The Express.
London, England, 1852-01-06 00:00:00

• THE- EXPI

ghe erpreois.

TO CORRIMPONDINTB.

A Poserll adilital of The Espress." softbihis •he sine irssolloirs
s•Chisette." is published every TUNraM Miley Mess. lo Yrs
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NIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
Tots thiv—Mnirbini, In. Irbb A fibromas, lb. :'4o.
Ilibreasow —Moron& lb bita., Aturessa. 31.

LONDON, TUESDAY, JANUARY 6.

Tun revenue returns fur Vac year and quarter
ended yesterday, show for the quarter a fulling off
in every specific branch of the ordinary public in-
come, exeept the Post-office; for the year a falling
off in every such branch except the customs, excise,
and Yost-oitice.

The total decrease on the year is .527,0471.; the
total decrease on the quarter is 713,347/.
In the customs there is a decrease of 37,1931. on
the quarter; an increase of 146,199/. ou the year.
In the excise there is a decrease of 162,9.501. on
the quarter; an increase of 89,209/. on the year.
In the l'ust-office there is au iucrease of 91,0001.
on the quarter, and of 211,0001. on the year.
The decrease in the stamps is 32,2361. for the
quarter, and 102,01)2/. for the year; the decrease in
the taxes is 737,131/. for the quarter, and 796,216/.
for the year ; the decrease in the property and in-
come tax is 541,7741. for the quarter, and 78,1141. for
the year; the decrease in the crown lands is •-'O,OOO/.
for the ipiarter. and 10,0001. for the year.
Now, it is easy to foresee what will be the effect
of this state of the quarterly audit upon the
organs of partied in the press. The opposition jour-
nals null cry out that it is a symptom of national
distress and di cadeuce ; the ministeriulist will argue
apologetically, to show that it is nothing of the
Lund.
And, do uhtkss. a goodly number of well-meaning
people, who are not very earnest partisans on either
side, will look grave, and feel a little anxious. This
is the consequence of the bad habit that JOHN BOLL
has got into of examining his trade returns monthly,
and his revenue returns quarterly, and drawing in-
ferences as to the general state and prospects of the
country. or the success of a certain line of policy,
from such ludicrously inadequate data. In acting
thus Joitx resembles a hypochondriac, who feels his
pulse every live minutes, and gets alarmed at the
slightest and mast transitory irregularity.
Steadily and dispassionately considered there is,
nothing in the revenue returns fur the year and
quarter to warrant the slightest uneasiness. 'There
is a decrease in the taxes: well—the window tax has
been taken of and the house tax has not yet come
into play. There is a decrease in the property tax :
well—the collectors have been a little less sharp than
they have been of late, or they have pulled up in
former quarters all who are in arrear, and have only
the amount falling due within the quarter to collect.
There is a decrease in the stamps; but it is suffi-
ciently accounted for by the change in tho law, still
recent, or unimportant fluctuations in business.
There is a decrease fur the quarter both in customs
and excise; but then there is in both an increase fur
the year.
What decrease there is in the revenue is within
the range of the natural oscillation that must always
be looked fur—an oscillation which must be natu-
rally greater at an epoch when changes are yearly
made in the form and incidence of taxation. It is the
positive amount of revenue, not the comparative
amounts from year to year, we ought to look to, if
we would know the true state of the national health
and prosperity. Look to the customs and excise ;
the returns of revenue from these sources have in the
year 1531 kept their ground, and a little more, al-,
though influences have been at work that might
have occasioned a falling off without affording any
reason for alarm. This shows that toe people
hare been working up fully more raw material,
and consuming fully more of the good things of
this life than for some years past. With plenty
of work and a good appetite the national health
cannot be in a very perilous condition.
A very important branch of revenue statistics is
that which shows the proportion which income bears
to expenditure. This cannot be known with cer-
tainty before the clue of the financial year, three
months hence. We reserve our opinion on this topic
till that time. Some of our ministerial contempo-
raries indeed arc already taking credit for an unpre-
oedenteilly large surplus of income over expenditure;
we believe there will be a handsome one, but are
averse to arguing on the future and unknown.
Having deprecated even in more flourishing quarters
the habit of drawing large general inferences from
such narrow data, we have no maim to apprehend
that our own representations will tell against us
when the aspect of the national books is not so
favourable. The contemporaries to whom we allude,
having made a partisan use of flourishing quarters,
have got themselves into a dilemma, which compels
them to draw upon the Bank of Hope as they are
doing. Resort to fallacious arguments always brings
its own punishment after it.
The must remarkable feature in these returns is
the large and steadily continuous increase in the
Port-othee revenue. fhis indicates that the Row-
LAND 110.1. system has now been more completely
brought into play, and that its good effects are show-
ing themselves. This ought to encourage government
to adopt some of the recommendations of that Post-
ale° reformer which even yet have not had a triaL

