The Express.
London, England, 1855-03-22 00:00:00

THE LATEST

Tan news of
Ws :motion at the
nearly at the same
the outbreak was h
suppression. let it _
assts. The homing system against which it v.
directed has been impugned and opposed from the
first. Behr, the and of 1853 the then Lieutenant-
Governor, Mr. LATROBE, admitted that it " could not
be worked satisfactorily," and that " it was in vain
to attempt to maintain it in the face of general dis-
taste to its character and the means necessarily em-
ployed in its enforcement." Mors lately, Mr. How%
the author of" Orion," and well known in the me-
tropolis, employed as a gold eommissioner, says, very
properly, " nobody likes to pay for a gold digger's
Seems if he can find no gold for six or seven
mmilima This is the fete of the great ma-
iwiltp", !They barely make wages, and very
shot lest that." " Others lose all their la-
bour." From the commissioners or collectors they
suffer great revocation. License-hunting is a com-
mon pursuit. Parties of three or four mounted and
foot polies "are despatched (he says) in different
directions to demand the production of the license,
to search for those who secrete themselves, and to
intercept or overtake fugitives. The demand (espe-
cially in a tone of command from a trooper or foot
constable) made upon a fatigued and perspiring
I miner, half-a-dosen times in a single morning, is a
severe trial of human patience. Upon each occasion
he has to exhume from his pocket, or some secret
recess is his reeking waistband, the moist and tat-
tered paper of his license, which will scarcely bear
to be unfolded. Suppose the miner to be a man of
some education, and the policeman a man of no edu-
cation, arrogant, and in liquor, the provocation caused
by this one official in a series of gullies is quite
sufficient to create indignation and disgust among two
or three hundred miners in the course of a morning."
In the colony the licensing fee is denounced as " tax-
ing labour instead of the produce of labour," and
falling as heavily on the man who earns nothing by
his toil as on the man who obtains a fortune in a
nugget. " The uncertain results," says the temperate
Sydney Herold, "of digging often reduce men to
want and despair. Just at this moment of depression
a flashed and ruthless trooper comes in sight, and •
poor fellow, hungry, sore-footed, and broken-hearted,
is hurried into the presence of a functionary, lately
thrown off from a convict establishment. And pro-
bably this happens when the mining population are
reduced by drought, or compelled to pay 80 per cent.
for carriage he lied articles of subsistence. The
coercion it the diggers has kept the military and
seastabelery he 'mutant run."
The smiths' naturally is, therefore, " that sound
pulley, demo& the abolition of the gold-licensing
system, at least in Victoria." According to the latest
thatiedas of the colony, there are 87,000 persons, of
every dessriptioo, in its various gold fields, and the
amount yielded by the Hoene, fees was 800,0001., or
121. a head, including all the women and children,
sod all the officials habitually resident at the diggings.
The insurgents then bad a great and an acknowledged
grievance, though it did not warrant a rebellion to
obtain redress. The tax is most exorbitant, most
unequal, and levied in a peculiarly vexatious and
harassing manner. The Poll Tax that roused Wax
TYLER and his followers into rebellion, and the Tea
Duties that cost us the American colonies, were less
harming and odious.
The diggers have another grievance. They are
arepresented. The floating population of the dig-
gings have no settlement in the colonies—no part in
the representation. They shift too much—are too
MEW in their several localities to be included in any
sell of electors. They pay, moreover, besides the
Isms fee, their share of all the taxes an sonsump-
Ash, and all the benefit which they receive from a
Government, unprecedentedly expensive, is the pre-
m.... mpg them of the Government officials who
aged the Assnss fees and preserve a respect for law.
At the same time they see that the money
taken ken them in the name of the Crown
for the sight to dig for gold, and the
may Wei en them by indirect taxation, is aggro-
pristed by the Legislative Council, composed of
representatives at the towns, in the delibendose of
which they have no share, to improve and beautify
Melbourne, to provide offices and places for an im-
mense number of hangers-on of the Goventmeakand
to waste on every imaginable project that a Govern-
ment can entertain. Not merely, therefore, are they
most exorbitantly taxed—they have no voice in dis-
posing of the taxes ; and while these are levied in the
name of the Crown, they are actually appropriated
and disbursed by a small number of their fellow-
citizens.

