The Express.
London, England, 1849-12-11 00:00:00

glit erVrelOS.

OUTGOING MAILS.
The mails for by k.mi Neith America and the United
States will be made up on the evening et Dee. 14.
The West India Mails, excluding Bansuda, H b,
Maerma, lirriduras, /4-w °deans, and Mexico, and including
Chme for Madeira, 15!. Juan-tle-Nie.raitus, New Granada,
ili, and Peru, w.ll b, despatched on Dm. 17.
The neat mails fcr Lieb As, Spain, and Gibraltar will be
made u•• n D c. 17.
. 'The male kw Gibraltar, Malta, Greyer, the beaks Islands,
Egypt, Crying, India, and Ovine, via Southampton, wilt
be made up on the morning of Dm. 20.
The mails rid Marseilles, to the Mediterranean, Egypt,
Ceylon, India, Hohg.Ko rig, rte., wi'.l be made up on the
wising of Dec. 24.
The mails for Meanie, the Brasile, and Buenos Ayres,will
\elude ay ea Jan. 4.

lON WAT/111 AT LONDON 4EOOI.
TAM D. —ilmsSeg. Ilk. Mem Allerree. ea
fterraase--11WAAG IS. C.

LONDON, TUESDAY; DEMMER 11.

IT is a tWeiTt month yesterday since the
nephew of NAPOLEON was raised by the mindful
gratitude of the French people to be President of,
their Republic. Of tar six millions who gave that
vote, no very considerable portion was actuated by
the motives of political party. Those who were so,
chose Louts NAroLtos, the liberals as a champion to
curb the *cilia and rearioi ary spirit of the upper
clues; whilst the upper cloves sabred him as the
instrument of rpular repreraion and monarchic

