The Express.
London, England, 1847-09-01 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, WEDNESDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 1, 1847.

that these measures, though contemporaneous with the first
development of the protective system in France, were in
themselves a practical application of the principles of free
trade. They allowed the ship-owner to get has vessels
wherever they were is be had cheapest—even among
foreigners. It was by this Finny that Colbert placed France
in the first rank among the maritime powers of his age. We
hare proved it by of documents.
M. LUCE announced that the great task for which
the association are at present concentrating and hus-
tme4Mg their forces is to assail in the next session of
the ehamtbers the ministerial plan of customs reform
IGB kliligiempile and delusive. With withering sarcasm
he ibn idwfati the iron-minders in the next session
' p the merest show of a concession to
the shii the wool-growers petitioning for an
addition to the existing enormous protective duty on
wools, and even the corn-growers clamouring that
pekes are ruinously low. He appealed to his
hearers for support in the struggle against that sys-
tem of isolation begot by the necessities of the re-
public and developed by the overweening-pride of the
empire.
This new thirty years' intestine war is waged by the party
of exclusive privileges with all the energy of selfishness, with
a powerful organisation, with a majority in the chambers,
with influence in the press, and, above all, with money, the
great sinew of war. And what have we to oppose, gentle-
men, to this formidable array of forces ? Little in appear-
ance, but much in reality. Our sole weapon is a principle,
but a principle of truth and justice. Public opinion among
consumers and operatives has been turned against us, but
our age is an age of inquiry and patient study. Therein lies
our strength. Oar principle will recall the deluded masses
to just views of their interests. Let us be united and
persevering in the task reserved for our generation.
What city more than Marseilles has need of free
trade ? The privations to which we have been devoted by
the laws of 1832 and 1845, and which seem to menace us
again in 1848, make it our duty to show ourselves intrepid
defenders of the hanner of free trade. A great future is re-
served for us if we are allowed to receive as brothers all
nations—especially those of the east, whence our city had its
origin, and where the vital principle of our commerce is still
to be found. There is nothing egotistical in this aspiration ;
for in asking free-trade for Marseilles we ask accelerated de-
velopment of production and wealth for all France.
In the first revolution of France the disunion of
Bordeaux, as represented by the Girondins, and Mar-
seilles, as represented by the fiery champions of the
Mountain, contributed in no small degree to bring
on the reign of terror, and through it the counter-re-
volution. Let us hope that the present alliance of
these great emporiums of commerce under the banner
of free-trade is an omen of the triumph of their COM-
mon principle for the lasting benefit of their country.

WE remember—it was in a street at Berlin—seeing
a boy strike a little girl. A chivalrous bystander,
after giving the young rascal a hearty shake, asked
him if he were not ashamed to beat a girl? " Why
should I?" asked the blubbering jackanapes; "she is
my own sister!"
Sir EasiaxE PERRY appears to be quite of the
boy's opinion with respect to the vested right of
brothers to beat sisters at their pleasure. We learn
from the Bombay papers, received yesterday by the
overland mail, that this exquisite judge had just sen-
tenced a man to one month's imprisonment for brutally
beating his sister-in-law to death. A more distinct notion
may be obtained of the exact position occupied by such
a peccadillo in Sir ERSKINE's scale of offences, by com-
paring the punishment he awarded to it with that
which only three months before he had inflicted on
an English officer, for administering a sound thrash-
ing to a native policeman. In the latter case the de-
linquent was sentenced to three months' imprison-
ment and a fine of 50/. Assuming this sum to re-
present one month's pay, equivalent to one month's
imprisonment, we may state Sir ERBKINE'E estimate
of the proportional enormity of the two offences
thus :—As 4 to 1 ; so thrashing a policeman to kill-
ing a sister-in-law.
We sincerely hope that her Majesty may have
enough of the woman in her to vindicate the claims
of her sex to a little more lenient treatment at the
hands of brothers and brothers-in-law, by having a
delicate hint conveyed to the sapient judge, that
he had better resign. There is no time to be lost, for
we learn from the same paper that he has lately
caused to be discharged, without trial, a Hindoo,
agaiest whom a grand jury had found a true bill for
perjury. What his next prank may be it is not easy
to conjecture, and prevention is better than punish-
ment.

