The Express.
London, England, 1849-12-10 00:00:00

has been pronounced within the memory of many
now !Mtg. This simple method of ridding a sountry
or district of regale, was necessarily put • stapes by
the tanwilliagmins of neighbaum to be converted into
mural togNils' he the benefit of any other commu-
nity The ant step was to seed convicted felons to
sentlaahomhish either had not the power to retries
IR were willing to receive them conditionally.
IN:tations were the countries to whichd
thirteen's, gland went generally deported, an
tits senditism apne which they were received was the
recorded to the settlers to use the Vcon-
permanently, or for a linger or shorter period,
as skies. Transpertatioo became, in fact, a sentence
to pernesmeat or temporary slavery, the scene of which
was the colonies. An English slave trade was
established, in which speculators contracted with
government for a cargo of rogues sentenced to com-
pulsory labour, and remunerated themselves by dis-
posing of them on advantageous terms to the
planters. Political offenders (often innocent and
meritorious characters) were thus not unfrecjuently
got rid of at ore period of our history.
Matters remained on this footing till the American
war of independence, and the recognition of the
United States as an independent republic put an end
to the English slave trade with these regions. The
accumulation of convicts in the gaols of England set
the inventive faculties of public men at work to devise
some succedaneum. It happened that not lone
before this event, attention had been seriously directed
in many quarters to the ends of punishment and the
right of communities to inflict it. Td he right of even
erring human beings to be regarde as fellow even
erring
bad been asserted. Denise& had been urged
to proportion penalties to offences, to 'bateau
from unnecessary cruelty, to try whether punishment
might not be rendered reformatory as well as deter-
ring. Two parties took the lead in the discussion in
this country—those who, with BENTHAM, recom-
mended a system of strict discipline under vigilant
superintendence, at home ; those who, with Lord
HOBART, recommended the foundation of a new penal
calory as a depot for the class of convicts formerly
sent to the American plantations. The representa-
tions of the latter party prevailed, for they. only urged
tee continuance of a system with which ministers and
legislators were familiar.
Accordingly, towards the close of last century a
number of 'meads were freighted with convicts, end
despatched to the they unsettled shores of New South
Wales. The idea of providing instruction and moral
discipline fur the convic:s, or of subjecting them to
continuous useful labour, scarcely appears to have en-
tered into the heads of the promoters of this scheme.
There were no persons to employ the labour of the
convicts in New South Wales; and many years
elapsed before any other provision was made for their
moral and religious instruction than the occasional
services of the chaplain to the military corps sent to
guard them. New Sruth Wales was, in point of
tact, merely a more remote and roomy prison, of
which desert lands and a wide ocean were the walls;
and within it the condemned criminals were allowed
to loiter, unclassified, undisciplined, just as they were
in our own ill-regulated gala at home.
By sheer accident, a method of turning the labour
of these outcasts to account was Lund out. A corps
had been embodied for the express purpose of guera-
ing the criminals in New South Wales. A tether
peculiar mode of remunerating these quasi-military—
at least, their officers—was adopted. They were
allowed a monopoly of trade in certain ar-
ticles, of which rum was the chief, and
such of them as dose to remain perma-
nently in the settlement received lavish grants
of land. Under the pretext of diminish-
ing the expenses of government, by providing for the
maintenance of a number of prisoners, they soon con-
