The Express.
London, England, 1847-04-21 00:00:00

IRISH DISTRESS.

Mr. II AWE. 4id ;;;;Whies:despiiiM, eating that the
legiAlature of Newfoundland had voted 5..0L (or the mitiga-
tion of the distress is [rebind.

TENANT RIGHT.

On the motion of Mr. PUrillY, the commit•ee on the Agri.
enltursl Tenant Right kill wa4 deferred tilt We Inesday, the
9th of Mai.
The house then ad.Murnetl, at a few minutes after twelve
o'clock.

7: he rprosls•

MAILS.

The overland cloned mann, via Marseilles, to the Mediterranean,
ggypt. Aden, Ceylon, India, Hong Kong, Ito, will be made up on the
owing of the 9th ApriL
FM mails foe ieo. oporto, Linbon, Madeira, Culla, and Gibraltar.
wig be made ono on the rooming of the 27th April.
The mail- for New South %%atm Wan Lbemen'a Land, and New
Zealand will be nude up on the evening of the 30th April.
The Weot India mule, excluding dime for alexia!, Honduras, and
ihe liarannith, will be made up on the morning of the let May.
11 overlay! trails for Gibraltar. Malta, Greece, the lonien blonde,
Tyrol, Aden,Ceylon, laths, Hong-Kong, and China, roe Sontnampton,
wlll be made up on the rooming of the 9rd May.
the moils for Blitl.h North America, Bermuda, and the United
Mates, will be made up on the evening MM. 3rd May.
The math% for the Myrtle, the Hirer Plate, Monte VSlito, Perna.,
liso3, bah* Ma tetra. and Buenos Ayres, will be made ap en the
ersalag cd the 4th May.

HIGH WATEII AT lAKIUGH-15111DOR.
TAH DAT—PAnntbkr, A AWL wt •; Afternoon, 31 Ada. put •
Tallawow—MAssing, 37 mla. geft 6; Afternoon, 23 Nun. pan 7.

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 21.
Tar entire science and practise of statesmanship
in this country has been chiefly a painful and a care-
ful steering through the hosts of religious creeds and
parties, which stud our political ocean like Cyclades,
and which, unfortunately, render every possible
coarse a devious one. As the state bark is navigating
these narrow and intricate sees, advice, coupled with
menace and entreaty, is heard to come with trumpet
'taper ition from every side. "Choose this channel."
Cries one. " Touch at my port," exclaims another. To
listen is to rug aground ; yet to slight such admoni-
tions leaves clam ,uring foes on every strand.
Lord Jowl RUSSELL'S political life has been a
continued pilotage of this kind ; and although the
pole-star, on which his eye has been ever fixed, has
been that of religious freedom, intellectual develop-
ment, popular amelioration, experience has taught bow
vain it is to sties straight even for these great head-
lands, through shoals and currents that defy all skill
and baffle every force. Who forgets the sppropria-
tion.clause, that daring attempt to stil through a
solid ist,mus. which ended nut only in failure to
reach the goal of the actual voyage, but in sticking
the vessel fat, so as to preclude any move in any
direction for years.
Statesmen have grown wiser. Tory and whig
leaders alike adept the maxims of a practical age.
Obstructions and influences, and possibilities, are care-
fully calculated end mapped out, and the feasible,
more than the perfect or the desirable, becomes
the object of their humbler aim. It is
evident, too, that theory, abstract excellence,
abstract rights, have lost their influence over
!statesmen. More experience of society arid its work-
ing has discovered the most frightful ills, the most
!Isnizemius and pestilential kinds of di-ease, especially
in the lower classes. And instead of, 41. of old, being
anxious, from a general and abstract feeling of philan-
t!lr"PY, to restore old rights or communicate new
virtues, the conviction is that society is pressed into
one universal state of sore in its lowest members;
that it is a mass of fester and of poison ; and that
lame dreadful result of moral and politic .1 pestilence
must ensue, unless we can ventilate the dark and close
haunts of English want and poverty, by education
sad intellectual purifiers, as well as by acts of phy•
meal succour.
When we see, year after year, and in administration
after administration, men of the most diverse parties,
propped by the most divergent interests, and reared
In must contrary political schools,—when we see them
all and each successively turn their whole re-
Sources of information and of power, even to
the risking of that power, to such aims as those
of procuring cheap food, cheap instruction, sod well-
being to the poor, we may feel assured that there is
more which ie rikes the apprehension and actuates the
conduct of these statesmen, than either they will
mthnil, or we can divine. There is some evil prin-
ciple at work that requires to be neutralised; some
active poison operatint, that requires its anti-
dote; some future growth of evil germinating, which
these who are iii a position to judge and to
know the state of the body politic, feel some
imperative necessity for counteracting beyond what

