The Express.
London, England, 1853-05-13 00:00:00

THE REPRESENTATION OF PLYMOUTH.

In consequence of the vacancy created by the un-
seating. of Mr. Charles James Mare for bribery, this bo-
rough is beginning to assume the bustle and activity which
generally precedes and accompanies the election of a parlia-
mentary representative. Prior to the decision of the
committee of the House of Commons being made
public, Mr. Mara published an address to the electors,
announcing that in consequence of the decision of the com-
mittee the seat was vacant, and stating that from the
present 'spent of political affairs an opportunity would
soon occur of his again presenting himself to the
electors, and in the meantime asking them to
put his friend Sir John Heron Maxwell into the
seat. On Wednesday afternoon Sir John Maxwell arrived
here, and on the following day saw some of the electors.
Sir John was a candidate on the Derby interest at Devon-
prt at the general election. Mr. Ermine, a liberal, who
was a candidate at the last election, arrived here on Mon.
day evening, and has since seen many of the electors. Mr.
Brame is a merchant and the deputy chairman of the
Eastern Steam Navigation Company. Mr. Ermine was to
address the electors yesterday (Thursday) evening, and Sir
John Maxwell to meet his committee and friends at the same
time.

TIM BAILORS' HOME AND ASYLUM.—Yesterday' I
the annual general meeting of this institution took place
in the Museum of the HIIIUM. in WeU-street, London Docks. i
Admiral Wm. Bowles, C.D., M.P., presided. The house i
forms a board and lodging establishment for seamen and
apprentices, where they live comfortably during the time
they mast unavoidably remainashere, and are protected from
crimps. Forts. per day, or 14s. a week, seamen are pro-
vided with a sleeping cabin, four meals a day, and a fair
allowance of washing included, with religious instruction
and the facilities of learning navigation. From the report
it appeared that the total amount of monies entrusted to
the officers of the institution by seamen for security since
its formation was 324,4091., of which 77,7261. was remitted
to the sailors' relatives, and 9,6331. invested in the Home's
Savings Bank. The object of the Destitute Sailors' Asylum
was to supply shelter, food, and clothing to distressed sea-
men of all nations, and to keep them till they can procure
employment. It had conferred help and sustenance to an
immense number of helpless cuatures, but for which they
must have perished in destitution and misery, Both insti-
tutions were represented to be in prosperous conditions.
After a vote of thanks to the gallant chairman, the meeting
separated.
1 ABERDEEN HAIM AY.—Traffic for the week ending
April 30, 1853 :—Passengers, &c., 73b1. ; goods, &c., 8901.;
total, 1.6281.; corresponding week last year, 1,5201. I.lilea
open, 72.

PARLIA3iZNT.II2Y DIVISION.

LAST NiC,IIT.

