The Express. — London, England, 1851-10-08 00:00:00

Zhe erprefso. TO COIL m...a...a.... • soma Mahn at •• The Earseas umsw " assialsev i t ysa , aasas osh r ia ea . : Gaartt.s" Is Pied *MI kr Pod. • for “Tba issides: • Ladies Emir paps, alfeltirtelliletAaltel K.d ma 4 lap at eat thta. to. Mos day al pablkasiam. RIGS WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE Too DAT —74arelyg. lb. in. .Atierases. lb. Sls. Te-asarm—Morslag. In. 40s. Afterrob, lb. Ma LONDON, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 8. To those who have watched the course of public ears in France, there is nothing so surprising, and so mot tifsing to behold, as the similarity, almost the =meant', indeed, of all administrations in that country. Whether the monarch reigns by what is called regitimiat right, whether ho seeks to enforce that right with zeal, or render it palatable by con ciliation—whether the occupier of the throne be a King elected by the choice of politicians and the sanction of the people, or whether in tine the government be a republic based on universal suffrage, and proclaiming universal rights—it all comes to the same point; the administration is found proceeding in the self-sane path. Fear of the people, persecution of the press, the grossest in fraction of individual liberty and of every law gua ranteeing it, proscription of the rights and practice as association, endeavour to place the mind of French youth in the limping of the Jesuits, and the mind of French manhood under the dread of the gaoler, the police officer, and the attorney:general-- theve are the characteristics of every administration that Frames has seen during half a century. No matter how liberal the statesmen who take offioe— no matter how absolutist, the principle of administration becomes the sane. You may 'iterate Posicsac and PE YRON NET, you may re joice at the accession to power of men so liberal and so honest as Bangor and Faueffffit, vet you find the former eager to bolster up the l'oes's despotism by the bayonets of French soldiers, and you find a severe persecution of the press mark the government of the latter. We might say the same of sovereigns, and ask where has been the difference between the elder Bur LISONS, the laiet.sxs ditto, and the lesser Bose- TARTE. ? Are they nut all one and the same, except, wham% that some one prince may have bad a little MOM &tufty, and another somewhat more cunning? But all run the same career, to reach the same end viz., the unpopularity and universal contempt under which King and dynasty sink, to rise nu more. Is it not clear as the noon-clay that I,oris Nasal:vs is going the way of all }rench princes, and by precisely the same road which they all took ? And we see the consequence. At this mo ment the political class, those who have influence and hope for place these people are in the fiercest agita tion and commotion, some wore for the liunapartist, some dozen for the Orleanist, and as many for the legitimist. But look away from some hundreds of these professional politicians to the country at large, and there will be found a uni versal indifference and contempt for every one of the candidates, not one of whom either inspiaCt4 hope or commands respect. Yet all hope to he elected, nay, to convert the elective chair into an hereditary throne. They are building a pedestal of hatred and contempt ; they are anxious to get up upon this pedestal, and they hope to support themselves on such u basis. Verily, kingship to the most wising of professions, followed by the most fatuituus of nem. But what is the cause of princes being such puppets, and of liberal statesmen proving the con trary of what they themselves promised and all their friends expected ? The meson lies in the terrible and vast centralisation of French government, in the number, power, hierarchy and traditional spirit of that bureaucratic, which, wherever it reaches firm establishment, soon absorbs everything else, prince, ministers, statesmen, and even public opiniaa itself. This immense machine is the only mode by which a minister can govern. Yet all he can do is to set it in motion, and be satisfied with what it produces; for regulate or stop its movements he cannot. A home minister may be shocked by those freaks of power which his subordinates com mit, such as the breaking in upon convivial meetings in the provinces, threatening deputies with arrest for ups • g their mouths, or issuing an ukase that libe rals shall not be supplied at any hotel with dinner. The prosecution an t condemnation of young Hew for denouncing the punishment of death as cruel, whilst such men as Tifisies and ell %NG tItNIEIt talk and do treason aloud every hour in the day, may shock the sense and good feeling of a minister of justive. But what can he do? fhe home minister can no more restrain his myrmidons of police and prefecture than tho justice minister can check his rocurears and their substitute. And it is the same iu foreign polity. A French agent at Athens or Alexandria will get into rivalry, and quar rel with his English colleague for some trifle or another, and the minister at home can do nothing but sanction and abet. In fact, it is a bureaucratic that governs France, that has go verned, and will govern it, under Louts Neroi.t:os, under Loris-PiiiiirrE, aye, and under CAVAIGNAC himself, all-republican as he is, but infeedatedas ho is to the party of order. The French bureaucratic is of course monarchic, which is very ungrateful of it, for it enjoys greater power, and exercises greater tyranny at present than a did in the days of any monarch. But then it fears that the golden reign may not last. Au official aristocracy cannot well stand based universal suffrage, and yet universal suffrage has rendered the French bur, asieratie more powerful and numerous in the republican Assembly titan ever it was before. But, as they ray, this is not solid ; and they would sa crifice the freedom and the greatness of France to morrow to any king of any race, or of any principle, that would secure them tliis monopoly. It is the same thing in Prussia, except that the Prussian bureaucratic will not tolerate even consti tutionalism, which it considers hostile to it ; whereas French officials would at least have the form of re presentative government, although with so little of either the reality or the advantages, that but for the appearance of the thing they might invoke abso lutism& at once. The struggk France and in_ Pravia is m .ent a much the some. It lies between the bureaucracies and the people, the former supported by the army, of which the officers forts a class and hierarchy of placemen,with interests similar to the civilian servants of the state. The people of both countries have the satisfaction of seeing that they pay . . largely to support these classes for tyrannising over them. Au aristocracy