The Express. — London, England, 1852-01-20 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, TUESDAY EVENING, JANUARY 20, 1852. Zhe eqn•eoo. TO CORRESPONDENTS. • *mow! s•.!"TAe Laymen.' {onto aunt the •aurae eetelh ire liurtut-," is pathiebed t way To.wlay ml Yuday •ight, in Um* tee pet. •dew:uxui, atatalended I. a r. Tho Tisprem" Imelda Keening paper. wane he .ti the Mire, In, 9oaewi►etrry by Two n'elelek oo the ry of puhlwethoe. 111011 WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE. T.. 14, —Vernier. Aftorres. Ik. To- so ..auw—Nertiise, fa. :ma. LONDON, TUESDAY JANUARY 20. THE Globe last night objects to the tone that We have adopted upon the subject of the pro posedincreare of our army expenses. Of course oes. It is much easier fur the government to ask the people for more money, than fur the honourable gentlemen at tlw head of the army to interfere with the hornets'-nest of placemen and sinecuristo who fatten upon existing military abuses. l o demand that our defences should be made complete out of the means already voted, 6 of course to propore an unpalateable plan. o say that our force suflitient. if rightly disposed, is to say . just what the patrons of the (bit. do nut wish to boar. England is as full of military spirit as ever she was. Iler people are us willing as at say fernier period of our history to make eacriticts for the common weal. Englishmen are ready either to pay or to tight for the preservation of their national independents., should it be perilkd,—but they are not at this instant so persuaded that national danger exists as to vote blindly for more soldiers, w hi6t those we have are badly managed, and arc kept any where but where they should be. Why, moreover, should we pay fur inure troops, when w lint we chiefly want are steam-ships and seamen? .Viitl why levy fresh taxes tube spent on absurd sea-shore hutterim, whilst we have floating batteries lying idle in the Tagus and elsewhere ; —ready to guanl us well, if our ministers would permit them to do so? There are some .does that run like an influenza wan epidemic throughout all clamors of society. If t hey have nut city in them, and are calculated to awaken pride and jealousy and excite fear,—not at all of the crate u kind, hut that fear which kiudles anta gonism and resistance,—such a sentiment takes like wildfire. And instead of inquiring into the grounds, the rew-ons. the chances, ur the truth of the isuppo eition, people adopt it at once supposititiously, and malt to the consideration of, nay, to the preparation for all, contingrncies. An idea of this kind is invasion, landing of troops from Ow only country capable of sending them upon our phony. .1f any one asks the anxious propounder of such notion upon what reasoning he lases it, or what m *tire lw supports' to induce the French, or their ruler, to such a step. it is found generally to be, that the French want to avenge Waterloo, and that the personage who dues this fur them may ask and obtain as pavilion the princedom or sovereignty of Events.. Then. are other ways. however, of earning the gratitude and admiration of the French than in commencing an internecine war with England, a war which, even in ease of victory, could lead to no pertnistent ennque,4 or advantage, but would, on the contrary, weaken France for the defence of all that is dear to her. For France to conquer England would be to render herself t'omitek. Hut she could not conquer England. and might pay for the attempt by her own subdivision or even cnssure from the list of nations. _ . . 1 hu. the attempt to conquer England will he one ride last things that a chieftain ruling the destinies of France would attempt. It is of all others the enterprise in which there is the moot to risk, and the least to pin. No doubt it will be threatened. The French have threatened us with invasion for centuries. all through Louts XlV.'s reign, again in 1799, and repeatedly since. Lows-Put merit hinted it to our minister at Windsor Castle, when he visited the QUEEN —a most monstrous piece of impertinence. Leseis-l'ittuert., who last the Tuileries some months later, as a good e sample of how futile are such menaces. But they will be made. For they are useful for diplomacy, useful for collecting an army and oloakit.;: a real enterprise, %maul, too, for putting us to yap nae. But as a real enterprise, compare the conquest of F:nelind, in effort, in result, in gain to the French people.. and as a salvo to their honour —compare it with the conquest of Savoy, and ask, which IS most attractive. most feasible to a French emperor. France did take Savoy, her posseseion of it was acquiesced in. The population of Savoy is French. It lies within the Alps, the natural boundary of France on that side. Savoy is military weakness, nut strength, to Piedmont and Italy. For the French to take Savoy were a facile enterprise; to keep it, they have but to win one battle on the plains of Lombardy. After which, Austria would submit to what she has often sub mitted, viz., to allow to the King of Pt tb,414 INT com pensation in Italy for Savoy lost. What has Eng land to object to this ? Nothing. in reality. How does it affect Hussein or Prussia? In no wise. Aus tria has taken Tuscany and the Roman Legations. She has far outstepped the limits and the power that the Treaties of Vienna assigned her in Italy. And it would be more consonant than repugnant to the Treaties of Vienna to lessen Austria@ dominions in Italy at present. Fat be it from us to say that Loris NaroteoN or any other French ruler should be encouraged to any act of the kind, or that we should meanly seek to ward off danger to ourselves by pointing out and uncovering weaker victims. However we may sympathise with the people of Italy, or the people of Hungary, flinging off their own yoke by their own exertions, we have no wish to see Austria crushed or disposseseed by a foreign power as despotic and unscrupulous as herself. ir% o are merely pointing out the different schemes that must present them selves to a French ruler bent upon securing his hold of power over France by • inning for French interest and French pride some great boon, advantage, or ac quisition. Midst these schemes, although the Rhine• would be the dearest and most satisfactory to the French people, Savoy would be far more at tainable and facile. If, however, there are several motives that prompt Loess NAPOLEON to war, there are many to dissuade him from it. He has not • soldier whose presence is not required in or near some populous town to keep down repairer insurrection. Paris IMO have 100,000 men to watch it. Lyons must have its forts ffgarrisoned. Lille its operatives watched. Strait