The Express.
London, England, 1847-12-02 00:00:00

143tci

G¢u_- ~~ ~
U

ghe eimrefili.

YAMS.
Th. Tied IMia Mae, lasludleg Benasia, Nen" Ifttemes,
ftestabses, Nen Odom, Tees Cm, =I Pale Itlea. Sal
esebaftsg Om 11.- Sifts Mirth;
asp. Poser. 11= le= ma ft. ftehele.
fteteeftes. Tilt le tuft up at Ile Taft al dr Sal
ft• emend seilsibt Maas *sift fteete. Ift ail=the
aitftlhatalftulareMfte•infir calm gm Ileuamplm
mak ft ea twig efthe Demeher.
the eteft lir Nelda North And" Dermit. smt Or Ileiled
Oftift tale nob ep is the ~Mg ef Or ea Member.
Mr weft fte fte Beret. the that ftsta. Mate ftilee. Pam-
tilsablaillidis. 8611.81 Om. vitt be same .. 1. tte
twominw ift Doseefter.
.ma nelis fts Vft% Opel liabsa.Mtialas. OA; NM Glinitar
will be mis es Ift Treufts efts HI Desembar.
me dewed =Oh vie Mareeftes, es the fteftereftesa
West Chlfte. ftfth. left pea hh, wft aerie op as the
etthe fth Netafter.

....
ad...k....
1... E 001.11ESPOND111711.
laa Mal. aim, PfleaverYpieglef4" " r TaritTriewet af lea fay at pan "'"

13108 WATZ AT LONDON MIMI.
Sits Dsll4,olag. 00 WA. P• 01 0 MM..% 21. Na I.o'
to•lioaa4N-0104010g, if min pat 10, Mama" 4 sibs. past II

LONDON, THURSDAY, DEC. 2.

