The Express.
London, England, 1848-10-20 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, FRIDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 20, 1848.

110116TOPI, Oet. 18.-Cors trade heavy. Coarse Wheat
frost le. to es. ekesper. Barley without alteration in pries.
Wheat. 235. to 33a per load. Barley, 280. to ees. per
Oats, 17e. to 26e.
B.uI'IILD, Oct. 17.-A hip supply a Wheats *Lick
S a dell oak, at per 3 Mabel' kti mew. passe is.
qr. km.km.Beene stile Peet rather thew. The k.
re ier the pretest qesestlems :- Wheat, red, 18e. toISa M. per
load ; white, 20e. to 211.; Bye, 14s. to 161.; Beams 14e.
171. ; Pees, 16s. CA to 15a. Id. Barley, meltisg, gga M sb.
per qr.; itieelkeg. 30e. to Us. ; Osta, 20s. Is Bic
19rocactm-ow-Tsse, Get. IL-The weather &lam the
pest week h his. very wet sad esid. Led Wed end this
morals( we had a homy fell of thew of seised ladies la
depth. We hem no smith& othetwito i from alma there
are two Mal ammo of Wheat. This mowing we had esly
a laud' supply of Wheat from the boos, fee wkidt there
wee a geed demand, at the extreme mks el last week. Far
= a end south othatry templet ere experisseed a fair do
last week's prime. Barley met a dew NM.
at late rates. Oats the tan dearer. Beaus and Pees is
deemed, at fall priers. The following are the meant prime :
British: Wheat, per qr., of 6316. to the bushel, Durham
sad Yorkshire red, 48e. to 56a; white, 62e. to 611 e. ;
old white, 69a. to Gk. ; old red, 64.. to 68a. ; south coustry,
red, 61a. to fags • white, 66x. to 69e.; old white, 68s. to
;
eos. ; old red, to 68e. Oste, feed, per qr., 22a. to 245.;
potato, 265. to 28s. Beane, old, 48.. to 44e. Flour per
sack of 260th.., Bus MIL to 401. tapelike., 43e. to 45e.
per qr. Oatmeal, per seek of 2801bs, Scotch, 31.. to 3es.
per qr. Ferias ; pos. as, d 63110. to thebushel,
Dante* Hosigsherg, and Elblag, 60e. to 64. per qr. ;
Rostock, Wismar, and Stralsund, 68.. to ella Hamburg
and Stettin, 675. to eft. ; Holstein and Danish, Ns. to
69c ; Polhh, Okra, 62.. to 644. Berley, grinding, 275.
to 29e. Oats, Dutch and Pileeland. 22.. to 24e. Beans, ticks,
38s. to 40s. Bynum!, per tea, 71. Cloveresede, red, in
bead, per ewt., 26a. to 34.. ; white, 30s. to Ma. Imports
dg the past week : Wheat, coastwise, 960 qrs. ; Tams, 6.
Warr , Oct. 19.-The oast .staples of Mass,
Seistel, sad lAA Wheat, of this yeses growth, ask 255e4.
per bushel ; and the supplitie froaCthe ftesetery powers, 235.
A great demand for malting Barley. ogles emegise saleable
at 13.. &1., being a :iodinates or 83. per UAW grinding
qualities lookisle. per Wit& Oak ere net war
fag here the depredation felt is mmeether Beek& tombs& ;
fine *rutted and sew, N. &I. per bushel ; sealer Moms
for inferior Irish sad Maas DOM; Oresary kinds 90. pee
bushel. &merles Flour wee selling et 2s. ed. per ties;
warm luads tommended ready sale at L. 4d. 0111111111111 is
request at la. 10d. per stone. The Potato trade
eedeetly brisk at ed. per stone, for the Irish markets; in-
ferior sorts 7d. per stone.
Wossmorox, Oct. 18.-W• had an avenge supply of
grain at this morsiag's market, and generally speaking the
condition was mush improved by the severely told north-
east wink. All was early Moored at a small advance cm last
week's rata. Whist, top, 26.. to 191. Barley,l4s. to 12..
Oats, 10s. to es.