trived to obtain assignments of the services o. con-
victs to till their lands, cr watch their herds and
flocks, or perform the offices of domestic menial..
The rum monopoly was turned to account in a manner
little conducive to discipline or morality. The gran-
tees of lands availed themselves of the Ithour of their
convict slaves with infinite profit to their own pockets
and very little to the general morality. Busied in
their mercantile and agiicultural speculations, they
had little leisure for the duties they had been sent
to the settlement to perform. Tam places were
supplied in not a few instances by individuals
selected from the better conducted or more ape-
cious among the omelets. From these new and rather
questionable government employis, and from the con-
victs whose terms or punishment had expired or been in
part remitted, a new class of freemen gradually grew
up in the colony, who asserted their title to a share in
the assignments of convict labour, grants of land, and,
above all, of the rum monopoly. The feuds of the
free immigrants and the emancipists began to convulse
the settlement at a very early period of its history.
The intrigues and agitations of these partite kept up
a constant turmoil, concealed by which, in the
absence of a numerically preponderant honest class,
of systematic discipline and moral instruction, vice of
every kind vegetated luxuriantly. Amid all this demo-
ralisation there was much energy sod physical prospe-
Z. Free immierants were attracted to the new
strange land of promise : a feeling of distaste to
the gross vices prevalent grew up; and the agitation
already alluded to commenced, which terminated, not
in the abolition or judicious regulation of convict
transportation, but in the exemption of New South
Wales from the necessity of receiving convicts—
greedy to the moral advantage, and, for a time at
to the pecuniary loss of the colony.
It is obvious from this retrospect that up to the
time when New South Wales ceased to be a penal
orttlement, the efficacy of transportation, either as a
reformatory or deterrent pueishment, had not re-
solved a fair trial. And, notwithstanding many in-
telligent observations, experiments, and suggestions,
since made, it cannot be said to have received a fair
trial to the present day. The concentration of all
our transported convicts, with the exception of the few
sent to the government works at Gibraltar and Corfu,
in Norfolk Island and Van Diemen's Land, and lat-
terly in Van Diemen's Land alone, has rendered
anything like a proper classification and separation
of the convicts, or an advantageous employ-
ment of their labour, impossible. The expense
of the system has been enormous; the feelings and
the economical interests of the free population around
them have been utterly disregarded; no judicious sys-
tem for rendering their punishment returmatory has
been steadily persisted in.
Bat the state of affsirs both at home and in the oolo-
nies is forcing upon government and the legislature
' the adoption of decisive measures. The non-penal
colonies—with the exception, it is alleged, of Western
Australia—are unwilling to receive our convicts. The
settlers at the Cape, in Southern Australis, and New
Zealand, are to a man hostile to any such immigra-
tion. In New South Wales and Australia Felix a
large majority of the settlers seem hostile to it. Van
Diemen's Land exclaims against the continuance
of such excessive importations of convicts as it
has hitherto been inundated with. The question must
be immediately examined in all its bearings
with a view to an immediate practical decision. To
this end it will be necessary to weigh well the
rights of the mother country on the one hand, and
of the colonists on the other, and to examine dispels-
sionately.the tendency and effects of tran.pertation
as a punishment, both with reference to the secu-
rity of the, honest portion of society and to the
claims of convicts to be regarded as fellow-creatures,
Ihowever degraded.
in