Ors the @tenni rosolu'Fon on the Inane T.x, another amendment
rivaled, to leave • ut the word "in .iety," in order t... insert the
weds •• third part." iuetrni therein: (Hr. Vanittert) - Qveation
Pot. "That the words ' trtird pat' be Men lanais!.—The cons.
entice iLvided—Aycs, GO; Not.., 120.
AYES.
Meander, John Thiele% Jain.* M. Giandston, Lord
Arbuthnottilim.Gen. Granby. Mstquis of Pakinntan. Sir J.
Milley, Ciawrhay Greene, John Palmer, Robert
Ball, Edward Hamill." G. A. Potter. Robert
Dante*, Rt. lion. 0. lle• bed, Sir Thomas Roberteon, Patrick F.
Barrington, Viscount Jolliffe, Fir W. U. rant, lion. Francis
Bendricii, Lord Henry Jones, Thoth Sibthorp, Colonel
beeitinek, G. W. P. Kelly, Sir Fitzroy Smith, W. Y.
Booker, Thuossa W. Kendall, bleeds burin, Stoner J.
Book, Levis W. King, James King Sooner, Richard
BMX, Geo. Medd Kane, Hon W. S. Tollemache, John
Chad, Smith Laren, Robert 11. Trial lope, lit lin Sir J.
Cbokrooodeky,Lord II Liddell, Henry U. Vivian, John E.
Woolly, The Loon, Walter Walcott, Admiral
Hacks, Mohan Malin*, Richard Wodehoon, Edmond
Dinreels. Ma. lion. B. Mandeville, Vimonat Wyndham, Gen.
Fenian% Edward B. Menem, Lord Ji.ln Wenn, Sir Nubia W.
Fellows, Edward Michell, William Yorke, Hon. E. T.
Rimer, fir Edmond Moody, Charles A. TS L Line
Fresidlekl, James W. Newdegate, C. N. Vansittart, Cr. IL
Galway, Viscous% Gann J. 11. P. Stanhope, J. B.
NOE..
Aetand, Sir T. D. Gibson Et, Ito. T. IL O'Connell, Manrlce
Aglionty, Henry A. Gladstone, Rt. He, W. tr'Vlaberly, Anthony
Amon, 'Hamm Go..dman. SirGeoree tiliw Ira, Benjamin
Andersen, Fir James Gou.burri, Itt.lln.ll. Peel, Frederick
Atherton. William Graham, Rt. 113.84 r J. ['elixir, Apaley
Baines, /halloo. M.T. Greene, Thomas Phillano:e, John G.
Barnes, Thomas Haddad, George Phillinsure, R. J.
Bell, James Ilacie, Alexander Pill:minim, James
Beekaly, C. L. 0. Ilaele, Archibald Price, W. P.
BetkelL Riehaid Heard, John Isaac lUmaden, Slr J. W.
Sings, William lineage, G. 11. W. Itur:el, F. C. H.
Height, John Herbert, Rt. Hn. F. sadleir, James
lire bertoo, Joseph Heyman, Lawrence Settle. C. B. G.
Brown, Iluiophery Hughes, William B. Schotelleld, William
Cardwell, Rt. Iron. E. iluase, Jorneph Scobell, tnpt.
Chambers, Thomas Hutt, William Scully, Francis
i harteris, lien. P. Ninon, Robert Seymour, Wm. D.
Cheeth.iin, John Inglis, Ste Robert H. shale., Robert D.
Cobden, lti hard heating, Robert Shelley, Sir John V.
Cocks, Thomas S. Keating, Henry 8. Smith, John B.
Collo, Walter Keogh, William Smith, Rt. Ha. B. V.
Crook, Joseph Kershaw, James Strutt. Rt. lion. E.
Crossley, Frank King, lion. r. J. L. Mitred, Henry W.
Crowder, Rich. B. Langston, James H. Thovuoson, George
Llorbwood, Sir U. 11. Langton, Henry U. Thoroiley, Thomas
Druisilanein. Viscount Lockhart, Allan E. Vernon, U. E. H.
Dube, Sir James Lon don, Frye. Villiers. Int. lin. C. P.
Duncan, George Lowe, Robert Walonley. Sir J.
Dunlop, Alex. al. Mackie, John Whalley, George H.
Evans, William M'Gregor, John Whitbread, Samuel
Evart, le 'Blom Marshall, William Wit one, Brodie WO.
Fagan, William Morey, William N. Williams, Wiliam
redden, M. J. llasunimin, John W anon, James
Fergus, John Miall, Edward Winnington, Sir T. E.
Ferguson. Jo'eph Halligan, Rob::rt Wye., Aye/had
• Fitzgerald, Fir J. F. Mills. Thomas Wood, Itt.lln. Sir C.
Fitzgerald, W. It. S. Molesworth, Rt. Hon. Young, Rt. lln. Sir 3.
11- if o,', Hon. Henry Sir W.
, Forster, Charles Moilerciff, James TELLISS.
Fon, Itiehari IC Moreton, Lord Mulgrave, Earl of
' Fog, William J. Murrough, Jckn P. Stapes, ht. lion. W.
Gesch, Charlie O'Brien, Cornelius

Zhe ervreols.