demands an army, not merely for its fortifica tion, but for its red population. The armies of the continent, huge as they are, are every man of them required for the purposes of the political police. Were they to destroy each other in fighting, the people would rime to tear in pieces the victors and the vanquished. There is one thing indeed which we did not men tion, and which might give some probability to invasion; and that is • large body of malcontents amongst ourselves. Fortunately there are none such, although the Curatitutionnel would re present us as about to be devoured by socialists, and although it represents the struggles of our opera tive engineers as a spark of that flume which has divided masters and men throughout France, and by doing so has laid both prostrate at the feet of a des pot. But the Chartist insurrection which Dr.Vr.ners beholds has no reality or existence but in the dim ness of his own spectacles. It is merely a trick of the cunning French fox who has lost his tail, trying to persuade his English comrade to cut off his also. Our different classes will stand up for their different interests within the hounds of legality, and with the weapons that the constitution allows. And our natty consists in this very freedom; for amidst French slavery we admit that even discussion in dangerous. Where society is reduced to a state of moral tinder, any idea may prove a spark. lint Englishmen are not yet the mute, the smeller, and degraded slates of the censorship and the corpe-ele porde. There have been, there will be, time and angry struggles between Englishmen; but woe be to the Frenchman who would interfere in one way or the other with discussions that he cannot compre hend. or with that Hag of freedom which French men know not how either to enjoy or to compre hend. Tin' fled of the half-yearly railway meeting"' Ia already announced ; and, as of late has !al n usually the came, it is the Brighton Company that leads the way. Within a month of the termination of the I half-year Mr. SAMUEL LAIN° is not only able to as certain the balance applicable in that ineerixwation to dividend. but also to declare it. This is at least a good example ; and though, as compared Nith some of the larger metropolitan companies, there nre cial causes operating in Mit.'Latito's favour, it is also to bo remarked that other companies having nearly the same advantages as the Brighton, so far from being distinguished by the like promptitude, are notorious for a delay far beyond that which is perhaps inevitable in much larger and cumbrous con cerns. The Brighton may now be mid to be almost a self-contained company; fur whilst stretching out, unprofitably, on the emir • to Portsmouth, and on the north to Ilastings, it has not even in these directions to bear that strong pressure of competition which in other parts of the kingdom is having so serious an effect on railway dividends. It is not a commercial line; for of the half million sterling taken in 18.11, not 1181,000/. is derived from goods. It has no difficult, open, and embarrassing accounts of mileage to adjust and settle as to its half-yearly balances with other companies. Its accounts have no clearinghouse to pose through. Nor is the profit of its traffic interfered with by foreign arrange ment& Compared with the huge northern lines, with their alliances and rivalries, their apportion ments and their perplexities, their aggressive sod defensive systems, the Brighte' manage ment is light and agreeable work. While, then, Mr. LAING is entitled to every praise for the ability he has brought to bear on the Brighton railway; for the unceasing attention he has bestowed on his constituency's property ; for the additional facilities and speed which he la afforded the public; and for the promptitude with which he renders his half yearly statements, we mu it not, in recognising these evidences of his good management, pass any censure on the directions of those great arterial lines of com munication which connect London with the seats of our commerce and the hives of our industry. The excellent results of Mr. LAING'S management of the Brighton line do, however, suggest the &nee fit of properly paid chairmanship, where the com pany is of that moderate extent that the attention of the chief can be princip ally be - towed on the enforcement of economy and the reduction of working expenses, which,in thepresent state of railways, seem to be the sources of dividend. Where however the af fairs, relations, and rivalries of a company are of such magnitude as to preclude any such undeviating attention on the part of its chief to those details as a matter of personal and almost exclusive business— and where the policy of the line is itself a study and an occupation—it may be doubted whether thC con stituencies of such incorporations are not better served by the other mode—by having at their heads public men of recognised position, undoubted honour, and personal independence, like Mr. GLYN, Mr. Ittsseff, and Mr. Demo's, to whom salary can be no object, rather than a gentleman. however able, who is. after all, a stipendiary officer, and liable to ail the influences of ;hat posit ion. 'f his question is, however, a large and important one; on which perhaps more experience is required than we as yet possess. Mr. L GNU is much too able a man to present, under any circumstances, a common-place report to his constituents, and on the present occasion his half-yearly statement starts a subject of surpassing interest to all railway property. l'erhape, however, Mr. LUNG'S former literary habits have led him (unconsciously it may be). to amp° the subject some what too artistically; and his philosophical tenden cies to affect a practical result thereon which he has not really attained. Let us see. Some two years ago, Mr. LAING pledged himself to close the capital account of the Brighton. And us up to this tune in no one company has that ac count been closed; and as until It is permanently fixed, the real value of the stock cannot be estimated, his pledge was generally hailed with satisfaction. Subsequently, however, it was publicly doubted by Mr. GLYN . whether the capital of a growing and increasing railway company ever could be closed, or a line be drawn beyond which all expenditure for whatever purpose sliould be debited to revenue; and this doubt has greatly increased the interest taken in the fulfilment of Mr. Latfro'a promise. In the present report Mr. LAING again deals with the subject. In its earlier portion he confesses to a want of more money, with an emphasis and in lan guage that lead you to suppose he requires much more than he concludes by asking