The Express.
London, England, 1847-08-21 00:00:00

Elie etrpresOf•

therefore prudent anbuderion to the will el the popu-
lar dieter's,, cambium' with • tabbies distribution
of pollee and ssidissa la all ace disturbed villages,
effected a hat* plea. tad Rebecca now carries
her lime and produce- roads, enfranchised
by her valour with a discreet selfellastien in the eco-
nomical results of her victory.
The act framed by the commiceceers repeals all
local turnpike acts, as far as they relate to the six
counties of South Wales, provides a new executive
in each county, limits the amount of tolls and the
p • • of turnpike gates to each other, and, above
all, Iru ldse for the discharge of the existing debt,
and aphid 'entreating new liabilities. A second
eon was instructed to estimate the debts
due from the trusts, and to discharge them
equitably. In most cases the creditors were
paid in full ; but in some instances a com-
position was made, we believe, on fair and
reasonable terms. The necessary funds were
supplied by the public, with a provision for securing
the payment of the interest, and eventually dis-
charging the principal, which constitutes a mode of
taxation peculiar to the district affected by the act.
The tolls are, of course, in the first instanee, charged
with the debt, and secondarily, with the repairs and
other necessary expenses of the road. If the fund
arising from the tolls is, as the framers of the act
(7 & 8 Vic., c. 91, a 95), humorously observe, in-
sufficient for these several purposes, the justices at
Quarter Sessions are required on the receipt of a
certificate from the county roads board to make a rate
to supply the deficiency, which, however, is not to
exceed the amount payable to the consolidated fund
for interest and instalments of the debt. It is hardly
necessary to observe that the trusts which were so
much impoverished as to be driven to exact the tolls'
which called forth the interference of Rebecca, and
subsequently of the commissioners and of parliament,
have not been so much enriched by the compulsory
diminution of their rates as to be able to meet with
their smaller receipts the charges which overwhelmed
them when they exacted higher tolls. The significant
suggestion of a possible deficiency is, accordingly,
always realised by experience ; and we believe that,
in practice, the full amount authorised by the act is
always received from the new county road rate,
and applied to the discharge of the interest and
instalments of the debt ; so that the tolls are
left free to meet the expenses of the roads,
with the aid of a separate rate for the carriage
of materials, which is generally paid in kind by the
farmers, who convey the materials with their own
teams.
The county road-rate is not a part of the general
county rate. In accordance with a practice which has
prevailed in several instances of recent legislation,
and which seems likely to supersede the old system
of rating, this new tax is charged upon the landowner,
and may be deducted from his rent by the tenant, if it has
been levied from him. By one of those mysterious fa-
talities which are peculiar to acts of parliament, and
which even the care and acuteness of a singularly able
and learned lawyer, one of the commissioners, who drew
the act, was unable to avoid, it was in the first act pro-
vided that the new rate should be collected by the
chief constable who received the general county rate.
It was afterwards discovered that the chief con-
stable did not collect the county rate, and that conse-
quently there was no person who could legally de-
mand the road rate; but a supplementary act (8 & 9
Vic., c. 61) corrected the error ; and it must be
admitted that a statute is honourably distinguished
which only requires one additional statute to make it
work according to the intention of its framers.
For the present, as we have said, the act works
tolerably well. The roads which caused the debt
still exist, and are kept in more or less repair, while
the debt is undergoing a process which will lead to
its final extinction. Rebecca no longer mounts her
horse at midnight, in a red cloak and black petticoat,
but peaceably drives him to the limekiln, in grey
coat and drab breeches. The commissioners have
done an essential service to Wales, in " unthread-
ing the rude eye of rebellion," even if they have
sot succeeded in providing for the future exten-
sion of roads through its wild and inaccessible valleys.
Pediessent, indeed, facetiously suggests that when a
sew line of road is wanted, persons interested may,
on advancing one half of the expense, obtain a loan
from government of the other half, to be secured in
the mime way as the existing debt. As it is
difficult, however, to convince the adjacent land-
owners that they ought to pay for the making
of new roads out of their own pockets, we may
take it for granted that the present communica-
tions mast serve all the purposes of the country till
the law is changed, or, at least, till the present debt is
paid off. Rebecca, as we have said, will never rise to
enforce the making of roads; and her " enemies "
have little temptation to make roads for her at their
own expense.
It is a matter for serious consideration whether the
precedent of the South Wales turnpike ought to be
adopted in England generally. The withdrawal of
traffic to the railroads has produced, or will produce,
in many turnpike trusts difficulties similar to those
which arose in Wales from the nature of the country.
The amount of debt due from the trusts amounts to
eight millions, and some means must soon be adopted
for securing the liquidation of it. A compulsory dis-
charge of the principal by instalments, and a system
of taxation to defray the charge, seems, from the ex-
perience of South Wales, to be the most judicious
mode of diminishing the difficulty. It is, however, un-
certain, both in England and Wales, whether the tolls
can be made sufficient for their purpose, even after pay-
ment of thedebt,withoutbeing oppressive and vexatious.
There is an obvious objection to the complication of
the mode of raising the revenue in South Wales, com-
posed as it is of the tolls, of the county road rate, and
of the surveyor's rate for the carriage of materials. In
remote districts like those of South Wales, the, tolls
are paid almost entirely by the resident inhabitants,
on whom the rest of the burden falls. In other dis-
tricts, strangers passing through the country not un-
frequently defray the greater pert of the expense of the
In all instances the inhabitants of the termini,
who are perhaps more directly benefited by the roads
than either travellers or inhabitants, are as such exempt
from the charge of contributing to maintain them. It
seems clear that before any permanent system can be
adopted the question of re adjusting the burden of
turnpike taxation must at least be maturely con-
sidered.

