The Express.
London, England, 1847-06-05 00:00:00

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TO CORRESPONDENTS.
..• Advertlimenta Wended for The &tyre" London evening pars,
mug be at the Moo try Two o'clock co the day or publication.

MOH WATER AT LONRON-BRIDOE.
Tzes 11,2-16crekni, 12 min. past 6; AltiCoool4 Si dz. rest 6.
TO.llolllloW—Worninl. 8 min. wit 7 ; Aftirows. SS =la. pea 7.

LONDON, SATURDAY, JUNE 5.

In the House of Lords, yesterday, the select
committee on the petition respecting the Bir-
mingham and Oxford Junction Railway Bill, was
nominated. A conversation ensued on the sub-
ject of the blockade in the Douro, and with
respect to British interference, but without lead-
ing to any result —Lord MONTEAOLE, in an ex-
' placatory speech, replied to by Earl GREY, moved
the appointment of a select committee on the subject
of Irish emigration, which motion, after some obser-
vations from Earl FITZWILLIAM, was agreed to.
In the House of Commons, on the motion of Mr. T.
DUNCOMBE, Mr. WORTLEY and Mr. CARDWELL were
added to the committee on the Thames Conservancy
Bill. Mr. LABOUCHERE, in answer to Mr. S. O'BRIEN,
replied that he had reason to believe, though not in
possession of positive information, that the Irish
judges bad recommended a postponement of the
assizes in Ireland. A conversation ensued ou the
affairs of Portugal, Mr. HUME'S motion in reference
to British interference, at its close, being definitely
fixed for Thursday next. Subsequently Mr. B.
OSBORNE gave notice of hie intention, if the motion
was not brought on on Monday next, as originally
intended, to move a resolution that it is
hostile to the liberties of Europe, and con-
trary to the uniform policy of the British
government, to enter into any convention or treaty
with any foreign power having for its object the
maintenance of any particular dynasty in Portugal,
or the suppression of popular opinion by force of
arms.—Lord PALMERSTON said the papers would
prove that the object of the British government was,
not to establish despotic government in Portugal, but
to secure to the Portuguese people all the privileges
which the constitution and the charter of Don Pedro
had conferred on them.—Lord J. RUSSELL observed,
with respect to the report of a hostile collision in
the Tagus, that his impression was, in the
absence of positive information, that if any such
had taken place it was between the ships of
the Queen of Portugal and those of the
Junta, and not between the latter and the British
men-of-war. The noble lord, in answer to Mr. JOHN
I COLLETT, also said it was not the intention of the go-
vernment, during the present parliament, to supply the
deficiency in the number of members consequent
upon the disfranchisement of Sudbury. The Wel-
lington statue again attracted the notice of the house,
Lord MORPETH stating, in answer to Mr. C.
BERKELEY, that the sculptor had been requested to
furnish a design for an elevation and pedestal, and
when approved, the site would be determined on, but
the statue to remain in its present position until the
new works were in a condition to receive it. The

get monopoly in India, the state of the potato
crop in Ireland, and the relief of Irish distress,
were the next subjects discussed ; and on the
thinl reading of the Loon Discount Loid

his intention, but

out fixing a time, of proposing a measure for the
limitation or repeal of the Bank Charter Act of 1844.
The adjourned debate on the subject of transportation
and secondary punishment was resumed by Mr.
Ew,orr, who was followed by Mr. 0. W. HOPE, Mr.
E. DENISON, Sir J. PAKINGTON, Mr. Hot; and Mr.
&twits ; the debate, on the motion of Mr. NEWDE-
GATE, standing still further adjourned to Monday next.

