The Express.
London, England, 1868-12-04 00:00:00

THE POLITICAL SITUATION.

WHILE Mr. GLADirroza is busily engaged in
forming his administration, the ingenuity of dub
gossip, and of gobemoncherie in general, will be
strenuously employed in fancy cabinet-making and
in speculative joinery. The construction of a
Ministry appears to 'some people as easy as to
round off cups and balls with a turning lathe.
There can be no great harm in this artless inge-
nuity, except that it is apt to be a little embarrassing
to the personages whom the inventive partiality of
carefully incorrect information presumes to desig-
nate. In certain circles politics are nothing but a
game of chess, and it may be not unamusing to
the public to see the pieces moved over the board
by hands tolerably expert in curious combinations.

But there are more important
present moment than the adjustment of the claims
of the Right lion. A, of Mr. B, or of Lord C, to
this or that high office. In matters of general
policy, whether foreign or domestic, that ex-
treme difference between the two great parties
which existed five-and-twenty years ago has
ritetirally disatexared. No possible Government
of England could now be disposed to pursue a
reactionary or repressive policy at home, or a
policy of intervention and adventure abroad.
Whether the Tories or the Liberals are in power,
there are certain broad lines of liberty and tolera-
tion, of prudence and reserve, from which neither
can be tempted to depart. The national will is
now too enlightened and too strong, the sense of
the country too decided, to permit the possibility
of dangerous resistance to the persistent ten-
dencies and advancing moral forces of the age.
The first general election after the reform in the
representation has shown, no doubt, a certain re-
luctance in large bodies of the community to
move too fast or too far. There must always
be in our old and complicated society a force
of inertness which dislikes and dreads change as
change. On the other hand, it cannot be denied that
the Conservatism of 1868 is at least as advanced

at the

as the official Liberalism of the PALMERSTON
regime. And the majority which has restored Mr.
CiLanerroxs to power unquestionably represents
that new political force which the new electors
have scarcely yet learnt to use ; a force compara-
tively latent and indirect at present, but which will
make itself more and more felt in the new Par-
liament, with the increasing pressure of the
new constituencies upon their representatives.

There is this significant difference between the first
Parliament after the first Reform Bill and the first
Parliament after the second Reform Bill: in
both the Liberal majority is more than
ample ; but in spite of the numbers against them,
the Conger. abyss of 1868 are rejoicing in the
essentially safe and moderate composition of the
new House. The Liberal majority of 1832
steadily declined and became gradually converted
into a powerful Tory majority. That Tory
majority fell to pieces by its owl weight, and was
dissolved by the action of public opinion out
of doors, which compelled the conscience of PEar.
to capitulate, and to sacrifice his party and his own
power to the safety of his country. It may be that
the course of events will take a different turn in
the coming years, and that the Liberal majority
in the Reformed Parliament, which the Con-
servatives find so moderate and so safe, will,
unless full satisfaction be given to the widening
popular demands, become in successive Parlia-
ments less and less agreeable to the old parties.
The new electors are not yet conscious of
their power, nor are they under existing elec-
toral conditions capable of using it with effect.
Let them once be aware of their power and in a
condition to use it, and let some great question
nearly concerning their interests as a class be-
come the signal for agitation and the watchword
of their candidates, and Mr. Disitaatia's cleverly
contrived " Tory democracy" will be found to con-
tain a very insignificant minority of " Con-
' " servative working men." This contingency it is
for the statesmen now coming into power to pro-
vide for by large and timely legislative measures
of justice and conciliation, by social and economi-
cal reforms,by making the highest and the humblest
public instruction thoroughly national—by causing
the whole people to feel that their comfort and hap-
piness and well-being are the constant care of their
rulers, and that they have all an equal interest in
the stability and prosperity of the commonwealth.
The question now is not between a reactionary and
a radical, but rather between a stationary and a
progressive policy.
of justice to the United Kingdom.

- -
tiTRAY r. BULL AND ANOTHER.

It -
Tux report of this clam Nat coded in the
moron Pleas by " a conclusion in which
" nothing is concluded," contains features so
closely approaching downright faros that it is