The Express.
London, England, 1847-05-29 00:00:00

otit epprog.

MAILS.

math hr New South Wales, Van Diemen's Land, and New
Zeeland will be made up on the evening of the 3lot May.
West India ninth, indenting throe for Mexico, Honduras, mid
the Havarmah, will he made up on the morniag of the 2nd June.
The mails for Reitillo North America, Bermuda, and the United
States, will be made up on the evening of the id June.
Tbo overland /MM. for Gibraltar, Malts, Ovreee, the lonian lathadr,
Keret, Aden, Ceylon, India, liongltheir, and Claim, ens Southampton,
vr,ll ►e made up on the mewing of the 3rd Jane.
The mails for the /kaolin, the River Plato, Monte Video, Pernam-
buco, Bahia, Maleira, awl Buenos Arm, will be made lip en the
evening of the 4th June.
The malls for Vigo, Oporto, Lisbon, Madeira, Cadiz, and Gibraltar
ail: be made lan on the morning of the 7th June.
The overland c!oved mail, ria Mormillee, to the Mediteminean,
Egypt, Aden, Ceylon, India, /lung Kew, he., lOU be mildew on the
arming of the 7th June.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.
Adrertiwonentalatended for 7AaKepreae, London evening paper,
meet be at the flake by ?.o reelect oa the day otpublicatioa.

MGR WATER AT LONDON-BRIDGE.
rm DAT—Wrap& 2$ oda. pest I ; AMvn4o gibs. put 1.
Tbatoasow-166rAINE, 6 Ws. pee 1; Afternoon, 24 Ailn. peg 1.

LONDON, SATURDAY, MAY 29.

BOTH Houses of Parliament re-assembled last
evening. In the House of Lords, Lord PORTMAN called
the attention of their lordships to the circumstance,
that the money received under the authority of the
QUEEN% letter, for the relief of the sufferers by the
fire at St. John's, Newfoundland, had not been wholly
so disposed of, a portion of it having been applied to
the rebuilding of the episcopal church there. He com-
plained that the money had been appropriated by a
committee sitting in London, instead of being
appropriated by parties on the spot, and con-
cluded by moving an address to the crown, that
when her Majesty should be advised to issue letters
for a similar purpose, the object for which the money
was to be raised should be distinctly stated, and that
the persons by whom it wu to be appropriated
should be named.—The Bishop of LONDON defended
the course taken by the committee; the church of St.
John's wasdestroyed by the tire, and they decided that
a portion of the subecriptioa should go in aid of its
restoration.—Earl Gala stated that the work-
ing classes had received compensation nearly
to the amount of their losses, and as the
cost of the rebuilding of the church would other-
wise have fallen principally on the shopkeepers,
he thought that a good reason why a portion of the
money raised should be applied for effecting the
object as carried out by the committee. After some
further discussion the motion was agreed to.
In the House of Commons, the affairs of Portugal
as connected with British interference were made
the subject of conversation, at the instance of Mr.
HUME, who, at its close, intimated his intention of
bringing the subject formally before the house
on Monday next.—Mr. EWART, in an ex-
planatory speech, moved that it was expedient'
a more direct system of taxation on property
should be substituted, as far as possible, for the indi-
rect system, by customs and excise duties, as now in
use, Mr. HUME seconding the motion.—The CHAN-
CELLOR of the EXCHEQUER opposed it, on the ground
that it would be his duty, m the ensuing session,
to bring the subject of taxation generally
before the house, when it would have to con-
sider whether that principle of direct taxation
(the income tax) should ho made permanent,
or perhaps increased, or whether the country should
return to the old system of indirect taxation. His
great object would be—though he despaired of making
any system of taxation palatable to those on whom
it tell—to endeavour, as far u possible, to apportion
it, whether direct or indirect, Iltirly upon all classes of
the community. After some further discuss.on the
motion was withdra..n. The house then went into
committee of supply on the miscellaneous estimates,
which occupied the remainder of the sitting.

