The Express.
London, England, 1847-05-07 00:00:00

ghe Wrong*

MAILS.

The overland aimed mail,. do /daredlles, to the Medlterrapean,
rzrype. Aden, Ce7lan, India, Hung Kong, &0., will be made up on the
evening of the 7th May.
Tee mail.. fur Vigo, uporto, Liobon, Madeira, Cadiz, and Gibraltar,
will be made on en the moraine of the 17th May.
The Weal India mails, eachirling throe Ibr jladeo, Honduran, and
,he Havannah, will be mode up on the evenkgethe 17th May.
The mails for Britizh North America, Grenada, and the United
Mates, will be made up an the evening of the Illth May.
TO, overland mails for Gibraltar, Malta, Greece, the lotion Wane*
:7114„.A.den,Cade 4yloonn ,o!ieadia, /1014.-I,org, and via Southampton.
the 11 h May.
The molly for New Mouth Wales. Van GleMeree Land, and New
Zealand will be made up on the evening of the Met 1107.
The mails far the Braid* the River Plate, Monts Video, Parnamo
bow, ibid., Madeira. and Buenos Ayres, will be muds up on the
evenlng of the 4th June.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.
r,„• Advertisement., intended for Thaltzpren, London ermine paper,
moat be et the °Moe by Two o'clock on the day of publication.

HIGH HATER AT LONDON-BRIDGE.
Tlllll DAT —Morniair, 21 min. part G; Afternoon, 49 min. poet 8.
To-llonnow —Morning, 19 min. put 7 ; Afternoon, 52 nun. Fmn 7.

LONDON, FRIDAY, MAY 7.

. -
In the House of Lords yesterday, Lord BROUGHAM
asked the Lord President of the Council whether any
important communications from bankers and mer-
chants of the City of London had reached the govern-
ment on the subject of the existing state of depression
in the money market. lie understood it to be an
undoubted fact that the hest description of paper
had been refused discount during the past week
at 12 per cent. In the north of England, the
traders who had received large orders from America
complained that, in consequence of the want of
money, they could not execute them, and were
obliged to stop their mills, the result being to throw
an immense number of persons out of employ, while
if such orders could be executed, then the necessary /
importation of corn for the relief of Ireland would I
take place without the exportation • f bullion in pay- 1
trent, as was at present the case. Believing that an
immediate remedy was required, he ventured to'
suggest that no railway bill should pass during
the present session, without a clause being in-
serted, spreading the payment of the instalments over
a much longer period than the companies at present
contemplated. This suggestion came on the autho-
rity of a gentleman who stood very high in the
money market.—The Marquis of LANSDOWNE stated,
that within the last few hours the First Lord of the
Treasury had been in communication with highly
respectable parties in the City on the subject ,
referred to, but as yet the result had not
transpired. Lout ASHBURTON was understood
to express his belief that the legitimate commerce
of the country was in a safe state, the present pres-
sure haring arisen out of the operation of the Banking
Act—Earl Fii AWILLIAM thought it ought not to
be taken for e. ranted that the existing difficulties
arose exclusively from the construction of railways,
and he must say, that he thought -parliament never
legislated worse than when the two leading parties
concurred in o;inion. Lord BROUGHAM, in explana-
tion, said I.e had not intended to attribute
the existing pressure exclasively to railways;
the write of the exchanges, and the export
of bullion, no doubt had also participated
in producing that result. Lord WHARNCL /PE con-
tended that the crisis was mainly owing to the
bank in not having conducted its operations on sound
principles, and that things were not even worse was
only to be attributed to the operation of the act
of 1844. 1...-rd ASHBURTON doubted the soundness of
the prineipb• of the act referred to. The panic of
182.), which arose from a want of confidence in the
banks, rather than from an inordinate exporta-
tion of bullion, had been allayed by increasing
the circuity ion by five millions. The present crisis
might be described an a famine of money which
stopped the operations of the manufacturers of the
country.—On moving the committal of the Poor
Relief (Ireland) Bill, the Earl of RoDEN admitted
that the evils of Ireland were such that they could no
longer be palliated, and thought that no harm could
arise, admitting the necessity of the measure, by
limiting its operation to a certain number of years,
then to be dealt with as parliament should think fit-
The noble earl concluded his observations with a glow-
ing enlogium on the character and conduct of the Earl
of BEIABOROUG TT, whose career in Ireland he feared
would be but too short, but which had been such as
to entitle him to the praise and respect of all parties. I
The house then went into committee.—Lord MONT-
EAGLE, in an explanatory speech, moved, as an
amendment to the first clause, that the duration of the
bill should only extend to a period hereinafter to be
named. A protracted and animated discussion en-
sued, the members of the government strongly urging
the necessity of passing the bill without limitation,
at the conclusion of which the committee
divid. d, when the amendment was carried by
a majority of 13 against ministers, the numbers
being 63 to 50. In the course of the previous discus-
sion Lord ABINGER intimated his intention of
moving, should the amendment have failed, that any
persons entering into a state of matrimony after the
passing of the hill, should have no right, or these de-
perdent upon them, to relief, while the Earl of
ELLENBOROUGH expressed hie intention of moving,
on bringing up the report, that unmarried women and
their offspring should be entitled to relief, a class for
whom no provision was at present made. Some further
amendments having been proposed and withdrawn, the
committee arrived at clause four, when Lord ST.IN LEY
moved as an amendment that relieving officers should
be appointed, not by the guardians, as contemplated
by the bill, but by the Poor-law Commissioners.
After some discussion the committee divided, when
the original clause was carried by a majority of six
in favour of the government, the numbers being 59 to
53.—The Earl of SHAFTESBURY then reported pro-
rens, and the bill was ordered to be recommitted
this day.
In the House of Commons, Sir W.VERNER brought
forward the subject of the sale of fire-arms in Ire-
land, alleging as an indisputable fact that 99 out of
every 100 of those who purchased fire-arms had not
the means of procuring food for their families; and
concluded his observations, which comprised a variety
of details as to the mode and mariner by
which the sales by auction of arms and ani-
manition were carried ou, by expressing his re-