it is prudent or possible to explain. Of all the
many reasons alleged by Sir ROBERT PEEL for the
abolition of the corn laws, we will be bound to say
that he never once revealed the true and most
forcible reason. Nor did Lord JOHN RUSSELL, on
Monday, in all his arguments for education fully reveal
the strong motives which had urged him to ,verlook
several distinct and valuable principles of religious
equality in an anxiety to found some institution for
the educatiou of the poor in this country.
For many years have we laboured to inculcate the
necessity which statesmen now have taken up; and
it is only those who have watched the difficulties and
the failure of each incipient attempt, who can duly
appreciate and make allowance for present short-
comings. Nothing could be more plain, more sincere,
more full, than Lord Jour; Itr'SMELL'S statement of
the present position of the education question, and o.
the different steps by which it had reached its present
state. The birth an I progress of the English system
of public education, like our parliament, our jury,
our every thing, have not been the result of fore-
thought, hut the growth of circumstances, not the
labour of a SOLON, but the work uftime. Mr. Bats ts,
and Mr. DUNCOMBE, or Dr. VAUGHAN, might us well
have risen in the days of SIMON de Morriowr, and
criticised his mode of summoning the commons to
parliament, as in the present day to censure our
English education scheme as not squaring with
certain theoretic principles of religious equality.
But indeed, to dispute the conclusions of the
enemies of the scheme we must look not within par-
liament, but without its walls. Mr. DUNCOMBE's was
a witty and personal attack, showing how ministers
had not done well, and might have mameuvred
better ; but leaving the great question of the wrong
itiflicted on religious freedom untouched. With re-
spect to the measure, dissenters have evidently split
into two bodies: the one fearing that the patronage
of schools and schoolmasters would raise proselytes
from dissent to the established church; the other,
that it would raise proselytes from both church and
i dissent to catholicism.

The policy and the answers with whish ministers
have met both are the same. They are, that the
present minutes are but the deeelopmeut of the old
minutes; that the distribution of aid, influen r, and
direction, is precisely made iu the same proportion
as for the last years, and that 1846 is but a develop-
ment of 1839. At the same time Lord Jolts RussELL
admits the hardship to dissenters and to Roman
catholics. The hardship to the first is the insistina
on the catechism in national schools of districts where
the ditnienters are in insignificant numbers. To this
Lord .1011 N remarks his disapproval of the catechism,
and he added—

" He should he glad to see a change in this respect, and
further, if is any place there should be a small body 01 dis-
senters willing to seed their children to the church school
but prevented from doing so by t►e catechism, this
would form an additional reason for griming aid to the
locality, so that a school might be opened where all the
children of the place might so."
The remedy of the ha•dship is here promised in
the administration of the law; and the dissenters will

be always powerful enough '
to obtain that remedy,
when it is called for, from the government As to
the dissenters, or rather those champions of the dis-
senters, who consider education a kind of rherul de
in which they are to run down and tout the
church, no ministry could satisfy them. Whether it was
the dins nters who resuscitated education or not, the
church of England has seized upon it, and by reason
of its exclusive influence in rural districts, has made a
more powerful weapon of it. This is not the fault of
the government; nor can government be expected to
undo it. The church of Englund sees the advantage
of education, not merely to itself, but to the quiet and
orderly conduct of the poor. The throniele would
have us scout the scheme of education, because the
bishops approve of it. We cannot condemn the
bishops, as so necessarily made up of self and error,
that we Fhonld repudiate what they approve. The
majority of the dissenters, we are certain, like no
such narrow, no such hateful views.

