The Express.
London, England, 1848-07-22 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, SATURDAY EVENING, JULY 22, IS4a•

horrors not merely of civil, but of servile war ; to
rouse to anus a country, where every element of ran-
cour and of murder abounde,where exist difference' of
race, of creed, of class, heightened by traditionary
fends, and ev.ry historic cause of retaliation arid
vengeance :—ths man, who from whatever cause
would kindle such a war in Inch a senntry, is worthy
of all the execration that contempt would not remise
him from, and of every punishment that power would
condescend to wreak on such a feel.
Were their country's wrongs, or was political
feeling, the uppermost in the minds and months of
these men, we should pity them. But it is quite
plain that their feeling is that of a personal rivalry
with the Lord Lieutenant and the government, and
tha• they cannot bear the idea of being humiliated
and defeated. They bore with patience the seizing,
condemnation, and expatriation of MITCUEL. Mr. S.
O'BRIEN declared he had prevented an attempt at
rescue. But it is now evident that the per-
sonal consideration of his brother agitators has
suffered by their submission. It is evident that as the
Lord Lieutenant pro ceded to put down the clubs,
their prestige and position would at once be extin-
guished. The cause of Irish liberalism, nay of repeal
itself, would not lose by their undergoing an
eclipse. Sooner than suffer it, however, they have
sounded unmistakeably the trumpet of rebellion. That
trumpet-call has been answered by several attempts
at rescue, attacks on gaols, and aU the manifest fore-
runners of popular insurrection.
Under such circumstances government could cer-
tainly do no less than what it announces its inten-
tion of doing—viz., suspend the Habeas Corpus Act,
and lay hold of the leaders. Toe Times says Lord
CLARENDON could suspend the habeas corpus with-
out parliament. This is surely a mistake. He might
have arrested the chiefs under the Felony Act.
But the movement certainly requires the power being
vested in the government which a suspension of the
habeas corpus confers. And we prefer this infinitely
to any new coercion bill.
While thus admitting the gravity of circumstances,
we are tar from thinking that any real danger
threatens the stability of the Irish government. There
may be partial insurrection and excesses. An army
cannot be everywhere, and ought not to be dispersed.
But when we consider that the catholic clergy, the
citizens, and even the respectable repealers them-
selves aro indignant at the present movement, we
may form a judgment of the futility as of the guilt of
the attempt.
At the very time when these amateurs of the
confederation are getting up Irish war against
the English, and massacre, probably, of the mere
English inhabitants of Ireland, the get &test
tears are beginning to be entertained for that crop,
which is the see food and provision of the
Irish people. In Leinster and in Connaught the
potato crop still gives good promise ; but in the south
of Monster, where the season is most advanced, the
same hopes are not entertained. What a dreadful
sequel to a rebellion would be another failure of this
crop! In the face of such an event, and in the face
of what this country did during the last famine, men
who call themselves the champions of the peasantry
of Ireland lead them to the destruction of English
rule, property, connexion, and race.