Bret that the Lord Lieutenant had on going
to Ireland expressed Lis intention of govern-
ing without an arms bill, the nee,ssity of such a
measure being now so incontestibly proved.—Mr.
LABOUCIIERE defended the course pursued by the
government, and contended that a very large portion
of the arms which had been purchased recently had
been bought by respectable farmers for thei; own
I Protection ; and he could prove, if necessary, thst the
majority of the outrages of the past year were in
nowiso connected with the use of fire-arms. lie
could not give his assent to the introduction of an
arms bill, being convinced that such a statute had in-
variably proved a failure.—Mr. Balmer moved for
a select committee to inquire into the progress of the
cultivation of cotton in India. The motion was con.
sented to by Sir J. C. Ifoanovax, and supported by
Lord GEORGE BENTINCK, at the termination of
whose speech an hon. member moved that the house
be counted, when there not being 40 members present,
At stood adjourned until this day.

THE Irish Poor-law came, a most unwe:eome
guest, into the new House of Lords. Scarcely one of
the members could be barely civil to it. Still, intro-
duced as it has been, sent up by a vote of the Low, r
House, and being the only permanent nicimire tar
Ireland, it would evidently have been too outrageous
to reject it, at least without at the same time doing
what Lord JeouN Itesseu, requested of the Irish
party—to suggest some ether alternative.
It being unadvisable to slay it outright, tie next
anxiety was to make away with the intruder in a
quiet and insidious way. It is curious to observe haw
eager and ingenious their lordships were in proposals
to r fleet this great end. Every one hiul a different
' poison to recommend : they were of all degrees of
force, from Lord STANtetr's arsenic to Lord loNr•
eacte's opium.
The latter succeeded in first administering his dose,
which is quite sufficient to lender the Irish poor-law a
very dormant and inoffensive measure during the brief
period of its existence. A poor-law, under say cir-
cunistanoes, must be in some respacts a law of
coercion to more classes than one. There is no
statute that could be passed which requires to be
voted in a more imperative form. And, with all the
aid and arms that the statute ran afford, it requires,
even in a pacific country like England, a stern will
and consummate skill to execute it. In Ireland,
how much more does it require of the highest
administrative powers and gnalitics ? But a poor-
law upon trial, with a year or two of allowed
existence! In that state who is there that
would respect—who is there that would execute it?
Those interested in defeating it have every encou-
ragement to do so, by the near prospect of a certain
reward in the defeat and repeal of a law prayed to
be inexecutable.

