The Express.
London, England, 1866-04-12 00:00:00

TURTLE, TURTLE, TURTLE.
Clear Thick, and Invalid TURTLE SOUPS alvrav
ST. LIAM'S-HALL asozyr-srsissr, PICCADILLY.
WM. DONALD, Presenter.

LONDON must have a SUPPER and MUSIC
ROOM for Gentlemen—Remember, we well for you at
" EVANS'," after the Covent Garden Opera and the Theatres.

Vie erprelso•

RAYMARKET.
TIM IM O, A ROMANTIC ATTACHMENT'. WWa
and W. ; Miss AdaCarandish. —THE FAVORITE
=TUNE. Mews. RuckstenetChindale, and Sotbern ;
Mrs. Chippendale, d—And A DAL GNIRK TO MARRY.

PRINCESS'S.
Tan Bram, A OHOST IR SPITZ OP ansia.F.—Attu
M THZ STRFXIS OF LONDON. Messrs. Vining. T. Mewl,
Tr. Mum, Shore, end Villiers ; Mrs. H. Marston. and g
Emmett and IL Rodger&

LYCEUM.
Mt Evcraa, DIMPSON AND CO.—And THE MASTER OP
RAVENSWOOD. Messrs. Pechter, O. Jordan, Veztn, Newry,
Whldtcomb, Fitzpatrick, &c.: Mesdames Torun, Klsworthy,
Carona, and C Leaning.

BRITANNIA.
Tan Brunie, THE DARK KING OF THE BLACK MOUN-
TAIN& Mies Clara Be. Mra & Lint—Muter IL Sanders
—The Mums Family.Come,—And THE BCOTTLIM CHIEF. Mr.
James Anderscsa

HIOH•WATLR AT LONDON-BRIDO!.
TIM DAT —Morning, 11it. 41m Afternoon, Oft. Ont.
To•YOlßOW—Mornitri, Oh. 1001 Afternoon. OIL 37m.

LONDON, THURSDAY, APRIL 12.

May we be permitted, even in these bitter times,
to congratulate Mr. DABBT Gairrrru on having at
length alighted upon a subject not unworthy of
his eloquence and philosophy ? On Monday
evening, in Committee of Supply, he raised a &s-
-cission on the arrangement of seats in the House,
which, thanks to the genial encouragement of Mr.
Horism.er, expanded into considerations on the
decline of parties, and on the physical and moral
question of cross-benches for independent members.
h is the privilege of the member for Devizes to
be the cause of wit in others, and on this occasion
he not only stimulated Mr. HORSMAR'S self-con-
sciousness to a moat ingenuous confession, but drew
from Mr. GLADSTONE himself a few sentences of

subdued irony on the condition of parties before
and since the Reform Bill, and upon men of no
party, which was probably more pungent than
agreeable to the chiefs of the new Third Party, of
which Mr. Lows and Mr. Hoessux divide
pretty equally the responsibilities and the honours.
Indeed, the member for Stroud complained that
the CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER had left the
House before his definition of an independent
member, as according to BURKE " a member whom
" nobody could depend upon," had been demo-
lished. In Mr. GLADSTONE'S absence, Mr. Hosmus
could not dilate sufficiently on the inappropriate-
ness of BURKE'S definition to present times and
men. But let us see what it is that Mr. DARBY
Garrrrrit,who has studied these questions long and
deeply, requires by way of a new arrangement of
seats in the House. Nothing if not cosmopolitan
in his tastes and aspirations, Mr. DARBY Gaff-
srrit remarks that foreign legislative chambers are
mostly semicircular in shape, with a " tribune " in
the middle, for the orators to speak from. This
is the famous " tribune" which it is rumoured the
French Government is about to restore, in spite
of its parliamentary associations. Mr. DARBY
GRIFFITH, however, does not expressly say that
he would prefer to speak from a " tribune," so
that we are left in doubt whether it is his own
case that he is contemplating when he suggests an
elevated rostrum for the orator. He notices with
approval the semicircular form of building common
to parliamentary assemblies abroad, but it is
rather the distribution of seats according to the
more or leas sinister quality of parties, such as
Right, Left, Centre, Right Centre, and Left Centre,
that he would fain see adopted at St. Stephen's.
He attributes the present arrangement of seats to
the old traditions of St. Stephen's Chapel, and
complains with some justice of the notoriously de-
ficient accommodation for members in the body
of the House on great occasions. But he espe-
cially desires a cross-bench or benches on which
independent outlying members of either of
the great parties may take refuge and counsel
together ; from the Right Centre composed of
Tory independents to the Left Centre composed
of Liberal seceders, the Centre being occupied by
sound Conservatives unattached, and probably by
a combination of thoughtful and cultivated Liberals,
or thoughtful and cultivated Conservatives, we
cannot say which—the latitude ranging from
Chester to Caine. Devizes would temper with the
frequent and easy talk of a full and ready mind
the weighty silence of a middle row of learned
Theban, an audience tit but few, who, like the
sailor's parrot, would be always thinking stu-
pendously. This seems to be Mr. DARBY GRIFFITH'S
ideal of a House, and we believe the member
for Devizes is a travelled man, who has seen and
studied many cities and their manners. Mr.
COWPER made a somewhat startling suggestion,
that any member wishing to speak as from a tribune
might speak from one of the side galleries. But we
trust Mr. DARBY Gatreern'scultivatedimpatience of
the dignified darkness of the fourth row will not
provoke hint, in a spirit of antiquarian innovation,
to make an experiment which would displace so
uncomfortably what one may call the centre of
gravity in the House, and exercise a sort of
moral violence upon the judicious leisure of the
reporters. Besides, what is to become of the
SPEAKER'S eye if it is liable to this constant change
of focus? Mr. DARBY GRIFFITH, it is true,
with a fine unselfishness, is content to recommend
his new semi-circular arrangement of the House to
a future Parliament. Bathe has evidently made both
the physical and the moral part of the question his
own. The House, he says, would be naturally
divided into "Left, Right, Left Centre, Right
" Centre, and Centre ;" " Toryism on one side,
" Radicalism on the other : Conservatism here,
" Whiggery there, and Independence between the
" two." This seems to leave the party of " Inde-
" pendence" neither here nor there. Mr. GLAD-
STONE'S remark that the lines of party were far leas
sharply drawn before the first Reform Bill than at
present will probably surprise many who have been
accustomed to date the decline of parties from a
period so late as twenty years ago. Indeed, we
own a certain difficulty in accepting Mr. GLAD-
STONE'S conclusions on this point, though we are
far from presuming to dispute his authority. There
were, he tells us, in the old days, besides the Go-
vernment party and the Opposition, a Court party,
and a country party. No doubt there were such
" separate modifications ;" but were they not
merely incidental, occasional, and personal ; not
in any sense parties, but sets or coteries of
men more or less subservient or intractable ? And
is it impossible to conceive even in our own days
the reappearance of somewhat analogous varieties
of party species ? Is the intractable country gen-
tleman, whom we all respect, extinct I We hope
and believe he may still be found. Are there no
questions—say in the Miscellaneous Estimates—in
which something like a Court party might separate
itself for a moment at least from the main body of
the Government supporters on either side of the
House, and force the hand of the Treasury f Not a