' If we consider the declaration of the government to
have been wise and fair towards congregationalist objec-
tions, we cannot but think it was equally bound to meet
and remove the fears of the Wesley ans. Puseyites
and Roman catholics have, in many English towns,
become very militant—very eager for proselytism.
In many cases, school has been started against school,
and races run, the object of which was not the exten-
sion of secular knowledge, but of peculiarly sectarian
creeds. The ecclesiastical as well as the social govern-
ment of the catholic community is peculiar, and
demands due and separate csnsideration, which it
ev dentiv has not yet received. What is aimed
at by the government is to extend the means of
secular education. The Church of England has
beer. induced to submit to changes, involving increase
and furtherance of secular education. A retrograde
step would be made in granting aid to schools where
secular education was the least of objects and religious
proselytism all. Many speakers expressed a regret,
that government had originally accepted the religious
inspection of national schools. But is not this very
religious inspection a guarantee that the religious
instruction of Church of England schools shall not be
exclusively and narrowly directed towards prosely-
tism? The Church of Englat.d by aomitting this,
has waived a power not acquired a right. And we
should be glad, not of a similar, perhaps, but of some
proportionate guarantee in the case of Roman catholic
schools. But, as lord NIORPETH observed, we are not
at all certain that the catholic hierarchy would consent
to any inspection. That the catholic body and the
government can, however, come to an understanding,
and that the esthetic exclusion, so greedily seized on
by certain champions of dish nt, is not considered so
final an objection by the catholics themselves, we
have sufficient proof in the manly speech of the Earl
of ARUNDEL, and his support of the government
scheme.
We must say that we have been considerably
disappointed in the present debate. We expected
a stand-up fight. We looked to hearing the mani-
fold and much-noised objections of the congrega-
tionaloas expounded in a style more lucid and a logic
more forcible than these hitherto displayed. But we
have looked in vain. Mr. J)UNCOMBE played with
the question : and Mr. BRiotur, so eloquent and
powerful in the exposure of a real grievance, merely
showed a want of temper and self-possession in his
exaggeration of a sectarian one. Moreover, Mr.
BRIGHT spoke against his brief. The majority
of the nonconformists do not object with Mr.
BAINES or Mr. BRIGHT to state interference, but
object to certain consequences, which they dread as
necessarily following the present mode of interference.
This dread mid this objection have been proved futile
over and over again is several speeches, so that
Mr. BRIGHT f,ll back into the old radical objection
to state education at all. Sir GEORGE GREY dis-
posed of this last night, as Mr. MACAULAY did the
night before. It is painful to hear eloquence wasted
in the exposure of so vulgar an absurdity.

TUE committee appointed by the House of Com-
mons to inquire into the operation and policy of the
navigation laws have availed themselves of the power
conferred upon them to report, from time to time, the
minutes of evidence taken before them ; and laid on
the table of the house the first and second parts of the
information they are collecting.
These reports embrace the testimony elicited in the
course of the sittings which preceded the Easter recess.
Messes- LEFEVRK and MACGREGOR, the joint
asiiiistant secretaries of the Board of Trade, have
examined as to the actual form and pressure of the
navigation laws of this and other civilized states. Mr.
MACARTHY, collector of the customs at Turk's Island
(Bahama group); Mr. 'form, vice consul for the
Swedish and Norwegian government; Mr. S.
Bitowtettio, extensively concerned in the colonial
general South Set and whaling business ; Mr.
BERGER, an extensive trader to the United States
(formerly engaged in the Mediterranean trade); Mr.
W. H. 009 CHEN, a Baltic trader; and Mr. JOHN
BROOKS, who in his day has deal; largely with Ba-
tavia, have borne testimony as merchants to their
experience of the working of these laws.
We admit at once that the evidence of these
gentlemen, instructive and weighty though it be,
cannot be looked upon as conclusive. It is in a great
measure part of the case against our existing naviga-
tion laws; the representatives of the protected ship-
ping interests on the committee will doubtless adduce
witnesses of their own, after those of the free traders
have been heard. Even regarded as evidence
against the navigation laws, the testimony now
before us is fragmentary and incomplete. Mr.
LEIEVRE, who was examined on tho provi-
visions of the Navigation Acts, and the in-
terpretation put upon them by the executive
government, was obliged to refer the committee
for information on not a few points of practical

