The Express.
London, England, 1852-11-20 00:00:00

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

.eoretel rAbloa of " The Expreea," ecntaiataaThe am, ,„,,,e.
Cazet4 ,^ I. publiabed Seely Tutolay aad PreL.y ate; ;Ai.,
ror snot.
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oafe at the ()th, 10, Vooreote-strael, Trim fiehreig oa the
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LONDON, .9.1 TURD 4 T, NOVEMBER 20.

a new deeper in
Th,itE;oorfiesevandaivueg rethsoulvirterduonedtgryninugt.
the
motion. Mr. Distteet I has given notice that he will
more a mock free-trade amendment. To have met
the proposal of the Opposition with a direct negative
would have been to insure summary discomfiture.
To have moved "the previous question " would have
! served his purpose very little better. Deception is
the right hon. gentleman's
.Arte, and he has accord-
ingly determined to try whether another cheat
might not be made the means of rescuing him
and his comrades from their desperate condition.
Bankrupt in political character, he offers to
accept in blank fur the future, provided the
past is wiped out and forgotten. Free Trade is
established in the mind of tho nation beyond the
power of himself or his accomplices to shake it.
Ile therefore proposes to admit the tact. and to say
that he does not meditate its overthrow. But we
all know that already. What we want is, not an
admission that we have a cheap loaf, and that we
are likely to hold it fast, but that it was " wise,
just, and beneficial" to give it to us, as Pete. did,
unconditionally, in 1846, and that we will not sub.
mit now to be swindled into paying any equivalent
or compensation whatsoever for that free and right.
ful gain.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER now adopts
an insidious tone of penitent sincerity;
ostentatiously tramples down the lingering hopes of
the trusting TitoLLOrE and the too credulous
Cttelsreeitea ;—laugbit openly at the believing
BALL,—and quizzes the impenetrability of NEWDE-
GATE., who can't be trained to stand tire, no matter
how blank the cartridge, but shies, and bolts, and
snorts most fearfully when driven along any road
but the old impassable one he was once accustomed
to travel. Mr. thsaaett goes even a step further, and
with an air of matchless hypocrisy he offs rs pub.
liely to expostulate with the Member fur Wolver-
hampton on the superfluous character of his intended
motion. He would fain contrive by some species of
implication to intimate that on the general principle
Mr. VILLIERS and ho are thoroughly agreed. But
the juggle will bring him as little credit as he has
gained by his original WeettenvoN Oration. He
and the Tories wish to tiny that Free Trude is to be
accepted for the present—because they cannot reverse
it ; but they will not with Mr. ViLtieets admit it to be,
" right and just."
The trick in the present case is indeed sufficiently
palpable. Class prohibition is to be given up in
order to make way for class rzoncration. The owners
of the soil cannot get back monopoly prices to prop
up exorbitant rents, but Lord Mune and Mr.
DisRAELI promise to shuffle the taxes in such a way
as to exempt them from many of their present kilt
liabilities, and thus "to mitigate the injury they
have suffered from Free Trade." The 51. note of pro.
tection is gone ; but the WO shillings of compensa-
tion will answer the same end, if the oligarchs can
only get Parliament to declare them entitled to it,
and coerce or cajole the people into paying it. For
out of the hard-working people's pockets the 100
shillings, in ono shape or other, must conic. If
wo aro to buy the quartern loaf at sixpenee
instead of a shilling, as we were once compelled
by a corn law to do, the landlords assert that they
are just so much the poorer. They are injured, ae-
iguratootuhre
ulhkiirdbrey inteeuthreo;
atyn,d tfourthrahtin ani
jouurnyt
wet;
nee wrd
everyt
o.
pay them tun compensation. If we don't pay
in mad, they will have it out of us in malt, or poor
rates transferred, or an extended income tax, or an
augmented house tax, or in any or all of the number.
less ways in which the genius of fiscal exaction is
abletowrinngam tioinllions of money every year from an
industrious

