The Express.
London, England, 1848-02-10 00:00:00

there is no partisan of peraecation steadier, more ex-
perieneed, or possessing equal weight in the house.
It protestantism, in the sense of the Standard, is to be
the object of the opposition, Sir ROBERT INGLIS is na-
turally and pre-eminently its champion.
Nor will the GRANBY pact find itself more united
in dealing with commercial questions. It professes
to represent the West India interest, and also the
shipping interest: but the West Indians demand the
repeal or modification of the navigation laws, and the
protectionists aro pledged to maintain them. In other
respects protection is a mere name. Not even the
dullest of the party really expects to restore the corn
laws, or to force protection on unwilling manufac-
turers. Lord 0. DENTINCK talked the other night of
the advantage of protecting every interest against
every other, and demonstrated, in his own peculiar
way, that a system of universal reciprocal extortion
was in the end a gain to all parties; but we would not
recommend the new and inexperienced leader to
follow his predecessor into the regions of arithmetic.
_ .

Lord George's figures cannot spied be,
Within that circle none dare w k but he.
We will not dilate on the many additional discre-
pancies which might be shown to exist in the opinion
of the remnant of Lord GEORGE BENTINCK's fol-
lowers. Their two organs, the furiously protestant
Standard, and the high-church Post, may partly re-
present the incoherence of the party. It is enough
to say that it is at an end. It has neither purpose,
nor policy,nor leaders, nor opinion in the country to
support it. Those who have formed portions of it
must either be content to relinquish all political in-
fluence, or they must find their places in new and
real political combinations. Hereafter the parties of
resistance and movement will no doubt re-orga,dse
themselves; but it is childish to assume an attitude of
dogged opposition to change, when all practical men
are for the time engaged in administrative, or prac•
tical objects, to the exclusion of organic move-
ments. Wo cannot conceive a more absurd state
of things than that the balance of opposing parties
desiderated by the Times should be found in parlia-
ment at present. If every practical measure proposed
by the government at a time when the country is
agreed on many desirable changes, was to be met by
opposition for the sake of oppoeition, perhaps want
of talent and experience would be the best excuse foe
the leaders of the anti-official faction. We do not,
however, attribute any such project to the late fol-
lowers of Lord G. BENTINCK. On the contrary, u e
repeat that their party is at an end ; and we congra-
tulate them more than the public on the result. The
world at large can do without them, or go on in spite
of them ; but, personally, they wiil be benefited by
being relieved from a useless and impracticable post-
tion.

IT is quite a mistake to imagine that conservatives
are averse to popular demonstrations ; they only dis-
like such shows when likely to thwart their own
purposes. During the lung fever-fit of the anti-
Jacobin war excitement, no men more ready to
patronise or head window-breaking mobs on illumi-
nation nights than the tory magnates of the day. Lord
GEORGE GoulioN's protestant mob, and the parson-
and-magistrate-inspired mob which sacked PRIEsT-
LET'S house, may take rank with the most reckless
democratic mobs this country has seen.
This is not meant to apply to the good fellows who
yesterday rowed from London-bridge to Westminster-
bridge, and walked from the latter to the Home-
office. There was nothing sinister about them.
They mustered to the number of some 2,000, or, it
may be, 2,500, rather motley in appearance. The
majority were evidently decent hard-working sea-
men ; some splendid-looking fellows there were
among them (obviously conscious of their good looks);
a large admixture of boys (some of whom looked
liker the factory than the collier) ; and a few non-
descripts of middle and more advanced age, in long-
shore
togs, who, had it been a procession of the royal
navy, might have passed for broken-down purser.). But
they all looked good-natured, and on their return to
Trufalgar-square, not a little fagged. None of them I
were the men to set the town, and few of them the
men to pet the Thames on fire.
Our observation is for the benefit of the wealthy
ship-owners and ship-builders who gulled these
honest fellows into such a dull and fatiguing mode of
losing a day's work. Of all our conservatives the I
most conservative are that medley of freighters and
furnishers, brethren of the Trinity and the like, who •
call themselves "the shipping interest," and who'
have persuaded the good men and true who'
man the northern colliers, that the naviga-
tion
law is meant and works for their advan-
tage.
