The Express.
London, England, 1851-07-01 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, TUESDAY EVENING, JULY ,1, 1851.

place, the seceders relinquish all power—at least for
the time they absent themselves—of modifying or
mitigating the measure that has stirred up their
bile.

For example, the Irish gentlemen who squared
their elbows and marched out after the interchange
of some sharp words between Mr. KEooa and Lord
JOHN RUMELL, and the English gentlemen who
followed in their wake for no better reason than be-

mime they have been humbly imitating all their
-
motions ever since the discussion began, must'
have known that they would be obliged to return
next day, ingloriously, without any mediators being
sent to them, or any terms offered. They flung out
of the house as a spoiled child flings out of the
dining-room, because it is refused some sweetmeat
on which it has set its heart; and they crept back,
just as the same urchin is sure to do, though no ono
takes notice of its absence, or sends for it.
And it was their absence that enabled Sir F.
THEMGER to carry his amendments. The state of
the coming vote was well known ; it was certain
that the mmisterialista and seceders combined could
throw out the amendments; it was equally certain
that the ministerialists, deserted by the opponents
of the bill, could not. The question was not between
the offended dignity of Mr. Keoou with his fol-
lowers and Lord JOHN RUSSELL, but between Mr.
%Emit with his followers and the public out of doors
(if any), whose views and wishes they represent.
Having failed to defeat a measure which they affect
to believe oppressive, they owed it to their consti-
tuents to exert themselves to keep it free of all un-
necessary rigour. Instead of doing this, however,
they picked a quarrel on some fantastical point of
honour, and marched off in the sullens, leaving the
bill to shift fur itself. To Mr. KEOGH and his
seceders is due the credit (such as it is) of carrying
the TuEsIGER amendments: To ras Imola Georges
Dwain. _ .

The party opposed to the bill having seen fit in
their wisdom to give their assistance to render it a
little more stringent than its authors intended, the
question presents itself, is it worth any other person's
while to try to unsettle the decision of the committee.
The bill, in the shape it has now assumed, will be
found in another column, and we confess, that ex-
cept on one point, we sec nothing in it about which
those who approve of its principle can have any ex.
cure for dividing themselves and going to buffets
Lord J. RUSSELL, it is true, may naturally and ex-
cusably feel nettled at seeing Sir F. TiIt:SKIER'S
clauses preferred to his own; but to renew the
struggle solely to allay this disagreeable feeling
would, on his lordship's part, be as unwise and as
undignified as the scrambling out of the house of the
opponents of the bill was on theirs. With the ex-
ception of the one point above alluded to, there is
nothing in the bill, as it now stands, that any one
who is earnestly and sincerely indignant at the
presumption of the Papal court can object to.
That one point is the authority given by the
second clause of the bill to private individuals to ori-
ginate legal proceedings, with a view to enforce its
provisions. The terms of the clause would, indeed,
appear to impose a check on private actions under
the bill. It 19 declared that " the sum of one hun-
dred pounds, to be recovered as penalties imposed by
the recited act, may be recovered under the pro-
visions thereof, or by action of debt at the suit
of any person in one of her MAJESTY'S superior
courts of law, with the consent of her Majesty's
Attorney-General in England and Ireland, or her
Majesty's Advocate in Scotland, as the case may he."
This would seem to imply that any person instituting
such an action of debt must first obtain " the con-
sent" of the law officers of the Crown ; and that
consequently these officers can prevent its being
brought by withholding their consent. Our impres-
sion, however, is that in Scotland, where the consent
of the Crown counsel is necessary to allow any pri-
vate party to institute proceedings in what are called
the " pleas of the Crown," the application for such
consent is a mere matter of form, never refused. It
would, indeed, be most unjust to gentlemen filling
offices of such high and responsible trust to expose
them to the popular odium they might at any time
incur by refusing.
It appears, therefore, that under the clause in ques-
tion any private individual may prosecute for the pe-
nalties imposed by the bill " by action of debt ;" that
is, if successful, he may put the penalties recovered
into his own pocket. For various reasons this would
be highly objectionable. In the first place, it extends
the sphere of activity of that absurd and mischiev-
ous fiction of the English law by which penalties
are enforced under pretence of recovering debts. The
scoundrel who seduces as innocent girl cannot be
fined, her parent must sue him for compensation for
the loss of her services. Thus the guilty arc often
enabled to escape by technical objections, and the
public sense of right and wrong is perverted. If
the 100/. is a penalty, let it be exacted
as a penalty, not by the quibbles and quid-
dities of lawyers transformed into a debt.
And let the penalty be exacted at the suit of
a public officer, in the name and interest of the
public, not by one of the shabby body of com-
mon informers to replenish his own empty pockets.
In the name of common honesty and common de-
cency, let an effort be made to expunge this mean
and indecorous provision from the bill.
But there is nothing to be gained by fighting
against the other amendments of Sir F. THESIGER-..
there is nothing lost by accepting them. The oppo-
nents of the measure had it in their power to ensure
their defeat, and as they did not choose to de se,
really it does not appear to be incumbent es any
ether person to supply their neglect. It might hen
been imagined, had the solemn secession et hat
week taken place before the Whitson holidays,
that there was some deep-laid plot to make the mea-
sure as stringent as possible in order that it might
become a standing grievance and a handle for agita-
tion. But we have reason to believe that the Irish
portion of the opposition have returned from their
holiday visits to their homes with a more correct se-
timate of the amount of irritation that the discussion
has excited in Ireland, and the degree of popularity
they arc likely to obtain by the course they have
been pursuing, than they previously entertained. As
for their English allies, they have long been aware
of the nature of the sentiments they have awakes ed
by their insensibility to the dignity of England.