The reason assigned by the journal which is sap-
posedtoak the opinions of Lord PALMERSTON, for
the Britishnavy undertaking the task of coercing and
crushing the Portuguese liberals, is, that if Great
Britain did not consent to act the part of executioner,
France and Spain would undoubtedly undertake it.
We are thus, at seems, only half crushing the Portu-
guese constitutionalists, in order to prevent Spain and
France from wholly crashing them. As to the
possibility of our saying to Spain, " You must not
intervene in this quarrel;" or our stating to M. Guam',
that we would not allow him to be judge of when in-
tervention was necessary in Portugal, nor suffer France
to support the Queen at Lisbon in treading down con.
stitutional government, after having already supported
a Spanish queen in the same purpose: this, of course,
would be too bold and frank a policy for the govern-
ment of England.
Instead of any such straightforward mode of
proceeding, England pretends to be of the same
way of thinking with Spain and with France,
affects to share their enmity for the Portuguese
liberals, and proffers to act police in bombarding
their towns, in exiling and fettering their chiefs,
simply because they will not trust the tender
mercies of the Queen and court. Such policy
on the part of England, excused by such motives,
strikes us as highly derogatory to the national
pride, and prejudicial to our interests. Of course,
the great object of French courtiers and Spanish
moderados being to crush the liberals of Portugal,
they are still more delighted a ith getting us to do it
than with doing it altogether themselves. Such an
act on the part of England ensures our being
execrated by all that is liberal in Portugal, mistrusted
by all that is liberal in Spain. So that, being thus
left without any party in either country, no influence
can remain to us but through the courts of both,
a kind which the French know far better how to
acquire and to employ than we do.
We sincerely hope that ministers in the House of
Commons will sesame some other line of defence, and
put forward some other arguments than these very dis-
graceful ones pleaded in the Chronicle of yesterday.
We donot wish to judge till the full materials for judg-
ment have been provided. Government, we dare say,
may be able to show that it was neither hypocritical
nor insincere in its previous support of the liberals, and
to prove that it did its best to ensure the restoration
of freedom and of the constitutional system; and that
if it now takes part with the Queen, it not only be-
lieves the Queen sincere in her promises, but is deter-
mined to see those promises truly and effectively per.
formed. A change in British policy, brought about
by a change in the intentions and principles of con-
tending parties, may be defended as justifiable and
proper. But to excuse this precipitate change
on the ground of fear, to represent our hasty embrac-
ing of the Queen's cause as a trick to anticipate
France and Spain in playing the same part, which
we knew to be unjust to the liberals, but which we
consented to adopt, lest France and Spain might
adopt it—this would constitute on the part of Eng-
lana a line of policy, and a course of argument to
sustain it, certainly very new in English annals, and
of a kind which we shall refrain from characterising.
If we avow such policy and such motives, it is
plain that Spain and France are at any and all times
our masters. They have nothing to do but to menace
to pursue towards one of our allies a line of conduct,
which we disapprove, in order to force us to adopt it.
Let us be for a constitutional system, they for an ab-
solute government, they have but to threaten inter-
vention in order, not merely to force us to desist, but
force us to execute the very intervention which they
menaced, and against theparties which were our friend'
and their foes !
It is quite plain that we have turned round in Por-
tugal—that Great Britain, represented by Lord
HOWARD DE WALDEN and Mr. SOUTHERN, was for
liberal and oonstitutional government, and for the
party which upheld it—and it is quite clear now,
that we have broken with the constitutionalist; and,
under Sir GEORGE SEYMOUR and Colonel WTLDE,
have become courtiers and moderados.
All this requires to be explained and accounted for
by honourable motives. It is not an honourable
motive to say, that we did this out of fear of France,
or fear of Spain. Neither would it be decorous to
have done this out of devotion to the interests
of the Coburg family. The only true excuse
mast consist in showing that the change
was made in the interests of freedom and of the
liberals themselves, and in strong pledges that those
interests will be protected and considered sacred.
Whether government was right or wise in incurring
this great responsibility is a question; but, having
incurred it, we must abide by the consequences.
England has been accused, at different times, of being
wanting to its word, and having turned against those
who trusted it All remember Paige and Genoa.
But those were times of tory majorities. A British
parliament would not now tolerate an approach to such
things or each recollections.
The accounts which have just arrived from Portu-
gal still leave hopes of the junta submitting. We
eagerly entertain each hopes; because we think
that British shot fired against the constitutionalists at
Oporto, or a Spanish army under Caserta being
allowed to march to the destruction of Portuguese
liberals, are events highly prejudicial and discredit-
able to England, and especially to a liberal ministry
in England.

