The Express.
London, England, 1861-02-06 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, WEDNESDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 6, 1861.

valuable health, to complete that alliance which will tend to
that result, and tend to further alliances which 1 trait win
be advantageous to tutus* ages (Hear, , hear.) What
are our general rclatioos with beam I base already stated
in this house, and that declaniticia 1 remeber well was
received with pet favour by this home. Vie have acted
re that declaration, and we hie always communicated con.
fidentsally with Austria, Heade, ail Prulais with regard to
any total, .4 Euni We have commune-sited our opinions
to them and the, have cummuniusted their opinions to tia.
On ...me pi,oxims we are at entire accordance, end on
ethers we eaters...is isriem °pawl,. • but au" nothing
ja oar mistime with those 'weer' which should make any
of thent;eistertain my feeling oi estrangement or hostility
to as fllear. heir.) dir, I can adz seal b saying that
sly hope awl nay belief is, that setwahel.auhng the dee•
gen which menace es, the upset eras more dark WSW
Um, ; r.twit6slaar4ng, the poem el Europe may be
(Herr, hear.) It will be fir Austria to petite
Cl/VI with H
_as it is with other power. to
settle their owe in altar& It will be for Prussia and
Howu to tattle those drillcult interval questions
which are now waeupelag their attention. I lot
Ido trust that wine of the demon which menat o ite will
lead to tual hostilities. (Hear.) I ant 0.4 LI n4u ine enough
to thick that there cuukl be a great war io Fairope w whel
ould take no peat. I have a C.4).1Ct101l that though
au- 11 a oat might begun without us. 'god all hough we
ml, fat do part' that we had no contra 10 it, yet in thecouNe
of that war evcuts might take ploe which might scri.ouly
DWI/4.V the irolcpetsleoce of nations in which we take the
eleepoa inter...a that we should Ice able to keep
free from I ...nti.ll.-Atioas•al.Linger. For these
reason% therefore, I pray met earnestly that pea,-
may lee routinized. Whatever the right honourable,
gentleman nay think of the inutility or inability of
my civilities, I can only say that such as they are they will
1.4 devoted to that purpose, which is almost a •icred purpose
in my i•yea. (Hear. hear.) 1 will nowlesay • few wont• on
the anwahnetit toad. by the hoc. gentlenian. I will say
at once that it ta perfectly clear that no meestue could have
Leen brought forward with • hope of its being carrel, ta.
cept • measure of a very tritliug character. I believe, fur
my ono port, that it it better for government to leave that
queatiou eistuelv untouched than to brim forward • mei.
sure a hich would emote great disappointment, and would
occupy a gnat deal of valuable time without say valuable
result Ito the question of reform I have always been
afraid of compromes. In altering the Reform
what is hat is certain, while it is nut no cedes as to
the equivaleuts on the other side. (Hear, bear.)
Therefore, sir. I come to the opinion which I have fur eight
year,. entertaiued, that in order to carry a reform bill that
would he se-telly of use to the country you met admit a
great number of the working classes -(hear, hear)—aud in
order to carry such a reform bill there should be a great
all kimono.: breeze of public opinies to enable it to carry
it in this house. and easily to title it °ter the liar
of the llocote .4 Lords. (Hear.) Now I come to consider
what was the state of public opiniou during the last
year. The right hon. gentleman ha. said that the great
Lust of the oppoeition against the bill ,AlllO from gentle
meo on this side the house. MY bon. frieud the chairmen
of) committees was one. I happeued once to be in the
borough of Snuthwark when he made • speech to his con-
stituents, and he maid he was in favour of a fit. franchise.
Well, I thought if I proposed a fd. clause I should
not be going too far. (A laugh.) That gentleman spoke
against the measure; but whattortiewu more extraordinary
was, that my boo. friend the member for Edinburgh (Mr.
Bieck) should speak against the extension of the franchise.
or almost against any franchise on • broad basis. Why if
such speedo-I lost been made in Mil, by a member repre-
senting a grant body of constituents, theme would Kaye been
what are called in America " iudignation niect•
lop." (A Leigh.) There would have been meetings
of constituente protesting that they were misrepresented
OD the subject. But nut • bit of it. The country wasquite
dead oo the subject, fur although my hon. friend had to
go through home severe schooling by bas constituents, that
miy on the annuity tax and not the Reform Bill. (Hear,
hear.) Well, then, 1 my that after the governments of
Lord Aberdeen, Lord Derby led the government of which
I was the head had failed, it would be a vain
attempt ; and I must come to the conclusion that
at the present time—anal I speak only of the
present tire there is no such disposition iu the
country 114 would juatify the government in pro-
pining a measure for a reform in the representation. The
country has the matter in its own hand, ; it is not yet too
late for "aidiguation meetings," if they think primer to
declare that they arc bent upon reform, and that they are
satisfied the country wanm reform. If the just ex-
pectations of the people demand it, it is only necessary
fur the hon. gentlenuiu who moved the amendment
to take the place of niy noble friend, and carry • reform bill
entirely to his aatiefactioa. Well, e'er, with regard to my I
own personal part on this subject, surely I have had enough
of it not to be very eager to introduce another bill.
I began with a motion on this subject in 11419—1 am
sorry to say 4 1 pars ago. I had an examination in this bowie
with regent to the corruption in the borough of Gnunpound.
At that time °pillion became more favourable to reform.
