The Express.
London, England, 1848-05-22 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, MONDAY

G, MAY 22, lB4B.

and privileges." It is a bill which confers the'
power to impose a tax, sad if taxation be
not politics we know not what is. Lord JOHN'A
distinction (without a difference) between political
and sanitary measures is not original. During the
anti-slavery and anti-oorn law agitations many worthy
persons, who have what the late Lord LONDON-
/IEBIY would have called " a hydrophobia of polities,"
reconciled their consciences to taking part in these
movements by protesting that they were not political.
The truth is that sanitary, corn-law, and ginner
questions, are not only political, but the most impor-
tant political questions that can be raised. Every
measure that concerns man as a cilium in contradis-
tinction to man as a mere individual or member of •
family, is political. The affectation of denying this
comes from a servile fear of acknowledging that it is
the right and the duty of every citizen in a free state
to take part in political discussion. We thank Lord
Jong fur his use of the non-political fallacy : it will
r far to cure timid politicians of the habit of resort-
ing to the evasion, and will promote more just concep-
tions of what constitutes politics.
Wo have given this prominence to the exposure
of Lard Joutes fallacy because, not only with re-
gard to the cumulative rotes, but to every wise pro-
vision of the sanitary bill that has been abandoned,
and to every had or equivocal provision that has been
retained, wo find rnimaters giving way to, or taking
their stand upon, principles incompatible with genersl
good government.
This we have more than once shown to be the
case with regard to the fallacious economy of
unpaid commissioners. The cry of centralisation
which has been raised against the measure is
another example of a mischievous misconception.
There can be nothing more hurtful to a state
than to have all the powers of civil govern-
ment concentrated in the administrative offices of the
capital. It is indispensable to the development
and maintenance of a free and healthy spirit
in the people that they. retain a large share of local
self-government in their own hands. But there are
functions of government which can only be discharged
by a supreme cereral authority. The disgraceful
state of our sanitary police shows that the system of
absolute non-intervention on the part of the supreme
central government has not succeeded. A certain de-
gree of centralisation is necessary. But a purely cen-
tral administration of sanitary police would soon be-
come a mere department of red-tatists going through
certain forms and accomplishing nothing. The prac-
tical problem to be solved in a good sanitary law
is so to adjust the respective duties and powers
of the central board and the inhabitants of
the various districts of the kingdom as to
combine the advantages of centmlisaCon and local
self-government. Nothing, however, has been more
remote from the intentions of those who in the ,are
of the Sanitary Bill, as in the case of the poor law,
have vexed the public ear with the incessart repeti-
tion of the cuckoo cry of " centralisation" than to
promote the solution of so important a problem. They
only want to preserve intact the powers and privi-
leges of the existing incompetent municipal and other
corporations. They fight not for local rate-payers,
but for little cliques of irresponsible local dignitaries.
'the agitation against the Sanitary Bill has been
mainly an agitation by the hied emissaries of Lon-
don and other corporate bodies, who fear that it
may trench upon their powersof misgovernment. Local
self-government and the perpetuation of chartered
corporations are quite different things. Liverpool
has always had a corporation, Birmingham has only
recently had a popular municipal government; yet the
sanitary state of Liverpool is not better than that of
Birmingham. And if we extend our views beyond
the mere sanitary question, it will be found that while
Manchester, Birmingham, and other places, owe their
rapid growth in no small degree to the non-existence
of corporations in them, corporations as they have been
conetitused have driven trade and industry from many
once flourishing boroughs.
Ministers have gained nothing by truckling to the
opposition which the corporations have waged against
them under false pretences. Their omission of
London from the general measure has been rewarded
by the manifesto of " lloorea, Mayor," which ap-
peared in our Saturday's publication. Every ct,n-
cession of a sound principle they make to unreason-
able and insidious demands will only be made a plea
for demanding further concessions. It is not in the
appointment of surveyors alone that Lord lottrittrii
will find it necessary to cons de more because he has
already conceded much, unless he assume a more re-
solute and unyielding demeanour than he has hitherto
taken upon him.