for. The point at which Mr. LUNG undertook to close the Brighton capital account, was, it seems, 7,200,0001.; but that, he now says, was on the assumption that the traffic was only 4341,0001.; whereas already it has reached 683,000/. The rolling stock, sidings, station and warehouse ac commodation, he, therefore, states must be increased. Hem, then, we hare the question fairly raised whe ther such increase ought to be provided for by new capital or out of revenue. And this is just a point on which a well-reasoned opi nion from Mr. LAING would have been very desirable, and in all probability most instructive. But as the amount ho requires (120,0001. only) is comparatively small, and the dividend he recom mends a substantial one, after tantalisingyou by a very well written exposition of why that sum is required, and after stating very clearly the principle involved, Mr. LAING, with all the skill of a well-trained lawyer, eludes any opinion on the real question. Providing a plan for spreading the payment of this sum out of revenue in a long series of years, he leaves you as much in the dark on the subject about which lie ex cites curiosity and expectation, as if he had never said a word about it. This is a piece of provoking caution; for by this time Mr. LAING ought to have arrived at some opinion as to whether Mr. GLYN was right or wrong, when ho doubted if capital accounts can ever be permanently closed; and having reached one, he had scarcely any right to raise the question, and then run away from it. Were our railways like those of France, paying dividends of 0 and 8 and 12 per cent., there would be less difficulty in its practical solution than there now is, when 2 and 3 and 4 per cent. are the general rates with difficulty reached. For in companies yield ing high profits, the change of proprietary is much smaller than in concerns barely able to pay any dividends ; and it is the fluctuating character of those entitled to half-yearly dividends which greatly em barrasses this question. When the amount is small, shareholders look to a division of all the profits earned; and if the principle of charging against re venue new rolling stock required by extension of traffic be adopted, the chances are that sufficient ac commodation will not be provided thereout, and that, in consequence of an insufficiency of stock, the safety of the public and the securityy of the goods will be endangered or lessened. On the other hand, the opposite principle, that new rolling stock must be supplied by addi tional capital, opens a door, in unscrupulous hands, to the payment of dividends out of capital, necessa rily depreciates the value of the company's stock by the uncertainty of its amount, and so renders it mom than ordinarily liable to all those speculative move ments and operations that are so injurious to railway pre eperty. The legislature has, indeed, attempted to adjust, in some degree, the proportion which the value of the rolling stock of a railway shall bear to its cost. The principle adopted is, that while the proprietary itself is bound to furnish the capital for the construc tion of the line, it is entitled to borrow an amount equal to the cost of its rollinirstock ; and by fixing the borrowing powers at one-third of the share capi tal, parliament has indicated the proportion the value of the one ought, in its opinion, to bear to the other. On the whole, however, these borrowing I powers have acted injuriously to companies. ! When first adopted, railway dividends were higher than the rates of interest paid on 1011214, and then they operated as a profit on capital. But now divi- , dends generally are lower than the rates of interest, and these loans diminish the profit of capital. The I facility, too, with which money has hitherto been I raised at high rates has begotten an extravagance i which the pressure of rails on shareholders would ' have made them watchful to cheek. And if our railways were to be now commenced, the policy of giving them any borrowing powers would be ex ets elingly doubtful. I It is. of course, di ffi cult tee say how far this partia -1 me niary proportion between the value of the rolling 1 ! stock and the cent of the line hue been preserved. But, if Mr. eitsre he correct in his opinion that new stock, erlseu required . Pr UM extensuns of !ruff-, is properly a charge on capital, it is very eltsimbie that in half-yearly accounts an estimate- of the value of the existing stock, and a supplementary report thereon from its superintendent, should be given; and that the extent of traffic in miles (not, as Mr. LUNG give' it, in mosey) which the stock in hand is capable of carrying should be stated. Otherwise, it is clear that in militia/ more cepitel for fr esh traffic, &teeters have always the mesa of ;cajoling tbdir shareholders. , In every other respect the Brighton report and Accounts are eminently eatisfactory . ; in epee more so than in the precaution Kr. I,smo ts adopting against accidents, and in the small expenditure comparatively during the half-year for " law." Yet, compared with French lints, this charge, even against the Brighton Company, is still enormous; for whilst in its last half-year the Havre and Paris law bill only amounted to 241., the "law charges" of the Brighton for the half-year ending 31st Dec., 1831, are 800/. 15x. tld.! The difference tells a sad tale against English ma nagement of railways. from We. publish to-day another Mr. AILCIII on his system of farming. Ho who makes two ears of corn grow where one I only grew before, is proverbially a tuitional hene- I factor; yet it is quite natural that ho who fertilises the soil should incur the hostility of those miserable monopolists who would found their fortunes on the creation of an artificial scarcity of food. hence the passionate dislike betrayed by the protectionists towards all earnest and go-ahead agricultural im provers. The protectionist theory in rural affairs is, that the utmost limits of improvement have been reached in this country ; that with all our improve ments we cannot compete with even the ruder bus• bandry and scanty agricultural capitals of the con tinent; and that, therefore, our farmers' profits and our landowners' rents can only be kept up by a high protective duty on foreign agricultural produce. fida is the common argument of the sluggard , monopolist, which even for his own sake should be disregarded. Having these fucts be (ore us, we justly anticipated that Mr. MECIIeB meritorious efforts,--as detailed in his paper read ' before the Society of Arts,—to demonstrate the capacity of our soil for far larger production than has hitherto been obtained, would raise no