The Express.
London, England, 1853-06-29 00:00:00

THE EASTERN QUESTION:

Mr. LAYAitatg:;47llotTettTheli;;;ltctelaining forward
this gaieties es Friday, the Bth July.

THE BALLOT.

moved for leave to bring in a
onniesion•- into the

bill to provide tn.. ;a. __ to inquire tf.
assapt practices at any election for any county, division of
a Meaty, city, borough, university, or place, in the United
eitt m shall have issued, under the provisions of the act
sth and 16th years of her present Majesty, the votes
M this two elections next subsequent thereupon in any
each place shall be taken by ballet. He said on the pass-
* a the Reform Bill it was expected that that measure
genii have produced freedom of election, but it was soon
alai that it did not stop intimidation, bribery, and
MOW effenapt practices, and the opinion began to spread
Iftalt the ballot would be the only remedy. The great debate
M the Mat took place in 1838, and in 1839 the question
mankind, the numbers who divided being nearly 550.
Afterward' interest in the question declined. During the
last parliament many measures were passed for the purpose
of obtaining purity of election. The last general election
was an exciting party struggle, and thirty members had
been unseated for bribery and corruption. They need not
be surprised, that after 225 contested elections, followed by
more than 100 petitions, the question of the ballot should
be revived. In 1852 the numbers who voted for the ballot
were 246, and 144 for it ; and in 1853, the numbers were
232 against it and 172 for it, so that there was en increase
in the supporters and a diminution in the opponents.
Finding that there was such a large number in the house
ready to support the application of the ballot, and seeing
that a large number did not present themselves at the
divi-
sion, knowing probably that their constituents were not
unfavourable to the measure, he had thought it right to
give an opportunity to members who might be doubtful as
to its application generally to try the experiment
on a small scale. He would now state the
bounds of the measure to which it would at first apply.
Tile Lords had not signified their assent to a commission
lie iliatioae but he proposed it should be one of the
=l:in which the experiment should be tried. It SSW
5 electors, and 5,888 inhabitants. • Last night the
Mims was sanctioned by the House of Lords for Barn-
Noble and Tynemouth. Barnstable had a constituency of
NI electors, and Tynemouth 1,169. For Canterbury,
=on-upon-Hull, and Cambridge, there were corn-
as sitting. In Cambridge there were 1,984 electors,
la Canterbury 1,874, and in Kingston-upon Hull upwards
of 6,000. These constituencies were of a variable cha-
racter, and afforded a fair opportunity of trying the
experiment. Some of these boroughs were so large that
if the commissions reported that they ought to be dis-
franchised there would be great difficulty in disfr.utchising
them. There was certainly a considerable portion of these
electors who were freemen, and they might withdraw the
franchise from them; but he did net think that the cor-
rupt practices were confined to the freemen. Ile proposed
that the returning officer of any borough should be held
to
apply the act, when, from common notoriety,
o=nasnotice in the Gazette, the borough came under
timp, potation of the bill ; that there should be polling
bode, as at present, at which the electors should present
themselves, and that when an elector was identified, the
pia-Merle should present him a card, which the elector
oink' take behind a screen, and that he should put the
Mod into a box. Ile did not apprehend that this was a
what scheme, but he was quite ready to bear
saggaidoss for its improvement. lit thought the
hones would be glad to see some new element
introduced into the debates on this question. He
thought that, on general grounds, this was an opportu-
nity which ought not to be lost of giving a fair trial to the
ballot, so that both its advocates and opponents might sea
its effect in working.
Mr. F. PEEL was sorry_ that the right hon. gentlemen
who usually occupied the Treuury bench were absent from
the house this evening. As, however, the noble lord the
member for London had stated to him some of the reasons
why he should oppose this bill, he (Mr. Peel) would trouble
the house with a few observations on this occasion. lie