Ix is a long time since we espied anything inter-
esting in German politics, much leis anything par.
taking of the comic. The affairs of Ultmithine are
in general of the solemn and lugubrious nature, and
events as they occur arc certainly no laughing mat-
ter. By way of exception, however, or perhaps by
way of enlivening a very despondent country during
Christmas, the diplomatists at Frankfort have got
up a dispute which burlesque writers would
turn to wonderful account. The poor Ger-
mans are, however, no more allowed to
laugh than to talk. Wit is forbidden on both
limning of the Rhine, and to laugh at SCIIWARZEN-
Jean, twig N/ANTECFFEL, or to smile at those con-
venient moustaches from between which came Louts
Naroteom's oaths, and comes his constitution, would
be visited forthwith by military arrest, execution, or
instigation.
If the Germans must not laugh, let us at least
laugh for them. Austria and Prussia are quarrel-
ling. What think you about? About German
unity, or a customs league, or the presidency of the
Diet, or the patronage of the lesser states? None
of these things occasion any strife. But Austria and
Prussia are quarrelling as to which of them shall
have the command of the German fleet! It will be
said that the German fleet does not exist, that its
sessels have been paid off and sold, its one only
septum restored, its admiral sent about his business,
and the very cause for which it was raised betrayed
and forgotten.
It matters not. Austria and Prussia are
quarrelling which of them shall command that
German fleet which never existed but in embryo,
and which now does not exist even in that state. If
people doubt our assertion let them open the
Prussian Gazette, and they will find these
as article, or articles, containing most dolo-
rous complaints of Austria's having got oems-
an of the committee of the Diet charged witph the
stairs and the funds of the German fleet. " Prude
subscribed the better part of those funds," pleads the
Prussian Ga:ette, " whilst now those funds aro to be
disposed of by Austria, Bavaria, and Saxony, powers
which never gave one single dollar to the purchase
and support of the German fleet!"
This is certainly very insolent on tho pert it
Austria and of the Kings who do her bidding,
and very hard upon Prussia. But as no one in
all Germany pities Prussia, and as no ono in slat
country is of any other opinion than that Prussia
richly deserves the daily and hourly humiliation she
receives, it is quite idle to complain. Austria and
her allies have the majority of the Diet. And Prus-
sia, since it rejoined the Diet, has been in such a con-
temptible minority, and been treated with such
marked contumely, that in truth the position
of • galley slave at Toulon is tolerable and
bocourable, compared with that of Prussia at
Frankfort. In every standing committee of the
Diet, laments the weeping l'rsissiam Gazette, our
representative is either left out or left alone.
Prussia, front being the first, hex been thrust down
to the last, power m Germany. One of these standing

