The Express.
London, England, 1847-12-22 00:00:00

Wit can assure the Times that we never accused it
of originating the diminution in the stamp duty upon
newspapers, made by the whigs in 1836. It requires
neither age nor experience to be fully aware, that the
'chief of a monopoly does not desire the abolition of
one of the great sources of that monopoly. Nor had
we need of recurring to the columns of our contempo-
rary to discover, that it then, as now, assailed every
attempt to open and to cheapen the press, with its
anal weapons of contumely and ridicule.
The administration of 1835 and 1836 proceeded in
the first instance to the reduction of the stamp duty
on newspapers, neither at the instigation of the Times,
nor in hostility to the Times, but simply in obedience
to the very strong pressure of public opinion, and of the
liberal_ p, which had been long agitating for cheap
insowleigearty. Another strong reason felt, and adduced
by the government, was, that if the regular and
shoo* press was not reduced in price, the unstamped
prams would resolve still further extension, to the de-
triment, not only of the revenue, but of the morality
and quiet of the population.
No sooner had the present Lord MONTRAGLE
hdroduend the bill, than he was assailed in the
eau= d the limes by its editor, and in both
Howse of Parliament by its friends, not so much
with fair and reasoned arguments against the
sonearsa as by a clamour, that the whigs were
asking me of their present political ascendancy to
Amur their own protegh of the press, and that by
making the largest single sheet the maximum of the
Sine liable to a penny stamp, they were legislating for
the Chronicle and striking a direct stab at the notes.
Lord MONTILAOLF., who, like most modern poli-
WOK cared little for the party claims of news-
men, but was exceedingly anxious not to offend
those of great influence and large circulation, de-
fended himself against the charge with great
vehemence and even some pathos, abandoning at
mice his C'Araniele maximum, which was in realit7
just, and stepping out of his way to conciliate his
„madam, sad adopt a new maximum, of the precise
dimensions of the Times. By this, of course, Lord
MONTEAGLE escaped the fire and the calumnies
of the limes, and incurred forthwith the
enmity of the Chronicle. Now, although the
Tines, as it asserts, certainly did not originate
or instigate that bill in its original form; yet,
decidedly and indubitably, it did most outrageously
and successfully bully the whig Chancellor of the
Exchequer into the re-arranging and re-wording of
the chief fiscal clause, the very bone and essence
of the bill, precisely into that shape, and with the
limitation and definition of size, which solely and
peculiarly suited the Times, and which then and since
strengthened and upholds its monopoly.
The Times, in rebutting the charge of having legis-
lated for its own interests (Mr. WALTER himself took
a leading part in the debate), quotes some of its ame-
nities to Lord MONTEAOLE, at the oommenesment
of the discussion. And it quotas one little amtatiee,
which appeared in its columns when the debate was
over. It says on the 19th of July :
0 The size of this journal will not now be affected by Mr,
Woe's superficial knowledge scale. That enlightened and
stateunan has consented, at the intercession
eirlrgrodburn, not to include the margin of newspapers
in his measaresestit."
And the ranee gravely offers this u a serious dis-
, proof that this fall concession to its interests and
degree sou made by a minister inimical to it. Why,

