The Express.
London, England, 1847-08-26 00:00:00

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will be mni mete up llua et tee 27th Annum.
ma omit to ow too Wu, Via Dimon's Land, and New
Toslielvlll =am an lissumiss of the fist August-
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di• list=ulll Mae up ea the moriehig tle 2nd September.
Th u =Asir Chnitor,Alialim Green; the lonian Wands.
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We up es atualsgutthe did September.
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Mink ell lamb up au Ss evisig if the 3rd September.
Mr rig kr Ur IllniaslM laver Mate, Monte Widen, Pertain.
abftee, le
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pp str 41k Isptrohisr.
Sr ~lnd aimed .1. Mareettleu, to the Mediterranean.
f=hdaw, Ore" hi. Low, tut., will be made np on tin
&the 7th tieplember.

TO CONTESTONDTRTI.
owns tots•46l Om manly win nut as
at no O. by Tee teen. ea day a( radioman.

NIGH WATIN AT LA)NDON.1111001.
Tins Der—llloraleg. II W. A.. I . AAIAA.O. I 1.0. M. I.
t►Mouow—M/AAIAL W.- Pool I NINA WI I.

LONDON, THURSDAY, AUG. 26.
THE declaration made by France respecting its
policy towards Switzerland throws a strong light
upon the relative positions of France and England
towards the other European powers. It points out
forcibly to the neutral powers which of these states
they ought unhesitatingly to choose as leader, when
they have the power of making, or are driven to make,
a choice between the two. The French minister con-
fesses the apprehensions entertained at Paris at the
Srospect of seeing S witzerland united and strengthened.
witzerland, it is stated, would be better able to
attack France, if the power of the various cantons
were centralised, and reforms were introduced likely
to lead to such a result.