It is against this new form of landlord extortion
that Mr. VILLIERS'S Free Trade resolution is espe-
cially directed. To protest against l'rote tin is to
beat the air. Protection has become mat ter of history.
Tho Liberal party might as well be called upon to
protest against a revival of the Star Chamber or the
attempt to levy ship money. Mr. Disitast.i would
desire no better theme for his free and easy ridicule;
for it would precisely afford hint the opportunity he
dares not venture to make, for smothering with ell
manner of spiteful jokes and malicious pleasantries,
those unfortunate dupes—the Protectionists-0a
whose shoulders ho has been allowed to scram-
ble up to power, and who stupidly pers..st is
waiting under the windows to be paid for the job.
lie has told them several times already to begone,
that he does not want them any further, and
that he has nothing fur them—poor men.
But they don't move, and he hesitates to
call in PEEL'S police. Should that force, how-
ever, in the course of its rounds, happen to tome
in the way, nobody would be more gratified or
grateful than the beleaguered political burglar, whet
safe and snug inside, wants to get rid of his assistants.
Policemanship is a very useful and profitable em-
ployment no doubt for those that like it, hut it is
not the fitting business of Liberal members of
Parliament, and we trust that none will he found
ready or willing to neglect his proper function and
duty—that, namely, of defending the community
I against the swindling schemes of twee/ exaction
wherewith they are menaced 'by a 'fury admirustr,-
tion, in order to accommodate Mr. DISRAELI in 1111
new and uneasy position, or to facilitate the forma-
tion of new and discreditable combinations. rho
course of the Liberal party is plain. Let them
unanimously and unhesitatingly adopt the roe'
lotion proposed by Mr. VILLIERS. That resole-
tion will place an insuperable barrier in the
way of those bubble-budgets declared to be
capable of compensating the owners of rack-rents
for what they have lost, without doing 01
harm to the rest of the community. 1.101"
ever wrapt in fine language, and varnished
with just-sounding names, wo know that any scheme
for what is called the re-distribution of burdens malt

herresult in leaving thingseas they were, or in t
-tigthtcning the weight on one man's they
to add
whe load borne by another. If there be a surplus I
oftrivenue fairly appropriable to reduction of taxes,
let it be fairly appropriated among all who have con- I
minded thus much over and above what turns out to
have been needed. That is but common honesty.
we ,k no favour for any chug of consumers of tax-
b
Jeannie's. It is notorious enough that the bulk of
lo revenue is paid by the industrious bulk of the
ie, A nice analysis of the proportions contributed
Irf, rent classes would not help the idle and
unproductive sections of society. The less
th,:r say about that the better. The people, always
,0,,e and forgiving, ask fur no invidious inquiry
athe wt, and arc willing to let bygones be by-
pm.„ whatever they may think of their wrong-
Nauss. But if the landowners will insist upon going
into a retrospective account, upon their own heads
be the consequences. Only let them distinctly un-
derstand this, that in the meanwhile we are not
p ai, .• to allow Mr. IltsuAm.l to tamper with the
ranting proportions in which taxation, local
general, is heed, on the assumption that
be and Lord Mane have looked into the
national ledger, and assert that the balances
of country and town accounts are so much per
nut. If there is to be a serious investigation
into the rights of rival classes, in the nature of a
mit in social equity, let us in the first instance bo
ore that we have the true facts, the whole of the
Awe, and none other than the actual facts before us.
Firtun squc contrasts, curious coincidences, splendid
pr,,Teetie, and hypothetical results, may beendurable
in the pages of a romance; but if Mr. Dismal.' is
anxious that the pains he has taken with his mate-
na:s of this kind should not be thrown away, let
Ltlll keep the memoranda of his intruded financial
statement safe: they will make capital chapters in
his next novel.
Mr. litsasEat will try, of course, to make people
beehive that his amendment is as much s Free Trade
n,lutieti as that of Mr. VILLIERS. The difference
between them is as wide as black and white. He
lenowlt ages a mere fact, which he dare not deny, and
11/I.IT, the he will never run his head against it.
I.i!erady translated, this is nothing more than to cla-
d r. that the right hon. gentleman is not a fool,
—w ha: ever else he may be. But there is not in his
smendinetit a single sy liable that would preclude
hen from bringing in to-morrow claims on
is ,d his landlord clients, to the extent
of millions, "to mitigate their sufferings, "
ar..7rihed to Free Trade. Ile and they have
for .ts years been branding the name of Putt
the infamy of having betrayed and half—
ruined them by repealing the corn laws without
compensating terms. To this doctrine they still
adhere. This it was which the QUEEN'S Speech
ferth.shadowed as about to be realised in financial
measures. And this it is, therefore, which the
Ist)lwn of Mr. VtaLtsas seeks to put an end to
finally and fur ever. If PEEL'S policy in 1846 was
ilot, and beneficial," there is no riddle of re-
rtjustinent to be read, no conundrum of compensation
to b,• sole, il. '1 his is too palpable to be denied, and,
the reh.re, Mr. Dtsaatti proposes to leave out those
monist words, in order that he may remain un-
committed and unbound. The juggle will not do.
The quistion between the Free-trade Resolution and
the Tory Amendment is not merely one of words—
but of prim apl, , and though some shuffiers may sneak
oil wits Mr. DISRAELI, every sound and honest
Free Trader will vote with Mr. VILLIERS.