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• LONDON, SATURDAY, AUG. 21.
To our minds, the controversy whether the liberal or
oonservative party have a majority in the new House
of Commons is pure childishness and waste of time.
What the wiser would any man be, even though the
disputants came to agree that the one or the other
had the majority, so long as Mr. CARDWELL and Lord
GEORGE BENTINCK are classed together as conserva-
tives, and English whigs are obliged to count kindred
with Irish repealers in order to make up the tale of
liberals? Could he thence divine what course of
policy or even what minister the new parliament is
likely to support ?
lit'ithout presuming to conjecture how many mem-
bers will associate themselves to this party, or take
the oaths of allegiance to that leader, we venture to
prophesy that the parliament will be found, both in
respect of intelligence and honesty, fully above the
average of parliaments.
From time to time the whig party has been so well
winnowed of its detrimentals, that scarcely any
remain to hamper its leaders by threats of secession,
if they honestly act up to thew principles. On the
other hand, the real statesmen of the other party have
renounced its worst heresies. We have lost some of
our best independent parliamentary liberals, but
there is still a strong phalanx remaining of that class
, experienced in the tactics of the House of Commons.
And there has been a large accession of earnest prac-
tical men, free from the trammels of personal or
family connexion.
Some empty vanities and mere mob-flalterere have
undoubtedly been returned, but scarcely so many as the
first reformed parliament was originally encumbered
with. A large majority of the new house consists of
members who will sympathise with and defer to the cha-
racter and opinions of men like Lord Joß'e RUSSELL,
or Sir ROBERT PEEL and Mr. CARDT7ELL, or Mr.
HOME, or Mr. COBDEN. The liberal members—using
the term not as the conventional designation of a
party bat in its natural English meaning—are in a
large majority. Two-thirds of the house, at least, are
composed of educated, honourable English gentlemen,
who are tolerant in respect of religious differences,
sound tad practiehl in their views of public . policy,
animated by a benevolent wish to promote the gene-
ral happiness of their countrymen, and who, above
all, are aware of the necessity in a free country of car-
rying public opinion along with them in their legisla-
tive measures.
A fear is expressed in some quarters that the new
House of Commons will be found unmanageable. In
one sense this is true. Old party organisations have
been broken up, and there is an unprecedented in-
fusion of new members. It is not a house to be
"managed" according to the mere routine of party
drill. But it is an intelligent house; and while many
of its members are sufficiently in earnest, there is
nothing about it to indicate that it will be an irration-
ally exacting house. It is an assembly which states-
men who clearly comprehend their own position and
intentions—who have candour and resolution
enough to go honestly and straightforwardly to
work—will find little difficulty in persuading to co-
operate with them. It is a house with which a
minister who relies upon the demonstrable goodness
of his mellitus', his conscious honesty of purpose, and
the commanding influence of a strong will may lead
easily; but which a minister whose sole reliance is
upon skilful combinations ef personal and family in-
terests, and whippers-in, will find " unmanageable."
It is alleged that there is no great principle to be
established, or measure to be carried, sufficiently
comprehensive and important to induce a majority of
members to subordinate their individual opinions to
the object of supporting one line of policy. There may
not he atthis moment, but those persons look only super-
ficially at the workings of society who do not see that
such questions are about to emerge. The after-workings
of the late educational controversy, the state of parties
in Ireland, will force upon parliament the practical
solution of the question, by what means is the politi-
cal and social equality of all sects to be ensured, in
conformity with the actual public opinion of the
country? The threatening aspect of commercial
affairs indicates that further reforms in oar econo-
mical legislation cannot much longer be delayed. The
minister, who with unmisgiving faith in the resources
of Great Britain, combines clear-sightedness as to the
measures by which temporary, bat strong, pressure is
to be encountered, and courage to act unhesitatingly
on his convictions, may command a decided majority
in the new House of Commons.