weighs over both coun tries, not an aristocracy of either birth, wealth, or talent, but an aristocracy of plaeemen. It is the system of centralisation which supports thou. And it is for the people to devise how they can get rid of these incubi, and govern themselves constitu tionally and monarchically if they will, but without an official multitude to prey upon them and tynnise over them. This is far more important than to decide whether a legitimist, a quasi-legitimist, or a repub lican chief. shall be the bead man—the great ch./ de borraw of the bureaucracy. IN reference to the present and future representa tion of counties, we lately alluded to Wiltshire as • county the staple manufactures of which have de clined to the lowest point, and where political inde pendence has been completely destroyed by the divi sion of the county into two electortil districts, and the exclusive enfranchisement of the most dependent class :of the inhabitants, the fifty-pound - yearly tenants. And here we may mention that the northern divi sion of that county has a population of 133,442 and only 4,994 registered electors—numbers in our former notice by a shp of the pen attributed to the southern division—and that the southern division has a popula tion of 127,673 and no more than 2.559 registered elec tors. The mere statement of suchdisproportion between the population and the number of electors shows that the county representation is a farce. It is, in fact, completely in the hands of the great land owners, and the members have no responsibility to the body of the intelligent people of those clis triets. they simply represent in the House of Com mons the same views and interests which the peers of the county advocate in the House of Lords. do not represent the Commons of the county, but only that class which, erroneously, as we think, be- Neves its interests to be adverse to those of the industrious classes. Nor Wthis all; while the toasty members represent the landowners of the eawaly to a mass, in what may be called their corporals do racter, the borough members of this county, with a few exceptions, are returned by die direct and' ex elusive influence oj individual landowners. Oi l course the votes of Members thug:home moth with tho political views and class interests of their Pa??". We have seen that Wiltshire, now mainly an agricultural district, and with local interests almost entirely agricultural, sends, by the nomination of its •ners, four members to parliament, to repro spulation of about 260,000; while various that population are penned off in boroughs in such a manner as to add mach to the weight of the far too preponderant landed interest. For South Wilts, as we all know, Mr. SIDNEY HERBERT, the brother and heir presumptive of the Earl of PEM BROKE, sits as the representative of the PEMBROILI property; while the little town of Wilton, which nestles in one corner of the park, gives the name to a member of parliament, who is nominated bft o h k s . PEMBROKE influence. Turning to Mr. boo's bo we find that the constituency, consisting of the cor poration and the ten-pound householders, umbels only 208 registered electors. But we find aim • gnat disproportion between the population and the number of ten-pound houses and the registered elective; while the population amounts to 8,037, and the tam pound houses to 1,113, the electors, 204, are not a fifth of the number, which by the letter of the existing law they ought to be. Within the bona dauies of Wilton, a considerable area of agricultural land is compr ised, most of which belongs to the PEMBROKE estate, and therefore, although Mr. DOD delicately says, "The Earl of PEMBROKE has consi derable influence in this borough," it is a fact as noto rious as the sun at noon-day, that Lord SostERTON is as completely the nominee of the Earl of PEM BROKE, or those who act in his name, as his land steward or his bailiff. There may be, and probably arc, a few independent men in Wilton, but they must always be borne down by the immense local influence of their great neighbour. All that can be done with Wilton is to disfranchise it, and throw its political representation upon the county members. Salisbury, the county town, would naturally re tain its two members; but here there is the same disproportion between the number of ten pound houses and registered electors we see in the smaller borough. The right of voting is vested in the cor ation and 2,327 ten pound householders—that being the actual number of ten pound houses— whereas the registered electors, the actual voters, are only 695. Surely a city with a population of 11,626 can never be said to be fairly represented, when such a fraction of its inhabitants alone possess the right to vote. Westbury is in the same position; with a popula tion of 7,434, and 1,697 ten pound houses, it has a con stituency of only 310. Here the boundary has been so made as to comprise a large rural district, though in this instance with the effect of enni cipating the borough from nomineeship. The present member, Mr. WILsON, was elected as a free-trader, and there is sonic genuine independence in the place. In the olden days it was deemed, with Bradford and Trowbridge, one of the strongholds of the county liberals. A parliamentary group of boringlis might be formed by uniting Westbury with 'Trowbridge and Bradford, and perhaps Melk sham, that would fairly resent the still remaining manufacturing interest of Wiltshire. Devizes, next to Salisbury the meet important town in the county, though its importance is declin ing, has a population of 6,136, and 1,413 ten pound houses, though the registered electors number no more than 333. There Is a considerable corn mar ket, and with an enlarged constituency and the bal. lot, Devizes would probably be a fair specimen of a provincial town in an agricultural district. Cricklade, in the north of the county, is merely . a portion of the county, and it should be merged in the northern division. Its inhabitants have no in terests iii any way distinct front those of the rest of that division ; its industry is purely agricultural, and there is no mason, social, economical, or political, why " the freeholders, copyholders, and house holders" of the hundred and borough of Cricklade should not entrust their political interests to the county members. Cricklade is only a largo village, but the hundred comprises a population of 34,331; the ten-pound houses are 6,094, while the re gistered electors are only 1,663. The present mem bers, Mr. JOHN NEED D and Mr. Gounaitu, arc sire. ply nominees of the landowners of the district. There are four other boroughs in Wiltshire which ought to be altogether disfranchised: namely, Caine, with only la 9 registered electors, a nomination bo rough of the Marquis of L ‘NSUOWN ; Marlborough, with 254 registered electors, who are obliged