The Express.
London, England, 1848-06-22 00:00:00

THE E \ PRESS, THURSDAY EVENING, JUNE 22, 1848.

in hospital and could possibly command the use of 1
his Limbs, instantly returned to his place in the ranks,
full of alacrity to share the adventures of the cam-
Pa I i r?. t
exceedingly fortunate that the apparently entire
submission of the Punjaub has never induced the
Indian government to relax their vigilance and dimi-
nish their precautions. For the last two years we •
have constantly maintained upon the north-western
frontier one or two flying divisions of 10,000 men,
who were always furnished with artillery, and kept
in a state of readiness to advance upon any indicated
part. At the present moment the total force at the
command of the officer in chief at Lshore is more
than 50,000 strong, and of thereat leastlo,ooo men are
Europeans. Dispersed among these troops are 120
pieces of cannon—precisely the arm in which we were
most deficient in 1846, and in which any Punjaub in-
surrectionary force must be deficient in 1848, since
the immense park of Seikb guns have been reared up
into a military column before the gates of Fort
William. The ultimate result, therefore, of any dis-
turbance, many times more serious than that which
has so abruptly arisen on the banks of the Chenaub,
may be predicted with confidence.
The Indian government, therefore, is in no grave pre-
dicament ; nor, as fares we are advised at present, dues
there seem to have been any, gross misjudgment on
the part of the authorities at Lahore. But this is a
commendation which cant.ot be extended to the recent
extensive and hasty changes in the persons charged
with the government of our new dependency. In the
highest class of offices within the Punjaub we believe
there is not at present a single officer to whom the
Sikhs have become accustomed, or who is associated
in their minds with the events which have reduced
them into the station of a dependent people. Sir
JOHN Lermen has been removed to Calcutta; Major
M'OREGOR has been transferred to Benares ; Colonel
LAWRENCE is absent upon a year's furlough; and
Mr. JORN Law Reser:, we believe, either has or
shortly will leave the Sutlej provinces. Sir FREDE-
RICK CURRIE, who fills the office of Resident at the court
of the Maharajah, does so upon a temporary tenure, and
as he is by this time informed, upon a tenure which the
court of dirvctors do not approve. Sir J. Lirri.eit is
every way entitled to the honours which have been
bestowed upon him at Calcutta, but these honours
would have been as valuable to him, and more con-
veniently bestowed, a year hence as at this peculiarly
ill chosen moment. The respite which has been
accorded to Colonel LAWRENCE we can well believe
to have been essential to his health, but there exists
no excuse for the removal of Major MAchasoort
from a sphere where his services have
been so eminently successful. These changes
have all taken place within the last few months; and
if it shall be proved by the event, that the out-
break at Moultan has been adventured, partly upon
the strength of this untimely and inconsiderate
weakening of the reins of supreme authority in the
Punjaub, we hope and trust parliament will know
how to stigmatise a system of backstair management,
which pitches about the honour and safety of the
empire as if it was a brass farthing or a pinch-
beck counter, in subservience to private views and
convenience.
Nor must it be forgotten that we have just
sent a noble lord to Bombay, to occupy the post
of governor, who can scarcely know more of India than
that it is a hot country, or more of the duties of his
office than that it has the advantage of a large ie-lary.
• To make way for Lord FALKLAND there is the resig-
' cation of Mr. CLERK —of precisely the very man
whom, with all the changes' at Lahore, it was most
essential to retain at the western presidency.

