The Express.
London, England, 1847-01-08 00:00:00

ght prow.

MAILS.
The mu. op Vigo, 431.118:4, Madeira, Cadiz. and Gibraltar,
will he wade on the at fie 18th January.
The Watt lath., thew for Mew°, Honduras, and
the Havannah, he made ea the aterningof the 18th January.
yby oyeetaud reaik, few ,_lldena,,Greere, the lonian 'shunts,
Z•p bt., Aden, C,yion, Lnatis.llfreg-Woog, in Chine, Via Southampton,
made up on the averidaiefthe atoning of the 20th January.
The overland clamed We Marseilles, to the Mediterranean,
>ikypt, Aden, Ceylon, India, Yong, hc., will be mode op on the
awning of the 25th mory
The mail. for New South Wades, Van Dienten's Land, sod New
!.Wand will be made up on the freeshar of the 3lst Jan wry.
The mail, for Itriti•li North America, Bermuda, and the United
States, will be made up on the evesdag of the Srd February.
The mails for the Brasile, the River Plate, Monte Vuleo, Pernam-
Iwo, Bahia, Ma tetra, and Buenos Ayres, will be dispatched an the
evening of the 4th February.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.
V Advent/emote intended for The Erprese, London eveedowymper,
nand beet the Once by Two o'doek on the day of poltiestios.

MOH WATER AT LONDON-BRIDGE.
Tnts DAT. —MOTTiLIT. teats pat 6; Afternoon. 20 Ws pint 6.
To-Yellow—Mornlng, 39 Till]. pat 6; Afternoon, 39 pan. pod 6.

LONDON, FRIDAY, JAN. 8.

WE are disposed to sympathise strongly with the
feeling expressed against the window tax at the
Marylebone meeting of Wednesday. The tax is
unequal, and prejudicial to health. Its inequality is
more than usually curious and complicated. We
should call it the worst of taxes assessed in the
worst of ways. It has always appeared to us a
matter of regret that in the repealing days of 1837
the window tax was not marked out for abolition in-
stead of the house tax. The house tax interfered
neither with health new industry. The determination
&the value of house property was easy, and required
no inquisitorial proceedings. The rate pressed for
the most part on those who were best able to
bear it. In all these respects it was favourably dis-
tinguished from the window tax. That impost does
not require the exaggerations of Mr. WILSON, the
chairman of the Marylebone meeting, to prove it in
every respect an obnoxious and objectionable source
of revenue. But there are very strong reasons against
the abandonment of any sources of revenue at present,
unless where, in the case of articles of consumption,
there is a prospect of filling up the void by increased
demand at lower duties. In fact, we may assume,
without reference to their theoretical merits or
demerits as imposts, that neither malt duty,
nor tea duty, nor window duty, can be repealed
this session with safety to the finances of the
country. Fortunately, however, in the case of
the window tax, this conviction leaves us another
alternative besides the old-fashioned ono " to grin
and bear it? Though the tax cannot reasonably be
repealed, it may, without loss to the revenue, be ren-
dered much less mischievous and burdensome. Go-
vernment may adopt a plan similar to that proposed
by Mr. HUME in 1834, limiting the tax to its present
amount, and allowing every man who has paid
window rate for an entire year, to continue to pay
the same composition, though he open additional
windows. This proposal actually passed into
law the week after it was offered by Mr. HUME. But
the fate of the measure presents a warning to all who
have to deal with a Chancellor of the Exchequer and
Commissioners of Stamps and Taxes. " The law un-
made it as the law had made? The act in ques-
tion provided that additional windows might be
opened, free of duty, " in every house which is, or
shall be duly assessed for the year ending April 5,
1835." Quibbles were raised on the words "duly
assessed," and the courts make out, whenever
the point came before them, that nobody
seas duly assessed for that year! Meanwhile the
light-giving, air-giving, health-giving, clause had been
eagerly jumped at and acted on. Everybody was at
work breaking out new windows and unbriclring old
ones. Light and air were raining in on dingy cellars
and frowzy passages, and stifling attics, which had
known little of either since 38 George 111. Every
occupier or builder who took this step found himself
°might in a trap "Duly assessed" was invoked
against him with effect. Trial after trial raised the
point. It was invariably given in favour of the com-
missioners. Frightened out of the contest, at last the
public gave in, grumblingly bricked up their windows,
and with loud abuse of government for its breach of
faith, and of the law far its cheerful countenance of a
quibble, resigned itself to its former short allowance
of life's first necessaries—light and air.
If this plan be rejected, there is another which was
proposed by Mr. HICKSON to the Health of Towns
Commissioners. He submits "that all new houses
should be assessed on the principle that every house
built requires for light and air a certain number of
openings, in proportion to its cubic contents; and
these openings should be paid for whether they exist
or not. The house once assessed on this sound prin-
ciple, the proprietor is to be at liberty to make as
many additional openings as he pleases.
The committee of the Health of Towns Association
recommend a plan similar to this, and fixing the max-
imum at the existing window duties. The Chancellor
of the Exchequer was applied to when the Buildings
Act was in preparation, to introduce a short bill em-
bodying this suggestion, and "to exempt from taxa-
tion, on sanitary grounds, all unglazed openings in
basement stories, and closets of every description."
This was peremptorily refused.
Any of these suggestions might be adopted, or
hints derived trot; them, or &combination of them, so
as to bring the window tax in some degree into har-
mony with what we anticipate in the way of sanitary
reform during the approaching session. At all events,
even if this limited dealing with the tax be refused,
let a change be introduced in the principle on
which it is levied in cases of many persons
living under one roof in one large building.
Take the poor man, perhaps in him filthy
human warren, an old house in Whitechapel, or
St. Giles's, or liethral-green and the comfortable
Templar or rosy-gilled Oxford Don in lons of Court
or College, or the man about town in the Albany.

