The Express. — London, England, 1847-08-27 00:00:00

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LONDON, FRIDAY, AUG. 27. THE committee appointed by the House of Lore last session, to inquire into the receipts and charges al the Post-office, elicited from Colonel NIADERLY that the gross revenue of the Post-office for the year ending sth January, 1847, was 2,004,0071., end the net revenue 825,1121. But all the inquisitorial skill of their lordships failed to extort from the gallant colonel any satisfactory account of the distribution of receipts and charges between the inland and the transmartne Poet-office services. In the most cool and pick tooth manner imaginable he persevered in as serting that the accounts of the establishment under his care were too complicated and im perfect to admit of the proportions being ascertained, and that any reform in the system of account keeping likely to throw more light on the matter was quite out of the question. The pooh-poohing system, which enables the Post-office management so effec tually to obstruct the progress of reform in their de partment, was most skilfully brought into play ti baffle the inconvenient curiosity of the House of Lords. Mr. ROWLAND HILL, however, contrived to furnish the committee with, at least, an approximate esti mate of the kind they wanted. It is extracted from parliamentary and other returns, and framed upon principles most satisfactorily explained and de. monstrated by Mr. HILL in the course of his evidence, though too long to be repeated here. From thin estimate it appears that the gross revenue of the Post-office in 1846, after de ducting returns for letters refused, Bc., and adding the stamp duty on newspapers, was 2,302,7171. The total expenses amounted to 1,410,8641.; and cense fluently the tot revenue to 891,8531. The gross inland revenue, estimated in the same way, was 1,753,590/. ; the total expenses incurred for the trans mission of inland letters, 915,3911.; the net inland re venue, 838,199/. The gross transmarine revenue amounted to 514,8991; the total expenses incurred in forwarding transmarine letters, 430,973/. ; the net transmarine revenue, 83,9261. For the sake of com pleteness, we may add that the gross revenue de rived from money-orders during the year was 34,2281.; and the total expense of managing that branch of the Post-office business, 64,5001., being a loss of 30,2721. Our object in re-producing these calculations is to direct attention to a fact which Colonel MAI:HILT and other oppenents or obstructors of the penny post system seek carefully to keep out of view. The fact to which we allude is the triumphant success of the penny-post system, worked though it be in a great measure by unwilling hands, in our inland postal ar rangements. But for the draw-backs of the barely remunerative transmarine Post-office service, and the actually losing money-order office, that success would now be placed above ell doubt. Another object we have in view is to direct atten tion to the urgent necessity of improving the arrange ments of our'transmarine postal service. We should. be quite satisfied for oar parts if this branch of the Post-office service were made to pay its own expenses. The continuous impetus necessarily imparted to our manufactures and commerce by the immensely greater facilities given of late years to foreign and colonial correspondence, and the preservation of entirely English sentiments among our countrymen resident in the colonies and foreign lands to which they contribute, are well worth all the money they bring in. But it must be kept in view that the large expenditure on this branch of the service is mainly occasioned by the comparatively new arrangements for forward ing letters and papers to the East Indies and China, the West Indies and Mexico. The transmission of letters along these two lines alone is said to entail upon the country annually a preponderance of expen diture over receipt of not less than 240,0001. per an-. num. It is proposed to extend the advantages of regular letter conveyance, by steam-packets, to the Australian colonies, and it is most desirable that this should be effected without loss of time. But if it is to be done at the same rate of expenditure, the slen der net revenue derived from our transmarine letter-carriage may soon be transformed into a positive deficit. There is this consideration also to be taken into account : the great expense incurred for the transmission of the East and West India mails is made a pretext for keeping up the rate of foreign postage in general. Merchants and others, having correspondents all over Europe and the nearer parts of Asia, are made to contribute to the payment for carrying letters to the East and West Indies. This is not merely unfair: it checks the correspondence with Europe and the Russian and Turkish dominions in Asia. And there is not the slightest doubt that the charges on our transmarinc postage may be greatly diminished. A considerable portion of them is, indeed, most unfairly ascribed to the Post office. The contracts with the steam-packet com panies which convey the East and West India mails were concluded by the Treasury, at the instigation of the Admiralty, without consulting the Post-office. The large sums demanded by those com panies were rendered neceasary by the Admiralty's insisting that their steamers should be constructed on such a model and scale as would render them avail able in cane of need as war steam-ships. This con dition has increased on the one hand the expenses of construction and navigation, and on the ether canned the steamers to be worse adapted for carrying goods, mails, and passengers. If government is anxious to have a fleet of war-steamers, let them be charged as they ought to be, to the account of our war navy. If government wish to economise, and earn a little to set off against its outlay by employing its war steamers in time of pence is carrying letters, goods, and passengers, let it charge all parties no more than the value of the accommodation they receive, and let the Post-office be debited for no more than what it fairly owes for the conveyance of its letters. This honest way of stating accounts would materi ally alter the comparative entries of charge and dis charge in our transmarine post-office accounts. But the truth is, that these hybrids between war and merchant steamers will not answer. In the event of a war they would be found utterly worth lees, and they arc the source of much unneces sary risk and expense while used as carrier vessels. They cost more for coaling than vessels built for. carrying alone would cost. They would require a man-of-war's crew to navi gate them safely : more than half the accidents experienced by the vessels of the Royal Mail Com pany have been owing to their unwieldiness. The Admiralty ought at once to build war-steamers of its own, and leave the packet companies free to construct their vessels with a view solely to the conveyance of passengers and carrying of goods. This would enable them to abate materially the charges of their present contracts for carrying the Mails. They will be enabled to make further abatements, in consequence of the morei= and practical views th!y entertain of what they Vtually are tO ptlifOrM. MUCh unneces sary outlay for example, and the loos of at least one gallant vessel, was incurred at the outset by the fantastic, dream-like circumbendibussesin their routes and complexities of their intermediate