The only good to be expected from an Irish poor-
law was, that it would act as a screw upon the pro-
prietorial chess that it would tax the absentee, and
forte the worthless, indebted, or negli4ent landlord
to sell a property the duties of which had become too
onerous for him. A temporary poor-law mast
utterly fail of producing any moral effect whatever.
And even granting it permanent, it must have failed
in numerous localities of the south and west of Ire-
land, and would have required other auxiliary
measures to render it operative and effective. Had
the poor-law passed, as was proposed, a new parlia-
ment might have come forward with these auxiliary
measures. But now the pole-law will be inoperative
not merely in indigent districts, but in wealthy and
froward ones, and will present to the view of a new
parliament such a number of failures in all parts of
Ireland, that the legislature will shrink altogether from
this, or from any mode of gr piing with Irish ill.
The obnoxious bill is threatened with far mote
fatal amendments than being stamped as temporal.
The able-bodied poor are to be st:icken off the list
by one peer. All the married are to be excluded
from any right to relief by Lord ARIN'.ER. The
landlords and farmers are to be forbidden by the
Duke of WEttiNG•rox, under heavy penalties, from
paying their labourers in any way except with lit.
HOWRING'S new coins, the poorhouse alone being
privileged to pay in meal. A cabbage garden of
a quarter of an acre is to be as complete
a bar to relief as marriage or 1-gitimate
offspring. After all these exclusions and in-
junctions, the difficulty will be not to relieve
paupers, bat to find any that will be entitled to reliet
In this shape even Lord MONTEAGLE might show
some buweLs of compassion towards the bill, and ought
indeed to vote for its tunoc.mt permanence.
But we must o we utterly despair of its sur-
viving. The conspirators are too many, and all are
too anxious to have a stab, for any hopes to be enter-
tained of either patience being observed or indulgence
shown to the doomed victim.

Ir is to be hoped that Lord Moarreit will proceed
with his Ilealth of Towns Bill during the present
session. As we anticipated, there have been no
parish demonstrations against the measure in the pro-
vinces. The officials of some metropolitan districts
" '"

stand alone in their oppcsition. But even in London
there is as much parochial actien for as against the
bill. The vestries of aristocratic St. James's and de-
mocratic Whitechapel, the medical association of the
Tower Hamlets, more familiar than any parochial
board can be with the actual condition of the poor in
that locality, and the paving board of Goodman's-
fields. notwithstanding large recent outlay, have
passed resolutions as favourable to the measure as
those of the Marylebone meeting have been un-
favourable.

Throughout the country the greatest readiness
has been saown to forward the bill, as far as the ex-
pression of opinion can do it. And so vigorous has
been the demonstration of this desire, that even those
interested in the present state of things have con-
tented themselves with gminbling, dissatisfaction.
Nowhere has the parish spoken out against the public
except in certain parts of London, and that in the
teeth of the Registrar-General's last return, which

