The Express.
London, England, 1868-01-07 00:00:00

THN CANADIAN P.

The wagon or rather the halt union of the
Canadian poiliameat dosed oa the WA alt. The Tomato
Maki:4 d thus weeks at the legislative wcek ao-

4_l-shed
Parliament at for his wean and mhalt. Hoe the OM
month the time was meet in wading for the madras
of the government. Deming the Inset fertedOst important
business was harried thaw* Y tie art residers wry—
ministers crowding aid driving ibrcs& the few assesses
which they_ Ica last prepared, ate Ms whisk remilened
it physicalq emble bre ausedere give teem any-
thing like a rtarraeownne demaddleratioa en disarsies.
So strong did the tidier is tie beam Mom that Sir
John A. Macdonald lONA Medi dared to rasing to
make amends in Mims, mil to e try that when rubber
meets again the goverment will brag down lie asemaree
promptly. We trust Mt he will be able to mitered his
word—though, if be doss, it will be romedind
entirely unpresselented in his weer as a min-
ister of the arms. The system which haw
always prevailed seder his leadership of leaving the bri-
ms of the session to the last fortnight is productive of
mischief in many ways. It prevents full &amnion by
members of the measures by the government it
prevents members from the views of their musk-
dents with reference to ministerial measures before voting
upon them. It leads to such contagion as permits the
passage of measures, not only in the bands of
ministers, but in the bands of private mem-
bers, which would never be deliberately sanctioned by par-
liament. It leads to the dividing up of the day into two
or three sittings far the purpose at rushing mamma
through—a system which, besides its othersells, has the
disadvantage of rendering the committees radically use-
less, by either preventing them meeting at all, or making
it imporiblo for them to do their work peepsely In this
time of hurry, confusion, and uproar, lib- gravest sub-
jects are decided without debate, without oonadeistion,
and without the knowledge, perhaps, of more than •
dozen or so of the members. It in literally impossible that
members should, in the time at their disposal, comprehend
and consider all the rordtions upon which they are
required to decide within the last ten clays of the seam ;
and we are sure that the statutes of the present year,
when printed, will contain many important provisions
which will be now and surprising to the most attentive
members of parliament. We trust that Sir John'. mge
porters will remember their indignation and his promises'
when the house meets again, and demand an early pro-
duction of the ministerial measures. Among the
questions deferred to next March are several
of the very highest importance, and it will
be outrageous if parliament dould only be al-
lowed a week or ten days for their consideration.
There is nothing in the world, save ministerial ngligenoe
to prevent the production of the Banking Bill, Militia
Bill, tic., within the first week of the Much sitting, and
we hope the government will be prepared. So great was
the hurry at the close of the seseion brat week, that
ministers were actually- obliged to postpone some of their
measures for the organization of the departments—mea-
sures which were actually before parliament, and to which
there was little opposition—until the next meeting. That
was a tolerably humiliating confession of ministerial idle-
ness and indifference ; but it was hardly so bad as the
failure to submit the estimates for a fiscal year which is
very nearly half completed. There have been eases in
which • vote of credit for three months was quite
justifiable ; but we are sure that ministers will
search a long time for • exec in wbloh an administration
which had been in office for five months came down about
the middle of the year to ask • vote of credit to cover nine
months' credit, therebyCIUMI of Commons granted
the vote of and deprived itself of all con-
trol over the expenses of the dominion for the period
which it covered. That vote gave over to ministers the
exclusive control of the public expenditure to the extent
of millions ; and the readiness with which parliament
granted such authority to • set of public men, notori-
ous for their extravaganoe, is the very reverse of re.
assuring. When parliament meets in March, the money will
be spot, and spent just as ministers plesse,and no matter
what the members of the House of Commons may think of
it, the money will be irrecoverable. But the house will
not be the less responsible, because there was no excuse
for the abdication of the functions of parliament which
the vote of credit involves- In every respect the finan-
cial part of the work of the session has been badly
managed. The vote of credit was followed by • hastily
prepared tariff, which is avowedly but a temporary affair—
to be revised next March—though we have our suspicion
that the revision will not prove very extensive. At the
same time, the avowal that it is but a temporary affair
will do as much mischief as though there was mad to m
rct a thorough revision in the same session. The banking
business his been left in a wretchedly unsatisfactory
shape. Mr. King is still government banker, and
till in • position to dictate to the govern-
ment, and to harass rival institutions. It is
notorious that the feeling throughout the country and in
the House of Commons is strongly in favour of depriving
Mr. King of the dangerous powers which the government
has so foolishly put into his hands. Yet, ministers have
taken care not to bring the question before parliament,
and to leave the house and the country completely in the
dark an to the policy of the government on this most im•
portant question. There is not even any assuranoe that
ministers will be readyto deal with the subjectnext March.
And no one who knows anything of the mischief which
has resulted from Mr. King's conduct as government
banker can fail to understand the evil of allowing such an
unsatisfactorystate of slain to continue indefinitely.
The manner in which thelrateroolonial Railway basbeen dm-
poddofisin the hut degreediscreditable. The building of the
road and the selection of the route has ,been left entirely
to the discretion of ministers. Without an attempt to
ascertain whether or not the road could not be given to a
company on advantageous terms—es there was every
reason to suppose could easily have been done—this great
work is entirely given over to the manipulation of a com-
bination of reckless politioians, who have rendered them-
selves and their country notorious by their jobbery and ex-
travagance in connexion with former public works. Tho
decision of the House of Commons to leave everything
connected with the Intercolonial Railway to be settled by
the government opens the door to the grommet abuses,
and prepares the way for the waste of millions of money.
We can only express our amazement at the large majority
by which the house consented thus to disfranchise itself."

