The Express.
London, England, 1864-10-21 00:00:00

TSE EX*RESS, FRIDAY EVENII444, OCTOBER - 21, 164.

" done nothing to bring about, and Is bi) which
" they had not even had a voice—we could pot in
" honour or in duty abandon thee. All that we
" can do is to call upon them, so long as they
" retain their oonnexion with us, to do
" more towards their own defeats, than they
" have as yet done, and to make our
" assistance conditional upon their doing that."
Every Englishman and every Canadian knows that
this is true. Lord STAXLI; however, leaves the
question of Canadian defence in the perplexity in
which he found it. As to our relations with the
African coast his advice is very simple :—" Do
" not go inland. Hold nothing except where you
" can reach by water. Keep clear of protectorates
" and alliances ; and recollect that though civi-
" lizing Africa may be a very noble idea with
" those who are willing to undertake it, still
" England ought to be just before she is generour.
" and we have plenty of that work to do nearer
" home."

We now come to home topics. Lord STANLEY
says very little respecting the extension of the
franchise, a subject on which there was no need
for him to say anything at all, for his full and
explicit declarations made in 1860 are not forgot-
ten. His view is a very simple one. The middle
class, the most powerful one in this country, is in
[ possession of political supremacy, with which it
will not part of its own free will ; while the unre-
presented class is not strong enough to obtain
satisfaction of its demands by its own strength.
For Lord STANLEY this is a sufficient reason why
there should be no reduction of the electoral qua-
-I;fication in towns. This is unfortunately a very
common way of thinking and speaking. We say
unfortunately, because, whether those who hold
such language are aware of it or not, it is the lan-
guage of war, of an enemy to an enemy. We pre-
fer to believe that we are a united people, and
that nature has not divided society into hostile
camps, neither of which can gain but at the ex-
pense of the other. We believe with Lord STANLEY
that government is a means to an end, but
also that the moral satisfaction of the governed
is one of those ends We much prefer Mr. GLAD-
STONE'S faith in justice to Lord STANLEY'S
confidence in material advantages as the bond of
society.

Apart, however, from constitutional questions,
Lord STANLEY declares himself a thorough re-
former. He approves of Mr. GLADBTON/e8 fiscal
legislation, declares that our financial position iv
thoroughly sound and satisfactory, and that it
must needs improve if we only keep out of war.
But great wealth has its temptations, and he com-
plains that it is betraying the country into careless
expenditure. In a year or two we ought to be
able to knock off two millions or more from
the army and navy retirements, without doing
any injury to the service. Along with that re-
duction a natural increase of revenue may be
expected to take place. That increase during the
last three years has been more than a million and
a half per annum, under all the disadvantages of
the dearth of cotton. So that, if Lord &swiav is
right, "we may with reasonable economy look
" forward to a relief from taxation to the extent of
" six or seven millions in the next four years."
Under these circumstances the or'y question will
remain what taxes shall be taken off first. Lord
STANLEY is for reducing the income tax by one-
half—to 4id. ; and for cutting down the duty on
fire insurance. As a "general principle," he thinks,
" we ought to divide such surpluses as we may
" have as fairly as may be between remission of
" direct sad indirect taxation." If these views
are to any great extent shared by the party of
which Lord STANLEY is so distinguished a member,
Mr. GLADSTONE should find it easy to effect the
financial reforms on which ho is known to have sel
his mind.

We have littlo to remark on Lord STANLZY'S
speech. Our praise would not be worth much,
because, except on one point, he expresses con-
victions wh;ch we have long been labouring to
establish. In a word, he has made a speech which
is liberal in the real and practical, not in the mere
partisan, sense of the word. The traders on party
traditions and well-worn reputations must look to
it when eminent Conservatives treat the affairs of
the country on the broadest principles and in the
most public spirit.

.-LAIII-17 ENTALLIGENCA

-;" • BRIGANDAGB AT ROHR

The effects of frontier brigandage have just
come home to the French. On Monday, the
10th inst., two French gendarmes—a brigadier
and a private—stationed at Ceprano, whilst
crowing the valley of the Sacco, between Pofi
and Castro, fell in with and arrested a Bourbon
brigand. At a certain spot where be knew that
his comrades were in ambush, the brigand gave a
significant whistle, the whole band rushed out
from the forest, and, attacking the gendarme:: fu-
riously, soon killed them. Not content with this,
they proceeded to mutilate the oorpeea, crushing
their heads by repeated blows with stones and other
indignities impossible to relate. The plundering
part of their profession was not forgotten by the
brigands, as they carried off the gendarmes'
watches, boots, money, and stripes of silver lace.
On the 13th the funeral obsequies of the defunct
gendarmes were performed at Ceprano, whither a
French military commission has been sent to verify
as far as possible the circumstances of the tragic
occurrence. It is evident that the activity of
the Italian troops on the other side of the
Liris has driven numerous bands of reactionary
brigands to the pontifical territory again, for the
whole province of Froeinone is in such a state of
alarm from the continual robbing, ransoming, and
murdering of these scoundrels, that the very
farmers are beginning to neglect their out-of-doors
(occupations for fear of falling victims to their
cruelty. Whilst the French gendarmes were being
I murdered on the banks of the Sacco, the papal
gendarmes were sustaining an arduous combat with
another band of brigands at Campo Baffone, near
Subiaco. The brigands had captured two Roman
landowners at Rocca di Botts, and demanded
a heavy ransom for them. They had
carried off numerous flocks of sheep, and
created a perfect panic in the country. A
detachment of 26 papal gendarmes followed the
movements of the brigands, and assailed them on
the morning of the 11th at Campo Baffone. The
result of the conflict was the salvage of one of the
captured individuals and 240 sheep by the gen-
darmes, who, however, lost two men killed. The
brigands had three men wounded, but carried off
their other prisoner and the rest of the sheep.
Much irritation prevails among the French on
account of this barbarous outrage on the two gen-
darmes, and some sharp notes have already passed
on the subject between the French and Papal
authorities.