committees has for its task to forst a German ZoU-
sercin, to take Bavaria, Wilrtemberg, Saxony, and
Hanover from the Priesian league, and form with the
an Austrian one, whirl Prussia would be compelled to
enter. Yet even this committee has been put to-
gether with the usual partiality and Prussia is
made no more account of even in the commercial re-
organisation of Germany than if she were Meek-
lenburg-Strelitx or Waldeck.
We do not mention these facts in order to excite
any sympathy for Prussia. No wretched poltroon
c‘er more richly deserved the daily kicks which are
his appanage. And it is not unfitting retribution that
the money which the Hamburgers and Stettiners,
the dwellers on the Oiler, the Weser, and the Elbe
subscribed for the German fleet, should be spent
by Austrian clerks and Bavarian professors.
This is not a time for even a Muelitsroriteces
to enjoy the castigation and humiliation inflicted by
a descendant of Kim t THERESA upon the represen-
tative of the great FREDERICK. The old cauldron
of French mischief has bees once more set
upon the fire. Whatever efforts be made to mode-
rate its heat, that it will boil over upon Europo in
some shape or other is too natural to expect. Even
were the French inclined to be quiet and to remain
at home, the situation and the feelings of the (ice-
man countries and population on and beyond the
Rhine, were alone sufficient to tempt the invader. It
is nut one but all German governments that are, not
merely disliked, but abhorred. And could Louts NA-
rot.KoN but put a liberal mask over a proclamation to
the Germans, he would be received with open arms,
aye, and elected there too by universal suffrage, as
the best instrument of vengeance, and the most
promising bosom of destruction.
With such sentiments in the people, such contin-
gencies in the future, the Austrian court continues to
humiliate Prussia, and to keep the old jealousy
rankling wide. We have people amongst us repeat-
ing the old cant of the Congress of Vienna, and
insisting on the necessity of the great powers
remaining united. But how can there be
union where there is oppression ? Austria, Ba-
varia, Saxony, Hanover, hold their feet on the
neck of Prussia at this moment, and are absolutely
strangling her, to deprive her of her old lead in the
Zollverein. Who can consider Prussia a sincere ally
of the present state of things in Germany ? Who is
there but must see that the first prince or man of
spirit in Prussia who gets the opportunity of a French
alliance, or of any alliance, will rush eagerly to retri-
bution and vengeance, and to the necessity of re-
placing his country in that honour, greatness, and
respect, which the Great FREDERICK won for it.
What King of Prussia would care for territories on
the left bank of the Rhine, if he could secure Han-
over and Saxony in lieu of them? And Hanover
and Saxony, by allowing themselves to he thu in-
struments of Austriar. vengeance and spite against
Prussia, have certainly earned and may expect Gum
Prussia in return that she should take advantage of
the first good opportunity to annihilate them.

TIIERE arc certain subjects of grave and scrims
interest, on which no familiarity renders the task of
commenting other than ungrateful and revolting, and
over which we are sorely tempted to suffer the cur-
tain of silence to hang. We shrink instinctively
from the duty of withdrawing its folds, and would
willingly find some excuse for the omission. But
the consciousness recurs that wo rosy not thus suffer
our selfish reluctance to betray us into an abandon-
ment of a manifest duty. ltcason admonishes us
that tender-n,ortlefl-ness is oftentimes the coldest in-
humanity; and experience daily reiterates the lesson 1
that no good comes in the long run of blinking the
truth.

- - - Agrarian outrage in its most appalling form has
re-appeared after an interval of some few months in
Ireland. Not in the country at large nor even gene-
rally, we are happy to say, but in more districts than
one, and under etrumstances sufficiently indicative
that the old spirit is still unexoreised, and that the
ancient feud between classes is unappeased. It is
needless to dwell on instances of minor importance.
Yesterday our reports from Ireland told of threats
of new assassinations, and of a landlord compelled in
self-defence to go to his duties at the Union-house,
guarded by men with loaded fire-arms. The
assassination of Mr. BATUMI is unhappily but
too fresh in the recollection of our readers, and
here we have threats of similar atrocities. That