stations. That has been &melded, to the great diminution of their expenditure. Finally, a material saving will be sure to be obtained, if, at the expiry of the contracts, the 1 transmarine post-office service is thrown open to ge acral compettLain. The first experiment of regular periodical ocean steam-packets was wisely left to com panies, who were encouraged to make it by liberal remuneration for the services theyrendered to govern ment. Private enterprise is now adequate to cover the seas with ocean steam-ships. The organisation of the mail routes onzht henceforth to be the business of government= and for each station or branch they may take the vessels of the individuals or companies who WAX the best sea -boats on the most reasonable terms. • SINCE we last entered on the important question of ' parochial settlement a patch has been placed on one of the numerous holes in the notorious Poor Removal Act of 1846. The hasty and sweeping rule by which all poor persons who had resided for five years eon- ' tinuously in any parish were made irremovable had the effect of saddling many parishes with who not only did not belong to them , but 4= been allowed to reside withintheir limits solely become they could not, as it was supposed, ever pretend to, belong to them. By the law of settlement, although relief given to a pauper by the pariah in which he resides is no evidence that he has a settlement there, relief given to a non-resident pauper is conclusive evidence of the liability of the parish which gives it. Ratepayers are bound to relieve the pressing wants even of the strangers withiutheir gates ; if they relieve an absentee it can only be because he has by hie settle ment a legal claim upon them. Consequently, in many parts of the country a large proportion of paupers lived out of the limits of their respective parishes. It was found that the poor were often satisfied with a smaller allowance paid in the place where they re sided by choice ; and those among whom they lived regarded them without jealousy or suspicion, from the oertainty that they could at once be removed if they became locally chargeable. The act of 1846 roughly, and no doubt uninten tionally, transferred the burden of this class of paupers to the parishes in which they had resided for five years. The immediate effect varied in different parishes. Some, calculating that the intruders among them were more numerous than the non residents from whose claims they were relieved, generously proclaimed their intention of continuing their allowances to their own absentees, en condition that other parishes met them in an equally liberal spirit. Sometimes their superior diplomacy succeeded ; hue vestries are bodies prone to suspicion, and parochial officers are not models of chivalric con scientiousness. It generally appeared that those parishes who would benefit by the new law adhered to its letter, while those who suffered by it were left alone to enjoy their conservative predilection for the past. Parish A, with 20 intruding paupers, with drew its allowances from its own 30, who lived in parish 11; and palish B, having 30 new poor to main tain, necessarily, though unwillingly, deserted its out lying 20. Generally, the country parishes profited, and the towns suffered, by the change. The act of the present year endeavours to diminish the injustice thus inflicted, by throwing on the union at large the burden of suppoiting those paupers, who, though they are rendered by the former act irre movable, had previously received relief from parishes in which they did not reside. The poor themselves are not affected by the change, as they are still irre movable, and the objection which justly applies to all shifting. of taxation from one class of persons to another is diminished in force by the plan which re lieves oppressed parishes, by distributing the weight which they alone supported over the broad shoulders of the union. The effects of the new act have been very considerable, and show the extent of the grievance which it was intended to remedy. In one union, which, however, may possibly be ander exceptional circumstances, wo hear that one half of the poor who were made irremovable, and therefore chargeable to their place of residence, by the act of 1846, will be handed over to the funds of the union by the act of 1817, involv ing a shifting of liability in a district neither rich nor populous to the amount of 1,0001. a year. As a spe cimen of rough justice, we are disposed to approve of this amendment of the worst constructed even of modern acts of parliament, a statute "by merit raised to that bad eminence." The step taken in it is more like ly to be imitated than retraced. The ten dency of modern legislation is certainly to widen the area both of poor-law settlement and of poor-law taxation. We have, on former occasions, entered with consi derable minuteness into the various modifications of parochial and local rating and settlement, as well as into the various reasons of economy and humanity which may be used to enforce different views of the question. There seem, however, to be so many indications that one, at least, of the knots will soon be cut by the entire abolition of settlement, that it may be more profitable to consider the probable results of such a change than to suggest alternative plans. There is no chance that the subject will be brought before a more competent or influential tribunal than the committee of last session; and the opinions of the principal members of that body seem to be almost unanimous in disapproving of settlement altogether. The convictions of the chairman, Mr. CHARLES BULLER to this effect are entitled to greater weight from his statement that he entered upon the inquiry with strong prejudices in favour of the exist ing principle ; but that the evidence which had been brought before the committee, and maturer considera tion, bad satisfied him that the entire abolition of the system was indispensably necessary. Assuming, then, for the purpose of argument, that the poor will shortly be made in all cases irremovable, it is important to consider both the future apportion ment of taxation for their maintenance, and the sub stitutes which will offer themselves for the checks on pauperism hitherto imposed by parochial supervision, sharpened as it has been by the direct and tangible interest of the rate-pavers. We cannot doubt that parliament will be unwilling to provide for the support of the poor out of the national taxation. The jobbing and unfairness, as well as the enormous official expenses which would unavoidably arise in the distribution of so vast a fund for purposes which require the nicest discrimination, would furnish abun dant, if not conclusive, arguments against a system which, nevertheless, has already many partisans, and which will constantly obtain fresh support as the burden of the poor-rates presses with unusual weight on particular districts.