The Express.
London, England, 1851-06-13 00:00:00

come, of soon gaining support from Brazil; and of 1 poor gym, railway stock in trade will be largely
se being able to overthrow Roses, who, as master of mood to the relief of the poor.
the mouths of the Plata, is able greatly to control la delivering the judgment in the ease of "Rex v.
theTLsosiscrity of its upper provinces. The Brighton Railway Company," to which we are
median government has not, we have referring, Mr. Justice CoLERIDOE clearly foresaw
said, thought it desirable to avail itself of Lord that the parochial assessment principle, which was
Paulette/n:l's proffered mediation; but, in de- thereby sanctioned, would give rise to further ques-
(lining it, that government has neither been lions. " If," said he, " you give Croydon the full
actuated by feelings of resentment to an Eng- benefit of all the earnings made by the railway in
lisp minister who has so frequently, is what he the parish, what is to be done in the case of a parish
deemed the interests of his own country, wounded on some branch line, in which the company may
the national susceptibilities of Brazil, nor by any work to a loss?" To which inquiry the learned
ambitious designs of territorial extension ; still less judge replied—" The answer is, that that case must
by a wish to increase the embarrassments of the be decided, when it arises, between the company and
Fats, or to promote or join in any combination that parish, on the same principle precisely as the
against General Ros As. Its motives, as we under- present, without reference to Croydon.
stand them, are of a different order, and have refer- But, is we understand the l'ilehurst case, the
ence entirely to its own position in the original question of an unprofitable branch has arisen in it.
question, out of which those greater difficulties have Yet the Court of Queen's Bench there hesitates to
arisen, and are still arising, make the answer which Mr. Justice COLERIDGE pro-
The mediation was, if we are rightly informed, raised it would make when the case came before it,
offered under those provisions of the treaty of 1829, and announces, by its Curse JUSTICE, that the whole
which arc applicable to the recurrence of hostilities matter is in such a state of mischievous confusion,
between Brasil and Buenos Ayres. But, in the pre- that legislation only can uncut the knot which judi-
sent case, Brazil has neither.discassion nor quarrel vial attempts to make acts of parliament do what
with Buenos Ayres ; nothing, in short, in the opi- they are incapable of doing, have tied.
pion of its government, to mediate about. Its com-
plaint is not against General hoses, but against the
authorities of the Banda Oriental, a state perfectly
independent of Buenos Ayres, and solely responsible
for the acts of its own officers • and in the reclama-
tion Brazil has made to the Banda Oriental,• it has
refused to recognise the intervention and interference
of Buenos Ayres. Because of that refusal, General
BosAs has, indeed, withdrawn his minister from
Rio; and Brazil is compelled to be prepared to de-
fend its territories from all aggression. But Brazil,
having no quarrel with Buenos Ayres, disclaims
having given RONAN any just cause of offence, sad
declines the English mediation, lest, by acceding to
It, the pretensions of Buenos Ayres to the protecto-
rate of the Banda Oriental might be admitted or pro-
moted. Brazil denies the right of Buenos Ayres to
interfere on the northern embouchure of the Plata,
and is resolved to tako no step which can lessen the
kree of this denial.
This, we are assured, is the rule on which Brazil
has acted. Nothing, it is to be added, is, however,
further from the wish of its government than war ;
though, of course, surrounded by such neighbours as
the Spaniards of the Plata, the Uruguay, and the
Parana, Brazil is obliged to be on its guard, and
events are evidently progressing in that quarter.

FRANCE.