IN the absence of urgent political controversies,
there seems to be some danger that in many places
electors will call upon candidates for pledges as to
their future conduct on religious or quasi-religious
questions. The government system of education, the
removal of Catholic and Jewish disabilities, the policy
to be adopted with respect to the Irish Roman Catholic
clergy, may furnish points of union for electoral
combinations, and means of checking or favouring
the interests of candidates. The feeling of the
country in favour of the proposed scheme of educa-
tion has been so strongly and generally declared, that
it may be hoped few members will be found who
will be inclined to compromise their own opinions in
favour of the busy minorities who may try to
secure by action at the hustings a future reversal
of the decision of parliament. There are other ques-
tions, however, on which candidates may be tempted,
by the hope of support or fear of oppoeition, to fettar
thetnse:ves unnecessarily and perniciously. They Will
know that few votes are to be gained by a Preto",
of religious liberality, and they may think that it is
worth while to purchase freedom of action in general
politics at the expense of binding themselves to
abet and farther the religious prejudices of. a
portion of their constituents. Members
.of parlia-
ment are not, in general, strong believers m the no-
popery cry ; but too many of them know that it
counts for fifty or five hundred votes at
as
election, and that these who do not raise it are
nevertheless indifferent to its repression. If the pro-
testantism of England was, as it is not, in danger, we
might not be indisposed to warn our countrymen at
the impending evil : but, even in that case, We doubt
whether acts of parliament would be our most eS
clout safeguard. They have not done much for
scriptural religion in Ireland; and if the people.of
England were to be seized with a miraculous Wines
of all their present convictions and dispositions, lad
to rush frantically into the arms of Rome, it seems to
us that the House of Commons could do nothing but
submit to ratify the marvellous national conversion. It
is really time that the persecution or repression of po
pnl
should cease to be coneidered as apolitical object. Above
all, it is time that those who claim to lead, to=
sent, and to govern their countrymen should p
at least, as much liberality and enlightenment as the,
really possess. Same ultra-liberal candidates ha"
already promised to vote for the repeal of the May-
nooth act—not, certainly, from any hope or wish that
the act should be rescinded, but from a servile fear d
the ultra-protestant cliques who may in a balaseat
constituency have it in their power to disperse
the representation. A tacit understanding, awl
as that which governs persons of the mar
trade in business, and lays down for that
mutual benefit the rules which are to govel
and restrict their competition, ought to be adopted
rival candidates. The points on which they rsalY
agree, such as (in nine cases out of ten) the poor-lav
and the 11Nnuotli grant, ought to be consular(' au'

