The Express.
London, England, 1847-01-18 00:00:00

u'he I WOO.

MAILS.

Tb, overland wails for Gibraltar, Malts, Greece, the lonian Islands,
Egypt, Aden, Ceylon, India, llong-Kong, and China, via Southampton,
will be made up on the evening of the 20th January
The Overland closed mails, ran Marseilles, to the Mediterranean,
Egypt,
theyo, India, Hong Kong, Be., will be made up on the
evening of Fith January.
The malts for Vigo, Oporto, Lisbon, Widens, C.adis, and Gibraltar,
will be made up on the morning of the 27th January.
The mail. for New South Waters, Van Diemen'. Land, and New
Zealand will be made up on the evening of the 31st January.
The West India malls, including those for Mexico, I londuras, and
the Ilavannah, will be made up on the morning of the 2nd February.
The mails for British North America, Bermuda, and the United
Rates, will be made up on the evening of the 3rd February.
The mails for the Broils, the River Plate, Monte Video, Pernam-
buco, Bahia, Madeira, and Buenos Ayres, will be dispatched on the
evening of the 4th February.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.
• Adrertiwmente intended for The Repress, London evening paper,
mu t be at the Ocoee by Two o'clock on the day of publication.

MGR WATER AT LONDON-BRIDGE.
Ton Der. —Morning, 46 min. pest 2; Afternoon, 9 ono. put 3.
T►Mouow—Moroiog, Si mkt. put 3; Afternoon, 53 mkt. put 8.

LONDON MONDAY, JAN. 18.

1.111,, arena of parliamentary contest opens to-
morrow. The hottest and most interesting combat
about to take place there will not apparently be a
combat of party, for there is really no great party
question stirred at present. But onslaughts will be
made upon ministers, to damage their reputation, if
not to turn their purposes, or shake their power.
Of these the fiercest will apparently be made
by the Irish landlords. A great struggle has in
fact been going on during the last five or six months
between the Irish landlords and the ministry, the re-
sult of which in Ireland has been the defeat of almost
every purpose of government. The landlords are now
following uptheir triumph by uniting to assert, that the
whole fault of the present chaos of things in Ireland is
owing, not to them, but to the government. And what
they demand in consequence is, that government shall
cease to interfere in Irish matters, except to perform
the office of treasurer, raising fund, from the -English
people to be advanced to the Irish landlords, who are
tq undertake to spend this money on their lands, and
employ each his own share of the population in this
manner as best they can.
We do not think that the Irish landlords will be
able to force any English government into a, sy such
terms. The views of Lord JOUN RUSSELL, when
he stepped forth to the assistance of Irish di deem.
and brought in the temporary laws of the close of
last session, were not to disturb from their habi teal
labour and agricultural employ that portion of t`lie
peasantry engaged in the service of the buidholde.".
Ile merely proposed that the surplus population,
naturally and habitually out of work, and dependent
on con-acre and small plots, the produce of which
bed failed, should receive employment and wages for
public works apart from agriculture, and that it
should for this receive less pay than the agriculturist,
whilst the land was to be charged with the eleemosy-
nary outlay. The natural effects to be expected from
such a measure in any rational country would have
been that the landlords, in order to escape the future
burden of this expense, would exert themselves to
take the labourers from the eleemosynary and un-
productive work to labour on their own estates. In
order to do this, they might have borrowed money
under the Drainage and Million Act. But no: the
Irish landlords folded their arms, allowed all the pea-
santry to fling themselves on the public works, which,
not organised for having the wholepopulation on them,
unavoidably left many to starve.
The Lord-Lieutenant then took pity on the help-
lessness of the Irish landlords, and resolved to
modify the order of the government, so as to allow the
landlords to suggest and obtain the expenditure of the
labenr rate on works of a mingled public and private
ejiageter. No sooner had thin reverie' of thestate policy
of governmenttakenplace,reverssl, weiv, for insteadof