It requires but to substitute resistance for attack, to
s=pew the real winning of the French note. Were
sever dreamt for a moment of in-
" ng territory, able to resist a/l
encroachments of her powerful neighbours, there
would be no longer hope of aggrandisement for any
of them. She would hold the balance between
Austria and France, and would shelter both Italy
and the constitutional states of Germany) from
tyrannical interference. It was a bold and not very
well-timed confession on the part of France of
jealousy at the effects of reform and simplification of
the forms of government, and to us sums more likely
to make the Swiss persevere in consolidating their
somewhat loosened federation, than to cow them into
supineness and inactivity.
Spain may take a lesson from the same quarter. If
Bpantards would but study the history of their inter-
minable revolutions, they would find them all spring
from the source here revealed—the jealousy enter-
tained of powerful and united governments, by the
power that still confounds the visions of warlike de-
vastation and glory.
A consolidation of power in Italy would, probably,
be more dreaded at Paris than even the regeneration
of Spain.
There are two good reasons for England's not taking
umbrage at the strengthening of Switzerland, which
apply equally to all the smaller, and, indeed, to the
internal improvements of the greater powers also.
England meditates no territorial acquisitions in
Europe. Consequently, instead of preparing for good
opportunities of making such under critical emer-
gencies, she would refuse to take advantage of any
that might offer. Again, England, placing her hopes
of power and progress on the development of her
trade,and on the promotion of intellectual improvement
in the mass of the nation, feels that peace, which
everywhere elee seems to break up the existing order
of things, assists powerfully in the attainment of this
legitimate object of ambition. There can be no doubt
but that the infusion of any invigorating principle
into Switzerland, would prove a virtual guarantee for
the preservation of peace in Europe during the throes
of the reform which, having begun at Home, seems
likely to run successively through the greater portion
of Europe. It is matter of congratulation, therefore,
that the Swiss diet has firmly but temperately resolved
not to allow the federation to be broken up by th.
establishment of the " Sonderbund," while it at the
present stage contents itself with seriously admonish-
ing the separatist cantons, and intercepting their im-
portations of arms and ammunition.
The East affords a ground equally open to the ap-
plication of the principle we have laid down. Eng-
knd seeks to establish commercial relations, and to
open communications through the Levant with Asia.
Such communications are nothing exceptional. They
have existed in all ages of history with more or lees
facility. They have invariably brought wealth and
power into the countries which encouraged them. In
seeking to restore the oldest route of trade to Asia,
England has sought no exclusive advantages. She
even risked the hostility of the Pacha of Enver,
whose influence is paramount over the undertaking,
rather than purchase his support at the cost of en-
dangering the balance of power in the East. There
can therefore be no sound reason for any preference
of French over English councils, either in Greece or
at Constantinople. To assert that such preference
exists, is to confess that the intentions and wishes of
England have been misunderstood, or not properly
explained.
Glad as we are that Greece has made an effort to
support her credit, which will bring corresponding
advantages along with it, we shall still more rejoice
at seeing the protracted bickering. at Athens cease.
Men-of-war under the British flag anchoring at the
Pincus, with other than friendly motives, are seri-
ously out of place. Nor is the authority of a king
seeking to maintain himself on a very slippery throne
likely to be strengthened by exposing the unpro-
tected situation of his palace, which was erected in
confidence that the masters at sea were kis allies.
All nations have passed through unquiet periods
before their prosperity became felt and acknow-
ledged. Notwithstanding its troubles, all accounts
state that Greece has thriven in an almost un-
exampled manner within the last five years.
Cultivation has spread over desolate tracks.
Towns are increasing in size and number. The fa-
vourite occupation of the Greek—trade and coasting
intercourse—has so much spread, that the barques of
this little kingdom already present some of the elements
of a formidable navy. Were this growing power
fostered, cherished, and perhaps:restrained from a too
early trial of its efficiency, the security of the Levant
would clearly be provided for, at much less cost to
England, as well as much more efficaciously, than is
possible in any other manner. To effect this, it is
only necessary to encourage the natural propensity
of the Greek to trade, and to induce the government
to spread instruction, and re-awaken the innate love
of art that has so long slumbered.
It is the more necessary to insist upon the import-
ance of such a policy that more restless councils have
evidently been given at Constantinople. The en-
training the command of the new fleet to HAUL
!teems likely toi.:VYeroe . - of a Dtt
mature ca ,or Turkey, of which powers, seas
bound to us by the ties of mutual interest than Greece
are, at this stage of the great drama, likely to derive
all the advantage.

IT may fairly be questioned whether the kind of
comment in which the English press in general has
indulged on the eccentric electioneering exhibitions
of some Irish priests is the best adapted to correct an
admitted evil. Sufficient allowance is not made for
the effects of social position; and the mode in which
rebuke is administered is more likely to make the
mass of their countrymen sympathise with than be
ashamed of them.

The truth is, that the most outrageous of these
reverend hustings orators ma be, and we believe
are, at bottom good-natured, well-meaning men.
It is a ....no taw thii oratorical mi..,
and, when duly irAnd by the plaudits
of a sympathising crowd, apt to carry the
speaker much farther than be intends, or is indeed
aware of. Add to this, in the owe of the parties to
whom we are inansdigely adverting, the natural
spirit of honesimdt &small= and &Intim mantrelly en-
gendered in a warshastad aleas,ammadz:limikd
tytirprigfeisa ialbsetian. of maim
, aud
rated by by ltagial=ljp.itall=lieptghts rustic
P sa *sir There only needs to be
saptultis hapelasas by of Irish spirits, and
UP r ka, ma famed by certain doses in
sleallstaillt bath sash a clerical actor as has
milIA,
kit* as men than one Math • And
Tema& Ilse mesa may be brimful of •
his paw saithisas, and hairiag
~...t
It is molly pretty Fanny's way r• - -„ . oft
all usilatsland the man, and are
Meru* that any one should • . .
~._ .....:., --1
...:

