The Express. — London, England, 1853-03-23 00:00:00

Int ervrt. TO CORRISPON DE:: I A stated Idittas 1 4 lips; 4 "iiiati.Tim; a -44 ms evrtlife ee Osselts," Ls pubt•hed evety Tmosday a 3 !Adair .141 V, , c tore Mr pelt aivntlimi•min‘ersded for " The Vsmilo," lAaaak Meting paper, isnot boa tko can. l 4 Waver... 40.4. V Ira 4 . 41.e1k .41 ale •ey of pshtlistion. HIGH WATZR AT LONDON BRIDOZ. /ma Dab—liandike. o*. 445. ...„...lUirmenn. lb. 7a. tooressapr—listalftg. L9NDON, I! ED 3LIRCII 23. Tate traditions of London include one about a thief, a constable, and a passer-by. The thief was in the act of robbing a goldsmith's shop, whilst the consta ble was snugly watching him from a neighbourin doorway. " Why don't you stop that rubbery?' said the honest, simple-mantled wayfarer. " btop till be has committed burglary, 4 replied the thief-catcher, "and then see what du." :Visions of captures, examinations, committals, and candeninations, in lull curt, with small profits depending un each step, were flocking through the mind of the eatchpole, and he let the fe lonious pear ripen into burglary before he p:ucked it. Ihe simple passer-by - had only to go on his way wondering why crime should not be stopped rather than punished, and speculating over the cost, the pain, the sin of letting evil grow up to its full rank ness rather than nip it, shot able, in the bud. Looking out upon the broad stage of Europe we may see just now a repetition of this drama of real life in course of action or. a large scale. Turkey is the poor goldsmith, Russia the freebooter. Years ago we were told by a pamphleteer that the gold smith must be robbed by somebody, and though there were legal guarantees as strong as parchments and solemn national ratifications could make them, the whole equity and law of the afftir was pooh-pooped ; and the declaration repeated, that the owner of the place could not be lett alone and must be robbed by somebody— because he was not able to defend himself. Lately this has been re echoed by the organs of despotism, who smoothed the way of spoliation by saying robbery was inevita ble because disorganisation was present. The gold smith has not had his books properly posted up— err, burglary is a virtue. This is literally the logic with which the BRUNNOW journal suggests the repeti tion in Turkey of the infamous tragedy of Poland. The flimsy veil being stripped from these shameful propositions, we see the abettors of Russian despot ism wriggle and twist through a meagre catalogue of other shams. Trade would be better if Russia seised European-Turkey, was the first of these impu dent sophisms. The fact that our commerce with the Ottoman Empire is rapidly growing, whilst our trade with Austria is diminishing, at once disposes of that allegation. The advocates of despotism failing thus in their first plea—that of lucre—religion is tried next, and we are told that the Christian tribes require release from the Moslem yoke. Austria, a Christian power, should rule over Christians, or still more gentle Russia. A mere reference to the expulsion of the Protestant Mission aries by the Emperor FRANCIS must put this second sham out of court, even if it were not the fact that the Christians are in full enjoyment of their own faith, as fully as they are of their own trade—whilst both trade and faith would be instantly lost if either of the encroaching powers were to include them within the fatal cordon of their despotisms. Trade and religion both supplying reasons for preserving Turkey from spoliation, the journal that at times pours out its ridicule on the friends of peace falls upon a third excuse, and cries beware of war. On this we join issue and re-echo with heartfelt sincerity—beware of war! And here we have one great point of our ease. To avoid war we must not abet injustice—to avoid strife we must not forget our solemn pledges, and permit a bully to rob our neighbour. We must enter our protest in the court of the high police of Rations, and, by preventing the robbery at once, stay all that must otherwise ensue—the pain, the cost, the misery sure to follow the full growth and con summation of the contemplated crime. The friends of honour, of justice, and of peace, are now nudging the elbow of the constable, and bidding him "atop thief." We want to hear no new shriek of another Poland crushed under the heel of military barbarism; we wish for no new Hungary, robbed of its local govern ment and self organisation, to form a new province of a huge over-grown centralised despotism in the north; we object loudly , earnestly , against a deed that would give the Lombards, fellow-sufferers from like °ppm sions—to be avenged by outbreaks and assassinations, and followed by the whip and the gallows. We do not wish that Italy should find a counterpart in the East, or that Coantantinople should rival Mantua or Naples. To the news, therefore, of Prince Mutsu- KOFF'S demands we raise the counter-cry of " Stop thief!" Unlike the traditional constable whose doings we quote, we have no interest in the sue- Gees of the plunder. We want no employment as witnesses after the act or as guards to keep off the crowd who may stare stupidly at the punishment to follow. Our interests in Englanders in prevention ; in preserving the status quo : in re straining an aggressive and semi-barbarous power, with everything to gain and little to lose by war, from pushing into near neighbourhood with our Indian territories, and into immediate rivalry with oar Mediterranean fleet. As we have before said, it is quite enough to run the costly race of rivalry in armaments with France, without seeking another and still more despotic competitor. In the inte rests, then, of national policy. no less than in those of peace, justice, and honour, have we raised our voice against the tortuous, insidious, and mischievous suggestions of those who would appeal by turns to our cupidity, our religious preju dices, or our love for peace, whilst they are all the time plotting against the principles of justice and' honesty, and inciting us to a breach of treaties and • loss of honour that must be followed by years of national remorse. IN the days of Queen ANNE, and when Gamma L was King,—and when as yet the new police were not—there arose a man named JONATHAN WILD, a mighty man, and a ruler among the clans of footpads, and burglars, and highwaymen, and re ceivers of stolen goods. And sometimes he trafficked with these evil-doers, and told them where they could find a spoil,—and instructed them how to seize it,—or bargained with them for their stolen goods ; and sometimes he volunteered to serve the magie bates, and captured the evil-doers, and delivered them into the hands of justice for a fixed price. JONATUAN WILD was a type : he was in his time in the realms of thiefdom what the sisetioneming agents are in ours in the realms of Parliamentary corrraption. We have no organised system, no defined and efficient law, no parliamentary police for the detection, and oaavietiais, and punishment of traffickers in elec toral :cerruptice. And the electioneering agents— the JONATHAN WILD. of Parliamentary corruption— avail themselves of this state of affairs to make their rain out of both parties, sometime* hiring the male factors, or taking tythe of their spoil for conniving at their offences; sometimes, as petitioning agents, lending their aid to detect and expose them. The electioneering agent is equally ready, as suits the game of his employer., to buy a borough