The Express.
London, England, 1847-12-17 00:00:00

ghe erprto.

MAILS
The mans kr British 1!W Amerhe, Btrothdtweghmthe United
statae, will be made hp all the 41Pralig et Ur 17th
The worked mile fir Oheeller lthete.Greote, the leek; Nadi.
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rio heethempho,
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ni
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lithe
The Nib kr Iflue, Oporto, Limbos. lamietre, Oaks, end Gieralhe
will be mei up ea the monis, of the blth Doeseher.
=oft kr New theuth Wales, Vaa Memo% losd. had New
Tabs ark up the eyeing of kit SIR Deember.
'Dee Welt Me ezetwalag Ilhaemo, Hamm,
Sheasee. Mg Oder e. Tees Oa. art rote Rico, sod
Whig theme kr Makin. Josemei. heath Martha,
Cheer% ?sets. Weet Peet et Seek sod Bt. Jossade-
iltershos, uS be nab up ea the harsdog of the and Jewry.
She woke kr the Brody the Meer Pleb. Monte Vldeo, Versara-
r=gDarth.lizatt:: sod Bono Ayres, ba toads up on tke

TO COMISPONDSPITIL
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be my On bibs. 1411••••Yobeabbb by Two.febork Ow bay at peollanles.

MOH MATES AT LONDON SUDO&
Tan DLIII—MOMIA4 I WM. pa 1 liftman. efta. aft A
T.-Monson—Yacht. lain. ar IA; liftman 3W. aft it.

LONDON, FRIDAY, DEC. 17.

Ir is impoesible to contemplate the new parlia-
ment, and its mode of handling the one or two great
questions laid before it, without coming to the con-
viction that it is utterly incapacitated from grasping
any of the great difficulties of the time, and solving
them with that power, resolution, and independence,
which ought to be expected from the representative
assembly of the nation.
The first and crying defect of the new parliament
is, that there is no opposition, no compact and united
popsympathising with popular wants, breathing
ear feelings, and impressing both with potent voice
upon the minister of the day. Instead of this
constitutional division of parties, and allotment
of duties, we have the benches on both sides
of the SPEAKER'S chair occupied each by a set
of politicians, which, though one calls itself
whig, and another tory, do in fact but play into each
other's hands, avoid each other's enmities, respect each
other's prejudices, and carry on a joint rule over the
destinies of the country by putting their heads I
together under the table, not over it. Both of these I
parties are led by veteran statesmen, men who have
wielded power, and who are more impressed with the
exigencies and necessities of office than with any-
thing else. Every question that is brought beim
the house is arranged tacitly, and before hand, between
these governmental parties, without the public or
people of England having a voice. The currency
=, and the:manner,in which it has been and will
with, is a complete case in point.
0* this question, the whigs, when they were a po-
pular and opposition party, held popular ideas. And
when we say popular, we mean the opinion of the re-
spectable and wealthy mercantile classes. They op-
posed the bill of 1844, the sacrifice of the coma,-
armee and the private credit and the commercial
freedom of the country, to that mania for legislating
and regulating, and restricting, which is always the
spidemv of every Jack in office, that epidemy
being always stronger in proportion to the ignorance
and inexperience of those whom it affects. But since
1844, the whigs have ceased to be • popular opposi-
tion, and have become a reigning administration, as
=oh by the grace of Sir R. PEEL'S tacit support
as 11 the general adherence of public opinion. To
conciliate PEEL has become one of their first neces-
sities ; and accordingly we find Sir C. Woof) come
forward in the character and with the words of a
second GOULBUB.N. As the elector. could not have
made choice of candidates with an exclusive view to a
question so recondite as the currency, and as they
trusted to the general tendencies rather than to the
particular theories of the liberals, the result has been
that public opinion on these questions is unrepre-
sented in parliament, and public wants unexposed.
There is, we repeat it, no opposition. The
independent members of the liberal party are
either too new to the house, too modest to come
forward in contradiction of two such opinions as
PEEL'S and RUSSELL'S, or else have unfortunately
become too much entangled in the extreme opinions of
Birmingham, to admit of their forming an opposition.
And even in the case of a new member having been
returned who has fall knowledge of the subject, he
is too much awed by the conjunction of such
powerful constellations in favour of the bill
of 1844, to attempt more than a modest cavil, or
venture more than a sneaking and unintelligible
caveat. This has been the case with Mr. JAMES
WlLseni.
As to the protectionists, the country party, those
I sticklers for every old abuse and every exploded
theory—those men who have no principle save spleen,
who have no ideas or arguments, or line of conduct
for the evening which chance does not improvise
for them in the morning ; these men can serve no
cease, can represent no interests, can merely slaver
over and discredit anything which they abet. In
saying this we speak not of the country party itself,
I but of its leaders, who, by their folly and presume
tiou as much contribute to nullify parliament r—_
I render it unfit for its legislative task, as the neutral
position of PEEL and the anomalous and distracted
attitude of the present whig administration.
As long u parliament and the parties within it re-
main as they are, not only will no great question be
fairly solved, but no great question will be fairly or
fully discussed. Sir ROBERT PEEL and Lord JOIIN
RUSSELL have but to agree, in order to cram what
they please down the throat of the country, be it cur-
rency or coercion.
A; to the debates in parliament on the currency,
they were a mockery, utterly behind the intelligence,
and unsatisfactory to the expectation, of the country.
Can we expect the labours of the committee to be
anything more? Or could we expect that committee
to be named in any way that could possibly produce
anything more -Have we not had the dogmatic
declaration of Sir ROBERT PEEL, echoed by Lord
Jonw RUSSELL, and exaggerated by Sir CnsfiLEs
WOOD. What hope is there that the committee will
venture on any other than the same cuckoo-cry, when
not one powerful voice has been heard to expound
the popular and plain doctrines of general interests
in parliament ?