°WNW incentive or cceipalsion to the landlords to
take the peasantsoff the ‘Abour-rate, it supplied a strong
incentive to put th.ern upon it —no sooner were the
Irish landlords indulged in this, than they found that
they could get funds from the state more advanta-
geously by the old Drainage Act, which they despised.
Amidst all these chopping., and changings, and igno-
rance, the Irish landlords have done nothing except
complain, distrust, and mar every purpose of the
government.
In the meantime, government, on the eve of parlia-
ment, has meditated and prepared a series of measures
for Ireland, some of them intended to relieve the land-
lords, and find employ for the surplus population ;
others establishing imposts on the land, and providing
for the levy of the sums expended, or, at least, of the
instalments due.
The Irish landlords have met in Dublin, and insist,
that the labour rate was an impolitic and pernicious
law, the failure of which they assert to be owing to
the government, not to them; and they conse-
quently demand that the empire should bear its
share of the money thus spent--in other words,
that all should be paid out of the treasury.
One should think, that before the landlords of
any district could make such a demand, they
ought to come forward and prove, not only
that the usual and annual rate of numbers and
employ have been kept in their barony, but that
these had been augmented, and fair exertions made
to support the Labour Rate Act, by throwing as few
men on the public works as could be. In those
counties where landowners folded their arms, and
flung all the population on the unproductive works
under the act, they have no shadow of right to come
forward with this exorbitant claim.
If the Irish landlord, however, remain unreasonable
with respect to the past, he is not so much so with
regard to the future. The government measures have
had at least the result of arousing the Irish land-
holders to some of the perils likely to follow a con-
tinuance of their wonted apathy. And accordingly
they come forward to grasp at most of the proffers of
government for absorbing surplus labour, and they
at least admit certain principles, such as the
right of the poor to be supported by the
property of the country, the right of the tenant
to expect compensation, if not fixity of tenure;
in short, the landlords have been brought into that
frame of mind from which activity and co-operation
in the great work of social reform may be expected.
Their demands for the future are, however, not
always modest or practicable. The simultaneous
petition that government,dispensingEnglish treasure, I
shall at once absorb the surplus population by the
manifold schemes of emigration, reclamation of
lands, fisheries, and, at the same time, furnish funds
to the Irish landlords to employ the remaining popu-
lation on their own estates, and not only till their
land, but find them seed—these resolutions of the
Irish landlords represent them as coming forward in'
the character of innocent minors and helpless or-
phans, after a manner quite ludicrous to behold.
Whatever terms be granted to the Irish landlords,
it is manifestly the duty of government to bind them
to certain conaitions, enjoining and necessitating those
changes in the agriculture of the country without
which every effort, expense, and legislation will have
been thrown away. If potatoes are to remain the sole
crop,—which they will be despite of the disease, should
the con-acre survive instead of the system of holdings
and leases, which require that more advanced and
general agriculture of a due succession and inter-
mixture of crops, necessitating in turn a better
distribution of work, and a greater variety of food—
if this great revolution be not enforced or brought
about in Ireland, the country will never be other than
it is at present.