to re- turn any two members the Marquis of AMESBURY may nominate; Chippenham, which has 314 regis tered electors, whom Mr. JOSEPH NEEL') relieves from all care and turmoil in the election of parlia mentary representatives by nominating himself and his brother-in-law, Captain BOLDERo; and Maims,- bury,with 316 registered electors, who elect a member kindly selected for them by the Earl of SUFFOLK. Or, if. instead of total disfranchisement, these four boroughs, with a household suffrage and the ballot, should be formed into a group of boroughs, and return two members, such members would pro bably fairly represent the real wants and wishes of an independent and intelligent section of tho English cemmunity. In each there is at present an inde pendent minority, but in each the prevailing influ ence of the local landowner is too strong to be en countered with effect. Thus, if in place of the eighteen members at present returned to parliament for the count• and boroughs of Wiltshire, the representation should con sist of tour members for the county, two for Salisbury, two for Devizes, two for a district of manufacturing boroughs—Westbnry,Tro% bridge, and Bradford—and perhaps two for a district of boroughs, consisting of Marlborough, Caine, Chippenham, and Malmesbury— altogether ten members; and if these members were chosen by enlarged constituencies, protected by the ballot, all the substantial interests of the county would be adequately represented, and by a number of members fully equal to the relative proportion of its wealth, population, and importance. Iv one very important respect there is a great difference between California and the Australian province in which gold has just been discovered. California was essentially a waste; there was no industry to be disturbed; no accumulated property to be destroyed, by the sudden concentration of men's thoughts and efforts upon gold mining. In New South Wales there is an immense property in herds and flocks to be left to go to ruin by the desertion of their guardians, drawn from them by the gold as irresistibly as tho nails in the ship of the Arabian tale were drawn out as soon as it came within the attraction of the kedstone island. And this diver sion of industry from its previous channels threatens to be quite as destructive to the colony as the abstrac tion of its nails was to the ship. New South Wales has, ever since the surcease of convict transportation to that colony, suffered under a deficient supply of labour. The progress of agri- culture has been retarded from this cause; and the great stockholders have had the greatest difficulty in procuring men to take charge of their herds and flocks. All recent accounts from the colony concur in representing the distress of agriculturists and stockholders by the desertion of their labourers as extreme. The plough has been left in the furrow, the harvest half garnered, by ploughmen and stock men rushing off to take part in the scramble for the newly-discovered precious metal. With visions of untold amounts of . gold to be had for the gathering floating before their imaginations, the forfeiture of wages, and threats of dismissal without any chance of re-engagement, are laughed to scorn. The has on the eve of conclusion, was in imminent dan ger of being half lost, and few seemed to trouble I themselves with forecast fur the next year. The cattle might be able to shift for themselves, though deserted by the stockmen; but they would run wild and have to be captured by the lasso. And as for the sheep, neglect of proper tendance would, in the course of a week or two, cause them to die off by the score. The owners of herds and flocks, who a few weeks before seemed secure in the possession of more than patriarchal wealth, had before their eyes the t of beggary, and scarcity and hunger prospect of begary, and scarcity and hunger loomed in the distance over the gold-enriched colony. MIDAS starving amid his gold reads like a prophetic myth indicating the fate of New South Wales. There is another danger threatening the colony IIIII•I I I • I • 1 • THE EXPRESS, WEDNESDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 8, 1851. that must not be left untold. Though New South Wales has not for many years had any convicts: sent directly to it, there has been a constant oozing of *sprees into it from Van Diemen's Land; load there are still survivors of the old direct impor- Wipes. As yet the mischief to be apprehended from this element in the colonial society appears to be in a manner latent, bat a fact which hue been commu nicated to us on unquestionable authority will show how much it is to be dreaded. Some three years ago a large . piece of gold was found by a shepherd in the mountain range in Victoria (Port Philip), that goes by the name of the Pyrenees. It was well known that gold dust existed in the sande of the streams that had their sources in that range, though it had not been found in such quantities as to repay wash ing. But the discovery was not followed up, and the reason was this :—The goldtinder in his isolated situ ation was beset by some expirees in his neighbour hood, who threatened him with death if ho did not reveal to them the locality of the precious metal. The unscrupulous character of the men, and the difficulty of obtaining protection in a thinly peopled district, so worked upon the apprehensions of the shepherd, that he fled the colony to escape their persecution, and left no trace to the deposit. It will be said that he must have been a weak minded man. Bo it so : the narrative shows what kind of ruffians convict transportation, mismanaged as it has been, has inflicted upon Australia, and the dread with which they are regarded by the honest settlers. _ . _ . . What, it will be asked, is the government doing in these circumstances to preserve order and the due administration of law, and to secure to the general community that wealth which ought to be made available for the general bene fit? The governor has issued a proclamation declaring that the gold is the property of the crown. This assuredly was not the way to lead the general public to co-operate in the efforts of government to have the gold deposit regularly and judiciously ex plored. It was, on the contrary, calculated to make the colonists regard the gold in the light of some thing the crown wished to keep for itself, while they thought they had the best right to it. It placed the " diggings " in the same category as the re served civil list—a government usurpation to be assailed by all means direct and indirect. To add to the absurdity, the government, having issued this proclamation, did not (perhaps could not) take any effective steps to enforce it. Less than a dozen additional policemen had been sent to the mining district, and of these some were aborigines. The total number of police, mounted