The Express.
London, England, 1861-08-07 00:00:00

TO OUR ItZADERS.

~_.

SPORTING INTELLIG ENCE

A We edition of the Express a published every
evening during the racing season, containing the
rendta of the day's races.

A 7..1.011 of irony in the opening paragraph re-
deems the prorogation Speech of yesterday from
the charge of being utterly colourless and vapid,
which might otherwise be fairly urged against it.
The Royal Commissioners were commanded by the
Qesae to convey to her faithful Lords and Com-
mons " Her Ms-it:wry'', acknowledgments for the
" seal and assiduity with which you have applied
" yourselves to the performance of your duties
"during the Session of Parliament now brought
"to a cline." This, however, it may perhaps be
said, cannot properly be considered ironical, the
sentence being merely a routine expression which
means nothing. But her Blsissrv's Ministers
have shown that even in the construction of a
'loyal Speech they are not the victims of mere
routine. At the beginning of the Session, for
example, they omitted the usual reference
to Parliamentary Reform, which, having appeared
in every Speech from the Throne for upwards of
ten years, hail become as it were a stereotyped
part of the document. In the same way, had
they so pleased, they might have left out the usual
reference to " zeal and assiduity," as not only
wholly inapplicable, but indirectly offensive. No
man of high and honourable feeling likes to be
formally complimented on the exercise of those
virtues which are the exact opposite of his known
and notorious failings. Such compliments only
emphasize and expose to adverse criticisms the
weakness which a prudent silence might have
shielded from remark. To praise the reckless and
extravagant for their prudence and economy is,
indeed, something more than flattery—it is
covert insult. At the close of such a ses-
sion as the last, the opening paragraph
of the Royal Speech reads like the bitterest sar-
casm. Such a dilatory, do-nothing session of Par-
liament has happily been unknown in recent
years. The captious, obstructive spirit, and list-
less proceedings of the House have been equalled
only by the timid and temporising policy of the
kovermaient. Though the House has risen earlier
than usual, it has been repeatedly counted out, and
has wasted an unprecedented number of evenings
in small talk. As a natural consequence little or
nothing has been done beyond the barest routine
of ordinary work. This is so notorious, that it is
admitted by all, except perhaps those courtier
journalists, whose obsequious deference to autho-
rity might lead them, like (sit', to say the weather
was very warm and indifferent cold in the same
breath, or, like to pronoun e the same
object to be like a camel, like a weasel, and very
like a whale.

But though nothing has been done in the way of
legislative work, worth the expenditure of &seesaw',
it must in fairness be added, that the Government
Yea accomplished almost all it proposed at the out-
set to do. The speeches from the throne at the
opening anal the class of the neeliamentary
sitting rarely show so much harmony between
promise and performance as those of the
pr•eent year. The Ministry, under the inspira-
tion of its sagacious head, opened the legislative
year with a programme so utterly meagre and
colourless as to win tlas unqualified approbation of
their political opponents. Only a few law reforms
were promised, and the more important of these
have in some shape or other been carried into
effect during the Session. The Government has thus
so far been succesefuL It has substantially fulfilled
its narrow promisee, sad in most respects effected
all it proposed to scoompbeh. The cynical policy
of political negation has triumphed, and its wisdom
and value may be tested by the result. Has the
Government gained anything by its success f Is
it at all stronger now than at the beginning of the
session 1 On the contrary, it has loot ground
more and more as the session advanced, and but
for the early prorogation would in all likelihood
scarcely have survived it. Still the country is, in
the main, anxious to support the Ministry, and no
one attempts or has of late attempted to attack it.
Yet favourable circumstances and gifts of fortune
are apparently of no avail. The Government has
but grown weaker and weaker, and unless some
change speedily takes place, it appears likely
to perish of mere atrophy. Success has proved
more disastrous than failure could possibly
have done. We cannot affect to be our-
prised at this result, however mysterious
and inexplicable it may appear to some
of our contemporaries. We have all along
protested against the policy of Ministers during
the late session as altogether unworthy of a Go-
vernment professing liberal principles, placed in
power by the liberal party, and aspiring to secure
the sympathy and support of the Ration at large.
From the meagre ministerial programme of lest
February, everythingof a party or political nature—
anything likely to awaken popular sympathy or
secure popular support—in a word, every liberal
feature, was carefully excluded. The promises
by which they rose to power were openly alien-
doped, and a liberal Ministry virtually announced
that it would introduce no measures save those
which Lord 'W M' himself pronounced to be " un-
" exceptionable." Such a cowardly and faithless
policy naturally excited strong indignation amongst
sincere and earnest Liberals. But, apart from its
cynical contempt of principle and consistency, this
plan was, as the event shows, a serious political
mistake. It was an attempt to work a system of
Parliamentary Government in the absence of the
very conditions which alone give it true vitality