The Express.
London, England, 1847-09-28 00:00:00

ghe

NAILS.

The malls fu New south Walea, Tan I.Anl. and New
Zealand will be mule up on the evening of the 30th September.
The West India walla, indocility those for Maxim, Honours., at.d
the Ilairannah, will be made ap on the morningof the 2nd October.
The overland malls for Gibraltar, Malta, Greece, the lonian 'Manila
= Aden, Ceylon, India, Kong-Kong, and China, coo Southampton,
made up on the evening of the 2nd October.
The molls for the Brazils, the Rim Plate, Monte video. Fenias
t=ir
oNnlad.l24l.4el:otrest.o and Buenas Ayres, will be made up on the
The malls for British North America. Bermudas end .010 United
States, will be made up on the evening of the 4th October.
714. malls for Vigo, Oporto, Lisbon, Madeira, Cada, and Gibraltar
will be mode up on the morning of the 7th October.
The merlon.: elated molls, via Marseille; to the Mediterranean,
Egypt, Aden, Ceylon, India, Hong Kong, he., will be made up on the
evening of the 7th October.

TO COARIMPONDIPITS.
•.• illvevOormasta lahiadal for Th. Its rms. L. . n.t Ire
a Om Utice. to, Booveritapeet. y Two idea a Ur Wof publheatim.

HIGH WATER AT LONDONAIRI DOE.
T.r. DAv—Alening, 14 WA pre 4 . Altamws. W Adv. W. 4.
T./luse..—Mmulag, Y aIA. Art 4 4 Aftenews, T 3 WA. p•At S.

LONDON, TUESDAY, SEPT. 28.

IT used to be generally believed, at least in Eng-
land, that people understood their own affairs best;
and that a commercial community, above all others,
was better able than any professional politician or
theorist to appreciate its own wants, judge of its own
sufferings, and demand or apply the proper remedies.
It now, however, seems to have become a rule at
state that people know nothing whatever of their own
affair,, and that for men in business to make con.
plaints, demand relief, or even entertain an opinion
as to how grievances and obstructions can best be re-
moved, is a monstrous instance of arrogance and ab-
surdity.
Some

~.ess has been made in the centralising of
~native functions and power ; but this is farm-
sertirlibllnfillrfftil centralisation, which is as-
awned to have taken place, of political wisdom. As
to assemblages of bankers knowing anything of bank-
ing, or a meeting of townspeople being able to throw
any light on the distress's or obstructions which
affect the peculiar industry of that town, the idea is
quite preposterous. Ministers scout the pretension ;
and the Voles, which has made itself the government
organ in cuffing down every interest or body, not
allied with, or dependent on, the administration, makes
as merry with it, as one of ASTLEY'S clowns with a
new found hoop, through which he leaps, round which
he gambols, and which serves as a mere plaything for
the display of his agility.
Last week some Newcastle merchants and capital-
ists, alarmed at the probable results to the industry of
their town, of the high rate of interest, and the diffi-
culties in finding the usual amount of credit, betook
themselves to the CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER
to impress upon him their fears. It was not for them
to declare and blazon forth to the world the actual
distresses of themselves and of the district. Few men
could safely undertake such a public task who
were not themselves secure. It would have been
es idle for them to come to the minister for an
abrogation next session of PEEL'S Banking Bill.
'They evidently pointed to some more immediate and
temporary measure, as called for by the distresses of
commerce, and especially incumbent on the govern-
mat. when recent legislation aggravated those dis-
til/IPM They spoke of the trade of their locality as
regular, not speculative, and therefore peculiarly
eatitled to a centinuance of the credit on which it
existed. They declined making any complaint of the
eireduct of the Bank, but hinted how fatal any further
curtailment of credit on its part might prove to them.
They did not press any particular measure on the
Chancellor, but, communicating to him their fears and
hopes, they left him.
The writers of all grades and classes of theory,
currency doctors, paper worshippers, as well as those
who seek to find a resting-place between, fell foul of
the Newcastle deputation for having varnished over
their own distresses, and but delicately pointed out
the remedies. They were declared ignorant of the
state of their own counters and ledgers, and utterly
incomprehensible to the Treasury minister. This is
but one of the many instances in which the writers of
the press profess themselves unwilling to understand
common sense. We will be bound to say, the
Chancellor of the Exchequer perfectly understood the
Newcastle deputation, and that every man of business
in the United Kingdom perfectly understands the
motives of their journey and the nature of their
demand. Former administrations and quondam chan-
-•

