The Express.
London, England, 1848-04-28 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, FRIDAY EVENING, APRIL 28, 1848.

inunism.
In the Express of Wednesday it is stated
that on the occasion of an address being read to
M. DE LAMARTINE from the society of political
economists, remonstrating against the suppression of
the professorship of political economy in the college
of France, the minister declared "that so
far from desiring to check the progress of
economical science, the intention of the mi-
nister of public instruction, and the government,
was to extend it, by dividing, under several distinct
professorships, that which was before limited to one."
" The science,' said he, "must not be as formerly, the
science of wealth; the democratic republic must and
will give it another character ; it wall make it the sci-
ence offraternity, by which the fruits of labour will
be augmented, but a distribution of wealth more
general, more equitable, and more universal among
the people, will be effected. The science has hitherto
been directed to make individuals rich, henceforward
it will be directed to enrich the whole people." Now.
is this speech either more or less than a pure ad
captandum address to the passions or prejudices
of the mob—that mob which we trusted the
other posit had been forced to retire from its
usurped ion as governor of the country, by the
energy and the popularity of LAMARTINE himself ?
Is it not pitiable that the greatest of modern French-
men, in order to extend his influence over the " sweet
voices" of those without, should feel bound to deliver
himself of such a gahonatias I—that he should be
guilty of the absurdity of decreeing that the science
of wealth shall be the science of something else ; that
a democratic republic can convert a question of arith-
metic into a question of ethics ; and that by splitting
a science into a number of parts you can get rid of its
essential character? The proposal to extend the do-
main of the science of political economy, by
dividing the public teaching of it, under se-
veral distinct professorships, would be paralleled
but not exceeded in absurdity, by an attempt to in-
crease the dignity and usefulness of the chair of
Moral Philosophy, by multiplying the professors of
the science of ethics, and requesting them to extend
their useluluess by lecturing on the steam-engine,
mesmerism, and the theory of the tides. Political
economy means nothing more than the science of the
laws which regulate the production and distribution
of wealth ; and whether the investigations connected
with this science are denominated, as by the inventor,
"Inquiries into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth
of Nations," or receive the euphonous name of
Catallacties, suggested by Archbishop WIIATELY,
the subject matter is still the same. It
is impossible to think that M. 1)e LAMARTINE
is ignorant of this. It is impossible to think th-t a
man who knows so much of the history of the first
French republic and its fearful tampering@ with the
manufacturing and agricultural interests of France,
can believe in the existence of any science by the
knowledge of which " the distribution of wealth
may be made more general, more equitable,
and more universal." To tell a starving nation
that the science which they have been taught
to believe explains the laws of wealth has
hitherto been directed to make individuals "rich,"
is a falsehood; to tell them that " henceforward
it can be directed to enrich a whole people," is a
delusion, and a delusion, too, whicproclaim it. h will prduce •
speedy retribution on those who The
thousands of hungry men who are now feeding. at
the public cost, consuming everything and producing
nothing, enjoying a dolce far niente which is an ely-
slum compared with their former state of incessant
and hopeless toil, lulled to sleep with the dreams of
personal happiness, and the glory of the great natio
ill ask
n of
which they are now the recognised defenders, w
naturally enough of their rulers, where ie this aug-
mentation of the fruits of labour? when are they to
look for the advent of this " more general,
more equitable, more universal distribution of
wealth ?" The government, by such speeches as those
of M. DE LAMARTINE, and by a great number of its
public acts, has virtually pledged itself
Do to feede
bete,
people ; can it redeem its
believepledge that these
? th
instructed among its members
pledges can be redeemed? We think not. What
then is to protect Franco from a revolution still more
fearful than any of its preceding revolutions ? Will
not the people, maddened by perpetual disappoint,
ment, be forced upon the persuasion that one of the
first functions of government is to deceive—that there-
public is as skilled in this function as the monarchy—
and that their own interests will be best cared for,
by trusting as little as possible to any government at
all ? Did
.not the late government fall because it
falsified its promises, because it failed to fulfil the
very conditions upon which it received power? Bat
the charge against Louis PHILIPPE is a mere nothing
compared with that which will be made against the
republican government. The late king virtually
promised to every man in the nation the privilege of
voting : the present government has virtually pro-
mised that every Frenchman shall have a full belly.