FROM ten to fifteen years ago, and even much fur-
ther back, two aims and two projects chiefly occupied
the minds of liberal and philanthropic men. One
was, to provide more amply and securely for the phy-
sical condition of the humbler classes, the other to
enlighten their minds, not only with religious but
with moral, general, and political truth. The success
in the attainment of these two ends, or of '
the measures supposed beat calculated to lead
to them, has been widely different. Every
proposal for the physical amelioration of the
industrious has been listened to, discussed, and has
overcome the moot strenuous, most interested, and, at
times, a not groundless, opposition. On the other
hand, the efforts for the intellectual improvement of
the hitherto uneducated classes have met with all
kinds of slight and obstruction. Whilst the fleet
act of the French legislature, after the revolution of
July, was to vote foods and powers for the eatabliah-
meat of an immense system of popular education,
England, after that reform which formed a similar era
of popular triumph, was unequal to such an effort of
gratitude. We all know how even primary educe-
I dos, the simple boon of a knowledge to read, write,
and, make use of ;lures, has only been saved from
extinction by hooking it on to the hopes and
interests of this creed and that establishment, thus
placing the elementary learning of the community
at the mercy of sacerdotal power and ca-
price. Ewa higher attempts, more out of the
Bach, one should have thought, of neglect or fanati-
cism, the founding of colleges for the education of the
middle classes, as well as institutions for the instruc-
tion of adults, have been overwhelmed by party cries,
by religious scruples, and by fashionable sneers. Nor
has the foundation-stone of secondary education been
yet laid in England.
If the legislature, and that great liberal party
which has each paramount influence in the legisla-
ture, have failed in objects so dear to them, so clear
to all, and so indispensable to the well-being and dig-
nity of an Englishman, and to his keeping upon an in-
tellectual par with his European rivals and American
brethren, it is no wonder that they should have failed
in procuring fit means for the communication of poli-
tical knowledge.
Twelve or thirteen years ego, the cry in parlia-
ment, and throughout the country,was for a removal of
taxes upon knowledge : the paper duties, the stamp
duties, and the tax on advertisements were com-
plained of, and so loudly, that the whig ministry felt
bound to show itself obsequious in this respect to
liberal opinions. It is impossible to deny that the
repeal of three-fourths of the stamp duty on news-
papers was a liberal measure, the remaining penny
being retained chiefly in consideration of the advan-
tages afforded by the Post-office, of a gratuitous trans-
mission of all stamped journals.
What, however, was the effect of this apparently
great boon upon the monopoly of the press ?
How far did it attain the proposed aim of
placing a cheaper vehicle of information within
the reach of tke humble classes? The attempt to
break up the monopoly of the press was so far from
being productive of any effect that, on the contrary,
the provisions of the new act actually strengthened
that monopoly. By affixing the same duty upon a
double as upon a single sheet of newspaper, and, at
the same time, charging but half duty upon a supple-
ment, parliament legislated, pre:jeep • ZY, as 11-ei Yseb
that great giant of monopoly, would have legislated
for itself, thus adding to its already acquired advan-
tages, making it pay the least possible duty, whilst at
the same time every rival, which should start against
it, was compelled to pay most.
The proposed result of the law of 1836 was to
bring down the existing journals more to the level of
the popular readers, and at the same time to destroy
the unstamped press, which was catering to anarchism,
irreligious, and anti-social ideas. In neither case has
the result been obtained. Since the reduction of
the duty, the journals have been much less the
organs of popular wants, or appealers to popular
sympathies than perhaps they ever were. The
nastamped press hid certainly, become lesa poli-
tical, at least less directly political, because the
political effervescence consequent upon 1830 has in
a degree died away. But still, its catering to the
worst popular appetites, and its demoralising tenden-
cies, have not diminished, whilst the extension and
success of such popular and unstamped journalism have
been immense.
We have published of late a series of articles on
the literature of the lower orders, giving an account
of their publication, their character, and success. Of
the latter, one has indeed but to walk along Holywell-
street in order to be amply assured. The following
extract from our last article on this kind of literature
will give an idea of its extent to those, vibese perusal
that article may have escaped :
The Yale of Man is a very focus and hot-bed of democratic
periodicals. One of its privileges being non-liability to stamp
, duties, newspapers and other works can be published there
without stamp, and transmitted to all parts of the kingdom,
England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, in the centreof
which it is very conveniently situated for the mimes,
through the Post-office free of cost. Newspapers published
there bare consequently a clear advantage of a penny emit
copy, over those issued in London or in the non-privily.'
provinces. The Isle of Man is therefore one of the fod of
radicalism.
the question now is whether the legislature end
the public are to fold their arms in tranquil acquies-
cence in the total defeat of all the efforts and objects
in 1836—whether the aim of educating the lower
classes, and at the same time of furnishing thine
minds wholesome aliment, both in the daily
chronicle of public events and in those lighter
tracts which deal in social and partly amusing
topics, is to be left unaided and uncared for—whether
some new efforts on the part of the government and
pediment are not required, in order to carry out
liellatmlion of 1836—andwhether measures may not
be deviled, which would wear a character of fairness
as well as give promise of success, to cheapen the
public press, as well as to eqaaliee the burden and
the difficulties upon all who undertake so perilous
and important a task.
This is a subject to which we shall speedily invite
public attention.

THE movement made in Wolverhampton against
copyhold tenures, which we adverted to some time
since, is by no means likely to be a solitary one. In
all parts of the country where copyholds abound—
and where in England are they not of frequent oc-
currence ?—the copyhold tenants are girding up their
loins for a contest with their lords. At Chatters, in
Cambridgeshire, the burdens of the copyhold system
are very grievous, and the tenants are murmur-
ing deeply. A correspondent of the Cambridge
Independent Press calls upon them to take the field
on behalf of the movement for the abolition of copy-
holds, and gives several instances of the oppressive- 1
nese of these tenures. He says :
I know a piece of land which is not worth sf. for cultiva-
tion; but, because of situation for building, would fetch
201. A person bought it with an old house, pulled it down,
and built another, mere convenient, in its place. In seven
years or a little longer, it was sold, and the lord of the manor
demanded 1001., fire times more than the fee-simple of the
land was worth, for taking it up, as it is termed ; and yet this
lord had not spent one farthing on the property.

