The Express.
London, England, 1861-06-01 00:00:00

It he •ftrtoo.

ro COILIMPON DLNTS.

Idvertlsewents taleeded for "Ter !sprees" London resale(
Paper. west be at the office, 10, Hooverle-etreet, by Two
VIIIKk on the do el publication.

114/111AIAKRT.
Tem Evrryrno, Tfla SUN AND 111 D MIND.—DLACK SHEEP.
Mama K.,. altos*, Oavaggaa. Mara sad Howe . Dra. C.
!caw %Ir. Vint's. lan. Ow, Km Papaw, aad NM Lovell.
fll A lIILLKIA AND an ILILN.-oammanc• at 7.

PeView%
Tens Inman, TRUTH AND FICTION. Mr. V. Mathews
and Mlon Lectrreq. —DON C.E4AR DE BAZAN. Mown.
►'ernter. rater, and Shore: MM... C. Leclerc.' and M. H.rtf..—
Atwl CILICIEWILID. Mr. Vrlddleolobe.

BRITANNIA.
Ma ItToon, KILT O'CONNOR. Mandanass W. Cranford.
E an.] r, Lane.—einran y Mr. W. M. Parkinson and
Mr. II —YL MOUGHILL Mimi Jacobs
and the Lulu `Yonder.—And ZlSOaearti Mn. i llwiner.

MOH WATER AT LONDON =WM
yao DAT —mon.ing. 71L Oa— Allersook Rh. no.
70-110111wW —Morning. 9t2. Maraca 9h. 34

LONDON, SATURDAY, JUNE 1.

Tee result of the debate and division of Thurs-
day last is not to be mistaken. It was empha-
tically a great trial of party strength ; and is less
correctly definable as a great party battle than as
the conclusive and decisive action in a protracted
campaign between the two great parties which
compete for ascendancy in the councils of the
State. It would be mere affectation to say now
that the contest is over that the issue never was
doubtful, in the estimation of many even of the
best informed on both sides. So many per-
sonal, local, and sectional considerations

had come to mingle in the general cur-
rent of opinion, that for some days before the
calmest and shrewdest observers of the ebb
and flow of feeling were the lout disposed to
speak with confidence as to the precise measure of
what was to happen. Gradually, however, the
conviction gained ground generally that the hetero-
geneous combination formed against the existence
of the Ministry would fail to accomplish its ob-
ject. Nobody undertook to say precisely how
the event would be determined ; but as days and
hours rolled by the confidence of Opposition that
they would" be able to hold together all their
usual forces grew less sanguine, while physiogno-
mists in the Ministerial camp began to persuade
themselves more and more firmly that they could
read in the countenance of their veteran chief
an expression which indicated his belief that he
was not going to be beaten this time. As reasons
for a high bet either way such elements of calcu-
lation arc, indeed, hardly to be named ; yet
nothing is more certain than that they contribute
to influence the actual result. Men may not
change their opinion or break their word from such
considerations ; but in an assembly of six hundred
representatives, two-thirds of whom at least have
no direct or immediate interest to render their
first prepossession inflexible, there will always be a
number of waverer' on the ever-recurring previous
question—ls it necessary to vote at all 1 Ard ex-
perience testifies that a larger number of what are
called great party divisions are determined by
those who do not vote, than by those who do.
Looking over the serried ranks of the minority, we
see at once the cause of the expectation which was
thought to have betrayed itself in the features of
the PREMIER, when many of his friends and ad- I
berents looked anxious or grave. There is •
strong feeling of respect and sympathy among the
most independent and least factious of the Tories
for Lord l'Autsasroy, which has often stood him in
good stead in seasons of emergency, and on which
he is not indisposed to depend sometimes more
than his Liberal friends could wish. But in the
present instance it must be owned that the
desire to put aside minor questions, and to act
upon the broad and national consideration, whether
it would be wise to drive the veteran
PREMIER from office in order to make room
once more for Lord DERBY, was in accordance
with that manly and honest instinct of common
sense which, when their passions do not carry
them away, is the characteristic of Englishmen to
whatever political party they belong. Had the
Conservatives as a party voted on Thursday night
without defalcations from their acknowledged
muster-roll they must have won by a clear majo-
rity, reinforced as they were on the occasion by a
number of Irish Liberals who are ordinarily found
amongst their antagonists. It was not to be ex-
pected that many members of the Carlton Club
would be found voting with Ministers ; but some
twenty or thirty of them made up their minds to
stay away rather than share the responsibility of
driving things to a change of Government, or a
dissolution.

