The Express.
London, England, 1851-07-26 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, SATURDAY EVENING, JULY 28, 1851.

session 1851, ran away from the moaning shipowners plight in which he is. For, subjected t:sioectinarlete
just in the same scurvy way as he had bolted from freedom of trade, he is also the victim of • dill-
the groaning farmers. Such is the consequence of a advantages—of indeed such& combination o disadvan-
reat patty being led by a man who has no sinocre tages as none of his rivals suffer under. Ho cannot
belief in its principles and no real intention of carry- man his ship as he pleases; wherever he uses a foreign
log out its wishes. port he has to Fay heavy consular fees; when assisted
Though entirely devoted to the principles and in distress or difficulty by a ship of war he has to pay
practice of free-trade in shipping as in food, and salvage charges sometimes amounting to a confis-
regarding the real and actual benefits to the eom- cation of nearly half his ship and its cargo; he is
inanity generally of our late policy to be quite inap- burdened with a duty on insurances which greatly
preciable by statistics which cannot grasp its moral raises their cost; he has to pay a heavy duty on the
and social advantages; nevertheless, we cannot be so timber his vessel is built of ; his arrangements with
uncandid as to deny that the British mercantile his men are surrounded in law by more than all the
marine and the British shipowner have some just hurtful, costly, and mischievous machinery and
and serious grounds of complaint against the present regulations of a trades union ; and on his own coasts
cabinet and the present parliament. Whilst, on and in his own ports he is plucked and, we might
the one hand, however, ministers, have, by, t almost add, plundered by light dues, harbour, pilot-
their indifference to and their neglect of age, and other pecuniary abominations of that port.
those reasonable and proper demands so frequently Here it is that the British shipowner has not fair
made in the House of Commons by Mr. MITCHELL, play, here it is that free trade has not fair play. And
Mr. ANDERSON, and Mr. M. FORSTER, on behalf of free- against these restrictive burthens and imposts it is
trade shipownersgreatlystrengthened thehandsof the that both free traders and shipowners ought to direct
protectionists, augmented their clamour, and injured'' their united efforts, careless of Mr. LABOCCHERE'S
the liberal party; so, on the other hand, the protec- r placid repose, and of Admiral Des DAB'S excitcable
tionists have, by their own inattention to the points temper.
where they really are suffering unfair pressure, and
by their want of support of the gentlemen already
named, themselves greatly to blame, if at the presen
moment they are not in a much better position to
compete with and under such foreigners than in
some respects they actually are.
Prosperity has been in some of its ultimate
effects a great curse to British shipping. When
it had a substantial monopoly, shipping was so
profitable • trade, that its profits attracted into
it persons who had no knowledge of its details,
who took no share in the management of their own
property, and who regarded a ship as so much land
bound to return a certain fixed rent. Such specula-
tors in shipping were in the hands of agents, brokers,
and middlemen whose charges, as the pressure of
competition increased, absorbed all profit. Far-
mers, petty tradesmen,retired capitalists, and even old
ladies were all encouraged, induced, and seduced
into taking shares in ship., indifferently built and
expensively managed. A late City Alderman had
half Scotland—a country always rife is speculation—
engaged in ship adventures, to his own It not to their
profit; and it is much in this fashion that a gentle-
man who now indites long letters on the shipping
interest is supposed to be proceeding.
Shipping thus owned and so managed, taxed, and
eared for, could not be profitable. The great ship-
owners, who built, repaired, and conducted all the
details of their own vessels, could live when ships
in this plight were navigated at a loss. Brokerage,
commission, insurance, management, and such other
charges ate up all the profit of freight- Now
to this class of shipping the repeal of the
navigation laws, that is, the opportunity given
thereby to the people and colonists of Eng-
land to get their goods and commodities earned as
cheaply as the actual cost of transit in any hands
will permit ; to this class the repeal has certainly been
a great blow and a heavy discouragement. The other
and better class, that of the GREENS, the WIGRAMS, the
DI:NB ARS, who attend strictly and closely to their
own affairs, who thereby escape and avoid all inter-
mediate charges, one at least of whom bottles beer
to fill up outward cargo; these men join in the
complaint because they are afflicted with the selfish-
ness common to humanity; but to their shipping,
because it is well managed and cheaply navigated, a
profit still attaches.
Both classes have, however, an instinctive feeling
that the repeal of the navigation laws, as they now
onist, is an impossibility; they therefore advance, as
a substitute for repeal, the doctrine of retaliation.
They say that, since the abrogation of the old laws
Spain has placed additional restrictions on the ship-
ping of other countries; that the United States have
inconveniently extended the monopoly of their coast-
ing trade to the coast of the Pacific ; and that France
has not responded to our liberality. Let us, there-
fore, they propose, retaliate on thew countries ;let us
