The Express.
London, England, 1846-12-26 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, SA/MRWAY -EVENING, DECEMBER -28, 1846.

officers, and the courts of law. There is a remark-
able judgment of Sir °ULANDu I3ttIDOLRAN's in
which he declares the legislative power of the Com-
mon Council "to be the foundation of most of the
ordinances in force in London for the government of
the City, which would be shaken if you take
away this power, and leave to London no more power
touching bye-laws, than you do to every ordinary
corporation and company. Nay, this power has been
held good in establishment of customs, bad at
common law, as being in restraint of trade;
although, therefore, on general principles, it is certain
that no bye-law of a corporation, considered as an
original enactment, can alter a mode of election
prescribed by charter or act of parliament, there
seems as little doubt that, by virtue of the power
declared iu the charter of EDWARD 111., the cor-
poration of London in Common Council can
remodel any custom whatever, which proves " hard
or defective."
Unless, therefore, it be proved that the present
custom, as declared by the ordinances of 1710 and
1716, be not liable to such charges, it can be altered
by the Common Council. We conceive it may
easily be made out to be both. It is "hard,"
as it excludes from corporate control per-
sons having most important City interests, and
" defective," as it leaves a large proportion of the pro-
perty within the City unrepresented in the municipal
council. It is certain, that if the present measure be
beyond the legal power of the common council, the
same is true of all their other ordinances altering
qualifications for election to the office. In the time of
EDWARD I. the common council was composed exclu•
sively of persons of "the wiser and more sufficient of
the mysteries (i.e. guilds or companies) elected by the
men of the same mysteries, and not otherwise."
Afterwards, in the time of RICHARD 11., Mello-
LAS BREMBRE, the then Lord Mayor, on peti-
tion from a great common hall of the citizens, brought
forward a plan, which was approved and adopted'
A.D. 1383, by which the election was transferred from
the guilds to the wards. This ordinance was after-
wards made perpetual.
This change in qualification was certainly illegal, if
that now proposed be so. In the same way the alder-
men who, by the charter of EDWARD 11. were to
serve but for one year, were afterwards, in the time
of Rieman 11., made re-eligible ; although it was
by statute, and not a mere municipal ordinance or
charter, that the office was made to last till reasonably
removable, or virtually for life, in the 17th year of
the same reign.
Looking at these facts of past history, we can have
no doubt of the power of the Common Council to pass
such a measure as that now in dispute. If they have
no such power, they have been acting illegally since
the time of EDWARD 11. L, and from even an earlier

period.
It is highly desirable that the dispute between the
two courts should be settled in some speedier and
more dignified way than squabbling in Guildhall. A
mandamus would bring the conduct of the Lord
Mayor under the cognisance of the courts, and lead
to a judicial determination of the powers of the
Common Council. That this should be done is on
every account desirable, as, in the present temper of
both courts, there seems little prospect of an amicable
settlement in any other way.. An arrangement as to
the other and even more important points which
remain behind will probably tollow on the issue of
the present conflict.

THERE is no public man of the day to whom the
tenant-farmers of England are so deeply indebted as
to JOHN BRIGHT. With characteristic firmness of
purpose MR. BRIGHT seized upon, mastered, and
thoroughly exposed, through the medium of a
select committee of the House of Commons, the most
crying grievance under which the tenant-farmers
labour, namely, THE GAME-LAWS. Mr. BRIGHT'S
sympathy with the industrious capitalists who
farm land was hearty and sincere; and his
various missions into the rural districts, during his
Anti-corn-law labours, had brought him into contact
with many of the most intelligent agriculturists in
every part of the country. Moreover, he was most
ably seconded in the committee by Mr. VILLIERS ;
while the offensive demeanour of the Game-law
champions, especially Lord GEORGE BENTINCK and G
Mr. RANTLEY BERKELEY, towards the tenant-
farmers and land-agents who were examined, brought
out facts, and produced corroborating circumstances
illustrative of the character of game-preserving and
its abettors, of the most striking description. The
result of the inquiry has been the collection of a
mass of evidence which decides the question of the
Game-laws. They are condemned, and now only
await the final stroke, which public opinion will soon
give them. All that is necessary for that purpose is,
that the evidence should be extensively read. Apart
from the irresistible direct proofs of mischief caused
by game preservation, no system could long survive
such defences as are recorded in the evidence of the
game preservers who were examined to support it.
That such service should have earned the hearty
abuse of the ultra-Tory press was to have been ex-
pected ; and, accordingly, we find that there is an
article in Blackwood's Magazine for the present
month upon " the Game-laws," in which Mr. BRIGHT,
and those who have aided in exposing the game sys-
tem, are abused with the hearty recrimination of