the priest, ea priest, to his flock we have no right to
interfere ; but to the relations of the priest as citizen,
tothe members of his flock as fellow-citizens,we have a
right to speak. When the priest enters into discussions
about the relief to be afforded by a board of poor-
law guardians, or recommends a candidate for a seat in
parliament to electors, he speaks of matters in which the
practical judgment, not the religious faith of his hearers,
must decide. He speaks as a common man to common
men ; and appeals to his priestly character, and im-
pressive declarations that such is Gon's will, cannot be
tolerated. He must confine himself to his logic, and
lay aside kis anathemas. The right of laymen to
discuss lay affairs, uninfluenced by priestly dictation,
is by Roman esthetics as well as by protest-
suirtr%mmeeddigposition to infringe this right is the
besetting sin of protestant quite as much as of Roman
catholic clergymen. The evil lies not in the eccen-
tricity and extravagance upon which English
writers love to comment, bat in the spirit of domina-
tion—in the undue advantage a man takes of respect
borne to him in one capacity, to assert an authority he
is not entitled to in another. The dictation of Irish
priests, about which we have heard so much, would
be more dangerous were it lees grotesque. Its undue
influence is strengthened, not weakened, by tirades
directed against the comparatively innocent absurdity
of the men, instead of the vice which is common to
them with mans more smooth and specious persons
of all sects.
There are among the Irish Roman catholic clergy
men keenly sensible of the false light in which
the exhibitions adverted to place their body, of the
immense mischief it is doing their country. Even
mere Englishmen can guess that parts played with
such gusto on the hustings must have been fre-
quently rehearsed in more private circles. And there
is scarcely any one conversant with Irish affairs who
cannot tell of well-meaning landowners, ashamed of
the absentee character, who have attempted to be-
come residents, and been obliged to resign the task in
disgust from the meddling dictatorial spirit of some
(it may be) well-meaning, but under-bred and ill-
judging priest, who insisted upon ruling them as he
rules the peasant parishioners.
The better-informed class of the Irish Roman
catholic clergy are aware of the extent to which
their country is injured by this. Perhaps their
efforts to counteract the injudicious dogmatism of
their more imperfectly educated brethren might be
stimulated, could they be made aware of the extent
to which such antics are sapping their legitimate in-
fluence over the lay members of their church.
The Irish priests have probably more influence over
their flocks than the priests of any other European
cauatry—thePcninsula,it may be, excepted. But this
superior influence they owe in no small egreo to
accidental—to political ceases. The Ascendancy, to
which the priests were looked up to as a counterpoise,
having been struck down, human nature, rarely much
addicted to submission, will kick against them in turn.
Dictation, quietly borne when they were popular
leaders, will soon be resented when there is no orga-
nised oligarchy to be led against. Even in the pal-
miest days of the Ascendancy, the priests had often to
yield to their self-willed flocks in many things, in
order to get them to obey in others. The domineer-
ing spirit, evinced at present by some of the Irish
priesthood, is already working its own overthrow,
and may involve the whole order in its fate.
We are not of those who would have the clergy-
man abjure all interest in secular and political affairs;
but we insist that when ho mingles in their discus-
sion, he mingle with us laymen on a footing of per-
fect equality. We protest against priestly dictation
in Ireland, not because it is grotesque, but because it
is an encroachment on the rights and liberties of the
laity. And in the same spirit we protest against
organisations of protestant ministers--of the esta-
blishment and of the nonconformist body alike—to
dictate to laymen what course they are to pursue in
political struggles.