Ma. Die ULU'S address to the electors of Buck-
inghamshire is much more amusing than is usual en
the case of similar ddeaments. The l.najority of can-
more or less
confessions
ograieralth aretewrmhisacahthdittoheiedthrewiresmtaretlyovfeerriinptirtig'oefsinthahec coo
as their recognised symbols. The reasons of their
opinions, if they have any reasons, are left fo.' their
sympathising supporters to supply. A chartist eioctor
anti
-popery
VINCENT
onsupwpohar:aprtihnecipLfi!":
Pod;eBri.uPts'n:tilaraatarr'nlßE " takes up his cross." They want
to know the result of their candidate's political medi-
tations, and not the process of thought by which hr
arrived at his conclusions. It is needless to observe
how convenient the practice is to those who have to
compose addresses. " Decide to the best of your
judgment" was the wise advice tendered to a non-
professional judge; " but never give a reason for it."
Abide by your blue or your yellow," it may be said
to many candidates ; " but if you must give a reason
for it, let it be some well-established, prescriptive,
common-place reason, as respectable as the traditional
blue or yellow cause itself."
Mr. nihRAELT, however, is the reverse of a com-
mon-place candidate. As a scholar, as a man of the
world, as the possessor of a genius at oate imagina-
tive and satirical- squalls reckless of promulgating
absurdities, and matchlessly skilful in exposing those
of others—he might have been expected, in the adop-
tion of a political creed, to fall into extravagancies of
sentiment, to embrace phantoms of impracticable
liberalism, or from intellectual scepticism to quarrel
with all parties alike; but scarcely to take up
with the 12ast aspiring, the dullest, and the
most antiquated section of the political community.
Such, however, is the effect of the Buckinghamshire
address, if we construe it by the ordinary rules of
election interpretation. The freeholders are reminded
that the candidate opposed the Maynooth Bill and
the repeal of the corn-laws, and they are assured that
he will continue to support the land, the church, and
the constitution. As ALCIIIIIDES, at Sparta, used
fewer words and ate more black broth than any cf
the genuine disciples of JAM:RCVS, so the eccentric
preacher of the "new crusade" wins the affections of
his desired constituents by sentiments redolent of top-
boots and market dinners, by the seeming adoption
of all the prejudices and inclinations which appear
dramatically appropriate to the well•known heavy
part of county member in the legitimate political
drama. Mr. Di •RAELI has, in fact, arrived at a new '
point in n career which has excited a good deal of
abuse and criticism, but which some may be disposed
to regard not without amused complacency. There '
are few instances in which the monotony of English '
life has in modern times been broken through by
so determined and successful an attempt to overcome
the obstacles to eminence presented by " the cold
shade of aristocracy." In the juvenile novel of
" Vivian Grey,"—for the personal and political cha-
racter of Mr. DISRIELI'S works perfectly justifies us
in referring to them as illustrating his career,—in
that wonderful production of the cleverness of nine-
teen, the ideal which the writer proposed to aim at
was sufficiently shown. His hero was to become at I
once a social leader and a practical politician, not for
the advocacy of any particular principles so much as 1
to exemplify the pre-eminence of intellect even in the (
earriAreferme,e our talena which has long existed in i
England. In maturer years Mr. Dtsittsu connected I
a code of political opinions with his personal
pretensions.

The Young England party, to which, in consideration
of the adhesion of a fyw fashionable and aristocratic
names, he contributes all the opinions and all the
ability he possesses, represents those of his political
principles which have hitherto come within the range
of public discussion. His more esoteric opinions are
revealed in fragments to those who are curious to
collect them out of masses of wilful and involuntary
I nonsense, in the pages of " " Coningsby," and
Tancred." V, eby no means doubt the sincerity
with which these opinions arc held by their author;
but for the most part they stand apart from the ques-
tions of the day, for which we hope we do him no in-
justice in thinking that he really cares little or nothing.
Mr. I)IsRAELt has different times professed his adhs--
aim to different parties and to leaders, whom he has
afterwards fiercely attazkecl. In all cases, probably,
he justified his conduct to himself, by considering
party politics merely as an instrument for the ad-
vancement of his own peculiar theories, for which no
party in any way cared. To " Sidunia" or "Tancred"
either side of the appropriation-clause dispute, or the
corn•law controversy, must have appeared as good as
the other. Wo are far fiom supposing t'at Mr.
lAsitAeti is an over-loyal adherent of our exclusive
aristocracy (for whom, in many places, he delights to
show his contempt); but it was an essential part of
his scheme to attain the position which in England
can only be obtained by their favour. And, accord-
ingly, he is now the right-hand man of the party
which, next to the alliance of the great whig families,
forms the most aristocratic of all our political bodies.
In this, as in other respects, the candidate for Buck-
inghamshire, singularly resembles WORDSWORTH'S
" happy warrior."