TUE new reform has had as yet but one night's
parliamentary life, and already it has achieved no
inconsiderable portion of those conversions and con-
victions which indicate at once its infant power, and
promise its mature end complete success. As yet
but two parties have taken ground of resistance
against it. The whig premier and a talented protec-
tionist chief both signified their dissent and distaste
from this middle-class movement. The objectious
of both, however, and their avowed preferences, show
that their only hope of defeating this movement got
up by the middle classes, will be by embracing and
encouraging a rival movement on the part of the
lower clan,. The chief reproaches of Mr. Dtsito:t.i,
and indeed of Lord JOHN RUSSELL himself to Mr.
Ilestz, were that the proposed reform did not suf-
ficiently enfranchise the working clauses—that it
sought to establish still a mere property qualification :
that it was illusory and illiberal to include in the
franchise merely the artisans who had acquired suf-
ficient property in furniture, or lodging, to be rated
to the poor, when the intelligence of the entire work-
ing class demanded larger privileges and more con-
sideration.
Mr. )I,RA P. 1.7, for himself and his friends, declared
that they were most willing to lend themselves to the
patronage of popular rights, provided the people
would put trust in them, and take the country gen-
tlemen as the guides and leaders of the agitation, in
lieu of the horrid and vulgar chiefs sprung from the
middle and commercial classes. For our part, we
most strongly deprecate, especially in the present
state of Europe, the continuation of the chartist move-
ment. But when that movement is thus directly ap-
pealed to, when the exclusive and peculiar demands
of the working classes are proned, and when the leaders
of that popular movement are told by whig and tory,
by Mr. D'lsnAst.t and Lord JOIIN RUSSELL that they
would prefer giving the working classes their own
peculiar electoral bodies, and, of course, parlia-
mentary representatives, either by means of guilds
or in some other shape and fashion than a low pro-
perty qualification—when the chartists have these
offers, and see how much their agitation is pre-
ferred to a movement of citizens, they would be the
greatest fools on earth not to take advantage of these
offers. Let them meet, let them agitate, let them take
the statesmen and the gentlemen at their word, and
if they gain nothing, they may at least arrive at s^me
information as to the
.peculiar concession with which
the conservative hook is to be baited for catching the
gobe-mooches of the people.
And hero let us remark that there is one mode of
giving a very popular and plausible extension to the
franchise without rendering it inimical to aristo-
cratic influences. And this mode has been the fa-
vourite scheme of all despots, when compelled to
give the show without the substance of representative
government. This is, to make the suffrage very po-
pular and general, but then to correct it by double
election, the people choosing, not representatives, but
electors. Such was the idea of popular reform enter-
tained by CHARLES X. and POLIGNAC. It was the
ruling plan of the ordonnance of July, for which
the Parisians kicked the dynasty and the minister
out of the country. Yet this is what Lord JOHN
RUSSELL aims at, when he says that the working
classes may elect guilds, and these guilds may re-
turn members. And Mr. DISRAELI had some
thimble-rig of the kind in his eye, when he entreated
the people and the chartists to trust to the liberal
tendencies and hereditary liberality of the squires.

The industrious classes of England are in an excel-
lent position for the gaining of political rights. This
reform movement which has receiv, d such universal
adhesion and impulse from the civic population of
England, offers the artisan the elective franchise on
hie first acquirement of property or settled income.
It at the same time emancipates him by the ballot
from the dictation of employers, and gives him a con-
trol over his representatives, and over popular politi-
cians in general, by the more frequent recurrence of
elections. Moreover, by the equalisation of electoral
districts, it gives the artisan equal rights with the
Buckinghamshire farmer, whilst Mr. DPIRAELI
would confine them to the latter, because, with him,
the man who holds the plough or wields the hoe, is
worthy of more privileges, than the man who holds
the file or throws the shuttle.
Fearful of equality, and dreading with Lord JOHN
Russe.Lt, that the constitution might perish if par-
liament were not seasoned by due variety, the spokes-
men of the aristocratic parties come forward
and offer the people certain direct advan-
tages, greater and better than Mr. HUME or
the middle class can give. We can only
say to the people, take the gentlemen at their
word. Let Lord JOHN RUSSELL bring in a bill for
giving memners to the industrial classes, let Mr.
DISRAELI expound his plan for elevating the opera-
tives, and doing away with a property qualification.
But let them be acts, not promises; defined plans, not
moonshine theories. Let the protectionists set down
the points of their charter, and we will promise them
every consideration the moment we can learn and
und• rstand them.
The world, however, has as yet been able to do
neither the one nor the other. The sole aim of the
aristocratic parties is to kindle and to fan dissension

between the middle and the operative dames, and
with calumny, sophism, and clamour, and with party
and unmeaning words, to met chartist and reformer
down, like cocks in a pit, to tear and spur each other
to anger and exhaustion, whilst the lordly spectators
not only enjoy the strife, but coolly and exclusively
pocket that profit and those advantages which their
privilege has so long ensured to them, and which
their craft is still labouring to retain.

