The Express.
London, England, 1849-05-19 00:00:00

OUTGOING MAILS.

The 'oak kr Gibraltar, Malta, Omen, me lonian Wands, um.
Admit, (Myles. India, Hong-Kong, and Clans, tin Vouthemi too,"-X.1
be made ap this evening.
The mails, eta Marseilles, to the Mediterranean, Egypt,
Ceyloo, India, Hong-Kong, &e., will be made up ou mums otliev
24th of May.
Malls tar British North America and the United State IQ ig
made up en the make of the 25th May.
Its Blest India MiuM including Bermuda, Gamins,
floodurea, New Orleans. sad Mexico, ant excluding
Madeira, Et. Jusn-de.Nicersgua, New Granada, and pa %t
be mods up on the morning of the 2nd June.
opal the
The mails to
or Madeir
the 4ta, the h
of Brazils, and Buenos Ayres, willissib
ing of June.

1110 K WATER AT LONDON MIDGE.
Tow Do -lterelaip. Ma. put II ADAisom 041 - MA IL
To-Uosaoir -Montag, 0 Ada put 0: Altansonal aft. t

that in the year 1849, nearly twenty years after Id
LONDON, SATURDAY, MA yl9.
IT is impossible not to ark how it comes to
pr
was called a reform in parliament, we have beau
seriously wenased by the forcible acquisition dm&
by a Party. systematically opposed to every prick&
and to every measure abetted or carried by
economy,bi
hed:s eip
ot
without
ewuoet
of
swelled
perceiving
Europe the
ivi
men and popular interests throughout that period. A
few proxies in the House of Lords are supposed -
uonfhave ealtavatiewexdatusion, if
w they h
alinagv
se
upon
nutvheed
gwriftnumeti
reactionary administration, which would have
at
icon
in question, if not overturned, the very f
Won of free trade—whit‘h would have "as.
of
econsumers, which would have allied with ail
andthar righby
would not have shrunk from war itself in the
prosecution of their policy. It is impossible to reed
the.prou ctiooist speeches on the subject of the nat.
gathole fort.
and gist of their arguments goes upon a wee
policy, on the necessity of mistrustirg and rival Mg
toe neighbouring peers of the continent and of
sacrificing trade itself to the paramount demands ofs
war fleet and a war expenditure. The colonies are
just treated in the same way,end contemplated in the
same light, as our trading and tax-paying classes of
home.. They are mere corollaries and supports to
the military and financial resources of the gouts.
mane. The people at home, abroad, or is the colo-
nies,
are put out of the question. The government,
always supposing it identical with, and wielded
by, the aristocracy, is the all-in-all to he
considered. To have it strong, wealthy, well-bore,
and endowed with all the elements ot insolence and
vigour—to defy alike the clamour of the lower c'sis
cue the calmer demands of the middle ranks—saki
the aim, the principle, and the programme of thole).
tectionists.
How is it that in 1849 the pc'ple of England ere
almost at the mercy of a set of politicians a fall ow
tury behind and apart from the progress, the necui-
ties, and the ideas of the age in which they live!
How is it that the cause of enlightened liberaliet
and free trade is menaced by this invasion of the
Vandals, who threaten to bring beck feudalism, aid
to rule us with the principle and the rod of pesters?
The reason is, that the people of this country have
for some time abandoned the care and defend
themselves to mongrel and middle parties—to men
whose sympathies and respect turn to the protec-
tionist aristocracy, whilst their intelligence and their
f-are alone are turned towards the people. Atte
the great conquest of the League, the middle-else,
grateful for the aid afforded them at the eleventh
hour, gave in their resignation, and abandoned the
defence of popular interests to statesmen who nave
supported them, except for the sake of creating poli-
tical capital out of them. The consequenee
has been a kind of lukewarm, compromis.
ing, semi-hostile, semi-conciliatory, 'wiggle,
which has benumbed the country, left public opunaa
and the public interests without that imposing and
numerous party which should represent it, and which
has commibed the management of affairs and the
government of the state to two bands of penned
condottieri, who still march, and drill, and ma.
nceuvre, according to the old tradition of par-
liamentary and official campaigning, but who
really want the spirit, and the energy, and
the capacity. to advance or even defend pop-
lar interest,. Hitherto they have kept the field at
two divisions, two flying squadrons, simulating
enmity and independence ot each other, thereby the
I better to distract their foes, and parry serious attack.