certaialy thought that after the full mad complete discussion I
which the ballot hal received during this session, it
would not again have beet' brought before the
house &Ler so short an interval of time. The
honourable gentleman (Mr. Bonham Carter) said that he
brought forward the question with a view of giving a trial
to the ballot ; but it certainly seemed that a question like
that ought to be disposed of upon broad and general
grounds, and not upon an exceptional piece of legislation.
If the ballot were really calculated to suppress the anoma-
lies and disottlers of the electoral system, it ought to be ap-
plied universally and not to any particular district. If on
the other hand, although it might cure evils of cue descrip-
tion, it would open a door to other evils of another elms,
then what right had the house to inflict it upon a par-
ticular district, and to throw the miseries of experi-
mental le4i-lation upon one part of the country in
order to give a lesson to other parts? Besides when
particular laws were to be made for particular places, it
was usually upon the application of persons connected with
and interested in the locality acting by the desire of the
inhabitant., or at least el a section of them. No such de-'
.ire bad bees put forward in this instance. Nor did the
hon. memher's proposal give the ballot a fair trial. It
seem' dto be pretty generally admitted that for cares of
bribery and corruption the ballot would not be attended
with any very good effect ; it was rather in those places
where intimidation existed that its exponents hoped that it
would prove useful. But this bill applied it to cases of bri-
bery. 1 he bill, too, if pawed into law, would be inconsistent
' with the act t t which it referred, for at the very time that
the cemmiseion was sitting and endeavouriug to tiring to
light the corrupt practices attending an election, another
election would be going on in the very same borough, of
which all the proceedings would be shrouded in the moat
compete and convenient silence. For these reasons be
trusted that the bon. member would withdraw his motion.

Mr. 11. BERKELEY, though a friend to the ballot, cer-
tainly objected to its introduction in such homecopathie
doses. Ile must deny the statement of the hon. gentlemas
(Mr. F. I'eei) that the fricndsof the ballot wtrc of opinion
that it would he ineffectual in putting an end to bribery;
on the contrsry, they believed; that in all constituencies of
any respectable size tie ballot would put an end to corrup-
tion awl bribery.
Mr. FRENCH, who rose amidst great cries fora division,
said that, as her Majesty's ministers were not in their places
this evening, and it was understood that the house would
not sit late, instead of proceeding to consider this rather
important question, he begged to more that the house do
adjourn.
The SPEAKER put the question, which was answered by
an almost unanimous affirmative, and the house adjourned
a few minutes before seven o'clock.

that whe

.cut .ervrtg;o.

TO COP.I.ESPONDEVTS.

♦ .es,ml Yet: .on a f'• TM- 'i7nreta," ew 2i.-Icn the mime carries's
I :Masked ',cry Tueaday and Yriday alnitt, In time
fit pain.
6..awas in SR dad 'or ..r.e Exi.reat,.Lor.,:en ning pap,r,
rt•• be at the tritice, 10, Eouverlastreet, by Iwo o'clock ow the
iay of publication.

MOD WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
Tom Das—YorntK. SI. 13a...........After5505. Ob. 45es.
To.sosacw—Mondos. Se. ISL. Afternoon. 91.45 a.

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 29.

TnE more recent accounts from Australia show no
diminution in the yield of gold. The diggers rush
backwards and forwards with feverish impatience to
the latest, and then return to earlier, discoveries ;

sometimes one river and then another comes into

favour. Mount Alexander, the Ovens, Ballarat, and
the creeks of the Turon each have their flux and re-

flux ; but still the produce of the gold fields flows in
and increases. In the meantime vessel after vessel,

from the smallest coaster of the Pacific to the frigate

ships of GREEN and DENDAS, every month discharge
their living freights upon the shores of New South
Wales and Victoria by tens of thousands: not emi-
grants from Great Britain only, but Germans, French-
men, and representatives of all the tribes of political
exiles who are being driven forth from Europe—lta-
lians, Hungarians, and Poles. California has sent
more then one large contingent. The New

England States have contributed some of those

keen adventurers who are to be found thriving in

every nook of the New World, and all the Island; of
the Pacific. Even the Chinese have banded together
to carry on scientific gold washing, and New &a-

lenders are to be found patiently working for wages
under the command of ingenious settlers from the
model colonies of Wellington or Canterbury. We

have no data for averaging the earnings of this

motley army; we only know that the average wages
are sufficient to maintain and encourage some two
hundred thousand men labouring at the hardest
work in the world for nearly twelve hours daily, and
that great prizes follow with sufficient rapidity to
render this army hopeful and vigorous in their moat
unpleasant toils.
It is true we hear something of re-action;
but there is not, and there is not likely to be,
any slackening of that kind of emigration which
works the gold fields as long as every ship for England
brings either letters or remittances, or the fortunate
finders of nuggets, to stimulate a class of men,
who recently lived in weekly fear of want of
work, to go out and try their fortune. It is
true that the ports of the Gold Colonies, and
especially Port Phillip, are crowded with discon-
tented emigrants, who after having most rashly
transferred themselves to a country and a state of
society quite unsuitable to their previous habits and
tastes now fill letters with their useless complaining..
A year ago delicate-banded government and bankers'
clerks, shopmen, and portly shopkeepers, were
breaking up their homes under the idea of realising
a fortune by a few weeks' labour or perhaps by
ono lucky find. The most fashionable tailors
and bootmakers at the west - end were
busily employed in preparing fancy costumes
for the Diggings. Every town, every village, sent
its representatives, often not the wisest or most
industrious. The rage began suddenly, and has
continued ever since without intermission. The
result was, and is, that Melbourne especially, is
crowded with a houseless population, of which a
large per tentage have neither the means to pro-
ceed to the diggings, nor the physical power to
work if they arrived there. The Camp at Chob-
_