TO CORKRSPONVENTB.

4ceurid Edition of "Thu Express," containing the woo evening's
flatette,"ll published every Tuesday and Friday eight, is time
for post.
tverthet.e•te iniendad for "The Enema," Lost ion Evening paper,
701,4 be at the mane, SO, bouverbe•scriet, by Two o'clock on the
ley of pabilustioa.

NIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
Tug DAr—Morn[aY. 48. Sea— Afternoon. 3b. 13m.
T .soaaew—Morniag. 3a. 32r .Afternoon. aa. 331 a.

LONDON, FRIDAY, MAY 13.

Vinnuna difference/of opinion may have existed
amongst Reformers as to the merits of Mr. GLADSTONE'S
scheme of the Income Tax, there can be none wbat-

ever about his proposition for the extension of tho
Probate Duty. This measure is founded not only
upon necessity, but upon justice. It is necessary be-
cause the proceeds of the duty will be required to com-
pensate for the loss which will be occasioned by the
reforms of our fiscal system. It is just because
it will remove an iniquitous and invidious distinc-
tion, which has obtained for nearly sixty years, be-
tween the successors to real and personal property.
Amongst the many glaring instances of the selfish-
ness of landlord legislation, none is more remarkable
than the pluming of the Probate and Legacy Duties.
When Pin, in 1796, introduced the subject of these
duties to the House, he proposed that they should
operate upon real and personal property indiscrimi-
nately. The landlords, however, unblushingly
rejected that part of the act which related
to real property, and which would, there-
fore, have fallen on themselves, while they unhesi-
tatingly gave the force of law to the proposed duties
on the succession to personal property. The effect
of this has been, that while the successors to inheri-
tances of personal property have paid since the
year 1797 the sum of 47,401,2731. is the shape
of duty to the revenue, the heirs of real property
have paid nothing at all! A more startling example'
of class legislation it would be difficult to discover.
While merchants, farmers, and shopkeepers have been
paying large sums, deducted from their inheritance,
the possessors of estates have come into possession of
their magnificent rent-rolls without contributing any-
thing to the revenue. If there is one tax which
isles. objectionable than another it is a tax on suc-
cessions. The Government merely withholds froth
the taxpayer a portion of property which he has
never yet enjoyed. He is not called upon, as in
the case of the Income Tax, to sacrifice something
that was before employed in actual expenditure
on himself. To the stability produced by
good Government he owes it, that this pro-
perty can be at all transmitted peacefully to him.
The State has endowed the possessor of the soil with
what HALLAM has felicitously called a " fictitious
immortality ." it has invested him with a power of
securing to his successor the full possession of that
which he amassed daring his life, and it has a right
to claim from the persons to whom it secures these
benefits contributions necessary for the due and pro-
per exercise of its functions. It would appear im-
possible to produce better grounds for a tax than
this. And yet for nearly sixty years, the landlords
who have agreed in the justice of imposing
it upon the successors to personal property
have resisted its operation on themselves. It is
easily intelligible how the existence of an injustice
of this nature has tended to embitter the feelings
with which the makers of the laws are regarded.
A Legislature intent upon securing itself from the
I incidence of taxation, while it is careless how hea-
-1 oily the incidence bears on others, will merit the
contempt which its conduct necessarily engenders.
Mr. GLADSTONE last night rightly, asserted that the
correction of this monstrous injustice was even more
Important in a political than in a financial point of
'Mir. "I do not hesitate to say," said the CHANCELLOR
et the EXCHEQUER, " that behind and above all
tameecsonsidemtions"[of finance) " there is a purpose
of a still more important character, namely, the re-
movalof an anomaly which has been and is most
galling to public feeling, and which has been and is
sure to become more galling to public feeling from
year to year." Nobody can help coinciding with
him in the answer he himself gives to the question he
put to the Committee. " I wish to
-ask the Commit-
tee one question. Do they think it pos-
sible to preserve the law in the posi-
tion it holds at present ? In my (swum
it would be totally impossible to do so." The
"load cheers" of the House proved clearly that the
perception of the anomaly was—amongst a large
body of men—no less strong within the walls of Par-
liament than without.
The objection made to the proposed imposition of
the duty on the succession to real property, founded
upon the assertion that this kind of property is
already subject to heavier imposts than any other, is
best met with a positive denial. Mr. GLADSTONE
showed that leasehold property was subject to
the same burdens as real property, and there
would be no difficulty in showing—as was
done often enough during the debates on the
Corn Laws—that the complaints of the agriculturist,
that they arc more heavily taxed than any other
class are not founded in fact. It is urged sometimes
that the imposition of duty on the succession to largo
estates would be excessive; that the land would pay
more than its due share to the public revenut. ' • and
that so large an amount as is likely to be produced is
not necessary. But it must be remembered that
there are many circumstances tending to diminish
the actual amount of the duties on succession
to land, as compared with some estimates
of its probable produce. A great majority
of the estates in our country arc mortgaged
very deeply. The heir to an estate of this kind on
coming into
.possession often finds that two-thirds of
his property is mortgaged. He will only in such cases
pay the duty therefore on the unincumbered third.
fhe liabilities on the remaining portion are borne by
the person who holds the mortgage, and this class
are already liable to the payment of the legacy tax.
The exemption from ditties on ancemiop is clearly

