The Express. — London, England, 1847-09-23 00:00:00

list men like Messrs. BLANQUI and DuNovae. came rom Paris to meet the representatives of the various shades of public opinion in other countries. Ireland, with all its faults, is at least a step in aance free trade, and is not likely to give it up. AMONGST the more opulent members of society there are none who suffer so severely from the want of sanitary measures as medical men. It is one d their daily duties to visit the diseased and dying among the sick poor, and thus, being brought closely in contact with them, they often contract those diessess which are brought on and kept up by filth and po verty. For this attendance upon " wretched's...and vice," in nine cases oat of tee, they receive no remu neration, and their lives arehafizTently the forfeit of their philanthropy. The at which medical men attend cases of fever is much greater than is usually supposed, and is one of the principal causes of the low average of the duration of life amongst them as a class. It ap pears that ordinarily in Ireland nearly one-half of the medical practitioners have suffered from attacks of fever, whilst during the present visitation it has i nearly decimated the whole profession. It must not, however, be supposed that the only victims of fever are Irish medical men. We could enumerate a long list of those who have died within these last six months, in the practice of this perilous profession, in the towns and cities of England. Every week the medical journals record the melancholy fact. Take the following from the obituary of the Prorincial Medical owl Surgical Journal of Wednesolay last : A u gust 30, at Westport, aged 29, of fever, Peter Lovell, Esq.,M.R.C.S. of Engl., surgeon to the Shruel Dispensary. Sept. 1, aged 32, of fever, George Vickers Dunne, physician to the dispensary and fever hospital at Clon donagh, Queen's county. Sept. 4, of fever, Dr. Lander, one of the district medical oaken in the city of Glasgow. At Skibbereen, of fever, Thomas Goodison, Esq., M.D., of Dublin. At Bolton, aged 28, of fever, Henry Hatton, Esq., medical officer of the western district of Great 13J1ton. The soldier in battle is not so likely to fall as the medical man who has to contend with this terrible esemy, fever. The list of deaths does not, however. furnish us with the correct estimate of the amount of suffering. Where one medical man dies, at least ten recover from attacks of the disease. During these attacks, it is impossible that he can pursue his professional avocations, and we have known young medical men involved in anima difficulties in conse quence. Frequently, also, the father of a family in troduces the disease at home to his wife and children, though he himself may not contract the disease. Under these circumstances, we think that theft are two points of view in which medical men have claims on public censideration. First, for as much protection as can be given from attacks of the disease; and second, some assistance to their wives and fami-1 lies after their decease. The first point undoubtedly involves the whole sanitary question. When the drainage is bad, the ventilation imperfect, and the supply of water deficient, there fever will reign with the most intensity, and there will the greatest number of medical men find their graves. The removal of these evils must be a work of time, but there ought TO be no time loot in commencing it; we owe it ahke{ to the poor and those who minister to their flees's sities. There is, however, a means of protection which can and ought to be immediately attended to, and that is the management of the various public fever ins* tutions. We know that in this country thip . fever-wards of workhouses have been excessively over-crowded, and that the most niggardly and parsimonious economy has been pursued by poor-law guardians and parish-officers in the fitting up of receptacles for fever patients. Better far would it be for medical men that their patients should be left in their own homes, bad as they must necessarily be, than that they should be huddled together, and the dreadful contagion so concentrated that it is al most impossible for the casual visitor to escape its deadly influence. Frequently in the construction and selection of these places the greatest amount of igno rance is displayed of the nature of fever ; and the poisonous effluvia which by a little arrangement might be rendered innocuous by dilation are allowed to accumulate and poison the atmosphere. Bad as these things are in many parts of England, in Ireland they are worse. It is stated that the fever hospital, in which one of thevictim s, Dr. Duaar,whom wo have mentioned above, " endeavoured to admi nister relief to the miseries of the poor people around him, consisted of the hind walls of an old cottage, eked out with boarding and covered with straw,. and in this wretched shed nearly sixty persons were crowded together at the time he contracted the, of which he died." Even this " wretched eh not erected at the public expense, bat was and supported by :the noble man who thus joined the long list of fever martyrs. Surely something ought to be done by the government in such a case. But we, the most enlightened and philan thropic nation en the face of the earth, have no medi cal police. We have no sanitary laws, and, as far as public health is concerned, we are infinitely worse off than the naked barbarians of Africa and the South Sea Islands. With regard to the second point, there are un doubtedly many di ffi culties, but they ought not to be such as to preclude assistance being rendered to the widows and orphans of those who have fallen in the discharge of a public duty. The principle is already recognised in the army and navy, and surely he who loses his life in the godlike work of rescuing his fellow-creatures from the grave is not less entitled to consideration than he who risks it for the honour of his country. In most instances the medical men who perish of fever are young men, who have generally spent their little property on their education, and have bad neither sufficient time nor practice to save anything for the support of their wives and families. The sufferings and privations to which many have been thus reduced are well known to the members of the medical profession, and we trust these remarks will serve to draw public atten tion to the meansof readying the wants of the class to which they relate. Mr. MICHAEL DoRENY, the statesman of the Holy. cross meeting, is not, it seems, a farmer, but a lawyer, who has been generally engaged as counsel for those prosecuted for agrarian offences, and for the numerous murders springing out of them. Mr. DOHENT is, therefore, well acquainted with the muses of those outrages, for which Tipperary is so famous. The more rational part of the recommendations which he gave in his speech the other day he previously proffered in the coarse of his examination before Lord 'cation of His great nostrum for th e pacification of that turbulent county was then, as it is now, the security, by law, of tenant-right There are a great many arguments which may be adduced in favour of tenant-right, and a great number of arguments also which may be adduced against it. Rat one thing . is certain, which is, that nothing can be more pernicious or more destructive of the peace , of a coanty than the actual yet disputed existence ' of tenant-nght, ceded by one landlord on one estate, denied and refused by his next-door neighbour, whilst the peasant is thus left to