times as much in window tax as lawyer, divine, or
man of fashion. By the effect of a rule appended to
48 Geo. 111. c. 55, in the case of the poor, twenty
separate dwellings in one house still make but one
house. In the case of the rich, twenty separate
dwellings in one house make twenty separate houses.
But as houses with less than eight windows are ex-
empted from the tax, and as most sets of chambers
have less than eight windows, or fall at least
within the lowest class of taxed dwelling-houses,
the inmates escape absolutely or comparatively scot-
tree. But the whole dwelling of the poor man, in
which may be twenty families besides his own, and
as many rooms each with its window, pays the heavy
, tax of a first-class house, and this of course falls at
once on the inmates. The working of this iniquitous
piece of selfishness is thus illustrated in the report on
Lord LINCOLN'S bill:
In the ease of the buildings about to be erected by the
Metropolitan Association for Improving the Dwellings of the
Industrious Classes, in a house for ten families, each finally
having three rooms ands scullery, and each room containing
one window, making 40 windows throughout the house and
• sky-light ; ths total window-tax for such house is 151. 15s.
7d., or If. I Is. 9d. for each family, being at the rate of 71d.
per week each, whereas the same house, situated in the inns
of court, or in either of the universities of Oxford or Cam-
bridge, the total duty is only 31. 17s. per annum, or 75 Bjd.
for each set of four rooms, being at the rate of lid, per week
each.". . .

Such an arrangement as this ought not to be longer
allowed to disgrace the statute-book. There is no
loss of revenue to be pleaded against altering this
provision. It is only to reverse the rule. Let what
is now the law for the rich, become the law for the poor,
and rice versa. Here are 7d. a week and id. a week to
be paid to make up the existing Bd. of revenue. As it is,
the poor man pays 7d., the rich man contributes
the Id. Reverse it : let Temple, Oxford, Cam-
bridge and Albany pay 7d.; Whitechapel, Bethnal-
green, and St Giles's Id. The Bd. will still have
been raised, and a great and glaring piece of injus-
tice will have been done away with.

"Tile returns of colonial expenditure," says the
Times of yesterday, " present the question of colonial
policy in a somewhat different light from that in
which we have lately regarded it." These returns
have "forcibly reminded the Tinges "that Great
Britain has her rights, which claim at least as much,
if not more, consideration than those of her depend-
encies." According to the Times the returns show
an annual expenditure by Great Britain of more than
three millions, the whole of which that journal calls
an "amount of taxation paid by the British people on
account or the colonies.

