The Express.
London, England, 1848-06-08 00:00:00

NOTICE TO ADVERTISERS.

The number 01 STA M ineued by the authurit;es of the
Stamp-office, during 1847, to the
DAILY NEWS ie.. 3.447.009

This, we believe, is within et,* ptr cent of the number
issued to the Marling 1 tensitt, 56trlittiy Mutual., and
Morning Post, ALI. rt T Tllolllll.l{.
In addition to th.. At, 'n, from, to the DAILY NRWS,
Morning Paper, there wen issued tar the Evenin 7 Edition,
THE EXPRMS 778.714
Which was more, we believe, than were issued either to
'be Globe or Standard, Peeving Papers.

111011 11 4TY.Ia •T 1..)%10101 ENIIT3E.
T••• woe. MO 7.
T••••••••—blornto, UM vb. .

LONDON, TII URSDA Y. JUNE 8.
THE House that Ds"; built is it) let. It cost five
thousand pounds; it holds five thousand people; and
it has been kept open now for five years. During
that period it r.as dune a considerable business, and so
long as its distinguished foun, er lived it was never
empty, and the con ern t' rove. From the day
of his decease, however, the establishmert has
not prospered. Its affairs have been ill
managed—indeed al ill, that, though the
times never were brisker in that particular
line, customers have fallen ofl, profits have gradually
ceaked, and, after eating up whatever original stock
in trade there was, the lamentable announcement bare
at length been made of absolute bankruptcy. The
acting planer, Mr. Jura o'o)N:is:Lc, has publicly
given this intimation to all whom it may concern :
were it not so we should not feel it to be consistent
with delicacy to make the startling assertion.
As to the true causes of this "extensive and im-
portant failure," as our City friends would designate
it, we are not left in doubt. Wi'h a frankness which
I without flattery we may call inimitable—for we hardly
know another individual engaged in politiml trade
who would have coolly and unfalteringly uttered such
a statement—Mr. J. O'CossEt.i. told the frequenters
of Conciliation-hall on Monday last, that he had been
reluctantly convinced by the daily declining receipts in
cash, that the public no longer sought for or valued the
patriotic advice, direction, and leadership, which, as
they were well aware, was all he had to give in ex-
change for their money. He did not, indeed, avow
that during. the last twelve months there had been
any real change in the article offered for consump-
tion ; or that ill-natured people, who called what
he offered them a bad imitation of that which
his father used to furnish, had any just
ground for such objection. All he felt bound
to say on that part of the painful subject was, that lie
could no longer make it answer. The showier if not
very superior article with the pike pattern had be-
come the general favourite. He would not be indis-
posed to take a share in its manufacture, once the
affairs of his own were finally wound up. At least,
he was willing to sell the good-will of the bank-
rupt premises, and to lend whatever reputation
might attach to his name, under existing
circumstances, to an extension of the rival
establishment. But at the same time ho felt it
due to his own character for consistency to confess
that he had no confidence in the new concern. He
did not conscientiously approve of the stuff in which
it had hitherto dealt, and nobody would do him
the injustice of suspecting that he could sincerely ap-
prove of the principles on which it had been hitherto
carried on. Indeed, he had reason to be-
lieve that nothing could be more uneatie-
factory than the financial condition of the
young Irelanders, except that of the old ones. Both
were insolvent, and therefore it seemed judicious and
proper that they should form a joint stock of that ca-
, pitul which neither of them separately possessed, and
thus by one determined effort save the country, or at
least themselves, front extinction.
We have called this avowal frank, and we fancy
that few of our readers will dispute the accuracy
of the description. The more we cons:dor its tone