those who suffer.
With such abuse we shall not deal further than to
remark that the whole tone of the article we refer to
indicates that a tender point in aristocratic privilege
has been touched by the Game-law investigation.
The purpose is to divert attention from the merits of
the question, and by attributing to those, who discern
the effects of game preservation, sundry evil-minded
views, to prevent a dispassionate consideration of the
subject by the more rational landed proprietors.
That such purpose will fail is plain, for the intelli-
gent farmers of East Lothian have taker. up the
question in an earnest and business-like manner, and
farmers in most other localities are well prepared to
follow such an example. The reader will probably
have observed a notice which appeared a few days
since in our advertising columns, whereby the East
Lothian Anti-Game-law Association offer a premium
of twenty guineas for the best essay on 'I he Evils
of the Game-laws, as they affect the social, economi-
cal, and moral interests of the community." Never
had essayists more abundant materials to deal with
than will the writers who may compete for that prize.
There ought to be an essay sent from every county in
Great Britain, for each district can offer its own pecu-
liar illustrations of the evils, social, economical, and
moral, of the Game-laws.
But, in truth, the roystering article in Blackwood
is such an essay; for, after having exhausted all his
sophistry and his jests in support of the Game-laws,
the writer ends by warning the landed gentry against
excessive preservation of game, which, as we shall
presently show, upon evidence the Tory writer will
scarcely dispute, is the only mode of preserving game
at all. Nor caa any one who has read the evidence,
as this writer professes to have done, miss the con-
clusion that the modern and mischievous!; battue"
system is the only one by which any game an be
kept in the cultivated districts. That the writer has
read the evidence is plain; for he carefully abstains
from a single quotation, and from all but the most
general reference to its effect. But, interwoven with
much rhodomontade, he produces this, which is the
stock and only plausible argument of the game pre-
servers. He says, in reference to the complaints of
farmers, that the preservation of game is the subject
of contract between tenant-farmers and their land-
lords :

" The game then becomes u much a matter of calculation
as the nature of the soil, the necessity of drainage, or the
peculiar climate of the farm. The tenant must be guided by
the principles of ordinary prudence, and make such a deduc-
tion from his offer as he considers will compensate him for
the loss which his crop may sustain through the agency of
the game."
Now, the answer to that is, that farmers, when
taking their farms, are almost invariably told that
they shall not be injured by game, that game shall
not be kept in excessive quantities, and that all the
rabbits shall be destroyed; and until very recently
farmers have been weak enough to give credence to
such assurances. This was, again and again, proved
before the Committee with all the circumstance and
detail which the most adverse and unscrupulous cross-
examination by the game preservers could elicit. We I
noticed some time ago the evidence given on this point
with reference to a farm held of the Duke of NENI-
CASTLE, and we shall, on a future occasion, again ad-
vert to this branch of the evidence. At present we
mention it to say that we do not believe that the
many landowners who lie under the imputation of
such breaches of faith towards their tenants have in-
tentionally done so. On the contrary, we believe that
many of the landed proprietors do nit understand—