Either ministers think their sanitary bill a proper
and necessary measure, or they du not. If they are
not thoroughly. convinced of its propriety they ought
never to have Introduced it. If they are doubtful es
to its immediate necessity, and uncertain whether the
opinion of the legislature and the public is yet ripe for it,
let them withdraw it fur a season. But if convinced
(as we have no doubt they honestly are) that its
necessity is immediate and urgent, let them resolve
to carry it in an efficient form, or throw upon its
opponents and half-hearted supporters in parliament
the whole responsibility of rejecting it. From this
day forward let them desist from all attempts to
• obtain permission to carry the bill nominally by the
surrender of provisions indispensable to its well-
working.

that a mites wsa to be had by somebody, the aristo-
cratic sad bap emsratia scramble has began.
The oissiemil pedals was a man of moderate abili-
ties and attainments, but the history of his elevation
in itself affords a fair example of how church prefer-
ment in times past has usualli been disposed of.
Having gained a fellowship in frinity allege, Dr.
KYLE roes at an early age to the highest point
which either learning or worth could secure for him.
And in that station he would have passed the re-
mainder of his days, but for the circumstance of his
being related to Sir RENEE TOREENS, who was for
many years private secretary to the late Duke of
YORK, and afterwards adjutant-general. Through
this influence Dr. KYLE became Provost of the Dublin
University, and eventually Bishop of Cork. We have
always understood that he filled both offices without
reproach; bet it cannot be denied that other
men had higher claims than he, and that
he owed his elevation to the friendship of his
relative, and the favour which that relative enjoyed.
In the majority of cases Irish sees have been far
less unexceptionably filled up. The some influence
that obtained the promotion of Dr. KYLE would have
done so had he been a stupid, mercenary, or dishonest
man. And the like influence, if it be permitted to
work upon the m=inds of those now in power, may,
without conscious complicity on their part, lead to the
promotion of some incapable, bigoted, or worthlees
favourite of some particular family or privileged.indi-.
vidual. To what degree Lord Joust RusseLL is ac-
cessible to such sinister counsel we knew not.
His appointments to Hereford and Canterbury,
however people may differ about their respec-
tive merits, possessed at least the merit of
being wholly free from any imputation of
this kind; and we sincerely trust that an equal
impartiality in selection will characterise his choice
of an Irish bishop. Already several names have been
currently spoken of as candidates for the vacant mitre,
and a crowd of deans and dignitaries, for the most
part unknown to fame either as preachers or as men
of letters, have their various friends and advocates in
high quarters.
For our part we have but one desire, and that is
to have the fittest and the worthiest man chosen.
Whatever may be our conviction of the necessity of
great and unsparing reform in the Irish esta-
blishment, as far es its temporalities are concerned,
we cannot view with indifference or unconcern the
dispensation of its immoderate wealth, so long as it is
reserved to ecclesiastical uses ; nor can we, under any ,1
circumstances, consider it a light or unimportant I
matter that the protestant community in Ireland
should be contented and satisfied with those who are
placed in ecclesiastical authority over them. Re-
garded merely in a political point of view, it is of
much moment, in the existing condition of Ireland,
that those who adhere to the tenets of the church of
England in that country should have no peculiar
cause to complain of the manner in which the higher
dignities amongst them aro given away. At the
same time, it is of the deepest importance that
those who are so exalted should be endued with more
than common temper and discretion. 'Frying limes
for the church are coming. It will not do to fill its
highest seats with wooden heads, or fanatics, or
pompous drones—men without susceptibilities to the
spirit of popular progress, or sympathies with the
suffering and want, moral and material, which exist
around them. If protestantism in Ireland is not
utterly to perish and die out, it must put forth strong,
and sound, and tearless men among its prelacy and
clergy. in every rank and station. Arch-coxcombs
and right reverend firebrands, aproced buffoons
and mitred slanderers, bishops who talk to
make simple folk stare, or who harangue
in public to make the foolish and fanatical cheer :
these are not the stuff which bishops now-s-days
ought to be made of. We speak not here of the
openly dishonest few—for few we believe they are
among the protestant clergy in Ireland—who de-
liberately play a game of political opinion, with a
view to win promotion. Ni e assume that recent ex-
perience has afforded sufficient warning to all go-
vernments upon this head ; and though two or three
persons have been named as full of episcopal ambi-
tion, who, having spent years in assailing everything
liberal and just (including, of course, the national
system of education), now affect a change
of opinion, and arc °ern to conviction —we
cannot suppose Lord CLARENIX)N or Lord Joust
RUSSELL so weak as to risk the peace and
honour of the church by listening to these tardy and
untrustworthy traffickers. Signal examples are no-
torious of the treachery thus practised, and of the
speedy and shameless relapse into termagant bigotry
of men who conformed " in the mean season," and
humbled themselves that they might be exalted. It
is enough to say to all who profess a recent coerce
sion to liberal views among the clergy—tarry a while.