WE have somewhere read of a profound mathema-
tician, who, by dint of intense study, succeeded in
combining all the mechanical powers—screw, wedge,
lever, &c.—in one engine. The machine was too large
to be brought under cover, two hours were required to
set it in motion, and its use was to slice cabbages.
Lord JOHN RUSSELL must have taken the hint for his
measure of West India relief from this notable

engine.
Yet the complicated machinery of Lord JOHN'ti
measure, though contrasting strangely with its obvious
inefficiency, is not without a reason. The problem
that his lordship has taken upon him to solve is no
easy one. It is to persuade all parties that he is doing
something, while in reality he is doing nothing ; and
to persuade, at the same time, each of two irreconcile-
able interests, the one that he is doing them much
good, the other that he is doing them no harm. Much
diversity of feature was obviously required in a
measure which should present such diversified
appearances to eyes cleared and sharpened by inte-
rest, and in which, at the same time, the complex
arrangements should entirs ly neutralise each other.
Lord Jortres farce is infinitely better entitled to the
name of " Much Ado about Nothing" than SHAHS-

PEHe's comedy.
By the Sugar Duties Act of 1846 a duty of I Is.
per cwt. was imposed ' upon muscovado sugar the
growth of the British West Indies, or of those parts of
our East India possessions into which the importation
of sugar is prohibited. By the same act a duty of
11. Is. per cwt. was imposed upon foreign muscovado
sugar till .sth July, 1847 ; this duty to be dimi-
nished by Is. in 1818, and by Is. Gd. every
subsequent year till it should be equalised
with the duty on British muscovado sugar.
Lord Jolts, with a view to please the West Indians,
who ask for higher and more enduring protection,
and at the same time not to anger the sugar consum-
ers, who are naturally averse to pay tribute longer
than they can help to the sugar interest, ha• hit upon
the following expedient: There are to be two declin-
ing scales of duty ; the duty on British sugars is to
fall from 14s. to 13s. per cwt. in 1849, and to be re-
duced
Is. each succeeding year till it comes to 10s.,
at which it is to remain fixed. The duty on foreign
muscovado is to be 18e. Gd. in 1819 (as under the
Sugar Duties Act) and be reduced Gd. in each of the
years 1850, 1831, and le. in each of the succeeding
years till 1834 ; in 1835 it is to be further reduced
by in order to equalise it with the duty on British
.i.oscovarlo. The result of this alovation is that the
West Indians will continue to enjoy protection for
six instead of three years after 1848 ; that their
gradually evanishing protection will start in
1819 from a differential duty of sa, Gd. instead
of 4s. tid. per cwt. ; and that the reduction of the
duty on British will be affected by slightly larger an-
nual reductions than that of the duty on foreign
muscovado. In addition to this the foreign sugars
now classed as foreign muscovado are to be divided
into two classes, and on the class in which the higher
qualities are placed the duty of 20s. exigible under
the Sugar Duties Act in 1818 is to remain unaltered in
1849, alter which the duty on this class is also to be
diminished gradually till, in 1831, it becomes equalised
with that on British museovado. The starting point
in the declining scale of duties on this class of sugars
in 1849, will afford a protection to British sugars as
against them in that year, of 7s. The result is, that
in 1849, British muscovado sugar, instead of being
protected by a differential duty of 4s. 6d. against all
foreign sugars of the same class, will be protec ed by
a differential duty of 7s. against some sugars of th
class, and of 3s. 6d. against others. What proportion the
foreign sugars liable to the higher duty will bear
to those liable to the lower duty, Lord JOHN Russell.
cannot tell, nor can the sugar growers, foreign or
British, conjecture ; it will depend upon the chapter
of accidents—upon the season or the chances of boil-
ing. The distinction is made simply for the purpose
of persuading the West Indians that more has been
conceded to them than is really the case. The ruling
differential duty will be 3s. Id., and all that will be
gained by the introduction of an additional class will
be perplexity, squabbling, and wrangling between
Custom-house officers and brokers. 'the element of
uncertainty introduced will cost the sugar importers
far more than the slight additional measure of protec-
tion can make up for. 'this is rendering the sugar tariff
more complicated, to persuade the sugar importers
that a boon has been granted them, whereas, in truth,
they will suffer by it.
All then that the British sugar interest have gained
is, that the entire equalisation of the duties is
staved off for three years longer, and that the
initiating part of the decreasing scale of differential
duty in 1849 is to be .ss. W. instead of 4s. Gd. If
matters are to remain in the NVest Indies as now,
this Is. of difference will be entirely unfelt. It will
merely afford the labourers a plea to stand out for
higher wages. And what prospect does Lord Jolts
hold out that matters will be essentially different in
18.54 from what they are likely to be in 1831, or even
from what they are now ? It is true ho proposes a
loan of .500,0001. to promote the emigration of free
tropical labourers into the West Indies; but, even
should parliament vote this sum, when is the emigra-
tion to commence? Where is it to come from ? By
what means is it to be effected? Upon these points