and perhaps are not over anxious to be informed of—
the real effects of game preserving upon modem
farming. But the truth is that there can be no
medium between " excessive" preservation, that is a
head of game which is more irritating to the feelings
and seriously injurious to the pecuniary interests of
the tenant, or no game at all, where there is a peopled
and well-farmed district.
The writer in Blackwood chooses to overlook this fact,
and warns the gentry against excessive preservation,
saying, "A few words to the general body of the game
preservers. Gentlemen, some of you arc not altogether
without fault in this matter. You have given a
handle to accusations which your enemies have been
eager and zealous in using. You have pushed your
privileges too far, and if you do not take care, you will
raise a storm which it may be very difficult to allay.
What in the name of common sense is the use of this
excessive preserving ?" Now, preservers cannot help
themselves. Their game must be excessive. They
retain a body of gamekeepers to protect the game,
they reserve it from their tenants, they defend it
against poachers and unauthorised sportsmen, and the
creatures batten unmolested upon the farmers' crops.
The preservers dare not have more than half a dozen
I days shooting in a season, lest they should drive off
I the game to the lands of other persons. In such cir-
cumstances the game of course increase and multiply
with wonderful rapidity, assisted in some eases by
artificial immigration at the expense of some fellow-
preserver. As the only practical agriculturist, Mr.
TVRNER, whom (for a special purpose) the preservers
ventured to examine, when cross-questioned, said,
" in dry seasons they seem to come out if the earth
almost."
And this point is very clearly and sensibly ex-
plained by Mr. Pusev, the member for Berkshire,
who was examined at great length.
Mr. PUSEY had been himself a rigid preserver of
game, but was led to abandon it from observing the
injury inflicted upon his tenants by. the game. is
said, "I had gradually observed the injury myself for
some time; for instance, a field of wheat, I have seen',
half of it in December completely bare, as if nothing
whatever had been sawn." Again, " I found that one
of my tenants had given up growing winter vetches
altogether, in consequence of the abundance of hares."
His determination to abandon preserving was not
soddenly taken, but resulted from the observations of '
several years. And Mr. PtysEY thus naturally ex-
plained the way in which game-preserving has of
late years become more obnoxious and injurious to
farmers than formerly : " I should say that the ten-
dency of the new system of farming is to render the
crops more liable to injury from game, and also that
the tendency of the new system of preserving game
is to render game more injurious to the farmer; both
farming and Fame preserving have become more
artificial, and in consequence of the change on each
side, game is much more injurious than it used to be."
And he afterwards further elucidated this point by
saying, " Formerly the crop was very much the un-
assisted produce of the land, and now in many in-
stances the farmer pays as much to the manure mer-
chant as he does to his landlord." Now this is just
what landlords will not understand. They have treble
and quadruple the rents their fathers, or at all events
theirgmnd-fathers,enjoyed—rents produced mainly by
the additional outlays of capital made by their tenants,
and yet they expect the same demi-feudal reservations
and privileges as their forefathers possessed when
the " crop was the unassisted produce of the land."
Can anything be more unreasonable?
Mr. Paws shows that " where game is preserved
strictly it has very much increased." And he illus-
trated the subject by the following reference to the
circumstances of his own estate. He said, "I am
certain it is more difficult to preserve game than it
was even twenty years ago ; because my father had a
keeper, who was really no keeper at all, and yet at
that time I have counted 50 or 60 pheasants under
the windows of the house. Since I have given up
strictly preserving, the game has disappeared altoge-
ther; it can no longer take care of itself as it did 20
years ago. Farmers are more alive to the injury
they receive from the game, in fact they receive more
injury, and are less inclined to discountenance poach-
ing. There is also greater difficulty in checking
poaching than there was formerly, arising from
facility of communication, and the demand for game
in the towns." The consequence of this is " that
where game is not strictly preserved, there is none ;"
and there is, says Mr. PUSEY, " a larger amount
where it is preserved, because if a man is obliged to
go to a considerable expense in preserving game and
having watchers at night, the keepers will naturally
be desirous, on the few occasions when shooting takes
place, to show a large head of game. And it also
ceases to be so much the common weekly amusement
of country gentlemen. The owner of 2,000 acres
does not like to disturb his covers by frequently driving
them, because as soon as the game has got upon un-
protected land it disappears. And this, I think, is
one cause which has led to the system of battues, that
they are really obliged to avoid disturbing the game as
they did." And he afterwards added: " The game is
no longer in the shape of wibi animals, but merely pre-
serred artificially, and, therefore, as soon as it wanders
off the protected property it disappears." And the
Marquis of SALISBURY and other game-preserving
landholders, expressly said that no man ought to
attempt or expect to preserve game without main-
taining a large force of keepers to protect it.
Now the necessary conclusion to be drawn from this
explanation is that game can only be artificially and
excessively preserved, and that there is no middle
course between the abandonment of Fame altogether,
and that system of strict preservation which is so
fraught with demoralisation and crime. 'Lb& more
closely the subject is examined, the more accurate will
this view be found.