little effect. When emigration began to flow so
rapidly towards the United States in 1848, that re-
public
was denounced by landlords who feared to
lose their tenants, by farmers who feared to lose their
labourers, by priests who feared to lose their flocks,
and by the orators of New Zealand and Australian
colonising companies, anxious to exalt their respec-
tive colonies at the expense of America. Bat it was
in vain that the climate, the soil, the Lynch law the
steam-boat disasters, the Lorrois of the voyage, the
iniquities of Liverpool crimps and New York
lodging-house keepers, were expatiated on in
print and at public meetings with more
or less exaggeration; the peasantry of Ireland
and the mechanics of England filled the American
liners, and paid no heed to the letters or statements
of disappointed returned emigrants, or to the advice
of employers, because they depended for their in-
formation on near friends who were earning good
wages in the United States. And to earn good
wages and get cheap land they were willing to en-
dure the hardships of the voyage, to risk the rob-
beries of the crimps. It is the same now as regards
the Australian gold fields. Professional men, and men
holding appointments under Government or public
companies, in banks, or in shops, will think twice
before they abandon the luxuries of civilisation to be-
come "hewers of wood and drawers of water" in
Australia; but among the labouring classes the in-
clination to emigrate becomes stronger every day, be-
cause every day they are brought in closer communi-
cation with those of their own class who have im-
proved their position by venturing to the Antipodes.
At a meeting called by Colonel CARTWRIGHT the
other day, in Northamptonshire, to promote the use of
agricultural machinery, expressly on the ground of
a dearth of labour,—arising partly by emigra-
tion in Northampton, where boys become shoe-
makers instead of ploughmen, partly by emigra-
tion to America and Australia—he related
how a man, who had been sent out a free
emigrant by the Government Commissioners two
years ago, had recently returned to his native country,
"laid on the table of a house in the parish of Floors
six hundred pounds, the produce of his work at the
gold fields;" and subsequently, "after marrying a
wife, again proceeded to Australia, taking with him
his father, mother, and four or five brothers and
sisters." The Colonel proceeded to observe that in
future he should discourage emigration. But of what
effect will be a country gentleman's arguments
against the village story of " Jack Whopstraw's
bag of gold and cart-load of relations in their
new clothes riding to the railway station 4'"
Now almost every rural parish can match
in a minor degree the adventure at " Floors"—
It is absurd to 'pretend to the working classes that
there is any delusion in the accounts from Australia,
for there are grave solid figures to contradict us. In
a series of statistical tables lately submitted to the
Melbourne Chamber of Commerce, by Mr. WEST-
GARTH, we find that the revenue of the Province of
Victoria has increased, between 1860 and 1852, from
260,0001. to 1,570,0001.; the imports from 740,000/.
to 4,000,0001. ; the exports from one million to seven
millions; the population from 70,000 to 200,000;
and it has since doubled. The annual rental of the
city of Melbourne from 150,0001. to 600,0004
The gold exported down to the end of the year
1852 was estimated at nearly a million sterling.
When we remember that all this increase is the re-
suit of unskilled hand labour, of a kind of labour that
any ordinarily intelligent agricultural labourer can
execute, we must be prepared to see Australia in
favour with the em igrati g cloaca in spite of hot winds
and thunderstorms, bad watea,bu,sh robberies, and all
the catalogue of ills which form the staple of Aus-
tralian letters to newspapers.

THE CORN TRADE.

