The Express.
London, England, 1847-12-03 00:00:00

dust Our local esseasedee of paper shoal follow the
NMI course of eeeMation as the flereign exchange;
slat it is hardly needful to reespitskite the ergs•
molts in support of these concludes.
At this moment it will be of greater swift to
point out some of the objections to the preset date
of the law, as regards country banking.
In the first place, the limitatith ill VW
e
notes has most materially added to the espes:lls
the banking accommodation required by the public.
Practically, the circulation is cut down Item about 1
ten millions to about seven millions, and the conse-
quences are obvious. The profits previously derived
by the bankers from the employment of three mil-
lions of capital acquired through the circulation, are
now paid by the public in the form of extra balances
and extra commissions. In point of fact, therefore,
the question is one which concerns the bankers much
less than it ooacems the commercial classes as a body.
If you take away the whole of the local note circula.
1 tion, the bankers after a short interval will feel no
loss and no inconvenience. The charges of their
business will adjust themselves to the new circum-
stances, and, as the general result, the public will find
themselves suddenly overtaken by an additional
amount of virtual taxation. In the agricultural dis-
tricts, which are the great seats of the provincial
issues, it was commonly reckoned that before 1814
the privilege of issue was the means of reducing the
cost of banking accommodation in these parts
of the kingdom by aa much as one ver
cent. In other words, a banker in Norfolk
with his circulation could afford to transact his cus-
tomer's business to the amount of 1,0001. per annum
for 101. less than he must have charged without the
advantage of his circulation. Now, why should the
farmers and graziers of this country be sullied to an
additional tax of one per cent. for the mere accom-
plishment
of an ingenious hypothesis ? Or, to place I
the matter upon its proper footing, wby should the
price of cattle and the price of agricultural produce
be increased one per cent. to the great body of con-
eumers for the sake of an object in the highest
degree chimerical and incapable of defence?
But in addition to the question of expense, there is a
perpetual source of annoyance connected with the
working of the present law. The country maximum
is imposed in the form of a monthly average, and a
most severe penalty is levied upon every banker whe
cannot make a return upon oath that at the end of
every four weeks his circulation has not exceeded,
one day with another, the sum assigned as his legis-
lative limit. The effect of the contrivance is this, that
if, as very frequently happens, through any peculiar
local circumstances a banker exceeds his maximum in
theearly weeks of the month, he has to neutralise this
excess by. keeping within the statutory mark during
the remainder of the legal term, and to any applica-
tions for his own notes, however urgent, while under
this repressive regimen, he can only reply that, indi-
vidually, he would be moat happy to accommodate ;
but there is the law ! With banks having an exten-
sive system of branches, the labour and anxiety im-
posed by this obnoxious statute is most vexatious ; '
tor, as the Stamp-office will only recognise the total'
issue of each concern, there is the danger of over-
issue at one place and of under-issue at another to be
perpetually guarded against. The consequences
are every way in accordance with the system. The
banking community are the victims of endless trouble
and vexation, and the public for twelve or fourteen
weeks
in the year are suddenly surprised and an-
noyed by the occurrence of formidable difficulties in
the course of all that part of their daily business
which requires the intervention of country bank-
notes.
These are a sample merely of the injurious effects,
which so fully justify a vigorous protest against this
part of the prevailing system.