WE congratulate both the country and the party of
which the Standard is the organ, on the rapid conver-
, aion of the latter to sound views of trade and of taxation
proclaimed on Saturday. This sudden change is too
welcome to induce us to cavil about its possible
cause. Whether, like Corialanus, the fiery cham-
pions of protection deem it advisable on the eve
of an election to doff the lordly robes and to
court the " sweet voices" of their fellow-citizens
is more homely attire—or, ,jealous of the fame
acquired by the political knight-errantry of Lord
LINCOLN at Manchester, they choose to venture a
more hazardous lance in the nuqh of parties, we
inquire not. We are content to take as a " fait ac-
compd" the confession that the existing distress must
be relieved, and that one mode of relieving it is by
abolishing the last remnant of monopolist protection—
*. 4s. duty.
The acquiescence of the Tories in this measure
removes one more difficulty in the way of the
ministry's efforts to check the progress of famine
in Ireland. If any one seeks a proof of the
effect of duties upon the importation of food, we
would refer him to the list of imports and exports
which has been published for the eleven months
of the present year, ending December 5. A
very small importation of foreign wheat is noted in
tan past year, not exceeding 1,316,547 quarters,
whereas the quantity entered for consumption,
1,941,482 quarters. is, within a fraction, equal to the
quantities imported both in 1845 and 1846. The im-
portation in 1846 must have been restricted by the
prospect of a good harvest in these islands which pre-
vailed throughout the summer. Consequently, the
addition of a duty of 4s. per quarter, when our har-
vest is abundant, suffices to extinguish foreign specu-
lation. But the experience of ten successive years,
from 1835 to 1844,shows that an average importation
of 1,471,829 quarters is required to eke out our
home supply of grain, and that under the high
duties of the sliding scale, this quantity was
imported. There wee, therefore, a fair field
for foreign speculator' in the reduction of the
duty in 1846, and yet they were deterred, by the
prospect of a fair harvest, from seeking our ports.
When unfavourable reports were spread respecting
the yield of the wheat crop of 1846, there was but a
scanty stock of foreign grain to bring into the market,
and the result has been the present ruinous price of
wheat.
An able writer in the Edinburgh Review has
stated the cost of supporting an Iriah labourer in
1844, when wheat coat 51s. 3d. per quarter, at Is. 9d.
per head per week. With wheat at 765. per
quarter, and other grains advanced still more in
proportion, it may be inferred that a corresponding
increase in the expenditure for the relief of the Irish
poor will take place. For this augmentation of the
burdens of the country at so critical a moment, the
nation is indebted to the protectionist party. We do
not, therefore, wonder at their desiring to shrink
from the responsibility. But, as we have said, we
are more desirous to record the sudden conversion of
the party than to inquire into its cause.
Since cheapness now appears desirable on all sides,
and one notorious cause of the dearness of foreign
grain is the high price of freights, there can be no
more objection to the only feasible mode of speedily
increasing our command of merchant shipping than to
the abolition of the proscribed 4s. duty.
We perceive a report in the Constetutionnel of
Saturday of the discussion in the standing commit-
tees, on the proposal of M. Ovum to take off the
duty on corn, and abrogate the French Navigation
Act. All the members who spoke,—influential per-
sons, too, like Messrs. FOULD and DARBLAY, insisted
on the necessity of giving a prime of four francs
the hectolitre to importers of corn. Whilst others
insisted on prohibiting exportation. The French
deputies seem to be somewhat angered that we
should offer higher prices than they for American
corn, and recommend that England should be pre-
vented from drawing to it, in a similar manner, the
corn from the Mediterranean and elsewhere.
Tere should exist little doubt that facts of this
kind, coupled with so many others, will induce the
English cabinet not to remain behind the French,
both with respect to the corn duties and the navigation
laws.
The relief conveyed by the latter cannot at
once be great, but anything contributing to
alleviate the pressure of distress at the present
moment is not only desirable but imperative.
When two such favourable occurrences es the
repudiation of monopoly on the part of English
conservatives, and the publication of an intention to
be guided by economical principles of some kind by
the Irish aristocracy precede so immediately the
opening of the session, it may safely be predicted that
the
it will be propitious both to the ministry an
nation.

IN the sixth general report of the Colonial Land
and Emigration Commissioners, presented to parlia-
ment last session, we are told that the government
emigration agent. in the United Kingdom had insti-

THE EXPRESS, MONDAY EVE:

tuted sundry prosecutions of masters of vessels,
passege-blokealAcc. is to be feared that these
govefriumt ehuq iop egehtS would be none the
wore' of Bevil* a few prosecutions instituted age
theingelves. The ease of the Sarah and •I'.lizat
which cleared from Killala, could scarcely have been
so bad had a proper inspection been made of the
vessel and stores before sailing. And the facts ascer-
tained respecting the state of provisions on board the
Tennessee (of which an account appeared in our Fri-
day's publication) raise a strong presumption of
neglect of duty on the part of Liverpool officials.
The Tennessee, which sailed from Liverpool for the
United States with a number of emigrants, was
obliged to put into Halifax (N.S.), on account of her
leaky condition. The leak or leaks were so serious
that the stores had to be taken out and the vessel
hove down. An investigation before three magis-
trates, under the Passengers Act, was commenced on
the twenty-first of December last, and had not closed
when the packet sailed. On this account we refrain
at present from any judgment as to where the prin-
cipal blame rests. %Ye will say nothing of the evi-
dence of the passengers which may have been partial
or exaggerated, and open to contradiction. But
there are facts which have been sworn to by
officers of the customs, unprejudiced parties, whose
'evidence in such a ease is above suspicion. These
we are entitled to assume to be correct, and it is diffi•
cult to reconcile their testimony with the belief that
the duty of the emigration agent has been properly
discharged at Liverpool.
The quantity of meal or flour allowed for each pas-
senger per week was 6 lbs. Several of the passengers
having asserted that the vessel in which their meal
or flour was served out was a short measure, it was
examined. On the second day of the investigation
THOMAS BROWN swore that " he had tested the mea-
sure, both with corn meal and oat meal, and found
that when 41bs. of oatmeal was put into the
resume, the meal rose above the mark •,
and that 31b. 13oz. of Indian meal just filled
the measure up to the mark." Mr. BLACKMORE, an
officer in the Customs, was appointed to examine; the
state of the provisions. At the investigation he swore:
" I found the meal not damaged, but so four that it
is unfit for any person to eat ; the flour was also four,
but not so bad as the meal ; the bread was all mouldy,
but not so bad as what has been shown in court. As
an officer of the Customs, I would not pass such
bread." _ .

