The Express.
London, England, 1846-12-03 00:00:00

0-t

MAILS.
Tb, overland trails for Gibraltar, Malta, Oreece, the lonian Islam*
Eypt, Aden, Ceylon, India, Hong-Kong, and China, rio Soutaampton,
will be made up on the morning of the :70th Deceniber.
The mails for Banda North America, Bermuda, and the Cited
States, will be made up on the eveniag of the 3tl January.
The West India mails, excluding those for Mexico, Honduras, and
the ilavannah, will be made up on the morning of the 18th December.
The mails for the Brazils, the River Plate, Monte Video, Pernam-
buco, Rains, Malcira, and Buenos AyreS will be dispatched on the
evening of the ith Ikeerober (to-morrow)illes, to the Mediterranean,
The overland cleeed mails, yin Marse
Egypt. Aden, Ceylon, India, Hong Emig, Dee., will be made up on the
evening of the 7th December.
The mails for Vigo, Oporto, Lisbon, Madeira, Cadiz, and Gibraltar,
wit he made up on the morning of the 18th December.
The maik for New South Wales, Van Ihemcn's LAnd, and New
Zealand will be made up on the evening of the 31st December.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.
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find their confidence respected. NLITHERCP,N WE UNDERTAKE
TO RETURN ANY MA.NUSCRIPTtt W I tATEVER.
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mug be at the Mee by Two o'clock on the day of publication.

NIGH WATER AT LONDON-BRIDGE.
Tan Mr.—Nonni*, 44 non. put 1; Afternoon, 4 ann. pest 2.
To-aun.now.—Morning, 26 min. pod 2; Afternoon, 49 ann. peat 2.

LONDON, THURSDAY, DEC. 3.
Is Lord lIARDINGE laid himself open to the re-
proach of want of foresight in the ,Iveat outburst of
the Sikhs over the Sutledge, and of not employing
means of prevention and precaution to avoid the risks
and losses of his four great battles, the governor-gene-
ral seems at least determined to expose his character
no more to any such accusation. For certainly the most
prompt succour and interference that diplomacy and
arms could afford, were instantly employed to remove
and overcome the dangers of a Cashmere war. The
danger was indeed imminent, threatening not the
mere revolt of a province, isolated and rendered almost
impregnable by nature ; but, as we observed on the
occasion of the List mail, rendering a league of the
Mahommedan chiefs of the hills and fortresses, ex-
tending from Cashmere to Cabool, no improbable
conjuncture. GOOLAIS SINGIi was, therefore, enabled to
move his whole force against the rebellious province,
our troops not only occupying his capital, but the posts
in his rear. At the same time, an English diplomatic
agent was despatched to the rebellious SCIIEIK, with
most favourable offers ; and that chief, who could have
hoped nothing but vengeance and confiscation from
Geol.?, is, seems glad to resign himself to our protection.
Whether in this Lord iIAnDINGE has not carved out
for himself more work to do, more difficulties, remains
to be seen. An evening contemporary, ministerial
too, seems to think that the British have hostile in-
tentions towards Goof. tin, and that such a large force
could not have entered his hills without a view of
mastering Jummoo and setting aside the treaty.
We sincerely hope that this is not the case. Our
altering the first arrangement, and substituting a
second far more favourable to us, had no very para-
mount excuse. If we are now to substitute a third,
we shall be treating the princes of the Punjab worse
than those of Scinde, and shall open the way to in-
terminable wars. In this little campaign the Sikhs
seemed to have behaved well and faithfully. TEJ
SING. is accused of having stopped at Bimber,
but the great Resit:ET stopped there too,
and was deterred from proceeding further
against Cashmere by the difficulties of the road.
Instead of suspicions and exclamations of and against
Sikh treachery, we are rather struck by the singular
fact of Sikh divisions acting in the field with British,
and with the same military arms.
We must wait, however, for a further development
of Lord HARDINGE'S policy-, before we tax it with
either imprudence or bad faith. His clever, though
somewhat dangerous " assortment " of native antago-
nistic interests in juxtaposition, is an inheritance, we
suspect, from the Faceted States policy of the Marquis
of 11 tsrisic.s. We could wish to have seen that
policy (lucidly illustrated as it is in the last edition
of his famous "Summary " of his administration)
more closely and successfully followed out, than, in
some particulars, it would appear to have been under
the last two or three " Supreme Governments," with
regard to Nepaul. No part of Lord HASTINGS' admi-
rable scheme of antagonistic conservatism, if we may
so designate the masterly system on which he con-
trived to render the conflicting pretensions of many
native powers subservient to the maintenance of
general peace and British supremacy in India—was
more successful than that which alarmed, tamed, and
thwarted the vindictive designs of the Court of Khat-
mandoo. The Nepaulese authorities of 1821-2 were
not less hostile to the British Government and people
than those of 1848; not more sanguinary in their
feuds, nor more scandalous or shameless in
their intrigues. But they were at least restrained
and disciplined into some observance of decorum, as
well as of diplomatic courtesy, by British personal or
other influence then stationary within their moun-
tainous country, which appears no longer to be felt
there. Now, whilst extensive operations on our
north-western frontiers continue to absorb so largely,
as they have done for some time, our effective mili-
tary force, the geographical position, and the inimi-
cal feeling of the Nepaulese render it always a matter
of extreme solicitude from the northernmost district
ct Bengal to Calcutta itself that they should be kept
in sufficient check and on " orderly terms." We
trust this necessity has not escaped the vigilance of
the Deputy Governor of India.
The commercial aspect of the news from India
is not very encouraging. We observe with re-
gret that money is scarce, interest very high, the
price of public securities rather declining. The native
merchants in the Bombay market complain that there
is little or no cash wherewith to get their bills dis-
counted, and the exchange is rising fast against the
merchants of Calcutta and Madras. This is aggravated
by a Government loan, not filled up, and hang-
ing heavily about the market. The sole necessity for
an operation so inauspicious to the buoyancy ot the
public or Government credit in India, which it is all-
important to maintain at its highest pitch, is uni-
versally said to be the exigencies of our Scinde con-
quest., and its incessant draw upon the funds of the
Indian Treasury.