importance to the Customs department and the India
House. Mr. littowst NG and Mr.Torrt• filled in from
their own experience some details of foreign systems
of navigation law, with which it was not to be excected
that Mr. Maeottecott's discharge of his official ad•
ministeative duties sleiuld have rendered him conver-
sant. Many important witnesses remain to be
examined, before the committee or readers of the
evidence in general, can derive from it a compre-
hensive and commanding view ofthe nature and effects
of our system of navigation laws. It may be said
that the committee would have done better had
they examined all their official witnesses first, in'
order to obtain a thorou;h know!ed.,e of the existing
law before they proceeded to examine practical mer-
chants as to its effects ; but committees, like less dig-
nified inquirers, must often be content to take in-
formation as it comes to hand. For the cooking
of reports, " first este% your witness," is as important
• maxim as "first elteh your hare" fur the cooking
of soup.
After these remarl.s, our readers will not expect
that we are going to summit the solecism of summing
up judicially upon a case as yet only heard in part
But there is one Let which obtrudes itself from
the perusal .of the minutes of evidence on the 'I
navigation laws, and that is the number of modifica-
tions which these laws have undergone from time
to time, in order t adapt them to the constantly
changing phases of society and trade, and the neces-
sity, admitted even by the advocates of our system in
its leading feature,, of further changes, to adapt it to
the existing state commercial relations.
As the navigation law originally stood, the class of
" enumerated articles" embraced a considerable num-
ber now omit.ed,aiol passed over without notice some
important commodities now named. Furrign salt,
pitch, resin, pota-h, vinegar, and sugar, have been
successively dropped out of the catalogue. Tallow,
currants, tobacco, wool, shumac, madders, molder
roots, barilla, brimstone, bark of oak, cork, oranges,
lemons, linseed, r ipeseed, and cloverseed, have been
in succession add d. In the course of time articiesof
importation whi.ll were once of importance have
ceased to be so, cad tier reran, and the list has been

changed to suit the changing circumstances of trade.
Again, the Is v originally ran, that " enumerated
goods" could onit be imported " in British slips, or in
ships of the count ,sy of which the goods are the produce,
or in ships of Vie country from which the are
imported." But, since the law was enacteg")., Is has
been found that its strict enforcement would operate
unequally, and thus excite against us the enmity of
many states. Tiie facility of ascending rivers by
steam navigation has opened means of commercial
adventure to m my states in the interior of Europe
and America, w'aich have no ports for sea-going ves-
sels. Again, it his been found—in the cane of Austria,
for example—that Austrian vessels, clearing from ports
in the Danube, often found it impossible to complete
their cargoes, unless they should be allowed to load
partly with Austrian and partly with Turkish pro-
duce. It was also found that much English capital
was invested in tie steam-boats plying on continental
rivers. All these considerations, combined, led to a
relaxation of the !ow, and privileges have been given
to the ships of so ae countries to come from the portal
of other states, is the same manner as if they were
ports of the states to which the ships belong.
In like manner the peculiar position of the
Hanseatic Towns has led to a relaxation in their case
of the strictness of our navigation law as it originally
stood in respect to the manning of vessels.
Many and more essential changes undergone by
the navigation la,c, since its first enactment, might
easily be pointed 0.. t. The existing anomalies in the
law which urgentl, (211 for further modifization, even
on the assumption that its general policy ought to be
adhered to, are not difficult to discover. Flour, fish,
fish oils, animals, sugar refined in Europe, and a
number of other bulky articles of frequent oczurrenee
in trade, not ii.auded among the " enumerated
articles," are free from any restriction as to importa-
tion under the navigation law. Again, our navigation
law and our restricte I colonial system are inseparable
parts of the same p dicy. The latter has been sword
away in justice to the colonies the former will re-
quire a wide revision.
A still more important consideration is pressed
upon our attention by a shipping return delivered
on Monday with the " Votes." 'the number of British
vessels of "the long soyage" that entered inwards
dnring the year 1847, was 16,136 ; their aggregate
tonnage, 3,622,808 toes; the number of their crews,
181,410. The number nf vessels of " the long voya.7" "
that cleared outward in the course of 1817 was 15,196,
their aggregate tonnage 3,091,348, the number of their
crews 164,375. The aggregate tonnage of the vessels
entering and clearing is upwards of six millions and
a half Taking freights at the low average of 31. per
ton gives a revenue (supposing none had sailed in
ballast or partly luden)of twenty millions ; representing
(at the rate of 10 per cent.) a capital of two hundred
millions. The trade of Great Britain alone cannot
nsure to all these vessels full cargoes from the time
they leave this country till they return. Their best,
their only chance is in their ability, if, when they
arrive at their destination outwards, they can-
not immediately get a return cargo, to lo id
for a third market, and there, it may be, for
a fourth, until they find a cargo for home.
But in order to do this they must engage
in the carrying trade of the world; they . must be
able to compete with the shipping of all nations upon
equal terms. In this rivalry they can derive no aid
froin the navigation la x, butt hey may be, ar d are often,
placed at disadvantage by its tendency to enhance
the coat of construction and navigating. The navi-
gation law actually depresses that section of the
shipping interest wnich is engaged in foreign trade ;
prevents the capital engaged in that branch from
yielding full returns, or expanding as it might other-
wise do. _ .