FRANCE.

PARIS. SvngDAT, 5.30 r.u.
•
The clamber yesterday spent its entire sitting in
discussing the &Oat of the punishment of death.
The malt was net for a moment doubtful; the pro-
w.e to abolish the punishment of death was rjected
by a large majority. The debate on the excise on
drinks was fixed for Tuesday next.
Leave of absence was asked and obtained for M.
Thiers, who is sttli suffering from his blisters on
the tows, and an inflammation of the palate
Several journals this morning, however, attribute his
desire to be on leave to other causes.
The club of the Beaux Ants, ea called from the
plaa of their meeting, has been transferred to the
Patois National, where the Assembly sits. This
meeting is °Dummied of Bonapartist. chiefly. It has
determined to vote for the maintenance of the excise

drinksdaring 1850.
The Astetteblei Nationale, which is mad to be under
the influence of the Russian embassy, has the follow-
ing: "Will Russia evacuate the Danubian pried-
*Wes ? We think she will, not indeed bruit*, Lord
Palmerston threatened, but because the Porte will
have resumed the Russi.n alliance, and intends to
unite with the Petersburg cabinet against the redo-

lationary
The following, from the Constitutionnel of to-day,
will show yon that I had been well informed with
respect to the plans about to be submitted to the le-
gislators for their approval by the government of
Louis Dispoleon: "The government has lately been
occupied with divers projects of law, which will
shortly be presented to the Legislative Assembly.
One of these projects, of which the first mover is the 4
President of the Republic, is intended to create trea-
suries for mutual assistance amongst workmen. These
treasuries or banks are to be founded as much as pos-
sible by trades. There would be seism:ate-founders
and associate-participators. Both would ba obliged to
make periodical parrs, sits. The associate-founders are
tobe chosen by the President of the Republic, who will
name their president likewise. They should be chosen
amongst the wealthy citizens who may be desirous of
joining in this work of prudence and foresight. They
would have to give their share only, whilst some of
them might assist in the administration of the funds
jointly with the commissioners chosen by the asso-
ciated workmen, who alone would profit by those
advantages. This is a means of establishing frequent
relation between the wealthy middle class (bourgeoisie)
and the citizens belonging to the labouring classes.
This useful step would destroy every pretext for those
unjust and baneful dislikes which so many racialists
endeavour to propagate is the population which lives
by its work.
"A second project has for its object to give to the
executive power a stronger authority over teachers in
primary schools.
" A third project proposes to give the prefets the
direct nomination of mayors, who should be chosen
from the municipal councils. In case the municipal
council should be dissolved, the prefet would have
the right to choose the mayor amongst all the citi-
zens of the commune."
The Constitutionnel being the semi-official organ of
the Elysee, there can be no doubt on the score of these
projects of law.

GERMANY.
MINISTERIAL CRISIS AT VIENNA.
The Cblogne Gazette, in an e'en' ric telegraphic mes-
sage from Vienna, dated the 5 h inst., announces a
ministerial crisis in consequence of a mi-understand-
ing between Prince Schwatzenberg and Dr. Bach,
the minister of the interior ; the latter wishes to
resign.
The treaty concerning the Vienna and Peath railway
has been signed to-day. Tie "Aide is to pay eight
million fionna convention money in eight payments,
at periods of eight years, and 4 per cent. interest until
the whole is paid.

BERLIN, Dec. 6
In the course of the next few days we shall have
several other political trials to record. Next Monday
Johann Jacoby is to be tried at Kcesigsberg for his
share in the Stuttgardt decisions of the German
National Assembly ; Herr Zimmermann, the Burger-
rr.eister of Spandau, is to be tried for the same offence.
His trial will take place in the course of next week.
Hopes are entertained that the result of Waldeck's
trial will not be without effect in both these eases.
The Second Chamber remains occupied with the
question of feudal duties ; the members are suffering
hom the most horrible ennui—not twenty spectators
are to be seen in the galleries, and the reporters have bad
great di fEculty in comb sting the tendency to sleep which
the debates cause. To-day there was no sitting.
BERLIN, Dec. 7.
Oar correspondent's letter contains a detailed ac-
count of the budget for 1830, which the Minister of
Finance has laid More the Chamber. The whole
revenue of the year is estimated at 91,000,000 dollars,
which would leave a small surplus on the esti-
mated expenditure. The military measures of the past
year had caused extraordinary expenditure, amount-
ing in the whole to 10,300,000 dollars, of which Sax-
ony and Baden were to repay the sum of 3,000,000.
There was also a small surplus in the war department
which would assist in raising the amount, and no
new taxes or loans would he required.

OLDENBURO, Dec. 4.—The Diet having yesterday re•
fused to give In its adhesion to the treaty of the three kings,
the minister rose in the sitting this day, and announced its
prorogation till the 2801 of December.
VlENNA.—Negotiations have been commenced with
/twit for the establishment of telegraphic lines in various
directions. The customs' union between Austria and the
governments of Modena and Parma, so long spoken of, has
been at length officially announced ; it is provisional, being
coecluded for only Ave years, but will continue in force
unless denounced by either party within or at the expira-
tion of that term.

THE AUSTRIAN DESPATCH TO THE ENVOY

AT BERLIN.

Much has been said and written respecting. this
important state document. It was the foundation of
the various rumours respecting the probable rupture
between the cabinets of Austria and Vienn- and our
readers will now be able to judge from the Pollowing
transla ion how far those rumours were Pt:aided by
the tone in which it is written :

11111TACCTIONS TO TRZIIIERIt •OW PROXESCH, DATED
VIENNA. N0T.12. 11349. . .

