The Express.
London, England, 1861-02-20 00:00:00

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LONDON, WEDNESDAY, PEB. 20.

Tin present House of Commons in its dealing
with Reform is not unlike the schoolmaster look-
ing everywhere for the spectacles on his own nose,
or the butcher running up and down the market
for the knife between his teeth. It supplies what
it professes to have searched after in vain—a de-
cisive proof that Reform is indispensable. It is
thus obviously destined, in its own despite, to
advance the cause it does its utmost to retard.
While refusing to pass a Reform Bill, it demon-
strates with unconscious and, at the same time,
eloquent and persuasive force, the urgent neces-
sity of Reform. In this respect the worst Par-
liament that has been assembled since the last Re-
form Bill may have its uses. Extremes meet, and
the value of the present House of Commons
really lies in its conspicuous worthlessness. For
open violation of its moat solemn pledges, and
contemptuous neglect of its most clearly recognised
public duties, the existing body of representatives
stand alone. Other Parliaments, indeed, have
falsified their promises, and sacrificed great public
questions to selfish interests or party convenience.

But they have still shown some sense of decency
and self-respect. They have attempted to conceal
their real motives by a solemn and plausible dis-
play of specious reasons. At the worst they have
never openly gloried in their shame. It was re-
served for the present Parliament to discover that
political perfidy is a pleasant jest, if not, indeed,
a rare and exquisite virtue. Members on both
sides of the House not only openly confess they
have hustled out of doors the very tpiestiun they
were specially returned to consider, and which
they then professed was of the first importance in
their eyes ; they plume themselves on the feat as
though successful treachery were the most exalted
form of patriotism.

In this point of view the proceedings in the
House of Commons last night are peculiarly edify-
ing. Two independent members, Mr. Louis Kvio
and Mr. BAINER, came forward to discharge the
great public duty which the Government had
formally abandoned, that of dealing at
once with the question of Reform. The Bills they
proposed to introduce comprised only that just and
moderate enlargement of the county and borough
franchise which a large majority of the present
members had pledged themselves to support both
on the hustings, and by their subsequent votes.
Yet how were these motions met by party leaders
on each side of the House t Lord PataisuirroN

rose to may that ho should neither oppose nor dis-
cuss these motions. He allowed that their pro-
visions were not only essentially just, but in
harmony with the pledges and professed convictions
of the Hours. But he still could not see what
had induced the independent members to bring
them forward. What possible motive could they
have for dealing with Reform,when the House last
session had shown a strong disinclination to the
question, and the Government. had this session
abandoned it ? The Government having violated
its engagements and neglected its duty in the mat-
ter, why in the world should independent members
trouble themselves about it 1 We should be
sorry to believe that the noble lord has
no notion of public duty apart from party con-
venience. Mr. Dims= went even further,
reiterating over and over again the question—
What possible motive can there be for introducing
these obnoxious bills ? In his real for information
on this head, he elaborated from the depths of his
own moral consciousness an exhaustive summary
of the motives which influence public men.
What could possibly induce these gentlemen to bring
forward these measures 1 Was it self-love, a blind
or overweening attachment to their own theories
and convictions 1 Was it the desire of popularity
with the country or in the House 1 None of these
explanations seemed to meet the case, and the right
hon. gentleman having exhausted his ingenuity in
the effort to discover an adequate justification for
soeb obstructive and inconvenient measures, con-
cluded in a jocular vein that they were wholly
unnecessary and indefensible. In arriving at this
conclusion, the noble lord and the right hon. gen-
tlemen but echo the querulous taunts addressed to
the Members for Surrey and Leeds by a
leading contemporary yesterday morning. The
Times also would like to know and hopes to
learn the precise reasons which had induced Mr.
Lociz KING and Mr. Runes to take up the
subject of Reform. We are surprised indeed that
our sagacious and acute contemporary should feel
it necessary to ask for information on such a point.
But since the Times and Mr. DISMAKLI desire to
know the motives which induce public men to deal
with the subject of Reform in an earnest and
practical manner, they shall be told. The motive
which has baffled their ingenuity to discover is a
sense of public duty. Mr. BAIN= and Mr. LOCICZ
Kum take up Reform now for exactly the same
reasons which, according to their own professions,
induced responsible statesmen to take it up ten
yeas' ago—because it is a good and needful thing,
good in itself as a measure of national justice over-
due, and good in its influence on the constitution
and the country. Parliamentary Reform was urged
at that time by Lord Joon Russell. and other
leading statesmen, not because there was any loud
popular clamour for it, much less because the mire-
presented classes were on the brink of open re-
bellion, but on its own merits. They said with
justice, that since the passing of the great Reform
Bill the unrepresented classes had advanced with
giant strides in all the elements of influence and
power—in numbers, wealth, organisation, and in-
telligence. These large operative classes, which
constitute the industrial wealth and material
strength of the country, having no political rights,
are in proportion to their intelligence alienated in
sympathy and interest from the constitution and
working of the government under which they live.
Having no direct political duties they are free from