The Express.
London, England, 1848-01-04 00:00:00

of their career when habits of self-respect and steadi- I
ness are to be formed.
But menial servants form, after all, no very con-
siderable number of the section of society upon whom
the advertisement duty falls with undue and often
crushing weight. Young people of both sexes who
seek their livelihood as tutors and governesses—
" light porters" who, in the phrase of the Wesleyan
Magazine wrappers, " fear God and can carry ten
stone"—skilful and steady artisans just " out of their
time"--small capitalists starting in a retail business—
young mon qualified by a sound education to Ft as
clerks, private secretaries, &c.—tkese are specimens
of one class upon whom this tax presses unfairly. It
cannot need many words to explain the cruelty of
this. There is no mat among the many adorning Eng-
lish society who have fought their way upwards from
obscurity and narrow means to competency or even
affluence and a distinguished position, but is aware
that the greatest difficulty lie experienced in his career
was to gain an opportunity of showing what was in
him. The most painful of situations--the most under-
mining to bodily and mental health—is that of an in-
genuous disposition, asking no more than leave to
labour, and unable to make its want and capabilities
known. Every artificial addition to the difficulties
which naturally lie in the way of such persons when
seeking to draw attention to themselves is an act of
cruelty towards them, of injustice to the society which
might benefit by their talents.
The next numerous class upon whom the adver-
tisement duty falls with disproportionate weight are
the unfortunate. In every newspaper the advertise-
ments of sales bear a large proportion to the rest.
And what are these sales ? Often avowedly they are
sales of bankrupt stock; sometimes they are the re-
Boum of individuals whose misfortunes oblige them
to contract their expenditure; again, they are for
the benefit of widows or orphans when the head of a
family has been struck down in the outset of a hope-
ful
career, or has given way heartbroken beneath a
protracted struggle against adversity. To this close
of advertisements must be added a numerous hetero-
geneous assortment announcing various second-hand
articles for sale at reduced prices, and such like. In
exacting the duty from such advertisers the state dips
its hands as deeply in the pockets of those who are
tottering on the verge of pauperism as into the
pockets of the prosperous in life.
So far we have been keeping our eye upon the
effect of this duty on the advertisers. The case of
the publishers through whom they advertise is also
deserving of consideration. There are many ways of
advertising, but only one subjects to the advertise-
ment duty. The Is. tkl. in Great Britain, and Is. in
Ireland, are only paid " for arid in respect of every
advertisement contain( d in, or published with, any
gazette or other newspaper, or contained in, or pub-
lished with, any other p. riodical paper, or in or with
any pamphlet or literary work." The omnibuses and
steam boats are becoming as regularly recognised
media for advertising as the " advertisement vans."
The "external paper-hangers" pay tribute to the
proprietors of sheds, blind wall., &c., in favourable
situations, to obtain the exclusive use of them
for posting bills. Innkeepers, bikers, all shops,
and houses of public resort, lend themselves to
afford facilities to the advertising public for
love or for " a con-si-de-ra-tion." Any one
and every one is at liberty to add some
extra gains to his regular profession by becoming an
advertiser, except publishers of " gazettes and other
newspapers, other periodical papers, and pamphlets
or literary works." The advertisement duty is one
to which the capitalists engaged in literary and poli-
tical publications are alone subjected, while every other
class in society is exempted from it.
Of the 139,963/. yielded by the advertisement duty
in 1106, it is no exaggeration to say that two-thirls
were extorted from those who, straggling with the
difficulties of beginning life, had their efforts crippled
by it, or from those who, having lost their all or
nearly their all, could still worse afford it. And the
indirect check which every such tax must Wipee
upon the extension of any business affected by it, is
confined to the capitalists engaged in the publishing
trade, all others being exempted from the operation
of the tax.

