The Express.
London, England, 1848-07-11 00:00:00

Vie OrpreigS.

July 5, 1849, July 5, 1830, From and
to to after
July 5, 1850. July 5, 1851. July 5, 1831.
s. d. s. d. e. 4.
Candy. brown or white
double relined sager, 13 0 18 6 IS 0
ise per Cwt
Other relined sugar, &C. 16 0
14 0 13 4
per cwt.
White (slaved sugar, de 14 0 12 15 11 8
per cwt.
Murcovado, de., per eat. 12 0 11 0 10 0
Molbswe per cwt. 4 6 4 2 3 9

On the question being put that the above resolution' be
agreed to,
Mr. MILLIE moved the following Beale of duties u an
amendment :

On broisnelared sugar, or sugar rendered by any pros equal In
quality to bruit n-olayrd, and not equal in quality to wbite-cloyed, for
Very cwt. :
From and after the Sth July, 1848, to the Sth July, 1819, British,
13a. ; foreign, 20.
From mud tiler the Sth July, 1849, to the Sth July, 1850, Bridal",
LIN. • forewn, ion.
Rom and after the sth July, 1830, to the Sth July, 1851, British,
its. foreign, 18s.
From out alter the sth July, 1811, to the Sth July, 1832, British,
10a.; toreigu, 17e.
Front and after the sth July. 1832, to the Sth July, 1853, British,
30a. ; furriim, 17n.
Flom and after the sth July, 1833, to the sth July, 1834, British,
10. ; foreign, I.s.

The bon. member said that his amendment did not differ
materislly from the proposition of the government, but the
effect of it would be to extend the differ. ntial duty of 7s.
for six years. He trusted that it would meet with no
"rhiem'CIIANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER opposed
the tropesition, considering that of the government the
wiser arrameement.
After a few words from Sir H. WILLOVOIIIIY,
The amendment was negatived without a division.
Sir 11. WILLOUGHBY wished to ascertain whether
government admitted that Cuba auger was superior in sac-
chorine qualities to segar the produce of the colonies.
The CHANCE '..LOR of the EXCHEQUER said that
government had framed their scale of duties so as to meet
the dill rencO alluded to by the hon. baronet.
Mr. BOUVERIS moved " That prevision be made for
the admission of such foreign sugar as shall be cleared out
of the foreign' West Indian, and American ports before':
the Ist day of August next, and out of ports east of
the Cape of Good Hope before the Ist day of Sep-
tember next, at the rates of duty imposed on such
sugars rrnectieely by the Act 9 & 10 Vie , c. 63."
He considered that the foreign shippers had acted in full
confidence of the permanence of the late duties—a confidence
which was fully justified by reemt declarations of the go-
vernment. So late as Fob. 3 the Chancellor of the Exche-
quer had declared that, in granting the planting committee,
the government had no intro ion of altering the duty ; and
a similar declaration hail been made by the First Lord of
the Tet asury in May. In consiquence of those declarations
medium' had seat out the is orders to Cuba and Manilla,
and now romolained th,t government had broken faith with
them. The fact was that, without his amendment, the in-
crease of the duties would come out of their pockets in-
stead co, being a charge on the consumer, and he considered
it to be the duty of the house and the government to hold
them harmless

The CIIAVCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER opposed
the amend uent ; m.,l stated, in reference to the declaration
which had been made, that nothing would be more Mean
venient than for government to make declarations before-
hand of their intention to raise duties; and referred to the
changes which had been mode at various times in tho wine
and other duties, ,o show that in other cases merchants had
sent out orders for goods, on the supposition that a certain
duty would have to b., paid, while on the arrival of those
rails in this country a higher rate of duty, in consequence
of the chang,a in the meanwhile made, had to be paid
The general supposition was, that when duties were raised
the price of the article was raised in proportion, and the
merchant suffered no loss.

Mr. J 13. SMITE contended that those who, depending
on the declarations of government that no increase of duty
would be impowd, had sent out orders for sugar, would be
most unfairly treated if they were called upon to pay the
additional duty on the sugar so ordered.