invoke or defend a right as sacred which is really dependent upon the whim or the peculiar views of individuals. The examination of the witnesses of the county Tipperary, examined before the DEVON commission shows the very great prevalence of tenant-right there. This right consists, as we said yesterday, lees in per manency of occupation than in the faculty of selling the good-will of the holding 'to a new tenant; the payment of the price of this " good-will," satisfies the outgoing tenant. It is not given as compensation for outlay or improvement, but it is simply a peace offering, by which the incoming tenant propitiates the murderous and vindictive claims of the old. As the outgoing tenant is often of the bankrupt, scapegrace, and reckless class, tenant-right, and the payment • which it enjoins, is a kind of black-mail paid by the pacific farmer to the freebooter and the man of 'rio t lerom. It is a tribute levied and paid to supply the *- defective police and security of the country. If such •be the character of tenant-right, it would be a dis grace to any government or legislature to sanction it. And yet it would be far better to sanction and to nuke it universal than to allow its partial practice • Via admission by a certain number of timid landlords, Wao time create a popular belief of the right, apses to popular vengea nce, in consequence, *Me us landlords who resist it. It • • # Impossible not to see, that the continually sad peculiarly disturbed state of Tipperary t" bas been owing to this mingled practice and dial lemma of tenant-right. It has given rise to a wir between landlord and tenant which could not have liessms me !amorous ar ^^ • -^ry were it merely _ than in England. In many parts, wasteland may be procured for nothing, or next to nothing, and fuel ob tained for the digging. The inhabitants of Ross-shire or Caithness never taste animal food, nor complain of the want of it. They live, and have always lived, on mea l an d potatoes, with the occasional luxury of a Wi g . These considerations help us towards an nadesstanding of such a case as that of old MARION I goes. et Dersoch, aged eighty, living by herself, rent gem, fa a mull croft, with an allowance of ninepence a week. She could move about, but was quite unable to work a neighbour assisted her. Notwithstanding, however, the possibility of MAR lON o Ross keeping b ody and soul together on 9d. a week with these helps, her case clearly fur nishes no ground for contending that Ad. a week is a fair allowance even in Doruoch for "needful sus- Mutation." Perhaps a disposition appears in the re port to dwell rather too strongly on such cases. The parochial board of Inverness, in its report for 1846-7, states their highest allowance to paupers not bed-rid, at le. a week, but that to some b ed -ridden, the magni ficent sum of Is. 6 d. weekly was given. Surely no evidence can be wanted to prove that this sum is in sufficient for " needful sustentation" upon the lowest conceivable estimate of prices or comforts. With the facts stated by the Glasgow committee before us, we are utterly unable to discover how the board of supervision arrive at their conclu sion that the allowance to aged and disabled paupers wholly dependent on parochial relief, all but equals, if it do not actually equal, the MOM of in dustrious labourers in the same parishes. They are bound, it appears to us as, to th® Glasgow Association, to furnish evidence of such an approximation, espe cially . when the facts they do supply seem to run right in the teeth of their statements. The most important function of the Board of Supervision is that which makes them a court of appeal for the pauper . from the parochial board. The form of procedure is thee stated by the Glasgow Association : The board receives no complaints unless made in the form prescribed. The parochial inspectors are bound to furnish any pauper desiring to complain with a printed schedule, containing a nu mber of questions to be answered by the complainer, in writing, upon a blank column in the schedule f The samplainer having thus sta ted his case, or so much o it as the queries in the schedule bring out, the inspector then writes his remarks opposite to the co mplainer's statement, and * this state it goes before the board, no opportunity being allowed to the complainer to contradict or disprove any assertion the inspector may think himself justified in making. If the board considers the inspector's reply satia factory, the complaint is at once dismissed. But if not, they then remit it back to the parochial board for further informs tioa—thus allowing the inspector an dppottunity of amend ing his pleading, and strengthening his case: but at no time, so far as we can learn, does the board ever apply to the pauper for farther explanations, or for a reply to anLsZtsed ment of the inspector or parochial beard. And. after the schedule of appeal is sent to the hoard. the pamper knows nothing of what ts going forward until )10 metives a letter from the board announcing . its decision IS his com pliant. We feel that too much impertance out hardly, be attached to the form in which the board allows a complainer to approach it, and in which it deals with these complaints, when we observe that, out of 597 complaints, 308 were dis missed at once, and 91 more, after communicating with the parochial boards complained against, but with no communi cation with the pauper complaining. We cannot help feeling that this can hardly be considered an " investigation of the nature and grounds of the complaint" within the meaning of the statute. When we look for the principles on which the board has proceeded in deciding on the com plaints—in other words, how it has taken its estimate of " needful sustentation"—we find ourselves quite at sea. The report speaks much and often of the great variety in the rate of allowances which has been found tolerable in different parishes, ranging from the annual sums of 81. Os. 7d. in Berwickshire, to 2s. 6d. in Shetland. They seem to think themselves justified by this wide range of relief in deciding each case on its special circumstances. But if this system is to be pursued, their method of procedure admits no fair statement of circumstances on the side of the pauper. It is evident that a system like that of the Scotch poor-law, in which, before the act of 1845, local authority was omnipotent, requires a very vigilant, and, if possible, humane,central 'tape) intendenee. We must not, as againat this conclusion, suppose that the 597 complainants were all the discontented paupers in Scotland, much less all who had good reasons for diacontent. When it is considered how little such ns, as the Scotch law relieves, know of their own grights, or the means of enforcing them, how ring and degradation will blunt the sense of misery, so that it is, at last, difficult to rouse the wretched into such effort, whether of remedy or remonstrance, as is necessary for self preservation, it will not appear surprising that oat of parishes, in which the weekly rate of parochial relief varies from a maximum of 2s. 6d. to a minimum of id., &c., only 597 persons were found to com plain of the inadequacy of their pittances of " needful sustentation." If the board of supervision is to do its work effectually, a different mode of action must be adapted to it, proprio mob', or enforced upon it by the legis lature. It must be compelled to alter its form of procedure in cases of complaint, and to come to some thing like a classification of cases, on which