The Express.
London, England, 1853-11-28 00:00:00

where an unwonted revenue is accruing and socamu-
icing from unnecessary customs duties,—a similar
course se be adopted, and that the tariff will there
undergo a great reduction. What may be done by the
Governments of Germany, Italy, Spain, and othereoun-
t ries—and, further, done by the French Government—
taught by recent sufferings of their own, and by our
prosperity, we do not foresee. But it is nearly impos-
t bible, after suspending restrictions, that they can re-
' impose their old systems in all their unmitigated in-
juriousnese. Whatever they may do, it is certain
that the second great source of prosperity—
increased production as the result of the abolition of
restrictions—will be very much enlarged. These
circumstances will far more than counterbalance the
impediments we have referred to; and we look for
enlarged and undiminished trade and prosperity in
18.51. In relation to the employment of shipping,
to the value of money, and to many other interesting
questions of daily discussion, the importance of the
conclusion cannot be exaggerated.
As trade is likely to increase, it is highly satisfac-
tory to know that it is now in a sound state. It has
stood the severe test we referred to this day week,
I without a single important failure. The same fact is
true of trade in the United States. The bankrupt-
! cies there have been of stockjobbers and jobbers in
railway securities. " The steadiness," says the New
York Shippiv List of the 12th inst., " with which
the merchants have sustained themselves during the
severe crisis of the past two or three months shows an
excellent condition of the business community." The
trading part of society, therefore, has now proved
itself worthy of the confidence of money-owners; and
when it is recollected that the exertions of industry
supply all the resources of every State, that the suc-
cess of the merchant gives stability to the national
revenue, it may perhaps be concluded that it is far
safer to encourage trade than invest money in
Government loans.

Ix the matter-of-f Act form of "parliamentary
notices" the advertising columns of the Daily
trs have lately been giving significant signs of the
times. Some people may croak about war, and
some may be looking for all manner of incompatible
mischiefs from the gold discoveries : but the unde-
signcd evidence of every newspaper discloses an
amount of substantial wealth among us, and of con-
fidence which gives its value to wealth, that may
make us very comfortably easy about our condition
under any changes that can happen, short of earth-
quake and deluge. A writer of City articles here
and there amongst our contemporaries may play the
conjuror at his desk, and summon awful images of
fear and horror, to affright the commercial world;
and some wise gentlemen in drawing-rooms may
prove to the satisfaction of a circle of listeners that
all of them who have capital will lose it, and all who
have fixed incomes will be impoverished ; but, at the
very moment, new ways are opening for the bene-
ficial use of money, and employment of industry for
the creation of more. What groups of railways are
now under propoaal, any one may see any day in the
advertising columns of the newspapers; what the
operation of those new roads will be, it is extremely
pleasant to anticipate, and as reasonable as pleasant.
Several columns of advertisements referring to new
projects are before our readers to-day. Some of
the plans relate to the extension of railways in
existence or in course of formation. The mouth of
the Thames is to be guarded by something else than
Tilbury Fort. Long may the old fort stand to re-
mind us, and any future foes that we may have, of a
certain celebrated field-day, when a certain QUEEN
os horseback expressed her reliance on the resources
of her people, under rumours of war and disaster :
but we are to have the modern defence also of means
of transporting troops at the shortest notice to Til-
bury and Southend, if any foe should dare to show
himself at the mouth of the Thames. Next comes
a notice which turns our thoughts at once from war
to peace—from Tilbury Fort to Sydenham Palace.
From that Sydenham centre railways are planned to
penetrate the green valleys of Kent on the one hand,
and strike through the courts and alleys of Lambeth
on the other, and reach the sea to the south ; hint-
ing to us that the hop-gatherers and the close pent
citizens, and the fishermen, who have hitherto lived as
if in different worlds, may ere long meet in that
magic hall which will exhibit to them the wonders of
a wider world than they have ever dreamed of.
Glancing along the eastern counties we see some
curious arrangements making. Where there were
barren sands and salt swamps a century ago, there
have long been fine breadths of tillage, inhabited by
hundreds of families, called into existence (in the
way that men spring from the furrows when an agri-
cultural CADMUS has been sowing the ground) by the
late Earl of LEICEsTER. And now, not many years
after that grey head has been laid to rest, here are
railways wanted for the traffic of that new district.
There is a whole cluster of branch roads advertised
for the small towns of Norfolk, near the coast. Pro-
ceeding round the Wash, we come to places in the
Levels where every settlement was once an island, and
where the Danes used to wind their way among the
Straits, and compel the natives to hide themselves in
the marshes. It was a fine achievement when some
of our wealth drained those Bedford Levels: and
now the Wisbech Branch Railway will bring the
latest news of the world to a range of towns and
villages which have risen as from the bottom of
the sea. Advancing northwards, through fens where
the scream of the waterfowl will ere long be silenced
by the whistle of the engine, and where the richest
crops in England are now to be found—in that Lin-
colnshire which was once a name for wet sterility,
we find more" extensions" wanted, joining Horncastle
with the Great Northern Rail. Some people will go
to see the agriculture in the Lincolnshire
Levels, and others the fine old churches,
whose crocketted spires are such remarkable
objects in a country of that character. New
communications will be established between the culti-
vators of those Levels and the hosiers and lacemakers
of the shires of Leicester, Nottingham and Derby, and
! with the woollen manufacturers of Yorkshire. Lin-
' colnshire raises the food which will more and more
feed the Leicestershire sheep and cattle which sup-
ply the wool for the Yorkshire weavers and the
Sunday dinners of the hosiers and lace-makers. A