and unmounted, native and European, assembled in the district did not much exceed fifty men. Of course tie crowds who had flocked to the gold region, and were busy with pick axes, shovels, and some apparently with their hands only, snapped their fingers at the proclamation and the police. A government commissioner had arrived at the " diggings," but, " witk much good judg ment," observes a writer on the spot, "he did not press the diggers, who were without means, for the immediate payment of the license fee, but gave them a week for the purpose, and offered to take the amount in gold dust." At the end of the week he would not be one jot nearer the attainment of his object. The governor and his official advisers, we learn from the letters of respectable and trustworthy per sons moving in the official circles, had been holding daily councils ever since the news of the gold dis covery had been confirmed. But it is clear that these councils had been mere " palavers," to borrow a phrase from the negro statesmen of West Africa, that they may have been fertile in talk, but that they have assuredly been barren in action. The local authorities arc isolated and impotent. If the colony is to struggle through the difficulties to which its sudden accession of wealth has subjected it, its local rulers must be instructed by their superiors. With the history of the Colonial-office for the last twenty years fresh in our memory this is indeed but a desperate kind of hope; and besides, much precious time must be lost before instructions can be received in the colony. There seems, however, to be little doubt as to the kind of measures which arc most likely to prove effective. In the first place, the local government ought to be instructed to make common cause with the colonists. They ought to bo told (sincerely, and in no dubious phrase) that the rich dekersit is to be administered for their benefit, by their instrumentality, and with due deference to their opinions and wishes. By this means the intelligence and energy of the colony (and it possesses both in abundance) will be eulisted in aid of a judicious management of the gold mines. The next object will be to remedy the evils likely to result from the draining of labour from the old (scantily supplied) channels. To this end it will be ne. ccssary to promote that spontaneous emigration which is beginning to set in with redoubled vigour from this country upon Australia, and to afford every facility, and security, and encouragement to intend ing emigrants. Nor will this be sufficient to meet the immediate pressure : a writer, whose opinion in such matters is entitled to great attention, has pointed to China as a source whence large and in stant supplies of labour may be drawn. Lastly, an embargo ought forthwith to be made upon all con templated additions to the surplus felon population of Australia. There arc already morn of our Eng lish rogues there than it will be easy to manage in existing circumstances. the preeklen cy. He thinks the Prince would become ne eessary in two events (both, it is true, pretty nearly inevitable). The first would bo the maintenance of the law of banishment against the Orleans family by the Assembly, which would make it incumbent upon the country to decide the question for itself; and the , second an unconstitutional candidature, against which M. Creton calls upon all right-thinking men to unite. o•The address of Kossuth to the Marseillais has made a great stir among the diplomatic body, who , immediately despatched couriers with it to their re- ! I spective governments. The municipal addresses in .:land to the ex-governor of Hungary are like wise a theme of much debate. The Constifutiannel follows the example of the : Patric in bestowing several columns of abuse upon Kossuth. As there is no kind of slander more odious than that which is invented to ex cuse injury, so there is no disparagement ' more despicable and ineffectual than that which is delivered with the scoffing sneer of the cynic. A single expression will exhibit in its true light the spirit in which the organ of the Elylike attacks the ex-governor of Hungary. "The carnage of the mayor goes to fetch the illustrious foreigner from the pier to the town-hall; an address is handed to him, which the scribe of the council has written out fair on fine paper, and the mayor makes a speech, to which the illustrious foreigner replies with what eloquence sea-sickness has hit him." The man whose genius was the life of the Hungarian war of inde pendence is spoken of in these terms: " Tenth will not fail to unmask this vulgar declaimer, whose blun dering alone is equal to his pride." In the same breath fulsome adulation is thus bestowed upon Austria : " Perhaps Austria, although she Du this occasion had the good fortune to defend the cause of civilisation and progress, would have succumbed under theefforts of Georgey, Dembinski, and so many valiant soldiers, if the incapacity of Kossuth had not destroyed the advantages conquered by the most heroic courage." Can any better proof be offered than such an article, that the French government is to-day what it was when it bombarded Rome. Nay, it has made some progress, when its confidential organs assert, under the date of the Gth of October, on the anniversary of the murders of Batthyany, Leiningen, Damjainch, and the rest of the Hungarian leaders, that the cause which was served by the hangman Ilaynau was the cause of civilisation and progress. Fines and imprisonment are the reward of the writers who pro test against such blasphemies. The Stevie replies as follows to the observations of the linirera on the refusal of the government to permit M. Kossuth to pass through France : The necessity of insulting all that is great, all that is noble, and all that has been rendered sacred by glory and by mi.fortune, weighs on the whole party of reaction ; hut we must admit that the Vairers carries this fatal necessity to a greater length than any other adversary of the people and of progress. With the square cap leaning M. the car, this religious journal now declares that M. Leon Faucher, a really great man, has acted wisely in refu-ing Louis Kossuth permission to pass through France, styling hint "an ambitious spouter, of whom the Hungarians have been the dupes and the sic ' time." he Umrers afterwards, in sketching the history of the Hungarian revolution, in the manner of Father Lou , quit, affirms that the Magyars only wished to render more absolute their domination over the Selavonians annexed to Hungary. That is not true ; but that is necessary in order ! to draw the conclusion that Kossuth was the agent of the • Magyar aristocracy, while the Batt Jellachich and the Ern ; pens of Austria were the dcf.ndsrs of democracy. The , end justifies the means. We shall nut lose time in refuting t such assertions, we