They, if any, hare turned up their eyes and
exclaimed against the wickedness of processions and
open-air meetings in the Reform Bill time—they have ,
been open-mouthed in their horror at the audacity of ,
the chartists who carried the national petition in
grand procession to the House of Commons—and
they, as soon as they fancied they could gain anything
by it, have hounded on their own sailors to walk in I
procession through London.
In taking this step the YouteGS and other worthies
who are making cat's-paws of the honest seamen
show how egregiously ignorant they are of the form
and pressure of political movements. A demonstration
is not an argument. The procession of yesterday leaves
the question of the navigation laws exactly where it
stood. No doubt the gatherings of the Reform
Bill era materially contributed to the passing of
that measure : but how ? The Reform-Bill struggle
was a contest not of opinions but of powers. Politi-
cal power was then vested in a few i the powerless
classes wished to participate in it. The question the
powerful class put to themselves was not, what ought
we to do 3 but, what can we do ? Ignorant of the feelings
of all beyond their own limited circle, they would
have disbelieved the intensity and universality of the
national eagerness for extended representation, had
not the nation presented itself visibly to their eyes.
And this was done when their agents throughout the
kingdom told them that, on one and the same day,
almost the entire populations of all the towns had as- '
aembled and enthusiastieally pledged themselves to 1
the principles of the Reform Bill. The contest was
felt to be hopeless, and was soon desisted from. But
can the shipping interest flatter themselves that be-
tween two and three thousand seamen walking through
the streets of London will produce a similar effect?
Of all parts of the empire London was the most
hopeless place to select for such an experiment.
Gatherings which in smaller towns might pass for
numerous, look dwarfed beside the every-day throng
land bustle of the metropolis. The barge and lighter
men apathetically following out their daily toil,
showed multitudinous yesterday beside the boat pro.
cession. The listlessly curious crowd assembled at
the rendezvous in Trafalgar-square outnumbered the
seamen ten to one. Tho daily omnibuses, cabs, wag-
gons, and advertising vans drowned the cheering by
their deep murmur, and outshone all the flags in the
procession. The day's work was entirely thrown away :
and it was evident from the dull dispirited manner
in which many of the more intelligent sailors with-
drew from the ranks, and gathering into little groups
indulged in general conversation, that they had no
heart in the business.
And now a word or two with these honest fellows,
with whom we sincerely sympathise. Do they know
what the navigation laws are ? If not, let them try
to master their contents, before they allow their em-
ployers to prevail upon them to set out again on such
a first of April errand as yesterday's. Meanwhile, we
request their attention to one provision of our naviga-
tion laws.
The act 7 k 8 Vic. c. 112, makes it obligatory upon
masters and owners to have on board every ship a
i number of apprentices proportioned to its tonnage.
i There must be at least one apprentice for every
ship of 80 tons and under 200 ; two far every ship
of 200 tons and under 400; three for every ship
of 400 tons and under 500 ; four for every ship of
600 tone and under 700; and at least five for every
ship of 700 tons and upwards. Now the effect of this
regulation is, that the masters and owners, to com-
pensate themselves for the apprentices forced upon
them, employ fewer able-bodied seamen than they
would otherwise do. This is not the only way in
'which the law injures the sailor. As soon aa one
apprentice on board of a vessel is out of his time, the
owner or master must take another in his place,
whether he needs him or not. More seamen are bred
under the compulsion of this act than are needed, and
the consequence is that they cannot all get employ-
ment. This it is which drives off so many of our best
seamen into the American merchant service, a service
where they have to encounter so many disagreeable.. 1
We haveheard of tmdes'unions trying tospmpel mas-
ters to take fewer apprentices than tlity wished;
but the sailors who cry out for the maintenance of
our navigation laws are the first working men of
whom we have heard that they wish to force their
masters to take more apprentices than they need.

