The Express.
London, England, 1849-02-26 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, MONDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 26, 1849.

contingency; for he brought with him ambers et
lamarcei, not for the pumas el fighting, but
of plundering and =naming, mho marched in,
after and amongst the sadism, and whom
weapons wire not muskets or bayensb, but haired.
The French oonsul, Ds MARICOURT, testifies this.
Hence the cannibalism of the aggressors, which was
unfortunately responded to by similar acts on the
part of the enraged dehnder& OWL FILANGIZSI
pleads that his approach to Mardua was conducted
awarding to the regular neceseities of war ; and the
Thew of Thursday last upholds his humanity. Bat
what says the correspondent of the Times, writing
from Mersin', Oot. 13 :
The Neapolitan soldien were furnished with a tin con-
later fall of Indentsaable liquid, and a small brolly, with
oaten to daub a little on all the woodwork of the *Cm and
windows and as tha last jibs cleared thew., a inciter match
was applied, and the whole was le a bless.

Every house foe miles outside Messina was burned
by FnAnninre order, not to dislodge an enemy, but
after the last files had cleared them. The fullest
answer to the diplomatic article of February, ex-
culpating the Neapolitan general. may be found in
the Bows of October, containing the letter of its own
correspondent on the spot !
Elution= in his mendacious speech represents
the troops u occupying 60 parishes, who were con-
tented with such hosts. The truth is, that the Neapo-
litans occupy but five parishes, in which the offi-
cers of the French and English fleets have been fre-
quently obliged to interfere to prevent atrocities.
FILANOIERI represents the occupation as a pasto-
ral affair, the soldiers lodging with the inhabitants
and taking care of the children! This is sufficiently
refitted by a proclamation of the Syndic of Molina,
which states that the greater part of the houses of
Messina being burned or destroyed, he entreats the
owners of the rest to be so good as to return, in order
to act as hosts to the soldiers; a modest request with
which none complied.
We cannot better conclude, than by another ex-
tract from a letter of the same correspondent of the
Timer, from Messina. It might be supposed that
it was merely the civic population, or the mob, that
supported Sicilian resistance. But the writer assures
us that there is no extreme party in Sicily, save a ,
most insignificant one. And as to the agricultural
class, he deposes as follows:
Neapolitan rule, I understand, wee on all sides execrated
in Sicily. The taxes on the rural population were exor-
bitant in amount, and most oppressive is the form of collec-
tion. The country is filled with small profession, and when it
is knows that eseklied to pay in coin abseil, potent on the
estimated produce of his farm, and if per sent. on the
vales of the corn sent to the Aorta ma te be ground, end
that all were in continued litigation with the valuers and
collectore, it may be imagined with what intemsby of hatred
the government that authorised these emestiene was re-
garded. These were the main emus whirl soda the
perpis against the Xing; but the 'WM NM= of govern-
ment was bad, every portion of andalstraima was corrupt,
and the execution of the laws was either unneeesearily
harsh, or to be averted by a bribe. A roans to such a
state of things is impaerible.

Tin few who take the trouble to examine the de-
tails of the estimates for themselves will have ob-
served the following notondum in the army esti-
mate of this year:
In previous years there have been separate statements of
the " gross charge " and the " sums voted " in conse-
quence of the appropriations in aid having been deducted
from the former and the balance only voted by parliament.
By treasury minute of 2nd of May, 1848 it was decided that
the appropriations in aid should be paid direct into the
Exchequer. In the present and all future estimates, there-
fore, the whole charge few the army will be voted by ptrlia-
meat, and the " gran sum " and the " mom voted ' will
be the same.