EXBBIDOR, Oat. 19.—The supply of Wheat talky was
short, and most paresis in rather better condition. The trade
slow, at a radioed*a of full 2e. per qr. on the prices of last
week. no hest pries given for grinding purptiece bas
161. 10a. per load. The average this week is 665. 6d. per qr.
Barley in good supply, sold freely. Old Oats in isatiai kola
265. to 30s. per qr.
EDINBURGH, Oct. 18.—There was is moderato supply of
Wheat from the growers at mashes thie taunting ; choice
samples, being in great &mud for seed, were several
shillings per v. dearer, 80s. belga paid for ass lot, but ordi-
nary and inferior parcels were idles& of
.disposal, and mute
quantity res Wed unsold. Familia was in limited demand,
nee Rostock and Dantric cennaisied Isis rates, but no pro.
veal could b made with the sale of either kinds without
'Omitting to a reduction of le. per qt. Fine malting Bar-
ley was rather higher, but grinding qualities are without
alteration. Oats were in better supply ; the sale was very
slow, at a &ease of le. per qr. In Beans no alteration.'
White Peas lc lower. Wheat, top, 80,.; average, 68e. 6d.'
Barley, top, 36a. ; avenge, 315.9 d Oats, top, 275. 4d.;
average, 2 3d. Beane, top, 425. 6d.; armor, 40e. 114.
- - - - -

Oimoow, Oct. 18.-With dm complies of 3,700 qrs. of
Barley, the supply coastwise at Orengemosth since tM 11th
instant have been limited, but from foreign ports about 4,000
TIL.WIit 1.300 fffs. Barley, 780 qty. Oats, and 600 qrs.
ha came to band. Contrary winds have kept out
easels from Ireland. bat 1,760 bade Oersted have arrived
Per stemma, priseipelly front Londeith, and about
1,100 qn. Wheat, together with 1,400 barrels Floor from
Now York, mad 3,160 bona Floor Item Canada. Harvest
lcentime may be saki to be completed. TM wee,
er bee become intensely cold for the seam.
The trade bee ruled exesediagly {mist since the dabs of ear
last reset, and to offset sales of new Wheat, Me quality of
whisk comes wens hem every warier, lower prices have
had to be takes. In the vela* of old, or of other article., no
material variation km occurred. At this day's market,
width was pretty well attended, osly a small extent of bia-
sses traaaptred Is old Wheat, sad in some instances an
abatement of 6d. per boll was conceded, while fee inferior
samples of new a deaths upon oar last quotations of Is. to
2.5. per boll had to to rubmittod to before any program could
be made in sales Fleur was ed. per band, and le. 6d. per
awl lower. Them were not easy Oats offering, and little
if any theme occurred is their value ; bet Irish new Oat-
meal could be bought le. per load Momper. There was a
fair ask for Barley at last week's prima. Beans and
Peas could be bought Bd. to le. per boll under Me rates.
The following are *it prime ; - Wheat, per 240th., English,
white, old, 28a. to 295. ; new, 26e. to 275.: red,
old, 275. Od. to 284. Od.: new, 245. to 26e. ; Scotch,
whim, aid, Ms. Od. to 295.; Irish, red and white, new,
22a. to 250 ; Duthie, old, 295. to 30t.; Pomeranian, 281
to 295. ; Daniels, 275. to 28s. 04. • Odom, soft, 26., to 275. ;
Canadian, 26c 6d. 10275. ; United States, 265. to 27.. Busy,
per 320th.., Berwick and Scotch, old, 235. to 245. ;
Irish, new, 22.. to 23e. M. • fereltra, free Pomeranian,
At., old 71e. to 235. M. • Danish, 219. 10 236. Olds. Mr
2611b4.,1ri5h, Wexford, dia., old, 18s. to 18s. ed. ; new, 18s.
to 18. M.; Limerick, Ea., old, 18s. 6d. to 19e.; nsw,lB4. Bd.to
19$. 6d. ; sun, prepared, old, 19s. 64. • foreign, Bastian,
*ld, 17s. 6d. to- 18e. Bd. Dssloh, old, 17s. to 17..64.
foreign, per 4 imperial butte* old, 180. to
1138esell. ; Irish, per 2601b.,181. to 181.6 d; now, Ilk. to 189. Bd. ;
pre 0801bs., old, 17s. to 18e. Peas, per 1001 be.,
w6ib, old 19.. to 19s. led. ;
_grey, 18e. to 181. ild ; Cana-
dian, 18.. M. to 19.. Flour, per 280th.., English,
sepertne, old, 435. to 444. ; Irish ditto, 41e. to 425. ; fine,
old, 4A. to 41e.; extra choice qualities, 445. to Mt. ; Ame-
rican, pee barrel, sweet, old, 30s. to 30e. 6d.; Canadian,
sweet, Els. 6d. to ; soar, 29e. Oatmeal, per 280th..,
Irish, SOSINOII out, 030. to 31s. Isdias Corn, per 280th..,
30s. M. to 21a. 6d.