"Itt, I

The management of the investigation is in good
hands. Messrs. \V. YOUNG and L O'C. DOYLE act
for the prosecution; Messrs. CLAREE and GREY for
the defence. There can be little doubt that the real
merits of the ease will be elicited. When we
know exactly where the blame ought to rest of
supplying the Tennessee with bad 'provisions and a
false measure, it will be time enough to call for their
punishment. But what was the emigration agent
about when he allowed an emigrant ship to put to sea
with such provisions and such a measure? This is a
matter that cannot be too soon inquired into; and it
is the duty of the Colonial Land and Emigration Com-
missioners to institute the inquiry. When emigra-
tion on an extensive scale is spoken of as one of the
remedies for Irish destitution, it is indispensable that
the agency charged with the superintendence of emi-
gration should be placed on an efficient footing.

The diplomatic correspondence respecting the
Spanish marriages, and the annexation of Cracow,
continued to occupy attention in Paris, as well as
the leading columns of the French journals, on
Friday and Saturday.
The Journal des Debella of Saturday contained an
elaborate article addressed to England in a con-
ciliatory tone. While it denies that the Moutpensier
marriage was a question of family interest merely,
and maintains, on the contrary, that it was a question
of high national policy, it nevertheless affirms that
the sympathies of the public and the chambers in
favour of the English alliance have rarely been
manifested with so much appearance of unanimity as
at present.
The English journals having animadverted upon
the paragraph of the royal speech which refers to the
treaty of commerce concluded with Russia, and
having attributed that paragraph to a desire on the
part of the French government to conciliate, if not
court, Russia, the Debcda repudiates the idea :

The English journals (it says) are much more correct
when they say that public opinion in France would repulse
an alliance with Russia. On this point we entertain a con-
viction still more deep, and have never dissimulated it. No.
France does not desire an alliance which would be treason
against liberty, civilisation, and the revolution ; and we are
more than ever convinced of this, when we see among the
representatives of the country in the midst of the voices
raised in favour of the English alliance, that not one has
dared to make itself heard in favour of an alliance with
Russia.

This, it must be confessed, is pretty strong lan-
guage for the habitually reserved and temperate organ
of the cabinet of the Tuileries.
The Opposition journals, with the Constitutionnel
at their head, continue to postpone all discussion of
the marriage negotiation, until the documents now
given to the public only in a garbled state shall be
published complete. This is considered the more
essential, inasmuch as these very documents are those
upon which the whole question must rest. They can-
not fail to be made public, for if M. Guizot persevere
in concealing them, Lord Palmerston will be sure to
make them public.
We will examine them, then, altogether (says Le
Conatitutionnel) and the discussion will loot) nothing
by waiting. It will then be evident by what incre-
dible want of ability, by what strange processes, our
government has placed France in the situation in which
she is found to-day ; it will be seen who will be con-
founded and overwhelmed by the effect of this complete
publication.
The committee of the Chamber of Peers on the
address concluded its labours on Friday, and the
Chamber was convoked on Satorday to hear the
address. M. Barthie's pro,/'et d'adrease was approved
of. It was expected that the report would be read at
the public session on Monday, when the debate
would commence, but M. Guizot was deter-
mined not to speak till Tuesday or Wednes-
day. In the Chamber of Deputies, on Friday,
the committee on the address assembled, and it was
resolved to request the attendance of ministers to
give the necessary explanation. It was expected
that the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, of War, and of
Marine, would attend. The committee also decided
that it would require the Minister of Foreign Affairs
to communicate those parts of the diplomatic corre-
spondence on the Cracow affair and the Spanish
marriages which have been suppressed hitherto.
The committee of deputies upon the address,
although composed altogether of the Conservative
party, took up on Saturday the two leading questions
respecting Cracow and the marriages with consider-
able spirit and energy.
Oar correspondent learnt that it required the Minis-
ter of Foreign Affairs to communicate the diplomatic
correspondence on both questions more fully than he
had done. They have demanded the correspondence
between the Foreign-office in Paris and the French
embassy at Berlin, Vienna, and St. Petersburg from
the 3rd April to Bth November, which was omitted in
the documents already laid before the Chamber. They
have also demanded the answer lately received from
Prince Metternich to the protestation of France, and
have requested M. Gnizot to supply written proofs
that the memorandum which appears annexed to the
documents laid before the Chambers, was communi-
cated to Lord Aberdeen.
M. Guizot has refused to communicate the docu-
ments demanded by the commission on the address,
but he has declared that he will lay them before the
Chamber when the debate on the address shall
come on.
M. Hebert has been named to draw up the address.
Marshal Soult attended the committee along with
M. Guizot.

