The Express.
London, England, 1849-01-15 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, MONDAY EVENING, JANUARY' 15 1849

price. Bat if there is not merely a dearth of raw asa-i
twigs, but a state of approximate famine, the disrup-
tion of all ordinary relations between production and
consumption mast inevitably become of the most vio-
lent kind ; and the recovery from this unfortunate
condition will very closely correspond in time and de-
gree with the disappearance of the pernicious circum-
stances of deficiency. Double your reserves of cotton,
and dyes, and oils; extent your resources of
wool, and silk, and flax; and on will again
have proceeded half way to the achievement of a new
prosperity. But amebic. with :his grader affluence
in the elements of labour an equal affluence in the
elements of subsistence, and the circle is complete.
You will them possess, for a time at least, a command
over those favourable conditions which have always
rendered new and active communities prosperous and
powerful. A Saxon colony in New Zealand will
never experience the chequered fate of the mother-
°Gantry, so long as new land remains to be occupied
and agriculture can find employment and reward for
every pair of hands.
The rationale therefore of our improved condition
resolves itself mainly into one fact—that our tome
population have the benefit of abundance. We do
not underrate the importance of the foreign
trade. But the extension in the exports
of British goodi during the last two or
three months has been quite inadequate to ex-
plain the decided alteration which has taken place in
the industrial districts of the country. The whole
excess in the exports of November, 1848, over
November, 1847, is 150,0001. It is not by 150,0001.
that a change is produced in the condition of eight or
ten millions of people. Let the additional bales of
calico despatched by the Manchester warehousemen
be traced to their destination, and, in nine cases out
of ten, they will find their resting place behind the
thriving counter of some iudustnous draper, who con-
sults the taste and supplies the wants of his country
circle.

This is not a gratuitous hypothesis. It derives
every confirmation from the last monthly bulletin of
the Board of Trade. Coming down to the bth of
December, 1848, the general tenor of this document
more decidedly than any of its predecessors of the
present year confirms the fact that between 1848 and
1847 the vital difference consists in an enormous dimi-
nution in the import of all articles of out sistence ; and
an increase almost as enormous in all descriptions of
raw material.

When we remember that a falling off in the sup-
ply of animal and vegetable food does not in the pre-
meet state of the law arise out of enormous duties or
absolute prohibitions, we may reasonably congratu-
late ourselves upon a decline in the quantity of this
description of our imports. Such a decline is the
best proof of domestic abundance ; for with
free ports and expeditious transit we may
asure ourselves that it is nothing but a
cheap price which forbids the entry of oxen
from Holstein, and provisions from North America.
Now, it is quite certain that, comparing last year and
the present, there has been a moat important decline
in the price of animal food in all our great markets.
At Newgate, on the Ist Jan., 1848, the price of mid-
dling beef was 38.11 d. per stone of 811 w. • and on the
let Jan., 1849, it was only. 2s. Ild., a 411 of 25 per
cent. The fall in the price of mutton was not so
great. On the Ist Jan., 1848, middling sheep sold at
4e. ; and, on the let Jan., 1849, at 38 Bd. These
prices at once explain the alteration which has taken
place in the importation of live animals. Combining
the six sorts of animals recognised by the tariff, the
gross decline is from 198,000 in number to 174,000;
and the greatest diminution has taken place in horned
cattle. Cattle, however are only one item of the
series of articles of subsistence ; and premising that
the clearances for home use of spirits, spices, wine,
sugar, tea, and tobacco, are very nearly the same
as in 1847, the following abstract will exhibit the re•
markable alteration between the two years us to
MIT:CLEB OF FOOD.
180. 1848.
............................No.Aninals 198.000
Beef ewto. 109,000
name.
Wheat cyra. 2,418,000
Do. m. al mt.. 8,296,000 1,151,000
Indian core gra 3,500,000
Do. meal mete. 1,437.000
Other kinds climes qrs. 2.962,000
lle, mai awls. 2,285,000 ..... Mow
1,357,086
The relative proportions between the kinds of ¢rain
and meal imported in 1848 and 1847 is exceedingly
significant of the pressure and distribution of the de-
ficiency
in our own harvests. The enormous quantities
of infincr kinds of food in 1847—Indian earn and I
meal, and of "other kinds" et meal—will eufficieatly
corroborate to a new generation the recitals of the
Irish Board of Works and the traditions of
the western counties of Ireland ; they will also for ever
set at rest the title of 1847 to a place in the gh only
catalogue which includes the six last years of the
seventeenth century described by DE For: with more
than his usual precision and el queoce—and which also
includes those two open ing years of the present cen-
tury, when, through the operation of famine, our
grandfathers were almost reduced to humiliate them-
selves before tee French directory.
. . . .