Who in the Wks of real KR bath 'wrought
Upon the plan that piesned hie cluldirh thought.
Though he has been, and is still, ridiculed and dis-
liked by the highest &asses, he has forced himself
upon them. If not the first, he is the most fashion-
able of writers, and if not the profoundest of politi-
cians, he is one of the most brilliant and the most
feared of parliamentary orators. His first speech in
the house, we believe, was coughed down, while he
ejaculated, amidst the laughter of the audience, that
the time would come when they should hear him. On
the occasion of a quarrel with O'ComseLt, he once
declared that he would yet make hint feel his re-
verge ; and all the world again laughed at the
threat of the obscure writer against the gigantic
leader. Nevertheless, the time has come when the
house is silent when DISRAELI rises, and if he has
had no opportunity of carrying out his threats to
O'CONNELL, his determined end effective persecution
of a yet more vary leader, and of one who in the
walls of parliament .vas far more formidable, showed
how dangerous the enmity of the despised adventurer
might become. By the aid of the aristocracy, and
yet against their will, in defiance of the popular dis-
like of literature, and while using the resources of
faction, iudicating clearly that he did not partake of
its delusions, Mr. Ihsitazti has conquered a position
which has generally been reserved for much safer and
duller men, for squires, and for the sons of lords. We
should regret his exclusion from the house more than
many, perhaps, of the party which be at present orna-
ments, who might not be unwilling to dispense with
the only man of genius, and almost the only speaker,
but at the same time the most puzzling, and perhaps
the most changeable, of their body.
The peculiarity of Mr. DISRAELI'S address consists,
as we said, in its containing the reasons for villa he
supports the old tory creed—none of those reasons, we
will undertake to say, being operative on the minds of
his intended constituents. Lying under the double
necessity of satisfying the CHANDOS party and his
own intellectual conscience, he gives his reasons to
please himself, and his intended votes to please the
electors. He opposed the repeal of the corn-laws as
they opposed it, but from a love of " our territorial
constitution," of which they never heard. As a further
safeguard, he declares that he considers that free
trade ought to have a fair trial. In other words, he
is tired of an obsolete cause, which no one could have
supposed that he ever maintained from conviction.
Whatever course he may hereafter think fit to adopt,
will probably be consistent with some interpretation
of his address. The county is to understand it, as if
it came from Stowe itself, as an uncompromising de-
claration of hostility to all change and improvement.
The future critic of the future inconsistency of the
candidate, will find that it contains expressions which
give as much latitude as can be desired.
That the party with which the author of "Tancred "
at present acts is both in fact and in popular esti-
mation the dullest and most prosaic of all others, is,
we have no doubt, a circumstance highly stimulating
to his imagination. A singularly eccentric theorist,
endowed with peculiar contempt for all popular bigot-
ries and prejudices, must feel the same excitement in
speaking against popery or in favour of protection,
which induced RAI EL MENDOZA to carry the bag
and cry old clothes on his way to speak to ROTII.-
CHILD about taking three millions of the new loan.
Ordinary intellects may be contented with advocating
enlightened opinions—it is the privilege of genius to
support error, without partaking in the delusion of
its partisans.
We should not express our real opinion if we said
that Mr. I)l,aant.i was insincere. No one can doubt
that in his hatred to Sir ROBERT PEEL, at least, he
is most prosaically in earnest. In other points, the
political measures whico he advocates are not, per-
haps, much more remote than a more enlightened