PRODUCB.—Mnicmo-Laxs, Be{/ Aga,.
Theyiellie ealss a Sew have ban ream to-day—
my OD Mi. Ws* 121bwrimill 1,000 bar
Bawl. They an and importers
are Wain in to sariQuil7-Carkt. RaliQ doll ;
48a. North.sesselari quality, 60c, sellers. :
The
(els ales a Casa illea are Iran off
with las ana lest essis.—Bies : Madras, barley gran,
a low , eel& lc to Os. IL in Wad, which ers•
eort-
dsred • low prim—lmago : The sale has gas off heavily,
sad prises are satiny lawn today.—Cotton doll.—Boa ra
mains aenlatal.—ffpless steady.—la altar *aides ao ma-
i was* altentioa, bat • general heaviness hasp oar am-
Ws genially.

TALLOW.—The market has taken a taro. Tte
Tallow that was pressing It has been taken tip, sad the
mien have advamed. Perenbargb Y. C. os the met,
45s Sd. ; October to December delivery, 445. 9.1.; January
to March, 46a.

HOPS.—BOROI7OII MARKET.—Masora. Pattenden
sad Smith :sport that then is a vary good demand for all
Hop with colour sad quality; low sad labeler sorts are us-
saleable. Duty, 206.0001.
New Mid aIL Neste IL 10 ,to 6'12 Tesslle. 114•14.1.041 3L 3to 3132
Weele et Keats 1 6to 3 10 Toarlleg Owen 2 otol 10
Sorel 3 0 103 6 014 nese 1 01e 116
Venire= .......... 4 0106 12

81EIN13.—LEAMINHOLL, Oct 20.—Hides, !Albs.
to 641* ltd. to ltd. ' • i4l6s. to 721b0., lid. to lid. ; 22119,
to 801b9., 2d. to 2id. ; 8011. to 88Its., 2d. to 24d. ;
8816 s. to 9611 m.. 21d. to 3id.; 96Ibt. 10411:o., 3id to ad. ;
lion* sWok 8.. 6d. Cat Skink 21. 6d. to bs. bd.

BIIIIIONIAIIT, Oct. 211.—Holf-brods, ' Os. to Os. bd.
Polled, 2.. 3d. to 3.. Hall-breds, 24.114 24. 6d. Downs,
Is. Bd. to 2•.

CATTLE, Sca—SurranaLD, The o'Cloek.—The
■amber of Beset► is again lazy, and the demand Tay
limited in oonaequesuis et Me dead market being over-wp•
plied. Trade is way slow, and M. is the extreme quotation
far best gnat's. The supply of Sheep emeiduably exceeds
the demand, onsteinently a rednetion is submitted to cm most
duaripdtas. 'What few &Moe Downs ere on offer maintain
We prises, bu►, large Sheep are a slow trade, at about 2d.
per Sibs len Emmy. Calves are plentifil, and are slowly
disposed of at a redaction of fully 3d. per Site. From Hol•
land and 'Gummy we have about 320 Beasts, 1,360 Sheep,
and 140 Calves ; mad 120 MEI& Cows from the Home Conn-
Use.

-
Passau dab& 0 6 a 4. Paellas et abb. 0 .s. O.
110, Ikaia, klareforb.. 310 40 OM =Zit& Els 0 0
3k•4libations 4. 3 314 Ilea
p...“ mishig Yom. 3IS 3 4 De. .10 awn 0 0
Onho .......... ..... lid maini 001110, 3 4
pip 0 5 4 , D 4,. is. Ohm .. .. • 0
ems iii.: i Ifilaiiso 4 0 5 0 I lamb! ....
0_ ~._ .. _
.5 0
rte. AO.
Bow. .1 smut, 1007 ; limp sod lam" ,004 .vaiveo 334;

Nawta=, Oct. 17.—T1111 kit ambit was well supplied
with Be end Bheop, and very heavy axles, at a reduction.
Beef, from 6e. to 6s. 9d. per stone ; Mutton, 66d. to 6d. per
lb.—Beasts, 90; Sheep, 640.
Enntsuiton, Oat 113.—The supply of Blimp this morning
was large, the number being 1,342 man thou last week.
Demand brisk, part for anything that wao good, and
forma rates fully [supported. A ;treat proportion were of
a very inferior
.quality, a few of which wens tweed out an-
, sold. Top price of the best Mutton, 61. per lb.; current,
6d. to 644. • middling and inferior, 36d. to 46. The number
of cattle wan also more than last week. Demand good. Good
rattle sold readily at Be. per Dutch stone. The top pries,
Bs. 3d. ; current, 7a dd. to Te. : inferior sorts from 6s. 6d.
to 6s. 64.; nearly all sold.