lf, however, a decline in the quantities of food im-
ported is a healthy symptom, an inc'eaee in the ar-
rivals of raw materials is a still more legitimate
ground of congratulation. With the exception of a
trifling diminution in hemp, hides, and timber, there
is a most important increase in every commodity used
in our manufactures. An enumeration will best
exhibit this,

RAW Mambos.
1847. 1646.
caw 293,000
.sots. and tors 279,000
mu. 948,000
pfai
Oib awls. and teas 466,000
Silk 3 923,' 00
Skin. " No. 1,573,000
Tallow carts. 883,000
Torsional, 237,000
Coma weal
Sheer was( l „ bs. 55,366,000
But it is not simply the increase in the quantity of
these elements of labour which is so importaht, the
cheaper price at which they are procured it scarcely
less remarkable. Cotton (good fair) sold on the Ist
Jan., 1847, at 71d. i er lb.; on Ist Jan ,1848, at 51c1.;
and on Ist Jan., 1849, at 41d. Fax has fallen
during the twelvemonth from 481. to 361.; tallow,
from 476. to 425.; logwood, from 82s. to 755.; and
these are only examples.
Now the mfluence of these low prices is almost
always overlookt d. Durice the whole ytar we have
heard most desponding refkc-ions upon the augmenta-
tion of the imports and the decline of the exports of
the country. It has been perpetually inferred, on the
one hand, that the balance of trade must be renoered
adverse ; and on the coher, that every manufacturing
interest was in a state of extreme suffering from the
diminution in the declared value of our shipments.
The best, and, in truth, the decisive, reply to opinions
of this character is to exhibit a table of comparative
prices. We have already seen that animal food is 25
per cent. cheaper, and that flax and cotton and
dyes are all cheaper, but manufactured fabrics
are also cheaper. On the Ist January, 1847, the price
of 40 inch shirting, (72's) at Manchester was
10s. 41d. ; on the Ist January, 1848, it was
Bs. 6d. ; and on Ist January, 1849, it was
Bs. 41d. Doting the whole of 1848, therefore,
you have had the price of this leading staple
20 per cent. below the prices of 1847, and it follows,
f course, that an export of 1,000,0001. worth of such
fabrics it 1848 represents as much labour as an export
of 1,200,00 W. worth in 1847.
There is every reason to believe that this alteration
in prices would have been of itself sufficient to pre-
vent any depression in the foreign exchange. But
aided, as the compensating movement has been, by
the influx of capital, driven here by the commotions
of the continent, we can be at no leas to understand
the causes which in the space of nine months have
added three or four millions to the bullion is the Bank
of England.

We have seen the prospectus of • Railway Pas-
senger Assurance Company, lie scheme of which, it
appears, is the latest of the ingenious devices of Mr.
B. BOTCH. The motive is set forth as suggested by
the injusiices that juries are prone to commit in
awarding compensation for accidents under Lord
CAMPBELL'S recent act. It is alleged, not without
truth, that whenever an action is brought against a
railway company, the bias cf juries is wholly towards
the plaintiff; and that, in consequence of this leaning,
damagf s are frequently determined rather by the
presumed ability of the " rich corporation" to bear
any peralty, just or unjust, than on fairer grounds
of liability—where the casualty has been d. mon-
' strably in the nature of an accident, and no case of
negligence has been substantiated. In this way
the claim for compensation beomes a matter
of certain success, however the damage may
' have arisen; and the amount of demands unfounded

on any default in the public eauder. in cow laded elm-
siderable enough to call far semi means of mitigating
this kind of exaction--mainst which, it is not untruly
argued, railway.companies have no chance whatever
before ordinary juries.
The means suggested by Mr. RoTcs are, however,
somewhat questionable. It is proposed that each
passenger, or as many as can be induced to take
the precautioe, shall himself pay a few pence for
each journey as a premium to tbe insurance com-
pany, which, in cue of accident, will entitle his repre-
sentatives to recover ample and speedy compensa-
tion for any loss from his death, or bodily injury;
and this premium—no doubt on a calculation of the
actual safety of railway travelling—is fixed so low,
that few, it is alleged, will object to pay it, whge
very small payment—say, by a part only of the
travelling public—would create a fund more than
as dent to afford, with profit to the insuring body,
liberal settlements on every case of accident, whether
arising from the passenger's can want of caution,
from negligence in railway servants, or from pure ac-
cident, for which neither the one nor the other are
justly chargeable with blame, nor intended to be
made liab.e by Lord CAMPBELL'S act. It is thus de-
signed, on the one hand, to afford prompt and liberal
indemnity in all cases of injury without exception,
and without litigation or trouble ; and, on the other
hand, to relieve railway owners . from claims to
which they are now often compelled to submit with-
out bei,,g justly in fault, or on which, if in fault at
all, they are made, by jurors led away by excitement
and unconscious prepossessions, to pay excessive