M. Martin du Nord left Paris on Saturday or Sun-
day for Italy, with leave of ;absence, but with the well
understood intention of not returning to office. The
cabinet is already engaged in electing his successor.
M. Hebert was named ; but has met with !ouch opposi-
tion at the chateau, where it is feared his appoint-
ment would be displeasing to the clergy. It is pro-
bable that M. Dumon will take the portfolio of
Justice and Public Worship, and that of Public
Works will be given to M. Hebert.
M. Billault is just about to be named Advocate of
the Civil List. M. Dufaure was offered, but refused,
the Ministry of Justice.
We have received information of the substance of
the last despatch received from the cabinet of Vienna
by M. Guirot, on the subject of Cracow. It was ex-
pected it would appear in one of the ministerial
journals in Paris ou Sunday. The style of the note

ING, •JANUARY 18, .184,

Sr* WS courteous. The powelffigettit that
they coffiii4er themselves as having .a to set as
0%67 have 'acted,; that the existence of . w was I
thair work; that the other powers associated in the
congress of Vienna relatively to this question, merely
registered the final act, and that they cannot
be regarded as having any share in the ne-
gotiation which led to it. The powers declare
further that they will not undo what they have done,
or consent that France or England should have any
part in it. M. Guizot, to whom the Austrian Am-
bassador has communicated this answer, has already
adopted his course. He will not reply to it. The
discussion, so far as diplomacy is concerned, is there-
fore at an end.
A splendid ball was given at the Tuileries by the
Duke and Duchess of Nemours on Friday evening, at
which the principal members of the diplomatic corps
, and their ladies were present, with the exception of
I Lord and Lady Normanby.
The resolution of the Bank adopted by the Council
on Friday to raise the rate of discount from four to
five per cent. produced an immediate effect at the
Bourse, where stock and shares of every description
immediately fell. It now appears that the Bank has
borrowed 20,000,000 of silver on the security of the
government stock, in which a part of its capital is
invested, an operation which has been facilitated by
the Bank of England. It is expected that the in-
creased rate of interest will sufficiently cheek the
efflux of specie from its cellars; but should this fail,
should the exigencies of commerce be so urgent that
• the increased rate of discount will still be submitted
i to, then the expedient mentioned in our correspond-
I ence on a former day will be resorted to, and notes
I will be issued for 100 and 250 franca, instead of
I. adopting, as at present, 500 francs as the minor limit
• of its notes.

Advice& from Switzerland justify the apprehensions
that severe reactionary measures will be pursued in
the canton of Friburg, the theatre of the late unsuc-
cessful movement on the part of the Protestant libe-
rals. A great number of arrests had already taken
place, and a great number of citizens, holding the
highest social position, became the object of severe
persecution by the jesuitical party. On receiving the
news of the events in Friburg the government of Lu-
cerne and the other cantons of the league culled out
the military.
The council of State of Friburg, addressed a cir-
cular to all the cantons, to inform them of the event.
This document was remarkable not only for the in-
vectives levelled against the conquered party, but for
the insinuations it included against the conduct of
the canton of Berne, both as the seat of the federal
government and as an independent canton. Reports
were spread at Berne of the arrival of threatening
notes from several foreign ministers. It is neverthe-
less certain that the movement in Friburg was quite
independent of the free corps, however much the can-
tons of Vaud and Berne may have sympathised in the

The Spanish mail, bringing the Madrid journals
and correspondence of the 9th and 10th, arrived in
Paris on Friday and Saturday.
El Clamor Public° mentions MM. Casa, Trujo, and
Viluma as likely to form a new ministry.
The Chamber did not sit on the 10th.
El Espanol publishes a report that Don. Miguel
had been proclaimed King of Portugal by the Junta
of Oporto.
The 10th being Sunday, the Bourse was closed.
Advices were received in Paris on Saturday even-
ing that M. Olozaga had arrived under an armed
escort on Tuesday night at Bayonne.

