The Express.
London, England, 1852-08-23 00:00:00

LONDON, MONDAY, AUGUST 23.

Is the Standard of Saturday we find a prominent
place among the leaders assigned to the following :
We have received by this morning's post a printed pla-
card het of the voters in a molested midland Irish county,
in which list the names of all the vi tars in the barony
(corresponding to an English county hundred) to which the
document professes to refer are given at length, with the
names of the respective candidates for whom they voted,
also the names of the registered electors who did nut vote,
a large smasher, apperently, from the Irish names., Roman
catholics. In both cases the residences of the parties are
annexed to their names. Such baronial lista are, we are as-
sured, univer...l in all the counties when there has been a
coats-at, and like lists are printed in the same form fur con-
tested eitin and borough.. There can be no doubt of the
purpose with which these lists are prepared. Their form,
that of large placards (the list before us is more than two
tent square), proves that they are not published for sale or
profit, for sAtisfactiou of private cariosity, or for future
reference. No ; they are " raat.cs or PROSCRIIII.X."
each as the " tubule (emirs quibus molts milli., civium
cedi destinati fuer,, to:lstituto publice premio iii qui coa-
gulate" jugulasiont." Was anything like this ever seen or
beard of is England, or in other Christian countries 7 The

remerabrancei; foriiibbon senor of which we speak are
not direct evidence of a disturbance of the freedom of elce-
tin past, but they awn a " foregone conclusion." a sys-
tem of tynutny in Licentious by disobedience to which the
penalty of prcwcription and all its terrific consequences are
incurred.
It must be confessed, that giving such publicity as
is here described to the votes of electors in Ireland,
due,, appear to be playing with edge tools. We know,
from the sad experience of many long years, how
prompt our countrymen on the other side of the
Irish Channel are, under the impulse of any real or
fancied wrong, to take a shot from behind a hedge at
the party to whose agency they may attribute it. And
though the publishers of` the lists alluded to by the
St.s.odurd may have been innocent of any such inten-
tion, their appearance before the excitement of the
election has passed away may lead to consequences
deeply to be regretted.
Apart from this consideration, however, we see no
earthly objection to the publication of such lista.
We, indeed, hold that it is no man's concern but the
individual elector's how he bestows his vote, and
that to preclude the possibility of malicious or im-
pertinent inquiries every elector ought to be enabled
to give his vote in secret. Bat Conservatives, like
the Standard, and Whigs or moderate Liberals, like
Lord JOHN RUSSELL and Mr. Coaewstt Lewis,
dissent from us. They (and those who think with
them on this subject) hare hitherto had a majority
on their side in the Legislature; and the anti-ballot
orators in the House of Commons (and elsewhere)
have not been over and above civil to the advocates of
secret voting. They have contrasted what they are
pleased to call the cowardice and duplicity of those
who meek for the protection of the ballot,
with the manly, brave, English spirit of the
men who take a pride in letting the whole world
know how they vote. Yet the publication of the
poll lists at Edinburgh by the Loan PROVO4T'S com-
mittee gave rise to screams almost as tragic as those
of the Slanda)d. The effect of the fine speeches of the
anti•balloteers will be rather marred in future by this
weeping and wailing because of the publicity given
to votes in Ireland and Scotland.
