The Express.
London, England, 1848-02-19 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, SATURDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 19, 1848.

the pound blotted out for two years, in order for the
figure to be replaced by 12d.—whilst this tremendous
carve out of the national capital is not redeemed by
one single boon to commerce or to the iadnstrious
classes ! All that could be offered to the genius of
free-trade, was a mere 40,000/. worth of duty on cop-
per, very necessary if we are to have any copper to
smelt, but not of sufficient moment to awaken the
feeblest cry of approbation.
Decorum, as well as expediency, one should think,
would have suggested the necessity of not making the
estimates for 1848 exceed those of 1847, which were
introduced in the full tide of commercial and fiscal
prosperity, and amidst a state of interna-
tional relations not materially different from
that which now exists. Hitherto there has
been, for the last dozen years, a silent
increase in military expenditure, but heralded by no I
proclamation of motives. So that whilst England I
showed symptoms of precaution, it at least threw out
no cause of provocation. Now, however, we have the
phenomenon of a debate on foreign policy introduced
apropoe of the budget. We have the ships of the
French navy jealously enumerated by the prime
minister of the crown, and the Duke of WEL-
LINGTJH'S name dragged before the public as con-
nected with the necessity of fortifying and of arming.,
And all for what? As an excuse for adding '
245,0001. to military and naval expenditure.
Independent of the question whether there be cause
or not for armament and mistrust, we do think that I
the public agitation of such a topic weakens the
country and the government in the eyes of Europe,
more than a quarter of a million expenditure
strengthens it. The revelations of great personages
display England showing her weak side, trembling
before the contingency of invasion, and thus pro-
vokiog projects and policy of the kind, whilst
the same debate reveals a large party in the
country, deprecating all ideas of military rivalry
and defences, and proclaiming aloud the neces-
sity of England's ceasing to meddle actively with the
politics or the balance of Europe ! Would it not
have been better to have adhered to the old rule, and
have adjourned all discussion or cause for it to some
other moment than that, in which a deficit of three
millions was announced, and the proposal made of
swelling the income-tax to a decidedly war propor-
tion, though for peace necessities?
We must say that Lord J. RUSSELL did not suc-
cessfully make out his case for the necessity
of increased estimates. Following up the official
communication made last week in a cotemporary
journal, the Premier insisted on the crisis of 1844,
when we were so near to war with France, it is
alleged, because M. GUIZOT refused to make repara-
tion for an insult offered to our authorities at Tahiti.
But why did M. GULZ:a hesitate to make this repara-
tion ? And whence arose the danger ? It arose, as
Lord JOHN RUSSELL recounted, from Sir ROBERT
PEEL'S having given way to a feeling of resentment
in the House of Commons, and having spoken words,
which savoured of a threat. This rendered it difficult
for M. GUIZOT to make reparation. The danger of
war between the countries arose from the imprudence
of a minister, not from 'his neglect in arming or
expending.
The mode in which Lord JOHN RUSSELL put
the question to the house was, whether it could
sanction such a reduction of the estimates as would
bring the expenditure down to a level with the reve-
nue at present, or whether they would vote an increase
of the income-tax, and a certain portion of this in-
creased reve me in national defences. The House of
Commons does not so look upon the question. It
accepts the increased income-tax to fill the void
caused by the failure of crops. But to equip and
feed soldiers and sailors in the present aspect of
affairs for purely fighting purposes, we are quite
confident, that the nation would refuse income-tax,
nay, the lightest and most unfelt indirect tax, that
the CHANCeLLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER could point
out in the lists of customs and excise.
As to the purely fiscal provisions of his budget, it
is plain that the minister would have encountered no
opposition. The house received the announcement of
the rise of the rate from 3 to 5 per cent. as a capital
joke. Lord JOHN RUSSELL smiled in announcing it,
and the member for Finsbury was convulsed with
I laughter. But however excellent the joke may seem
to politicians, what is life to them is death to other
people ; and we should opine that the country will
consider it no joke at all. Least of all should profes-
sional men, and possessors of life-incomes relish such
humour, especially as their claims were left altogether
out of account. Lord lons seemed to agree with
Mr. BABBAGE that it mattered nothing to him or to
the tax-gatherer, whether they took 5 per cent. of the
widow's jointure, the veteran's pension, or of the
fine old, imperishable, English gentleman.

