The Express.
London, England, 1849-11-09 00:00:00

- Vie reoo.

OUTGOING MAILS.
Tlin malls to British Nati America and the Nulled'
lures will be swede up this evoulaziNer. 9.
The West India Mails, encl Berusada, Revenue,
Nadeau, Nesdares, New Ozbunis, an IMIMICO, and including
those hr Madeira, St. Teen-do-Nieweges, New Granada,
and Pen. will be sada up on Nev. IT.
TMnot useile I r Lisbee, Spain. sad (*braids will be
sods var at Nov, 17.
The made Ise Gibraltar, Malta, Onset, t 6 balsa
Egypt. Corylda, ladis, sad China. Ws tioutbanspeenbi,"A
M mobs up on the nionsiag
ladYti el Nov.lo.
The leas vie Nandllic, to the bilediceraseen, Nape,
ilearliosi, &a, will be wade up ea the
of Iwo. Id.
TM uses dr Nadel's, the Bassi* ail Busse Ayres,
will be mil up es Dee. 4.

t.. s s '~i. r.'.'~°5'.....~a
~F~~r►a.,,.- u►t~~

LONDON, FRIDAY, NOTENDER 9.

A MZETINO of soseiderable hispeatanos to railway
shareholders WAS hold yesterday. Oa the withdrawal
by government, last sissies, of Lord MONTEAOLI'S
Railway Audit Bill, the representatives of the rai-
way interest in the Houle of Commas, it will be re-
collected, entered into an engagement, themselves to
introduce next session a measure which should
establish an efficient system of railway audit, to the
exclusion of all government interference. And tee
meeting yesterday constituted the first public step
that has been taken to fulfil that engagement. Like
all the deliberations of the able men at the head of
railways, its pr ceediogs were characterised by great
good seine, and by a determination to render all
government interference in railway management un-
aseemary, by improving the existing system of self-
management. How far it succeeded we shall see.
The plan of self-audit proposed is simply this: two
paid auditors are, it is suggested, to be appointed by
the shareholders (not the directors) of each company ;
bat the present field of choice is to be enlarged, by
enabling the shareholders to elect, if they please,
competent persons who have no interest in the com-
pany. These auditors are to have the power of
appointing an acciontant under them ; and they shall
(cot u at present merely audit a balance-sheet laid
before them by the directors, bat), from time to time,
during the half-year, examine and check the com-
pany's books and accounts, and, at its termina-
tion prepare a half-yearly statement of its
affairs, to be laid before the shareholders
for their approval or disallowance. Should
differences of opinion arise during the half year
as to the book*, emanate, and affairs of the compiny,
between the auditors and the accountants, they are to
make separate reports to the shareholders, who will
decide for themselves on those differences. So far the
meeting was tolerably unanimous as to the plan to be
proposed. But, in addition, Mr. OLIN suggested
what he deemed a farther security for shareholders,
but what a very large minority dissected from. His
suggestion is, that even in oases in which the accounts
so prepared shall receive thy approbation of
the majority of the shareholders at the half-
yearly meetings, a minority of one-third, on
expressing, within a month, their disestishction
with the accounts so sanctioned by a majority, may
have them subjected to another examination by (Choi
auditors. Should, however, the halt-yearly accounts
be posed without such appeal, or be adopted by
the shareholders alter a mooed examination consequent
on such an appeal, they are to be considered as finally
closed, and are not agars to be opened even by a
court of law. With Mr. GLYN'S addition, such is the
plan en which the opinion of railway proprietaries
generally has to be taken, and on its receiving their
suction, it will be reduced into legislative shape, and
introduced into parliament early next session.
Tbat this plan is, both in principle and in detail,
infinitely superior to the crude, and rash, and un-
workable scheme prepared by Lord MONTFAOL; is
patent enough. That, however, is saying very little in
us praise. But a railway audit is so entirely a matter
of detail that we most kuow much more than its out-
line (such as was given yesterday ), before any sound
opinion can be formed as to its sufficiency. The ma-
chinery by which the contemplated auditors and their
accountant are to any on a continuous and a tho-
rough examination of railway accounts and books