The truth is that to call our present mode of
voting an open or public one is rank deception. An
elector steps up to a poll-booth ; he is allowed to pass
in alone; a constable or two keep off the imperti-
nently curious mob; the elector gives his vote in the
presence of a poll-clerk and it may be an agent for
each of the rival parties; and maraca off. What does
or what can the public know of how he votes? His
landlord, his creditor, any one who has a hold upon
him, and wishes to make him vote against his con-
viction or inclination, can easily learn how he votes,
but in so far as the public is concerned, the privacy
in which his vote is given remains unbroken. Our
no-called open voting does not expose the voter to
the ordeal of public opinion ; it merely enables those
who have an interest in biassing his vote to keep
him in view. The publication of lists telling who
voted on this side, and who on that, and who ab-
stained from voting, is indispensable to an open
.ystem of voting. It brings into play the control of
public opinion to counteract the control of private
nafluence.
For our part, we say, if we are to hare public
voting, let it be really _public. Let everybody know
how Tor, DICK, and litany have voted, as wed as
their landlords, and employers, and creditors. If voting
is to be open, let it be really open; if secret, really
secret. To hear the brave assertersof the beauty and jus-
tice of open voting complain because the votes of them-
selves and frientis are thus gazetted is pitiful in the
extreme. It is to whine and blubber because they
have had their wish. As for the unlucky indivt-
duals who sigh for the protection of the ballot, these
lists do not make their condition a bit worse : their
persecutors would have ferretted them out without
such aid.
Ireland excepted (and that for the reason assigned
above) we are always glad when we hear of the votes
given at an election being posted all over the district.
It is the only way to teach the admirers of public
voting what its evils and inconveniences are. And
it is a most effective one. It makes more eonverte
to the ballot than the closest logic or the most im-
passioned eloquence. Even " the honouraide razabse
for Verbosity will in so far abridge lie rumeser
as to strike out the anti-ballot clause whom be loss
occasion to address a constituency smarting under
the recent infliction of such • placarding.
Even without this stimulus the desire for the
ballot grows space. Men begin to answer laboured
arguments against it with an—" It may be so ; but
we should like to make a trial of it.' Mr. CORN-
WALL Lewis, by his pertinacious adherence to the
old anti-ballot heresy and sans other unpopular
notions, has drawn down upon himself a rather
uncourteous reception at Peterborough. We regret
this ; because we think Mr. C. Lewis, with
his accomplishments and experience in public busi-
ness, well qualified to serve his country in Par-
liament. But the fault is hie own, not that
of the good men of Peterborough. The time has
gone past when men, earnest and anxious to
obtain the protection of the ballot, will listen with
patience to refusals to support it on such vague and
unintelligible grenade, as " it is • question sur-
rounded by numerous diMeulties," or pleas far the
continuance of church rates because they are" a very
ancient tax, Mr. C. Lawn has been spoiled by
a keeping bad company—the dowager pohtiehme
last century. Fame belies him if he is not omplie
of speaking and acting more to the purpose them be
did at Peterborough. But, if he will persist le mi.
haring to the unmeaning evasive phraseology at tie
anti-reforming section of the Whig aristeermys be
must even take the consequenoes.

