The Express.
London, England, 1848-07-05 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, WEDNESDAY EVENING, JULY 5, 1848.

the most inalienable front the industrious pro-
ducers of the mother country. They know
that the demand for our products has increased,
and is increasing, nowhere so rapidly as in our
ei-decant colonies, which now constitute the United
States; and that even the embittered war of
independence has not been able to overturn old
tastes, old habit, old connexions, so far as to de-
prive us of the it custom. They know that in
the infancy of colonies the protecting aegis of the
mother country must be extended over them ; and
that in the family feeling—the sense of a common
citizenship engendered by mutual profitable transac-
tions' and by resistance lent in the day of weakness—
an enduring athetion may be generated that will
prolong the existence of the bond of colonial depend-
ence long after it is absolutely necessary. Nor are
they insensible t o the importance of such a prolonga-
tion. When this country is assailed by foes, it is
better that the English races descended from our
brave and enterprising colonsts should be united with
as in the bonds of a common citizenship, as is the
ease with the Cenadas and Australia, than that they
should constitute a rival power, uncertain in its
friend-hip, like the United States. Ana in times of
peace they see in the subjection of the mother country
and the colonies to one common government a better
guarantee that the private rights of each individual
citizen shall be maintained than can be efforded in
the case of two independent governments, where the
tribunals of each may naturally be disposed to favour
their own fellow-subjects.
But the free traders look to other means of per-
petuating the esti:Mal nexus than commercial protec-
tions and restrictions. They know that these specious
devices work not for the benefit of the general com-
munity, either at home or in the colonies, but of a
few gorged monopolists in both ; and experience has
taught them that out of the petty att mpts at mutual
over-reaching wh;eh grow up out of a protective
system have mainly arisen those discontents
and antipathies which rent bath front Spain
and England their continental demintons in America.
The tree traders rely upon just and affectionate deal-
ings with the colonies as the means of perpt tu Ling
their connexion with Great Britain. They would ea-
ten to the colonists the same immunities as to the
residents in the old country. They woule. emancipate
them from the vexatious and ignorant meddling of
the Colonial-office in their local affairs. They wouid
emancipate them from the incte-us of incapable and
supercilious tole of ministers and members of paella-
nett sent out to fill t verb lucrative offiee in the colo-
nies bscause they have been serviceeble to state job-
bers here. They would Ica, e the industry and enter-
'vise of the colonists free. And treating them thus as
equals and beloved fellow-countrymen they would
rely upon natural affection and a liberal enlightened
sell-interest to ensure their loyal adherence to the
empire.
In these remarks we have kept the extra-tropical
colonies princiaally in view, as immeasurably more
important to us than the tropical. Tete extra-tropical
colonies oder happy homes to every class of our
countrymen; the tropical to the capitalist class alone.
But what has been said of the former is equally true
of the latter. The present distress in the West Indies
—in so far as it is the result of the extension of the
range of countries from which we are to draw our
sugar supplies—is temporary. The same was expe-
rienced by our old West India colonies, when the
British government, by its last of conquest, admitted
tt.e produce of Guiana, Tri idad, St. Lucia, and
St. Domingo, to the markets of this country
under the exclusive system. The British colonies have
recovered the temporary depression occasioned by the
greatly increased snooty of sugar consequent upon
these acquisitions, and they will survive the temporary
depression consequent upon admitting foreign sugars
to our markets. It is not by falling back upon the