The Prussian go;;;Cii;iideiieesiie right which it as-
sects of entering into a special treaty with several members
of the German Confederation expressly from the conditions
laid down in article 11 of the Act of Confederation, and it
has upon every occasion which has presented itself given the
most specific assurances that it will always consider as sacred
the treaties upon which the German Confederation was
founded in the year 1815, and that it will preserve to all
those states which shall not join the separate
umf.deration intended by Prussia all the rights and duties
arising tram the said treaties. These solemn declarations
formed the basis of the negotiations we commenced with
Prussia in the b ginning of May ; and confiding in them, we
hilly expected the fulfilment of the promise that the treaty
of the 26th May should be made to accord with the confede-
rate rights which Prussia hes repeatedly and confidently
declared to be still in existence. Not for one moment have
me evert• oked the difficulty of the to k. But as the solution
wises distinctly promised us, our doubts were removed.by the
confidence with which the as triton was made. It was with
no little astonishment, therefore, that we saw in the Stoats
Anseiger (Premien official Gls itte) of the 22nd of last month
(Oct- b. r) the highly remarkable and astounding disclosures
respecting the views which the government of Prussia seems
to have entertained on this important question. These
views were expressed on the 17th of the same month by the
minister of state, Herr Von Bndelschwingh, in an explana-
tion which he gave to the Verwaltungsrath in its sitting
on that day. The principles which that explanation
maintains and develops are in open contradiction to those
which the Prussian cabinet has until now upheld, and are
in their consequences so important that we must take the
most decided steps to guard ourselves against them. To
this end we shall endeavour sh ctly to state the pith of
his compendious and highly artificial conception of the
mode of executing this right, in order to examine its mean-
ing more cl. sely.
Herr Von B clelarthwingh asserts that the federal concitu-
ti m is no longer legal, fer that, with the federal diet, not
merely a form, but the most important organic dispositions
of the confederation had etas. d to exist, without any mem-
ber of the confed,ration possessing the right to re-establish
it. Hence he concludes that the confederation to be esta-
blished c. told rot possibly eon, into collision with the federal
c tostitation, now n • longer valid; while the rights and
duties arising (tom the federal treaty of the year 1815, in so
far as they still have an object, cannot in any way be en-
dangered by the CULlll'ution rot the sew oonfederation,because
their preurvati u it previously promised. In order to meet
an objection which he foresaw would arise, Herr Von Bodel-
tchwingh expressed a eonvicti..n, founded upon Art. 7 of
the finsl onvewion of Vienna, that no other organ exists for
t.:e expression of the will an for the action of the confederation
as well as for the epplitat ion of its law than the federal diet,
and that the pronsionsl C-ntral power created on the 12th
July, 1818, cannot be regarded as its successor, because the
otganisation of the cotife. eroti.,it must be considered as di,
solved at the same time with the dissolution of the federal
dial; from which it would insult that the Central power

THE SUPPLY or WATEIL—The movement on the
part of the parochial authorities, which hat been commenced
in Marylebotee and fit. Pancras, with reference to ih••• supply
of water, hen, we understand, been seconded by all the me-
tropolitan parishes. A very important meeting of represent-
atives from each parish in London is to be held on Tuesday
next (to-morro ) for the purpose of erganising a plan of
co-speratien to anticipate the scheme which it is generally
andefitood that the government have in contemplaion to
propound to parliament, mils a view of piecing the manage-
ment ot the 'sweet, and water service to the whole el the
metropolis under one genera. government commiesien. The
representatives of the leading parishes have determined to
&acetate egainet any government Van for eenttaliring the
control niche water supply.— Weekly Chronicle.
FATAL EXPERIMENT.—On Saturday but a man
named Peter Pulfoid, In the employ of Messrs. A Irn and
Moore, Hampton-row, button manufacturer, cam.- to his
death nn•ier the following eiTCUMMAI3CIII. "thong amused
his shopmates, as he had (request ly dose be lore, by limning
summerseta, he tried the experiment of seeing how long be
could bear suspending by the neck, for which purpose he
fastened a rope to it, and siWr hangiost a so ry short time he
began to turn Meek in the lice, when he wea icumedietely
iced down by a man named Cl.fford. It was then t ,und that
I the unfortunate and toolbh man had trill-4 too much with
death, for all efforts to • es•ore animaiou were of no avail—
he was dead. An inquest was held oo Dd ,belay la..t before
Dr. D Avies, at the house of Mr. Smith, St. 's Inn, aed
a verdict of " Acciden;al Beath" .turut Bioninghans
Goatee.