injure ourselves because they hurt us; let us put in
force the 11th section of the statute of 1849. This,
we venture to think, and will endeavour to show, is
very absurd.
Spain has not specially directed any legislation
against this country; she has simply. acted on the com-
mercial principles which these friends of retaliation
propound as moat calculated to promote human happi-
ness, and toincreasenational wealth; she hascommitted
no exceptional commercial hostility against England;
and for this country to retaliate on Spanish misuitel-
Bruce of the true interests of Spain, would be an
act of barbarism, besides being a piece of folly. In
time Spain will growvriser, as we have done in time.
Spain will in time consent to interchange
with England a treaty of trade and navigation;
Spain will in time admit our ships freely into Cuba,
where, heaven knows, Spain has full right to be
suspicious of us and of ours. But during the time
we have to wait, we really cannot
.punish ourselves
by excluding sherry wine or raising the price of
Havana cigars. We, in our turn, are far too selfish;
we cannot do without these creature comforts. Cus-
tom is a second nature.
That American ships have advantages in that
modern El Dorado, California, over ours, is very in-
convenient and unpleasant; for it enables them not
only to engross its trade, but to take lower freights
from China than is profitable to us. But who is to
blame ? Not the White House at Washington, but
the Board of Trade in Whitehall. We will advance
pari passe with you, said Mr. BANCROFT to Lord
Psfatzttsrox; and so they have. But Mr. LABOU- '
CHEER had not the courage to open what the Yankees
could not take advantage of, our coasting trade; and
so they exclude us from theirs, part of which is the
California trade. Here we are paying for our own
fully. As Spain is injuring herself, so we have in-
jurcl, and in a far sillier way, ourselves.
And what is the retaliation proposed against
America ? Let us, say the Liverpool Shipowners'
Association, " provide that the carrying trade vi.th
the colonial possessions of the British crown in Ame-
rica and India and all the other dependencies, should
henceforth be comprised within the coasting trade
of Great Britain and Ireland." Astounding folly!
Incredible selfishness! What! deprive the West
Indies of cheap liner and cheap lumber, and so there
increase the cost of sugar production to the advan-
tage of their rivals in Brazil and Cuba, because
the United States act on the principle which Mr.
LABOIXIIEREi in spite of all remMistrance, would
insist on forcing into the sot of 1849. As well at
once propose to abandon our sugar colonies. But
thus it ever is with principles essentially false; you
can't apply them without injustice and injury in
every direction, and all around you.
And then France ; we are asked to retaliate on
France, whose late ambassador was actually p
and hunting down Mr. LABOUCHERE to negotiate and
conclude with him a more liberal navigation treaty,
whose present ambassador is ready and willing and
desirous to do the same, and in the success of which
negotiation our shipping have a far deeper interest
than in the repeal of the act of 1849. For the
France
negotiations of turn, as we have often shown,
on what is really a grievous burthen on our own, as
well as their, marine—light dues, harbour dues,
port dues, and other local burthens.
Free trade in shipping has, no doubt, put the
British shipowner to his pinches : that was its ine-
vitable consequence, though not its intention ; but
it is putting his trade and his property in a
sound condition, and, once over the difficulties
of the revolution, it will place him and it
at the head of the carrying trade of the
world again. But how, and why ? By mensal the
economy it will enforce, the attention it will beget,
the intelligence it will introduce, the improvement,
Mr. BERRIES and Mr. Yousc complain, and en- the skill, the good conduct it will beget, that it is
force their complaint with statistics tediously elabo- already begetting ; by means of driving out of the
rate, that the repeal of the navigation laws has nearly trade those who ought never to have entered it, by
ruined British shipping. Mr. LABOITHERE and Mr. breaking up and destroying a class of shipping which
Witsois join issue on the statement, and endeavour is a disgrace to the country, and by reducing to the
to show how, under the influence of free trade, ranks of labouring men a class of skippers who in-
British shipping has participated in the general in- jure the reputation of the English merchant service.
crease of British commerce. Here, then, was a point and depreciate freights in English bottoms in tansy
on which to take the opinion of the legislature—aye foreign port they enter.
or no? Has, or has not, our shipping gone on in- In this struggle the British shipowner has so
creasing since 1849, when the great change was claim for a protection injurious to the trade which
made ? This was the question. And how was it gives him and his vessels employment ; sad the
met ? Why, Mr. DISRAELI, snatching up Mr. Li- country cannot afford to indulge him in • sewed=
soccutnei incidental remark that negotiations were but costly luxury of retaliation against other
in progress with three foreign states, backed and slid countries. But in the struggle he has an irresistible
his party out of a division ; staved off a decision for claim to be misted in many points ; and it is not
which he had pretended so much eagerness • eluded creditable to a government which subjected him to
the expression of parliamentary opinion ; and, in the unrestrained competition now to leave him in the