DALILIITN OCTOBIII FAIL Oct. 17..—n0 show of Cattle
was shout an average, and the demand for such Beasts as
were fit ter hiding was good, and prices nagod from 61. 10s.
to 71. 16e. for two-year-old limeys. Year-old stots from 41. to
71 10e. Two-year-old Mots front 81. to 121. Irish Beasts
wore in fair demand, prier beiag from 41. 10a. 1,4161 for year-
Ads. A few of the ulterior quality of the stack was left un-
sold, but Ategetber tho market was considered a good one.
Thom was not much beanies done in the Ewes market, the
price asked by the dealers being too high, varying from 261.
to 361 for geed Horses.

Fo► Tortenloy's markets see lad page.

gtie erprefils•

MAILS.
Mr ores Or MOM Nerth Marls% sad tie Ihdied MAK
will be rade ea Me ~deo se ths 10:1 Ost.
Iles *owl walk Mrestilse, to the Malbrvestirs,
".1418"47••• 211:4Ne°2LiMillerrie"lieerio,ladis. 1118" a
46
MMell, Medeirs,ll44 wiliOaMihils missad"Olkeirris
eM
will be redo up seem essiliriam rah ON.
The sidle ke New IMO Via Mimeo% Lad, sad New
Iseard will II rads up Ca the oreleo et the lid Oet
the midis Mr the Mat Orr eCterisa sod Madeira will be rods
or mite evaskor of the bist OIL
The Wort lu Nab, ti Derrawle, $ I,Maysase,
New Orsose, WM" sad esselteesi theme kr
Marriddre,ulL hersdioNimillese, Now Grams* ChM, aol Fro, will
I be mai UP le dr amid.' Os SW New.
Ths Mins fa Min Ihe IMO% awl lama Amy w In
mem Or OM 0111 swag alibi 46 Ile..
oeseird milk Istbrillh MINA Om" Ma Wirt Wends.
Egypt, Ades, Osyloo, Mote Yom, sad Chive, .is deathrer
so, will No suds sp at Se mdse el tie 106 Nev.

SION WATII AT LOADOP
MANN SI Alimiss..ll mi. psi S.
y~uD~—rwWi 7M poi Siilisrssm, SO N. Sri S.