Again : —let the sailors ask themselves what is the
avowed object of the navigation laws. If they but
open their ears, they will hear from ehl quarters that
these laws are meant to rear a supply of seamen foe
the navy—that the merchant-service is to be made e
nursery for the royal navy. What is the plain Eng.
lish of these fine phrase.,? Once upan a time the
English merchant-service really was a nursery for the
royal navy. llswwiNs and PENN, and many others
of the best officers in the royal navy, were trained in
the merchant service; and,when perfect seamen, take
(and sometimes their ships along with them) into the
royal pay. But what chance has any man now-s.
days, who has learned his trade in merchant Iva*
lof obtaining a commission in the royal navy , The
only man in the British fleet capable of taking the
soundings required by WOLFE before the assault on
Quebec, learned his trade in a north of England col.
Tier; but even after Limes COOK was recognised by
every man of science in England, and by foreign
governments, as one of the first ornaments of 04;ir
navy, was he recognised as an equal by his super.
cilious brother officers? And what merchant Rama
has since been able to raise himself as COOK did?
' When the merchant service is called a nursery for the
royal navy, nothing more is meant than that it is to
furnish a constant supply of men before the mast, or
at the very most of warrant officers. It is meant that
every merchant vessel shall he made and kept a float-
, ing crimp-shop for the use of press-gs gs.
We know that this article will be read by many an
intelligent merchant seaman. Curiosity to know
what is said about yesterday's procession will make
many a one read it. And the facts we have now
stated will not in every case fall upon dull or awe-
fleeting minds. We tell them that these prosbioas
to which we have adverted are not the provisions
most harmful to their clans that the navigation laws
contain. We ask them, will they, as men of memos
sense, again join in a demonstration to uphold these
laws, or allow any of their mates with whom
they have influence to join in such a des
monstration, until they have thoroughly studied
the laws, and by the aid of finis own sad
their friends' experience tested their working? These
laws may perhaps benefit the masters (as a body we
do not believe that they do), but seem edly they keep
many able-bodied seamen out of employment, keep
down the rate of seamen's wages, and help the press.
gangs to catch them.
There are, indeed, a few rich owners and builders,
who contrive to make the business pay tolerably well
1 under the navigation laws. And as they could not
' do better were these laws repealed, and might, under
I the pressure of increased competition, do worse, they
I are averse to change. They arc contentedthat thegreat
body of the real shipping interest, and, above all, the
common sailors, should suffer by the navigation laws,
so long as themselves can make profit under them.
And, for their own selfish purposes, they persuade the
Iseamen, that laws which by compelling more appren-
tices to be made than are needed bring too many
into the trade, and which play into the hands of the
press-gangs, arc the great charter of the sailor. If
the seamen are wise, the next time these old foxes
come spiriting them up to a procession, they will say:
" Gentlemen, for the navigation laws we certainly
will not turn out; but we have no objection to try
our hands at a demonstration against inipressmeat, or
' for a reform of the Trinity-home, in order to have the
funds of the corporation secured to necessitous seamen
land their families, instead of being jobbed away as
, they have bees. And we shall be proud to see you
taking the chair, and moving resolutions at our meet-
' ings, or marching at the head of our pmeessions.'

AMERICA.

The New York and the Waterloo, Capt. Allen, ar-
rived at Liverpool yesterday, with dates from New
York of the 1 ith. The former vessel brings 12,0001.,
and the latter 22,0001.
The reason why the New York mails did not reach
Boston in time for the last steamer was, that an acci-
dent happened to the steamer Rhode Island, which
carried the mailbags, and they were consequently
transhipped to the Traveller, which, being obliged to
slacken her speed in the Sound en account of a fog,
was unable to perform the trip in the usual time.
The Washingtou arrived at New York on the even-
ing of the 13th.
The most important piece of intelligence by this
arrival is the fact that, on the 14th, the l'resident had
ordered a court of inquiry. for the purpose of investi-
gating the charges against Gen. Pillow and Col.
Duncan, which had been preferred by Gen. Scott.