gives the lie direct to vestry representations.
Petitions are pouring in from every part of England
in favour of the act. Nor are these the common-place
sheets of parchment with names to them which can
always be got up by a little well-organised pressure.
Their framers have not relied on the well-known
arrangement; the table in a thoroughfare with pen,
ink, and paper, invitingly displayed, and an active
gentleman to hook little boys and idle loungers, into
writing their own names, or forging others more
respectable, " for fun." Three petitions are not only
genuine, but emanate from the best-informed classes of
the community.
Thus York prefers to send its petition signed by
1,170 persons of this sort, comprising magistrates,
guardians, clergy, and medical practitioners, to one
with ten times the number of signatures, proluiscu-
' °ugly gathered. So Halifax forwards its petition signed
by the clergy of all denominations, the whole of
the magistrates, 125 of the local commissioner,
and many others of almost equal weight. A
separate petition kas emanated from the me-
dical body exclusively, and bears the sip-
ture of every practitioner in the town of Halifax.
I These are facts which show with what utter disregard
to party or sect the bill is supported. Petitions
generally provoke counter-petitions, and require the
minister, who would gauge the opinion of the con-
, try by them, to strike a balance of one set of signs•
tures against the other. Here there is no such
necessity. Vested right and private interest are
ashamed to parade themselves in such a cause. Such
big words as " centralisation," and " paralysis of
local activity," are felt to be insufficient to hide the
selfishness and supineness which lie underneath them,
however unconscious the objectors may be of motives
so discreditable. Dirt has found no defender out of
the metropolis.
Thus supported by the humanity and intelligence
of England, it seems impossible that government
should postpone this measure, if the public business
will allow them to bring it to a third reading before
the approaching dissolution.
We cannot suppose that the noisy opposition of
few metropolitan parishes will weigh much against
the opinion of the country at large. But if it were
felt that the metropolis hid it in its power to impede
the progress of the measure, we should very much
prefer to adopt Lord LINCOLN'S plan, and
London for the future operation of a separate
Why should should England suffer because Marylebees
vestry insists on retaining its powers' It would be
wiser in Marylebone district to say quietly to 118 TY •
lcbonc vestry, "Gentlemen, you arc under a mistake.
We do not want you, and we do want an improved
sanitary legislation. You may tell Lord 1410.0.Erd
you will not have his bill. W-. 011111 tell him we -sill
have

Bet if Harvlebone does not choose to take this
pstsc, cut it adrift, and with it every metropolitan
wish,' if such a sacrifice be necessary to enable the
WI to make the port without delay.
Ths measure is not one in which delay is tolerable.
It is not a dilettante bit of legislation, which can be
%Wed for. It is not an ex?eriment which may be
tried and abandoned at will, like Lord lleouGuast's
Bankruptcy and Insolvent Law. There are hundreds
of daily deaths which cry out for it fr /in
nerds;church-
thousands of pining infants whose dumb
moths ask for it ; tens of thousands of pale and
I,lofuleas artisans, whose miseries, if not their tongues, I
..itsd for the speedy removal of the sources of their
le- healthy life, and premature decay. Public morality
calls for it; economy calls for it ; decency calls for it.
we are weary of parading the material proofs that I
these demands arc justified by facts, disgraceful, as I
they arc destructive, to England. But it is not
:etthat the evils exist. A government '
aof this country, the embodiment of enlight- •
esed public opinion, the true executive of the will
of England, does not come forward until its'
intervention is asked as well as needi d. The will I
mast art before the muscle works. That intervention I
h asked now, from places widely distant, bat in terms
rely too much like each other. Not York and Halifax
alone, but Ipswich and Warrington, Bradford and I
Worcester, Bath and Briatol, Plymouth and Rugby,
Newcastle-on-Tyne and Gateshead. Rochdale and
Whitby, offer up their prayer to be delivered from
mischiefs at once greater and more within the reach
of intelligent prevention, tilt' any purely material
evils that afflict civilised men.
Poverty has its complicated causes, which no single
remedy can reach ; ignorance assumes its thousand
fixms,which no formal teaching can assail ; crime isas
vicious in its developments as the human nature in
which it originates is complex and inscrutable. But
filth is tangible. Unlike its results, which are often
subtle and immaterial as they ore fatal, the cause is a
foul, obtruive, material reality. Every sense takes
involuntary cognisance of it. It may be men with
the eyes, smelt with the nose, handled with the hands.
It pollutes the food we eat, it stagnates in the water
we drink, it strikes death in the air we breathe.
Lord Morarrrris bill contains a machinery such as
was never before applied to remove this fruitful source
of moral and material contagion. All other preven-
tive agencies have failed because they had not that
stimulus which supervision gives, or that intelligence,
the want of which a central body will be expressly
selected to supply.
Why should the district which happens to be
saddled with a supine parochial board, a careless me-
dical body, a selfish clergy, and an ignorant working
class, continue to pine under the incubus, while the rt at
of the community has power and intelligence to rescue it
from the consequences of its own incapacity ? In a
country like England, every square mile of which is
dependent on every other square mile, for good or
evil, no one locality, in virtue of a so-called claim to
self-government, has a right to become a centre of
disease and demoralisation for surrounding districts.
The intelligent will of the community, embodied in
its government, has not only the right, but lies under
the duty, in such a case, to take the plague-spot into
its own hands, and treat it with lenitive, or caustic, or
eradicative remedies, as may be required.
Once for all, when the cry of centralisation is raised
against this measure, the simple eloquent answer is to
point to every one of the 10,000 parishes of England,
and ask what self-government, without the guidance,
and stimulus, and control, of some central authority,
has done for the poorer classes of this country, con-
sidering its wealth, its activity, and its intelligence ?

