The Express.
London, England, 1849-03-14 00:00:00

ght tErproso.

OUTGOING MAILS.
The West India hails, minding bermutia, Havanna, Nene,
Honduras, New Orleans, and Nexioo, and including that Ye
Weirs, et. Juan-de-Nicarague, New Granada, Chili, and Penh MI
be made up on the morning of the 17th of Keret.
The mails for Vigo, Oporto Lisboa, Madeira, Cadiz, and Mediae
will be made op nn the morning of the 17th March.
The malls for Gibraltar, Malta, Greece, die loni in Wands, Fmk
Aden, Ceylon, India, tlong-Kong, and China, via douthampten, NI
be made up on the morning of the 20th Narch.
The mulls for linnah North America, and the United Nein,
will be made up on the evening at Me 23rd March.
The mail; sin fdareellles, to the Memo:roux:an. Egypt, kae.
Ceylon, India, Hong-Kong, ta., will be made up on the cm* of
the 21th March. _ _ _ . .

---Tiemaai; the Weet Cwt of Africa end Madeira wlllbe
up on the evening of the Slat of March.
The mails for new nooth Wales, Van Dieman's Land, and Nso
Zealand will be reads up on the events/ of the 31st March.
'1 he mails for Madeira, the Brasile, and Buenos Ayres, will be mob
up on the evening of the 4th of April.

lotion' moose amazed most either be °baited
letteachmeet of military expectant°, or by the
;lewd e cot ma dotal', or by tempering. dire ctly
or in iy,withamimmi faith. The first is as mush
si oils and jetzLerepmataea to be hoped kw hem
•• meter in q so the last is too perilous and
ope:pled to be ever trenched by any set Of men
• %hi, owery who have either property or character
• boa Time remise, &norm% bat the one rw
ages—a retain to the obsolete and mitebieveus eye-
as of high duties upon imported goods—a renewal
Mike tsiestion upon endue/ay, hos which ii hes so
godly been set ee—a resuacit diao, is het, of the
gloom policy of protection.
le this then at the bottom of the plot? Or are the
wavy party as they love to call themselves ready to
slide the shock of such a collision of dames and of
mutate es this rash and desperate attempt at a
egater•revolution in &ante mum of necessity m-
ai? There are may men of great possessions,
any of great privileges, many of great expectations
wocipt then :—wil they hazard the security
g all in a struggle such as this? They cannot be-
gies that the rut interests which such a ahem
yield openly email, possessing as those interests do
*greatest and the most consolieated resources in
flee world, would for one hour permit the first step to
le taken towards such a re- acuonary policy, without
&perste and deadly 'toggle. We tarn from the
gesght instinctively. We shrink hem the idea of
welding England rent in twain by social feuds so
int We can hardly bing ourselves to harbour the
agecion that even Lied &rawer will venture to
yi kis intatuated fullers. ra to such a fatal field.

MR. TRELAirsT did gold *mice in bringing the
(NORiOR ef Aliarth rates before the house last night.
The &isles to ao small proof of the strength of ,opl-
pia egiNifi these levitating and paltry exactable.
&tins then 84 members voted "that effectual steps
devaid be immediately taken for the tatal abolition
damn+ rates" whilst only 119 objected to the re-
petition. Bat the members on tha division give a
nost incomplete idea of the state of the clue. There
were many epetiches in thedebate, but scarcely' word
wee 'aid i favour of church rates. Mr. PAGE WOOD,
the amber for the City of Oxford, proposed to ex.
rapt dissenters altogether from the impost, end
Mr. GLAD:note; the member fir the Univeshy
▪ Oxford was willing to consent to the principle.
Lad JOHN RUSSELL attempted the only defence of '
;bodkins sys'eas, and received the reiterated thanks
wh' fills the office of objector-general
n▪
evety medal proposition. It is easy to perceive
bat am:ill-tetra ate now tolerated only because they
ina a part of a great system W hick nobody is yet'
✓werful cAugh to reform or to destroy.
The billowing is the summary of the a'tempb that
lave been made in poliament to get rid of so irre-
.& amts. in 1833. 'the Irish church-rate was
&libel by the S sod 4 Oeo. IV., c 37, a. 63. The
teas requisite kr the purpose* of the rate wire to be
"vied by a tax an met awaked temporalities. In
(834, fortified by this example, Lord Atrnosr
koeght fa/turd a reeolutioet that the payment of
church-rates in Eaglsnd and Waler should, after a
certain time, cease, and that in lien thereof 230,0001.
Joel be granted. ut if the land tax. This resolu-
tiqt lib agreed to, and Lord Avrnoar moo alter in-
baked a bill to awry it out. This bill sou objected
n by the dissenters on account of the charge of
230,000/. on the Isn't tax, and was therefore allowed
to drop. In 1833 Sir Roeu Pim reposed a scheme
br de p ymeut of church ratesont of the consolidated
had. This mea-ure, however, was never insis•ed
spa, and eas open t 1 the seine object'on as that of
ALTHORP. In 1837, 2,328 patit'ons for the
idol ion of church rates were laid on the table of the
Howe of Cammi nv. In 1837, a resole' ion hostile to
church rates was moved by t, e CHANCELLOR OP THE
Exennuces, and cirr:ed by 273 egaiist 230 votes.
Ou a following day in the same session Lord Joke
Wiesen'. moved the order of the day for taking the
:notation on cLuroh rates into farther consideration,
when the house divided, the numbers being 287 for
the resolution, and 262 against it. The bill that it
was intended to found upon this resolution, was
dropped, and a select committee to inquire into the
mode of leasing by cock niastical corporations, &c.,
was tubstitut.d foe it ; which committee, *wing to
the demise of the crown, was not appointed till May,
1838. Tee committee, however, did nothing. In
1810, Mr. DL NCOMEE moved fir leave to bing in a
bill to relieve dissenters free' the payment of church-
rake, which was epitome' by ministers, end lost by a
majority of 33. In 1847 Mr. EASTUOPE brought in a
bill, which was read a first time, fur the abolition of