We challenge the attention of the members of
committee friendly to the maintenance of the naviga-
tion law, to these considerations. The navigation law
of to-day is not the navigation law of 1662. With all
the modifications it has undergone, it is not a
law adapted to the actual circumstances of the
country. It has undergone much, and must undergo
more change. Their business is to show, not merely
that a navigation law is expedient, but what naviga-
tion law. The report of the committee, and the docu-
mentary and oral evidence appended to it, will go far to
decide the question, what alterations of the navigation
law are required, and w het her its entire abrogation may
not be the best way of mending it. We remind them of
this to put them on their mettle ; fur we want to
have the ques• ion thoroughly sifted and settled with-
out
any unnecessary loss of time.

The Paris journals of Monday are chiefly occupied
with reports and c, mments on the proceedings et
Berlin, the news from the United States, and from
Madrid.
General Concha, on the occasion of his visit to
Paris, was relieved from the necessity of informing
Queen Christina what would be the probable cnnee-
quences of her return to Madrid, by her Majesty
having incidentally mentioned to him in converse-
thin that her intentions were to pass the spring and
summer in visiting het family in Italy.
Le SWele, noticing the report of the intended visit
of the Emperor Nicholas to Pszis, say a:
" Our correeporl. nee or to-de7 co the report of an
intended visit ..f the Emperor Nicholas to Penis. The pro-
mulgivi.m of the letters patent of the 3rd February, which
have opened a new era to Prunia, are said to have ores-
tioned a change in the views of the Emperor. The Cigar
desires to draw dotter tt Franc?, hoping to obtain the active
concurrence of our soeernment towards euppreming this
budding liberty. Ought not France to blush at the very
idea of such hopes being placed upon her,"
No Madrid mail was receiv. d in Paris on Monday.

CONSTANTINOPLE, APRIL 1.
The delay of one month accorded by the Porte for
the settlement of the difference between the govern-
meat of the sultan and M. Coletti, having expired '
this day, relations have been suspended with Greece.
M. Argyroupolo, the Greek charge d' affairs, will pos-
sibly remain here fur some time longer, in a non-
official capacity, and possibly the Greek consul will
continue his functions, as it is not the wish of the
Porte that this rupture should, for a time at least,
affect the commercial relations of the two countries.
The Porte, in its isolated po4tion, consented to the
proposition made by Count Sturmer, that this affair
should be referred for arbitr.ition to Prince Meter- 1
nick, and that no ulterior steps should be taken till
the opinion of the Austrian cabinet was known. On
the first news of the difference between Grey ce and
Turkey reaching Vienna, Prince Metternich wrote
both to Count Sturmer and to M.delVeis, the Austrian
envoy at Athenti,oondemnieg the conduct of the Porte,
as having acted with too much precipitation ; out
four days ago a courier arrived here from Vienna,