restore. ioo.
Not one of the 'lnes parties thus actuated, however,
found their aceount in I.ouis NAPOLEON. The wor-
shippers V that glorious name have found not one
ray of that hale, which etcireled NAPOLEON, illumine
the nip cf his nephew. Wha, ever his ietentions, or
so be it that he bail any, his Lets have been mean, his
influence smell, his policy undignified. A stranger to
the great cause of European liberty in the chief
scenes where that liberty was disputed, in only one
candid the =yen neo.t of Louis Neroixox.inter-
fere, and that was on behalf of the worse the most
bigoted, the most contemptible, the most Wee-
grade species of despotism that has survived the dark
ages. There s certainly not in the annals of France,
or of any European risen', an act so vile and so dis-
graceful as the bungling mid prolonged and treacherous
warfare carried on by tt e best equipped army of modern
times, against an enemy few in number, and who
possessed co element of resistance save their courage
and their cause. Tee bee, acts of other governments
and dynasties find their pretexts, if not their excuses,
in the great and ambitious purpose which they served,
or in the sincerity of the a al which prompted them.
If the great NAPOLEON tr 41 Spanish independence
under foot, it was at least for the glory and greatness
of France. If the French, under Louts XVIII.,
overran the same country, it was at least to newel-
tate • tyranny t. at was akio to them, and a sacerdo-
tal influence which they worshipeed. But the sub-
jection of Rome in 1849 trees d no one interest of
French glory or French ambition ; tor had the victors
the least respect for the despotism they served, nor
the least belief in the bigotry which their swords
set up.
We have cimmeneed by considering the foreign
policy which has marked Louis NAPOLEON'S first
year of pow. r, br cause amidst a proud, a great, an
impressionable people Ike the French, it is by the
vigour and ta.. ielat of his foreign policy that a ruler
could best win that general adhesion and admiration
of the =rises which in our days, and especially in
France, eau ulnae supply the eektiesetnt feelings of
hereditary loyalty. It is not always, inched,
that an opportunity is offered to a young
ruler for scekving an act of greatness and
éclat. Louis NAPOLEON cannot plead want
of opportunity. Italy, the land of his family, of
his own youth and struggles, was in k opardy. A
strong resolve, a constant and honest feeling for its
liberties and welfare in Louis NAPOLEON'S breast,
would have infallibly given to that prir ce • crown
and to Italy independence. Tee groat NAPOLEON
would never have let such an opportunity pass. His
little nephew had nei her the heart nor the head to
comprehend it. And as in life we east aside and
despair of a man who cin neither discern nor
seize the moment or the opining to fortune, so
with regard to Louis NAPOLEON, we can
have no hopes of a prince, who, on the
morrow of his being raised on the popular shield,
could sink int the timid deleulatious and wilful nullity
of a roi faineant.
The vile !literate, that fan his inglorious slumbers,
are fur ever reminding the President et the Emperor
NAPOLEON. Shame and truth should alike make
them forget the name and avoid the comparison.
There is- not a scintilla nor a sentiment of NAPO-
LEON'S reign either in the present ruler or in the
present public of France. It would be more
just and more trutbful to ape. k of Louis
PHILIPPE, of whose character and policy
Louis NAPOLEON has rendered himself the humble
continua-tr. And inde. deve know notruer word than
that which r!ese,ilns the President of the French Re-
public to he " Louis P4ilippe renfurcr—a &utile
does of Louis Pritieere. lu both we see the same
petty, peddling, dpiastio aims, excluding every
generous, (reek, or patriot c ides. In both we see a
trimming and tack rig bitwene parties, playing one
man against another at home, aid one court against
another abroad, knocking M. Tutees' head
against M. Mute's, coquetting with England
one day and with Russians the next, kissicg. the
Pope's toe to win the vote of the Catholics, promising
an amnesty and a law of public assistance to curry
favour with the Socialists, and choosing nonentities
of ministers from the French Carlton Club, in order
to give guarantees to its tories.
The only persons gratified by this amphibious and
feminine policy are the enemies of Louts Nero-
Limes fortune and his name. The legitimists
are delighted, for while they behold 'elm
pressing down the French public to submission
and indifference, they see that he is undermining
the only foundation ou which a BONAPARTE throne
could stand, a maintenance of popular ideas and popu-
lar interests. Tne re publicans are delighted, because
it was necessary that a representative of each of the
three popular dynasties should prove themselves, one
after the other, incapable of taking root in • revolu-
tionary soil. The republicans are also pleased to find
that while Louis NAPOLEON has adopted Louis
PHILIPPE'S inglorious, time-sereing, and dynastic
aims in foreign poleice, he has also adopted the same
monarch's blunder of increasing expenditure at home,
relieving the per pie of not one conscrip WO, or of one
tax, without glory, or acquisition, profit, or trade to
them in compensation. Louis NAPOLEON has just
mounted the same old spavined horse that broke
down under Louis PHILIPPE, which he is trying
keep up with a tighter curb, and press on with a
sharper spar. Never did man provide more certainly
for a short career and a rapid fall.
How many of the six millions that voted for Louse
NAPOLEON a year ago would now crowd with the
wins purpose to the electoral urn? When the three
years have run out, which will necessitate the ne
election of a President, and the re-election of ea
Assembly, to what point of the political compete vW
the current of French opinion be turned ? Wed.
not think that it would have been impossible to have
turned it towards the cardinal point of moderate
liberty. But by wresting it, as the present genera-
seat has dons, to military, sacerdotal, and pelicedespe-
tism, we ace merely the certainty of a re vellum towards
republicanism of the reddest hue. Persons are tea
apt to despise a pert) they do not hear of; sad meayi
among tel probably think that the verdict of the Otmetl
of Versailles base nsigned LIDRU ROLLIN IO oblivies
as well as to exile. From what we hear, however, of the
French provinces, we should not say that the cooserva-
tin party, or that its many shades of royalism were
pining ground. Of all the mines of political =peg
thet was over discovered or worked, socialism is tie
most powerful and the most dangerous. And wises=
means adopted to combat it in France except to use
off to prison those who atter cries in its favour. Seek
=tun as these will not refute or prevent. Ana
the parties at present in possession of peal,
adopt some sew mode of addressing and captivating
the people, we should fear much for the result of the
next appeal to universal suffrage. Two years, how-
ever, have yet to elapse—years in which thee is
every prospect of quiet. But we entertain
doubts of the statesmanship of MM. Hat/Trout=
'ANIMA of the temper and courage of the roglht
majority, or of the public and private virtues of UM
NAPOLEON, to being about or foresee any great or
desirable result.

