The Express.
London, England, 1865-06-17 00:00:00

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LONDON, SATURDAY, JUNE 17.

WHIN Mr. Hurr left England for Vienna to
attend the sittings of the Anglo-Austrian Com-
mercial Inquiry Commission, most persons ac-
quainted with the interests that have grown up
under and around the protectionist system in
Austria were aware that be would have a difficult
duty to perform. The Commission has been sitting
several months, and now it is stated that it
has broken up, not without a certain amount
of disorder, and that Mr. Burr is about
to return confessing his complete failure.
We suspect that in these statements there
is much that needs rectification. The sound
000nomicaldoctrines of which Mr. Burr has been the
apostle at Vienna, are universal in their truth, and
their application would simply lead the people of
each country to give themselves to those special
branches of production which are best adapted to
their situation, and which they could cultivate with
most advantage to themselves. But it is only by
slow degrees that communities discern this truth.
Even where the doctrine* of free trade gain intel-
lectual acceptance, it is at first only "its the
" abstract," the people of every nation imagining
that their case is peculiar. It is so now in Aus-
tria, and the fact ought not to surprise us, espe-
cially when we remember how long we ourselves
were in arriving at sound views on economic
questions. Our own information, however, does
not agree with the reports to which we have re-
ferred. The Commission is by no means extinct.
What we understand to have happened is that se-
veral of the Austrian members of it, who were
protectionists, have resigned, and the Commission
is undergoing a process of reconstruction, which
will render it more efficient than it has hitherto
been when it meets again, as it will do, at the
beginning of September.

TER Houseof Commons took the unusual course,
last evening of refusing to go into Committee of
Supply ; and Ministers were beaten on a division.
They soon, however, recovered their ground.
Their temporary defeat was unpleasant rather
than serious. It took place in a small House, and
perhaps was only possible when few members were
present. Still defeat is always disagreeable, and
especially so on the eve of a general election. Mr.
SIZLY and the gentlemen who voted with him
sought to admonish, and not to injure the
Government, and we regret that Ministers

----___ ,
did not meet them with some proposition
which would have prevented the necessity
of • division. Mr. SEELY. in • speech which

• showed a thorough mastery of the intricate Dock•
yard accounts, only to be obtained by anxious and
protracted labour, exposed by a great number
of examples the waste in every direction which
attends our present system of building and repair-
ing ships, and moved a resolution affirming that it
is inexpedient to continue the practice of appointing
naval officers who are not possessed of
a technical knowledge of the business car-
ried on in her MAJESTY'S Dockyards, to
superintend them. It is well known that this I
is the settled conviction of members of the
House of Commons who have probably given more
time to the personal investigation of the Dockyard
system than has ever been devoted by private mem-
bers to a depirtment of the public service. It was
evidently that of Mr. DALGLISH, who took
part iu the debate last night, and who speaks
with acknowledged authority on this subject. And
to men of business habits of mind, accustomed to
judge of industrial establishments by results, it
will not seem that Mr. Szeu.sr was answered when
he was told that only naval officers can keep order
in the Dockyards. A civilian otherwise fit for the
post would need nothing but the power of dismissal
to enable him to keep order, and if this power does
not exist and cannot be introduced, as was inti-
mated last night, it may well be questioned
whether it will he possible to reform the Dock-
yard system at all so as to be able to
maintain it in the face of these continual expo-
sures. It is in vain to say, as Lord CLARE/rex
PAGET said last night, that naval officers must
superintend the construction of our ships because
they have to sail in them. We do not think of
building our own houses because we have to live'
in them. We tell the architect and the builder
what we want, and we know when he have got it,
but the exercise of their respective arts we leave
to them. We trust the Government will accept
the lesson of this debate, and do something to
satisfy public opinion. As to the Conservative
opposition, they have neither part nor lot in the
matter, and would probably oppose this as sin-
cerely an any other reform.