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borne directly by those who can best do so." In this the nein might as well argue at present the decided
demand there Was much that was just, and in the se- hostility of Lord J. RUSSELL'S government towards
quiescence in it there is much that will prove usafal. it, since at the very time when that governweat is
Not the least useful result is, that the influential and opening to it all its official sources of information, the
political dames, feeling the burden with all its direct Theses takes the liberty of administering daily slaps in
p ' will tarn seriously to the task of lightening 1 the face to the very ministers who feed and cherish it.
rear
it and •g of it, a thought which hitherto, with For this we do not blame the Rine,. It is not the
one all men seemed inclined to bequeath to Times that we should accuse of subservience. But we
posierty. merely instance the fact to show of what squeezable
{COBDEN has now opened up this great financial materials British ministers are made, and how the
question, and has treated it after his own practical 71mes may, in the midst of a very gallant display of
and honest fashion, without flattering and falling into 1 independence, and of even insolence, dictate the clause
any of the prevailing crotchets of the day. Although of a stamp duty law at one period, and persist in its
in the midst of a public and a constituency clamour- unfair and iniquitous maintenance at another.
In g for reduction of tea duties, wine duties, and With every right, and in all fairness of argument,
tobacco duties, Mr. COBDEN does not tell the cla- the Times twits us with our youth. It seta us down
matinee they should be listened to, and that the as little BENJAMIN, but deprives us of BENJAMIN'S
fifteen millions derived from the stimulants—tea, portion. It declares the great competition of the
spirits, and tobacco—should be transferred to the in- press to be " a stand-up fight amongst grown men,
come tax, or levied on realised property. On the where there is no compassion for the weakness of an
contrary, Mr. COBDEN hints that wherever the burden infant."
be placed it will gall, and that not much alleviation is We scarcely think it fair, nevertheless, that when
to be hoped from re-distribution or equalisation of the the young first go forth to battle they should
weight, be compelled to put on the heavy armour of
Mr. COBDEN has a remedy of his own. No new the veteran ; nor should age, more than youth, '
remedy, indeed: but one that he would apply on a be always forced to wield the weapons unsuited to it.
more extensive scale than wee done by the economises Why should the Herald be forced to swell its empti-
of a quarter of a century back. The seventeen mil- nese to a double sheet? Or how can the Times re-
lions of our military and naval expenditure form the concile it to its sense of fairness, the thrusting its
outlay that Mr. COBDEN would dispense with, and he own heavy falchion into the bands of its ally and
would dispense with it by abandoning altogether a " Grandmother ?" The Morning Post, too, swells into
I policy of rivalry and irritation, and by confining our the full and cumbrous dimensions of Lord MONT-
I efforts and influence abroad to free trade. EAGLE'S maximum. Why should the silk hat, that
We have ideas by no means opposed to those of Mr. snits the brow of our fashionable contemporary, be
COBDEN on the subject of foreign policy. We can thus forcibly exchanged for the weight of an iron
I conceive two systems of foreign policy—the one a head-piece ?
bold, spirited, and proud one, ever ready to aid the The difference of age in a journal is, however, a
weak, -liberate the enslaved, and resist the leagues joke—not an argument. We claim nothing on lie-
and encroachments of despots. And we must own half of youth. We do not desire to have the fiscal
that this is what we should prefer, were England load imposed according to strength or profit. WI
young in spirit, with tree command of resources, and merely ask that newspapers be taxed according to
in a position to make its word be respected, and be as their size, and that the single sheet press of the empire,
formidable in act as in tone. forming the immense majority, be not made to pay
We can also conceive foreign policy based on the the same stamp duty as rivals, whom the long stand-
conviction that this country is incapable of war, that, ing of success enables to swell to that precise maxi-
overburdened with debt and taxation, any fresh effort morn which the Times first fixed for itself, and then,
of the kind would cause such strainhige of the body by its own admission, imposed upon Lord Mos-
social and political as would amount to utter disloca- TEAGLE.
tion. With this conviction, we can conceive a British
statesmen gradually withdrawing the care and the
interest, and the diplomatic activity of the country,
from scenes and objects in which it can no longer
play a commanding or dignified part. And we
could approve of a British minister adopting the
American maxim of foreign policy, and assuming, if
not feeling, au utter indifference to the course or
events of European politics.
Our present system is, however, neither the one nor
the other, but a miserable mixture of both—menace
without power, intermeddling without success, rest-
lessness without dignity, expense without result.
Our pretensions provoke'the enmity of rivals, whilst
interference is never sufficient to protect the interests
of friends. Great states alight us, because they know
' that even when talking of war we cannot mean it :
whilst small states mock as, knowing that however
lavish of council, we are unable to support our opinion
by the firing of a single gun.
However severely we thus stigmatise our existing
foreign policy, we are far from intending to charge
its faultiness upon Lord PALMERSTON, or any other
I minister. The fault is in the country, in its financial
position, and in the feelings which a consciousness of
that position creates in the minds of the influential
and well-informed. It is the existence of those
feelings which nearly ruined Lord PALMERSTON, for
I enacting the last manly part that a British foreign
minister has played, or perhaps ever will play. The
reenit kas been to unman Lord PALMERSTON, to neu-
tralise his spirit, his influence, and his power.
Mr„ConnEit, if we understand him right, does not
go so far as to recommend the American maxim of
abstinence from, and indifference to, European poli-
ties. lie would arrive at a disarmament, but he
would do this by a kind of European agreement. In
that case, we doubt that Mr. COBDEN will ever live
to see a general disarmament. Let free trade be as
certain, as expansive, as successful, as Mr. COBDEN
can desire, free trade will never make the Czar of
Russia disband the great, the sole element of his em-
pire and government, his army.
Even if France and England and Russia were nil
three to make the most solemn stipulations at Vienna,
that none of them would molest or menace the Aus-
trian empire, the mere fear of her own subjects, of
the petulant Hungarians, the discontented Slavons, and
the serri ognor frementi of Italy, would still compel
the Mille Council to keep up its military force. Prussia
is a camp, the nation is an army. It must be extin-
guished, to be disbanded.
And France with its fortifications to man, its
dynasty to protect, its officer class to satisfy, its
princes to illustrate—France in all the petulance of
youth and the plethory of public spirit, will not dis-
band. Its ministerial and opposition aides of the
Chamber, vie, on the contrary, which shall most pro-
mote the number of vessels and the amount of batta-
lions. If, therefore, the reform of our finances is to
depend upon any sensible reduction of the seventeen
annual millions of our military expenditure, and if
the reduction of this expenditure is to be contingent
upon a general disbanding or reduction of European
armies, then we fear financial reform may be ad-
journed to the Greek Kalends.