TO THE EDITOR OP THE EXPRESS.
Sin, —Everything betokens some,perhapi consider-
able advance, in the price of wheat and "bread-stuffs ;"
and though the enterprise and wealth of our mer-
chants will probably prevent—even by bringing
wheat from countries scarcely known in Mark-lane
—any such extreme prices as we have seen at former
periods, it has become plain, even to the most pre-
judiced Protectionists, that, in respect of mere price,
the British corn-grower can have no reasonable
ground of complaint against Free Trade. Lord
DERBY% tale of unlimited supplies from Tamboff
and elsewhere has proved, as all dispassionate per-
sons knew it must prove, a myth. Save as it depends
on the season, the trade of farming has become as
certain and self-reliant as other businesses; and at
this moment everything the farmer produces com-
mands a ready market and good prices. Where
Oa, capital, and sound calculation have been com-
bined to any reasonable extent, farmers are now doing
better than they have done since the high prices of
the war; and without such combinations where do',
we find prosperity in other industrial employments ? '
There is, however, much of interest at present at-
taching to the corn market and the season both to
the consuming public and the agricultural commu-
nity; much to create serious thought, possibly
anxiety in the one, much to try the temper and
energy of the other. Consumption of food is going
on at a prodigious rate, and hitherto supplies have
kept pace with that consumption. But in spite of
enormous importations, of wheat and flour especially,
there has been no accumulations of stock. Ware-
houses once overwhelmed with grain are nearly
empty, sad all the cargoes of foreign corn which
arrive are speedily taken off by dealers and millers to
go at once into consumption.

ham may afford a faint idea of the miseries It is worthy of remark that for several years past
they endure. At Chobham the site has been there has been little speculation in grain ; none of
expressly selected and prepared for the " Tent that storing up of wheat under lock in the hope
Town." The settlers are under strict discipline. A that, sooner or later, the combined effect of the
railway leading to London renders the supply of land-owners' cora-law screw and a bad season,—a
every necessary, and even luxury, easy. And yet prominent feature of the foreign corn trade under the
grumblings, both loud and deep, are heard at Protectionist system,—would produce famine prices.
Chobham, in the tents, by officers and privates thrown Now that trade is in the most wholesome state, most
for the first time upon their own resources to pro- transactions are effected in cash, and bills and other
vide many things which they have been in the habit kinds of factitious credit are carefully eschewed.
of obtaining by purchase without a thought. We Gradually and slowly there has been a growing con-
may imagino what must be the condition of a viction that there most be in this country a oonsi-
body of men, women, and children three times as derable demand for more than ordinary quantities of
numerous as the army at Chobham, without the foreign grain in the course of the ensuing year;
' order or restraint of discipline, dependent for sup- and that conviction acting en the minds of
plies on a small unpaved, unlighted, unpoliced the foreign corn merchants will assuredly go
town, during an unusually cold rainy season• far to procure the supplies we shall need, but not
We have only to imagine the same number of without a rise of prices greater than we have lately
emigrants encamped round Southampton, with the been accustomed to. It is this power on the part of
gas and water pipes cut off, and the streets broken the merchants to act in anticipation of future demand,
up—to understand the sufferings of the goldrhunting to make their arrangements from time to time as the
emigrants on the banks of the Yam-Yarn. But probabilities and character of the anticipated demand
although it is easy to conceive that hundreds of become gradually unfolded, which constitutes one of
those who embarked with glowing expectations the many advantages we derive
.from an open trade
would be only to) glad to return to their former in corn. The effect is twofold; arrangements are made
position in England, we must not cheat ourselves by our merchants for future imports, and foreign
into the belief that during any period which we growers and merchants make preparations for the de-
have grounds to foresee, the labouring population of mend they expect to arise in the best market of the
this country and Australia are likely to be disgusted world. In stating, therefore, what seems, from
with a country or a pursuit in which wages far above a somewhat extended inquiry, to be the rather
European average are to be earned by men to whom doubtful prospects of the coming harvest, nothing but
labour is no hardship, and where every week brings good service is done to the consumers. Against any
forth some instance of remarkable good fortune. undue holding back of their corn on the part of
The employers of labour here, who fear a rise of farmers the exigencies of husbandry at this time
wages if emigration continues, and the employers and in the present season are sufficient guarantees.
of shepherds and herdsmen in the colonies, The last harvest and autumn were so wet that
agree very cordially in their denunciation of before the grain had been carried the greater part of
the now pursuit which touches their pockets. the heavy soils had become too much saturated with
But we may learn from past experience moisture to be sown with wheat. Bean land and
that such denunciations produce marvellously • summer follows would not bear horse or plough, and