small share of adverse criticism from the adherents of pro tection. They feel instinctively that every improver is the enemy of their system, and that every rural improvement tends to prove its hollow and illusory character. And Mr. MEelti being a somewhat daring improver, and ono who is rather fond of bringing his improvements before the public, it has become a sort of shibboleth of the protectionist faith to cry down MECIII. Accordingly we find that a weekly print, which harps hebdomadally on the one monopolist string, has set to work to denounce Mr. MEelifs balance-sheet and farming operations with a perseverance and acrimony absolutely ludicrous. Editorial comment, swarms of correspondents, ex tracts from contemporary commentators, fierce onslaughts on any who suggest that Mr. Mr.eili has done good service—one of these being made on our— selves—and various other manifestations of irritate& ' impotence are resorted to for the purpose of showing' that the protectionist world hates and despises NIECIII and all other advocates of "high farming." It was in consequence of such and similar attach/ that Mr. MEeill addressed to us the letter which a few days since appeared in our columns, wherein ha gives the following plain and simple explanation of that part of his farming account—the cost of his fattening stock—which has been most vehemently assailed. He says that his object has been to raise the standard fertility of his farm, and for that pur pose he intended to apply to his land a large quanft of manure, greatly exceeding that quantity which is a regular course of culture would be needed for lasi already got into high condition; that the question with• him was how to accomplish that object at the cheapest into; and that he found the best method was to keep an unusually large number et feeding animals. In this way ho effected his object, at the average loss of 33 per cent. on the total yearly cost of buying and feeding his fat stock. That sum—call it loss or outlay in the purchase of manure—amounted in 1851 to about liffo/., or about 70s. per acre on his whole farm. And Mr. NIECIII tells us that his end is now accomplished, his land having been fertilised, and producing abundance of stock food; his outlay for the future in the purchase of artificial food will seldom exceed 1501. per annum. This is just the course which we assumed Mr. MECIII would take. And what is there new in it? Is there any improved farm, is there any thriving farmer throughout England, is there any land made artificially fertile which may not be cited as an instance of precisely the same course of improve ment ? And none know the truth of this better than the protectionist yelpers at Mr. Menu! and high farming. It is only by present outlays, in the expectation of larger future returns, that laud has been improved, and the same means of improve ment must be continued by all who would live by the occupation of agricultural land. And every one whose common sense and power of observing what is passing around him have not been blinded by prejudice or sinister interest, must bo aware that in the improvements of cultivation and in the general management of land—requiring doubtless in most cases the conjoint action of landlords and tenants— there is ample scope for compensation for the loss— if loin it be—of " protection. But singularly enough, in the same number in which Mr. Mzeiii's letter appeared, another and a different sort of illustration appeared, showing the truth of the proposition, that an improved system of management of land, and not protection, is the remedy for agricultural distress. This was contained in an elaborate estimate and detail of the cost and methods of improvement, by Mr. EDWARD PAGE, farmer and land agent of Yorkshire. We need scarcely recommend Mr. PAGE'S letters to our agricultural readers, nor have we space here to follow him through his clear, though elaborate demonstration, worked out too precisely in the form and fashion to which the agricultural mind is most accustomed. But the general results are these. Taking as an illustration a farm of 2'25 acres, of average quality, one-third grass and two-thirds arable land, he proposes that the landlord should expend in draining, buildings, and the like, the sum of $S3'., on which the tenant should pay, by way of interest, 4-11. 13s. over and above his present yearly rent ; that the tenant should improve known system of cultivation, by using extra quantities of artificial food fur stock and purchased manure (the particulars of which are specified), the purchase of extra stock, extra weeding, repairing and so forth, at the addi tional yearly cost of 2504, being a total increase of outlay by the tenant of 30W., or about 275. did. per acre. This, on a five course rotation, would require an extra capital of 7514 The yearly increase of produce to be obtained by means of such outlay would be,—aa shown by Mr. PAGE'S careful and moderate estimates,-3751. 12s. ; giving a clearyearlyprofit of 751.—f0r interest is allowed as part ofthe cost of cultivation—ou the investment of 7501. This is equal to a profit of 6s. 10d. per acre •, and the same system being pursued, the result will be, in succeeding rotations, a progressive improve ment of the land must like place by which the tenant will reap a further advantage. Here we have in a different form precisely the same principles applied, by a practical farmer and land agent. Heals° shows how to remedy agricultural distress and countervail the losses assumed to have been sustained through free-trade, and shows it in the same way as that advocated and adopted with the like objects by the much abused Mr. MEM. And the more intelligent portion of the agricultural body are aware that there exists a wide margin be between the present and prospective produce of land, which may be made the means of placing them in a far better position than they ever were in under the protective system; and they are beginning to regard— with well merited contempt—the protectionist politi cians and their organs of the press who discoun tenance agricultural improvement, and pander to the prejudices of pride and ignorance. BORN WITHIN; THE 801:ND OF Bow BV.LL.—In his edition of Stow's " Survey of Loudon," Mr. Thom. appends the subjoined note to the account which is given of Bow Church and its hells :—" From the atmenee of every allusion on the part of Stow to the common definition of cookney, a person horn within the sound of Bow hells, the saying would appear to he of somewhat more recent date." Stow's werk was first published in 1.59 N, and the author died in IPOi. Fuller, author of the " Worthies of F.nit land," was born in lfSgi . and it would seem that during his lifetime the definition of a cockney was well-known ; for thus 11. MS Fuller speak :—[lle was horn within the sound of Bow hell.) This is the periphrasis of a Londoner at large, born within the suburbs thereof; the sound of this bell exceeding the extent of the Lord Mayor's marr.”