The Express.
London, England, 1846-11-06 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, FRIDAY EVENING, NOVEMBEA 0, 1846.

that he had none, bat recommended; Butler's
Gloucestershire Vermin and Insect Biller, stating
that- it would not poison human beings. The
gentleman bought the " vermin killer," took it,'
and was poisoned. The surgeon, on examining
the compound, found that it contained arsenic,
and yet the chemist stated at the inquest
that it is advertised as free from any sub-
stance that would destroy human life. Surely
such a proceeding ought not to be' tolerated, as
that a baneful poison should be adverti;ed, and recom-
mended as innocuous to human beings. Secret
preparations of any kind should not be permitted
to be sold in shops on the mere assertion of the pro-
prietor, that they are not poisons. In this MSC the
poison acted directly, and was taken with that intent ;
but in how many cases are these secret preparations
sold as medicines, and the person taking them is only
poisoned after a lengthened course, during a period
perhaps of many months. But there is another class
of these cases, where destruction of life is not contem-
plated, and where poisonous compounds have been
sold "by mistake." In the Eziwess of Saturday
is a case which occurred at Huddersfield, in which
several persons were nearly destroyed by
having the tartarised antimony sold to them
instead of cream of tartar. We do not
I pretend to say where the blame lies in this case,
whether in the person who sold the cream of tartar,
or in the druggist who supplied her with it; but that
gross ignorance and culpable neglect exists some-
where, there can be no doubt. If it be proved to be
the former, the necessity will at once be seen for pre-
venting, in some manner, the sale of poisons by igno-
rant persons; and if the latter, then punishment ought
to follow. Another case of poisoning "by mistake,"
will be found in the Daily News of Thursday last.
In this instance a young lady applies for some tinc-
ture of rhubarb ; an ignorant or careless apprentice
gives her the tincture of opium—laudanum--by mis-
take, and the consequence was that she was poisoned.
These things, we think, prove the necessity, not only
for some regulation by which competent persoas alone
should be allowed to sell poisons, but also that some
punishment should be inflicted for the great careless-
ness which these cases exhibit.

Whilst these things are going on in our own
country without let or hindrance, France has been
revising her already, to a great extent, efficient code
of laws upon this subject. In France, no person who
has not received his license to practise as a pharmacien ,
or druggist, is allowed to mix up poisonous medicines,
and then only on the prescription of a recognised phy-
sician or surgeon ; and all persons dealing in poisonous
substances used in arts and manufactures, are obli4ed
to make a declaration before the mayor of the com-
mune in which their place of business is situated.
The sellers of poisons are also compelled to place
their name and address on all substance, of this na-
ture sold by them. These plans seem to us to be
simple, and calculated to meet the evils of which we
have recently had so much cause to complain in this
I country.
In a report accompanying the recent ordonnances in
France on this subject, the propriety of suppressing
altogether the sale of some poisons is discussed,—Uat
even with regard to arsenic, the least useful and most
deadly of them all, the reporters do not feel at present
justified in recommending the suppression of its use
altogether, although for many purposes they think it
might be dispensed with. We think, however, that
the entire suppression of the legal sale of any poison
might lead to an illicit sale of it, which would, in the
end, be productive of more injurious results than the
present do-nothing system in our own country.

Oun accounts from Mexico by the West Indian
mail by no means chime in with the note of triumph
chaunted by the American journals. They represent
the s'tuation of General TAYLOR as critical in the
extreme, and the circumstances of the late struggle in
Monterey to be such as to encourage the Mexicans to
fresh resistance, instead, as was intended, of frighten-
ing them into instant submission. Hitherto it seemed
equally unaccountable, how General TAYLOR could
have granted such favourable conditions, or how
General AMPUDIA, in a position to command them,
listened to terms at all. It now appears that the
American army had completely exhausted its ammu-
nition, and would have been unable to force:Am re-
DtA's position, had he kept it.
The Mexican General thought he had gained every
point by his obstinate resistance, by the loss he had
inflicted on the foe, by the confidence thereby restored
to his troops, and by the liberty which the armistice
held out to him of retiring to Saltillo, a place of far
more strength than Monterey, more near to succour,
and much more favourably placed for cutting off_the
supplies of besiegers than Monterey.
SANTA ANNA had marched to the support of 'Aw-
PI:DIA, and there is little doubt, that if, on learning
the true state of things, he avoided a general action,
and restricted his efforts to cutting off supplies and
harassing the enemy, whilst AMPUDIA held out
in Saltillo, the position of General TAYLOR'S"force
would be extremely critical. The order ',given
to that general to live on the country, and pay for
no supplies, would of itself have converted the coun-
try into a waste. The peasantry would instantly
have driven away their cattle, carried away their
ears of maize, and, after placing both in safety, have
returned to act as guerillas on the flanks and com-
munications of the enemy. Any advance of General
TAYLOR Up the gorges, and across the high level of
the fertile land, was considered as utterly imprac-
ticable and insane ; and, indeed, his whole plan of
advance to Monterey ought to be a profitless blunder,
if the Mexicans continue to show the same hardihood
as at Monterey, and if SANTA ANNA be as staunch as
AMPCDIA.