Amongst the mining population are men from all
ammildea. One-tenth of them consists of " the
Immilet sissient." Of the 150 attacked in their
slukais, 30, it is supposed, belonged to this class, and
bei mdy plunder in view. Foreigners, too, were
amines in the diggings, "active and designing
mesa? *cording to Sir C. HOTHAM ; and such per-
sons ilmad, in the disprdtion excited by the license
WWI, and in the peessal rigour to which the whole
limb" pap ist's% ea account of these dangerous
oissaaelas ereeedinated, a fertile field ready prepared
foe their smelting labours. They carried with them
some Farepsan habits. The discontented were regi-
mented and drilled ; they were all well armed ; they
had a quasi-national flag uniting the symbols of
successful republicanism in the States and unsuccessful
Insurrection in Europe. They were surprised by
the military in a kind of fortified camp and
natal with a loin of 30 killed, and, according to the
official account, a much larger number wounded; but
het without wounding two officers of the storming
arty, one of whom, Captain Wise, is Niue dead,
sai killing and wounding several soldiers. Such
ktal results leave behind them festering and rankling
Sores that will for some time be sources of danger.
Whatever may be the character of the population
at the diggings, the insurrection was mainly the con-
sequence of the license system. But for that the
foreign sad the convict elements would have had
nothing to work co, and would have been *innocuous
us
a spark falling into a barrel of sand. In the
neighbouring colony of New South Wales, where this
system sets a much smaller proportion of the popu-
lation, where it has been carried into effect with for-
bearance, and where there has been no temptation to
segment the revenue and expenditure to such an
enormous degree ea is Victoria, even the licensing
yawn has not excited so much disapprobation nor
done so much mischief. The real and palpable cause
If all the evil, therefore, is the excessive expenditure
of the Government, which has driven it to a harsh
*stern of exactions that brought about a revolt. It
is a camas= topic of complaint that individual.
in Slew to learn. Farmers and shipowners..
*preached with adhering to old customs long after
they have been proved to be erroneous, and better
methods of cultivating the land or building ships
have boon introduced. They have some news in
Me fast that the new methods deteriorste the value
of their old instruments; bat Ocmer amen* without
soy such =OW, at least colonial Governments, seem
arm to improve. Financial Charities have been
throb*e or the, rain of every 'state of Europe; and,
*elite of al/ the admonitions hurled spinet extrava
.
Y.

.se avenge in Gnat Irkeksis a4spi 11. 16e.
/head, and in South Australia N. 10s.* la Ulan*,
If sir-experienos-z-whlth tells Governfileitti that they
may do anything if they keep their hands
out of the breeches-postal/fig their people—the
vernment of Victoria has left in the pockets of the
diggers little or nothing. When Mr. H. It. H. Gaza,
who is indebted for all his immense wealth to the pro-
tection of the law, is applauded at Manchester for
resolving to wear a threadbare suit rather than con-
tribute to the taxation necessary to carry on a na-
llama war, we can conceive the powerful indignation
of the diggers at having to pay 121. a head for
limns, and half as much again for indirect taxes.
Instead of rousing their indignation, and risking the
safety of the colony by making of them inflammable
unitariais that a designing knave can explode, it
wan biter to delay even making roads and
"hark and much better than making botanic gar-
dens and establishing universities, till the people are
atils and willing to pay for them. The injury
sheerly done to the colony by the extravagance of
the well-meaning Government cannot be repaired in
many years. The insurrection compels immediately
an additional outlay, and carries with it, even though
the Government now make concessions and reduc-
tions, for some time an increase of expense.
We pointed out on the lit inst. how extravagant
was the expenditure of Victoria, and how enormous
were the estimates for 1856. The present Governor,
Sir C. Hamm, was no otherwise responsible for this
than by accepting the estimates prepared by the ad•
ministration he found in existence under the
authority of his predecessor. The insurrec-
tion has compelled him to put an end to
that administration. Mr. Forma, the Colonial
Secretary—the Prime Minister—has resigned, and
Mr. HAINES, a member of the Opposition, the repre-
sentative of Grant, has succeeded him. He is likely
to do, says a Sydney journal, " if he can get over
the financial difficulty.* He began well by declaring
that the financial position of the colony showed the
necessity for the strictest economy ; and the estimates,
therefore, would have to be remodelled. Following
the same was spirit of concession, the Government
has adopted an amended tariff, suggested by the
Opposition, and amended estimates are to be sub-
mitted. The Government has been obliged to make
concessions, and submit to humiliation. Had
there been a single member of it, profiting by
the experience of Europe, to insist on the necessity of
economy, it might have been saved from the double
disgrace. The noble colony, too, that a few sheet
months ago was so teeming with promise, might have
been spared a heavy misfortune, and Great Britain
might have looked forward with much more confidence
than now to a speedy restoration of its blighted pro-
sperity. Certainly, an opportunity has been afforded
to the inhabitants of the towns to evince their attach-
ment to order and law; and considering the elements
of disorder that were collected in the gold fields, and
the want of prudence in the Government, we may
congratulate the public that the matter is no worse,
and that according to the latest accounts the diggers,
whose case has been taken into consideration, are
renewing their lioenses.—Dally Nam