damages.
All this would be very well, could the proposed
sche.ue effect what it proposes. But there are various
reasons why i• can hardly be e‘pected to do any such
thing. In the first place, the numbers of travellers
who will pay, even a few pence per trip, to ensure
—in case they miscarry a sum to survivors,
however ample, is not likely to be great. 01 those
who use railways, not one in a hurdred sets forth on
his journey with more apprehi nsions theta he feels in
passing from one street to another ; no is there any
reason, indeed, why he should, as the statistics of
several years have abundantly proved. To those
who have no apprehension, a penny—nay a
farthing premium—would seem too much; and
those Jew whuse fears might induce them to covet
any new security, weal; find little corsolation in one
that does not offer to protect their person., and the
benefit of which would oniy accrue to their families
after the occurrence of the ve y mischance, a prospect
of which alarms the persons concerned. The party
who must pay, unluckily is not the party secured
by the payment : it will be poor comfort to a timo-
rous traveller to be told that it his brains happen to
be dashed out, 3,0001. will be paid d 'wn on the nail
to his sorrowing relatives : and these alone can re-
quire any consolation! In the known general safe•y
of railway travelling none but the very timid are liked}
to have anything to do with insurance from its occa
sional casualties.

The machinery by which Mr. Rum would work
his system has a similar defect in pi incipl-, namely,
that here again the immediate agent in the process
would not be the party most concerned in its results.
He suggests that the booking r•lerks may be employed
to collect the insurance and issue its certitiCates with
the fare tickets; and hints the', by thus using and
pa) ieg railway servants to do the work, a new motive
would be prepared for taking extra care of the tra-
veller's safety. Now it is not on the people in the
passenger offices that anything whatever effecting in-
security can depend The emolument earned as in
su ance brokers by the booking clerks, would produce
no such encouraging impression on the enginem, n,
guards, pointmen, &c., whose care is really the import-
ant matter in this respect. The man who dues the whole
work of collecting the premiums must, in fairness, be
the on y party paid ; nor will he long give his atten-
tion to it if he must divide its profit, with others who
have no part in the labour. Yet, unle.s a partition
were made, so an to benefit th se who really have
teomettiug to ro with the working of the trains, this
plan of giving railway servants an interest in the
passengers' safety would be worth nothing. The
emolument might be offered with equal effect to the
police outside the station.
. _

We say. nothing of the probable effect on the
passengers feelings of the mode of promoting the
business, through the booking clerks, which is sug-
gesttd by Mr. HOTCII. When a traveller comes to
take his place—thinking no evil—he will be apt to
feel it strange, to be abruptly asked, " it his life is
insured ?" by the servants of the company, who pro-
fess to carry him safely. Men of tolerable firmness of
nerve even might have some qualms suggested, for
the first time, by such an inquiry, and the timid
female, the hypochondriac invalid, would be apt to re-
gard it as a caution of the most appalling import. It
is not very likely, therefore, that railway managers
would lend themselves to a system so apt to discredit
their undertakings and excite alarm—without any
cause—on the point of all others where confidence is
of most vital moment to their prosperity.
Still further, it may be remarked, that even were
these objections all removed, there is still nothing
whatever in the plan that ensures its attainment of
one prit cipal end it professes to accomplish. If the
Assurance Corn any were founded on Mr. Itorcit's
plan, freely supported, and regularly worked, still
there in no certainty whatever the.% by paying its
settlements, however liberally, in all cases of damage
to life or limb, it would protect railway companies
from excessive claims being brought against them on
this score. Their legal liability wAild still subsist as
before ; and it would be enforced mist surely in
those very cases where the most extreme and un-
founded demands are now made in reliance on the
known temper of juries. It would be a thriving em-
ployment and a triumph for a certain class of pr.cti-
tioners to get—and probably to share in—doub'e com-
pensations forth, ir clients; and no en cnuragement would
be wanting to survivors to lend their names to the
process. The personal assurance would first be
realised, and an action then be brought against the
railway company, whose responsibility under Lord
CAMPBELL'S act the previous insurance would not
take away; so that the above of that act, where it is
abused, would only be aggravated and rendered more
easily committed by the previous supply of the plain-
tiff from another compensation fund.
Altogether, we think the project unlikely to succeed
in any way. The travelling public are not generally
afraid of railways, and if they were, this kind of in-
surance would not appease the most pr wing fear for
their own skin,. It would not do to combine the
insurance with the passeneer booking hasines : while
in to other way could it become even moderately
current amongst travellers. And, lastly, it would not
effectually relieve railway companies, after all, from
those claims that are the most unreasonable ; even if
it could perform for the passenger what it promises
him—a promise, moreover, that is calculated rather
to alarm the wayfarer, than to send him on his way
rej Acing.