Sr

posess— f•
The lowest rioter
-YO m
_aude Ala". his favour by "ash:
laailiXlitsis time that be abeald his
se the literal-minded osomorporeta who his
sodhi/ wow to have all the palwrses of a_
iser °lid.
sod the most exquisite attest!, of which we
sowed to introduce sectarian anneosity into po-
lio! looggles has been made by the well-known
loos, of Liverpool. It seems that thi
has
s
1111'▪ ors vof the Beast of the Revelations
MU.. a
• des buttes, with a sudden love of
seg% eoPnrm med with a desire, and no doubt a
tM delve, to assist the Irish relief fund. Accord-
!.7",i, !when taken occasion to deliver, for the benefit
7 all Irish Association, a lecture on a picture—
▪ p what picture ? Not on RAFFNELLE'S cartoon
d, feeding of the five thousand, nor yet
gcsimeolous. draught of fishes, nor on any of the
• of BORROmEO at Milan, nor on the
111!dilliTItstrations of Charity which are to be
• sooty collection. By a curious coincidence,
xlisunes teathetical judgment selected an histo-
-01 atuve of the trial of the seven bishop'. The
t mat tyre were used to open the hearts
Won
dia=alito the distresses of the Irish papists;
mi doubt, uhe warmed with admiration of the
eir, and in critical appreciation of the colour-
ke was also unintentionally drawn on to
4stiste on the original of the painted scene, on the
seoechments of 'Ames IL, on the resistance of the
ind of Oxford, on the overthrow of the
hog kis& and the final triumph of proteetantism.
haps the moral also followed, altugh critics and
mil cell WI that art is sufficient fork
tself without an
Wiwi or religious key.
And J., there any moral hid
within the mown at the ross
We doubt not, however, that the orator deli-
stay intimated to the lovers of art in Liverpool,
tilt while they subscribed for the Irish, and
while they appreciated lights, and distances, and
&lag, they. should yet vote for some candidate
to whose imagination Rome always painted itself in a
land fire, like me of TURNER'S, and who woald re-
sist to the death all attempts to do common justice to
say bet the holders of the true, genuine, low church,
sisiemuitan! no-popery
Another absurd exhibition of religious twaddle in a
political struggle has arisen in the course of the Ox-
led contest. The Times rather humorously informed
Mr. ROUND'' supporters, that he had been seen at a
&at* earl, where our pious contemporary can-
any hoped hehad not gone with religious objects. Mr.
Roads supporters instantly. took alarm. The charge
tidy declared was as calumnious as it was grave, and
}bribed the ineffable absurdity to publish a statement
at their candidate regularly attended a certain
earth at Pimlico every Sunday morning and even-
*. We wonder they did not add certificates that he
twined himself to three glasses of wine a day, roes
belf-past seven, went to bed at eleven, and per-
treed all the other domestic duties of an English
in a manner corresponding with his faalt-
Cdoellanteervaace of the Sabbath.
The Standard, more stir, backed up its friends in
their absurdity. A congenial correspondent &r-
-obed that paper with a statement that whereas Mr.
Bova had nut gone to a meeting-house, Mr. GLAD-
run had converted a lady of hoe family to Roman-
ia. Mr. GLADSTONE took the trouble to write to
the Standard to declare the falsehood of this imperti-
rea chargs ; but at first could only obtain a declare-
hoc that, in the correspondent's opinion, the charge
was nevertheless virtually true. On being farther
pruned, this genuine contributor of the Standard con-
fessed his error, but justified it by the charge
which had been brought against Mr. ROUND. I
disapprove, he magnanimously says, of this mode of
carrying on the contest: But I thought that if Mr.
BOUND was to be watched and dogged, the same mode
d attack might be made useful against his opponents.
h other words, that if the Times had a joke against
Mr. ROUND, the Standard might as well have a false-
hood against Mr. OLAnsTONE. To make the matter
letter still, Mr. ROUND admits that the atrocious and
calumnious charge is, in fact, tree. Re has only
been there three or four times, but then he has
ken—apparently for the purpose of whetting his
appetite for the Pimlico services, by eager observation
of the eccentric devotions of nocconformity. If he
had not been there, his fall love for the church might
have remained without sufficient development.
It is disgraceful that a contest for Oxford should be
mixed up with such gossip and twaddle as this.
The educated constituency, who ought to judge of
the capacity of their representative with a larger
and more liberal view than can be expected of
Wars or mechanics, allow themselves to be
amassed by means which almost any borough in
the country would despise. If Mr. ItouND's prin-
ciples and talents are such as they must believe them
to be, he ought to be proof against the seductions of
ern four dissenting sermons. If his supporters can-
not trust him in the enemy's camp, they must greatly
doabt him in their own. But these follies will not
beer argument. It is enough to mention them.

