The Express.
London, England, 1849-06-21 00:00:00

and
destinapnrcthoebehs,;
whic would be easy to discover) supposed to di- by other claims,
vide he middle from the lower classes —are identical. lions.
The man who depends for subsistence upon the It is not pretended in any quarter that the P wages of his daily toil has, if possible, a greeter in- jaub will be a financially profitable acquisition. 211;
tenet in the meintenance of peace and order than the contrary, it is corifeseed in India and in England,O
the capitalist ; and the capitalist has as great an iate- that the extension of our frontier from Loodliu
rest in the reduction of taxation as the labourer, and Ferosepore to the left bank of the Jude,,ln wad
Cheap and efficient government is the great bring with it a new and large demaed upon te
desideratum alike for the middle and the lower sources of the East India Company ;
classes; and as their common interests prompt question in dispute concerns the magnitude ° •
and ths them to combine, so the results of a frank and cordial duration of the new source of loss.
union between them is indispensable to the attain- In forming any est;mate of the revenue of sa
ment of their common objects. Whenever rash and Asiatic province, when the administration is in the
selfishly ambitious demagogues, or insidious aristo- hands of a native authority, there are three vele
crate, have succeeded in sowing dissensions between difficult things tr be considered. First of all, ea'
the middle and lower classes, they have for the time important to know tow mach money, or how mash
paralysed their energies ; whenever these classes have produce is wrested by the collectors, or the farmer,
coalesced to obtain a definite object, they have been of the revenue fo om the cultivators of the soil,
old
successful, from those who arc subject to assessment; it is siso
u
It was the union of the middle and lower chases important to know how much of this gross taxatiss
that carried the Reform Bill in 1831. And let not is actually paid into the central treasury; and lastlr
those who now justly proclaim the insufficiency of how much of the land of the country is legally exempt.'
that measure overlotk the importance of carrying from taxation because enjoying a rent-free tenure, or
it. The vices inherent in the Reform 811 system because held in jeghire, or in fief, by come adherent
have not struck such deep root, they are of the existing government.
' not clothed with the same prestige of here- The estimates and statements of the revenue of the
ditary establishment, as those of the old rot- Punjaub under RUNJEET SINGH are almost as name.
ten borough system. Men are more ready to roes as those who have undertaken to write upon the
, judge by the rules of right reason what lithe work subject, and allowing a reasonable latitude for the
of their own hands than what they have inherited influence of the elements of uncertainty just described,
, from their ancestors. If the Reform Bill efforts did it might not be difficult to set up a plausible de'enee
not erect so shapely and comfortable an edifice as even for the mad extreme of these cumputatioes,
could have been desired, they cleared the surface of The real truth, however, has now been pretty well
the ground of a world of rubbish. Since that struggle, ascertained, and after the thorou ,h investigs.
and in consequence of it, the work of reform has be- tions of Colonel LAWRENCE, we apprehend that few
come comparatively easy. The united middle and people now reckon the income of the Punjaub really
lower classes carried the Reform Bill. Toe levier available to the state, and excluding the jaghices in
classes were the first to feel experimentally is inade- force in 1846 at more than one million sterling. Com-
(limey ; and, too impatient to wait till experieace had pared with these apparently plausible statement!
impressed their former allies with convictions similar which give the revenue of HUNIEET SINGH at two
to their own, they moved on without them ae.d were millions and • half, this is certainly a very poor
defeated. The middle classes have sow also die- result. But it is in the highest degree doubtful that
covered that the measure of reform obtained the country ever paid much more than Colonel LAW.
in 1831 was inadequate. For a time the working REIMS'S estimate. It is true there was a prodigiously
classes, indulging in a (midge at having been of late imposing assessment, just as there is a magnificent
left to themselves, apps ared disinclined to renew the looking assessment in some of the most wretched of
union; but wiser councils are prevailing, and as soon our own provinces ; but, between a tax assessed ands
as the old concert is re-established its old results will tax collected there is in India a most material differ-
again be witnessed. ence. Even so late es January, 1848, Major. Ler.
In more than one of the meetings in the metropolis RENCE describes a land tee assessment in the Punjaub
at which district associations for the promotion of where 22 per cent. of the amount went in remiss
parliamentary and financial reform have been inati- sins, and 15 per cent, in various other abatements,
tuted, working men have declared their readiness to and the final result of the operation yielded 47 rupee
co-operate. At the late nesting in Finsbury four of coin out of every 104) rupees borne upon the
avowed chartists give in their adhesion to the move- nominal roll. We ere not sure that a million Waling
ment. Already the teries are availing themselaesof this is not mere than the country will readily yield
to frighten the middle-class reformers. The attempt under the conditions we have suppesed. Is March,
will tail. The middle-class reformers know right 1818, Major JOHN LAWRENCE, the acting residentat
well that the political principles of the chartists only Lahore, in one of his last despatches written in that
differ from the political principles of the radicals of capacity, rays disticely, "the whole revenue of the
IikNRY HUNTS time in their having received more Punjaub, exclusive of jaghires and rent free Linda
distinct and systematic expression from the document cannot exceed 94 lace of rupees (910,0001.), and it
whence the chartists derive their distinctive denomi- will probably yield lees than this sum.
nation. They know that the Reform Bill was ear- The question then turns upon the amount of
neatly and honestly supported by many radicals of revenue procurable from a resumption of all or nest
the HENRY HUNT school because they tnought it, if of the rent free poi tons of the soil. It most be borne
not a complete measure, yet a measure that prairie( d in mind that any wholesale process cf ejectment
practical results worth struggling for. The alliance and resumption in the appropriation of these later
of the honest, intelligent, and peaceable members of is not feasible ; such a course would in'roduce one
the chartist body with the financial and parliament- of two evils—either the country would be filled with
a•y reformers will be entered into in the same spirit a lawless and desperate banditti, or a numerous clam
and on the same understanding. of the population would b 3 rendered literally dead.
There can be na mistake as to the principles and tu'c. At best, therefore, the resource of the jaghires
objects of the parboil, ntary and financial reformer,. can only come into gradual operati
Tteir programme is distinct and unequivocal. It Still, what is really their value ?
can commit no man who gives it his support to more One of the concluding acts of Lord HARDING', be-
than is expressed in Laying down as the ground- bre he left India, was to direct Mr. ELLIOTT to draw
work of the movement the proposition that financial up a memoir on the revenues of the Punjaub, and in
reform is indispeusable, but cantle t be hoped for from transmitting this dem:meet to the directors in Decem-
a House of Commons constituted like the present, it ber, 1817, he very clearly expresses its geueral eon-
recommends a change in ti'e constitution of that body, elusion in the full. .wing senterce:—" In all probabl-
not upon mere theoretical, but upon practical prin- lity the revenue of the entire kingdom of the Nehru!,
ciples. It does not propose a theoretically perfect leeis- derived from land, cannot be estimated, even
lature, but one which is calculated to work much better for future years, at more than 1,500,000/, and the
than the one we have. Men, whom theories of inference to be drawn from the data collected
government differ widely, may honestly and usefully is this, that en the most economical estimate of the
combine to bring about this prat tical change. The civil and military administration of the country, the
defective constitution of the existing House of Cora- expanse of its occupation would exceed the revenues
mons, and the advantage of adopting the modified by more than half a million sterling."
electoral system proposed by the financial and paella- This is an official opinion, it must be remembered,
mentary re formers, were ably and impressively ilium- and these are the results. At the outside the revenue
treed by Mr. GEORGE Moravec.; at tho Finsbury nut!, be 1,500,000/. ; it is 1,000,0001, and the cost of
meeting. occupation is 2,000,0001. Slow the East India Coin-
We are glad to observe that at all these meetings puny intend to manage the difference is a question, we
tic practical importance of the movement for extend- are hippy to say, that they, and not we, have to
ing the 40s. franchise is recognised and earnestly in- determine.
slated upon. That is the only method by which