PARIS. THIIIIIIDAT EVSNING.
The sentence passed yesterday upon M. Charles
Hugo by the Court of Assizes is an event deserving
earnest attention. So engrossed is the French public
with political questions of an organic or dynastic
class that the real object of all government, liberty
with morality, is entirely lost sight of. The article
of the ErMement, for which M. Charles Hugo has
been condemned to a heavy fine and six months'
imprisonment, is simply the protest of a refined mind
against the immorality of public executions. There
is not one word in this article upon which the law
can take hold without stopping the most justifiable
sort of discussion. M. Charles Hugo complains that
the brutality of such exhibitions excites a mischievous
compassion for criminals of the worst class. After
describing, in terms which are unexceptionable, the
revolting incidents of Montcharmont's execu-
tion, arising from the prisoner's resist-
ance, he says: "If you will continue to apply
a punishment so much at variance with the
progress of civilisation, remove at least the scandal,
by making, executions inaccessible to the public eye."
There is nothing in this article of the Erenement
that Mr. Charles Dickens, in the British press, and
Mr. hlonckton Milne', in the British parliament,
have not said over and over again in much more em-
phatic ‘anguage. To imprison a writer for the ex-
pression of such sentiments is a revolting perversion
of all law, and a stupid, barbarous violation of the
ends for which laws are made. The question is not
whether or no the punishment of death be
right or wise ; but whether the mouth of
an educated man is to be stopped by the
hand of law from discussing the wisdom
and morality of public executions. It is a glar-
ing instance of the backward state of France in
the most essential conditions of society, this out-
rageous persecution of free discussion even in matters
irrelevant to politics.
A few particulars aro given of the first sitting of
the committee of revision. Montalembert wanted to
bind the members by an oath to secrecy, but his pro-
powl was rejected. Bare set his face against un-
locking the archives of the Assembly to peruse the
minutes of the committee who framed the consti-
tution.

THE Court of Queen's Bench came, on Saturday
last, to a stand-still on the subject of railway rating
to the relief of the poor, by Lord Chief Justice
CAMPBELL having the courage and common sense to
say that the questions sent thither for decision by
the quarter sessions, and in other ways, were rather
for legislators than judges to settle. So, in the hope
of parliament at once 'tying down a simple and
equitable rule for assessing railways, be and his
learned brethren resolved to defer giving judgment
in the case of the Great Western Railway and the
inhabitants of Tilthurst, which had been argued be-
fore them.

After this expression of judicial opinion, it will,
we suppose, be morally impossible for the legisla-
ture to delay amending the law on the subject of
railway rating ; for the want of legislation will, of
course, compel the Queen's Bench to make a further
effort to expound the law on what Lord CAMPBELL
forcibly characterised as " the improbable and ab-
surd supposition that any person would take a parti-
cular portion of a railway as a tenant from year to
dear;'' and the more the couitattempts to apply that
principle to railways, the greater are the difficulties
and embarrassments, the more the disputes and die.'
ferences, the appeals and contentions between com-
panies and parishes; the Tilehurst case alone being
the representative of no fewer than 53 appeals
against rates, all of which might have been sepa-
rately tried and decided.
It was indeed only on the 22nd of February last that
the Court of Queen's Bench, in Lord CAMPBELL'S
absence (the case having been argued before ho
became Chief Justice), revised and, as it were, re-
settled the principles on which railways had to be
rated; but so utterly unsuited are the legal principles
then laid down to the actual circumstances of rail-
ways, and so obvious have the imperfections
of the law as then explained on behalf of
the court by Mr. Justice COLERIDGE since become,
that when Lord CAMPBELL is called on to apply them
to the case of a branch line (as in the Tilehurat
appeal), he close. his books, and calls on parliament
to relieve him from the task ; legislation being its,
sot his duty.
The difficulty of the question arises mainly from
the terms of the Parochial Assessment Act. That
statute was enacted in 1838 for the most excellent
purpose of producing uniformity of assessment to
the relief of the poor; but in 1836, railways were in
their infancy ; so young indeed as not to attract
legislative attention to the fact that the
assumption on which the act was based
was wholly inapplicable to them. The mode
of estimating the net annual value of the property to
be rated adopted therein, though applicable to nine-
tenths of existing property, is nevertheless purely
hypothetical, and unsuited to railway property. It
assumes that the hereditament. to be asseseed are
kttable ; and on that assumption it laid down cer-
tain principles of calculation as universally appli-
cable to the maintenance of property in such a state
as to command rent; whereas the growth and de-
velopment of railways has introduced such new ele-
ments into the question as cannot be accommodated
to the legislative rules in existence, and has proved,
that practically they have not a net lettable an-
nual value, such as the statute presumed all property
to have.