Then, what can be more monstrous, that upon
every alienation of the property on each mortgage or
sale, a fine should be levied by the lord, and an addi-
tional fine, in the form of fees, by the steward? Why
should the widows and children of copyholders be
mulcted in the Name way on the death of their hos-
bands and parents? Copyholds form one of those
palpable remnants of feudalism, which make us feel
what that system must have been in the hours of its
strength. It is really wonderful that the English
people have so long endured the existence of such a
barrim. That the lards of manors should resist a
general and compulsory enfranohisement is Diet sur-

prising, for they ;get more by the system than they
are fairly entitled to. The oepyholder is the true
owner of the property but he is subject to certain
manorial rights, which enable the lord frequently to
catch him at a disadvantage, and make him pay exor-
bitantly for the right of succession to his own pro-
perty. Surely these things cannot be allowed to last
Much longer.
It may be well that the public should know what
has been done in this matter, that what remains to be
done should be clearly perceived.
In 1841 an act (4 and 5 Vic., c. 35) was pasted for
the " commutation of certain manorial rights, in res-
pect of copyhold and customary lands, and other lands
subject to such rights, and for facilitating the enfran-
chisement of such; lands, and for the improvement of
such tenure." All who havebeen accustomed to the way
in which most of our alterations in the law of real
property have been effected, will suspect that under
the act graced by this verbose title there is much pro-
mise and small performance ; and such suspicion will
not be far from the truth.
The act is long, very long, and contains many and
minute directions for the proceedings authorised to be
taken under it. We cannot attempt to give more
than a general outline of its provisions. It begins by
appointing the tithe commissioners, the " copyhold
commissioners," with a secretary, and common seal to
carry the act into execution, who are to make an
annual report of their proceedings to the Home-office,
to be laid before parliament.
The commissioners have salaries of 2,0001., and the
secretary 800/. a7ear. Where the lord of a manor,
or a copyholder, is under disability, such as infancy,
covertnre, lunacy, &c., the guardian, husband, or com-
mittee may sign agreements fer enfranchisement.
Lords or tenants may appoint agents to act for them
in the matters of the act by power of attorney, in the
form set forth in the act. Any lord whose interest is
not less than one-fourth of the annual value of the
manor, or any tenants to the number of ten, or where
there shall not be so many as ten copyhold tenants,
then one-half of the tenants of the manor, may, by
twenty-one days' notice in writing, to be Axed on
the church doors of the pariah, or on the doors of the
court-house of the manor, and inserted in the news-
paper, call a meeting for making as agreement for the
general commutation of rents, fines, and heriota, and
the lord's rights in the timber on copyhold estates.
Then, if the copyhold tenants to the number of three-
fourths, and the lord attend, the interests of the lord
and tenants respectively not being lees than three-
fourths in value of the whole manor, they may pro-
ceed to execute an agreement which shall be carried
out under the provisions of the act.
The terms upon which such agreements may be

made are declared to be for annual-rent charges with
fines not exceeding 55., on death, or alienation, the
rents to be varied with the price of corn, in the same
way as the tithe rent charges. The rents may either
be fixed in the agreement or ascertained by snive-
-1 irent valuation ; and they may be at once appor-
tioned amongst the tenants. The scale of fees to be
taken by the steward may be fixed in the agreement,
but so as not to affect the interests of stewards in
office at the time of the act.

