The Express.
London, England, 1849-05-08 00:00:00

&bud to the Lord Air‘cate for the inteoduction of the bal.
to wi.ich he would dive his support.
Alta a few words frosa Mr. DUNCOMBE,
Mr;MILENZIE moved the adjoursuaent of the debate.
The house divided—
For the adjournment l2
Against it 63-44
Mr. F. MACKENZIE said he objected to the bill as
principle ; and on that ground he should oppose its prosperi.
84 G. GREY said that until then no hon. gentleman bad
made Noah a statenaat.
Mr. F. MACKENZIE said his objection on principle was
that the area of texation was not sufficiently defined.

The second reading was then postponed until this day.
The home adjourned at 1 o'clock.

Eke Orproso.

OUTGOING MAILS:_

Mails for British ilObtitit;Oblas aneitaa-1/afted &eta, will be
wade up on the seeming of** 11th Maw.
The meets Mee. Opeele. gosh.Maas. Ches. Onesitee,
will be =de up ea the men Jog of the nth at Mg
Non Lw.tha Mai* eidwiwe tformega. BMWS. Mammy
loader's. New Odom, and Mean% sad inelediag these for
Wsdatra, Pt. Jsan.de.telanaenta, New Grawada, Oilli. .o Pim 141
be mob up on the taansing ct the 17th May.
tee matte let Cantatas, Malts, Arena , tun Intim Islands,
Aden. Ceylon, Ind* Lent-Roan. seed Mins. Ina tiouthaniptowligiA
be made an on the 'mains of the 19th May.
The nails, sia Marseilles, to the Idadltarrensan, Egypt, Aden,
Ceylon, India, Hong. Kong, As, will bens& up on the evening of tha
fith ot May.
The Isiah* RN Madeira, the linuells, and Banos Ayres, willbs made
vim the mein et thee& et lore.

nom WATER AT LONDON HAIM&
Tar —llandAs, 44 W. put 9: Attonoza, 0 IDIA P. 03 3.
2*-31arum•—lianiair. I/ MA pelt 3; AAWSON6 NSA PM 2.

LONDON, TUESDAY, MA Y 8.

AT tte battle of Hastings a juggler rode at the
head of WILLIAM the Bastard's battle, performing
tricks of sleight of hand. The charge made last night
on Saxon industry by the descendants (by courtesy so
called) of the Conqueror's Norman knignb, was, there-
fore, appropriately beaded by a juggler. Lord
Bworrousu repress reed TAILLEFER, &I the men in
armour at Coronations and Lord Mayors' shows stand
for the champions of the de) s of chivalry.
The occasion, it must be owned, was en inspiring
one. Lord BROUGHAM ha, been an actor from first

to last. He played a part when he published his
paregyric on the colonial system; he played a part
whe3 he moved the repeal of the orders in council;
he played a part when he signed the CAterwaicirr
oonfeesion of political faith, on his admission into the
Westminster Reform Association ; he played a part
when, in realtation for his attacks upon parliamen-
tary reform, Major CARTWRIGHT shook that
signature over his head on the Covent-garden
hustings he played a part when he wrote
to the Times, " The Queen has done it all ;" he
played a part when he carried the seils with hint
through the highlands and despatched conservative
epistles to WILLIAM IV. " by every post"; ho played a
part, when as advocate of Queen CAZOLINI, he spoke
with complacency of overturning the Leeds, the
throne, and-the altar ; and he played a part when he
addressed the Rouse of Lords as " the chosen temple
of liberty." ":One man in his time pays many parts."
With the exception of MATHEWS, scarcely any man
has played so many as Lord Buouuucu : and, like
MATIIEViS, a monoplyiegue has always been his
favourite performance. For so experienced' and
versatile an actor the opportunity of figuringin such •
theatrical display as that of last night had attractions
irresistible.