After that investigation is terminated, the court is
further directed to inquire into the charges preferred
against Gen. Scott by Gen. Worth. The charges
against Gen. Worth, submitted by the commanding
general, have been dismissed by the President.
The court is directed to assemble at Perote, at
as early a day as the members can convene. It is to
consist of Gen. Towson, Paymaster-General as
President, and Gen. Cushing, and Gen. Butler, of
Louisiana. Gen. Towson will strut for Mexico imme-
diately. The selection of Gen. Towson is an
anomaly in court-martials, and will doubtless lead to
difficulty. His office of paymaster-general is a civil
one, which might be conferred upon any individual in
private life, and he holds no rank in the regular line
of the army. The command of the army in Mexico
would necessarily devolve on Gen. Butler, of Ken-
tucky, he being the officer next in rank to Gen. Scott,
whose presence would be required at the court of
inquiry. The idea of recalling Scott had been
abandoned for the present.
The proceedings in Congress on the 14th produced
no result ; but the opposition press seem sanguine in
their hopes of the rejection of the Ten Regiments Bill.
It was vehemently opposed in Senate by Mr. Clayton
and Mr. Pearce.
The committee of the house on foreign relations had
reported in favour of making the chargeship to Rome
a full mission, or rather an ambessadorship--the term
employed in the constitution. Should the house and
Senate agree to this the mission or ambassadorship
would be offered to Chief Justice Taney, provided he
would aTeept it ; and rumour said Mr. Buchanan would
be offered the vacant seat on the bench of the Supreme
Court. Should Chief 3 usticeTaney refuse the mission to
Rome, then it would be offered to Mr. Ingersoll. The
bill to raise the chargcship to Rome to a full mission
would also raise those of Turin and Naples to the
same grade ; but raising the salary from 4,500 dols.
Ito full 9,000 dole., instead of 6,000 dols., as was pro-
posed by some of the members of the committee on the
bill, it was thought might meet with some opposition
in the house. It was also proposed to raise the poet
of minister resident in Turkey and China to that of
minister plenipotentiary, and to restore that of Austria,
which has dwindled down into a ehargeship.
Preparations were making in New York for getting
up a great mass meeting in favour of tin' nomination
of General Taylor as a candidate for the next preed-
deucy. The meeting would take place on the 22nd of
February. This is long notice, and will probably be
made good use of.
The Liiion of the 14th ult. contains four columns
of documents. First, Mr. Buchanan's instructions to
Mr. Bancroft to complain to the British government
of the conduct of Captain May of the royal mail
steamer, Teviot, in carrying General Paredes to Vera
Cruz last August, in violation of the neutrality,
&c.; Lord Palmerston's answer to Mr. Bancroft;
and next, two notes from the Foreign Secretary.
In the first of these, Mr. Bancroft is instructed to
complain that Capt. May, of the British steamer
Teviot, although fully aware of the character of his
passenger, brought Gen. Paredes from the Havana to
Vera Cruz, had connived at, if ho did not directly➢aid
in, his landing at that port, in a clandestine manner,
and contrary to the established regulations. requiring
a visit from the proper inspecting officer before any
passengers could be landed. And he is to complain
that the captain of the British steamer, by this con-
duct, has been guilty of a grave and serious violation
of the duties of neutrality which Great Britain owes
to the United States.
The instructions then go on to say :—The President
has not yet determined what course he will pane ia
regard to British mail steamers. The great law of
self-defence would, under the ulrcuuistancee, justify
him in withdrawing the privil' ga altogether from theus
se
steamers of entering the po of Vera Cruz, and th
rt
effectually prevent the landing of enemies in disguise.
He will not, however, resort, at present, to this ex'
the British
treme measure, convinced, as he is, that
government will at once adopt efficient means to pre-
vent such violations of their neutrality for the future.
In the meantime Colonel Wilson will be instructed
to adopt the necessary means, under the law of ua-
tiona, for the purpose of preventing and punishing
similar outrages on oar belligerent rights. Britian
mail steamers eatueat be suffered to bring to Vent