The king coma nave isn'i hi. h,,t
would not ; the present government doubt-
less would do the same, but cannot. Will not, then,
the reaction against the latter be more violent than
that against the former party, in proportion to the
greater importance of the republican pledge ? A man
may put up with the loss of a promised vote : can he
put up with the loss of a promised meal when he has
thrown away his means of earning one ? Instead of
vilifying the science of political economy, M. de
Limmtvise, if he has any regard for the stability of
I his own government—for the welfare, nay, for the
very existence, of the starving millions who are
naturally looking up to him and his coll, agues
for deliverance from the present crisis, should encou-
rage by every possible means the diffusion of a sound
political economy. He should encourage missionaries
to preach to the excited people continual sermons on
the fundamental texts of the despised science ; to
persuade them that Providence only helps those who
help themselves, and that the most certain way to be
disappointed of obtaining a mouthful, is to wait with
closed eyes and open mouth until a higher power
chooses to send it.

We have often had occasion to remark on the
facilities afforded to wife-killing in the practice of
our criminal law. The habit of wife-killing may be
said to be confined to the lower classes. But their
betters are not without an equivalent for this cheapest
lof homicidal luxuries. When the husband in fustian
uses weapons, the husband in broad cloth uses words.
The brutality, in gratification of which the former
employs fists, feet, pokers, joint stools, and other
handy implements, the latter refines on by the sub-
stitution for these of fierce vituperation, obscene
epithets, and all the petty and ingenious tyranny
of insult, neglectful insinuation, and fouler wrong.
When the one bruises the limbs, the other wounds
the affections—when the one treads underfoot the
body. the other tramples on the hopes and happi-

ness.
Not but what many a fine gentleman is in no way
ashamed of lifting his hand on a wife. The records
a our courts, ecclesiastical, civil, and criminal, coa-
-1 taiu proof enough of the fact.

Perhaps, on the whole, there is about as much ac-
taal matrimonial misery in any one clue of life as in
an, other.
l'he same indulgent construction which the crimi-
nal courts put on the brutalities of humble husbands
towards their wives seems to be extended in courts
ecclesiastical to the matrimonial offences of gentlemen
wealthy enough to resort to these expensive tribunals.
The magistrate, or petty jury, is as loath to press
hard on the coalwlupper or costermonger who breaks
his wife's head or limbs, as the ecclesiastical
judge on the brutal man of means and station who
merly terrifies his wife into miscarriage by violence,
or breaks her heart and health by continuous ill-
treatment, that stops short of blows.
The case of " GEMS S. GEILS," in which judgment
was given on NN ednesday by Sir H. J. Fesr, is one
so repulsive in its details that we would gladly, if we
consulted our private inclinations, pass it over with-
out comment. But the prominence which has been
given to that case, not less by its own peculiar loath-
someness than by the violent attacks on the judge
who tried and the officers of the court who con-
ducted it which have been grounded upon it by one
of our contemporaries, forces it upon us as atopic which
can hardly be evaded, and which may besides be im-
prored, disgusting as it is.
The judgment of Sir H. 3. FUST will, doubtless,
be charged with partiality to the husband and his
family, and with harshness towards the wife and her
relations. To such charges we do not believe the
judgment itself is fairly open. The leniency with
which Mr. GEILS' brutality is handled in it is attri-
butable much more to the system of the court than to
the feelings of the judge. The same considerate esti-
mate of the failings of the man, the same rigorous
strictness towards those of the wife, was shown i a the
equally disgusting DYSART case : it belongs I i the
theory of our law on the subject of connubial dis-
putes, of which it seems to be a principle to assume
everything in favour of the husband, and against the
wife.
After going with Sir H. 3. FUST through the se-
veral allegations of cruelty—after learning that
threats to a wife to " scrag her" and to " knock
her head off" are not cruelty—that the application to
her of such epithets as " bitch " and " devil " is not
cruelty—that pushing her violently when cl,,se on
her confinement, with such endearing phrases as
" d—d devil," is not cruelty—one is tempted to ask,
with some curiosity, what is cruelty ?
As to an act of personal violence, where the hue- ,
band seized his wife by the throat, we are told there
is no evidence of any mark left. As to another of
pushing, that there could not be any violence, as a
workman employed on the premises thought it was
done in play—such play, doubtless, as might have
been very harmless between him and a companion.
Another act still more violent is put ledde, because the
wife " condoned" it—that is, paidoned it in the eye
of the law, by living with the husband afterwards.