false policy of protecting a few overgrown capitalists
in our principal pelts and the colonies that we arc to
retain or regain the affections of the resident West
Indians. It is by relieving them from the restrictions
as well as the protection of the old system—by ex-
tending to them the protection of equal laws—by
impartine to them the boon of self-government in all
local affairs—by ceasing to make them the insulted
paymasters of the venal instruments of corrupt poli-
ticians at home.
These observations suffice to show tied the decla-
mation in which the Times indulged yesterday, pro-
ceeds upon a false assumption. 'flat it has nothing
to do with the question really at issue, cal. be shown
quite as easily. The effect of protective duties is to
create high prices. The effect of high prices is to
diminish consumption. The effect of diminished
consumption is to check production. The interest of
the West Indian community is that their production
should be extended ; this can only be done by in-
creasing consumption; and this again by removing
those duties which artificially increase prices. The
continuance of the protective duties would be advan-
tageous (if to any person) not to the West Indian
community, but to the few capitalists in this country
who under the protective system have monopolised
their trade and its profits. The West India colonies
will survive thcueh all of the se gentlemen should be
ruined. The resident practical planters, who are
purchasing
..estates at low figures, will contrive to
make the investment profitable by adapting their
management to the new state of affairs. The old
proprietors might do the same by conforming in like
manner, but they prefer waging a vain struggle to
recall a state of affairs which is past for ever. The
West India protectionists are the exact counterparts
of our corn protectionists; they demand differential
duties, not to benefit the general community of this
country or the colonies, but to enrich themselves at its
expense. The West Indian residents are becomiag aware
of this, and will not revolt from Great Britain because
a few wealthy men in the mother country wish to im-
pose a tax upon every . old woman who uses sugar
in her tea to pay for their mansions in the fashion-
able squares and streets of London.
The Times is indignant at the mercenary poli-
ticians who look only at the money side of the
colonial question, and boasts that it takes " the side
of honour against expediency." Why the whole dis-
pute is with its clients a mere question of money : it
is simply how mach they are to get for their sugars.
The mercenary politicians at whom it rails are
those who say that no more money shall be taken
from the poor of this ccuntry by act of parliament
and put into the pockets of a few West India mer-
chants and proprietors. he honour of which the
Times speaks is, on the part of the English workman
and shopkeeper, the honour of paying money com-
pulsorily and without return to these gentlemen, and
on their part the honour of taking the money on
those terms.
Nor does even this plain statement reveal the'
whole falsehood and hollowness of the clamour about
the sugar duties. The sugar protectionists say they
were as much injured by Sir ROBERT PEEL'S sugar
duties as by Lord Joliet RUSSELL'S. It was the
English corn-law landowners who enabled Sir
Rot;ettT to impose his sugar duties. They did so to
Ppropitiate him, and induce him to spare the corn-
aws. It is only since the corn-laws have been
doomed that they have made common cause with the
protected sugar interest. And their object is by dis-
turbing the settlement of the sugar duties to pave
the way fur re-enacting the corn law. In the elation
of their hearts after the division on Saturday morn-
ing several of our parliamentary squires, in private
conversation, allowed it to escape them that its result
encouraged them to hope that the progress of the
declining scale of duties on corn might yet be arrested
in the same way as the progress of the declining
scale of duties on sugar. The contest now waging in
the House of Commons is in behalf of corn, not cf
sugar.

