The Express.
London, England, 1868-10-05 00:00:00

NZ. DISRS.III.B ADDRESS.

The Times comments upon some of the matters
to which Mr. Disraeli refere in his address to his con-
stituents. 11th respect to the Premier's boast that
whereas the liberals left the country unarmed, he has
armed it to the very teeth, all that is certain is that the
expenditure has been immense, aid that we have bought
much experience, whatever its real value; but the Time,
wishes it could believe that our iron ships and fortifica-
tions are constructed or armed exactly as they should be.
As for the Abyssinian expedition, Mr. Disraeli is entitled
to whatever the result of that is worth, but he might
have been content to accept it without adding an in-
sinuation that the original insult, the ensuing dispute,
and the delay of redress are all chargeable on the late
government. Had it fallen to the lot of a liberal govern-
ment to strike the blow, our contemporary is not at all
AUTO that the conservatives would not have remembered
their sacred duty of protesting against little wars, and
deprecated an expenditure of millions for the scarcely
possible rescue of a consul, a troop of foreign mission-
aries, and an Asiatic envoy. For the matter of church
and state, there is no church that can claim the un-
divided allegiance of the British state and Mr. Disraeli
is not prepared to say that either religion or Protestantism
or the British Empire suffers by the existence of • rival
and. indeed, hostile establishment north of the Tweed. As
for Protestantism, if the great majority of the Irish popu-
lation are to be exposed to a perpetual insult for the sake
of the protestant character of this empire, there are in
England not far from tea million protestants dissenting
from the Church of England, who have a right to be heard
on this question, and who will certainly make themselves
heard through the operation of Mr. Disraeli's Reform
Bill.

The Daily New* remarks that all Mr. Disraeli's loftiness
of tone fails to hide a sinking heart. Ile gives battle like
a man who feels certain of losing it, or who knows that
it is lost before a shot has been tired. Mr. Disraeli de-
fends the Established Church in Ireland on grounds which
are a direct insult to a majority of the people of the three
kingdoms. The presbyterians of Scotland, the LIGIICOU.
formists of England, and indeed proteatants of every com-
munion, that of the Established Church included, may well
be indignant to hear that their religion is powerleasagainst
the CLurch of Home ; and that it needs the sanction of the
state in under to make head against that mighty foe. To
Homan eatholies, of course, this tribute to the superiority
of their faith will naturally be very gratifying, if they be-
lieve it to be oinecre ; but compliments may be purchased
at too high a price. Mr. Disraeli's defence of the Estab-
litilit d Chuich as the necessary bulwark against Homan
Catholicism clothes it again in Ireland with its old and
odious character. It makes it once more a garrison in an
enemy's country. Ecclesiastically, Ireland becomes tho
English l'obuid. But there is not a shadow of foundation
for Mr. Disraeli's assertiona. The truth is that the time
has palmed for working old bigotry to political profit. The
minister who seeks to secure himself in office by inflaming
a religious war between two sections of the United King-
' dom pronounces sentence upon himself.
'lie Herald busts that the address will tend to dispel
the anxious misgivings of friend and foe as to Mr. Dis-
raeli's policy. The challenge of Mr. Gladstone has been
ace! ptcd at all points. The conservative party will go to
the hustings pledged to defend their cause upon its
merits. The Prime Minister bases his claim for their
support upon a recital of the chief measures of conserva-
tive policy since the government of Lord Derby assumed
office in 1b66. There will be no excuse hereafter for tits
insinuation that Mr. Disraeli is disposed to shrink from
his duty us a conservative leader, and no pretext for
ignoring the issue upon which the coming battle has to be
fought.

TEE MEETING OF PARLIAMENT.
Sono misapprehension, says the Trkgraph, appears to
prevail icuqieeting the time when the present parliament
can ho dissolved. It now stands prorogued until the Bth
of this present month, and will then probably be again
prorogued to some more distant day; but there is nothing
in the parliamentary law and practice to prevent the
Queen from issuing her mandate of dissolution quite
irrespectively of the term fixed by a previous prorogation.
It is else erroneous to suppose that the election cannot
take pluco until the appeals from the revising barristers
are disposed of by Om Court of Common Mom