The Express.
London, England, 1868-05-22 00:00:00

IS PUBLISHXD

EVERY EVENING.

LONDON, FRIDAY, MAY 22.

WENES IN THE HOUSE.

v the business of the House of Commons were
conducted on the principles of a modern theatrical
enterprise, subject to the constant necessity
of providing new entertainment and excite-
ment for a public impatient of the legiti-
mate drama, and demanding an incessant
stimulus to the sensations, the present session
might be considered an extraordinary managerial
success. Last year the repeated changes of the
" bill " showed weakness ; this yeas• Mr. DIRRAZLI,
by the combined attractions of melodrama
and burlesque, her drawn crowded houses week
alter week and night after night, and but for the in-
creasing weariness and dissatisfaction of the actors,
there is no knowing how long his efforts to startle
and amuse the Strangers' Gallery and the Ladies'
Oage might not continue to be the talk of the town.
But there are obvious disadvantages in this concep-
tion of the character and functions of a Legislature.
Mr. DINILAELI, who managed his house so cleverly
last session, is coming rapidly to the end of his re-
sources ; he cannot find parts for all the ambitious
members of his company ; even his supernume-
aeries are mutinous and discontented. In short,

the theatrical theory of the relations between the
House and the Government km broken down. The
public capability of sensation is becoming ex-
hausted ; the appetite for novelty grows by what
it feeds on. People are no longer satisfied with
a change of performance, they will have
nothing leas than an entirely new set
of performers. Something of the savage spirit of
the Roman populace of the decadence is roused
within them. They sit like spectators in the
Coliseum, and rage with disappointment when no
blood is abed and no gladiator bites the dust.
These " scenes" in the House are terribly
demoralising to audience and actors both.
Last es erring the House was filled from floor to roof.
One of the bull fights of the season was expected.
A grand mystification was the result. The PREMIER
wail in his sedatest and most placid mood. Pro-
hably some ingenuous lookers-on were speculating
whether it was to be dissolution or re-
signation when he row to thank the
Scotch members for their generous support
hest year, to deplore the acceptance of Mr.
1:101:s. itnin's amendment on Monday, to suggest
Cud the division had been unlooked for and pre-
cipitate, and to express the hope that the com-
mittee would reconsider its determination in a
oiler house on Monday next, and that by mutual
accommodation the Scotch Reform Bill might be
I .00n and easily dispow I of. Nothing could be
more composed and conciliatory than the PREM BR'S
manner when he promised the Scottish members
that the provision to be introduced into the bill to
rectify Mr. Bo u ER I F.'h amendment should be "the
" same as that which has so long influenced their
conduct in the perfiirinance of one of their
" most important duti:s," or in other words,
that the rating clause should be that of the Scottish
Poor-law. So far so well. The parliamentary sky
was once more serene. But what is this youthful
and menacing figure that suddenly rises on the
!i:inistorial side below the gangway to
'Love the adjournment It is one of
those irrepressible independent members who
hay.. a soul above office and a seat below it, and
who are sick of the honoors and humiliations their
leaders bear so meekly en the Treasury bench. It
is a young Tory representative of a county, a loyal
follower of Lord DERBY while Lord DERBY reigned,
who has come down with due deliberation and in
good earnest, to speak out what gentlemen on
the opposition benches only think, and to
" tell the right honourable gentleman that some
" at least of hie supporters refuse to be dragged
" through the mud rather than sit on the other side
"of the house." The other side has no cold shade
for susceptible Tory gentlemen below the gangway,
who can afford to keep e. conscience. This spirited
and effective deliverance was evidently not an im-
provisation. If it took the majority of the consti-
tutional party by surprise, it was clearly not a
single and non tory expression of personal feeling. On
the bench from which Mr. P. WYNDHAM rose to
speak there were those who found in him a fit in-
terpreter Of course the immediate effect of
itioh a spee-.11, although saluted with opposi-
tion cheers, was one -A consternation and con-
straint all round. Yet it would probably
have exploded and expired like a rocket had not
Mr Bro our risen to restore peace and harmony,
and in the friendliest manner to suggest to
Ministers the propriety of considering their peculiar
position in a fair spirit of concession,
and of aiding the House to terminate the present
state of things as soon :IS possible. It must be oon-
essed that the mercy of Mr. BrciotiT, in his moments
of compassionate indulgence to a Ministry in a
minority, is more cruel and crushing than his fiercest
invectives. But that he gave the Government
really good advice on this occasion, and that in
accepting it as it was given they would consult the
dignity of Parliament and their own, it was
impossible for any Minister or any Member to
deny. Mr. Bor. vRI E, who was perfectly justified
in defending his amendment on the Scottish Reform
Bill, was perhaps not. so well inspired in making
an angry and bitter attack upon the Ministry in
his character of a "Whig country gentleman," and
we may add of a Whig official. The way in which
the member for Kilmarnock appeals to the Tory
country gentlemen against a Government at the
mercy of the Liberal party, while, as a Liberal, he
professed to rejoice in the " democratic Reform
" Bill" it had been compelled to pass, betrays
unconsciously more sympathy with the
" dread and dislike " which Tories ought to
feel than with the measures they had been
reduced to accept. We have some reason
to think that the country at large, while
it respects the auseeptilelities of Tory members, is
not disposed to applaud these useless and desultory
assaults upon a Government whose position is too
well understood and too notorious, if Ministers
will only abstain, as Mr. BRIGHT said, from
seeking quarrels mates 1 of setting the example
of concession. What the country desires is that
these Scottish and hush Reform Bills should
be settled somehow or other, and that the present
House of Commons. whose last moments
are worse than the first should be sent about its
business. Rut here is tie Ho'eie. SECRETARY pro-
voking a challenge to-n.ght on Mr. GLADSTONZB
Suspensory Rill, which is but the indispensable
legislative embodiment of the decisive resolutions of
the House of Commons. If this is not factiousness,
we should be glad to know where factiousness is to
be found. I f Ministers are only seeking a pretext
for a premature dissolute n, the constituencies will
not fail oi appreciate the man, euvre.