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Coalesdasery LAADAnissit, 333, Oxford street, Resesteireve.

Elie •rpreisgi.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.
/seed Edition of The Kapeess." containing •ba saes esealses
" ells," is publidied every Tuesday sal Priday unlit. is %Ins

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FRANCE.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
Tan luv —ll.wahug 12h. Oft. AftarDOOS, ss.
Towsesao. —Nur aim!. 12h. 34u .Aftervess. 39m.

PARIS, FRIDAY MORNINO.
The Bonapartist committee for promoting peti-
tions for the revision, have published a manifesto,
urging the country to fresh efforts during the next
three months, to make known through petitions the
will of France. . . _ _

LONDON, SATURDAY, JULY 26.

WnEN the ministers of this country found them-'
selves, not long ago, in a majority of no more them
thirteen, they felt that they were called upon te re-
sign: The cabinet of Louis NAPOLEON are left is
a minority of thirteen, on a motion censuring this
administrative conduct of one of their principal mem-
bers, and are content to retain office. The contrast
is striking and curious enough; but is it real, or
apparent only
In a constitutional regime like that under which
we live, the head of the executive government holding
office for life, would be wholly uncontrollable if it
were not for the system of ministerial accountability.
But ministerial accountability means ministerial
removability, or it means nothing. Parliament &
the revolution forbore to assert by statute its claim
to appoint and to cashier cabinets; but it forbore
simply from the consciousness of its power to assert
and enforce the right whenever it pleased. Practi-
cally the exercise of this really supreme power in
the state has come to be exercised by the House of
Commons. And so profound is the conviction
that against the will of an ascertained ma-
jority of that assembly no set of men can
venture to hold office ; that when the sha-
dow of coming censure is seen to fall upon
the Treasury bench, it is deemed good tactics
and good taste to anticipate the apprehended event
by resignation. ]knee the crisis of February last in
England, and the tender twice repeated of power to
the opposition.
But in a republic like France the necessity of the
case and its characteristic features are in many. re-
spects different. Louts NAPOLEON *Aborts the right
rirt ale qfied to choose his confidential advisers, and
to name the heads of all the departments of the
state. To the Legislative Assembly he has signifi-
cantly refused to acknowledge that in this he is ac-
countable.
Bmittor in his speech, the other day, re-
minded the Assembly that when, in October, Isti,
he and his colleagues were summarily dismissed by
the l'assiloEs r, although at the time they enjoyed,
confessedly, the confidence of a large majority of the
representative body, no protest was made, the right
of the head of the executive was tacitly admitted,
and the example was set fur subsequent acts of the
same character. Still more recently a cabinet, as may
be recolleeted,was even appointed, several of whom did
not possess any parliamentary- position whatever. as if
Louis NAPOLEON meant to assert in the most unequi-
vocal sense his notions of irresponsibility in this behalf.
According to his theory of the constitution of 1848,
the President is appointed for personal qualities, and
in order that during his term of office he may carry
on what is called " personal government," that is to
say a course of policy in which his individual views
and opinions are legitimately to have influence and
expression. Whether this be the sound and orthodox
version of the republican constitution is a question
• which a constituent assembly, should it ever be
called together, will probably have to decide. But
it is clear, that no other body has the courage to
raise, fur less the power to settle it, as things now
stand. The President makes and unmakes ministers
at his own discretion and at his own peril ; and the
votes of confidence or censure passed upon his
advisers by the Legislative Assembly, have no pad•
tire definable or recognised effect whatever.
The power of refusing supplies is doubtless in the
bands of the representatives of the nation. But this
in reality is little short of an open threat of revolu-
tion. The business of the country and the main-
tenance of public credit are not to be jeopardised on
ordinary occasions. This is, indeed, the hydraulic
hammer which the House of Commons possesees, but
whose use with us has come to be adjusted by a
variety of ingenious contrivances, so nicely, that it
seldom does anything more terrible than crack
some luckless official nut that is subjected to its
resistless but regulated pressure. Every one
understands amongst us that the issue d
ministerial life or extinction may be safely and,
effectually taken on some small point, and that de.'
cided, that the reserved power of the parliamentary
machine is not to be retorted to, because nobody
would dream of provoking it. But in a new systems
of rule like that which our neighbours have adopted,
no such understanding or adaptstioa exists. The
two powers of the constitution arc so needy 111
equipoise, that neither is disposed to yield to the
other; and as their objects and aims are oppsui,
the whole ganie has been and still is a strategse easy
having for its purpose the wearying out or frighten-
ing of one side by the other,—the suppressed menace
mutually interchanged being—a revolution.
The example of the United States is ignorantly re-
ferred to sometimes as tending to show that the lire-
*Went of a republic may have the power of naming
and removing ministers at will without infringing
the sovereignty of parliament. Nothing can
be more silly or inane than such an illus-
tration. The constitutional powers of the president
of the Anglo-Saxon commonwealth are in certain
particulars greater than those of a constitutional'
king. But as compared with those which ere
claimed by the President of FRANCE, they are no-
thing. Let a madman or a bad man try to abuse the
functions ielded by WASHINGTON, ADAMS, Of
JACKSON, and he would simply cover himself with
ridicule and contempt. lie could no more sob-
vert the federal liberty of America by the
perversion or evasion of legal forms than
he could wheedle the west wind, or betray
the Mississippi into changing its course. The chief
of an intensely centralised administration, at the
head of 410,000 men in arms, is in a very different
position. In the United States, the senate is the
real executive in matters of the greatest moment; in
France there is no second chamber at all. But to
pursue the contrast is SUpfeklool. The truth is,
that the constitution of 1848 has left undeclared and
undetermined the gravest and weightiest of practical
questions—that, namely, of ministerial responsibility;
and until it is settled, every palmation of the politiial
frame will necessarily be a painful and dangerous
throb.

