The Express.
London, England, 1847-09-02 00:00:00

CHANNEL LILAND9.

DEATH INDUCED BY SEA-SICKNESs.—The Guern-
sey .SVisr of Monday says :—" Amongst the passengers who
CAM) from Jersey yeeseyday by the Won ler was Miss E.
noel. This ftrailradi Mel been for 00010 time in a delicate
state of host+, en arm recommended to take the trip for
clainge of air. Unfortunately, howrrer, she sent attacked
with sraeirkness on board the vessel, and, throailt the con-
sequent efforts is vomiting, an internal rupture or derange-
ment took place. On the arrival of the vessel Miss Heat
was taken to the house of Mr. Greenslade, where she re-
ceived every possible attention ; but the injury she had sus.
tained was fatal, and she "wired in the course of the after-
noon."

LA awry," o
s.: ttiC.C.
The Rotnan Embassy. A Letter to Viscount Palmerston,
M.P. By CUAILLES DE LA PAYNE, M.A.
The flight of pamphlets shows how the popular
wind sets, and this one is as welcome as the first
swallow that comes to tell of summer. Mr. de ht
Pryme states "that it is written by one who has
never shrunk from avowing himself a protestant, and
to the exile of whose family as protestant martyrs it
is owing that ho is enabled, with no little pride and
pleasure, to call himself an Englishman." Mr. de la
Pryme disclaims the right of theological considera-
tions to intrude into a political argument. lie holds
with Burke—" no mock protestant, no nibbler at
Romanian"—that " when any question arises for the
legislature to determine involving both political and
theological arguments, it should be decided on the
former in preference to the latter." And the poli-
tical argument he uses is rather a strong one—that
seeing we have, and cannot help having, clandestine'
communication with the Pope, would it not be more
respectable to avow our intercourse in the face of
day ?
It may be asserted,
_Masa =Sib leer of ecustradkom IBM it ham
hem the general maw of a pest seasierity of Engilelmem that for
the Mot tYree hundred men time lave bees is diploma& rektions
kiwis this Waft end & Pled Oafs and itoarlOnsbelmitantlya
=or& that, ill Mega sooseleft end at mime
wed act Mrs le speuilad), got how lent sure et lam itiniti—ai
"mate the woe sr by MONS Nam • arl the itsmilkt• sad
=lhoes tom Ina vie, soda% tlauslismiontat
t laimommaimiles. Int Dm MS • sort at
embassy Is aireueiteillie• elk ais dlrafieniqpis et dig tod
maw weassaity ettialmt ea eta • Oils ft: Wimp. 416 Is limit
7 eanad/,,enbout =Mg= "peer bar mama haa of
Mt Meow wat the Germans of ma speumereVlbe gum
dm naturally suggests itself whether Ms &la powl•elllsitmey
ought any 'cams he mist ; and, Bail amegrand In Oa giegatim,
whether it is to Moutkorded by a telaimmellen el eammoW or
b the ap Mahn& of a real ashandohltd faslissoy.think,
be ottearally Awed that Wrest tbe Wi
eranirme would be
relstell• to distonse. Than amet•amintela who have lately taken
mai MO Mem& ef mil& =labels' aiMeted so strongly to all
racestues of ozpolloar aid guiley, will be
ng the
fosemost to email Sit pia. It &Feat stepe right
die:eta:l if we emi Mee hem It•thantaltsta that it is oontrarY to
the dimity teem =Mk, eitininlmede, ef this great empire, to do
that br onds,Me I or ladlso mune which we dare not do openly
and avowedly. If Mir be tem penrelly, it Is more partieukrly so in
the print nee. Let us, thee, memo that we cannot continue any
tomer in slats quo, and that we sot demise or recede, tither by
avoiding all eammuakatiora, dish no &hetet, with the court of
Rosen, or, by having a regularly erganlard embassy, with the full
approbation of parliament, and the expressed or implied assent of the
nation at Liege.
But notwithstanding hie denial of weight to theo-
logical arguments in this controversy, Mr. de la
Pryme touches upon them very effectively en passant.
He argues, that there being a Dutch and Prussian
embassy " in hill force " at Rome, and that Prussian
and Dutch orthodoxy having received no injury from
this intercourse with Rome, there can be no reason
wk.? Great Britain should fear to venture her diplo-
wallas with!! that Armida's bower. Nay, be goes
further, and by a oat anecdote shows that the want of
an ambassador at Rome is the very circumstance that
exposes our young English protestants to the risk of
being perverted:—
bad the honour of an audiesoe with the late Pope, and was re-
mised by Aim most cordially (as a p,Wertant), and coneamently
w throat any of those ceremonies of which we hare beard so muds.
Tb eve being no Brings ambemador, I applied to the English Boom
catholic college, and was thus driven into the very army of Romani& ;
this led to an invitation to the college dieser, and other &Miss
ft m the Elector and Cardinal Acton. I Rome as much a pro.
te tent as when I altered it ; but, had It been otherwise, I think I
m ght not unreasonably have attributed the change to my Introduc-
tion to the English Roman catholic college, which might not have
aeurved had there is en • British embassy.
We hope this incident may have its due weight
v WI our anti-romanist alarmists.
:ow Econornie Politique, he. Par P.

