The Express.
London, England, 1853-05-19 00:00:00

THE SPY SYSTEM.

A public meeting of the inhabitants of the borough
of Southwark was held hat evening in the theatre of the
Southwark Literary Institution, in the Borough-road, to
express disapprobation and abhorrence at the introduction
of the spy system into England, and also sympathy with
M. Kossuth. The chair was occupied by Mr. A. Pru.narr,
M.P. There were letters read from Sir J. Walmsley, Lord
1). C. Stuart, Mr. Bright, Mr. Alcock, and Mr. L. King,
excusing their non attendance on various grounds,
bat expressing concurrence in the objects of the meeting.
The CUAIRMAN, in opening the business, said that our
institution recognised nothing in the shape of espionage.
is this 'upset our police differed from that of France.
The use mit approach we had to the French system was the
ilsisselvo pollee, and it was possible that Lord Palmer-
ston had by their over seal been betrayed into the up-
holdiag of a system which was repugnant to him on
principle. The great objects of our constitution were
liberty, religion, and commerce, and we must take care
that religion did not tread upon liberty, and that neither
of the two interfered with commerce. Blackstone had
held that for the preservation of our own liberties it was essen-
tial the largest toleration and the fullest liberty should be
allowed to foreicners seeking an asylum in this country.
Whether Lord Palmerston had been led to overstep the
bounds or not it was for them to say ; but at all events Lord
D. Stuart, and the other rrembers of parliament who had
taken up the matter, bad plsced his lordship in what the
Americans called t' a fix." It would be for them to say
whether Lord Palmerston had gone beyond the constitu-
tional powers of his office in this matter; but whatever
their decision, he should be prepared to carry out thcir
views in parliament, as he was confident would their other
representative, Sir W. Molesworth.
Mr. TRWAITES moved a resolution, expressing alarm
and indignation at the attempt to establish the spy system
in the case of M. Kossuth, and apprehension lest it should
be turned into an engine of oppression against English.
men ; and, in doing so, took occasion to criticise Lord Pal.
mouton, for having, after so many years of good service in
the cause of freedom, countenanced a proceeding which
imperilled our liberties. While Englishmen were willing
to bear a heavy weight of taxation, and even a coalition
government, they would not bear anything that tampered
with their great principle of constitutional liberty.
Dr. Evans seconded the reso!ution, which was carried.
Mr. JAMES TAYLOR moved a resolution of sympathy
with M. Kossuth, and denunciatory of the conduct of the
Timm. He said he hal lived in Hungary, had partakes of
the hospitality of the Magyar, and had learnedto reaps*
his love of liberty, and the independence which, though
surrounded by despotism, he had maintained for so many
centuries. The Magyar possessed a constitution similar to
our own, and therefore it was that he sympathised with
Englishmen, and tendered to them an amount of hospi.
tality, and kindneu, and con fidenoe, which they never experi-
need ia say other foreign country. As an Englishman he
Oak sisseedimi at the annoyance to which Louis Kossuth had
be.. salsiestal in this country, and which was far more
mmessant with the principles acted upon by the
NM= states of Europe than those which bad
lOW* been the boast of this country. The
Elcslbli principle hitherto had been to consider every
mss inament till his guilt was proved ; the Austrian prin-
eiple was to look upon every man as guilty till he proved
his innocence, hence their system of espionage. If we di-
sked to proserve our liberties, we suet take care that our
pass INN was not converted into an enormous standing
may espies, ba the hands of the minister of the day, but
should insist upon its being placed under local control.
Mr. NEWKAN seconded the resolution. lie drew atten-
tion to the fact that the Whip had on all occasions, when
in power, carried out the:spy system, and instanced the
employment of Paper, the Camberwell spy, in 1833, and of
Powell and Duis in 1818. In 1933 a committee of the
House of Commons sat to inquire into the spy system, as
then it had been carried out; and declared it to be subversive
of good government, and that under it the executive must
necessarily be in a state of hostility to the people, and
could be maintained only by force. Ile suggested that a
similar committee should be appointed to inquire into the
spy system as practised against 1111. Kovath ; and if that
were done he felt quite sure there was sufficient of consti-
tutional principle in the members of the present House of
Commons to induce such a committee to make an equally
constitutional declaration.
The resolution having been put and carried, a petition
to parliament embodying the resolutions was proposed and
adopted, and after the usual vote of thanks to the chairman,
tho meeting separated.

THE ORIGINAL OF MADAM.—About a league out-
side Lima, the ruins of Inca pueblos or villages begin to ap-
pear, and afterwards almost every gorge on both sides of the
valley is filled with these strange and interesting remains.
They are built of enormous' adobes (bricks baked in the sun)
of prodigious dintensions, and the cactus, or prickly pear,
is frequently seen :'0 raise its ungainly and ugly head amidst
the now deserted da-ellings. It is remarkable that these
dwellings are all situatA in the gorges of the hills, and not
in the valleys; an inconteslible proof of the formerly thickly
peopled state of the country, and how anxious its governors
were that every foot of gro,lnd should be retained for
cultivation were that was possible. As the tra-
veller draws near to Cho:eta:sit, the magnificent
Inca road steals upon his view; running on the
noth side of the river. For miles and Dulles this unparalleled
work of art continued on a perfectly dead level, no obstacle
opposing its progress, nothing breaking the Oven uniformity
of its course, and causing it to resemble noth:lig more than
a modern railroad. At equal distances, Tomb:v. or Provi-
sion houses for travellers, were discernible, huh: andge
abodes. The read itself (we are told by Ciera de Le) wan
formerly lined with trees, whose branches, laden with
flowers and fruit, spread over the heads of the travell.'m
Some of these were even yet standing. It was made L;
order of Inca Yupangui, neat grandfather of Atahualpa,
and was paved with small stones of equal sire, well blended
together—thus anticipating the works of Mac Adam by
some four hundred years, who little thought, when he
formed the road from London to Holyhead, that he was
'treading in the footsteps of en Inca of Fero.—Dickens's
"House/odd Words."

THE EXPRESS, THURSDAY EVENING, MAY 19, 1853.