- The occupiers, moreover, of land and houses, and the owners of tithes, tolls, and coalpits, who at prevent support the poor to the ex emption of every other class of property, would, of course, rejoice to transfer a portion of their burden to their neighbours by a resort to the national revenue to which all classes are supposed to contribute propor tionally. We have, however, little doubt that the reasons which have been adduced in favour of local taxation and administration will prevail. On the other hand, the abolition of the law of re moval and of settlement in general, would make the parish far too limited an area for poor-law taxation. At present, notwithstanding innumerable exceptions and irregularities, the poor of a parish generally bear some relation to its resources, or at least to its past administration. The rate-payers have not only the power of sending strangers, who become chargeable, back to their places of settlement ; but they also, in their private capacities as landowners and employers, have the opportunity of discouraging those from set tling among them who are likely at a future time to involve the parish in expense. If the parish is rich and busy, it will both produce a numerous population and be comparatively able to support the pauper por tion of it. At least it will be found that the misfor tunes of pauperised . parishes have come upon them gradually, and in pursuance of assignable causes. But on the abolition of settlement, and the consequent claim to relief which the poor will derive from relief, there will be no security to a parish in its good management or its past good fortune. The spe culation of any builder who may run up a row of cottages within the boundaries may bring a flight of poor, who, without warning, may eat the rate-payers bare in a month. The poor themselves will not be certain of even finding sufficient funds to maintain them except by trying a fresh migration, or by causing the authorities to resort to the rarely used expedient of a rate in aid levied on an adjoining pariah. For these and other reasons there can be little doubt that the abolition of settlement will lead to the substitution of the union for the parish as the area of poor-law taxation. Some of the benefits of local administration will be retained, while extreme local pressure will be distributed over a wider space. The distribution of relief has already vested in the governing body of the union; but in many in stances the guardians consider themselves rather ae an assembly of parish authorities, each acting for the affairs of his own constituent!, than as a representative body for the general administration of the affairs of the poor. The imposition of the rate on the union would put an end to their separate interests, and in various ways simplify their function!. There are, however, many serious questions to be solved before this step is adopted. The very principle on which the burden is to be transferred is yet to be determined upon ; and when the prelimiasry a nungements are made, it will be necessary, as we have already suggested, ti find some means of replacing the check on pauperism which local interest has hitherto supplied. THE EXPRESS, FRIDAY EVENING, AUGUST 27, 1847. GREAT fatal Una the improvement in the system of criminal treatment during the last ten years, much remains to be done before the polite-office and the gaol fulfil their tree functions us the best way at tainable with our present insight into crime, its causes, consequences, and remedies. The appointment of prison inspectors was a great step in the right direction. Their reports furnish the most authentic and valuable, data for the legislature in criminal reforms The fourth section of the twelfth report, including Scotland, Northumberland, and Durham, is now be fore us, and suggests many observations on the pre sent state of our prisons in these districts, which are capable, however, of a much wider application. Without entering on the much-discussed question of the true theory of criminal discipline, without at tempting to settle, dogmatically, how much of it should be directed to reforming and how much to punishing the criminal, there is one evil apparent from this report, which theorists of all shades of dif ference must agree in admitting, and should unite in endeavouring to remove. This is, the practice of short Imprisonments for petty offences. This class of offences is chiefly in the hands of the young ; upon their heads the effect of it falls with crushing weight, to recoil with proportionable force upon society. Prisoners committed for short periods, varying from two days to a month, but seldom visit the prison once and for ever. Their first punishment is, in the majority of cases, nothing more or less than an ini tiation into a life of crime. They leave the gaol to return to it after short intervals spent in alternations of misery and profligacy. Their offences gradually increase in atrocity, as the fruits of their gaol expe rience come to maturity. After this matriculation and pupillage in crime, they graduate in the hulks, or take their doctorate in Norfolk Island, while the few attain the crowning distinction of the scaffold. By our present system of petty punishments for petty offences we are as surely training up a criminal population as by the more indirect process of neglected schools and imperfect education. The reports from the larger Scotch prisons, which do very great credit to their respective governors, are unanimous in pointing out this evil. In the first place, many offences are punished by short imprisonment which should not be punished by imprisonment at all. The report of the Edinburgh prison contains the case of two young women, respectable servant girls, committed for beating car pets in the street at a wrong hour ! There is another case, of a little boy, 12 years of age, committed to the lock-op (which legally forms part of Edinburgh pri son) for " playing at a game called marbles, to the annoyance of the public." lie was, we are bound in fltirness to state, liberated next day, by order of the sheriff. The following entry in the Edinburgh inspection book deserves to be extracted : August 21, MR.—Visited the prison this day, and looked into every cell. Found the whole clean and in good order. It is melancholy to see the number of boys from nine years old sad upwards; and I cannot help questioning the pro priety of sending many of them to prison for petty offences, as, for instance, D. S., a boy of eleven years of age. impel toned for the first time for beating another boy, and taking' from him an ounce of gingerbread; and another boy for stealing a pair of rabbits. But if the statement of the boys J. H. end W. C., about ten or twelve Years of age, he true, and I have no reason to doubt it, I think the punishment in flicted on them is moat disproportionate, for pulling some beans at the top of a field near Newhaven—an offence of which, when I was a boy, I was more than once guilty ; and if the same judgment had been meted out t o me, I might have been ruined for life.