ROME, DEc. 12.

A sad calamity has befallen our city. The Tiber,
suddenly swollen by rain such as is only witnessed
under the tropics, and impeded in its course towards
Ostia by a south-east wind, has just flooded two-
thirds of the inhabited streets, and destroyed property,
both in town and country, to a melancholy extent.
This century had not Kea a similar inundation, that
of 1805 being far less extensive or disastrous. As far
as the eye could reach, from the Pincian hill to the
foot of Monte Mario, from the Sonte Tolle to the
contrescarpe of Castle St. Angelo, became at once a
vast lake, interspersed with tops of trees and
farm roofs, cattle swimming, and floating wag-
gons. Nut only the accustomed low quarters
of the Piazza Navona and Pantheon, but the
Corso and Coudotti were submerged, and the well-
known magnificent area of the Porta del Popolo be-
came a deep pond impassable to carriages. It was a
singular sight to look down from the Pincian on this
extemporised basin, reflecting calmly. the surrounding
churches and monuments, and receiving into its abun-
dance the rather superfluous contributions of the four
Egyptian Lions who kept up the farce of their quad-
ruple jet d'eau throughout. The central obelisk of
Rhamses, which rose in quiet grandeur over the
waters, seemed, after many thousand years, to have got
a glimpse of his native Nile at its work of fertilization.
Unfortunately, mischief, unmixed with any compen-
sating result, ensues from these visits of the Roman
river.

The reports from the various quarters (or islands) 1
of the city have as yet brought no tidings of drowned
men, though horses, pigs, and kine have perished in
numbers, and the misery of the poorer classes can ,
hardly be estimated unless by the knowledge of their ,
exclusive tenancy of all ground-floors, in home the
upper stories being alone inhabited by the wealthy.
But the unfortunate Jews are in the worst predica-
ment of all other denominations, their disadvantageous
quarter being not of their own selection, and hence it
became only an act of common honesty in the govern-
ment to behave as it has done by them to-day ; sup-
plying them at once, and in the first rank
with food and necessaries. For this purpose
domiciliary visits were made to all bakers,
and fashionable hotels and every loaf carried oft' to the
Ghetto. If any good could possibly be elicited from
the present sad occurrence, it would be perhaps
the forcing the Pope's attention to the folly
and un-Christian policy of his predecessors in
cooping up the remnant of Israel hero
into a space of the town so confined and so
objectionable as to nearly resemble the hold of a
Brazilian slave-ship on the middle passage. To
condemn a people to perpetual dirt and disease, with
the interlude of an occasional deluge like the present,
is a sorry scheme fur their conversion and a
sad lesson of Christian love. These unlucky
sojourners in the capital of the church have just
had all their property, cloths, silks, velvets,
and every commodity in which they traded destroyed
at once by no act of theirs : and in any civilized

