The Express.
London, England, 1849-10-29 00:00:00

Vie enmetiO.

polctoqie MAILII.

The Willi lada MelaVirristai 11Mmuda, Savanna,
Nassau, Honduras, New Orions, Madeo, and ezebading
Wove ter Madeira, &. Jaaa46lo2ieseurea. New armada,
Chili. and Peva, will be made up on Nov. 2.
The mails for Madeira. the Brazils, sad Baum Aran,
will be made up on Nov. 6.
The mutilate: o:breltar, Malta, Ones*, the lonian Wanda.
Bppt Covloa, India. sad China via Southampton, will
he mob up ea the morning of Nov.. 20.

111011 WATIM AT LONDON AMON.
Tim DAT—Neeafte.lll.. Om—. Aftemoce.lllh. 23a.
To-uesseir—Usniag. L1k.41.A Mamie. lA. S.

LONDON, MONDAY, OCTOBER 29.

Tax speech delivered by Mr. BRIGHT on Friday
last et the great meeting in Manchester, in favour of
the cause of parliamentary and financial reform, will
be read with peculiar interest by 'vele, free-hearted
and clear-headed man in the three kingdoms. Taking
hie stand upon the plain and practical ground that the
existing system of legislation must be judged of by its
fruits, Mr. BRIGHT points to the social and industrial
condition of Ireland, end asks, Can the laws be
honestly defended, or the lawmakers be see,' relied
upon, that have brought one-third of the empire to
the plight in which that hapless country lies?
Mr. BRIGHT has lately visited Ireland and investi-
gated personally the more important circumstances
connected with its actual position. He returns to add
his testimony to the mass of evidence already
, on the intensity and prevalence of popular
rconett, and popular sense of wrong. He has
found in the man every cause of national complaint
well-founded, and be avows his entire and unqualified
belief that the habitual want of employment,
want of tranquillity, and west of confidence
in the laws and their administration, is di-
rectly referable to misgovernment, and may
be cured by an amended course of rule. He
scoffs at the hypocritical pretence which seeks to
lay the burthen of Irish calamities at the door of Pro-
vidence. "We will bring it home to the legislation,
and the parliament, and the constitution of the United
Kingdom !"
As regards the physical privation and abasement of
the peasantry, Mr. BRIGHT discards all reference to
the more acute and aggravated symptoms, of which,
during the last three years, we have heard so much.
He confines his observations wholly to the chronic
evils that confessedly prevailed previous to
the famine of 1847, and which must ne-
questioaably resume their baleful sway for
another generation, if some resoluta effort be not
speedily made to break the spell. He takes the ad-
missions made in the report of the Land Commission
issued In 1843 by Sir ROBERT PEEL, as to the dwell-
logs, clothing, and diet of the labouring class; and he
cites the same landlord authority for the fact, no
longer disputable, that the nee disorganisation and
crime habitually prevalent in so many districts of the
kingdom, have at all times been the result of the
cruelty and rapacity of the proprietary. Closely
=elected with this part of the subject is that in-
volving the tenure (or rather want of tenure) of
land ; and the glaring injustice systematically
perpetrated under the form of law by the owner
upon the occupier of the soil, by fraudulently appro-
(meeting, at the termination of the tenancy, the entire
value of the improvements made by the tenant, at his
own coat and charges. We rejoice to find that Mr.
BRIGHT does not hesitate to express the strongest
opinion on the absolute necessity of come measure to
mistreat this crying evil. Attempts have frequently
been made to sow distrust of the popular party in
England among their natural allies and fellow-workers
in Ireland, by suggesting that their devotion eo
economic principles Winder them to sympathise with
the wishes or to appreciate the wants of the Irish
people. The best answer to such sinister
lemma one is to be found in speeches
like that of the hon. member for Man-
chester, every sentiment in which, expensive of
a considerate readiness to aid in the attainment of
specific remedies for Ireland's peculiar evils, was
received by the great and intelligent audience,
before whom the speech was delivered, with marked
apVcalo3or.
significant was the response elicited by
Mr. Rlolll.'B denurciation of the existing system of
exclusive and exorbitant endowment by the state, of
the clergy of the landed oligarchy. The church