In the committee on revision to-day M. Berryer
made a long speech in explanation of his views as to
the changes required in the motion of M. de liroglie,
which he declared to want distinctness and latitude.
M. Berryer, in restoring to the people their full
sovereignty, would nokwithhold from the constituent
the right of debating the advantage of returning to
monarchy. M. Within Barrot was strongly opposed to
mooting this question, which would agitate the country
in the extreme. The elections of the new constituent
would be quite momentous enough without super-
adding a responsibility so immense. Hence ho de-
sired a partial reform of the constitution, in order
that the country might go into the elections with its
eyes open, and know beforehand what questions were
to be ripped up afresh, and what were to be con-
sidered as settled by the constitution of 1848. He
also desired that the most distinct declarations should
be made in the report in favour of adhering to the
legal revision. M. Base made a vehement onslaught
on the imperialist policy of the Elyse!, and opposed
revision as a mere scheme for prolonging the powers
of the President. M. Jules Fevre declared that it
would have been far better not to have meddled at
all with the question, which would only serve to
agitate and alarm the country to no purpose. The
committee then adjourned till Saturday.
The committee on the La Plata treaties has post-
poned its final decision until the government commu-
nicates official information on the present state of the
Argentine republic. The Debats regards the
news from La Plata brought by the Teviot
as a forgery of the Montevideans to warp the
conclusions of the Assembly in the proximate
debate on the treaties. Nevertheless the Lega-
tion of the Oriental Republic has not scrupled
to give official authority to the alleged proclamation
of Urquiza, and his letter to the Oriental Minister of
Foreign Affairs. The official agents of the Monte-
videan government are in fact printing at this
moment a blue book to prove that Brasil is bent on
crushing the dictator of the Argentine Republic, and
is co-operating with the governments of Entre-Rios
and Corrientes for this purpose.
Tho Bulletin de Paris states the report of M.
Culler, published by the Messager, which has made
so much noise was never presented to the President
of the Republic. Consequently the dismissal of Gen.
d'llautpoul and the suppression of the society of the
Dix-Decembre had nothing to do with the dictates
of the prefect of police.
The committee on the Municipal Bill has agreed,
after an animtted discussion upon the attributions of
the councils-general, that the cross-roads should be
classed by the councils upon the simple initiative of
a member; a resolution involving an alteration of
the law of May 1838, which attributed the initiative
to the prefect. It also resolved that the council
should be competent to distribute the funds among
the classed roads upon the motion of the prefect, in
whose hands the distribution lies at present. Thus
the decentralising tendencies of the committee receive
daily fresh developments.
The committee on the Mignon Railway has re-
jected the proposition of the company Begum for the
execution of the line for a fixed sum with the funds
of the state.