— From .Votes and querias. FRANCE. • PARIS, MONDAY EVININO The decree of tho 10th continuer to be carried out. Out of 21 representatives who were confined at St. Pelagic, 19 have already left, alter having re ceived passports for foreign countries. These 19 are , —MM. Latrade (released on the 10th) ; Beare, Ilur-1 gard, Neva! Myra, and Antony Thouret (released on the 17th) ; Charles Lagrange, Renaud, Raeou chot, Benoit, Faure (du Rhone), Gilfavru, Valentin, Boursat, Gambol', Perdioier, Nadaud, Laboulaye, Chola, and &lin (released on Saturday.) M. Re-; mud left the same evening for Belgium ; and M. j Pascal Buprat and M. Antony Thouret for Ger many. There are still at St. Pelagic MM. Dufrowe, Greppo, and Richardet, under sentence of tranpor tation to Guyana ; Latin, implicated in the disturb ance,' of the Lot ; Chaix, Delbetz, and Mulct, whose names are nut in the decree. 'The political prisoners ordered fur transportation to Cayenne, and who were first embarked ut Havre, have left Brest ; but instead of going ut once to their destination they are to remain at the little Isle-des- Salutes, near Martinique, until preparations can her made at Cayenne to receive them. M. Mestro, director of the colonies of the ministry of marine, went to sec them just before their departure, and ascertained that the medical service had been pro perly prepared, and all their wants supplied. teveral rumours are afloat as to the persons selected for senators and councillors of state. I be lieve that there is the less occasion to notice these, as the official lists are both expected in the Mosaiteur of Wednesday. I have already alluded to the appoint ment of * Jerome Bonaparte as President of the Senate. This is now reported us certain. The Prince de lkauvau is mentioned as a senator. M. Truplong, First President of the Court of Appeal, is appointed Vice-President. It is to be remarked that the Bonapartist journals never fail to repeat whatever articles or news the English papers contain with respect to the prepara tion of defensive works in England, and the alarm of the public mind with regard to projects of invasion. The Palrie reports that a great lite will be cele brated at Paris on the occasion of the solemn pro clamation of the constitution, and of the opening of the senate and legislative body. The President will give a grand ball at the Tuiieries. The same jour nal add, that it is rumoured that the solemnity will take place about the 25th of February. The pavilion of Fora, at the Tuileries, where all the wires of the electric telegraph ore concentrated, is destined to receive the bureaux of the President. The administrative section of the Consultative Commission has returned to the Minister of Com merce the draft of the statutes of the Western Rail way. The principal articles of the statutes were formally rejected on the report of M. Corendet. The company of the Messageries Nationales was more fortunate. I have previously informed you that its statutes were approved. The latter company, you arc aware, is charged with the Mediterranean packet service., in consequence of the concession granted to it by the National Assembly. Thus the Consulta tive Commission fulfils the Inactions of the old Con seil d'Etat until the reorganisation of this corps ac cording to this constitution. The promotions in the army are so numerous and important, that the .11 , niteur de rArste, , publishes a supplementary number, which contain s a notice that the President has appointed the follow ing officers generals of brigade and commanders of military sulxlivisions : Do Fulque dThaison (Oise), Lehreton (Eure-et-Lnir), Ney (Cale:tilos), Senilhes (Gene), WAnthou• ard-Vninentart (Seine-Inficieure), Foy (Somme), Perrin (Aisne), D'Autematre•lPErsilh , (Moselle), t'hrich (Bas- Ithin), Barbeyrac de St. Maurice (boobs), D'Aurelles de Palailines (Jura), lie Berthier (Ain), Duhern (Ardeche, state of siege), De Bousingen Monate-du-1(hone), ,Jamie (Ilerault), De Cambay (Aveyron), Itonini (Pyn , n6es- Orientates), Delachaize (Lot, state of siege), Delmas do Orammnnt (Ilasises-Pyrenees), Fie& de Lii:vreyille (Cie rondo), Lebarbier de Timm (Charente), Grolion (Loire- InOrieure), Chatry de La Fosse (Deux-IV•vres), Faivre (Ille-et-Vilaine), De Sparse (Loire-et-Cher), Iteltramin (Vienne), De None (Cher), Courhy de Cocnord (Indre), Paucbeux (Allier, state of siege), Dupleix (Puy-de-DAme), Durtuch (Cantal), O'Keefe (Crease), Lorenton-Domouttl (Lyons). The Pattie says, that it would appear from the books of the officers of the steam-ships of Liverpool and Southampton that several ex-repre sentatives have just embarked fur America. Three have proceeded to the United States, and two to Mexico, where they intend to engage iu trade or manufactures. The Ojfiria! Gazette of Milan reports that the courts of Europe have latterly received two impor tant communications--one from Louis Napoleon, in which the result of the vote un the '2oth of - December is announced, and in which fresh assurances arc given of a pacific policy ; and another from Lord Granville, on the subject of refugees in England, in which the new Foreign Secretary says that he will do his best to live on good terms with the European Powers. A comparison of the new constitution with that of the year VIII., upon the provisions of which it is professedly based, will show that in many essential partieulArs the latter is infinitely more favourable to liberty than the former. The constitution of 1832 professes to recognise the great principles proclaimed in 1789 as the basis of the public rights of French men. That of the year VIII. had no such hollow general declaration. Hut it does in the last chapter provide for the practical enforcement of some of those principles. Every man's house is there declared in violable. Three specified cases only, fire, inundation, or a call for help from within, justify the entering into a house in the night time. There are also va rious clauses in favour of individual liberty, and for the punishment of agents concerned in any . illegal or arbitrary arrest, or who should confine prisoners in other places than known public prisons, or who should use any illegal or unnecessary severity towards them. The First Consul had not the command of the army and navy. The constitution did not give him the title of Chief of the State. Declarations of