country they would ho clearly entitled to
recover the'
amount from the legislature. The old houses are
happily falling on each other's shoulders,l and the
the
whole rookery will be rendered soon unioe,
in which case they must per force be allowed to
select some other part of this wide metropolis to build
in. This is the moment for their brethren through
memorialisethEueroirpebehatoltwhh
cosh The Pope would be but too happy to
val be liti yP on ft iffs
uoen-
find outward support apinst the prejudices
evethrye bepnreo
of the lower orders, and of the narrow-minded
rich. 'Twat; a touching sight to see these helpless
crowded under the roof of the synagogue, which was
sufferers, with the scanty wreck of their furniture,
the only dry spot of their prison house. By the river
of Babylon well might they sit and weep when they
remembered Sion!
There live 3,600 of them in this black hole, of whom
1,900 arc paupers, about 1,000 earn a livelihood by
trade, and the remainder are comparatively rich.
They raise among themselves 13,009 dollars yearly for
the support of their own schools and other institutions.
The State draws a large revenue from their commercial
operations, and it is a remarkable circumstance in the
ease of the Roman Jews that by way of propitiating
their Christian fellow-citizens they are in the habit of
emphatically disclaiming any part or portion in the
great misdeed visited upon them and their children.
They maintain, and with considerable pretensions to
truth, that they are descended from a colony of
Ilebre ot men settled in Rome long before the period
of the Crucifixion—and certainly we know that
Pompey brought thousands of captive Jews to Rome,
and Josephus, I think, describes 8,000 of them going
up to remonstrate with Augustus on some occasion or
other.
I pray the assistance of the Express in draw-
ing the attention of the friends of Israel throughout
Europe to these poor people and their cause : it is
truly that of the captive and the bondsman.
The waters are now rapidly subsiding, the wind
having fortunately veered round last night; the Corso
isdisincumoered, save that several large boats aground
still clog the carriage-way. Some ludicrous descrip-
tions of individual disaster fill the columns of the
Roman Adeeet.iser to-day, in which also flattering
mention is made of Prince Borghtsa and his boat
going round the streets with a bread-basket. This
sort of yachting was a source of new excitement,
highly amusing, no doubt, to the prince and
his high-born associates ; but he has it in
his power to do more substantial acts than
such ad eaptandum exhibitions : and whenever a dis-
position to work in earnest for the amelioration of the
poor by procuring sterling reforms and permanent
unprovements is shown by. his Highness, I will be
eager to mark the euthanasia by special notice.
Among the spectators of the drowned city from the
terrace of Monte Pincio no small space of public
observation was occupied by Signor Lablache, whose
well-known features were wrought into unacted
sympathy.
It is rumoured here that M. Fornari, the nuncio at
Paris, is to be recalled, and to get a hat : his acknow-
ledged ability has been justly appreciated, and doubt-
less Count Rossi has made a favourable report on his
arrival here. Girzi's health is not of the best, and he
requires the assistance of an able under-secretary.
The subject of an interchange of diplomatic repre-
sentatives between England and Rome has been
lately revived, and though the utmost secrecy is pre-
served in the matter, considerable progress, it is
understood, has been made. The British cabinet
insist on the Roman envoy in London being a lay-
man in all cases. Here the negotiation hitches.
His Grace the Duke of Devonshire had a long
audience with his Holiness at the Quirinal Palace, on
the 9th.