Let it not be supposed, however, that we attri-
bute the silent and unconcerted formation of this
resolve on the part of Conservatives passively to
sustain Lord PALMNPUITONN continuance in power
to a blind or indiscriminate predilection for the
man, or for the policy ho represents. There have
been occasions when several of those who refused
to harm him the other evening did not hesitate to
pursue a different course ; and we venture to
aver our strong conviction that had his lordship
shown any faltering in his support of
Mr. G Lineron s as • colleague during
the last month, or any willingness to
truckle or temporise on the subject of the Galway
Contract during the present week, he would not
have had the benefit of the absence of so many
honourable opponents, when his fate as a Minister
was in their hands. For there is nothing, after
all, which in the House of Commons is more
keenly appreciated than what may be called moral
pluck ; and in the main there are few qualities so
useful to • leader of men in any assembly. When-
ever Lord Psterairros has obeyed the instincts
of his better nature in this respect things have
come right with him, and it has been chiefly where
he has seemed wanting on this score that he
has failed. The history of the Conspiracy
Bill was a memorable illustration of the
latter ; and all the loss of popularity and
influence arising from the failure of
Government on the subject of Reform may be
traced to a similar cause. Had Lord Pstmeattrow
shown the same determination last session to
carry Laid JOHN RUMELL'a proposal of Reform
which he has evinced this session to carry Mr.
GLAINITONZ'S proposition to repeal the Paper Duty,
he would have succeeded then as he has succeeded
now. But week after week was suffered to elapse
without any earnest attempt to forward the mea-

sure; and attacks the most damaging on the motives
of those who advocated the measure, and those
who were to have been enfranchised by it, were
listened to in silence, until at length it came to
be believed that the PRIME MINUTE= would
thank nobody for lending aid in furtherance of
the scheme. Thus did the appearance, if not the
reality, of irresolution on the Liberal side render
compact and powerful the resources of Opposition.
Happily, another course has been pursued this
time, and we see fruits of a better and wiser policy
in the vote of Thursday night, which not only
secures the carrying of the Budget, but the con-
tinuance in office of the present advisers of the
CROWN.