THERE are several circumstances connected with
the fall of AIID-LL-KADER which should render it a
subject of congratulation not only to the French, but
to the people of other countries. The not merely de-
feat, but extinction of the Emir, must strike all the
tribes of that vast region with the conviction of the
utter inutility of resisting a power so rich in all
the means and materials of war. The abandonment
of resistance on the part of the tribes will
take away all pretext for keeping up military
establishments and force, and under the influence of
the Chamber of Deputies, which is eager for a civi-
lised colony, Algeria may cease to be a place d'a'mes
and a erne of disquietude to other countriss.
Another thing, shown by ARD-EL-K %DER's capture,
is the effective vigour of the Empire of Morocco.
It was hi.herto represented as in a state of decadence,
the Emperor with no power over his fanatic subjects,
and no army which could be brought into the field even
against the Arab Emir. We now find, on the contrary,
that it is ABDERRAIIMAN who has effected whit
Marshal BCOEAUD and the Duke D'AVSIALE utterly
failed in effecting there, V 2., the final rout and re-
duction of AIM-EL-KAM& It would appear, in-
deed, as if the French defeat of the Moors at the
battle of Isle had awakened the spirit of the Morocco
government, and roused it to that joint policy of pru-
dence and exertion best calculated to preserve its in-
dependence.
Henceforth a common degree of quiescence will
enable the possessors of Algeria to make the fair ex-
periment of its worth. The French still entertain
hopes of the success of military colonisation. So
eager are their authorities on behalf of this favourite
scheme of Marshal Bees:AMA, and eo annoyed at the
utter failure of all attempts of the kind, that it was
seriously meditated to remove the seat of at least
military government from Algiers to Illidah, thus to
effect by the expenditure and patronage of a capital,
what colonisation alone could not achieve. We need
not say that this would be an unfair trial. The plains
of Africa have often indeed been reaped and sown,
and even exports of corn have come from
its barren soil. But this was the sowing of
men's lives to produce ears of corn. A slave popu-
lation was employed in cultivation, and the culture
flourished, like the sugar plantations of modern days,
as long as slave labourers could be replaced as fast as
worn out. But with the extinction of the old classic
slave-markets expired the fertility of Africa, which,
in thus ceasing to grow corn, relapsed to its more
natural character of the kenum arida nutria.
It is one of Louts PHILIPPE'S usual pieces of good
fortune to have quelled his African foe and brought
home the modern Jugurtha in chains at a time
when years are at least abating his own vigour and
turning his foresight rather to a successor's policy than
tohis own. The French King has, indeed, wisely got rid
of all far and transmarine causes of quarrel. 'I he ques-
tion of Oceania is at rest. POMARE, like ARD-EL-
KADER, has, bowed the knee. The rivalry of France
and England in the Plate has received orders from
the highest authorities to cease. The aims and anx-
ieties of the French government are concentrated at
home, or at least do not extend beyond the countries
and courts of Europe which border upon France.
We cannot say that here either the usual good for-
tune or prudence of Lows PlllntrrE have been con-
spicuous.
Every month the French court weaves fresh webs
and ligaments around the Spanish court and govern-
ment, and every month this same Spanish court and
government break them, and put the King of the
FRENCH, his minister, and his diplomacy to infinite
trouble to repair and re-knit these links. Some
weeks since, there were grounds for hoping a recon-
ciliation and accordance of views, with respect
to Spain, of France and England. These hopes
have, for the present, disappeared ; and there
is every prospect of Louis Pommes bequeathing
to hie grandson a second war of succession. Know-
ing, however, that England of herself will engage
in no rush struggle, the whole effort of the French
court and government is directed towards flattering
and winning the eastern and absolutist courts of
Europe. No sacrifice is too great, or too base, no
recantation and disavowal of liberalism too broad for
this. But in this policy of winning foreign
support and absolutist adhesion, the King of
the FRENCH is daily weakening and risking
the little hold which he possessed over the popular
mind at home. Even the Chambers revolt. The
very Conservatives are disgusted. And the universal
remark is, that the dynasty of Orleans is endangering
its possession of the throne of France, in order to grasp
more surely that of Spain. Louts PHILIPPE IS, in
fact, at the end of his days, playing "double or quits"