On of those terrific catastrophes has occurred
at Chester which we have long had reesin to
expect : • *lway bridge gave way while a train
wee poring, and train and passengers were pre-
eiPtated inta the depths below. Where the line of
the Cheater and Shrewsbury Railway crosses the Bee
with a bridge 300 feet long, one of the arches, or
rather one side of one arch, crumbled down, and
the were devoted to a new species of
*fade, a horrid mixture of suffocation and con-
tain. The train had just started from the
station, and was of course moving but slowly.
The engine-driver, with incredible presence of mind,
put big steam on the engine of the falling train, and
the obedient locomotive, as by an instinctive spasm.
bounded from the chasm, and bore its rider unharmed
on to the solid land ; his companion on the tender, a
few inches behind, being overwhelmed with the other
Pilferers in the train. He has lived to tell us how,
without any warning—how, without any previous
symptom or we Amos or vibration in hie daily pas-
sages along the line, he had carried over train after
train, both of heavy goods end, as in this case, light
with managers, in perfect confidence ; and how, in
an instant, without warning, or visible occasion, he
felt the way yielding beneath him. But neither he
nee any ere-witness of the accident seems able to ac-
count for its falling.
All over the country the alarm excited has been
great, and much natural, though perhaps somewhat
nuliecrimiOste, indignation, has been felt and strongly
expressed. As there are two or three bridges in
every mile, over every line of railway, the chance of
some one breaking down as a train passes over it,
becomes a subject of anxiety to every railway
traveller.
We have, therefore, regarded the progress of
the inquest with great interest, and have ex-
amined the scene of the disaster. The bridge is
formed of iron girders or beams, nearly 100 feet each
in length, and there are bridges of similar construc-
tion, though not of the same extent, in use on all
the railways of the country. A pair of these
girders support each line of rails. They are of great
strength, being more than a yard in depth of solid
icon casting, and have the additional security of what
is willed •=lntf of wrought iron bare, designed not
merely to en the bridge, but also in case of
fracture or *xi ent, to prevent it from falling down
suddenly, as in this case unhappily it did, in spite of
that precaution.
The first question that oocarredto the public, and the
first asked by the foreman of the jury, Sir E. WALKIEI4
was this: how came the railway board to sanction
the opening eta bridge which many people now amen
to have been always dangerous, and a subject of
alarm ? This bridge it appears had been examined
by General PASLET, the government inspector of
railways; in other words, the officer of public safety :
he states that he not only had inspected the bridge,
but also that he had the use of the plane of the bri
from the engineers so as to satisfy himself of the
mensions and proportions of the designs, as well as
the quality of the workmanship, and that he passed
the bridge as worthy of public confidence.
If, therefore, the bridge was of a vicious construc-
tion, or formed on a bad principle by which the pub-
lic safety was in danger, it is plain that as far as the
public are concerned, the responsibility of the acci-
dent lies entirely on the shoulders of the railway
board and their late inspector-general, Oen. FABLE/.
ft is plain that the railway directors having employed
one of the best engineers of the country, and received
the sanction of the officer of public safety, are in that
case absolved from blame; and it now becomes the
busmen of the public to see whether we do or do not

provide ourselves with adequate provieions for public
safety, by appointing a railway board, and paying
the salary of inspectors sad • staif, which coat the
country so many thousands a year.
General PARLEY approved of the railway as
adequately providing for the public safety ; but
he states, that if the bridge were reconstructed
in the same manner, he would not now pass it.
His words expressly were, as we reported them
on Thursday, when asked by Sir L. WALESA t
" Now, General, if this bridge were restored to its
original state, would you be prepared to pass it as
fit for public security? " "No, I would not." And
again, " I should not now allow trains to pass over it
without fixing independent supporters ;" and further,
"I am not troubled with nervousness, but I certainly
should not like to travel over it until it was secured

