The Express.
London, England, 1853-01-08 00:00:00

ti t
:and can be of what measures will
_candies to tisi
peace and welfare of the province, her eases severs-
meat will, I trust, perceive that the les which I
apprehend is at lead deserving of the mint grave
consideration. I cannot have the slightest iloalbe that the
members of her Majesty's government see actuated by She
most earnest desire to promote the bast interests of Canada,
and that, if they could be brought to believe that I blew
given a faithful account of the state of public opinion there,
they would be disposed to yield their own wishes for the
sake of the peace of the colony. I am quite ready to ae
knowledge the high respectability of the petitioners against
the repeal of the Clergy Reservis Act. The bishops, clergy,
and an influential portion of the laity of the church of
England, the clergy and a portion of the laity of the church
of Scotland. are doubtless in foresr of the present settle-
ment, which, indeed, confers on the church of Scotland an
income wholly beyond its requirements in Canada ; while
the majority of the Presbyterian population neither receive
any share of the endowment, nor desire to participate in it.
While, however, I admit the respectability of the peti-
tioners, I think that I am justified in affirming that they do
not represent anything like a majority of the population of
Canada ; indeed, the vet,. fact that they on all occasions
endeavour to accomplish their wishes by appealing, not to
their own representatives in parliament, but to the imperial
parliament, is conclusive proof that they are themselves
conscious that their views are not in accordance with public
opinion in Canada.
And in September last the newly-elected Parlia-
ment adopted and confirmed these views, and agreed
on another Address, informing her MAJESTY "that
Ithe refusal on the part of the Imperial Parliament to
comply with the just demand of the representatives
of the Canadian people on a matter exclusively
affecting their own interests, will be viewed as a vio-
lation of their constitutional rights, and will lead to
deep and wide-spread dissatisfaction among your
MAJESTY'S Canadian subjects."
Such is the position of the subject as inherited
by the ABERDEEN Cabinet ; and though that Ca-
binet contains a member to whom the details
of the Act of 1840 were objectionable, in the thir-
teen years that have elapsed Mr. GLADSTONE has
shown some willingness to learn. He will now
either have to adopt the constitutional views of Sir
WILLIAM MOLESWOBTH and Lord JOHN RUSSELL
on this question, or to separate, at this early stage of
their connexion, from his colleagues. For re-settled
the Canada Clergy Reserves question must imme-
diately be; and for their re-settlement there is but
one way—that pointed out by Earl GREY.

FRANCE.
PARIS, FRIDAY EVENING.