The impression continues to prevail in Paris that
the embarrassments which have collected around the
Guizot Cabinet are so many, and so complicated, that
it cannot survive the opening of the next session of
the Chambers, if it can endure even so ling. It is
well known that M. Guizot himself, notwithstanding
his eminent parliamentary talents and high political
pretensions. is personally unpopular with every sec-
tion of the Chamber. His majority hitherto has been
kept together by the guarantee for the maintenance
of peace which the English alliance enabled him to
offer. That large body composed of individuals from
various political parties who are sensible of the best
benefits arising to France from the development of
her resources, the extension of her commerce, and the
advancement of her industrial arts, were constantly
lulled with the charm of the entente cordiale which
the Minister of Foreign Affairs so adroitly repeated
in their ears. It is now asked on every hana how they
will reconcile themselves to the cessation of this
cuckoo note of peace ? With what patience will
they regard the minister who formerly extolling this
charm, has so wantonly broken the spell? How
will they reconcile themselves to a cabinet, at the
head of which is placed a lay figure, distinguished
only by recollections of the past, and having for its
de facto president, the minister who has just deprived
the centres of their main ground of confidence.

" It must be acknowledged to the honour of the existing
majority in the Chambers," says La France, " thst it is not
M. Guizot whom it supports, but the security for the main-
tenance of peace which he offers in the English alliance.
These guarantees once destroyedby the ultra dynastic conpde
tile of the Montpensier marriage, the parliamentary majority
will be again seized with its fears well or ill founded. It
will no longer be bound by any kind of tie to the Conserva-
tive ministry. The Minister of Foreign Affairs has lost its
confidence, as M. Guizot has long ago lost all its affections."

The most widely circulating of the French journals,
and that which consequently speaks the sentiments of
the largest number, the StOck, gave on 'Wednesday
the following remarkable leading article :

Our Government, during the time it has been in power,
his bad relations with a certain number of foreign States—
with England, Spain, and Portugal, which were parties to
the quadruple alliance ; with Italy, by the occupation of
Ancona; with Belgium, occasioned by the revolution in
that country; with the United Staten, which claimed from it
a debt of twenty-five millions ; with Mexico and Buenos
Ayres, in the interest, of the French merchants there; with
Morocco, on the subject of Abd-el•Kader ; with the Pacha
of Egypt, respecting the occupation of Stria; with the
Sultan, respecting the Christians in the Lebanon. Unfor-
tunately, an these relations have been attended with injury,

be tintained with
humiliation, and danger, and it may
every appearance of reason, that the Sta.'es towards
which it now stands in the most: favourable positism are pre-
cisely those with which it has had no relation.. NYhcrever
it has into reeled it has failed—wherever it has strug.deti it
has been conquered. With Englanfl it has broken. Wh,Vier
alter the counter revolution, Portugal will be its ally or its
enemy, no one knows. Its Spanish policy has alienated
Spain. In Italy it has seen the new Pope work reforms;
and it has told him they are premature. In Belgium it has
not dared to give effect to projects of political or commercial
union. With the United States, after having denied the
debt, it has been compelled to pay it. In Mexico the cap-
ture of St. Jean d'Ulloa, in Portugal, the entry of our ves-
sels into the Tagus, at Buenos Ayres the presence of
our fleet, has brought no safety either to the interests df
the country or its trade. In Mordaeo the victory
of Isly has been a barren triumph. What our soldiers so-
complished, diplomacy has undone. In Egypt the govern-
ment has not been able to preserve the position which others i
had given it. In the East it has given to the Catholics a
weak and equivocal support. In a word, it is everywhere
feeble and inefficient, and it is as ill off with its pretended
allies of London, Madrid, Lisbon, Washington, Brussels, and
Alexandria, as with the governments of St. Petersburg,
Vienna, Berlin, and the rest which have held aloof from it.
Well may it exclaim : peace on any terms—peace everywhere
—peace fur ever. For how Lan it think without terror, of a
maritime war, embroiled as it is with England, or of a con-
tinental war, detested as it is at Berlin, Vienna, and St.
Petersburg, or of a war of principles, after having disap-
pointed the hopes of every people, frozen every national
feeling, and separated again and again the cause of the go-
vernment Prom the cause of the country.
- -

The free-trade agitation goes on, and perhaps the
best omen of its ultimate success is to be found in the
efforts of its opponents. M. Bastiat, who aspires to
the same lead in this question in France which Mr.
Cobden assumed in England, lately replied to some
of the arguments of the prohibitionists in a letter
published in the Sieek. La Presse answered this
letter on Wednesday, in a leading article of six
columns.