• In the article of yesterday's Tirmer which immediately follows its
Emile against allowing importance to pecuniary considerations in the
colonial qucation, we are told that —" Every step towards insolvency
is a first step towards revolution." The second leader answers tho
arid.

NOTWITHSTANDING the quolibett of protectionist
and Peelite, Mr. COBDEN was right when he de-
clared that this was an age and an epoch of peace, and
that war was so decidedly against the current of pub-
lic opinion in Europe, that we might hope to see it no
more. Never, perhaps, were so many openings and
incentives to war thrown out as by the events of
this year. Not only have the internal piinciplcs
of European government been broken up, but
the landmarks of all European kingdoms re-
moved. Patriotic zeal and private ambition have
been let loose. Actual war has been kindled by the
ambition of princes in two places, yet even these
wars languish and die out. The public spirit of
no country feeds the martial flame. Generalship
languishes, the very soldiers slumber, and after a
skirmish or two the combatants are more anxious to
shake hands than continue the work of slaughter.
Luring four menthe the meet warlite nada, and

the most warlike prince, have had all the pretexts and
all the temptations possible for war. !Jut neither of
them can resolve to declare it. The materials for that
war are literally boiling over in the reservoirs of both.
France is in a torment with a combative population,
eager for spilling blood. The Emperor of Russia's
coffers teem with gold, and his army with re-
cruits, yet the CZAR " roars you as gently as a
sucking dove." lie declines provocation, limits him-
self to self-defence, and has assumed a really paternal I
and tranquil attitude.
The ministry itself has admitted the truth of this,
and sent the militia estimates after the national
defence di'to. The more indeed it coma down, the
better, were it but to refute the reproach of Mr.
.I)ISR.VELT, that we are spending as much in 1848 as
we did in 1828. We do thank the member for
Buckingl amshiro for the comparison. In 1828
there existed the same feeling which some
folks strove to get up towards tho end of
1847, a fear of the Continent combining against
us, and, if not invading us, at least shaking
off our political influence altogether. The Eastern
powers were then leagued with France in a kind of
holy alliance ; and England, as the stronghold of
liberty, was said to be so threatened with Russian
and with French hostility that it was considerel re-
quisite to arm to the teeth, and present a formidable
front of military estimates to the enemy.
England might have spared her exchequer thee,
heavy expenses of 1828, since in 1830 the power and
the policy of the ltot,nt;oxs were scattered to the
winds; that of Russia was scattered with it ; and
the constitution-flag fluttered over a great portion of
Europe, thanks not to our warlike preparations, but
our pacific and constitutional example. In 1817 the
most respectable politicians were for getting up thesame
panic as in 1820, and on the same grounds. France was,
it was said, threatening again. Fit eta wcre to be rigged
and batteries thrown up, and the estimates were of
course swelled to t xtraordinury dimensions. Scarcely
was the budget framed, than France falls into a
similar convulsion to that of 1830,a similar annihi-
lation of court policy, and a prostration of strength ;
proving the estimates folly, and the prevision OR
which they were founded, mere midsummer mad-
ness. Mr. DISRAELI, however, t ikes advantage
of them to twit reformers with having wished to
spend in 1848, aa much as the non-reformers
of 1823. The reproval, we need not say,
falls, not on the back of reform, but on that aristocratic
principle and influence, which more than half nullified
its results.

Itudead of terrifying foreign countries by its arma-
ments, England is, we are glad to say, aiding reluc-
tant belligerents to coma to terms of agree-
ment and amity. There cannot he a stronger
instance of the peaceful tendency of the time,
than the vain efforts of Dance and I'russiaas
to get up a war. Some weeks back the Danes
marched into Schleswig with Homeric threat.. The
Germans, at the bidding of the King of PRUSSIA,
rushed, likei so many Hetsiies, to dispute the posses-
sion of a few villages and marshes. England inter-
ce ,ed with both, and entreated them to be quiet.
But the Danes would not listen to terms till they had
fleshed their swords, and then the Prussians could
not in honour submit till they had gained
some military advantages. And so from point
of honour to point of honour Prussians and Danes
went on, without any real subject of difkrence be-
tween them, to cut each other's throats. The Em-
peror of Russia then interferes to say, that although
anxious to assist Prussia, he would not permit the
conquest of a Danish province. Hereat the Prus-
sians withdraw, having achieved by their cam-
paign the very thing they mareied to prevent—
viz., the establishment of Russian protection at
Copenhagen. Both parties arc now perfectly
ashamed and convinced of the war folly, and
both, we understand, are listening to the proposals
of England, as mediatrix, for a final settlement,
of the territorial differences at least, if not of the
succession.
A similar story might be told It Austria and
Italia. Vienna and Milan are both inclined to peace,
and the enly person who stands in the way of it is
old Raprrsel, who wants personal vengeance, and
who, like the Prussians and the Dance,
cannot make peace till he has retrieved the military
reputation which he lost in the streets of Milan, and
near the bridge of Goito. The obstinacy of the old
marshal will, we trust, find its worst punishment in
defeat. We desire this, for it will be the signal of
pacitleatlan between Germany and Italy.
Amongst the general symptoms of a love of peace
so remarkable at present we cannot pass over the
election of Archduke Joss, perhaps the best represen-
tative of such a principle that Europe could
afford. The Frankfort Congress showed some war-
like inklings against Denmark and against Milan ;
how weak and short-lived these were, the election of
the most industrial power in Europe to be its chief
most plainly and satisfactorily demonstrates.