THE worst feature of our financial system is the
laxity of management which pervades it. Every
account submitted to parliament bears indications of
an anxious crowding in of items, with a view to
balance the columns of figures on the debtor
and creditor sides, to conceal the impossibility of
balancing the sums actually received and expended;
of sources of revenue not rendered fully available ; of
claims paid without any inquiry into their justice or
necessity.
The account of the balances of the public money,
ordered to be printed on the 18th Butt., shows that
the balance of 7,091,118/. in the Exchequer on the sth
of July, 1847, had shrunk to 5,804,2721. on the sth of
July, 1848. But the smaller balance on hand at a
certain time is of trifling importance compared with
what this account reveals to those who examine it
carefully. Of the money which by flowing into the
Exchequer prevented the balance from falling
to a sill lower ebb, 1,492,9421. was a contribution to
the I. an of eight millions authorised by the act 10
Viet. c. 9, and which remains consequently a perma-
nent 'addition to the funded debt. A further earn of
17,766,5001. was raised by the issue of Exchequer
Bills, and this sum is lees than was issued to the pay-
master of Exchequer Bills for the payment of the un-
funded debt by 163,4001.; or in other words this lac-
mentioned sure has beta added to the unfunded debt.
The process by which the balance of Exchequer Bills
has been prevented from being greater than it actually
is has cost the country the addition to its liabilities
here pointed out. This ie not all. There ought in
the course of the year to have been issued to the
Commissioners for the Reduction of the National Debt
701,41561., but of this sum 670,0001. has been applied
to redeem, not the funded debt, but consolidated fund
deficiency bills. Had it not been, therefore, for the
increase of the debt, and the misapplication of part of ,
the public revenue, there would have been a decrease in
the balance of 2,326,3421., instead of 1,287,8461. Nor
is it easy to see when this costly method of saving
appearances is likely to be abandoned, for the amount
of advances for local works in the course of the year
exceeds the repayments by 883,6631.
This is the true spendthrift mode of incurring
greater liabilities—plunging deeper into debt—to
make the year's income square apparently with the
year's expenditure. And the account of the net public
income for the year ended sth July, printed along I
with the account we have been examining, shows the
same spendthrift disposition by untecessarily large
expenditure, shrinking from the exertion of making'
sources of income available to their fall extent, and
persistence in trust to windfalls and undue exactions.
The expenditure of the year is admitted to exceed
the income by 1,701,3381. Of the expenditure two
sums were incurred or extraordinary outlays which
may not recur-1,100,0001. for the Kaffir war, and
438,8321. for the relief of Irish distress. But on the
other hand, 455,0211, of the income was re-payment
of moneys advanced towards the expenses of the
Kaffir war out of the Chinese ransom—a windfall
which cannot be counted upon for future years. And
108,4071. consists of the surplus fees of offices regu-
lated by act of parliament—a sum made up by
unjust extortions from parties who cannot escape
going to law or transacting business with government
offices. So much for the rapacity, grasping at
precarious or unjustly obtained supplies, which
characterise the spendthrift. His recklesszel
faseness of expenditure may be traced in the hee
manner in which, year after year, a number of pen-
sions, amounting in the aggregate to 522,7757., with
the enumeration of services by which they were
earr ed terminating in an" continue to be paid
without examination. Nor do the pensions constitute
the only item of expenditure which demands but does
not receive scrutiny. Far more objectionable than
pensions are the numerous salaries (like that of Lord
ELLENBOROUGH) attached to mere nominal offices. It
only remains for us to substantiate oar allegation
that care is not taken to render legitimate
sources of income available to the full extent. And
to this end it is only necessary to name
the hereditary revenues of the crown. The civil list
was voted to the crown in return for the surrender of
the hereditary revenues of the crown. The revenues
of the duchy of Lancaster have, however, been re-
served to the crown on the quibbling plea (a bare-
faced play upon words) that though the duchy is per-
manently annexed to the crown, its revenues are
ducal, not royal. From the balance-sheet for 1847 it
appears that the revenue of the duchy amounted in
that year to 33,1471. Of the sum thus equivocatingly
withheld from the public, the crown only benefits to
the amount of 12,0001. The rest is squandered in
maintaining the barbarous and useless parade of a
little feudal kingdom in the duchy. Many of the noble
tenants receive more out of the revenue as salaries of
offices which they do not and cannot discharge,
than the amount of their nominal rents. And large
sums are paid to other nominal officers—to a Chan-
cellor, for example, who is supposed to discharge judi-
cial functions, but who is frequently not a lawyer.
Were the revenues of the Duchy of Lancaster paid,
as in common justice they ought to be, into the public
exchequer—were its obsolete and useless feudal
offices abolished, its cumbrous and unmeaning . feudal
tenures commuted—a considerable addition might be
made to the annual income. This one example will.'
suffice to indicate how far the sum of 71,000 i.
derived from crown lands in the year er.ded the sth et
July, 1848, might be increased by honed and cszahl
management.
The public accounts for the year ended the sth of
July, 1848, are nowise exeep.Vonal in the features
upon which we have been animadverting. The

system of laxity and misrepresentation is perenr..l3l.
It is a system which can only be kept up by extor-
tion, and even with such aid must, if perinsted in, end
in bankruptcy.

GERMANY.