THE EXPRESS, MONDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 10, 1849.

le to be regarded only as an authority arisiog from the instils-
diate anewrieg tar the direction of general affairs, and imb-
ibed nay
farther keel saiseenct, the ugh, from Its monarchical
sherseter, it has ism unfitted from the first to express the
Ciellisofaccafedesselonefladependent states, end should bare
said Its legal's/Ann, in plat of feet, with the dissolution
oilimalernian nalleMaleasembly, the foundation of its being.
Reffeedina to the views of Herr von Bodehoberingh, the
states ell Os confederation have been kept together by the
after oasts of the essifedention, and the consciousness of
their Wei part end panel of one community, notwitb-
stendisig that the confederation has het its organ, and with
it the laws which governed it; and that in consequence
Germany has bee. preserved from aponditian of total eon-
stitationallesenese(enjossimpleeigUtt) anddismemberment.
The assertions put forth by the President of the Vernal-
taiga Rath may be sammed up as follows:—The federal
constitution has ceased to exist with its principal organ, the
federal dist, sad, therefore, the confederation itself is to be
regarded ss dissolved. 2. The confederation sought to be
established by Prussia can not, therefore, come into collision
with the former federal constitution. 3. The rights and
duties which arise from the act of confederation are to be
considered apart from the federal constitution. 4. These rights
and duties, inn far as they still possess en object, still exist
and are not to be endangered by the confederation which it
is sought to establish. The rig to which still exist are said
to be those of reciprocal assistance, of the guarantee of the
integrity of the individual steg s, end of their proportional
claim to the property of the confederation. Before entering
upon an examination of these 'inn, it will be secretary to
establish the meenive of the federal constitution. We, too,
are of the opinion that a constitutinn does not consist of the
mere rules and conditions which are collected in the
act itself, and that therefore the German federal con-
stitution is not merely the substance of the conditions and
articln of the act of confederation and of the Vienna final
convention. But we cannot agree with the principle num
ciated that the essence of the federal constitution consists
only of a concrete organism, and an unchangeably fixed arti-
culation of the relations and arrangements existing at the
time of its introduction, and that therefore any change, pro.
'seeding from a voluntary agreement of all parties, in the
former organism of the general direction of the affairs of the
confederation, must neeasarily result in toe aboli-
tion of the whole federal constitution and in that of the
confederation itself. Still less can we understand how, after
the asserted instruction of the federal constitution any rights
and duties other than those referring to the property of the
confederation, can continue to exist, and even if this contra.
dicti in could be done away with, we must deny the rieht of
the Verwaltungsrath to judge of the nature and extent of
such rights. In our opinion the federal conatituticn is a
treaty binding upon all, and only to be dissolved with the
unanimous consent of all parties to it, as it woe entered into
for the purpose of founding a lasting and legal union of the
German nations.
This treaty and the federal constitution resulting from
it is divided into three parts, the first of which exoresses the
object and the conditions of the confederation. The second
establishes the rights which the estrange into the confedera-
tion confers and the duties which these rights impose upon
all members to each other and to the whole confederation.
Ai d the third prescribes the organic arrangements for the
direction of the general affairs. It is our conviction, there-
fore, that the essence of the federal constitution lies in
the federal objects for which it was established, and the duties
and privileges which it confer. All the rest is unimportene,
and may undergo a change. That this is so, and that such
alterations were foreseen on the establishment of the confe-
deration, is proved by the regulations contained in the act
of confedcratton and the Vienna final convention, which lay
down the conditions upon which the organic arrangements
may be nredified. We must also question the statement that
it would oe impossible to replace the federal diet by another
organ more suitable to represent the confederation as a
union of independent states. We must farther qui *lion
whether every member does not possess the right to demand
the creation of a new constitutional organ for the whole ;
and finally, whether every member of the confederation does
not possess the absolute right, until the creation of such an
organ, of itself vindicating its corstitationel demands in so
far as such circumstances would permit, and representing the
Anse by the expressiwn of its will based upon the federal
'stitution.

[To bt continued.]

ITALY.

SARDINIA.—Letters from Turin, of the sth inst.,
announce a grand review on the 20th, the day on
which the new parliament is to meet. The king
has appointed a commiseinn to examine the demands
of caturaliz►tion made by the inhabitants of the
provinces uoittd to the kingdom, according to the
terms of the laws of ISM