FRANCE.—BREAD Mgrs.—Bread riots similar to
those at Rennes have taken place at Laval. The market
commenced as usual, and some hectolitres of wheat were sold
with a light rise of price. At nine o'clock a crowd of men,
women, and children filled up the spaces between the Backs,
and the dealers found themselves compelled to sell the wheat
at if. the double hectolitre. The authorities interfered, but
without success. At noon four companies of the 12th regi-
ment of the lino cleared the market-place, and stopped
all ingress to it. Order seemed re-established, but at
half-past two some rioters, followed by a large crowd,
entered the Rue d'Amboise Pare, and smashed the
windows of a house which contained stores of
grain. The crowd was dispersed by the military, but
some of them broke the windows of houses in the Rue
d'Auvers, At six in the evening, eight men, accompanied
by an immense concourse of people, proceeded to Port Valle'e, II
and demanded the person in charge of the grain deposited
there to give it up. Ile replied that he had not got the 1
'keys. The doors were then forced, and a quantity of grain
carried off; one man fell under the load he had and broke
his thigh. They had first offered money, which was refused.
On Sunday an attempt was made on the house in the Rue
d'Ambroise Pare, which was protected by a detachment of
troops. In the evening two cart-loads of grain were pil-
laged at Croix-rouge. On Monday 120 Carabineers arrived
from Mans. Order is restored.

..--
FRENCH REVENUE.—The Mimiteur publishes the
following table of receipts of indirect taxes for the past year :
1648. 1045.
Registration dam he 214,831,000fr. 212,640,000 ft.
Stamps
Customs, Nalidsla. gig. 105.566,000 100,422,000
French Colonist/pia 37,127000 42,948,000
F .relign Sugars 11,2.1,000 6.425,000
11Zirginovnts e'r=m".."l
...-....-
Salt Dues )
Sslt Dues OHNoultlsß) ....._....» 1113117,000 19,589,1100
Potlble Ikases
Public Carnegie MK sell INE Tani 41,488,000 40,648,000
Tobacco Mu
Gunpowdereis• 6,845,000 5,581,000
Letters awl dial was wilding money.— 50,322,000 48,452,000
For Pa. tie Manes-Pones— 2,199,000 3,385,000
Ditto, by and Packets 1,121,000 1,093,000

Total
Showing an increase of 19,389,000*. Compared with 1944,
the increase is 3.5,427,000 fr.
ITALY.—The ordonnance of the Secretary of State
of the Ist Jan., relative to the organisation of the Courts of I
Justice, was received at Bologna ou the 7th. It dots not
include a general and definitive reform in the administration
of justice, which still remains under discussion. The docu-
ment refers only to a reform in the criminal courts of the
capital, according to which the four criminal courts at Rome,
La Sacra Consults, that of the Govern°, of the Udilorio
della Camera, and of the Campo&glio, are reduced to two,
the two latter being supprmed. The Sacra Consulla is to be
divided into two twmi or Chambers, each consisting of six
prelates, (ponenti) but each is to have an assessor (avocet
auditeur). The Governo presided by the governor
of Rome is to consist until further reforms take
place of two chambers having each a prelate,
four vice-presidents, and five advocates for judges. Besides
which, a 'solicitor and five lawyers, an equal number for the
poorer classes, are to be attached to each Chamber. The
criminal courts of the provinces are to be in communication
with the Sacra Consulea, so as to provide it with the means
of forming a periodical statistical return of criminal pro-
ceedings, so an to enable measures to be taken for the pre-
vention of crime. The ordonnance concludes by saying that
the promotions and appointments would take place according
to the merits and the capacities of the employe and not to
their length of service. Owing to the scarcity of food in some
of the provinces Cardinal Gizei issued a circular on the Ist of
January prohibiting the exportation of corn until further
orders.

