The Express.
London, England, 1849-04-20 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, FRIDAY EVENING, APRIL 20, 1849.

The erproo,

OUTGOING MAILS.
Mb toe British Berth Amelia and the ITntted Web. will
vitae no Ms day ((April 20). to ha taken by the Week nyt..n
which talk Wen SnedUinpWa. Lettere to be ialieed, "By tatted
Matta lialtyithet"_ _ _

The m ese ileeeellleu, to the blellteneseee, Egypt. Aden,
Ceylon, India, Btawiliag, ft., will tornado up on the Lvestwe of
the 2tth ut Apra.
Ilse mils tor Vile. Opel% Week Madeira. radix, and Meal!.
all be made wt eallteemilm Oahe 17th st April.
The nails toe Kids e, Ceps &Verde Isbavb, Nem Leont end
Arcaesere, still be isses ep ma the illeh el 4dt. Letters te be eve-
'bay addressed. "Dr lielliteg Alp.°
sae Wag bag Perintgla. fitteantut. Nam%
:toughing. lien Odom. esel Moak°, as I ex-Ito:mg thaw b.
Nadir; et. lans•deableerepes, Mew Ihsnads. Chill. and Pau, nit
be arab ess es the ieseuln Otto lid Ilay.
lir =Ms kw Nabbs. awl beep* Ayreso4lll be made
apes lime waft, at tbs.& et ilmy.

LONDON, FRIDAY, APRIL 20.
The Irish members have declined to enter into any
negotiation with the mieheer oa the te:sis recently
proposed. We own we are rot sorprised• at this
remit. With the notorious doe" pucy tf views and
aims ex st It; amor g-t them, no propoeition on the
part of the gavirne eat was lik• ly to lead to any
either lune save one which might possess the unhoped
for charm of a general relic f all C:114,11 in the sister
°pantry from the burden of additional taxation. The
supgesttou of an alternat ye method of raising the
sum indis; crumbly requisite to vett the pressinl
wants of the we stern p could only serve to demon-
strate move early than before how wide a diff, relate
of opinion preys& between the majority and the !a-
ntral of th ee who rep, esent Ireland in the lower
House ef Parliament.
The majority of Irish meml-ers, like the majority
of English u embers belong to the larded interest.
They are, either by 'birth or msriage, by property or
by top -toe ion, landlords. Th y either owe toeir
seats to the direct cr to the indirect influa nos of their
aristocratic ecnnexione. Many of them tit nomir aily
for boroughs; but their nomination for such places
will, in almost every ease, be toned atinbutaole to
the prestige which family or ten itorial wealth enjoys.
and to the disposition which a. ill casts amongst the
Inhabitants of our les cr towns on both sides of the
Channel, to reek in p eference to mon of pruvon
ability and known business-like experience the
younger branches s f nobility, or the condo esniing
set vices of their neighb ur.ng gentry. In Ireland,
where the population and property of the towns bear
• less pro; onion to those of the agricultural districts
than in England, this tendency is more developed.
There are hut five merchants, three barrieters, and
one solicitor, among the represeatativea for 'rebind ;
the remaining ninety-seven are either landlords or
their immediate relative', of which no fewer than
tavuoy-five belong to noble families.
To expe..t that a body of men so selected shru'd
came to any ut animons d-cision having for its object
the further reduction of rent, in order more effectual'y
to prorde for the necessities cf the labouring poor,
appear. to us, we must confess, ratter extrarrlieary.
The ministe r upon whom the dre ad reap insibility of
human life is thrown, is sanguine, if he hopee that
they will as a body relieve him of a portion of that
retponsib.lity, by 'pacifying in whet particular form
or manner they are willeog to be taxed. Rates come
out of rent. there is no mistake about it. Rates in
aid may, in othercharacteiiatici, (Mot from online, y
rates for the relief of the poor ; but in this prominent
feature the family resemblance is unmistakeable and
unforgettable. Tte same instinct that impel d the
landlords of Ireland to re ant the proposition of a
rate in aid, inspires them with hostility to an equal
amount of local taxation in any atd in every ether
form. They want new 1 cane toey say, not new taxes;
grant, in aid, net rates in aid. And if government
had in hand, or could quietly get the money, we have
little doubt that they would get instead of hay ng to
give m-re. It is an ()HOW task for g tvernment at all
times to impose new imposts; it is pie diary unwel-
come when the novel impost,' ate con oted.y to fall
upon that kindred elms to whom gown= rats in
this country have hitherto almost exclusively
belorpecd But we repeat it, it seems to us
to savour somewhat of credulity on the pert of Lord
Joao RUSSELL and Sir CHARLES WOOD, to tEFCCt
that those who sue foredoomed to expiate the here-
ditary sins of their order, should be induced to aid in
choottog, knitting, and applying the instrument of
fiscal discipline.
Far from woudering,then fore, at the answer g'ven
by the majority of Irish repo sentatives to the Pre-
mier's pronosition to substitute for the rate in aid the
income and other taxes not now plyable in Ireland,
we think they. may readily be pardoned for
declining to give any °plena on the matter.
"The money I must have," innocently pleads
Lord JOHN "but if you have a pre faience
and will te'l me what it is, I than be quite as happy,
I assure you, gentlemen, to take it out e f the :of. hand
pocket as out of the right." Not inteueing to pay it
if possible out of either, the nobility and gentry of
Ulster, backed by oertein of their brethren in the
other pravince", wholly decline to tame either pocket.
Tney have a friend elsewhere, they mutter—an Irish
landlord, too —who keeps a great big wicked dog,
called " Not-Content," and he, they fancy, sill be
set by his matter at the hated rate in aid to devour
end to destroy it. Meantime they will not bo cajoled
by soft whiz closings into doing or saying any thing
the lea't inlica ive of acquiescence in the measure
they so earnestly abhor.
As for the minority, about twenty, we believe, in
somber, who support the claim of their poorer
countrymen b be sustaired by whatever means may
be necessary for the purpose, and who, although
some of them belong to the landed clam, are ready to
submit that a special rate should be imposed en Irish
property to me t the special exigency—it is clear
that they have done wisely and well in acquiescing
silently with the greet-r number of their fellow-re-
presentatives on the present (cession. Tacy profess
to guard the industry of the towns from
unjust cr injudicious =petition". They com-
prise the delegates of same of the largest
of them, and several of the second rank. The exist-
ence of trade and manufacture in these places would,
twisted a doubt, be seriously endangered if, beside*
an income tax, new excise duties were now to be in-
troduced. Ch arty, it is for rho interest of the towns
of lisland that the rate in aid should be adhered to
rather than theta substitute fir it should be sought he
the modes just adverted to, and their representatives
would have betrayed their trust if, to please the
minister, or to elude transient unpopularity amongst
their fellow Country men is parliament, they had at-
tempted to play a separate part, or to take a different
course from that which the y have pursued.
In the qcestion of a tax on income, in aid of the
ordinary rate of real property for th;maintenance of
the poor, a principle of no trivial moment is involved.
It is in another form the same question, which was
raised by Mr. Disitottoo's motion, for a revision and
re-adjustment of English taxation, six weeks ago.
The battle ground is changed bat not the quarrel. It
is the old controversy between the landed and the
trading interests of the community, whether those
who claim local control should not beer local respon-
sibility, and whether those who, by employing the
labour of those around them, may prevent the
growth and the aggravation of poverty, should
not be held accountable for the consequences of their
neglect, rather than the distant and itdasttious inha-
bitant of a town, whoa, by. accumulating capital, is
daily creating now drains into which maples labour,
if such there be, may naturally flow. Let theprio-
eiple of a tax on persertal property and income, an aid
of poor rates, becarried for Ireland, and it will no
longer be easy to resist its application in this country.
This the protectionists well know, and hence the canto
tearoom and support given by that party last night
to Mr. HERBERT when moving his amendment to sub-
stitute an income-tax for the rate in aid.

