The Express.
London, England, 1868-02-18 00:00:00

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CONSIGNIMT of PLANTS and BULBS from HOLLAND. I
MR. J. C. STEVENS will SELL by AUCTION,
at his Great Roam, Ithg-sif.eare, 00.1."14
TO-MORROW (Wednesday), Feb. 19, at MU- lf
conaignment of PLANTS from Holland, standard.
dwarf, weeping, and climbing rose, : dwarf„ standard.
and pyramid fruit tram ; specimen eatiagatef end Peen hales.
conifers, and a variety of hardy trees and current trees,
raspberry canes, a large quantity of choice for aping
planting, rustic sesta, steels, rues, baskets, ac.—On view to-
morrow, and catalogues had.

BREAKFAST.-EPPB'I3 COCOA.

gike •xpreoo.

ADVERTISEM:E/iTS for the ILTPRESS received.
after 12 o'clock cannot be inserted on the
nine day.

HAYMARKET.
Tim Ma THE 8R0K124-11EARTED ELM—DAVID
GARRICK. Yeah Bother& BuCkeeooo, Mien, de. ; and Mho
Robertson.—LEND Me JIVE SHILLING& Mr. &mimics..—
.And FAMILY JAM. Mr. Compton.

nuscasrs
Tart Svismen, AMMAR NA JPOOIII. Hr. and Vre. D. Boa-
cicault, Mr. Thrills, Mears. Dominick Murray, Neville. &Shore ;
MLA Harnett & urn Addle.—After which THS ocrozooN. Mr.
and Mn boneltaalt, Mr. J. B. Clarke, Mr. Vining, t Mims Mauna.

TEu Evanno, OLD BALI. )I.rSTIAND.. Lars and Wan Nally Moon.
—After which TON CALIPH OF BAODAD. Mama Thom
and James Alaadainas Ada Bwanbouroogh. Johnitcos, Harland,
Holt, ac.—And COAL AND COBH

HOLBORN.
Tills Zvanro, THZ FLYING SCUD. Menne. Atkins, Pries,
Garden, Arthur. Westland, sad Wilmott ; Mesdames Henrade
t,oodell. Lennox, and astinders—Conclude with VALF.NTINZ
♦N ) ORSON. ALUM. Montero, Little Howells, de.

sierrannA.
THIS twoWiwi, ALL BUT ONE. Maui Reynolds and
Craw* rd , Mesdames Courtenay, and Coveney. - DON QUIXOTE.
lln. S. Lane Pantomimist' Masan. DMA Louis, Newham, and
the Echasse Family : C. Minh= and Win Rose Esthan.

111011 WATIR AT LONDON BRIDGE.
Mil aar —Yorabts. 1011. fti....—Afternoan, 10b. 41a.
114110azoir—ltaraibi. Ilh. 23n.. —Midnight.

LONDON, TUESDAY, FEB. 18.

THE VACANT PREMIERSHIP.

THE sympathy of his countrymen, and of
numbers in Europe and America who are not
his countrymen, attends Lord DERBY in his
painful illness. We will not rival the haste of
some of our contemporaries and pro-
nounce over him the final word Virit.
It is premature to assume that even his
public career is at an end. The time
for reviewing it has not yet come, still less for
passing judgment on the literary achievements,
and on the social and personal qualities which
have added further lustre to a brilliant, if
nut very substantial, political reputation. It
is, indeed, scarcely possible that Lord
DERBY should continue to hold for even a
few days longer the office of Primo Minister.
The anxieties and labour attending that post have
reinforced the attacks of disease. A narrow but
unselfish and even chivalrous devotion to his
party has cost both him and it dear. The
old courage of the STARLETS was shown as con-
spicuously in the pluck with which Lord DERBY
sacrificed leisure and retirement and ease for the
sake of keeping his followers united and in
office as in the valour which his ancestors dis-
played at Flodden, at Bosworth, or at Worcester.
We will yet hope that care and rest will enable
the Conservative leader to give his colleagues on
critical occasions the advantage of his counsels as
a member of the Cabinet free from the restraints
of office, and his aid in the discussions and the
management of the House of Lords. The position
which, in our own time, the Marquis of LANS-
DOWNE and the Duke of WELLINGTON, and to go
further back, the first Lord Caarnata, held in the
Ministries with which they were connected, is
still, we trust, open to Lord DERBY. Differing as
we do altogether from the principles and policy of
the noble earl, and though we find much that is
indefensible in his recent public conduct, we I
should deplore his total withdrawal from political
life as involving a loss of dignity and lustre from
English parliamentary statesmanship. But while
hoping that this event may yet be some years
distant, we cannot shut our eyes to the mural and
physical impossibility of Lord DERBY'S longer
tenure of the premiership. The question in every-
body's month is not, Will he resign ? but, Who is
to be his summer f Tho ranks of his present
colleagues and of his party offer only two
names to choose between. They are those of
Lord STANLEY and Mr. Dismatt. The time for
the titular primacy of a third rate peer has long
since passed by. It might suit the days of the
Marquis of Itoemaanam, the Duke of PORTLAND,
or Lord Livearoot, but it does not suit our age.
To canvass the claims and merits of Lord
MALMESBURY, the Duke of RientroND, or the
Duke of BUCKINOHAM for Lord DERBY'S place
is simply to cast unprovoked and undeserved
ridicule on respectable noblemen, and upon the
office itself of Prime Minister. If the govern-
ment is really to have a head, if it is to
be something more than the indepen-
dent administration of separate departments,
with a council of equals upon public
affairs, its nominal chief must be its real
chief. The only members of the present
Cabinet and of the Tory party who have
the personal qualities and the political stand-
ing for this office are, as we have said,
the present CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER
and the present Ssearrase for FOREIGN
AFFAIRS. Each has advantages which the other
dues not possess. Lord STANLEY'S hereditary
and social position are considerations which
in England cannot be, or, at any rate,
are not likely to be, lightly set aside. On the
other hand, Mr. DIsRAISLI'S CLIMB upon his party
are unrivalled. He lira done everything for it.
Whatever sacrifices of political character he may
have made, his followers cannot reproach him
with them, fur what he has done they have done,
too. The difference between the leader and the rank
and file is that they are intellectually lower, not
that they are morally higher. Lord STANLEY
is the more solid and prudent, Mr. DISRAELI
the more daring and brilliant statesman. The
former is the better administrator, the latter ,
the more dexterous party-leader. Between these
balanced claims, one consideration ought to turn
the scale. If Lord STANLEY is to be Prime
Minister, he must go to the Lords ; for
it would be simply indecent, to say
nothing of its being highly imprudent, and
indeed absolutely impossible, to deprive Mr. Dm-
RkELI of the leadership in the Commons. For
such leadership Lord STANLEY, with all his great
capacity and industry, does not indeed possess
the peculiar mental, scarcely even the physical
qualifications. Intellectual nimbleness and ver-
satility, ready and articulate speech, the power
of discriminating between grave matters and
trifles, do not characterise him in a very
eminent degree. Mr. DISRAELI has these gifts in
unusual measure. He is, therefore, the inevit-
able leader in the Commons. Now, the leader
in the Commons should be the Prime Minister.
He has to decide a score of times in the session
the course which the Government will take on the
data presented to him by the attitude or senti-
ment of the House of Commons. He must often do
so without the opportunity of taking counaelwith
his Vinci* colleagues. The man on whom this