throughout each half year, without ha erfering preju-
dicially wi:h the operations of the company, must be
fully developed, ere we can say whether such an au-
dit will be real or formal. The power intended to be
given to a dies rating minority is so entirely novel a
principle, as to require the gravest consideration
before it can be adopted as a rule of action in a com-
mercial enterprise : for by its exercise (and it may
be exercised unnecessarily) it is quite obvious
that the declaration of half-yearly dividend+ honestly
earned may be delayed to the serious inconvenience
of shareholders whose maintenance, comfort, or move-
meats may depend on their punctual receipt at the
accustomed periods. Equally novel and startling is
the principle that half-yearly accounts once defini-
tively passed by half-yearly Meetings are to be there-
after closed against the world, even should frauds of
the grueest description be discovered at a subsequent
period. Such a principle appears to us of very
doubtful expediency, and one that ought not to be
hastily adopted. There are, however, objections and
doubts which a fuller working out of the plan will in
all probability remove ; so we merely hint at them.
But there is an omission in the scheme as yeat rday
sketched, so palpable and grave that we must press
it on the attention of its authors and on railway
shareholders generally.
What is a railway audit ? Is it a mere comosri-
son of items of railway expenditure with their
vouchers ? Or is it a more serious ex =leaden ? And,
if it be a deeper investigation, to what extent ought
it to descend? To the policy end necessity of the
expenditure ? or only to the system on which it is
recorded, and on which the books are kept ? On this,
the fundamental point of railway audit, great dif-
ference of opinion, and very great difference of prac-
tice, prevails. And until it be settled, until, in short,
principles of audit are laid down and acted on, we
do not see how an efficient system of rail-
way audit can be established. Now, the
plan explained yesterday takes no cognisance
of principles; its only object appears to arrange ma-
chinery. And herein is its great deficiency. The
importance of the omission will be at once seen by an
Mewed= or two. A railway company has no power
to invest the moneys of its proprietary in the shares
of other lines; yet, in spite of this want of power, it
has been a common practice to make snob invest-
ments. What are the auditors to do with such
items ? Are they to be satisfied with the production
of the share certificates which represent the outlay?
Or are they tontine to pass the accounts in respect
to the investment on the group of illegahty ?
Another company exceeds its powers in the purchase
land; here *gain the same difficulty occurs. Are
the auditors to sanction or to reject the purchase ?
Have they power to consider and to report on it, or
similar excesses of power on the part of railway
boards—excesses which, though illegal and not bin&
in at a single proprietor, may still be beneficial to
the company ?
Principles on which to condeet railway milts are,
we repeat, essential to a good system of audit; wigs-
egat thing auditors and their sotiountante mast SOW
tine; to be, as they now ars, at sea; without ram,
seder a more strisseat ossokkery, collisions between
*lvry boards and auditors are inevitable. It is.
them to be hayed that railway shareholders will mod
the plan, monocled yesterday, back to its anthem to
bo minded on this, its chief head.
Ms gabled fe, of coarse, far too important to be
exhausted by these, asesmarily hasty, remarks.

Tim total Whim of the resent attempt to sell the
Connemara emits ha, appareatly some upon certain
Actin in this country by surprise,. and they ere too
thdensgbly Alamo :did to conceal their disappoint-
ment and vexatiem The parasol, of the property in
question formed ahvady in their SiNfllillf drums,
chapter No. 1 in their anticipative history of "the
greatplantaties." Te m timid corporations tofullow,
n was needful to Gad bold individuals to lead. Even
docks require dewy.; and so, to win the oonddenosof
Joint-stoolt spemdators, it was thought to be expedient
to set op bur ale the picturesque and storied,

regime, once the heritage
lakes east reeky aphis&the
fallesisesepainse el r
Bheesso. er of the feetile
dry wen regarded r
ems at hay lots ;
1122...egra1t. Beek wag
Iles&
nNigio banned that

