The Express.
London, England, 1851-04-11 00:00:00

OFFICIAL EXHISITION CATALOGUES.— and leaving them to provide fur their own defence in
Ancssurisemestis sill continue to be received for in•ertles time of peace. The reduction that might thus be
la the (Metal Cambrume" during the whole tune the Ezhibition re.
.. effected in our national expenditure has been one ()b-
-ossing open; but as the CenirJetors are bound to pav a primly 14 EJI ~
• day if they do not ,'Nicer the erg edition to the Royal CommPelos jeer we have had in view; but the obviating of many
siritating discussions, which, while the present system
&sr :he se
lasnuthvo.fimApreinl,dtvhA4tlLdertioelionnszLiatt.eiugue.nded •ur.
Ltiss.4ll.l:.ll.vet
aeries of 2,4.0 $ rash of the emelt C.it;sl,gu . and for the trot editions •
ls lA.CseVered in, must be constantly. arising between
to the Contrsetors by the 14th of April. the mother country and the colonies, has had far
SPICER KKOTIIERN, Whoke.ileStasunerr, 1 Joint Contractors to the more weight with us. As to the military stations,
W. CLOWES AND lONS. Printers, i Royal CArrinlil.6oo.
°BIWA Caustaus onto, a New Milne-street, Meelanels• the disadvantage of encutniwring ourselves with the
costly and useless appendage of the lonian Islands
has snore titan once been insisted on in these co-
lumns. Abstractedly taken, the policy recommended
by. Sir WILLIAM MOLESwOnTII appears to us 1111ah-
..0
: it is for the executive government to devise
Runs of realising it with the least possible

Zite v rantZli.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

drertlressestmlatende:l tor •• The Express," Iwndon Evening paper,
willAt be .t the OltiCe. 10, Boarerie•street, by Two o'clock is the

the
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HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
Tan Dar—Morning, %Alm Anti...eon, In. en.
Timmeauw—llomisg. 10h. the. Aftersooa, lib. Elm.

it was certainly not from any tenderness to
butchers, that we expressed doubts of the expediency
of removing the market for the sale, and of course
for the slaughter, of cattle, to one extremity of this
vast metropolis. There is no department of national
economy in which it is so important to bring con-
sumers and producers into close contact, and to ob-
viate the necessity of middlemen and their exorbi-
tant charges and expenses, as in the case of the first
necessaries of life, bread and meat. There is
nothing so mortifying as to perceive daily the
badness and dearness of these two articles off` con-
sumption in a country and at a time when the prime
cost of the material, corn and cattle, has been so
much diminished. But with respect to bread, meat,
beer, and coffee, the object of the legislature in
cheapening and facilitating the procuring these com-
modities for the people, hasbeen completely neutralised
by the dealers. We fear much that the removal of
the cattle and meat markets beyond the reach of any
citizen will add to this evil, unless considerable taro
be taken to obviate the too natural results of such a
measure. - . .

LONDON, FRIDAY, APRIL 11.