LONDON, FRIDA Y, OCTOBER 20.
A startling fall in the thermometer, a touch of
the climate of Lapland in the latitude of London, and
theWeald of Kent gelded over with snow in the midst
of the month of October, have not unnaturally turned
WketnaPe"leoesishal.:ltienwnthietihaonnanive3 the
rcts d
dan
want ofdwtheehorkortw:ncnotiti I
etresta—low wages and high priced corn—with now
and then an motes of that admirable infatuation which
exacerbates, by an artificial interference with credit,
every interruption of the ordinary ceases of mope-
rity. Have we en view a season of dearth, a visita-
tion of and an avalanche of pauperism—
revd on the borders, discontent in the
maim, end a rapid race to ruin everywhere? These
ate the sotione of the Tim... But then, ea all the
world knows, it never rains with the Times but it
pours a perfect deluge. It is never anything in nio-
d.We nor even by halves; and once possess it with
the shadow of an idea, and you have it on the instant
worked and swollen, by steam-power, into some mon-
strous exaggstatloa.
On this occasion we suspect that our dogmatical
contemporary has employed • hand lees skilful and
more unsafe than those to whom he politically en-
trants hie reputation. The rhetoric is lame enough,
bat that is a comparatively small offence. It is the
fallatiousness of the facts upon the strength of which
inferences are insinuated and predictions volunteered,
against which we protest.
In the first place it is not true at this moment, nor
has it been true for any fourteen days together of this
year, that the Wanes of trade is against this country.
We suppose that the balance of trade has something
to do with the state of the foreign exchange and with
the transit of the precious metals—at least, this has ,
always been the idea of the merchants from the time
Of Sir JOSIAH CIIILD downwards. Let the Times
produce the file of WeitenAalla List since the let
Jan., 1848, and if it can prove by the figures of that
Illltter-otlact publication that for half a dozen
sensmative past days there has been an ad-1
verse mercantile exchange, we will abandon oar
censure. You have had, it is true, an export
of silver to Hamburg, and a drain of the two
metals to Paris; but we beg to say not on mercantile
grounds. It has not been the abundance of English
bills at Paris, but the extravagance of the apt, and
the doctrines and designs of the red republic, which
have excited • partial metallic current from this side of
the channel to the other ; and the same canoes and the
same fears have stimulated the remittances to the
Baltic. From every other part of the compass Eng-
land has been the recipient of an uninterrupted tide
of treasure. From the East we have already received
so prodigious a cargo of =pees that the Bast India
Company not unnaturally begin to calculate the
effect upon the collection of that famous land-tax
which red-hot philanthropists, with more haste than
good speed, so often vituperate as the most virulent
scourge of Hindostan. From North America, from
both sides of South America, and from the eastern
end of the Mediterranean, there has been a similar in-
flux, and the fact is broadly this, that we have sent
much away, but as we have happened to receive
something more, we have not been rendered so poor
by continental revolution, as to be unable to make no
head against domestic scarcity.
We took some pains on Monday to dispel the hal-
lucination which regards the cost and the bulk of a
tieres of coffee or a bale of cotton as al
alike and as uniformly convertible terms. The
common idea of the ordinary sort of people *that
a men bas a great deal or a very little to pay, just as
he happens to give a very high or a very low price.
Now and then a five-pound note will buy him one'
sack of corn, and now and then it will bay hila
two, and when it does buy him two the vulgar lea-
Ceelamounts to this—that he has not spent mom,
tn that he has got more for his money ; and
by the aid of statistics, patent to anybody,
we conceive that we did establish, on tolerably
firm data, that it is quite poerible for our imports
to have swelled in size and diminished in cost as
to leave us still on the safe side of the dilemma of
having bought more than we have sold, and of having
to draw upon the Bank fat the difference.
The Zings cannot comprehend this. The prices of
1847 are with it the prices of all time, and it still in-
sists with melancholy pertinacity upon the extra
quantity of sugar, and the declining
.quantity of
hardware and cottons. Thies are the opinions which
have so often excited the unfeigned surprise of the
ate during the last six months, when they have ap-
peased in another part of the same journal, and in a
part where it would be an immense ion tif
the diurnal popgun was discharg with leas
solemnity and circumstance.
In reality, it is this abundance and this cheapness
of raw materials which will stand us most in stead in
the approaching months of cold and gloom. Last
year we had both empty stomachs and empty ware-
houses. This year, even if we suffer from the
first, we shall not' have to complain of the
second. We shall not have to experience the
grievous mortification of declining orders because we
have no raw materiaL The demands for finished
goods, destined in what the Times cells a normal
state of things to feed the manufactures of Saxony
or the Rhine, and which the present abnormal state
of things has diverted to our own shores, can be amply
satisfied. The truth is, that many such demands are
being satisfied already. We say advisedly, that at
this moment considerable employment in the west
riding of Yorkshire is being afforded in contracts ori-
ginally intended for foreign looms. This is a test to
te taken into account. It is a fact which materially
mitigates the gravity of other elements of disturbance.
We do not deny the presence of these other elements.
We have never disguised since the month of
August our apprehension of the ultimate result
of the harvest; and some time before we again expe-
rience the warm sunshine and the bright days of
sigamw, we shall very likely have to thank the con-
t:zOof a partial import of corn, and a decided
f the Bank Bill, for a passing twinge in the
messy market. But these are evils very different
from the pretentious hobgoblins which our contempo-
rary has created without eith'r rhyme or trams,
and, As it would seem, simply and purely as additional
exercises of that sleight of-hand which so often substi-
tutes spasm for force and distortion for effect.

Tng step' recently taken to establish a regular sys-
tem of education for every private soldier in her Ma-
jesty's service are already producing the anticipated
and desirable effect of calling increased attention to
the lamentable deficiencies of the education which has
hitherto been deemed sufficient to qualify the of
in that service for the very arduous and responsible
duties of their profession. The absurdities and
abuses of the system by. which the officers in the
British army are appointed and promoted are
so familiar 'a, and we trust sa rightly estimated by,
our readers, that we need not enlarge thereon. The
bestowing a commission on every booby wi o has
aristocratic connexions and a few hundred pounds, to
the exclusion of the enterprising, the intelligent, and
ambitious, who are drstituts of the above qualifica-
tions, is in itself sufficiently preposterous. It may
fairly be asserted that any other profession would
have been ruined, and rendered utterly useless to the
community, of which the rewards and honours were
distributed on the like principle. But the climax of
the absurdity was and is, that, with a system of selec-
dun which so inevitably lowers the general standard
of intelligence in members of the military profession,
ID little pains are taken to correct by subsequent dis
cipline and instruction the natural or educational die-
advantages under which young gentlemen entering
the army are known tolabour. Fortunately the doom