said in any uses lei _ _,_ _ _
te the position et baled
• treo-ammeas-st-fha Nest he WM* its
sail* value his besit depreilduis W. • shell
es2ly *glom the stale... ant eillesdleg
..det the twatination. Ihr Obi geesfmr. el Ws 1
affair, as a natural and seessmatie. wallet of VW
on the project of a whideed• ImilisSiVa Noe'
of Island, we own that wren ea little Owed
lay wonder as by resat. Fees the outset we Ishii
epos the scheme as a mere delusion; and ea USN%
Is divert men's attendee from the real and the pets
doable, we deemed .its promulgation simply nue-
shims. We laughed aloud at the awkward puffery
'wherewith it was attempted to fill the sails of the
pins= and on this. the first session when the cash-
mime bidders for landed property have had an
oppwtunity of manifesting their sentiments, they
appear to have unanimously done the same.
great pains were taken raviolis to the auction to
etnact attention ; and we have no doubt that every
fair chance wee given to the speculative to invest.
Bat people seem to have come to the very essible
though sufficiently obvious conclusion, that on the
plan of holding Irish lands as absentee proprietor*,
and re-peopling the same with prize labourers and
cattle from this side of the channel, the pur-
chase of Connemara might be a highly bas-
sist project, but as en invessent it was
net very likely to pay. Accordingly, they
refused to bid; nor could all the eloquence of Mr.
WAINWRIORT nor all the recitations from Sir
ROBERT'S speeches and the Times' articles coax a
shilling out of the dogged disbelievers. Lot after lot
was bought in at priors far below the highest nominal
offer that was mid to have been made; and the vast
stretch of territory comprising the baronies of Balli-
nahinch and Ross, and consisting in all of not less
than 260,000 acres, remains to be sold in the ordinary
way to bona fide purchasers, as in due time it no
doubt will be.
We quarrel not about race or origin. We are for
die trade in land in the widest sense of the term, and
seensequatly we desire that every man, whatever his
lineage sr extraction, should be free and welcome to
buy land in Connaught or elsewhere as he pleases.
But we insist open two thing.. First, that no man will
serve himself by meddling with Irish Sod who does
not mean to live on the land be buys ; and, secondly,
that no man's porchsea of land in Ireland is
likely to r-res any true or lasting interest of that
country, unless it tends, and its se far as it tends, to
promote his individual profit need personal advantage.
We scout the notion of rescuing or redeeming a
errantry by leo-I speculations which are to be partly
undertaken for profit, and partly from motives of
philantbropy,—ttie philanthropy consisting of sec-
tarian propagandises, sad the profit to be guaranteed
by • " cash credit opened on account of the scheme
at the Treasury." All such quackery must
end, where all similar exteriments in times past have
ended, in disappointment and failure. The very out-
line shadowed forth in the present instance has pro•
yoked a biter and jealous spirit of aspic on amour
our too irritable neighbour.. But they may discard
their fears. English capitalists are not such
blockheads as to sink their thousands in the fee-
simple of land which in its present condition is
worth nothing, end which can only be made to yield
a moderate rate of profit by resident owners. Few
Eoglist men of large capital are in the mood just now
to make up their sends to reside during the rest of
their lives in Connaught. Many Ecglishmen there
are of moderate capital who are not indisposed to do
so, and who would probably undertake their indivi-
duel speculations there to-morrow, had they any con-
fidence that the great aid crying sources of dis-
quietude and distarbswe would speedily and effectu-
ally be removed by the legislature. But until they
have some such assurance, shrewd and wise men hesi-
tate to venture.
'Ms vain to say—why mix up political with social
questions ? They mix themselves up. At the pre-
sent moment, Ireland heaves to and fro with fierce
sad destructive passions. The mass of the people are
shim religion; the proprietory of the soil are. of *n-
ether. The former regard the la• tee as their persecu-
tors and oppressors; and the law unfortunately seems
only to exist for, as it has wholly been framed by, the
landlord clay. So long as the ascendancy of sect and
class is suffered to prevail, property in land can never
be either eligible or desirable in the sense it might
otherwise be rendered. The settler who buys and
goes to live upon his purchase may be willing
Ito leave every prejudice of country and of creed
behind, though that is by no meats se easy a
task as he may at first suppose. But in spite of all
his honest and benevolent intentions, he may find
himself identified by the distrustful and demoralised
peasantry with those of his own position in society, in
whose misdeeds he bat in no way shared, and for
which he justly feels in no way chargeable. Call
this peulu injustice, ingratitude, insanity—what
Isyou will ; does that mend the matter ? It
the universal fate of those who dwell
in communities that are rent by social and
sectarian enmities, that the inoffensive of both sides
are exposed to the lame sufferings and vexations as
the most culpable. It has been so in all countries
reduced to anarchy by misrule, and Ireland is no
rack ption.
In a word, if our legislat ors are sincere in their
professed desire that English capital, industry, and
skill should safely and permanently flow
into Ireland, let them hasten to break down
the real barriers that now impede it. Let
them allay the bitterness of religious jealousy
wherewith the creed of Englishmen is naturally re-
garded. Let them wears by law the rights of indus-
try, as well as those of property. Let them equalise
at ones and for ever the -political privileges of the two
nations. Then will the lard bring forth its in-
crease, and the value of land in the market will be
restored and recognised. The races will be then
happily interfused, instead e one being extirpated,
and the other factitiously and fruitlessly transplanted.