cellors, quite as wise as Sir CHARLES WOOD,
fully understood the nature of such communications
in the midst of commercial distress. And the names
of many of our prime ministers are blessed in the
secret gratitude of their hearts by men, now amongst
the opulent of the land, who in times such as these
bent to the ground and quivered to the breeze, but
were upheld by the considerate aid of the govern-
ment.
In 1837, deputations, very similar to that of New-
castle, waited on the prime minister • and to Lord
MELBOURNE'S honour it is recorded, that his replies
were not the inexorable ones of fate. His lordship
did not philosophically assure complainants that
there was no hope for them, and that the ill was of
their own causing. The government came forward,
and aiding distress through the Bank by placing Ex-
chequer Bills to a certain amount at its disposal,
saved mazy a name to prosper and be grateful, which
would otherwise have disappeared in the storm.
All is not yet over. Yesterday brought its serious
announcements. We cannot comprehend government
or its organ looking on such ruin with sang-froid
We have heard partisans of Sir ROBEBT PEEL'S
banking laws utter congratulations, that, amidst
the great houses and names which crumbled, there
were no bankers. They were all
genClal merchants.
We must own that this deepens our regret. :! not
so difficult to find the wealth, probity, and intelli-
I genie, though all are requisite, and in no small
quantity, to found a bank. But a great
mercantile firm, such as may trade with the world,
is not built up by one man, or in one generation.
The founder never finishes that colossal edifice, but
must bequeath the task to his children or grandchil-
dren—so much time, experience, constancy, with such
a mass of traditional knowledge, connexion, wealth,
character, and credit, as can be only earned and
gathered by the good conduct and good fortune of
years and of lives, are required to build it up. Par-
liament has heaped laws, and penalties, and restric-
tions, and hardships upon the whole community,
merely to render secure the credit of the National
Bank. To what purpose—if the great body of mer-
chants and capitalists, whom alone the Bank can re-
present, are decimated, shaken, and discredited ? Are
not government and parliament spending all their in-
genuity on the preservation of a mere symbol, while
they are allowing the very wealth which this symbol
is intended to represent, to shrivel up and volatilise
into empty vapour ?

THE Irilh

name under which

the Young 'rainier. carry on their politics—has had
only partial success in the important city of Cork,
where they have established a Desmond Club, called
either after the Earls of DESMOND, who made some
figure in the history of Ireland, or after the ancient
name of South Munster. Last week the con-
federates held an open meeting, to which, however,
a great number of the Old Irelanders thronged, and
succeeded in making the greater part of the proceed-
ings " confusion worse confounded." In fact, the
disgraceful scenes of the Irish elections were re-
newed, and we are sorry to see by the report in the
Cork journals that the democracy of that city
is very ignorant and ill-behaved. In England,
there are few public privileges which we value
more than the right to hold public meetings. The
press itself would lose half itaretticl, if the people
were not permitted to assemble er, and put for-
ward their sentiments. Our ers may remember
what indignation was felt against the chartists when
they hired persons for the purpose of disturbing the
proceedings of the Anti-Corn-law League, when
women and children rattled half-pence in tan canisters
for the purpose of drowning the voices of the eloquent
assailants of monopoly. By such tyrannical and un-
social conduct the thartists did their own cause much
harm, and turned opinion against them on the suffrage
question. Ins similar way, such proceedings as those
recorded in the Southern .Reporter of last Tuesday
demonstrate the utter Daftness of Ireland for exclu-
sive political power.
The meeting of the Young Inlanders appears to
have been very numerously attended, but there were
no important accessions to their strength. We may
observe that no.protestants took any part in it, and
"the beautiful city " is estimated to contain no less
than ten thousand of that persuasion, Peasnaling •
grmt share of its wealth. It is true that Mr. Barra
C'Etaiss attended, bat he cannot be reckoned amongst
the Cork Young Inlanders, and Mr. Ymues, the