MOST of our readers are aware that the turnpike
law of South Wales is in some respects different from
that which prevails in the rest of the kingdom.
After three years' experience of the working of the
act (7 & S Viet., c. 91) which was drawn up by the
commissioners appointed to investigate the causes
of the Rebecca riots, we believe the counties
affected by it are for the most part satisfied
with its operation. The Rebecca riots found the
trusts of South Wales in a state of embarrassment,
not unlike that which affects many trusts elsewhere
in its nature and causes, but aggravated in degree
by the peculiar circumstances of the country. In a
poor and mountainous country, where travellers
were few and natural obstacles many, it was
impossible to meet the claims upon the tolls
by moderate or ordinary charges. There are
still vast districts in South %* ales where all
roads are unknown, except the barbarous lanes
and tracks which have probably served the
modest wants of the unambitious population for cen-
turies. Some roads, however, have been made with
great benefit to the civilisation of the districts which
they traverse ; but, unavoidably, at great expense, de-
frayed in all cases by borrowed money. The writers
who during the Rebecca riots most loudly attacked
the Welsh trustees, and who triumphantly compared
the oppressive tolls and bad roads of Breconshire or
Cardiganshire with the smooth and lightly-taxed
roads with which they might be familiar, would
have found it difficult to explain how the
rates, which in a thickly-peopled district in the
centre of England might be sufficient to main-
tain a level road, running, perhaps, through a district
of gravel or limestone, could be expected to make and
keep in repair a line carried along the sides of hills
with a torrent to cross every quarter of a mile, and
out through rocks of clay slate, which can only be
opened by blasting, and yet crumble into dust when
exposed to the air. The tolls on the cheap road,
moreover, were collected from travellers of all de-
scriptions, while in Wales a coach three days in the
week, or a stray commercial traveller's gig, alone
divided the burden with the lime waggons of the dis-
contented farmers. If the landowners of Wales had
looked only to their own popularity, they would never
have made a new road, and seldom repaired an old
one. Rebecca (so called from a prophecy that
the scripture heroine of that name should possess
the gates of her enemies), as the representative
of the genuine mountain Cdt, has little enthusiasm
for roads or other Saxon innovations, to counterbalance
her natural aversion to turnpike tolls. It was as well,
perhaps, for her real interest, that she did not summon
forth her children to their sacred mission before some
of the principal lines of roads were made. The toll-
houses-have been removed, but the roads, such as they
are, remain.
Whether the road trustees were blameable or not
in charging their funds with heavy liabilities for the
improvement of the country, Rebecca finally settled
the question that the tolls should be made less oppres-
sive. Sir F. Lewis and his colleagues in the com-
mission judiciously recognised the necessity of
the case, and recommended such measures as cir-
oumstances permitted for relieving the overburdened
trusts and providing as far as might be for the future
maintenance of the roads. The unavoidable, and

