The Express.
London, England, 1868-05-25 00:00:00

TEE EXPRESS, MONDAY

o: Taper might envy has possessed himself of a
cry, wh'e'r bears some a talogy to that whit&
his irony put in the mouths of the
Conservative wire-pullers in " Coningsby." If it
is not precisely " Our young QUEEN and our old
" institutions," it be►rs as doses resemblance to
that watchword as the lapse of time and the demo-
cratic innovations of 1867 allow. Mr. Tadpole
and Mr. Taper laugh ml to sroni the idea of going
to the country with the repeal of the malt-tax, as
the rallying cry of the Conservative candidates.
Mr. DISRAELI has discarded the suggestion as
effectually and contemptuously. He has dallied
with the subject while in opposition, he has raised
the horse of the sanguine and confiding member
for East Norfolk ; but in office he reeks not
his own BEAD. He has decided that the Church
shall be in danger. He prompts, without
openly comm'tting himself to the cry of "No
" Popery," and puts the cry of "No Pro-
" testantism," into the mouths of his anta-
gonists. We da-o say there are some people who
will be imposed upon by the artifice. A gentle-
man, residing in Wandsworth, proposes, we believe,
to devote a considerable sum to the education of
Protestant youths in the art of short-band writing,
in order to counteract the influence of the
Jesuits in th, reporters' galleries of the two
Houses of Parliament. The faith has been
assailed and defended by wonderful instruments.
The last phase of the contest, which resolves it into
an affair ~f stenography and a fight of reporter's
pencil, is the strangest. Mr. BEARDEN'S crazy
and offensive motion on the subject of her
MAJESTY'S retirement at Balmoral, a mction
for which no one is responsible but himself, if
indeed he be responsible, has been gravely com-
mented upon as the expression of Irish Catholic
disloyalty to the throne. Even Lord ELCHO, follow-
ing the suggestions of a ministerial newspaper, has
pretended to see in the proposal of Sir COLMAN
O'LooeLxs for relieving the SOVEREIGN from
the obligation of speaking offensively on
his or her accession of a particular doc-
trine of the Roman Catholic faith, an assault
upon the Protestant tenure of the throne. The
LORD-LIEUTENANT of IRELAND has already been
released from this necessity. The revocation of
the offensive words does not affect one of the
safeguards of the Act of Settlement. The
Sovereign will be and must be as much a Protestant
if the coronation oath is modified in Sir Couture
O'Loeuxse's sense as she is now. The misrepre-
sentation by which poor Lord Excno has been
duped is a part of the attempt to foist a cry of
" No Protestantism " upon the Liberal party, the
party of true Protestantism both here and on the
Continent. With the case of Mr. James LORD, of
Wandsworth, who is bent on introducing the
principles of the Reformation into the reporters
galleries, and Lord ELCHO, who sees in Sir COLMAN
O'LOGINLEN'S resolution an attempt to expel Pro-
testantism from the throne, we cannot undertake
to say what moues these tactics may or may
not have. The authors of them know better
than we do the stupidity of the stupid party.
They have sounded its depths, and marked
out its shallows.

The Tories, however, we may be sure, will not be
content with a good cry. The Liberal party, in its
turn, must not be content with having a good cause.
They have displayed sound parliamentary tactics
during the present session. Their forces are
united and irresistible in the House of Commons.
The leaders whose misuaderstandings and disputes
were the safety of the enemy have been recon-
ciled, less by any personal accommodations than by
the removal, through the legislation of last year,
of the causes of variance. Mr. Lows occupies the
front opposition bench in friendly council with Mr.
GLADSTONE ; and below the gangway Mr. Hon-
our( exchanges compliments and confidences with
Mr. BRIOHT. All these things are good ; but they
are not sufficient. The real battle will be fought
in the offices of the election agents and the over-
seers and in the court of the Revising Bar-
rister. The sympathy of the country with the
policy of the Liberal party is unquestionable.
But this general approval will not win any battles.
The sentiment must be organised if it is to be of any
use. Whatever the resources of a country, it can
fight only with the men who can be brought into
the field. The strength of Liberal feeling will
do nothing. Until every Liberal entitled to vote
has his name on the register, the work is not finished.
We trust that the gentlemen on whom the business
of looking to this devolves are losing no time and
sparing no exertion. The general election may
come sooner than they expect. There is talk of the
appointment of a select committee of the House
of Commons to inquire into the practi-
cability of hastening the registration. The
enemy is incessantly active. A vigilant and well-
organised minority has won, and may again win,
victories over a majority which trusts in numbers
that it has neglected to get together, and in a
strength which it has left undisciplined.

"an extant from a"lssiari spook, evel• felt*.
" purges. of denouncing it, nay, under this
" Act, be liable to three year' imprisonment."
Our contemporary's correirowlefit attributes ibis
astounding state of things to a sudden madness
having seized upon the colony and its rulers ; and
adduces some curious evidence in support of the
charge. "Grey headed men," according to the
Sydney Morning Herald, " whose tempers had
" been toned down by years, and whose subjection
" to public order bad become a habit, were hun-
" gry for an immediate application of Lyrul law.
" The Jewish Rabbi, with a tender remembrance
" of a sweet and tolerant English Queen, insists
" that if the population of the colony were dis-
" weed, the word Alfred' would be found en-
" graven upon each heart ; the President of the
" Upper House, who has been long known as an
" able and earnest advocate for the abolition of
" capital punishment, uttered a dignified wish
" from the woolsack, and before the trial of
" O'FARRELL, that the foul sassasin would be
"'hanged 50 cubits high, so that everybody
" could see him ; and that the gallows would re-
" main standing till the last Fenian was extermi-
" Hated' ;" an agitation is on foot to re-christen
the colony " Aifredia," and the Bishop of SYDNEY
thinks that fathers will henceforth not dare to
look their children in the face for very shame to
think that their children should have been born in
a country stained with the blood of the QUEEN'S
son. Altogether the colony seems to be in a bad
way ; and its well-wishers can but hope for its
speedy restoration to sanity and common sense.