may be founded something like a just apportionment of paro chial stipends. the result of the resentment of justly dispossessed tenants, who had been taught and led to believe, by the conduct of many landlords themselves, that the p easant tenant had more than a temporary interest in the land. The first requisite, there fore for the peace of Tipperary, and of Irish counties similarly situated, mast be either th e estab li shment of some law of tenant right, or a permanent and general disavowal and abrogation of it. The moment of the great gift of the poor-law to the distressed and the destitu would have been a good opp ortunity for settling the qu estion of tenant-right, if it was to be decidedly , w i t hd r awn. But this, we fear , is not the only measure which might have been introduced as a con comitant to that law, bat which will be found difficult to enforce as a sequence. Persons may be perplexed to discover how it came to psis that landlords first came to admit the practice of tenant-right. The answer is the same as to the question, how farmers and landowners came to pay black mail? It was an offering of propitiation to the goddess of discord and murder, which, as the tenant himself paid, the landlord could not but rejoice. Be sides, he was glad to get a tenant who had the capital to invest. It was to him a pledge for his rent—a guarantee of the solvency and good conduct of his tenant. In a more advanced, more civilised, more secure, more prosperous state, the tenant would no doubt have brought this capital in the shape of stock, or have employed it upon the land. But in barbarous states and countries, wealth is chiefly useful to pro pitiate or master violence, instead of reproducing profit or fruit. In the matter of tenant-right, the permanetcy of tenure enjoyed by the peasant may in some instances be advantageous; but the habit of an incoming tenant paying a large sum to the out-going tenant, often " as much as the fee simple of t he land," mai ow daily in Ireland, is simply an abstraction from the land of all the capital that ought, and that astir* tends to be employed upon it. It is in general a pay-i meat from incipient industry to failure and neglect. And, taken with the Irish character, in regions peculiarly Irish, the existence of this sunken de posit removes a stimulus from the active industry of the tenant, who instead of being forced to pay up his rent, has a fund to fall back upon, and to save him from the results of his own laziness or unskilfulness. Scortssits has escaped lausy of the difficulties which in England beset the esmtion of poor laws. It has got rid of these difficulties, it is true, somewhat as ALEXANDER settled those of the Gordian knot. In stead of attempting in 1579, as ELIZABETH in 1601, to determine the limits and laws which should control relief to the able-bodied, to draw the perplexing line between sturdy beggars that will not work, and ill starred industry that cannot find work to do, the Scot legislators at once declared that no able-bodied person should receive relief on any terms whatever, by con fining their statutable charity to " aged . poor, impotent, and decayed persons," and classifying among the strong and idle beggars and vagabonds • all common labourers, being persons able in body, living idly and fleeing labour , and never mentioning at all those who, willing to work, could find no work to do. The law of Scotland in principle remains in 1846 what it was in 1579. The act of 1845 is purely administrative. That act established a board of supervision, to super intend the working of the poor law in Scotland, and to make an annual report, containing " in particular a full statement of the condition and management of the poor throug hout Scotland, and the funds raised for their relief . In fact, this board is to be for Scot land what the Somerset-house commission was in tended to be for England. The Scotch system of poor-law relief presents 110{110 curious contrasts to that of England. If the Amami ' ment Act of 1834 placed the latter under the control of too rigid a " centralisation," as some of its im pugners maintain, Scotland has presented the ether I extreme of the laxest " localisation," evsey parish proceeding on its own plan for raising sad ap portioning them to applicants. The E • is theoretically one of in-door relief ; the db. penes with the workhouse altogether, and relieves the pamper exclusively in his own dwelling. The English system has an application of medical relief, however insufficient; the Scottish leaves every parish to settle its own terms with a medical attendant for the poor, or to leave its paupers with no medical attendance whatever. Oddly . enough, with such fundamental and almost antagonistic differences of principle, the two systems have resulted in evils almost identical. The most operative of these evils in both cases is a want of humanity in estimating pauper wants, and a want of sympathy in relieving them. The appointment of the board of supervision in 1845 was loudly called for, yet the act which appointed it is remarkable for the very mild tone of its dictation. It runs throughout rather in the potential " may " than the imperative " must." Parishes may still, ender it, as before, choose their own method of raising their relief funds', but the members of the parochial board, corresponding to the English board of guardians, are to be qualified and elected as the act specifies. 'The changes introduced in the constitution of these i parochial boards are all in favour of increased control by the rate-payers. These boards are obliged to elect an inspector corresponding to our overseer, who is to have the custody of all documents relating to the management and relief of the poor, to make himself acquainted with the circumstances of all persons re ceiving relief, to register their names and allowances, and to visit them personally, at least twice a year, at their own residences. Facilities are also given by the act for the union of parishes to build poor houses. A pauper, dissatisfied with the treatment of the paro chial board, must send his complaint to the board of supervision, which stands between him and his an cient right of direct appeal to the Court of Session. We have before us the first report of the board of supervision, and a criticism on that report by a com mittee of the " Glasgow Association in aid of the Poor." After a careful perusal of the report, we are dis posed to concur in part, at least, of the strictures passed upon the board of supervision by the Glasgow com mittee. At the same time, it must not be forgotten that the board of supervision was engaged in the task of superintending an expenditure of other per sons' money, and the association in the much easier one of criticising that expenditure. The association complain, first, of certain omissions from the report. The book has not, they say, included in its blue book, any statement of the allowances actually made to any clam of paupers in the different parishes of Scotland since the new act came into operation. There is, however, a general abstract, showing the number of pauper., and the gross sum expended for their relief, daring the years ending February, 1813, and February, 1846, with the increase or decrease of these two items, and a statement of the annual rental and population of each parish. A statement of the average allowance to different classes of paupers would not only have given us a re sult more striking and immediately attainable, but it world have enabled