One is painfully impressed after reading this judg-
ment with a sense of the helplessness of a woman
married to a brute. She must never forgive him any
act of brutality, or she bars herself from bringing it
forward as a ground of separation, when brutality be-
comes intolerable. Again, as recent complaints form a
necessary ingredient of proof, she must make them, no
matter how anxious to conceal her own indignity, and
her husband's degradation. She must parade
her bruises before her waiting- maid, that
she may have evidence forthcoming, if she should
I happen to be driven into the ecclesiastical court. In
a word, she must live with her husband, from the
first outbreak of the devil in him, as though she con-
templated the time of full possession. The Court of
Arches must be ever in her eye, closing up the vista
of her married life. She must cast up her sufferings,
docket and prove her outrages, schedule her wrongs,
against the day Sir H. J. FeeT comes to weigh them.
But let her hope on against hope ; let her give way
to her womanly and forgiving nature, or wifely
shame, and she deprives herself of her miserable and
only remedy. If she have means so large and so
settled as to make it worth her tyrant's while
to insist on keeping up the relations between them,
he holds her in a noose, in which she may chafe her-
self dead or hang herself, but which she cannot break,
without a foresight of her own wretchedness, anda self-
restraint in submitting to it, which of themselves
iml suffering greater than can be balanced by the
relief of getting rid of the most brutal and abandoned
of husbands.
We have hitherto spoken of cruelty merely. We
pass, advisedly, over the darker shades of this repul-
sive picture. There were chambers of horror in that
Oumback Houses nto which we may not enter.
The separation is granted on the ground of adul-
tery. It is well there was something in the case
which the law does admit as good ground for dissever-
ing the marriage tie.
There is one consideration which the whole cans ,
suggests to us, and that is, the utter want of real
education, both in husband and wife, which such
a revelation as this indicates. Here is a lady, heiress
to large estates, and highly accomplished, as the
phrase is, unable, apparently, to restrain herself, or
to refuse or tame her animal of a husband. Here is
a gentleman—(heaven save the mark !)---educated, no
doubt, in the common sense of the word, an officer,
and in a " crack" regiment to boot, exhibiting a bra- i
tality and animal grossness, which place him among
the most degraded of his kind.
No doubt such characters, so deep in their shadows, I
so utterly unredeemed, are not common. But how
many are secured from being what this man was, by
anything that education has done to control their
early tendencies? The husband of this unhappy lady
was not more the mere natural man of his youth and
boyhood than average young men of his class are of
theirs. If most young persons, of ample means and
idle lives, are not Geilsee, they have rather to thank
their own better-tempered natures than the ordinary
`-eational training of the nineteenth century.

GERMANY.

11ADEN.—We have given the facts of the death
of Lieut.-Gen. Von Gagern, and the defeat of the re-
publican bands in the grand duchy. Colonel Von
Hinkeldey has written a report of the affair, and
what subsequently took place when he assumed the
command ad interim. This report, of which the fol-
lowins is a translation, is
publicg, the
21st mst., and was made at Cabiruhe on
the 23rd:
I have the honour to announce to the Minister of War
that Lieut.-General Von Gagern was killed yesterday at 9
o'clock, in a tight between us and the insurgent. on the
Scheideck, nea an
r Kdern. At 4 o'clock in tbe moraine we
on Kandern, with three battalions of in-
fantry, three spade... of esorda,, tour eannon, and two
field-pieces. We had learned in a positive manner
that Hecker's band had passed the night at Kan-
stern, and we foand its advanced posts in front
of that place. The royal councillor, Stephani, went
forward with a trumpeter to summon the insurgents to
surrender, but they refused. Our columns, which had been
destined to take Kandern by assault, took it without re-
sistance, and the head of our column came up with the rear I
of the insurgents behind Kandern, where Lieut.-General Von
Gagern caused their chief, Hecker, to be called, and sum-
mooed II
him, once more, to surrender. But he again refused.