Racestr accounts from Ceylon have forced upon us
the suspicion that the Bashaw system of government
is not yet quite obsolete in the British colonies. The
manner in which Lord TORRINGTON was not long ago
pleased to receive a deputation of the householders of
Colombo, if fairly represented in the newspaper
report, was grossly indecent.
It appears that the local government in Ceylon has
for many years been anxious to increase the beauty
and improve the sanitary condition of Colombo, by
widening streets, removing obstructions to the free eir-
culatienof air, improving the drainage, &c. Verandahs
attached to houses, and incloeurea surrounding
them, were sometimes found to stand in the
way of these improvements. As an economical
mode of getting rid of these obstructions, government,
in the year 1836, instead of offering to purchase them,
instituted a series of actions yfor their removal. Go-
vernment was defeated in the first action (King v.
Osmbs), no allegation having been hazarded that the
building sought to be removed was an encroachment
on the public street The next action (Superintendent
of Police v. Vanderstraaten) contained such an
allegation : the district judge, however, decided that
the building in question was neither an encroachment
nor a nuisance. Here the government authorities
appear to have paused. In 1844, however, the
assistant surveyor-general, having called several
people in Colombo to show their title-deeds, found
that in the greater number of instances these papers
made no mention of the verandahs in front of the
houses. It was resolved to take advantage of this cir-
cumstance, in order to obtain the removal of the
verandahs: . .

To this end an advertisement was inserted in the
government gazette by Sir EMERSON TENNENT, to
the effect that all verandahs and fences in front of
houses standing on government ground were to be
removed, if they interfered with the proper width
and drainage of the streets, and that even when they
did not they would be demolished, if not purchased.
Under this notification it was intended to destroy or
force a purchase of all verandahs and fences not ex-
pressly mentioned in original title deeds.
It appears that with a very few exceptions none of
the verandahs or fences in question interfere with the
proper width and drainage of streets ; and also that if
they are removed the houses to which they are an-