Such agreements would apply to the whole manor.
Voluntary agreements between the lord and individual
copyholders may be made for the commutation of fines,
and so forth in the same manner. The rent charges
thus given are to be recoverable by distress. By a
subsequent part of the act, the lords of manors,
whatever may be their interest in the manor, are
authorised, if they please, and with the consent of the
commissioners, to enfranchise copyholds for money;
and tenants, though they have but limited interests
in the copyhold estate, may accept such enfranchise-
ment on the terms agreed on. Where, however, the
tenant has less than an absolute interest, he must give
notice to the owner of the first estate of inheritance.
Various provisions are made for working out details
when any of these agreements have been once made ;
but it is obvious that if lords of manors for any reason
think fit to refuse to agree to enfranchisement, the act, as
regards the relief of copyhold tenants, is mere waste
paper. Now, inasmuch as the inconveniences of these
tenures are nearly all on the side of the tenants, the
real owners of the land, it is plainly unjust to afford
the copyholders no power of enforcing enfranchise-
ment.
The facilities given by the above act were some-
what extended by an act passed in 1843 (8 and 7
Vic., c. 23), whereby it was provided, that oopyholds
mightike enfranchised in consideration of an annual
rent to he charged upon the enfranchised lands
In favour of the lord. That rent was to be valued in
the same manner, and subject to the like variation,
m the tithe commutation charge. And copyholds and
manorial rights might also be enfranchised or com-
muted in consideration of a conveyance of part of the
eopyhold land, or other land, parcel of the mine
manor, and subject to the same uses as the copyhold
land enfranchised. Power is given to the persons
obtaining the enfranchisement to grant the rent or
convey the lands, in consideration of which the en-
franchisement is made to the lord of the manor, to be
held upon the same uses as the manor.
If the copyholder has not an absolute interest in
his estate, he is authorised to apportion the rent
given
for enfranchisement to different portions of
property. Rents charged on enfranchised copy-
holds are to be first charges, taking place before mort-
gages and other incumbrances, and next after the
tithe rent charge. if land, the consideration for
enfranchisement, be in lease or otherwise, in
the occupation of tenants, anxious care is taken
to give the lord of the manor all the land-
lords rights previously possessed by the copyholder
over the same land. The copyhold commissioners
are authorised to allow such part as they may think
fit, of the money received by the lord of the manor
for enfranchinements, to be applied in paying off rents
and charges on hie estate. Tenants for life who
shall take upon themselves the whole expenses of en-
franchisement, so that no part of such expenses shall
be charged upon the inheritance of the land, may
procure enfranchisement without giving the notice
required by the former act to the owner of the
next estate of inheritance. Provision is also care-
fully made for securing the money received for
enfranchisement, where the lord of the manor has a
limited interest in his estate. A still more recent act
(7 & 8 Vic. c. 55) makes some farther improvements
in the details of proceedings.
And what do all these elaborate and cumbrous
proceedings amount to? Beyond the legislative
recognition that copyholds ought to be enfran-
chised, they are almost worthless. At most they
only afford machinery for getting over or evading
technical legal difficulties which ought not to exist
at all, after copyholders have been able to make
an agreement with the lord. Bat the making
that agreement is the great difficulty, to remove
which the interposition of the legislature is required.
There the oppressed copyholders receive no aid from
the well-paid commission and the sapentbundant pro-
vi4ora of three acts of parliament. Let them com-
municate and combine with one another to press upon
parliament their right to an act for compulsory and
immediate enfranchisement, and in the present temper
of the public it will not be long refused.

IT is one of the greatest misfortunes incident to
almost all discussions on the currency, that within the
province of debate there is one conspicuous and pow-
erful body, so intimately associated in the public mind
with every part of the question, and so peculiarly
open by its constitution to the criticisms of every
smile, that the main drift of the controversy Is
very often lost in a conflict of personality with the
Bank of England. It must be admitted that there
are very great temptations to mix up the Bank with
every turn of the discussion. Everybody knows, or
has heard something about the Bank. Everybody
perfectly understands that the Bank directors know
nothing about the business, so runs the phrase, and
what is much more to the purpose, everybody is quite
aware that it is the safest of all possible games to
run foul of the Bank of England, for officially the
directors have neither tongues nor ears . and it is
the peculiar privilege of this body of persons to un-
dergo the largest and the most unscrupulous share of
censure and comment that falls to the lot of any public
society in this country, without the chance of raising
even s finger in their own defence.
We have no desire to assert, that the conduct of the
Bank directomis never open to objection, or even to grave
remonstrance; but we have not a moment's hesitation
in protesting most emphatically against the line and
spirit of unscrupulous animadversion which during
the last nine months has been introduced into the dist-
ension of currency topics relative to those gentle-
men. Their measures may perhaps have been unwise
or untimely in some few instances, but they have
done nothing which, in the judgment of any 9artslid
and honourable mind, can for a single instant justify
the rancorous and malevolent denunciation which
has been directed against them. They have


~..