—(Signed) ADAM BLACK, Lord Provost —The governor said that the statement referred to in the foregoing entry eras correct. Mr. Hill, the inspector, comments upon such cases in these very proper terms: Besides the hardship and danger of permanent injury to those immediately concerned, such rigorous and unwise courses of proceeding tend to destroy public sympathy with the law, and to cause that which ought always to be ro• garded with respect and veneration to be looked at with aversion and contempt. It must be well known, too, that such a system of " justice " is not measured out to the chil dren of the rich ; and hence suspicions arc likely to arise of a general partiality in the administration of the law. If such acts as those which have been mentioned were in all cases visited with equal severity, the halls of many of our great public schools would, probably, soon be thinned. The governor of the Glasgow prison has prepared careful tabular documents, which show that, for the year ending 30th June, 1816, out of 1,412 males and 921 females committed, 274 males (or close upon a fifth) and 380 females (or mono than a third) were recommittals. Of these, there were of old offenders recommitted more than once, 147 persons, of 21 years of ago and under; and 87 under 17. The aggregate number of imprisonments of 287 persons who had been in confinement previously, amounted to 1,704, giving an average for each of between five and six committals. Adding to this the recommitments of the year itself; it is found that these 287 persons had been in confinement 2,198 times. Taking the average duration of their terms of imprisonment at GO days, the aggregate expense to the country of the prison maintenance of these 287 persons amounts to 5,0111. And this be it remembered, does not include any of the still heavier expense of prosecution, police, and plunder ! For the whole number of prisons inspected, the re commitments included 40 per cent. of the whole num ber of prisoners. In Edinburgh, where the influx and efflux of prisoners is unusually great, this pro portion for last year reaches as high as 70 per cent. The governor of Edinburgh prison, who seems to have a large and benevolent conception of his duties, has set forth very strikingly in his report the evils of short and frequent imprisonments. The passage is long, but will well repay perusal : In searching for and combining the originating in fluencee of juvenile delinquency, it has gradually dawned upon those engaged in the benevolent warfare, that an influence, neither the weakest nor the least hostile to moral improvement, is bound up with the very administra tion and practice of the correctional measure to which the young o ff ender is subjected ; that, apart altogether from the blighting example or the equally blighting desertion of the parent, apart also from the contamination of associates, and subsequent to the first detection acid exposure, there is in the decisions of the bench, and within the very walls of the prison, an undetected something which forms a powerful and insidious auxiliary to the moral degradation of the criminal. That this hostile influence is neither limited in its operation, nor weak in Os effects, clearly nppean from the annexed re turn. And the fact established by the tabular statements, that the number of imprisonments increases progressively as the periods of imprisonment diminish, leaves no doubt as to the inutility of these punishments. Short periods of im prisonment completely do away with that wholesome fear of the prison which is felt before having had experience of it; and, while the subjects of these imprisonments have no time to become less noxious, or to acquire new and better habits and principles, they are inured, hardened, and gradually trained to bear confinement, with out considering it almost any punishment. They, there fore, return again and again, and at each successive com mittal the hardening process makes a progressive advance. 'vent; again they see liberated, and again they plunge into the vortex of dissipation and crime, each successive plunge paving the way for deeper and more irretrievable ruin. In order to realise the peculiarly vitiating effect of short end frequent imprisonments on the juvenile, we must remember the total absence of any opportunities of reformation during his intervals of liberty. Were there a vestige of such oppo tunities in what may be called his act-door experience— did these experiences comprehend anything less compulsory, in their many and great influences for evil ; or were there a season for deliberation and choice—some debateable ground, as it were, between the restrictions of the prison and the seductions of society—his reiterated periods of re straint might wear a greater aspect of expediency than they do. But hitherto no such extenuation presents itself ; nothing, absolutely nothing, intervenes between the liberation of the prisoner and his second, or it may be his tenth, immersion in the atmosphere of moral pestil ace in which his seeds of vice base been previously fostered and nourished. The transition is abrupt and immediate; and as if to shut more effectually any avenue of reformation, in many cases the criminal is waylaid on the day of his libera tion by his former associates in vice, and forcibly drawn back to his old haunts, and to new and repeated violations of the law. Every light, indeed, thrown by the annexed return, or by other statistics of crime, upon the subject of recommitments—come from what quarter, or fall in what direction, it may—goes to prove the terrible facility and aptitude which a course of short and repeated imprison ments harmonises with and aggravates a continued course of crime. In the prison, there is experienced by the young offender the agitation and expectancy of approach mg liberation , and renewed opportunities 01 vicious unto'. genes. Out of the prison, there are the confirmation and encouragement of associates—renewed temptations, fresh ened and flavoured with the zest of novelty, of conceal ment, and a wider distance and a *Verger exclusion from all that is honest, creditable, and good. There is an influ ence, too, which seems to have been overlooked, from the natural but erroneous tendency to regard the crimes of young offenders in the tame point of view as those of adults, and which enhances the force and demoralising effects of the reaction alluded to. It may exist and operate in a degree which defies observation, and resists the strongest or most repeated correction. It is that combination of doge( d hosti lity, perverted pride, and misdirected love of adventure and exp'oit, which harshness and neglect unfailingly awaken in the minds of a great majority of youths ; such, thrown upon their own resources, at a time when the very novelty of the passions, apart from their native strength, suggests the greatest inducements to error—stamped with an early, sad it may be an unexpected, stigma of disgrace— ' rigidly excluded from every opportunity of reputable exer- son, and received with open arms by a band of juvenile ms)efecters, what remains for them but a progress from lees to a greater degree of wickedness ; and under what feelings an they act, than a confirmed and persevering enmity to the laws under which they staffer ? We will not attempt to add to this clear and effec tive exposition of an evil which appears in its results on the register of every prison included in this report But on the strength of such results, and others analogous to them in other parts of the kingdom, we are entitled to insist (as a primary condition of suc cess in all attempts at grappling with crime, when committed) on the abolition of short imprisonments for petty offence. WE have already directed attention to the approach ing sale of the house which tradition consecrates as the birth-place of SHAKSPEARE, and which, doubtless, was the home of his youth. Now that the committee is announced, there is little doubt that the business of subscription will go on rapidly. It is difficult to conceive that the proposal should find opponents. But • letter alluded to, though not read, at yesterday's meeting, showathat there are some who see in this attempt a mistaken act of enthusiasm, which degrades instead of honouring its object, by bringing down men's thoughts from the works he has left behind him to the house in which he lived. Ac cording to this class of objectors the sole monument