The prisoners arrested for making the demonstra-
tion in favour of the convention and the Emperor
of the French, three weeks ago, are still in confine-
ment at the French police barracks. They are
about 20 in number, and, with a view to restoring
them to their families, an address in their behalf
from the Romans has been forwarded to the French
Ambassador. This document has been published
in the Nazion, but there is no proof of its having
as yet obtained the desired result of effecting the
liberation of the prisoners.

EXPRESS FROM PARIS.

MON OUR 01111,

PARIS, THURSDAY Evwva.
The Constitutionnels bad luck when it under-
takes to stay a panic at the Bourse is proverbial.
The note of this morning, contradicting the three
rumours to which the fall of yesterday was attri-
buted—i.e., a new loan, the selling up of defaulters
to the last loan, and a further decrease of 15,000,000
in the bullion of the Bank of France, failed to
produce any effect at the opening of business to-
day. On the contrary, the Bente, which left off
yesterday at 64fr. 65c., went down as low as 64fr.
40c. Afterwards, however, there were many vio-
lent and rapid (*dilations, and ultimately the
Rente maintained the highest prices of the day ;
these were 64fr. 80c., both for cash and account,
being a rise of 30c. and 15c. The effect of yester-
day's panic is, therefore, far from effaced, as far as
the Rents is concerned. Mobilier and Crddit
Fonder, however, about recovered the lost ground.
The Lyons, Northern, and Southern railways are
also quoted at about the closing prices of Tuesday ;
but in Western and Eastern there is little improve-
ment, and Orleans is rather weaker than yesterday.
One of the ConatitutionnePs reassuring asser-
tions, that relating to the state of the Bank
of France, is confirmed by the official returns
published in this evening's Moniteur, from which
it appears that so far from there being a de-
ficit of 15 millions, there is a alight increase in
the bullion. The note of the Conetitutionnel is re-
produced almost verbatim in the Moniteur. The
arrears of instalments due on the last loan are, both
journals say, of " no consequence," butthey abstain
from stating the amount in figures. As to the
value of the contradiction of the rumours of a loan,
there is this observation to be made that the inten-
tion to raise a loan is invariably denied up to the
very last moment.

The semi-official journals are silent on the sub-
ject of the Emperor's visit to the Czar at Nice, but
the Prase, Temps, and Gazette de France say very
positively that all preparations for the journey are
made, and that his Majesty Napoleon 111. will set
out next Sunday. General Fleury, of whom the
Moniteur merely says that he was charged by the
Emperor to compliment the Emperor and Empress
of Russia on their arrival on French soil, had, it
would seem, a confidential mission to arrange the
meeting, to bring about which M. de Budberg had
been working hard for some time.
The Solidaires of Belgium, a sect of free thinkers
who direct their executors to bury them without
religious rites, have found a certain number of imi-
tators in France. At Tours so many lay funerals
have lately taken place that the clergy are becoming
alarmed, and the Archbishop is said to have written
a letter to the Em?eror praying for the interference
of authority to stay the contagion. His grace is
understood to propose that people who wilfully
refuse Christian burial shall be interred in a sepa-
rate corner of the cemetery like murderers and self-
destroyers.
Lord Granville is staying with his old friend the
Duke de Horny at the Chateau of Nades.

M. Mermet, the successful young composer, was
on Saturday evening preeented to the veteran
Rossini, who is said to have given a most gracious
reception to the "Conqueror of Roncevaux."

It is thought that M. Dronyo de Lhuys will in
no case remain long in office. He gives out to
his friends that be will certainly resign should be
find the convention of Sept. 15 interpreted
in • sense hostile to the temporal power.
In that event M. Thouvenel would no doubt replace
him. But should the catholic party ultimately
get the upper hand in the councils of the Tuileries,
M. Drouyn de Lhuys would propably be thought
too lukewarm, and the Prince de la Tour d'Auvergue
is spoken of as likely to be his successor.

It is observed that the Duke de Persigny has
been of late very frequently with the Emperor.

CONDITION OP MINES IN GREAT BRITAIN.

LAW INTELLIGENCE.
(THIS DAY.)

COURT OF BANKRUPTCY.
(Before Mr. Registrar Winslow, u Commissioner.)
R 4 J. N. lORTR.

The bankrupt was a baker, of Golden-lane, and of Boring.
street, New North-road. He now applied for his order of
discherp from debts of 1,9004
Mr. Reed ooeed. The bankrupt had been insolvent in
1859, and half of his present debts had been contracted in
the but year and a half. There was reason to be.
Revs that the soconate bad been concocted ; for
though the bankrupt had rendered minute details
of lus takings in the two shops, no vouchers of those sc.
count. were in existence. In six months prior to April last
be had received 800/. worth of flour, towards which Le had
only paid 1001. ; the difference was almost wholly unac-
counted for. _ _

—iii.§argOod appeared for the bankrupt.
After an examin►tion of the bankrupt, who ailm'tted
that he relied entirely on the accountant for the accuracy
of his aecounts, en adjournment was ordered, the regis.
tray directing the bankrupt to make himself personally
acquainted with his accounts.