The Express.
London, England, 1855-11-24 00:00:00

CHAPPUIB' PATENTS.—
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LONDON, SATURDAY, NOVAMBAR 24.

Tons iocomparable ELIA discoursing, in one of his
charming .rays, upon certain psealiaritise in the
Caledonian intoned, Bodes", amongst others, a some-
what stiff and sabending rigidity which, is his
quaint style; he is pleased to characterise by sayisg
of the Seotehaten, that "his Milano is born in
panoply." JOHN Lord CAMPBBLL, One of the most
Megrims of living Caledonians, would appear in
this respect to have something of the North Briton
still clinging to him. We would by no means insi-
nuate that the learned i
and eminent Chief Justice is
destitute of a talent for the facetious. On the
contrary, as oar reports of proceedings in the Court
of Queen's Bench frequently prove, he seems pos-
sessed in a degree somewhat remarkable of that
faculty which SYDNEY Sin's wickedly persisted in
calling a wet," maintaining that it was a specifically
distinct thing from that more frivolous operatics of
the naiad the name of whist+, on this side the Tweed,
Is generally pronounced as though spelt with another
vowel. We donut for a moment mean to suggest that
my Lord Carus= is sot a watty;" we merely
mean, with all submission, to propound a doubt whe-
ther he may not have formed a conception almost
byper-Caledonian in its strietases, of the attributes
indispensable to the Goddess of &imam. His
/diner's, it would meet, mast not only be born in
panoply, but teetotally asses te be basalt direstly she
lays aside her magus, or sabaekles her breastplate,
or smooths away a single frown from her austere and
virgin brow. Science with a smile on her face is no
seance for Joint Lord CAMPBELL; literature omen
to be literature when combined with en appetite for
**news of the day. Twelve years ago the Legisla-
tors, for the enoooragement of sant" literature,
and the fine arts, exempted societies that cultivated
them from liability to local taxation. Lord CAMP.
BELL and the Court of Queen's Bench have inter-
preted the Legislature to mean that such exemption
cannot be enjoyed by societies which, though sub-
stantially instituted for the very objects to which ex-
emption is promised, combine with their pursuit the
enjoyment of social recreation and an indulgence in
the news of the day. Cultivate science, arts, and
literature without amusement, (what would the
author of the oration Pro Archie have thought
of this notion ?) and you are not rateable; let
amusements ester into your scheme, and you are
rateable. Have you a readintroom on your pre-
mises in which a newspaper may be toned P--you
are powerless against the rate collector. Do you
exclude periodicals P—you are proof against all the
incursions of Bombledoin.
This certainly does seem on the fate of it a some-
what peculiar way of interpreting an Act of Parlia-
ment, designed, as its title informs us, "to exempt
from comity, borough, parochial, and other local
rates, land and buildings occupied by seeing* or
'away societies." Does a society, then, cease to be
scientific or literary, because its members are not
rigorously confined to Nawram or to BACON, to
Smaitsrianit or to Chinos, but are allowed
occasionally thous lighter solaces of the /disc
kirsch or the Quarterly, the nines or the
Daily News 1 Are these unfortunate socie-
ties the °sly abodes of learning in which the
bow is
from the strictest tension involve the immediate and
terrible penalty of being subjected to "county, bo-
rough, parochial, and other local rates"—aad this, too,
in oases where, se very often happens, the
enjoyment or deprivation of the statutory exemp-
tion may make all the difference between the possi-
bility or impossibility of continuing to carry on the
society at all P It seems hard, no doubt, but, bard as
it may be, it is most undoubted " Queen's Bench
law ;" and, unluckily, in questions of rateability the
Court of Queen's Bench is a tribunal from which
there is no appeel. The current of declaims has
ban strong and uniform ever since Lord CAMPBELL
presided in that court: the ease of the a Manchester
Concert Hall," decided in 1831, and thins of the
a Russell Institution" and "the Cambridge Philoso-
phical Society," both decided in 1854, are
among the most striking instances of the ap-
plication of what we must regard as an
exceediegly narrow rule of construction. In
the first case, the rateability of the institution was
affirmed, because though avowedly originated and
substantially maintained for the promotion of musical
science, yet it also contemplated as a principal object
the amusement of its members by means of contorts;
in the two latter cases the mane conclusion was arrived
at, becalms the establishment of a reading-room where
newspapers and periodicals were taken in formed one
of the purposes of the institution. In our impression
of yeaterd.y was reported a similar decision affirming
the rateability of the " Working Man's Educational
Union." In this instance the Court fully admitted
that the society was a most laudable oce—s society
founded for the purpose of elevating the condition of
the working classes, "as regarded their moral, phy-
sical, educational, and religious position;' they further
admitted that the means by which this end was
sought to be obtained were of a purely literary and
scientific character—that amongst the standing rules
of the society was one distinctly providing that nose
of their publications should be either political or sec-
tarian. It happened, however, that one of the affi-
liated societies in the country had permitted two
lector,* to be give* on " the Ballot" and " the
Voluntary System," and for this lasso°, and also spas
the ground that the objects of the society were not
"exclusively" the cultivation of literature, melons',
and the floe arts, the Court declared the institution to
be liable to the local rates.