of this, the most glaring and indefensible of all ear
Insular absurdities, may now be regarded u waled.
Brea if government took no other steps to remedy
the abuse, the officers of the army will be driven for
werenshame to adopt of their own accord quits a
t standard of professional education from
that which the majority of them have
hitherto been content with. Let the system
et army whoolmasterr, of which the go-
varnsient have laid therfoundations, once coma into
anything like general operation, and in ten years the
great body of the privates and non-coinnilasioned
salon will surpass, both in general and in profes-
sional information, three-fourths at least—we might,
perhaps, not unfairly name a larger proportion—of
the meets who command them—an unexampled
position for a set of gentlemen to be placed in—and
one not without its dangers and inconveniences, if the
very dread of such a consummation were not saffielent
is itself to generate a timely and adequate remedy.
One remarkable sign of the feeling that prevails
on the subject in quarters generally most inaccewible
to all ideas of reform, are the excellent articles on
army reform which appear from time to time in the
Quarterly. On mat subjects our respected contem-
porary adheres with a marvellous fidelity to the
canons in literature and in politics which were in
vogue forty years ago; nay, with an almost super-
aeons chivalry, he continues to champion abases
long after the good sense of the nation and of
the legislature has seen fit actually to oho;
fish them. But the articles on military
subjects which appear in his pages are free
from any taint of this preposterous conserva-
tism. They frankly acknowledge and propose the
most direct and thoroughgoing remedies for (the
various abuses in that department of the public
service. Trite as the subject is, it is no harm to listen
to what the Quarterly says of the present mode of
offioeiing our army, the passage being likewise as fair
a statement u could be eird of the subject in ques-
tion :
The point, says the: writer in the last number of the
Quarterly, with whish we are for the present concerned is
simply this—whether in our military system there be
say safeguards of sufficient potency to prevent the army
from being officered by persons who shall be wanting
in the qualifications for command ; and we are forted to ac.
knowledge that, if there be any such safeguards, we have
yet to discover them. It is reasonable to sesame that offi-
cers, coming directly from the higher and middle walks of
life, have received in their youth the ordinary educatioa of
;sidemen. gut is what walk of civil life can people pt
tato important positions, on the mere sesumption that, being
respectably born, they must have been duly educated ? Na,
the sister service afloat--ay, that very branch which in tie
' memory ofincet of no, used to be rated far below its de-
serts —is ma careful on this score as any of the
' professions called learned. The boy who puts on a
I blue jacket, with the high resolve of rivalling Nelson
mast pass through three exuainations, each more etarchinit
than the other, before he can win his Int coauseeloa ; nor
does the candidate for a second-lieutenancy of marines effect
his purpose until his attainments have been similarly sifted.
I Why should command in the army be the only post of power
to which young gentlemen cosy aspire without the slightest
laquiry being made in regard to their fitness for the exercise
of power ?

The writer then enters into a brief but clear exa-
mination of the department of military education
which is least defective—n e., the engineering and
artillery schools at Woolwich and Chatham, and
glances at the principal defects of the system in vogue
there, both as regardsthe educational course itself,
and the not less important points of the previous
training and subsequent occupations of those who are
destined for the Ordnance service. The writer then
remit ks :

But apart frem the Ordnance corps. we have an army of
140,000 men—and how is this army officered ? By interest,
by purchase, or else by chance. A few young men, Perhaps
thirty or forty per annum, are permitted to acquire, at a
heavy expense to their parents, such military education as
Sandhurst can afford ; and of these, one-half, in considers..
tion of their diligence and good conduct, may be gazetted
without purchase to ensigncies in the line. But concerning
the progress made by the residue no questions are asked,
except at the periodical examinations ; and their stupidity
then, be it ever so flagrant, is not regarded se a bar to their
entrance into the service.

We quote the exact words of the Quarterly, be.
cause however indefensible the abuses complained of
the admissions made by a periodical in its position
will have weight with many who would sniff at mere
liberal arguments on the subject. The Quarterly
next passes in review the systems of education for
officers, pursued in France, in Germany, and in
Holland ; and then rather leaves the reader to infer,
than states forcibly, the inevitable conclusions,
u to the disadvantages under which, in cue
of a continental war, this country will labour,
owing to the defective education, and undeveloped
intelligence even of the better class of oar officers,
when pitted against the knowledge, the discipline,
and the command of all the resources of an improved
strategy, which the officers of the continental armies
have acquired in the course of 30 years of incessant
sod emulous efforts on the part of all the continental
governments to improve this the right arm of their
power. There will, no doubt, now, u always, be
many brilliant exceptions to the mediocre acquire-
ments of our officers, and British courage and self-
reliance will csocasionally work miracles of success
against the most fearful odds. But the question is,
whether on tke whole, in the long and complex ac-
count of years, perhaps of difficult and desperate wars
(for however desirable and thrice-blamed peace may
be, we cannot hope to enjoy it for ever), the balance
may aot prove to be against us • and Thoth', the loss
of thousands of men, and millions of money, u well
uof the other interests, which are the prises or the
penalties of war, may not be attributable to our offi-
cering a military. form, the most heavily tasked and
the most expensive in the world, in a way which has
been so long the subject for laughter and triumphant
scorn on the part of all the military authorities of the
continent.