FRANCE.

PARIS, MONDAY EVENING.
M. Segur-d'Agnesscau has addressed a letter to
the Dfliata declaring that the Rue des Pyramides
had not yet adopted the new motion of M. de Broglie
for total revision.

The Pays announces that the question of AM-el-
Kader's captivity is on the point of receiving a satis-
factory solution,
The leading topic to-day is the President's journey
to Poitiers, which will commence to-morrow at S.
The speech is expected to be of a strong conservative
character, and to be confined to topics on which a
good understanding prevails between the govern-
ment and the Assembly.
The section of the Bordeaux Railway which will
be inaugurated to-morrow extends from Tours to
Poitiers, and includes thirteen stations, of which
Chatellerault is the principal one. 'fhe section in
question passes through two departments, the Indre-
et-Loire and the Vienne. The brie, on leaving Tours,
runs on the Nantes line for a distance of 733 metres,
and then branching off to the left, crosses the Cher
'by a viaduct of six arches of 20 metres span. It
tficn proceeds to the valley of the Indre, which it
crosses by a viaduct of 700 metres iu length and 20
in height. It next descends to the valley of the
Manse, which it crosses on a viaduct of 300 metres
in length and 33 in height. It next crosses the
Crease over a bridge of three arches of 30 metres
span. The line then enters the department of the
Nienne ; passes Chatellerault, crosses the river
Vienne by a bridge of five arches, each 20 metres in
splint The line then proceeds on straight to Poitiers,
crossing the Auzancc over a bridge of 12 metres span
in the arch. The works are remarkable for their
solidity, and were formally delivered up to the com-
pany, a few days back, by the gfoveniment engineers.
M. de Walewski, the new k rench ambassador at
London, has just left Paris for his destination. Ile
is accompanied by M. Serarier, first secretary of em-
bassy, and M. de Cabrol Moutet, an attaché.
At a conference between the committee on the
budget and the committee on the Avignon Railway,
which took place to-day, MM. Posey and Gown
explained the impossibility of the treasury charging
itself, at this crisis, with the cost of the railway.
After a conversation between MM. Berryer, Martin
(du Loirct), Jules de Lestcyrie, Victor Lefranc. and
Dufaure, the question was adjourned till to-morrow.
The S'A'cle reports that a sanitary congress is to be
held immediately at Montpellier. Each of the
Mediterranean powers will be represented at it by a
diplomatic or consular personage and by a medical
man. Some of them have already arrived at Mar-
seilles. Greece and the island of Malta will have
their delegates in the Assembly. It is supposed that
the great powers of the north will also take part in
this congress.
It is now pretty generally admitted that the peti-
tion-movement has been a failure. The sum total of
signatures =authenticated, crosses included, will
barely amount to a million, and of that million a
considerable fraction neither arc, nor have ever been,
nor can ever be electors. Perhaps the failure is
owing to the very means taken to stimulate the
movement, the active canvass of the authorities.
The pressure exerted by the administration, and ha-
portunity of sub-prefects, employes, and gendarmes,
seem in fact to have made the mass of the people
colder than they would otherwise have been, and to
have set their stomachs against the revision.
The Assembly, in its sitting of to-day, adopted the
bill for the ratification of the convention relative to
literature with the Portuguese government. It then
the bill for a grant of 914,345 f. for the
.ardilerranean packet-service. The house then
proceeded to pass the supplementary credits for
the railways from Tours to Bordeaux, and front
Paris to Strasbourg. After the final adoption of M.
Delcsscrt's motion for altering the existing legisla-
tion on savings-banks, a debate on the credit proposed
for the hams of St. Cloud raised a personal question,
which has made some noise. M. Frichon complained
that a portion of the park of St. Cloud destined for
the breeding-stud was usurped to the private use of
the President. This charge was answered at great
• length by M. de Lavenaye, commissioner appointed
• by the government to speak on the subject. The
t credit will be voted.