WHERE does the Russian treasure come from ? is
now more than ever the question asked by the unini-
tiated since the Austrian Obserrer, in a late number,
undertook to explain away some of the difficulties
discovered by incredulous minds in the recent finan-
cial arrangement. Without pretending to unravel
the mystery satisfactorily, the following notices, al-
though necessarily fragmentary, may furnish some in-
formation as to the real state of things.
Gold, it is well known, is found in the rich sands
at the foot of the Ural Mountains, where it was first
washed on a large scale in 1819. The total produc-
tion down to the end of 1823 is stated by the official
journals to have been 1,711 puds of 40165. each. In
1829, the gold sands at the foot of the Altai chain,
which sepamtes Chinese Tartary from Siberia, were
discovered ; and these proved much richer than
the former. The production was consequently
augmented from 314 puds, in 1829, to 1,722 puds
proiluced in 1846. This quantity, expressed in
English avoirdupois weight, is about 27 tons.
The total production, from 1819 to the end of 1846,
inclusive, has been, from this statement,l4,33s puds,
which, eking the fineness to be English Mint
standard, the pound or 40th part of a pad to be equal
to 8533.3 Dutch asses, and the English (sovereign to
weigh 166.17 asses, gives the large sem of
29,500000 S approximatavely. The same official re-
ports state, however, that only one-third of this was
on the account of the crown, the other and larger
portion belonging to private owners. The share of
this treasure properly belonging to the crown was,
therefore, nearly ten millions of sovereigns in gold.
There is a law in Russia prohibiting the exportation
of coin, we believe, under the severest penalty.
That the prohibition is not rigidly enforced is well
known, and many continental bankers can tell pretty
accurately what, number of imperials and Russian
ingots wander to the mints of Paris and London.
We do not pretend to dive into such mysteries. In
general we know that the bulky exports of Russia
are compensated with imported colonial wares,
whether of Spanish, llansentic, Dutch, or English
produce. We may, perhaps, assume that the secret
service money distributed in gold and diamonds over
Europe, added to the travelling expenses of the nume-
rous branches of the imperial family, come nearly up
to the profits on grain exported to Western Europe
in times of scarcity, and which was to be paid for in
gold. But on this head we will for the moment
assume a clear balance in favour of Russia to the
amount of 4,500,0001. sterling. We will farther
assume that all money so imported goes into the
imperial mint, and that none of the gold produced in
the country
.gets abroad. We shall then have a trea-
sure in coin amounting to 29,500,0001. of native
gold, and 4,500,0001. of foreign gold: 34,000,0001.
Against this large sum we have the various wars to
net off. The Turkish war of 1826-1827, the Polish
revolution of 1830, the Greek intervention and battle
of Navarino, and the expedition to China in 1836,
which ended so disastrousle. Lastly the Circassian
war has been a heavy drain upon the finances of the
country for many years. We cannot well estimate
the outlay for these various undertakings at less than
twenty millions sterling. The balance in favour of
the treasury would thus be 14,000,0001., or about
85,000,000 silver rubles.
It appears from the same official statement that the
sum actually in the coffers is 103,667,149 rubles, on
which 95,000,000 of liabilities rest, leaving 10,000,000
of rubles free for a financial experiment. The dif-
ference may, perhaps, be silver bars, which are pro-
cured from Nertchinsk by slave labour.
There is one way of explaining how all the bullion
can be brought into the imperial treasury, and that
way we know has been resorted to. If the crown
exacts the payment of taxes in bullion, but pays all
its own obligations within the country in bank notes,
the vaults of the treasury will speedily be filled, even
although the notes may be at a discount. Practically,
this is one mode of reducing salaries. The indemnifi-
cation for the cost of producing the precious metals
may also be paid in this manner. Estimating this
Last item at 30 per c nt. in the imperial mines, we
should have about 18 millions rubles of costs on the
crown gold to add to 162,615,600 rubles, the value of
the private gold bought by the state. These 180 mil-
lions of silver rubles; exceed the amount which,
according to our calculation, ought to be in the trea-
sury, and the error may be placed, at the dis-
cretion of the reader, to the account of so much more
expended in war or diplomacy than we assumed,
or of so much less purchased with notes by the
treasury of private mine owners. In fact, the
reader has room enough for speculation in the re-
spective amounts quoted ; for the official numbers are
without all guarantee, and beyond the undoubted fact
that items of expenditure similar to those we have
assumed were actually incurred, oar own have no
claim to exactness. The account given by the writer
in the Austrian Obserrer, who is, in all probability, a
well-known author on financial statistics, confirms our
general view, in as far as lie reckons amongst the
liabilities of the treasure 68,420,811 silver rubles upon
deposits in bullion, received by an office specially
created, and empowered to issue notes convertible on
demand for the sums so received. Another liability
cmmed is for one-sisth of the new notes issued in the