war, treaties of peace, of alliance, and of commerce were to be proposed, discussed, and promulgated by the Corps /,, , gistatif The executive might, it is true, sign treaties of peace, alliance, and commerce, but they were not definite until they had received the legislative sanction. A declaration of war, which Louis Napoleon has arrogated to himself the sole right to make, could not, you observe, be made, oven provisionally, by the First Consul. The consular government had not the power of granting pardons. It is curious that this power is not mentioned at all in the constitution of the year Viii. The First Consul had the ministerial duty of promulgating the laws, but he had not the power of refusing to sanc tion them. Louis Napoleon has an absolute veto, a power which would be useless, seeing that he alone has the right of proposing laws, were it not that even the limited right of amendment conferred upon the Corps I.4'yselatif might by accident p roduce a measure displeasing to the President. The consular constitution required no oath from functionaries. This was, however, ex acted a few months later, by a law of January 11, 114410. The salary of the First Consul specified in the constitution was 20,0001. a year. 'flat by Louis Napoleon is to be fixed by senators of his own choosing, to whom he has the power to grant pen sions of 1,200/. a-year after seeing how they vote. The ministers were, as now, dependent only upon the head of the executive, but they were necessarily chosen from a national list of eligibles chosen by the' departmental electors. The consular Senate wua, in theory, at least, an infinitely snore independent body than Louis Napoleon's can ever be, and its powers were not so wholly illusory. Napoleon, the consul Lebrun, and the citizens Siqes and Roger Duct* were entrusted with the nomination of the first thirty-one senators. 'Dime afterwards elected I others, up to the number of sixty, which completed 1 the original Senate. The number was to be increased to eighty within ten years, by self'-election. These additional numbers, as well as death vacancies, were to be chosen one at is time from three candidates, of whom one was proposed by the Corp LNisiolif one by the tribunate, and the third by the First Consul. The senators were irremovable and elected for life, and received of right a salary of 1.000/. a-year. They were ineligible to any other public functions. There I was a chance that a body so elected and so paid I would in time have a tendency towards independ ence. But Louis Napoleon's senators are to be I chosen by hineulf, paid or not at his option, I eligible to be appointed by him to all offices, and if, contrary to all likelihood, they should at any time oppose his wishes, he has reserved the power to swamp them by adding to their numbers. To call so servile and helpless a body as this a " preponde rating power," the "guardian of the fundamental pact and of individual liberty," is a mockery and an The attributions of this slavish Senate will be found upon examination to be illusory. It is pompously stated that no law can ho promulgated without being first "submitted" to it, but it no where appears that It will have the power to throw out any hill. It may propose a modification of the constitution, the meaning of which is that it will be expected humbly to offer the imperial crown to the President. The article which gave the' consular Senate the power of maintaining or annulling any unconstitutional act is copied in the existing one, but it is nullified by Arta. 27 and 2s, which direct that the senate shall nettle, by a 101111, WO 001111111M. the interpretation of any doubtful clause in the constitution with the sanction of the President. These articles arc cunningly int rodueed Aire, to nul lify the clause burrowed from the old constitution, and secondly, to oust the jurisdiction of the Court of Cessation upon questions of constitutional law. The consular Corps Uyislalff was elected by the Senate from a list of the eligibles emanating ultimately front popular election by the system of three degrees. Louis Napoleon's will, it is believed, be chosen by di rect universal suffrage, although the word "direct' is not used,and it isquitepossible that an organic electoral law will otherwise regulate the election. This is the one sole point in which there is in theory a semblance of libmy not to be found in the proto type. It is, however, quite immaterial, for the Oirin LAyixlalif will have no Neer. Its nominal privilege is to vote laws and taxes, hot it may be prorogued indefinitely, and dissolved, without a new parliament being necessary, for six months. In such I a ease Louis Napoleon and his senators will make the constitution " march" without any representatives of the people. The consuls lout no ',awes either to prorogue or dissolve the Corps LAyisioli/I: The con sular constitution expressly recognizes the right of the people4o petition the Corps tz:.oistatit: Louis Napo leon denies this right, but allows the people to petition the Senate who have nothing to do with voting taxes. The consuls were avowedly not responsible, and Louis Napoleon professes to be so. But he defines his re sponsibility to mean his right to appeal to the people whenever it may suit him. Lastly, the consular eon atitution directed the Corps le'yimiat f 'r to be elected within 15 days, and that the constitution itself should be submittal for ratification to the French people. Louis Napoleon's dispenses with the latter ceremony, postpones the elections indefinitely, and declares that in the tneantime his decrees are to have the force of law. In addition to the other reasons assigned for the adjournment of M. de Montalembert's reception at the Academy I must add that of the exile of three academicians. It was wished to avoid, just at pre,ent, the disagreeable impression which would naturally arise from this circumstance, and which it V‘11 , 4 ex pected would be considerably aggravated by the new academician's discourse being directed in great mea sure against assemblies, and particularly against the Constituent Assemble of the first revolution. The affair of the Lyons and Avignon Railway has experienced, it is said, a serious hitch, in consequence of the discovery of an important error in the esti mates of the engineers of the expenses of construct ing the line. To-day there is very little news. Ily way of com pensation there is no dearth of rumours. If I speak to you of these, and in particular of the most dis agreeable sort of rumour one can have to report, it is that the news is generally spread, and a total im possibility exists of sifting truth from falsehood on such