The Express.
London, England, 1847-10-13 00:00:00

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u informatta, or as making seizures, reap a *hare of
the conilluations, whilst the courts %Lich miljudiente,
and the laws which govern them, ure of the same
harpy and torturing nature.
The stamp duties yield so large a revenue. that we
cannot hope for the early aboli• ion of tlitm •,
but much might be done in lessening the cost and
trouble of stamps for leases and other contracts. The
stamp duty on newspapers ought, at least, to be re-
considered and equalised. The stamp duty on adver-
tisements is also enormous, and those on fire and
marine insurances are so high as to constitute
great and too frequent temptations to unjustifiable
imprudence.
The used taxes, and especially the window tax
(which should in equity, as well as economy, be
merged in a property tax) will during the debates on
taxation engross no small degree of interest There
are few members whose constituents do not feel u an
oppression the unnatural compulsion to pay for the
light which their creator has freely bequeathed to
the world, in his universal beneficence.

Notwithstanding the great, though not perfect,
reforms carried out in the duties of customs by Sir
ROBERT I'EEL, and in the sugar and rum duties by
the present administration, the duties on copper, and
on all other raw materials, require to be abolished;
and the differential duties on coffee, butter, cheese,
salted provisions, and on some other articles must be
equalised, both on account of the revenue, and in
order to expunge for ever from our statutes the useless
and misplaced term " protective duties." Besides these
customs reforms, as regards duties, the management
and regulation, the delays and interruptior.s, vexa-
tions and fines, and the invidious distinctions of
landing and warehousing localities, constitute a great
Augean stable, requiring a giant in legislative industry
to purge its impurities.
It is beyond human forecast justly to estimate how
far the recent failures in trade—the diminished em-
ployment for the labouring classes in the manufac-
turing districts and on railways—and of the red';ced
means of the middle classes, may cause a further
decrease of the indirect revenue, and of the income
tax, from temporary sources; but we have clearly in
view, that in order to fulfil, with honour, dignity, and
justice, the public accountabilities, upon which all
credit and confidence are founded, the aext session of
parliament—whether it shall be or not be the will of
the Chancellor of the Exchequer—will call upon all
realised property to do its equitable share of duty, in
contributing its proportion to the national burdens.

We are very sorry to see such grave and official
personages as Mr. IREVELYAN and Sir JOHN Ilia-
COYSE come forward with humble and hrigging peti-
tions, on the part of Ireland, to the Timor. fhat
journal hen all along, iu no casual or temporary
spleen, derided the claims of Irish indigence, and
hooted every project of English charity, even during
the last dreadful rear, when comparative prospe-
rity prevailed in England, and when the Irish
would hare perished by thousands but for English
charity, exercised both through private channels and
through the instrumentality of government. The
efforts of the Times to stop the tide of English charity
were at that time totally vain. Subscriptions pro-
gressed in despite of its denunciations, and one of the
noblest monuments of British charity was raised, where
such are best raised, in the written records of tl,e time.
The Times continues this year, at last with some
show of reason, to chaunt its old song of last year, and
again denounces the sending round of any begging-
box in behalf of Irish distress. Private charity is a
thing which no writer, save the Timer, would be un-
christian enough to oppose. Those who disapprove,
need not recommend ; but to denounce the voluntary
acts of private charity by invoking international pre-
judices, is a purpose and a kind of interference which
must run counter to its own ends, by causing the very
feelings, to which it appeals, to revolt.
Yet, in deprecation of such idle preaching against
charity, the two Irish officials come forward with a
pair of epistles, containing not one fact or argument
That is not known from one end of the empire to the
other. These epistles are calculated, in our humble
opinion, to do as much harm to the cause of English
charity for Ireland as the diatribes of the Times
could do little harm.

