The Express.
London, England, 1850-12-23 00:00:00

Zhe Oramegui.

TO COBRINPONDENTIL
A•wireiviossiameripi Ise The Iteeres." Lemke Vesta mar,
awe be at dr Olke.lßbeseertieetreet. ley I've °Wolk on the
by el gablhidea.
UM WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
s.
Tao tul—Rorateg. waft- iihrioas, RA. P
nmsosarm—llierulig, Mi. Wm« After" le.

LONDON. MONDAY, DECEMBER 23.

Six weeks lave yet to run ere parliament re-
assembles. Within that time a thousand things may
happen that no foresight con anticipee, by which the
position and prospects of parties may be materially
changed. Within • space almost as brief, events
have taken place before our eyes which mast of
necessity affect the relative strength of contending
faction', and the rival destinies of not a few who
hold and who aspire to power. The political doings
and sayings from Michaelmas to Christmas Lave set
at nought all the calculations of elubbists and the
prognostics of coteries. Who will undertake to tell
what may turn up between this and Easter P
Lord STANLEY, it is said, is fully alive to thisw=
maiming chapter of chances that is likely to open
him. His unusual silence of late has been varies*
interpreted, and variously accounted for. Soapiness'
people insist that there is something new in the way
of mischief brewing in the tore camp' and that the
obstinate taciturnity of the staff as well as the chief
is an augury of some original sin about to be pen- I
timed against the cause of the people. The quidnesnes
dwell with emphasis on the abrupt termination of the
DlsLtiLl and OREVILLE correspondence about
the honours conceded to catholic bishops in
Ireland ; and, with owl-like solemnity, wink anent
to the stupid surmise that fear of filing the charge
upon Sir JAMES GRAHAM has been the cause of its
Silent abandonment. We believe this to be sheer Ind.
die. Between Neviteaer's knight and Knows.
LZY*B heir there can be little remaining in common.
It is not of such discordant materials that the opposi-
tiOn council is made up. Sir JAMES has been a bit of
a political roe/ in his day ; bat his wild oats are
pretty well sown. .Hell go no more a roving," we
opus., but rather show a daily greater tendency to
settle snugly down in the sheltered neighbourhood
of whiggery. The man is neither fool nor fana-
tic enough to be a trustworthy tory. There
is as little mutuality of confidence between
him and the democracy as there is between him and
the court. His business in life is that of a bureau-
crat ; and for the modification of his dogmatic tastes
as a crack administrator, who are so likely to be able
to afford him the opportunity as thou who believe in
the <Perim,
Mr. Dieriarm has been ordered to keep silence,
because he proved in his late epistolary escapade that
it was dangerous to let him talk about matters he
clearly did not understand. To dilate upon " the Asian
mystery " is very safe exercise, for there is nobody to
reply. Bat random sneers in the midst of a hot
Christian controversy is rather ticklish amusement.
It is just the difference between pistol practice
in one's own garden, where to one notes the
misses, while the hits are applauded by admiring
friend., and a duel with small swords in the Boisde
Boulogne, where the risks are even of being badly
wounded or unceremoniously " had up" by the police,
with what Mr. BUCKSToNE would call "a remark-
ably small chinos of being spoken of u a hero in one
daily and two weekly newspapers of remarkably
email circulation." Polemics, in short, are obviously
not Mr. Dteatietee forte. lie has not been suffi-
neatly lug accustomed to our ways of thinking and
feeling on relt,--,;;;;;2 ',object& With all his ehrewd-
sees and quickness of perception, he fails to catch the
spirit of the quarrel. Ile could play a high priest,
we dare say, to perfection; but as " A Friend of the
Bishops " he nine a great chance of failure.
Very awkward this conditon of party affairs, un-
doubtedly, to have the leader in the t omwoos silenced
en the topic of the hour, yet, as we have said,there was
so help for it. The best face to put on the matter
was clearly to affect au attitude of sublime reserve.
Let nobody of consequence among the Write say any-
thing definite. To all subordinates of the Mimi,
TYRILL, ILinewoon, and NEWDEOATE class, free
leave was given to mingle in the fray: but its
worthy of note how mute the ea-dist:tit chief, have
been on the new catholic question, always excepting
the learned ex-chancellor of Ireland—the chancellor
of England that is to be whenever protectionism scales
the heights of power. By his own account,
Sir EDWARD BUGDIIII spoke coo sporste, and without
oommanication with any other person. It hardly
occurred to the managers, perhaps, that the spirit of
popular controversy would have kindled the frozen
formalist in his seclusion ; and hence the unexpected
judgment pronounced under canvas at the Surrey
meeting.
But Lord STANLEY is determined, at whatever
sacrifice of self-will, to show the world that even he
can be circumspect when be choose& It is a tour de
force of a marvellous kind: for the peculiar circum-
stances of the case his lordship is in the plight of
those of whom it is written, " their strength is to sit
still." Unless he is much belied, however, the effort
is not only highly irksome, but in a certain sense it
may be tented almost involuntary. Had three days
longer been allowed by the Panful to pan with-
out the publication of his celebrated letter of the
6th November, Lord STANLZT Weald have grasped
the opportunity of attaelneg to himself that strong
religious feeling which Lord Joan has coonontrated
round himself. Failing in that, the tory leader, like
a thorough-bred party man, at nos determined not
to seem to follow in his rival's wake, but to lie by
aid watch the course of events. But seer ste
will champ the bit, and chafe at lons restraint. There
ere six wake yet before the melon of 1861 com-
mences. How are the thoughtless, listless, careless
followers, each of when empty heads counts for as
mach as those of Beare, of CHATHAM would' in a
division how are all then to be kept within
whistle-call till then P It is as arduous tasks
and one worthy the genies of the venerable
whip, whose voice all they who and to
the Carlton were wont to tenpin and obey.tf=
shall another BILLY HOLMES be found is these de-
generate days? The 'prentice lauds of BZIIII7OIII
and Villa bat feebly compensate for his inestimable
loss. It was but yesterday we heard two practical
adherents of the party confess how sadly times wen
changed with them during the last few pen; 'twee
not their principles, they said, that had Pled, bat
the men to work them out: one iseurasi he Puke
the other LYNDHUBAT'a lose; bat both Semi east
the grand deficiency in the pasty_os saw elastitaled,
was the want of a whipper-in. 'ln nelli an exigency
who can wonder that the impatient STARLET has
himself undertaken that department?

No writer, and even no founder of a sect, has dared 1
to consider and ordain religions tenets and rites and I
sacerdotal organisation with an exclusive view to
their aptitude for captivating and commanding ad-
herent., for winning cod retaining power. The
ordination and innovation of barbarous and medieval
churches were the produce of time and circumstance",
more than of sagacity and foresight. And the re-
forming sects which flung off the yoke of Rome, did
so in revolt and disgust at assumption and error; not
from any deep or well-considered scheme to set up a
church of their own. What reformers looked to was
truth, not effect. Political philosophy wu not
amongst the number of their sciences.
Men, wee in their genera ion, have succeeded to
thee" truth-worshipping and simple teachers. The
Jesuits a °maple of centuries ago, and the Tractarians
la our days, fled bethought them what would prove
the moat affective mode of rendering the church and
ettirohmen powerful, and then adapted their tenets
sad their arguments to accomplish the desired aim.
la both oases, those of the Jesuits and of the Tracts-