The Express.
London, England, 1868-05-28 00:00:00

sc:PTCH azroßm 3ILf..

The franchise clausPs of the above bill are settled, and
the redistribution clauses involve three, or at the most
four, question', the settlement of which the Time. thinks
the government can indefinitely expedite. There remains
a third pare, consisting of supplemental provisions, but
the discussions on the former parts of the ball have very
much facilitated the despatch of this. The agree-
ment upon the burgh franchise, and the substitution of
grog value for rateabk value in the qualification for
the occupation franchise In counties, have removed all
ground of division on some CIAWa4)+, and have made a great
many more absolutely unnecessary. The Lord Advocate
proposes to omit no less than ten clauses in succession,
which have been superseded by amended propositions. It
I may be confidently expected, therefore, that the corn•
mittee will reach the end of the Scotch Itrform Bill this
evenins ; and it may even happen that it may be found
possible to consider some of the new clauses proposed to be
introduced.

One of the earliest points to be considered is the threw
cornered vote in the cue of Glasgow. The Star objects to
the good sense and moderation of the people being over-
borne by any subtle devices in the mode of voting—a fa-
vourite engine with the Roman aristocracy, but neverthe•
lea a most dangerous petard to be introduced by our less
powerful and less ingenious political engineers. The only
way in which the third member might be given is by sepa-
rating a large district from the city. If this be not done,
the proposed third member should be bestowed elsewhere.
The claims of the county of Perth and the city of Aber-
deen to an alditional member are so strong that the Stir
hopes every effort will be made to secure these objects.

Mt4CELLANK9I:4 Topr(s.
Whatever Mr. Johnson does now, remarks the Daily
New, his policy has passed from the stage. There is time
even yet to redeem his administration from disgrace by
cordially recognising what has been done in the South,
and co-operating to complete it, so that a reconstructed
Union may be handed over to his successor. Meanwhile
his conduct, which matters everything to himself, matters
little to the country. He is no longer the central star in
the political sky. The tide of public interest and feeling
ebbs away from him and his affairs, and rolls in other
channels. For the next five months the Presidential can-
vass and election will absorb public attention; other names
will be in the people's months, and Mr. Johnson will be
forgotten.

The Times starts as an important problem the question
whether the sovereign people which is soon to rule us will
by their new parliament be better able to house the mil-
lion, to scatter the stagnant masses, to purify the fever-
beds, and to reduce to obedience, if not to humanity, the
clam that lives by housing the greatest number in the
smallest possible cubical space, with the least possible air
or water? Many of our local institutions and authorities
are supposed to represent the popular element ; and cer-
tainly the election of parish authorities is often left ir. the
hands of persons strong only in their numbers. Yet the
failure of successive laws is ascribed to the want of per•
sone willing or able to enforce them. It is not easy,
therefore, to look to our new rulers with mach hope in a
matter which seems to touch them most.
The Teleg-nph asks whose business it is to look after
the sixpences, fourpenny-pieces, and threepenny-hits of
the currency? Almost all this realm's " change for a
shilling" in silver is in a most deplorable state. The
sixpences are worst off—they are becoming mere discs of
metal, with edges sharp enough to cut paper, and nothing
decipherable upon them. Venice swanzigen were
habitually used by the gondolimi to alit their onions and
melons ; arid the British sixpence of to-day might be
similarly employed. The fourpenny-pieces are with the
utmost difficulty distinguishable from the threepennies—
for these an coins which do a world of work. The mass
of them ought to be very soon " paid off," and a new
issue made, or a pound sterling in average small coin
will not be worth twelve shillings in solid silver.
While granting to Lord Stanley the merit of due
attention to the details of basinese and a °milder-
I able ambition, the Post fears whether looking to
his speaking, to his general political conduct, to his
want of geniality and resolution, to his subordination to
official inferiors, and his indifference as to ability in his
promoting—that there is after all something essentially
second-rate in his composition, and that the hopes at one
time cherished as to his futurity as an English statesman
will be blighted by the want of the higher qualities which
are necessary to form the great minister of a great
country.

J I, at o lest Soci arr. —On Monday, the 25th inst.,
at a meeting at the society's rooms, 4, Ihrtin's-place,
Trafalgar-equare, Mr. Charles Clark is the chair, it was
announced that the Lord Chancellor had accepted the office
of president of the society. Messrs. W. Forsyth, QC., J.
R. QUIIIIII, Q.C., Sir Roundel' Palmer. Q.C., M.P., Messrs.
Grosvenor Woods, Walter Morehead, Horatio EL Shepherd,
barristers-aCkw, were elected members of the society,
Mr. A. G. Marten opened a dismission on " The principles
upon which the Court of Chancery should determine ques-
t:tons of alleged undue influence." Mr. Chisholm Anatey,
Mr. A. C. Humphreys. Mr. Droop. and the chairman ad-
dressed the society. Votes of thsaks to the claim's' and
Mr. Marten were pealed.
Ozinera. P•zroz. Ors Eimuurrta DAT. --
Wzrorsimar, MAT V.—Admissions by wean tieketa,
loperatid:Yo;tritandittbethrottirtrbiyowissimagen"p77iltek.osup2rnialirtntyl
;lean;teiti;anOntaithedmoCriabo.o.:dosiraseo3:::!:;T:.
wend la pectelik.--(Atveetioesenl

_ln and after .)) NE P., the Price a
TH E DAILY NEWS
.:! he

ONE PENNY.