I.ooxpro at the vast number of subjects forced
the attention of Parliament, and remembering that in
this age of railway presume it is falling more and more
year by year into an arrear with time, reflecting
politicians may naturally feel averse from bringing
forward new claims on its attention. The public de-
sands are so numerous, Parliament is pulled in so
many different ways, that there is a reasonable fear it
may soon be unable to move at all. Neeertheless,
we must continue to ask its attention to our monetary
system, because circumstances force that on public
attention, because the wrong is entirely its own set,
and because we have to require that it vhould abstain
from action, not increase its activity. We may
enable it to comply more readily with some of the
incessant demands made on it if we can induce it t 4
trouble itself lam about money by showing that it is
impossible far it to fix and maintain a standard of
The supposition is that PErCs Bill and the Act of
Ibl6 fixed and determined a standard of value. On
this supposition thousands of letters are written
every year. But all the legislature then did was to
settle that an ounce of gold, as pure as the chemist
can make it, alloyed in certain definite proper.
bons with other metal. known from experience to
impart to it s maximum of hardness and durability,
shall be divided and coined, not into half and quarter

THE EXPRESS,

ounces, which would have been reaaon able, but ic to four
pieces, each of which contains 113-001 ins of pore
gold. or 123.2 as 74 grains of standard carious
itaF
a fraction possibly as is anywhere to Nand in the
concerns of practical men. It is nol expressed
in ordinary dealings by an arithmetical proiSer•
tion, but by other and wildly different elements,
viz., quantities of silver and copper known are'7l
shillings and 21 halfpennies. A pretty kind of
standard that which is itself measured and deter-
mined by fluctuating silver and fluctuating copper.
Hut this only half expresses the legislative absurdity,
for while the law provides a standard by which to
value the standard, or a measure for the measure, it
absolutely declares that the shilling and the penny
shaU be no measure at all. It enhances their denomina-
tion or debases them both, so that they shall not be
a true measure, and then uses them to deter-
mine the value of its standard of value.
For by determining the value of a frac-
tional part of the ounce of gold in silver and copper
the legislature does, so far as it can, detertnine
the value of the whole ounce. Thus, as far
as it is concerned, our standard of value is nothing
better than our debased and fluctuating penny and
shilling.
The circumstance which at present forces the sub-
ject on public attention is the large additional supply
of gold obtained from the other hemisphere. Not-
withstanding the settlement of the standard by the
legislature, there is an almost universal apprehension
that the ounce of gold will be worth an indefinite
number of shillings and of pennies less than the
law as4igns to it. The valuation, therefore, of
775. 101 d. for an ounce of gold, which appears
in the statute book, and in all books on the
coinage, is now, by universal acknowledgment,
pretty certain to come to an end, as in fact, it is
known by inquirers never to have had a permanent
existence, if it ever actually existed. The ounce
of gold is very seldom of the value of 775. 10}d.
It is clear that gold, however coined, which is itself
liable to fluctuation, as everybody is sensible, is not
a standard of value, and perfectly clear that the
silver and the copper, and all the other things by
which it is and may be measured are not standards;
and that in point of fact there is no standard of
value, and the legislature can not create what does
not exist in nature.

We appear to get on in our moneyconcerns, never-
theless, tolerably well. The explanation of our partial
success, in spite of many legislative absurdities is,
that gold and silver, like all other commodities, have
each a value, settled and determined at all times
by the higgling of the market, and this value varies,
as every one now knows, with the facility and diffi-
culty oi' obtaining them. This value, too, from a
variety of circumstances with which legislation has
nothing to do, for they prevail in all countries, and
have prevailed: at all times, is tolerably steady.
Au ounce of gold and an ounce of silver have borne,
for ages throughout the civilised world, an arithmeti-
cal relation to each other of about one to fifteen. In
that proportion pretty nearly, more or less, the coin-
age of all the world has been made, and when it has
been much departed from, the efforts of legislation to
establish and preserve a different relation have been
vain and have been defeated. From the natural

relation, then, and trolls the natural properties of the
two metals we get on pretty well with our mealy
when we have time to adapt ourselves to what the
legislature orders, and it does not continually vary
its directions.