NAPLES, OCTOBiII 31.
The Pope made a formal visit to use Church of the
Jesuits the other day. There were many women
present dewed in blotch with veils, and a few priests.
Here, as usual, his Holiness's prwence did not attract
aay respectable body of Neapolitan.
I am assured that the Papal government is about
to invite some 15,000 Irishmen to form an army for
the protection of his Holiness sad the Roman States.
lam told also that an Irish gentleman is now in
Naples negotiating fur that purpose. I give yon this
as a report only, which stew also that the English
government w.ll be officially addressed on the sabiect.
P.S. Since writing the above, I learn that the Pope
at last seriously enttrains the idea of returning to
Rome, in consequence of the French °Mrs to facili-
tate his path. The state trials have actually com-
menced us the High Crimioal Court, which is open to
the public. One of the prisoners, a chemist of Otti-
an, is condemned to death, " for exciting the people
to revolt.' It Ism proved that this person shouted,
at the head of a mob, " Death to the tyrant! Long
live the republic!" It now remaiosto be seen if the
Bing will spare the life of this first victim, as the
policy observed on this occasion will be a key to future
conduct.

ROME, Ocr 30
The Pope's return is every day more positive
given out, aid the 20th of November is now fixed upon
as the unfailing epoch of the great event; there is
probably some accuracy in the assertion, as communi-
cations have been received from some of the members
of the deputation, who will, it appears, stay some
little tiros in Naples previous to coming hack to
Rime. The.. of their party who represent the mu-
nicipality are the Prins Odncalehi, Advocate Sea-
remised (the Pope's nephew), and the advocate Belli.
The envoys of the commercial dosses are Signors
Costa, Perieeli, and Rinbetti,. who was for-
merly Rogers eabetitate in the Ministry of Finance.
The ecclesiedies have entreated their part of the mis-
sion to the Absti Arrighi,Ternasel, and Raggieri. The
original idea of this deputation, as it was sent from
Gaeta, was much more graidicee and Imposing, sines
nothing less than a monster petition was ordered to
be got up, entreating hie Ranee to return forth-
with, and sign' d by twenty ow thirty thousend of the
most respectable inhabitants of Rouse. This plan,
much as it was applauded by the zealous nevi, wee

