this oountry
when the river tears the frail bulwark down, and makes
lla channel over what was meant to be its bank. Were it
possible for • peer to be at once intellectual and • bigoted
tom he would vote for Lord Derby as for • deliverer.