an unfair privilege which must at list be surrendered
bt• the One bt. one ILL !II SAIDO&i0113
' nities from sacrifices required for the good of the state
have vanished, and this must go with the rest.
The traces of feudalism are disappearing from the face
of 3ur legislation, and this is but common justice, since
feudalism has no longer any mission to perform.
When the landowners undertook of themselves the
government and the protection of the country they
justified their claim to exclusive privileges. When
the holder of a knight's fee was bound to serve his
Sovereign forty days annually, mounted in armour,
no one contested his right to the possession of certain
exemptions. The owners of land no longer stand
in this position. They rank neither as the most die-
' tinguished nor the most useful of the population.
Their land is merely a commodity, like any other in
the market, and common sense will no longer be
outraged by allowing it to be endowed with the
power of conferring exclusive and invidious rights
upon its possessors. Mr. GLADST?Nr: S speech was a
sufficient expose, of all the fallacies by which these
worn•out privileges are vindicated. He has ex-
hausted the argument, and none ought to be more
grateful to him than the landlords themselves for
showing how discreditable and unfair is their posi-
tion, and how impossible it is for them any longer
to retain it. All holders of property must be content
to stand equally under the fair pressure of fiscal
laws.

THE OVERLAND MAIL.
MARSEILLES, Tnticsiar.
The Indian Mail arrived litre to-day.

FItANCE.

PARIS, TWVASDAT EVENING.