tricts, has greatly increased since the recent reduo-
tier' of the tolls; and there an be no doubt that the
entire abolition of turnpikes would greatly increase the;
use of it, and, consequently, the general productiveness
of the country.
It ie tree, that if all the inhabitants of a district
used the roads to a given extent, they might not find
any great difference between the expense of tolls and
of rates; but we all know by experience that the
way to promote the use of any commodity or conve-
' sience, is to make the payment for it independent of
tbs use. Many gentlemen would find it cheaper to
wse poet-horses than to keep carriage-horses of their
own ; but the practical accommodation is found to be
diminished more than the cost. A man uses his own
horses every day, because he has got them. He
denies himself post-horses, because it is a definite
saving to do so.
Another serious objection to turnpikes is, the great
difference between the charge to the public and the
receipts of the road trustees. The farmers or lessees
of the tolls cannot adequately check the gatekeepers
whom they employ, and, in bidding for the tolls, must
calculate not only the expenses of their own profits,
bat the "stealing*" of their servants. They also in
every neighbourhood form a very limited class, and
have the power and the hahit of combieing to keep
down the the
of the tolls. We have no means of
calculating proportion of the sums received by
the trustees to those paid at the gates; but we have
no doubt that of all kinds of taxation that by way of
tolls leaves the largest margin between the groan
sum levied and the net revenue obtained.
If this portion of the road-revenue was abolished,
it would probably be advisable to consolidate into one
rate the sums at present chargeable under the South
Wales Act, as county road rate, labour rate, and
highway rate. Independently of any assistance
towards the maintenance of roads which it
might be thought proper to contribute from
the general revenue of the country, the burden
of the turnpike roads will, as we have said, hence-
forth principally fall on the owners and occupiers
who already maintain the highways ; and we are not
aware of any reason for providing for those purposes
by different modes of taxation, unless the precedent
of the South Wales Act should be generally followed
by imposing a new and special burden upon land-
owners. On this policy we offer at present no opi-
nion. The various charges on occupiers have always
been considered in the rent of land : but we are in-
clined to think that taxation always falls most heavily
on its direct and immediate objects. The taxed pro-
ducer suffers a fractional loss besides that which is re-
imbursed by the consumer, and the consumer takes off
a second portion of the burden before it falls on
his employer. It is therefore we believe advantageous
to the tenant, as it is certainly agreeable to him, that
taxation should be transferred from his shoulders to
those of the landlord. The justice of the transfer
depends on the object of the tax. The repair of a
road from day to. day is more immediately the inte-
rest of the occupier, while permanent improvements I
are in a greater proportion beneficial to the rever-
sioner. It might not be found impracticable to
adjust road-Wes with more or less accuracy, accord-
ing to these divisions of the subject matter. Both
landlord and tenant must recollect however that the
administration of the funds must go with the pay-
ment Occupiers, if they are exempted, will certainly
not be allowed to tax owners at their pleasure, or to
share in the administration of funds to which they
have not contributed.
The ?encral adjustment, however, of local taxation
ie a subject not immediately connected with our present
inquiry. The consideration of practicable means for
relieving the great and increasing difficulties of the
turnpike trusts throughout England is a sufficiently
important subject of discussion; and it is chiefly with
a view to this general question that we have in this
and a former article entered on the more limited
inquiry into the operation of the new system of law
established in South Wales.

THE strong opinion which the principal members of
the committee of last session have expressed in favour
of the abolition of the law of settlement, will probably
lead, when it is proposed to carry it into effect, to a
reconsideration, if not to a re-adjustment, of local
taxation in general. The heaviest burden imposed
upon occupiers of land and houses, next to that of
supporting the poor, is the maintenance of highways,
including turnpike roads where the tolls are insuffi-
cient to meet the expenses of them. We have already
called attention to the experiment of the South Wales
Turnpike Act of 1844. The trusts in that district
have been placed in a condition to discharge their
debts within a definite period by the aid of a rate upon
landowners, and at the same time the public has been
relieved from a considerable portion of the tolls hitherto '
exacted on traffic. The advantages of the change are
great and obvious. The deficiencies of the system are
the want of a provision for expensive improvements,
such as tatting down hills, or avoiding them by de-
viations, and the complicated system of taxation
under which these different payments are received
for the same purpose, 'and substantially from the same
persons. The landlord pays the county road rate,
the occupier provides either the labour or the money
for carting materials to the road, and the surplus
receipt of the trust arises from tolls paid by the
carriages, waggons, and horses of the inhabitants,
with little aid from the few strangers who traverse