of the poet should be looked for in his renown, and that which gives it birth. To display all this con cern about the four walls within which the poet was born or lived, is, in their eyes, a vulgar error, unwor thy of the sanction and support of those who can rise to the appreciation of his productions. To certain thinkers there is a teeth in this view. But the number of them is so small, that we cannot anticipate much falling off in the subscription lists from either their theory or their influence. The im pression of the rellyie loci, and the earnestness with which men seek it, were well illustrated by Mr. BRACEBRIDGE, who appeared at the meeting as the hearty and conciliatory representative of the Shake pearean Club of Stratford-upon-Avon. While men are made up of soul and body the union wiil represent itself in all men say or do. To common minds, and even minds highly endowed with normal imagination, there is a haunting presence which lingers round all in the midst of which the hero has lived, moved, and had his being. There are few in whom a visit to Stratford does not awaken a stronger love of the poet, and a deeper sympathy with his creations. If any thing could mar this, it is the vulgar sad degrading associations from which the result of the approaching sale will, we trust, free SHAESPEARE'S house for ever. One of the resolutions passed at yesterday's meeting calls upon the press to use its influence in favour of the object in view. There is little doubt that this call will be responded to. We would, for our oven. parts, urge upon our readers the importance of prompt organisa tion and speedy action. The sale is to take place on the 16th of September. The eloquence of Mr. ROBINS has already pro claimed the fact in that unique style which he inherits from his father. It is necessary, therefore, that the funds raised should be transmitted without delay to the proper quartecs,that the admirers of SIIAESPEARE may save his house from becoming even more de graded than it has hitherto been. Nor let it be supposed that all the money subscribed is to be absorbed by Mr. ROBINS, for the trustees. It is true that his patriotic wish that there "may be several competitors in the field " is only too likely to be gratified. But it would be better, perhaps, to let the house go as it will than waste upon the purchase funds which might be profitably bestowed otherwise, in many ways little less calculated to honour the memory . of SHAKSREARE. The surplus raised will be appropriated worthily ' • of that the subscribers may be sure. The names of the committee are a guarantee for so much. In such a matter it would have been highly desirable that there should have been only one central action in London. The affair is necessarily complicated, even by the existence of the Shakspcare Club at Stratford. They are, however, the natural guardians of the poet's ashesand relics. They have shownthemselvcs every way deserving of the charge by the zeal and liberality they have displayed on this occasion. But there is, as appears both from advertisements and from the statement of Mr. GEORGE JONES, nt yesterday's meet ing, a second body professing the same objects, with a committee calling itself the " People's Central Com mittee of the Shalupeare Memorial Fund." 'Mere is very suspicious indication that this committee is " a people's central committee," somewhat in the same way in which the three tailors of Tooley-street were the people of England. We should be sorry to damp any ardour in such a cause, but we would respectfully suggest to all who took part in the previous meeting, that in this business personal feeling should be put in abeyance, and that, though Mr. GEORGE JONES called the first meeting, this can be no reason why they should not merge themselves in those who act with the sanction and in aid of the Shakspearean Club of Stratford, and who possess the countenance of all that is most respectable in station, acquirements, and character. MADRID, Aso. 19. In the conference which took place yesterday at the Pardo, the King's final answer to the royal message delivered by Senor 13enavides was, that he would not enter the palace till after the expiration of four months. In consequence of this determination on the part of the consort, a ministerial council was held last night, at which Senor Pacheco and five of his colleagues came to the resolution of resigning. Senor Salamanca remains as the nucleus about which a new cabinet is to be formed. It is supposed that the other ministers sent in their resignation to the Queen this morning, and that Senor Salamanca has been charged with the formation of the new ministry. He will in all probability appoint his own personal friends, such as Escosara, Cordova, and Roe de Oiano: and I have nothing newer to give you on this head than I stated in my letter of last Monday. Meantime it seems by no means improbable that Narvace will be recalled to take a leading poet in the cabinet. Office has been offered several times to the Cortina faction, but the terms which they insisted upon were such as Salamanca could not accept. If it is to be regretted that they have missed power, their motives are highly creditable, and will tend to raise their estimation in the country. That you may lack no detail on the important fact which has decided the fate of the Pacheco ministry, I proceed• to give you the accessories which are fur nished by the semi-official Correo. It seems that, not satisfied with the remote day fixed by the King on Monday for his reception of tenor Beuavides, the ministry, prompted possibly by the Queen, sent to re quest a less tardy interview, which was granted. " Senor Benavidcs declared respectfully to the King that his august spouse ardently desired his return to the palace of Madrid, and the conclusion for ever of the sad dissensions which had divided them. The will of the Queen was to forget past differences, to live henceforth in peace, united with her husband, as her own happiness demanded as well as the good of the nation. The king answered, that as a loyal subject he was bound to respect the will of the Queen, but that he could not before the expiration of four months comply with what was desired of him. Ile started no conditions, moved no exigencies of any kind, but manifested his resolute intention not to come to the Palace of Madrid before the expiration of that term. Senor Benavides in vain insisted upon the reasons known to all for the King' s immediate return. The King's determination was irrevocable!' The same paper adds : " We regret the more deeply this resolution, as the result of the preceding conference between Senor Benavides and the King had filled our minds with .joy, his Majesty having upon t h at occa sion shown himself perfectly disposed to reunion with his august partner, and exhi oited the most lively de sire for the termination for ever of all differences." It is impossible to read the above passages of the ministerial paper without wincing at the unpardona ble want of tact and delicacy displayed in the publica tion of the negotiations upon the palace question, and in the tone, unquestionably false, with which ministers have thought proper to dress out this sub ject to the public eye. The Queen of Spain is repre sented as imploring, with abject submission, a prince, for whom her thorough contempt is well known, her subject, to relieve her distress, her unhappy state of conjugal isolation, by returning to the palace. The reply