These decisions certainly strike is as being op- ,
posed to the spirit of the Act 8 and 7 Vie., cap. 36 ;
whether they are or are not in sooordases with its strict
letter is a question of pure law, with which we do not
propose to intecnieddle. One thing is quits sear—if
Lord CAMPBILLL'II law be good, the Act of Pettis-
meat must forthwith be altered„ for its present opera-
tion, as interpreted by the Courts, is moat intolerably
oppeasive and absurd. The existing state, indeed,
of oar jurisprudence on this point strikingly alas-
hates the general remarks we ventured to make the
other day on t►e aeonsity of moan Mica change in
the mode of (ramie, and interpreting oar statutes.
L this ease t►e Act as doubt, in terms, confines the
exemption been liability to societies M iestituted for
popesse of solemn, literature, or t►e floe arts so.

etiiiceiy," and it is to a strict interpretation of this
ma wad 0 exclusively " that vs owe that eareeat of
declaims is the Clasea's Beach which seems is as so

widely to deviate from the probable objects proposedl
by the Legislature. It is reasarinulde enough that
when this statute first came up for jeclicdal littergre-
tad= before Lord Duxes (In The anew v.
Pocock," A.D. 18411),—th4t ieminent *es de-
clared his regret " that the Act was 110 drawn
as to raise great doubts to what institutions
it really applied ; " and both he and Mr.
Judos ParrEson declared their conviction that the
strict construction would operate to exempt many
societies which had the kest claim to exemption, and.
on the other hand, to render many rateable which bad
the strongest title to immunity. This was more than
nine years back, and yet nothing has from that time
been dose to expunge from the statute book that one
word "exclusively " which has since in so many in-
stances been allowed in our Law Courts to form the
sole bat insuperable bar to the enjoyment of that
exemption which, these can be no doubt, the Legir
Incurs intended to confer. The cue of this " Work-
' log Man's Educational Union" really appears to us
to be a crowning instance of the absurdity of the law
as at present written in our statute book and admi-
nistered in our courts. Let as hope that its manifest
hardship may stir up a resoluta endeavour in the right
quarters to get the law altered and amended in the
next series of Parliament.

Mr. Frederick Peel, Under Secretary of the War I
Department, has resigned, and we understand that it
is not the intention of the Government to appoint a
successor.—United Service Gazette.

irpe Court.
WINDSOR, Nov. 23.
The Prince returned from Birmingham $t seven
Vsleek lest eveshig.
Tao Auer party issiallsd the Declass of lint, the
Prisons Royal, the Merehlosees of Waterford, the Marquis
of Lansdowne, Bari %resist, Visage* Tonisigtes, Vieenst
and Vasnatese Ceasiag, Lady Augusta Brea, Baroness
de. epeth, Camel the lien. A. (Indus, and Sir George
0111pIff.
The bead of the 2ad Life Guards played duriag Maser.
Her Majesty'. prints bead afterwards performed is the
Coeds.
Prima Albert west out basting this sores', attended
by Captain Du Plat.
The Mareldosen of Waterford, the Marquis of Lans-
downe, Marl firmer, Visional sad Vincent's& Canning,
Vieeesat Torringtos, end Coked the Hos. A. Gordon left
the Cade In the foreacaa.

A deputation boa Bt. Ratkolommu'a Hospital, waist.
imp of Alders's* Sir George Candi (Presides% (lir Josue
Duke, 11. P., Kr. FOl4ll, White (Tiressarer), Er. LSWTSIK•
(Sargesa), Kr. Philip Hardwick (aubileat), Kr. Edward
Stash, (Surgeen), Dr. Barrows (Physician), Er. C. N.
Wilde (Belletter), sad lLr. Wiz (Clerk), bad as interview
with the Chaaetlier of the Ezehequer yesterday at his
0E44 residue" is Dowaistarlet.
Despateles were seat last suaing has the Consist-
ed's" far the Gourmets of the Nu* Aseriess protium,
sad like kw the Oarsman et the colonies es Oa west oast
of Ahint.

THE LINO OF SARDINIA.

(Frost pandas's Mositatr.)
PARIS, Nov. 22.

His *limey loft Kamilla at $ quarter pas t atom aod
prosoodod to Lyouut. Bator* bis dspartars die Wag Paid •
visit to her Boyd Highoess the Grand Matteis of Smits.
at the Hotel des Colonise.

Daring the journey from KugelUse to Lyme, at every
torsions where the royal traia stopped. his Majesty hood
the priasipal beat authorities amiable& a detachment of
I troops, sad the lahabitaate mom to greet t►e august ally
of From.

- -
At Avipee, the Archbishop case to the terminus to pay
, his respects to the King.
The La et Bardiaia arrived this swains at Lyons
shoat Biz o'clock, said the salsa of the artillery and the
shoats of the people, who threepd to the terrains, elan
W pays and stresS, which the royal sortese had to tn.

.......
His Majesty was received on ►ls Nitrates into Lyon, W
hie Sue Saul the Marshal Count de Casting/ma, ems.
meads,- ia-chief of the army of Lyons; by H. Yam%
relator, charged with the administration of the department
of the Rhone ; by the Mayor of Lyons ; as also by the dial
civil and military authorities.
The King slighted at the Hotel de l'Europe, which had
►eon prepared, by the Stopover's orders. for receiving his
Majesty sad salt*.
The King of Sardinia will eneouater the most devoted
sad cordial reception on the part of the iahabitauts of
Paris.
This august sovereign is net seemly the demendent of
one /tithe most glorious reigaiag families is Ramps, end the
chief of a satinet whose destinies have bees licked from
time immemorial with these of the Preach notice; but his
eminent personal qualities. his loyalty and approved
mange. mud the readiness with which he seat his brave
troops to fight by the side of our own, and for the same I
sense, give King Vista Zumaanuel most peculiar claims
on the sympathise of Fromm.

A epeeist meeting of the Corporation of Windsor
will be held in the Council Chamber of the Guildhall, at
twelve o'clock, on heady sect, to "consider and deter
sine on the posentaties of an &dare's to the King of
Sardinia as kis expiated Malt to Windsor Castle, and to
take such step in relation to the buiness as the C multi shall
think AO