for them, or to expose the purchaser who has bought it, and the electors who have sold themselves. It is all in the way of business; so that JONATHAN makes his money, he cares not whe ther it be by buying or selling with corrupt electors and their bribers, or by selling them. Tho unsophisticated moral sense of the public decided long ago that JONATHAN WILD was greater rascal than the worst of the rriffians and sneaks whom he first trained to rapine and outrage, and then sold to the gallows. And there can be little doubt that the same unsophisticated moral sense of the public will pass a similar judgment—has already passed a similar judgment —upon the smooth faced, plausible JoNsritsy Wang of Parliamentary corruption, of whom the first of that name was a very inadequate type or symbol. JONATHAN WILD suffered the fate of many other evil-doers. Like the pitcher, he went so often to the well that he came home broken at lust. His last victim, Blurskits, made a desperate attempt, after he WAS convicted, to cut, in open court, the throat of the knave who had first employed and then betrayed him. Colonel DICKSON is the BLVF.SKIN of the electioneer ing Joxsritax WILD (taking the character as an abstraction and typical of a c lass); by his desperate attempt to obtain redress or vengeance of the agent who first took his money, and then l sacrificed him to the arrangements of his party. the Colonel has cut the throat of Parliamen tary agenting. lILUESK N'S exploit caused so much ex citement that from that moment the trade of JONATHAN WILD was at an end. Honest men would no longer employ the tutor and employer of thieves, and thieves would no longer trust or deal with one who sold their blood. But though the trade was spoiled for the great scale in which JONATHAN carried it on, it was long prosecuted in a small way by retail dealers. Many years after JONATHAN'S death, a band of these minor traders in guilt were convicted and punished; and on their trial one of the witnesses against them, when asked his trade, replied, " I work occasionally at my trade of shoemaking, and sometimes catch a thief." Something of the same kind we must expect to witness—if the Legislature do not interfere—in the event of the Derby and Nor wich revelations suppressing the great JONATHAN WILDS of Parliamentary corruption. We shall have a set of small traders in elections rising up, who may describe themselves as—" Solicitors iu practice—who sometimes buy and sometimes betray a borough." It is a most anomalous feature in our electioneer ing law, the impunity which has hitherto attended the " agent" in affairs of electoral corrup tion. 'Die bribing aspirant to a scat in Par liament has sometimes been punished, and the elector selling his vote—nay, whole constituen cies guilty of that offence, have sometimes been punished; but the agent has always been allowed to escape scot free. Now, in no other class of offences against law do we find the same immunity extended to the hired agent of illegality. The bravo who stabs for hire is regarded as more culpable, more de prased, than the murderer who stabs at the impulse of veugvance. How comes it that the eon uptor of electors for hire, the professional trader in corrup tion, is regarded as less culpable than he who com mits the offence prompted by excessive or misdirected personal vanity or ambition? Apparently the anomaly is attributable to mis taken notions of what is called professional duty. The lawyer is not expected, not allowed, to betray his client—to reveal what has been imparted to him in professional consultations. But morality and the security of society require that this privilege of se crecy extended to the profession shall have its limits. The solicitor may conceal the perpetrated offences of the client who consults him as to tho beet mode of escaping punishment ; but the solicitor may not with impunity conceal the intimations of his client that he is going to commit an offence; much less may he with impunity instruct his client how to commit the offence ; and least of all may he with impunity commit it for him. The corrupt elec tioneering agent is guilty of all three violations of the law. He defeats the ends of justice by conceal ing his knowledge that a crime is about to be com mitted; he becomes an accessory before the fact by teaching how the crime may be most safely com mitted ; and he becomes a principal by active participation io it for a reward whereby he becomes a sharer in the gains. The truth is, that the electioneering agent is the most culpable, the basest, and the most dangerous of all the parties to electioneering corruption. He sins against the clearest knowledge ; there is aoad mixture of any one redeeming motive in his sordid impulses; he perpetrates the offence with a skill and dexterity in avoiding the windy side of the law, that renders it comparatively safe, and encourages by im punity. To render the agent equally amenable to the law with the principal will not destroy electoral corruption ; no one measure can do that • but it will render the perpetration of the offence less easy, less safe, and thus diminish its frequency. And it will tend to extirpate a most discreditable and corrupting class from what is commonly understood to be respect able society. The moment is propitious for an attack upon the Parliament ary JONATHAN WILDS. Like all un scrupulous and adroit men who have made them selves of consequence by pandering to the vices of the rich, the powerful, or the ambitious, the election eering agents have become overweening and insolent. Colonel DICKSON is not the only Parliamentary BLuESKIN who is ready to wreak his vengeance on his JONATHAN WILD, even at the risk of exposing him self. And many an undetected Bweseist, on the benches of the House of Commons, will be glad to vent his spite against a domineering agent, or to facilitate his emancipation from agentdom, by voting for a Bill that would render the class amenable to law. TUE EXPRESS, WEDNESDAY EVENING, MARCH 23, 1853. The Duke of Padua, Governor of the Invalides, died this morning. The following are the latest quotations received i to-day from other continental bourses by telegraph :1 Frankfort : Austrian Metallique Five per Cei:ts., 97; Four-and-a-Half per Cents., 78 ; Four per Cents., 691; Three per Cents., 321; Two-and-a-Half per Cents., 43 ; One per Cents., 1 7-16ths. Spanish Three per Cents. 