The Express.
London, England, 1849-05-10 00:00:00

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*ma by by Plus the Nunn retiring to
goo set to Marseilles ; and who ban ever since boon
sows to redeem his own reputation by bringing the
Lack is triumph to Rome, and by making his
indebted for that triumph to French arms.
Sono the despatches of the Duo e HARCOURT have
well &Wog for a speedy intervention. He rem-
ota it as certain of snows' ; he asserted that Moe
oss a moderste party ready to rise and support the
lock, sod to welcome the Pipet who must in turn
owit to the conditions of resuming Count Roast's
mod of constitutinal government. Several mem-
laid the president's cabinet, with the President
boil', were for adopting the Due D'Halcoorr's
obi* Others were strenuously opposed to it. Bat
snst satin is as Austrian note of the pupae el
is troops of that power to advance into the
we Intervention party carried the day, and WIZ
odition was ordered to sail.
taelnal To Or fault of intenenins at all was not 1
.aimosesi seisdost or precaution in the conduct of
of sending a diplomatist or a civilian to
got, Otatral OODINOT was left to employ merely
os mode of military command. From Civ:ta, when
iss laded, he stet word to the Romans to submit and
to French mediation. They rejoined by wishbgte
b. told on what conditions or guarantee. You AA
biro Done, was the rude answer of the Freach ea-
awsdert which hurt the pride of the Romany. It was
btenJed as a rebuke to Mazzixt, and a refusal to
beg with him. Bat such a rebuke identified, M
ow, Haulm with the rest, and moderates and ha-
moisrates united in abhorrence and hostility to
F'sm dictation. To follow op his madam, Goma&
Oumsor opposed force to fang nada IS air
jack, was defeated, and has brought des an his-
pd and his government. How ill-jadied an
opeditioo, in which repulse incurs ridicule as 11411
fa disgrace, and where even success would be
mmethnig to be ashamed of!
And then the delay deprives the French of every
meditated advantage. The resistance of the Romans
sires the Austrian' fair pretext for marching too.
lad as the popular resistance of the Romans to the
French will this effect, the priestly and absolutist
party in Rome will fan and suborn resistance, in order
bet they may have their beloved Austrian' in the Qui.
Anal to counterbalance the French on the bracelets.
too, will pat its lazzaroni finger in the pie I
Naples,
a poehis or mess of conflicting views and into-
rens will take place at Rome, compared with which
the Roman Costiteent it:elf was order.
Nor are the untoward results confined to Italy. Is
France, odium is excited against the President aid
his goverment, who cannot in reply reveal frankly
their motives. The aim no doubt was to counteract
Austrian influence in antral Italy. But in order to
do this with a fair pretext, and neaps the direct
hostility of the despotic piwers, the French govera-
meet affected to act in horror of ultra-democregy ,
Indeed it pretended all things to all men. To eh;
Italian constitutionalists it promised to resume Itoests
plane, to Austrian diplomacy it promised to put down
Tad repablieanisre, whilst to the National Assembly
the expedition was sect as the plea of keeping up
French influence in tbe psninsula. General OUDINOrIi
conduct and bad sumo has made the French pro-
fissions tail with all partiet. The liberals in the
National Amiably insist that to preserve inflame
sad protect Roman independence of Austria, the eze
peditien should have gone no farther than Civil..
To them the French government cannot say in reply 1
that their aim was to put an end to Roman anarchy, and
restore the Pope by a coop de main, thus leasing the
Austrians no pretext fa advancing to the gates of
Rome.
But, altogether, nerer did intervention more folly
assume that most deplorable of characters,—of bring
I fault as well as a crime.

TO-NIGHT we 'hall, as a wetter of course, have
ministers opposing l'slr. DRUMMOND'S motion for a
revision of the public expenditure and taxation with
a view to relieve the pressure upon industry. With
a prophetic instinct, which taught them that such
Is were certain to be urged upon pa:Fitment
=sore than one quarter during the session of
1849, ministers began to argue against them through
their organ the Economist, so long ago as January
last. We leave the Economist in the hands of a writer
who dates from the rooms of the Liverpool National
Confederation, whore reply to that journal will be
found in another column.
