The Express.
London, England, 1853-12-22 00:00:00

COMMERCIAL AND MARKETS.

MINCING-LANE.-THIS DAY.

SVOAR.—The market is active, and has an upward ten.
dency. 1,600 boxes yellow Havannah sold in public sale at
355. to 41s. 6d., which were full prices. The refined market
is also firm; grocery lumps, 445. to 491.
COFFVE.—The public sale of plantation Ceylon is going
off steadily. A large business was done on 'Change yester-
day in native Ceylon at 495., and it is firm at that price
to-day.
'PEA.—This article wean an improved appearance;
common congou firm at Is. 2d. to ls. 2}cl.
SPICSEL—Pepper : 500 bags Aleppo sold in public sale at
41d. Pimento: GOO hags sold in public sale at full prices at
sid. to Gid.
SALTPETIV!..-900 bags were offend; refraction 4 to 7.
sold at 295. 6d. to 30s. ; aad 590 bags Madras, refraction 15
to 24}, 275. to 28s.
Rtes.—This article is in fair demand at previous rates.

TALLOW MARKET.—THIS DAY.
The market is steady, with a fair amount of business
doing. Town tallow is quoted 565. nett cash ; Petersburg
Y.C. on the spot, 581.; Dec., 575. 9d.; Jan. to Much,
575. 91 to $9l.

SMITHFIELD HAY MARKET.—TIIIS DAY.
Mr. E. J. Davis reports a heavy trade. Prism meadow
hay, 85s. to 110 s.; inferior, 50s. to 70s. ; rowels,. 461. to 6ds. ;
clover, 755. to llds. ; second cot, 70s. to 1000. ; Stair, Ids.
to 421.

Ede erpreso.

• Imre FAltiqe of The Lapeer." eeetraur the same even g 9
*.i ;excite." w publehed sem Teeeday are Friday hash; In tor
M post.

lihertkaameataiuttluted for Tlit Enna." London Evelio! paper.
seat Oa at the I Ore, la, BeitaerleAlreet, ►y Tye o'clost ea the
day at pub:a:awe.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
Tut• DAT —Murnme, I. .. *Memo" Mi. Mo.
Iv-ruaamw —Morstag, N. Ha. Attaavos. SO2.

LONDON, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 22.

A CABINET COUNCIL is to be held to-day, and the
Ministers who should attend it will find ample food
for cogitation before going to the Board, if they but
glance candidly over the weighty matters demanding
settlement at their hands. But the most worthy
topic may not have the first thought. As an
urgent vexation often gets more attention than a
serious duty, there can be little doubt but the primary
subject for discussion will be the vacancy at the
Home.ullke. When that vacancy first occurred,
we named Sir GEORGE GREY as the most
probable successor of Lord PALMERSTON, and
notwithstanding oar Russian contemporary de-
clared Lord JOAN Russma. to be the man, yet, np to
last night, Sir G. GREY was still declared to be the
most probable new Secretary of State. One reason
prominently assigned fur the delayed allotment of the
Home Secretaryship either to Sir G. GREY, to Lord
PANMURE, or to any other candidate, is understood
to have been the existence of negotiations for a
" patch up" of the recent Cabinet split. Lord
PALMERSTON must by this time, it is thought,
see that the country have received with most philo-
sophic indifference his resignation of place. Many
were glad to see him at the Home-office ; many more
were gratified to find him working as one of a pro-
gressive—though in some respects slow, and in others
foolish and short-sighted—Cabinet. It was grateful

to all—with the exception, perhaps, of the Bishop of
LONDON and a few tipsy undertakers' men—to see
Lord PALmeasron shut up the reeking London
graveyards ; and pleasant to thousands to learn that
he was busily engaged in an attempt to solve the
Great Sewers difficulty. To see him go
on again with such practically useful work
might be a satisfactory arrangement of the
very unwise difference raised by himself with
his late colleagues. Lord PALMERSTON as 000 of a
working Ministry may be an acceptable fact on many
grounds, whilst Lord PALMERSTON out of office and
a candidate for a higher independent Ministerial
position is very like an absurdity. Such being the
case just now, it may happen that the very first topic
for Ministerial confabulation this day will be as we
have j,ist said—the patching up of the recent
If not that, it will of course be one of the urgent
duties of the occasion to settle at once who shall go
to the Home-office in place of the still obdurate
retired official.

