The Express.
London, England, 1868-04-06 00:00:00

IS IMSLISIIID

EVERY EVENING.

LONDON, MONDAY, APRIL 6.

THE DO RION ON THE 11.18 H CHURCH.

Tut division lists of Saturday morning upon I
Lord STAllLay's amendment, and Mr. GLADSTONZ'S
motion for going into committee on the acts re-
biting to the Irish Church, are as instructive a
subject of study as the four night's debate which
went before. No,cit.o. a sociis is a sound political
motto. Let us know with whom a mar.
goes into to lobby, and we do not need his speeches
to declare his real mind. One vote outweighs a
spore of professions. The division upon the Irish
Church questionformed a near approach to what in
American parlance is called a strict party vote. We
have not the phrme in England because w e have ceased
to possess the thing. The rupture of political tier
which the events of the last 20 years have brought
about is one of the moat remarkable features

in English polities. The conversion of Sir Rosser
Pr.EL to free trade and the secession of that
eminent at Unman and his followers from the main
. .

body of the Tory party was the first step towards
the disintegration of the old political c.,nnectiom,
The long reign of Lord PALNEWITON did much to
efface the lines of party separation, by setting aside
the principles on which they depended. Ma
abandonment by Lord DERV,, his coneaguea,
and his followers, under the educating in-

thience of Mr. DfiILAELI, of the cArrietions

whit& they personally had profs/wed for a quarter
of a century, and which were the life-blood of their
party, and the consequent withdrawal of two or
three men of honour from that discredited cabinet,
completed the work of confusion. A strict party vote
is not to be expected in the absenoe of any
atrial party sentiment or fixed political principle.
The approximation to it, however, on Saturday
morning was very close. After the last general
election, the majority in favoor of Lord PALIMR-

won was estimated at between seventy wad eighty
The majority in each of the two divisions of last
week was sixty. The absentees on the Liberal
side were seventeen. Some of these gentlemen, no
doubt, have valid excuses to give. Mr.
Lau/macs Ournamr, one of the soandest and
most promising of the younger Liberals
is the Holum of Commons, has announced to the
electors of Stirling boroughs his retirement from
Parliament, on the ground of ill-health, and he
is at present, we believe, seeking strength in a
foreign climate. Sir MORTON Palo has virtually-
ceased to be a member of Parliament ; he could
not have voted with propriety, and his vote if
given would probably hay,' been challenged
by the opposite party. Mr. J
Pte, who as a member of the Society of Friends
cannot be supposed to be in favour of the principle
of religious establishment, has such a genius for
cosnistry, and such a faculty for fettering his
own freedom of action by the most extraordinary
and spontaneous conditions, Cant he found himself
notable to vote for Mr. GLADSTONE, whose
opinions he apparently shares, without breaking
njoromise to his constituent.. Mr. Pim is a re-
spectable and, in some respects, a useful member
of Parliament. But he i a perfect DAVENPORT
Brother it: the faculty of vollultsrily tying himself
eip by the strictest bonds, though he has not an
equal power of slipping the noose. Mr.
GOLDIMID may plead the scriptural
apology (he will Rot object to it though
Uri* taken out of the New Testament) that he had
Married a wife and could not come. The only
ointment absentee is Sir ROUNDELL PALMER.
Sir ROUNDILL is not a better Churchman
then Mr. GLADSTONE, Mr. COLERIDGE, and
ethers of the same ecclesiastical inclining ; and,
unless his absence was unavoidable, it will show
only that he is not so good s Liberal SA they. The
superior discipline of the Tory party is proved by
the fact that only five absentees from their ranks
are recorded as against 17 absconding Liberals ; and
that while seven Liberals voted with Lord
STANLEY, only five Conserbatives voted with Mr.
ficameraws. But the eisesffication on which this
fault depends appears to be somewhat im-
=The first name in Gm list of
absentees is that of a gentleman
yhe was a junior Lord of the Treasury in a Oen-
hoepiAre Government from 1841 to 1846, who is
leseribed as a Liberal Conservative, sad who
meted against Lord Rut:sal-es Reform Bill in 1666.