The mike of all coins must, and does, conform
lithe vales of the precious metals in them. The weight
aid fineness of the sovereign settle its value every-
where, in France and iu England, not the silly !eget-
leder' for dividing an ounce of gold into four pieties,
which are not aliquot parts of the ounce, each of
which is
.equal in value to something less than
bar ounces of silver ; because that regula-
tion has no influence whatever over the value
et gold and silver ; though the other regulation
we formerly adverted to, of not allowing us to use
silver for certain purposes, lessens its value in Eng-
land, and enhances the value of gold, we are enabled
to get on pretty well with our money. It is because
all the fiddle-fiddle of lawmakers, from LYCUROUS to
the PRINCE PRESIDENT, has no lasting influence over
the value of either gold or silver, and, cannot perma-
nently alter the natural relation of value that exists
between them, that other countries, too, which have
different monetary regulations from ours get on more
or lees decently. Some, es Austria, get on much
worse, others, as France, probably get on better
than ourselves; but all get on, the value of the coins
ea of other things being settled by natural dream-
' stances, in spite of much noxious legislation.
The philosopher is thoroughly and theoretically,
as well as practically, convinced, that no false theory
or false assertion embodied in legislation can be
otherwise than mischievous ; but politicians and the
vulgar, who look to expediency, do not thoroughly
believe in this principle, and they will require from on
some positive evidence that our monetary regulations
besides being palpably absurd are every day produc-
tive of mischief, or they will maintain that good may
arise from the absurdity, and will not take any
trouble to alter it. Let us then just call attention to
the fact that our pretended standard is gold, our real
seasure is silver, copper, and all other things. The
"dee of an estate is settled in so much gold, so many
pseuds sterling, and so are the salaries of the great ca-
ws of the crown, the contracts for railways and other
aristocratic matters. But all these are things that fo-
reigners do not buy from us. Of by far the greater num-
ber of things bought and sold the price is settled in
copper and silver. Cotton is somewl•ere about 4d.
per lb. ; cotton twist is also 7d. to 13t per lb. ;
cotton cloth is so many shillings the piece or yard.
Wheat is ss. or 6s. a bushel, or 40a. the quarter. To
run the eye over any price current, or all price
mirrews satisfies every man that the bulk of all the
prices throughout the community is not settled in
c. but in the nominally enhanced and really
Zrepeia
ted silver and copper coin.
tail prices, as Mr. TaiLon says in his work on
"Money and Morals,' govern wholesale prima
though not exactly in his sense ; but they govern
them by the pounds being, in the majority of
Mak reelwasd in shillings and pence. Now the
prise el amely all the things
.foreigners buy from us
1 mett we buy from foreigners, is not in reality settled
in gold but in silver. The eences and cisme:t-
abs:ices of trade may have induced our manufacturers
and merchants to demand a somewhat greater number
of shillings or greater number of pennies, for the
articles they have to sell, than they otherwise would,
in consequence of those prices being actually settled
in silver and copper, but we are not sure that they
have, and we are quite sure that the necessity of
fixing the price of their commodities in coins
nominally higher in value than the actual quantity
of silver and copper contained in them, places our
merchants and dealers at great disadvantage in
relation to foreigners. The price is reckoned in silver,
and foreigners pay in silver, and our Mint regu-
lations enable them to pay se. 6d. with an ounce, or
Is. worth of silver. Instead of giving an ounce of
'silver for ss. worth of cloth, they can settle their
debts with one-tenth less than an ounce. The nation
is to a great extent injured in its dealings with
foreigners by our own legislation.
Vi e know and state, that merchants and
dealer., from an instinctive impulse in adjusting
prices, endeavour to meet and counteract this mis-
chievous effect of legislation, but it costs them
some trouble; we doubt if they always succeed; and we
believe that on the whole it gives the foreigner
who buys with silver en advantage nearly equivalent ts
In per cent. The labourer whose wages are settled
in shillings is certainly defrauded; and if the mer-
chant and manufacturer be not, they are indebted
for it to other circumstances than the fictitious PRIM
assigned to our silver coinage. Estimate the national
loss we cannot, but we believe it to be very eami-
derable, and to be continual. It is entirely the result
of the false coinage of an ounce of silver, worth only
55., into ss. 6d., which enables the producer and
owner of silver to pay a debt of ss. 6d. with ss.
Silver continually cornes here iu great quan-
tide., and is immediately sent abroad, whence it
comes back, and the same silver—which is very
durable—buys, to a considerable extent, over and
over again, the cotton cloth, which is annually con-
sumed and annually made. The loss, like the regu-
lation, is permanent; and, of course, the sooner inch
a falsity in word and deed be extinguished the more
prosperous will the nation become.

FRAM

I)ErdltrUßE or cue AMERICA.— On Saturday,
snurug before noon, the ltriti.h and North American royal
mad steamship America, Neil Shannon, commander, left
the Mersey for Halifax and Boston with 150 passengers, a
fair cargo, and the usu►t mails fur the United States and
for Canada, Newfoundliud, ack4 the other Britiah North
American roviaiss.