THE farmers of Norfolk assume, and not unrea-
sonably, that they occupy the foremost rank in their
art. Norfolk husbandry is the husbandry to which
farmers in other counties are taught to look as the
pattern for imitation. And, unquestionably, that
county presents a higher standard of cultivation,
taking its average farmers, than any other county of
England. In Norfolk, too, there are, perhaps, more
tenant farmers of large capital than are to be found
elsewhere. Here, then, we may expect to find
the greatest amount of independence and public
spirit amongst the farmers. We know that there is
no district in which so large a proportion of the occu-
piers of land feel galled alike by the social position
and industrial disadvantages to which landlord domi-
nation and its consequences have tied the farmers.
But though they chaff and fret in private, and in
- their own circles, they seem to shrink from that open,
• earnest, and continuous assertion of their own views
and their own claims which is absolutely necessary,
if they mean to emancipate themselves from their
present semi-feudal condition. They must not only
think for themselves, but they must also act. They must
be content not merely to act without the co-operation
of the landholders, but notwithstanding the cold looks,
and probably in spite of the opposition of the class of
proprietors. To a certain extent farmers are doing
this in detail. Individually, and here and there in
associations, they are demanding that security of
tenure without which they have no assurance of
reaping where they have sown, and which is as essen-
tial to the national welfare as to the interests of the
farmers. But there is too generally a want of breadth
and boldness in their assertion of their rights. Each