and bearing, the more we are Nat in wonder
at the stark nakedness of its unreserve. The two ex-
isting associations are, it is said, to be contempora-
neously dissolved, on the ground of their inherent
weakness and mutual antagonism ; and out of the
fragments is to be built up a new society on the prin-
ciples common to both its predecessors, regarding
which principles they have hitherto been irrecon-
cilably disagreed. Marvellous power of genius and
wisdom ! But simple folks will ask—what are the
principles to be?
As far as we can make out they seem to he tie Re:
in the first place physical force as a lawful expedient.
There were at one time grave objections to this doc-
trine entertained by many; bat that arose from mis-
conception wholly. The physical force men bud not
then experimentally explained their nu aning. They
cuid ull along they meant no harm; that talkie,: of
arms was not likely to lead to any effusion of
blood; that it was simply a cheap and innocent
means of excitement; but that no men on earth were '
le es disposed to commit any danger us breach of the
peace than those who insisted with the highest fer-
vour on the glut-it sof Ninety-eight. Now that they
have been put to the proof, all men ~grew in acquit-
ting them rat any bellicose terdencies. There really
can he no quieter men in the world than these figura-
tive fighting men. Still, for fear of any possible
niisconception hereafter 'aiming, Mr. J4)1111 (MON-
NELL, with praiseworthy candour, declares that if
by any accident any future commotion or danger
should arise "for his part lie is re-olved to have
neither act or pert in it."
The next fundane Mal principle of the reconciled
rivals is to be—the strict. observance of the legal and
constitutional form of expression in pref rence to, nay
in exclusion of, every other. Thu old different eon
thin head has lik •wise turned in practice to be a mere
verbal distinction. When Mr. Jifitie O'Cosieete, had
seen the barricades of Fe hrusry, and once found himself
safe out of Parie. lie felt and talked
Yet everybody now admits that there was nothing in
that, lie always spoke of barricades in a legal and
constitutional sense. Mr. MEAGIIF:It, with has dis-
cretion, spoke of them without the savitig furmula,
and was consequently put to the trouble and cost of a
trial for se ition. It is manifest, then, that of the two
modes the elder one is more economical, and answers
every purpose quite us well as the junior. Home
this condition.
And su of all the minor stipulations on which the
coalition is to be formed. "The first step towards
repeal has thus been taken "—so writes the ablest or-
gan of Conciliation Hull "Thus ends the agitation
fin• repeal," writes a sagacious contemporary on this
side of the Channel. Unhappily fur both countries,
"there is no speculation in those eyes;" if there
were, they would alike discern that while the
combined let Wen' ss and egotism of tw.i such men as
SMITH O'lluttis and JOHN O'CoNNELL cannot had
even one step towards repeal—the cry of national
mimicry and the agitation for redress of national
wrongs is not ineasureable thereby, but that it will
and ought to continue until the relations of England
and 'relied be placed on some really equitable and
solid footing.

14)1(t) Joim Russ Eli's challenge to the reformers
of England is in the course of being answered. One
after another, the popular constituencies are taking the
field. Yesterday we published unccrivocal demon-
stration of ardent attachment to the cause of further
parliamentary reform made by the impotent metro-
politan district of Lambeth ; and this day we follow
it up by a report of similar demonstrations in Mary-
lebone and at Bath. It is nut the ma• ufseturing
districts alone that arc urgent to have our electoral
system placed upon a mere satisfactory footing: the
locality hallowed by the residence of the primate of all
England, and the favourite resort of the fashion and
dyspepsia of this country are equally alive to its im-
portance.
The Mayor of Bath, in the speech with which he
opened the proceedings there—a speech calculated to
have great weight with every reflecting mind, on ac-
count of the singularly feiettous manner in which it
blends unzonipromising firmness with dignified tem-
perance.—proclaimed the meeting a respoese to Lord
Jon N's invocation : _ _ _

_
The recent deduction of Lord John Ru sell has rendered
the convening of this meeting en act of imperative duty. I
consider that his do claratiott, that the midole and workilg
classes have no sympathy with the great reform motion of
the 2lhh of June, is nothing less than a challenge to the
j sadg taac nt, th• •itkccrity, and the &eat of tier; rational re-
former. _ _

I he Mayor proceeded to say-
-1 do not imagine that any of you who hear me hsvc adopted
the notion of finality, or think that further Teraina is wine-
cersary. I think that we reformers have al ways advocated
the opinion that chimps adopted merely for the sake of
change were impolitic and danger us ; but that, on the other
hand, the principle of progression was beneficial and con-
sistent with the advancing civilisation of the present age.

He exhorted the meeting to "go forward in a spirit
of conciliation, and avoid controversy on unimportant
and minor mutters;' he expressed a hope that the new
name for reform " will be distinguished as the former
by patience, dignity, and a temperate application at
the door of the legislature;" and declared his convic-
tion that " no opposition, however •ii.lent, can stand
long against prudence, perseverance, reason, and mo-
deration." 'this is the language of a true English-
man—deliberate but resolute—and will be echoed
over all England.
We are glad to observe that so much stress is laid
at all these meetings upon the unequal distribution of
representation. " What was the use," asked Mr.
STEVENS, at the Lambeth meeting, "of their two
members voting for Mr. HuwE's motion, when they
wonld be opposed by the two members for Thetford,
or some other borough, nominally representing 200
men, but really only one or two, while the memb.`lll
for Lambeth represented :Mlle thousands?" And to
make the character of the small borough representa-
tion still more obvious, Mr. STEVENS read to the
meeting a bead-roll of noblemen, gentlemen, and
ladies, with the b 'roughs in the name of which these
parties, send members to the House of Commons.
The point of equal electoral districts is one upon
which all real reformers are now agreed. The eyes
of the public have been opened to the consequences
of the glaringly unequal distribution of electors
among the constituencies. They see that it is a bare-
faced mockery to call the House of Commons a repre-
sentation of the people of Eiogland, so long as the re-
presentatives of real and independent constituencies,
like Lambeth, Bath, and Manchester, are out-num-
bered in that house by the representatives of small
knots of dependents upon lords or ladies, who must
vote as their masters and mistresses bid them.