the country.
In fact, the turnpike-roads in these poor and re-
mote districts are like the highways, maintained by the
locality, and chiefly for its own accommodation p and
the same state of things will soon be found to exist
in all parts of England, as the through traffic is more
and more absorbed by the railways. The "solitary
and half-naked fisherman" whom Mr. Nlscsutsx's
imagination once conjured up as in a future century
mending his nets where London-bridge now stands,
is, we hope, still below the farthest horizon • but the
solitary and half-stapifled traveller may already ride
along the Great North-road past shut-up inns, where
forty pairs of horses were once kept, without meeting
any vehicle for miles except the butcher's cart or the
farmer's team. The burden of maintaining 100,000
miles of turnpike road will thus be in a great measure
cast on the local resources which have hitherto main-
tained, and must still maintain, about an equal extent
of highways which have never been subject to the
jurisdiction of the turnpike trusts. Assuming that it
will be necessary to make some consequent alteration
in the mode of administering the trusts, and leaving
out of consideration for the present the question whe-
ther the general resources of the country ought to
bear a share of the burden, we wish to call attention
to the great convenience and advantage of abolishing
tolls in all cases where they are principally paid by
the neighbouring residents.
There seems to be no injustice in maintaining roads
at the expense of thosewhoactually use them. Railroads
and canals depend entizely on their traffic for support,
when they do not add to their revenues by acting as
carriers. The owners and occupiers in the neigh-
bourhood of these communications convey themselves
and their goods to market without being called upon
for rates to maintain the line or the canal. If they
can levy contributions from passing travellers suffi-
cient to relieve them in some measure from the

charge of maintaining the common high roads
of the country, they are undoubtedly prudent
to do so. It is when travellers and through
traffic are, from the competition of railroads, or from
the nature of the country, too scarce to do more than
pay the expenses of stopping and taxing them that it
becomes worth the while of the inhabitants to consider
-whether they cannot tax themselves in a more conve-
nient way than by maintaining a body of " misan-
thropes, who avenge themselves on mankind by
taking tolls." In the hiil districts, for instance, of
South Wales, we believe that if the tolls paid by the
farmers and the few resident gentry were deducted,
the turnpikes v, odd not pay for their own main-
The
L same -,s, therefore, first pay tolls
esnoa- .7,1347"'"` • . ,
—sire tip
*hen compellea
oat of one ---
the deficiency out of thee nth er and
the form of rates.
dWelsh nature in
Human nature in general,
ani payment which
partibcue is armies
can avoided, especially for public uurpose s..
,The
rate collector is not the most welcome al visitors,
but tolls are felt even as a greater grievance,
and tend far more directly to diminish the amo;fatt
of
public convenience. The very rc
. to
toll may be saved, while a rate Isciineuvritablecetends
limit the utility of turnpike roads to those
at last pay for them. Where the occupiers
must
dsaincirtehlee
of ten miles pay one-half of the expense of '
form of tolls, and the remainder, by way of rate, the 11
effect of levying the whole amount by taxation word. d
probably be to induce almost all of them to use the
road oftener i or, in other words, to derive greater
benefit from it, sometimes to the great advantage of
tie nubile. The carriage of lime, the moot indispen-
sable requisite of agriculture in the mountain dis-