us to test more searchingly cer tain statements of the board than it is possible to do with the materials before us. It must be borne in mind, in all discussions of this subject, that the Scotch law involves, as we have already pointed out, very few of the disputed points of political economy which have made the English law so favourite a battle-ground. In Scotland, the aged, impotent, and disabled only, have a claim to relief. That claimable relief the law defines to be such needful suatentation as " of their own consent they will receive and live unbeggared" ( I . e. with out begging). It certainly does appear startling to English notions to find that this sum is in some places fixed at Is. 6d., in others at Is. 2d., in some at 9d., while in others, which may be called homoeopathic parishes, it sinks to an infini tesimal average of Id. a week. In very few indeed does it rise above 2s. 6d. To judge, however, how far these sums are such as to satisfy the requirements of the law, we must set aside both our experience of English out-door relief on the one hand, and of the English standard both of comforts and prices on 011 other. In this country, the weekly out-door pittance at 25., 2s. 6d., or 35., is intended not to suffice for the sole maintenance of the recipient, but to eke out scanty means, and so save the rate-payer - from entirely supporting in the house those who can partially sup port themselves oat of it. In Scotland out-door relief is the only relief The pauper is supposed to be en tirely dependent upon the parish, and this is the only channel through which the parish supplies the necessi ties of its burdens. Looked at in connexion with these facts, the Scotch pittance, eateris paribus, should be larger than the English. But, on the other hand, prices and notions of comfort are lower in Scotland A portion of the following appeared in part of our last evening's issue : Our Pans despatches of Tuesday have brought little intelligence of general interest. A royal ordonnance appears m the Moniteur, calling out 60,000, out of 80,000, men, voted by the Chambers for the contingent of the present year. Of this number, 63,650 are for the army, and 6,350 for the navy. The ' Journal des Mbats gives a long account of the state of the forces of the Emperor and Abd-el-Kader in Morocco, tending to show that the chances of success of the latter are trivial. In the present uncertainty respect ing the real condition of eithbr of these parties, how ever, no conclusion can be formed on any satisfactory grounds. We must await further and more definite The journals and despatches from Madrid of the 18th have arrived. The Madrid Gazette denies, upon authority, the statement that Mr. Bulwer has made any charge against any party or individual, of con spiring against the Queen or her government. This reclamation has, of course, been published by the desire of the English minister himself. Various decrees respecting the reform of the civil aaministratien, the customs, and the tariff, are in pre paration. M. Sartorius having been publicly charged with intrigues to seduce the soldiers, has demanded an inquiry, for the purpose of tracing the calumny to its authors. The letter of our correspondent is given below. The advices received from Italy directly, as well as through the German journals, add little that is im portant to the intelligence we have already given. The announcement which we quoted, first from the Italian and later from the German jour nals, of the arrival of the Rodney, the Vanguard. and the Albion at Ancona, is contradicted by a correspondent of the Journal des D4bata, who writes from that city on the 13th that no British ships had been announced there as having appeared in the Adriatic. The detailed report of the great national celebration which took place at Florence on Sunday, the 12th (and which we have given on a former day), occupies a large space in the Pars journals of Tuesday ; and ' the semi-official organ of the cabinet, which, a few days since, attacked Tuscany in general, and Flo- I 1 ranee in particular, es being the focus of mis chievous agitation and the supporter of a radical and licentious press, devoted on Tuesday a couple of its leading columns to a panegyric on the same people. This journal admits that, notwithstanding all the evils it feared, the report of the police establishes the fact that on this day which witnessed a public assembly and procession of 30,000 persons, the utmost order, Imoderation, and respect for persons prevailed, and ' that not a single robbery or theft was notified, nor a single instance of an individual intoxicated. Not a cry hostile to the government, or to any functionary, whether Tuscan or foreign, was heard. The excitement at Leghorn had subsided on the 14th, and the people resumed their ordinary pursuits. The population of the city has, however, been or ganised in sections and hundred% so as to be as sembled at auy moment without confusion or disorder by the chiefs and authorities. . The Sardinian government has evinced displeasure at the like manifestations, which took place at Genoa and some other towns, and which we have already Three of the members of noble families r v e rg e t e o r ok part in these proceedings had been since moved to Turin. These were, the Marquis George Doris, who headed the procession on the Bth, and THE EXPRESS, THURSDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 23. 1847. MM. Giacomo Delhi and Rsgg i. Demonstrations hail taken place at Savona, at Clibtvari, and generally in the neighbourhood of Genoa. The monks, who were generallyopposed to the Jesuits in Piedmont, signified Omit adhesion to the popular movement by illumi nating their convents in the most brilliant manner. A petition to the Kiag, for the institution of the National Guard, and for a qualified liberty of the press, was prepared. A draft of the memorial had been submitted to the municipal chiefs, the syndics, and to thli archbishop, for their signature. They individually expressed their willingness to sign it provided it were previously forwarded to Turin for the appro bation of the King. The Archbishop (M. Tadini) was reported to have said, " I will sign it with the vartest pleasure, for I cannot forget that before being an ecclesiastic 1 have been an Italian." The document was accordingly , forwarded to Turin. The Roman journals and letters from that city have brought a proclamation issued by the Secretary of State, and directed against some proceedings in the recent popular demonstrations. We have already mentioned that the Prince of Canino had incurred the disapprobation of the authorities on that occasion. The present letters say, that, riot content with joining in the exclamations uttered by the popu lace in favour of " Italian independence," the prince, having been received in the hotels of the Tuscan and Sardinian Legations, presented him self on the balconies in front of these palaces respec tively and uttered the same cries. We have already mentioned a report that he had proposed to present himself at the scientific at Venice in the uni form of the national guard. It is probable, however, that this rumour was unfounded, as it is scarcely pro bable that the prince could be so destitute of discre tion as to adopt a proceeding so inconsistent with the dignity of science, which belongs not to this or that nation, but to the world. All communications with the interior of the Nes politan territory are suspended. In the absence of all sources of certain intelligence the