•

been subjected to a coarsen.. of vitupera-
tion utterly inconsistent with every rule of fair
argument, and directly subversive of the judicial
temper indispensable in such inquiries.
In the tenor of the allusions to the conduct of the
Bank which so frequently occurred in the speech of
Sir C. WOOD on Tuesday evening, there was, of
course, no trace of this reprehensible tone or
offensive vocabulary. Sir C. WooD's ideas on the
subject of the Bank have certainly not the advantage
either of lucidity or justice, but he fully understands
the difference between respectful duisidenoe and
abusive disagreement.
It was one of the main purpose of Sir
CILARLIS WOOD'S speech to fasten upon the policy
of the Bank the blame of those defective ent-
re coy arrangements from which the country his
se acutely suffered. He traced the conduct of the
Bank in February, in April, in Jane, in Augeek
and in September, and concluded his recapitulation
in every instance by a significant lamentation over
the indiscretion of the directors. He lamented that
in February they did not raise the rate of interest
sufficiently soon ; that in July they lent too much of
their reserve; that in September they placed it
in too imminent a jeopardy ; and he especial.l z fdt
himselfcalled upon to deplore that, by these
indiscretions, the Bank has produced great ..7M-
agrOCU3 fluctuations in the state of confidence and
credit throughout the country. This, he ima-
gined, was the consummation of his case. The
syllogism was complete, and nothing could be plainer
than that a derangement of the money market, trace-
able to the Bank directors, could not be imputed to
the act conferring their present charter.
This is precisely one of those unaccountable chasms
in the coherence of Sir C. WOOD'S exposition, which
have so greatly astonished the country.
Granting even every fact of indiscretion for which
he contends, there arc still two queetions to be settled
before his favourite scheme of banking regulation
van claim the benefit of an acquittal. In the first
place, is it truo that this peculiar policy. of the
directors is at variance with any provision, ex-
press or implied, of the act of parliament under con-
sideration? In the second place, is it true that thei
authors of that act, in their anticipation of such a
policy on the part of the Bank of England, saw any, tea- '
-mato provide against it by stigmaor prohibition? Now
if a negative answer, and no other, can be given to
each of this inquiries, it is not easy to overrate the
temerity of Sir C. WOOD in directing public attention I
to this peculiarly exposed point of his position, and
then betaking himself to another and distant part of
his very irregular line of defence. It is, to say the
least, very bad tactics to invite the enemy to attack a
tottering citadel, and then withdraw the garrison for
the defence of an obscure loophole.
Now, if there be any truth in history, it is as his-
torically certain that the authors of the act of 1844
most naturally contemplated—first, a constant and
vigorous competition as brokers in the London money
market by the Bank of England, and second, the
occurrence not of mischief but of good from such a
competition, as it is certain that CHARLES L lost his
head.
What are the facts ? In his greet expository
speech of the 6th of May, 1844, Sir It. Part said :
With respect to the banking business of the Stook, I pro-
pose that it should be governed on ',wisely the sense prin-
espies as would regulate (mother body dealing with Bank
of England notes. Oar general rule is to draw a distinction
between the privilege of issue and the conduct of the hank
ing business. We think they stand on en entirely different
footing. We think that the privilege of /MO is one which
may be fairly and justly controlled by the state, and that
the bankinybusiness is a matter in respect to which there
cannot be too toilimitedand unrestricada competition. 'ln
this latter respect, we think that the Bank of England
ought not to be subject to greater restrictions than other
banking establishments, but that it should be pat on as equal
foot:no with them, se the principle of competition, which
ought not to govern in case of issue, ought to operate in re-
spect to the banking business, and that after the issue has
once taken place it is then important that the public should
be enabled to et the use of that issue on as favourable
germ as possib?e.
It is quite impossible to have anything plainer
than this specific declaration. Here is the great
promoter of the scheme claiming applause in its
behalf, because it would introduce a new prin-
ciple of competition as regards the Bank of
England, and because the effect of this new
competition would be to cheapen the monetary trans-
actions of the public. But this is utterly at vari-
num with the line of justification set up by Sir C.
WooD. " Behold," says Sir R. Part in 1844, " a
new contrivance, which has the peculiar merit of
setting in motion a vigorous spirit of Competition be-
tween the Bank of England and the London bankers,
whereby money will be cheapened, and nothing will '
be endangered." " Bemoan; says Sir C. WOOD in
1847 " a constant tendency in the Bank of England
to interfere with the London money market, which
has led to the most disastrous consequences, and to
the utter shipwreck of the beautiful machinery set up
in 1844." -We certainly conceive that there is a
luxuriance of eccentricity between these utterly dim-
cordant strains, which has not been lately surpas-
sed either within or without the walls of our vaude-
ville theatres. It is altogether a most intricate puzzle
of identity to dissever which, after all, is the real
SIXON PURR? Has some mysterious transmutation
taken place in the statute book, so that the act of par-
liament actually in force is not the act of parliament
which enjoyed the ovation of three years ago ; or, on
the other hand, has some equally mysterious trans-
migration of faculties befallen the two right honour-
able baronets P Turn which way you please, there is
still a labyrinth. Either the act is the same,
and it has net failed in the estimation of
Sir C. WOOD, because it has falsified svery
expectation formed respecting it by himself and Sr
It. Poet in 1844 ; or it has failed, and his therefore
convicted them of egregious miscalculation and incon-
sistency ; or they at present describe as faults the
very things which in 1844 they described with rap-
ture as beauties of the most unique description.
We are exceedingly happy that we at least have
not to go upon so forlorn a hope of reconciliation, nor
to tempt the perils of each a wilderness of conflict-
ing statement. It is sufficient for us to point out
these salient angles of divergence between the course
of the adopted defence, and the history and character
of the measure sought to be upheld; and upon this
particular point so notorious are the opposing rack,
and so flagrant is the attempt to exculpate the vicious
legislation of 1844, by raising a clamour against the
Bank for faithfully following out the imperative pro-
visions of that legislation, that we are gaits, sure,
whatever may be the boldnees of the manoeuvre, it
will be most signally uneuccessfal.