Now that the general election has been concluded,
it will be prudent for the public to keep a vigilant
eye upon a subject of very !vest importance, not only
to the empire, but to the sister country, namely, the
repayment of the money advanced to Ireland under
the Temporary Relief Bill. Some rumours have
reached as that an indefinite postponement of the dis-
charge of this debt is meditated by the Irish poor-
law guardians. We learn from the Cork Reporter
of the 10th rust. that some resistance is meditated to
the letter of the commissioners, ordering the guardians
of certain unions to strike a rate of three shillings in
the pound. The guardians are beginning to whimper,
and some are for laying their heads together
to concert measures to defeat the legitimate
demands of the poor-law commissioners. Now we
are not at all disposed to indulge, like some of oar
contemporaries, in offensive reviling of the Irish
people. On the contrary, while differing from, and
we will own disapproving of, the system of politics
prevalent in Ireland, we have endeavoured to free the
discussion of Irish subjects from that over-excited
temper and undue heat with which they are gene-
rally debated. But in reference to this threatened
resistance to the repayment of the money advanced
under the Temporary Relief Act, we must deal very
plainly with the poor-law guardians. We tell them
therefore, emphatically, that government most cer-
tainly ought to support and will support the commis-
sioners. No other course is left ; and although a
discretionary power will be used in postponing the
levy by the commissioners, as a general rule, the
poor-law guardians must be prepared to enter upon
the repayment of the advanced loan.
We cannot conceive that the rational portion of the
Irish poor-law guardians could meditate any serious
determination to refuse striking the increased rate re-
quired by the commissioners for repayment. Suppose
that they should resist—what then. By doing so
they would be utterly blasting the character of Ire-
land • they would be working permanent evil to that
unhappy island. The Irish surely cannot retreat from
the engagements into which they deliberately entered.
Their own most popular leaders counselled the mode
of raising money resorted to by government. In the
very last speech which Mr. O'CONNELL ever made in
public, he evidently contemplated the only mode left
by which the required assistance could be given.
On that memorable occasion, Feb. Bth, when for the
last time the Irish popular leader appeared in that
assembly in which he played so prominent a part, he

THE EXPRESS, SATURDAY EVENING, AUGUST 21, 1847.

spoke with unusual ealmnews, and his sentiments
were evidently the result of no ordinary deliberation. I
e His plan was," he said, "to arm government with
more real power to apply the necessary sums. They
ought instantly to carry oat the mode of relief, respon-
sible indeed to the house, but not fettered by the strict
letter of the law." He then called upon parliament to
appoint commissioners, and emphatically recom-
mended an assessment. " A decisive measure of that
kind should have his hearty support. Let every
man's means be ascertained, and pre the tribunal he
would erect the power of inflicting taxation. To in-
flict taxation without representation had not been un-
usual in Ireland, and the grand jury system had been
one of taxation without representation." Thus, Mr.
O'CortNELL evidently contemplated the increased as-
sessment of property, from which some of the poor-law
guardians would now seek to relieve themselves, at
the expense of the English people.
For the sake of the public character of Ireland, we
trust that the poor-law guardians will be prepared to
act with integrity and good faith. If they refuse to
pay their lawfully-contracted debts, how, on any
future emergency, will they be able to raise money ?
The Irish politicians have always been urging the ad-
vantage of loans to Ireland. In December last Mr.
SMITH O'BRIEN addressed a series of carefully com-
posed letters to the landed proprietors of Ireland. The
economic state of the country was therein discussed,
and various remedies suggested. These letter ob-
tained some special notice from the fact of Lord
Jour; Rosana. having quoted from one of
them at length, in one of his speeches in the
House of Commons. The sixth letter discusses
the subject of public works. After alluding
to internal navigation and fisheries, Mr. SMITH
O'BRIEN says "There are several other classes of
public works to which encouragement may be given
,by the state, through means of liberal loans adcaneed
upon the security
.of tolls, profits, rates, and property,
such as docks, mines, public buildings, &c." Now,
'supposing that the poor-law guardians refuse to strike
I a rate in repayment of the money advanced to them,
we should like to know what chance would any Irish
party have of obtaining " the liberal loans" contem-
plated by Mr. SMITH O'BRIEN in his patriotic specu-
lations. The poor-law guardians, by refusing to levy
the rate for repayment, will be seriously compromising
the fixture weal of Ireland. We exhort them, for the
sake of their own country, to act with strict jade..
Let them not stain the public faith of Ireland, nor
assimilate their proceedings to the world-wide infamy
of the drab-coloured men of Pennsylvania.
But it is suggested that the guardians have not
the means. Bah! The crops are as luxuriant in
Ireland as in England; vegetation is as rapid; the
means of wealth exist there as well as here. The
Irish have ample resources, if they will but use them
properly. One of their own countrymen, Sir ROBERT
KANE, has given them the best advice on the subject,
and pointed out the means by which they can
indefinitely increase their wealth. They must
become thrifty, industrious, and economical. We
cannot support them in idleness; they must
look to themselves for their permanent studs-
nonce. We bare assisted them in the hour off
their difficulty. They must now look to themselves.
The harvest is most abundant, and the means of
employment are opening up in every direction.
The Irish must not hope to deceive us by ex-
aggerated statements. The ludicrous miscalcula-
tions of one of our morning contemporaries,
hinting at the approaching confiscation of the
Irish soil, are only made to be laughed at.
There is not a poor-law board in Ireland in which the
least 'visible guardian could not perceive the huge
sophisms of our contemporary. All his calculations
are based on the hypothesis that the state of society
in Ireland from August 1846 to 1847 is to become
permanent. The benevolent statist seems to contem-
plate an enduring famine, a lasting prevalence of
fever, and an eternally recurring failure of the potato
crop.
A play writer for the Surrey Theatre is not more
prolific in imagining horrors than our calculating
contemporary in suggesting constant famines and im-
mediate confiscation. He seeks to distinguish him-
self in the arithmetic of ruin. He calculates food at
double its average price, allows three times the usual
number of paupers to remain on the list, sets down
the first six months of the current year as indicative
of the coming age, then rapidly runs hie figures into
imposing rows, and riots in a frenzy of miscalculation.
Why need we go through a series of fantastic
sophisms in figures ? The Irish poor-law guardians
must not expect to escape from theiryustengsgements
by palming upon us the exaggerations of the Morn-
' -a Chronicle.