THE remarks with which Sir WILLIAM MOLES-
WORTH prefaced his motion last night, for the reduc-
tion of our colonial military expenditure, placed the
whole question in a very clear point of view.
Most important is the distinction which he drew be-
tween our colonies proper and our military stations.
The colonies are permanent settlements of indus-
trious Englishmen. By their very nature they re-
quire elbow-room for their inhabitants ; the more
extensive the land in and near them available for
settlement the better; and they must go on to extend
their frontier indefinitely as their population in-
creases. The military stations, on the contrary, are
mere garrisons, points dappui, for our fleets engaged
in maintaining the police of the high seas. Their
requisites are eligible locality and adaptation to de-
fence. The more limited in extent, the more com-
pletely isolated from populous mainlands they are,
the better. The latter require and admit of military
garrisons; the former do not admit of being defended
from aggression, except by large armies, and with
proper management will seldom require such pro-
tection. These considerations establish the first broad
distinction between the two classes of territories
in reference to the cost of their defensive esta-
blishments.
The relation in which they stand to the central
kingdoms or mother country establishes another dis-
tinction. The military stations, as has been already
observed, are points dappui for our fleets : it may be
added harbours of refuge for our commercial as well
as our military marine, and nothing more. We
would require as many of them, possibly more, if we
had not a single colony. We do not need to add
one to their number, let our colonies increase as
I they may. Their maintenance is an aftiiir of impe-
' rial policy ; and by the central empire the expense
' of maintaining them ought in equity to be borne.
The colonies, on the other Ladd, are corn-
munities of British origin who seek to better
their condition in foreign lands. Their settlers
wish to retain their character and privileges
of British subjects ; they wish to rank them-
selves in the trying and calamitous periods of war
under the British banner. From these relations
arises a reciprocal duty ; the duty of mutual support
according to the means of each in the hour of danger.
But in time of peace the connexion between the
parent state and its colonial offsets may be main-
tained with a considerable latitude or mutual inde-
pendence and non-intertinenee. It has been found
that as the prosperity of the mother country has in
a great measure been owing to the sturdy, self-rely-
ing character produced by the large extent of self-
government exercised by its citizens, so those colo-
nies have prospered most in which the settlers were
left most free to manage their own local of airs. This
consideration dictates the policy of leaving the colo-
nists to govern themselves by municipal and
legislative Institutions analogous to those of
the mother country. And such an arrange-
ment would liberate the mother country
from any responsibility fur their defence,
in times of peace. They have a claim upon the
assistance of her fleets and armies in time of war;
they are in duty bound to aid her in proportion to
their means when engaged in war; but in time of
peace the police force and garrisons required by either
mother country or colonies should be supported by
the inhabitants of the localities for whose special use
they arc established and maintained. 'this is a
general principle applicable at all times, alike favour-
able to the liberties and property of the parent state
and its colonies. It 1,1 one to which the present de-
mand for economy in the public expenditure invites
attention with peculiar urgency.
In 1846-7 (the last year for which we are in posses-
sion of the necessary information) the sum expended
upon the colonies and military stations was
3,500,000/. Of this only 500,0001. was incurred for
purposes of civil government; the remaining 3,000,0001.
for was military expenditure. This sum, however, ro.
presents very . inadequately what our defensive
establishments m the colonies and military stations cost
us. It embraces only the expense of the maintenanea
and clothing of the soldiers, engineers, and artillery-
men, actually in the dependencies. It has been cal- •
culated that for the purpose of reliefs one regiment
must be kept on foot at home for every two regi-
ments iu the colonies. The half-pay and pensions
earned by service in the colonies ought also to be set
down to the colonial account. The reduction effected
in our annual expenditure by the diminution of nor
military establishments in the out-settlements would
therefore be greater than appears from the financial
returns.
This reduction Sir WILLIAM MOLESWORTH pro•
poses to effect by two different processes. Looking first
to the military stations, it appears to him that they are
more in number than the imperial policy requires. I
Ile deems Malta and Gibraltar sufficient for
the Mediterranean; Halifax and Bermuda and
Barbadoes for the Atlantic ; the Peninsula at the
south-west extremity of Africa, Mauritius, Singa-
pore, and perhaps Hung Kong, for the rest of the
ocean. lly concentrating our force upon these points
a very material reduction might be effected in the
expense of the military stations, which stands to the
expense of our military establishments in the (ado-
vies proper in the proportion of nearly three

It is impossible to deny that there existed a great
many cogent reasons for removing the market ; al-
though whether it was preeisely these reasons which
weighed with the country gentlemen, who curried
the bill, may be doubted. •They evidently pictured
withdrawing the meat market of London altogether
from the control of the citizens or the corporation
of London. and deemed the glowing and feeding in-
terest of the English counties safer in the hands
of government commissioners and of a new eompony.
Whether Mr. Cu RISTOPIImi and the squires are right
in the adoption of such policy may also be doubted.
County magnates, in our days, are quite as much
menaced by the progress oi centralisation as city
authorities are. And should the country malig-
nantly contribute to pull down the towns, whilst tho
towns aid in the destruction of the influence of the
country, government will eventually gain ut the ex-
pense of both; and, in gaining, will acquire a power
of which it is incapable of making good use.
There is not a capital city in the world, no, not
even St. Petersburgh, so completely at the mercy
of government, and so utterly mismanaged by it, as
London. For want of any municipal organisation