THE singular system of diplomatic and warlike ope-
rations in which this country has been entangled on
the west coast of Africa is about to be further com-
plicated. Intelligence has been received by the Naval
Department at Washington that the free-negro settle-
ment of Liberia has declared itself an independent
state. To this, of course, no opposition will be offered
by the American Union. The scheme of getting rid
of slavery by gradually exporting negroee as free
adonis* never was a favourite of the American
slave owners, who have no wish to Fart with their
septa& And still lees was it a favourite
of the abolitionists, who looked upon it, not
without cause, as a sly device to weaken the
anti-slavery. party by introducing controversy and
dissension into their camp. The few crotchety in-
dividuals who took up with this notable compromise
between abolition and slavery have long grown bred
of their expensive hobby. The supplies have fallen
off year after year, and now that there is no hope of
raising more, the miniature model of the great
pattern republic cut in ebony is allowed to loose**
punter which tied it to the vessel of the state and sat
up for itself.
Now, though we have succeeded in concluding a
treaty with the republic of Equador—a minikin state
situated about the antipodes of Africa, and with its
flag unknown on the seas—whereby that mighty I
nation binds itself to co-operate with us in putting
down the slave trade, , the bantling republic el
Liberia springs into existence, we take it, free from
all such bonds. The question then arises—are we
ffitely to find this baby state an ally or an adversary
is our anti-slave-trade operations
Clekri nulla fides : don't imagine that all negro.'
&hie to deal in black slaves. Disbanded members
1 et our West India regiments have, NO now, been
Mows to be the most eager and efficient agents to
ti do kale in the marsh-delta of the Niger. Nay,
bow alias it in oar precious anti-slavery settlement
of Sims Loose P Prom Sioutsves " Sierra Leone"
—die "elms swami at bead—we learn :
Imams ham swum& of ihmsdiaLing in the colony by
=ld Wrigal4o themicshee, ea in the case or the notonoas
lhomeLtstsseed to Ibex= lierieverchain, icps:disz.;.
the
who:
Man-
di lbtuw ths delver to Ism the mutates is his