A brief outline of the following appeared in the
Express of last evening :
We have received the Paris journals, with our cor-
repondent's despatches, of Thursday.
The absence of all sympathy for the efforts of the
liberal party in Italy, so nobly led by the Sovereign
Pontiff, which is apparent in the cabinet of the
Tuileries, is the subject of severe comment in all
circles of the opposition. The organ of M. Guizot
has an ear keenly alive to whatever may throw dis-
credit on the liberal cause, bat is stone deaf to the
reports of the outrages committed on the Italian
people by the Austrian soldiers, and the secret cut-
throats who are said to be employed by that power
to foment disorders which may provoke intervention.
When the conspiracy of the 15th July was detected,
the Journal des Debate pronounced it to be a mere
fiction,utterly denuded of every shadow of foundation.
According to that journal no one was guilty; there
were none on whom the sword of justice was to fall.
Soon after, when Grassellini was expelled by the
pro-governor of Rome, and when Freddi and Alai
were captured, and now that fhe spy Minardi is
taken, the Debats has not a word to say. It has
no retractation to offer, nor any satisfaction to express
at the defeat of the machinations of absolutism or the
peaceful triumph of the liberal pontiff and his people.
When the intelligence of the advance of the Anstrians
across the Po, and their irruption into Ferrara, arrived,
not only did the Mats affect to discredit the fact,
but M. Guizot in the tribune declined to express the
sentiments of the government upon it, inasmuch as
he did not believe it, although it is certain
that at the moment it was well known at
the Austrian embassy, where M. Guizot might
have satisfied himself on the subject. In like
manner, when the recent irruption of the Austrian
garrison of the fortress of Ferrara was made
on the nnoffending citizens, and a protestation was
extorted from the cardinal-legate, the Delsats men-
tioned the event in an obscure corner of the paper,
merely observing that it " required emfirmalimi." The
next day brought the confirmation in the shape of a
printed copy of the protest of Cardinal Ciacchi, which
the Debate was compelled to publish in its columns.
It did so, however, without one word of sympathy for
the oppressed and insulted subjects of the Pope, or
one word of disapprobation of the oppressors.
These and a cloud of analogous facts are noted as
indications of the extent to which M. Guizot is pre-
pared to carry the subserviency of the cabinet whose
policy he directs to the views of Austria. It remains
to be seen whether, even in the constituency of France,
limited and corrupt as it is, a majority will be found
to countenance this.