The Constitutionnel contains a pregnant argument
against the national guard, and one of the most sensi-
ble which has been yet adduced against that institu-
tion. It is found in the extunination of the mus-
kets of the national guard at Boulogne, that
one out of two is useless from want of repair.
If such be the case in a large town, the national
guard of which has been remarked for its good bear-
ing and for its patriotism, conceive the immense
number of muskets taken from the arsenals of the
state to arm the national guards of the country, and
the enormous loss which is annually entailed on the

taxpayers.
Wheat and flour have experienced an extraordi-
nary rise both in l'aris and the provincial markets
during the last fhrtnight. This violent movement,
which is attributed to uneasiness as to the next har-
vest, has produced its effect on the price of bread,
which has considerably increased. Accordinii to the
average of the price of flour made up on Sunday,
the rise in the price of bread will be 3 centimes per
kilogramme. The price during the first fortnight of
the next month is fixed at 30c. the two-pound loaf,
first quality, and 22c. second quality.
The harvest has already commenced in the arron- '
disscment of Brives (Correze), where the crops of
wheat arc excellent both as regards quality and
quantity.
The funds continue to improve. To-day the Fives
closed at 93.110 with a rise of 30c., and closed at
56.50. _ _ _

The thermometer of Chevalier marked at three
o'clock, 34 deg. of heat.

SPAIN.

The following telegraphic despatch from Madrid,
dated June 28, has been received in Paris:
" In the sitting of the Chamber yesterday, the de-
bate on the vote of confidence having been brought
to a close, the motion was carried in favour of minis-
ters by a majority of 184 aga►nst 31."
By the post we learn that in the sitting of the
25th, Esteban Collantes made a furious attack upon
Bravo Murillo. Bertram de Us was replying when
the poet closed. In the Senate there was a debate
upon the floating debt, upon which no decision was
arrived at.

On the 26th the report of the committee on the set-
tlement of the debt was to be presented to the Cortes.
The committee has adopted, verbatim, the report of
the committee of last session.

The Espano says that the question relative to the
frontier between Spain and France, for the settle-
ment of which commissioners have been appointed,
consists in the demand by Spain for the restoration
of the limits settled by a treaty of 1785, and con-
firmed by another of 1814—France having taken
advantage of the disturbances in Spain since 1830 to
make encroachments within them.

ITALY.
SARDINIA.