On the question of vote by ballot alto, all real re-
formers are agreed, as well the universal enffragis•s
as those who would stop short of that extension of the
elective franchise. In point of fact, the only mate-
rial points upon which the intelligent moral-force
chartists differ from those parliamentary reformers
who concur in opinion with Messrs. Ilume and Con-
tivi —are the duration of parliaments and the exclusion
or non-exclusion of any class of bane adult males from
participation in the suffrage.
As to the question of the duration of parliaments, it
really appears to us that for the honest moral-force
chartists to insist upon their annual parliaments, if
triennial parliaments can be had, would be rank
pedantry. Three years is not a period long enough
to allow any representative to forget his responsibility
to the electors and truckle on any occasion to men in
power, in the hope that parliament may last long
enough to allow his ba,kuliding to be forgotten.
While on the other hard, it cannot be denied that
there is much force in the argument that the annual
recurrence of elections would weary out and jade the
interest men take in them, and have a tendency to
throw their management into the hands of cliques of
local busybodies. It is not through fear of the demo-
cratic principle that triennial are preferred by many
to annual parliaments, but from a sincere conviction
that annual parliaments would very probably end in
rendering the responsibility of members of parliament
to their constituents in a great measure elusory.
As to the question how far the suffrage ought to
be extended, we frankly admit that those who would
stop short at a household, or some similar qualifica- '
tion for electors, ask for a compromise at the hands
of universal suffragists when they ask their co-
operation. But let us look the nature and extent
of this compromise fairly in the face. In point of
fact there are only two classes of parliamentary re-
formers at present in the field. There are, on the
one hand, those who deem it perfectly safe and ex-
pedient to give a vote to every man of mature years;
there are, on the other, those who entertaining, it
may be an exaggerated fear—we are not going to argue
the question at present—of the numbers and activity
of what have been called the classes danyereuses—of
the men without permanent homes and regular occu-
pations, who ruisy iro scan daily at nighutui waiting

to be received for the night into our workhouses—
ask, in order to insure purity of representation, that
none shall be admitted to vote except those who
can give some guarantee that they earn their
bread by regular honest industry. Such a guarantee
must of necessity be indirect—the occupation of a
house, or some similar indication of settled habits.
An ineirect and arbitrarily determined visible indica-
tion of fitness to vote may not in all cases be strictly
accurate. The receiver of stolen goods may have a
house, and the honest and intelligent but unfortunate
man may, by circumstances, be deprived of one. But
such casts are comparatively few and exceptional.
The universal suffragist objects to any exclusion, nut
because het thinks tramps ought to have a enve, hut
bemuse he is morbidly apprehensive of exclu ling
from the right of voting even one min who could
exercise that right honestly and intelligently'; and
because he thinks the morally and intellectually in-
competent class not sufficiently numerous to affect
elections dangerously. The question at issue between
the universal suffragists and those reformers who tool)
short of universal suffrage, is simply one of expe-
diency—whether or not tho power of excluding from
the franchise a large number of incompetent persons
would be too dearly purchased by the risk of ex-
cluding a few who are perfectly competent to exercise
it usefully.
Now, the question whether or not we are to have re-
form forthwith, is no mere question of abstract logical
accuracy of doctrine, hut a practical question of urgent
importance. All reformers feel that in conspreare
of public opinion not b •ing brought to bear with suffi-
cie tit directness and force upon the legisletere, its
proceedings are characterised by un indolent shrink-
ing from all its more difficult duties—by a constant
natrifiou of the public welfare to personal interests
and personal crotchets. The consequence is that bene-
ficial legislation is brought to a stand, and ad-
ministrative abuses' left unchecked. The eaten-
siren of the suffrage aelvocrited by Mr. Items: and
his friends in parliament, would bring a real
1 pressure of public opinion to bear upon the ligis-
-lis err. Among earnest reformers, those who are
at present prepared to go as far as Mr. Wont,
and no further, are nearly, if not entirely, equal in
nuentit r to the universal auffragistr, and, in respect to
their influence derived from position and property,
far more powerful. By coalescing with them, the
universal suffragists caa ensure the reform urged by
this mere moderate section of reformers an expe-
rimental trial; by standing aloof, or thwarting them,
they may prevent its being tried, but cannot carry
their own. If Mr. Hi ; m t.' s measure of reform prove
sufficient, why then, chartists, in common with all
other classes., are gainers; if not, it will be obvious
that another must be tried. Can any sincere chat tist,
who wishes to attain good government by rational
and moral means, and who sees the exasperated and
turbulent spirit which the forhesee of the legislature
is e•neend:rlng and festering, hesitate an to the
course which in such circumstance-6 he ought to
pursue ?