They are now obliged to unite. The coalition be-
comes more evident and more near to its com-
pletion every day. And, when it has been
accomplished, we shall find a government founded
on a whi; and tory compromise, and based
on the principle of the strati quo, b.:•und not to yield to
any popular demencl, and probably receiving into
tt ear ranks all three waifs and fugitives who cannot
fail 0 quit the protectionist cause when all object has
ceasql to exist for it.
At such a critical prriod it behoves the people,
and the middle classes, which are their na-
tural leaders, to unite for their own in-
terests and their own defence. They may
depend upon it, that they have no true friends but
themselves. Nor can they trust any, save those
whom they daily try and come in contact with. We
are aware how many impediments and obstructions
there are to such union and association. The trouble
of the continent have not only frightened the upper
classes, who have communicated the fright to their
dependents, but the continuance of a plitically
troubled atmosphere stops that current ct busicess by
againstetgahtttpheopfvwuel
which our indostrious multitudes live. There is, how-
ever, a wholesome and salutary agitation ; and never
area people more at the mercy da bold disturber than
when it shrinks into passive silence and timid horror
of discussing and entertaining, what, after all, are
the common and inevitable topics of life.
The citizen may be as timid and conservative u he
pleases; he cannot with all that shut out the tax-
gatherer ; and the more timid and conservative he is,
the greater will be the demand of that tax-gatherer.
Even the alight economy of the year, the promise
if not to reduce expenditure by the rule of its noes
cities, at least to keep it within the limits of whit
the present taxes eroduce--what do we, what do
the conservative citizens. owe them to, save to the
exertions of such men as Mr. COBDEN, or such awe-
ciations as those who have put forward the cause of
financial reform ?
So far, the Financial Reform Associations have done
good service. Bat who does not feel that for the
present they ye brought to a stand still ; that thee
are arrayed against their principles and their recom-
mendation,, the three aristocratic parties in pada,-
ment,while all Wbigs,Peelites, and protectionists, cry
with one voice, that the present military establish-
ments cannot be reduced, and that the status gem in
finance must remain a permanent incubus upon the
emery ?
In the face of such a declaration, and such a pros-
pect, the economist has but one alternative. However
averse to politics or to political agitation, he meatus
that through this alone he can overcome the coalition
which refuses to take an ounce from his burden.
Financial reform has become an idle hope, unless par-
liamentary reform be made to accompany or prelude
it. And the demand of further and rational parlia-
mentary reform, instead of being an eh mat of poli-
tical disorder, is, by the admission of all, the best safety
valve that the effervescence of society could at this
present moment have.
We have observed with great satisfaction the
efforts, strenuous but quiet, made to found a great
Financial and Parliamentary Reform Association in
this metropolis. The avowed aims of this association
will be found stated in a kind of address in another
column of oar paper. Those aims are moderate
household suffrage, an extension of the franchise,
which all must admit to be desirable and fair—nose
would call it subversive. The Times itself abetted it
some time back, and pointed it out es the probable part
of some new cabinet programme. The ballot in a
country where dependence of man open man is
becoming more and more the rule of life, hes grown
! into a necessity, and the absence of it a grievance no
longer to be tolerated. The inequalities and same
dities of our electoral divisions, with tha duration of
parliaments which tempts7persons to trade in politics
independent of their constituencies, are surely abases
which cry for amendment. Nor can tho men or the
society which struggle for these things ba considered
as throwing dangerous elements into ae political at-
mosphere. Those who consider such a current as this
dangerous merely prefer those states of calm which
always precede and produce the tempest.
Our columns on Thursday recorded a meeting held
in Southwark to further this great principle and aid
is the organisation of the great pacific and