fortheomint
We _ w ba reatieesi le t
ffignigrellireadis Of tie Wiwi. city. liita is Ilk
twat the Pope Writers will be an inunesse ed.
=jut new, in a cemmersial Point of view—.
will be raised, exteroally speakiag
foreignees, whose many is so necessary for the very
exiatsace of susseroas dames of innkeepers, ciceroni,
valets, mosaic maims, cameo cutters, sealptora,
painters, d hoe gams saw, will be eneemnged by
the re.establiehment of the papal throne be tomb the
persoss amidst the mach vilified repabilesas of
Rome. Toe partial withdrawal of the foreign prd.
sons will in eons measure relieve the treasury, and
the rich provinces of Bologna and Da Maros, whose
taxes now barely suffice to pay, the government oil.
cies, and =attain the Austrian troops, (who very
wisely make no estimates and ask for no votes for
supplies at home, but live out of the omqured
country,) will be able to contribute ometiisg la
grease the wheels of the state machine.
Robberies are not quite so frequent just now, bat
noctsraalaggressions are still practised. Let tea.
day mernieg, just about the hour of the mama&
in the Corso, I saw a crowd of people before the Oats
Nape% intently gasiag cm the ground, and re eel
~i.di..earpsise I found that the object of thole min.
wee a human thumb, which had boa eel-
isaThg—ent or bit off in some night fray, and left en
the pavement in the heat of the scuffle. It was a
silent but an eloquent w:tnees of some horrid some.
I bear that the money taken from the more respect-
able Jew merchants has hien offered to them again,
bet that they have refused to take it without a pal&
declaration being made of their innocence„ es some
reparation for the arbitrary violation of their dsmi•
cats and property.
No preparation far the departure of the Mesa be
yet taken place. General Rostolan reviewed 92 ball-
tallow, 8 ?quadroon of cavalry, and 4 battalisoi
artillery, in the plains of Acqua Autos's, the day
before yesterday.

NEW YORK, Ocr. 23.
As the Nicaragua question is sore to come op be-
tween the two governments, and to be the subject of
debate in Congress, I desire to keep you advised of
its phases from time to time. I notice to-day, from
the same pen that has hitherto advocated the Ameri-
can view of the question, a fresh publication ; and is
its arguments will be the staple of the correspond-
aloe, I analyse them thus :
The British agent at Nicaragua, Mr. Chatfield, has
weakened his Rosition by taking it on the following'
grounds : Ist, That the grant to the American Com-
pany is ho-tile to the rights of the Mosquito King ;
tad. That there are debts due to British subjects by
Central America, which must be first satisfied or paid
by the company before they can be permitted to pro-
ceed. As yet no authority of the Mosquito King has
been shown by Mr. Chatfield, or any one else, by
which an interference in that behalf can be justified.
When that attempt is made, McDocald'il papers will
be produced. Any protest should come from Sambo
himself.
But how can Mr. Chatfield hold the territory of his
Mord the Mosquit, King a 4 security for the payment
of the deb's of the Central Amerioans ? Why should
the Mosquito territory, wheels independence of
Nicaragua is stoutly maintained, be held by the
English as secarity for the payment of the debts of
Nicaragua ? Is not this very declaration tantamount
to an admission that the Mosquito territory is a part
of Nicaragua ? In an index to a volume of law re-
pmts, I once found this truism,—l. The property of
A. cancot be taken in execution against B." !!! And •
granting all that Mr. Cnatfield asserts, it is very add,
that to get payment of a debt from N. he should hold
fast to the territory of Sambo. And so the matter
stands. For my life, if it were at stake, I cannot see
why the English governme .t should make any diffi-
culty on this emotion.
Nicaragua will now never permit any English com-
pany to make this canal, and would certainly never
grant it any privileges on the Pacific side. Nor has
England any each interest as to make it important to
her. On the contrary, by the terms of the contract
with the American Company, her trade will have as
good a channel by this route as our own. Why then
should there be any disturbance of a project to make
a commercial route which may
.be indispensable to
us, and will be perfectly convenient to England ? I
cannot conceive of a greater absurdity than a quarrel
on such an issue, or, rather, want of issue, as this.
I have learned within a few days that Mr. Clayton
had no hand whatever in recalling Mr. Brodhead, the
late Secretary of Legation at London. He was op-
posed to it, and so was Mr. Lawrence, our present
minister. The very party who effected the change
now denies that it was his doing. I should cot be
surprised if Mr. Brodhead was sent back to Europe
ere long in a higher grade of diplomatic life.
One of our moat interesting pieces of domestic news
is connected with the session of a slite convention
held in Frankfort, Kentucky, to revise the constitu-
tion of that state. Frankfort is described as a minia-
ture cite, containing onlv 3,000 inhabitants, yet
having the peculiarities of a populous and commer-
cial town—river navigation, pavements, gas-lights,
fountains, and public buildings. Here the convention
has been sitting several weeks to revise the sta'e con-
stitution. When our institutions grow obsolete, or
oppressive by reason of inapplicability, we do not re-
sort to fictions of law to sustain the old fabric, and
yet make it the same as new. We actually alter and
repair it at once.
This convention was called for by three distinct
classes of the people. First, the democrats, who,
under the present constitution, have but little share in
the state government, as the principal commissions
are issued by the governor, and the state has long
been a whig state. Next, the philanthropists and
liberal-minded men, who desired to effect a gradual
emancipation of the slaves. Third, those honest
whigo who wisbedto see some existicgabuses rectified.
The democrats have a small majority in the conven-
tion, the emancipationists have scarcely a member.
The result of the session so fcr is to secure an elective
judiciary, and to Mika emancipation remote if not
impossible. The truth is, that in Kenivky, slavery
assumes a very mild form. No large number of
slaves is owned by any one person. They form part
of the family, and work in the fields side by side with
their owners and their sons. They are well fed and
clothed, their work is light, and in sickness they are
cared for with unremitting seaL It is, indeed, hard
to my whether they could be any better off if they
were free. - .