Mr. GLADSTONE had heard no statement from the
government, which would justify him in voting against the
motion of the hon.membeir for Kilmarnock. The discretion of
parliament was perfectly free to make alterations in duties
at its discretion, and as such alterations would sometimes
place large sums in the pockets of the trader, so the trader
must suhmit when such alterations might militate against
the interests of particular traders, if on public grounds there
was sufficient reason for the change. The case be'ore the
house was not that the faith of parliament was
pledged; it was not the act of 1816 that occasioned
any doubt in his mind, but it was the declarations which
had been made deliberately and distinctly by her Majesty's
government. In February laat, not at the importunity of
the parties who now complained, but on a motion proposed
by the noble lord (G. Bentinck), the Chancellor of the
Exchequer declared there was not the slightest intention of
departing front the art of 1846, and added that he was anxious
to make the declaration distinctly and explicitly, in order
that there might be no uncertainty in the matter.
True, parliament might have made an alteration despite of
the government. But these polies knew it was not the
practice of parliament to alter fiscal regulations of this kiad
except at the suggestion of a government in whom they had
confidence, and they had a right to confide in a declaration
made by the financial minister of the mown, and
repeated by the President of the Board of Trade
and the Secretary fur the Colonies, ar.d lastly
by the noble lord at the head of the government.
The noble lord was asked, not by the parties who wete to
suffer, but be those who aught to alter the law of 1846, and
he then stated, so late as the 30th of May last, that amyl
meat did not intend to propose any such alteration. Was it
good pdicv, or consistent with public faith literally or
rightly understood that such declarations should be considered
as though they bad never taken place, and parties
who h acted on the opinions of the minister of the crown
should not he protected in haying so acted? There
were no changes in the circumstances of the colonies in June
which were not known in May, when that declaration was
made ; and though he protested against the principle of all
parties claiming corepeasation for loss consequent on
chan. es is public policy when acting on their own risk, in
this case, where the parties had not acted on their own
risk, but on the solemn assurance of the government,
he thought they were entitled to the justice they
claimed; ar.d he had no fear that, its granting it,
they would set a precedent which would be acted on in all
cases of change of duty. While on his legs he would refer
to a statement made by the noble lord as to what fell from
him (Mr. Gladstone) on • former evening. The noble lord
bad charged him with Plying that he had exeressed himself
favourable to remedying the deficiency in the revenue he
increased taxation. What he had said was that it was the
duty of parliament and government to equalise the
revenue and expenditure of the country, and he had
added that the proposal of the noble lord at the
commencement of the session for increased taxation, at
an early period of the year, had been summarily dismissed by
the house, not because parliament, on sufficient cause
shown, would refuse to grant new taxes, but b.cause par
Lament had no confidence in the estimates of the noble lord,
and because they believed those estimates had been pre-
pared without a due regard to the principles of public eco-
nomy. (Hear, hear.) There were instances of extravag nice
which might be referred to. (" Hear, hear," from Mr.
Lebauchere.) The President of the Board of Trade
cheered. If the right hon. gentleman wished it he was
ready to name some of those instances, and at that moment
—instances which, be thought, would make the right hon.
gentleman repent his cheer. But as the cheer was not re-
peated he would not. This was, perhaps, a matter extra-
neous to that under discussion, and he would not further
dwell upon it, but to apologise for any heat be had been be
bayed into. (lieu, hear.)

Mr. LABOUCIIERE conceived that the right hon
gentleman had rather seized the present opportunity to
attack the government than to advance reasons for departing
from an ordinary course; and which, if pursued, would only
establish a precedent full of evil and inconvenience. The
right hon.gentleman's stack, however, was matzo. founded
is reason,candour, or juqice. Although the government pro.
posed an alteration of duties, the act of altering
them was that of the House of Commons. The
government, it was said, were pledged to the existing
scale of duties and to the act of 1846. lie admitted that
when that declaration was made it was the intention of the
government to adhere to that not. They harlidnne so in spirit,
and had most reluctantly come to the conclusion that it
ought to be altered in detail. To the principle of the mea-
sure they still adhered, and for doing so were blamed by a
party in that house, who complained not that they bad de-
parted from the bill of ISI6, but bad adhered too closely to it.
After a short conversation the committee divide.'.
For the amendment
Against it 142-108
On the question that the chairman report the resolutions
to the house,
•

The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER said that in
the remlutions the sth July was printed an the day on which
the duties would be reduced. He begged to state that he
should move on the neat atage.that for the sth the 10th July
should he übstituted, the latter being the day on which the
diminution of duties would commence.
The house then resumed; the resolution, were reported,
and the report was ordered to be received to morrow (this
der i at 12 o'clock.
l'ho house adjourned at 2 o'clock.