of England in England has deep roots as well
os lofty branches. Some of its boughs may need
the pruning knife, and its fruit may occasionally
prove bitter. But it nevertheless possesses great
vitality and serves great ends of usefulness. Its
origin and development are asacciated with national
memories, and its growth in splendour has not out-
run that of the country whore name it bears. But
'he church of England in Ireland is an affectation and
a fraud. Its imposition is remembered by the psodle
with resentment, and its maintenance is regarded
with hate. As • political institution it is an
absurdity ; as a national institution a mcck-
ery ; and as an institution professing to afford
religions instruction to the community at large it is a
circumstantial falsehood. So long as the people of
both countries are fools enough to allow the aristo-
cracy to keep up this scandalous preserve of pater:meg*,
they must mike up their minds to pay fir it. Ire-
land never will be quit t so long as it exists, raid the
just discontent of nine-tenths of a population like that
cf Ireland signifi s in monies numbered the cAt of
maintaining .a special f iree is time of peace of 30,000
men. This is the Englishman's share of the honour
and glory of keeping up the existing church establish-
ment in Deland.
The unreality of the present electoral system is not
forgotten in Mr. Beinter's comprehensive survey.
Inedt quote and unequal as our English constituencies
are, their aggregate numbers in proportion to the
whole community ore ten times greater than those
which exist in the sister kingdom. The total popu-
lation of Irish cities and boroughs tornewhrt exceeds
• million soul,, of whom, by the latest return laid
before parliament, not more than 72,216 were entitled
on the Ist January, 1819, to vote at elections; while of
the inhabitants of csuniies, who in the census of
1841 are stated at upwards of seven milliers, and
who may still be safely estimated as greatly exceed-
iog six milking and a half, the entire number cf elec-
tors hardly reaches at the present moment tMrty-four
thousand. Yet this is called popular repreerntetion,
and the Irish are continually upbraided with being
malcontent without canoe.
Many ether topics were ably dealt with by the elo-
quent member for Manchester, to which want of
space precludes us from adverting. Bat thee is one the
pre-emtnent importer ce of which clsimr a pasaingnoti:e
—we mean the mmoprey of the soil. Our sentiments
on this subject have been frequently expressed ;
but we feel that we cannot too often rei-
terate the conviction that the want of
a more numerous proprietary is as great a drawbsek
on the prosperity of an sgncultural country like Ire-
land as the excessive multiplication of tenantry. The
great estates are much more frequently deserted by
their owners than those of moderate size, and
although there seesaws half dczen instate:B of be-
neficent and improviog absentees like Lords LANS-
DOWNE and FrrnraLum, the general rule is
notoriously the opposite, and the impediment
thus thrown in the way of healthful progress is
incalculable. We neither desire to compel a man to
reside in a particular place, nor to ensign a limit to
his territorial acquisitions • but, on the other hand, it
mast be obvious, we think, to any one who looks
with an unprejudiced eye cn the condition of things
in behind, that the law of inheritance which arti-
ficially concentrates landed property in the hands cf
a few, most seriously impedes the development of the
country.

As the Board of Health has ceased to publish a
register of deaths from cholera, it may not
be presumptuous to tanclude that the disease has
for the present left us. But although this fright-
ful visitor no longer demands our efforts to pre-
vent its spread, or arrest its progress, we should have
badly learned the lesson taught by its pre-
sence if we were now to fold our arms and cease
our exertions for the removal of the conditions
of As existznee amongst us. If any one double the
necessity of farther exertions, let them turn t. 3 the
report of the Commissioner of City Police, given in our
paper of last Wednesday. From this report it ap-
=see that in the City alone, " out of 15,010
visited by the police, although 12,878 w. re
reported as generally clean in appearance, yet 2,132
required whitewashing or other cleansing on account
of general dirtiness; 2,524 had offensive smells from