sincere iractical reformers can hope to bring such a
number of allies within the pile of the exist-
ing franchise, as will render them power-
ful for good within the walls of the House of Com-
mons. The conservatives try to discredit the move-
ment by alleging that the mode of increasing the 40e.
freeholders proposed may hereafter be liable to abuse.
That is not impossible ; there is no human institution
that may not be so p. rverted. But when it has been
so abused it will be tor the generation which suffers
by the abuse to apply the necesscry reform: that is
no reason why the present generation should not make
use of the yet unperverted means. The historyof our
small representative boroughs presents us with a closely
analogous case. Latterly they did become an inde-
scribable nuisance ; but at the commencement of the

great constitutional struggle between the people
and the first STUAUTS, they were of vital service
to the popular cause. At that time the great landlords
led up their re•pective "tails" of freeholders to the
hustings to vote as they wished. The middle class had
little chance in the county elections. Seeing
this, the popular leaders set themselves to exsmine
the records of parliament, and wherever they dis-
covered a borough which had once returned members
to the House of Commons, and had ceased to do so,

they exerted themselves to get it restored to the list
of electoral constituencies; and thus they augmented
the number of popular representatives. It is only by
thus availing themselves of existing constitutional forms
that the people can peaceably and legally defeat those
who systematically convert these forms into instru-
ments of oppression. We must work with the ma-
terials we have at hand, and leave to those who come

aiternetonlOChi; ;Ind improve them when they have
been rendered mischievous.

INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION.

LETTER FROM MR. COBDEN.