11, tree: irises tt the • PAILY liWs'• h,ie peat satis:,:e•
thiti in announcing a step ahi, ii they believe will In- accepted
the puulie as it, own justification, for it *lily advances in the
line of its natural de% elotinient when it adjusts its publishing
arrabgenients t..) a state of things whioli for two-and•twenty
ytars it has lahoured net iitisuc.iessfully In promote.
In preparing for this transformation one thought has pre-
Om:hatted in the solicitude of the pi oprietors. l heir aim has
1400 to wake "THE DAILY 11.:WS" universally a.-cesaible,
hot to alter its anaheter ; and they would con,bler their labour
wi rse thou in,t were they to consent b. cliiiiwes which would
wry its toile or in any way in,l air its title to 1!,1,1 its urn -
li' e in p•iblie tawny.

IDE POLITICAL AND LITERARY
tion of the Journal will mmain ruchanged,
AND 1:E SUPPORTED BY AN ACCESSION
OF EMINENT WRITERS.

FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE
w,urt,t << oil organisation of spedal and ri .11:girt I sortspon.
den e, t n:lira in!; the entire World.

THE CITY AND COIMETICIAL NEWS
w!'.l tor lieret6fort.. Fkill, haily. and Impartial in a word,
while .61 iia present feati:r,s will he lillintainud, it arrange-
',olds will hn,lerg., no ether laraliti:ation than such as Is neces-
sary*, a inore tlioroith and efli lent representation and .11,o:wi-
t •.. I 111V0 0•' ,irren and .pinions 1 the day.

I-111 \4. AND 41)V1.1111,ENI F. \I s 11( E.
:I. 0.1 ,rhEi:T, FLEE( I I.

A passion so universally diffused as that which
finds its climax in the Derby cannot be preached
out of existence. In the legitimate work of the
day there i■ nothing that calls for re-
proof. No reason can be pleaded why the com-
parative speed of the fleetest horses in England
should not be tested, nor can anything to the pur-
pose be said against allowing the victor to reap
ample rewards of his judgment in purchase, his
success in breeding, or his skill in train-
ing. The spectacle of noble animals putting
forth their highest powers in a contest
which excites their own emulation and pride, and
which demands the utmost address, tact, and bold-
ness on the part of the riders, is an exciting but
not a vicious one. Perhaps the practica of training
horses for a struggle of two minutes and
a half has not that good effect upon the breed
which is sometimes attributed to the pursuits of
the turf. An animal which is all swiftness and
has no staving power is of little use for ordi-
nary purposes. lint the luxury is legitimate ;
and the faculty of producing any quality that
is needed in its highest possible degree may be
turned by judicious selection and combination into
the best account. It is not the, racing on the
Derby Day, but the parasitic pursuits and in-
terests that have grown up round it, but
which admit of being severed from it, that consti-
tute the evil to which men of no over-rigid morality
are opening their eyes. There is no intrinsic
reason why the horse races on Banstead
Down should not be as innocent as
the boat races on the Thames. Epsom is not
intrinsically more vicious than Putney or Mort-
lake. True, the greater number of competitors
multiplies the chances and affords a larger scope to
the ingenuity of book-makers, a horse can be " got
" at " more easily than a boat, and does not tell
the tale of its treatment so explicity ; and flesh
and blood are liable to a thousand honest accidents
which do not befal wood and iron, and are not
capable of being so promptly remedied. These
illegitimate uncertainties, involving elements of
chance which no skill can compute nor pre-
caution guard against, give its vicious
character to the excitement and specula-
tion of the Derby Day. Good examples in
high places might do much to abate the evil. hint
when peers and millionaires, to whom the doors of
every conceivable enjoyment are open, find life
dreary without the excitement of ruining
themselves and their neighbours, no one
can wonder that the small shopkeeper,
and the fagged-out City clerk, or apprentice,
feel the temptation a strong one to relieve the
monotony of a dull and sordid life by the
excitement of betting on the Derby. The social
incidents of the day considered by them-
selves, the holiday, the conviviality, the mingling
of all classes and both sexes, the beatific vision of
the upper ten and their equipages which rewards
the eyes of the humbler sort, and the knowledge of
the lower thousands, with their grotesque ways,
which amuses the supercilious good nature of the
humbler orders ; the view of, and the view from, the
stand in which Mr. Ton HEATLEY'S guests were
observers and observed ; the unrestrained good
humour, the forgetfulness of c....res, sure to
present themselves without special summons
on to-morrow, are things good in them-
selves. A few excesses might, perhaps, be
conveniently pruned away. But it is not the out-
ward evil of the Derby Day but its latent mis-
chiefs, not the things which appear on the
surface but its secret history, that make it a day
to be marked with other than white chalk in the
national calendar.