i

As journalists we are, we hope, duly grateful that
our lot has not been cast on the other side of the Chan-
nel. There the press is rarely left free from domici-
liary visits. A newspaper editor can scarcely lay
himself down to sleep secure that he will not awake
to find his journal, at least, if not himself, arrested in
the morning. The other day it was the turn of the
Democratic PacYique ; next came the Journal de
Rouen ; and on the 21st inst., the Gazette de France,
the Charieari, and the Riforme were carried off at
one fell swoop, and bundled into the drawers of the
police, " like Cerberus, three gentlemen in one." Our
Gallican neighbours will have it that we duller
English cannot appreciate the charms of rvalite. We
plead guilty to having little taste for that " equality
in the eye of the law enjoyed by French journals.
The crime of the Democratic Pacffupte was, it
appears, a feuilleton a shade too warm for the
prudery of police office. Judging by the average
warmth of the feuilleton roman, it must have been
singeing. The crime of the .journal de Roueu was
having let the public know a couple of hours too
soon that Messrs. TESTE, CUBIERES, and PARMEN-
TIER had been convicted. The delinquencies of the
other three newspapers are, as yet, swathed in
mystery; but the Constitutiannel delicately in-
sinuates, and the National broadly asserts, that they
stand accused of commenting rather too freely on the
character of the peerage as it appears in the light
recently let in upon it by the contemporary annals of
French crime.
Not having before our eyes the fear of domiciliary
visitations of the police, we must say, that bating
some exaggerations ascribable to the excitement of
the moment, in some instances, perhaps, to the bias
of preconceived opinions, there is a good deal of truth
in what the French journals have been saying of the
aggregate of the French Chamber of Peers.
The exaggeration —might we not say unfairness ?
consists in classing the crime of the Duke de PRASLIN
along with the peculating sins brought home to other
members of the chamber. His revolting atrocity is
not the crime of a class or nation ; it is one which
might have occurred in any rank of society in any
country. It is characteristic of the stage of civilisa-
tion attained by the European peoples, that regard to
external decorum is far in advance of the power of con-
trolling the passions. Hence, among the classes who
are in easy circumstances and tolerably educated there
is often an external show of propriety and well-regulated
minds with an unsuspected latitude of secret indul-
gence in forbidden courses. The ground is under-
mined by subterraneoua fires, while the herbage still
looks verdant on the surface. Some unforeseen con-
cussion breaks the hollow crust, the fire smouldering
below bursts forth on the access of the outer air in
devouring flame ; and seemingly innocent, happy and
enduring family arrangements are shattered and
broken up for ever. The recurrence of such phe-
nomena of more or leas startling vehemence and de-
structive power reminds us from time to time that
even beyond the sphere of professional criminals—
among those who have warmly any temptations but
the impulses of their own hearts—there are elements
of evil at work against which the law, morals, and
religion have more than enough to do to keep their
ground by combined exertions.
Any moral beyond this the brutal and cowardly
assassination perpetrated by the Duke DE PEASLIN
does not read. His crime is his own : he cannot throw
a share of the burden on his class or country.
Widely different is the low peculation and swind-
ling of which his late colleagues have been convicted,
I and of which others of them are accused in no sub-
dued tones. They affect the character of the French
peerage as an institution. They invite inquiry on
the part of the philosophical politician.
' In England, France, and America, the necessity
has been felt or fancied of a legislative body some-
what differently constituted, to check or control
the resolves of the popularly elected e.siciably. In
England hereditary claims to a seat in this " upper
I house" are recognised; in America the senators are
sleeted for short terms. In France an intermediate sys-
tem^•^,l: the oair does not, as in Eng-
has been 110.0 p....
nor can he, as
land, transmit his dignity to law hew,
deprived
in America, be (except in extreme owe)
of it daring life ; .he is elected to the honours as in
America, but as in England it is the crown from which
' he derives it. Judging by their fruits, which of these
three systems is to be preferred
In America it appearsto us (an American would
say with our English prejudices) that the universal
application of the elective principle is fatal to that
high and reeolute demeanour which we like to see in
public men. The subservience to popular opinion is
apt, even in the Senators, to degenerate into cringing.
In England, on the contrary, the weak side of the
members of the House of Peers is to rest their claims
to deference more on their birth than on their per
sonal qualifications. The American senator appears
to as apt to be deficient in chivalrous sentiment ; the

.

THE EXPRESS, THURSDAY EVENING, AUGUST 26, 1847.