except within the narrow limits of -llie city,
the several districts of the metropolis have been
left almost in a state of nature, not only fur behind
Paris and every continental city, but even behind
second and third rate towns in England. The way
in which Parliament has thought fit to re-
medy this, is to fling all the cares nod duties
into the hands of government. Government having
already too much on its hands forthwith delegate-3
these tEdilie powers. To whom ?--to men the most
remote in their habits and experience from the ways
and wants of citizens. The posts of influence have
been tilled with lords, with scientific men, with govern-
ment functionaries; and whilst the course of'
these men has been to delay all improvement, their
every act has been in antagonism with civic inte-
rests and civic ideas.
Let us consider 'eh:it has been done with
regard to water-supply, to sewerage, to inter-
ments, and what do we see but the atter in-
capacity and dilatoriness of government boards ?
It will be the same with Smithfield. Parliament in
a fit of must rational disgust may abolish Smith-
field, but it is not a bit the nearer line that to an effi-
cient, well-regulated, cheap, and satisfactory market.
As to the proposal of the government, which has just
been referred to a committee, it gets rid of a very
few indeed of the evils of Smithfield, by substituting
for them evils quite as bad of its own.
A market at Islington, with the cattle from the
south of the Thames driven to and fro across the
bridges,---this is the worst evil of Smithfield mar-
ket exaggerated, exaggerated too at the expense of
the farmers of the south and of the imputation of
Southwark. It is impossible not to revur to the
idea of another market on another day of the week
at the south-western extremity of the town. To to
sure, markets are things that a legislature
cannot compel or create, nor a corporation
either. Farringdem and Islington markets um
there as proofs. But as no legislative measure
on the subject can be complete or effective, unless
cattle are forbidden to pass the bridges, such a
market seems indispensable. Whether it might
not be obviated by the completion of the circular
railroad all round London, and the establishment of
at least abattoirs south of the Thames, remains to
be considered. But most certainly at present the
inhabitants of the south of London have the prospect
of being compelled to buy their meat a penny per
pound dearer than their fellow townsmen north of
the river.
Government commissioners will take two years to
pother over such questions as these. Nor is the cor-
poration of London alone competent to decide
matters so immediately affecting the whole popula-
tion of thu metropolis. The market commissioners
will be less restricted in their decrees and their
expenditure, by the consciousness that they can
raise what sums they please, through tolls upon the
people of the metropolis, instead of striking rates
and coming before the respective parishes. Parliament
may generally decide between a government job and
a corporation job ; but who is to protect the public
against jobbery in general and in particular ? Thu
citizens of the metropolis want municipal organi.sa-
tion, and they ought to come to an understanding to
demand this first, as the only- guarantee against eying
fleeced eternally, either under the pretext of old
I vested rights or of new liberal improvements.
itt

to one.
With respect to the colonies proper Sir WILLIAI
would relieve the mother country from all outlay for
their defence in times of peace, with the exception
of those colonies which we use as receptacles for our
convicts, and those to which we do not concede local
self-government. This would impose upon us the
cost of maintaining troops in Van l)icman's Land
(as long as we keep convicts there), and at Swan
River. It would also impose upon us the
necessity of providing for the defence of the so-called
Crown colonies, at least until we shall have placed
them upon a footing of equality with those which have
obtained locallegislaturesand responsible goveniment.
It is to the principle of Sir WILLIAM'S recom-
mendations that we wish to direct attention, and
therefore wo abstain from entering into the details
of his estimates of expenditure. Taking, however,
the accounts for the year 1846-7 as our guide, the
saving effected by the withdrawal of troops from the
colonies proper would amount to between 700,0001.
and 800,000 f. per annum; the relinquishment of the
lonian Islands, the transkrence of Ceylon to the
East India Company, the confinement of our military
expenditure at the Cape to the defence of the
peninsula strictly so-called, the concentration of
our establishments in the Straits at the
entry to the Indian Archipelago, and the abandon-
ment of the West African forts as military stations,
would render a considerable economy easy. And
the obvious and palpable reduction of expense would I
draw after it a corresponding reduction in our outlay
for
.pensions and half-pay, for barracks and other
engineering works.
This financial reform, it is obvious, cannot be
accomplished immediately. As the concession of local
self-government to some colonies which do not at
present enjoy it, ought to precede the change, some
time must be allowed for the preparatory arrange-
ments. The curtailment of our military stations, too,
could not be effected all at once. What wo under-
stand Sir WILLIAM to urge is, that the alteration in
our colonial and military station policy should be
resolved upon at once, and carried into execution as
speedily as aveumstances permit.
We need scarcely add that the outline of the po-
licy sketched by Sir WILLIAM ltioutswoarli harmo-
nises in the main with what we have more than
once advocated. We have lately drawn attention to
the deleterious effect produced upon the discipline of
oar regiments by colonial service ' wo have, again
and again, urged the expediency of conferring upon
all our colonies the boon of local self-government,