Ministers in the Speech from the Throne
were orninute•ly obscure upon subjects of great '
rational interest, they were more explicit upon a few
other matters. They gave a tolerably significant
hint that the Kensington kitchen gardens ere—
mite:likes of expense—to be covered with buildings ;
and they have let us know that the governing
bodies of Oxford and Cambridge are to have their
attention drawn to the two Reports upon the
Constitution of the Universities. The Cambridge
Recant has nut yet been made public, but the nature
of most of the muditicatioos reomaniesded by the
Communion has been known for some time. One
of the propased alterations relates to the present
application of the funds of the colleges, and as any
change in this direction mast affect the incomes of
the Fellows, it is not surprising that the proposal
should have been, as it has, the subject of fierce
discussion in the Cambridge prints. According
to a sketch of the Report recently made public,
the recommendation of the Commissioners on this
point is to the following effect. It is suggested that
after the fifth term of residence every undergraduate
pupil should select some speciality for his study, and
that the care of his education should henceforward
be committed exclusively to the university, and not
as at present to the particular colleges. As, how-
erre the actual professional staff of the university
would, by this enormous addition to its present
occupations, be evidently insufficient, it is proposed
to appoint a large number of public teachers to be
called lecturers. The fixed salaries of these lecturers
are to be derived mainly from the college revenues—
in other words, the fellows are to be made to cm-
tribute to the great reform of academical education.
It is a great coueolation to us that this, which
is the main feature of the reforming efforts of
the report, is in strict accordance with the
principles which we have for
.years advocated
as the only true guides to University Reform. The
public may be assured of this, that the academical
authorities are only too glad to see the activity of
reformers wasted in running after false scents, such
es "University expenses," " University discipline,"
&c., while the two monster evils which are attacked
in this recommendation, are left unnoticed. The
College system in general, and as one great festers
of that, the Fellowship system in particular, are, in
fact, the only points worthy of the notice of the
University Reformers. Once correct these, and
everything else must follow. By taking the edam•
bon of the students out of the bends at the salvos
after the fifth term, the iredis. W. Eimer
will be dose to the prestige arida holitudess
have hitherto improperly exerted. waaffeby.6ll74l
an impost upon them, the Fellowship m
be weakened. The only fault of the Vitra Re-
It
rt in other respects yerfect wan that
I did not follow up with logical accuracy, the
fi mires to be drawn from the facts brought forward
relative to the true nature of a fellowship. The
tenants of these were originally poor students, trim
were endowed with the premeds of an estate, whisk
at the period of endowment was supposad to be Jet
rZwrigisteso suptrpoaaesher el
terrtr:ebeeivedFissrthre
auditionotives of r
to
ni is the Usivempity, ant
&m -.2r104
oohs were earwig sod he a dm satanail,
is order that the purposes it the mammas
might be fulfilled. For a hag time the eon&
times of residence, devotion, sad study were amplisel
with. Gradually the college eststes became Mee
valuable, the shares of the poor students were in-
creased, they usurped the management of the uni-
versity, and took the whole of the tuition into their
own hands. Here we see a fundamental alteration
in the original constitution. The change, however,
did not stop here. As the funds segmented, it was
foiled that they would afford incomes sufficient to
allow their poasewors to live elsewhere than in the
walls of the college. The rule of residence was this
relaxed, and a great majority of the fellows osier
the altered state of things enjoyed their salerhe
witliume residence, without elessiben, and without slr
This barefaced violation of the etedifime upon Ind&
the colleges were endowed is now poodles'
by the 1 majority of the fellows at Comlidige
and Oxtail. And yet the statutes which reroute
these conditions are still nominally the laws of the
colleges, the fellows are obliged to swear to ellearre
them, and the authorities reply to all mopeds to
ameliorate them, that they have no power!
We are set "keg te domed a rigid and im-
mediate return to the Weeds= of the heonews of
these old institutions. We do sot west le tiro Ox-
ford and Cambridge with Probst. sismostedes.
What, however, must be 1111.1smisi der is thin that
the property of thes wee der
ca
of edution, and forte benefit et dm= li
and the university; es the greeter d'
it is now spent in furthering sone Of wiles
thine,
it is time to think of a thorough miens. It is
monstmus that about three-herds of the fellows of
the colleges should be living he away, upon the ow-
porate funds, without doing a single thing in return
their incomes. It is often said that the 111401114111
of non-resident fellows are,—although diverted from
the comae in which it was intended they should
Sows—still of great benefit to their powwow, who