The Paris papers of Wednesday and our usual cor-
respondence have come to hand. The Delves contains
the following important official announcement
We republish an article in the Times upon the affairs of
Switzerland, to which we think it sufficient to add a few
words which will have the merit of stricter truth. The
English journal is happy to find that the French govern-
ment has unhesitatingly adhered to the counter project pro-
posed in the noose of the English cabinet as thebasis of the
mediation of the great powers. We beg permission to feli-
citate ourselves on the fact that the British government his
adhered, we will not say without hesitation, to proposals in
which the French government had, if we are not mistaken,
taken the initiative. We think we know, for instance, that
as early as the first day of November M. Guizot proposed to
the governments of Great Britain, Austria, Prussia, and
Russia to act in concert in order to offer to Switzerland •
common mediation, with the object of restoring peace. A
few days after M. Guizot sent to the four courts a pnject of
• note to be addressed to the two belligerent powers, and the
courts of Austria and Prussia accepted without hesi-
tation the project of note as they had accepted
the first proposition. At the same time Lord Pal-
merston proposed, on his part, a counter project
of note, also to be presented by the five powers. If we are
well informed, this note received from M. De Broglie cer-
tain modifications, the gravity and bearing of which cannot
fail at a later period to be sufficiently appreciated. These
modifications were accepted by Lord Palmerston in the
names of the British cabinet ; and the project of note, thus
modified, was addressed to the representatives of France, '
Prussia, and Austria, in Switzerland, in order that they
might be distributed by them to the belligerent parties. If
the court of Russia has not officially taken part in these
step', it is be distance has not enabled it to act simulta-
neously with the other powers; but we believe that its
assent is not a matter of doubt. After having presented
these simple observation., we share, without hesitation, in
the pleasure which is felt by the Times in seeing France and
England again united in common action.

The Madrid mails of the 28th ult. were due in Paris
on Wednesday, but had not arrived when our corre-
spondent closed his despatches.

It is now certain that before the arrival of Sir
Stratford Canning at Item the intercantonal war
will have been brought to a close, the League will
have been dissolved, the insurgent cantons will have
submitted, and the authority of the federal govern-
ment will have been vindicated. Die despatches of
our Paris correspondent of Wednesday confirm the
news we announced yesterday, of the capitulation and
submission of the lesser cantons, and their renounce-
ment of the League. The Valais alone stood out, and
independently. of the fact of its population being much
divided in opinion, the force which had been directed
against it would have rendered resistance utterly out
of the question. In short, all is over with the Awls]
war, and much credit is due to General Dufour for
theakill he has displayed in obtaining his objects with
so little bloodshed.
The chests containing the funds of the cantonal I
government, and a portion of those of the federal
government, which the members of the ex-cantonal
government of Lucerne had carried off with them to
Altorf, in their precipitate flight on the night of the
23rd, were announced to be about to be Morbid.
This fact, which we already mentioned, is eealbesed
by the publication of the letter of M. Tschopp, ewe/
the members of the ca-council of state.

The journals and despatches from
to the 17th have arrived by the Lersattsil.thlig:
last accounts from Albania corroborate former reports
of the almost complete submission or subjection of the
insurgents. The Porte had received news that Rap-
pocalli and the other chiefs of the insurrection, with
the exception of Djoalaka, had been arrested, and
were en route for Constantinople.
The cholera had made no serious progress in Con-
stantinople. The sanitary intendance reported on the
16th that some cases hadoccurred on that day, but that
the number was very limited, and there were grounds
for hoping that the epidemic would not further in-
crease.

ATHENS, Nov.lo.
I informed you in my last that is oompoqoune of
the nonattendance of a number of members of as assons,
sufficient for the minieterial party, ths shims hod lees
closed. The senate, however, met on the 1 to hoax Ile
appointment of the new senators nod. At this &dog X.
Loudoe called upon ministers to ezplalathe term node use
of by the President of the Counell et this last sitting, whoa
he (the President) declared that the mots hod
then powers in regard to the address to Ws Warsiigff,t
(M. Loudoe) declared the conduct of the sohtilloy oe swess-
stannous', and as an attempt to conned ties of
the senate. This attack was wither we ~sulked
by the ministers. The Mfahreso Of the orlsoneared
to evade the question by Ravioli the Waft of ilioNiteithz
admission of the sow sensems. Main.
and ',fanzines then essoessively toproolhol the aidoltio
with having kept the saute in a Man of WWI= shoe the
opening of muiiament, with entissowelog to vilify it, sal
injuring its rights and prerogatives, es we of the peg
powers of the state. After several smokes from other sawn-
hors, mostly condemnatory of the ministers, M. Christacop-
oulu nom and proposed the following, " The MA* having
in their vote upon the 'darns acted within the limits of lte
functions, as a sovereign and independent body, pion Is
the order of the day.' This proposition was strasity ap-
posed by the Minkter of Finance, N. Cornatekss, who
altogether denied the Wahines of say each power in the
senate. This brought forth N. Chrysooelas, who asserted
the absolute independence of the senate in all its acts,