DUBLIN ELECTION COMMITTEE, YESTERDAY. -
The committee in the course of the scrutiny trench off four
vets 0. Mr. Reynolds's majority 14 now reducid to 39.
PRINTERS' ALM,linu:E.s.—Last nirAt the annual
genatn. ulec.l ig ur ow ,40-...tnr.. to the l'rinters' Alms
house Fund" was held in •he theatre of the Mechanics In.
atitution, Southampton-buildinga, Chancery-lane. Richard
Taylor, Esq., occupied the chair. From the report of the
committee read to the nue' ins, it appeared that the ground
for the erection of alnashous., had been purchased at one of the
most slluhrious spots in the vicinity of Loudnn sic., at Wood-
smen. Mr. Webb had hem appointrd archtect, and it was
inter.ded that the first st:no should he It dd next spring,
when, it was hoped, some gentleman eminent in literature
would officiate. It had b, en determined that none should
be admitted into the alm.cliouaes but such as were at least GO
years of age, and had subscribed for three years, or paid their
life slscription a year before the day of election. The total
BUM received towards the erection of the institution had been
lOn., while the expenditure of the year was only
124 64. 6tl , that sum being covered nearly by the interest of
the a ncuut invest( dis the fu.ols. Mr. Thompson moved
the aeh.ption of the ieport, and the motion having been duly
seceded and carried, the committee, &c., elected, and some
other business disposed of, a vote of thanks was pasted to
the chairman and the meeting broke up.

MAILS.

The math for British North Americo, and the United Mato%
toll be made up an the evening of the 14th July.
The West India Math, excluding Bermuda, Nara, Mouths,
Honduras, New Orleans, Vera Cone, Tampico, and Porto Rico, and
including those for Model's, Jame', psrWaeena, Santa Martha,
Chagos', Panama, Weal Coast of South America, and Bt. Juan-do.
Nicaragua, will be made up on the evening of the 17th July.
The mails for Vigo, Oporto, tibia, Madeira, Colts, and Gibraltar
will be made upon the morning of the 17th Jot).
The overland mails foe Othralter, Malta, Greece, the lonlan Islands,
Egypt, Aden, Ceylon, India, Hoeg-Kong, and China, Pia routhornp.
ton, will be made upon the morning of the 20th July.
The overland tithed mails, eon MarthWas, to the Mediterranean,
Egypt, Aden, Ceylon, India, (long-Kong, ac., will be made up on the
evening of the 74th July.
rite malls for New South Wales, Van Diemen's Land, and New
Zealand will be made up on the evening of the 31st July.
The mails for the West Coast of Africa and Madeira will be made
sip on the evening of the 31st July.
The math for the Brasile. the River Plate, Monte Video, Pernam-
buco, Bahia, Madeira, and Buenos Ayres, will be made up un the
evening of the 4th August

NOTICE TO ADVERTISERS.
The number of STAMPS issued by the authorities of the
Stamp-olfice, during 1847, to the
DAILY NEWS was 3,447.009
This, we believe, is within eight per cent. of the number
Matted to the Morning Herald, Morning Chronicle, and
Morning Poll, ALL PUT TOORTHER.
In addition to the above, lamed to the DAILY NEWS,
Morning Paper, there were issued for the Eorenin Edition,
THE EXPRESS 778.714
Which was more, we believe, than were issued tither to
the Globe or Standard, Evening Papers.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.
T. s.—The two abllliego .eet by tbl. torreoposSeat ►aen been Comma.' to Mr.
adenrocol, Dablio.

HIGH WATER AT LOPI DWI 111111/01.
'l'... Da. —lsersias as WA. pull IP t Afromeas, 111 •Alo. paa4 IN
T. Hernias, 10 =lrma Ng Abswash SI WW. p.m H.

LONDON. TUESDAY, JULY 11.

THE Times favoured the reading public yesterday
morning with an article on the reform question, in
which a is so difficult to discover any meaning that
oue may be pardoned for suspecting it has none.
The Times announces with great gravity th it "the
insufficiency of the Reform Bill was a reasonable
phenomenon." To the learned in the peculiar dialect
of that journal we leave it to explain what is meant
by calling " insufficiency" a " phenomenon," or what
is "a reasonable phenomer.on." Again, we are sen-
tentiously told that the Reform Bid " did not indeed
destroy, but it mate:idly changed the administration
of public affairs as it had been handed down from the
time of the gnat revolution." We confess our inabi-
lity to conjecture what is meant by " handing down
the administration of public affairs," or how
- • .

" the administration of public affairs" could
be destroyed. The whole article is full of
similar euphuisms—parliament is represented as
moved by " the subtle influences of private intelli-
gence," and "amenable to the instincts of property,"
and it is asserted that the combinations of the work-
ing classes are " independent of reason." Till a
vocabulary of that new dialect of the English lan-
guage employed by this writer is published, we must
despair of benefiting by his wisdom, and contett
ourselves with puzzling out his meaning by a selec-
tion of the few sentences in which he has condescended
to use the vulgar tongue.
The Times then declares that the Reform Bill has
neither performed the good, nor inflicted the evil,
that was anticipated from it. " Its results are so far
negative." Nevertheless, through its operation, "a
class of members who raised the character of the
house for wit, for eloquence, and genius--a class which
was typified by BURKE., CANNING, and MACKINTOiII—
has ceased to exist." The Rouse of Commons is
"governed by an aristocracy," raised from the middle
class, "the qualifications for admission into which
are merely a certain amount of capacity and good
fortune." This is not very flattering to the House
of Commons, but the Reform Act is still more
roughly handled. Its "great vice is its anomalous-
ness." "It does not carry out the purposes its
authors had in view—of reconciling rights with
duties, state contributions and public benefits with
state privileges and political power. There are many
men who pay high rents, and others who pay high
rates, and others again a high tax, who are yet ex-
cluded from the prerogatives which the drunken free-
men of Liverpool and the venal voters of Horsham
enjoy. A most respectable, a moat intelligent, a
most conservative body of people, are thus debarred
from a voice in the legislature to the great damage
of the public interests This is wrong, foolish, and
suicidal."