as I have stated." Nor does he now for the first time
question the stability of such structures: he hu long
been of opinion " that the wrought iron tension bars
would do little good." He knew that one of
these castings had formerly been cracked, and was
replaced ; therefore thinks that " these bridges
are not safe"—"that it is a mere cast of a die
between their safety and their danger ;" that
"they are on the verge of danger;" and adds, "I
always was of opinion, and am so still, that these
tension rods are not of great use." It appears, there-
fore, that cast iron is liable to creek, which the In-
specter-General knew when he this bridge—
that he always was of opinion ttirte wrought iron
bars, which the engineers who built the bridge added,
in the belief that, in the case of a crack in the cast
iron, they would prevent the fall of the bridge, were
of no use. Nevertheless, having always entertained
that opinion, and possessed that knowledge, he passed
the bridge as adequate to public safety ; and has only
now changed his opinion because the bridge has
fallen!
In these circumstances, it becomes a most serious
Ruestion for the public to determine whether inspec-
tion of this kind does not tend rather to increase the
public danger by taking off the shoulders of railway
directors and engineers a reaponsibilitT which ought
to be personal, immediate, and undivided ; whether
such inspection, instead of affording a guarantee for
tic safety, is not a mockery and a delusion which
ti
iles passengers into the belief that the spider's-
web-like structures that span the air are warranted
by public patent, and enables railway directors to
say, We are not engineers, but the inspector-general
is ; he has passed the bridge, and we are exonerated.

WHILE our Parliament and our Admiralty are '
debating uto the reasons why our ships and steam-
frigates are neither fast enough nor powerful enough
for useful service, the Americans have undertaken an
enterprise requiring ships of a larger class and a
higher speed than any in this country. It has been
clearly seen, both by France and America, that the
existence of packet-ships traversing . the Atlantic,
ready to be armed as steam-frigates in time of war,
is an advantage which Great Britain cannot longer
be allowed exclusively to enjoy; and so, under the
auspices of the American government and the Prus-
sian (!), a new line of steam-ships, larger and more
powerful than our own, is being constructed. One of
them is already on the way, it is said, to this country.
The Ocean Steam Navigation Company are to sail
their ships from New York to Bremen, calling at
Southampton. The engines are 1000-horse power,
being high pressure, and having a 10 feet stroke, a
38 feet paddle-wheel, cylinders of 72 inches dia-
meter, boilers 36 feet by. 15. The paddles are seven
feet wide, and have as feet immersion. It will be
curious to see the practical result of promises so
large. The company threaten to do the distance in
nine days. If so, our Admiralty will do well to
bestir themselves, and see whether such a class of
ship, so much faster and more powerful than our
own, would not be able, when armed, to choose her
' distance, and do with us just what she pleased.

One of those stirring diatribes which common re-
pute ascribes to the inspiration of M. Thiers, and
which tell against the ministry with more effect than
the most able speeches delivered from the oppo-
sition benches of the chamber, occupied the leading
columns of the Constitutionnel of Thursday. It is
devoted to a resume of the consequences of the
Spanish marriage affair of last autumn, respecting
which each magnificent hopes were held forth by the
partizans of the foreign policy of the Guizot cabinet.
The Paris journals comment on the contrast pre-
sented by the refusal of M. Guizot to afford the
chamber any information on the subject of the pro-
posed intervention in Portugal and the promptitude
with which the English ministers gave the required
information to both houses of parliament.
There is no intelligence of general interest in the
journals or correspondence of Paris.

The Madrid journals of the 29th ult. have been re-
ceived, but are destitute of news. The King was still
at the Pardo. It was said that, after the 10th inst.,
the Queen, with her suite, would remove to the pa-
lace of St. lidefonso. The Pope's nuncio was expected
in Madrid on the evening of the 29th. It had not
yet been announced that the army of intervention had
crossed the Portuguese frontier. El Faro says that
the operations of the army of intervention cannot
proceed, in consequence of the financial embarrass-
ments of the government.