secretary, is a protestant dissenter, without any con-
siderable influence. Neither were there any of the
leading catholic merchants amongst the confederates,
with the respectable exception of the chairman, Mr.
DENNY LANE. Thus we are safe in co:icluding that
in the present state of matters the Young Irelenders
have no powerful hold on the active political conunu
nity at large.
The reception of Mr. SMITH O'BRIEN was very
significant. The honourable member would not be
listened to by the obstreperous Corkonians, and, after
vain attempts to get a fair hearing, was obliged to
give up in dudgeon. Had this occurred in England,
what a torrent of unworthy charges would be hurled
at the Saxon: he would be told that he was not die-
pwd to listen to Irish grievances, hecausa Mr. SMITH
O'BRIEN was voted tiresome. The great O'BRIEN,
lineal descendant of the hero of Clontarf, and himself
the recent hero of the cellar—the great O'BRIEN not
heard in England! But it now appears that the great
O'BRIEN is not heard in Ireland. _

This is a matter of taste, and of good taste. Mr.
S. O'BRIEN is dull without being profound ; fanati-
cal, without being impassioned; extravagant, with-
out eloquence ; and fantastic, without imagination. In
his speeches there is nothing to charm or delight. Ito
has been now twenty years in public life, and we do
believe that such another instance fan unim-
proving speaker is not to be found.
The oratorical success of Mr. MEAGHER was how-
ever some consolation to the Cork confederates. Ile
rose to address the noisy and irritated crowd which
had impatiently put aside Mr. SMITH O'BRIEN, and
vociferously shouted down the secretary. Gifted with
considerable nerve, and having the true artistic feeling
of a strong desire to succeed, he told his audience
that he would stand on the platform for three days,
before he would succumb to their clamour ; and his
calm and resolute demeanour obtained ready credence
for his words. However widely we dieter from Mr.
MirAewesds views, we *mild be sorry to disparage the
talents of so vigorous a declaimer. He is undoubt-
edly a man of great oratorical abilities, and his suc-
cess in brunting the noisy crowd at Cork, and finally
rousing both Old and Young Irelanders by his elo-
quence, was the greatest triumph he has yet obtained.
It is with his style as with his politics ; there is some-
thing to admire, and not a little to condemn. More
earnest and serious than Mr. SEIEIL, he resembles
that accomplished orator in the force of his language
and the vivacity of his active and impassioned fancy.
Preaching the politics of the late 'FROMAS DAVIS
with enthusiasm, he is considered to imitate the style
of GRATTAN with considerable skill. Mr. NIEAGIIER
is an academical tribune of cultivated talents, well
fitted to be the month-piece of a party, if not to
become its master. But he is not a man suited for
the masses. He may fence admirably with the
polished rapier of a gentleman, but he has scarcely
the strength, even if he possessed the inclination, to
wield the massive club of a great Irish tribune.
His political genius is not of the brawny muscular
kind required for the masterdom of such an anomalous
and coarse democracy as that of Ireland. It is cer-
tain, however, that Mr. NIEAGRER will make a very
prominent figure in the coming politics of Ireland.
The confederates expect, by copying the system of
the Anti-Corn-law League, to obtain repeal. They
intend to hold meetings, deliver lectures, circulate
statistics, and diffuse industrial information. But
where are the large reading and thinking classes
amongst the Irish catholics ? The middle class in
Ireland has no resemblance to the same body in this
country. The pamphlets of the Young Irelanders will
not be read. If, however, is their efforts to dis-
seminate their views they succeed in educating tho
people, they will have accomplished a great work.
Every political party has its direct and indi-
rect influence. When it often fails in its
professed mission, it suceeds in effecting last-
ing good by its secondary results. Thus in Ire-
land, O'CoNNELL, in his struggles to gain emancipa-
tion, did something else beside. He laid a broad
basis for public opinion, and taught the Irish to rely
on legal combinations. Ile showed them how to use
their strength. So with ourselves : in strugiling for
parliamentary reform, " the conditioar grEngland
question" was started. The Young Irrs, whose
fairest side is their respect for literature and the urta,
might accomplish a good deal of educational work in
Ireland. But those mighty men would, no doubt,
scorn any aim so non-political and useful.

