The Express.
London, England, 1868-07-24 00:00:00

BIOS WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.

To-Ms 617
To -Measow —Morning th. 56m

:Ift-ernoon,--sh. Mt.
_Afternoon, Oh. 20m.

NOTICE.

advertent, are rignested to inrilialreir Poet-office orders payable
to kr. 'OMAR HARRINGTON, Post-ottioe, Fleet-street, E.C.
KOMI@ Of BISTRII, 11111110[11, and D , In reosivid
until 12 o'clock for insertion same evening. Price Is. Id.

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LONDON, FRIDAY, JULY 24.

A SIMPLE STORY OF DOUBLE-DEALING.

Otra Conservative readers will bear us witness
that we had given the Patin Mumma the fullest
credit for honourable intentions with regard to
the Corrupt Practices Ball. To put the fairest
coastruotion on the purposes of an adversary Is
never impolitic, and descends no excessive gene-
rosity. There are eases in which it is better
to be the duped than the deceiver. Our
Liberal readers, however, will remember
that • oar faith in the virtuous resolution
of the Pain= was destined to be shortlived.
On Monday last we were obliged, by the reveipt of
information to which we oould not remain deaf,
to warn Liberal members that " o vigorous at-
" tempt" was to be mode in the Mouse of Com-
mons." to get rid of the clause inserted on Satter- •
" clay in the Elections Petitions Bill, throwing the
" oacisesary expenses of candidate* upon the -con-
" stituencies." That same evening Mr. W. E.
Fossrria asked the Pansy Mosterigt whether
there IWIIII any truth in • rumour—to which, for
his. mai part, he attached no credit--that the
Government intended to endeavour to strike out
of .ths Kleotions Petitions Bill (upon the Report)
the donee throwing the payment of the returning
officers' expenses upon the borough and county
rats.. • The PREMISS declined to reply to en
inquiry which he characterised as " unusual,
" impedimentary, and inconvenient ; " but,
being pressed by Mr. ClUorroNs, he under-
took to make no proposal upon the
subject " without due and parliamentary
" notice." On the day following we felt
it our duty to point out the studious
vagueness of the Paziern's assurances, and to
Pit liberal members "on their guard." " Naar
'` braiiiatariAlists," we wrote, " dislike the clause,
" foe the reason that it will tend to admit men of
" nip**e fortune into Parliament, and.so shake
"
" the dionopoly of wealth in deciding election.; " and .it. may, be. • they are oslonhiting upon the
chasm of Liberal members leaving town to-day
"in numbers sufficient to render practicable
" a return to the old system." This was
Tuesday last. Now, mark what has

Till

happened since. At half-past eleven on that very y
Tuesday night, when the House was all hat emptiy,
the Soucrroa-Gturaast. gave notice Of his inters-1,
tion to move next day the omission at Mr. Few—
cares clause. if an entry, by way of a poateoript,
of half a dozen words in the order book to that
effect at midnight can be described as " giving
" notice ;" the LORD Armament having earlier in
the day put clause. on the notion paper extending
the Act to Scotland, and i among the rest, a
clause precisely parallel tolls. Etwozrr's. It was
not owing to any want of ibarp praotion on As
part of the Government Mitt the . 841003- ,
OKSZRAL'I3 motion wan not dinistasid on Wodnoo-:
day, but simply to want of titan Yesterday
afternoon the Sorzorros-Onnitsst. moved the rs-•

jeotion of the clause, and by aid of a vigorous
Government whip and the absence of Liberal
members, obtained a cheap Acid easy vic-
tory over the reputation of his employers
and the negligence of the Opposition
by a majority of 20 in a House of 214. There are
triumphs that destroy a Government, and victories
that overwhelm a party. Mr. Fewozrr, with a
courageous pertinacity which deserves to be held
in honour by his oonstituents, will endeavour
once more to-day, on the third reading
of the Bill, to challenge a victory stolen
from the tactics of the Turf, and to insist on the
reinsertion of his dawn. Success against such
odds he can scarcely hope for ; but the example of
such persistency will not be lost.
We could wish that all the credit of this vic-
tory belonged to the Government alone. It is
impossible to acquit members on the Liberal
as well as on the Ministerial side of the House
of having let this obtuse be lost by their
own sheer pusillanimity and want of pub-
lic spirit. Looking at the question as can-
didates rather than as representatives, these inge-
nuous gentlemen, as liberal in pocket as in
principle, are, it seems, afraid of their constituents
not liking the charge upon the rates; a charge
as Mr. Fawarrr showed of half a farthing on
boroughs and a quarter of a farthing on the coun-
ties. The dread of imposing this fearful
burden on their ratepaying electors makes
many of those Liberal members who
were absent from the division yesterday insensible
to the consideration that Mr. FeweErr's clause
would do more than anything else to keep down
expenditure and make electors careful in the choice
of candidates.

These debates, however, will not, we trust, be
without their moral effect upon electors who pos-
sess the luxury of a conscience, who hold the
exercise of the suffrage to be something more and
better than a marketable privilege. The country
will estimate the morality of the present adminis-
tration by the doctrines of the Somorron-Gatra-
na.. That learned functionary, speaking from
his brief, treats the relation between candidate
and elector as a case of " value received." He
ridicules the puritanical conception of representa-
tives of the people performing a public duty, and
describes them as coming " cap in hand" and
bidding for an honour which of (*tune must be
paid for. Such is the constitutional creed of the
,Tory functionary of the latest brand, the law
officer of the DiansaLrrig creation. Against it,
in simple justice to en old historic party
,and tradition, let us not forget to count the
honesty and the honour of men like Mr. limnarr
and Mr. NEWDEGATE, who have not learnt to stoop
to the arts of their leader, and who object to be
governed by the organised oorruption of a pluto-
cracy, at the service of the organised hypocrisy of
" an official class."