piece. Other wee of Mshomedans, Mandingose, and P•Ilialle
es Tillman/es, residents in the colony, are estabLideed, Ida
have inveigled liberated dfrioan bungs or eltilden.is=f
the colony, and sold them In the interior. • •
a liberated Atria's, oa more oconaions than
bills presented to the grand jury spinet Lim fir
aleo a Handing°, named Howdah ;lkeh eke
issuer in which the intimate are trained the inlader,
conviction is difficult, yet many have bean punished with
severity.
To avoid unnecessary multiplication of instances,
we subjoin only one more of Mr. SIEREEVEIS remi-
niscences. Mr. SHEESVE, be it remembered, resided
six years in the colony, and held at one time the ap-
pointment of first acting writer under the slave-nude
commission there.
A slave schooner wee purchased by a coloured British
merthant in the colony for 3001. He named it the 13berbro',
and afterwards sold it to his relative, the chief of the Plan-
tain Islands, under a fictitious bill of male. The chief sold it
to the slave traders in the neighbourhood of Sea Bar. Shortly
after she came into Sierra Leone a prise, with above three
hundred slaves on board, and was condemned in the Mixed
Commission Court.
Now is there any reason to believe that the
negroes of Liberia will be more inaccessible to
the fascinations of slave-trade gambling than
the negroes of Sierra Leone ? That there are
highly respectable and even highly accomplished
men among the free negroes of the United States, is
indisputable, but this is not the character of the class.
It is impossible that a class, denied civil rights, and
treated with contumely and oppression, should retain
that self-respect which is the basis of class morality.
As a body, the negroes of the United States are noted
for self-indulgence, low cunning, and impudent un-
scrupulousness. This is not their fault—it is the fault
of the institutions, and of the dominant race who have
made them what they are ; but the fact is as stated.
This class, prompt to acts of illicit gain, have lean
familiarised by their white countrymen, with eon-
, nivs.nce at, and participation in, the slave trade. Lieut.
'Commanding BELL, of the United States navy, in
the same letter which notified to the govern-
ment, at Washington, the Liberian declaration of
Independence, supplies some statistics of his country-
nies's participation in the slave trade along the wed
Ned of Africa.. On the 31d of August
_ last he over
"an American brig (the J. W. Huntington),
owed in New York, from Rio Janeiro, with the usual
asserted slave cargo, and lumber enough for a slave
dept.' He was informed that the Malaga, another
lAinerican vessel, had precisely the same cargo, with-
out the lumber. The Senator, a third American
vessel, some months ago, landed 500 slaves at Cape
Frio, and then proceeded into Rio, under Brazilian
colours, where her owners were suffered to strip her
' of all her furniture, " and then the government seised
her as a no-document vessel, the American crew
having left her at Loango, where the slaves were
taken on board." Lieut. BELL adds I understand
that upwards of thirty American vessels annually
ems freighted from Snail by Brazilians to the south
coast some of them, as is well known, taking a return
cargo of slaves under Brazilian colours, their Ame-
man crews first leaving them."
Who, that reflects upon these facts, can doubt that
the slave traders are looking forward with good
reason to make the new republic a harbour of refuge!
Already have complaints been made that even under
the striped and starred banner, facilities to slave
trading were afforded in Liberia, if not indeed that
the slave trade was actually prosecuted within its
territory. It could not be otherwise. The mass of
the dominant part of the population are just in that
state of advancement to make successful slavers of.
Their contact with civilisation has been such as to
impart to them somewhat of the European intellectual
superiority over the rude hordes among whom they
have settled, without elevating them correspondingly
in respect of morals.
What is the remedy for this additional obstacle to
the suppression of the slave-trade impending over us?
Not, assuredly, a blind and obstinate perseverance in
those meaeures for its suppression which have hitherto
failed even to check its expansion, and which have
subjected us to so many correlative evils. It is no
exaggeration to say that the crews of the vessels
of the royal navy employed for the suppression
of the slave-trade have been annually decimated.
The addition to our annual expenditure caused by
our naval and mixed commission anti-slavery opera-
tions is counted by hundreds of thousands. And yet
we have the authority of the late Sir FowELt Buz.
TON for saying that the number of slaves annually
carried across the Atlantic has not been diminished,
while the cruelties of the middle passage have been
fearfully aggravated. This is not all. Oar perma-
nent blockade of the West African coast (for such it
is) tells fully as severely against the honest and legi-
timate trader as against the slave trader, and thus
innocent commerce in the produce of the soil—the
beat means of civilising Africa—is cramped and
dwarfed in its growth. Again, the liberties which
our cruisers must take with tradiag (or seem-
ing trading) vessels, if their attempts to repress
the slave trade are not to be a mere
mockery, have fostered for years a growing dislike of
England among the sailors and merchants of almost
every nation of Europe. The last notable device for
evading this consequence of our anti-slavery ernawiss
—the three equal squadrons maintained by France,
England, and America, off the coast of Africa—is
ludicrously mischievous. It is as if the City of London
should be at the expense of tripling its police force,
maintainer equal numbers of French, American, and
English icemen, and making the men move in
clusters o three, in order that every delinquent of any
of those nations might be duly arrested by a coun-y-
-man. The jealousy of France, England, and America,
seta three vessels to do the work of one. And the
constant juxtaposition of strong squadrons of three
services, not remarkable for mutual tolerance, keeps
Europe and America in constant danger of war.
The independence of Liberia is, alter all, a very
trifling addition to the embarrassments which our
inefficacious system for repressing the slave-trade
has entailed upon us. That system cannot be much
longer persisted in. Already members of parliament
are beginning to move against it, and it shall not be
our fault if they are not aided, in so far se they can
be aided, by making the public aware of its absurdity
and danger.