unfortunate gentleman was the manager of a con-
siderable estate in the eoun ty of Monaghan belonging to
Lord TEMPLETON. Of the noble proprietor we gather
nothing from the local accounts given of the trans-
action, except that he and his fanuly have habitually
been absentees. No personal ill will appears. to have
been cherished against him • and regarding his
agent it was generally understood that there existed
amongst the peasantry little of the distrust, and
nothing of the enmity that is too widely en-
tertained towards the class to which Mr. BATE-
SON belonged. Active, intelligent, and assiduous in
the performance of his duty to his employer,
he bore the character of being considerate and for-
bearing in his dealings with the tenantry of the
estate over which he practically ruled as master. The
property, like most absentee properties, and too ninny
others in Ireland, stood much in need of a thorough
change of system,—improved culture, remodelled
farms, and a different mode of tenure. What Mr.
BATMON'S notions upon each or all of these matters
, may have been we are not informed. All wo know
is, that according to his ideas of what was just and
prudent, ho ect about the work of change with
confidence and vigour,—that whether truly or erro-
neously his schemes were supposed to imply
a resort to the clearance system—that the limited
extent to which eviction and consolidation of hold-
ings had proceeded was taken only as evidence of a
foregone conclusion to apply the same treatment
generally—and, finally, that by. the diffusion of this
fatal suspicion the popular feeling of the neighbour-
hood became silently so poisoned against the uncon-
scious object of its aversion, that when left upon the
highway by his cowardly murderers, no man could
be found to raise his 'nuking head or staunch his
gushing wounds.
It is the mere drivelling of selfish terror or disgust
that shouts over the grave of such a victim of law-
less violence for a bumming cup of legal vengeance.
Government and public opinion have too long played
the fool in this respect. Let justice be done as
peremptorily and as exemplarily.ss is possible. Let
all the bloodstained tools of agrarianism be sought for
till they are found, by all means, and dealt with as
they ought to be. But can anything be more idle,
miserable, or unpardonable, than to stiffer the ani-
mating cause of all this demoralisation and mitt
to continue unchecked year after year—not a
single effort made to turn aside even a
portion of the current of crime, or to dry
up this fountain of tears? Year after year, for
half a century, have the same symptoms of deep-
seated disease in the social frame re-appeared, and
year after year have they been treated in the same
preposterous and paltering way. Commissions of in.
quiry have, one after another, pronounced the nature
of the malady to be one utterly beyond the reach of
police activity or hangman's cord. Yet minister
after minister contents himself with fabricating
another coil of the ineffectual rope, and adding
another hideous blot to the page of abortive attempts
at repression. So far from even affecting to grapple
with the fearful evil itself, the most recent
exploits of legislation have recklessly tended rather
to exasperate than allay tho deadly strife between
the owners and occupiers of land, by arming :the
former with new and capricious powers of tyranny and
oppression. In the course of last amnion two sops of
this kind were thrown to Irish landlordism at the ex-

penile of the tenantry; the protection of a jury. to try
suits in ejectment, and the common law right of
yearly tenants to be served with a notice to quit be-
fore they are turned oat of their dwellings, both the
one and the other being rights regarded as sacred in
England, these were by government measures taken
away in Ireland, in defiance of the warnings
and remonstrances of her popular representatives.
The effect of such blind and wanton injustice is
already seen. Thousands of human beings have, in
consequence of these recent encroachments on the
security of the occupier, been at this inclement season
flung like weeds into the ditcher, or driven to the
pestilential workhouse. It matters little whether
the evictions in Monaghan were chiefly or exclusively
of this description or not. The terror of the new
statutoble " crow-bar" had spread fur and wide; and
popular terror is proverbially undiscriminating and
cruel. In the county in question extermina-
tion on an almost unexampled scale had
within the last few years been carried on by