matters. Nell, there is another story afloat to-day, about an attempt made on the President's life. This is said to have occurred as he was leaving the Tuileries yesterday, to take a drive in the close chariot which now seems his usual conveyance. As the carriage was coming out of the Carrousel, an officer is said to have snapped a pistol at Louis Napoleon. The rumour mongers, not content with this, go a step farther, and report, diversely, that the Pmsident was wounded in the shoulder, or that the ball was stopped by a shirt of mail. The only s o rt o f imp or t ance I attach to these reports is the general tendency in the public mind to generate such sinister reports. To-day a printed notice has been circulated, to an nounce that M. de Lamartine's new monthly paper, the Cirdisatear, intended to replace the Conseillee• du People, will appi ar on the Ist of the next month. Each number of the Cirilisaleser will contain the life and the portrait of a grand hotnu u tie thisuaanilA. The military commission sitting at Lons-le-Saul nier delivered 29 decisions in its sitting of the 14th and 13th. Two men, named Rena and Richard, were condemned to transportation to Cayenne fur five years; 'frouve for six years, and Willermoz, one of the authors of the insurrectionary placard pub lished by the Trihune de CEO, for ten years. Eleven others were sentenced to transportation to Lambessa for five years; one for seven years, and one to ten years. One prisoner only has been sent for trial be fore the court-martial. Ten have been set at liberty. 'file examination into the affair of the disturbances in the Var is drawing to an end. Out of 1,262 in surgents who have been lodged in the prison at Draguignan, between the 7th December to 12th inst., 1,239 have been interrogated by the examining com mittee. 213 were set at liberty after this preliminary examination; 599, belonging to the categories of the arrondissements of Draguiguan and Brignulles, have been transferred to Toulon. There now remain only 418 prisoners, of whom 23 arc women, in the prison of Draguignan, who will be removed to Toulon in a few days. Only 43 remain to undergo their ex amination. It was not to be expected that activity in the re tail trade of Paris would be maintained long after New-year's Day, and a marked falling off in most branches has been noticed. This dead season arrives every year in the month of January. Still, as tho sales of the end of the year commenced later than usual, it was hoped that they would be prolonged beyond the usual time. One of the branches of trade which derived the least advantage from New-year's ' day was the important one of jewellery. The jew ellers, indeed, have thus far scarcely felt the benefit of the season's business; and they have manufac tured rather to complete their assortments than to execute orders. This is confirmatory of the accounts before given, that although a large sale of trifling things was effected for t'trennes, few purchases of expensive articles were made. The commission agents who purchase for South America calculate on giving important orders front the end of the month. It is at that period that the export trade ordinarily resumes all its activity, and a brilliant spring season is as much hoped for as it is needed. The manufactures of Paris arc not more brisk than the retail trade. The cabinet-makers arc perhapo the only operatives now actively at work for ex portation. The accounts from the provinces continue to speak of manufacturing activity. The manufacturers of Alsace labour actively to make up for continudl pur chases, and the prices of cotton goods tend constantly to an advance. The same is the case with respect to the silks of Lyons, and the woollen goods of Roubaix and Elbeuf. 'lndeed buyers, however desirous to do business, hang hack somewhat on account of the high priors of raw materials. Speculation has become very active in corn and flour. The absence of cold, and the recent heavy rains, further increase the tendency of prime to a rise. At Paris flour has , since it was at the lowest price of 43f. the sack, risen to 4sfr. Iris now dearer in France than in England, and the speculators of London begin to find profit in re-exporting it to our seaports. Speculation has been very active since the commencement of the year in wines and spirits. It has also begun to seek for colonial goods, and espe cially sugar, which had not previously taken part in the amelioration of different descriptions of goods. In the metallurgic districts the improvement has maintained itself, and there is already a talk of seve ral iron-masters thinking of lighting up new fur naces. At the adjudication of the rails for the circular railway to connect the termini of the various lines at Paris, the following were the prices sent in : The Providence and lknain, 272 fr. 40c. per ton; Chatillon and t'reusot, 261 fr. Nine.: Dupont, I treyfus. and Co., 27!1fr.; Hayunges. 275 fr.; Abotnville, 27mfr. ttite.; l►erezeville, 285 fr.; Mon tataire, 2tlnfr. The maximum price fixed by the Minister of l'ublic %Works being 255 fr., the adjudi cation did not take place. For the chairs the lowest tender was from Morel, Brother's (Ardennes, Irtter. 90c. the ton ; and as it was under the maximum of the minister, the contract was adjudged to that firm. The Sleets gives the following comparative ae ! count of the population of the department of the Seine in 1M46 and to 1851: "The population of Paris, not including the troops of the garrison, in Insl, was 1,021,530, being 12,6641 less than in Ism, when the previous census was token. The garrison was :11,732, being 12,031 more than in 18tH. The population of the arrondissement of Saint Hods w•aa 221;,t437, being and increase of 15,907. Of the rondissement of Secaux 126,9 1 11 ; increase, 10,391. The garrison of St. Denis was 6,955; increase, 372. Of Secaux, 8,050 ; increase. 1,091." The Univers says that Mr. Thomas Graves Law, of Winchester School, aged 15 years, and Miss Helen Anne Law, aged 19, children of the llon. William Law, were received into the bosom of the Roman catholic church at Boulogne, on Jan. 17, by Father Ferrara. A priest was arrested at Bordeaux on the 17th, upon the charge of belonging ton meeret society. A decree of the Ministmr of Finance revokes th e appointment of M. Gouda aux as Director of the National Dimeount Bank at Strasbourg. lu consequence of Ow lly moo& of devotedness to the calms: or order given by the national guard...if Rouen, itn service will not be ut all interrupted, and its reorganisation will take pla ce immediately. The Journal de R va states that the uuthorithi h ave tavl cre ,l a ll shops kept he fraternal te.soviv• Bonn in that place to be elomed. * They were but very few in number. The Musetiat of the Luxemourg, after having been lung closed, was re-opened to the public yustt day. A certain number of the pictures having been 'removal to the Louvre a complete arrangement of the remainder wax Necessary. and about fort• new pictures, recently purchase if by the state, having been introduced, the galleries of the Luxembourg present a new sippeanwe. 