_____________
system from the theories to which the orator ia really
attached. His real opinions are rather apart from
existing political discussions than opposed to the i
part
which he takes in them. Ile wculd williagly cripple
the aristocracy ; but only to diminish the power of
parliament, in favour of the crown, and, as be thinks,
of the people ; and as there is no practical struggle
on the subject either proceeding or likely to
arise, he makes himself in the mean time
the mouth-piece of a portion of the mists.
cracy. If the rival aristocratic section had
courted him, perhaps they might have secured his
temporary advocacy—bat neither body could have
o. 'Alined his permanent all,:giance. In theory he is
vet .v possibly consistent. lie has no temptation to
bs 6, .her wise as long as his opinions have neither ad.
vocat, s nor opponents. The electors of Bucking.
huht rei however, will be greatly mistaken if they
p
that their brilliant and eloquent candidate
entertains the smallest attachment to their unimagi
suppose
opfgm‘baveobnly.,;•:—and if it is wrong to
native i. He will give them more ingenious
reasons for their belief than
„tphlheeyyadoevnteharcHlmicuatrd
inbo
ihfopectarera.;
sbhuitrethheusstrantingt -c,uveessitlkinl
nt to the prejudices of protection. -
ism and to the po. 'ideal faith of Stowe, the electors
bttauttttehrelrey
will not be far out 1 a their suspicions.
Inds 7ffmer.

,
Tim Irish haplrtinocut piak7viiediendso
suttanerdlyfumn.smapnrageaognosbltie.,
as their more
cated. To suspend a -e and wide-spread and un.
distinguishing system of et aployment and substitute
,
for it eleemosynary aid, give n of coursewith consider-
aol,. scrutiny as to the real indigence which craved,
would have been no small tae c to undertake with any,
even with a Saxon popnlatii an. The Celtic have
shown themselves amenable, at lc! if there be recalci-
trants in Ireland, it has not been a nongat the very Celts,
but amongst the landlords and m %miffing folk, woo
are so fond of pleading the Celtc blindness of the
peasantry, as an excuse for their own semi-Saxon
obstinacy.
The chief difficulties, as might' have been ex-
pected, have arisen on the part of the landlords.
Having failed in pal liament to prevent the establish-
ment of any system of out-door reli of,, they have
sought to evade the responsibility Owen upon them
by vexatious delays. They have also bee, kept from
the necessary co operation by the usual animosities
and discussions among themselves, arising horn pa
feuds, personal jealousies, and rival interests, as well b
from a want of will and energy to undertike their
duties. It is melancholy to think that the (amnia
sioners should have to make the following statement
about a body of men placed by Providence in such a
position of responsibility at such a crisis :
While some are making laudable efforts to carry their
district through the existiug calamity, us rapidly and with
as little mischief as pos,ible, we regret to say that there an
other. so shortsighted, so ind dent, or so pererrre, as to leave
events to t..ke their owns course, and subsequent, to allow d
mal.proctices which they alight prevent, or eves to ocr
nice at them for the purpose of seff-adroutoge.
The only means by which the commissioners have
been enabled to stimulate the relief committees to
do their duty, are the gradual suspension of the
public works, and remonstrances through the medians
of their inspectors. Unfortunately, Ireland has been
ill prepared for the local self government, the com-
bined and systematic exertion which this emer-
gency required. Past policy generated distrust,
dissension, and dependence ; it left room for patron-
age, jobbing, and corruption ; but it did not inculcate
self-reliance ; it did not cherish social rights among
the people, nor embody those rights in organic
institutions. Had former governments dealt with the
people directly, and not so exclusively through
the landlords and clergy—had they put faith in the
masses, and won their confidence by attention to their
real interests, regardless of party claims ; had grand
jury jobbing and its irresponsible power of taxation
been abolished ; there would h tve been honestly-
worked machinery in the country on which reliance
could be placed, to carry into effect measures of this
kind. Then the interests of the country would have
been in the hands of local bodies that could be de-
pended on to use their power promptly and wisely for
the safety of the people.
There is little use, however, in complaining of the
past ; to tarn a hopeful countenance to the future is
the best way of providing for the disorganisation of
Ireland. And the establishing and working of these
relief committees, the setting all the men of sub-
stance, whether of upper or of middle class, to
consult seriously and continuously for the wants,
the destitution, the employ cf their districts, is alone
a great and useful schooling. It is, in fact, esta-
blishing the great principle and habit of the poor
law. For the present it is the poor law with go-
vernment aid. On the future we shall not dwell for
the present.
It cannot be complained that the commissioners are
too rigid political economists. If they have objected
to relief in aid of wages, they do not object to relief
in aid of property.