Lord JOHN entertains views differing from those held
bythe West India body here, and that body views dif-
fering from those entertained by the resident
West Indians, and the residents of each co-
lony views differing from those entertained
by the residents of every other. Judging
from the past experiments in immigration, and from
the prevailing discrepancies of opinion, the six years
will have claps d before any uniform and efficient
scheme of immigration can be agreed upon.
But labour is not the only thing wanted to place
our British sugar-growing colonies in a condition to
compete with the foreigner. Indeed, it is only in the
three great colonies of Jamaica, Trinidad, and
Guiana, that increased supplies of labourers are
wanted. The more intelligent West Indians say, and
say with truth, that it is less a reduction of wages
than the power of commanding continuous labour
that they require. The high rate of wages, enabling
the labourer to enjoy comforts, and even luxuries.
in which the labouring class have never dreamt of
indulging by inadequate and precarious toil, is the
maiu cause why continuous labour cannot be obtained.
But, in all the West India colonies, except the three,
we have named, the labouring population" is so
numerous, that competition among themselves
would soon beat down the rate of wages
were it not for the protecting duty that enables the
planters to outbid each other in competing for their
services. In the fully-peopled colonies it is the pro-
tecting duty alone that keeps up wages. In Jamaica, ,
Trinidad, and Guiana it is otherwise : there is in
those colonies a deficient supply of labour, and a co-
pious immigration of free labourers can alone enable
the planters to obtain continuous labour with or with-
out protection. But this incapability of obtaining
continuous labour, as it is not the r. al source of the
distress in the other colonies, so neither is it the sole
source in these. Ever since the slave trade was de-
clared illegal in the British dominions, the cost of
production in our sugar colonies has been increased,
and it has continued to increase with every step in
the 'ameliorated treatment of slaves and towards
their ultimate emancipation ; but the N't est Indiana
have obstinately shut their eyes to this change in their
position. They have been resolute not to see that the
change in their position was irreversible. They
have for upwards of thirty years gone on managing
and living as if no alteration in their modes of
transacting business or io their personal expenditure
had become necessary. The consequence is that,
with few if any exceptions, they have come to be at
the mercy of those agents in this country to whom
they are in the habit of making consignments, and
from who-n they have been receiving stores. The
estates which are nominally the planters', belong in
reality to English commercial houses. Some have been
transferred to English houses, others are mortgaged to
the teeth to English houses; the owners of others are
so bound to their consignees that they must continue
to deal with them on their own terms, however exor-
bitant. The West India proprietors have little capital
and Its credit, and this it is that renders them
unable to struggle with the difficulties of their
present position, in itself sufficiently arduous.
This state of affairs is rendered Woos by

the disadvantageous tenures of land in some
of the colonies, and by the defective state of the law
of debtor and creditor in all of them. Lastly, the
profligate expenditure and inadequate administration
of government treble all the evils resulting from the
preceding impediments to profitable industry and
enterprise. '1 hese drawbacks cannot be removed by
immigration, or by a loan of 500,000/., or by a grant
of double that amount.
The truth is, that in one re-pect the West Indies
are much in the same condition as Ireland. The
nominal proprietors of the laud are not the usufruc-
tuary owners of it. The defective state of the law
keeps the nominal proprietor in possession as a mere
bail,ff, to hand over the returns from his land to his
creditors. Capital cannot accumulate—improved ma-
nagement cannot be adopted under such circumstances.
It is not the inability of our British colonies, but the.
inability of the actual proprietors and managers to
compete with foreigners, that requires a remedy. The
first step towards a better condition of these colonies
is a gene ral settlement of accounts, and the transfer-
ence of property toils real owners. The next is the
adoption by ouch estate owner of the practice of
managing his own affairs in person. The Cubans and
Brazilians make their estates their homes; they eclair'
their expenditure to their means and to the general
habits of society around them. Our West India pro-
prietors deem the possession of West India estates a
warrant to live in the mother-country, and to adopt
the style of living of our titled and untitled aristo-
crscy. In the days of slavery and monopoly this
might be ; but those days are for ever past.
These considerations show that Lord JOIN Rt.'s-
SELL'S measure leaves unremedied the real source of
West Indian distress; that it is only calculated to
divert attention from that source, and thereby to per-
petuate the distress. That the measure will be re-
jected there can be little doubt, nor can this grieve
any man of average reflection. But it is melancholy
to think that no better measure is suggested by any
one, and that the crude nonsense we hear spoken on
all sides gives assurance that a sound measure of
relief for the British West Indies would ouly be
proposed to be rejected.

