The Express.
London, England, 1850-05-20 00:00:00

that stage of the bill when discurion is more usually
and may doubtless be more intelligibly taken. If so,
we cannot help regretting, though we may forbear to
cee sure, the coarse which he adopted. A prime
minister most fairly be allowed to choose his
time for the exposition of his policy in
&frisbee( weighty concern ; and both usage and raison
entitle hint to ask parliament to consent toyead a
Hist time any propoeition which, upon his high re-
spoodbility,lie undertakes to show good and sulliment
reason' for adopting.
Bat the case of those is somewhat different who
insist upon coming forward prematurely to discuss a
proposition of whose details they are ignorant, and
the reasons for which have not been disclosed.
If their oonfidence in their own knowledge and expe-
rience be such, that they cannot wait to read in printed
form the substance of themes's. propounded by the
minister, they are ell the more bound to make plain
to the listening world that no possible details can
render the project acceptable. Or if, upon the
other hand. gentlemen volunteer the vindi-
cation of motives and the exposition of pro-
visions which the responsible advisers of the
measure have postponed, we have • right to expect
that their explanations and their ressorungs should
be something more than a tissue of truism, or a con-
fection of bons mots.
We must confess that we have looked in vain
through the debate of Friday night for anything
satisfactory of either sort. Of political gossip, anec-
dote, and sarcasm there was sufficient; and of
the ordinary dull deprecation of want of patriot-
ism there was enough. Bat political ideas on
a subject eminently suggestive of tkem, there
seem to have been literally none. A graver or more
°apprehensive question could hardly be enunciated
than the one thus trifled with.
How are the affairs of an extensive and populous
kingdom in future to be administered? And if all
the forms hitherto subsisting are to be changed, what
are to be sith.tituted in their stead ? We cannot
etioctive a wider or nobler field for political
diseussiou; nor can we imagine anything better fitted
to fill the minds of thinking men in Ireland with
more bitterness and resentment than to find the im-
perial senste affecting to deal with such a subject in
the manner which, so far, it appears to have done.
There was nothing alleged of the executive system
to Intend that may not be accounted for
by other influence of other causes than any inherent
quality of its own mil-formation. That favouritism
and frivolity should belong to it is only an incident to
the nature of a court. That i; should attract and con-
centrate party passions in a country where the spirit
of party has always run high, is what every executive
must infallibly have done, whatever its shape or ap-
pellation. We own we set off all such commonplaces
against the miserable talk about vice-regal expendi-
ture as a stimulus to trade; and consign them with-
out hesitation to the limbo of defanctfitme.
The sole consideration worthy of a thought is this
—mu a more efficient, and at the same time a more
responsible form of administration be devised than
that which has heretofore subsisted in Ireland ? If
not, the old one had better stand ti.l a better can be
found. If it can, in heaven's name let ns hear dis-
tinctly and definitely what it is, before we are asked
to make up oar minds about it.
But as yet we have positively heard nothing except
some half dczen bigeiounding phrases about a
" fourth secretary of state;" as if that was the whole
story. What we want to know is, ,rho is to do the
daily business of the state, and where is it to be done?
If the shallow crotchet is about to be tried of trans-
acting all the local affairs of a difficult and discon-
tented country in Downing-street, then, as we have
the most profound faith in its speedy and disreputable
failure, we are averse to any needless expenditure
on the experiment If the special and pecu-
liar care of adminivration in such a country as
Ireland be no longer considered worthy of separate
attention, let them be neglected at the Home-
office and ignored at the Treasury—so long as
the caprice shall last—and let us mak' up our fiends
to pay dearly for the comequenoes fire or six years
hence, when the accumulated vexations and indigos-
ti.,ris of the whole Celtic nation can no further be
made bureaucratic sport of. Only in the mean time
let us have but one Home-office and not two. If a
Home-cffice in London can govern Ireland through
Menai tubes and by means of electric telegraphs,
we have no objection that it should do so. But
we have an invincible objection to the organization
of a new permanent job, in the shape of a second
Home-office. Three secretaries of state are as many
as any elderly empire can afford ; we see no use
whatever in adding a fourth.
Our own conviction, not now for the first time ex-
pressed, has always been that administratively Ire-
land, like Canada, can only be governed in Ireland.
We don't call holding a country down by the throat
governing it. Neither do we call it government,
where local opinion is set at nought in order that the
confidential reports of mere police agents may be
quietly and irresponsibly relied upon. That may be
the snuggest scheme of centralism that ever was con-
ceived, while it lasts ; but last long it cannot ; and
therefore, if for no other reason, we wholly object to
its being tried.
That the QUEEN should hold her own court at
Dublin as frequently as her MAJESTY is so disposed,
instead of delegatirg that duty to a subject,
there can be no conceivable objection. That, instead
of being called lord-lieutenant, the head of the Irish
department would be called the Minister for Ireland,
there can be as little. That, instead of half-a-dozen
lounging fops called aides-de-camp, he should have
about him so many more skilful clerks, few will ques-
tion. All are agreed that such a minister ought to
ha of the cabinet, and ought to sit in either house of
larliament in order to initiate there end to explain
egislative measures.
But the less important duties of law-making over,
the proper place for such a minister would be in the
midst of the more important duties of his uffioe, those,
namely, of law-working. If a Home Secretary in
Whitehall can do all this an Irish minister is no
longer wanted; but it an Irish minister is a specific
necessity, then where the necessity is, there let the
minister be.

We are not surprised at observing how many of
the best men among the Irish members declined to
vote on tie first reading of this still-unexplained
measure. We think their &lence and reserve an ex-
cellent sign.