Our Paris express of Tuesday has arrived, bat
contains little news of general interest. The London
journals of Monday brought the intelligence of the
definitive nomination of the diplomatic mediators on
the Swiss question. According to the reports receir ed
from Berne, however, it seems likely that the war will
have ceased before the arrival of the mediators.
The sanitary board of Marseilles, in its sitting of
the 25th, ordered a rigorous quarantine of twelve
days for the Mentor, and decided that in future all
steamers, without distinction, coming from places
where the cholera exists, although they may. have
had no case on board, shall perform a quarantine of
ten days, to be increased if any case of death or sick-
ness has taken place daring the voyage.

An extraordinary express has brought to Paris the 1
intelligence that the three small cantons of the Son-
derbund, Schwyts, Uri, and Unterwald, have been ad-
mitted to capitulate, subject to the condition that the),
shall not be occupied by the forces of the Diet. It is
reported that the diplomatic conferences of the me-
diating powers are to be held at Neufchltel, the capi-
tal of the canton of that name.
The only outstanding canton of the League at present
is the Valais, and the submission of that may be looked
for by every courier. The report we gave of the foot
of General Salle Sigh° being wounded is confirmed.
lie was wounded in the had by the explosion of a
shell. The members of the ex-government of Lucerne
who carried away. the fonds of the cantonal treuury,
had signified their desire to return and to restore
what had been abstracted. One of them, M. Schopf,
had written to the military authorities at Lucerne to
that effect.
Since the above was written, we have received the
Swiss journal' to the 27th, which confirm the re
of the capitulation of Uri and Unterwald, bat affirm
r that they are to bs occupied by the federal troops.

---
The advices received from Naples, to the 22nd ult.,
announce eeveralministerial changes, all of which are
of good augury to en improved state of things. The
Minister of the Interior, M. Santangelo, has been
compelled to retire, receiving the title of Moquisoorel
the rank of Honorary Conneillor of State. This
ministry is resolved into three-1. That of public
works ; 2, that of commerce and agriculture ; and 3,
that of the interior. The first of these offices has
been conferred on the Chevalier d'Ureo, the second on
the Chevalier Spinelli, and the last on M. Parisi.
d'Urso and Parisi are both known for their
liberal views. The latter was honourably distinguished
for the infkrible opposition which he offered
to the butchery of ("Jewel Laudi in Sicily.