This is a gross exaggeration of the annual colonial
expenditure of the mother country as a very super-
ficial examination of the returns may suffice
to show. The three millions include the whole

expenditure of Great Britain at its colonies and
dependencies (with the exception of the East India
Company's territories), not only for their civil
expenditure, but for military and naval stations. The
military and naval expenditure cannot with common
fairness be placed to the charge of the colonies alone :
it is incurred for the protection of British trade and
traders; it is incurred to preserve the police of the
high seas; it is an expense which Britain bears in
common with France, which has few colonies to pro-
tect, and the United States, which have none.
Of the 3,171,646/. included under the head of
"Colonial Expenditure," 2,556,9191. are military, and
74,0051. naval expenditure. Gibraltar, Malta, and the
lonian islands are not colonies: we do not station mi-
litary and naval fames there to keepthem asterritories
valuable in other respects, but we go to the expense
of keeping possession of them because they are
valuable military and naval positions. The annual
expenditure of 219,4651. for military purposes at
Gibraltar, of 106,659/. for military, and 34,164/. for
naval purposes at Malta, and of 131.2271. for military
purposes in the lonian islands, is not incurred to de-
fend colonies, but to maintain the political power of
Great Britain, and enable the government in the
most economical manner to protect the national
commerce and all British travellers in search
of gain, instruction, or amusement. In like
manner, the annual naval expenditure of 16,3581. at
Bermuda, and of 6,1141. at Ascension, are obviously
incurred with a view to the proteetion of oar general
trade, not to the mere defence of colonies. The naval
and military expenditure in the West India islands,
at the Cape of Good Hope, and at Hong Kong, have
mainly the same object in view. Our garrisons and
naval stations at Gibraltar, Malta, and Corfu, at
Halifax, Bermuda, Jamaica, the Cape of Good ope,
and Hong Kong, are so many points eloppui, whence
aggressions upon British subjects all over the world
may be prevented or punished on the shortest possible
notice. They are the points at which we grasp the
ocean. Though we did not possess a single colony,
still if our commerce were as extensive as it is
(though without colonies that is not easily con-
ceivable) it would be for the advantage of Great
Britain to incur the expense of maintaining garrisons
in these positions.
It needs ne long argument to show that military
and naval stations can, with proper management, be
supported more economically, and with less hazard of
dangerous or disagreeable collisions at home, than
among foreigners. Our colonies are merely exten-
sions of the mother country : as seats of garrisons
they stand midway between those at home and those
in a foreign country k participating, though not to the
same extent, in the increased cost of the latter, en-
joying, in a great measure, the advantage the former
possess, of being placed " among their own people."
These considerations do not show the whole ex-
tent of the glaring error of the Times, when that
journal speaks of the colonies costing the people
of this country upwards of 3,000,0001. annu-
ally. Even of the 540,8421. set down under the
head of " Civil Expenditure" it will not be difficult
to show that a large proportion is incurred for the
advantage of the mother country, not of the colonies.
The charges for convict establishments alone constitute
upwards of 354,0001. of this annual outlay. Are convicts
sent to Van Diemen's Land for the benefit of the free
settlers there, or to relieve Great Britain of a number
of her erring children, whom she lacks skill or
patience to reclaim? Nay, with regard to the pro-
portion of these outcasts sent to Bermuda and
Gibraltar, are their labours intended to benefit those
places, or to strengthen the fortifications which con-
tribute to maintain Britain's ascendancy on the seas?
The Imperial Customs' establishments in the colonies
cost 88,3251. per annum, the Post-office collections
remitted to England, or expended by the department,
amount to 89,2021. This sum of 177,5271. is paid by the
colonists, not by the inhabitants of Britain; and
the first item has hitherto been collected for the
benefit of tho mother rountry, not of the colonies.
' Its remission is now spoken of as boon to the
colonies.