A proper system of education for our officers might,
we think, be organised, with hardly any addition to
the army and ordnance estimates. But even were it
otherwise, it might be easily and most judiciously
compensated for by retrenchment in some other re-
spect. In fact, it is as one of the most direct roads
to retrer.chment, diet we advocate the fullest and
most effective education both of officer and private.
We hesitate not to say, that 100,000 men, properly
educated themselves and officered by gentlemen se-
lected for their talent and acquirements, and pro-
moted on no other grounds, would be worth for
general efficiency, and for all purposes of national
offence and detince, 200,000 men, recruited, and dis-
ciplined, and officered, in the absurd and antiquated
system which only the last couple of years have seen
any attempt to reform, and which it will take the
labour of a generation to reconstruct on an improved
and rational basis.

WE are frequently treated to essays on the expedi-
ency of diverting the sewage of London from the
Thames, and making it the property of certain com-
panies, in order to fertilize the fiats of Essex or the
fields of Hounslow. Scotia id has a case in point.
The curious history of the rise and progress of the
irrigated meadows round Edinburgh affords a
double experience on the proper method of disposing
of the impurities of a city. On the one band it
shows the great pecuniary value which this commo-
dity may reach—on the ether it shows how many
t. mptations there are for individual cupidity to con-
vert this element of value into a curse, instead of a
benefit to the community, if private speculation is to
be permitted to deal as it thinks fit with the question
of the proper means of town sewage, as one of pare
money-making. Before the cholera had been known
to have visited this country, and before sanitary
matters had become an object of serious inquiry and
settlement, the citizen who took his walk through
these =inured meadows perhaps put his handker-
chief to his nose, or vented some excusa-
ble exclamation about their vile stench, or
their heavy fcctid vapour. Perhaps he carried
hie expression of antipathy a little further, and
momentarily threatened to write to a newspaper,
or even to raise an action, but his retaliatory resolu-
tion, died away as he passed from the miasma into
the pare air, and gradually he limited the expression
of his antipathy to the negative resolution not to
walk that way again, and certainly never to commit
the mistake of taking a suburban residence within
the tainted area. As to those who had been brought
up in the neighbourhood of the nuisance, they
showed of course the usual indifference to influences
to which they had been familiarised, if not inured,
by custom.
But the general anxiety attending the visitation of
cholera in 1832, and the more scientific revelations of
the inquirers into the causes of public disease, roused
people to the belief that the liquid impurities of a
large city, spread over many acres of meadow close
to the dwellings of a considerable pertion of the
citizens, could not be perfectly innoow us. Various
parties were thus induced to institute inquiries as to