PAWS. Ssviraissi ErwinL.
The/Wel/a deg Leistpubfishes a decree counter-
s signed by General de St. Arnandi Misister of War,
by which retiring penises are gesetad to 73 soldiers.
At the head of the diet whs.: asaimpanies this
decree, are found the mimes of Chasid, Changarnier
and Serbian, but for those of Lamerisifire and Leila
we look in vain. rho pensions of the ex-commander
of the army of Paris, and of the former Vice• Pres-
ident of the National Assembly, are fixed at 6,000 f.
each. The pprsseant position of two pensioned
generals is dasaibsd by the words, "En dis-
ponibilitl,." In another column, under the head
of domicile, opposite to the same names is
written, " Paris, Seine." It would appear from
these indications that the government has not
yet given over the hop? of inducing these illustrious
exiles to return to their country, and swear allegi-
ance to the present ruler of France. One cannot but
admire the singular pertinacity with which the Presi-
dent still clings
.to the hope of enlisting in his service,
an officer' who in spurning the oath which might
have restored him to his country, did not hesitate to
tax his proscriber with treachery and perjury. It is
further seen from this decree that General Bcdeau
has 31 years and 7 months of service and 24 cam-
paigns, which count as so many years in addition.
He was born in 1804. General Chagarsier, aged 59,
has 37 years of service and 23 cunpaigas.
It seems that the mectiug of the Councils General
will empty Paris of the ministers. Akeady Bineau
and Persigny have had to surrender the portfolios of
finance and the interior to temporary substitutes.
Fould is gone to Tarbes, to preside at the council of
the Hautes-Pyrenein, and Fortoul to Digne, to take
the chair in that of the Besse-Alps. If Abbattucci
is to go for the same reason to Orleans, St. Arnaud
to Bordeaux, Magee to Perigueux, and Maupas to
Troyes, only two ministers, Drouyn de Lhnye and
Duces, will remain at Paris.
I hear that M. de Persigny, who has made his
retreat once more to the baths of Dieppe, had
before his departure a vehement altercation
with M. Duces, minister of marine, at St.
Cloud, in the presence of Louis Napoleon.
If the remark be true which is attributed
to the Prince on this occasion it would seem not only
that he thought his
,fides Acbates in the wrong, but
that the report that the ministry of the interior will
pass into other hands is far from improbable.
" Vest done vrai," he is reported to have said, turn-
ing towards N. Persigny, gee to tote a demenage?"
Considerable crowds of people are observed to-day
at two points of Paris. The return of M. fliers has
drawn numbers of the curious to the Place St.
Georges, where they try to catch a glimpse of the
recalled statesman at the windows of his mansion.
The other spot is the scene of the crime of procuring
abortion, which is at present trying before the tri-
bunal of the Seine, and excites by the melodramatic
combination of revolting circumstances, a marked
curiosity in the crowd.
The Duke de Broglie has left Paris for Geneva.
In oomequence of the accident on the Strasbourg
Itailway, the mails by that line are wanting.
The Midi journal of Toulouse has ceased to &ppm,
inconsequence of two seizures of successive numbers.