This new arrangement has also been observed
in framing the navy estimate, and the es-
timate for the post-office packet department.
This is a step in the right direction. It is
a supplement to the bill which, as we announced on
the let inst., ministers have in pen°, directing certain
sums which are now paid directly by the receiving
departments to certain expenditure departments
to be henceforth paid into the Exchequer,
whence they will be bailed in due course to
their present recipients. This is an instalment,
bat, after all, a very small instalment, of a measure of
financial reform which was earnestly pressed upon
ministers by Dr. Bowanro, and which we are happy
to observe Mr. JACKSON has pledged himself to take
in hand, should no other member do so. We allude
to the proposal that all amounts deducted by the
various revenue departments for costs of collection, or
other purpose., from their gross receipts, and all
amounts received by departments of expenditure from
any other source than parliamentary grants or issues
from the Facheqner, shall in future be paid into the
Exchequer.
It is the practice in all the departments of receipt
except one—in the custom', excise, stamps, taxes,
post-office, and crown lands—to deduct the charges of
collection and the contributions of each department
to its superannuation fund from the grows receipts.
The customs, excise, stamps and taxes, deduct in ad-
dition all drawbacks, allowances, repayments, &c.
And besides, the customs, excise, taxes, post-office,
and crown lands, pay considerable sums to various
departments of expenditure without the intervention
of the Exchequer, deducting these sums from their
payments into the Exchequer. The seventh de-
partment of receipt—the =all branches of
rediry revenue, under which designation are
embraced all fines, fees, and forfeitures—does not
appear to pay a single penny of what it collects into
the Exchequer. The sum total of the moneys thus
left at the disposal of these departments, and with-
drawn from the; effective control of the Exchequer
and Parliament, was, in 1840, 6,904,6901.
Again, the various departments of expenditure are
yearly in receipt of considerable sums from fees
(sometimes arbitrarily imposed by their own autho-
rity), or sales of stores, or rents of buildings, or sur-
plus moneys drawn by them, bat not expended, or
interest of moneys in their hands, all of which they
have been in the habit of expending as appropria-
tions in aid, instead of paying them into the Exche
quer. The total amount of the sums thus expended,
and e3metimes levied, without due parliamentary war-
rant, amounted, in 1846, to 1,099,7471.
It is obvious that while these irregular practices are
allowed to continue it is impossible for the Exchequer
to institute a prow and searching audit of all the
mounts of the various departments, or to prepare
suchstatements of the national accounts as will enable
parliament dalytto apportion the annual expenditure
to the real exigencies of the country. It is under the
cloak of this arrangement, which coven more sins
than charity itself, that a number of gross and di.
graceful jobs have hitherto escaped exposure.
Almost the whole expense of the Scotch judicial
establishments has hitherto lurked safe from scrutiny
among the " other payments" deducted from the gross
receipts of the Customs instead of being paid into the
Exchequer. Pensions granted to various noble
families in the reigns of Ciraitixs IL and WILLIAM
lIL out of the receipts of the Excise and Post-office
have been hidden under the "other payments" of
these departments. Occasional sales of military,
ordnance, and naval stogie have frequently, under the
cover of this arrangement, enabled ministers to ask
smaller votes for these service., and thus to escape
from awkward investigations. The offices of the
Secretaries of State and of the Courdi of Law have
been empowered by the practices we are complaining
of to exact arbitrary and oppressive fees from parties
transacting. business with the former, and asserting
claims of right in the latter.
It is palpable to seem that the whole of the
7,004,4871., which are by these practices withheld
from the effective control of the Treasury and parlia-
ment, ought to be paid into the Central Exchequer ;
and that no department either of receipt or expendi-
ture should be allowed to disburse a single penny that
has not been issued to it in doe form from the Exehe-
quer under parliamentary warrant. So long as this re-
form is not adopted to its full extent, the general
public is constantly liable to mystification, respecting
the legitimate and n expenses of government,
and individuals are expo the most unwarrant-
able extortion and oppression. Bat the instalments of
this reform, to which we have directed attention, fall
very far short of the extent to which it ought to be
carried.

The appropriations in aid scarcely constitute a moiety
of the million which the departments of expenditure
levy and expend without parliamentary warrant or
tiontroL And, in this sum, the fee-funds of the courts
of law and equity are not included. In the bill,
which ministers have not yet brought in, to direct
certain charges hitherto deducted from the gross re-
ceipts by the departments of revenue to be paid into
the exchequer, the charges of collection and manage-
ment are expressly emorpted from the new arrange-
ment The provisions of the bill relate only to tour
oat of area departments of revenue, the Customs,