proportion of 10 for 36 of the assignats, which were
by over-issues reduced in that proportion, and redeem-
able at that rate since 1843. Happy Russia! Could
the Bank of England change the proportions fixed by
law to this figure, we should have a good sum to dis-
pow of without creating a panic.

Our accounts from Paris of Wednesday represent
all other topics as thrown into the shade by the
charges brought in the letter of General Cubieres
Ilagainst M. Teete, former Minister of Public Works,
and now judge in the Conr de Caseation. It is
alleged that when M. Testa was Minister of Public
Works, in 1842, he was induced, by the offer of cer-
tain shares in a mining company, to grant a state
'concession of incorporation to it, which, but for such
improper means, would have been withheld. This
ire pears to be the substance of the charge. General
Cubieves, however, himself is mixed up with the
affair. A Cabinet Council was held on Monday even-1
iag, at which the Minister of Justice was directed
to: communicate with both General Cubieres and
M. Teste. The result of these conferences bad
not publicly or officially transpired, but as we stated
in a Rostscript to our Paris correspooderre of yester-
day, it was understood that a royal ordonnanco would
be issued, suspending General Cubieres, and directing
an inquiry on the subject to be held before the Cham-
ber of Peers. The public disavowal made by M.
Teste iu the Chamber of Peers on Tuesday, of all
knowledge of, or participation in, such as affair, was
not followed by any discussion, it being felt that the
chamber ought nut indirectly to express an opinion
on a matter which must come before them judicially.
The French papers state that M. Eynard had
offered Gram' Coletti to pay, on behalf of Greece,
the half-yearly interest on its share of the loan de-
manded by the English government.