Certainly, nothing can be more forlorn than the
condition of the free blacks of the north. Though
free, they do not advance one step in the mid scale.
They have churches and school', yet make no pro-
gress whatever. They seem to fall by taste or is-
'duct, or something else, into the lowest conditions of
life. They keep drinking and eating shops, or sweep
chimneys, or clean shoes, or employ themselves as
waiters, barbers, and cooks. They are a class by them-
selves, acknowledging the superiority of a white
skin and falling tar in the rear of their fellow men.
If they have opportunities they do not know how to
embrace them. What is to bedme with such a ohne?
What could be does with the slaves of the south it
they were let loose at once f The wisest are power-
lees to answer this question. Under the =gaitede of
the responsibilitT attending its solution, we prefer
rather to do nolung than make a mistake.•

• Oar ceerespoadent his anima to state whetter the free
blacks in the north enjoy the elective franchise. Unh Is they
de they are an artificially depressed clue, and their &grada-
tion easily accoanted for. In the British West Indies there
WO MU Of colour ia the lerielature.—Ba.

SIR WILLIAM GOMM..--Acooiding to lettere' r•-
erivd by the lam mail, this distinguished awurrl otiose,
seconipanted by Lady Comm, had arrivep at Port de Gall:,
Isle of Ceylon, from Calcutta, els route for Barla• d. We
regret to acid, that by tha last accounts the is& tnt general
sad suite were detained at Ceylon by tha Massa o: Lady
Goma.
Muzak—There are a few days' later advice' in
Liverpool from Pernambuco, bat no news.
Mumma Anurinsa.—The reoeut arrival of
several packages of sterblea be Ike mai La Bali.. Allies"
from Bombay. eceg= ef aposimeas illastr,,tiv • of nistory,
which pat eats rase of :Cloven, were
sot as=lem brought Ise the purpose of dencsit ia the
Rational resepwile W sae► stealer, bat wen imported, for
Sir 1. Gust, Bart, bode the private prop my of that gate.
deans, and intended W tors part alas private
Sherbert.** Josoriesk

ins. of the Mi./ •- Hatt found to tok otter' Jetsmotioahls, _bootees no
lip yoga fort" be r. 'tl. "joatiouttf, Vzsdsausaut to w
ots&
the rich satirist ong t
...,,, .. ,
rent!. plains "Tut Min ..: attentga , &beaten middle of I
as eff 00r4the In . • ent.ttag Oval**, whin, au.
sad , wft„ to • „,,,,,t , mat
air MI tat cixtg este,
rte the s - " bee dews stales es antis
dosing the IL I day's *mit, that the grew
at the go...sates. in quids. smisa. sal throw up the whole andertsktas.
taken es affording a tree aim mitten int signed Witte& Vass forthcoming,
leaded vowing ht luka.a, ertflOti We
_!ESsills sellllol °I be retielbl4
_ _..c_ -.LA- ..:•- - - a.