The decree prolonging the session of the Corps
Legislatif appears in the Mondeur. The wording is
material. It enacts that " the session of 1833, which
was to have terminated on the 13th of this month,
shall not be closed until the evening of Saturday,
May 28." Had the additional session been declared
a supplementary one instead of the continuation of
the former, it is very probable that the new jury law,
and perhaps some other bills, would have been re-
jected, because the government might then at onoe
have brought forward new bills free from the clauses
upon which conflicts have arisen, but the Corps Le-
gislatif shrinks from the extreme measure of throwing
out a bill altogether, and this is the reason why the
government prolongs the present session instead
of opening a new one. The Marquis d'Andelarre in
the final debate on the Jury Bill, ventured to speak
some home truths. The main point of conflict
between the committee of the house and the Council
of state was this—the committee desired that a mem-
ber of the council-general should form part of the
board entrusted with the duty of striking the jury
list. The Council of State obstinately refused to
give way, and the consequence is, that juries will bo
nominated entirely by government functionaries.
The Marquis d'Andelarre said that the go-
vernment debaters had been forced to admit
that their object was to wholly exclule the
elective element from the composition of the jury.
He warned the government that in neglecting the
admonitions of a friendly voice, and pushing its
principles of authority to extreme lengths, it was
committing the fault which had been fatal to all its
predecessors.
The bill for the revival of the punishment of death
for political offences was presented yesterday, and
may be expected to become the law of France within
a fortnight, unless, indeed, the instinct of self-pre-
servation should be stronger in the Corps Legislatif
than it has proved to be with the Council of State.
The penal code, when Lamartinc's law of Feb. 26
shall be abolished, will run thus :
Art. 86. Every attempt against tbo life or person of the
Emperor is punished with the pain of parricide. Every at-
tempt against the lifo or person of the members of the im-
perial family is punished with the pain of death. Every
offence publicly committed against the person of the Em-
peror shall be punished with an imprisonment of from six
months to five years, and with a fine of from 500 fr. to
10,000 fr. The guilty person may, in addition, be inter-
dicted from the whole or a portion of his civic, civil, or
family rights during a period equal to that of the imprison-
ment to which he shall have been condemned. That period
shall MI from the day on which the guilty party shall have
undergone his punishment.
Art. 87. Any attempt, the object of which *ball be, either
to destroy or to change the government, or the order of
succession to the throne, or to excite the citizens or in-
habitants to take up arms against the Imperial authority,
shall be punished with death.
What an anomaly is it that a government based on
universal suffrage should punish with death any
attempt to instigate the equally competent jurors of
to-day to reverse the verdict of the jurors of yester-
day ? And what shall be said of this blood-thirsty
law brought forward by a man who, a twice-convicted
conspirator, owed his life to the clemency of a royal
house that he has since beggared, and whose four
years' career as President of the Republic was one
continued conspiracy against the " established go-
vernment" which he had sworn to maintain ?
When the Emperor received the members of the
Corps Legislatif on Monday evening, he sat near the
door of his study, while each visitor approached him
in succession and conversed privately for some
seconds. It is said that during this audience no less
than from sixty to eighty applications for railway
concessions were made, being at about the rate of a
railway for every two minutes.
The health of the Empress is slowly improving.
It is hoped that she will soon be well enough to be
removed to St. Cloud. The Eanx Bonnes in the
Pyrenees have been recommended for her Majesty,
and it was indeed expected that she would go there
as soon as she felt strong enough. But I now hear
that her journey to those springs is not expected to
take place before the end of July, when she will be
accompanied by the Emperor. Dr. Darrel, the
official physician of the Eanz Bonnes, who has been
in Paris since the Empress's illness, and has pre-
scribed for her in consultation with Drs. Dubois
and Conneau, is about to return, and he is instructed
to
.prepare apartments for the reception of their
Majesties.
At the Bourse to-day there was but a small amount
of business transacted. The Three per Cents. for
the account were steadily maintained, and had im-
proved 10c. at the close of business. A fall of 3c.
placetroop
HperCeer for Cents. In
cash,
the
ouraFndo-
lbs
-H of
in the in theand
Fpeourrce-anTudths for the end of the week the
-F-
-e alf p
decline was 10c. Bank of France shares remained
Without variation. The closing prices were :—For
cash: Three per Cents., 81f. 60c.; Four-and-a-Half
per Cents., 104 f. For the account: Three per Cents.,
81f. 83c.; Four-and-a-Half per Cents., 1041. 30c.
Bank Stock, 2,730 f.
There is no change to report in Mortgage Bank
shares, or in those of the Societe Mobiliere--the
former being still quoted at 883 E, and the latter
at 940 f.
In the Railway Share market a decline again oc-
curred in the shares of nearly all the important lines.
Final quotations :—Northerns, 930 f. ; Orleans, 1,1071.;
Paris and Strasbourg, 934 f. 23c. ; Paris and Lyons,
962 f. 25c.; Paris and Rouen, 1,143 f. ; Lyons to the
Mediterranean, 84M. 50c.; Western of France, 793 E
50c. ; Rouen and Havre, 542 f. 30c. ; Bordeaux and
Cette, 6681.