" Ahstnetealy," says the Report, " it may be thought
that the pusseauon of property should preclude a person
from being considered destitute; but, independently of the
cruelty of this principle, it hce„nncs a quov:en of policy
whethf.r a man should he driven to permanent denitution,
a hen. by some temporary relief afforded him, he might
hereafter, by such reserved "[Lana, be enabled to gain an iu-
dtpcnilent livelihood."

What would the English poor-law commission
and its secretary say to this doctrine, which is quite
as applicable to wages as to property? For oar part,
wo do not object to such ratiocination in a moment
of actual famine. The best way to preserve laws and
principles is to relax them, and pursue an altogether
exceptional course, in time,, when the whole system
of labour and produce has been paralysed.
We have received, on the operation of the Relief
Act, a very graphic and powerful letter from the
Rev. Mr. TOWNSIIEND, rector of Agbadoe. We shall
not publish it. We do not see what more can be
done than has been done, and is doing. We hare
hot shrunk from appealing to and goading the Eng-
-I;sh public at the right time. But England has suf-
ferings of her own, and we shall spur that " free
horse" no more for the present.
" out-door relief,' writes Mr. Towashend, "what
is it? Ono pound of Indian meal fn an adult for
twenty-four hours ; half a pound for any under nine years.
They must come for this, every individual of them,—father,
mother, child. They may have to travel four, tire, or six
miles. They are told to steep this in water for twelve
hours, under penalty of its injuring life, and causing dysen-
tery and fever. Tell a man at twelve o'clock. who has eaten
nothing, and who has walked Are mile., to wait twelve
hours more to steep his Indian meal. He may not have the
heart to laugh at you, but he will reply by recklessly
devouring his pound of meal raw."
The commissioners are not to be blamed for these

hard hips. To establish places of distribution so
thickly as that no one should have to come more than
a mile or two, would be clearly impossible. The dis-
tribution of raw meal is deprecated for divers reasons,
but relief committees find it convenient: the order is,
that meal, when it cannot be cooked, ought at least to
be steeped, previous to distribution. But even this is
evaded.

" We find it difficult," nay the commissimsers, " in many
districts to obtain the establishment of soup kitchens, as the
medium is part of relief. Dry meal is universally greatly
preferred, and, it is feared, chiefly on account of the opening
it affords for abuses; and many committee*, yielding to
this popular feeling, or to avoid increased trouble, insist on
its nee."

The outcry against soup and soup kitchens- WU
raised by the self-appointed friends of the Irish pee.
pie. It, of course, follows that the poor are the worse
off for the outcry, and get lees and less wholesome
nourishment. It is more difficult to overcome stupid
malignity, than to succour destitution.

Our Paris letters of Thursday bring us reassuring
reports of the general prospects of the harvests. The
fine condition of the crops has already produced a
sensible effect on all the markets. If the present
splendid weather shall happily he continued for some
longer, various vegetable productions will begin
to enter into consumption, to the great relief of the
labouring classes. In almost all the provinces these
prospects, acting merely on public opirdan, inde-
pendent of any actual auirment.iti .n in the supplies
of grain, have already produced a fall in the markets.
Within the radius front winch l'arie derives its sup-
ply, the fall varies from one to two francs per hecto-
litre. In the north the fsil am mints to three francs,
and large supplies remain unsold. In Brittany,
although the decline is not 11., great, the markets are
abundantly supplied. The only shore of apprehen-
sion now on the part of the farmer, is drought.
Hitherto rains, falling generally at night, are
alternated with a high temperature, and unclouded
sun during the day.
The appearance of the wheat crop is really magni-
ficent The barley and oats are also good, but not fie
Sae as the wheat.