The Express.
London, England, 1848-05-04 00:00:00

Vie Orproo.

)(AILS.
The mails for the Brazils, the River Plate, Monti Video, Pernam-
buco. Bahia, Madeira, and Buenas Arm, will be made up us the
evening of the 4th May.
The mails for Briush North America, and the United States,
will be mode up ea the evening et the sth May.
The overland closed mails. eta Mareedles. to the Molitervanelin.
Egypt, Aden. Orylos, ludic, lac., will be made up on the
swain of the ath May.
The mails for Vigo, Oporto, Lisboa, Madeira, PAM, and Gibraltar
win be made up on the morning of the fith Ma..
The West India Mai* euluding Bermuda, Nissan, Havanm,
Mondurits, New Chivas; Vera Cruz, Tampico, and Porto Rico, and
including them fur Madeira, Jactuel, Carthagena, Santa Martha,
C apes, Panama, West Coat of South America, and St. Juariale-
Nit:mos, will be made up on the morning of ths I; th May.
The overland mails fin Gibraltar, Malta, Greeos, the haven !glade,
Egypt, Aden, Ceylon, India, Hong-Kong, and China, rut Southarap
toa, will be made up on the morning of Ms 2Oth May.
Tie mails for New South Wales, Van Diernan's Laad, and New
Zealand will be made up on the evening of tits 31st May.
The mails for the West Cow of Africa ad Madeira will be made
yea the evening of the 3lst May.

NOTICE TO ADVERTISERS.
The number of STAMPS issued by the authorities of the
Stamp-office, during 1547, to the
DAILY NEWS was 3,447,009
This, we believe, is within eighl winga of the number
Loved to the Morning Herold, M Chronicle, and
Morning Pogo ALL PUT TtXICTIISIL
In addition to the above, issued to the DAILY NEWS,
Morning Paper, there were issued for the Evening Edition,
THE EXPRESS 778,714
Which wu more, we believe, than were issued either to
the Globe or Standard, Evening Paper'.

IS I 0 13 WATZI AT LONDON IRMO B.
D•ll—limieg. 23 mi. 3.5. 2. =I. plit 3.
Triness••—Norous. 10 W. J . pan 3.

LONDON. THURSDAY, MAY 4.1
WE have compared the position of the present
governmeut to that of those successive ministries,
which held power in France during the reign of
Louts XVI., vainly striving to mend large
abuses with petty reforms, seeking to pump from
an exhausted nation into an empty treasury, and
in the midst of alt this incapacity and real reason for
despair, endeavouring to persuade the country that it
must not apply a finger of its own to the task of
government, which had best be left in the French
case to the despotic crown, as in ours to the as pre-

dominant aristocracy.
A tory contemporary compares and contrasts the
resent French National Assembly with our House of
Conmons. It is rather premature to judge what the
National Assembly may do, but of this we may feel
certain, viz., that it will do something, and that what-
ever it does will be done strenuously and decidedly.
There is no comparison between it and our House of
Commons, which much more resembles the Assembly
of Notables called by CALONNE,than it does any repre-
sentative body that before or since met in France.
The characteristics of the French Assembly of
Notables were, that they represented a mere class, and
that the very class which was the cause of all the
evils and inequalities complained of. It was evident
they could only do good by waiving their exclu-
sive privileges, and legislating largely against
their own interests, summoning a really popu-
lar • representative body to complete the work.
But this the Assembly of Notables shrank from.
The financial embarrassment, the weight of the debt,
the poverty of the exchequer, the determination of the
people to pay no more taxes, and of the parliament
not to register them, so frightened and perplexed
the Notables that they knew not what to do, and
wrung their hands in hopelessness and avowed igno-
rance. The British parliament and Lord .100r4 Ens-
mlLL, in the matter of the income-tax and the deficit,
have done precisely the same thing. Neither have
the courage to look the financial difficulties
in the face, to recommend large retrenchment, or come
forward with a wise and well-reasoned scheme,
calculated to persuade and reconcile the great tax-
paying body to those sacrifices necessary to the
existence and vigour of a government.
If in their treatment and consideration of finance
the British parliament and administration resemble
the French Assembly of Notables, and CALONNE, the
feebleness is no less striking in the great
question of Ireland. Our own opinion is, that the
present parliament, and consequently the govern-
ment dependent upon it, can no more do justice and
restore peace to Ireland than the 600 members can I
take'wings and fly over the Bt George's Channel.
All that parliament can do in that great case and
origin is to peddle and trust to circumstances, and
gain time—time, as things go, being more a
loss to them than a gain. They may go on
extending a bit of the electoral franchise or
scrap of municipal rights, mulcting the land-
lord somewhat, menacing him much, patting the
peasant on the head, and flattering the priest. But
all these small, and scattered, and bit-by-bit remedies
won't do. They merely go to swell the pride and the
power of those disgusted with British connexion and
abhorring English predominance. All this might
satisfy some twenty years ago, but in these times the
only way of keeping Ireland is by a large measure of
equality—a measure such as no minister durst avow,
and no parliament like the prevent would ever de-
bate. If England, therefore, by a large measure of
leeteeal reform and a totally new legislature does not
oome,to the fair consideration of the Irish question,
Ireland will be lost. The C tLONNES and the
NECKERE, and the Notables, cannot keep or save it.
If we go from France and from Ireland to other
great questions, to the state of the working
classes, to the condition of the hind, and of the laws
by which it and the class which live by itaprefits are
entrenched, can any rational person suppose that aHouse
of Commons elected like the present, can face or
solve these great questions? Above all, there is our
foreign policy, our relations of trade and amity with
Other aonnWee. Is it not evident that what we call