are frequently young men straggling with die
world and waiting for • position. This may be
tree enough ; but the question still remains, what
are they doing for their money ? It may be very
convenient for a young barrister to be spending,
without returning an equivalent, • sum which the
piety of a past age devoted to a different purpose,
but why is he, as a reward for three years' reading
in a college, to receive an income so utterly dispro-
portionate to the efforts that he has made, and to
which there is a parallel in no other profession P
His brother the soldier may have stormed a battery.
his brother the sailor may have boarded •vessel, and
both may still be waiting for their recompense.
While the author of some great work, or the inventor
of some wonderful machine, may be lingering in
poverty, the College Fellow may be in the enjoyment
of • salary of from two to five hundred • year for
life, that he has gained by the performance of
some clever school exercises—nothing more. There

is scarcely any anomaly in English society greater
than this; and when we take into consideration the
fact that there is no authority for such an applica-
tion of the funds in the statutes of the colleges—
solemnly sworn to by the fellows themselves—it
seems incredible that tt can be long tolerated. The
Cambridge Commissioners have done themselves
honour in thus going to the very root of the evil,
and we trust that the sop which the heads of Oxford
have thrown to the Earl of DERBY, by making
him Chancellor, will not interfere to prevent
the adoption of measures calculated to remedy
such a disgraceful perversion of national property.
How averse Oxford, at least, is to institute of
itself any reform, may be conjectured from the fact
that it in openly stated at that University, and gene-
rally believed as a thing that would occur in the,
ordinary course of events, that Mr. BADEN POWELL,
the most distinguished of the professors, bee been
deprived of the use of a house which he has hitherto
enjoyed, solely on account of his participation in the
Report of the Commission. Can this be true?

MAJOR BIRESTORD has been spited fee a few
days. This adjournment of his senatorial execu-
tion was brought about last night through an informa-
lity in the petition on which Sir A. Cockburn was to
ground his representations. The legal parent of the
petition had, in the opinion of the Speaker, broken
a clause in the Act of 11 and 12 Victoria, which
defines what shall be deemed an election petition.
The Speaker is known to have strong opinions on
such subjects, and Sir A. Cockburn did not therefore
press his case last night. But the subject will, of
course, come on again upon the earliest opportunity,
and Major Beresford is therefore only minted.