That the colonies coat us something, need not be
denied. That they have hitherto, from gross mis-
management and grosser jobbing in the disposal of
waste lands and distribution of colonial patronage, and
from disaffection and turbulence excited by conni-
vance at local abuses, cost us more than they ought
to have done, is certain. But the assertion that the
colonies cost us three millions annually is a ludicrous
exaggeration. Whoever will take the trouble to
deduct from this total the military and naval expen-
diture at all stations favourable to the protection of
our trade, at the stations frequented by cruisers
against slave-traders, and the civil expenditure for
convicts, customs, and the post-office, may assume the
residuum to be what the colonies aerially cost us—not
what they ought to cost us : for the war expenses at
the Cape, great part of the military expenses in
Canada, and the enormously disproportionate expen-
diture in New Zealand, have been incurred solely by
the blunders of previous colonial administrations.

DR. BLINDER'S school, as described in the last
number of Dumbey and Son, is one of those faithful
pictures which are severe satires, because they are
actual portraitures. The forcing system adopted in
most of our classical schools, instead of producing an
early development of intellect, at once injures the
faculties and depraves the taste. Not only do
they t' arrive at the conclusion from which they never
depart, that all the fancies of the poets and lemons of
the sages, are a mere collection of words and gram-
mar, and have no other meaning in the world ;" but
they extend the inference beyond the scholastic course
and confound the remembrance of words with the
knowledge of things. For a long time the classical
course in our public schools has gradually dispensed
with the minor or lower writers, such as EUTIROPIUS,
Nttroq, and JUSTIN; and usurped the proper functions
of universities by prematurely introducing boys to
HORACE, JUVENAL, and CICERO. If 111 English
n'.. •••• lfr.vv• VN P•od,r.

THE X.rp.4E.§p.?,

niaire roe.
I were ise sae ton m for trogolettisEit avid
&cos, a lees grievous mistake ld have been com-
mitted. To appreciate lioLsopea bog, must have a,
knowledge of human life not attainable at his sge, tth
acquaintance with Roman history not to be obtained
in his school, and a perception of batuties of style only
to be gained by a long and sedulous cultivation of the
faculties which combine to form taste. Without these
aids HORACE has for him less interest than CORDERY
he, therefore, regards the works of the poet only as
the source of painful grammatical tasks, the instrn-
ment for perplexing him with painful syntax and
puzzling prosody, from which his mind can derive no
enjoyment, and for which he can discover no use in
his future life. . .

ii4ersucia preposterous system it is no wonder
I that we hear complaints of the idleness of boys,
and their unwillingness to learn. The acquisi-
tion of knowledge is always delightful, and this
" unwillingness to learn " is simply a proof that
knowledge, in the proper sense of the word is not
communicated. The boy is not trained to know: he is
merely required to remember—a very different pro-
cess from knowing is this remembering, for

Parrots themrelves speak properly by rote,
And in twelve months my dog shall howl by note.

It is neither a proof of idleness nor of ignorance in
a child to inquire " What is the use of all this learn-
ing?" On the contrary, he asks a very sensible
question, which shows that his natural promptings
have led him to take a more just view of the purposes
of education than his parents or his tutors have done.
The boy knows that it is the purpose of education to
fit him for the career he is destined to pursue in
future life. He can discover no connexion between
that career and " the pursuit of stony-hearted verbs,
savage noun substantives, inflexible syntactical pas-
sages, and ghosts of exercises that haunt him in his
dreams." If the connexion were explicable and ex-
plained, he might be induced to labour, as everybody else
labours, with a view to future profit. But when no
perceptible advantage is shown as the result of his
toil, he regards the labour as a convict does his
penance on the tread-mill : he deems it an arbitrary
infliction, imposed to gratify the caprice of others,
who take an unintelligible pleasure in his suffering.
Under such circumstances it is no wonder that the

boy " usually takes leave of his spirits in three
weeks—has all the cares of the world on his head in
three months—conceives bitter resentments against
" •