We cannot accuse ourselves t f having been mealy-
mouthed in our descriptions of the existing electoral
system, or the precious House of Commons for which
we are indebted to it; and yet we do not remember
ever to have crammed more unmitigated and un-
equivocal disparagement of ;both into one article than
the Times has here done. An electoral system which
is " wrong, foolish, and suicidal," and a legislature
that is too imbecile to do either good or harm, and is
unredeemed by talent of any kind, are surely ripe for
refot m. But the object of the Times in lavishing all
this abuse on our electoral system and House of Com-
mons is to jump at the conclusion that it is best
to leave them as they are. " Without a Roform
Bill in 1832 we should have had a rebellion
or a revolution in 1818." And the Reform Bill of
1932 has, according to the political sage who penned
this sentence, proved a delusion, making the legisla-
ture worse than it was before. If, then, we have not
another !dorm bill in 1848, what are we likely to
have before 1864 ?

The reasonii.g (if reasoning it can be called) by
which the Times arrives at the conclusion that
no further reform is needed is as peculiar as
the language in which the greater part of the
article is couched. "We must protest against the ad-
mission of the principle that every man is entitled to
a vote without any qualification whatsoever. Mr.
COBDEN repudiates this. lie grounds his claim
upon property. Others ground theirs upon educa-
tion." And although it is thus mad, to appear that
the parties at present in the field to ask elec-
toral reform do riot claim a vote for every man
"without any qualification whatsoever," the Times
deems it a sufficient reason for rejecting their request
that it would be dangerous to extend the franchise to
those who have no qualification. "We think there
are few practical persons who will not admit that,
bating the existence of a sentimental grievance (which
we by no means wish to disparage), parliament is as
popular in its composition as it would be with a house-
hold suffrage on Mr. COBDEN'S plan, and far more
likely to take care of the commerce and capital of the
kingdom than it would be if subjected to the triennial
caprices of multitudes who were amenable neither to
the instincts of property nor the teachings of reflee-
tion—whosepower was based on numbers, and whose
combination was independent of reason." The mea-
sure actually before the public is set aside in a paren-
thesis, and the argument directed against a measure
not at present under consideration.
The Times has said enough to show that an exten-
sive measure of reform is urgently necessary, and has
said nothing to show that the measure brought for-
ward by Messrs. liustt: and COBDEN is inadequate
to the emergency. The public complaint against the
electoral system and the House of Commons, to which
it has given birth, is not solely, nor even principally,
that they are not sufficiently popular. rho public
complain that neither the one nor the other have en-
sured to us the enjoyment of good government. The
public "grievance' is rankly prosaic and practical,
not " sentimental." And the remedy proposed by
Mr. flew, and his coadjutors, is a practical not a
sentimental proposal, calculated to remove those
" anomalies" which the Times has placed in so pro-
' mineut a point of view.
The foundation of Mr. Bane's plan of reform—the
essential and efficacious part of it to which the other
provisions are in a (peat measure accessories—is the
re-distribution of the efectoral districts upon a joint
hisis of numbers st-1 • ••:•. 1"- -•• • •
I the extension or limitai'ori of tho franc! se —whatever
is to be the period fur which legislators are to bold
their delegated power—whatever is to be the mode of
voting—the re-distribution of the electoral districts is
required to render representation real. It is a prae:i-
cal rule-of-thumb adjustment of the number of repre-
sentatives to the number and property of the parties
repiesente•d that is asked tor, no hair-splitting
theoretical attempt to impart an imp.ssible mathe-
mit ical rxaetntas to this proportion. What would be
said of a joint-stuek winpuny in which a majority of
votes fur directors wire conferred on a small minority
of shareholders owning about a fifth of the shares ?
Yet this isa pretty exact picture of thiet constituency 1
which elects those political directors who decide what
per centagu the whole (overt.), of tho nation ma to
pay towards tho suplsu t of the stab, null upon %h O.
kinds of property it is to press must heavily, and who