The Express.
London, England, 1848-01-19 00:00:00

Tait Wan MURDEEZE SALE.—AidETaItE Wilsod wished
to be informed by the sheriffs wby a custom, which had been
observed for some years in the gaol of Newgate, bad been
deputed from in the cue of Sale and ril'Coy. It appeared
that the former had endeavoured is the prison to murder
M'Coy and one of the gaolers, and if the custom to which he
alluded, of appinting two men to watch each person con-
victed of murder night and day, had been adhered to in that
instance. no such desperate attempt could have been made.—
Sheriff Hill said the object of placing two men to watch a
person convicted of murder was not to protect others from
the pnsoner'e violence, but to prevent him from lire/
as
violent hands upon himself. It w not nip
for a moment by any of the experienced o cers
about the prison that anything of the kind was
contemplated by Bale or M'Coy, and the means
of prevention were considered quite unnecessary.
It was the custom, he believed, to place keepers over oon-
viets of such crime after the day of execution was fixed, but
not until then ; and the attack de'cribed had taken place
before the appointment of that day. The sheriffs exone- '
rated the officials of the prison from the slightest blame upon
the occasion ; and he expressed a wish that the authority of
the sheriffs and the visiting magistrates was more nicely
defined than it appeared to be.—Alderman Wilson said the
answer of the sheriff was quite satisfactory. Ile thought
that what had takea place showed how necessary it was to
appoint keeper' to watch persons convicted of murder, from
the very moment of conviction. And he should move that
an order be made accordingly that this practice be adhered
to inviolably.—Agreed to.
ELECTION PETITION.—The court having been informal
that Mr. Joseph Arnold had withdrawn his petition
against the election and return of Mr. W. Chadwick, alone
of the common councilmen for the ward of Bridge, Sit
Chapman Marshall mid it was necessary to provide some
remedy against such trouble and inconvenience as were
produced by such proceeding, and requested to know the
Recorder's opinion upon the subject.—The Recorder said it
would have been more regular and respectful in the peti-
tioner if he had attended at the bar of the court, and asked
permission to withdraw his petition. As it was, it natal
be advisable in the court to dismiss the petition at ones.—
Petition dismissed.
CITY finwzas Btxx.—Alderman Challis brought up the
report of the committee on conferring with the commis.
'loners of sewers on the Sewers Bill. It stated that the
matters upon which it was supposed there would have boss
a disagreement between the two courts had been acootamo-
dated in the conference.
THE COEDINARY'II EIPOUT.—The report from the pal
committee stated that the tea iary's report on the state of
the gaol of Newgate had been satisfactory, but the committee
recommended that the attention of the ordinary might be
drawn to the statistical condition of the prisoners with a view
to classification.—The report was agreed to.
Tits Ctrl Exactly* EHANCHISE.—AIderman
had given notice of the following motion: "For leave=
in a bill to extend the election franchise for aldermen and
common councilmen of the City to every person being a free-
man of London ranting and occupying for a period of
twelvemonths a dwelling-house, warehouse, counting house,
office, chambers or other premises within the ward m
, a yearly tenant, at the annual rent of 101. and up-
wards." He had, he said, since he had given that no-
tice, lent the subject the closest attention, but after having
searched the records, and consulted the law officers, be had
not received much encouragement to proceed in the course
be had intended. A committee of the corporation had, it
would be recollected, some time ago advised that the elms-
tive franchise should be extended to all persons rated to the
ward rates, end rented at 101. a year and upwards; and the
sir set was to have a bill to that effect originated in the
Cowl of Aldermen. It apared, however, upou reference
to the 11th of George 1., tMt there were objections to the
project not te be overcome, In the opinion of the law 'nth's-
', rajas, and it necessarily fell to the ground. The alder-
man then alluded to the numbers of persons of
high respectability in his ward (Broad-street ward)
gessessing large property paying from 1001. to 2001. year
amok, and yet denied the privilege of voting at corporate
elections. He observed upon the absurdity of allowing
such a system of exclusion to exist. In the ward of Broad-
' street there were upwards of 900 freemen, and yet he had
been elected by 150 constituents. In Bassishaw and Crip.
plegate similar anomalies existed. Under such &cum-
, scasass. it was incumbent upon the court to make some effort
he the extuatina tithe franchise. As he had in the course
Olds resoutite boa discouraged from pursuing the motion
at which he had given notice, he should move that the sub-
liJeat be referred to a committee, with instruction to consult
Idr law ollieers as to the extent to which it could
be practicable to increase the privilege. If the
decision of that committee were unfavourable to the idea of
ltae practicability of a change likely to satisfy the public, he
diesld then, without hesitation, propose en immediate appli-
cation to parliament. He was convieced that the legislature
sad willingly listen to an application of the kind, and he
I world rather the proposition came from the corporation
Itself than from the administration. He then moved for the
eemmittee.—Alderman Finnis seconded the motion in a few
I words, expressive of his opinion that the extension of the
franchise would greatly add to the respectability of the
court, as it would to the respectability of the constituency.
The question was then referred to a committee, and the
court after the transaction of some unimportant business ad-
journed.