TIIE trial which has just terminated in the convic-
tion of an East India captain of old standing, for
misdemeanor, and of an East India director, seventy-
three years old, fur conspiracy, is important in more
ways than one. It shows, on the part of the com-
pany, a stern determination to guard most jealously
the great power which is entrusted to them, and not
to shrink from any exposure of those who abuse
patronage wielded under them, even if the offender
be a member of their own body.
At the same time, the anomaly must strike every
one, that what is a high crime and misdemeanor in
Leadenhall-street, is the regular and legal practice at
the Horse-guards. The cases, to be sure, are not
the same. The Secretary-at-War does not pocket
the price of a commission, he betrays no trust
and commits no illegality. But the father of a family
who is anxious to provide for his son, finding that he
cannot vest his money in the Horse-guards for the
purchase of a commission in the regular army, and
who iu perplexity pays it to an Indian director, may
be induced somewhat naturally, however wrongfully,
to imagine that he is not committing so very heinous
an act. He may reason that when money, not merit,
makes an officer in tho Queen's service, money may
not be so very criminally employed in creating a
Company's cadet. We are not excusing the act. We
are only showing how our own military institutions
lead to and excuse the crime in the purchaser. From
the vendor there is nothing to lighten or wipe the
stigma.
That patronage in the civil and military services of
India was formerly a constant subject of bargain and
sale is a belief of almost universal acceptation ; but
that such traffic had survived to 1846 was not gene-
rally credited. And that it had done so, was to the
great body of tho East India directors, we have reason
to think, unknown; for so jealous were they of their
reputation on this point, that when a few years since
a contemporary alleged that a tariff of the prices of
cadetships might be had in the City, the paper was
laid by the court of directors before their law ad-
visers for the purpose of being brought before the
Queen's Bench ; and it was only on the suggestion
of legal difficulties that a prosecution was abandoned.
Doubts have indeed been occasionally entertained
whether some of the larger holders of East
India stock—men by whose votes and influ-
ence directors are elected—might not occasion-
ally have had, unknown to their friends in the
court, profitable dealings in East India patronage;
bat, at most, these were doubts prevalent only in
congenial or in vindictive quarters. The conviction
of Sir WILLLiII YOUNG, therefore, takes the public
rather by surprise; they could scarcely be prepared
for so purely a mercantile transaction; the whole
affair is, from first to last, such a continuous train of
venality, falsehood, and impurity, as mast occasion
a strong shock, and create general disgust.
The fair inference from the disclosures that have
taken place is. however, creditable to the other mem-
bers of the court of directors; it will not fail to be
observed that the inquiry from which the prosecution
sprang was not forced on them; it was spontane-
ously entered on and efficiently followed up, until the
facts which authorised legal proceedings were dis-
closed; from which period we have the testimony
of the defendant's counsel that no step was omitted
which could ensure conviction.

In making these remarks, we mast guard our-
selves against tho suspicion that we have any exag-
gerated opinion of the purity of the government of
India in all its branches : like everything, or moat
things human, it is obnoxious to influence, and liable
to favouritism. Bat taking it in the aggregate it is
a government that we may look on with pride and
satisfaction ; it is open of course to very great im-
provements, but not to general obloquy and reproach;
we maycriticise some of its proceedings and condemn
others, bat we cannot deny its general merits. We
have said that it is obnoxious to influence, and as we
have given general testimony in its favour, we ca a refer
to a case where influence has been exercised adversely
to the general interests without apprehension of hav-
ing improper motives attributed to us. We will,
however, do so very generally. There are in the pro-
vinces ceded to as by the Burmese, on the conclusion
of our last war with that people, large and valuable
forests of teak. Permits are issued to mercantile
houses in Moulmein to enable them to cut on certain
terms timber of certain size is these forests, reeeff-
ing the trees of smaller growth. The government
officers witnessing great abuse of the terms of the
permit by the pnncipal mercantile establishment at
Moulmein, whereby the forests were seriously
injured, withdrew the permit granted to it, and
reported the facts to the supreme govern-
ment. The house haii, however, influential rela-
tions at Calcutta, and, by their interference, the
proceedings of the local authorities have been re-
scinded, and the house is now at liberty to abuse the
right of cutting teak in their forests as it pleases or
its profits induce. To this scandalous abase of in-
fluence we call the attention of the home government,
in the hope that they will be as prompt to act therein
valley have been in the prosecution against Sir WIL-
Liam Yourio.