LET Us look at Mr. FEARGUS O'CONNOR'S "Land
Company" in the prospectus which professes to count
the cost. We will suppose perfect honesty in its
foundation, consummate skill in its management, and
absolute truth in its preliminary estimates. And even
thus we say, that there is no chance whatever of its
working out its own end in any sense except one.
The plan may be described as follows : Let many
unite their small sums, buy and stock land, pat some
of their number on the land at a rent, sell the pro-
perty thus improved at a profit, buy and stock more
land with the purchase-money, put on more of their
number as tenants, sell again, and so on until all are
located. We are told by the projectors that with
5,0001. they can, in four years, establish 1,923 allot-
tees, and leave off with an estate in their own hands
worth 37,3211. 'That is to say, they pretend to have
discovered a way of improving money at sirly:fice
per cent, per annum, compound interest, besides turn-
ing 1,923 paupers into solid yeomen, at a cost of
fifty shillings a piece.
According to the preliminary estimates, which we
propose to grant, but only for argument's sake, 120 acres
of land are to be bou.,ht at 181.155. an acre, for 2,250/.
Of this arc to be made sixty lots of two acres each. A
cottage to be built on i ach is to cost 30/. ; and each
allotteo is to receive 15/. 16,.. Bd., half to buy tools
and stork, half to support him till his land yields.
This costs 5,0001. in all. The tenants, who are to have
leases in perpetuity, are each to pay a yearly rent of
j.d. for cottage and land, giving a gross rental of
300/. This, it is assumed, can be sold for 20 years'
purchase, or for 6,0001., with which the process is to
be repeated on one-fifth more land: and so on.
Now, granting all the first estimates, and among
other things that the allottees will contrive to keep
themselves and families on Os. a week during the un-
productive half) ear—and that the first crop is a good
one—we say that the plan of immediately selling the
property, burdened with perpetual leases, for 6,0001.,
is perfect nonsense. Why should a man give 6,000/.
for what he can do himself for 4,050/. and a little
trouble ?
'fake it on every supposition. The plan thrives,
and the tenants pay; still any one can set up sixty
allotments for 4,0501., and get tenants who bring in
their on n capital. But suppose, which is much more
likely in itself, and quite certain to be taken into
prospect by the intending purchaser, that they do not
pay ; in which case, spite of the perpetual leases
(we say nothing about the legal difficulties of these
in the first instance), the tenants must be ejected.
What then ? Impoverished land and unrepaired
houses, which, when rich and sound, were together
worth 4,0501., will be all that the purchaser will have
to show for his 6,0001.—except, indeed, an arrear of
rent on paper and a lawyer's bill.
All trade, of course, proceeds on buying, improving,
and selling at a profit ; but a scheme which presup.
poses a rapid power of making a profit of 25 per cent.
as many times as the speculator pleases, and as rapidly
as he pleases, is utterly futile. Such things are not
the realities, even of fable—they are the chimeras of
chimeras. Alnaschar, in the " Arabian Nights,"
ran his riches up in his head, until he spurned the
vizier's daughter, as he thought, and so kicked down
his basket. Perrette, in LAFONTAINE'S fable, multi-
plied her milk-pail until the toss, she felt it right to
give at the ices of her old sweetheart, threw it off her
head. FEARGUS O'CONNOR, an actual member of the
British parliament,must, if he really means what he says,
make a third; and his attempt of April 10 is the
kick which, intended for the existing order of things,
has knocked down his own stock in trade. The com-
mittee of the House of Commons, appointed May 23,
has now issued two batches of printed evidence. The
witnesses are people connected with the Land Com-
pany, and, as far as the inquiry has yet gone, it seems
to be the attempt of Mr. O'CONNOR to prove that he
ought to have the sole management of the funds, awl
that his subscribes have great confidence in him, It

I matterslittle as tothe ultimate effect whetherthemoney
be finally parted from its owners by embizzlement or
by such swamping as we have described. Public at-
tention is now turned to the scheme; and we venture
to say that its doom is sealed.

FRANCE.