Mr. Canning. though he omosed me in an eloquent and
brilliant speech in the year Dr 22, yet at the end of thnt
speech gave air great hope and encampment that if I
went oa 1 should imam(' in my endeavour. Accordingly I
in process of slate, Lunt Grey was placed at the head of the
government. who had been • consistent advocate of parlia-
mestary reform, and he desired those who had been asso-
ciated with him to COOSider this question and to frame •
bill. My right boa. friend the member fur Carlisle, Lord
Durham, Lord Howlswoughaod myself, were siecordingly app.
peeled fee the porpow. pry oohed • bill, and after a great
Amok in I:Che we were enabled to carry that Pleasure.
Having dee that, is it any mortiticatioa to me to find that
at the end of thirty year. the country is so well satisfied
with that hill that they do not r-squire anything else
4" Hear, hear," and opposition laughter.) Shculd I feel it
any great humiliation to me that I have been fortunate
enough, beeped my expectations, to find that the amend-
ments which were then required in our constitution aud
auteticeed by Lord Grey's great authority have been so sue•
reasful, have given such satisfaction at the great seats of
industry, that at present people prefer to think of
other subjects, foreign affairs, commercial treaties, church
rates, sad other questions of detail, rather than lend
their support to lay plan of oepsic reform. All I can my,
therefore, te, that when any further ainendruent is pro.
peed. I Lope it will go—as all the tills I have had the
honour to introduce have gone - upon the principle of
making rather • seppleineet to that bill, and following its
priaciples, than of attempting to reverse system of repre•
entitle which was then established, with the nearly uni•
venal approbation and amend of the country. At all events,
for this year certaiuly, my opinion is that the better course
will be to give our attention to those various subjects of
amendment her Meetly has recommended to us in
her gracious speech from the throne. They will oc•
copy mast usefully the tine of this house, and
N the right honourable gestlentea, after having
read these pipets on foreign affairs, wishes far further
explimatioes free me el that subject I shall awap be
ready to give them, without attempting to introduce a sew
system of dipkmisey • feeling that it will give peat security
to thin coeatey that the government Mould be their organ
la foreign ',aria..., and that it will be • great security to the
govinnoneet of the country to know that they have the sup-
poet of tie people in the sentiments they express and the
opinions they mental°. ((chen.)
Mr. BiUGHT he would thank his has, friend the
member for Heights.° fur the course he had taken in
briagisg that question to which the Dottie lord
had en recently alluded before the house. His
lemosuskile (mod dal it Iv • speech which warn fall et
matter, awl which had very favourably impressed the bonen
He (Mr. Belicht) was glad, too, that that speech had drawn
from the uible heal the true oonfeesion—lie premed the
latest was the true coshed/Ai—of hi. sentiments us that
questioe. Ile would, however, rather • gond deal not have
bent that speech from the noble lord, NMI be felt a grief
that he mold wit express in being compelled to uadentand
the wilds torsi meant precisely what be said. The arable toed
meniaded ban of caws often exhibited in the eontaseciel
wield, where men who had bores for many years obi/prides
eel pecuniary burdens which they were unable to edify,
telly called their meditate together, acknowledpid• stale
of hankruptey, and felt a perfect hamlet's, in having
got rel, is some way or the other, of the
bed iacurred flew, bear," and laught:elicrs=
precisely the knee ha which the .obis lest had mildewed
the Mere to-sight. He (Mr. Bright) would adult there was
some foree in the atatement as to the datable's( the whit
lord's position in handling this question sad brines' it to
a successful issue. He bad seen the noble lord shed tears
on that very .1.4 when withdrawing • reform bill, when
that evening he had punned precisely the same course with
• jocularity la laugh) that was absolutely contemptuous
to those who had pLeal him is that very seat
Is ceder that he might advocate that very mea-
sure. (Hear, hear.) He (Mr. Bright) should not, homes,
he felt it utterly lemeath the feeling he had with regard to
this question. mu. mpt to lay bold .4 the caddy. lord, sod
show him when he thought the noble lord had tided with
retried to this question in a hostile and unfriendly mirit,
because, notwitlistariding what the noble lonl heal said that
evenieg, be might again find that question of use to his
political objects. But be would turn rather to the boos.,
and ask them what was their poaition with to this
question, for that mattered more to Eagla=l to the
people of England, than the oesisteacy of any particular
member of the house, however old in the table service or
ernineut he might he. The boa. member then entered
Into • detailed history of the successive attempts to iatro-
dibe Reform Dille in various sessions during the
lent ten years, maintaining that the members of
the present government bed deeply and repeatedly
pledged themselves to do everything in their power
to carry some large measure of that description. Ad-
mitting that no extensive agitation sow existed on
the question. he appealed to the boos whether
it was wit letter to pass a hill framed on just principles,
and diecuaoal with uslninesa and deliberation, than to wait
notil some violent measures were forced upon them by
public ipinion in a penis' of discontent and excitement.
The howc• then divided—
For the amendoteut
Aphid it 129-83
This revolt was received with some cheers from the sup-
porters .4 the motion.
The oiliest woo then agreed to, and a committee was
appointed to draw it up.
The house adjourned at Ave minutes before Ism