431; Deerred One per C en t s ., 21 9-16ths. Sardinian Five per Cents. (Rothschild), 991 ; Ilumbro', 96. Vienna: Metallique Four-and-a Half per Cents., FSI ; Novel Emp., 941; Emp., 1831, 1071; Lombardo Venetian, 100; Bank, 1,423. Berlin : Emp. Five per Cents., 1011; Obl. Three and-a-Half per Cents., 931 ; Society Maritime, 1481. Bank, 110!. Russian Four-and-a-Half per _ Cents., 103. PARIS, 1102CDAT EVINING. A private letter from Marseilles of the 17th says that the correspondents of the Greek merchants of the Levant were greatly alarmed and had suspended the execution of all orders. This letter states posi tively that the Sultan had applied for assistance from France and England. On the other hand, the Assembli , e Nationale affirms expressly that Colonel Rose had received no application either "directly or indirectly" from the Sultan, and that he had sent for Admiral Build°, spontaneously. Among the various rumours which agitated the Bourse was a report that an English fleet had been ordered to the I am told that an eminent minister under Lonis Philippe said this morning that to his certain know ledge Prince Nlentschikoff, Colonel Rose, and Admiral Dundee were the three most violent men in Europe, and that it would be extraordinary indeed if they could come into contact without an explosion. The treaty of Adrianople assigned the left bank of the Delta of the Danube to the Russians, and the right bank to the Turks; and by a special article it was stipulated that neither power should establish any military post within the distance of a league from the water side. Russia has not ostensibly established any military post within the prohibited limits; but some time since she built a lighthouse close to the river, and under pretence of keeping up the lighthouse, and making police regulations, she has gradually formed around it a complete colony of civil and military functionaries. According to some reports, one of Prince Mentschikoff's demand was, that the Porte should sanction this station, and allow several others of the like kind to be established near the mouth of the Danube. The Moniteur publishes the returns of the receipts of the customs and indirect taxes for the last month. They amounted to 9,638,173 fr., being a decrease on the corresponding month of 1832 of 617,544 fr., and an increase on that of 1831 of 801,152 fr. Tho re ceipts of the first two months of the year amounted to 18,583,722 fr., being 1,939,344 fr. less than in the corresponding periol of 1832, and 1,533,334 fr. more than in 1851. In addition to renewing the prizes given last year by the Emperor to the different horse races in France, his Majesty has decided that for this and following years, 10,000 fr. shall be given from the civil list for the autumn meeting at Chantilly, and that there shall be founded for 1835 and following years, a prize of 10,000 fr. in Paris, one of 6,000 fr. at Bordeaux, and one of 6,000 fr. at Angers, for three year-old colts and fillies. created considerable sensation in Nuremberg, and the more as the brothers are notoriously of conservative politics. Haynan's funeral procession moved through the streets of Vienna on the 17th towards Gritz, where the hero is to be buried. Three archdukes, Prince Windischgmtz, and other Austrian notabilities, fol lowed the body. FRANCE. PARIS, TOINDAY Evsxixo. We are without any further positive news on the all absorbing question of the crisis at Constantinople. The Telemaque is expected at Marseilles, and will doubtless bring various versions of the affair, but she having touched at various points of Italy during her voyage, cannot bring intelligence of a later date than that already received by the tAradoc and Eurotas. Notwithstanding the vague and unsatisfactory paragraph in the Moniteur, it has sufficed in great measure to re-assure the Bourse, aided, however, by a telegraphic despatch from L ondon announcing a rise of kto in Console. The strong repugnance in men's minds to believe in the possibility of imme diate war is greatly strengthened by the compara tively small amount of excitement which the intelli gene from Turkey, followed by the sailing orders sent to the fleet at Toulon, seems to have produced in England. There were, however, violent fluctuations. The Rente Three per Cents. opened at 79, fell to 78.70, then rose to 79.10, and closed at 79.5 c. The most conflicting opinions were expressed as to the real terms of Prince Mentachekoffs ultima tum, the probability of Russia persevering in her demands, and the nature of the contemplated French intervention, whether in cordial concert with England, or with isolated views. The note in the ifoniteur in reality amounts to nothing. But it is quite clear that the favourable news alluded to, whatever it may be, will not prevent the departure of the French ffeet from Toulon, for that the govern ment journals inform us, will sail this very day for the waters of the Salamine. It was composed of 8 sailing vessels of war and 4 steamers. It will be joined by the 4 steamers eta• tiooed in the Archipelago, commanded by Rear-Ad miral Romain Desfoeses. The English squadron consists of 5 ships-of-the line, 3 frigates, 2 corvettes, and 12 steamers ; and the Turkish fleet, of 4 ships-of-the-line, 3 frigate, 8 brigs, and 6 steamers. The force of the T ur ki s h fleet will be doubled by the junction of the Egyptian ships. The Roman fleet at ilietastopol was composed of 13 ships-of-the-line, 8 frigates, and other vessels of leas force. The following extract from a Paris letter to the Botaiscipariew of Brussels, a Catholic journal, gene rally favourable to Napoleon 111., will give you a fair idea of the kind of apprehensions entertained by many u to the possible mission of the French fleet: The most probable, if not the most generally accredited, version is that Preece will, in the first instance, maintain the strictest seutzality between England sad Turkey on the one part, sad the Russian government on the other. It will act the part of a mediator. But if, eadratimarely,the intentions of Russia should go the length animmisiag the temerity of the Ottoman empire, Primes wadi Joie England against this semi-barbarous power, which regards the east with a covetous eye, intending at a future time to menace at greater advantage the independence of the west, so troubled, so divided, by a lamentable series of revolutions. However this may be, France has a grand and splendid part to play in the negotiations about to be opened. It has in in its power to incline the scale in the most favourable way for the Emperor's views, views so profound and pur sued with that laborious patience and taciturn tenacity which make Napoleon 111. one of the most powerful and mysterious political personages of the present time. Another correspondent of the same journal, after speaking of the profound mystery in which the views of the French government are enveloped, makes the uncomfortable suggestion that France may perhaps all this while have a secret understand ing with Russia, who sent a diplomatic agent incog nito to the Tuileries about two months since. The Delas affirms positively to-day that Colonel Rose sent for Admiral litmus in consequence of a formal request from the Sultan. The English fleet,' according to the same authority, was expected at Ourlae, in the waters of Smyrna, and Prince Mentschikoff was to have had an audience of the Salton to propose his , n on the 9th. The Assemblee, iu contradiction to its statement yesterday, now admits, with the De&as, that the Porto applied to Colonel Itose. SPAIN. The Madrid journals of the 15th state that in the sitting of the Senate on the previous day, the com mittee on the affair of General Narvaez, not being able to come to a unanimous resolution, presented three reports. In one, signed by M. Arrozols, M. Pena Aguayo, the Duke de Rivas, and the Count de Lawns, the right of senators was declared to be superior to the power of the government, and it con sequently demanded that the interdiction under which General Narvaez is labouring should cease; the second, signed by the Marquis de la Pozuela and General Sanz, placed the power of the government above the tight of the senator, and proposed to de clare that there was no ground to deliberate on the case in question ; the third, signed by Gen. Cordova alone, taking a middle term between thb two, pro posed to declare the right of Gen. Narvaez to return to his place in the Senate, provided the service of her Majesty and the State should not suffer in the exe cution of the military commission confided to him. After the reports