A greater abuse of influence than this could hardly
have occurred under native rule ; and yet it is very
much on the ground of the liability to corruption on
the part of the natives of India that its govern-
ment have not given full and fair operation
of that provision of the last Charter Act which
removed all prohibition to native employment.
Viewing India as what it really is—a dependent
empire or collection of states—not as what it has been
too frequently treated—a colony, it is impossible to
over-estimate the importance of the question of native
employment. Take it only in one of its aspects—the
cost. At present, or until very recently, the expen-
diture of the government of India exceeded itsrecepte
by nearly two millions sterling a ,ear. Now, one
great Mae of that enormous expenditure is the high
salaries the government is obliged to pay to all subor-
dinate officers, civil or military, in consequence of its
principle that it cannot safely trust the administration
of its affairs to natives. Reverse this principle, intro-
duce native employment, give the natives the fair
share of government patronage, and salaries would
be reduced one-third; and by such reduction alone
expenditure and income would be equalised. But
the natives are unfit for the offices now filled by
Europeans. This rarely is an argument which we
are not entitled to use against their rising to dis-
tinctions in their own country, where we ourselves
are strangers and conquerors. How can we expect
fitness where we do not hold out to them its


rewards? How can we expect fitness when we have
trifled with the great questions of native education—
now patronising the classical, now the vernacular
system—now propagating error, now giving glimpses
of truth ? India, to be well governed, must be ruled
in some degree for the sake of its own population, not
altogether with' view to the interests of England;
and we cannot govern it for them while we exclude
them from all participation in their government.

THE Railways bill has been passed to the House of
Lords, somewhat improved in its details, but in sub-
stance as we described it on its first appearance in
parliament. The benefit to be expected from it niay,
perhaps, consist as much in allaying certain anxieties,
as in the direct use to be made of its provisions : in
the meanwhile, it is well that ministers have avoided
the error of making it a coercive instrument, as some
of their reckless advisers would have had them do.
This part of the subject being now disposed of in the
Commons, we may return to our survey of the more
general scheme of regulation, suspended las+ sum-
mer, but which, if reports may be trusted, is to be
revived, with certain alterations, in the present
session.
We have already spoken of the objects in-
eluded in that measure—that were at once
the most important in their nature, and the
fittest for administrative control. The exercise of a
proper superintendence by the state over the general
scheme and direction of great national works, clearly
, belongs to: its province ; and any questions that can
be raised on this subject belong, as we have seen,
firstly to the singularity of attending to it at the
twelfth hour, when the main part of the work has
already been done without any guidance from au-
thority whatever; and, secondly, to the description of
persons to whom its direction may be entrusted
hereafter; it being obvious that whatever may
yet remain subject to control had far better
be left to such chance determination as has hitherto
prevailed, than be put into incompetent hands, or into
hands that, however well qualified to act, are tied up
from acting efficiently. The main outlines of the
railway system, it has been observed, are now
drawn, beyond recall, as accident has deter-
mined ; but if it be now thought necessary to take
a stricter course with the mere remnants and fillings-
up of the general scheme, there can be no doubt that
it will be quite in accord-ince with the natural office
of a government to regulate these—the only proviso
being, that the business shall be thoroughly trees-
acted by men who know what they are doing, and
who are resolved to do it justly.
On the other principal class of objects in-
tended by Mr. Sraurr's late bill, a very different
opinion may be entertained. The design of under-
takinga so-called superintendence of working rail-
ways, in the manner proposed, cannot well be recon-
ciled with any understanding that has hitherto pre-
-1 Tailed in this country, as to the duties of the govern-
ing body; and is open to objection, not on this account
only, but because the questionable nature and ha-
rassing effects of the plan would not be redeemed by
any real usefulness. On a discussion of this point it
is desirable not to linger amidst general phrases, but
to come as directly as possible to the real substance of
the proposal. It is very common and very easy for in-
dolent or dissatisfied minds to turn on every occasion
to the State, and say " the government should watch
over this, and appoint officers to prevent that and the
other." A more considerate understanding will in-
quire, first, what is really wanted? and then, with
what certainty can the want be relieved by the means
proposed? "The government "is a well-sounding
abstraction ; but its operations are, after all, con-
ducted by men like ourselves, who have no patent
of infallibility, and are apt to be very strangely
chosen. What reason is there to conclude that an
advantage will be gained by trusting one set of
men rather than another, if this be all that you can
practically arrive at ? These would be some of the
questions occurring to a rational mind, in the first
place, were an effectual transfer of the control under
discussion. _