Since the debate on this que.tion, Richard Cobden
has addressed the following letter to Joseph Storge:

Izamisn, Jute 15, 1849.
MY DEAR STURCE,—The fienls of peace ought to
be very well satisfied with the result of Tuesday's de-
bate. A close scrutiny of the division lists shows a
very gre a' preponderance of public opinion on the vote
of the minority of 81 (tellers included), which com-
prises the representatives of nearly ell the largest con-
stituencies. For instance, not one of the county •
members for Middlesex, West Riding of Yorkshire,
and North and South Lancashire, voted in the
majority ; they were all with us or absent.
Those constituencies aro generally admitted to
be fair tests of public opinion. Not one of
the metropolitan members voted against use
excepting Lord John Russell. I never knew a ques-
tion which made such rapid progress in the house.
You will recollect my telling you in February and
March of the jeers and laughter with which the first
petitions for arbitration treaties were received. All
that was changed into serious and respectful attention
to the subject, by the efforts of your peace patty out
of doors, and the flood of petitions which was poured
in from all parts of the country. If you feel out&
cieut encouragement to persevere, 1 have no doubt
that success will crown your efforts at no
distant petiod, and that the government will
be authorised by a vote of the house to hold
oat the olive branch to other nations, inviting them
to a mutual pledge that under no circumstances will
they go to war. When such a pledge shall have been
enteredianto by this country with all the governments
you will have taken the best possible means for se-
curing universal and permanent peace. Ido not pre-
tend to say that even then no wars would ever occur,
but at lerst we shall have done our best to prevent
them. -

IT is exceedingly fortunate that amidst all the un-
certainty and contradictions of oar Asiatic politics
there is at least one fact, plain, notorious, and in-
structive. It is abundantly obvious that whatever
other motives may enter into the foreign policy of the
East India Company, the time has now come when
all questions of new territory must b' considered as
questions of finance. It may possibly be inconvenient
or annoying to tolerate upon the frontier a prince or
a tribe of whose friendship and pacific disposition
there is good reason to entertain a doubt. But the
alternative is as short as it is simple. Assuming, for
the sake of the argument, that we had the means
and the right to accomplish a forcible occupation of
the obnoxious district, the recognition of oar autho-
rity would only settle half the problem. Unless
the new acquisition paid every farthing of its own ex-
penses the paramount power would be in the position
of an ambitious landlord who extends the circum-
ference of his estates by still further increasing the
deficiency of his income. The East India Company
have already more territory than is profitable, and
they are already conversant with a deficit which
threatens them with the most serious consequences.
If it were not for the surplus revenue procured from
the Gangetic provinces, the empire of the English in
the East would presently disappear amidst the crash
of a financial catastrophe. The revenues of Madras
so barely suffice to liquidate the expenses of even that
peaceful, and, in some treasure, obscure portion of
India, that a surplus balance of account seldom re-
lieves the dull uniformity of the financial bulletins of
the eastern presidency. At Bombay the case is very
much worse, for instead of an equilibrium between
the income and the charges, it is a very rare occur-
rence for the expenditure to be met under a
lees penalty than a contribution of half a million
sterling from the treasury of Bengal ; and what
may be the new and unwelcome extent to which
this deficit may be carried when the whole of
the expenses of Scinde are added to the Bombay
account, we will not presume to offer an opinion.
Surrounded by such reasons for circumspection, it
is difficult to imagine the over-ruling motives which
have led to the annexation of another bankrupt state.
The directors are surreanded on every side with the
most impressive admr.mitions to calculate, first of 7.11,
the cost of any new lire of policy. They live under a
daily obligation to remember that they have not the
means of pursuing any object which, for a distant and
problematical advantage Writ up an immediate and
formidable demand upon resources already absorbed

I am afraid that some of our friends will think I
took low ground in the arguments I used in intro-
ducing the question to the house. I did so purposely.
No other appeal than that to reason, facts, and prac-
tical experience, would have secured me a &bate.
The disposition of the house was from the first to
" pooh pooh" the matter as Utopian and impractica-
ble. I felt that my first duty was to make it a prac-
tical question. That being now secured, we may in
future elevate our tone to the height of our great
topic, by appealing to the nobler sentiments of hu-
manity and justice. It will be with this qucst;on as
it was with that of the corn laws, the longer it is dis-
cussed the greater it will become.
I fear also that some of the peace party, who advo.
cate a congress of nations, to arrange a supreme court
of appeal for the settlement of international disputes,
will be disappointed at icy disagreeing with them.
Whatever may be the future state of the world, I
am quite convinced that at present it would be to the
last degree inexpedient to bring the representstives
of the different nations together for the purpose of in-
ducing them to agree to anything. They would be far
more likely to sow the seeds of war than to plant
. the olive-tree throughout Europe. I know that
many members came down to the house to oppose me,
upon the assumption that I was going to advocate a
congress of nations, who went away without voting,
when they found that my plan merely meant a volun-
tary pledge of arbitration. Upon the whole, however,
I trust our friends will be satisfied with the position
the question has so rapidly gained in the house, and
Li which I attrioute entirely to their persevering efforts
' out of doors. _ _ _

Believe me, faithfully yours,
RICHD. COBI)EN.

To Joeeph Stnrge, Esq.

LA PLATA.—There are dates in Liverpool from
Buetos Ayres to the 14th April, but the letters do not am-
nvgnieste any it( we of Importance.
AN ESCAPE FROM BURIAL ALIVE.—The cholera
is r Iglus severely in the village of Arlingham, Gloucester•
shire. A singular incident occurred there on Monday last.
A child named Phillip', who was supposed to be dead, was
laid out with her mother, who had died of cholera, and the
bodies were about to be buried. The father, however
while bearing some burning tar through the house, said the
child moved; it gradually recovered, and is now living.