CAPTAIN MAINE REID ON 'ENGLISH FEELING
TowABDS AMERICA. —The lirew York Times of the 22nd
says ;--Captaiff Striae Reid has recently returned
from t
,s twenty years' sojourn in England. The first in-
timation that we bad of his presence was a report, of mys-
terious origin. that he was about to give a series of read-
ings from his own works. The base insinuation, however,
was repudiated, with an amount of explosive violent»
which showed that the leader of the forlorn hope at Cha-
pultepeo was in no mood to be trilled with. He was not as
Dickens was ; he had not come to America " to make an
exhibition of himself." But a man can make an exhibi-
tion of himself in more ways than one ; and Cap-
tain Reid has accomplished the feat most successfully
in • letter to the Waahnioton Chronicle, dated from
Newport, December 3. He sets that amiable divine,
Newman Hall, on his legs for a few minutes, and then
promptly knocks him down again, in order to proceed to
his main object, the moral annihilation of England. He
comes down upon England like the hammer of Thor. The
torrid rush of his invective ought to suffocate the " middle
class" of England like the blast of a simoom. The aristo-
cracy ought to quail before his scathing exposure of their
fiendish malignity. Let us take a brief glance at England,
according to Captain Reid. Newman H.aß bad raid that,
notwithstanding the apparent attitude of government, the
"great heart" of the English people was with the
North during the great struggle. Captain Mayne Raid
takes the npportunity to contradict this statement, Mid,
further, gives his own views on the subject. Fusty, be
tells us that the British government " instigated " the
outfit of the Alabama. "Why the English government
pursued this course was well known to me, as well as to
others who have taken the trouble to make themselves
acquainted with the sinister workings of Europe= diplo-
macy." The expenditure for " semi-emancipation "of the
blacks in the West Indies " was regretted ell over
England, and a proposal to deprive him of the tensed
freedom thus obtained would sot have beau an-
grier, even in the atmosphere of Barter Hall."
certain," Captain Reid can say that the son
of Wilberforce (the Bishop of Oxford ?) would not have
protested. This will startle people in Eng/aad, we fancy.
But now comes the real attitude of the English satin se
thus depicted by Captain Reid : " England's led
sympathy for the South was worse than even ;
it was the most wanton of wickedness. It boasted for its
base an element of generosity, a leaning to the weaker side.
All pretence. Its motive was neither manhood nor
humanity. Had the South been stronger than you it
would have taken your side, and backed you will
Sumter. and Alabama Sumter. Its sole purpose was to mani-
pulate you both like • main of cocks,
mere mutual strife till both lay bleeding in the
Then would both have been at England's feet, and Eerope's
too, to be reconstructed according to the ideas of
despotism." Much the same motives, says Captainitur=
actuated "that eougloaseration of ferocity and flan-
keymm," the middle classes. The " lower olemes," be
admits, made such slight manifestations of sympathy as
they could, " from the humble platform of
sion." We doubt if Captain Reid's revelations will
much of the bad effect on the relations between
the two countries white, we are eery to say, they
are clearly inteadel to lave. Pablis opinion is
not likely to be Influenced very meek by the
intemperate *ethane of • nasstioe4 seedlet in
political matters. It is no emcee that Captain Yid NO
Ragland in many name@ • ilierippinted men. Te.eie
from the tone of Captain Rare 'roiliest°, he non
have shaken English dust ikon bia feet for ever. It Wall
have been better for his mint, however, if, under the ele•
eumstanees, be lad refrained from choosing the escesisa
for launching this trumpery thunderbolt at the lagille
people. The animus is tee palpable, the attempt to IMO
bitter international feeling lay petting the very verse seme
;traction on Engtieh online se ewayeakeil, mai Hayti
Reid's incompetency as a judge is rare matters se eel.
dent, that we do not fear that undo•—that is, •g7—walsb‘
will be attached to it.
PATurr-omen Muslim, Sou= Kurenrovos.—
Number of visitors for the week ending ha 4, 4,1116.
Total number lino 'hexing of the Musson fns daily
(1.21 k Nan INS),