DRIVRAL PAWS -- ORS 13111LIMAn DAY.
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SECOND-HAND PIANOFORTES.
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gbe erPrefig‘•

TO ODRIVIPONDENTS.
Astreillesseette 13tended for "The Express Lon'on Evade(
nut he d the aloe, 10, Yourerle.street, be Two
as the da of publication.

.I!.!L_TILUCIAT.

TRm Evirduel. THE HI VAW lirenan. J. Rmuuham, Howe.
Chippendale. and lincludoos. Mir Y. Istirllng.—And QUER \
LADYBIRD DII KR CHILDREN. nu, Harlequin and a Honer
on VIPs. Herr Cuie, ItirLecioroqu Jibs Y. Wright, Ulu IL Waukee.

ntYCßra

THIS KV11:1111.10, RI V llCA747.—ieeere.lfeehter. Beall Potter. trot
Mani* Nut 11..0 In.l the pantomime, called ItOBIN4ON
•lOR or. IlArloitun Friday, sad The Klee of the Cerribbe•
Islands. Motet returayea .k Nun.. M. truatUerre, Mr. A. l'untA.

n. JAYSITS._

Tnto Emma, MY WiIigiIJTMTENT AL—THE. ISLE OP ST.
Meara.A. Wlgsai and Emery: Mra. Buckingham Whits.
—Ana EN DY NtION. Marra C. Young snit Belmure Minna St.
Camedierbork sad Romer.—Commence at hull-peat 7.

BRITANNIA.

TWO !WYE TB! PZIYCKAID Tin OCIRP. Mews.
Pitt, Perri, Jess Los k. Ikey. saol Newham. 11.11Ie C. Stepson,
MI=A. Dowsisa Mrs. W. Onmilord. —And A ME,4AoE FROM
THE IVA. Maws. Beytheilla red Ssaytleson. Mrs. E. Yaruold.

5101 WATZI AT lancer BRIDGE.
TEMI DAT —lllsenlag, llt Mao .. Afternoon, nh.
ToAlesimp—Monsbas. le. . . Afternoon, Oh. 3het.