The semi-official organ of the French government
and the mouth-piece of Louis Philippe and M. Guizot
has been at length compelled to break silence on the
aggression of Austria on the independence of the
Pope. The " apology," as the Debate styles it, for
Count d'Auesperg, which appeared in the Au Irian
Observer of the 23th, and which we gave yesterday,
supplies the occasion for this. The Difbats, on Mon-
day, charges the Pope with " publishing protestations
fit to inflame the Italian population," and complains
that " the journals of the Roman and Tuscan
states, printed with the approbation of the censorship,
publish sharp attacks, not only against Austria,"
but, what is still more surprising, " against France."
The journal of M. Guizot then falls rabidly on the
English press and the English nation for their
favourable sentiments towards his holiness, makes
some very ill-natured allusions to Lord Nelson,
the Neapolitan liberals and the Prince Car-
raccioli, to Lord Castlereagh, Lord W. Bentinck, and so
forth. The press of Italy, which is struggling
into life under the control of a censorship more or less
rigorous, the journal of. Louis Philippe qualifies with
the title of "the radical journals of central Italy!"
The Di'lkats does not believe that Austria intends to
interfere in the papal states; thinks that it is not its
business to interpret the 103rd article of the treaty of
Vienna, and hopes and believes that all will end well
and peaceably.
It is arranged thatthe Dake d'Aumale, as Governor-
general of Algeria, will have placed near him as ad-
viser General Changarnier, with the title of Major-
General. General Bedew, will return to Constantine,
and General Lamoriciere to Oran. Various administra!
rive changes in the colony are announced, which
offer no interest abroad.
There would be a reduction of one centime, or a
tenth of a penny per lb. on bread in Paris on the let
of September. M. Guizot returned to Paris on Satur-
day night. A report was circulated in the Passage de
l'Opera on Sunday that this minister was about to
take the presidency of the council.
Yesterday (Tuesday) the installation of three new
conseils de pruorhommes was to take place—one of
weavers, another of manufacturers of chemicals, and
a third of miscellaneous trades. These tribunals have
proved of the utmost service in Lyons and other ma-
nufacturing towns, in settling disputes between
masters and men, patent cases, and other questions,
to the adjustment of which technical knowledge is
essential. The first ordonnance for their establishment
in Paris was issued in 1844.

Our private letters from Madrid describe the Car-
list news as important. The Barre Janie of the 21st
says : On the night of the 19th a band of rebels pre-
sented themselves inside the walls of Caldas. The
troops issued from their quarters to attack them. The
rebels fled till they had left the town some three
miles, when, being joined by reinforcements of their
party, they turned upon the soldiers, who took refuge
in a country-house to the number of 54. The Carlists
unroofed part of the house, and began throwing in
combustibles. The issue of the affair still hangs in
much doubt: some affirming that the soldiers were
burned to death, others that they surrendered, and others
that they were relieved by the arrival of a military
detachment from Barcelona. The latest accounts say
that the soldiers took refuge from the flames in a
large cellar under the house, from which they were
all delivered safe, though much distressed, on the
arrival of succours. The rebels had three killed.
The aid despatched from Barcelona set oat at three in
the morning, and arrived on the spot at eight. The
two Carlists taken in a house in the Barcelona suburb
of Gracia were put in the condemned chapel to be
shot upon the 22nd.
1 i
lot*
--'resent the numbers of
A
—4'll from Cataluna...,. -s and their enter-
the insurgents as greatly increase...,
prises more daring. Reinforcements of their party
were daily pouring through the Pyrenees, baffling
the pursuit of the French gendarmerie. Indeed,
many
suppose the French government to be too
deep l' interested in the continuance of these disor-
ders for their police to act with much vigilance. Po-
pular disturbances are stated to have broken out
lately at Malaga. From the 16th to the 20th the
troops there were continually under arms, and the
political and military authorities on the alert to pre-
vent a pronunciamento, which seemed imminent.
The Fiiro adds: Don Enrique enters once more into
the imbroglio of Spanish politica. That journal affirms
that lithographic copies are at present in circulation
through Madrid, of a letter said to be written by
the Infante Don Enrique to the Queen. Some of