had been read, General Serrano asked the government to produce papers relative to a conflict between the Captain General of New Cu tille and General Narvaez, as they had a certain bearing on the question ; but the Minister of War refused. It was believed that the Senate would re ject the two former propositions and adopt the last one, it not being doubted that the government would declare that the public service required the general to execute his mission before returning to the Senate. Bat, on the other hand, it was said that the government would bring in a bill for clearly de fining the duties and obligations of the superior officers of the army who are Senators. The Bund states that the last Austrian note reca pitulates all the events that occurred in Ticino since 1848. It asserted various facts, the falsehood of which had been proved and acknowledged, as for instance, the presence of Elea in the canton at the period of the revolt at Milan, the printing in Ticino of the proclamation, circulated through Lombardy, the assemblage of refugees, and the conveyance of gunpowder across the St. Oothard, mentioned by the Schwyts Gazette. The note also complained of the expulsion of the Capuchins and the . suppression of the ecclesiastical seminaries of Poleggio and Aecona, and intimated that the blockade should only cease when Austria should have obtained full satisfaction. The Federal Commissary in Ticino and the In structing Judge, M. Dube, proceeded to the print ing-office at Capolagi, where they commenced a minute inquiry, in order to ascertain if the procla mations of Mazzini had been printed there. They acquired positive proof that those proclamations had not been set in type in that establishment. On the 18th, another report of the Federal Com missary,=oll the measures he had taken in Ticino, Berne. The Commissary declared that the government of the canton had acted through out in the most legal manner, and had not encou raged the sedition. ITALY. The Austrian commandant of the town and for tress of Ancona has issued an order, forbidding more than five persons being together in the streets after sunset, and directing that the arrival of travellers must be notified to the police an hour after at the latest. The Parlamento of Turin states from Florence, 14th instant, that, in the case of Gueraui and others for high treason, the Attorney-General has proposed— imprisonment for life for Gueruzi, ex-provisional chief of the executive; 63 months' imprisonment for Romanelli, ex-Minister of Grace and Justice under the provisional government ; 90 months' imprisonment for Capecchi, an old officer, convicted of having spoken publicly against the government of the Grand Duke; 11 years and 3 months' imprisonment for Itlontasio, convicted of high treason committed by means of the press ; and 56 months' imprisonment in a house :of correction for Dami, ex-president of the Popular Club of Florence, and Pantanelli, secretary of the Popular Club of Siena. The Deputy Attorney- General, in summing up the case for the prosecution in that portion which had been carried on at Pistoria, ' but had subsequently been annexed to the prosecu tion at Florence, proposed imprisonment for life for Major Petracchi; 56 months' imprisonment in a house of correction for Cimballi, with five years' sur veillance of the police after the expiration of his punishment. Piceini, Agostini, and Lottini are to be set at liberty. GERMANY. On the 18th inst. the police astonished the head of a highly-placed mercantile firm in Nuremberg with a domiciliary visit, and, in the presence of a magistrate, proceeded to search for proofs of high treason. The coffers and desks of the firm were rummaged, but nothing of a suspicious character was found. A similar visit was paid to the brother of the merchant, with the like result. The affair has CANADA. QUEBEC, MARCH 4. Since my last letter the Canadian legislature has been engaged in the discussion of questions of local interest merely, and for that reason I abstain from sending you a detailed account of them. But one bill was read a second time, two days ago, of very great importance. This was the Representa tion Bill—the Reform Bill of Canada. Its object is to increase the representation from 81 members to 120, taking generally, indeed as far as the govern ment deem practicable, population for the basis, and disfranchising a number of small boroughs. This bill, if it become law, it is admitted on all hands will make the legislature of Canada much more democratic than at present. As you may readily suppose, the conservatives will strain every nerve to defeat the bill, while the reformers will do their best to carry it. What its ultimate fate will be I cannot say. A two-thirds vote is necessary to carry it. This was obtained in the Assembly on its second reading, but it is doubtful if so large a vote can be obtained for the third reading. Local interests may prevent that. If so, the ministry have given notice that they will address the imperial government to obtain a change of the Union Act, which requires that any change in the representation should be car ried by a two-thirds vote. A bill to provide for the construction of a bridge across the St. Lawrence, at Montreal, has been read a second time. We have very fine weather, and it begins to show tokens of spring. VOr Court. WINDSOR, MARCH 22. The following had the honour of dining with her Majesty yesterday :—The Duchess of Kent, the Princess Adelaide of Rohm:llo6e, the Marquis of Breadelbane, the Lady in Waiting to the Duchess of Kent, the Baroness de Sped', and Lieut.-Coloael Francis Seymour (Scots Fusilier Guards). Sir William Molesworth arrived at the Castle this morn ing and remained for some hours. The Queen and Prince, with the Princess Royal and the Princess Alice, drove out in an open carriage this afternoon, attended by Colonel Bouverie and Captain the lion. Dudley de Roo. Earl Granville (Lord President) lett town yesterday for Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire. Mr. John WOod, Chairman of the Board of Inland Re venue, and Mr. Presely had an interview with the Chan cellor of the Exchequer yesterday at his official residence in Downing -street. Viscount Palmerton left town yesterday for Brighton. DespatThes were received yesterday at the Colonial-office from the Governors of Canada, the West Indies, West Australia, South Australia, Hong Kong, Ceylon, and Malta. :R MEETING ON TILE EAST INDIA QUESTION. A meeting of the bankers, merchants, and manu facturers of Manchester was held in the Town.halh yes terday, to consider what suggestions that community ought to make to government or to parliament (or the better development of the resources of British India, and the consequent amelioration in the condition of the people. The Mayor, Mr. R. BARNES, who had called the meeting upon a requisition signed by upwards of one hundred firms and individuals, presided, and opened the business. It was one of the most numerous and influential commer cial meetings ever held. Mr. THOMAS BAZLEY, president of the Manchester Chamber of Commerce, in moving the first resolution, said that to the mercantile and manufacturing community, of which Manchester is the centre, the well being of the British East Indies must be a subject of very deep interest, and in the enlightened British opiefun on that subject was involved the question whether in the pages of history we should tee branded as having opprestal and degraded 150 mihions