We have further advices from various parts of Italy,
including letters from Bologna and Florence to the
1 1 th, and from Rome and Ferrara to the 10th. The
accounts we have already given of the measures
taken, as well by the military authorities of Austria,
in Ferrara, as by the representatives of the pontifical
authority_ there, are in all respects confirmed. The
city of Ferrara is at the mercy of the Austrian sol-
diers : they overrun it when and where suits the
pleasure of their commandant, Count de Anerspe'g.
The count proposed to the Cardinal Legate Ciacchi to
supply to his eminence a body guard of Austrian troops.
To this the cardinal replied in dignified terms, that his
best and fittest body guard was one composed of his fel-
ow.eitizens. To avoid the chance of collisions with the
Austrians, the legate ordered the night patrols of the
national guard to be discontinued, until instructions
should arrive from Rome. Meanwhile, however, the
residence of the cardinal legate, the prisons, and the
public establishments of the town, were placed under
the guard of the civic troops. Count Ronandini, who
has recently been appointed inspector-general of the
national guard of the legations, had arrived in
Bologna on the 1 1 th, and immediately left for Fer-
rara. The orders given to Count Ronandini was to
preceed with the organisation of the national guard
without delay, beginning with those places where
the agents of Austria were employed in fomenting
popular disturbances. These emissaries are repre-
sented as being very active, and well supplied with
money, which they scatter unsparingly wherever
their purposes can be forwarded by it.

_'*!

Osiris, French steamer, expected from Beyrout and Ales-
=dr* and it was not until after she had entered the greed
harbour, and many pumas had posted their European let-
ters, that she was inown to be the French man-of-war
steamer Platen, from Naples. The day previous a report
had arrived from the officer, a Matteis, oommindiorg a de-
tachment at Msesseeirroree, ihat some fishing-boats had en-
tered that harbour, and reported three Frenoti line-of-battle
ships =Laing to the southward of the island, which had sent
in boats to sound about the coast at the entrance of the pool.
Absurd as the report appeared, Admiral Curtis got up the
steam of the Wee Pet, and went in search of the French-
men • of course he found hothing. Them frequent reports of
French squadrons hovering rouud Malta are continual bug-
bean to the Maltose ; they talk and dream of nothing but
French ships and coups de main. The Malta papers are
filled with the same nonsense. The Pluton steamed off the
next day for the Levant. The Osiris did not make her ap-
pearance until the morning of the 6th, having been detained
three days at Beyrout in repairing some damage in her ma-
chinery : she started again at noon, the same day, for Mar-
seilles aired.
Our chief secretary has notified to the merchants here, that
Lord Cowley has officially intimated to him, that the Otto-
man government has declared the coast of Albania, opposite
Pale and Corfu, to be in a state of blockade. The Spitfire
steamer has filled up font months' provisions; it is expected
she will go there to watch the motions of the Turkish squad-
ron. The Hecla steamer has also completed four mouths'
provisions ; her destination is not known, but it is supposed
to be Tunis; when she goes, there will not be a man of war
in the harbour. On Sunday, the Bth, a smell French war
steamer cams in from Naples. The report here is, that
she is sent here to watch the movements of the
Neapolitan refugees. There is no doubt something
serious is about to occur in the Neapolitan dominions;
several regiments in Calabria have laid down their
arms, or gone over to the insurgents. A proof of the feeling
existing in the Roman States toward, Naples was exhibited
the other day in a solemn masa and a requiem, in commemo-
ration of the " massacre," as they termed it, of the brothers
Bendier*. There is a report in town that the Abbe Gravel-
lini, late Governor of Rome, arrived here on the 7th, in the
French steamer Telemaque, and is keeping himwlf
The French are not at all popular here, especially the naval
officers, who are much disliked, chiefly in consequence of
their insulting "gallantries" to our females. An Englush vessel,
the Tyro, Captain Candler, from Liverpool ttf Venice, has
bean wrecked on the coast of Sicily, near Scoglitti. The
captain had lost his reckoning, and thought he had passed
Cape Passer°. Some of the cargo, consisting of iron, sugar,
and manufactures, has been saved and brought here from
Athens. Nothing new. Her Majesty's steamer Bulldog
also arrived this morning from Gibraltar.