The select committee now sitting on the mis-
management of the war, that is, on the utter dis-
organisation of the civil, military, and naval adminis-
tration of the British and Irish government, might
have been expected to operate on our aristocracy, At
least as a temporary warning. But not so, if report
speaks truly, in the House of Commons. It is a
current rumour in the Palace of Westminster, that
the assistant commissionership of the Irish income
tax is to be conferred on Mr. C. H. W. A'Court, the
honourable member for the little rotten borough of
Wilton, in Wilts. Further, it is whisperedthat
Mr. Sidney Herbert, the acting patron of that
miserable constituency (barely exceeding two hun-
dred electors), intends to nominate, as Mr. A'Conrt's
seessmor, the Puseyile Mr. G. Hope, who recently
,aggesred on the stage of Windsor as an un-
ensessofal candidate against Mr. S. Ricardo. If
,11111, or both, of these rumours are realised,
we sin only express our amazement at
tits blindness of our rulers. For the vacant
Mk place (only, we believe, 8001. per
annum) can no meritorious or experienced Irish civil
servant be found worthy of promotion, and a work-
ing men? Mr. A'Court may be, for all we know, a
trustworthy overlooker of the Pembroke Irish estate
for his relative, Mr. Sidney Herbert, but what claim
has he on the present government, and will the new
Lard Lieutenant consent to this first "job" (if
I meditated) ere his lordship has got warm in the
Castie P Mr. A'Court has been, we believe, twice
private secretary to two tory Lord Lieutenants of Ire-
iland—onoe to his relative, Lord Heytesbury. We
are not aware that such family service entitles him to
emigrate from England to a permanent Irish office,
or that these official antecedents will find favour on
his arrival in Dublin. A few votes in parliament in
favour of the late coalition cabinet cannot qualify
an A'Court for the Irish office in question. What
knowledge of business or figures can the honourable
member poetess for the duties of such an office? Lord
Palmerston 11 not bop:tubs" any pre-arrangements
of Lord Aberdeen's party. We have, at
least in the A'Court family itself, precedent for the
new Premier's perfect freedom of action. Lord
Heytesbury, the living head of this " noble family"—
ennobled only in 1828, after his long diplomatic
services in courts of despots, including St. Peters-
burg—was appointed by the Peel-Wellington ministry
to the government of India, and accepted by the
East India Company, in 1844-6. Nevertheless,
although his lordship had partaken of his farewell
dinner, Lord Melbourne, called to power, cozened the
appointment, and nominated Lord Auckland. This is a
case in point ; and till a new writ is moved for Wilton
we may entertain hopes that its present represen-
tative will have no occasion to vacate his seat. But
should we be disappointed, should this disgusting
rumoured appointment to the Irish vacant income-
tax place (despite these observations) be carried
out, we beg leave to suggest that our Crown-office
make out the new writ to the Right Hon. Sidney
Herbert, instead of to the Sheriff of Wilts. The
farmer is the real returning officer. Wilton most
aujestly sad accidentally retained one member in
1814 klieg misplaced in schedule B instead of pro-
Ei: A. In the dropped reform bill of last year
1 borough was proposed to be disfranchised.
ly the number of electors was readily in-
Owed. One of its mayors, in 1702, within nine
Smiths of an election, made so many new votes for a
lensing contest of that year, that hie worship said
*en would be no occasion for the old burgesses to
dEven this was a system of misrepresentation
oable to a Lord Pembroke singly dictating the
swessa.tative. The same old mayor had his peon-
religious notions, the borough being now and
01111, is rid times, anti church. It was proved in an
4liestass
ammittse that be had openly declared, in
!net votesi,lotthaliesenheterawonflrdommt r'segles were
test ; ter if they aces churchmen they would
always against them' Now, however, Passylmn
is the test of a candidate's qualineation.rely
Nam