GERMANY.—Under the head Berlin, 11th Jan.,
the Cologne Gaulle, of the 15th inst., says •—" Whilst in
nearly every part of Europe, where the press is allowed to
discuss openly the probable consequences attending the in-
corporation of Cracow, whilst the replies of the 'Northern
Powers to the protestations of France and England are
anxiously expected, whilst the rumoured absorption of the
kingdom of Poland into Russia is spoken of as doubtful, the
moment is approaching when all doubt will be at an end,
and the reality will be manifest—in short, the hour is nigh
striking when the kingdom of Poland will have ceased
to exist even to the name. Information, just received
from authentic sources, leaves no doubt that the
determination of the act is irrevocably decided, and
when the fact is carried from ear to ear and from
lend to land only when the act is accomplished, the
present may be regarded as a forerunner to announce it.
We will not here stop at conjecture, about the exact date,
and the manner in which it is to he accomplished--enough,
that the moment is not far distant, nor will we endeavour to
guess at the deliberation of the high authorities of Warsaw
who have been called to St. Petersburg on the subject,
but we can add that according to all likelihood that the
journey of the Czar to Warsaw was in close connexion with
the accomplishment of this act.
VlE:mt.—Unfavourable accounts are in circulation
roaring the health of the Archduke Palatine.—Augsburp
A entente Zeitung.
It is well known that the Jews, to have the right of
residing in Vienna, are forced to pay every fortnight a cer-
tain sum per head—the rich four florins, and the poor two.
One day that U. de Metternich had invited to his table M.
Meyerbeer, a knight like himself of the Prussian Order of
Merit, the police presented themselves at the residence of the
illustrious composer to demand the tax in question. M.
Meyerbeer, having threatened to leave the city immediately
if this absurd law was applied to him, the officers of the
Grand-Chancellor replied that they would elude the law in
his case by inscribing on his permission to reside his title of
knight, in place of hie denomination of Jew. The French
Jews were 'objected to the tax up to the time that M. de St.
Aulaire protested against it in the name of his government.
The same law also exists at Warsaw, and the celebrated
violinist Ernst quitted the city from the same circumstance
that had occurred to M. Meyerbeer at Vienna. Let us add,
that when the police came to find him he had already given
five concerts to the poor.
RUSSIA.—We learn from St. Petersburg that the
Emperor of Russia has ordered an increase of one-half in
the land-tax paid by the fits peasants in every part of
Ulnas.

THE INDIA EXPRESS.
Sir,—The signal triumph you achitmed over your '
high-priced and confederate antagonists, sin Saturday, the
2nd, in anticipating them in the recei,,,t mid publication of '
the overland extraordinary express, ai/pCIII% to me to call fur '
a few remarks in addition to those you offered on the occa.
don, especially an a most unworthy attempt has since been
made to deprive of his fair share of credit the gentleman to
whose indomitable energies your priority was attributable,
viz. Lieut. Waghorn.
First. Let me repeat that the despatches were delivered
at the Daily News Office by Wsighorn's agent, at four
o'clock, a.m., in time for nearly the whole of your impres
sion, and were accordingly given in nearly the whole of it.
At eleven o'clock. a.m., ur seven hours afterwards,
the Chroniele and i'ost gave the very time news that you
es did, suppressing all mention of the source, and merely saying
it had arrived rid Trieste ; hut that it was literally copied
from your columns is sufficiently notorious by their unsus-
pecting adoption of your alight alteration of the summary
front the Bombay Times.
Now, here occurs • question, the answer to which will
elucidate another question, to be put immediately. Sup-
posing that despatches through any other channel than
Waghorn had arrived in London for the combined papers at
the same time the Daily News despatches arrived, each one
of the allied journals would, of course, have had the same
intelligence : such is the basis of the copartoery, and such,
it is evident. would be the just and commoa sense
mode of carrying out the agreement. How, then, comas it,
that the Titres did not fall into the trap which ensnared the
Post and Chronicle? That the Times gave the summary
horn the Bombay Times direct, and not with the verbal
transposition of that summary, as printed in the Daily News!
Where was that second copy of the Bombay Times procured
from? No Bombay Times, or any other Indian papers or
letters of any sort arrived is London on the morning of the '
2nd, gave and except those brought by Waghom's extra-
ordinary express from Trieste. Surely it in a new element,
an unprecedented feature in newspaper competition, surrep-
titiously to profit by the successful exertions of a rival, and
then to laud the exertions that palpably and completely
failed.
Thus we have the Times availing itself of papers (how
obtained is lees of a mystery than that journal thinks),
brought exclusively by Waghorn on the 2nd, repre-
senting those papero as having come to hand in the ordinary
course. This is precisely the sort of conduct which the
Times would have been delighted to stigmatise had it caught
• contemporary perpetrating it.
The Morning Herald having fully participated on Satur-
day with the Times in the craftily obtained Bombay papers
brought exclusively by Waghorn, superadds on Monday one
of its habitual panegtries on the Marseilles route ; and in
doing so commits itself even more conspicuously than is its
wont on this head It complains grievously that the Volcano
steamer is a wretched vessel, and took four days between
Malta and Marseilles, when a really good steamer would
have achieved the whole distance from Alexandria to
Merman in five or five and a half days, but it
altogether loses sight of a fact obviously implied by
that admission, via , that if a good steamer can make
the distance in the time specified between Marseilles and
Alexandria, necessarily in a much less time should she male
the distance between Alexandria and Trieste, which saves
360 miles of sea steaming ; and as to the low character of the
Volcano, she is, at all events, preferable to the melancholy
thing called the Ardent, placed at \Vaghorn's disposal, only
able to go three miles an hour in her memorable November
voyage, and rarely reaching eight miles, for • continuance,
same.
It is not by disguising their obligations to Wagborn and
the Daily A ews on occasions like that of the 2nd inst. that
the combined press can impose their own pretended excel-
lence upon the public, nor is it by exaggerations and sup-
pressions such as the Herald adopts that the superiority of
the Trieste route can long he prevented from being uni-
versally recognised.—Fatir Ptair.—Jan 8.