THE case of "Baron e. Denman" is in every respect
a remarkable one. The courage of the plaintiff in
bringing the action, the enormous expense that must
have been incurred in its prosecution, the extraordi-
nary facts disclosed in the evidence, the important
points of law which arose in the pleadings, the singu-
larity of the point reserved for discussion in the Ex-
chequer Chamber, and the admirable manner in
which the trial at bar was conducted, all combine to
render the cause most notable. The action was un-
doubtedly a desperate attempt on the part of the }Ja-
van& slave-dealers to avenge themselves on, and, if
possible, to break down our slave-trade suppression
system; and in the attempt they have as
undoubtedly been defeated. For, even if the
point of law reserved for discussion be here-
after decided in their favour, the evidence of the
plaintiff as to the extent of goods destroyed under the
authority or by the directions of Captain DENMAN
was so flatly contradicted by the witnesses for the
defence as to deprive the plaintiff of all chance to re- I
cover damages to anything like the extent claimed
by his declaration ; and thus, whatever be the future
result of the legal discussions, he can have no hope of
punishing the defendant pecuniarily. The object of
the suit has, therefore, been defeated—defeated, too,
atter a trial which may be regarded as a model ape-
cimen of English judicial investigation, in which the
plaintiff had the benefit of most able counsel, and of
a charge to the jury impeccable against the slightest
imputation of partiality or undue inclination.
Though we can have no sympathy with the plain-
tiff in his horrid trade, we are not at all sorry that he
brought the wrongs of which he complained before
an English court of law ; for the proceedings of our
cruisers on the west coast of Africa are (necessarily
perhaps) of so arbitrary and belligerent a character,
have had such important effects on the public opinion
of France and the United States, have had such in-
adequate suppressive results, constitute so great an
item in our yearly national expenditure, and are
continually interfering so very prejudicially with
lawful commerce, that the very fact that they can b.:
made the subject of law proceedings, the knowledge
that our judges will not for the sake of a noble end
overlook unlawful means, and the settlement of many
points of doubtful law, must all have a beneficial
,Ilia on our cruising system—if it have to be much
longer continued. And though we could have no
desire to see Capt. DEextaN mulcted in the enormous
damages claimed, still the very narrow escape he has
had from a verdict against him with same substantial
damages will, it is to be hoped, restrain that ardour
on the coast which on more than one occasion hu
rtaken more of the spirit of a MORGAN and of a
PAUL JONES than of a COLLINGWOOD or an Ex-
MOUTH.
Of the great point reserved for discussion—viz., that
the posterior ratification of a treaty will give to acts
done at the very moment of its conclusion the autho-
rity of a prior command—is of the very greatest im-
portance, because of the practical consequences which
it involves. Let the Court of Exchequer Chamber
sanction the law, as laid down by Barons ALDERSON,
ROLFE, and PLATT, and any enormitiLs may be per-
petrated with impunity ; for what government will
leave its officers without the protection of such a
ratification, however much they may disapprove
of their acts? In this very. case of Captain
DENMAN and the treaty with the Gallinaa
chiefs, that document was certainly ratified
formally, but eubtantially it was disapproved ;
for Lord ABERDEEN, when foreign secretary, directed
the Admiralty. to recall any instructions under which
her lAJESTY a cruisers on the coast might renew
such exploits, repeating the dictum of Lord STOWELL
in the case of "Le Laisis," ea eloquently enforced, "that
a good, however eminent, should not be attained
otherwise than by lawful means ;" and in conse-
quence of these directions from the Foreign-office no
such exploits have been performed for the last seven
years. The subsequent experience, indeed, of the
value of the DENMAN treaty is at once decisive of the
grave question, which for four days perplexed both