Rau OLD Boom—ln Catlieriatustreet, Strand,
lived a few yeses Wage, Gas Johs Dailey, a laskeillse, who
mewed Lan a astable oilleetica al the wadies( slekwakt,
'libelist, sad enteeleget : he is the isavliael Wowed le 'al
Sir Z. Lysol& Hahne is the istrabiedea M Ids Z5m:44.9,
1.1%W' qf Limbs
1

gtit Court.

OSBORNE, Mimi
. Majesty and Priem Albert, eoweepenied by
Prises of Wales, Priem Alfred, Prises Arthur, the
Royal, Uncles Alter, sad No Primo of Weir
Wooded by the ladles sad ratlines ia
d oft the total jeeltt; YestordaYlo4-IfaaL at
twos aisrt~ sadareat Spilksed ts Villas Qs

&lariats at the_Minment equeth;m of the Rade fest,
solder Chetahs Watean, C.B. phich mes.appefehtst .te she
'place at shoat Ikea 'Week, p. .
On the Fairy approaching the fleet, whhil fired a royal
solute, signal Wm lade fee Captain Watebn had the captains
sommanding to emu on board the royal yacht, where they
had the honour of being presented to her Majesty to take
leave. As soon as the captains bad returned on board their
respective shim, the order was given to weigh, and the
squadron immediately proceeded to the eastward under
steam, preceded by the Fairy.
About half-pest four o'clock, the royal yacht turned and
paned sash ship in sucesselon, the crews of which manned
the yards and cheered her Majesty in passing.
The QUM* returned to Osborne at half-past 6 o'clock.
Captain the Roe. J. Denman bad the honour of dining
with her Majesty yesterday.
This morning being the day appointed for the general
fast, the Queen sad Prince, with the Prince of Wales,
Prince Alfred, the Princess Royal, and Princess Alice,
attended divine envies at Whippingham parish church,
where the Rev. G. Prothero performed the service and
preached.

A meeting of the Cabinet Ministers was held at
three o'clock yesterday afternoon, at the Fore►ign-
office, Downing-street. It was attended by Vis-
count Palmerston, the Lord Chancellor, Earl Gran-
ville, the Marquis of Lansdowne, the Duke of Argyll,
Lord Penmen, the Berl of Clarendon, Sir Charles
Wood, the Right Hon. R. Vernon Smith, Sir William
Molesworth, and Viscount Canning.

Despatches were received at the Colonial-ofliee, yesterday,
from the Governors of the West India Islands.

ALEXANDER IL—Aooording to the custom of the
Russian Court the Crown Prince is first aido-de•camp
to the Emperor. Alexander had hardly become Emperor
when he sent for his father's aides-de-camp, and Mild them
that, notwithstanding the death of their sovereign, he
should continue to consider hiaseU their comrade, and ac-
cordingly wear the epaulettes as aide•de-camp of his father,
of glorious memory.

His Royal Highness Prince Albert has presented
6001. to the " Sallor's Home." Portsmouth.

PARLIAMENT is to adjourn for the Euter holidays
from Friday the Mth instant, till Monday the 16th of
April.

Sir Robert Peel, Bart., has entered upon his duties

u the " civil" member of the Board of Admiralty, Mee the
Hon. W. Cowper, appointed to the Rome Offloe as one of
the ander secretaries.

Lord Brougham is expected to leave town the week
after next, to peas the Buten ream at his chateau at
Canoes, in the south of France. Lady Brougham will re-
main in London.

A circular from the War-Office makes known to
officers in command of regiments the suspension of certain
regulations, to enable regimental officers serving in the
'Crimea to draw, if they wish, from the Paymaster, only the
portion of their pay sufficient to meet their immediate rs•
quirementa, thus avoiding the risk of having money unne-
cessarily in that hands.