FRANCE.—The Bey of Tunis arrived at Chaim.
on the evening of the 18th, and was received at the barrier
of the citadel by the sub.preftet and the authorities. He
then proceeded to the Hotel du Pare, where a brilliant sere-
nade was given him by the Society of Military Music. The
neat morning, just before his departure for Lyons, he pre-
sented to the president of this society a diamond pin, and
left 1,500 f. for the poor of the town.
COMMERCE OF TILE REPUBLIC OF EQCADOR.—
The French Minister of Commerce has just addressed a cir-
cular to some of the chambers of commerce, containing in-
formation as to the French products and manufacture most
in demand at Guayaquil. The Minister says : "In the
markets of the Equator, as in the other markets of South
America, English, Swiss, and Rhenish manuf.ctures in
linen and cotton have had too frequently a preference
over us. Our silks, which have much success at Valparaiso
and Lims, are less in demand at Guayaquil, on ac-
count of the poverty of the country arid foreign competition,
which is formidable fur the inferior qualities. Our broad-
cloths, the superiority and fineness of which begin to be ac-
knowledged by the inhabitants, gain ground, but as yet are
purchased only by the rich. In mixed stuffs, of wool, thread,
and cotton, new designs of which are produced every day,
we preserve a mocked advantage over our rivals. As to
cutlery and hardware, England supplies the first al-
m'st exclusively, and shares the supply of the second
with Germany and the United States; but we have
still the supply of articles of luxury. We have
little competition to dread in fine mercery and Paris
articles, the consumption of which increases daily.
In the supply of paper, Genoa and Spain have almost mono-
polised the trade as regards the common sorts. In the fine
qualities we compete with sonic advantage with Italy and
England. Our printed papers maintain the first rang. In
the book trade, as regards French and Spanish works, we
have to fear the competition of Spain, and even America.
Our preserved food and fruits maintain their superiority,
notwithstanding their high price. This is the case also with
our oils and our wines. French liqueurs are esteemed beyond
all others at Guayaquil. Cognac brandy is imitated to such
an extent by braudy made from sugar, that it is difficult to
compete with the adulterations."
Colts.--Somo of the journals (says the Gazette (le
Midi)have stated that the ...counts of the large importations
of corn at Marseilles were fictitious ; that the whole aillur a es
n transaction of M. do Rothschild for supplying Algeria, and
that the numerous vessels that arrived from the Black Sea
only touched at Marseilles, and then continued their route
for their real destination. The persons who hazarded such
fIASCIIIOIIB arc little aware of the activity on our quays,
streets, and highways ; they are not aware that the Ithine
not being serviceable at the present moment
i for the trans-
port of corn, every vehicle, for miles round, s hired out at
are not swore
avtafv.iytarhepnehrlei from..nyotsti !,oi.iytnlizß,,,a7
speculations of M. de look-
ingßoths-
aneeximireebitiadniet
eppreeiceta;tothrteyoftheepee
Roths-
child, our merchants have realised large profits, and that our
town, as was ever the case under similar circumstances, is
the active agent, the Providence of the country.
BELGIUM.—Such is the misery, says the Meesager
de Gala, which weighs so cruelly upon our population, that
in a great number of villages in our neighbourhood
slaughter-houses have been established, which compete with
the butcher... Scarcely is it known in a village that a horse
has been slaughtered before the place is besieged by a host of
the working class, who, to the shame of our governors, are
compelled to resort to this sort of nourishment, because horse-
flesh may be had at 12 centimes the kilogramme (about five
farthings the pound). Although it is not the young horses
ptet
ipe: theteot :ern;
edme
dseelh
eoda relativeg
gorses
i*
which are slaughtered, the flesh is not the less eagerly sought
after by this mass of unfortunates, who are almost dying of
hunger, and find themselves very fortunate when they are
so lucky as to be able to buy horseflesh for ten centuries,
decayed and feeble nourishment as it is for a population con-
demned to such rude and oppressive labour.
BRUSSELS, DEC. 22.—The bill for exempting salt
destined fir mixture in food for cattle from the excise duty,
was passed unanimously in the Chamber of Representatives.
It was understood that salt, intended for the improvement at
land, would be also admitted duty free. This afternoon the
ot
i,,mfri
nn: creditvotedtmer l l
eofdorifot
thrzfihevhce
Iwbnimuomtnrii liiootoi,,,tmindleo.nhfiTegre
dowleeth,t
et
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iirie:,
chamber resumed the discussion of the budget of the interior,
and voted a considerable sum (about 300,000 fr.) for the en-
couragement of agriculture. A dispute of some importation
is pending between the town-council of this city and the
government. The former, being anxious to lower Bast
octroi duties on certain necessary articles of food, resolved to
impose a higher duty on foreign brandies, including French
liquors of that description. The government has refused its
aauction, on the ground that it would affect the existing
relations of Belgium and France. A petition to the chamber
was presented by the civic authorities of Brussels, and the
central section of the chamber have Fast reterred it to the
serious attention of the govenament.
DECEMBER 24. The average price of wheat,
during the week ending on Saturday, Dec. 19, was 211.590
per hectolitre ; the prices are higher than those of the pre-
ceding week, by 42 centimes on wheat, and 3 centimes on
War Department
rye. The Chamber of Representatives pained today a vote
It then resumed the discussion of the Budget of
the Department of the Interior, which began yester-
day with the 11th chapter on agriculture. The
debate terminated with the rejection of M. Osban's 1
amendment, and the adoption of the sum nmposed by the
government. An addition of 5,000 francs, proposed by the 1
o
tt.ht,e,
announced
dcelce,e,
.eirt.
i.dnhz
Minis-
action,
ibiahnpheutmri kr
pri-
mary
..tr--,-:-.
not 1 1 1
firsrbt?intelNtr:no:oa
7.4ner;.h:ooecotf.
examination,
i of civil
branches
leThmeit
esi;t.
instruction,iier
tltit attention
instruction,
t iuonMimtofgrr Interior,
educationts:.
dtc,rorhaeteoe.,:darots h. t
t
ld
:et: t
otohnri
:0: htnipairebeitH:rrtfe
directed
thisne
dgh blit
1..
e essentialer
enl
aft
referred
orprae
dory-f
which the minister and M. No:
be printed and distributed before the 2ith of this mouth.
Everybody appeared to be urgent upon the point, that a
thorough discussion on the state of primary instruction, and
the direction which has been given, is not possible, without
being acquainted with the report. The Minister of