shall only register tho fact, and leave it to public opinion. M. Faucher repulses Kossuth ; the Utaieers insults him. If Kossuth complain, ho will but , badly under-land the sentiments of France. At the Buurse, the Five per Cents. fell 3e., closing at 91•80; and the Threes rose 3c., and closed at 36 - 13. Itailways were firm: Rouen rose 8.73; and Northern, Ilavre ' and Strasbourg, 2.30. .Nhuveilles fell 2.30; and the Ventre, 1•25. SPAIN. GERMANY. VIENNA, OCT. 4. To-day is the Namenstag" of the Emperor, and crowds of inhabitants, dressed in their best, are at this moment assembled in the cathedral to hear the high mass in honour of the occasion. At noon the Em. poor will receive the congratulation of the court, diplomatic and military bodies, &e. believed o n Wednesdayll at the Ind ministerial to no o r i results. i t .t is t N r niter decision l generally 1 GIl council any point was come to, and the same suspense continues on the subject of war with Turkey . and the promised constitution. The nature of the impediments which have arisen to pre vent a decision on the former question, is not to be surmised. Prudence and caution arc not represented in the imperial councils. Perhaps the council has discovered that it would be better to wait for an answer of the Sublime l'ort to the Austrian demand for compensation for the injuries and damage done to Austrian subjects during the Bosnian insur rection, before taking more than preparatory steps for a campaign against Turkey. lhat military pre parations are being made can no longer be concealed. I myself have seen several battalions in the southern high-road, on their march for the Turkish frontier. They are reported by the government agents to be marching into Croatia, because great , discontent is beginning to manifest itself in that province, owing to the general distress; but, if addi tional military force is necessary in Croatia to keep in awe a disturbed population, surely the government would think twice before it sent Croat regiments, composed of men born in the very disturbed districts, to keep them in order. Such a step would be highly impolitic, and contrary to the usual policy of the Austrian government, which garrisons a discontented province by troops of a different nationality. Po pular rumour exaggerates very much the increase now being made in the Austrian forces on the Turk ish frontier. Instead of 40,000 men, I believe that only 10,000 arc on the march. If the Porte return a compliant answer to the demands for compensation, the main ground for making war will vanish; for, unless renewed disturbances arise iu Ilungaly from the liberation of Kossuth and his companions in con finement, the Austrian Emperor and his minister, Prince Schwarzenberg, have no valid reasons for desiring to punish the Porte for setting the illus trious exile at liberty. For the moment the question continues to wear a doubtful aspect. The imperial council would not come to any decision on the other question—the constitution—because that important document is not yet finished. Baron Kraus's order to the bank to supply the sum deficient in the new loan has become known to day, and has created a little panic in the panic accustomed 'change of' Vienna. London has risen to 12H., and other bills in proportion. Lisbon, yester day at 19, is to-day at 20 per cent. premium. These pnces are also very little better than nominal, for no business was doing. Purchasers of London and other foreign bills are compelled to transact business in secret, and to pay whatever price the holders may ask. Were the transactions of business on 'change uutampeeed by police restriction, and the constant fear of trial by court-martial for doing business with a view to effect an unfavourable change in the money market, the quotations of to-day would stand much higher. The quotations which you publish by telegraph from this city must therefore be received with caution. Speculation is rife as to the next measures which the - Minister of Finance will have recourse to. He acknowledges that the loan has proved a failure; his acknowledgment is perhaps not wanted. In his programiue for the new loan, the Baron Kraus, act ing upon what can only be called most unreasonably sanguine calculations, declared that he would only give 16 per cent. premium for payments in silver on behalf of subscriptions towards the new loan during the month of September, and for the present month only 15 per cent. During the month of September silver has once been quoted at 16, to-day it is 20, and the other three days of the month has varied from is to 19.,' per cent. Such a total failure requires no acknowledgment. It is too plain. Instead of de predating the value of silver and gold, the new loan, because a failure, has raised the price of both, and, unhappily for the empire, not merely fur the moment. (hose who venture to deal in bullion speculate, with very considerable chance of success on a rise. These rising fluctuations must be fore long produce the most fatal consequences. Already the _prices of food have risen very considerably. Every one exclaims against the dear ness of provisions. Lodgings have risen 23 per cent., and the philanthropic journals aro exclaiming against the usury practised by the landlords. There is every prospect of a further rise, which can only end iu the gradual cessation of all trade and com merce, and universal bankruptcy. What can the finance minister do ? Thu last loan was a fixed one, but force was applied only to the small tradespeople. He can only attack the property of the church and nobility. Both arc rich, and their coffers would supply the treasury of the empire with a couple of hundred millions without much difficulty. Still that sum would only be a temporary relief. Reduction of the army and reform in the expenditure of the government are the only means of permanent relief. Former letters have shown they will not be resorted to, and the Lloyd this morning confirms my views, in an article which in an opposition journal would be considered the height of malicious irony. The Ll.,d recommends the saving of a million of florins annually by publishing the laws of tho empire in one printing establishment, and in one language, and not in ninety, as is the case at present. Bitter, indeed, is the satire con veyed in the recommendation. It is the old story, saving the penny to squander the pound, translated into millions. The expense of maintaining the army is something like a hundred and fifty millions a-year. How is this state of things to end? Baron Kraus is an honest man, but he belongs to the servile, obedient race of men who sit in office and consider their duty to God and their country to be best accomplished by unhesitating obedience to the dictates of their supe riors. Baron Kraus does as he is told, and has not the courage to tell his master