fellow-subjects, or as having earned undying fame tor gising to the greatest colony that ever ealsted good and wise government, European civiliza tion, progress, and commerce, and the great truths and principles of our common Christianity. By a singular co incidence,about three centuries ago,the people of this country were entertaining important projects connected with those industrial energies which wera then being developed; for on the one hand the opening field of new America, and on the other the far-famed treasures of the ear, were tempting our young merchants. In tLe case of the United States of America we saw what wonderful progress had been made: a vast territory had been subjugated, an indus trious people reigned paramount, and we found there intel ligence, comfort, and prosperity associated. America was at the present time the infant representative of this old and glorious country speaking our own language, and essen tially having adopted our own institutions, it had become an example fur the world. But if we turned to the British East Indies we should find that a company of merchant. were permitted to er.joy a monopoly of the trade of that great country. Under that monopoly Europeans were not permitted to settle in the country; progress was impeded, and at the present time there was merely a handful of Europeans on that great continent of India. The British name was not held there in that re spect that it ought to be, and we had not raised there a monument of progress that was either useful to the East Indies or honourable to ourselves. On every hand the ex isting state of the East Indies was admitted to be unsatis factory, hut by common consent, universal attention seemed now to be bestowed upon that vast dominion. Lord Ellen• borough, in speaking of the condition of India in the house of Lords, the other evening, stated that he passed, in a march through the upper provinces of India. the vestiges of ancient palaces, roads, works, temples, and mosques ' and all the records of good government, by which we had been preceded, and he felt humiliated that we were exhibiting ourselves under circumstances of disparagement, as greatly inferior to a noble nation to which we had succeeded. The directors of the Manchester Commercial Association and the Manchester Chamber of Commerce, without entering on the direct political condition of India, had agreed to recom mend a petition, which embraced in their opinion the eco nomical wants of the East Indies ; and he rose for the pur pose of moving : ' That the petition now read be adopted by this meeting ; that it be engrossed and presented forthwith to both houses of parliament ; that the petition to the Muse of Commons be entrusted to the Right Hon. T. M. Gibson, for presenta tion, and that John Bright, Esq., be requested to support the same, and that the Right Hon. the Earl of Elleaborough be requested to present the petition to the House of Peers." The petition was as follows : " To the Honourable the Commons of the United King dons of Great Britain and Ireland, in Parliament assembled. The petition of the Bankers, Merchants, and Manufac turers of Manchester, in public meeting assembled, sheweth, _ "Thai her Majesty's ministers having announced an in tention to submit to parliament, during the present session, some measure for the future government of India, your peti tioners are anxious to record their dissatisfaction with the limited extent of our commerce with that country, and their regret that so little progress has been made in the develop ment of its rids and varied resouiees. "That your petitioners are of opinion that, in any enact ment for the future government of India, the following sulk gestions should be adopted : " fitly. That it be regarded as the imperative duty of the government of India to promote the cultivation of the soil, and to remove all obstacles which impede the progress of industry. "2ndly. That beyond making useful experiments, the government should not be permitted to become cultivators, manufacturers, or traders. " 3rdly. That in conducting their financial operations, the government should be forbidden to become purchasers of any kind of produce on their own account, or to receive by hypothecation produce purchased by any other party. " 4thly. That the government be compelled to expend a portion of the revenues collected in India in the develop. ment of the resources of the country, as well as to afford every facility for its profitable occupation ; that with this view such public works should be promoted as are calcu lated to facilitate intercourse with or improve the physical condition of the population, to increase the production of cotton and other valuable raw materials, as also to encourage a system of general industry. " 3thly. That ten per cent. of the revenues of India be applied to the public works above alluded to, such as the construction of trunk lines of railways, the formation and improvement of roads and bridges, the deepening and other improvement of rivers, the formation and care of reservoirs and canals, the erection of piers, and construction of har bours, breakwaters, lighthouses, and all other engineering agenc:es required in a civilised and commercial country. " 6thly. That the application of the portion of revenue allot ted to useful public works be under the control of a" Board of Works," established and conducted in India, the members of which should have full, extensive, but defined powers. and be nominated jointly by the imperial government and the Indian executive. " 7thly. That the government should give every . facility for the permanent occupation of land, by removing the objections so often urged to a fluctuating land tax—by en couraging the purchase, for cultivation, of the waste and other lands of India—and by giving such certainty of tenure as will insure the safe applicatien of capital to the universal cultivation of the sail. " Bthly. That prompt attention be paid to the rcmoval of evils now existing In India consequent upon the uncertainty of the due administration of justice and the prevailing ignorance of the people. 9thly. That an annual detailed report on all Ent India affairs should, as was formerly done, be laid before parlia ment by a minister of the crown. " Your petitioners commend the foregoing propositions to the favourable attention of your honourable house, and humbly and earnestly pray that the same may have statutory effect in any legislation for the future government of India." Dlr. J. A. TURN'S, chairman of the Commercial Associa tion, seconded ilia motion. The resolution was carried. Mr. 11ZNRT ASHWORTH, of Bolton, moved the second resolution—" That the Manchester Chamber of Commerce and the Manchester Commercial Association be requested to transmit copies of the petition to the various commercial and manufacturing bodies of the United Kingdom, request ing their co-operation, and inviting them to appoint de puties to meet in London to wait upon the President of the Board of Control, for the purpose of conveying to him the sentiments expressed in this petition, and also to induce in fluential members of parliament to give practical effect to these requirements tad suggestions, as well as to carry out in detail the objeeu of the present meeting." Mr. MALCOLM Rou seconded the resolution. Mr. JPer thought the question was whether they should go for a renewal of the charter at all. (Hear, hear.) They had been instrumental down here in destroying one great