PARIS, SUNDAY Evasive.
The Moniteur is richer than usual in its official
part. By a decree of the 21st M. Duos, minister of
marine, it entrusted ad interim with the portfolio of
war, during the absence of General St. Arnaud. We
may infer that the latter minister will repair to
Bordeaux to take the chair as president of the coun-
cil-general of the Gironde in the approaching session.
By other decrees the electors of the 3rd and 4th
conscriptions of Paris are convoked for the 26th of
Sept., to choose deputies to the Corps Legislatif in the
place of Gen.Cavaignac and M. Carnet, whose resigna-
tions were declared in the opening sitting of the Le-
gislative Body on March 30. Thus the latest hour
allowed by the constitution has been fixed for the
renewal of the Paris elections. A fresh election
will have to take place at Lyons to replace M.
Henan, which will probably be fixed in the Mani-
taw of to-morrow. Soma other vacancies occasioned
by the double election of M. de Moray in the Pi,-
de-dome, by death and resignation, will likewise
have to be filled; but the half-year from the de-
clared vacancy in each case will probably be allowed
to draw to a close before the colleges are convoked.
Another decree appoints Admiral Febrrier-Des-
points*, commander•in-chief of the two French
naval stations on the western coast of America, and
in the Archipelago of the Pacific (Oceania). Ad-
miral Gourdoo replaces the preoedingoffieer as major-
general of marine at Brest. The report of M.
Lucas, prefacing these decrees, is worth quoting. He
says :
Naval power is increased by the eoncentration of forces,
and the unity of eirection. The policy of France and the
interest of our commerce require that the ships of the state
should appear upon ell this ease of the globe ; but the more
our stations are gathered or multipbed, the more impor-
tant it is that at a given manent they should be able to
bambino, concentrate their means of action, and range
themselves under the authority of a single chief. You have
already authorised me to place under the same command
our two naval divisions of India and China.
Another decree confers on General Lawoestine,
commander-in-chief of the national guard, the mili-
tary medal instituted by Louis Napoleon in the decree
confiscating the Orleans property. The bestowal of
this distinction his revived the rumour of General
Lawoestine's probable replacement by Lucien Murat.
Another decree suppresses the duties on the ex-
portation of raw and milled silks (grips •4 'mutinies).
By a further decree the interests of the soda manu-
facturers are in some measure indemnified for the
excise duty imposed ►y the recent budget on the
coarse salt used in the runefacture of soda; a SOW
regulation of the drawbacks granted on the export et
soda, glass, soap, &c., and generally all products con-
nected with the manufacture of soda.
In the unofficial part of the ifessikur are several
notices not leas important than the above decrees.
The *et is as follows :

• repeat hos bees circulated reaming the intended die-
seintionof the natienal guard. It is diassin to easesivelsow
oulevoleses eas Saeger a rises of sew* •11 Mt p iy doho
min improloolie. es the day after dos riftwoo-Prooldrat
of the &petals los boos resolved W the Wiled surd
with law of the moat roopeethol sympathy sad tho
warmest eastelhow
T o knowtsig motion aimed' on the subject of a
commetaial ate &stead:
la several the sews hoe been speed, that
the Fresoh primmest is on the point of stselading
treatise d sosomette which would *pea the fron-
tiers to tbe hose and soak of Owes Mao and
&loins. We Wine we can satin that dierspeet, which
is of a salon to disturb the operations of mollothosylo la-
dastry. is devoid of [mediae.. Poe* sag* is be ea
their guard ospoluot nt nous of this art, whisk emsate
met giessly Wows how the lodise of the advenariss
et** sewoment. or hem iho usoompahso interest of
private sposahollos. Is them loworisat oaatten the sand-
aistraties wt oat depart free tin misses, which has been
the rule of he conduct.

MONDAY EVENING, AUGUST 28, 1852

parer astiatmed : "Ho also wes a 'Snit, it is from th. 4
Jesuits that Iprincipally @Egret the catholic education of
the youth of tie country. That is why I reestablished the
order." The Primate of Oran was agreeably surprised at
hearing this. words, for he bad for some time wished to es-
tablish a college of Jesuits at Tynan. He, therefore, re-
quested the Emperor to permit him to bring two other
Jesuits to that place. The Emperor replied: "Two is not
enough, the Jesuits must direct two or three schools, sad
they should undertake missions "
The Austrian government is about to elevate Baron
Rothschild to the dignity of Count of the Empire.
BADEN.
Letters from Carlsruhe of the 18th state that the
malady of the Grand Duke had so increased, that his
',rah was considered imminent.

GREECE.

The Courrier d'AMenes of the 9th announces the
arrival at Athens of Mr. Marsh, American minister
at Constantinople, and his having obtained an audi-
ence of the Queen Regent. Mr. Marsh's business is
to obtain satisfaction in the affairs of Dr. King.
The Sieele of Athens of the 4th states that M.

Marrocordato has been summoned to Carlsbad, where
the King of Greece resides at present for the benefit
of hies health, in order to be consulted on the ques-
tion of the succession to the throne.