J. PROVDHON.

This work is a faithful mirror of the confused and
conflicting opinions now current in Europe on the
most important points of political economy. It dis-
plays a conviction that this all-important study must
not only be worked out through all its problems by
human diligence, but that the careful and persevering
Investigation of past and present experience, for the
purpose of deducing the laws which form alike the
basis of political and social life, is the highest of man's
terrestrial duties. M. Prondhon is what is called a
practical man. He has risen from the station of an
operative (we believe in a printing-office) to be an
author of consideration. His book displays serious-
new, reading, thought, and no small share of in-
genuity ; qualities that in another country might
have led him (even hypothetically) to a more careful
premise than that with which the work opens—a
frank confession of Pantheism. His favourite ex-
pression for man in a typical sense—meaning the
exertions of society, and their results—is Prometheus.
He gives his reasons for choosing the name.
Prometheus, as the Myth represent, him, Is the type of human
maroon. Prometbro steals fire from heaven, and invents the first
arta. Prometheua divines the future, and seeks to be the equal of
Jupiter. Prometheus is God. we shall therefore can society Pro-
Meth ens.
In this little sentence the distinction which was
well felt by the ancients, between the god who cre-
ated, and the aspirant who stole the fire, is as much
overlooked as that prevailing between the mind that
invented the first arts, and the being who called
that inventive mini into existence, and provided for it
a sphere of action of so elevated a nature. The difference
here overlooked forms the distinction between the
Creator and the noblest of his earthly creatures.
Now, it so happens that the political economist, more
than the professor of any other science, needs the en-
forcement of this distinction, u it forms the sole
groundwork of the sphere of exertion which it is his
duty to point out. The creation of wealth, when
properly apprehended by man, is nothing else
than the study* of the store which the bounty
of Providence has placed at man's disposal in the
universe, and of the fit application to which
every portion of that store should be put. The
field of discovery here opened to man, is practically a
boundless one. The combinations of which the dis-
covered elements are susceptible must therefore be
considered as practically innumerable. As every suc-
cessful exertion confers a large measure of power on
society, the inducement to select some track to follow
is the prospect of the well-deserved fame which awaits
the adventurer. From this description of fame, the
most satisfactory to the mind as well as the most last-
ing, men have too long been estranged by the false
lustre of destructive pursuits, through the aid of
which one man has indeed often made himself
important in his day, but at the cost of
keeping millions in want, in suffering, and
in degrading ignorance. For this reason, the
political economist, as we have said, needs, more than
any one else, the recognition of the truth, that the
true sphere of man's exertion is the inquiry into the
extent and variety of the treasures of nature, and of
their fitting uses. The adoption of this principle
incites us to enjoy all the poetry of nature, all the
charms of science. Let us for a moment tarn the
picture, and suppose man could neither discover nor
invent aught that he did not create. 'What a sorry
prospect should we not have before us ! In the dis-
quisilien of what may be called M. Proudhon's lead.
ing thesis, as an economist (for he is also ambitious
of ranking as a philosopher), he is sadly in want of
this fundamental principle. Had he possessed it, he
would have not required many more words to clear
away all doubts upon it, than ho has taken pages to
leave it in the mystery in which he found it.
M. Proudhon directly inverts the well-known Mal-
thusian principle, that population increases in a
geometrical, while production augments in only an
arithmetical, progression. Ile assumes, correctly',
enough, that modern experience gives the following
proportions :
Prop met. population, 1 2 : 4 : 8 15.
I'rop. incr. production, 1 . 10 . 100: 1.000 10,000.
M. Proudhon is also correct in pointing out that
Malthus's error has its origin in the author's neglect-
ing the increase of power offered by the use of machi-
nery. But Malthus had not the opportunity of wit-
nessing the effects of steam navigation and of rail-
roads, any more than Adam Smith had of visiting a
modern cotton factory. Tho change which this ele-
ment necessarily makes in all economical calculations,
has been recently pointed out by an English political
economist, before the appearance of M. Proudhon's
work. The deduction drawn from it that the
object to be aimed at in all improvements in
machinery is the superseding. the hand of man
so far u possible in laborious tasks, has not
been openly adopted by M. Proudhon. His
remarks, however, on the impossibility of fixing
stated prices for labour, u some have suggested, are
good, and his rejection of the notion is bead upon the
uncertainty of inventions and the revolutions which