The Moniteur says:
Count de Hatsfeldt, Minister of Prussia; M. de Hubner,
Minister of Austria ; and M. Rumpff, resident Minister of
the Free and Hanse towns, have received theit new letters
of credence, aria will shortly be admitted to present them
to the Emperor.
'I he convention between Frani' and Belgium con
eluded on the 9th inst., is promnlated in the Muni-
gene. This convention, yon will remember, adjourns
the exchange of the ratifications of the literary and
commercial treaty of 22nd August last until a new
oemosercial treaty shall be negotiated; and it enacts
that until then the commercial treaty of 13th Decem-
ber, 1845, shall be in force, subject to a modification
in favour of French salt imported into Belgium.
By another decree it is declared that the import
duties on coal and unwrought cast iron shall be
modified as follows : Front and after the 15th the
duty on coal imported by land by a line drawn front
the sea up to Halluin, on the Belgian frontier exclu-
sively, shall be 50c. the 100 kilogrammes; by the
river Meuse and the department of the Moselle 10c.,
and by all other points of the frontier 15c.; and that
the duty on unwrought cast iron in pigs weighing
15 kilogrammes or upwards, imported front the
adjacent countries by the frontier from Blancmis-
seron inclusively to Mont Geneve exclusively, shall
be 4fr. the 100 kilogrammes, and by all other points
7fr.
It having been found in practice that the standing
regulations with regard to monies paid into the pub-
lie creamery are incompatible with the due exercise of
the Itreperer!s prerogative of pardon with respect to
Sue is upon the press an Imperial decree enacts
that the fines to be paid by newspapers condemned
tor any offence, within three days after the definitive
judgment, shall henceforth be paid into the Casio
des Consignations at Paris, or one of its branches in
ties country, and shall remain there for three months
at the disposal of the treasury ; after which, in the
event of there being no appeal in Cessation, and no
o, they are to be paid over by the see des
idioms to the Beceveur de rEnregistrement.
L..:7urlon, whose exploits have made so much
immistion in the western world, was some time since
well known in fashionable circles in Paris, where he
cut a brilliant figure. He is a high-spirited adven-
turous young man, of about five and thirty. Having
damaged his fortune by fast living, he went out to
California upon speculation. It is said that he is a
natural son of a prince of the house of Bourbon, and
that many years since he received a large sum of
money for changing a single letter of his name.
A letter from Bourbon rArchamboult says:
Our ancient chateau, the cradle of the Bourbon freakily,
and a fine specimen of feudal architecture, has just been
sold. The Viscount des Rays is the purchaser.
It is announced that the first court ball of the sea-
-1 son will be given at the Tuileries on the 12th, and
that it will be followed by a succession of fetes in the
course of the winter, to which it is intended to in-
vite a very large number of people. The Emperor
will go to bunt at Compiegne on the 15th, but it is
expected that he will return to Paris without sleep.
iqthere.
I ma. Michel Chevalier has frightened the protec-
tionists by claiming Napoleon I. as a free trader. To
• single quotation from a reported converartion at
at. Helena, they oppose the whole tenor of his public
lib, in which it is certain that little can be found to
support M. Chevalier's view. Admitting that the
continental blockade was a war measure naiad
England, the Emperor had shown no dispositions pre-
viously to act upon free-trade principles. He male-
ained many prohibitions for the avowed purpose et
protectiog native industry, and although the duties
he levied upon many raw materials were lower than
those now existing, he habitually relied upon tan&
to regulate trade, and it never seemed to occur to
him that trade might best regulate itself. He com-
monly spoke of political economists as ideologues
whom he hated, and he suppressed a work by the
most enlightened commercial writer of his time, U.
Jean Baptiste Say: The Conslittaionnel sad the
Biecle have both articles to-day addressed to IL Mi-
chel Chevalier. The first of those journals repasts
some of the protectionist arguments of M. Troploog's
report, and is shocked at the presumption which esa
venture to contradict so great a senator. The repels-
!lean organ, representing as it does the opinions of a I
very large section of the commercial classes, is ma-
nifestly not prepared to go very fast is
the direction of liberty of commerce. The
Biecle declines to enter into the question at pre-
sent, and merely alludes to it as an excuse to pro-
test, with somewhat unwonted boldness, against
the despotic policy of the government generally. It
taunts M. Chevalier with inconsistency in advocating
liberty of trade alone, while as a councillor of state
he supports the principle of " authority" an now un-
derstood and acted upon. It argues that liberties all
belong to one family, and that those who think it is
an attribute of the Emperor's wisdom to regulate the
interchange of ideas cannot complain if he alone
should regulate the interchange of bales of goods.
Free trade triumphed in England. Do you think it
would have triumphed in Russia ? If Cobden had been
born upon the banks of the Neva instead of those of the
Thames, he would usureilly at the present moment
have been meditating upon the advantages of his
system, amidst the snows of Siberia. To conquer
liberty by persuasion you must first of all possess
he liberty to persuade. In England it happened one day
that a single man initiated an idea. This idea was unknown
to the country, despised by power,—no matter. This man
said to himself one morning, Thought in a free country
is the power of powers. The people who surround me yet
deny the emancipation of commerce. Well, with the sacred
arm of the free word, I, a single manufacturer, will emerge
from the depths of my otocurity, I will teach my cowrie-
Sou to the country, and impose it upon power. The prime
minister of England repulses my principle. I will fore*
him to take it up, he shall apply it himself, and in ap-
plying it he shall gather the largest sum of glory that
ever crowned the forehead of a statesman of the nine-
teenth century.' And what Cobden said,he accomplished in
the face of day. And what was it that enable hint to roeet
this miracle? One thing only, liberty. Liberty of the,
press, liberty of association, liberty of meeting together—in
a *eel, the whole family, thrice sainted here below, of
liberty. Take away from Cobden a single liberty
and his reform would have gone with him to
the tomb. We will mit now discuss till merits ut
this reform. Is this system of free trade, adapted in Eng-
land, equally applicable to an other countries ? This with
as is a MI reed que-tinn, and one that in our journal has
tikes been debated with talent and conviction. The Sleds
thinks that free trade may perhaps be an ultimate object
for Frame, but that the lowering of the tariff should be
gradua,, moderate, and in proportion to the prosperity and
progress et industry.