either proprietors, and the instincts of pity and justice
in the minds of a peasantry heretofore comparatively
Crle and tractable, had been stifled by resent-
sympathy and self-interested apprehension. In
this condition the tempter came unto them and
whispered—ye 'iced not surely die! And, lo! the
earth reeks once again with innocent blood ; pro-
paty is depreciated there, and elsewhere, by the
revolting crime thus perpetrated—deadlier distrust
than ever has been generated between the many and
the few—and the readiness of capital to seek invest-
ment in Ireland is chilled and repelled.
We are far from saying that by any single stroke
of the legislative wand all this complex mass of evil
could be cured. Wo do not think so. But
we repeat, what we have often said, that it is
the urgent and imperative duty of government to
try a different system than the wretched and bar-
barising one they have hitherto pursued. Its de-
plorable and disgraceful failure is complete. Every
Home Secretary since the Union has invented new
coercion bills and flattered his landlord supporters
with assurances that they would be found elhatual
to secure life and property in Ireland. Hut agra-
rianism has survived them all, and will survive
every scheme of counter-vengeance until the people
are made to feel that the laws regulating the occu-
pancy of land are made in a spirit of justice, equity
and right.

FRANCE.

PARIS, MONDAY MORNING.

Some new hitch occurred last night in the counsels
of the government; in consequence of which the
promulgation of the constitution has been post-
poned.
Yesterday evening the Prefect of the Seine gave a
dinner at the Hotel de Ville to the ministers, the
marshals of France. the mayors of the 86 depart-
ments of France, the generals of the army, and the
principal judges of the courts of law. The President
of the Republic who was invited, excused himself from
attending upon the ground of slight indisposition.
At one extremity of the dining.liall, above the seats
of honour, was placed the bust of Louis Napoleon,
surrounded with flags ornamented with the imperial
eagles. Among the company present were the
ministers, Marshal Exelmans, Generals Magnan, La-
wcestine, Lavasseur, Carrelet, Caurobert, Roguet,
Cornomuse, and Courant' ; Col. Fleury,.the Presi-
dent's aide-de-camp ; Cul. Vieyra, the principal staff
officer of the National Guard of Paris, and a num-
ber of naval, municipal, and other officials.

The Prefect of tho Seine, in proposing the health
of the President of the Republic, said :
To the health of the President of the Republic. To the
consolidation of this new power, which 7 millions of Pit [-
(rages have' for the second time, rendered the arbiter of our
destinies. To the accomplishment of the most ardent
wishes of Louis Napoleon, the glory and prosperity of
France. May God grant this noble prize to his courageous
and patriotic devotedness—"rice ha po Icon ."

M. de Moray, the Minister of the Intecior, replied
to the toast as follows :

Gentlemen—l cannot listen to these enthusiastic accla-
mations addressed to Louis Napoleon without deep emo-
tion, for no one knows better than I do how much lie dc-
serves them. No one has been in a better position than
myself to appreciate his long patience, his self denial, and,
finally, his courage and devotion to the salvation of the
country. Yes, Monsieur le Prefet, your wishes will be
granted ! This power, whose firm establishment you de-
sire. will consolidate itself. for the finger of Providence is
evident in all the events that have been accomplihhed, and
Providence does not do things by halves. Now, gen-
tlemen, I think I speak the sentiments of the prince in
thanking you for the seal with which you have come to
Paris to bring him the testimony of your sympathies, and
of the gratitude of the people, and in his name I drink to
the delegates from all the departments of France.

These speeches were of course loudly applauded.
An official communication to the Patric contra-
dicts the statement contained in the renstitutionnel

of the 3rd instant, concerning the felicitations ad-
dressed by the Czar to Louis Napoleon. The Presi-
dent has received neither note nor autograph letter
from the Emperor of Russia.
I mentioned in a late despatch the four special
missions about to be undertaken to foreign courts.
It is now arranged that Baraguay d'llilliers is to go
to Russia, and d'Hautpoul to Madrid and Lisbon. It
is added that Brenier is to visit the Italian courts.

