The Express.
London, England, 1848-02-22 00:00:00

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tux on an income to continue for ever, is a monstrous
outrage on justice. When this consideration was
urged with reference to the temporary tax of 1842, it
was perhaps lees attended to, from the knowledge
that the tax would in fact be permanent. Surely it
is not intended to admit on the present occasion that
the new per tentage is also to last for ever.

DECIDEDLY the moat important pasaage in the In-
dian despatches of yesterday is the h:ief and modest
notification which, under the date of the last day of
the }'ear, sweeps away the pernicious and compara-
tively unprofitable tax upon the export of raw cotton
from all the ports of India. There is something pecu-
liarly graceful in the mummer in which this decisive
amelioration has been announced. It is the dosing
legislative act of an eventful year—of a year which
as pointedly, perhaps, as any that aver rolled
away, has
.shown the uncertainties and the hazards of
the pursuits of commerce, and the urgent ne-
cessity of hampering by no artificial impedimenta
a description of enterprise already beset with mani-
fold dangers. It is also among the latest acts of
authority of one of the mixt remarkable men who
have ever repre,ented the royalty of England in the
greatest of its colonial possessions. Lord HARDINGE
will live in something better than the military chro-
nicles of the East. Fortune has decreed that his days
should be consumed in camps and bivouacs, but his
heart has ever yearned after peace, and the blessings
and the arts which peace alone can give, and while
the European community of that land of exile may
perpetuate his fame by statues of bronze and
marble, he will receive a better tribute from the
spontaneous gratitude of the whole people. The
natives of the broad and fertile plains of that far
country will couple his name with the memories of
CORNWALLIS and Lord WILLIAM BENTINCIi, and he
will be known as a great Englishman who had the
mind and the capacity to become a father of his
people.
the abrogation of the export duty will not affect
the European cotton trade of India, but it will have
a decided influence upon the large trade carried on
with China, chiefly at Canton. The export to Europe,
both under British and foreign flags, has been
free for a long period, but, until this alter-
ation, a duty of 9 lianas per maund has been
levied on all .hipments of cotton in British vessels to
countries eastward of Ceylon, and a dirty of 18 aunas
(or doublo if the commodity was conveyed in foreign
bottoms. 'them rates resolved themselves into an
ad valorem duty, varying in pressure according to the
price of the article ; and for some time past we be-
lieve that the nail weight of the tax has not been less
than 6 or 7 per cent.
The mere abolition of the export rate is not the
whole of the innovation—the distiuction formerly
raised between ehips navigating under British and
foreign colours is utterly swept away ; and in truth
Lord liAnDINGE, by this measure, has paid a two-
fold homage to the genius of free trade, for he
has not only annihilated the Custom-house, but he
has also reformed the navigation laws as far as they
concern the article of cotton in the Indian seas.
The following figures will convey some idea of the
magnitude of the boon thus extended. The figures
represent in pounds avoirdupois the I •tal exports of
cotton, and the exports to Chino in 1543-14, the last
year for which we have complete rcturas from all the
presidencies:
Total export. F.xport to China.
Calcutta
Madras '3,202000 ..... 11,803,000
Bombay 1;1,367,000 . 77,331,000