An entire transfer of the management of railways
to the State—if railway management, as it now exists,
cannot be safely left to pr, sent laws, or to any future
laws that may be juEt'y enacted for their govern-
ment—would indeed be a clear, and the only con-
sistent or promising, coarse. Taking for granted what
has been said by the advocates for further coercion,
that "private bodies ought not to be left in charge of
our public roads"—admitting that the administration
of them has been as bad as it has been notoriously the
reverse—allowing that there is any practical case,
which may be denied altogether, for desiring an or-
ganic change—this is the only change that can be
safely adopted. If the necessity exists, as above
stated, let all these roads be taken bodily
out of the hands of their present managers : let them
be wholly handed over to the state. Let some one party
have the complete and exclusive charge of working
theta ; without which they cannot be otherwise than ill
worked.

It is true that the promise of such a change would
not be very encouraging to those who, from the
example of extant government establishments, must
form some notion of what railways would become
under the same kind of control. To cashier the present
managers, and take shelter under official wings, in the
expectation of finding greater care for public conveni-
ence, a readier adoption of improvements, more civility,
despatch, and common sense in the daily transaction
of the business, will seem a strange notion to those
who have had much practical knowledge of either.
Still, if we mast have the government called in, if
those who have made these works cannot be trusted
to conduct them,under the strictest directions of the law,
the plain and proper course is to take from them all
power and all responsibility, and lay both wholly oa
the State. We shall then know with whom we have
to deal—on whom the duties and liabilities of this
business rest. We shall also know that the new
authority is in a condition to manage it with some
effect ; and see where the merit of improve-
ment, or the blame of deterioration, is to be im-
puted. We shall have no lame excuses fee
error, on the score of imperfect powers ; and those
who undertake the control will, as it is just, and, in-
deed, necessary that they should, bear the real
burden of the work on their shoulders.
But this is nothing like what the Railway Commis-
sioners proposed. Their plan was, to introduce a aye.
teen of control without effectual responsibility • •
shifting something like power, to be as
when it may be convenient, and thrown off when the
obligations attendant upon it are found onerous. The
office of the State on this plan would be a nondescript,
hovering between the duties of judge, informer, and
constable, all these functions being in tarn entrusted
to one and the same body. The railway manager, the
railway board, is nominally left in charge of
all ; is burdened with the responsibility for all ;
yet it is so arranged that they shall never
teal their hands free for a moment—know that they
hare really the control of the establishment, which
out only he kept in good order by commanding the
most strict obedience—or foretell at what hour they
may have to wait upon some Whitehall officer, em-
powered to examine the company's servants upon oath,
, rummage the books and papers, and hold up to
their eyes a long list of frivolous delinquencies created
iff the bill, with heavy fines attached to them. Un-
a., ea* conditions, which it lay in the essence of Mr.
&nturr's plan to introduce, could it be expected
that any respectable man, much more any one of
the better class required for the office of au-
steer or director, will be willing, nay, will be able,
to execute a difficult and anxious charge ? Can it be
believed that a method, calculated to produce die-
order, discontent, and relaxation in duty of all kinds,
and to drive every individual of spirit or character
out of the offices exposed to such vexatious visitations,
would be a means o improving railway aunegamat P
One effect it was certainly well to pee-
-1
---A numerous tribe of ministerial underlings
sd protiges, half-pay officers and election jobber',
seises of influential peers—in short, the whole
termer and bob-tail" of hungry waiters en men in
One, would have had a new -El Dorado oilseed to
' 'PIO* at the expense, be it remembered, d the tut-
' Illneseete railways. To these agents, and to the die-
Cksinof the patronage bestowed ea these,
system would be highly pleasing, no
desist but that the quartering on our rail.
we's of an army of this miscellaneous
cam, to take notes, and hold inquiries, and report
kraal ombeicesa would in any way promote the.
=or eider of the system itself, may be empba-
demaimi. The first serious objection to this amy'
ofretereltip is, that it would most cortaialy be
for the =
greater part, of pes witek 1:d bt the superintendence at the an.
nesin who now direct oar Weltile.