The Express.
London, England, 1848-05-20 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, SATURDAY EVENING, MAY 20, 1848.

ELECTION COM hiTlTEE—Yawritatat.
Lute-maim—TM wrung iwooeeded with,
end ono dote muck ulf the *WANT everabei'e majority.

Vie elPrefifS•

MAILS..

The onniand closed mane, ;;;11;:reetfiee, In the bleallterrnenn,
egys. Ad.a. ceywa. Moog-Kong, Me, will be made up ou the
evening of the Sith Ile,.
Tye malls for Britioh North Amerks, end the United States,
will be made up en the evening of the 26th May.
The malls for Vigo, Oporto LIMON M 4111.1111, cndla, and °wrap."
will be made up on the morning of the 27 th Slay.
The mello for Now South Wale", Van Diemen.% Land, and New
Zealand will be mule up ou the eVOIIIIIS of the 31ot fd ,y.
The mail. for the Weed ,lotot Of Africa and Mothim will be made
lip Gs the oventrupd the Slot May.
The Weal India Mail*, including Iterniuda, Nalt,llll, Holum
Hendon's, Now Orleans Vera (rue, *lemineti, and Porto Rion, and
excluding (hem for Madeira, deemed, Otribageim, Santa Martha,
Chasm, Panama, Meet Coast of South Alfieri., oil St. JunnAle-
fokaragua, will be 111•40 up on the moaning of the god Julie.
The mails fur the limits tie River 1.14Ae, Monte Video, Vermeil-
bum. Bahia, Madeira, anti Baotou Ayres, will be made up ou tics
evening of the 3rd June.
The overland mails foe (fibralter, Malta, Ounce, the lonian lolanda,
ggypt,
_Aden, Ceylon, DWiu, Hung-Kong, und China, rw Southamp-
too, will be made up on the morning of the 20th Juan.

NOTICE TO ADVERTISERS.
The number of STAMPS trued by the authorities of thr
Stamp-other, during 1547, to the
DAILY NEWS was 3,447,009
This, we believe, is within eight per cent. of the number ,
issued to the Morning Noma, Morning Chronic k sod
Morning Post, ALL PUT TOGYTHAR.
In addition to the above, issued to the DAILY NEW S,
Morning Paper, there were issued fur the horning Edtt ion ,
TUE EXPRESS 778,714
Which was more, we believe, than were issued tither to
the Oioers or Standard, Evening Papers.

1110E1 WITIR AT U)UUS SUPOZ.
T 22. U 33-311•2•12/. al. NM 3. Altenrs. 22 ml 2. 'ma 3
T. 111233222.42 min poll MINIMS w•. p.m 2.