The men who have never taken a mischievous part
either in ecclesiastical or political affairs arc those
whose claims are paramount. If they are still a mino-
rity, it is the easier to select from amongst them. But
there are many and worthy men of the sort we have
indicated : SAUCIER, the present provost of the Uni-
versity •, Hensel+, who for years has devoted the
entire of the proceeds of his deanery of Armagh to
the support of the schools under the national board ,
Kiewss, who inherits all the worth and eloquence of
the friend of GRATTAN ; and many more.
But let no stranger, or highborn offcast, for whom
'there is no room here, be palmed upon the Irish
church. We have heard enough of Irish jobs ; we
believe the unsavouriest of all jobs are those perpe-
trated by and for Englishmen in Ireland. Opinion
in this country needs only to be roused upon this
subject to repudiate the base abuse of power ; but
- we trust sincerely that it may not need working.
rte, _

FRANCE.

The House of Commons in Committee may be
likened unto Cinderella's slipper, and the Sanitary
Hill unto the feet of certain young ladies, which being
rather too large for the slipper were pared down, in
hopes that they might thus be made to fit it. On
Friday night, Lord Nloriet.vii said, when Mr. HEN-
LEY moved that the appointment of surveyor should
not be subject to the approval of the general board,
that "he had given up many of the powers which he
proposed to vest in the general board, and, willing to
show as much confidence as possible in the local
boards, he would concede this point also." The main
reason here alleged for the concession, is that other
concessions had been made before it. That the mea-
sure has already undergone a liberal amount of paring
being thus assumed to be a sufficient reason fur
slicing off a little more, it is difficult to conjecture
where the process may stop. Nothing bigger than a
Chinese lady's foot seems adapted to the House of
Commons' slipper. At this rate the whole measure
may be pared away,and sanitary police left without a
foot to stand upon.
There are,however, some provisions of the bill upon
which ministers, confident that they are adapted to
run in the grooves of the very narrow gauge of House
of Commons liberality, take a resolute stand. The
system of cumulative votes is an example. In elect-
ing the local boards the poor rate-payer is to have one
vote—the wealthier rate-payers arc to have two or
more votes in proportion to their property, The AY-
TORN EY-OEN EMI. defended this arrangement on the
ground that " much of the duty of the local boards to
be elected would consist in making secure and
permanent improvements, and if a preponderating
voice was given to the poorer classes, it was
to be feared that with a view to lessen their own rates
they would only execute the works in such a way as
just to satisfy the provisions of the act, but without
any regard to their permanent durability." Is such
short-sighted selfishness confined to the poorer
classes? Is there no reason to fear that the wealthier
classes may so use their cumulative votes as to elect
local boards who will save their purses by executing
the works necessary in the squalid districts, inhabited
exclusively by the poor, in an insufficient manner ? Is
there no reason to fear that boards elected by the
cumulative votes of the rich may impose the rates in
a manner that will fall with disproportionate weight
on the poorer rate-payers? if the argument of the
ATTORNEY-GENERAL is sound and conclusive,
the same right of cumulative voting ought
to be given to the wealthy in every case
in which a power of taxing is conferred on
elected bodies—in the elections of town councils and
members of parliament as well as of local sanitary
boards. The consequence of giving the wealthy
classes a preponderating weight in the election of
members of parliament has been to introduce a sys-
tem of general taxation pressing with undue weight
on the poorer classes; and the same result will ensue
from giving the rich cumulative votes in the election
of local sanitary boards. Lord JOHN ItUiNELL
argued that it was quite proper to give the rich cumu-
lative votes in the case before the house, because the
Sanitary Bill "is not a bill relating to political rights

General Baraguay has Una advised that
the national guards of Mom Avignon, and Montpe-
lier, were en routs for Par* with their artillery.