The decisions of the Court of Queen's Bench,
whilst Lord DestwAN presided over it, on this sub-
ject, though they did not lay down the legal prin-
ciple of a mileage assessment—indeed they expressly
avoided any decision on that question—had, prac-
tically, the effect of forcing it on parishes and com-
panies. By that principle, the assumed value of the
profitable occupation of an entire railway is first
ascertained, and then subdivided rateably amongst
the parishes through which it passes according to
their mileage; and the company is assessed
in each accordingly. And this principle is,
provided the value of the entire profitable
occupation bo fairly reached, no doubt simplest
and best for companies ; and, as such, it was
recommended for adoption by the Lords' Committee
on Parochial Assessment in Session 1850. But
though simplest for companies, it is clearly not
fairest for parishes; for, as each parish is separately
amessed on the values of the profitable occupations
of its own properties, parishes are bodies with
separate interests; and whilst it is matter of indiffer-
ence to a company, which is an entire body with an
entire interest, how a rate is divided which is
assumed to be entire for the whole line; it is on the
other hand a matter of great pecuniary injustice that
parishes in which notoriously the railway earns
the greatest profits and occasions proportionally
to its profits small outgoings, should only receive
rates in the same proportion as parishes in which
the railway earns little or nothing. Hence, so far as
parishes were concerned, the two principles of mile-
age rates and separate parochial esseessesests became
of great value; and though a judicial decision had
long been avoided, the question cane to bens in the
Queen's Bench on the 22nd of Febnemy, 1861, and
judgment was pronounced by Mr. luitioe COLE-
MUDGE.
That judgment overruled the exiedsg mileage
practice ; for it decided the& the separate parochial
assessment was the comma bgal principle; that a
railway running t mash parish was to be
amessed according int mead earnings in that
particular parish, and that sash parish was to have
the full benefit of all the prate made by the railway
is it; subject, of cars% to the proper deductions.
This decision is tastameant to a revolullos is the
tosser predict of ramp rating. It involves the
asesasity d s asseents of the earnings made
in sash midi me ; which, though trouble-
some sal Meek= is the tallessae, is net bcparible:
bat it farther involves the sesserity ofeariviag at the
mot et lesemotivo power, rep**. a 5 t, &e.,
to which each pariah is Webb; mod *bleb practice, is
found to be next to imi=s. Nee" it is quite
apparent, that, if the is, eistrely to the re-
commended= et the Leeds' Co--"-,te is be maw
Wad. the tsgisieists smut lay demesne geleelpies
or rube of iegesidea to amble both petite to arrive
atry.......va150 of the prodtable =den in each
otherwise it is Needs diet,
enact macaw ilea is =11:::

M. Schcelcher's amendment to prohibit slave-sugar
was rejected yesterday by 399 votes aguiest 230.
The Assembly to-day proceeded to the debate on
the third reading, of the National Guard Bill. M.
Arnaud de rAnege excited mach clamour by at-
tempting to revive the disputes on the duty of pas-
sive obedience in the soldier. Ho maintained that
it was the soldier's duty to obey his conscience in
preference to the commands of his officer. He was
called to order, with inscription on the minutes. He
said that if he had been on the Roman expedition he
would certainly have resisted the orders of the com-
mander.

M. Ferdinand Barrot presented the report on the
government's bill for extending the authority of the
police at Lyons. The committee recommends the
adoption.
The vote on the snanable of the Sugar Bill was
adjourned, from the necessity of verifying a doubtful
ballot on an amendment.
The funds continue to improve sensibly. The
Fives closed at 01.95, with a rise of 33c. The Threes
ruse 20c., and eloped at 53.23.

A FANCY BAZAAR took place yesterday at the
Hanciver-p=a2wams, to aid of the funds of the HA-
I imam Although the unfavourable state of
the mendimesi a somewhat gloomy prospect of stle•
est% the TOMB were attended by • large concourse of
=The ream we tastefully decorated with Bowen
re
Rh% mai seeded an agreeable promenade, at the
same time premitiag an opportunity of serving the cha-
ritable be which the bassi was promoted.
Tin MOMS ',HIDER ORDZIS FOR THE CAM.—
The 12th Lawn, now en roses Nom lieersool to Wir,
chatter, are Or arrive in two divisions at Wirbeer to-day
sad to-sserow. A delay will twat ia the araberludisa of
the lad Quisew's lababy sate ebb* lalt Owe.
alas Ire Omsk lest awitalwel the ra-
altimy, lad putt beet to fir . It is sow
dot is eressisweaeo lir of Ile awe owaralda mature
eglitlablail holy resolved by to We labeet Peel,
so betbar witesaniads will embark after the aperture
of tbees rrelsealle.