is—a slap in the face, a hick—an insult of the grossest kind, which no ministry ought to have permitted to be published, much less printed in their own organ. Who does not see the gross insinuation conveyed by the monthly arithmetic set forth, without shame, in the king's answer ? A French calumny, whispered into his ear, has issued from his mouth, in the shape of an insulting insinua tion, and is blazoned abroad by the press, a public scandal and outrage. The nature of the negotiation has been entirely misrepresented. The Queen's desire has been from the beginning of the dissensions, which followed upon this forced marriage, for a divorce. But that measure did not snit the game of Louis Philippe, and was, for reasons best known to themselves, entirely scouted by the moderados. I'acheco, a vacillating man, and at the head of a government that had no party whatever in the coun try, and therefore lay at the mercy of the moderado majority, neither dared nor was able to carry such a measure. A thorough progresista ministry was the only one that could have undertaken such a task with any chance of success. Meantime, some of his colleagues were doubtless interested in keeping matters as they were. A portion of these were play ing into the hands of the French, and the others were creatures of the favourite. When public opinion challenged them, in avoice too loud to be trifled with, to settle the palace question, the only settlement which Pacheso could lean to was reconciliation. It required great efforts and obstinate importunity to bring the Queen to admit this solution of the situation. However, she did yield at last, upon being told there was no other possible—that the nation desired it with their whole souls: and when Senor Benavides brought such a flourishing account of his success in his first negotiation with the King—that he was anxious to throw himself at the feet of his royal wife, and to be reunited to her without making any condi tions whatever, the Queen was moved to take the preliminary step of coming to Madrid. The rest is known. But what a cruel and humiliating position has been assigned to the sovereign in all this trans action! She plays the part of one duped into a series of concessions quite foreign to her character, to re ceive at the end in compensation of these sacrifices a gross and unpardonable outrage. The Clamor denounces the existence of a moderado plot. Many agents, it says, have been sent to seduce the army in favour of some ambitious min. They are also to excite the minds of such people whose political passions arc easily worked upon, with false demon strations of patriotism, provoking subversive cries and alarming rumours, which may be construed into re volutionary symptoms, giving colour to a pretended necessity for French intervention. I am assured, by a high authority, that there is no doubt of the truth of all this. The Queen appeared at the opera last night, attended only by Count Santa-Colonna. The ministers were all there in their separate boxes. The Threes have fallen to 26. ROME, Aro. 19. It was a ludicrous sight to behold the crowd cla morous outside the office of the old Dlirio R4»nano yesterday, the last place in Rome one would seek for news of any kind, yet there they were in hundreds, struggling for copies of that ancient paper, much to the alarm of the venerable publisher, who had always before plenty of room tor his customers. " Qu' on rst awls i l' oleo aux sermons de Cotin C' Official accounts from Ferrara were expected, in town, and a vigorous " protest " of the bold legate Ciacchi was the object of a general scramble. It must have reached you by this time, but you can have no idea of the exulting pride with which it was read at street corners here to eager listeners who cannot read, but know the drift of it right well. Last evening the commotion in the various places of public assembly was at its height, and the wrongs of their countrymen, the Ferrarese, a theme of indig nant outpouring in the saloon of the palace, as in the wine shop of the faccliini. It was known that the youth of Bologna had proposed to advance on Fer rara, and, this morning, lists were opened for the en rolment of all who would volunteer to march in the same direction. In three hours the state of the poll at one booth (the Café Ruspoli) showed a muster of 3,000 citizens of every rank willing to quit their homes to the rescue of their frontier town, or perish in the doing. At this stage of the proceedings Car dinal Ferretti's carriage was announced, and in per son he came to entreat the committee to cease that enrolment, for " strong in the dignity and justice of the Pope's cause, he looked with scorn on the brutal ferocity of his bullying adversaries, and would bide the result." . . . The mail from Perugia came in to-day, and brings tidings of increased excitement in that industrious, thriving, and impregnable outpost. The •' nationals" were in full orgeminutloll, and a new feature in the general enthusiasm is the attempt of the cowled Capuchins to fall into the ranks and wield a firelock for freedom. They have issued a proclamation, which is a curiosity of its kind, and has not without diffi culty been copied by my man from a printed broadside just affixed outside the Ruspoli. It is thronged with men bent on its perusal : MANIFESTO DEI CAPLIXINI. Andre gli ordini reader( a AM we, ton, friars of Perugia. Perugia eentono di mere side- feel that we are citieens, and • e intendono hem 11 grave cognise the micron obligation to debit,, the taro incombe dl erode aid the common eau, to the hest U rneglin else possono alto parria of our ability. We lament that commune. Che se a Toro non 4 we Mould he debarred from gird comesa eingere al nano, la daga, ing to oar bumble belt a blade, e vestire it capo deli' elm, ecinno and changing our cowl Mr a het , the non 4 lore disdetto sabre met; but no power can prevent all'Orebbo eomegere le braecia del us from taking our stand on Gran Sacerdote, ore fame d'uopo Mount I torch, to hold up the en implorare ajuti del tido a titer- tended arm. of the high !iciest in mink dei mid Amato ill she his prep r during the fight, while maser° oontenckre la via al figli be implores help from the Lord ot dladraeillo; rieordanoche preg- battles to emelt the modern AlM hiere generate e I crucified final- kkites who would oppose the on. betel( dat Cappucini elk gran ward march or IsraeL We re. glornata di Lepanto giovarono member no that the prayers and a rink ludo la Musulmano fern- uplifted crucifixes of the Capu do, e non ignorano the il grand' chins, on board the fleet at Le merelto dei frail non fa di piocol panto, gave spirit to the men who gloria al Paoli, e she a Lignano • there laid low Ottoman ferocity; Genova Sider° molars e regoLare and we glory in the fact that Paoli, non fu epettatere mica° in uelk in Can Ma, End an army of friars; aegnalate vittorie ; aon Bride del and that in the victorks of Leg. magnawmeo Pio non banana nano and Genoa, the clergy, EMl mono Portia e eoUocitl a salvors ter and regular, were nut mere le belle contrade, eal inane del Idle spectators of the fight- Let tamburro meaceranno U rintoero but a eurnmons go forth from the ddle cumpane e conteranno in magnanimous Pio ' and we shall onore dells 'Mode mostrando st not chow le. alacrity in defence mondo she fu ins eokune odun- of our beautiful land. The sound rain U aospettargli poco amid di of the drum shall find echo in the Pio e della Petrie. Die terra bold