his parents or guardians in four—is an old misan-
thrope in five—and envies QUINTUS CCRTICS his
blessed refuge in the earth in six." Is this the
result sought to be produced by education ?
We are not disposed to undervalue classical attain-
ments, but we doubt the wisdom of sacrificing to
such attainments all other branches of information;
and we have no doubt at all of the fatuity of a system,
which being based on the mistaken notion of the
exclusive value of classical knowledge, in ninety-nine
cases out of the hundred, neither communicates that
knowledge nor any other. We have already noticed
the flagrant error which has led to the perversion of
our grammar schools, founded to give "instruction in
the Latin tongue," at a time when the Latin language
was the exclusive medium for useful information.
They have now usurped what were the proper func-
tions of the universities, and have become teachers of
the highest classical literature. Schools and uni-
versities have equally sullbred from the change; it
has multiplied the number of idle pupils in the one,
and of dissipated students in the other.
We regret the banishment of the authors of what
'assailed " the inferior infinity' from our schools ; the
biographies of NF.POS, the histories of COMICS and of
AnynN, afforded a knowledge of facts as well as of
words; the plainness and even She defeats of their
style, were not without their use in affording points
of contrast, which aided in the appreciation of
titer beauties of better writers. Their sabjeets are
narratives not remote from the comprehension of
Tooth; they have the interest of incident which
is so keenly felt in early life,.and their style is rarely
SO involved as to require the-highest exercise of gram-
matical analysis to evolve- a meaning. If it were
deemed advisable to introduce some poetry iato the
scholastic course, there ass parts of MID'S. Meta-
morphose, and Epistles, and-the Pharsaaa of Leetsi,
which are sufficiently simple for young minis; the
task of learning would be at once more- pleasing and
more profitable, if the understanding kept pace with
the memory. The forcing system,. which Mr.
DICKENS has so ably and so justly expsed, has the
double defect of excluding from oar schoovery branch
of knowledge except the ancient classics, and:of teach-
ing the classics themselves in. the worst manner possible_
It is even in its best results bat a system of seeming,.
for even the most attentive pupils will be found to
have gained little more titan parrot information, and
would be perplexed if they were asked the question
addressed by Sr. to the minister of Queen
CANDACE, 4' Understandest thou what thou readest ?P'

Until schools of general knowledge are founded en
improved ideas, the peratrions system, which, like Mr.
InckaNs, we at once condemn an& deplore, will con-
tinue to flourish in its pernicious luxuriance. It bat/
the advantage of concealing the deficiencies of what-
masters, and saving them the trouble of exertion ; for
it is a much easier thing to hear than to teach a lea-
son. It is a system ingeniously contrived for training
boys in dulness, in ignorance, and in carelessness : its
legitimate result, ender the best of circumstances, is a
useless pedant, and the really able men of whom it
boasts as its products, have risen to eminences not in
consequence of the system, but in spite of it.

THE total imports of cotton into France during the
year 1846, amounted to 378,035 bales. Of these,
325,935 were imported into Havre; 37,400 into Mar-
seilles ; and 14,700 into other porta. The distribution
of the cotton imported into France has been nearly in
the same proportions for the last six years. The cum-
ber of bales imported into all France was 458,854 in
1841 ; 442,470 in 1842 ; 399,165 in 1843 ; 351,451
in 1844 ; 410,537 in 1845 ; and, as stated above,
378,035 in 1846. The stocks in hand on the 31st of
December amounted to 99,300 bales in 1840; to
135,500 in 1841; to 138,000 in 1842; to 125,500 in
1843 ; to 78,000 in 1844 ; to 67,500 is 1845 ; to
55,800 in 1846. The average annual import for the
last six years is 406,783 bales ; for the last four,
384,802. The actual import of last year is
only 5,767 bales short, if we take the ave-
rage of the last four years; but it is 28,748
bales short, if we take the average of the last
six. But although the imports have been less for
the last four years (we might say the last five, for less
was imported in 1842 than in 1811), the consump-
tion has steadily increased. For the last five years
the stocks on hand on the 31st of December of each
succeeding year, have been lower than they were at
the same date on that which preceded it. In France,
as in England, the manufacturers have been rashly
extending their operations without inquiring whether
it was possible to procure a correspondingly aug-
mented quantity of raw material.