The great question of the day is one which the
papers do not as yet dare to touch on with any degree
of distinctness. It is evident that if any portion of
the party of order intend to start a candidate for the
presidency in opposition to Louis Napoleon, it is time
for the projectors of such a plan to come to some un-
derstanding on the personage whom they intend to
propose to the national choice. Now the decided op-
ponents of Louis Napoleon among the majority have
been pretty distinctly defined by the recent division
on M. Base's motion of censure. 1 hey consist of
fusionists, regentists, and ultra-legitimists, whose
, organs are respective the Assemble,e Nationale,Ordre,
and Opinion Publique. Accordingly, mysterious hints
appear in these newspapers as to the negotia-
tions on foot for ithe preparation of a common
candidature. It is at the same time avowed that
the present moment is too early to put forward pub-
licly a declared candidate; because the nation is so
fickle that a premature appearance en the scene
would only increase the chances of defeat. Every
one knows that the personage who unites the votes
of the regentists, ultra-legitimists, and fusionists
against Louis Napoleon is General C'hangarnier. Of
course nothing would delight the socialists so much
as this candidature being started in opposition to the
present President, as it would so effectually divide
the party of order throughout the country, that the
socialist candidate would have an excellent chance of
being returned.
PARIS, FRIDAY EVENING.
The committee of leaves of absence having exa-
mined the Ministers of Interior, Finance, and Ge-
neral Bedeau, vice-president of the Assembly, has
decided on proposing to the Assembly to prorogue
itself from the 10th August to the 20th October.
The composition of the committee of permanence
is beginning to occupy the attention of parlia-
mentary circles. This year, I believe, great care
will be taken by the bulk of the majority to agree
upon moderate but firm men, and to eliminate all
noisy, factious alarmists.
The councils-general are officially convoked for the
23th of August, and their sessions are to close on
the 10th September. The council-general of the
Seine, however, forms an exception, and is to sit
from the 25th October to the 10th November. The
councils of arrondissement arc to meet on the 10th

September for the second part of their sessions,
which is to last five days. The council of arron-
dissement of the Seine is to sit from the 16th to the
21st November.