Theatrical, hollow, and unreal the whole proceed-
ings are. There is palpable falsehood in the affec-
tation of STANLEY the dictatorial to rest his cause
on numerously-signed petitions; and these petitions
with their eignatuve are as unreal as the paint and
pasteboard groves of the stage. Of the 182 petitions,
with 111,710 shmitturce, which an organised and un-
scrupulous agitation bad contrived to pour in upon
the House of Lords up to the sth instant, all, with
one exception, proceeded from the shipownere, the
sailors they employ, and the tavern-keepers patronised
by both in sone fifty or sixty of our seaports. At
best, they are petitions from those who actually enjoy a
semi-monopoly of the carrying trade to have the whole
nation bound down in perpetuity to employ their ser-
vices exclusively. Butthe number, both of petitions and
signatures, has been skilfully increased by the same
persons and places petitioning in different characters.
The protectionists of Liverpool first petition en mane;
a number of the same individuals then petition as the
Liverpool Shipowners' Association ; others of them as
the Shipbuilders' A4sociation: others as licensed pilots
—the same individual occasionally figuring in two or
more of these cepaci•i- 8. Lastly, Mr. JAMES ATKIN
has a petition of bin own. Again, one or two partners
of one firm petition from London, the others from
Quebec. The same game is played in all the ports;
the same individuals being again and again marched
over the stage like the supernumeraries who coact
armies in our theatres. The public see through the
trick, and despise it too much to take the trouble of
getting up counter-petitions. But the aistocracy,
male and fen ale, flock to the spectacle with as much
gusto as to any other private theatricals. And Lord
BROUGHAM—whom the blandishments of " his order"
have transformed into a courtier rather late in Me—
ss the blandishments of a mistress made a petit-
maitre out of the clove .ly Prince RUPERT in his
old age—catching animation from the bright
eyes which " rained influence" upon him, frisked
and fidgetted with all the pertness, if not with all the
agility, of youth—showered his stale jokes about him
with the air of a man who has made, instead of
only spoiling them in the telling and wee, in short,
"in most admirable fooling." The charge made by
Lord STANLEY'S followers on tho LANSDOWNE
army, was scarcely so irresistible in weight and im-
petuosity as that of the Normans at Hastings, but the
Corqueror's jester was a fool indeed compared with
Lord BROUGHAM. When the certain drew up, hie
lordship was descried, flitting about from bench to
bench, in a state of preternatural excitement ; his nose
was in every man's ear, his finger on every man's
button. These vagaries lasted during the for-
mal preliminaries, and while Lord LAN SDOWNIi
was speaking. He thus attracted all eyes,
and contrived that even the few to whom
he might be unknown were drawn by curiosity to
inquire and learn his name. Having thus made him-
self the centre of observation, or rather the all-per-
vading genius loci, he claimed the general-ear before
Lord LANSDOWNE had well done speaking. and
poured forth a rhapsody, so diversified, so startling in
its transitions', that panting reporters toiled after him
in vain. Suffice it to say he magnanimously repudiated
the suspicion of having bestowed any attention to
Board of Trade statistics, but *hewed by au-Lemma
unacknowledeed quotations how persevering and
extensive had been his researches in the pages of Joe
Miller.
Tare vapid repetitions of the leading speaker on the
protectionist U&—his display of all the pertness and
presumption of youth, without ita fire and graceful-
ness—is worthy of the hollow attempt of our aris-
tocrats to enact the parts of tribunes of the people.
It would be matter for laughter to see these men
attempt to turn back a great popular movement by a
bad masqui, a aenatorial EOLiNTON tournament; but
merriment is checked by the reflection that possibly
the mania may have seized a majority of the House
of Peers. Men wear their brains in their head, but
it is yet uncertain whether the " column of p dished
society " have its brains stowed away in its " Co-
rinthian capital." At the utmost, the Lords can but
p stpcne for a time the inevitab!c repeal of the naviga-
tion laws. Free trade is the conveyaroe of ocean-borne
freights is a necessary part of a general system of free
trade. Since the time of liusersso• cot a year has
passed without seeing some branch or other of the
old pro'ective system lopped off. Whigs and tortes
—according as either party was for the time in office
—have had equal hand in the work. No hankering
after change for the sake of change—no ruffles+ desire
to experience untried conditions—but the pressure of
necessity prompted each successive
into which
in the eman-
cipation of commerce. A career nto which the na-
tion was drawn half-consciously--which has often been
reluctantly followed out—bat from which it has been
found impossible.to recede, until the crowning work
of abolishing the corn laws was achieved, can-
not be reversed. The man cannot creep
bark into his swaddling clothes, and the na-
tion which has outgrown the baby liga-
ments of protection cannot again contract its enter-
prise within their puny limits. Hecceforth free trade
is a social necessity for Great Britain. And a mono-
poly of ocean carriage cannot 00-exist with free trade.
This, indeed, is admit'ed by the mole enlightened
supporters of the navigation laws, who advocate them
as a necessary element of national defence. The fal-
lacy, however, to which this class of reasoners resort
when driven from economical ground is as transparent
as that to whica their more thick-witted allies still