We then followed them into the mountains, where they
placed two cannon on the Scheideck, one of the defile., on
the right and left of which they placed themselves in
column, numbering about 1,200. 'We advanced quietly,
Licut.-General Von Gagern at our head. The insurgents
called the general, who immediately advanced towards
them, and reiterated his previous summons. They saluted
us with cries of " Come to us, German brethren,
unite with us for the defence of liberty," and as they did so
they continued to advance nearer to our front. Lieutenant-
General Von Gagern took a few steps backwards and re.l
mounts d his horse, but at that moment the two cannon, 11
which were only fifteen yards distant,and upwards of a bun-
Bred muskets, were fired, overthrowing our first rank and
causing the first column to fall hack for a moment, but the
soldiers composing it soon recovered, and repulsed the
in-
surgents with the bayonet; the combat was then engaged
in by our skirmishers, who caused a great loss to the
enemy. General Von Gagern fell at the first discharge,
pierced with three balls. I immediately took the
command. After a fight of an hour and a half I
was enati.ed to advance my troops, and the fire lasted I
another hour; it had been impossible to use the artillery, the
enemy having retired into the woods. At twelve o'clock I
reached Sclalechtehatts, where I halted to rest the tired troops I
which were however full of enthusiasm. The inhabitants
hastened at my request to give them wine and bread ; we
then pursued the remains of the band of Hecker, which had
taken the direction of Steinen, being about 250 or 300 strong,
and still !Living with them the two cannon. W
eedosse the
defile near Weitenau. Before Steinen was pos the band
of Struve, who had spent fle previous night at Lorrach.
I advanced my troops to the attack, when Struve advanced
to parley, and demanded a truce of several hours to retire
and are a further effusi of blood. I answered by
calling on him to lay down his arm and that I would grant
no truce. Ile then asked for two hours, and, on my formal
refusal, for half-an-hour, which I granted him, in order not
to appear too bard, inasmuch as the band was exceedingly
tired. The half-hour briar. spent, I entered the sill uge of
Steiem, which had been abandoned by the insurgents, and
I marched to Diann Xaltiasen, and Ertneldir.r.en, where I

established my head-quarters. The result of this expedition
was decisive. as the chief band is completely rooted and has
crossed as Rhine, and we forced the other to abandon its
position on the mountains, and the troops have proved
that the republican movement was fir from pommeling
their sympathy ; they fought well for young troops.
The death of Lieut.-Cieneral Von Gagern, is a great loss. We
had, besides four men killed, six mortally wounded andadly
nine
slightly. Six more are mining, and probably
wounded. The lose on the part of the enemy may be stated
as five times as great as ours. We have found guns, carbines,
scythes, and arms of all kinds. We took a flag and 15 pri-
soners. I shall go to-day to kf lheim. Neuenburg, huggen,
and Sehliengen, and to•morrow will give adm 'S rest to
my troops, who want it.—(Signtd) Col. HISKELDET
There is no doubt as to the fact of Hecker having
escaped to Bale, and Struve being taen at S
2ackingen.
A letter front Donaueschingen, dated the oth, says
that a fight had taken place between the insurghort
ents
and the IVurtemberg troops at Grimmelshofen, a s
distance from the Swiss frontier. The insorgents had
several killed and wounded, forty prisoners were
made, and sent to Stuhlingen. At Geisingen the
insurgents fired on the advanced posts of the troops,
but did no harm. Some of the inhabitants of Donaues-
chingcn took advantage of the first favourable op-
portunity to leave the ranks of the insurgents and go
home. At Constance the members of the administra-
tion had returned to their functions.
AUSTRIA.—We have dates from Vienna to April
22. His Majesty has been pleased, in consequence
of the resignation of Count Kolowrat, who has hither-
to filled the post of president in the cabinet council,
to confer this office upon Count Fiquelinont pro-

--
visionally.
The Bank of Vienna has resolved to send 1,000,000
of florins to Lintz, another to Brunn, a third to then,
and a fourth to l'rsgue, for the purpose of assisting
trade, and especially manufac:ories which employ
thousands of hands.
PRUSSIA.—The Prussian Stales Gazette, of April
23, announces officially that intelligence had been
received that the Daniell government, under date of
the 19th of this month, has laid an embargo on all
German vessels in the Danish harbours, and has
issued a command to all the Danish men of war to
bring in the Prussian merchantmen.
The following letter from a correspondent gives a
summary of news from the Grand Duchy of Posen :
POSEN, APRIL 19.
I write this in perfect ignorance how soon it will
' reach you, for having beea assured that the post office funs
tionanes at Berlin have received au order to intercept all
letters coming from here, I am obliged to send it through a
private channel. Considering the circumstances, things are
progressing here very favourably, and it is my deepest con-
viction that the commotion would have by this time entirely
subsided, were it not for the spirit of injustice and insubordi
nation on the part of the Prussian troops and a portion of
the German population. linraged at the prospect of being
foiled in their scheme of denationalising this part of Poland,
those of the Prussian functionaries who are now likely
to be removed are trying by every means to re
conquer their former ascendancy. Hence the stories
of sanguinary battles fought by the Poles, of unheard-of
atrocities perpetrated by them on the Jews and the Ger-
mans, of murders, robberies, Lt:c., which have not the
slightest foundation in truth, and are ouly bruited shout
with the view of irritating one population against the ether.