It is said that the of the lOth has filled the
departments with •
PARIS, SUNDAY, 11.30 all.
Paris is all in modes this morning, preparatory to
the celebration of the grand Pt* of the republic, ap-
pointed to take plant to-day. As early as live this
morning the drums were beating the " rappel" in all
parts of the capital. Before seven the national guards,
tioops of the line, cavalry, and artillery, were every-
where seen moving towards their appointed positions.
The national guards are collecting at the places of
rendezvous. The multitude which is to form the
grand procession is also assembling at various points
along the whole line of the Boulevards, the Place de
la Madeline, the Place de la Concorde, and the Quai
d' Orsay. At 7 o'clock I rode out and made a tour,
visiting the chief points. The Champ de Mars pre-
sents a brilliant appearance, but altogether too mach
in the style of the Grand Opera to please any but
French taste. Along either side of that vast area
is erected a series of emblematic pyramids
decorated with symbols of the republic, the date of
the 25th February being everywhere conspicious. At
the upper extremity, immediately under the Boole
Militaire, there is erected a vast gallery for the so-
commodation of spectators favored with tickets. The
preparations for illuminations, fireworks, &c.,*are upon
a scale of the greatest magnitude.
The distrust manifested by the Chamber, and
universally felt among all parties of moderate
opinions,continues to be the subjectof general comment;
' The insurrectionary movement has been, it is true,
' frustrated for the moment, but no one believes that
It has terminated. At the present moment there is a
sort of national assembly of the insurrectionist party,
which holds its sessions in the Rue des Pymmides,
under the walls of the Tuilleries, and next door to the
notorious château of M. Sobrier, in the Rue Itivoli,
where supplies of arms and ammunition were ex-
pedited by, the joint orders of MM. Arago and Ledru-
ltollin in their capacities of Ministers of War and the
lutcrior.
M. Blanqui writes letters daily, dated P aria: he
visits his friends in the open day, and is seen and
known by thousands. It is true that houses are sur-
rounded and neighbourhoods scoured ; but a friend al-
ways informs M. Blanqui, an hour or two before the
arrival of the police, of their approach.
It being thought convenient that a communication
should be opened between the conspirators committed
by the National Assembly to Vincennes, and Mona.
Blanqui and Co., who are permitted to be at large, a
member of the executive government signs an order
for M. Louis Blanc to be allowed personally to see
Barbels and the other prisoners. It happens, how-
per, unluckily for this project that the " juges d'in-
struction " are on the spot in the exercise of their
duty at the moment that M. Louis Blanc arrives,
and they become unavoidably cognisant of the
order; they accordingly decline sanctioning so
laudacious a violation of all the rules of
judicial investigation. M. Louis Blanc accordingly
tails for the moment in accomplishing his object, and
a sort of explanatory apology appears in the journals
to the effect, that the member wit.) signed the order
intended it should be conditional on the approbation
of the " juges d'instruction," as if a prof. iisional
lawyer (as the member of the government was who
signed it) was not perfectly aware that such appro-
bation was impossible.
Reports have been circulated last night and this
morning that the anarchist party intended to make a
demonstration to-day, and to break into the festival of
the Champ de Mars. Measures, however, would
doubtless be talt‘m with a view to such a contingency.

The Madrid mails of the 15th and 16th have ar-
rived.
Salamanca having addressed a letter to the govern-
ment, stating that he desired nothing more than to be
permitted to come forth from the place of concealment
in which the pursuit of the authorities had obliged
him to take refuge, and to live peaceably in some
remote part of the country, a passport was sent to
him, upon which he issued from his hiding-hole in the
Belgian embassy and posted off to Malaga.