NATIONAL DEFENCES.
A ntimerously attended meeting wan held lasi
evening at the Bridge-Louse Hotel, for the purpose d
sanctioning a petition to parliament against any augniMille.
tion of the military and naval establishments.
Mr. APSLEY PELLATT took the chair at half put seen.
and stated that the meeting had been summoned fee Ike
purpose of obtaining an expression of the public voles hadas
borough of Southwark on the subject which had been so
prematurely called into public notice by the Duke of Wel-
lington's letter. The principles upon which the Peace
Society were founded were well known to all who were pre-
sent, and those principles were no less popular thannotonous
amongst those by whom he was surrounded. In Southwark
he, however, was prepared to assert there was no disposition to
surrender the liberties of the nation until they had made •
vigorous effort to preserve England from being subjected to
military sale. Was it to be supposed that after 30 years of
peace the nation Was idly, and without the slightest cause, to
be plunged into a state of alarm on the subject of invasion,
and hurried into taking a defensive attitude for no purpose
whatever butto swell the amount of the yearly expenditure ?
He had mixed much amongst the commercial and social
classes of life in France, and his own experience of the senti-
ments of that people taught him that they were growing
more in friendly feeling towards England, and becoming
much better acquainted with her institutions and inhabi-
tants than they could ever have done under the state of things
which Suonsparte maintained between the two countries
What had the French people gained by having
so long resorted to bloodshed ? Bad they obtained
liberty ? Could any one look at their present
state and affirm such to be the care ? England had shown
them the way how to effect a peaceful reform—and it was to
be hoped and expected they would adopt the example thus
afforded. In order to show how little disposition the French
people entertained to commit the aggression referred to by
the Duke of Wellington, it was only needful to point out the
railroads, bri4a, manufactories, and other industrial enter-
prises they had recently undertaken, and which would soon
give them • far greater interest in the maintenance of peace
than they ever yet had had. Fore' n merchants of expe-
rience with whom he had conversed had expressed them-
selves to him to be utterly at • loss to conceive the grounds
upon which the Duke of Wellington had excited so much
alarm as to an invasion by the French, or how that per-
sonage, with the warlike knowledge and experience whichbe hact acquired, could have forgotten the hiatory of the
past wherein he had acted so conspicuous • part. (Hear.)
It hid been asserted that the principles of the Peace Society
were illusive and utopian ; but theee who made such decla-
rations, totally forgot or wilfully blinded themselves to the
prophecies and the evangelist promise of a period when uni-
versal peace should prevail, and that the nations should be
united in one common bond.
Mr. S. Srunos moved the first resolution as follows:
That this meeting believing war to be utterly at variance with the
precepts and spirit of Chririanity, and the true interest of mankind,
deeply regrets the attempts made, and making, to excite in the public
mind a belief that war and invasion are f=t, and to ground on
that belief an addition to the naval and military establishments of the

SOnstry.
Mr. Sturge said that the fact of the war cry being a no.
pretext was now unieenally admitted. There were no doubt
deficiencies to be found in the army and navy, but the object
in view at present was to create a provision for an additional
number of officers
Mr. G. W. ALEXANDER seconded the resolution, and ob-
served that for himself he considered war ought not to be
tolerated amongst a Christian people. England had fortu-
nately escaped the visitation of a foreign invasion, but she
bad sacrificed the lives of some hundreds of thousands of her
sons in the continental wars into which her rulers had
plunged her, and to this sacrifice must be added that of eight
hundred millions of war debt, independently of the cost of
her warlike establishments, which, since the peace, of
1816, amounted to upwards of five hundred millions sterling.
It bad been most unwisely and untruly stated by Lord
Illeanere, that the French and English were natural ens-
Wes. This was, in his opinion, a most false and unchristian
sentiment, for there was nothing in the mere separation of
the two people by the English Channel to cause them to be
enemies, and there was no other ground for the assarffien.
than was afforded by the prejudices of education. The w-
Imitation was then put, and carried ensaimmuly.
The Rev. J. Brasorrr moved the mad resolution:
!het this meeting delfts to resselledillbrese condoles int
he sepehenuces memstitwer ass alingthse seberled,, naisdat
the se of the navy" jer el Os seseiell Meergese=lude wed&
tend Misetroy the ,sMetes t=ilemsenera
resins. to berth= the melee mbeavily hoed, • s=reale
the ocesmerelaldieteuleasset
The wears said OW Were was not only a great object to
attain, bat simpiellibigaeles to overcome in respect to the
subject under ooneldwation. It was proposed to increase
both the navy and the army, whilst he and those by whom
he was surroundedgarded both those establishments in
re
the light of positive evils. The nation was called upon to I
increase them to an indefinite extent. What was Al=
but a mass of men who were apart from society—haring
house nor home—living in barracks as paupers de in a week.
house. or perhaps in a tent, or it might be in a hulk like
convicts? They never settled down into society until wont
out in the service, and then they brought only fragments of
men unfitted to ake part in the social business of life. (A
laugh, and "hem.") A half-pay officer, end be spoke from
experience, was a serious evil in society. And this class of
men the nation was called upon to increase on high military
authority—that of the Duke of Wellington. It might
be asked what did he (the speaker) know about
ships, armies, forts, and such matters ? He would answer
frankly, nothing. He would be called on to leave all that
sort of knowledge to the great man who was so intimately
versed in the science of destruction. He readily agreed to
do so ; but he would not agree to follow the ipse dive of the
Duke of Wellington, or to admit that it was to be the law of