PRUSSIA.—We have received the Berlin jeans._
of the 19th. Up to the 17th the committee of the
constituent assembly in that capital was still occupied
with the draft of the constitution. The clauses agreed
to respecting the att. ibutes of the kingly power, as
well as the responsibility of ministers, are very
similarto those set forth in the Belgian constitution.
Of courts the entire draft of the constitution will be
submitted to the assembly in pleno.
It is the intention of the magistrates of Berlin (says
the Berlin Naehrichten), as also of the municipal
authorities, to send a deputation to the Prince of
Prussia. to request his return to Berlin.
AUS'IrRIA.—The Vienna journals of the 16t1
have reached us. The ministry is stated to be deft-1
nitively formed, as follows: Wessenberg is Minister
of Foreign Affairs; Dobblbof, of the Interior; Stet,
of Finance; liuch, of Justice; Schiinhals, of War;
Hornbostel, of Commerce ; Exoer, of Public Educe-
tion; and Schwarzer, of Public Works.
A report has for some time been in circulation in
Vienna, that there was a bad understanding between
the national guards and the troops. On the 14th
the officers and the nationals had a banquet.
and afterwards promenaded through the streets are.
in arm. This public refutation has produced the
happiest effect, in putting a stop to the unfounded re-
ports which have so extensively been circulated.
Several German journals appear to entertain very
poor hopes respecting the beneficial working of the
newly convoked Austrian Diet, the variety of races
represented therein, and the strong natural feelings of
each, loading to the inference that discord, and
union, will be the result of the deliberations.
There are some three or four republican papers in
Vienna openly propagating their principles. One of
them, called the Studenten Courier, declares that 'is
point of fact the republic already exists in that capittl,
in the persons of the members of the committee of
safety.
The Vienna Gazette publishes a long protest sent
by a number of citizens of Prague against what rt
calls the dangerous interference of the Vienna com-
mittee of safety in the affairs of Prague.
'there is no later news from Moldavia. A letter
from Bucharest, July 4, says the Russian General Von
Kotzebue was in Fokschany, and the Turkish commis-
sioner Talat Effendi was to return to Bucharest or.
the 4th. Accounts from Rostchok, state that there
as well as in Silistria and Wildin, Turkish troops were
being assembled.
The following decrees have been passed by the pro-
visional government :
1. Abolition of all ranks and titles. 2. Abolition of the
censorship. 3. Formation of a national guard. 4. Require
meet of all persons to deliver up fire arms to the govern
meat, if the individual holders poesera more than one piece.
I. Abolition of floggiug and of the penalty of death.
The act of abdication by Prince Bibesco runs as
follows:
To the Ministerial Council,—Impressed with the maul
ficiency of my powers to meat the requirement of the preset..
circumstances, and in order to avoid future reproaches 01
conscience, that I have plunged the Country into danger, by
retaining in my bawls the reins of government longer than
me strensth permitted, I hereby resign them into year
hands, and retire into private life with that satisfiction
which results from a clear conscience.—Signed, Btliesco.—
Done at Bucharest, June 13.
The Hungarian ministry having some time since,
through the medium of the Russian embassy at the
Austrfamcourt, sent a note to the cabinet of St. Peters-
burg, in which explanations were demanded respect-
ing the assembling of troops on the Pruth, that go-
vernment has, says the Leipzig Gazette, returned a
vague answer, giving as a pretext the unsettled state
of the Danubian principalities. It at the same time
protested that its friendship was still the same for
Hungary.
According to the Austrian German Gazette, the
Bann of Croatia was taking steps to bring about the
cessation of hostilities between the Hungarians and
the 111yrians.
The Lembury Gazette publishes an ordinance by
the medical committee of Galicia relative to precau-
tionary measures against the spread of the cholera.
BAVARIA.—The dates from Munich are of the
17th. The Bavarian troops, which had been hitherto
divided over the Duchy of Baden and the Palatinate
have began to return, and have taken up their can-
tonment on the banks of the flier. King Maximilian
has gone to Ratiabon with the Minister of Foreign
Affairs, to meet the Vicar of the empire.
Archduke John reached Nuremberg on the 16th on
his way from Frankfort to Vienna. His approach
having been made known he was received by the
sound of cannon, and flags of the gayest colours
waving from every window.
The report of the committee appointed by the
German Constituent Assembly to examine into the
affairs of Posen has been submitted to that body. The
discussion on the report will be opened in a few days.
Some of the posts m the central cabinet are SS
vacant.
BADEN.—The republican meeting at Ettlingen on
the 16th passed off quietly, although 6,000 persoce
were present. The government had taken all pariahs
precautions to preserve the peace. Matters are be-
coming more •serions every day in Baden, where
the republicans form a numerous and influential party.
Foremost amongst them are some six or seven hundred
students in Heidelberg, whose democratical union has
been dissolved by order of the university authorities,
backed by the government. After protesting against
what they called the infringement of the legal right
of association, the above body of students withdrew on
the 17th not only from their alma mater, but also from
Heidelberg itself, thereby causing considerable lees to
the inhabitants. They have taken up their temporary
abode in Neustadt, whence they intend to forward
an address to the German Constituent Assembly.
According to the Coltrane Gazette of this day, the
republicans of Carlsruhe are keeping up a constant
and active communication with their partisans in
Switzerland.
HESSE DARMSTADT. American delegates
have made their appearance in several towns on the
Lower Rhine. Some thirty persons have been ar-
rested in Mayence on the charge of having been con-
cerned in the late republican movement, or of having
uttered cries in favour of a republic.
Herr Eigenbrodt, the President of the Council of
Hesse Darmstadt, has resigned. It is thought that he
will be succeeded by Herr Jaws.
NASSAU.—Accounts from Wiesbaden of the 17th
say, that in the Chamber of Representatives, where the
public were admitted into the galleries, they went so
far as to interfere in the debates. In consequence at
this attempt to interfere with the liberty of discus-
sion
the president ordered that the galleries should
be cleared by the civic guard and the ringleaders ar-
rested. The civic guard afterwards, of their own ac-
cord, set at liberty the persons whom they had had
orders to arrest. This act of insubordination deter-
mined the government to call from Mayence the
troops of the empire (thus they are designated in the
proclamation by the Minister Hagehahn), compoeee
of Austrians and Prussians, to disarm the nations,
guard. In obedience to this command 2.000 infer'
try, with pieces of cannon, entered Wiesbaden on
the 17th, from the different quarters to proceed to this
.1 disarming of the men.
re - i