LONDON, SATURDAY, MAY 20.
Tne bill to facilitate the sale of incumbered estates
in Ireland has at length made its appearance in the
Commons House of Parliament. Alb r a two months'
trance it has recently been hurried through the I louse
of Lords without much deliberation, and still less dis-
cussion; and now it appears in all the helplessness of
immaturity to meet the scrutiny and the criticism of
the elective wisdom of the legislature. Confessedly the
lords have made nothing of the measure. How far their
hereditary prejudices and selfish pusillanimity may
have contributed to this result it were difficult to say.
Sympathy with their bankrupt brethren on the other
aide of the Channel, who do not wish to bo compel' d
at compellable to dispose of their rack-rented and
II unimproved estates, may have had its influence
while none or few of the oppoteite and counter-active
class of motives were likely to be felt to any great ex-
tent in the gilded chamber. Nlurtgagees, anxious to
retain their gripe of six per cent. as first incum-
beancers on Irish properties,do not abound in that high
place where deice far tolerate is constitutionally wor-
shipped. Thatdanger awaitsthebill rather in the house
I of moneyed men, to whose cash mercies it is now com-
mitted. But strange though it may seem, it is ne-
vertheless true, that had the measure as it now stands
conie out of the hat de :of a select committee of in-
surance companies, and private lenders of money on
Irish mortgages, it could not have been framed with
a more one-sided a' 't and tendency. Its whole
scope and tenor is to limit strictly to the class of per-
sons we have named any and every facility which it
professes to give in the way of bringing landed pro-
perty to sale. No mortgagee or holder of other secu-
rity attachable to land is given the right to
initiate proceedings by petition for a sale, erupt the
first incumbrancer, having the title deeds in his pos-
session. Why, this is just the party who is el V 1 Apr
sure to have the least interest in forcing a sale. lie,
or they—for it is very often as affiucut public com-
pany that stands in this position—having the first
chump', is satisfied a ith the high interest for the sum
lent. The parties who would press fur a sale, either
partial or entire, are the lanirrie creditors, as they are
called, who rank in a liquidation account according to
the date of their securities, whether bond or mort-
gage ; and even whose cosy., where they are
compelled to sue in Chancery, are marshalled
in similar order. Frequently the fund to be realised
by sale is not expected to be adequate to meet all
these charges. In that case the toil creditors -that
is to Pay those at the bottom of the list—arc in jeo-
pardy ; and many of them would gladly avail them-
selves of lbcrty to tile a petition for a sale of as much
as would pay them off before the estate became
irretrievably deficient by protracted neglect and
decay, did the law enable them to dose. But the es-
tablished practice of the Court of Chancery in Ireland
has always been not to allow the palm, creditor to
obtain a decree for a sale until he has undertaken to
redeem the prior mortgage.
Lord CUTTENHAM'S bill does nothing to mitigate
this evil. It leaves the majority of creditors as it
found them. It profeese a to simplify and cheapen
the mode by which the first or chief incumbrancer
may sew for a sale, by. allowing him to present a
pelition, as it is termed, instead of filing a bill. The
change, we are very strongly disposed to believe,
will prove anything but efficacious. The compara-
tive expenses of the two processes have been nicely
measured and balanced by the legal profession in
Ireland, and the impression is that no saving will in
the end be effected by the change, while, in point
of principle, there are serious grounds of objection to
it. But of these more another time.
The cardinal fault of the b.ll as it stands is, that i
preserves the obsolete and unjust distinction between
real and chattel property. It seeks to guard and
screen the possession of land in a manner :in which
no other kind of property is protected. The merchant
who has houses, factories, ships, goods, or bills of ex-
change, is liable at any moment to have any portion
of these taken by his lawful creditor to pay the debt
he owes. It does not signify whether he be the first or
the greate-t, or the last and the least of his creditors.
His claim is irresistible; the debt must be paid. But
the landlord need not pay it he does not like to do so.
The mysterious sanctity of landed property must not
be infringed. A very large creditor—the Met mort-
gagee having the title deeds in his possession—is, in-
deed, regarded by Lord COTTENIIAM as worthy of
some peculiar privileges and facilities; so he is to
have leave to tile a petition instead of a bill in chan-
cery, in order to enforce a sale—if he will. But for
the luckless residue, they are to be left to their fate.
Feudal tenures, settlements, and entails aro more
sacred than right and wrong ; and the noble or most
noble spendthrift, whose only honest position would
be the Gazette, because he is noble or moat noble is left
to enjoy his ancestral domains—the entire fee thereof
being due to other people by him notwithstanding. This
is the constitution and the law ; but is it commonly
honest as between man and man ?—or is it possible to
conceive that any hapless country can emerge from
penury and distraction, when such is the established
and, as it would seem, unalterable, practice of land-
holding ?
We perceive that the government are at length be-
ginning to be ashamed of this miserable and abortive
production ; and that a pledge has been given on the
second reading that large and efficient amendments
it will be introduced in committee. We sincerely hope
,at so; for in its present shape it were far better the bill
„al; did not pass at all.
these

THE most wonderful specimen of eloquence that
ever astonished a political assembly was certainly the
speech of M. CAUSSIDIERE, late Prefect of Police, to
the national assembly. The language of the honour-
able member was a species of argot, a dialect pecu-
liar to the Parisian vagabond, which renders any
sentence that he uttered completely unintelligible of
itself. Still there was in the midst of the speaker's
obscurity a significance, in the midst of his rascality
an honesty, and in the midst of his vulgarity a certain
talent—these good qualities redeeming the bad, like
the Chourineur in EUGENE Sas novel of the " Mys-
t&es de Paris," which made every one disgusted and
interested with the singular ruffian.
The history of Paris during the months of March,
April, and May—an important epoch in French
annals—can be read or understood nowhere or
nohow so well as in the ample spcech of
CAUESIDIERE. This strange p: Auction of the
age is a Swiss by birth, and an auarchibt by profes-
sion. lie told the assembly that he had passed his
life in conspiracies—not tho most regular mode of
livelihood, he admitted, but one by which he had
gained experience in politital agitation. C te.s 4IDIERE
was amongst the combatants of antaary. Ito led a
chosen and a daring band, and 11,r his part of the
booty be took with them possession of the l'i:ft.cture