Professor Simpson, of Edinburgh, hu been re-
' queited by Lord Pennine to provide the medical odious
requisite for the formation of another civil hospital in the
But. He will be required, it seems, to select physicians,
surgeons, essistent-physicians, usiatant•surgeons, apothe-
caries, and male and female mune.

Lord and Lady Elcho, we (Seotsnum) believe,
are to start next week in a steam-yacht for the Black Sea
and Sebastopol.

The Cowden Youlett proposes shortly to proceed
to the seat of wu at Sebastopol, to 'shit her son, the Hon.
Lint. Anna Pesten, of the Grenadier Guards.

The statue of Lord Clarendon, hitherto placed
opposite that of Hampden in the principal entrance to the
Homes of Parliament, wu on Tuesday removed to another
pedestal, and Foley's new statue of Belden wu raised in its

The following members of the House of Commons
compose the minority of 48 who voted on Tuesday for the
opening of the British Museum and National Gallery on
Sundays :--Meesn. J. Ball, W. B. Beaumont, G. Bowyer,
John Bright, Sir R. B. Bulksley, E. H. J. Crawford, J.
Crook, B. B. De Vete, L. L Dillwyn, Visocuat Rbrington,
W. Fagan, Sir J. Fitzgerald, W. J. Fox, R. Gardner, T.
M. Gibson, J. Greene, C. W. Greaten, Col. Greying', Earl
Grosvenor (Chester city), Sir J. Harmer, James Heywood,
L. Haworth, G. 0. O. Higgins, R. Keating, T. Kennedy,
J. Locke, R. Lowe, J. M'Cano, P. M'Mahon, J. F. Ma-
ssaro, W. Marshall, J. P. Murrough, Sir D. J. Norreys, P.
O'Brien, A. J. Otway, W. P. Urquhart, Sir J. W. Rama-
dan, 8. Ricardo, F. C. Russell, John Sadlier, W. Mole-
Bold, F. Scully, Sir J. V. Shelley, Lord Stanley, B. &rant,
T. Thorneloy, W. A. Wilkinson, M. Wrnil.

The Count Walewski had a "reception " on Tues-
day evening, at the residence of the French Embassy,
Albert-gate House.
It is the custom for every new Academician to go
to the Tuileries and present the adder which he delivered
on his reception. M. Berryer says " the peculiar situation
nude for me In Dec. 1851, renders this presentation quit*
impossible on my part." In yielding to his wish, "the
Emperor regrets that in Id. Berryer the inspirations of the
political man have got the better of the duties of the Acade-
mician. His presence at the Tuileries would not have
caused the embarrassment which he seems to have timed.

From the height on which thl, Emperor is placed, his
Majesty would have only seen in the elected of the Academy,
the orator and the writer; m the &deanery of to•day only
the defender of former times."

Dr. Veron having obtained a note from Count
Monty, in confirmation of his statement that, at a meeting
in 1841., at the residence of M. niers, at which General
Changernier was present, manna were concerted to dis-
solve the National Anembly, and to arrest several of its
menben,—N. Thisn a second time denies the allegation,

adding : " I have always considered legality as theearestl
resource against disorder—as indeed the only one which did
not expose to sad returns. • • Similar propositions,
seriously ewe by accredited perms, hiving s taiseion to
discuss end to adopt thins, have never either been brought
to my house or dimmed there." In the Indipetidacice Beige
of yesterday we and the following letter addressed to the
editor of the Prose: " lisltsee, March 21, 1856.—0ne of
my friends, who will be the bearer of this, haa informed se

to-
—.
ay
dof the letters recently inserted in your journal by the
author of Memoirs. d'oot Bourgeois de Peru, by M. de
Horny, and by the Hon. M. Tbien. I give the most com-
plete denial to the two first-named of these personages.
united to erect • pedestal to each other. and to calum-
niate the victims of violence and fraud. I beg you to be
good enough to insert this letter in your next number.—
Receive, &c."

MR. J. HUME AND

. . .
NEWS FR I • • TRA • 4.. 04. reit tbiblao•WesliFter
OZ tin say is flip *NIS.
beginnin . ' • by natiosl, debt, having the
Victorit " +-A " a tofkV to perfors for Her l
• tim• Nr. !,a _ itt _LIM" as Dr. am Pris
h•PPily dissi '74' • its .1 Claims stated in the .ktira Council trinew
it had in it some formidable of Victoria, amount to mare than 121. a head,, pa, sad