that what he is told to do is ruinous. MADRID, Ocr. 1. The arrival of the English President of the Board of Trade, Mr. Labouchere, although clearly stated to be a mere pleasure excursion, is interpreted by many to be pursuant to another attempt of the English government to give an impulse to the free•trade principles which arc evidently progressing, and to obtain, if possible, some immediate modification in the tariff and navigation laws. Others believe that the visit is occasioned by a desire to make some arrangement with respect to the debt. Whatever the cause may be, the visit, ns it has coincided with that of Mr. Olivicra, Count Tojal's cousin, who has come as representative of some of the English bond holders, has been copiously commented on both in the press and in political circles. Mr. Labouchero has been exceedingly well received here. lie has had an audience of the president of the council of ministers, M. Bravo Nlurillo. It is little probable that while this gentleman is in power that the foreign creditor or the foreign trader will have much to hope for; he cripples the resources of the country by his prohibitive measures, and nullifies by his narrow interpretation of the tariff law, the few advantages to be derived from it. The Custom house revenues are daily diminishing. The month of August of the present year shows a falling off of receipts to the amount of 235,834 teals in comparison with that of last year, and 2,532,232 reals less than what was calculated upon. Alone in the first months of this year the estimates present a deficit of 12,417,143 reals, and compared with that of the expenses, give the sad result below mentioned : Receipts of the first eight months of the year 743,447,499 Expenses of the same Deficit So that the English creditors may renounce all hopes of being satisfied, whilst a minister who can not balance the outlay with the income remains at the head of affairs. It is said that the Cortes will be convoked on the Ist of November. General Narvaez is ex pected in Madrid as soon as ho receives the news of the Cortes being opened. His relentless enemy, Gen. Pavia, has published a memoir of the civil war in Catalonia, in which very heavy charges are brought against Narvaez. The persecution of the opposition papers still continues. Yesterday three editions of the Epoca were seized, the last of which merely con tained the news from Cuba. The Madrid Gazette of to-day publishes de crees containing reforms in the administration of the island of Cuba. They enact that the department of the President of the Council is to despatch all affairs relative to the colonial possessions, with the excep tion of such as are at present specially directed by the Ministers of Finance, War, and Marine. They create a colonial council, which, in addition to other powers, may . propose, through tho President of the Council f Ministers, who is to preside over it, all measures it may consider useful to the colonies. The Vice-President of the Colonial Council is to have a salary of 60,000 reals, and the ordinary councillors are to receive 30,000 mils. The colonial section of the royal council is suppressed; that of the marine department is united to that of foreign affairs. The report, which precedes the ordinances, states that the object of them is to increase the rapidity of action of the government, to neutralise the effects of the dis tance from the mother country, and to make the action on the colonies as certain and advantageous as possible. The captains-general of each of the colonies are to conduct the affairs of the several colo nies under the control of the President df the Council of ministers, aided by special councils. M. Louis Lopez Ballestros, formerly minister of finance, and senator of the kingdom, has been appointed vice president of the Colonial Council, and amongst the ordinary councillors named are : Lieut.-General de Es later, senator, and formerly captain-general of Cuba, and Count de Mirasol, senator. Fearing that its official correspondence with its agents of the United States and the authorities of Cuba may run some risk in its passage through the American terri tory, not on the part of the government of the Union, but on that of mobs in some of the towns, the go- vernment has decided that henceforth it shall be for- I warded by couriers. The Herald° proposes to raise a subscription for recompensing the defenders of Cuba. From a return published in the Ga:ette, it appears that the treasury receipts of the month of August, 16.11, amounted to 123,169,042 reels, being 3,397,214 more than in the corresponding month of „ 1840. MADRID, Oc-r. 2. The Gazelle of to-day contains a decree ordering that the body of General Eons be brought to the Peninsula at the expense of the country, and with the military honours due to his rank ; that besides the pension to which his widow is entitled as widow of a captain-general (the widow of an officer killed on the Tho proprietor of the Friedens &Rung (Peace Journal) has had a compulsory interview with the court-martial of Vienna for printing a small notice of the Hungarian colony in the United States. His answer to the accusation was, that he had excerpted it from the official journal, the Reicits-Zettuv. Judge his astonishment, when the sapient members of the august court nevertheless reprimanded hint most se verely, adding, that what a largo journal like the Reicks-Zeituny was allowed to print, could not be permitted in a small one. It is officially announced in Lemberg that the Emperor intends to visit Galicia on the 10th of Oc tober. The imperial visit will include Cracow, Tar now, arc. Count Potocki, a member of one of the moat in fluential noble families of Poland, a gentleman of 1 vast wealth, and generally held to be semi-conserva tive in his political opinions, has been arrested and confined iu the citadel of Lemberg. The grounds of this stop are not known, but it is supposed that the order came from Paris, where Chevalier Weiss von Starkenfels, the Vienna director of police, is at Pre sent conferring with M. Carlier. An official announcement in the Path Gazette informs us that the legal courts, established by impe rial decree in Hungary, for settling the claims of private persons on the property of persons condemned by court-martial, and of those who have fled their country, accused of high treason, arc to be opened forthwith. The lower court is to meet on the sth of field of battle being entitled to a pension equal tolOctober, under the presidency of Jos. EC.tri'si, and that of a grade above the one her husband held) she the upper court on the 10th of November. is to have a pension of 20,000 male, and the scarf of I The regulation of the Jewish public worship and the Order of Noble Ladies of Maria Louisa. Another school affairs in Hungary has been confided to Baron decree authorises the