SWITZERLAND.—Zugicn, AUG. 16.—One of
our correspondents of Berne has informed us that the
majority of the twelve has just fixed a delay of fifteen days,
for Use Soaderbund to have all the forts they have caused to
be erected levelled to the ground. In case of non-compliance,
the vorort is to take every measure necessary for their being
levelled by the federal troops. Another of our corre-
spondents states, that great preparations are going on against
the Sonderbund, and that before long troops will be marched
against the seven cantons. We hear from Arau that during
the night fifteen cases laden with bullets left here for Tesino.
—Gazette Federak.

GERMANY.—AUSTRIA.—TYROL.—The Pope
has offered a cardinal's hat to the Prince-bishop of Trent,
but the venerable prelate has declined the honour.
PRUSSIA.—BERLIN, Auo. 14.—The counsel for
the remainder of the accused were heard, and the crown
counsel replied ; the court then rose.
HAYTI,. JULY 21.—The President of Hayti, ac-
companied by the whole of the ministry, except General
Dupuy, who remains at Port-au-Prince in consequence
of ill health, will shortly visit the northern part of
the island. After his return to Port-au-Prince he in-
tends to proceed to the south accompanied by the same
gentlemen. The departure of T. B. Dupuy, Esq.,
for England, as consul-general of Hayti, is at present post-
poned. A motion tor the reduction of the duty on manu-
factured goods has passed the Chamber of Representatives,
and will, it is thought, immediately pass the Senate. lam
unable at present to furnish you with the details of this mea-
sure. The deliveries of coffee for the present season have
almost ceased, and already dry goods have been extensively
imported in anticipation of the approaching crop, which from
all quai ten promises well. The effects of the government
measure fir cleaning the coffee have already had an influ-
ence in the European markets beneficial to the exporter of
If aytian coffee, by securing him a higher price for this article.
ALGERIA.—ABDEL-KADER.—AbdeI-Kader, who
at present occupies the Riff country in the eastern part of
Morocco, seems to he disposed to court friendly alliance with
the Spaniards who garrison the forts on that side of the ter-
ritory. His object is, in all probability, to obtain an easy
supply of the provisions and ammunition of which he has
been frequently in want since hie acts of hostility against the
troops of Morocco have closed to him the ports of Tangiers
and Tetuan. The mountaineers of the Riff keep up a per-
petual war with the officers of the ports, which have been in
a continual state of blockade. Melilla was lately closely in-
vested, and even cannonaded. Abdel-Kader, who had ex-
cited this attack, afterwards, in order to manifest his'
power, came forward in person, as if to restore peace. He
' had an interview with the Spanish governor outside the
walls ; his officers visited the place, and they have since
been upon friendly terms. The garrison and population of
Melilla were naturally much rejoiced at the cessation of the
irksome blockade, and took advantage of the occasion to re-
new the trade with the interior of the country. We read
in a letter from Oran of the 16th According to recent
intelligence from the frontier, it appears beyond a doubt
that the Emperor Abderrahrnan has arrived at Fez, a cir-
cumstance which has not in any way intimidated Abdel-
Kader, whose authority is firmly established in the eastern
provinces of the empire. The emir displays much activity
at present, whereas the Sultan of Morocco hesitates, and
dares not act. The great tribe of the Beni-Snassem, which
at various periods has been rudely handled by our troops,
has openly declared for Abdel-Kader. Thus the popula-
tions are insensibly falling off from Abderrhaman, whose
position every day is becoming worse."

been current in Paris during the last two dsYs, and with
which a former governess of the family is partt: connected
An event of thin appalling nature is certain to ime rise to
• thousand rumours. With some of these are aaeocs.•ted the
names of individuals of the highest rank; others are sug-
gestive of • crime from which the mind revolts with evert
more horror than from common murder. We shall not here
repeat statement., which, if unfounded, must be most in-
jurious to the parties they inculpate, and the more especially
as we are aware that one of the reports most circulated and
meet generally credited is not true. The Duke de Pragin
was still in his hotel in the Rue Faubourg St. Vonore On
Thursday afternoon, as well as all the other members of the
establishment.