English peer to be insufficiently alive to the com-
mon brotherhood of his fellow creatures. But a high
and just iense • of the duties of the statesman
`is aqmts compatible with the class errors and
weulmeww of both. The class faults to which ties
French pair is liable are of a more degrading
and incapacitating nature. He may wriggle (a
in the majority of cases does so), into his dignity
by court favour. So may the first ennobled mem-
ber of an English house ; but the second stands
upon his hereditary right. The American senate is
filled with men who must have force of character to
control numerous democracies—the English House of
Lords by men who are proud of their hereditary inde-
pendence. The French Chamber of Peers is mainly
recruited from the ranks of those political adventurers
whose prototypes ruffled in the courts of the arbitrary'
sovereigns of France before the revolution. It
bids fair to become the common receptacle for all
projectors of bubble companies, keepers of private
banks at rouge et noire and gallants of the Beau-
, vallon and Ecquivelley

In a late edition of the Express last evening we
gave the substance of the following, taken from the
l'aris journals of Tuesday. All, except the Debuts—
which says of course as little as possible on the
subject—are occupied with discussions relative to
the seizures of the opposition journals. Two others
—the Democratic l'acue and the Estafette—have
also been seized. The Canstitutionnel says:
This makes in all six journals guilty, it is said, of having
thrown upon the ministry the responsibility of the Was of
corruption and immorality, disclosures of which are making
everywhere. We shall see how it will be contrived to give
to this polemic the character of a legal " offence."
The &Me, alluding to the contradiction given by
the official journals to the statement of the National,
of an entry having been found in the books of a
bankrupt trader at •Algiers, showing that 15,000 fr.
had been given as a bribe to the minister of war, has
the following:
This contradiction, which might have been conceived
in different terms, is at least formal. It is absurd to sup-
pose that the National invented the fact to which it called
the attention of the minister, or that it cited it without be-
lieving in its reality. But it remains fur the correspondents
from whom the National received it, and in whom it placed
confidence, to prove that the lie cannot be imputed to them.
We shall wait; but we must acknowledge that in this al
fair, as far as it has gone, General Trezel has done his duty.
We will not refuse the same avow al to M. Guizot arid M.
Duchatel if they will enable justice to pronounce between
them and those whom they accuse of having calumniated
them.
The National itself says, in reply to the attack of
the Debats, in which it speaks on the subject of the
bribes to ministers, and calls the arguments of the
National " hideous,"—
It accuses us of yielding ourselves to shameful excesses.
This moderate paper adds, " If the system of the National
had prevailed—if France had thrown herself, at the cry of
faction, into war, into revolutionary theories with excesses,
more crimes would have been committed in one month than
have been committed in seventeen years. The only dif-
ference is that they would have been lost in their own mass
—they would not have been reckoned one by one, they
would not have been remarked." This is a formidable
charge quite in rule! Fortunately, it turns upon an hypo-
thesis. The system which would have produced in one
month more crimes than have been committed in seventeen
years has not triumphed. Blessed bo heaven! The crimes
would have been lost in their own mace. The peer of France
an assassin—the ministers stained with corruption, would
have become so common that they could not have been
counted. • • • • • Now the difference which characterises
our hideous polemics and their elegant polemics is obvious
to all the world. They imagine more crimes in one month
than have been committed in seventeen years, and impute
this to the system of the National—this, in all conscience, is
giving to moral complicity an extension which will sadly
vex M. Hebert. We, en the contrary, recurring to the trials,
the lugubrious dramas, the shameless robberies,' the in-
stances of abject corruption, which have taken place, enter
the offices of the ministers, and there find corrupt function-
aries. The Minister of War, after having denied the truth
of our statements, has been obliged, on the very next day,
to cause the chief of the cabinet of the Secretary• General to
bs arrested for peculation; we interrogate the administra-
tes's, and all expose the same sore places ; we recall to mind
Its conduct of the ministers of October 29 ; one has been
pehilebdisgraced by a fiat of justice ; another is degraded,
Ise lb* language of his own colleagues, for having committed
a shameless and infamous action. This one is convicted of
having lent his hand to the sale of a theatrical license, and
OM other is convicted of having offered a peerage on un-
worthy conditions; masters with little scruples authorise
servants to act without faith or law, and then the most
abominable dealings are imputed to the servants.
Queen Christina returned to Paris yesterday, from
Havre. As she hitended to stay at Havre until the
Riddle of September, it is supposed that her return
bas been caused by recent accounts front Spain.
The National contains the following remarkabb
paragraph relative to the Duke of Prashn :
It is by no means probable that the Duke of Pradin,
Peer of France, gentlemen of the bedchamber to the
Duchess of Orleans, and at the some time accused of mur-
der, will appear before the court instituted to try him. We
are informed that his health is hourly declining. TM
weakness of his organs is so great that he cannot endure ma
interrogatory for any length of time, and it is with tles
greatest difficulty that an intelligible reply can be obtained
from him.
DEVASTATION BY A TROSIBE.-011 the 18th tin
August a dreadful storm broke out over the town
and territory of Gy (tipper Saone) which now pre-
sents the aspect of ruin and devastation. The
trombe, which has occasioned such havoc, dis-
charged masses of rain and hail, and nothing
could withstand the violence of the inundation ; the
walls of the houses fell down; doors, windows, shop-
fronts, furniture and wares rolled along the streets,
by the strength of the current. The waters invaded
every house situated is the lower part of the
town, and scenes of desolation could be witnessed in
all. One man carries off his mother in his arms ; he
endeavours to save her by taking her to an upper
story ; the impetuosity of the flood forces him to
return back ; he then advances, leading his mother
by her hand towards a door which opened on the
street. Ile has already passed the thrcshhold,
when, owing to the impulsion of another
wave, the door closes, leaving the unfortuaate
woman in the interior of the home ; her son
stills retains his hold. After three quarters of an
hoar passed in this horrid situation, a squeezing of
the hand is the last farewell the dying mother can
Rive the son, who still vainly endeavours to save her
life. Suddenly the door flies open, the unhappy man
disengages his mutilated arm, and sees the remains
of her who was his mother borne away by the flood.
Elsewhere a gendarme, who was rolling beneath
an avalanche of sand and enormous stones, was with-
drawn from thence in a dying state. Several persons
have generously exposed their lives to relieve their
fellow-creatures, and have met with serious injury. In
the outskirts the ravages are dreadful. Six or swan
hundred hectares of vineyards are now but a Rosa al'
rocks and earth. The territory of Bucey, sliest'
equal in extent to that of Gy, has been entirely devas-
tated by the tempest.—Djbats.