even clover legs, which in most wet seasons can be
got ready for wheat, became wholly unmanageable.
Throughout November, December, and January,
pelting pitiless rain continued, day after day and week
after week, so that all the low-lying lands were
flooded, and large tracts, never before known to be
liable to floods, remained under water for weeks to-
gether. February also was a wet month; and in
March, when farmers hoped, at all events, to sow
tome spring wheat and make preparation fur Lent-
corn, avow and frost occurred for so long a time
as to entirely destroy the hopes of hundreds for the
present year. During April a good deal of
land was sown with wheat as well as spring
corn, and it speaks well for tho activity
of our farmers that so much laud was planted in a
comparatively short time. The war against nature
was however an unequal one. Lai ge breadths of the
autumn-sown wheat were so damaged by the wet
and insects as to be wholly valueless, and in many
instances were ploughed up, while a good deal of the
wheat sown in the spring proved to be too late to
produce even moderately good crops. Tho latter
part of April and all May proved dry yet cold, and
the sodden land became so hard as to be absolutely un-
workable. Everywhere land, which according to usual
routine should have been ploughed up last autumn, re-
mained unbroken until the recent rains, presenting a
mass of weeds and foulness sufficient to make the
stoutest-hearted farmer despond. More lately rain
has again fallen in rather unwelcome abundance,
which proves too late for any thing more than pre-
parations for next year. The result has been that
from one-third to one-fourth of the land coming this
year in course for wheat has not been sown at all,
and a considerable but less easily defined extent of
land actually sown with wheat cannot under the
most favourable circumstances produce more than
half a crop.

It is true that some of the wheat land has I
been sown with barley, but though that may aid the
farmer, it will not assist the supply of bread-
corn. Now it is impossible that this state of our
crops should not affect prices, and nothing but the
confidence the public have in the powers of free com-
merce to supply the wants of the consumers can ac-
count for the mederate rates, and, until lately, the
inactive state of our corn markets. Neither does the
weather on the Continent seem to be better than here.
Thus, Messrs. P. LAZARDE, AINE, and Co., of Nantes,
in their circular of the 11th of June, say—" The
weather continues very wet. The growing wheat is
so tender, after nearly three months of rain and low
temperature, that serious tears are entertained that
it may be burnt up by the sun at the first summer's
heat." And similar discouraging accounts have been
received from other parts of the Continent. Abroad and
at home all aro watching the weather with the
greatest anxiety, and the corn market is mainly
influenced by variations of rain and sunshine. Mean-
while our own vast consumption is going on undi-
minished. Mr. ItonEror NEviss, in his " Corn Cir-
cular" of the 11th instant, says, "The unsettled
state of political affairs causes a great deal of chatter;
but save that it prevents the Greek merchants from
forcing sales, as is their wont, I do not think it has
had as yet any real effect on the value of grain. It
is consumption so enormous that sweeps away supply
so enormous. There is no speculative feeling which
can induce importers to face granary charges. It is the
march of consumption, consequent on the march of
prosperity of the country, which takes off everything,
leaving stocks as bare as we know them to be."
' And he refers to the largely increased importation
of corn and other provisions during the present year
over that of the corresponding period of last year
as proof of the growing amount of consumption. It
is certain, too, that the produce of our own crops
last year was very large, though from the wet har-
vest the quality of the corn was inferior ; still, mixed
with dry wheat of the previous yearend with foreign
corn,it has afforded a large portion of the supply
required by our well-paid population.
With the wide world open to us for the purchase
of corn, there is no fear that prices, though likely to
be higher than of late, will rise sufficiently to affect
materially the welfare of consumers. But how will
It fare with farmers who lack the capital requisite
be good farming? The farmers who have stock
will do well this season, for the profits on live stock
will more than compensate them for the inferiority
of their wheat, and the work now in arrear they
will soon overtake by means of a few extra horses.
Indeed the present high price at which farm horses
are selling is in a great degree attributable
to the demand caused by our best farmers 11
requiring at this time more horse labour this
usual. With such men the time lost through
the unfavourable season will be speedily recovered,
and they will reap an ample reward from the year's
operations. As an instance of the advantage of stock
to the farmer, a spirited tenant farmer says that
the profit on his sheep daring the present season will
pay all his rent, rates, and taxes for a year and a
haLf. And the fertility such a flock has imparted to
the land will probably afford indirectly in the next
year still greater returns. Where, however,
the farmers depend principally or solely on
their grain crops, and are without other
means than such aathey have engaged in their busi-
ness, they will be severely tried by the difficulties of
the present season. They have no stock to fall back
upon, and their grain cropscannot be very productive,
while more than their ordinary expenditure will be re-
quired to put their farms in the ordinary condition
for next year. No one must, therefore, be surprised
to see some agricultural distress during next year,
on the part of the occupiers of inferior farms,
concurrently with much spirited and profitable en-
terprise by farmers of sufficient capital.—Yours,

A MIDLAND COUNTIES FARMER.

STROUD ELECTION.

(DY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.)

STROUD, JUNE 28.
Mr. Horsman was returned without opposition.