IN these hard times railway compaules ought not
to be too harshly judged for attempting to raise the
wind. But Olcrance has its limits. It is not unrea-
sonable to exact from them some respect fa- morality
and common decency. Aod it pains us to be com-
pelled to state that the managing body of the Eastern
Counties Railway appear to have grievously offended
against both.
The walls of the metropolis were yesterday thickly
placarded with the announcement of a cheap excur-
sion train that is this day to lcive London for Nor-
wich. The travelers by it are to have their option
of returning to town on either of the two fAlowin:
days. The Baster Ir,lidsys are over, and the season,
as yet young and urconfirmrd, scarcely tempts people
to. make an extra holiday. The bait to travellers by
this train is the brutalising and revolting spectacle

that is t be exhibited ta-muti ow in front of Norwich

JAMES BLoSITIELD RCM is to be etranglod to-
morrow, and, as the local caterers t t public curl( sits
have taken dun rare to proclaim, the pima of extee-
floe is " vie b'e to a ergot dietanie." And the
managing directors of the Eastern Counties Railway
—or borne adventurers with tteir consent—me no
harm in endeavouring to turn a penny by offering te
convey the curious in such sigh's to aid from Norwich
at charges unprecedentcdly Icw.
Great and delerved applause has bein earned by
wine spirited undirt.kers of cheep ex, nrrfon trains
Trey have enabled the over-toiled mechanics of the
manufacturing districts, or the smoke-dried pcomr
eitlzeos of London, to estA glimpses of the rural
beauties of to it nat've land, or I f the wondrous
stores of art in the pea' capital and the provincial
eaitals. They have eintributed in' a'culeb!y to the
Lumaniin; of general soc'e'y. But the 'lexi ma
leree'sity of the d vieers cf to-dsfs cheap excursion
train fromLoneon to Norwich will iuvert and reverse
such beneficial effects.

Whet a mov:ng Pard mmium the lo•om^tive ii
doomed to drag tier it, they may eeily imagine who
have any idea of the kird of people who &tit to
-witnese exectriona The squalid inmates of the
lowest haunts of hair infamy in the metropolis, may,
'hanks to tee reduced faree, enjoy to morrows rpm-
tacle at Norwich. The raffish finery of the s yell mob,
male aid female, will impart a shabby spleteLar to
their pilgrims to the shrine ofcallt tie coriewity. And
it m She that tone who flatter the ms.lces they belong
to the class" respectable," may mingle with he throng.
The brutal jest, the callous glee of the hangic g hol,day
make), as tl ey pass along, will resemble a moral
Simoom sweeping along the railway.
And then what an impalas will have teen given by
the announcement of die cheap excursion train to the
pickpeket trade of L•nion ! Every area soesk, every
juvenile professor of diehoceety, whatever his clang
designation, will hive on the alert yesterday
and lest night to mile funds for a trip to Norw:ne.
What a deluge of London rurality will overflow th,
etreets and le: es of tlte Es•t Angl.an capit el ! The
cheap excursion train, for the benefit of amireers in
human butchery, i.e. it were a (hedge let down int )
the deeptet dsetts—the moral black mud at the bA-
tom of acciety—to etir and brirg the cans oils and pes-
tilential ma,. to the to;, end spread it over a wide
surfac
Is it likely that any perren accueomed t t mingle
in honeet soc'ety will run the risk of bring teen in
the moveabee pilliry that is this day to ha dragged
from London to Norwich?