monopoly, and he thought that any chartered body would be erecting a monopoly at variance with the interests of this country and of India. (Applause.) Joax Baton; Esq., M.P., then came forward amidst great cheering, and said—l have a resolution to propose, Mr. Chairman, about which there cannot be any possible difference of opinion—for it is with reference to the conduct of the mayor in presiding this morning. Before doing so, however, I may make one or two observations. The gentle man who spoke last appeared to me to be entirely in order with respect to stating the importance he attaches to the questipn of the renewal of the East India Company's char ter. There is one point upon which he is mistaken ; for there is no such thing as a charter. There is an act of par liament upon which certain portions of the government of India are administered by the court of directors of what used to be the East India Company. He is also quite rea sonable, I think, in supposing it proper that, supposing that the government should find it advisable—which I hope they will not—to renew the court of East India directors, for any time, that it should only be renewed for a very short period ; and, therefore, although accurately speaking he was not quite correct, yet I must say that 1 have very strong sympathy with the views which he endeavoured to threw before the meeting. We are here as citizens of this great country ; but we are here too as persons inti mately connected with the great manufacture carried on in this district; and I think we may very well afford, if the meeting had been held later on in the day, to have spentn much longer time in considering this very important ques tion; for I see, and I think you must all see with me, that there is no question before us, political, commercial, or social, so important to the welfare of this country, as the question we are met to discuss this morning. 'I he peal- tion in which things stand at present is, that the act under which the directors administer the government of India will expire on the :kith April next. At the beginning of the last session of parliament, Lord J. Russell's govern ! meat proposed the appointment of a committee to inquire, I suppose, into tha operation of that government in India. The government of the Earl of Derby appointed the com mittee which was sitting last session and is sitting this. In fact there are two committees, one in each house. Now either it was not necessary to appoint a committee at all, or else it was necessary that the committee should conclude its investigation before legislation is attempted. However, that is apparently not the plan proposed by the government; but it is proposed to bring in a bill sometime during the session. It does not appear that it will lcks very early in the session, but probably in the hot weather, when member, are not so assiduous in their attendance on the House of Commons; and, judging from the way in which these things arc often managed, a bill niey be attempted to be got through parliament, without cr.y considerable iliscus . Kinn. to renew, with trifling modih-,itions, the existing government of India for tome ten, or it may be twenty years to come. Now the petition that hes been agreed to, and the speeches that have been made, have avoided almost all reference to the question of the future " V.i ; tha ich t government of India ; they have mere! that whatever government is established, Milan t1111:n;are necessary to be dune that the affairs of India may be well administered,—speaking of the economical condition of that country,—and that the people of this country 111.,7 love their fair benefit from our connexion with the Didion e Aire. But I am not bound by rules so strict as there at m ; lations, or rather by such as bind those meg e t are I assert here, as I have done e:aeMlitfe, that while all this is commercial bodies by whom the y are proposed . 1 a te f ree to it is tw re r g te a h r ow d uh s ti l ci India—yet petition, 'there be l b oe c nael a l ion m f e lllces p e r 7w l:" " homicide intends to do dime things, and ban the means of doing them, that these resolutions and petitions are merely so much waste paper ; and that the result of the next 1.) 20 years may show no more progress than we have se en for the last 10 or' 4 years. (Hear.) What tale has he .n has been sufficiently described in the spe e ch es d e li vered to they by the presidents and the vice presidents of the Chamber of Commerce and Commercial Association; and I maintain, ; that there is no government on the face of theearth, what. . ever it be, that pretends to be civilised iu the smallest de. grce, against whom one-tenth part a the charges cau be justly brought, which have been brought in the speech x of those three gentlemen aeainst the government of the Indian, emaire. (Applause.) We have had but government in Ireland—and it has often been arid, with some trete, I think, that India is twenty Irelands put together—but in ' Ireland you have roads, and you have s great deal done that is never done or thought of in India. In fact, the smallest, the commonest, the most indispensable thaaes that every government, however tyrannical, has elsewher e thought it necessary to do for toe country over whom it rules, appear to have beta studiously and pertivacaaej I neglected by the government of India. (H ear, h ear.) believe the whole thing springs from the iruperreetio u of the governing machine. 1 don't charge the East Wilt Company fur a moment with being intentionally a cruel or oppressive or tyrannical government. I know a good maay of the directors, and I have not the least reason to believe, speaking of them geuerally, that they would give their coo. sent, knowingly, to what was cruel or tvranniral in India; but then they are a machine so constituted that it cannot work. We have often a. en many beautiful machines brought foe ward in mechanics, which have been admirably finished in every respect, but somehow or other that, was a fault, or they were on a wrong ptiaciple. and no power could be got out of them. It is just the same with that machine, and if you come to look over that machine from beginning to end, you would see that it wan one of the most complex end clumsy that the ingenuity of man ever devised; and 1 don't believe it possible that any man could now sit down and form a system of government so totally unfit for the work for which it was originally (heaped. In the lima place, the proprietors of Ent India steak, who i are the constituency electing this government, have no more interest in the government of the East Indies than the proprietors of the Loucashire and Yorkshire Railway. Their dividends and revenues arc certain, secured by act of parliament,—secured on the whole revenues of India,—and form not much more, I suppose, than the 30th or 40th part of those revenues; and therefore there is no risk of their dividends being unpaid. They are composed of some 1,700 or 1,800 individuals, all over the three kingdoms; not a few of them reside abroad ; one•fourth of the whole number are women; a considerable number are foreigners ; great numbers of them have neve• been in India, toed have no more knowledge of the country than of any other country in the world, except that they may have seen it on a map or atlas. Now, they elect the court of directors. The court of directors have to go through a system of canvassing and coaxing and pro mising and corruption, in order t s become directors, sorb as