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, FEB. 6.

Tux debate on the Address in the House of
Commons last night was perhaps more interesting
than could have been expected from the singularly
cold and negative character of the Royal Speech.
As the Address from the Throne referred to only
a few well-known facts, and abstained from any
definite avowal of policy, there was scarcely
any basis for direct partisan opposition ; and
opposition in the usual sense of the term there was
none, the only amendment proposed being one
from the Ministerial aide of the House. The short
speeches made by the mover and seconder of the
Address were in substance at all events more than
usually good. Unfortunately Sir EDWARD COLE-
BR001(1'S voice is so feeble as to be at times almost
inaudible, but the sterling sense of his observations
gained the ear of the House, while Mr. Paver,
though a new member, spoke not only with ease
and self-possession, but tersely and to the point.
As usual, the opening speeches touched
on the more salient points of the Royal
Address, the mover dealing chiefly with
foreign, and the seconder with home affairs. Both,
however, referred to the important questions of
retrenchment and reform, though as the tempo-
rary representatives of a Government that has appa-
rently abandoned both, it was perhaps scarcely to
be expected they could hold out much hope of
anything being done with regard to either. Sir
EDWARD COLZBROOKeB apology for the ministe-
rial neglect of Reform was the weakest and worst
part of his speech. In talking of the alienation
between the middle and working classes which
the recent strikes are said to have pro-
duced, he simply repeats the groundless
Tory slanders of last session, while " the
" state of the Continent" is if possible a still
more threadbare and worthless excuse for the
neglect of home duties. Mr. PAccr was more to
the point on the subject of retrenchment, his sug-
gestion with regard to the estimates being a
sensible and practical one. He justly says that
the reduction of the estimates must be left very
much to the heads of departments, as private
members lack the special and intimate knowledge
which alone would enable them to undertake this
task with effect. The Member for Nottingham
warmly eulogised the French Treaty aa having already
produced the most satisfactory results, and as
destined in its filWre working not only to
strengthen the friendly union of the two nations,
but largely to augment the prosperity of both. And
as a large manufacturer and practical man of busi-
ness, Mr. Peon is entitled to speak with authority
on this head.

A Royal Speech that is welcomed with Con-
servative smiles, and pronounced " quite unexcep-
tionable" by the leader of the Opposition, would
hardly be likely to satisfy all who sit on the
Liberal benches. Such a cold and sterile docu-
ment may conciliate the enemies of the Ministry,
but it will in the same proportion help to provoke
and alienate their friends. Earnest Reformers
will naturally ask what is the use of having a
Liberal Government at all if they shrink from the
assertion of Liberal principles, and decline to in-
troduce Liberal measures. The absence of all
definite allusion to Retrenchment in the Royal
Speech, and the total omission of Parliamentary
Reform, naturally enough excited a strong feeling
of disappointment and indignation amongst the
more earnest Liberal members of the House ; and
the Member for Brighton undertook to express
this feeling last night. Mr. Wurre moved as an
amendment to the Address, "That her Majesty's
" Government should on an early day introduce a
" measure for the extension of the Parliamentary
" franchise, in fulfilment of the promises given
" when they came into office ;" and it cannot be
denied that there is just and reasonable ground
for such a motion. On no subject is the present
Government more deeply pledged than that of
Parliamentary Reform, and on none have their
supporters below the gangway extended to them a
larger patience and more generous confidence. It
may suit Mr. DISRAELI and his followers to regard
the fulfilment of solemn and reiterated pledges as
"an erroneous interpretation of the sense of
" honour," but Mr. WHITE and his friends cannot
be expected to take this lenient view of the matter.
They justly repudiate with indignation the slight
and unworthy Ministerial excuses for the violation
of a solemn pledge and the neglect of a
public duty. And though Mr. WHITE gained
comparatively little Parliamentary support for his
amendment, the grounds on which it was brought
forward will secure a large amount of sympathy
out of doom. The Government ought never
to have exposed themselves to the just re-
proaches addressed to them last night by the Mem-
ber for Brighton and the Member for Birming-
ham. A little more courage and consistency
would have been true wisdom at a time when
their only chance of success lies in the hearty sup-
port of the whole Liberal party.
Mr. DISRAELI, true to the unlucky star he
has followed so faithfully of late, attacked the
Cabinet on its strongest point, the only point
perhaps on which it is absolutely invul-
nerable—that of its foreign policy. Like
many other great artists, he forms an erroneous