imagination of the public fills the blank with the worst reports. At Palermo the authorities have agreed to recommend to the King the institution of the national guard as the only practicable mean, of checking the present political ev il . It was not supposed that any such suggestion would be adopted. rho town of Reggio, on the coast of Calabria, almost op to Messina, and which we have already announced to have declared for the insurrection, was, according to letters from Naples of the 13th, bom barded by a squadron of steam-frigates. A great number of houses were destroyed, and many persons killed. This operation was conducted by Count Acquila (brother of the King) in person. The inha bitants noon retreated, and took refuge in the adja cent country. It was reported that Syracuse and Wawa bodyoined the insurrection. The most distin guished and influential persons in the Calab ria " , in cluding the clergy, are reported ,to have declared for the insurrection, and to have received Romeo, its leader, with fervour, and supplied his troops with all the necessaries. Courts have been es tablished wherever the government retains its authority, with powers to try in a summary manner all persons charged with disaffection, and to cause their execution in two hours. The inhabitants of Milan, including the municipal authorities, have protested. against the arbitrary vio lence of the police in the recent proceedings. The government is reported to have suspended several of the commissaries, and to have changed the orders given to the military. Tranquillity had been re established in that city. The Gazette de France gives a letter from Turin, which says that a part of the army of Piedmont is to be imme di ately put on a war footing: The Augsburgh Gazette says that the Italian tri colour flag (white, red, and green) floats over Lucca, and that the city has adopted the motto " The inde pendence and unity of Italy." The same journal quotes letters from Rome, which say, that immediately after the government had re ceived the answer of Austria. to the protestation against the occupation of Ferrara, Cardinal Ferretti had a conference with the principal members of the diplomatic corps, who signified their opinion that the right of Austria to occupy Ferrara was incontestable ; that the cardinal then putting aside the question of right, urged that the occupation of Ferrara, being it self the cause of the effervescence and irritation which prevailed in the other states of Italy, its evacuation as a mere matter of policy ought to , be conceded. On this ground the cardinal again demanded, in catego rical terms, the retirement of the Austrian forces. The day after the public festivities at Florence of the 12th inst. the Grand Duke issued the following decree : To our good and faithful Tuscans,—Full as our heart is of the lively emotions occasioned by the unanimous mani festations of respectful and affectionate exultation evinced towards us and our family by the Tuscan people, we will not retard for an instant the public decimation of our paternal satisfaction and gratitude. The pleasing remembrance of that day will be indelibly engraved on our heart. Let it be so in yours also ; and, as it has been arcesly our pleasure to declare to all the municipalities and populations of the state, in the person of the gonfaloniere of the noble city of Flo rence, let confidence meet with conildenee, and love be re quited with love. Let now a generous impulse of the heart be succeeded by the tranquil reflection of the mind ; and while each of you peaceably attends to his own affairs, by private industry, bin commerce, sources of private and public prosperity, let your prince, after having without delay given due development to the institution of the civic guard, pro mote also, by the compilation of the codes, already ordered, by the improvement of the municipal institutions, the orgt maation of public instruction, and other useful provisions of government, those moral and materiel advantages, which• we all desire for our common country. The signs of approaching collision in the Swiss confederation increase. We have to-day the intelli gence that the cantonal government of the Valais has not only protested against the resolution of the diet to expel the Jesuits, but has formally declared that the canton of the Valais will notes mply with that decision, and, if necessary, ll oppose forcible resistance to its execution. It was said that the ministers of Austria, Prussia, and Russia, who hitherto have resided at Zurich, were about to remove to Berne, M. Bois le Comte, the French minister, having lost all influence with the governments of the I liberal cantons, 'without gaining the confidence of those of the Sonderbund. L'Amide In Constitution, a Berne journal, of the I 17th, gives the following revelations of' the diplomacy of France : The independent position of several Italian princes in the recent collisions between the Pope and the Austrians has, greatly astonished foreign governments, who were not in the least aware of such a state of independency. The fol lowing is said to be the origin of the declaration of these princes: three months ago the government of Louis Philippe, seeing a crisis was inevitable in Switzer land and Italy, and that the Queen of Spain was overthrowing his best calculated combinations by her independent conduct, resolved upon proposing a conference to be held in London, in order to discuss the affairs of the three nations. England, foreseeing the majority would be against her, refused; because she was apprehensive that the question of the succession to the throne of Spain might be resolved in favour of the Duchess of Montpensier. Then the government of Louis Philippe applied to Austria, with whom it appears to have been for some time on most intimate terms. It ie said that an agreement was entered into between the two courts about the beginning of July. The first point concerns the Pope's intention of sending a legate to Constantinople to protect the eatholicsin the East. It is said therein that the two catholic states agree on this point, that their influence is sufficient to protect the catholics in the East; they, in conse quence, consider the envoy of a legate of the Pope to Constantinople as superfluous. The second point had ;for its object certain eventualities in Switzerland. According to the third, Austria takes upon herself to re establish order and tranquillity in the states of Italy, which, after all, the treaties of Vienna give her a right to do ; she accepts this minion as much in the interest of the Italian nations as in her own safety. According to the fourth point, France takes upon herself to consolidate the regular state of things in Spain, by every means in her power, and that in the intereet of Spain and of her own safety. Lastly, in the fifth point, the government of Louis Philippe promises its whole moral influence in the affairs of Italy. Austria, on the contrary, engages herself to obtain the assent of Prussia and Russia to what France should think necessary with respect to Spain. This arrangement has been concluded verbally by the two ambassadors. The occupation of Ferrara took place immediately after. The Prince Metternich was in hopes this measure would have provolvid disturb ances in the Roman states, and that the opportunity of filling Italy with his troops would thus naturally present it self, but he had calculated wrong. The conspiracy brewed at Rome in this intention did not succeed ; the cardinal legate protested against the occupation of Ferrara, ond the population gathered round him, to defend their rising liberty against this unjust aggression. In these circumstances the Austrians judged it prudent to wait till the arrival of flesh troops. England, irri tated at this agreement , in what concerned the a ff airs of Spain, immediately issued a declaration, bearing Ist. That no state could be impeded from accom plishing the reforms it might have deemed necessary. 