Advices from Madrid to the 30th ult. luxe been
received. The ministerial combinations attempted to
be effected under General Narvaez completely failed,
and the general was to have departed on the Ist, and
was expected, as we have stated above, at the hotel
of the embassy in Paris on Wednesday evening.
The retirement of the Queen to the palace of
Aranjuez was expected, but the chief part of the
household will remain at Madrid. The Count de
Castellar had arrived at Madrid, and at a private
audience had placed in the hands of the Queen a
letter from the Infant Don Enrique, supplicating her '
Majesty's consent to his marriage with the count's
sister. The Pope, without positively declining to
celebrate the marriage, had postponed it in the hope
of the royal consent being obtained. The Duke de
San Lorenzo bad been named Captain-General of the
Halberdiers, vice the Duke of Hiylen, resigned. An
adjournment of the congress was still spoken of for
fifteen days, but had not definitively taken place.

FRANC-T.—PAM MAY B.—FRENCH CHAMBERS.
—ln the Chamber of Deputise the discussion on the extra-
ordinary and supplementary credits fur the budgets of 1846
and 1847, was continued. The budget of the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs came under examination. See. 1, For
travelling expenses, and expenses of couriers; was adopted.
Sec. 2 related to credits of 800,000 francs for extraordinary
missions. M. Billault addressed the chamber; he spoke
loudly against the aunual increase of the supplementary
credits. lie blamed the manner in which the rallannta to Le
Plata had been conducted, es also of those to China, which
only resulted in a struggle between agents, each provided
with contradictory orders. Those missions were uncalled
for. It was vanity which led to the expeditions to
the Miuquesas and Otaheite. It was a diplomatic
comedy. The few commercial advantages with China were
already guaranteed by the treaty concluded between China
and England. As regarded the planting of Christianity in
Chins, he thought that the money would have been far bet-
ter spent in Syria, where the christian population seas suffer-
ing in cruelly. But Eagland had cards to play in Syria, and
the government wax timid. The same want of energy was
shown in Greece. England was endeavouring to destroy
French ieduence in that kingdom. Such, in fact, was the
manner in which the foreign department was conducted :
M. Billault then turned to Spain, blaming equally the
French system of policy followed there. "The English
alliance is broken. Alt that has taken place was long since
predicted by the opposition; but it is not now with the oppo-
sition that you have to contend but with your own majority.
M. Billault, who spoke at some length, sat down amidst
some excitement in the chamber.—M. Guizot rose to reply.
Ile said that, according to M. Billault, the ministry of foreign
atfairs cost a great des! and did nothing. He did not deny
that there were some expenses which figured in the budget
higher than they ought to be; be thought it advisable for
such expenses to he inserted in the budget, without coming
under the head of supplementary asdits. As regarded the
assertion that the outlays were annually increasing, he denied
it, as the expenses for extraordinary missions 'varied record-
ing to circumstances. M, Guizot here entered into a detail
'of the credits during the but ten years. As regarded the
mission to China, France had concluded a commercial treaty
on a larger basis than that accorded to other nations: it was
the duty of the government to extend French comm•res as
much as possible. The performance of christiaarn worship in
the Chinese dominions was an socket preroxative, which
has been restored to France, and in nowise affected the in-
terests of the Christians In Syria. The rights of France
should be maintained everywhere.
The Moniteur announces that the quantity of po-
tato seed, which the Minister of Agriculture had procured
for dieritiutien, is completely exhausted, the applications for
it having Isom most numerous.
HOLLAND.—THE HAGUE, MAY 4.—No bulletin
of the King's health has been issued to day. We learn that
his Majesty has posed a very quiet night, and that he feels
very well to-day.
The official Journal publishes a royal decree,
dated April 30, 1847. ordering bank notes of the value of
20 florins to be called in. On the 2nd of June, 1847,
these notes will not be recognised as legal currency.
G ERM ANY. —Putr setA. —B ERLIN, MAY 3. —The
Al;gebteine Preussische Zeitung of this date contains the
official report df the meeting of the combined Estates of April
29. The subj.ct of deliberation wasa message from the King,
respecting the establishment of provincial savings banks (on