PARIS, TUESDAY, IL3O

It is now generally understood and admitted that
whoever may have been the immediate agents, insti-
gators, or leaders of the late insurrection, that and the
other calamities brought on France since February
aro mainly. attributable to the compromises made by
the provisional government which assumed the
reins of power at the Hotel-de-Ville with the socialist
party. To these complaisances of M. de Lamartine we
owe that enormous curse of France, the ateliers
nationaux, the prompt dissolution of which was ef-
fected yesterday by the soldierly vigour of General
Cavaignac. To the same complaisance was due the
establishment of the parliament of workmen, held at
the Luxembourg, under MM. Louis Blanc and
Albert, which, however, soon sunk under the weight
of nonsense which was uttered in it. The pre-
sent government seems to have assumed the
mission of correcting those errors and faults of
its predecessors, and of showing that it has neither
indulgence nor consideration for the Utopianism of
M. Louis Blanc and his friends. The ateliers nation-
aux have ceased to exist ; but iu order to mitigate the
distress arising from the temporary want of employ-
ment in the transition to a system of free industry,
out-door relief will be supplied in limited amount to
such honest and deserving labourers as cannot obtain
' employment. Meanwhile a sum of 200,000!.
sterling is advanced by way of loan to the
contractors for building in Paris, that being
the branch of industry which affords the most
extensive and various means of employing labour, and
by encouraging which good effects will be collateratly
produced in other enterpiisee. In my late despatch
of yesterday I gave you a report of the important
measures p educed by government yesterday in the
chamber. It was the information of these which
becoming known at the Bourse in the early part of
the morning, before their announcement in the cham-
ber, produced the extraordinary the which took place
in the funds, and which I reported yesterday.
The savings banks are to make their payments in a
form equivalent to cash, and the Treasury bons cre-
ated before the 24th February are to be paid in Five
per Cent. stock at 70, the current price of that stock at
the Bourse yesterday being nearly 73. The measure
for the practical confiscation of the railway companies,
and that for the seizure of the insurance offices pro-
posed by the late governmert had been abandoned.
A grand religious ceremony in honour of the vic-
tims fallen in resisting the late insurrection will take
place in the Place de la Madeline on Thursday.
The bureaux of the chamber continued yesterday
the discussion of the project of the constititution, and
more especially of its preamble containing the decla-
ration of the rights of man. In three of the bureaux this
declaration was altogether rejected, in some others it
was postponed until after the discussion of the articles.
The declaration of the right of every citizen to em-
ployment excited the strongest objections in all the
bureaux, grounded chiefly upon the manifest impos-
sibility of the state answering such a claim. Ile
right to relief, however, in the cases of inability to
labour was generally admitted. The committee on
labour has resolved to propose the revocation of the
decree of the Provisional Government which limited
the hours of work. . . .