2nd. She sent a note to every government in Italy, advising them to join together against foreign intervention, promising them at the same trae all kinds of support. The moat powerful of the sovereb;ns of Italy, the King of Piedmont, was most par ticularly advised to declare dwelt, and so he dd. MADRID, Sarr. 16. The programme of the mieie try looks daily more and more like a delusion. The fit of enthusiasm lighted up throughout the country by the amnesty offered a happy moment for holding out a truce to the partisans of Montemolin, and giving them the option to return pardoned and unmolested to their homes. This occasion has been leip. Yet the truce was a necessary make-wei t sl ght to the amnesty, and the surest safeguard against the increased facilities for fomenting the rebellion being used as an arm against the government. It does not answer to be generous by halves. The latest ministerial nominations have not tended to increase the confidence of the liberals or to conciliate their support, while the addition of a client of Chris tina, and a friend of Mon, to the cabinet, has been hailed as a triumph by the moderadoe. The only two ministers who have either inclination or energy to hold on in a progressive direction, are Salamanca and Esoosura. The tendencies of these are counteracted by Cordova and Hos de Olano, while what little poli tical weight belongs to the three remaining minis ters is no doubt exerted on the side of the latter. Under these circumstances, which have damped the hopes of the liberals and slackened their expectations of the fulfilment of the promises with which their sup port was bought at the critical moment which fol lowed the repulse of Narvaez, we may expect to find the ranks of progress shortly opening fire upon the government, unless they het a fresh instalment of con cessions. One of the ministerial doings which has most irritated them of late, is the promotion by Cor dova of 9 brigadiers, whose only apparent merit is that of being moderadoe, to-the rank of mariscales-de campo. Certainly . the brigadiers in question did not see much service in the late expedition to Oporto, in which nearly all of them were employed. A change, miscalled reform, contemplated in the army, place; the incapacity of the Minister of War in a striking light. The rank of brigadier is to be sup pressed, and all the existing brigadiers are to be made mariscales-de-campo, a rank corresponding to that of our major-general. At present brigadiers are not called generals, a mariscal-de-cameo being the lowest rank entitled to that denomination ; next above the mariscal-de-cameo comes the tementi-gene ral (lieut.-general), and then the captain-general, equivalent to field-marshal. The last rank must not be confounded with the captaincy-general of a province, there being only five field-marshals in the Spanish service, but of course a much greater number of captains-general of provinces. The effect of the r e form above indicated will be to create 400 generals by . courtesy, in addition to the innume rable effective generals already in existence. The new promoted will wear the uniform, without enjoy ing the pay, of major-generals. But, of course, to morrow, or the next day, intrigue and favouritism will open for them the door to commands and emoluments, as favours authorised by their new rank. Besides this evil of multiplying aspirants of little experience for important poste, the new mariacales-de-campo will be disabled from accepting the inferior services in which they might have been usefully employed as brigadiers. So that the tendency of this measure to swell the already overgrown multitude of mili tary loungers, and to add to their empty self-impor tame. The issuing of so absurd a decree will at least, 000 may hope, have the good effect of sickening peo pie of the system of decree - law , and g ive a fresh im pulse to the call for a fair codes and a speedy seseion. A very significant symptom of the activity of the French agency which is at work in corrupting all departments of the public service, and preparing the mines whose explosion is to upset the present order of things, may be found in the sudden variation of the exchange upon Paris which has risen 11 within the last three days. Thr ee : days ago all the houses of Madrid were taking bills upon P aria, and at this moment they are getting rid of them. The same fact b noted in the provinces. What better proof that large unusual remittances of money have been made from France into Spain ? and, in the absence of all commercial grounds to explain this novelty, it is clear this pouring in of French money must be attributed to a political cause. The same phenomenon was remarked before the outbreak of the revolution of '43. The Faro hears that the government are going to unite the functious of political chief and intendente in the same person, under the title of provincial governor. The new governors will be divided into three dames, and those of Madrid and the principal cities will re ceive a considerable salary. The same paper reports that the government have taken back the treasury bills they recently gave to the Bank of San Fernando, and have delivered to company 40 millions in cash. Rumours have been afloat latterly, I fear with little foundation, about the dissolution of the Cot Mid in event of these not being dissolved, of the re-diction of about 40 members, whose places are vacant on various accounts. The Herald° having taunted the progresistaa with the Onsrrier Francais, whose late atrocious libel upon the Spanish Queen has excited so much disgust, advocating the same principles in France which the ayacnchos do in Spain, the Erpectador, in answer, has revealed some curious facts. It states that M. Durrieux, the principal redacteur of the Courrier, is a great friend of the ultra-moderado Martinez de la Rosa, and was presented with the 'Cross of Charles 111. by his patron, when minister of state. General Inane has had an interview with the Minister of War, in which he has made a fresh appli cation in favour of the amnestied offioers of the progresista party, and professes himself satisfied with General Cordova's reception and reply. The Faro states that the night before last, at the Theatre of the Circus, where the Queen and ministers were present, rumours were industriously circulated (of course by English agents) of a military con spiracy, beaded by moderado generals, that was to break out at two 'n the morning. It was to be a very sanguinary affair, killing the Queen, and so forth. The King Consort was to play the princi part. These tales were the preface to a pro to the Queen for seizing Narvae: and other peop e, and arming the national militia. I really should not notice the contemptible lying paragraphs of this kind which are continually put forward by the respectable oqs.na of the ultra-moderados, but that I know they will reach you by some other channel if I do not, and probably excite more attention. The ingenious shifts which are resorted to by the Faro for making a bugbear of England in the eyes of Spain may be conceived from the notices of our designs upon Cuba, which it carefully extracts from American papers. One of these appears in its number of to-day. Notices in the Daily News of the 10th lead us to expect daily the arrival of Espartero or Montemolin in the capital. By the last news from Barcelona Concha had arrived, and Pavia given np his blood-stained incheon of command. FRANCE.