By a sentence of the Tribunal of Commerce, in-
serted in the Gazelle of the 13th inst., the Union Bank
or firm of Sanson, Bagneres, and Co., has been de-
clared in state of bankruptcy, applying retrospectively
the effects of the same from Dec. 9, 1847.
The Grand Duke of Tuscany, it appears, has recog-
nised Queen Isabella.
D. Narciso Eseosura, brother of the ex-minister,
arrived in Madrid in a postehaise, guarded by police,
yesterday morning, at 3, and was conducted to the
city gaol. He was the person, it is said, who distri-
tributed arms from the depOt in the Calle de Toledo
to the insurgents on the evening of the 26th of
of March.
Gen. Amettler has escaped from Badajoz into
Portugal.
'the festival of San Isidro, the patron saint of
Madrid, lasts three days ; the first of which has
passed off quietly.
The EN) del dimereio has been condemned by the
tribunal of the press to pay a fine of 30,000 reels for
an article in its number of the 4th of March.
Mat 16.—Three per Cents., 21 15-16 paper ; 22 cash ; after
itoboi, 21 7.l paper, 22 cavil ; Five per Cents., 14 paper ; after Bolsa,
111 c.e.h; 1' selves, 6 paper; alter Bob's, 51 cash; Coupons, 9
; Hanle of St. Ferdinand, ex div., 84 86 nth. Exchange on
London, at 30 days, 41 each.

ITALY. A private letter from Rome, of the
12th instant, says that much uneasiness prevailed
there. A violent reaction was feared on the part of
the populace and the neighbouring peasantry. The
distrust of the Pope in the national guard was,
according to this writer, more and more manifested.
It was the Swiss troops and old volunteers that were
selected to guard the Quirinal. The Cardinals Lam-
bruschini and Bernetti were in favour.
On the 14th, '250 men of the regiment d'Este, who
deserted from the Austrian ranks, arrived at Milan.
The Chamber of Deputies of Piedmont have unani-
mously elected Vincenzo Gioberti as president, and
the profe'eor Mario, and the advocate Gaetano De-
mache as vice-presidents.
On the Itith, two commissaries of the French re-
public, who had been sent to Charles Albert to offer
him, if needed, the concurrence of the French armies,
arrir

PARIS, SeTUMMY, 6.30 P.M.
The journals continue to be filled with documents
relating to the origin of the recent insurrection, and
with narratives supplied by eye-witnesses and ear-
witnesses of what pissed at different places in l'aris
on the day and night of the 15th.
A warrant for the arrest of the ex-Abbe Cbatel
has, it is said, been issued, in consequence of his hav-
ing delivered an ultra-revolutionary harangue in the
Place de la Madeleine on the 15th. This person
gained great notoriety some years ago by founding
what he called the " Eglise Francaise," of which he
proclaimed himself primate. Ito has, it is believed,
fled into Belgium.
Several bureaux met yesterday to complete the
commissions for the examination of the four decrees
presented the day before. Some members have al-
ready declared themselves opposed to that which exiles
the ex-king and his family. M. Napoleon Bonaparte,
son of the ex-king of Westphalia, has spoken against
the decree. He said:
I feel myself bound to oppose this decree. He who has
suffered from exile may know its miseries. It is a useless
precaution; it excites and almost excuses conspiracy; it is
hardly a guarantee for a government. It is easier to conspire GERMANY'
in a Cosign country, where the exile is an instrument for
the discontented, than under the eye of the ruling powers.