FRANCE.

FAKIS.SArtsuAT, 6 r.K

Within the walls of the Assembly there was yester-
day a mu h stronger military force than usual, the
all-absorbing question of the diselmion of the
Assembly rendering such a precaution neces-
sary in the judgment of the authorhes.
Until hslf-past three, the Assembly was occupied
with the debate on the introduction of foreign salt.
Several additional articles were propo-ed and dis-
cussed, but the noise and excitement in the
Assembly were so excessive, that not one word
could be beard. The debate on the dissolution
of the Assembly was then taken. and the result of a
division was the adoption of M. Rattean's project for
a speedy dissolution, by 400 vo'es against 396, and its
reference to a committee.
_ _ _

The question thus decided is equivalent to the first
reading of a bill in the British parliament. It sanc-
tions the principle of the measure, and it is considered
here that the Assembly cannot go back on the Ties-
tion, but must fix an early day for the diss3lution.
Whether that day be the one fixed in the project of
M. Ratteau, :he 18th March, or that proposed in the
other project of MM. Pagnerre and nixie', the 4th
May, is of comparativeiy little consequence, now that
the principle of the project fur a op.edy d:saulution
decided. _ _ .

The next step consNiunt on the vote of last night
will be the appointment of a new committee to report
on the proposition of M. ltatteau. That report cannot
be brought up in less than eight or ten days, after
which the project must be read three times with in-
tervals of five days, thus whatever expedition be used
the clause cannot be passed in much lefts than four
week., and it is therefore presumed that the etc-chow.
cannot take place betore the beginning of April. A

nmjeot was accordingly presented to-day by MM.
Wollowski de Lasteyrie and Gerard, proposing April
10 for the dissolution of the present Assembly and the
convocation of the next.

In the Assembly to-day the debate on the question
of the admission of foreign salt was resumed. The
discussion was as to the fixing the duty at 4f. and
41. 50c. for fine salts, as they were brought in French
or foreign bottoms. M. Poesy, Minister of Fioanoe,
proposed 3f. 500. and 4t. M. Grandin :proposed, as
an amendment, 2E 75e. and 3f. 25., which, on • divi-
sion, was adopted. The duties are, therefore, fixed at
those amounts, according as the salt may be imported
in French or foreign vessels.
The candidates for the vice-presidency are much
spoken of. The election must take place ou Saturday
next. M. 0. Barrot would desire to obtain the office,
but fears that his retirement from the cabinet at pre-
sent would bring about a crisis. MM. Thies and
Mole think that the office of vice-president being
pure y administrative would be more suitably filled by
M. Vivien, who is eminent as a jurist, than by M. 0.
Barrot, who would be more fitly placed in an office
purely political.
M. Favetier, a Republican, has just been elected
for the Upper Rhine. His opponents were three can-
didates of the moderate party. He had been Prefect
and was dismissed. He obtained 7,500 votes out of '
25,000 voters.

It is not expected that any opposition will be given
to the re-election of M. Marrast, as President of the
Assembly.
M. Lamartine intended to speak on the question
of dissolution, as I have already stated, but not doubt-
;lig but that the debate would be adjourned till today,
he dined yesterday with the President of the Re-
public, and was absent at the moment of the unex-
pected division.
It was reported to day that the Marquis de Bar-
bancoir, a legitimist, has been elected for the depart-
ment of the Indre.
There was en advance to-day at the Bourse of half
a franc on the Fives, attributed to the vote of yester-
day. An uneasiness was felt at the Bourse from
a report which prevailed that M. Pa-sy is about
,o propose a tax on the Renter, and also one upon
the capital of the railways.
M. Lemercier, who was President of the Council of
Ancients, on the iBth Brumaire, and who became a&
terw ads President of the Senate, and lastly a peer of
France, died in Paris two days ago.
We read in the Petrie : " M. Duchitel will arrive
in Paris, it is asserted, next month ; and it is added
that one of his first steps will be to apply to the tribu-
nals for the means of obtaining a sum of 100,01,01.,
the estimated value of the wine which was in the cel-
lars of the !Ministry of the Interior before the 24th of
February, but which is no longer there. This wine,
it appears, was the private property of M. Duchitel."