itil. BRIGHT, in his letter to the bes,..—
the kel'inburgh Anti-game-law. Astocietiou, ,e,
we published on Saturday, endeavored to keount
E
for the absence of demon-trati ,against t , game
laws out of perlianso.t. ' townepe * ber
is of °Oahe, regard the gtitest -as more •
ately concerning the riajd pagilagoe. than 'iheie-'
selves; the farmers and agricultural &bourne he
arias' are wanting in power and independence.
We amour with Mr. BRIGHT in these views; but
we suspect there is a yet more deeply-rooted cause
for the ea. nc.i of the agrioultural population.
The troth is, that in many parts of the etuntry
poaching is a regularly organised trade. Thee are
extensive game dealers in all our large towns, who
leave factors or collectors of game in tamest every
little town and village in Scotland and England.
These c >Hectors are not themselves poachert, but
*ay receive at fixed prices all the game brought to
theft by thole who are. They find it more profi'able
be deal with the illegal than with the legal
egierteman, for the former, eager to get rid d the
amimodity, parts with it at a lower rate. The
organised caterers for the Liverpool game market
extend far into the southern comae. of Scotland.
When any eximordinary demand fur game occurs in
Liverpool the fact is intimated to the local lectors ;
they know the men upon whom they can rely ; they
tend round the fiery cross among them, and can mike
sure of any given quantity of game in the course et a
day or two.
The professional poachers and the small capiv.alists
with whom they deal, have a vested interest in the
perpetuation of the game law.. Game is preserved
for their benefit quite as much as for the pleasure of
the aristocr.tic sportsmen. The repeal of the game
laws they ere aware would knock up their trade, in
the same way that the reduction of the duty on ionize
and the relaxation of some excise regulations put an
end to smuggling in the Highlands. They are not
going to cut their own throat* by agitating for the
repeal cf laws which Nome them a gainful trade,l
farther recommended to them by its excitement The
dabblers in this trade are numerous, and move, some
of them, in circles above these of the mere labourers.
The members of the rural community who do not par-
ticipate in this irregular commerce, are afraid to say
anything against the game-laws lest they should be
suspected of violating them.
Nevertheless we agree with Mr. BRIGHT that the
neciessiqes of all connected with the cultivation of
the soil will, ere long, comoel them to agitate for the
abolition of the game laws. It has become customary,
in many partner the country, for landowners to "let
their game"—to convey to other parties the exclusive
right of shooting over their properties, or parts of
them, for a yea, ly rent. This does, p,rhaps, make the
candidate of these poor serfs, the tenants-at-will, little
worse than it was; but it is keenly telt by the more
intelligent and independent class of farmers, who
hold large farms upon leases. They are naturally in-
dignant that their landlord*, after exacting from them
route, at the least fully equal to the annual value of-
the moil they till, receive other rents for the right
to destroy game raised at their exclusive cost. During
the pas'. autumn we have repeatedly beard comments
made by farmers upon this ingenious device for
getting two rent* out of one farm, an3taing but
cordial or complimentary to the noble and gentle
who practise his mode of raising the wind.
A parliamentary paper, relative to game, ham jut
been published. From its returns we learn that
between the Ist of November, 1832, and the Ist
of August, 1848, fifty coroner's inquests were
held in England and Wales, on the bodies of'.
gamekeepers and other persons killed in affrays
between gamekeepers and poachers. Thirty
seven of these inquests ;returned verdicts of "wilful
mutat r; " two, s (edicts of " manslaughter ; " three,
verdicts of "juatifiab.e homicide;" and eight, ver-
dicts of "accidental death." In only six of these
cases can we learn that judicial praceedioga
were instituted in cons queues of the verdicts of toe
coroners' juries. In only two of these cases were
poachers found guilty ; in one case the grand jury
ignored the bill of indictment, althou.th the game-
keepers had shot n labnpier on the public hiehway.
In the tours* of the ten years ending 1848, the
number of convictions for murder in England and
\Vales was 183. In the course of the sixteen years
ending July, 1818, the member of murders ari•ing out
of affrsys between gamekeepers and poachers, with
drawn from the cognisance of the courts of law,
was 35.

4---_
Airy of
mi hich

Bat it is not in the catalogue of heinous offencesl
that we can discover the exteut to which the criminal
trials ot the country are augmented M number by the
operation of the game laws. We learn hem another of
the returns ab.sve referred to, that the number of per-
son s con victed in Endlsnd and Wales of offences *gain st
the game laws from 5.h May, 1816, to Ist August,
1848, was et assizes 163, at quarter and petty sermons
10,013; in all 10,778. The number of convictions
for offences against the game laws iu the course of two
lyears was 224 in Dorset, and 91 in the East Itidi.ig of
Yorkshire. . .