THE Church-rate Abolition Bill is to be read a
third time on Wednesday next, and it is important
that the attention of liberal constituencies through-
out the country, as well as of their representatives
in Parliament, should be fixed on this event in
time. The movement against this obnoxious and
anomalous impost has now reached the critical
point where prompt, vigorous, and combined action
may easily ensure success. One more resolute
struggle, and the work will be done, so far as the
Lower House is concerned ; and if the third
reading is carried by a decisive majority, the
Peers will probably pause before they again refuse
to redress what they have themselves admitted to
be a national grievance, by rejecting • remedial
measure the Commons have repeatedly passed.
Some friends of the Bill may, however, imagine
that, the second reading having been carried
by a larger number of votes than were
ever yet recorded in its favour, no serious resist-
ance will be offered at the final stage, and the fact
that Lord ROBERT MONTAGU is to lead the Oppo-
sition certainly appears to favour such a supposi-
tion. There is no doubt a certain dramatic pro-
priety in the priggish champion of medMvalism,
the defender of the divine right of Kings,
being chosen to uphold the divine authority
of priests, and head a reactionary crusade against
civil and religious freedom ; but though the
leader may be contemptible, it would be a
mistake to suppose that the opposition to the third
reading will therefore of necessity be trivial and
insignificant. On the contrary, it is known that
every effort will be made by the Tories to defeat
the Bill, or if this is hopeless, to reduce the li-
beral majority so as to afford the Lords • decent
pretext for rejecting it.
It is essential to the credit not only of the
Liberal party, but of the House of Commons
itself, that this reactionary attempt to resist
useful legislation should receive • firm and de-
cisive rebuke. The House can ill afford to
throw away any chances it still has of doing
something that may be really serviceable to the
country ; and the Abolition Bill is almost the
only popular measure, as next to the Budget it is
by far the most important measure, Parliament
will have to deal with during the present session.
If the Church-rate Bill is not passed there will, in
fact, be nothing to look back upon, except the
amended Bankruptcy Act, which is itself in great
peril. And that act, however important, is special
and technical rather than popular. It makes
improvements in a limited department of
legal machinery that will be extremely welcome
to • large class, but it can scarcely be
said to redress any grievance that affects
the nation as a whole. But the Abolition Bill
does this. It effectually meets what may be
fairly regarded as not only the most irritating
and inexcusable, but the moat notorious and ad-
mitted grievance of our time. The evils attend-
' ing the system of Church Rates are not partial or
local. They are as universal in their incidence as
they are mischievous in their operation. They
extend over the whole country, and do or may, in
• greater or less degree, affect every parish and
every parishioner in the empire. Every year this
hateful tax produces strife and discord, stirs up
feelings of bitter hostility, and creates social and
religious divisions in parishes that would otherwise
be at pesos. Every year the local tribunals of
justice are vexed with accusations and complaints
they cannot entertain, or have to listen to the
exposition of wrongs and outrages they are im-
potent to redress. The rate is, in fact, a reli-
gious offence, • legal anomaly, and a social
nuisance. All this is, and has been for years
past, admitted on both sides. Experience
has also demonstrated that there is only

one way of putting an end to these
manifold evils and mischiefs. The only plan is
to abolish the rate unconditionally. Neither of the
extreme partieswill accept a compromise, and those
who are theoretically in favour of an intermediate
course have not yet been able to agree upon a
plan. Indeed no such plan could be devised in
which the evils of the old system would not re-
appear. Then what is there to oppose the
abolition of the rate? What valid objec-
tion against this course can be urged to
counterbalance the enormous advantages that
would accrue from it The slight material
loss to the Church would be nothing in composition
to the social and religious gain to the nation. The
amount produced by the rate is a mere bagatelle,
and could easily be obtained in other ways. The
present system, to adopt the formula used by Mr.
WiLPOLE the other day, thus produces a maxi-
mum of evil for a minimum of good. The wise
and thoughtful members of the Church may there-
fore be fairly asked to wig in putting
an end to it in the only way now possible.
We venture to appeal to the more temperate and
reflective members of the Conservative party to
join in this necessary work. We do this all the
more confidently from the peculiar position in which
the question of Church Rates is now placed. It
has during the present session become for the first
time a political question. During the recess,
Mr. DIBRAEL/t being reduced to a state of
utter political destitution, bethought him-
self of the Church, and the ecclesias-
tical questions he had formerly despised,
and determined, if possible, to make political
capital out of the pro-rate cry which the more
extreme and bigoted of the clergy had recently
raised. In the utter absence of any other pro-
gramme, the leader of the Opposition took up
this cry, and the country is now invited to restore
a DERBY Ministry to power, in order that Church
Rates—the greatest practical grievance of the day
—may not be abolished. If the true friends
of the Establishment are wise, they will not
permit Mr. Duntast.t, nor any other needy
and unscrupulous politician, to degrade the Church
into a mere political instrument. But unless the
Church-rata controversy is speedily settled, this
will inevitably be the case. Mr. Ditutazu
has fastened on the question for his own purposes,
and if he is allowed to keep his hold upon it by
preventing an early and final settlement, the
Church will be dragged through the dirt and mire
of political contests, and be reduced to the posi-
tion of a mere party hack. Before this degradation
is effected, before the Church blindly consents to
barter her spiritual birthright for a mess of politi-
cal pottage, we would remind her true friends
amongst the Conservative party of one fact which
history teaches—that just in proportion as the