knelling of our belfrys, and r osktaz ie roil z we i u orno we will mingle in the antsem of o victory, denouncing as • gross lie nee per modrare the anoor i re. the rumour that we art not pat- Kulari hanno cuore in petto, e the riots to the backbone. Clod will patella per la gloria della fed', keep aloof the plague of war, we della puma, di IM. ORO baste trust; bat we speak out thus to it medico ulivo elo atringetei In show our sentiments about our Santa Alliansa, ma perch 6 le country, our faith, and our Tin. parole non ei mostrino merit' di To-day let the peaceful olive fatto, tittle le communnita reli- branch deck our hands, and a giceic vogkono the dal loco denaro brotherly alliance unite us; but sia proreduto in pane all' arrna- to show we are in earnest, we an mento della gloriosa guard* COD- sooner that our slender pittance Mario the i Imo leali eenticaisti shall be forthcoming to arm and pia ebb la teauc obblizione steno equip the glorious guard. Let It rioevud some 0,601' Atm del be a pledge of our fraternisition Toro boon votress, e del caldo aelo with the laity in our common per l'ordine, c univertale tutela. strurgle for the general gaiety. Meantime Pius, overwhelmed with the cares of his new position, isolated, so to say, among the crowned heads of Europe, has a heart and a confidence in the God of justice, which nothing can daunt. He is fully prepared for every emergency. Two days ago, in conference with Dr. Wiseman, he spoke of beholding in all likelihood his dominions soon bristling with foreign bayonets; but " he derived courage and hope for the ultimate result from the knowledge of a British fleet being afloat under Napier." The citizens scorn the notion of an Austrian force note crossing the Appenines, now that the popular blood is up, and the old Roman spirit evoked after the slumber of centuries. Guerillas, more formidable than scourged the armies of Napoleon out of the sierras, would an nihilate the whole Vandalry of Vienna. Bologna bids fair to prove a second Saregotsa, should they advance so far. On Sunday last a grand review of natio/m/s took place at half-past five In the morning outside the Porta del Popolo, in the charming park of Villa Bur ghese. There was more hearty goodwill than pipe clay precision in their evolutions. The performance was concluded by the announcement front the noble proprietor of the grounds, that a 4160;ner for the troops was laid out under the shade of a cypress grove. Here they did awful execution, and when flasks of orrieto, numberless, had fallen " down I among the dead men," the ladies were joined on the lawn, and " dancing began." At eight they re entered the city in tine order. Tradespeople have their fears that foreigners will bti afraid to visit Rome this winter, apprehensive of outbreak. There is great confidence in Morichini's management of the Exchequer. This new official is the author of a most intelligent and philosophic work "On the Charitable Establishments and Public Insti tutions of oar City." I trust they have got a copy of it at Somerset-house. Grasselini, who had fled from Naples to his native place, Palermo, has been mobbed there by his towns men, and is gone no one knows where. We have waited in vain here for the coming of Lambruvehini, who has pleaded various reasons in favour of the sea coast. He may find all these dodges of no avail, and of no ultimate benefit to his case. ➢ectiw vire, Licinl, neat* ahem Seaver unread°, argue dom. ppeellas C'outur horrescie roinstum ?mama° Lifts asiyuune. The framework for the fireworks to the Piazza del Popolo has not yet been removed, and the people will have it that this scaffolding is kept standing to form a gibbet for those who shall be convicted, and are thus deservedly to be " hoist by their own petard" on the scene of their contemplated massacre. The Tallade newspaper, in giving the list of new repre sentatives, prints the name of Simonetti, and some other deputies, tainted with Gregorianism, in italics, thus evading the laws of censorship, which are power less against a typographical inuendo. The sympathy of our neighbours in the Florentine territory may be understood from their having, without any concert with the officiating clergy of the cathedral, wound up the Sunday service by an extemporaneous "Te Deum" of thanksgiving for Rome's deliverance; and last week one of our horsemen of the guartbn mobile having been sent there to purchase a white Arab mule for the Pope's ceremonial riding, the lucky animal was escorted from village to village amid the affectionate blessings of the whole population to our frontier. Dr. iViscman's chance of a cardinal's hat has not been improved by his visit to Rome. His object and that of Dr. Sharpies turns out to have been the promo tion of a scheme, exposed in my letter of April 15, for transferring the whole temporalities and trusts of the British Roman catholic body into the sole and irre. sponsible hands of the " vicars.' This project has sig nally failed, and mainly because such a host of letters came from England to Propaganda in denunciation of the measure that its unpopularity and injustice were demonstrated. It was hoped that by doing the thing silently no opposition would be raised, but there is such a thing as an intrepid press even in defence of Roman catholic interests. For the present the Pope seems inclined to allow the hat of the late kind and worthy Acton to remain empty —indeed it never was very full—and the defunct pontiff knew the capacity of his eminence when he placed him in an appropriate function, at the head of the relic department. There is an old Scotch ditty applicable out of the land o' cakes it woo na the hat, but the head that waa in It, Made a' body talk of Rob Itorpon's !menet. Wiseman has brought an Irish row about his ears, by a document similar to your Bishop Blomfield's letter against allowing Hibernian parsons to officiate in the London diocese. He has placed in the hands of Propaganda a paper in which he describes the education of the Irish priests as totally deficient in the accomplishments suited to the clerical character in England, however fitted they may be for the half-savage people they were bred among. They are good enough he says "pro agreetibus et sylcestribus." I need not tell you how violent is the clamour about this topic on the part of those who represent Ireland in Rome, but Wiseman's opinion would derive much corroboration from the sayings and doings of a coarse and ignorant fanatic here---one Kirby, of Waterford. The rumour here is that a personage will be shortly despatched to England in the capacity of " Apostolic Visitor," to inquire into and arrange church squabbles. On Tuesday, the Pope paid a private visit to the Rev. Mr. Newman and his asso ciates, in their collegiate church of Santa Croce, near the Lateran. LISBON, Auo. 19. An event of painful interest must take precedence of the usual items of correspondence, and its announcement in England will, to one English home at least, be fraught with sadness. On the nigh; of the 11th inst., one of those terrible fires, of so frequent occurrence in Lisbon, broke out in the street of Bona Vista, and from the narrowness of the streets and the density of population in that quarter, threat. ened a devastation of more than ordinary severity. The boats front our squadron were manned, and a strong force of sailors were quickly on the spot to aid the authorities in their endeavours to check the progress of the fire. Amongst the officers