'the Archbishop of l'aris has formed n new parish under the name of Saint Joseph, in the quarter of the Faubourg du 'temple, and has appointed thu Ablk Arnault, first rirnir.• of Saint Louis d'Antin, run , of it General Magnan had a party at the Tuileries yes terday. lAA Brougham has arrived at the TlV.tel Mcurice, front Cantu,. His lordship intends to remain akw days in Paris previous to g ling to England. At the Bourse the lice pr•r Cents. fell 20c., and closed at 101.10. The Three per (Amts. fell hot., closing at GP4.3.5. Bank of France shares ruse 2uk. Railways were rather less firm than on Saturday, but with little change in quotations. SI'AIN. The governor of Madrid had informed the mourn ill that the recent royal decree on the press will i.e gorously executed, and had recommended the edit..rs to be very circumspect in selecting their news. Tito Clamor Publiru did not appear on the 11th. Tho Nurion mentions a repirt that the French atulstssador has detnunded the payment of 100,000,900 reals. due to France for the expense of the intervention in Is*23, under the Duke trAngoulCmc. SWITZERLAND. The 1 Ofnettr says: "The Bund announces that a refugee in Switzerbuid hud sought to revolu tionise Alsace orders of Mazzini.and it is pretended that letters of a compromising character had been found among his papers. We will observe that the person in question is not a refugee, and that he did not reside in Switzerland. lle resided iu the duchy of Baden, near Bile. lie was employed in a com mercial house at Bale, and no one was aware that he was at all connected with politics. His papers were seized at Wile, and at his residence. He was arrested, expelled, and has since gone to America. One single refugee was compnonisvd with him, and he also has been expelled by the fede ral council." ITALY. PIEDMONT. A secret sitting of the Chamber of Deputies of Turin having been held on the 12th, the Griogi Gaulle thinks itself sufficiently informed to be able to state that the object of the sitting was the aliena tion of two millions of francs more of nen tes, to be ne gotiated with Messrs. Rothschild, but that the motion was rejected. The motion for the abolition of ecclesiastical cx penses from the Ist of July . next, proposed to the Chamber of lkputies of Turin by M. Cadorna, was ably opposed in the sitting of the 13th, by M. De 10n:2164 Minister of brae.: and Justice, who. after declaring that the Sardinian government still con templated introducing sonic necessary reforms in tho ecclesiastical department of the budget, expressed a decided opinion that M. Cadorna's motion was pre mature and dangerous, inasmuch as negotiations were actually pending with Rome on the subject. M. Cadorna replied that he had not made the motion in a spirit of opposition, but merely with the intention of introducing further economy in the public expen diture; the more so as the real object of the motion was not to suppress necessary expenses, but merely to organise a better distribution, an object which the Court of Rome could not, he thought, disapprove. Count Cavour, the Minister of Financ es , replied, that he was convinced the negotiations with Rome would lead to a satisfactory result, and that, as they must come to a close before the Ist of January, 1853, the government would be in time to propose proper measures, should the decision of Rome be the reverse of what he expected. M. Cadorna then proposed a less stringent amendment than his preceding one, but the Chamber adopted the simple order of the day, and afterwards voted the budget by a majority of 98 to 24. The number of insurgents from the llasses-Alpes who have taken refuge at Nice amounts to about AO. The Pieilmonteseuutltorities are about to assign them a place of residence iu the interior of the country. GERMANY. The Vienna Gazette of the 15th contain,. an Im perial Patent, dated Jan. 11, abolishing trial by jury throughout the empire. A letter of the same date informs us that the Drily Netex has been prohibited in Austria. Our correspondent writes: VIENNA. JAN. 12, l'roposals are in active preparation tor a new Austrian loan to bo effected in the foreign market. The urgent necessity of this measure to carry on the machinery of government is stated to have been the real cause of the retirement of Baron Krauss from his lute post as Minister of Finance. Though an able, hard working, honourable man, he had con trived one way and another to lose the confidence of the commercial world, partly by his interference with private interests and partly by the unlucky nature of his financial measures, and, it being thus felt on all hands that no radical improvements could be carried out under his administration, it be came necessary to appoint him a successor. The precise nature of the views of M. de Baumgartner is not known, but it is rumoured that the new loan like the former one will he employed chiefly to diminish the present paper currency, and consequently to raise its value in exchange tor foreign bills. The second note of the President of the French Republic to Prince Schwarrenberg contane .1 the strongest assurances of a pacific policy, and the re appointment of M. de Flahault as minister of Franco to this court, which is a good deal talked of, swim to imply the best possible feeling between the two powers. There may be expected very shortly, if reports in official quarters are to be believed, some fresh impe rial rescripts concerning the new organic laws of tho , empire. They will refer chiefly to the privileges to be regranted to the nobility, the encouragements to he held out far entailing estates upon the eldest sons, and the legal exemptions to be claimed by them. Information not altorther unworthy of confidence Mates Hutt Prussia im about to eft et a complete abo lition of her existing constitution, and negotiations an: said to have been entered Oil to obtain the sup port of Austtia, should it be neeessary, in carrying out this measure. Very small trust or good feeling is believed t.) exist between the governments of France and Prussia. It is confidently stated that immediately atter the retirement of Lord I'almereton the Austrian govern It a c elin allow 4 Beich — Tl'i dent adliy — Th to I* ad , . at t a di bur lam Go , his