with despatches for Count Stunner, which entirely
approve of the conduct of the Internuncio, in the sup-
port which he gave the 'Turkish government; aud•
saying that the Austrian cabinet had come to its first
conclusion from the hasty, and consequently imperfect,.
report of the matter which it had received from NI.-
de Weis. The despatch strongly censures the conduct
of M. Coletti, and hopes that the Porte will remain
firm in its demand for full and entire satisfaction. It
was on receipt of this communication that Count
Stunner proposed to the Grand Vizier that Prince
Metternich should be appointed arbitrator in the
difference existing between the two governments, or
that at least his opinion should be taken as to the
measures which might be eventuated by a suspension
of relations. The Turkish government has consented
to the proposition of Count Stormer, reserving, how-
ever, to themselves the power of rejecting the deci-
sion of the Austrian minister if it should not meet
with the approval of the majority of the council.
lkspatches have been sent from the Porte to Chekil
Effendi, the Turkish ambassador at Vienna, which
he will communicate to Prince Metternich. It is
understood that these despatches speak in the
most grateful terms of the conduct of Count
Stormer, for the disinterested support which he gave
the government of the Sultan, and that in a moment
of extreme difficulty. The ministers of the Porte are
fully aware that the clear and impartial statement of
the difference existing between them and M. Coletti,
sent to the Austrian cabinet by Count Stormer, is the
cause of the warm support which they at present
receive from Prince Metternich. A fact connected
with this affdr has just come to light, which shows
still more the bungling duplicity which for some
time past has marked the policy of the French am-
bassador. Whilst he, with the representatives of the
other great powers, was advising the Porte to de-
mand reparation for the insult offered to its repre-
sentative, he wrote secretly to Athens, saying that if
Coletti resisted he would be responsible for the result.
It was at the suggestion made by the French ambas-
sador through M. Piscatory, that King Otho wrote
to the Sultan, for M. de Bourqueney was of opinion that
the flattering, but meaningless, expressions contained
in the royal missive would dispose his Highness to
accede to the counter-proposition subsequently made
by Coletti. The whole of M. de Bourqueuey's little
plo' has failed. Its clumsiness, however, has done
much to change into ridicule the indignation which
it has naturally excited. M. Guizot possibly foresaw
the fate of all these blurdering intrigues, which,
amongst experienced diplomatists, would excite
notning but laughter, were it not for the intention in
woich they are conceived. To counteract, therefore,
in some measure, their effect at the Porte, he wrote to
Tunis, urging strongly on the Bey the necessity of
making some demonstration, from which it might be
interred that he still lull; recognised the suzerainty
of the Sultan. Even this stratagem has failed, aid
bath the Sultan and his ministers are now fully alive
to the little dependence which is to be placed on
French professions.
At the requi at of the Port?, Mr. Wellesley gave
orders to the commander of her Majesty's steamer
Ilecla to convey to 81mpsoon 700 'Turkish soldiers,
I destined to form part of the army which is to operate
I against Bedherhan Boy. The Heels having received
the soldiers on board, and a Pacha, who is to have a
command in the expedition, left yesterday for her
destination.

FRANCE.—The naval division under the orders of
Prince Oscar of Sweden, composed of the brig Lordetgen
and the frigate Eugenia, aretvod in the roadstral of Toulon
in the night of the 13th fret. Genoa. On priming by the
Hy.ares the Prince exchanged salutes with the Prince de
J• Linville, who was stdl lying there. Prince Oscar c mid not
land at Toulon until the 18 h, having to perform fire day.
quarantine, in consequence of haring neglected to provide
birwelf with dean hills of hsalth.

The Chamber of Commerce of Lyons has just voted
the sum of 5,0001. wiser& the necessary studies for cutting
through the I xhinus of 8 oes.—D;egsts.
MR. O'CONNELL.—We read in the Gazette de Lyon,
of the 17th April: —" A consultation of physicians wan held
yesterday, to decide whether it wan advisable or not for Mr.
O'Connell to proceed on his journey, owing to the extreme
state of weakness he was in."

BAVARIA.—MUNICII, APRIL 13.—The king has
just dissolved the committee appointed to draw up a sow
law in civil a d criminal proceeding., and has appointed.
new commimiun, presided by M. Nlaarer, assisted by M.
Molitor. These gentlemen are zealous partisans of oral
proceedings and trials in public. The Prince of Leiningen,
who, during the last session. was president of the first cham-
ber of the Bavarian states, is on the point of leaving fur
Lon-
don, ti fetch his august mother the Duchess of Kent, who
ha. expressed a wins to visit the continent.
ALGERIA.—CarTuRE OF 800-NfAzA.—News re-
ceived at Paris by courier, announces the capture of Bou-
' Mass. It was this famous seheritf who, in 1845, caused the
revolt in the Dah,a, which soon spread over the „hole of
Algeria, and in which Abd-el-Kader only acted a seemadary
part. He had such power at his command that the emir
feared him as a rival, lest he should be regar ed as the anti-
Christ of the Mossulmen, and it is said that he secretly at-
tempt. dto have hint assassinated. His daring attacks upon
the French are well known. After having wandered for '
more than a year amongst the tribes of the south he had just
returned to Debra, where ha pre.euce would not have failed
to rekindle the fanaticism of the Kabyles of those moun-
tains. He was captured by Colonel de St. Arnauld, who
was no doubt seconded by Captain Richard, the head of the
Arab bureau at Olesnsvills. Thia capture is an important
event, and will take a prominent place in the annals of the
French domination in Algeria at the side of the submission
of Ben-Salem. It is said that Bousfdaza will be sent to
Paris.