WE have abstained from all comment on the explo-
sion of the Cricket during the progress of the inquest,
although we have given from day to day full reports
of the evidence. Now that it is finished, we have
taken time coolly to review the evidence, with the
view of extracting from so much calamity the
greatest amount of public good. It is easy to express
the indignation universally felt against the agents,
direct and collateral, through whom, in various de-
grees of culpability, the calamity has befallen—it is
easy to kick the offending member of society, and so
side for the time with the feelings of the majority
it may be less pleasant, but is more wise, to use the
misfortune of the past as the schoolmistress of the
future. We have looked over the proceedings of
this inquest with the view, mainly, of ascertaining
how the recurrence of such danger is to be
averted, and how the system of cheap steamers,
furnishing as they do an excellent accommodation to
the public, and a most valuable boon to the poor, may
be extended as widely as possible without the fearful
danger to which we have been exposed.
First of all, we would ask our readers to soften
their indignation by considering that the change of
the law for obtaining damages in such cases enables
all the sufferers. or their surviving rel,4iiire,l/2 to re-
cover Zlch e.etnpelisauon from the propetetxr Is will
inflict most heavy penities on them, un.
'happily, it cannot repair the losses of life and health
that have been incurred. This is one of the first
instances since the change of law that has como
prominently before the public. The amendment
is a most wise piece of legislation. The due execit-
tion of this law will inflict heavier penalties on those
who peril public safety for hire than any contrivance
of inspection that can possibly be devised. Let pro-
prietors of steam-boats, and omnibuses, and railways
be compelled to pay for all the limbs they break and
all the lives that are taken by their means, directly or
indirectly, and we shall have powerful precautions
against danger; for we shall impose the greatest re-
sponsibility where there is the greatest power of pre-
vention. It is only the proprietors and managers of
boats, who inspect them daily, that can effectually
take the means of securing safety ; and they are now
to be sufferers pecuniarily in case of accident, as far as
practicable, in the proportion to the damage done by
their conveyances to the public.
. .

So much for the state of legislation on the question,
which appears to be quite satisfactory up to a certain
point. Instead of the old folly of a deodand on the
machine, we have provision for the fullest reparation
men can give. The coroner and the jury have done
their work patiently and well. HENRY HEASMAN, as
it appears, did the deed which exploded the Cricket.
He, it is believed, tied down the safety-valves, by which
the superfluous steam and heat should have passed
up the chimney ; and the jury have found a verdict
of manslaughter against him, in consequence of which
he will have to take his trial like a common felon.
CLARK, the superintendent engineer, is declared to be
highly culpable, and unfit to hold the situation
of engineer, a verdict which will deprive him of
employment for the future, and so inflict the severe
punishment which always follows loss of charac-
ter ; such punishment for him is not too severe.
Mr. SMITH, as one of the proprietors of the
boats, and the chief manager, and the patentee,
if not the inventor, of the engine, will have
to answer with his property in such suits at law u
the verdict of tke Coroner will necessarily bring after
it, for damages to sufferers and their survivors. The
indignation of the public against the most culpable
parties in the catastrophe requires, we should think,
no further expiation.
That which mainly concerns us and the public is
WM this question—Are cheap steam-boats necessarily
=as, or likely to be so? Are these boats, the
07, the Ant, and the Bee, on a good principle or
en a bad one ? Are the other boats more dangerous
or less dangerous?
In the first place, then, these boats were high pres-
sers boats—avowedly
SIM • osareo of

only in the absence .
intelligent insnagentent
than with boilers

made by Mr. Sl.
land other orient:oo
for the locomotive
pressure, and if t
would probably do
But why do they
realm except that
the highest science

redly. Now, there is in lugh prin-
t danger, itudoubtedly ; but it is
ence of scientific • and
,cement that this
callastredsokst:ldrPru". Bar 411:.•
lo engineers, or •• •• rig
re engines of 'Vac 12
they exploded • AL •
a as mach
ey ' not e-Plll-145ew>vt'"
thayL7 , ••• . 'rot'
nall ant skill. • Yr.