nexed will be rendered much less healthy and mate-
rially deteriorated in value. Many of them were
erected under the Dutch government, or immediately
after the transfer of the colony to our government.
They have passed from one generation to another, or
through many successive purchasers, and owing to
the careless manner in which the register of land
grants was kept under the last years of Dutch rule,
and the culpable neglect of it since, the original
tickets containing the descriptions of the grants
have in many instances been lost. It is pro-
posed by the government to take advantage of this its
own neglect of duty to force on the demolition or
purchase of many verandahs, and of inclosures
which do not interfere with the health or amenity
of the town, and which have been in the uncontested
occupation of the houseowners beyond the memory of
the oldest inhabitant.
In the course of the remonstrances addressed to the
local governor by the householders, and to the home
government by their agent, Mr. WCHRIBTIE, some
warm reflexione and recriminations have been
interchanged between the complainants and the
Colonial Secretary of Ceylon. This may be
regretted, but when we take Into account the sharp
practice attempted on the part of government,
is scarcely to be wondered at, and certainly
cannot justify the rade deportment of Lord Ton-
meoroe to the last deputation which waited on
him in the name of the householders. The utmost
courtesy and respect bad been uniformly observed by
them in their demeanour towards his lordship.
The object of this deputation was to propose a set-
tlement of the verandah question. Their proposal
was that the verandahs should be divided into two
classes—such as were and such as were not required
for public purposes. With respect to the former class
it was proposed that such as had been possessed for
any period under ten years should be removed
without any compensation to the owners : while
such as had been possessed for upwards of
ten and less than fifteen years should have
a compensation allowed for them, at oae-fourth
of the assessed value, such as ad been pos-
sessed for upwards of 15 and less than 20 years of
one-half, such as had been possessed for upwards of
20 and less than 25 years of three-fourths of the
assessed value ; and that for all which had been
occupied upwards of 25 years fall compensation
should be allowed. As to verandahs not required for
public purposes, the deputation offered, in the name of
their constituents, that the full assessed value of the
ground should be paid for all that had been occupied
for any period under 10 years, two-thirds of the value
for all that had been occupied more than 10 and less
than 15 years, one-half for all that had been occupied
more than 15 and less than 20 years, one-fourth for
all that had been occupied more than 20 and leas than
25 years. On the other hand, they asked that all
who could prove undisputed occupancy for more
than 25 years (quarter of a century), should be left in
quiet possession.
Really: when we consider the nature of the contro-
versy, this seems a very fair and liberal proposal on
the part of the householders. It was only in 1844
that the local government discovered by accident the
flaw in the householders' titles, of which it is seeking
to take advantage. Before the flaw was discovere
government had been defeated in several attempts
to wrest the law into an engine to get pos-
session of these verandahs without compensa-
tion. The householders allege, with great plau-
sibility, that they have, in many instance',
been deprived of the means of proving their titles
by the shamefal manner in which the land register
has been kept. It may be added that government
has ever since 1820 been levying rates upon the
verandahs, the title to a hich it now denies. All
these considerations notwithstanding, Lord TORRING-
TON refueedeven to receive the proposal, and to distract
attention from the injustice of this proceeding he appears
to have sought to fix a quarrel on the deputation. He
kept them standing the whole hour that their inter-
view lasted, although chairs were provided for the
subordinate officials in waiting. He insisted upon
their declaring whether they were prepared to prove
all the statements contained in a letter of their agent
in England--some of these statements having no
essential bearing on the question, and others relating
to an interview at the Colonial-office, of which they
could know nothing. He refused to receive in
writing a statement of the averments they were pre-
pared to prove. He concluded by telling them that
they had uttered falsehoods respecting the Colonial
Secretary ; that some of their statements were "per-
fectly Wm," and that he (the Governor) " was not
misinformed, and could not be."
Unable to obtain anything but brow-beating from
the local authorities, and unable to persuade the Co-
loaird-office to entertain any, representation of the
II" except what the local authonties have made on
their own behalf, the householders of Colombo have
resolved to petition parliament. That an attempt is
being made to deprive them of property which many
of them have long held without challenge, by a pro-
cess of very questionable legality, and of unques-
tionable inexpediency, is certain. And if it can be
farther proved that for representing their case with
sturdy independence, they have been treated with
wanton insolence, we can scarcely entertain a doubt.
that parlialiament will take care to have justice done
4.. them.
and

Our Paris despatches of Wednesday say that the
members of the opposition in the chamber are
already engaged in the choice of a candidate for the
presidency to oppose M. Sauzet, who will be sup-
ported by the cabinet. The choice of a Presi-
dent of the Chamber is thought to be the
point, if any, on which all the sections of
the opposition are most likely to coalesce, and
thus defeat the ministry. Overtures have accord-
ing been passed between the parties, which scarcely
agree in anything except in the abstract question of
reform, and the practical one of turning out
the present cabinet. MM. Dupin and Dufaare
have been named es the individuals on whom
the greatest unanimity could be expected. Although
these deputies are said to have declined the candi-
dateship their friends nevertheless do not discounte-
nance the propositions which are still advanced in
favour of one or the other. It is said that the pro-
' ressive conservatives, whose sentiments are expressed
lin the columns of La Press:, would support either of
'these candidates. A fear having been expressed that
the sections of the left could not be induced to eupport
either of them, and that M. There, especially, would
be opposed to M. Dnfaure, the Conelitstionnel and
the Steele have come forward in the names of their
respective parties, and disavowed any such opposition.
A distrust on the other hand ie entertained of
the steadiness and consistency of the progreesist
conservatives themselves, who are charged with
having so little ooherence that they fall to pieces on
the slightest assault from the ministerial benches.
Meanwhile, it seems pretty certain that there will be
a serious struggle on the question of the presidency.
A reform banquet, attended by 800 guests was held
at Montpellier on the 6th, and another at Castres on
the sth, attended by 400 persons. The latter was
presided over by il. Leon de Maleville, vice-presi-
dent of the chamber. The reform banquet of the
Eure took plece-on Sunday last at Nieubourg, ander
the presidency of M. Dupont (de PEare), and was
attended by 900 guests.
The reform banquet of the 14th arrondissement of
Paris was held at St. Denis on Tuesday. A reform
banquet is to be held at Romars, in the department
de la Drome, on the 19th, and one at Vienne on
the 20th.
The Gazette de Prance, on Tuesday evening, an-
nounced, on the faith of a letter from Genoa, of the
7th, that news had arrived there by a steamer; from
Naples, that not only Sicily was in full insurrection,
but that Naples itself had risen and proclaimed its
independence. It is added that the King and royal
family bad taken refuge on board a ship-of-war.
We have received the Leghorn journals of the ith,
in which we find no reference to such events. Its
Naples dates, however, come down only to the 3rd.
It is circulated, and generally credited, that M.
Guizot has succeeded in obtaining the consent of the
Emperor of Russia to accredit a minister plenipo-
tentiary to Paris, in piece of the charge d'affaires,
which is the only class of representative he has ever
condescended to maintain at Paris since the revolu-
tion of July.
Every sacceedinjs
its interest. There is,

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