so assisting, and who particularly distinguished himself by the most daring efforts, was a fine youth not 17 years of age, of the name of Wilson, a midshipman from the Jackal, who with a sailor remained for some time on the first floor of one of the burning houses after all others had re tired, endeavouring to save the furniture of a poor family; he was called to earnestly to come down ; but, with that generous recklessness so characteristic of his profession and his class, he disregarded all warnings, when, sad to relate, the whole mass of the building fell suddenly inwards, end the poor youth was seen no more. The sailor, much burnt and injured, was extricated, and now lies in a dangerous state. The day after, the body of poor Wilson was found, and it would appear that he must have been struck by a falling beam, and that death was instantaneous. His re mains were conveyed on board the Phamix, and next day brought on chore and interred in the beautiful English cemetery at Bona Vista. As the body left the vessel the flags of the squadron, as well as of the French and Spanish vessels in the Tagus, were lowered, and, after some little hesitation the Portuguese commodore reluctantly . paid a similar compliment. The funeral was most impressive, and attended by a vast concourse of individuals of the highest respectability, anxious to testify their sympathy at the me lancholy event. There were present, Admiral Sir William Parker, and the superior officers of the British squadron, Sir George Seymour, the English minister, the officers of the French and Spanish vessels of war, besides a great portion of the English mercantile residents of the city, but not one l'ortuguese. The Viscount de Campanhaa, en equi rry of the Queen's husband, endeavoured to prevail on the Prince, and, equally upon her majesty, to order some one of the royal household to attend the funeral, but neither Donna Maria nor the Prince could bo prevailed upon to adopt an act of common courtesy. I now return to politics : About the time of closing the last mail, the three ministers addressed a string. nt note to the Queen's government, demanding the fulfilment of the 4th article of the protocol, the naming a new ministry; after a couple of days' deliberation a reply was sent in, marked by all the special pleading of trickery and all the evasions of meanness. The government assumed, in the first place, that the existing Tojal ministry was in fact a compliance with the protocol, inasmuch as it was one formed after the events im mediately succeeding the conspiracy of Oct. 6 ; and secondly, that if it were not, the country was beginning to calm down, and that consequently it would be a pity to disturb the existing state of things. But the foreign ministirs returned to the charge, and in a manner which mould no longer ad mit of misapprehension, ins second note reiterating their demands, they declared positively that without imwediste compliance they would take down their arms and demand their passports. Consequent upon this all has been confu sion at the palace, and the Queen has severally called upon Jose Silva Camillo, upon Rodrigo du Fonseca Maghalaes, and upon the Viscount of Lavradio, for the purpose of forming a new administration, all of whom refused to make the attempt, it being a positive stipulation on their part that the Cabrslist battalions, composed of public employes and of persona selected for their extreme opinions, should fiat be disbanded and disarmed, and the country confided to the regular troops of the line. This the Queen has positively refused to do; consequently, no minister would be hardy or foolish enough to peril his life by attempting to govern in a constkutional spirit while the court and the Cabrals would, by the retention of this assassin force, have the power, at any hour of the night, to enact new revo lutions, new scenes of the 6th October. In the meanwhile the present ministers have resigned, and only bold the seals 1 of office until their successors are appointed. The last official act of these men is a meat appropriate close to a career of in famy and of peculation unparalleled. Out of the " monster loan" they had raised, which I mentioned in my last, they reserved sufficient to cover, and paid themselves, their official salaries to the last hour. Surely we may say, " the force of meanness could no further go." It is since stated that the Queen, a little alarmed at the ' slate of things, has attempted a compromise with M. Rod ' rigo ; and the following Raiff names was handed about the clubs yesterday, as those of colleagues who, if the Queen can be brought to terms, will probably , take office ;—Foreign Office, Count Lanvin); War, Colonel Padua ; Marine, Lope ' Branco; while M. Rodrigo assumes the post of President of the Council and ad interim of the Home Department. Finance and Justice for the moment vacant—no inapt type of the present position of Portugal; finance with nothing to ' administer, and justice only a dream, A proclamation in the Royal Gazette summons the Cortes of the kingdom to meet in January next, while the elections are to take place in November. In the latter, few persons place confidence, for as the decree states that every recipient of the public money to the amount of 100 dole. annually (about 20 guineas), whether the party be pensionist or in active govenisnent employ, is eligible to vote, theism* of greedy Cabralista will thus form a formidable body at the pulling booths, particularly in the capital. A rupture, how ever, in the Court camp is confidently spoken of—a complete Peochum and Loqtitt affair. Saldanha, a little dis turbed at not being quite the lion he anticipated after his brilliant Oporto campaign, has turned round upon , the Cahrals, and is seeking to establish a little party of his own, an unimportant matter in itself, were it not that in the bitter squabble for places and the triunity [ dollars, the inevitable breach between the friends may be made available by the popular party. The accounts trom , the provinces are of the most wretched character, 3411.160/1 . tiona in broad day, and in face of and connived at by the authorities, of all who belonged to the Tarty of Creto• The , details arc sickening and horrifying, and if you were to have • you would reject the Ryer as an invention , an ut ter impos , furn i; n4 4 . 1 -2.. a verbatim list of these murders and outrages, 1 sibility. In Algarve there se:ecely remains a decent pro prietor ; all have fled into Spain, or to the mountains. floe ' battalion of Algarve, driven by the three ministers front this city for its atrocities, has been literally decimating the Rolm. lation, and in some instances actually sacking the little towns. The liberal party in the capital arc using their en• deavoute to be prepared for the struggle at the elec toral urn. The central committee musters strong, not alone in numbers, but in name. The president ta the Marquis of Loule, the husband of the Infanta Donna Anna, upon whose young son all eyes are bent as the future King of Portugal. The Judge Otto lini, an ex-minister ; M. Caldeira ; H. Sampayo, the editor . of the Rerolucoo; and Don Jose de Leneastre, are also on the committee. To write about commercial intelligence is impossible ; for some time, at least, to come, the usual news of "nothing doing " may be stereotyped for your columns. Every thing is at a stand still, Portuguese bank notes are even at a greater depreciation, the siloeda note 4,800 is now quoted at -