rharch-rates. This was stifled i 7 the dissolution of
parliament.
lo the courts of law the prceeedines have been
narked by that vague., confused, unsatisfactory cher
neer which is the iefellibie result of any attempt to
elicit a principle of any kind in the barbarous condi-
tion t f ourjurioprodence. Fit st came &decision, con-
firmed on sepia, that neither the churchwardens nor
my ea It if astieal an: &nide s have power to levy and
imply a fete without consent of parishioners in yes-
try.Tbis pr incip'e was first laid down in an ablejudg-
meet by Dr. PHlLLtatom and upheld successively
by Lord Dmmax in the Qneen's Bench, and Lord
Chief Janke Tirs DAL in the Exchequer Chamber.
But the genius of English promedinr could not en-
dures plan intelligible statement of a general prin-
ciple. Evasions were sought fn, recourse was had
to qoalifacatioos, doubts were flung out, and oppor-
tamales of litigation suggested. The consequence
use, that another case was epeciily engendered under
the parer til wing of judicial sophistry, and it was
decided ttat although a tare cannot be levied without
the assent of the vestry, the vestry have no choice,
when repairs are needed, whether the perish church
shell be repaired or not That the obligation
to provide such repairs is imperative, and therefore,
that the deliberation of the parishioners can only re-
late to the means by which each repairs can moot
effectually be providei—and as a corollary to these
printiples, it was held that when a majority had
vottd against a rate, their votes were to be considered
as bug away, and thereto supported by the minority
was buid.ng, and might he levied by distress
or imprisonment; this, too, although the rate
in fact Lever was voted at all by the minority, but an
ameedment against church rates had closed the pro-
ceedings. Against this d•cition an appeal is now
pesdlog in the Exchequer Chamber. The objections
to it are numerous. Can a bo3y be said to deliberate
Wm are forced to come to a particular decision P
Have the vestry any volition or sot? If they have,'
*ere is the line to be drawn in its exercise ? Who
le to judge of the stxmity of repairs? Who is to
dee:de the scale upon which they are to be made? If
the majority of the merry is to decide these points it
is dear that they make the obligation insisted upon
samical. If it Is Lot, calling them together is a
oockay. In all probability, however, the decision
ti the Exchequer Chamber, thanks to our admirable
Tien of jurisprudence, will be founded exclusively
on some technical point, some of those miserable gua-
no, cf pleading so dear to our judges, or some Wig-
L iceot c ivil—the real matter in dispute will remain
aadecidtd, and all the expense and heart burning,
aad machinery of this protracted litigation will Be
l'eaflawsy. Such at least in 99 cues out of a hue-
arM is result of judicial insigation, created
Orestbe =lll. of the PLamvanevestirra, and revived
by Court of Exchequer.
wonlawads persecution is not idle. Dissenters ere
!lei, and, an their refusal to pay what they think
mainehts is conselerce honed to withhold, are ox-
Psi to penalties varying with the disposition oftheir
"blau kits. filmetinies their goods are seized--seme-
,_
_wank while the desire to persecute is strong, theynee
mined ceder the wretched quibble et disobeying
1.10.10b1e order and flung into pdem. to dee dis-
hed at Ismiensb; or malignant Hasidim*. EA_ tb•
Jsat laattilkethadall judicious and pessoisvbi mem
Blown& was seoteneed to six menther
ke Pa meat of a rate of lea) Mr. /cm
Story to a week's incarceration lbw nompaymint
r• tPeneC Proceedings have been taken fa the
"'iciest cal coots against parishioners for refusing
to make a sufficient rate. In short, every principle
that ought to prevail in legislation has been, as caul,
tranipled upon. Men of irreproachable character
:r sober halite, have teen punished like the refisi
kind. Errors in judgment (if they are to be se
Lipped), and an adherence to conscientious K 211.•
1.."' have been dealt with m moral
414 re best confounded with the most ociliTai
ha
leo against socict.r. Everyth'ng has been does
bleats weld wish for, or that mem of sense and
'tir meet abhor. Law is impotent against opinion.
'o9res of truth and violence me different. Much
I may be inflicted, bitter hostility may be emu-
Id, but that is all ; the determinate* to raja!
for t. hid by every fresh attack. Nobody min

Itz.,

thigh a dies ntiog minister, who is seat to
gaol for refusing to pay a church rite, deserves to
be treated like a perjured ruffian, or a man who has
obtained goods ander false paste Be long se dis-
sent from the reliiiion of the state was looked upon
by the law as arinteal, such a state of things was at
soosistent. Now, when the right of every man
te worship God in his own way is solemnly reset.
niesel by the Mato, it is an absurdity. To my that
every dissenter who eassgos eonsciesos se a nawmfor
aeo-payment of char& rat* is • hypocrite, is rare
vulgar
_nope&see. It is high time that the govern-
meat shaN lett Aro to pat • stop to as evil of salt
magoitade, and relieve a large portion of the oommu-
oity from hardships which they keenly feel, and which
history shows es they may one day bitterly resentTo delay reform to toe last absent is ungracifte and
impolitic. It is ties attributed to necessity, not
to a sense of what is right, or • desire
of what is useful ; and of all other peciple,
those whn are attached to the established church,
have, if they are not blind to their own welfare, the
deepest interest in altering a system which makes
that institution a mark for much vehement and well-
merited animosity.