The King and Queen of the Belgians left Paris for
Brussels in a special train by the Northern ltailwav
on Tuesday morning, and the arrival of the Duke and
Duchess of Montpensicr was expected on Wednesday
evening.

The Madrid mails of the 30th arrived in Paris on
Wednesday afternoon, but brought no advises from
Portugal later than the 24th ult.
The intelligence from Spain is devoid of interest.
The Senate and Congress were to have met on the
30th to hear the decree for dissolution read, which
was to appear in the Gazette of the 31st. The
rumours which had been in circulation of disturbances
at Malaga and elsewhere, proved to be without foun-
dation.

The progress of events in Switzerland, intelligence
of which is received from day to day, indicates
the ultimate success of the Liberal party, and the
approaching decision of the Diet against the ultra-
Montane league. This will, according to all present
appearance, be effected without further violence or
bloodshed. At Geneva, the Conservatives had hoped
to shake the sentence passed by the people on the
Place Nfolard, by means of objections upon points of
form. The result of the election of the new Grand
Council, however, has proved how vain was such an
expectation. Of the total number of 9,000 electors,
6,511 voted, giving a majority of sixty-four members
to the Democratic party, against 29 in the Grand
Council. The council thus constituted has main-
tained the provisional government, and the results
of the revolution are thus peaceably attained. At
Basle, the aristocracy had yielded to the po-
pular wish, and a commission had been named
to revise the constitution. The issue of the struggle
in Friburg is not so certain. In this canton the
Jesuits have had, hitherto, a majority. Nevertheless
the district of Nlorat, where democracy and l'rotes-
tantism prevail, has resolved upon a revision of the
constitution. Although, apparently, the Protestant
party in the canton is a minority, it is contended
that the population in general, when liberated from
the control to which they are now submitted, will
declare themselves in favour of the democratic party,
and that the present apparent minority will be con-
verted into a majority. The geographical position of
Friburg, in the midst of the most democratic cantons,
will have a great influence on the events, and there is
reason to hope that the approaching revolution there
will, like that of Bisle, be accompanied by the peace-
able manifestation of public opinion without violence.

FRANCE.—Their Royal Highnesses the Duke and
Duchess de Montpensier arrived at Bordeaux on Saturday.
They were received with acclamation by the entire population,
and by the authorities with the usual formalities. A short time
after their arrival, they received all the civil and military
authorities, and in the evening the Prince gave a grand
dinner to the principal public functionaries, and afterwards
went with the Duchess to a ball given in honour of their
arrival by the municipality and the merchants.
The Journal (lea Pi/renters Orientales announces
the arrest of twenty-one Carliat refugees from the interior,
on the 28th ult., at Saillagnuse. This new capture consisted
of a commissary of war first class, a colonel, twelve officers,
captains and lieutenants, and four privates.
ITALY.—TURIN, OCT, 26.—A letter of this date
states that the marriage contact between tt-e Duke of Bor-
deaux and the Princess Theresa of Modena had been signed,
and the marriage was to have been celebrated on the 30th ult.
OCTOBER 20.—Letters from the north of Italy state
that the hurricane of the 3rd October had caused great
ravages. The little towns of Graviira and Maters %uttered
considerably. Two er three hundred people are said to have
perished, and the loss of cattle is immense.
GERMANY.—BERLIN, Ocr. 28. The British
ambassador at the court of Berlin, Lord Westmoreland, is
said to be seriously indisposed since his return from Vienna.
According to general report, his mission to Vienna, respect-
ing a union between the Austrian and English cabinets on
the question of Spanish succession, proved a failure.
The Abbe Ronge has presented a petition to the
King of Prussia, for permission to preach. He has been
ordered to leave Berlin immediately. Gnat activity is ma-
nifested at the Minister of the Interior's. Couriers are con-
stantly coming and going between Berlin, Vienna and St.
Petersburg. The tone of the Universal Prussian Gazelle
on the affairs of Spain is perhaps of more importance than
has been ascribed to it, and incidents may occur altogether
favourable to the views of England. It was but recently an-
nounced, ai)s a Nuremberg correspondent, that the cabinet
of St. Petersburg had joined the English cabinet in its pro-
test against the Spanish marriages. This news has been
confirmed.

