The Express.
London, England, 1847-10-12 00:00:00

GEORGE LOWEST states, that merchants have suf-
fered a loss both upon their exports of manufactured
goods to China, and upon their imports of tea to this
country. A candle, thus burning at both ends, is
soon consumed.
Our present purpose is, however, to treat of that
which is the chief recommendation of the report—a
reduction in the duty on tea. That this reduction is
eminently desirable, no one will question. For the
comfort of the lower classes, and the extension of the
use amongst them of a vdholesorne domestic beverage,
rivalling and supplanting spirituous drinks, a reduo-
tion of the duty upon tea is a measure which strongly
recommends itself. Our merchants demand it as the
only means of carrying on a trade with China, and
taking advantage of that noble opening which our
arms have made.
But, in times of financial difficulty, to meddle with
those duties which produce a large portion of the
revenue, is an experiment to be cautiously tried.
There are duties on consumption which press, and
which it would be useful to remove, but of which,
after all, the pressure is little felt by those who pay
them. And unfortunately, any burden on taxation,
now lifted from one shoulder, must be placed
on another. A reduction of the duty on tea from
2s. 21d. to Is., as proposed by the commission,
could not be expected to raise the consumption more
than one-third of its present amount, say to sixty mil-
lions of pounds, which would produce three millions of
revenue. Where are the two millions and upwards
thus lost to the revenue to come from ? From the,
property tax, of course ; and, however desirable it may
be to shift burdens from off the industrious poor to
the strong back of property, cause must be shown for
increasing the heavy burden, too easily shaken off by
many kinds of wealth.
e entered into this question very fully last year,
when government meditated certain financial changes
and reductions, all scattered to the winds by the ter-
rible advent of Irish famine. The subject now recurs
to the consideration of ministers and members of the
legislature, and is likely to be the subject of discus-
Mon. The recommendation of the committee of the
House of Commons cannot be silently set aside, nor
can the pressing entreaties of the merchants engaged
in the China trade be met with a careless negative.
The question is, how are these desires to be met,
without causing or endangering such a loss to the
revenue even in the three first years, as must
deter any Chancellor of the Exchequer. We repeat,
what we stated and argued constantly last year, that
the only way of modifying the tea-duties is by
restoring the ad valorem system. We regret to
see in the evidence before us, that the greater
number of the witnesses and merchants, with
Sir GEORGE LARPENT at their head, are de-
cidedly adverse to the ad valorem system, and that
all concur in declaring it impracticable. We can un-
derstand their repugnance, and admit the force of
their objections. But unfortunately there are but two
alternatives, an ad valorem duty, or a great loss to the
revenue. Ministers would not risk, and parliament
would not vote the latter; whilst the ad valorem duty,
however difficult or irksome, is at all events for the
revenue a safe experiment, whilst it must increase the
consumption and aid to alleviate the surcharge upon
the poorer classes.
Let an ad valorem duty of even so high as an
hundred per cent. be fixed and graduated, on the
fourteen or fifteen kinds of tea, and such a taxation
would levy little more than eightpence a pound upon
the poor man's congou, whilst the rich might con-
tinue to pay a duty approaching either half way
towards, or fully equalling, that existing at present.
Such a change would give a very considerable in-
crease to the consumption, and proportionate facilities
to the China trade, without putting the revenue in
jeopardy, and interfering with other excise reforms
imperatively called for.

The Paris journals and our own correspondence of
Sunday have reached us.
A royal ordonnance appears in the Moniteur
authorising the emission of Three per Cent. Stock
sufficient to produce a capital of two hundred
and fifty millions of francs, on account of the loan of
three hundred and fifty millions lately sanctioned by
the Chamber. One per cent. of the capital thus
created is to be appropriated to the sinking fund.
The ministerial journals announce the arrival of
the Duke d'Aumale at Algiers, where he was received
with all the customary forms.
M. Enea Bignami, a Bolognese, who has been sent
to Paris to purchase arms for the national guard of
Bologna, has addressed a letter to the Journal des
Mate, acknowledging the prompt assistance he has
received from M. Gtrizot and his colleagues.

The Bordeaux courier arrived in Paris on Sunday
without the Madrid mails of the sth, which were im-
patiently exacted. The Foment°, of Barcelona,
mentions an important conflict which took place in
the neighbourhood of Castello de Nuch, by which the
Carlist insoments were completely routed. They
bad eight killed and ten or twelve wounded.

By the Levant mail we have received the journals I
and oar usual letters from Constantinople to the
28th, and from Athens to the 30th ult. The cholera I
had increased at Trebisonde, where, of 350 cases, there
had been 1.50 deaths. The official physician reported
that the disease did not offer the virulent character
which it had when it last invaded Europe, and that,
of the cases in which medical aid is supplied at a suf-
ficiently early stage, nine-tenths recover. The dis-
ease had nearly disappeared from Kars and Erzeroum
on the 4th. Letters from Bagdad of the Ist say
that the disease still prevailed there. Of sixteen
cases, six died.
At Athens affairs remained the same. The
Chamber assembled, and voted the address almost
without discussion. This document declares the
absolute submission of the chamber to the ministry.
In a word, the assembly. proceeds exactly as a body
virtually chosen by the ministry must have proceeded.
It will register the ministerial decrees. The senate
was constituted. The King appointed M. Anagnosti
Delyanni its president, in place of M. Conduriotti.
Letters from Prevesa state that General Grivas had
left for Janina, accompanied by ten of his followers.
The others sought the royal clemency to return to
Greece. Pharmaki, Pappacasta, and other insur-
gents, were reported to have assembled near the
frontier at Contoyanni. What their designs were was
not known.
The Greco-Turkish difference remained in the
same state.
It will be seen, by reference to the letter of our
correspondent, which we give below, that the insur-
gents of Albania have made their last effort, and
Oat the result may be considered as finally put
down. The conduct of the Turkish soldiers awards
the conquered is described as brutal in the extreme.
Lord Cowley censured the conduct of the British
canal at Prevesa for taking Orivas under his pro-
tection.

The course adopted by the French government in
relation to the questions which now agitate the Swiss 1
confederacy has excited the most profound indigos- 1
tion on the part of the federal executive government
at Berne. It appears that a train of waggons con-
taining arms and ammunition, and weighing so much
as a hundred tons, have been lately expedited from
the royal arsenal at Besancon, and destined for the
canton of Fribourg, one of those of the Sonderbund.
To reach its destination it must peas through the
small canton of Neufchatel. The authorities there
were accordingly warned by the federal executive at
Berne of the necessity of intercepting such • supply
of arms in obedience to the decree of the Diet to that
effect. At the date of the last advice, from Berne
the fear was that the cantonal government of Neuf
chatel would connive at the passage of the French-
fourgons into Fribourg.
M. Bois le Comte, the French minister, is under-
stood to have used his influence to induce the cantons
of the league to comply with the resolution of the
diet against the Sonderbund, but without effect. It
was said at Berne that a collective note of the five
powers would be presented to the vorort before the
assembling of the diet on the 18th, conceived in a
spirit to prevent internal hostilities in the confederacy.
The session of the Orand Council of the Valais was
signalised by a catastrophe as awful as it was remark-
able. This being one of the most violent cantons of
the league, the president of the council (M. de Courten)
who was in fact head of the cantonal government,
made an intemperate harangue, exhorting the depu-
ties to shed the last drop of their blood in resisting
the decrees of the diet. lie had hardly uttered the
last word of his speech when he suddenly fell dead!
He was stricken with apoplexy.
The canton of Lucerne has addressed to the vorort