MURDER OF THE DUCHESS DE PRASLIN.
This mysterious murder has kept up a painful ex-
citement in Paris ever since its discovery on Wednesday
morning. The circumstances are most intelligibly detailed
la the Gazette des Tribuneaut, which states that "the
Duchess de Choiseul-Praslin, who left Paris at the beginning
of last week to visit her estate of Praslin, and be present at
the distribution of the prizes of a school placed in some
reect under her patronage, and in which two of her
children are educated, returned to town on Tuesday evening.
She intended to pass only one night in her hotel, and was
to have left yesterday with the duke, her husband, for
Dieppe, where part of their household had preceded them.
Fatigued with ber journey, the duchess went to bed at an
early hour, and as permission had been given to most of the
domestics to absent themselves, she remained in the hotel
with her femme de chambre, who sleeps in the story above,
a governess of the children, and two male domestics. The
hotel of the Marshal Sebastian', which was occupied by the
Duke and Duchess de Choiseul-Praslin with their family,
only presents on the Faubourg St. Honore a very narrow fa-
cade, composed of the entrance door sustained by two co-
lumns, and of a small apartment on the right serving as a
lace for the concierge. After having passed the door, a
long avenue has to be traversed, at the end of which the fa-
cade of the hotel developer' itself. The back of the hotel, or
rather, the second facade of the hotel, faces the mardens,which
extend in the direction of the Champs Elysees. The apart-
ment of the Duchess de Praslin. situated on the ground-
floor, but at a certain height (a flight of six steps having to
be ascended to reach it), us on the second facade, and the
bedchamber in particular, situated towards the south, has
its windows on the garden. From eleven o'clock in the
evening a profound calm reigned in the hotel; all the
lights were extinguished, and the concierge himself went
to bed, thinking that every person was asleep. Between four
and five o'clock, when it was broad daylight, the femme de
chambre, who, as already said, slept above the apartment of
the duchess, was alvakened by the noise of a bell pulled with
violence. She rose in great haste, and ran to the apartment
of her mistress, the door of which she in vain tried to open.
She liateued, and. thought she heard a feeble groan ; she
then called the domestics to her help, and in uniting their
efforts they succeeded in breaking the door open. They
then saw lying on the floor, in the midst of a pool of blood,
their, unfortunate mistress, who appeared to give no sign
of life. A wound, in which three fingers could have been
put, was seen gaping on the left side of the throat; there
were two other profound weunds in the breast, and a
fourth had almost entirely separated the little finger from
the right band. These different wounds appeared to hays
been made with an instrument having a large double-edged
blade. Everything in the bedroom showed besides that
though surprised in her slumber, the victim bad offered a
strong resistance to the murderer : • little table had been
overthrown ; porcelains and tome objects of art were spread
about; the drapery on the wall bore the traces of a blood
hand, as did also the rope of the bell, the ringing of which
had awakened the femme de chambre, and finally between
the clasped fingers of the left hand there was some of the
murderer's hair, whilst a more considerable quantity of the
hair, pulled out in the struggle, was scattered here and there
on the floor, on which the coagulating blood had fixed
them. The magistrates hastened to the theatre of the crime.
At the moment of their arrival a judicial examination was
commenced. At the same time the medical men who had
been called in tried to save the duchess; but their efforts
were useless ; she expired in some instants, without having
been able to utter a single word, without even having re-
covered her consciousness. The very first examinations
made by justice showed that no robbery had been committed,
or even attempted. The garden was examined with the
most minute care in all parts, and was found in such a state
that it was evident that no one had penetrated into it, either
to enter or leave the hotel ; and nowhere could any wean et
breaking in, or of breaking out, be found. From s
in the morning until five in the afternoon the Proennawr•
General, the Procureur Du Roi, M. Broussais, and IL Lee-
gonidee, juges d'instruction, were occupied in inter:sea-
intim at which the chief of the secret police was present.
On Thursday evening the investigations were resumed, and
they appeared likely to occupy the whole night. The
medical men who were called in under these painful circum-
stances were Id. Orfila. M. Pasquier, M. Bois de Loury, and
M. Tardien."
In this account no mention is made of the Duke de Prulin,
further than the expressed intention of his joining his unfor-
tunate wife in the journey to Dieppe. The Mons:Our
Parisien states that at night the duke and duchess retired
to their respective apartments, and that, on the discovery of
the murder, the former threw himself upon the bleeding
body of his wife. This addition to the other accounts is ren-
dered important by some extraordinary reports which have