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man looks too exclusively at his own particular case,
and if he can escape, or evade, or obtain the pallia-
tion of an evil common to his class, he is content with
such petty advantages, and abstains from all public
cooperation with his fellows. So again farmers allow ;
themselves to be unduly acted upon by prices. Let
prices be high, no matter from what cause, and nine-
: tenths of the farmers fold their arms, and resign
themselves to the pleasing anticipation that such
prices are to be permanent ; on the other band, when
prices fall, they are apt to sink into the depths of
despair. ln fact, hitherto, agricultural distress, a
parliamentary inquiry, and a new corn law, have
eu the ordinary sequences of a period of low prices.
All such delusions are now at an end. Farmers
have learnt a first step towards self-dependence, that
there can be no more special legislation on their be-
balL And they fairly enough say, let us also be
relieved from our special burdens. To effect any
publicrpo however, they must exhibit far more of
spirit and energy than they have yet shown.
The recent movement upon the sabjEct of the malt-
tax, which has taken place in Norfolk, illustrates this.
We do not mean to enter into the permanent policy of
; retaining the malt duty, or the practicability of its
speedy removal; but there is no doubt it is a public
question into which farmers, especially in barley and
hop-growing districts, have embarked more of feeling
and earnestness than any other. It is remarkable
I also that, from the agitation of the malt-tax repeal
the landed proprietors carefully stand aloof.
ey
have the vision of a property tax as the result of its
success, and they discountenance the demand for re-
peal of the malt duty aboat which their tenants are
so anxious. Two meetintre upon the subject
few weeks sine, held in Norfolk, at, which the
tenant-farmers mustered in considerable force ;
ad a third meetng has more recently been held
Lynn.
At nine of these meetings did any
landowners of mark attend, and at least as much was
said about the general grievances of farmers, griev-
ances of which they claim redress from their landlords,
—as about the repeal of the malt tax. The last
meeting, though respectably was thinly attended.
Mr. IderrimonE, one of the deputation from the
Total Repeal Malt Tax Association, put the question
upon the broad ground that the tax forms a bar to
agricultural improvement, saying:
The malt tag was the greatest impediment of all to improvements
in agriculture ; it stood at the very threshold of any increase.' supply
of bread and meat to the people ; and the farmers would not do their
duty to the people If they allowed the tax to continue. As a farmer,
he stood there to demand to be permitted the free use of hi, own
produce in the way most desirable for his wen interest, by which he
could supply the public markets, increase the produce of and add to
the demand for labour. The tax wan a great impediment to the culti-
cation of the land. The foundation of all good farming was r rot,
crop, and stock forming. In the county of Norfolk the greatest im-
provements in farming had originated, and in that county were to be
found the beat cultivation, the best food, and the greatest employment
for the population.
And after arguing the question on its merits at con-
siderable length, he said :
The way to remedy such evils was to speak to their representatives,
and compel them to do it. Ile would have them speak respect-
fully, but firmly, to their members. Ile did not wish members to be
coerced. Ile would urge upon them the necessity of selecting such
persons for their representatives as would support the measure which
they were then met to consider.
And there can be no doubt that until the farmers can
thus act upon the legislature, their claims will receive
but little attention. It needs no prophet to predict,
that now the corn-law illusion is over we shall hear
of no "farmers' friends" amongst that section of
politicians who once arrogated to themselves that
title. The following remarks of the editor of the
Norwich Mercury, than whom nobody better knows
the Norfolk farmers, upon the thin attendance at the
Lynn meeting, point to some of the circumstances we
have suggested as causes of apathy amongst farmers :
We believe that the absence of the tenantry is neither attributable
to this feeling nor to their want of interest, nor to a belief in the MOB-
racy of the proposition —but simple to the effect of prier. No one is
more governed by price than the Norfolk farmer -glee him but a fete '
shillings' adrance, or even as much so is generally eonsidertsl a fair
average, and however he may have been suffering under the fear of,
or from actual low markets, he is content with his present lot, and
but too often Pares the future 11 take rare of itself. Here were at
leant from two to three hundred fanners, of all shades of political
opinions, within fifty yards of the meeting--and yet Turley, at from
twenty-two to twenty-four shillings per ecomb, with about a third of
a crop, was fully sufficient to make them shut their eyes to the evils
which they themselves have more than once loudly declared to be
deeply injuriewi to their best interests. It has been often averted
that the only way to the understanding of the fanner is through his
pocket, and looking bark to the period between 1/121 and 18214, and
contmsting the meetings of these and later years with the apathy ex-
emplified on Tuesday, it cannot be denied that that assertion has been
made upon good grounds.
In the report of a meeting held at Norwich, by the
farmers and graziers, to protest against an increase of
charge for the conveyance of cattle to London, which
was very numerously attended, the same feeling pre-
vailed. The pocket was touched, and an immediate
movement was the result. Now we do say the
farmers were unwise to resist the imposition of
charges on the carriage of their cattle, if they deemed
them too high ; but they must not confine their efforts
to such small objects. 'Agitate against the high tariff
of a railway company, which may yearly impose on
each occupier a few pounds too much, if they please ;
but let them not disregard and submit to customs and
systems by which, at the mere caprice of their land-
lords, they may be mulct of Hundreds of pounds.