COLONIAL.
JAMAICA.—The asperities of parties appear to
have somewhat abated since the dispatch of the preceding
cavil. The bill for imposing an income tax on civil officials,
on going into commtte e, had a measure for the irnpodtion
of a general income tax moved as an amendment. Ultimately
both schemes were thrown out in committee, though it
took a number of cross motions and amendments to bring
this consucrimatiou ab .ut. One or two attempts were sub-

sequently made to renew the proposal that the Assembly
should not proceed to • third reading of any
revenue bill amid tne Council weed the re'renchment
bill, but they scarcely met with any support. Tilt House
of Assembly were making judicious alterations in the island
tariff. On the 25th of March Mr. Johnston obtained the
appointment of a special committee to prepare a memorial
and a petition to the Queen, praying that Jamaica might be
declared a free port. The house went into committee on the
state of the islacd the same day, and the result was, the
adoption of a series of r, 'cautions, declaring that the house
would provide funds to defray the expense of the Coolies,
already on their way to the island, and. 10,000(. in addition
to be applied to Alncan immigration, at the rate of 10/. for
every negro sent to the 14.nd this year in the ezt.erimental
steamer. A declaration was added, to the effect, that in
respect of the contemplated immigration from the Kroo
coas.:, Jamaica ought to he placed on a footing of equality
with Guises and Trinidad ; and that the steamer ought on
her first voyage to take to Africa, from Jennie., a number
of the Kruo people, now settled there, to explain to their
countrymen the advantages shich the island otters to emi-
grants. Though lit, not least, the petition of Mr. A. O.
k'l Re, for a bill to enable him to establish central sugar
manufactories and saw mills in the island, was received with
marked approbation, when (the timo tor entertaining pri-
vate business having elapsed) one adverse vote would have
thrown it out. Mr. Geddes said he " hailsd the projet. so
the dawn of a new era ;" and the Morning Journal echoes
the sentiment. We do, indeed, believe it will prove the
dawn of a new era for all the British West India colonies.

- .
About the middle of March, the directors of the Jamaica
Bank made a most eatisfactory report to their shareholders.
The balance of profit in the year ending 314 Dec., 1846,
°habit,' them to declare a dividend for the half-ye. rat the
r►te of 6 per cent., and carry 1,326/. to the surplus fund,
which, thus augmented, amounts to 9,6461. The report
speaks confidently of the Wand'. commercial prove-to.

• • •
ST. VINCENT.—The legislature pawed the Tax
Bill without opposition on the lith of M irch ; the rate wu
fixed at 2 per cent. invalid of l j per cent—the rate in the
bill previously paned by t►e ueenibly, and rejected by the
council. On the 19th of March the legislature separated,
without disposing in the businesa before them--a sufficient
number of members to form a house cot being is attendance.

ST. LUCIA.—The Independent Press announces
that the second February mill had brought EA,I prey's
confirmatiun of M. Wuter's removal from the legislative
cout.cil and the appointment of Culvert Torrence as governor
of the colony, with a salary of 1,2001. Press is in
hysterics at the news.

ARRIVAL FROM LIMA.—A vessel earned the lea-
bells arrie.d in the Mersey aderd.y from Lima, with
specie in cargo to the amount of 280,0001.

ANOTHER IRISH STEAMER NEARLY LOST.—SOIITH-
LnFTON, 830 foot.—The Duke of Cambridge, an Irish
steamer, crowded with pameneers,, ran aground near the
Needles, in the Isle of Wight, this morning at four o'clock,
during a dense f•g. If it had hen rough not a soul would
have been saved. She got off at about three this afternoon,
and hos jus: entered Southampton Dock. Sho has expe-
rienced very 111th damage.
THE HEALTH OF TOWNS BILL, ST. GEORGE, HAN-
ovea-mintas —Yesterday forenoon, • full meeting of the
vestry of the pariah of St. George, II square, was held
in the board-room of the warkhetuse, Mount-street, Gros-
venor-square, •• to consider what steps it was expedient to
take in reference to the bill now before parliament, intitled a
bill for the improvement of the health of towns." It was
d eldest, on the moti.,ll of Mr. Christopher, th it a committee
be farmed ut ora•ch the progeees of the bill in parliament;
and that it report to a future vestry.