this matter, and the result of them confirms a
we have long entertained that there is much less
danger to the stability of the public institutions of
this country from any popular invasion of the rights
of property, than from a propensity of the influential
aliases to protect every invasion on the public that
attempts to shield itself under the designation of a
"vested right."
From a pretty early period the setters of Edinburgh
passed towards the sea in the direction of these me*.
down. The adjacent proprietors in their vindication
of their conduct claimed credit for not having sup.
pressed them as a nuisance. They knew better, and
by modest degrees appropriated in various forms the
rich contents to the improvement of their lands. At
first they dug pits, where they manufactured
manure which they removed by cartage. Subsequently
they discovered the far superior advantages of con-
verting the neighbouring fields into pasture, so irri-
gated with the contents of the sewers that they might
both water the grass and deposit a rich top dressing
on the surface of the soil. This plan was capable of
wide extension, and a considerable district of this
sewage-saturated meadow gradually increased around
the superseded dung-pits. The land which previously
was a worthless detritus of sand producing little but
whin and broom became the most valuable alluvial
soil in Scotland. With the uneasy restlessness of
men who know that justice and the world condemn
them, the perpetrators of this gigantic nuisance have
thought it necessary every now and then to publish
vindication, of their conduct. In one of these they
say : " By general law upper heritore are no: entitled
to defile a stream to the prejudice of those below;
but here the defilement was not complained of. On
the contrary, the proprietors through whose lands it
passes have derived a large and increasing profit
from the foul burn by turning it over their fields for
irrigation. By these operations the foul burn brings
a profit to the proprietors to the eastward of
Edinburgh, to the amount of above 5,0001. per an.
num. This burn, by irrigation, produces grass yield-
ing a constant succession of crops from the month of
March till the frost of the succeeding winter puts an
end to the vegetation. 'I he grass produced is capable
of feeding nearly 2,000 cows, and that grass, too, is
found by experience to be of the most wholesome de-
scription for cattle. The rental of an acre of ground
not worth 20e. nor half the sum, is raised from the
water, according to its situation, to from 201. to 401.
per annum." This exultation over the value of the
seizure may appear a strange feature in such a vindi-
cation, and it is necessary to explain that it forms part
of a peculiar process of reasoning, by which the pro.
prietors show that the enrichment of themselves is
equivalent to the enrichment jof the public. They
subsequently named the amount of compensation at
which they were ready to give up their claims at
160,0001. ; and doubtless, if this sum Were paid to
them, they would consider their acceptance of it as
equivalent to its distribution among the public at
large.
This sum is greatly beyond the purchase-money of
the annual income said to be derived from the foetid
meadows, and this introduces us to the doctrine of
Scottish law which has hitherto stood in the way of
the abatement of the nuisance. The proprietors main-
tain that they have a prescriptive right in the pros-
tire, and, that however m'nute its development may
have been at the commencement of the forty years of
prescription, they are not only entitled to practise
it on the increased scale of the present day, but that
they have a property in its indefinite enlargement to
any extent to which a growing population, or im-
proved engineering skill, may carry it. Thee it is
held that the Acquisition of a right, which presumes
acquiescence, may be made while there was nothing
peceepble to acquiesce in, and a hundred and fifty
thousand people are bound to submit to the fields
aroma them being made putrid because they did not
abject forty years ago to the irrigation of a little
patch of ground, of which only the inhabitants of a
few neighbouring cottages could be sensible.
But these gentlemen did not trust to so frail a de-
fence as this monstrous principle. The method of
=local bills through parliament afforded them
me of acquiring a far stronger sanction ; and
as one of them was a peer, and the other a member of
the House of Commons, they had the means of tran-
meting their own business, and did so in a manner
creditable to their ingenuity and vigilance. In apply-
ing to parliament for amended police acts, the Edin-
burgh authorities repeatedly asked for powers to alter
their sewer system, under the preamble that the pre-
sent use of the impurities of the city was offensive and
unwholesome to the inhabitants, but they were invari-
ably defeated ; and a clause was inserted prohibiting
them from doing any act, however imperiously de-
manded by the public convenience or safety,
that might divert the sewage front these gen-
tlemen's fields. In the new Edinburgh police act
the prohibition is thus re-embodied (sec. 219)
" Provided always, that in making any such main
drains or common sewers, or in repairing, recon-
structing, or enlarging the same or existing drains or
sewers, the water at present carried into any existing
outlet shall not be diverted therefrom.* Thus Edin-
burgh is bound by statute to convey the collective im-
panties of its citizens to certain neighbouring pro-
prietors. We challenge the whole history of feudal
slavery to exemplify a a thirlage " so ludicrously
stringent as this: modern refinement could alma
have invented it. Tnigas has been pleading, in his
Droit de Propriete," that the foundation and first
development of property is in every human banes
unlimited power over whatever proceeds from himself.
Oas would, suppose, after all, that this ia the best
vested right.
Had the public interest—had justice—dictated the
application of the valuable material thus taken we-
asel= of, it would not, in the first place, have been
made the property of grasping individuals, but of the
citizens of Edinburgh, to whom it naturally belongs :
it would not, in the second place, have been deposited
in a spot where it would have been offensive to its
proprietors, the citizens, to whom comfort and health
constitute ptorrty still more valuable. Following
the example of these operators on a large scale, several
other people have here and there, in the other environs
of Edinburgh, opened sewers and spread the contents
of them on their fields and gardens. The system
cannot be pursued where there are rising grounds,
but all the declivities and low flats around
Edinburgh through which sewers pass appear to be
well saturated. Near Merchiston Castle—'hose who
are acquainted with the localities of Edinburgh
will remember the seat of Nal ier, the inventor of
the Logarithms—there are many picturesque walks
rendered unendurable in the summer months, when
they would be most pleasant, by the foetid vapour of
the sewage, spread over a multitude of small fields.
The same miasmatic nuisance hovers over the district
fall of old fruit-trees, stretching from the Zoological
Gardens towards Leith and Newhaven. Perhaps
these petty appropriators might be more easily defeated
by the law than the legislators whose example they
have followed ; but it is not improbable that the
guardians of the public interests might be reluctant
or ashamed to spread nets for the small which they
know that the great can break through.