The truth is, that these parties calculated upon the peasants
becoming unmanageable, and hoped that they would, in the
first instance, massacre ti-e nobles and then be themselves
exterminated by the Polish troops. They hare, however,
been disappointed, for nothing could exceed the order and
subordination with which the Polish camps have separated.
Of course some stragglers have here and there committed
violence, but not a single act of piemeditated atrocity
can be adduced against them, whilst, according to the
official statement puhliehed by the Polish committee, and
hitherto uncontradicted by the Prussian authority, there is
not a single district of the duchy of Posen in which most
cruel and wanton acts of provocetion have not been com-
mitted by the Jews, and the Germans deluded by them. A
long list of inoffensive persons murdered by the latter is
joined to the statement of the committee. The instances of
insubordination and cruelty on the part of the soldiery, espe-
cially the Silesian and the Pomeranian troops, have reached
that degree that General Colomb himself, who has been do.
Mg here great mischief by opposing and counteracting
General William's plan and efforts, has been at last
obliged to animadvert on the prevalent evil, and to
publish a severe order against all further transgressions of
discipline. Were it not for General Steineeker, the evil
genius of Colomh, the Del Carmen) of the duchy of Posen,
the difficulties, in as for at least as regards the military
authorities here, might have been removed, and the pemines
liberated from the excesses of the soldiery. As it was, Gen.
Willisen the King's commissary, had to undergo the affront
of being 'hooted by the soldiers and having a rope held
before his eyes as the merited reward of his noble
efforts to restore peace to this distracted country.
I have seen today some numbers of the Cologne Gazette,
full of falA reports about Posien. Some of those function-
aries of whom I spoke above must have taken hold of the
confidence of the editors, and abuse it now beyond the
limits of justice and propriety. As your papers are likely to
draw from this tainted source, I feel it a duty to caution you
against it. To such as have sent correspondents to Berlin I
should offer the advice that, on the principle of audi alterane
pastern, they should direct them to put themselves in com-
munication with Dr. Cybulski (34, Dorotheen.strasse), the
eelebrated Slimonist, and the recognised agent at Berlin of
the central Polish committee. That committee, composed
es it is of some of the most illustrious and energetic men
amongst the Poles, is still watching over the interests of
IPoland and directing the whole movement. The following
'proclamation of the Central Committee of Poland, which
has just been published by it, will speak for itself :
" When, in the year 1846, in contravention of the I
most solemn treaties, and as if to fill up the measure of
crimes perpetrated on the Polish nation, the republic of
Cracow—the last remnant of our independent country—was
abolished, and incorporated into Austria, the Polish nation
declared this act to be the float partition of Poland, and sum-
moned its perpetrators before the tribunal of Europe and
posterity. ' Punishment soon followed the crime." At the
pre sent moment, in 1848, in the year of the emancipation of
nations, we receive official announcement of a new
partition of Poland being in contemplation! Indeed, we
could not believe it had it not been communicated to us
by authority. Under the very dubious pretence that in some
of the districts of the grand duchy of l'osen, the Germans
are more numerous than the Poles, reactionary functionaries,
oblivious of the most sacred rights, unable to understand the
spirit of our time and its exigencies, anxious only to retain
their places, have by dint of spurious agitation in favour of
German nationality compelled the higher authorities to give
them a promise that such districts will be separated from the
duchy of l'osen and incorporated with the German confedera-
non. We declare meat solemnly, that true to the whole tenor
of our history, the Polish nation will, as seen as it becomes'
free and independent, leave the free choice of government
nationality to those portions of their country which from
their contiguity with other nations stem now of a doubtful
and mixed character ; but as long as this restoration of the
whole independent Poland shall not have been accomplished,
so long we shall consider the separation of any portion of our
country as a new partition of Poland, and we herewith enter
our solemn protest before the nations of Europe against so
lawless an act, and arraign the originators and the perpetra-
tors of this scheme before the justice of the present genera-
tion and of posterity.—(Signed)—lawienowent,
L'ARRE PRUSTNOWNIII, LturLT, POTWOROWSILL
CASAICS, MORACZEWSILI, STOMEZEWSKI.—Vosen, April 17,
1848."