members of parliament who repr'sent p:aees very different from Manchester have unfortunately sonic knowledge of in their political career. It has been stated, I believe, before the committee now sitting, that the dirt of the kennel ! through which men have to crawl to get to the dirty dig nity of an East India director is such, that many re spectable, and some of the most eminent and able, men shrink from it, and won't be contaminated with it at all. The result is, that one third of your East India directors have never been in India; merchants, bankers, and various people in London, who find it very convenient to have a position like that, and find the patronage of great use to them, in one way or other, are elected-24 of them. Sings out and six come in each year. Thirty of them make the roll of the corporation. Well, their whole business, or nearly so, is the distribution of patronage. They get 4001. a year each as salary, but they each have patronage, the value of which, according to the account of a man most competent to give an opinion would, if it could be sell, he worth 8,0001. or 10,0001. a year. To this government is committed the whole collection of the revenue in India, every matter which affacts the attain waish we have been discussing this moraing. The great political questions of India are disposed of by the board of control, which is another body, the president of which is always a cabi. net minister. But now observe what has been done in the board of control. Within the last twelve months—l mentioned it the other night in the House of Commons—there have been no less thou four presidents of the Board of Control. In February of last year, there were three presidents in one month. There was Lord Broughton, there was Mr. Fox Maule, for about three weeks, and then there was Mr. Herries. Then in Christmas week we had Sir Charles Wood. Only conceive that you have got a cor poration of 30 men in Leadenhalbetreet-21 in office—and then you have another office in Cannon-row, with tour pre sidents in the course of 12 months—three in the course of a mouth. This corporation is very powerful and very perma nent. The President of the Board of Control is generally a person who has never been in India, is often a person who hu never paid any attention to Indian subjects more than any individual in this room. Then these two governments somehow or other are expected to carry on a system of administration advantageously for 100 millions of people some thousands of miles away. It is one continued jangle and wrangle between these two boards from January to December. If you could have brought before the public an accurate return of the cases in which these two bodies have disagreed, and the compromises of strong opinions which are made, and that both do something which neither believes to be right, because one would not allow the other to do what they thought to be right, you would have such a system of things as would speedily explode the govern ment of India, and could not fail to bring about an im provement. Mr. Turner talked about being knocked about from Cannon-row to Leadenhall-street ; and I dare say he has been tumbled about himself in the way he de scribes, like everybody else. Why, if you ask a question in the House of Commons of the President of the Board of Control, he mumbles something across the table which re fers you to Leadenhall-street, and suggests that you should make application to the court of directors. if eve move for a return of any kind of statistics from India, you get it in about two years—(laughter)—when the thing for which you wanted to use them has entirely gone by ; and then they come is such a shape that I defy any man to make the slightest use of them. (Hear.) I do state, with perfect sincerity, that I believe the whole of that is done in order to confuse the public, to mystify the house, ant to make it impossible that you should get at anything connected with the Indian government. (Rear.) Aad the difficulties that have arisen are so extraordinary, that no man in the House of Commons, who has the slightest regard for his own ease, or almost for his own reputation, will attempt to touch any thing connected with the Indian government. He is as certain to be baffled as ever he touches it ; and all the force which this great corporation can bring against him; the love of ease, which I have found the prevailing quality with presidents of the Board of Control; the indisposition of government to he bothered about India ; and the House of Commons' hate of the subject; all is brought to bear on every man who meddles with Indian subjects ; and every man who does so is driven back by the very hopelessness of the task which he undertakes. (" Hear," and applause.) Now, my idea of what government should do is this. Unless they are prepared, during this session, to bring in a bill involving a total change in the government of India, and placing that government directly under the crown, and making it directly responsible to parliament, I humbly submit that it is their duty to pass a continuance bill for two years, or three at the outside—say two years from the 30th April next year, which would bring it to the 30th April, 1836—and then during that time to allow public opinion to grow as it is now rapidly growing through the country, to allow the question to be fairly sifted by the press, and thoroughly investigated by committees or commissions ' • and at the end of that period to establish, not a government for 10 years or 20 years, with an act of parliament terminating at a given period, but a per manent government that shall be rightly constructed, as a principal machine, at home; and then you may rely upon it that a government like that, acting through wisely appointed agents in India, will very speedily, or as speedily as possible, carry out the various admirable recom mendations contained in this petition. You may have ob served that I brought this subject before the House of Commons the other evening, in putting a question to Lord J. Russell. I bad stated to his lordship not two hours, or indeed perhaps not one hour before I rose to put it, that I would not ask the question if it would cause the government any embarrassment; if they had not made up their minds upon it, or would rather that nothing should be said upon it for a few days. I told him that if it would be any conveni ence to them I would not say a word upon it,although I had given notice of it. Lord John Russell, however, proposed that I should ask the question. I did so, and I made some observations which I thought necessary. You will observe that Lord John Russell afterwards got up and was angry at having this question submitted in such a form, or at having so much said with regard to it. He went on the general principle that if you really have nothing to say for your clients you must abuse the attorney on the other side. It is the old story that so constantly comes up; and having no case at all, as I am sure he had none, for he did not make even the shadow of one, he was obliged to object t 3 the question which I had put, or to the manner in which had put it. But there was, you will observe, not a single man in the House of Commons who spoke on either side, except Sir Robert Inglis; and that is not much in his fa your —an excellent man, but a little behind on most ques tions—there was no other man who rose who did not re commend the course I proposed, that a delay should take place before any permanent