Minister of War to raise a cm- Sacher, formerly councillor to the government of dit of five millions of reals for the purpose of sup- Galicia. plying the coasts with suitable artillery. The Dr. Ifeekscher, one of the members of Archduke minister of the navy is authorised also to purchase John's ministry during the Frankfort parliament, has two steamers, of 120 horse-power each, to serve as , recently made a long tour in Hungary, for the par. coast-guards at the island of Cuba. A royal decree ; pose of' purchasing landed property. lie intends appoints Vicente Vasquez Queipo as director-general i publishing a work on Hungary. of the Colonial Board. This nomination will not I probably give much satisfaction in the colonies, his views being narrow and his policy short-sighted. A public subscription has been set on foot ,or the families of the petty officers and soldiers killed in the different skirmishes with Lopez. At the head of the list is the English ambassador, Lord Howtlen " as an officer who has served with the Spanish army." His lordship puts his name down for 3,000 reals (.50/.) DENMARK. By our letters from Hamburg'', dated the sth, wo receive the intelligence of the opening of the Nat Lona/ Diet of Denmark by the King in person. In the King's address to the chambers it is stated " that the government is exerting its utmost endeavours tc have the boundaries of the monarchy and the suc cession of the crown definitively and securely fired, in which endeavours it has &en met in the most friendly manner by all foreign powers, who eon ' tinue to be on the best terms of amity with tho Danish nation." FRANCE. PARIS, Turansy EVENING To-day I have but little news to give regarding the political situation. The Union contains a bitter attack on the Joinvillists for having abandoned the original neutral policy invented by . Thiers for the guidance of the party of order during the perilous strait of the republic ; and expresses a feeble hope that this statesman is not yet pledged to support the Orleanist candidature. The Ordre refuses to reply directly to the categoric question of the Assemble° Nationale on this subject, alleging, as an excuse for tho evasion, the insolent manner of the interrogation. A letter of M. Creton throws some light on this matter, and shows that fusion is not despaired of by the staunchest Orleanists. In fact, M. Creton says that the proposal of the Prince do Joinvillc as a candidate for the presidency, does not necessarily follow from the success of his proposition; but it would cer tainly follow from its rejection. This leaves a loophole of hope open to the legitimists, who will, perhaps, under the condition of Joinville's candidature being withdrawn, abstain from voting on the abolition of the laws of banish ment against the Bourbons, and then accomplish a fusion on the candidature of Changarnier. Meanwhile negociations are going on be tween the Meseager and Union, trom which it appears that General Changarnier would abstain from voting in favour of M. Cretoa's motion, if he could by that means conciliate the support of M. Berryer's party. It ma) be at the same time ob served that the legitimists of the Opinion Publique have very much mollified their tono towards the moderate of their party; and M. Nettement, recently foremost in the onslaught against the law of May, expresses to-day his concurrence with tho Debate in the necessity of forcing this law to be respected in case the legislature should decline to alter it. On the other hand, Girardin is more steadfast than ever in the faith that the law must be repealed, and predicts that the Assembly will unanimously adopt this measure. I must not forget to call your attention to an im portant admission of the Constdutionnel, which says that the will of the people is so es ' sentially sovereign on the election of the President that if they elected an exile or a con ' viet their choice would be still indefeasible. What is this but to admit into the lists as rivals to Louis Napoleon, Ledru Rollin, Prudhoun, or Barbel. The democratic party will possibly " take a note" of that admission of the Elysean organ. All the ministers, with the exception of M. Chasse loup-Laubat, are now in Paris. A cabinet council , was held yesterday at St. Cloud, in which the ques tion of the law of 'May 31 was discussed. It is un derstood that all the ministers present were agreed in the determivation to maintain the law. A very carious letter about the Prince de Joinville has been written by M. Creton to the Piiote de la Somme. M. Cretan denies that he is about to resign his seat in the Assembly, to make way for the prince, at the same time declaring that he would make that sacrifice, if it were necessary for the good of the country. He also declares that he himself is not ne .wrily a partisan of the Joinville candidature for AMERICA. At seven o'clock last evening, the United States mail steam-ship Pacific, Capt. Nye, arrived in the Mersey, from New York, which port she left on the 27th ult., at noon, thus bringing three days' later news than we had previously received by the Niagara. Tho Pacific brings eighty passengers, 120,004/. ster ling in specie, and the usual mails front the United States and the British provinces. Oa Friday lust, one of the passengers, Mr. A. Mitchell (of the firm of Dennistonn, Mitchell, and Co., of Liverpool), was lost overboard and drowned, notwithstanding mediate efforts were made to rescue the unfortunate gentleman. The papers brought by the Pacific are alms: wholly destitute of news, either political, foreign, or general, with the exception of some reports of dis. asters by fire and flood, among the former of which will be found an account of a great fire at Buffalo on the 26th ult., and among the commercial news the stoppage of several banks and a money crisis amaunting almost to a panic. Considerable excite. ment existed in Wall-street, in consequence of many recent bank failures. There are rumours afloat touching the standing of several other hanks,•but the excitement is so great that it is impossible to get at the truth of any of them. The papers state that the surest and safest way is to refuse, fur a time, all bills not secured by deposits of government and State stocks. _ _ _ _ _ Great excitement had also been caused by the flogging of an abolitionist, in the state of Virginia, and his compub.ory removal from the state. The affair is thus described in the New York Papers The Vigilance Committee of Grayson county, Virginia, on the 13th inst., arrested John Cornutt, a friend of Bacon's, the Ohio abolitionist. They nt first requested him to renounce his abolition sentiments, which he refused to do. They then stripped him, tied him ton tree, nnd, after receiving a dozen lashes, he agreed to renounce aboli tionism, Fell his land and negroes, and leave the state. Great excitement prevailed, and the committee were in pursuit of others. A fearful accident occurred on the Vermont Central Railroad on the evening of the 24th ult., by which a down passenger train of three cars came in collision with an up freight train. The former was going at the time down a grade, nt the rate of fifty miles an hour, near West Hart ford, Vermont, and six miles beyond the White River Junction. The entire passenger train wan demolished, and and 17 passengers injured, four of them fatally. Nino limbs are reported broken. Among the inured aro C. I'. Kimball, conductor, head badly wounde d; his re covery is doubtful. Frederick Palmer, a brakeman, legs broken and bark injured; he cannot recover. 