the principle of those already existing in Westphalia), under
the direction of the provincial diets. To this end his Ma-
jesty proposes to plat? at the disposal of the diets a sum of
2,600,003 dollars, to be disiributed amulet the eight provinces
in proportion to their respective superficial extent and popula-
tion. No intereatis to be required on this loan from thecrown.
It is not to be demanded back until the at nowhere accruing
capital of each provincial batik doub' es the amount of the loan,
and even then only after such previous notice, and in such
instalments as shall preclude any risk of inconvenience. M.
Hansiamen acted as reporter from the committee appointed
to report on the message. The report intimated that a pre-
liminary question had been discussed in committee whether
it was cempetent for one committee of the combieed estates
to sit on the message ? or, whether it would be necessary to
have two committees, one of the estate of nobles, and one of
the ether three estates ? Under the circumstances of the
case, the message having been addressed to the combined
estates, and the committee including one se emberof the estate
of nobles from each province—the committee held itself com-
petent. The resolutions of the committee on the message
are three in number ; —l. That grateful thanks be ea-
r:aimed to his Majesty for the appropriation of two and a
half million dollars to the object mentioned in his message.
2. That the specific mode of uistxibuting the funds indicated
in the ministerial memorial which accompanied the address,
be adopted. 3. That regulations ,es to details for the
guidance of the provincial diets be prepared by a committee
of the combined estates in communication with the minister
of the interior, and that this committee consist of 32
members, one from each estate of all the eight provinces. These
resolutions were adopted after a long debate, which turned,
however, chiefly on an incidental or episodical question.
Count Itrenplitz moved, that inasmuch as Westphalia bad
already a savings bank system, its share of the loan ought at
cam to be advanced to it. This proposal was met, on the
part of M. Disberg, Minister of Finance, who took part in
the discussion as substitute of M. Von BOdelachwitur, on the
ground that the money could not be handed over to the Weat-
phahan diet until the conditions of the advance, winch
horse yet to be prepared, bad passed the states-general.
Hereupon M. Von Vineke raised a constitutional question
regarding the respective spheres of action of the provincial
diets, and the States General. 51. Von Vineke, apprehensive
ofexcessive centralization, seeks toextend the sphere of action
of the provincial diets at the expense of the authority of the
States General. Messrs. Hansemann, Von Auerswald, 'Von
Beeekerath, and others, apprehensive of the weakening
sestets of discordant provincial authorities, beck to create a
national feeling by concentrating power, as far as
expedient, in the States General. This is the first
of a ground whereon two opposing constitutional
aitation
parties may be formed ia Prus,ia that has yet appeared in
the deliberations of the states general. M. von Viocke de-
dared that the rejection of his proposal involved au encroach-
ment on the rights of the Westphalian, Saxon, and Silesian
estates. With one exception the representatives of the two
last named provinces disclaimed participation in this view.
And when M. von. Vineke insisted upon having the question
referred to a separate s ote of the estates of his own province
(an itio is; parts:), it appeared that he woo not supported Is
the requisite two-thirds of their number its this proposal.
This sitting of the combined estates, which commenced at
101, a.m., lasted till 11 p.m.
FOOD Rlol3.—M'urtemberg has in turn to deplore
excesses of this kind. On the let of May the market-place
of Ulna was the scene of great disorders. The riot sea.
commenced by some people who complained of the high
price of corn, and being abused by one of the corn venders,
threw his cart over, opened the bags containing the corn,
and distributed it among themselves. Excited by their
success, they attacked a miller's bonse , and plundered it of
the meal, money, and cosh•books. The police being unable
to stem the popular torrent, found themselves reduced
to look on and remain inactive. A small det-edurient
of soldier, which came up was much maltreated by
the people, who threw stones at them and wounded many.
The windows of several houses were smashed. A larger
body of soldiers coming to the spot, and recourse being
hail to the butt-end of the muskets, the mob gave way, and
many wire &nested. The streets • Lieu beams gradually to