It is stated that 900 of the prisoners recently ar-
rested on political grounds were removed on Satur-
day morning from the forts of Ilictre and Ivry to
be conveyed to Havre. Thence they were to pro-
ceed to Cherbourg or Brest with a view to their
transportation to Cayenne.
To the mayors of the capitals of departments
and arrondissements, who have received personal in-
vitations, will dine with the President at the
Tuileries.

The Cardinal Dupont, Archbishop of Bourges, has
addressed a circular to his clergy, desiring them to re-
cite after the
.prayer Donnie &dram far rempuldicons,
another, beginning with Domine salrumfoe Luduri-
CUM NaptdeOnelli. Ho states that he enjoins this
measure in order to conform to the intentions of the
President of the Republic.
The Petrie states that a methodical census is now
being taken, by order of the government, of the
working popul.tion of the department of tho Seine.
This census will indicate the different industrial es-

tablishments, tho number of persons they employ,
and the annual proportion of unoccupied time. The
object of it is to have an exact account of the re•
sources and the wants of the working classes, in
whose welfare the President of the Republic pro-
fesses to take such a warm and lively interest.
The Swiss government has complied with the
demands made by France for the expulsion of some
French refugees, who published lately an incendiary
manifesto at Lausanne.

Four new brigades of gendarmes have been esta-
blished in the Seine Inferieure, by circular of the
Minister of War.

Admiral Laguerre is appointed to the command
of the naval station in the Chinese and Indian seas.

General Rapatel, late colonel of the 2nd legion of
the national guard of Paris, died on Saturday.
M. de Lamertine is about to bring out his periodi-
cal, the Conaedkr du l'euple, under a new form and
title. It is no longer to treat of politics, and will
pan in future under the name of "L'Humanite, ou
le Nouveau Cenciller du Peuplo."
M. Armand Bertin attempts, in the DAats, to de-
liver a few words on the situation. He says that,
whatever the constitution may be, no division of
powers any longer exists. The whole power is in
the hands of the President. The autocratic republic
has been substituted for the parliamentary republic.
As he never entertained any particular affection for
the latter he will bear its annihilation with philoso-
phic calm.
Baron A. Pasquier, who was principal surgeon to
Louis Philippe, and who was by his side at the mo-
ment when ho let the Place de la Concorde in the
hackney-coach, on the 24th of February, has just
died.
The Official Gazette of the Duchy of Savoy, of the
2nd, announces that by a recent decision of the Pied-
montese ministry, all decrees and acts of the govern-
ment are henceforth to be published in Savoy in the
French language.
PARIS. MONDAY Rams°.
The bases of the concession of the l'sris and Lyons
Railway have been just settled between the Minister
of Public Works and several companies combined in
• single company. The principal conditions are as
i follows:

The concession is to be for 90 years.
The companies undertake to pay to the state 115 millions
of (ream in three years ; namel 10 millions on the day of
eoweemion, 10 millions on the tiny of taking possession, 20
millions at the end of December, 1852 ; 40 millions at the
end of December, 1813; and 35 millions at the end of De-
cember, 1854. Thu sums due to the state will bear an in-
terest of ,4 per cent. to the profit of the treasury, to be
reckoned from the day of taking pommies, that is,
from the day on which the company will enter into
enjoyment of the profits of the line, the next amount of
which is 8 millions of francs. The state grants to the com-
pany a guarantee of 4 per cent. interest upon 200 mil-
'Was capital. The company is bound to complete within the
term of four years the section of the line between Chalons
and Lyons, comprising the part traversing the latter city.
The expense, comprising the additional materiel
wanted, will amount to about 8.3 millions. I'art of
the capital necessary will be represented by shares,
and part by the bonds of a loan.
The combined companies are the following :—l.
Rothschild, Hettinger, Baring, Benoit Fould,
and ten other great banking houses of l'aris.
2. Barthelemy, and the Geneva banking betimes
established at Paris, which founded the rail-
ways of Orleans and of the Centre. 3. Sellii;re,
Charles Laflittc, and Thibaudeau, representing the
English company formed by Mr. Locke, and several
members of the company of the Western Railway.