ITALY.

CAPITULATION OF PADUA.

ITALY.—The last accounts from Italy bring intel-
ligence of the capitulation of Padua, and the re.
tirement of General Pepe to Ferrara. The reason
given for the capitulation of l'adua is, that the
inhabitants had sent to Vicenza to ask for pro.
tection against the populace, who, the place having
been abandoned by the troops, rose and threatened
the property of the citizens. This aid was refused,
and General Pepe, finding the placc incapable of being
protected, capitulated.
SICILY.—Our Malta correspondent writing on the
14th inst. sags:

_
We learn here by letters from Messina, by the Ardent,
that a conspiracy had been discovered in that city to give up
Messina to the troops in the citadel. The plot was concocted
by come emplor4 of the late government. The corrupoe.
deuce between the plotters and the commandant of the
citadel was carried on by the way of Ciabria. the core.
mandant, thinking everything arranged, ordered three
hundred of hie troops to make a dem nitration in a sortie
to see if the city would show in his favour, and be joined
by a party of Calabrese who had been promised the plunder
of the city. But they caught a Tartar, for a Stedien
corporal, serving in the citadel, deserted the night before,
and gave information of the plot to the committee
public safety. The committee in.mi diately eructed the
ringleaders, doubled the piste, prepared their forces, said
cut off the communication with Calabria. The commandant
of the citadel, not knowing what had t_ke n place in Messina,
cent out the troops, as arranged. They were e. riven hack
with immense loss, and about a hunched taken prioress,
'lwo Calabrese, coming from lteggio, were arrested and
taken before the committee, and, together with those
arrested in Messina, examined separately. From their
examination it resulted that many respectable per.
cons are implicated. Information was also obtained
that there are many pc r-ons in Malta who ate
paid by the Neapolitan g ivernment ti carry on a corn.
spondence between Sicily and Naples, vies Calabria. These
events account for the fourteen days' quarantine which the
Sicilian provisional government has imposed up en all arrivals
from Volta. It is not believed that the citadel of Merino
can held out much longer. The Sicilians have now fifteen
gun-boats cruising in the Faro, and have cut off ad. commu-
nications with Calabria, from whence the citadel used to Fret
its supply. Water is very scarce and bad, and the supply
from the stream is entirely cut off. I am informed
that Messina is completely ruined by the fire from the
citadel, which is still kept up at intervals. I, ruin Robb,
of the Gladiator steamer, has lie.n twice fired at by the
Neapolitan sentinels, whilst walking the Marina. Should
the citadel fall into the hands of the Messiness, the garrison
will get no quarter, and fall it must, unless spe,.di.y relieved,
for what with the blockade by sea by the gun-boats,
the want of water, and heavy mortar I att, vies jut
erected by the Sicilians, tnere is no further hote for them.
The Ardent, on arriving at Messina on the Uth, was told
that Malta was in quarantine with Sicily fourteen days, hat
that if the commander went over to St. Giovanni in Cala.
brie, just five index, he could get pratique; and ao Sicily and
Calabii etre in free pratique, he would he in pratique also
on his return. Re did so, and then communicated with
Captain Rabb of her Majesty's steamer Gladiator. When the
Ardent lett Messina, the men of-war lying there were the
I;:i4tlista steamer Gladiator, the American frigate United
States, and screw-steamer Princeton, and a large trench
frigate.