The report of M. Passy on the budget of expenses
begins with presenting some considerations on pub-
lic works. It states that during the three years
which preceded the revolution of February 1848,
although the revenue of the country scarcely more
than covered its ordinary expenses, as much as 510
millions of francs were allowed for extraordinary
works. At present, although the evil is diminishea,
not less than 70 millions, impossible to cover with
the ordinary receipts fall annually to the charge of
the floating debt. The reduction of several indirect
taxes has deprived the treasury of 57 millions, and
the new taxes will only cover 50 millions of this loss.
The remission by the government of the 17 centimes
has occasioned a fresh loss of 27 millions. On the
other hand, several branches of the revenue have
fallen off. In 1846 the indirect taxes yielded more
than 827 millions; in 1847, nearly 825, notwith-
standing the scarcity of food. The same resources
ought to have yielded, according to the present sys-
tem, 812 millions. Unfortunately this result is so
far from any prospect of realisation that the esti-
mated amount, 7113 millions, greatly exceeds the pro-
bable receipts. Thus, while the expenses remain
the same, the receipts are diminished by 78 millions;
so that, taking into account the supplementary credit,
the annual deficit greatly exceeds 100 millions.
The total granted by the committee amounts, for the
ordinary budget, to 1,384,329,562 fr. ; for the extra-
ordinary, 53,002,267. Hence the general total of
eapenses amounts to 1,437,331,829 fr.
M. A. Gouin's report on the project of the budget
of receipts for 18,32, after some preliminary remarks
on the financial consequences of the revolution of
1848, states, that after having reduced as much as
possible the amount of ordinary expenses, the dimi-
nution scarcely amounted to 36 millions,
while imperious necessity had introduced
more than 91 millions of extraordinary expenses,
which brought the expenses of 1850 to 51 millions
more than 1846; and the most regrettable part of
this increase were two items, one of 56,891,617 fr.
increase of the permanent debt, and the other of 7
millions, representing a capital of 200 millions in the
floating debt, which charges were heavier for the
budget, because they were not susceptible of any
economy. The receipts were not more satisfactory.
After having with difficulty attained an increase
of 41 millions by new and increased taxes, a sum
far from sufficient to cover the expenses, they
had abandoned 83 millions which the treasury had
received with great exactitude every year. IVithout
expressing an opinion on those reductions, so far as
the interest of the tax-payers was concerned, the
report maintains that they were inopportune, be-
cause they aggravated the financial situation, and
rendered the ordinary resources insufficient to meet
the ordinary expenses, even although towards the
latter the whole dotation of the sinking fund was
applied, and all the extraordinary public works were
carried on upon credit.
The committee thought it right to advert to this
situation, so dangerous for the future, in the hope
that the government and the tax-payers themselves
would feel the necessity of putting a stop to such a
state of things as soon as possible. Recapitulation :
Total expenses
Plus Extraordinary Budget 53,002,829
Total Receipts

The sitting of the Assembly to-day. was brief and
without the least importance. A string of motions,
involving no interest, were disposed of. The only
incident worth mention was the presentation by
M. Dufaure of the report on the Lyons Railway.
This document concludes with a project of law, of
which the Ist article proposes that the railway shall
be provisionally continued at the expense of the
Istate. The 2nd article provides that a credit of two
millions stirling shall be opened to the Minister of
Public Works, one million sterling to be charged to
the accounts of 1831, and the other million to the
accounts of 1852. The 3rd article authorises the
Minister of Finance to inscribe on the grand livre
of the public debt a sufficient quantity of rentes to
make up the capital of two millions sterling. Art. 4
enacts that a sinking fund, consisting of one-
hundredth part of the nominal capital of the rentes
inscribed, shall be added to the general sinking
fund.

The debate on the treaties of La Plata has been
adjourned indefinitely. The motive of the adjourn-
ment is to obtain a modification of the treaties before
they are submitted to discussion in the Assembly.
The funds to-day presented no notable chant.
The Fives closed at 93.40, with a rise of 3c. The
Threes rose 10e., and closed at 67.23.