There was a report at Galacz that the Russians had
suffered a severe defeat in the Caucasus.
Our city has been the scene of a deplorable event,
namely, the death of the eldest son of the Minister, Van
Bodelschwingvelmede, who was killed in a duel with Mr.
J—, brother of the well-known proprietor of an hotel.
The cause of the duel is variously stated. The duellists
went to Treptow, but when the deceased had received a
severe wound, and lost much blood, they departed in another
carriage. It was not till the day before yesterday that the
erect became known, in consequence of the increased illness
of the wounded man. Unhappily his wounds proved mortal,
and he died yesterday, at the age of 23, to the great grief of
his afflicted family.
According to information that may be depended
upon, the law for regulating the position of the Jews in
the Prussian dominions, is to contain in many respects an
extension of the existing laws.
FRANKFORT.---In the assembly of the legislative
body of the 10th ult., a proposition of the Senate was dis-
cussed, concerning the eighth conference relative to the
custom duties. 'I he senate in presenting the protocol of
the eighth general conference to sanction the resolutions
of section 30, and referring to the protocol for the motives,
expressed anew their regret that the tendency for establish-
ing protective duties had progressed, a tendency which was
prejudicial to the interests of the commerce of the city
of Frankfurt. Nevertheless, however inevitable were
the concessions made to certain branches of industry,
it is certain that they were, for the most part,
made contrary to the desire and wish of some of the most
influential northern states, members of the Zollverein. The
Senate expressed a hope that Germany would soon under-
stand in its true light asystem which other states had already
abandoned, or were on the point of doing so. The represen-
, wives of the city of Frankfort would in future employ all
their efforts in the conferences to defend the principles of
free trade, and to prevent too great concessions. The Senate
proposed that the legislative body should give its assent to
the resolutions contained in the protocol, section 30, of the
general conference of the Customs.
It is reported that several arrests have lately taken
place in the Grand Duchy of Posen, in consequence of the
investigation that has been made into the disturbances in
Poland. The proceedings against the Poles, it is now said,
will probably not begin at Berlin till the month of May or
June nest year.
GALICIA.—A new conspiracy has been discover,4
at \Vadowice, and some arrests have taken place in carse-
quence.
TRIESTE, Ocr. 24.—1 n the ports of the Danube, and
of the Black Sea vessels laden with grain arrive daily ; but
owing to the considerable orders received from all o..uarters,
and the unusual high transport price, the price is consider-
ably increased. Distressing accounts nave beet, received
from some districts in Hungary, owing to a far.ure in the
harvest. In that of Treutchina the peasantry rre obliged to
live upon roots dug out of the earth, and other districts are
menaced with famine. The most energetic measures have
been taken by the authorities to provide fa; the wants of the
inhabitants.

DENMARK. COPENHAGEN, OCT. 27. The
Danish Government intends sendinz, ,lortly, to the different
powers interested, a document relati ..e to the affairs of
&hloswisr and Holstein.
THE NETHERLANDS.—THE HAGUE,Nov.

Ditamito or TVA Lase Or Itasaux.—When the trial

was made of the engin.' called the Leeghwater, all the parts
moved with great veg,..laety, and the eleven pumps, at
every stroke of the piton, raised 66 cubic metres of water,
though every time such a mai of water was raised the engine
was subject to a pressure of more than two hundred
thousand kilogrammes, hardly any shock was felt in thcde
vessel, and the only noise that was heard, was that made
by the flowing off of the waters that were raised by the
pumps. The number of strokes of :he piston was about
seven in a minute. The water was raised to the height of
130 to MO metres. and the pressure of the steam in the
boiler was from 30 to 3dlbs. English. If it should be neces-
sary in draining the Lake of Haarlem to raise the water from
a greater depth, the force of the steam engine may be safely
increased by 70Ibs. English, and by this means the celerity of
the play of the pamps might perhaps be increased. At pre-
sent, taking the operation as it was on the Ist of October,
this steam engine is able to raise, deducting the loss, 450
cubic metres per minute, or 648,000 in twenty-four hours,
which is about forty-five millions of ordinary pails ; the
power of the engine may be estimated as equal to 300 horse-
power. Whatever be the quantity of coals employed to
obtain so great a power, the expanse may always be dimi-
nished by the continuance of the operation. A former expe-
riment has already proved that no more than two ki!o-
grammes of coals per hour' was necessary to obtain one
horsepower, whereas seven kilogrammes of coals were re-
quired for the old engine employed at the Zuidplay. Not-
withstanding the important saving of coals which the
Leeghwater affords, the engine still requires 20 bushels of
coals to obtain the result expected from it.
SECOND CHAMBER OF THE STATES-GENERAL,
Nov. 2.—The central section made its report on the project
of law relative to the disposal of the surplus of the colonial
revenue from 1845. The discussion of the project was fixed
for to-morrow morning, at eleven o'clock