new discoveries of power occasion. But his reason-
ing, although clvver and learned, from want of the
substitution of an adequate field for the exertions of
those whom inventions have released from labour,
will be read by many with unchanged convictions.
He consequently does not draw in exertion in
'the fine arts, notwithstanding the constant
reap?earance of these endeavours, after every
period of successful mechanical invention, as belonging
to the cycles of human occupations, and powerfully re-
acting upon industry in general, and, consequently,
upon the material as well as the intellectual welfare
of man- M. r7Ouaon Les not call artists unproductive
labourers, but he does rot sketch out their task. We
' cannot help looking upon these two omissions, which
arc common to most systems of politic economy, as
the main, and, indeed, as good, reasons for the cold
welcome which such systems usually receive at the
hands of the public. Men are quite as unwilling to
assume the rank and responsibilities of deities, as they
are to read of the drudgery which is often assumed to
be needful for their very preservation. Of the need
of such drudgery, in the present state of knowledge,
the majority are but too well convinced. They are,
therefore, grateful when a prospe of relief is pointed
out as attainable, and eepeciall7 when the true light
is shown in which the exertions of society during
the passing moment are to be regarded. In some
efforts of this kind M. Proudhon is very successful.
We select an illustration applicable to railways.
The mean reef of the transport of goods in waggons is 18 centimes
per ton per Inlornetre, including the charge of loading at one store.
110111, and delivering at another. It has been ealculAted that at this
rate a railroad company, under usual circumstances, would not gam
10 per cent profit, which is the common rate of profit especial by
carriers. Let as, however. suppose that the opted of the railway,
making all necessary deductions, Ii to the waggon as 4to I. Since
time is of value to the public. the railway at undiminished prices,
would closely augment the profits of the trading world in the ratio of
400 per cent. This gain to the public Is, however, out of all propor-
tion to that drawn by the proprietors of the railway, which, as we
have seen, is 10 per cent. • • • But were the company to rube
its charge to th centimes per ton, ill the world would &wit them,
and would return to the slow mode of carriage, thus sacrificing a gain
of 400 per owl. to the community to an increased charge of th per
cent on the part of individna/a.
We give this rather as a specimen of M. Proud-
hon's efforts to generalise observations and calcula-
tions, and to adapt them to existing circumstances,
than from an acknowledgment of the correct solu-
tion of the problem, which, like many such, requires a
statement of a more mixed character, and will admit
of a very modified result. The author's deduction
from this example is :
Prometheus goes to work on the first day of the creation and
ends his labour produce 10. On the second day he introduces di, ision
of labour, and ands the produce 20. On the third day machine. are
Invented, and on every stworeding day mew qualities In objects and
more oars to which to put them are discovered; with each step the
ratio of increase in productive power theresees.
But if this be the law of progress in production, it is
not that of the division of profits, of the reward of
labour. One of the most interesting deductions of
the book, after the establishment of this law, is that
which traces the effects of unrestricted enterprise in
equalising the returns from industrious exertions.
The bad effects of all interference with that natural
distribution of products, as well as of exertion, which
would soon find its way, if not impeded, are forcibly
demonstrated in a series of chapters on duties,
money, Bc., which will richly repay perusal. We
sincerely congratulate our neighbours upon this direc-
tion given by a writer who seeks popularity in the
somewhat eccentric style to which we have of late
been accustomed in French writers on those subjects.
With some of the high-sounding tone of La Mennais,
and the fearlessness of Fourier, many nuances are so
finely shadowed out as to remind the reader of the
happy delineations and deductions of J. B. Say.