A letter which appeared some days since in the
journals written from the Piedmontese head-quarters,
affirming that two officers of the staff of the army of
the Alps had arrived there with offers to Charles
Albert that that army should cross the Alps, and
march to his aid if required, has excited some atten-
tion, and it is expected that questions will be asked on
the subject of the government in the Assembly.
I observe in the news transmitted from here to
same of the leading journals of London in relation
to the military force disposeable in Paris, errors of
the most unaccountable kind—thus it is said in a
leading journal that there were 110,000 regular
troops in Paris, besides 200,000 national guards, on
the 27th and 28th. This is a most preposterous
exaggeration ; I have already informed you
I that the very highest estimate of the regal .r
troops engaged during the insurrection was
22,000. On the 28th there were a few regiments
more, but the whole did not amount to 2d,000.
'l'ne effective force of the garde mobile at the com-
mencement of the insurrection did not much exceed
12,009. Although considerable reinforcements have
been arriving daily ever since the insurrection, it is
not calculated even now that the forces in Paris and
the Biotite°, including the garde mobile, exceed
60,000.
Vigorous measures are in progress for the effectual
protection of the capital against any future outbreak.
The 3rd division of infantry of the army of the Alps,
under the command of Gen. Magnan, is on its march
to Paris, and its first brigade, under Gen. Reynault,
is hourly expected. This division, consisting of
eleven battalions, will be permanently encamped at
St. Maur, situated beyond the Eastern Faubourgs of
Paris, and in a position to act upon the rear of an
insurrection if any should occur. The garrison
within Paris will be divided into seven brigades
under the command of as many generals. There will
be also two generals of division, invested with the
command of either bank of the Seine. All these forces,
with the cavalry and artillery connected with them,
will make up an effective force of about 40,000 men ;
they will be denominated the army of Paris, and will
be placed under the immediate command of the Mi-
nister of War, so that the orders of the government,
in case of any emergency, may be carried into execu-
tion with the utmost promptitude. It is understood
that the state of siege will be continued to the end of
the week.
A military journal, the Sentinel de r Armee, gives
the following curious suggestion for the prevention of
barricades in future. It proposes to unpave Paris and
macadamise it, thus removing all materials for future
barricades; that the unemployed ouvriers shall be
engaged to break the present large paving stones, and
in doing so, that they shall be placed under military
discipline.
The medical men who have the duty of inspecting
the prisons and vaults in which the immense number
of insurgent prisoners are crammed together with
only straw to lie on, and scarcely sufficient space to
extend themselves without compressing each other,
express grave apprehensions of the production among
them of seine of those epidemics incidental to such
situations.
It is announced that M. Emmanuel Arago, Minister
of France in Prussia, is about to return to Paris, en
eenge% but it appears certain that he will not return
to Berlin.

ITALY.—The Pied niontese Graelte, of the 30th
June, states that three Austrian columns of 2,000
strong, with two cannons, attacked the heights, 1)ello
Stel% to, and were repulsed, after a combat of eight
hours.
11 flisorsige»witto, of the 30th, says the Chamber of
Deputies of Turin, in its sitting of the 28th, voted by
a majority of 127 to 7 for the totality of the law on
the annexation of Lombardy to Piedmont. The vote
was by bahot.

The Madrid mails of the 29th have arrived.
Queen Christine was about to visit Seville, on the plea
of being present at the accouchement of the Duchess
of Montpensier.
The court was expected to go immedieely to La
Granja. There was no Ilolsa.

We learn by intelligence from Bayonne, of the
31st, that the Carlist General Elio had, entered Spain 1
with Arroyos and Sopelana, for the purpose of effect-
ing a rising in Navarre. Elio is a man of so much
circumspection and good character that every act of ,
his is of importance, and an enterprise with him at
its head is evidently one of great moment.
Munoz and his children were carded at San
Sebastian, and Christina was going to Seville.
The Herald° complains that Senor Tacon, having
informed Lord Palmerston that the explanations of
the Spanish government on the expulsion of Sir H.
Bulwer had arrived, accompanied by 29 justificatory
documents, his lordship replied that he had told Senor
Isturitz all he had to say on this subject.
The Qaeen having refused to admit the resignation
of General Serrano, as Captain-Gen'eral of Grenada,
that military governor remains at xis post.
Directions had been receivrAi at the embassy from
Sir R. Bulwer to sell off hi
furniture
I From this it
would appear that our government entertains little
.
' hope of settling the Spanish question speedily ; for

evidently the only satisfactory termination which that
question admits of is the return of the expelled mi-
nister.

FRANCE.—M. B. LAROCHE. —We are requested
to state that it is not true that M. Benjamin Laroche, the
translator of Scat and Byron, was killed at Paris. His
being the editor of a journal (La Tribune) may have contri-
buted to his being contounded with some person bearing a
similar name.
HUNGARY. —Nam, JUNE 23.—Tbe Turkish
envoy arrived here last night, and has to day ha a confer.
ence with our prime miniater, Batthyany, which lasted
seven] hours, the object of which probably was the new
relatint.s between Hungary and the principality of the
Danube. A bloody engagement has taken place at Weiss-
kirchen between the Germans and the Illyrians. Letters
from Bucharest of the 15th announce that all political affairs
are suspended on account of the cholera, which his raged
there with virulence for the last five days; since the 7th of the
month about 160 persons had been attacked d.ily, of whom
50 had been carried off.

COLONIAL.