There are no doubt some grounds on w hich the ret urn
of Lord PALMERSTON to office might be regarded with
matistketion ; but there are others on which his re-
appearance in Downing-street would be much more
fatal to the Cabinet than his absence from its future
councils could in any way be. To find the ex.
Secretary again installed, with Lord LAttsnowNEl
as his backer, might have no good influence on the
coming Reform Biil. Though rumour declares that
hopes of future high place induced Lord PAL-
mtitsioti's resignation, nobody doubts his being
Inimical to Reform. Ile never proved himself to be
a sincere Reformer, and his return to Downing-
street, therefore, on any such terms as making
the coming Reform Bill less liberal than
it might otherwise be, would be long a dead
loss to the country, and a dangerous blow
to the position of the rest of the Cabinet. Re.
garding the present Ministry only in reference to
their deeds since they have held place together, they
have (with the single but great exception of their
Russian policy)obtained on the whole a large amount
of popular goodwill Their taxation reforms have
as a rule been in the rig& direction, and the courage
and success with which they carried out the ad.
mirable plan of a tax upon successions gained
them a large measure of well-deserved praise. The
Duke of Newc.urrix has done good things in
the Colonial-office—as witness the Canada Clergy

Reserves settlement; Mr. dr-apnoea has done
several wise and successful thing*, although not
always successful (who ever was ?), as Chancellor of
the Exchequer; Sir J.txxs GRAHAM got through
Parliament the precautionary plan of a seashore
militia; Sir WILUA .10LESWORTTI, as the first of
Radical and Ballot-pledged Cabinet Ministers, is re-
garded as having strengthened in Council all those
leanings towards liberality which his colleagues may
have evinced ; and, by so doing, has gained •
c►aracter in harness which he would be moat
unwise to spoil. Indeed, moat of the mem-
bers of the Ministry have (with the one
great exception before mentioned) gained headway
in popular opinion. By all that this good opinion
may be worth,—and by all the still better
opinions they may yet well win,—we would con•
jure them to make no absurd sacrifices of principle
for the winning back of a man who would never
have left them if he had not thought his true interests
were in resignation. Many of the Ministers have
very much to lose by an unwise arrangement about
the Home-office. If • patch-up can be made on
terms open and fair, well and good—but do not let
the Cabinet to-day forget that Ministers, like other
men, may sometimes Pay Too Dear for a Whistle.
We began by a reference to the many topics which
claim notice at the Council to-day, and—believing
that the instant annoyance would be first canvassed—
have assumed that the Home-office question would
hare priority of attention, and possibly involve
in its arrangement some modification of the Reform
measure. But other topics suggest themselves in
ample variety as claimants for ministerial considera-
tion. Let us run over a few of them. There is the fixing
a day for the Meeting of Parliament " fur business"
and for the " AISZKDEEN Explanation." Next,—
" What to to be done in the Black Sea ?" This
how many of the " dropped Ministerial Bills" of
last year shall be resuscitated Next,—" What
shall become of Jewish Disabilities ?" Then,
" What shall be attempted about Education ?^
These are but a few of the dainty dishes to
be set forth at the coming St. Stephen's feast,
and to which the chief cooks must attend.
But not one of these, interesting though it may
seem to the nation, and urgent as it may be
upon the Cabinet, is fraught with anything like the
amount of importance that really attaches to
the promised measure of Parliamentary improve.
meet. By that it is that the Cabinet collectively, ad
Ministers individually, will be judged ; by that they
will hang together, or split asunder ; and in exile*
proportoas to the way in which the promise
is kept about Reform, will te the future good
or ill piece of each minister in public

estintslion. The public expect a measure free from
trick. evasion, or compromise, based upon an in-
telligent prinaiple, and adapted for expansion to
Rauh needs. It is not asked that the coming Bill
should be perfect. Even if anybody could decide
upon %fiat a perfect Reform Bill would be. any such
curial.) would never be passed by the present
House of Commons--nor, it is to he feared, by any
other Rouse elected by the existing narrow end
iatisidatttl eotpitituencies, and whilst the pre-