We have received Madrid journals of the 19th.
They contain long articles on the palace question. The
Heraldo and other journals of the moderate party'
state that the attempt of the ministry to effect a re-
conciliation between the Queen and her husband had
failed, the King, after having shown a disposition to
accept the conditions proposed by the Queen, having
anddenly turned round, and declared that he de-
manded a delay of four months before coming to a de-
cision. The progreasist journals unhesitatingly
ascribe this to foreign influence; and the .Ero del
Comereio goes so far as to tel a letter the Queen
had received from the King onhe French, in which
instructions were given to her as to the course she was
to pursue, with a menace that,in case of a refusal, Gen.
Names should be sent to Spain, to carry the inten-
tions of the King of the French into effect. The retire-
ment of the ministry was hourly expected. The capi-
tal was in a state of excitement, and the funds had
I fallen. The Three per Cents. are quoted at 26.

A letter from Rome of the 12th, in the Augsburg
Gazette, states that the French ambassador there had
reproached the Cardinal Secretary of State with pre-
v.oitaricn in publishing officially the first protest of
the Cardinal Legate of Ferrara, printed above, and
had stated that tho course adopted was not diplo-
matic. According to this letter, the cardinal replied,
that he did not pretend to be a diplomatist, but had I
done what he was entitled to do.
_ _

The following is the protest of the cardinal-legate
of Ferrara, alluded to in the last accounts from
Bologna
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