.------- _
et police, when he installed himself as delegate of the
barricades. He kept around him between one and two
thousand daring and determined followers of his own
complexion, or rather of a deeper hue, for if ho was
an anarchist by trade, his followers had been robbers
by profession. He called them at first his Mon-
Gionards, but latterly they assumed the less formidable
title of the Garde ROpubliviine.
MI the attempts of the Provisional Government to
dislodge CAUSNIUIERI having failed, they were fain
to employ hint in the office which he assumed—
that of chief of the police. And in this ho
did excellent service—not only putting an
cud to robbery and repine, and rendering Paris
inure secure than even his predecessor DELY.FISVALT
made it, hut also keeping down political turbulence
through the important interval before the opening of
the attfit mbly. It will be remembered how the worst
of the clubs was put down by CAUSSIDIERE. Ile
sent thither his montoonords, who got themselves
received us members, ar,d soon made such extrava-
gant proposals as to carry off all popularity from the
' original members, whom they ousted from the lead,
the presidency, and finally from the club itself.
Causer:imam describes his "'Minion as chief police
magistrate to have been Louie de (onciliation. No
one, according to this personage's doctrine, is an
anarchist or a robber from choice. Interest any of
such menu in the preservation of order and of
property, nd they will prove its beet protectors.
Thu proof, says Cat:astute:Re, is, that Paris has b. en
protected for three months from rapine, insur-
rection, and bloodshed, by the greater part of
those likely to commit such crimes having been
enlisted to prevent them. 'The most dangerous Nen-
timente, argued Cat; ssi DI ERE, at such a moment as this,
are reaction and fear. Your good citizens are dan-
gerous men, continued he; " their brains are shaken
by panic. lied I, as prefect of police, listened to the
i xhortations 1 have received from all sidi it, one half of
Paris would have been luded) during the last three
mantle arresting the other half."
We think it quite evident, from CAUSSIDIERR'd
simple account, that there was no deep or
general conspiracy on tho Ibth of May to
dissolve the chamber and the government.
The only conspirators were probably liattites and
BLANQUI, whom Csesslnteue begged to have a
warrant to arrest two days before. Had this been
done, he declares that the attempt upon the Chamber
would not have taken place. Ninety-nine of the
1 hundred who marched to the assembly, had no idea
of more than petitioning it. General COURTAIR'
fully, the cowardice of the president of the assembly,
and the fully of the 'trembly itself in entrust-
ing the command of the armed force around
it to the president—instead of leaving it
to an experienr ed and trusty officer—this
enabled, not any large party of anarchists—but a
1 st: sv 'core of idle ruffians, to outrage the majesty of the
assembiy. unto they burst in, the revolutionary fn nzy
of come ultra-dernocmtic'rnembers carried them into ex-
ulting sympathy with a state of anarchy to.) congenial
to their minds. As to 14:hity•Itours, or any other
republican leader of influence or consistency having
joined in the design, or known of it, there seems
not the least p.obability. A real democratic insur-
rection would have been much more serious.
The policy of L‘stAttrixe is, however, like that
of Caessintene, tofu* de ,(mediation. Although he
may put down the anarchists, he thinks it unsafe to
offend republicans or ultra-republicans, and thinks him-
se If and tie government evidently much safer under
the wing of 1..E10w-Itati IN, than under that of
tither NI. listeitor or M. Tutees. This may
I. ad to bad consequences, to further ruin.
The moderates, annoyed at LAMARTINE'i in-
dulger err to what they consider anarchy, may eclat-
' diate him, and may repudiate with him all the old
republican party. Such a schism between the repute
Mans fs:tOre, and the republicansqller the revolution,
would be fatal, and will, we trust, be avoided.
At the same time M. LAMARTINE and the execu-
tive government must, by this time, be conviric.d
that the duties of their station extend to something
inure than the mere preservation of order. 'there
are statesmanlike qualities and necessities which mere
mob ministers cannot meet. The fiae.neial interests
of the country have been most deplorably misma-
naged and destroyed, private industry paralysed, all
the elements of wealth and of force destroyed. If
the thorough republican party, with all its zeal and
address, have not the knowledge requisite to set all
this right— if M. (lARNIER FAeces and M. LA
MARTIN?. still persist in pursuing, or rather
awaiting, the realisation of visionary and
impossible schemes of financial and iiidustrial ad-
udnistration, they will perish by the practical and
material ills which their obstinacy perpetuates. Nor
is there the least use in their retaining the adhesion
of the lower clasws, if, in order to gain it, they
sacrifice the welfare, industry, property, and peace of
tI/e middle ranks, the manufacturing and the trading
portion of the population.