WE have received the second edition of an excellent
pamphlet by Mr. EDWARD SWAINE, a Member of
the Congregational Board of Education, and a zealous
advocate of voluntaryism, who earnestly advocates the
interference of the state as the authorised instructor of
the people. His exposure of the statistical fallacies of
Mr. E. BAlsEs is complete; but Mr. SWAINE leaves
untouched the capital error in these statistics, which
is, that they have nothing at all to say to the matter
in issue. Supposing him to have proved that there is
abundance of school accommodation in England, he
has no more proven that there is no want of national
education than if he had argued, from the amount of
table accommodation in Ireland, that no want of food
could be felt in that country. Schools are not in-
struction, and tables are not dinners. In the present
aspect of the question, quality is a far more important
question than quantity, for if the education given, either
in whole or in part, be not merely defective, but posi-
tively bad, the numbers of which Mr. BAINF.S makes
such boast are evidences not of good but of evil.
State interference is invoked, not so much to surely
as to direct and to control ; not to supersede what us
doing, but to perform what is left undone. This in-
terference is not claimed as a boon, it is asked as a
right ; a right flowing from the relations in which
every civilised state must stand to a civilised com-
munity.
Mr. SwAINE grounds his advocacy of at ate inter-
ference with national education on two plain prin-
ciples: that it is the duty of the state t o protect the
public peace, and equally its duty to advr ,nce the public
weal. The state, therefore, has a right , and is bound
by a duty, to superintend all functional.; .es who are con-
cerned in the maintenance of the nation's tranquillity
and the advancement of the natior 's welfare. Now
the schoolmaster 18 a public futr ctionary, whether
the state recognises him as such cr not. He has the
direction of the elements by whirl i the future weal or
woe of society is irrevocably Pre' lestined and prede-
termined. He does not make Ll' .e laws, but he moulds
the minds by which laws are m ade. No man can be
insensible to the immense gra- .vth of the influence—
we might almost say the ascendancy —of public
opinion over legislation, wi• JIM the last twenty or
thirty years, but it is by t he schoolmaster that the
moulds are supplied in va ;ich opinions are cast; he
acts en society and for awl Ay: it is therefore palpably
absurd that society shouli be indifferent to his actions.
As the schoolmaster is, to ust be, and cannot help being
a public functionary, the :re is nothing unreasonable in
requiring that he she ;uld be recognised as such;
his social position • must be anomalous if it be
not determmarl by, his social position, and it is
because he now ho ;ds an anomalous place that his
functions are so oftt n perverted.
The voluntary s 7 'stem is inapplicable to education,
because education itself is inv;.luntary. The circum-
stances surround
.ing childhood, which the child itself
has not created and cannot remove, as certainly in-
fluence and for n the mind as soil and climate deter-
mine the grow th of a plant. The child cannot control
the moral at mosphere which is the aliment of its
mental exist Rare ;—it is not always, nay it is very
rarely, in the power of the parents. No one ever
pr7osed .hat physical existence should be left to the
un ivideil control of voluntary action ; why, then, is
such a claim made for mental and moral existence ?
A vol untary administration of education is no
better than a voluntary administration of law, and
we tr re not quite satisfied with schoolmasters fashioned
after the pattern of Judge LENEE. We know
Wit there are some such; and Ma. BAINES might
know many more if he ever turns from blue books to
what is passinicevery day in the living and moving
world abrJut him.
The schoolmaster is not °ray a public functionary,
but hr. is a member of the hierarchy of the state,
bece.uae the state is nothing more than society itself
represented in its final. capacity for the purpose of