'the freight train was running out of time. Tho engineer and fireman escaped by jumping. The passengers were mostly up country people, who had been to attend a cattle show. Another accident took place on the Stonybrook railroad, by which John Smith, a conductor, was ittomictd off tho train, and bad his head taken off by the wheels. Accounts received from Cherryfield, Maine, to the 21th ult., give additional particulars of the fires in that vicin ty, and on the borders of Maine and New Brunswick. A letter says the whole country is burning up; seareely in . green acs of land remains along the whole seaboard of the county. Fifteen large tires were counted around Cherryfield, aid all the inhabitants were engaged in protecting their hones or assisting their neighbours. The fire has swept crer Mount Desout, and destroyed several houses. The forests in Franklin are in flames, and the whole of Hancock is suffering severely. To the east of Ilanivek the dentructen is still greater. The roads have been rendered almost in passable on account of the smoke and flames. The finiter of the Cutler Company is damaged to the amount of 150,000 dohs. The rain on Sunday only partially ituenand the flames. Mr. Owen, the American consul at I[acannah,Lld addressed a letter to the editor of the Washiqun 11,prthlie, on the subject of the late expedition to Cuba: Consulate of the United State: liarannah, Sept. Iri, 18.11. Sir,—ln your weekly issue of the :sth ult., you demo the justice to object to my condemnation without a hearag, and to I.ly that I am probably able to explain to the ads faction of my countrymen my omission to art relative babe execution of the prisoners who were shut here on the 16th ult. I do not doubt that I shall satisfy every impartial nod that 1 ant undeserving censure, and that I had no over tunity of doing anything in behalf of the unfortunate tea who met so sad a fate. _ _ I reside about four miles from this pl tee, and, not bing well on the monting of the 16th, did not re elt my ottiettill sonic time after ten o'clock, where, fur the first tin:, heard of the capture of about fiftyof the men who had onto with Lopes to this island in the steamer Pamper). I trthe same time heard that the prisoners hail been tried, find guilty, condemned, ordered to be executed, the orde for their execution sent forward, and that they were auut being remuved from the harbour, where they were, tethe place of execution. Shortly afterwards, the American re-iding here, wit, it is said, called on me, came and mentioned the subjec to me, when 1 said to him that it was too late, and that I could do nothing—that I should not have time to get a:e mission to see the prisoners. Of this I felt perfectly Lae lied at the time, and I have since beer. confirmed Whig opinion by the highest authority iu the idand, whc in formed me that tee execution, which had already wen ordered before I reached the city, would not have wen postponed for me to have an interview with the prisoters, inasmuch as all I could have asked to be permitted to di had already been done by a gentleman known to some of thtpri sorters, and fur whom they had sent. Soon after the American referred to lee my office, re ceived the information that a gentleman known to sone of the prisoners had been sent fur by thew, and to hint they had delivered the articles and messages they desired ti be conveyed to their friends. It was hut a short time ater wards that I sent to the palace of the govemm and caphin general, and heard that the prisoners had then been cuted. Yuu will thus see that I hail no time to act, and that it was not in my power to do anything for the unferttuato men who had been induced to invade Cube with the ex pectation that they would find the whole island in a tee of revolution, and that they would be received with open miss by the whole native population at least. The charge of indifference to the dreadful conilitiut of such a number of men, the bitterest enemy 1 have on meth will not believe, and all must believe it a base falsehood and an unfounded calumny. If it were allowable on such an occasion, I would nod solemnly declare before God that, in my judgment, at the time and under the circumstances, it was not in my power either to have an interview with the prisoners, or to lave dune anything on their behalf. am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, A. F. °WM The following are the particulars of the fin at Buffalo: Bett•.er.o, Sept. S. A very destructive fire broke out in this city abott 4 o'clock this morning. The whole of the section of thecity known us the Hooks, together with several squares netts. between the Niagara Falls Railroad and the Lake, =lilt ashes. A strong south-east wind was blowing at the time, tad the buildings all being of wood, and very dry, the he spread with fearful rapidity, and in less than tifttec minutes the entire block of buildings on Rock and Peacock streets, from the ship canal and Eric-street to Evaus-strect, was in flames. _ . . . The fire then crossed Erie-street, and seized upon 'ls - - large planing mill of the Messrs. Eaton. It that crossed the canal and Erie-street Bridge, swip ing everything on the opposite of the canal to the Terre°, thence down the Terrace to Mechanic-street, on both sides of the canal. At this point, through the greatest exertion, the Hanle were checked. The number of buildings destroyed is over five hundrei. Among them is the large brick school-house on Eric-carte, in District No. 2. A large amount of lumber in the Messrs. Eaton, mu. and pant was destroyed. Also an immense quantity o) lumber in the yards of George Oencll and the Mesas. Farmer and De Dloquiere. It Is feared that a number of persons have been harem to death. One dead body has been taken from the ruins. The loss is roughly estimated at hall a million of dollar. The insurance on tho property is very slight. The buildings burned were nearly all of wood. One of the firemen was seriously burned while cntea vouring to check the flames. The number of families turned out of house and hone by this disaster is great, almost beyond conception, the most of the house* destroyed being occupied by Foot