sent system of corruption is in fall swing.
But if we do not ask the Cabinet to offer
us what is impossible or impracticable, we
may at least require that what they do
prepare for us shall be prepared in an honest, frank,
manly spirit—sound as far aeit goes, and in no way
professing to be a final measure. Our great national
prosperity has, like our great oaks, been of gradual
and stately growth. We do not want to be hasty,
but we do want to be sound and sure. As
regards corruption, let us have a separate bill plac-
ing electoral crimes within the reach of the ordinary
tribunals of the land ; let us have the cost of punish-
ing electoral criminals made a penalty upon the
guilty, and not, u now, an obstruction to the inno-
cent. These points secured by a distinct measure,
let our New Reform Bill itself be one to widen the
basis of popular political power. Let them do this
for us, and the Ministry may smile at such
" storms in a tea-pot " as that created by the splitting'
off any single plaoentan, or the intended opposition of
men who seek power, not for the workingout of the de-
fined wishes of the nation, but for the aggrandise-
ment of their own political cliques. Let the Cabinet
deserve well of the whole country, and they shall not
be disappointed of their high reward.

Vbe Court.

OSBORNE, Drc. 21.

---•
Sir James Graham returned to Londonearly this
morning.
The Court will leave Osborne to-morrow for Windsor

The Turkish Minister had an interview with the Earl of
Aberdeen yesterday, at his official residesee, in Downing-
street.

A joint deputation of West India merchants and sugar
refiners, on the subject of refining of sugar under bond,
eon g of Messrs. H. E. Cram, of Glasgow ; Graham
Russell, of Glasgow; Alexander M'Ewan, of Glasgow ;
Provost Martin, of Greenock, and Robert Blair, of Green-
ock, accompanied by Mr. John Macgregor, M.P., had an
interview with the Chancellor of the Exchequer yesterday,
at his official residence, in Downing-street.
Sir James Graham arrived at his residence, in the Admi-
ralty, yesterday forenoon, from a visit to the Queen at Or
Isle of Wight.
The Cathedral Commission met yesterday. Present—the
Archbishop of Canterbury, the Marquis of Blandford, the
Earl of flarrowby, the Bishop of London, the Bishop of
Oxford, Sir John Dodson, Sir John Peones, the Rev. Dr.
Hook, the Rev. Dr. Wordsworth, the Rev. Canon Selwyn,
the Hon. find Rev. H. Montagu Villiers, and the it.,.
Rickard Jones (secretary).

It is currently reported that Mr. Disraeli ham pre-
pared the outlines of • meuure of parliamentary
reform.

It is now said that Myer-General Wetherell will
relieve Maier-General Rowan is the ooraniand of the
troops is Canada, and will be succeeded as Deputy Adju-
tant-General at beadiuuten by Colonel Torres., whose
place as Assistant-Qaarter-MsaterDeneral will be filled by

ARMY Ratters.—The reserve battalion 12th and
the 91st Regiment, me to return borne from the Cape of
Good Hope.—The 99th Regiment is also to return to Ear
land from Van Diemen's Land —The lst battalion 12th
Regiment, and the 46th Regiment will replace the 99th
Regiment in Van Dimen's Land.—The service companies
21st Regiment will relieve the 91st Regiment, and the en-
vies companies 63rd Regiment will relieve the reserve
battalion 12th Regiment, at the Cape of Good Hope.—The
four regiments intended for service in India are not to be
augmented natil the usual time of sending troops to
India.

The rumination for the King's scholarships, which
become annually vacant, took place on Monday, the 19th
inst. The scholars elected were—Miss Rosa P. Lytle, and
Mr. John Barnett. Miss Rosetta Vinsing was re-elected a
scholar (or one year. Mr. John Cheshire was sp. cially
commended. Miss Csaaly and Miss Southgate, and Messrs.
Watson, Wheeldos, Schroeder, and Mason, were com-
mended.

The Rev. Frederick Thomas Scott, M.A., was yes-
terday collated to the vicarage of Sinertswold with Col.
died, in the county of Kent and diocese of Canterbury,
recant by the elision of the Bev. Nathaniel Arthur Garland.
The Rey. Maurice W. F. St. John has been in-
stituted to the vicarage et Framptoa•on-Srvera, Ia the
Diocese of Glonoweer and Bristol, vacant by the resign-
tins of the Bey. George Chute. Patron, B. Winkworth
Weer, Raq.