The Express.
London, England, 1847-08-30 00:00:00

to a considerable

number of petty freeholders. We should therefore be
very glad to see Mr. O'CoNtion'e experiment tried,
but for one consideration. It is very. possible that
in carrying it out he may throw some light on doubt-
ful economical points ; but it is impossible to for-
get that he and his associates artl•risking on a
tbute fail scheme the money of those who have little Cr
nothing to:spare. The 70,0001. paid up by the artisans
who form the main body of the chartists must have
coat much self•denial and inconvenience to the sub-
scribers, and to far the greater number of them the
amount subscribed will, in any event, be lost, while to
the successful allottees it may prove, perhaps, a loss of
much besides what they have actually paid.
The chartist scheme is neither more nor less than a
laud lottery. A number of subscribers provide the
means of purchasing an estate, which is divided into
a certain number of prizes to be assigned, as in any
other lottery, by chance. We admit that this
seems the only way by which persons who can
advance at moat, perhaps, 31. or 4!. could be enabled
to establish themselves on land of their own : but it
may be doubted whether it is desirable to convert a
small per centage of the poor into proprietors at the
expense of the rest. The scheme is open to all the
objections which tell against ordinary lotteries, and
to some which are peculiar to itself. The anxiety,
uncertainty, and spirit of gambling which dependence
on the chances of a lottery naturally produces, will,
it would seem, be carried to the extremest point,
when success in the game involves an entire change in
the habits and career of the speculator. The Sheffield
cutler or the Nottingham framework knitter is led to
hope, not that he may rise in his own pursuit, become a
householder in the suburb where he lodges, or a master
instead of a journeyman ; but that he may become a
countryman and a tiller of the ground, and leave for
ever the trade which he understands, and the town
life in which he has been brought up. It is hardly
posaible that even the chance of such a revolution in
his habits should fail to unsettle them, and make the
ticket-holder in the land lottery discontented and un-
steady. And even tke winner of a prize, supposing
him to be, as the majority of the subscribers undoubt
edly are, a town-bred artisan, may not unfrequently
find that he has gained a loss; knowing nothing of
climates and soil, and unaccustomed to outdoor labour
and exposure to the weather, he will often probably
wish himself back in the well warmed factory or the
familiar workshop, and after a time dispose of his
allotment to some sanguine friend who has still to
earn experience. We suspect that it will be very
difficult to manage matters so as to enable an allottee
to start clear of the world. The society mast advance
him capital, for which the land must be assigned as
a security, and which will require interest oat of the
small earnings of the cottager, who might as well
pay it under the name of rent. On every estate there
will be something of a corporate establishment, which
must be paid for, either out of the general funds of the
society or by the occupying cottager& Each settle-
ment is to be provided with a school of its own,
which will form a heavy charge on the land. The
chartist settlers, who see the children of their neigh-
bours better taught than their own at the parish
school, will probably soon dispense with this ostenta-
tious incumbranee ; but the imprudence of clogging
a doubtful speculation with so uncalled-for a burden
leads us to judge unfavourably of the practical judg-
ment of its promoters.
We are at a loss to understand the grounds on which
Mr. O'Comrioa's followers can expect, even if their
scheme susceeds as far mit is tried, to it out on
a great scale. If they were possessed ofcarry, property,
they would have no occasion to associate in a lottery
for the chance of obtaining it. Whatever they can
spare to subscribe is their own to keep ; and the money
which would buy estates for all or foe many of them,
would in any form render them independent. Seventy
thousand pounds is a large amount for mechanics and
artisans to subscribe, but, realised in land, it is not
more than the value of an average country parish.
Add twenty more such sums, and an extent equal to
twenty of the ten thousand parishes of England would
have become chartist colonies; while the exertions
necessary to continue the process would be as great
as those which were called for at its commencement.

---
There is one more consideration which we hardly
expect a chartist to entertain, bat which may console
alarmist politicians. Suppose so improbable a result
as that England should, by means of Mr. O'CON-
NOR'S, or any other process, be thrown in a great
measure into the hands of a peasant proprie-
tary, the new landholders would find that they
were further than ever from acquiring the political
power which they seek. We have said that as far
as votes have power, a population of cottage free-
holders might rule the legislature, but votes would
soon be found to be powerless when they
were given by a class which in all countries
is incapable of government. A town populace may
be formidable, but a population of cultivators, with-
out local leaders or means of union, is always
politically feeble. The rural population of France,
, Celts Rance' as: patriotic declaimers say, agricok et
gueeeiere, of twenty-four millions, is helplessly
governed by the bureaucrats of Paris, and a few silk
manufacturers and ironmasters in the great towns.
The chartists, if they were dispersed in cottage allot-
ments through the country, would find themselves
more completely in the.hands of the capitalists of the
great towns than they are at present.
With all these doubts and objections, we are not
hostile to the principle which the land company pro-
fesses. It would be well if a larger number of per-
sons bad an interest in the land, for many reasons,
economical as well as social. But we do not think that
artisans in the large towns would form the most suc-
cessful of cottage yeomen, or that a lottery is the best
method of procuring the means of settling as a free-
holder. On a future occasion we may take an oppor-
tunity to .inquire whether the object of the various
schemes to which we have referred may not, at- far as
it is practicable and desirable, be carried out by
simpler and more efficacious Leans than these of
political associations.

We have been favoured with the following com-
munication, which is important for our sugar refiners
and others who may have occasion to import refined
sugar into Russia:
" It was remarked in the Custom-house at St. Pe-
tersburg, in the course of the navigation of 1846,
that the casks in which lump sugar was imparted
were, for the most part, of less weight than during
the navigation of 184.5; and that the importation of
lump sugar in casks bad so much increased that the
allowance of ten per cent. for tare of this class
of sugars, prescribed in 1845, was inconsistent with
the real weight of the casks. This discrepancy be-
tween the legal and real tare had its origin in
the circumstance that in 1843, at the time when
the tare of 10 per cent. was fixed, the importa-
tion of lump sugar into St. Petersburg was only per-
mitted from England, where sugar is generally
packed in casks of oak staves, and that, since 1846,
lump sugar is imported principally from Holland, in
casks of pane and other light woods. In this state of'.
Waite the minister of finance gave directions, with a
":.!!`
view to vent the loss to tug !tearywhich r 3.1,1
result from adhering to the tare of 10 per cent., that
a number of casks, taken from different cargoes of
lump sugar, at the selection of the officers of the
customs and the merchants interested, should be
weighed. And in conformity to the result of this
weighing the minister, on the 22nd of this month,
decided that in future the following deductions shall
be made for tare :
" On lamp sugar imperti4 Ir. maks of oak or
beech l2l per rtr.t.
" On lump sugar imported io casks of pine
or other woods of any kind accept oak
and beech 64 per eent.
" Of course the right is reserved to the merchants
in all cases to demand verification of the actual
weight, if they do not find it for their advantage to
acquiesce in the legal rate of tare."

The King end royal family were expected at St.
Cloud from Eu on Saturday
l'he ream of the postponement evening.
of the negotiation