MANCHESTER BOILER ExrwstoN.—The inquest
on the bodies of the niue persons by the explosion of
a boiler at Messrs. Hardman and Trice's buildings 2 Riga-
street, Manchester, was CUUCIUded on Wednesday. Further
evidence was taken, and the jury retired, at C o'clock, to eon-
eider their verdict, and were absent hours. They returned
with a verdict in the following words : let. The jury aro
of opinion that the boiler was efficient, and perfectly com-
petent to perform all the duties required from it. 2nd.
They are, also, of opinion that gross negligence has been
exercised in the management and attendance of this boiler,
and great want of ordinary care. 3rall The jury are unani-
mously of opinion that the deaths of the parties visited by
the jury, arose from culpable negligence on the part of
Thomas Egerbin (the engine-tenter), and Thomas William-
son (his employer)." Under these circumstances, the fore-
man added, twelve of the jury returned a verdict of man-
slaughter against the said Thomas Egerton, uud Thomas
Williamson. Williamson and Egeetun, under these circum-
stances, will be y=1114[4.41 upon the coroner's warrant, to
Kirkdale gaol, for trial at the next Liverpool assizes.
LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY ClLtNtlin IN ScOT-
LANII.—Mr. Rutherford has accepted the vacant seat on
the bench, and the stolicitor-f/eneral, Mr. Moncrciff, suc-
ceeds him as Lord Advocate. This, of course, creates a
vacancy in the parliamentary representation of the Leith
district of burghs; and the new Lord Advocate has pre-
sented himself to the constituency. In Mr. Rutherlurd,
the bench has gained one of the greatest lawyers Stutlund
ever produced, but the crown and the country have lost a
valuable public officer. Mr. Rutherfurd's address to his
late constituents is of course confined chiefly to local and
personal matters; but his parliamentary and official career
is enduringly recorded in those reforms in and out of the
Court of Session which he devised and carried through, and
not less perhaps in those other reforms in which his efilfrts
were thwarted by prejudice and interest. The elettion ad-
dress of his successor in office, Mr. Munerciff, is in the right
I spirit, especially as to the distinctuess and emphasis with
which he denten% himself on the subject of free-trade. It
I, is not likely, we understand, that there will be unv opposi-
tion. The election is fixed for Monday next. Although
I the point is not entirely or formally settled, we believe wo
y are almost quite safe in saying that Mr. John Cowan will
be the new Solicitor-General.—Neolsmen.
GREAT NORTHERNRAILWAY.—I'he committee on
this company's bill (No. 1) report that the additional capital
to be raised by the Great 'Northern railway for the execu-
tion of the works already authorised by the bill they now
seek to amend, amounts to 750,000 L, and the amount of
I loan which they aro empowered to raise is 250,0001., when
y the whole of their capital excepting that created by the
; Great Northern Railway Acts Amendment and Isle of As-
;holme Extension Act, 1848, is subscribed for and one-half
I paid up. The amount of shares subscribed for the execu-
tion of the new works is 56,250 L, and the deposits paid
thereon, 5,6251.; the estimated aost for completion of the
Iwork
proved, isand 75,that theyoool. The committee report the preamble
I are setielied with the bonojt4ics of the
subscription coat:act.

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