legislation was adopted. (Cheers.) The result of that decision has been that the question has been much discussed privately among mem bers of the House of Commons, and I believe firmly that a large majority of the house are altogether differing from the opinion Lord John Russell expressed on that ques tion. And another result has been the formation of a committee or society in London to promote Indian reform, to which I believe more than 30 mem bers of the House of Commons had given inneir ad hesion, before I left town on Saturday last ; I have no doubt the number will greatly increase. I believe it is quite impossible for any majority of the House of Ccu mone, this session, to pass any measure that eropoe's permanently, I mean longer than two or three years, to continue the present government of India. I am not about to say a word with regard to those who had drawn sky the resolutions and petition. It may be that, acting in FROM LAST NIGHT'S OAIZTTI. FORRIGN-OFFlCE,3ll;&iib:—iii7Geen has been graciously pleased to appoint Armand Pictet, E sq ., now British Consular Agent, to be het Majesty's Consul at Genera. FOREIGN -OFFICE, MARCII 21.—The Queen has been pleased to approve of Mr. Bernhard Atnaberg u Consul at Port Adelaide for the Free Hanseatic City of Hamburg ; the Quecn has also been pleased to approve of Mr. N. Chr. Matbiasen as Consul at Gibraltar for the Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. WHITEHALL, MARCH 19.—The Queen has been pleased to appoint the Hon. John Henry Thomas Manners Sutton, Charles Ramsey Drinkwater Bethune, Esq., Com panion of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath and Cap tain in the Ito al Navy, and Colin Blackburn, Esq., Bar rister-at-Law, to be her Majesty's Commissioner s f or in quiring into Local Charges upon Shipping. WAR-OFFICE, Mance 22. 7th Dragoon Guards.—Major General Robert Hurd Ga briel, C. 1.1., to be colonel, vice Lieutenant-General the Honourable Henry Murray, C. 8., removed to the 14th Light Dragoons. 14th Light Dragoons.—Lieutenant-General' the Honour able Henry Murray, C. 8., from the 7th Dragoon Guards, to be colonel, rice General Sir Edward Kerrison, Bart., K.C.8., deceased. MEMOIIANDum.—Major-General Robert Burd Gabriel, C. 8., has repaid the difference he received upon ex changing from the 2nd Dragoon Guards to half-pay of 22nd Light Dragoons, 10th January. OFFICE OF ORDNANCE, Blanco 22. Royal Regiment of Artillery.—Second Captain Henry Royal Gardiner to be captain, vice Wynne, retired upon full-pay ; First Lieutenant Robert Emi.iim Fazake ley Cranford to be second captain, vice Gardiner ; Second Lieutenant Ralph Gore to be first lieutenant, vice Cran furd. A LESSEE FOUND FOR HER MAJESTY'S THEATRE. The suspension of the saleof the properties belonging to this establishment,which began last week, and was to have been continued on Monday, was the consequence, it ap pears, of a treaty having been set on foot for carryinff on the concern. We learn that several individuals of capital, in conjunction with Messrs. Pussi, Robinson, and Nugent (the two latter gentlemen being closely connected with the fortunes of her Majesty's Theatre), have at this juncture come forward and offered a proposal, whereby not only will the opening of the theatre be secured, bet sufficient means provided for meeting the exigencies of the season. This is all, we believe, that is yet known upon the subject I but it is understood that the transaction is in a fair way of being effected ; and we may expect that, after all, her Majesty's Theatre will not be very long behind the other house in putting forth the general programme of its arrangements. ROYAL COLLEGE OP Majon, held on Monday, Ku* $l, the following gentle men having undergone the wissormy examinations for diploma, were admitted members of the college :—Dr. Armitago, Upper Charlotte -street, Fitzroy-square ; Dr. Bristowe, North Addington-street, Camberwell. Also, Dr. Holmes, Gnat Torrington, Devon; Dr. Somerville, Wal sall, Stafford ; Dr. Take, York ; Dr. Bays, Marine-square, Brighten, and Dr. Thompson, Newark-upon-Trent, were admitted extra licentiates. the Comitia DIFFICULTIES IN THE PENINSULA. Lord Wel lington and the Marshal Beresferd are walking up and down the street, and the military secretary is writing . under a wall, apes hie knees, whilst his servants are pitching his tent. In a little field where General Alava is about to en camp there wu just now, the Military Secretary, Colonel Smell, the Commander of the Police Corps, Fitzclarence, General Alessi, the Spanish Aide-decamp, Colonel Waters, Ile Prime et Orange, and your humble servant, all lying wpm tie pound together, round a cold ham and bread , pea Tweedy, and a bottle of champagne. And no bad flin either you will say. The Prince and Lord Fitzroy, She two boys, were playing together all the time.—Lor pates Private Journal. APPALLING ACCIDENT.—On Thursday evening a par widow, named Catherine Heafy, employed in the mill- Mg awaime of Mr. James Bunatyne, near Mountkennett, wan essidestally dragged between two rapidly revolving UM* (amp perpendicular, the other horizontal), while en gaged a _wmfalai upon the ground floor, and her head eosin M Snit contact with the cogs, was literally shat tered to pines, and the right arm frightfully mangled. It is suppose" her dress caught in the machinery, and that she was instantaneously dragged ia. A more appalling " - than her mutilated body presented was never iiietiiis named. LIVERPOOL CORN MERCHANTS' ASSOCIATION-- A meeting was held en Monday afternoon in the Corn Ex change, Liverpool, to take into consideration the beet method of forming a Corn Merchants' Association. The meeting was well attended by the corn factors of the town. The chair was occupied by Mr. Woodward. The first resolution was to the effect, that the corn trade of Liver pool was at present conducted is an unsatisfactory manner, whether as regarded the uncertainty respecting the term " customs of the trade," the heavy charges as conspired with those at many other parts, or the want of correct statistical information. The second resolution was, "That with a view to the removal or better adjustment of exist ing didieulties, an association be formed to be called "The As/satiation of the Liverpool Corn Trade.' " A committee, consisting of the leading factors, was then appointed to carry out the object of the trade. The subscription to the association was fixed at 11. Is. WORKING MAN'S EMIGRATION SOCIETY.—Last night a full meeting was held at the Temperance hail, Broadway, Westminster, Sir J. V. Shelley, Bart., M.P., in the chair, for the purpose of receiving an explanation of the means and objects of the Working Man's Emigration Society.—The Chairman, while expressing his conviction that at no time had the lot of the agricultural labourer been more prosperous than it now was, enforced the desirability of opening to the industrious a wa y from a country where labour is in excess to another where it is greatly needed. The society enable men to go out by the aid of the funds resulting from the common subscriptions, priority being determined by ballot. Six persons had secured passages under these arrangements, and several others would receive the same aid inn few days, the seciety receiving the security of two pers m% for repayment. A number of questions respecting the operations of the society were put and answered, and resolutions approving of the society and its aim were passed before the meeting separated. 1