No one can suspect that I have any personal interest for a OPENING OF THE GERMAN PARLIAMhi.
f; tally that in opinion has caused misfortune to
.France FRANKFORT.—The German parliament met in
since 89; hut lam bound toe xpress my capanion, as it is the .
result of my firm conviction, Leave the family of Orleans this old Imperial Free-town, on the 18th instant.
in the retirement in which it has fallen since the 24th Feb- Preliminary meetings had been held on the 18th and
ruyy. The republic should have no exceptioasl. laws. It 17th, by the members who had then arrived, to agree
upon arrangements for facilitating the transaction of
will punish any one who
. may attempt to subvert it; but do
any laws which wall punish without justice and business. M. Schott, who as the senior member oc-
Iwltthpoassut :41 cupied the chair on these occasions, intimated on the
M.l /ation Nlarquis also spoke against it. He said:
14,!th that the Post-office department under the Prince
The republic should understand that a would show its
of Taxis, had consented to allow the letters of the
power in permitting at once all pretenders against it to re-
side on its territory. members to be delivered nee.
Tho committee on the decree of exile of the On the 17th the senate of Frankfort issued a pro-
Orleans family, are MM. Altaroche, Bourbeau, clamatiou, exhorting the inhabitants to co-operate
.in
Babaud-Laribiere, Woirhaye, Lambert, Gea. Duvi. maintaining
itsl)rome), sitting.
Emile Leroux, Auberger, llidault, Jules Richard, The proceedings in the interior of the hall devoted
Mainat-Bellarge, Marchal, Dornes, Conti, and Ceyras, to the meetings of the assembly, on the day on which
it was formally opened, are thus described by our
The Committee of the Constitution have appointed
M. Cormenin president, and M. Woirhahrough rho palace of the assembly to-day, last. As might be expected,ye secretary. "Porter :
I went t FRANKFORT, Mks' 18.
Th great day has arrived at
the city has been all bustle and animation. It is unneees
expecting, from the absence of all appearance of
military precaution on the exterior (except a few sary, however, to describe the military and civil prepare-
soldiers under the vestibule and sentinels at the gates), Lions
outside the walls of St. Paul's Church (where the
assembly met) for they sink into comparative insignificance
that the legislative palace had resumed its ordinary
Ittfoitiee the great event of the day i...rand,hmoreolvier,,, I orni.
t
t
state. What, however, was my surprise to find, not
only all the courts and gardens completely filled with set ingeetTirtlio.nd poure. ca'recl'ouuttJdoorsncto say, tane eaunt'of
troops, but the couloirs, the sal le des pas perdue, the the procession I should have found no place is the reserved
porters lodges, the kitchens—in a word, every room, tribune, which was literally invaded about an hour and a
ball before the commeneement of the proceedings, partieus
nook, and corner, not actually occupied by the
laxly the portion destined. for the press, the representatives
members of the assembly—literally crammed with
nofnmwertiu.ch—ofrheilivLrstertrogu:ifi and nations—wereaulChurc Church
troops; a narrow passage only was left by which
it-
persons' authorised to enter could circulate ; and self was *admirably laid out for the occasion. It forms
this passage was densely hedged on either a mucnh better parliament
was c hoonsuse than
n the order e " White
ren Haler l " in
side with bayonets. In the courts and gardens Berli. A false roof trto d the
speakers. more audible, and the seats were arranged in rows
the ground was literally covered with muskets piled,
gently rising
uotaiiicabova the other.
elnhei ga
tire ilnitez,orresortvhede
itr
having the bayonets fixed ; numerous caissons of am ran -
munition were deposited in one of the courts. The lice, and contained' seven rows of seats, which were occupied
troops engaged were chiefly infantry and cavalry of by nearly 1,000 persons. There were numerous ladies in a
the line and artillery, with a few national guards. special tribune on the ground floor of the church. The
building was profusely decorated with tilt:e,7o.ther.7.anemoii.afrbta,olfhanthre;
This must not be understood, however, to imply any
over rho
red,. atotottubanne
want of confidence in the civic force, the object being "Pl:eleusPendegi
merely to relieve the citizens from a fatiguing duty. crowds outside announced the approach
The debate on Italian affairs was fixed for Tuesday. shortly afterwards they entered Ott swore, preceded by two

iced in Turin from the Sardinian head-quarters.
The Provisional Government of Venice published a
proclamation on the 12th, annonnein4 that the loss
sustained on the preceding day by the troops under
General Ferrari WM alight, and amounted only to
40 killed and wounded.