estimate of his powers and productions, imagining
that his most conspicuous failures are in
reality his greatest works. ha foreign policy
was the very weakest point of the D►RBY
Government, and Mr. DIMRA ELI naturally
refers to it with the greatest pride. He
lives under the delusion that foreign affairs
are his peculiar forte ; and his wonderful speech
about exploded and imaginary telegrams at the
opening of last session was a remarkable instance
of this strange hallucination. Nothing has at all
equalled that bold flight of fancy until his speech
last night, which was a favourable example of
his highest and purely ideal style. Profaning to

deal with facts and arguments, with living realities
and actual event; it was nevertheless from first to
last "of imagination all compact." The right hon.
gentleman undertook to review the European
events of the last six months, and to evolve their
logical results ; but his history was fictitious and
his reasoning purely imaginative. His affected
ignorance of what had really taken place
was only equalled by his minute know-
ledge of what had never happened. At the
outset of his speech, for example, he com-
plains that notwithstanding the free publication of
papers and despatches, the country is totally
ignorant as to what the foreign policy of the
Government really is. He is quite in the dark,
thirsting for information, and anxiously asks what
the principle of the ministerial policy might be
Now the leader of the Opposition is probably the
only man in the country who has any doubt what-
ever on this head. If he is really as ignorant as
he represents himself to be he certainly stands
alone. Anyone might give him the information ho
so anxiously desires to receive. On no point have
the Government been more clear, decided, and
explicit than in the enunciation of the principles
guiding its foreign policy ; and those principles
have been acted on with uniform vigour and con-
sistency. This is the very point on which the
conduct of the Government admitted of no doubt,
and on which, as Mr. WHITE admits, it secures'
the hearty sympathy and support of even its
most dissatisfied adherents on the Liberal benches.
In a word, the foreign policy of the Government,
in its principles and details, is familiar to all the
world, and everybody knows it except Mr. Dui-
RAZE,. His utter ignorance of what is, is how-
ever atoned for by his precise and definite
knowledge of what is not. Having failed to dis-
cover the policy which the Government has always
avowed and acted on, he confidently assigns them
a policy which they not only never adopted,
but have formally and repeatedly dis-
claimed. The real principle on which the
Government has from the first acted, as all
the world knows, is that of non-intervention—
of leaving the Italians to settle their own affairs as
they deemed best. The policy Mr. DIMRAELI attri-
butes to them, and on which his elaborate scheme
of terrible alternatives rests, is that of a United
Italy. Everybody except Mr. DISRAELI knows
that the Government to the last hesitated to adopt
this view, and only relinquished its cherished con-
victions in favour of two Italian kingdoms at
the eleventh hour, and in obedience to the
higher policy of non-intervention. Yet Mr.
DmitAsu solemnly charges them with having
risked all possible evils and calamities—the
balance of power, the peace of Europe, the stabi-
lity of thrones, nay, even the civilization of the
world, for the sake of this very principle which
they from the first repudiated.
It is difficult to reply seriously to such a lu-
dicrously irrelevant charge, and Lord JOHN Rrt4
NELL was entitled to retort that, so far as the
right hon. gentleman's thirst for information
related to actual events, it might be gratified
at once by inspecting the papers to be laid on
the table last evening. For the rest, the terri-
ble alternatives and dilemmas ho had conjured
up, being purely the work of imagination, neither
needed nor admitted of any definite or practical
reply. The noble FOREIGN Ssearreav recalled the
attention of the House to the great point at
issue by asking the leader of the Opposition
whether the principle of non-intervention on
which the Government had acted was, in
his view, right or wrong ; whether he
and his friends were prepared to accept it or not.
The country knows well enough that the Conser-
vatives dislike this principle, and are indignant at
its successful application. Mr. Disa.aaLi revealed
the true animus of the party last night by
conjuring up a number of purely imaginary, but
awful-looking, objections against the formation of
a united Italian Kingdom. So far, his speech is
valuable as a useful warning.