---Pante, SEPT. 21.—The Courrier Francais says :—" A report is current that, in order to get out of the difficulties in which the affairs of La Plata are in volved, the ministry has concaved a medico terminus. The cause of the rupture of the late negotiations was, as is well known, the pretensions of Roses to theconoession of the river Uruguay, and the other tributaries to the Plata. 11. Walewski, comprehending that this concession would have the effect of rendering Roue master of the whole country, refused to grant it. It appears that M. Guizot, finding hint. self on the point of being abandoned by England, fancied he could get rid of the difficulty by giving up the rivers to Rose', but reserving I. the other nations the right of rir . gating them. This right is to be exercised under certain eas ditions and regulations, to be mutually agreed on by all the contracting parties. This arrangement, although it . may put an end to the present state of things, must become • source of future and more numerous difficulties." INGENIOUS ESCAPE. —Two sportsmen, one of them furnished with a license and the other not, IFITO lest week out with their guns near Lyons, when a garis4l•• chaise was seen at a little distance coming towards do m. The unlicensed man became alarmed and was about to fly ; when his companion prevailed on him to stand his ground, engaging to bring him harmless out of the scrape. When the garde came within a certain distance, he with the permit set off at the top of his speed, over hedge over ditch, in true steeplechase style, leaving his friend im movable with astonishment. The garde at once concluded that the fugitive had good futons for his flight, and fol lowed him till, at a considerable distance, the flying sports man stopped and allowed him.to come up. As soon as the garde had recovered breath enough to speak, he demanded the other's license. This was produced, examined, and found to be perfectly regular. Disappointed and vexed, the garde in no very good humour asked the bearer of it why ha I had fled so fut. The answer was, " Only to stretch my legs ! " To this there was no reply. In the meantime the unlicensed gentleman turned in the opposite direction, and reached home unmolested. WE/ann. Ole TUE FRENCH CoasT.—The wea ther continue exceedingly stormy on the western and nor thern coast. On Friday morning the Bretagne steamer went out of Havre for Cherbourg, but the wind blew so strong, that she we' obliged to put back in the afternoon. The packet for Caen could not venture out. On Saturday, whilst the sea was so very boisterous off Dieppe that scarcely say sass , .odd venture to enter the port, a boat was seen to approapproac h .. & h „,:." torn sada, th e bowsprit carried away, c.sd its Kii. - uni „,... g onble. Every one gave up the vessel as lost, and so certain was that belief, that for some time not even a pilot offered to put off to its assistance ; and when at tenons did propene to g 0 on condition of receiving an in demnity, the captain of the port refused to permit him to venture. At length the Feu!, a Brighton steamer, left the port, sad went as near to u:e distressed vessel as possible. When within reach of it one :of the sailors of the Fame, named Pope, leaped on the vessel, At the imminent risk of kis life, and attached a rope to it. After two hours' exertions, the Fame succeeded in towing the boat into the port. The spectators raised a subscription for Pope, and another to waist the unfortunate persons on board the boat. The latter were four in number, two of whom were nearly half dead with fatigne. ITALY.—VENtne, SEPT. 15.—The ninth Italian seissatific congress held its first sitting on the 13th instant. lady in the morning high mass was celebrated in the pa trierehal church of Saint Mark, by the cardinal patriarch. The assembly then met in the saloon of the grand council, restored for the occasion to its pristine magnificence, in the farmer palace of the doges. The viceroy, has sons, the Arch duke Frederic, vice-admiral, the civil, military, and eccle siastical authorities, and an immense concourse of people, attended the sitting. Count Giovanelb, president general, made the opening speech, in which he proved the utility of scientific congresses. The next day he proceeded to the nomination of tha chairmen and secretaries of the different sections. The Prince of Canino, who had just returned from Rome, was named president of the section of zoology and comparative anatomy. DUCHY OF NASSAU.—GREAT NASSAU TUNNEL. —The great tunnel through the mountain on which stands the town of Weilbung, in the Duchy of Nassau, formed for improving the bed of the Lahn, has just been terminated after five years' continuous labour. The waters of the Lahn were to be let into the tunnel on the 12th, and 2,000 gas lamps were to be lighted, and alwaya kept burning. The formal inauguration of the gigantic work is to take place on Ott. 15. BAVARlA.—Mmvicrv, SEPT. 15.—The King of Prussia arrived in this capital on the 14th, on his return from Italy and Tyrol. lie alighted at the hotel of the Baron of Bern storf, ambassador of Prussia to Bavaria. He started next day for Donanwerth by • special train, and intends going, by Wurtzburg and Aschafferburg, to the Rhine, where he will pass a review. Prince Charles of Bavaria was to meet him in the following week at Coblentz. In the ensuing week Prince Luitpold, as plenipotentiary of the King of Bavaria, will preside at the opening of the assembly of the states, in the usual form. RUSSIAN PROVINCES.—WARSAW, SEPT. 12. It is said the cholera has declared itself at Kieff, and ad vances rapidly towards the west. The consternation is general in this town. A few days back the Prince of War saw held a conference with several physicians of the capital, to take into consideration the measures proper to be adopted lin such sad circumstances. Orders have been issued for the hospitals to be immediately got ready. The soldiers hare received warmer clothing. The camp formed in the environs of the town has been atruck. The Czar, who had begun his journey of inspection, repaired to Kieff the instant he heard I the cholera had appeared there. He is expected at Warsaw about the middle of next month. The typhus is also raging in the kingdom of Poland, and carries off whole families. This scourge is attributed to the bad food of the inhabitants. GREECE.—ATHENS, SEPT. 6.—The government has asked the English cabinet to grant • delay for the pay ment of the half-yearly interest of the loan doe in September. The refusal of M. Rothschild to accept M. Eynard's bill was merely owing to a matter of form. M. Eynard having requested the assent of the Chambers to this loan, they will, no doubt, grant it.—Augsburg Gluette. THE PENITENTIARY CONGRESS. FIRST DAY. (Continued from yesterday's Express.) BRUSSELS, SEPT. 20.