MINISTERS have consented to postpone the debate
on their measure for reforming the Navigation Laws.
This is a sad mistake. The tactics of the protectionists
are Fabian; they at k to conquer by delay ; and this
being obvious, no delay ought to have been granted to
t hem.
They have begun where most other oppositions
have ended—by a factious and unscrupulous use of
the power which the moving of repeated adjourn-
ments gives the smallest minority of arresting
the progress of business. No doubt, had minis-
ters remained firm on Thursday in their original
determination to bring on the debate on Monday
next, this device would have again been resorted to; but
this captious and unreasoniug mode of proceeding
ought to have been resolutely met and put down at
first. Ministers and the friends of the measure ought
to have let their antagonists know that if they were
for trying to defeat it by sheer unreasoning obstinacy,
its supporters were quite ready to try who could be
most obstinate. There are certain limits beyond
which the public will not tolerate such factious pro-
ceedings—limits beyond which even Lord GEORGE
BENTINCR, Mr. HUDSON, or Col. SIRTHORP, will not
venture to push this game of moving adjournments.
By the yie!ding to the mere apprehension of this trick
being played again, the protectionists have been en-
couraged to resort to it at every future stage of the
measure.
No more information is either wanted or ex-
pected, to enable members of parliament to
make up their minds on the subject.
No committee of either house ever elicited new infor-
mation on any subject. Committees, appointed to
examine into yet unexplored fields of inquiry, go
blandering on, and come to nothing. The only use-
ful committees are those which are obtained by one
or more persons fully acquainted with a subject, for
the purpose of examining witnesses conversant with it,
and papers, in such a manner that the report, with
the minutes of evidence, shall be a digested compen-
dium of all that is necessary to be known on the sub-
ject in order to (mina judgment of any measure brought
forward. This has been done by the House of Commons
committee on the navigation laws of last session.
Nobody expects that the I louse of Lords committee
now sitting will add one iota of information of the
least moment to what was elicited by that of the
Commons last year. The House of Lords committee
was not appointed for any such purpose, but merely
as a pretext for postponing
Every day gained by the protectionists will be
employed in devising new pretexts for further delay,
and in gaining new allies among the majority of re-
presentatives who represent a minority both of the
population and the electors.' Among the thirty mem-
bers (tellers included) who voted for delay on Monday
last, there were sixteen representatives of boroughs
which the smallness of the constituencies renders mere
nomination boroughs in the hands of some great land-
owner or organised shipowners—in which the opinion
of the public, through the agency of our une-
qually distributed representation, is overpowered
by the opinion of the few. A numerical
majority of the members of the House of Com-
mons we have repeatedly had occasion to show
are returned by similar individual or corporation in-
terests. Every moment of delay, not required for the
purposes of deliberate argument, will be used by the
protectionists to form an alliance among these nume-
rous petty interests. to overpower the representatives
of the public interest. The ends of justice iequire that
discussion should be ample and deliberate; but every
proaastination not .squired for debate will be asked
for, and turned to the account of chicanery and in-
trigue, and ought, therefore, to be resolutely refused.
The postponement of the dieeussion on the naviga-
tion laws, conceded on Thursday evening, must be tho
last concession of the kind, if it i I really intended to
carry the ministerial measure this session.