Charity is a private affair, the result of private
feeling, and is only useful and invocable in cases
where government cannot intrude or exert itself.
The QLEEN, as head of the church, may order col-
lections, and permit the use of holy edifices and the
times of divine worship, for the :purposes of raising
subscriptions. This is very different from the
government and its authorities coming forward
to beg ex officio. What is wise and prudent for
the state to do, let it be done, legally, regu-
larly, with the dignity and independence of
government. But let not a government come for-
ward, and say, we know that such and such a thing
ought to be done, that such and such relief ought to
be afforded; but we are not able to convince
parliament of this necessity, and we will, there-
fore, recur, not to the sense of the public,
but to the charity of the tender-hearted.
We should have highly approved of Mr. TREVELYAN
and Sir JOEIN BURGOYNE drawing up a report for
government and for parliament on the distresses of the
west of Ireland; but we cannot approve of these gen-
tlemen making use of their official dignity to send round
begging circulars, and demeaning even official mendi-
cancy by going to kneel on the steps of an
anti-charity establishment in Printing-house-square.
Even if they went for alms, there would be ,-onto
excuse ; but they went to deprecate argument. They
pray not to have their character and grounds for
begging decried. They bow to their arch-enemy,
and humble their dignity to propitiate Moloch.
We cannot but think these gentlemen would nave
been better employed in devising means within their
own sphere of knowledge and utility, for meeting the
distress of certain Irish districts. Of the 130
Irish Poor Unions, there are 18 in which the number
of paupers exceeds the number of pounds sterling of an-
nual valuation. In several of them it is indeed idle
to look to rent or rateable property to support the
poor. These are exceptional regions which must be
treated exceptionally. They are regions that will one
day be worth far more than they are at present. The
mere opening of a rail-road across the island would
open a market to their produce—a value to their land.
Is it so much beyond human ingenuity to raise from
the wealthy east of Ireland wherewithal to reclaim
the west?

It is not true, what Sir JOHN BURGOYNE asset !a
that in Ireland there are no manufacturers or merchants
to come to the relief of those engaged in the labour
of the land. There is a town population and a
middle class, which has amassed considerable capital
from trade, at no time greater than dining the dis-
tress of last year. And not only in this class, but in
the landed class of the eastern and central districts,
there are much more resources than Sir JOHN Bt:it-
COYNE allows.

It is too late at this time of day to talk of relieving
the Irish solely by alms. Alms give a temporary
relief to hunger, but not permanent relief. Some-
thing more mast be done than feed the population of
the west. They must either be allowed or enabled
to till the ground beneath their feet, or they mw.t be
shipped to that trans-Atlantic soil which is open to
them. Some scheme of emigration from those dis-
tricts, of cultirating waste lands in those districts,
some mode, in fact, of industrious relief, would be
more decorous and satisfactory, than to see two
officials coming forward with nothing more elaborate
than begging letters made up of common-places, and
addressed to that organ which has so unpitiebly
scouted them.

yng:e are t loue
afetßor
yruaistdi
sudden
commissiondioet heodnt
singularlyn
noi
sttf
uwtii t a
deathet
justice,
compulsoryv mcmed neare,onnarr adevocema
dtflthare
hi
eevoreel punishment,mamurderrefrainscharacteris-
ticsmtieiiatno,yawsel-
dom S
s
ses
ectft:me poisoner,tcioebne
euelrauni hi wr:Tewt
brutal
I r
renderi Iris f ortu
igos,hrbutlimlee
dohusulte ordinary
ofecowena
sia
errnaitcil ohizni
takes place, unless the circumstances are
glaring and clamant. There is no coroner:
bv.t an officer, called a " Procurator Fiscal," may
institute an investigation if he pleases. If he should,
perchance, think it his duty to investigate a suspi-
cious case, he receives no remuneration for his
trouble. Ile is not assisted by a jury, and the whole
of his proceedings are private. The public never know
anything of his operations—seldom more than the
beret result. The Procurators Fiscal are themselves
aware of the deficiency of the law, and anxious, we
believe, to be relieved of duties which they can-
not satisfactorily discharge, and for which, moreover,
they do not receive any remuneration. They are at
the same time anxious that proper officers, like the
English coroners, should be appointed to exer-
cise their functions in open co:at, and with