-0. SUX,ISR, Esq., of Boston, wet next called upon, and spoke in French. After apologising for what he called his temerity in venturing to address such an assembly in a language not his own, he said-1 have, how ever, but few words to say. The documents which I hold in my hand, and which are the reports from serious prisons to America, will speak fur me, and will offer to this congress what is far better than any discourse or any individual opi. nion—the stern eloquence of facto. The members who will examine these reports will find that, if the system of sepe. rate seclusion which they recognised at the last reunion at Frankfort, as being the most fit to accomplish the various objects of imprisonment, has not made great progress during the past year in the United States, its rival system, that of Auburn, with its rigorous silence, has at least lost many of its adherents, and, in some states, been practically aban doned. In the state of New York, which gave birth to this eystem, a new penitentiary was erected some two years since, in which communications are permitted among the prisoners. In Maryland these communications are almost con stant ; and in the state prison of Massachusetts not only is occasional conversation allowed, but a society has been formed among the prisoners-4 sort of academy, in short, for the discussion of moral and political questions. Whether these reunions, with the opportunity which they must necessarily present for corrupting communications, are a proof of progre's in prison diezipline, I shall not undertake to determine. One is glad, however, to find that, at almost any . price, the Auburn system, maintained as it has been by unishments so cruel and so disgraceful to humanity, is re laxed and abandoned by so many of its former champions. (Cheers.) Among the papers which I depose on the bureau, is the 18th Report of the Inspectors of the Penitentiary of Philadelphia. These inspectors are honourable and inde pendent citizens, who perform conscientiously the duty en trusted to them by the state. Their evidence, united to that of the chaplain and surgeon, serves to confirm the happy re• stilts already acquired from the experience of this prison. The surgeon, Dr. Given, a gentleman not unknown to seve ral members of this congress, declares that—" Having com pleted a residence of two and a half years within the walls of the Eastern Penitentiary, and during that period devoted himself to the observatioo of its effects on the health of its inmates, he does not hesitate to declare that the separate ris tem of imprisonment, when properly administered, is st once the most humane and enlightened, and as safe as any in use, ea it regards the well-being of the minds and bodies of the individuals subjected to its discipline." Another ia wtant fact to be drawn front this report is, that the num ber of re-committals is constantly diminishing. In leg, there were 11, one of which was for the second time. In 1846 there were four only ; and for the years, 1844, 1845, 1546, no emend reoommittals have occurred. The diminution in the years is from a proportion of 8 4.5-100 per cent. tel 3 25-100 per cent. The report of the inspectors of the New Jersey State Prison, also on the eeparate system, is equally ado factory. The good health and the excellent discipline of the prison are shown by the almost total absence of sickness and of punishment. Only one death had occurred in 1816, inn total of 244 convicts. Another fact connected with this prison, as ate awn in the inspectors' report, is "its net gal during the year ending Dec. 31, 1846, after deducting the support of the prisoners, amounting to 5,500 d 01.." The eir eumstance will be regarded as but of secondary importance by those who do not consider it the duty of a state to 'Pe cs' late upon its crime. As the superior pecuniary profits of the Auburn prisons have sometimes, however, been cited a proofs of their superiority, it is well, perhaps, to show those who are willing to avail therneelves of such an &quaint the unstable grounds on which they stud. Meal Another document which I 'present to the congress is the third report of the Prison Association of New York; &docu ment to which I cannot invite with too much mammas the serious attention of the congress. Since the publication of the " Introduction to the Penal Code," of Edward Livingston, nothing so important as this concerning questioes of penal legislation and reform has issued from the United States. It is the work of men of conscience and of talent, who have known how to rise superior to those party and sectional feelings which so often prevent, for a time, tat recognition of truth. There arc some passages in this volume of such importance, touching the questions before the tea' grew, that I shall ask permission to read one or two. The charge so often repested ag ainst the Philadelphia prism the separate system generally, of producing inanity, is known to the gentlemen who compose this assembly: they know, also, that it has been presented in strong coleus. als d that comparative tables have been made of the insmity at Philadelphia and in the Auburn prisons. It now appeeM that the nninhers whichlormed the basis of this °prepense , . have been incorrect ; and that a far greater amount of bus nity has been produced in the Auburn prisons than he authors of those tables have acknowledged. I find (p. 941. ha the report of the inspectors of the Auburn prisons , report is signed by Judge Edmonds and Dr. Russ, gentle men whose names are guarantees, the following usage " In passing through the institution, we were struck ma the large number of persons labouring under partial inausith whose cases seemed entirely to hare tsoaped the nonce o f the physician. Some few of the most excitable were, ws understood, under treatment." And grn, in their 1.P. 4 upon the general question of prison discipline, they datl!.'. , " The experience of another year, and the accuesalsosa we timony of all our prisons, tend to confirm us in the opisiee o h r er A et u o b fo u re m e pi xp an resesd of , mthucathinmssorneityf rinevenpristonsmiongmnathe ussep shown by their reports. Another instance of an inane_ having been so severely whipped, that it caused bis das. in a few days, has occurred . ' They speak also of t 194.: ranee of the prisoners at Auburn, and attribute math of t he vice they detected there to the neglect to •proade struetion. And here is developed another fact, that a Fr; tion of that large revenue which the Auburnian directors Sa. societies present as one:of the brilliant results of their tylle i t is due to the fact that little or nothing is l The ipearled .priso itt tks z for n b ti oo n ks ue ~m A o n r ala ti t n e t rap tc t t o i oni so. midst of society by imposing absolute silence one of the strongest principles of our nature, ao. cable in point of fact. .. To make lairs, Jeff: violate the social order of our bein g , which are a t 7 the law of our nature, and are im p racticable in exerst!mif to sustain a system by a refined species of torture, seiten.f....: haps, to the walls of an inquisition, but not at all in awn with the spirit of the age. • . All csprrienoe that the impossibility of self-restraint in this par.e.m!...: great that the certain effect of the law of silents gi co a wwavicel :behi arr imdipetisonthwe li to yp4ri etini s ip y amtp s enuet t d o y;ina t t esc hp,: i rtirod f l ki au ls . d fs — siu th t h e de and violate it." And such is the judgment a Auburn system, solemnly pronounced of whom bad helped to create it : all ei _l'; had bad the best opportunities for practical operation, and severel of whom, w the . ,tha o .:7; popularity as much as they seek the truth, au. main"anohfandv.teehithiexedcputsairtessie,elrveeinincdotne. nthoc.Thf(eCoohpirefeeibiniornse.:al7:l;;;a:P7qU'rnauotio'lrdnagerosionotial:°Pudalthe-