WEST INDIES.—LIGIITROUSE IN BARBADOPS.
—Sir,—Captain Denman, of the royal navy, one of the admi-
ralty surveyor*, stated in his evidence before the select com-
mittee of the House of Commons, appointed in 181-5, to in-
quire into the state and management of lighthouses, &c.,
that such an important affair as the erection of a lighthouse
should not depend upon those who are restrained front apply-
ing for it by knowing that a toll for its maintenance Intl
be laid upon shipping. Ito was, therefore, of opinion
that the lights of the country ought to be placed under one
central board, which should have the authority to decide in
all cases where lights, beacons, or buoys are requisite, with-
out waiting for shipwrecks to eat the attention of the public
to it." The last antence will no doubt be appreciated, and
its truth fully acknowledged by every mariner and every
philanthropist. Yet there is a place where wrecks (some-
times as many as four) occur every year ; and sometimes, as
in the ease of the Royal George, involving the low of two
hundred and eighty-one human beings ; where the necessary
funds for the erection of a light-house to prevent such catas-
trophes have been lying ready for such an appropriation ;
but where, in consequence of the obstinacy of a legislative
council, the erection has been prevented. The place alluded to
is the loyal colony of Barbadoes. Sir C. Grey, the late governor
of Barbadoes, in his address to the legislature, at the opening
of last session, referred to the continued want of a lighthouse,
and recommended the council to confirm the act passed by
the House of Assembly for its erection, in a former session ; the
necessary sum having been deposited in the local bank. The
necessity of a lighthouse on some prominent point of the dan-
gerous coast of Barbadoes, had been urged by several comman-
ders on the North American and West India station, and
was recommended by Admirals Sir C. Adam and Sir F.
Austen. It was, no doubt, in consequence of these recom-
mendations that the British government proposed to bear
half the expense of the erection of the lighthouse, if the colony
would furnish the other half, and provide for its maintenance.
This proposition WWI gladly met by the representatives of
the people, who provided the necessary means from the
Molehead tonnage duty; but the legislative council had
twice refused its assent. Sir C. Grey drew the attention of
the council to the circumstance that the maintenance would
not prove a heavy burden, as the Molehead tonnage might
be appropriated to the maintenance of a light, that duty
being no longer required for the repairs of the pier. The
council, however, have again refused to confirm the
act of the assembly, and among other arguments they rest
their refusal upon the assertion that no case of shipwreck
need occur on this coast without great and reckless negli-
gence. The Barbadoes almanack will show that the pollee
who hazard this assertion are not men of nautical experience,
but sugar-planters, with the exception of two members, one
of whom is the bishop of the diocese, the other the rector of
the pariah of St. John, who must have frequently
witnessed from his residence the horrors of a shipwreck.
Parties acquainted with the working of the machine called
the Legislative Council in Barbadoes, know how such a body
resists the expressed wish of the inhabitants and her
Majesty's representative. But if the members will submit
to the dictation of one of their number, to such a degree as
to set aside the duties of humanity, it is high time that some
check should be put upon them. The appointment of the
council rests with the crown. This is urged not in favour of
Barbadoss alone; many of our brave sailors, and much British
property are endangered by the perversity of the council :
the statistical returns from the colony prove, that upon an
average of the last five years there entered the island
annually 835 vessels, comprising 88,917 tons, and manned
by 6,413 sailors.