The task undertaken by thorn who advocate a revi-
sion of our whole system of finance is arduous, because
It consists less in convincing the reason, than in influ-
encing the will, of men in office. Statesmen shrink
from a revision of national taxation, because the
magnitude and complexity of the undertaking terrify
them, and because they are haunted by misgiv-
bp, not altogether grouedlevs, as to their own com-
petency to grapple with it. We are told in the Bible
LL the sluggard says there is a lion in the path." He
was too lazy to go abroad, as.d invented this mon-
strous lie as an apology.. Our statesmen are too lazy
to undertake the revision of taxation, and excuse
their inertness by inventions yet more grossly and
palpably inconsistent with fact—that there is no in-
equality or injustice in the existing system, or that it
Is impossible to devise any system that ill not be
quite as unequal and unjust.
When our rulers try to persuade us that the exist-
ing systek of finance is not quite so unequal and
unjust as it appears, they are more adroit than to
deny that the direct and immediate incidence of
taxation presses most disproportionately on industry.
If they did, the figures of their own annual
balance sheets would contradict them. With a con-
sistent pertinacity, which in a good cause would have
been a virtue, our legislators have for a century back
laboured to shift the burden of taxation from the
shoulders of the proprietary to those of the industri-
ous clams. The property of the landed interest is
lass heavily taxed than that of the mercantile classes,
and more than one-half of the annual revenue is raised
by imposts which press more heavily upon those who
have no realised property than upon those who have.
About fifty-seven millions were raised by taxes in
1847 ; thirty-five of these millions were the produce of
the Customs and Excise. The articles upon which
Customs and Excise duties are paid are manly theme
articles in general use, of which the poor man cosy
games and requires to consume almost as much as the
rich. Hence the proportion borne by the tax to the
fond oat of which it is paid comes to be,
in the cam of the poor man, a hundred times
greater than it is in the case of the rich. Of the
remaining twenty-two millions, about fifteen were
mimed by mesas of stamp duties, probate and legacy
dells., fire and marine insurances, the Post-office, the
tax en professional incomes and capital employed in
=amerce, and some otter', all of which press heavily
an the classes engaged io trade or professions, to the
imperative exemption of the land-owning arido-
army. There imam seven millions, which may be
allowed to press more heavily upon this last named
elms than any other, though even of these a large
cis•;(es in the case of the duties on carriages,
raid by the indurrial classes, or arises (as in
the case of the crown lands) from national property.
The effort betrayed by these simple facts, to adjust
the pressure of taxation so as to leave the land-
owning aristocracy, who return about two-
thirds of oar (so-called) representatives, compara-
tively free, and to tax the politically powerless
labourers more heavily in proportion to their means
than the influential moneyed elms, would be still)
matt glaringly apparent were we to enter into
details. One example may suffice; even in the
Satter of turnpike tolls the landlords have contrived
to procure for themselves and their farmers a cam-
pent e exemption from the burden.
But we arc told that, " however unequally or un-
fairly levied the tan may be in the first place, there
is a tendency, in spite of legislation, don, for such in-
equalities to adjust themselves." This is consoling
the over-taxed classes much in the same way that
11r. lieesos attempted to cowls the shareholden
lathe York, Newcastle, and Berwick Railway. He bad
I rated largely, it was true, on one ()cession, by selling
them dares above the market price, but on an-
other he bad incurred large personal risks for
their advantage. "There was a tendency for
isequalities to adjust themselves in spite of the chair-
man's helping himself to a lion's share of the prate."
the parliamentary is on a par with the railway
lessoning. There exists no such principle of own-
relation or adjustment as is alleged. On the con-
trary, the practice of imposing a dispreporfiensta
amount of national taxation on mercantile and in-
dwtriel by diminishing profits narrows
sus usage of employment, and aggravates the direct
plume en the poor by a superadded indirect
Plume.
et
we turn from the chapter of taxation to that
st expenditure, the inequality and injustice of our