There was a rumour in Paris, on Wednesday, that
a schism was manifested in the dynastic opposition,
M. Thiele dissenting from MM. Dufaure and Billault
on the marriage question. M. niers, it appears,
proposes to confine his opposition on that question to
the imputed bad faith of the negotiation; whereas,
MM. Dufaure and Billault will attack the ministry
for having condescended to notice England in the
affair at all.
The article which appeared in the Journal des De-
bats on Wednesday on the schism which has taken
place in the dynastic opposition alluded to above,
made a great sensation throughout the day in Paris.
At noon, a numerous meeting of deputies was held in
the Salk des Conferences of the Chamber. The
friends of MM. Billault and Dufaure acknowledged
that these deputies dissented from M. 'fhiers, and
it was said that many leading members of the party
coincided with them, among whom were named MM.
Vivien, De Maleville, Itemusat, Chamballe, and Leon
Faucher.

There were present in Paris, on Wednesday, 300
members of the Representative Chamber. On Sun-
day there will be an assembly of the deputies, to
name the deputations who are to receive the King
and Royal Family on their arrival at the Palais
Bourbon on Monday. If the King of the Belgians
do not leave Paris before that day, he will be present
in the tribune of the Queen. On Tuesday, the
Chamber will be occupied in forming the bureaux
and the different permanent committees. On Wed-
nesday it will be engaged with the verification of
powers of ten new elections, four of which had been
annulled by the Chamber, and in appointing the
committee on the address. The earliest public busi-
ness before the Chamber will be the presentation of
the budget by the Minister of Finance, which it is
exnected will show a considerable deficit,

.Ry 8, 1847.

lisSadWor Wednesday M. I:rid:sot Grill lay ad
the buisan tithe Charnhir orPeers the diplOriaskic
ForrispopdpsOe on the autject of the Sitanish
mar-
riages end the affair of Cracow,'the discussion of
which will probably take place about the end of the
week. It will be opened by the buke of Broglie in
a speech favourable to the cabinet, on the question
of the marriages, on which question it is expected
there will be no division in the Chamber of Peers.

On Tuesday evening there was a reception at the
Tuileries, at which Lord and Lady Normanby were
present.

The Madrid Gazette of the 26th Dec. says, that
Baron Omni having learned that his wife and daughter
had been captured by the Mignelites as reprisals for
the imprisonment of a priest named Agra, abandoned
his position before that city, and marched against the
Miguelite party. On the 20th he attacked them
at Braga, and defeated them, killing a great number.
He captured a party of sixty in a village near Brags,
and immediately caused the chiefs to be shot.
The ordinary Madrid mail of the 31st Dec. was re-
ceived in Paris on Wednesday, with the journals of
that day, bringing an account of the opening of the
Cortes. The Marquis do Viluma had accepted the
presidency of the senate. The subject which moat
engrossed public attention was the arrest of M. Olo-
:riga, of which the following particulars are given by
El Clamor Public°
M. Olozsga was in a carriage belonging to the so-called
Peninsular company ; on leaving Buitrago, as the carriage
was wending the hill, a fost•chaise cane up, containing
too officers and two soldiers of the civic guard. They ordered
the conductear to stop and show his way-bill. After ca-
m:lining it they requested M. Olozaga to enter the post-
chaise. M. Olozaga expressed his astonishment, as he was
provided with a regular passport, and was 'the bearer of
official document, from the provinces which had elected him
deputy. The reply was, that they acted on instruc-
tions from the government, that they only did their duty,
and that he was to make haute. M. Olozsga having said
that he wished to have at least part of his luggage, the
guards wanted the carriage to return to Buitrago, but
the ronducteur persuaded them to follow in the post-
chaise to Lozoyula. at which place M. Olozsga wan arrested.
Owing to the indignation caused by this proceeding, TI.
Olozaaa and the other travellers did not dine. M. Oforaga
had only time to write two lines with a pencil to his family in
the eonducteur's book. It seems that he tees been conveyed
to Pampeluna.
The Progressista journals protest violently against
the legality of the whole proceeding, maintaining that
M. Olozaga being a deputy legally elected, and enter-
ing Spain with regular passports, ought to have re-
mained unmolested until the Cortes itself, the only
competent authority, should have decided on the
legality of his election. The Ileroldo exhorts the
cabinet to adopts generous course, which will increase
their strength and popularity, and to send M. Olozaga
back to Bayonne, there to await the decision of the
Cortes. It is evident that this proceeding mint add to
the complication of the ministerial situation.
A Montenaohnist outbreak was still feared.