With reference to these convicions it must be
remarked that the organised professional poachers
constitute but • small minority among t e parties
convicted fir poaching offences at quarter and petty
sessions. In no part of the Unite t Kingdom are
these de-peradoes more numerous or daring than in
the border counties; jet the total number of °envie-
time in Northombcrlend earit.g the two years was
only 173, in Cumberland it was only 63, and in
Westmoreland as low as 27. The fact is that the pro-
fessional poacher in many cases contrives to obtain a
sham qualification and purcneses a license. He evades
the law till in his irregular career be is drawn
into some grave delinquency, and for that he
is punished. The majority of the luckless
10,613 convicted at quarter and petty stssions are
occasional yielders to strong temptation ; men, wo-
men, and boys who, when thrown nut of employment
and pressed by hunger, feel it difficult to persuade
themselves that there is criminality in appropriating
• wild beast or hind which no man can identify as
his property. They are the victims of laws wrace
seek by an artificial proceed to perpetuate in a highly
cultivated country toe existence of wild anim de,
which, by the laws of :astute, disappear berme the
advances of man.
This ma.alogne of convictions for offences agaiust
dhs game laws has an important beericg on Mr.
Satexes' workhouse statistics as well as on his
criminal statistics. The penalty generally awarded
is a fine with costs, or the alternative of imprison-
ment in the case of non-payment. The proportion of
cases in which the condemned undergoes unprises-
wont or absconds is large. Here, then, we have
families deprived of these upon whose slender
earnings they depend for aubsi.tence, and driven to
the workhouse for relief. Mr. BAZIKES, however, has
omitted to tell us to what extent his lists of parties in
receipt of parish relief have been compelled to resort
to it by game law prosecutions.
We have of law had occasion more than sacs to
advert to the manner in which justice is awarded in
poaching cases by justices of the peace; the contempt
of all equitable laws of evidence, and the infliction of
I disproportionate penalties which characterises their
tribunals. And here we have a list of 10,613 indivi-
duals amerced in England end Wales, in the course
of two years, in stuns varying from 101. to sn, bat
averaging upwards of 21. Upwards of 20,0001. in
the course of two years added to the taxes imposed
on the poor by act of parliament !

CALIFORNIA SOVERRIONN.—A spurious class of
coins has latterly been brought into circulation, under the
general designation of Cahiornian sovereigns. They are
well executed counterfeits of our sovereign in size, design,
and colour ; and were it not for the lightness of the metal
employed in their manufacture, there might be some diffi-
culty In detecting the spurious artiste. A short time since
a man named Gloms, • native of Tipperary, who lived in
a house in Snerwoodistreet irequented by emigrant', took it
into his head to revisit the place of his birth. adore pro-
ceeding he provided himself with a fair stuck or
" Calilornins ;" and, as he had resided so long in L:verpool,
his advice was naturally Doubt by his countrymen who
were about to emigrate. The advice was freely given ; and
amongst other things! Gloom did not forget to urge on
those who consulted him the necessity of obtaining golii for
lOW before proceeding to Liverpool, where be stated they
timid be obliged to pay • large per (tentage to get Irish
mein changed. The bait took; the poor people dot raked
next day to go to the first town to procure gold ; but Gleason
expressed his readiness to see thee the trouble; he had a
of sold which heirsuld ve them U.* notes.
rilratZr wee accepted. Some lel. or 151.weretor handed to
Weems, in totes, for_mkkik he returned Cali oraia love.
nips. The poor dupes arrived here in due c .ur.e, tendered
the Calikersias In payment for their passage at one of tae
ilaW to e wa. and got instantly handed over
t:lrlija same
okeeplag of one or two police officers. Onsthe
matter being explained, the peer emigrants were set at
liberty. SuWegseatly,l2ll.mees was diseftered at his former
Wilms in Ifissnstob sat so, betas the perdu whom evidence
*mid- be nessesary to prefer any charge against hiss had left
dlisairws, nothing mold be dies in the matter. Gismo has
Awn Ids for Auserios.—Liverpooldieressrp.